Oracle (Book I)

Kiss Assignment

The last rays of the summer season shined down on the Plains as Caprice crossed the field to the school stables. Inside, if she hadn't been so nervous, she might have been more interested in the massive creatures housed there; the doors of the stalls were big enough for bulls to pass through. Bossa met her at the back of the barn area in the open space stacked with bales of black and gold calico wheat, hay, golden pampas grass; the floor was covered in a fluffy bed of it.

"Shouldn't you be in lessons?" Caprice asked as Bossa came to her. "Why in the middle of the day?"

Bossa looked a little embarrassed and didn't quite meet Caprice's eye.

"Professor Sugar said she felt sorry for you and Nez. She excused me to work on the assignment. Obviously my Humanities teacher has been talking about me around the punch bowl."

"Punch bowl?"

"The rumor is that the professors have a bottomless bowl of rum in their lounge. Or is it Greek mead..."

Even were that true, Caprice doubted the teachers would ever tell students.

As she shifted on the spot, she wanted to laugh but her nerves were getting the better of her. It wasn't everyday a witch let a friend sink teeth into her and drink her blood, for schoolwork or otherwise.

"What about you?" Bossa said. "You're a goody-goody like Nez. Shouldn't you be in lessons?"

She shook her head. "With Professor Volkorn gone, it looks like I've got a free period until the teachers tell us what to do," Caprice said.

Bossa didn't pounce on her or ask if she was ready. Dusts and speks caught the light coming through stable's windows, glinting and shining. A deep, braying moo emanated from inside one of the stalls.

"You don't have to do this," Bossa said.

"And you shouldn't avoid it," Caprice said, "so let's get started."

Still, the other girl didn't move to bite her. Bossa wandered over to a bale of golden pampas, leaned in, and sniffed it. Whirled a small stalk of calico wheat around her finger. It was so unlike Bossa to meander around like this that Caprice felt compelled to speak.

"Bohs."

"Hm?" she murmured.

"Why do you drink?"

"Will you get mad and curse me if I just tell you the truth?" The reply was spoken to the bale in front of her.

"No."

"What if I just like doing it? Will you curse me then? Run away? Change rooms?"

"No," Caprice said again softly.

Bossa drew a breath and exhaled. "There's a lot behind biting and drinking... Lot of body-spirit-heart of the Kin race stuff my people raised me knowing. But when you ask me...first thing that comes to mind is that I like biting. I like drinking." She shot Caprice a quick glance. "Swallowing and feeling the raging oceans inside of my body collide and wash together. The physical act isn't all there is. It's beautiful...feeling someone else in my veins like that. It's a closeness. Like the sun warming and lighting up every vein in my body at once. Filling my heart..." She shrugged. "Some of us just get a taste for it. They have to have it all the time."

For some reason, Caprice felt a little less afraid then. It was something to think about. To Bossa, it wasn't just a flow of life or power in one direction away from its source. It was a communion of life feeding life. No terror. No fear of death. Pleasure, yes. Ultimately, drinking was life.

"There's something else, you know. Is it all right... What I mean is sometimes when I drink I see things. Like the person's memories or I...feel them. Hear their thoughts. I can't always help it." Quickly, with another cautious glance in Caprice's direction, she added, "Its not strange or anything. Its just how kin blood drinkers work."