When I got back to school, things were definitely different. Nothing like Mr. Redburne’s disappearance had happened in Shadow, in a long time.

The kids still looked a bit shell-shocked. And of course, there was the whispering about me. I had been out for a long time.

I kept track of Will and Clara by smell. There were no others of my kind, nearby, that I could tell.

I was kneeling beside my locker, when I felt it again...The shift in realities.

I was in that hazy place that didn’t really exist. I felt cold hard hands weigh heavily on my shoulders, the breath of a whisper at my neck. The hands slipped down my arms...

"-Soon.-" It said.

From far away came Clara’s voice... "Ibis...Ibis!"

"Yes, I’m okay." I said.

She shook her head, her face incredulous. "...No, you aren’t."

"You were gone. I could tell."

She put her hand on my back as if to support me. She knew it would do no good, but she is human, a creature of habit.

"Yes. I was."

"Where?"

I shook my head and got up. "I have to go to class...And so do you."

The hallways were rapidly emptying.

Clara pursed her lips in frustration and stacked her books in her arms.

"You know, just because you’re...different, doesn’t mean you don’t need help sometimes."

She turned and headed towards her class.

I went in the opposite direction.

She was uncharacteristically quiet at lunch. Punishing me for keeping this from her.

She didn't speak to me for the rest of the day.

'Well', I thought.

'Perhaps I could have a word with the other Henry.'

****

I waited for Will after school.

As he got close, the weight was still there, but I was getting used to it...No, that’s not right. It’s not something I could ever truly get used to, but it was...manageable.

"Will. Wanna go for a quick ride, in my Jeep?" I inflected my voice so he understood that I really needed to talk.

He nodded slowly.

"Okay."

His caution wasn’t because of what I was. I believe he was likely afraid of what I might say.

I pulled off swiftly, disappearing into the ever-present mist.

I turned to look at him.

His eyes flitted between me and the road.

"Don’t worry...We won’t crash or run over anything. Promise."

"There are few things I didn’t say, that you need to hear and understand."

He inhaled deeply, bracing himself for the worst.

"Go ahead."

"Will...The way I perceive you. The way I feel around you...It’s different from any other human, I’ve encountered."

"I understand." He said, lowering his head.

"I repel you, for some reason."

"What? -No, quite the opposite."

"You tempt me more than any other." He looked up into my eyes and I could see this was something he probably imagined me saying, in his wildest dreams.

"I did hear that... right?"

"Yes, but...I’m dangerous to you, understand?"

I looked at him seriously, hoping I was getting through.

"Killing. It’s what we’re made for. And you, I want to kill more than any other person, I’ve known. You smell, really, really good to me."

He gave me the funniest look then, I almost laughed.

"So...I’m your movie theater popcorn."

I giggled.

"What?!"

"Popcorn. Whenever I go to the movies, no matter how expensive that stuff is, I have to get popcorn. As soon as that smell hits me.

I swear they must lace the salt with crack."

"Okay." I said, the last of my giggles fading. "I’ll take it. But it really is much more than that."

"I need you to understand this, Will."

"I do." He said his eyes brightening. "You don’t hate me."

"No. I don’t hate you." I was suddenly shy... -I don’t get shy.

"In fact...I kinda’ like you."

There was an awkward silence.

"Look, I have to get you back to school, so you can pick up your car.-"

He cut me off.

"-So, how are feeling. Sitting with me, right now?"

"I’m using every fiber of my being to not kill you."

"Oh."

"You asked."

"But...you’re able to do this. You definitely seem better at it than you did when we first met."

I paused before giving an answer. ‘Better’ wasn’t really the word, but...

"I think it’s like being hurt really badly. The pain doesn’t fade and you don’t really get used to it, but you can...Sort of transcend it? Push it back a bit. That’s what I’m doing."

He nodded. "That makes sense."

"If you pull over..."

He sucked in those lips of his, red with his tempting vessels. "Can I...I mean would it be okay, if I tried to touch you?"

"You already have."

"No, I don’t mean to get your attention. And even then you shrugged me off pretty quickly. I mean...I just wanna know what your skin feels like."

I paused for a long while. I’m sure it was torturous for him. We have much more patience than humans do.

He was playing with fire and he didn’t care. What was wrong with him? He’d risk his life to touch me? Teens are reckless creatures. There was absolutely no fear. Will was too foolhardy.

But somehow...I did what he asked. I didn’t answer him. I just pulled over, took my key out of the ignition and lay back.

I lay my arm in between our seats and said, "Be careful. If I say back off...You need to listen."

He nodded.

I closed my eyes briefly, filling my senses only with his smell (painful yearning) and waited. Learning to transcend, I hoped.

I expected him to touch my arm as if to test me, like poking a dead thing with a stick. But what he actually did, surprised me.

He slipped his hand on top of my own and gripped it slightly.

I opened my eyes to see him smiling.

"I’ve been wanting to know what that would be like."

I smiled right along with him despite myself. Being wanted. Not for the glamour of our kind, but for me. How good that felt. I think it was helping me.

I closed my eyes and slowly, carefully closed a few fingers around his hand.

And then he did something very stupid. My eyes flew open to his smell very close to my face, his lips brushing my own, feather-light before I had time to react.

But I did.

...In time. Good for him.

I cringed back to the driver’s side window, creating a spider’s web crack in the glass.

"Don’t ever do that again."

"-I."

I put my keys into the ignition and drove as quickly as I could, back to school.

As I pulled up next his car, I waited for him to get out. Why wasn’t he getting out?

"I’m sorry. I’ve just been wanting to and you looked so peaceful. And I thought."

"You thought, I’d be okay...Not you."

No, he hadn’t been afraid for himself at all. What the hell was wrong with him??

"Your lack of preservation frightens me, Will. I won’t be okay, if I hurt you."

"I won’t be okay, if I can’t..." I could hear his heart accelerate as it had when our lips... touched.

I frowned and looked away. A different pain was tearing at me, now. All this time, in all the many schools I’d been in, I thought I was tasting the life I’d never known.

But I hadn’t. I didn’t just want Will’s blood anymore...If I ever had only wanted it in the first place.

But I knew now. I could admit it to myself.

I wanted him too.

****

When Will, opened the door, I smelled it. The others. They were coming towards us both.

"Get back in the car and lock the doors." as urgent as I made that sound, he did it immediately.

Of course, it wouldn’t be much of a barrier if they really wanted him, but it would slow them down enough for me to intervene.

They all appeared through the mist like some kind of strange posse. All dressed like traveling performers or punks...Definitely deviants.

They had visible tattoos and wore clothing that looked like it came from Hot Topic. Living up to the stereotype. Maybe they were fans of The Lost Boys.

There were three of them. An Asian girl, smaller even than myself, a tall handsome well-muscled man, who was so close to her, that I guessed they were together and another...Him.

I backed a few steps at seeing him.

And Tess...Tess made herself known, coming forward.

"How long have you been near range?" She asked.

She sounded more powerful and imposing than I’ve ever heard her. Every bit of her three hundred years.

"Not long..."said the big one. His eyes were the blood red of one who definitely feeds on human blood. Not synthetics.

The other one’s eyes were boring a hole in me. Will had noticed. He was practically radiating jealousy.

I moved to his side, in front of the passenger-side window, blocking both of their views.

"We’ve lost one of our own, here." she said, gauging their reaction.

"-Lawrence?" The girl said, stepping forward.

"Yes." Tess replied. "How do you know him?"

"He made me."