It had only been five hours since this whole mess began, but it felt so much later.

We were creeping up on the threshold of having to bring Clara and Will’s parents into this.

Will wasn’t improving. Clara had joined me in my vigil next to him.

Clara gave me the most disgusted look, she could muster.

"...How could you?" She said. "...What are we going to tell mom and dad?"

"Clara...You know, I had no choice." She looked away, shaking her head.

"He’s not dead and he won’t be for a long time and I have to live with it."

I shook my head.

".... But there was nothing I could do to prevent it. I feel like dying every time I think about it. I am so sorry."

She looked down. "...I know...but it doesn’t change anything." She began to cry.

Tess had come in. "Come on let’s get you something to eat." She lead her away.

Stephen gently rapped on the ajar door.

"What do you want."

"He chose this, you know...He was perfectly aware of the fact that chances were he’d either die or end up like this."

"He’s a brave kid." he said seriously. "I can see why you like him."

"...Why I love him." I corrected.

"Love him." he repeated.

If we could cry, I would have. Stephen looked like he wanted to offer comfort, but he knew I wouldn’t accept it.

Suddenly things changed...

Will took a breath. Something we don’t do.

He was breathing.

I sat forward and took his hand in mine. It was getting warm.

"Tess." And she was there. ...Along with Sylvia and Holt.

"This is...unprecedented." Sylvia said. "He’s healing...back into his humanity."

Tess frowned and looked at me, like I was some newly discovered thing.

"...You heal."

I laughed, I was so happy. I could definitely feel the heat creeping back into his hand.

Will began to stir. "Uhhh..."

"Ibis." he said. He was still pale and groggy but he was definitely, still human.

"You’re alive." He said, smiling.

"Because of you." I said and brought his hand to my lips. His blood was so thin I could scarcely sense it’s intoxicating power over me. I used that window for all it was worth.

I leaned forward and carefully, kissed him.

After I sat back up, Clara burst into the room.

"Will! Will!" She was so happy to see him awake and looking like himself she wrenched him up into a hug, much to his great discomfort...

That neck-wound I’d given him was still a painful-looking mottled bruise-color. It looked like a glorified hickey with bite marks.

He groaned at having to move it.

"I’m sorry, Ibis." She said.

I shook my head. "I’d have done the same. We’re still copacetic."

She shook her head back in affirmation.

*****

Teens are good at keeping things from parents who keep them on a loose leash, like Clara and Will’s did.

They both got home really late, but they kept their grades up and for the most part stayed out of trouble. They acted like nothing had transpired that night and they weren’t questioned.

The next day was Friday. And there were new signs plastered all over school. It was another Homecoming, my fourteenth.

...Well, the fourteenth I’d seen announced. I never gone to any of those things. Too many nervous, sweaty, frightened kids asking me.

So, when Will approached me in hallway between classes and casually assumed I was going...

"What time should I pick you up?"

I was literally speechless.

...Or that could have been his smell...I had hoped, that since I’d bitten him, he’d be less tempting to me, but just the opposite happened.

I remembered the taste of him and I found myself craving it all the more for it. I was an addict.

He looked at me expectantly.

"...Uh, for what exactly?" I said.

"Homecoming." And he smiled that gentle bright smile of his.

"I don’t...I mean, I’ve never been to that sort of function."

He laughed. "I figured." he said, looking at me in a knowing way that made me feel like my soul was exposed to him.

"...Then it’s time you go."

*****

"Oh, my God! You’ve never been to a dance before?!" Clara shrieked.

She was now infected with that most contagious of feminine diseases, make-over madness.

Having recruited Nelli and Gail to be her minions, she was careful to only insert herself in the position to touch, afraid they’d see how different I felt. Deceptively resilient, but "smooth as polished stone", as Will would say.

They dragged me to a local boutique after school. After having picked out their own gowns for the event, they set about dressing me.

The owner, a pretty round-bodied native American woman, for whom the place was named, Samaria was helpful and very knowledgeable about fashion and what flattered individual women’s features best.

I was the perfect specimen for her to play with. Beautiful, but yet to fully ebrace that. She was determined to bring it out to it’s fullest.

She brought out a whole rack of her favorite gowns and by their instruction, I tried each one for them to evaluate.

It. Was. Hell.

Clara knew and was enjoying the hell out of it.

...Though, I do have to admit. When we did finally settle on that perfect gown, I was pretty awestruck myself.

It was gorgeous and feminine, but somehow still me. It was a deep emerald green version of the chic little black Audrey Hepburn dress from Breakfast at Tiffany’s. Slinky, but still modest and elegant.

"You look...Wow." Clara said pleased with her handiwork.

*****

The night arrived and I had no idea what to do with my hair...I eventually settled on slicking it all back with water and gel...

It actually looked pretty nice.

One thing I did know how to do was the smoky eye. So, I did that and applied a light pink gloss to my lips.

Even Tess was pleased with the results.

"So." She said, teasing. "I did save a little girl."

"The whole school will be dazzled blind" she sighed. "...but you deserve this."

She kissed my forehead.

*****

When Will arrived to pick me up, he looked at me so strangely, I thought I had something on my dress.

Then he blinked at me and said... "No one, will be able to look at anything all night, except you."

Hundreds, maybe thousands of compliments in my lifetime and this was the first to truly affect me.

I had so much synthetic earlier in the evening my eyes were a nice amber hue. Still, they darkened a bit when I got around Will.

He swept his hand through his hair and angled his neck. His mark was almost completely faded. In truth, I was almost sorry to see that, despite his close call. It had been my mark.

Will took my hand and walked with me to the waiting limo.

Tess. Of all people, she made us wait so she could get pictures before we left.

Clara looked stunning in her blush-colored mini-dress and Kirk of course, had to be knocked around a few times by her when he was caught staring at me.

We pulled up to Bresner Hall. It was the largest space in town used for every formal function, imaginable, including ours.

When we arrived, I tried to blend in with the group we came with, but many whispers and eyes did follow me, including Stephen’s...

"What is he doing here?"

That was my second thought.

My first thought, wasn’t really a thought so much as a jolt. I couldn’t help it. He was the best-looking creature in the room.

Will squeezed my hand and pulled me closer to himself possessively, when he noticed him.

It was a classy affair, old classics spun along with new hits and we even danced. Will, as always, was amazed at how agile and light on my feet I was despite my hardness and strength.

I leaned my head on his chest and listened to his heart. It helped to focus on something other than the throbbing in my throat.

I chanced asking him something I had been dreading talking about for a while...

"Will." I said.

"Would you have hated me, if you’d turned?"

"Ibis." He said, if he were shocked I could even ask. "...No. Never. I knew chances were I’d die or be like you."

"...but your parents, your life. You shouldn’t be so reckless with it."

"My parents, my life, my choice Ibis. Saving you, maybe being able to be with you. It was worth it. I’d do it again, right now. Don’t you know by now how much I love you?"

He leaned in close to my ear and his neck was close to my lips again...Tormenting me.

"You could take what you want now and I’d die happy..." He laughed a bit nervously.

"One day...I want to. So, I can be with you Ibis." I put my trembling hands on his shoulders and nudged him away.

He didn’t understand. He wasn’t one of us, so how could he?

I didn’t know what to say, so I didn’t. I just danced on in silence.

*****

I had gone to the buffet table to fetch drinks for my friends, when Stephen finally approached me.

"You leave me breathless." he said.

"That’s because you don’t breathe, Stephen." I said.

"Thanks, for reminding me."

"Why are you still in Shadow?" I said. "We got him. You don’t have to stay."

"Sylvia likes it here...We were coming anyway, so you’ll just have to get used to me being around."

... "Why?" he said, that smug grin ticking at the corners of his mouth, again. "Do I make you uncomfortable?"

"No." I lied. He leaned in closer.

Then dance with me. "No." I said.

"Because I DO make you uncomfortable."

"...Because I’m here with Will." I said.

"What’s a dance between friends? You love him. He loves you. What do you have to worry about?"

"I’m not worried."

Stephen simply raised a challenging eyebrow and offered his hand....

Stupidly, against my better judgment, I took it.

And he immediately swept me in too close...My body was practically flush with his.

"Ibis." He said.

"I’ve never seen anything as beautiful as you are right now."

"Thanks." I said, trying to avoid his penetrating gaze. ‘A Song for You’ began to play.

I’d loved seeing Donny Hathaway live with Tess when he was still alive. This song was special to me. I’d have rather been dancing this with Will.

His hand rested on the back of my hip and he gently caressed me there, pulling me closer. I didn’t like how that made me felt, but I couldn’t make myself move away.

I chanced looking up at him and he was looking right back at me with a look I had grown familiar with.

He leaned in and I pushed him away.

"Okay..." I said. "I’m done."

I walked away completely flustered.

...And Will had seen the whole thing.