Page 208 of Castings & Curses

“You know nothing about me.” He began to move his hand and the words from his mouth shifted into a light smoke on the air.

It was he who knew nothing about me if this was any proof. I could feel my eyes heat and my lungs expand as I inhaled with a different intention than breathing air. I pulled that smoke into my nose, fed off the magic. Such sweetness I had never known. That meant it was dark magic, forbidden. The best kind because it was also the worst kind. I never got these treats. Most of the paranormal entities at this school were good. This man looked like a hero, but there was no doubt in my mind or body as I rendered his words useless, that given the opportunity, he would become a villain. Again.

Feeling as though I just had my first coffee with espresso, I stood up and smiled at my professor. “Maybe you should just send me the details in an email, professor. It might be safer for both of us if we communicate through electronics.”

He blinked at me. I knew my eyes were still glowing, but the energy was so good and I had other things I could use it on. Plus, if I stayed here much longer, I may try to take more. I already wanted more. I inhaled again through my nose and made sure I let him feel the air as it pulled past his ear and gathered the scent, the essence, the little bits of magic that constantly floated around this man. I gave my warlock professor a warning, “I’d hate to have to devour you.”

I licked my lips and left his office before I did something really crazy, like try to devour him.

CHAPTER2

I pulledup my email and tried not to smile. Succubus as a species wasn’t good or evil per say, but I was the only one at this school and most people thought I was just another witch with a slightly different aura or something. Most paranormal beings could sense others. Witches had to rely more on time and wisdom, where shifters could usually tap into their animal counterpart and sniff or sense something. The vampires on this campus were probably the equivalent of the goth groups on other campuses. They didn’t really socialize outside of their own circle. They consumed blood. I consumed energy. This is why I didn’t mind my roommate being a vampire. We both fed on others to survive.

“What the hell?” Nadia went wide eyed as I walked into our room. “Where have you been?”

“Feeding.” It was time for me to come clean. We’d been roommates for the past three years and while her studies were focused on research and medical progress for the paranormal, mine were focused on education.

“What the hell did you eat? Your eyes are glowing like an animal caught by a flashlight, but no light needed.” Her head tilted and I knew she was going into examination mode. One of the reasons I never told her. I was afraid she may try to experiment on me when I slept.

“I’m not a witch.” I gulped. Her brow lifted. A slight tilt of her lips and a snicker she seemed to be trying to contain let me know she was aware of that. “You knew?”

“That you were not a witch? Yeah. That you were a succubus of this line, I had my suspicions about the energy feeding, but you’re from an ancient, extinct really, lineage if you got those glow in the daylight eyeballs.” She waggled her brows and then asked, “What doyouknow about your species?”

“Not enough.” I dropped my bag and then my body onto my bed and admitted. “I was adopted by a couple of witches. They knew what I was, taught me the basics of how to handle life and go incognito. How did you know?”

“You talk in your sleep when you’re stressed out.” She shrugged as she sorted through some dusty old books on her shelves. “I found this at an estate sale.”

“Estate sale?” I was pretty sure we were both too young to be shopping estate sales.

“Yes. How else can I find books that are out of print? The magical realm is so worried about some human hacker accidentally crossing portals and tapping into our technological databases that there is not a Project Gutenberg for us to search through. You want to make an 18thCentury cloak, sure. You can get that pattern on the witch web, but this? Medical shit that reveals all the strengths and weaknesses of our kind…not so much.”

“I don’t blame them.” That much was true. The more the magical realm mirrored the human one, the more our problems mirrored theirs too.

She blew off the dust and it scattered, making both of us cough and sneeze. I sat up and she moved to sit next to me on my bed. “Here we go.”

The ancient pages crackled as she opened the book. “Even with extra visual powers, that print is tiny.”

She laughed at me and said, “Ah yes. A limitation of your kind. Beyond perfect vision, but not vampire vision.”

I snorted a laugh and she looked over at her desk and the magnification kit she had hooked up to the desk. I was going to make her say it.

She looked at me, at the desk, at the book. I said, “You could just read it to me with your extra powerful eyes.”

“You should read it yourself.” She got up and took the book to the desk. “Several pages and all. You don’t want to listen to me drone on about it.”

I laughed but followed as she put the book on her desk and then moved the magnifier over it. We could both see the print where a human would likely see a book of dusty blank pages. Probably why some recovered books she had showed me in the past that had somehow traveled to that realm and back had markings like a child had been left alone with a book of magic. Nadia admitted as she moved away from me and the book, “I knew you were a bit more when you seemed to be…I don’t know, dreaming, feeding on someone in your dreams that…well I’ve left the room more than once in the past year.”

I gasped and squeaked out an offended sound, but she was already at the door, giggling and making her exit. I would be reading about my special brand of succubus without her over my shoulder. She knew I hated that, but before I had glow in the daylight eyes, I suppose she didn’t care. I settled in and decided maybe my dayglo eyes were a benefit after all.

Three pages into this book and I winced. I got up and went to the mirror. My eyes were back to their plain ole brown. Nothing special. It was how I navigated the world around here. Nothing special. I was as low key as the student body could be. I looked at the sunglasses I bought on a whim one year and had yet to wear since. I picked them up and put them on. Not bad. Still looked cute. Very dark lenses, so hopefully enough to hide the glow if needed.

Not that I would need them. I pulled them off my face and carried them with me. I put them in a pouch and then in my bag as a very unlikely, just in case. I went back to the book and read the text again and again and once more for good measure to ensure I was not reading it wrong. Apparently, there were only two options for my warlock professor. He would either submit and become my mate or I would murder him. That’s just the kind of creature I happened to be. So powerful, in fact, the female of the species was known to live several lifetimes, breed once, and would either discard or kill their female offspring because, no surprise here, there can be only one.

Explained a lot about why I never met another me at a school filled with exceptional beings. I didn’t think Professor Damian Roark was the submitting type.

Nadia returned with a blood bag for her and a box of fries with a side of ranch dressing for me. “Here. You’ll feel better after some fries.”

“Thanks.” I took the bag and settled in the seat at my own desk. “So.”

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