Blood & Magic (Book 1)

Chapter 8

"How are you feeling?" Charlie asked me that afternoon.

I had graduated from floating feathers, to flipping the light switch. Charlie had explained to me that while it was possible to use electricity to channel my powers, it was sketchy at best and didn't always work the way we wanted, because the energy in the home wasn't purely from nature.

"Surprisingly well," I answered honestly.

"Well enough to go out in public?"

I gave him a blank look. "What about my fangs?"

"I haven't seen them today, have you?"

I scrunched my brow, realizing he was right. I relaxed and grinned at him. "You're right!" I admitted with a laugh, was it possible that I had my fangs under control? "They've behaved this entire time. Why do you think that is?"

He shrugged. "I'm no vampire."

I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. "What did you have in mind?"

"Well, we've been working all day, how about we go out for a bite?"

"Nice choice of words," I said dully, shooting a playful glare in his direction.

He laughed. "It's a guy thing."

"As long as you're not going to feed me some innocent 'human'," I pointed my finger at him accusingly, "then I could certainly grab a snack."

Charlie grabbed his leather jacket from the hook by the front door and waited while I grabbed mine, along with my purse, from my bedroom. I took an extra moment to quickly apply some eyeshadow, eyeliner and lip gloss. Just because I wasn't trying to attract him, didn't mean I wanted to be seen in public looking less than my best.

"Hey, do you think we could swing by school afterward so I can grab my bike?"

"Sure, no problem."

I locked the door behind us while he started up his bike. I hopped on behind him and tried not to notice how delicious he smelled as I was pressed against his back. Riding with him was so not good for this little crush I was developing.

I let Charlie take me wherever it was he wanted to eat. We ended up down at the local cafe. We grabbed a booth and threw down our coats on the shiny red vinyl seats before heading up to order.

"Kate?"

I spun around and came face to face with Sam. He was in the process of emptying a tray into the trash, his hands frozen above the receptacle.

"Hey Sam, what's up?" I asked him.

He looked confused. "I thought you were sick." His eyes danced between myself and Charlie. He finally set the tray down atop the pile above the trash can.

"I was. But now I'm feeling better," I answered quickly.

There was a moment of awkward silence.

"Um, Charlie was taking me back to school to grab my bike. He took me home yesterday when I wasn't feeling well, so... my bike is still in the parking lot."

Wow. Was that the best I could come up with? I was totally lame. Sam had to realize I wasn't telling him the entire truth.

"Oh... well... I'm glad you're feeling better then..." Sam said, still shifting his gaze back and forth between us.

"Why don't you join us?" Charlie suggested.

"Oh, uh, no, I've uh, gotta get going," Sam said. I felt kind of bad for him. Clearly it looked like Charlie and I were on a date, and here was the ex, getting in the middle. The ex who wanted me back.