Twice Bitten (Love, Lust & Magic #1)

Griff

Well, I guess it’s all over with. My world is ending. I’m probably in mortal danger.

winced in anticipation of how his roommate would respond to what he had just revealed.

“ No way! That’s totally cool. I’m one hundred percent not one of those guys who cares about having a gay roommate,” Darcy replied, offering a reassuring pat on the shoulder. “I guess I don’t advertise it, but I’ve always considered myself pansexual. Maybe we can relate in some ways.”

Phew, sighed in relief.

Although the space left something to be desired, and Darcy had found themselves quite at home in their two-bed, one-bath dormitory. In fact, despite ’s best attempts to be a good student and get to bed early, the two new roommates found themselves in the middle of a late-night chat as they played a game of cards. Sitting across from one another on ’s bed, the only thing that separated the two was the deck they shuffled through.

“Oh! Well, awesome,” said with a smile. “It’s kind of silly, I guess. I’ve been—well, out since ninth grade, but I replayed how I was going to tell my first college roommate over and over again in my head literally until I met you.”

He expected rejection, maybe a neutral acceptance, and possibly even complete indifference. What he didn’t expect was to learn that his good-looking roommate was sitting at higher than a zero on the Kinsey Scale. This made his attempts to avoid staring even more futile.

It didn’t help that Darcy, in an attempt to relax and settle in, had just showered and changed into nothing but a pair of PJ bottoms. Without a baseball cap and—more noticeable to than anything—without a shirt, Darcy was just as stunning as the two beautiful creatures he had encountered just hours earlier. Except in this case, thought , he doesn’t give off the ‘I might eat you in a dark alley’ vibe.

“While I’m sorry that you had to worry yourself over something that shouldn’t matter, I do understand—and I’m appreciative that you told me,” Darcy said with a smile as he passed over a bottle of champagne he insisted the two crack open to celebrate their first night as roommates. “So, do you have a boyfriend, then?”

“Oh, me?” asked, a nervous laugh following.

Darcy nodded. “Yeah. Any lucky guys out there?”

“Uh, well, no—at least not right now,” answered as he looked down. “Going to high school in a super small, super conservative town created a few obstacles for me in that department.”

“Ah, man, no worries. I get it.” Darcy reached over and patted on the back. “And just for the record, these college guys won’t be playing any games with you as long as I’m your roommate.”

Am I blushing? That was too cute , thought to himself as he took as big of a drink as he could without wanting to gag. For not being a straight guy, he sure has bad taste in champagne. “What about you? Where are you from originally?”

“Born and raised right here in Mystic Hollow,” replied Darcy. “Shocker, huh? Who wants to go to college a half a mile away from where they went to high school? The answer is me, I guess.”

“Oh, really?” Well, color me surprised. I wonder if this means…

“Yep. I’ll have to take you out and show you some of the town’s best spots sometime.”

“I would love that,” said . “I’m pretty much clueless to all things Mystic Hollow and all things Massachusetts, too, so a tour guide would be great.”

“Well, I have to warn you, I’m only agreeing to it because there’s literally maybe three things worth seeing,” Darcy said with a grin. “It’ll take us a whole ten minutes.”

“Oh?”

“Well, the first thing you’ve got to know about Mystic Hollow is where to get the best view in town. It’s on the bluff that’s right above our dorm, actually—the one that oversees all of campus. You can even see it from our window. They call it Mystic Ridge. It’s where I go on clear nights to relax and watch the stars. It’s where everyone else goes to suck face—and maybe other things, too, I guess,” chuckled Darcy. “Not coincidentally, the lake that’s just a few feet from the edge is called Lovers’ Lane Lake.”

angled himself to peer out of the dorm’s only window. From where he sat, a glimmer of the moon reflecting off of the water above was just barely visible. Darcy isn’t inviting me to suck face, right?

“Oh, cool. Growing up in the Midwest, I’m used to things being mostly flat,” said .

Darcy turned to the window, gesturing out to the right. “As you can see, Campustown is that whole stretch of town surrounding the university. That’s where most of the students hang out. Just beyond the lake up there, though, there’s these four giant craters in the Hollowood Forest. Rumor has it that a long time ago—maybe even before there were any settlers here—the town got the rough end of an out-of-this-world meteor shower. The lake, I think, was the fifth crater, but I guess the city filled it up with water a long time ago.”

“Really?” asked .

Darcy nodded. “Yeah. Maybe it helped with college recruitment or something. I don’t know.”

“Interesting,” replied .

“All the guys in high school always told stories to scare the girls into cozying up with them when they would go park up there after football games and on the weekends, but I don’t know if any of that’s true. Some urban legend about someone wanting to cover up something mysterious at the bottom of the crater.”

As Darcy nursed the bottle, ’s mind wandered. “Mysterious craters and the stereotypical lovers’ lane? Sounds like the plot to a horror flick.” But interesting nonetheless , he thought to himself.

“That it does, ,” chuckled Darcy. “But whatever might be down there hasn’t come up to the surface since they did it, so I’m guessing that the only thing at the bottom of that lake is beer cans and cheerleader panties. That being said, I would be happy to take you to investigate further.”

As interesting as the verbal tour of town was, couldn’t help but to think back to the two gorgeous men he had bumped into earlier in the evening; the men that made him both want to stay safely locked behind closed doors and go out into the dark of the night in hopes of bumping into them again. With a little alcohol in his system, he couldn’t help but to ask about his new acquaintances. “So, a Mystic Hollow lifer, huh? I bet that means you know a lot of people on campus, huh?”

Darcy nodded as he took hold of the bottle once again. “Unfortunately,” he said as he made a goofy face and rolled his eyes. “Don’t tell me you’re already scoping out the Mystic Hollow hotties, you little dog.”

Well, besides you… “Uh, n-no,” blushed. “I just ran into a couple of upperclassmen on my walk home. They seemed—uh, nice.” Okay, okay. Maybe that wasn’t the right word to use.

“Well, well, well,” teased Darcy. “In a town with a population of only twenty-five thousand in the summer, you kind of get to know everyone. Translation? Spill.”

Hesitant at first, grinned like a schoolgirl with a crush. “Well…”