The Reluctant

by Aila Cline

  He waved away my words. “It happens to the best of us. Fortunately I have no negative qualities, so perhaps I will teach you a thing or two about generosity along the way. I’m remarkably humble for one of such per-fection.”

  I laughed again. “Obviously.”

  “Well, Mr. Perfect,” Will interjected. “When you’re done flirting with my girl, why don’t you let me kick your ass at pool?”

  Luka’s perfect grin flashed. “But I have not even been introduced to your companion.”

  Will rolled his eyes. He turned to me and said, “Emily, this is Luka, the worst pool player in California.”

  “So he is, in fact, not so perfect?”

  “Not so much as he likes to think.” He turned to his friend. “It must be all that humility getting to his brain.”

  Luka shrugged. “Sometimes I feel the need to be charitable to others.”

  “We’ll see,” Will said.

  “Emily, would you mind doing the honors of racking a set for us?”

  It pleased me that Luka did not think this beyond my skills. Honestly, I was a bit rusty at pool, but I smiled my consent and grabbed a stack of the quarters. The balls rolled from the holding area and suddenly I realized that I had no triangle to form up the balls. The only other pool table near us lacked one also. Will and Luka were thoroughly engaged in conversation, so I figured I’d take care of the problem myself. Once again, please give foolish Emily a round of applause as she stumbles into trouble.

  I made my way over to the nearest pool table which inconveniently stood in the next room. The L-shaped building had set up most of the pool tables and games in the front. We had walked through the long hall to get to a sectioned-off room in the back with only two pool tables and the bar where Luka waited. Not a long walk at all, but as it was Friday, people thronged the arcade, so I waded through them conscious of only my goal. It was unlikely I would see anyone I knew; my friends would never go to an arcade.

  Few people played pool at that moment, so I approached an empty table to look for a triangle first. Thankfully, it had one. Taking the triangle, I started back to the boys. Yet again, I had a chance to escape, but honestly, the warmth and camaraderie between Will and Luka drew me to them. My high school friends had all drifted away to different colleges, and with no job and no classes to make new friends, I really had become exceptionally lonely over the last year. I had started jogging to pass the time and burn some extra energy. The lost weight proved an added benefit, but mostly I just wanted something to do. Why not go back to Will and Luka, who at least liked me and made the attempt to include me?

  A hard grip yanked me away from my melancholy thoughts. I wanted to snap off the offending hand, but as I found the challenge in front of me, I realized that her eyes smoldered like bright jewels. With Luka’s acquaintance and Will’s rapture, I officially knew two werewolves. I knew what to look for now—practically an expert. The red-haired, lithe girl about my age had those glowing emerald eyes that dominated her face and the look of someone who wanted to take a bite out of me. Judging by the look on her face, she would immediately have spat it out in disgust.

  “Yes?” I asked coldly. If anything, I could whack her in the face with the triangle. Hey, it was a plan, okay? Better than nothing.

  “You should not be here.” Her voice, equally cold, sounded more like a metallic echo.

  “I was invited. I would hate to be impolite.”

  “You’re not Miss Fucking Manners,” she snarled. “Leave.”

  I have no idea why, but for some reason her cussing offended me. Now, I have no objection to dropping the F-bomb, but I guess because she used it in anger towards me, the word seemed viciously vulgar.

  “Get the hell out of my way,” I snapped. “I know what you are, and I’m not scared of you.”

  Her body tensed, muscles contracting and expanding. Suddenly she relaxed and chuckled. “Go on human. Play your games. I know where he’s keeping you.”

  A shiver ran up my spine. She stepped aside, releasing me in the process, and jerked her head towards the back room. What I did not realize was that Will had witnessed the exchange.

  “Go back to Luka,” he said quietly, his glare fixed on the girl.

  “I’m fine, Will,” I insisted. “Come on, I’ve got the triangle. Let’s rack ‘em up and play.”

  “I’ll be there in a moment.”

  “You shouldn’t be with her, Will,” the girl said.

  “I make my own decisions, Brooke.”

  Her eyes glittered strangely, remarkably like Will’s in color, only lit with anger instead of laughter. I wondered fleetingly if they were brother and sister, but her red hair and fair complexion instantly rejected that notion.

  “There are other options.”

  “And I do not desire those.”

  “You weren’t so quick to dismiss me before.”

  Will shrugged. “You are not for me, and I am not for you. You just haven’t realized it yet.”

  She growled, “I’m like this because of you, you impertinent bastard.”

  “I let go of that guilt a long time ago when you embraced what you have became.”

  Brooke’s face turned blood red. I backed away, partly worried that my presence only exacerbated the issue at hand, but this issue obviously was an old one between them.

  “Calm down, Brooke,” Will hissed. “We don’t need the entire world knowing about us.”

  His words had merit. Everyone in the arcade had turned to watch what seemed like a potential catfight. Oh, how wrong onlookers could be.

  Her fists clenched and unclenched as she spoke levelly. “But it’s okay for you to whore around with her, who should know nothing about us or the way we are. She hasn’t bled like we have for the privilege.”

  Will’s hand snaked out and pulled her to him. I repressed a savage stab of jealousy, though he did not hold her as a lover. Rather, his arms around her middle suggested the likelihood of an impending explosion on her part.

  But she softened in his arms. I knew the power of that body against my own. Her eyes, snapping with that overwhelming green, cut to me.

  “This isn’t over. The Lycanthrope won’t Change you.” She stared deep into Will’s eyes and I felt my eyes drop. I knew instantly that their relationship had been desperately sexual. “You know that, Will.”

  He released her, allowing her to saunter off with only a few nasty looks cast back my way. Will tenderly took me by the waist.

  “Come on. Let’s go have a good time. She won’t bother us anymore tonight.”

  “Just tonight?” I asked shakily.

  “Just tonight,” he agreed.

  Luka fought to suppress a smug grin as we approached.

  “Trouble, eh?”

  “Just the usual,” Will answered.

  “I saw her on my way in, but hoped she’d mind her manners.”

  They remained calm, so I did not dwell on Brooke. It helped that Will and Luka’s company intoxicated me. I felt untouchable with them laughing and joking with me.

  We spent the evening in closeness. I felt like I had known Luka all my life, something of a brother who had just been absent for a while. Whereas my relationship with Will made my body hot, Luka made my insides warm. His quick, dry wit considerably reassured me that nothing would happen to me tonight by some psycho bitch. Brooke did not reappear in our quiet sanctuary of pool and foolery, but I felt like I could feel her malevolence stalking me every time I moved. My tension became so palpable that Will would touch me lightly on the arm every few moments to gauge my mood. The evening seemed normal in many ways and by the end of it, I knew that Luka and I would be good friends. It was impossible to not like the guy.

  Will haphazardly slung an arm over my shoulders as we walked to the car, Luka flanking us at a polite distance. Will’s nice little Civic awaited us and Luka familiarly untangled my hand from Will’s embrace.

  “Emily,” he began in his usual rascally tone, “I am impressed. Only you could start
a bar fight with a perfect stranger while completely sober.”

  I grinned until I thought my cheeks around split open. For some reason, I took a certain pride in Luka’s comment.

  The car’s hum and the metal band on the radio lent a backdrop of normalcy to the closing of our evening. Will held my hand tightly over the console, as if I would jump out the window. If only he had known then how completely entranced I was with the way he made me feel. He brought my hand to his lips to kiss, and I felt this gave me license to speak about a particular obsession of mine. The rest of America loves it, too, so don’t judge me too harshly.

  “Ever read Twilight?” I asked innocently.

  “Yes,” he answered with wry amusement. “Although the movies were pretty bad. That Taylor Lautner makes one pretty hot werewolf though.”

  I laughed. “Oh, Team Jacob, are you? That comment came out too smoothly. You knew this was coming.”

  He chuckled. “Yes. You can’t live in America and know a Lycanti without thinking about those damn books, can you?”

  “Well, not really,” I admitted. “And now that I know there are wolves running around disguised as people, I have to ask: Are there vampires, too?”

  Will was nonplussed by my question. “Yep. They call themselves the Children of Dacre.”

  I paused a moment. Honestly, I was blown away, but I handled it like a real trooper.

  “Why not the Children of Dracula? Wouldn’t that make more sense?”

  “You got me. They’re just vampires. It’s not like a different name will change what they really are.”

  What they really were? So they did exist as something other than the butt of a joke! I had devoured the Twilight series in one delicious gulp of a weekend. Stephanie Meyer’s vision of beautiful vampires danced around in my head. Yes, I had to ask:

  “Are they hot?”

  He gave me a long, serious look. “Sometimes. They actually look pretty normal. They’re paler and downright anorexic-looking. It depends on what you find attractive, I guess.” He reached forward to slide his hand down the curve of my hip. “I, personally, do not like the Kate Moss look.”

  “Oh,” I said dejectedly, pushing his hand away. How disappointing. So Meyer didn’t hold the secret of Immortals; obviously she just had a really good imagination. And I still didn’t like my hips, no matter how much he did.

  “I promise,” he said softly. He looked away. “You’re not missing out.”

  But I had found something that interested me.

  “Do they live forever?”

  “No.”

  “Do they have superhuman powers?”

  “No.”

  “What about flying?”

  He snorted. “That’s semi-ridiculous, Emily. No.”

  “Well, what’s so special about them?”

  He shrugged. “Some people consider their diet pretty special.”

  “Do they drink blood?”

  “Of course they drink blood,” he growled playfully. “What do the vampires you know drink? Banana smoothies? Very creepy—if you’re terrified of the random rampaging Bunnicula. I bet you have a complex about that, huh?”

  I pursed my lips. I didn’t like being mocked. “That’s not funny, Will.”

  “I thought it was pretty funny.”

  I smiled a bit. “Okay, it was a little funny, but bananas are overplayed in jokes. Everything’s funnier with kiwi.”

  He gifted me that sardonic half grin that I was coming to enjoy. “Everything?”

  “Everything,” I insisted.

  “Okay, how about kiwi bikinis? Bikinis are pretty serious pieces of clothing,” he said impishly.

  I snickered. “Like kiwi flavored? Someone’s boyfriend would definitely be in heaven after the swimming. What if there were kiwi jock straps?”

  “Then that would make some tight ends happy, probably.”

  “You are so seriously disturbed.”

  That won me a full smile.

  “Yeah, I know,” he said lightly. “Comes from being a ‘hair’-brained mammal half of the time.”

  “Oh, you are so pun-ny. And I still don’t believe you anyway about that whole wolf thing.”

  When he chuckled, the light glinted on his perfect teeth. “Oh, well I was talking about the human part of me being harebrained.”

  “But you’re so normal…” My words trailed off. He was normal until he lost control. That would always create a gulf between us in my mind. I didn’t want to bleed every time he wanted to hold me.

  “What, so you want proof?” he asked, ignoring my sudden hesitation to continue the banter and enjoying my willingness to speak so carelessly with him. “You want me to Change in front of you or something? I promise, it’s not pleasant. Sometimes I even smell.”

  And he might not be a vampire, but I was instantly intrigued by his relaxed candidness. “Can you Change whenever you want?”

  He shook his head, bristling a little. “No. I wish.”

  “Oh.”

  “The Lycanthrope can.”

  “The Lycanthrope?”

  “They’re the pure-blooded clan of South America. Some still live in Mexico, too.”

  I still couldn’t let go of my first obsession. “Do vampires live there, too?”

  He rolled his eyes. “No,” he replied, adding with obvious distaste, “they’re distinctly American.”

  “Oh. I thought they were British,” I said.

  “Complete myth. They’re imports from Europe, but now are now more American than apple pie, and they always stay away from us.”

  “Why?” I asked immediately, Jacob versus Edward propaganda from my teen years hitting me hard.

  He wouldn’t meet my gaze. “They just do.”

  I had read very little of the literature out there on men who changed into wolves, but vampires had always intrigued me.

  “Okay, so vampires are real, but Team Edward sucks—literally.”

  He seemed a thousand miles away as he smiled wanly. “Keep going and your puns will be as good as mine.”

  I shrugged at his detached statement. What was one more myth coming to life for me? One had already explored my body intimately, and I his. There was nothing abnormal about that body and he did not seek to harm me in his animal form. What more could I ask for?

  Will

  A big party between the dorms caught my fancy for New Year’s Eve. An upperclassman mixer, I’d need no date. They’re would be plenty of coeds to choose from.

  Do you remember the girl from the arcade? Of course you do, my God, Brooke would be unforgettable to all but the most unobservant of onlookers. I carried the guilt of her Change for years, even thinking I’d be mated to her because of it, but she was never the sweetest person. Her fiery temper kept me interested in her sexually as a human. As a newborn Lycanti, she found a prime way to release and exploit her passions.

  She showed up at the party a little before midnight. Deep into the cups by now and giddy because of it, I knew my bed would most likely not be so cold tonight. As always, she looked ravishing in her leather pants and white tank top—casual dress for her. I guess I’ve always had a thing for you punky girls. In my drunken state, I did not notice the changes in her.

  Not that I would have noticed any other time, but now I know that the full moon shone brightly that night. How incongruous, I later thought—a full moon on the last night of the year. Mischief abounded. The pull of the moon combined with the holiday liberated people.

  Brooke kissed me fully on the mouth as soon as she approached me. “Let’s go,” she said with lust darkening her eyes.

  I had no objection to her forcefulness. In fact, that night it rather turned me on. I wondered what awaited me in bed that night.

  She yanked me into the dorm room and we stumbled in the dark, fumbling at each other’s clothes and kissing as if our lives depended on it. Oh, I don’t want to tell you this, but it’s a vital part of the things you must know to live with me, to be a part of this world.

&nbs
p; She threw me down on the bed. I loved it more by the minute. Usually she let me dominate her, pulling at her hair and initiating the final act. Now she operated in full control, and my young body responded very appropriately. She took me into her mouth and bit down, hard enough to make me worry but not kill my hard on. I squeezed her neck to warn her. She moaned deeply and drew her warm, wet mouth from me. I groaned in the back of my throat as she pulled away from my body.

  “Come on, baby,” I begged.

  “No, no, no,” she said playfully. “I’ve got a surprise for you.”

  At that, the lamp beside the door snapped on. Brooke still lay beside me on the bed.

  “What the hell?” I said, completely expecting someone standing there with a camera as a prank.

  My professor had illuminated the bed. She stood, naked and glistening as if coated with oil in the lamplight. Walking over the window, she raised the blinds.

  “We’ll need this extra light,” she said lowly. I could see her body shaking, as if she fought something internally. I thought she would shatter right before my eyes with her effort. And then I saw it, while looking back and forth between the two gorgeous women between me, my eyes blurry and my imagination racing and open to all possibilities. Something was different about Brooke, something I could see with the extra moonlight pouring in. Her eyes, once a warm, liquid toffee, now glittered with the same luminescent green of the professor’s eyes that had once before fascinated me.

  “What is this?” I asked, my anticipation for the event coloring my tone. I’m not sure, at that time, if I really even cared about Brooke’s eyes. What young man could ask for more than two of the most beautiful women in his acquaintance to take advantage of him?

  “This,” the professor growled, “is your last night as a human, love. Luckily you’ll get to enjoy it almost as much as Brooke did,” she added, looking over at my red-headed friend with something like pride.

  Brooke smiled seductively and bent her head to give a lick to my manhood that sent my body quivering again. The professor’s words made no sense to me, and honestly I had no desire to talk. Being naked and in the company of those two did not exactly contribute to my thinking with the northern head. I reached for Brooke, hoping that I didn’t seem too desperate for her to keep going. No man wants to look reliant on a woman, even for pleasure. She sucked harder and I felt the breath rush out of my body as the professor approached, sleek and lean. She looked younger in the shadows of my room.