Twice Bitten (Love, Lust & Magic #1)

Uriah

It might surprise passersby to see a man wrapped up in a large trench coat and scarf donning both a hat and a pair of sunglasses as he made his way across campus on the sweltering first day of classes. Lucky for , it wasn’t sweat that caused him to explode in a ball of fire, but rather the sun.

It wasn’t until he had ducked inside of Wheaton Hall, Mystic Hollow University’s on-campus freshman dorm, that the vampire opted to stuff the scarf and hat into a lost-and-found box. I’ll get those later, he thought to himself.

Jacket draped over his arm, he smoothed out the wrinkles in his short-sleeved button-up and ran his hand through his beard. Of course, the cold elevator walls provided little reflection for him.

Where’s a mirror when you need one? No, no. Why do I even care about what I look like? The things I do for damned god awful magic, cursed to himself. Fucking werewolf, I bloody swear.

The truth was, however, that Pruitt was right. Something big was going down in Mystic Hollow, and he felt it in his bones. On top of that, he just discovered that Pruitt was arguably the best lay of his entire life, and for the time being he couldn’t come close enough to even touch him.

The freshman’s scent is strong here. I’m close. hit the button for every floor on the way up to investigate.

Ding, ding, ding! Ding, ding, ding!

After several stops, the vampire reached floor five. At first, the potent scent of freshmen funk one might stumble upon in any first-year dormitory deterred him. These kids really need to learn to do their laundry , he thought to himself as he cautiously stepped into the hallway.

Flaring his nostrils, that same familiar scent from last night—the one akin to lilacs sprinkled with magic and maybe a touch of honeydew—nearly knocked him off his feet.

His nose led him to a room at the far end of the hallway. Before attempting to knock, leaned forward and pressed his ear against the door. He could make out the sound of a heartbeat, but that was the only clue he had to go on. Sunlight was shining into the hall from underneath the door, so after putting his sunglasses back on finally worked up the courage to take the next step. As he reached to knock, the door opened.

“Gah, shit!” howled as the sun poured in from the dorm room’s open window. He backed up into the shadow created by the door. That’s when he realized he might have picked the wrong room.

“Hey,” came the voice of Darcy, who now stood in the doorway. “Are you our RA for the year?”

“Uh, um, what?” fumbled. “Who, me?”

“I haven’t really met anyone on this floor yet. I’m Darcy,” the young man in the doorway replied with an outstretched hand.

shook his hand, but he was fast to pull away. This isn’t the twink I was looking for.

“What’s with the sunglasses, man?” Darcy asked.

“Wh-what? These?” quickly tried to play off his strange behavior. “Eye doctor appointment,” he muttered with a deadpan delivery.

Darcy’s confusion seemed to change to suspicion. “What’s your name, anyway? You almost look familiar.”

All right, time for some of that sweet, sweet compulsion, thought to himself. “Hey, Darcy, man, you’re going to want to answer my questions now,” he said as he carefully looked Darcy in the eyes. “This isn’t a single room, is it?”

“No,” Darcy replied with almost no emotion.

“Figured you weren’t so lucky. Did your roommate show up yet?” followed up .

“Yes, sir.”

“Oh, uh, good, good,” rubbed his hands together as he thought of questions to ask. “And, uh, what’s his name again, Darcy?”

“Griffin. Griff Kyler.”

“And where’s he off to, pal?”

“Class,” came the monotonous, entranced voice of Darcy. “Intro to Theater in Reed Hall.”

“All right,” thought out loud. “If I move before the sun does, I can probably get there by the cover of trees.”

Darcy continued to stare at , his facial expression unchanging.

“Well, that’ll be all, Darcy. Just forget that this conversation ever happened,” said, turning to leave before he stopped and looked back at Griff’s roommate. “Well, actually, before I leave… Did he say anything about me?”