Totally a Vampire Thing || ONC 2024 ||

Chapter 4. Bait and Switch (Cruz)

"Triana, look alive, or McCrank is gonna bench you for the game." Aiden clapped me on the back, while I was putting away my bag in the locker room.

I braced, and nothing happened. No pangs of unnatural hunger, no binding magic, no telltale blue glow.

Naturally, the shoulder-pads allowed little contact, but I'd shaken hands and bumped shoulders with the mortals since my awakening and Zoe Green remained the only one who triggered Grandpa's magic shield. Even her scarf set it off. 

Surreptitiously, I checked the pocket of my gym bag—the silk rectangle was still there. Approaching Zoe was too dangerous, and I couldn't just throw it away either. So, I carried it with me.

"He was mighty pissed when you skipped our last practice," Aiden said, as I stared at the blue glow spreading up my arm from the point of contact with innocuous silk. It was brighter yesterday...

Right, Coach McCrank. Football game. Focus.

"Yes. Sorry." I shoved Zoe's scarf deeper and slammed the locker's door closed.

Just before it shut, a text flickered on the screen of my phone. I only caught two things:  Eternal Acres and help.

"Crap, crap, crap!" I shook the locked door, sure that the text was from Zoe. Absurd, of course, because where would she get my number? And the Acres wasn't a place for the mortals. Sure, she could see magic when no one else did—

"Triana!" Aiden squealed in exasperation. "For real! Snap out of it!"

Wish I could tell Aiden I was actually helping my team win by fondling Zoe's scarf. Grandpa's magic shield hurt, but it wasn't all pain and suffering. The energy of a hungry vampire fledgling trickled through my bloodstream. I buzzed, as my nature prepared me for my first hunt. With this fix, I'd play better than ever...after I figured out who asked for my help.

"I need a minute." Sweat soaked my back and dripped down my forehead, as I tried to unlock the damn lock.

Alas, we don't always get what we need.

Coach McCrank burst into the locker room, pink-faced, spongy-nosed, and pumped more than all of us combined. Strands of graying hair circled his bald spot like tentacles.

"Gather round, ladies! This is it! This is what we trained for! We beat the maggots twice. Do it again today, and the year is yours!"

My pulse sped up in a reflexive response to his orgasmic delivery. "Yeah!" I shouted with Aiden and others. The stitch between my shoulder blades released. Sweat evaporated, leaving only a cold halo on my skin. Probably, the text wasn't even from Zoe. Why would she text me? I was a huge jerk to her after the awakening.

Whoever else it was, they could wait. Our big game was on the line!

"You're the monsters!" the Coach carried on with the spittle-spraying enthusiasm normally reserved for the Superball. For Delys, it was, we were the Delys Knights, and we were about to crush the Delys Drakes, a.k.a. the maggots to ash!

Help...Zoe's voice called to me, either from the locker or in my head. Zoe wasn't just any girl. She woke my bloodlust. She saw vampire magic. She dared to actually like someone, even when the entire school made fun of her.

The team stacked hands, holding me in place. A dozen hands with hot red blood circulating through their veins and the capillaries—my awoken senses tracked the movement of every single red cell. Yet, my magic shield didn't flicker once. The fledgling vampire in me had already chosen his first feeder. And if she was in danger at the layer of the Ancients...