I stood up sputtering and digging dirt and grass out of my eyes. I had to take off the helmet to get it all out. I turned to see Nathan flat on his back and Adam rolling around clutching his knee. Coach Wise stared at me with a combination of naked horror and wonderment.
Steve pulled Nathan off the ground. Nathan limped a little, shooting looks of pure hatred at me. Then he and Steve helped Adam off the field and onto the bench.
Coach Wise stormed over to me and grabbed my jersey. He pulled me in for a close-up of his crooked yellow teeth and rotten tobacco breath. Turned his head to the side and spat a dark glob on the ground before glaring at me again. "You ever played football, son?"
"No."
Coach Burgundy was speaking with Nathan and Steve. They looked at me. Burgundy grinned and nodded.
Oh, crap.
They lined me up as a running back next. I wasn't sure if I was the halfback, the three-quarters back, or the fullback, but I knew I was going to get the ball. I was supposed to run straight through a hole made by the big guy playing center and the guy to his left. I couldn't remember the position names, but I guessed it didn't really matter. Nathan lined up where the hole would form. Steve crouched right behind him. Adam, sitting on the sideline, had ice on his knee, so at least I didn't have him to worry about.
"You're gonna feel pain, Case," Nathan said. "You're gonna feel like a train just ran your tiny ass over."
The quarterback barked the signs. I saw him turn with the ball. I ran forward and felt the ball thump into my belly. It was a good thing the real running back had told me how to receive the ball or I probably would have just knocked it on the ground.
Again, my senses kicked into hyper-drive. The hole in the line opened, except it wasn't a hole for me to get out so much as it was a hole for Nathan and Steve to come in and pound me to hamburger. I ran straight at them. This time I put a little arm action into the mix and shoved Nathan away. Steve glanced off my other shoulder, but his hands gripped my jersey. I ran, dragging him behind me for ten yards until another player dove at my legs and knocked them out from underneath me.
Nathan was howling in pain, holding his arm. I'd knocked him back a few feet. Steve pushed himself up slowly. He looked dazed. Coach Wise walked over and grabbed me by the facemask. He dragged me over to Coach Burgundy.
"Wise tells me you ain't never played football," Burgundy said. "That true?"
I nodded.
"You juicing, boy?"
I knew this time they weren't asking about orange juice. "You mean steroids? No."
"You gotta pass a drug screening anyway. Go give the nurse some piss and blood."
"Why do I need to pass a drug screening?"
He chuckled. "You want to be a part of the team, don't ya boy?"
"You want me to play?" I asked in horror. That meant I'd have to see Nathan and his goons every day, not to mention practice football.
"I think if you want to stay in the good graces of the principal, you'll do what I tell you, boy."
Coach Wise spit a glob of brown between my shoes. "Now git outta here and give the nurse what he told you to, Case. And have your butt out here for practice tomorrow."
"But—but—" I said, sputtering and unable to offer up a defense. I face-palmed and turned for the locker room. About halfway there I heard footsteps running behind me. I spun, preparing to defend myself, then noticed it was Ash and Nyte.
"That was freaking epic!" Nyte said, clapping me on the shoulder pad.
Ash shook my hand. "Simply amazing, Justin. I didn't think you had it in you."
"And it's all on video," Nyte said. "Epic!"
"Yay," I said glumly, pumping my fist. "I should've just let them beat the crap out of me."
"Why?" Ash said.
"Because now they want me to take a drug screening so I can play on the team."
"What?" they both asked in unison.
"And if I don't, then they threatened to make things harder on me."
"Oh, man," Ash said, his nerdy accent sounding a little more Asian than usual. "I wasn't aware they could add you to the team this far into the season."
Nyte snorted. "Dude, this is the South. Football coaches are gods down here."
I went into the locker room and changed clothes. I wasn't about to take a shower in the place. From there, I found the nurse's office. She was still there, puttering around and mumbling to herself. She took my blood and then I peed in a cup with a screw-on cap. I worried she might want to hold my privates and make me cough. The last thing I wanted was a little old lady violating me. Thankfully, she did not.
I was famished by the time I got out of there, and it wasn't just food I was hungry for. If the nurse had touched me in my no-no place, I might have lost control and the results would have destroyed my sex drive forever. I shuddered.
Darkness descended as I drove home. The hunger grew, clawing at my stomach and demanding I feed.
"No!" I said, slamming the steering wheel. A wave of dizziness overcame me. The road blurred. Snapped back into focus. Tail lights flashed feet away. I slammed on the brakes and avoided rear-ending a pickup truck by inches.
I cursed and pulled into the next parking lot I came to. A Chinese buffet beckoned me and my stomach to come hither. But I was hungry for more than food and it was driving me out of my mind. This was torture.
My stomach whined again, growling its displeasure with me. "Just normal food," I told it. "No molesting girls."
I wasn't sure it was my stomach that needed talking to.
I ran into the restaurant and piled a plate high with beef, broccoli, and mushrooms from the buffet table. It smelled divine. My stomach did the happy dance but another part of me snarled at the insult. It didn't like being ignored. The waitress who filled my water was old, fat, and had hair growing from a wart on her chin. That could be really, really good or really, really bad depending upon just how desperate my soul-sucking tummy wanted energy.
I dug into the food, inhaling it. Eating that much food should have stuffed me. Instead, I felt hollow and ravenous as ever. The craving felt no different than typical hunger pains, but strange visions appeared before my eyes. Most people, even guys, now had steamy halos of energy floating around their heads or a glowing nimbus drifting like fog around their bodies. The creature within me stirred. I drooled. I wiped my mouth with a napkin and squeezed my eyes shut. I had to get out of there before I did something terrible. Especially if it involved getting it on with another dude or my waitress.
"More water?"
I looked up and stared into the dark liquid eyes of a gorgeous Asian girl. "I—uh…" Pulsating white tendrils streamed from me and latched onto the girl's halo. I knocked my glass off the table as I reached useless hands toward the ghostly tentacles to stop them. It was way too late.
Her eyes grew heavy-lidded. Her pupils dilated, eclipsing brown irises. She dropped the pitcher of water onto the floor where it clattered against the tiles and splashed on her shoes. A brief moment of silence ensued. The restaurant grew still and silent around us. Then she launched herself at me. My self-control shattered. Her soft lips met mine, pressing hard and filled with the desire to consume me. She nipped my lower lip. Giggled. She jumped on me, locking her legs around my waist and peppering me with kisses. Then she got personal. She pulled my T-shirt over my head and kissed my neck. Bit it. Ran her tongue along my earlobe and whispered exactly what she wanted to do to me in my ear.
I swept dishes and Chinese condiments off the table and sat her on top of it while the din of breaking glass and clattering silverware filled the restaurant.
What are you doing? A horrified but tiny voice screamed from somewhere within my head. I pulled back from the girl for a moment. Threads of energy swirled like tiny vortexes from her halo and into me. Her essence glowed bright and welcoming and lustful.
My body strained to resume what it had been doing a moment before, but the sane part of me wondered if I was killing the girl.
Who cares? A gruff, malevolent part of me felt just fine with it. In fact, it wanted me to do it. I care! I didn't want to be a creature of the night. And even if I were a monster, it didn't mean I had to be a complete jackass about it.
Why do I still care? Elyssa hates me. And the power I have—I should use it! Why shouldn't I experience love and happiness?
But this wasn't happiness and it sure as hell wasn't love. It was pure simple lust and nothing more. Besides, I might be killing her.
Cold water splashed against the side of my face. Another pitcher full of ice water dashed against the cute waitress. I sputtered. She shrieked. My connection to the girl evaporated. My former waitress, the one with a pre-pubescent goatee was shouting something in what I thought might be Chinese. The girl gave a horrified look at the mess she and I had created and yelled back at the other waitress while she jabbed her finger at me.
I dropped some money on the table and fled the scene. Hopped in my car and screeched out of the parking lot.
"I can have any woman," I told myself as I pulled onto the highway, "But all I want is Elyssa."
I took a deep breath before I suffocated from the oppressive maudlin atmosphere. The powers I had were wrecking my life. So far I'd done nothing resulting in a positive outcome. Every time I'd tried to overpower my oppressors, I only ended up further and further under their control. Using my abilities obviously drained my supernatural energy levels but I had to use them if I wanted to survive football. I couldn't quit football because the principal and his lackeys had me by the short hairs. That meant these cravings would continue.
If I didn't figure out a way to fix this, I'd eventually do something terrible and attract the wrong attention. Elyssa had warned me. Stacey had warned me. I was backing myself into a very dangerous corner.
My phone beeped with a text message. It was from Ash and it had a link to YouTube. I clicked the link and stared in horror.
Nyte had posted clips from football practice. I was there for the world to see, supernatural abilities and all.
