by Tara Brown
"There's blood on your face and hands."
She wipes at it like she has gone mad.
"It's okay. I got it. Let me get it."
I wipe and she cries, "I did this. I meant to. I wanted it. I wanted to kiss him and suck. Aimes, shit is wrong."
I grimace. "Okay ewww. No. Stop. We need to call the police." My hands tremble.
She collapses into me. My guts stab me again. My fingers buzz and hum with the current running through them, but I hug her. Desperate to hang on.
She shivers into me. "I don’t know why. I don’t know Aimee. I don’t know. They'll think I did it on purpose."
I hold her tight and shout, "HELP! HELP US PLEASE!"
Shane comes running down the darkening lawn. "Aimee?" He shouts. I can hear panic in his vice. Tears are streaming down my cheeks. I never noticed them before. "Here," I cry.
He is on me, touching me, holding me. He kisses the top of my head. "Someone call nine one one," he yells back at the house.
I close my eyes and grip tightly to the sobbing mess Giselle is. Something about holding her feels right. Like my soul knows it's right.
Chapter Eight
Her hair is raven silk, I never noticed before how shiny it really is. I reach a hand forward and stroke it slightly.
Her silver eyes narrow. "What are you doing loser?"
My palms are burning. I shiver and tingle and imagine what it will feel like to just brush my fingers against her skin.
"Ugh, god Aimee you are so weird sometimes." She climbs off the couch and walks into the kitchen. It makes me snap out of the daydream I'm having. I frown. Something is wrong with me. I get up and leave the house. I look around the small town as I walk. Something is missing.
I look into the windows as dusk hits and people start to turn on their lights. The insides of their homes look cozy. Something about it makes me sad. I don’t know why.
My stomachache is killing me.
I hear a horn and turn to see Shane driving up. "You okay?" He leans out the window.
I nod. "Yeah. Just weirded out. Not feeling well yet either. Did the police say anything?"
He shakes his head. "Not a lot. They gave me a flyer to become a cop though. Ha. They did say they found an ass ton of drugs in his house. I guess he gave Giselle some lemonade. She never drank it though. It had the drugs in it. She could have died. It was poorly made. He had some weird shit it in, date rape drugs. She is lucky that he fell and landed on those sticks. They said he died instantly."
I cross my arms and shiver. "Friggen weird. Blake sent me a text a couple hours ago. He's crushed. Mr. Mac was his mentor."
He nods. "Get in the truck. We can go for a drive." I don’t think. I run across the street and hop in. I put my hands up to the heater. The spring is cold on the coast.
I glance at him as he turns onto the old beach road. "I haven’t been here in years."
"I like it here." He drives past the old trail that leads to the secret beach. Only our small town knows about. He drives up to the viewpoint and I force my stomachache away.
"So, I wonder who will replace him as the Chem teacher?"
I almost smirk. Nerves rattle inside of me. "Blake said he's been asked to do it."
"Wow. Really?"
I glance at him and try not to stare at his lips. Or lick mine.
He parks the truck at the cliffs and turns it off.
"Wanna walk?" His voice is low. It steals my breath. I nod weakly. He climbs out and walks to my door. He stands too close to me when he opens it. When I slide from the seat my chest presses against his. He lowers his face on mine. His soft lips brush mine, making heat trails cross my lips. It's the slightest brush, I barely feel the contact.
He grabs my arms and presses his face into mine. His tongue slides against mine, his hands grip my arms, and his body presses mine against the frame of the truck. My hands slide up into his hair, pulling him down on me harder. I want more. The air is sweet and heavy. I feel high. His grip tightens on my arms, but I can't stop myself. He's filling me up. He slaps me in the arms and pushes, but my back is against the truck. I'm stronger than he is. His muscles feel strong and hard in my hands but I can hold him to me. He pushes and hits but the air is too sweet.
Cold air rushes in between us. I open my eyes gasping. I want the air back. I want the taste of him to fill me up more. I lick my lips, I can taste him still.
"Aimee." I look to the right. A strange looking girl with black eyes and long dark hair is standing next to a dark blond guy.
"Who are you? Where's Shane?"
I see a dark haired man kneeling over Shane's body on the grass by the cliffs.
Panic fills me. "WHAT DID YOU DO?" I run at the man.
He looks back at me and snarls two huge fangs, "Christ Aleks, get her out of here."
I leap at the dark haired man with the fangs, but the blond is there too fast. The air swirls with warmth and I am on the beach, the secret beach. The dark blond shakes me. "Get it under control."
My jaw trembles. My hands shake. The blond grips my arms. "You okay?"
I shake my head. "No. No. No. What happened? Where is Shane?"
I close my mouth and notice the way he smells. "Is that you? You smell like that?" I lean in. He chuckles. I smile at him. I'm not sure what else has happened, but I like him. He sounds and smells and looks like a dream. His strong face has a square jaw and perfect lips. When he smiles at me, my heart melts. One side of his lips is a little fatter than the other. It makes his smile crooked. I can't fight my eyes or thoughts. I imagine sucking his lip, right on the fat part. I moan a little when I breathe and lick my lips. "I'm, uhm, Aimee."
He looks scared. He lets me go and steps back. "Aleks. Aleksander." His words have a hint of an accent. Eastern European. It's sexy. I squeeze my thighs together. "What are you?" I reach for him. He is suddenly across the beach from me.
"You need to get a handle on what you are."
I clench my hands. "Why do I feel so good?"
"Your friend. You sucked his soul. You feed off souls."
I laugh. "What?"
He flashes closer to me. I jump back. "What are you?"
His face is hard, I like it. His white blue eyes trip me out, but his lips are killing me. He shrugs and grins bitterly. "Angel of misfortune."
He points to the large logs up the beach from us. "Want to sit on the drift wood and make a fire?"
I shiver and nod. "Where is Shane?"
He walks up the beach past me. "With Marcus and Ophelia. If anyone can help him it's them."
I furrow my brow. "What's wrong with him?"
He looks back at me. "You. You sucked him dry almost."
My fingers spark. "Something is wrong with my hands," I whisper.
"It's a long story Aimee. Needless to say the girl with the black eyes messed up, bad."
"Who is she? What did she do? Who are you? How did we get here? How did you do that thing you did?" I spin in a circle and look around the beach.
He steps close to me and smiles softly. "Stop being a pain in the ass and help me light the fire."
My smile fades, slowly. "What?" I lean forward and smell the air near him. "You smell so amazing." He grimaces and walks away from me. My stomach clenches. I buckle gripping it. "Oh, god it's back." I feel like the air has been sucked out of my lungs. I heave but it's all stuck in my stomach. He offers me his hand. I shake my head. "No. I don’t know you. Stranger danger." The words sound familiar. I've heard them before. My stomach is burning savagely.
He drops to his knees and lifts my face up to his. He presses his lips against mine. I'm taken aback but the air comes. My fingers slip into his thick hair. My hands are on fire when they make contact with his skin. I climb up onto his lap and wrap my legs around him. My tongue caresses his, my lips can’t get enough. His hands cup my ass, pulling me into him. I can feel something hard against my groin. I don’t even care. I could eat the face off of him, the way I'm kissing him. My hands are digging in, grip
ping and pulsing. My legs squeeze, my mouth caresses and sucks and my hand roam. I'm moaning and sucking and he's into it. He's pressing me into his erection, grinding me into him.
Something about the kiss is satiating me. He's filling me up. The need and the craving are gone. I grab his hair and pull his face away from mine. I breathe right in his face. "Oh my god. I'm so sorry. I don’t know what came over me. I haven’t been feeling so well."
He grins the crooked smile at me and presses his face into mine again. I moan into him and then push him away from me. I shake my head and climb out of his lap. Something isn’t right. Something is wrong with me.
I'm almost running away. He stands and laughs, "Come back."
I frown and shake my head. A piece of sand flies in my eye. I blink and try to get it out. I close my right eye and flutter my left eye. I need to find Shane. I wish I as home and then I am. I'm standing in my room. I gag from the horrid feeling in my belly. I grab my waste bin and heave the contents of my stomach into it. I drop to my knees gagging and coughing. I feel like death.
Taking deep breaths, I try to piece it all together. I look around the room at the sand and rocks on my carpet. How did I get home? Was any of it real?
A knock at my bedroom door startles me.
Gripping the bin, I prepare to explain to my mother that I don’t have the flu. Regardless of what she sees in the bin.
Instead Giselle walks into my room. She looks awful, haunted.
"Hey."
She bites her lip, "I did it again." A single tear drizzles slowly down her cheek.
"What?" I know what. I just want it to be something else.
"I sucked someone else. He died."
My stomach drops, "Who?"
She shakes her head in a twitchy way, "I don’t know. He's not from here." She drops to her knees and looks at my carpet blankly. "You believe me?"
"I did it to." I whisper.
She looks at me, startled, "What?"
I nod, feeling sick again, "I did it to Shane and some guy on the beach. The sucking thing. It filled me up. I wanted to do it." I whisper the words.
Her hand comes to her mouth, "What happened? Is Shane…?"
I shake my head, "No. I don’t think so. He kissed me and my hands started to suck. I thought it was the kiss, like you, but it was my hands. They were on fire. Just dragging something from him. I wanted to touch and suck and then he was gone. There were others. A girl with black hair and eyes and a dark haired guy." I stop. My memory must be mixed. I frown and argue with myself.
"What?"
"He had fangs. And then a blond guy touched me and we were at the secret beach."
"Like, what kind of fangs?" She looks lost. I know I am.
My brain will not make a picture beyond the one it seems to remember. I close my eyes and shake my head, "I don’t know. Like Dracula."
"You saw him and then walked to the beach? That's weird."
I glance up, "No. No I never walked. I don’t know. We just were there. Like how I'm here. I'm just here." I realize my right eye is aching from the sand in it. I look at the sand behind me, "See."
She sits back on her knees and shakes her head, "Aimes, we got a problem."
I feel like crying, "I know. We gotta get out of here. Before we hurt someone else."
She sobs silently. I reach a hand for her. It feels natural even though we are not friends. I know we are not and yet I love her like a sister.
"Can we just go now?"
I squeeze and stand, leaving the puke bin and sand and walk out. "We can go now. But I want to make sure Shane is okay. I think I hurt him. Bad."
"What about the blond?"
I shake my head, "He was fine."
She licks her lips, "We should find him. I'm starving and not for a burger and fries."
We leave my house. I don’t say goodbye to my mom or my dad. I just walk out the front door again. Giselle and I hold hands, as if to protect ourselves from everything.
"Do you think we're vampires too?" She asks after a while.
"No. Maybe like a succubus. I've read about them. But how would we just become a mythical creature? What were we exposed to?"
She shakes her head.
"Let's go find Blake. He'll know."
I drag her down the road. When it forks I turn, walking carefully as we approach his driveway. We round the corner of the house and open the door to the garage with the lock code. We slip through the garage into the hallway. We don't make any noise until, we reach the stairs to the basement. Even then we creep down them very slowly.
I can see the faint glow of the computer screen flashing from the far corner, where I know he sits playing World Of Warcraft. We sneak along, not wanting to scare him or wake his parents, if they are even home. Blake’s parents were lucky he was a calm kid. With the amount of free time he had, he could have been doing the unsavory without any hindrances.
I expect to find him hunched over his computer but it's at the main screen and he isn’t there.
I hear a giggle and turn to look at Giselle. She scowls, "Alise?" She whispers.
I nod, "Gross."
"I know right. Why would she be with him? Like ewww."
I snort, "I was thinking the exact opposite." A small flash of ownership over him trickles through me. He is my best friend and my rock. I hate that she has touched him with her grubby hands. Now I'll have to Lysol him just to have Halo night. Then it dawns on me. Halo night might not happen. Not if I eat people with my sucky thingy.
I grab the computer chair and sit down. My fingers fly over the keyboard.
"Yeah, see. We both have succubus like traits. This is weird. It says here, bear in mind it's all mythology, they feed on souls and essence. Of course it also says they collect semen and impregnate girls."
"Uhm, what? Dude. I don’t collect it. I avoid it. Shit doesn’t come out of clothes."
I put a hand up, "Wow, okay, no. Please. Stop. This isn’t the Monica Lewinski trial. Jesus. Look, this all just sounds like a great way to blame someone else for being pregnant. You know like back in the day when being pregnant and unmarried was something bad."
"Unless you live in the south. I think they still, like, don’t approve."
I nod, "Right. Anyway. This has to be some kind of chemical reaction. Let me see if I can find reactions that cause you to suck the life out of someone."
"Oh like how my mom does that to my dad."
I roll my eyes and let my fingers loose on the keyboard, "Exactly."
"Aimes?"
I turn and smirk at Blake standing in the hallway with a shirt over his naked parts, "Lovely."
He walks backwards back into the room, "Why are you in my house?"
I look back at the computer, "Why are you having sex with my sister?"
"Aimee, you are such a nerd loser. Why are you even here? I know you're jealous."
I sigh and continue to scroll and read. "Frig."
Blake comes out, pulling a space camp shirt on. "Dude, why are you here?"
"We have a problem. I need your help."
"So you brought Giselle with you?"
"She's part of the problem." I slump back in the chair, "Let's say I had an issue with sucking the life out of other people, what would you say?"
He grins, "That would be sweet. Just like Rogue on X-Men. Is it live role play day?" He looks panicked for a moment and glances at his calendar.
I shake my head, "No. Giselle and me are having some issues. Her with the mouth and me with the hands. She killed Mr. Mac after he tried to attack her. She sucked his soul out of him. I almost killed Shane. I think." The words don't feel as crazy as they sound. Like I know they're true. Somehow.
Blake stops rifling the calendar and frowns, "What?"
Alise storms out of the bedroom at the back of the hall, "Oh my god Aimes. You will stop at nothing to ruin our happiness. I get that he's more your type but he said he's liked me for years." She crosses her arms and glares at Giselle. "Why are you here?"
Giselle leaps at her and grabs her face. Alise screams but her scream fades as Giselle's sucking thing starts.
The air changes as Giselle sucks from her. I jump in and grab her. I drag her off and hold her to me. Alise coughs and chokes. Blake grabs her, scowling at us.
"What the hell?"
I sigh. Giselle turns back and growls. I sooth her, "Shhhhhh. Don't do this. You'll regret it."