I sat at the lunch table with my friends, squirming uncomfortably in my seat but trying not to let any of them see this. Unfortunately, my period had started again this morning and I was feeling just a little bitchy because of it. It took a force of effort to control this and not go snapping at my friends. Instead, I just kept looking forward to tonight when I could turn into my succubus form and get some relief.

It had been two days since I returned to the Academy and it amazed me that after everything I went through, everything was still the same here. I’d told my friends all about the kidnapping and escape, though I had left out a few important details, such as Amylia’s role in our bloodline and her hybrid status. Amylia might have shared that with Monica and everyone who’d been captured, but I didn’t think I had the right to spread it any further without her permission.

As I sat there, I couldn’t help but wondering what my friends here would have said if they’d been able to meet my new mythic friends. I had a feeling that Eve and Traci would have gotten along pretty well and absently considered introducing them to each other sometime. And of course, I wondered what Todd would say when he found out that I’d had sex with Traci in her satyr form. I still hadn’t been able to bring myself to tell him or any of the others.

“A vampire,” Kimberly abruptly announced. “I’m going as a vampire for the costume party.”

We had spent the last ten minutes talking about the costume party that was going to be held in the dorms next week. It wasn’t Halloween and there was no particular reason for the party, only that everyone thought it would be fun. The teachers all thought it would be good for morale so were actually encouraging it.

“I hope to God you’re not going to use sparkles,” Eve told her.

Kimberly gave her a blank look. “Of course I’m going to use sparkles. How could I be a vampire without sparkles?” Todd, Eve, and I all groaned simultaneously at that while Sylvie just snickered.

“I’m thinking of going as Kim Possible from the old cartoon,” Sylvie said. “I’ve got a spell that can change my hair color so I won’t even need to dye it or anything.” Then she grinned at Todd and said, “You can be my sidekick Ron.”

“I don’t think so,” Todd responded with a roll of his eyes.

“What about you?” Eve asked me. “What are you going as?”

“I don’t know yet,” I admitted with a shrug. “I haven’t really thought about it much. Maybe a steampunk princess Leia or Aeryn Sun from Farscape.”

“Why not slave girl Leia?” Todd suggested with a look that made me blush, especially since I was currently in my plain form at the moment. It was nice to be appreciated even when I was like this.

Eve gave me a speculative look before musing, “You know, the party is going to be after it gets dark. Why don’t you go as a succubus?”

“That would be awesome,” Todd agreed with a broad grin.

“Maybe,” I responded thoughtfully, finding the idea rather appealing.

“And besides,” Sylvie pointed out with a smirk. “Then you can use your talent on us so we can really show off…” She cupped her hands in front of her chest to show what she meant. The other girls both giggled at that while Todd just grinned.

Suddenly, Eve exclaimed, “Bitch alert.”

I looked over and saw Teressa, Kaellie, and Monica sitting at another table with Teressa and Kaellie glaring at us. Monica was making an effort not to look in our direction at all. Though Teressa and Kaellie seemed to have been happy about having Monica back, neither of them seemed willing to let go of their grudge. Of course, I still had that duel with Kaellie after school today so that undoubtedly contributed to the glare.

Strangely enough, after Monica had returned to the Academy, there had been no mention of Amylia being a hybrid, of my being her descendant, or even of my former status as a guy. Any of those should have resulted in taunting from Teressa, or at the very least, some heavy rumors. But I hadn’t heard a whisper about any of it, which convinced me that Monica was keeping all of that to herself.

Monica was hanging out with her old friends again but she hadn’t rejoined them in making fun of me. Instead, I’ve actually seen her turn and walk away when they start. I wasn’t quite sure what to make of Monica’s new attitude or whether or not I could consider her as a possible friend.

When lunch was ending, everyone began to leave. I grabbed Sylvie and nervously asked, “Can I talk to you?”

She gave me a look of surprise. “Of course.”

I hesitated a moment, making sure everyone else was out of hearing range before telling her, “Something happened when I was away…” Then I paused and added, “Well, a lot of things happened but what I wanted to talk about was that I kind of…”

“Kind of what?” Sylvie asked, giving me a curious look.

“I kind of lost my virginity,” I admitted with a bright blush.

“What?” Sylvie asked in surprise. Then she gave me a suspicious look and said, “But I thought you and Todd…”

“I couldn’t help it,” I blurted out. “I was in my succubus form and she was…”

“She?” Sylvie asked, staring at me with a confused look. “I thought you were only into guys now?”

I let out an exasperated sigh and then continued, “I mean, she’s a Were satyr… Our instincts took over and we both completely lost control. It was like pon farr or something.”

“Pon farr?” Sylvie asked with a blank look, apparently not catching the Star Trek reference. “Nevermind… You mean that you really couldn’t control yourself?” At my nod, she muttered, “Shit. I guess it’s a Were thing…” I nodded again. Then she hesitantly asked, “So…for how long?”

“All night,” I admitted with a bright blush, though I couldn’t resist smiling at the memory. “Literally.” Then I held my hands a foot apart and quietly added with a faint smirk, “And this big.”

Sylvie’s eyes went wide in shock. “How the fuck could you fit something that big inside of you?”

“Succubus,” I reminded her with a smirk. “Apparently, I can handle just about any size.”

After staring at me with a look of stunned disbelief, Sylvie shook her head. “Okay. I think you really need to talk with Todd about this. I mean, at least if you want to be serious with him.” At my skeptical look, she reminded me, “We’re Touched. We’re used to weird shit. I mean, he was fine with you being a guy before…and with you being a soul sucking succubus.” Then she paused to grin and added, “But he might count this as giving him a free pass.”

I chuckled weakly at that and told her, “Okay. Thanks. I’ll talk to him…”

I excused myself from Sylvie and then went to find Amylia. I found her in her office, looking over spell diagrams that were scattered over her desk and even spread out on the floor. There were several books on her desk as well with the titles being written in the old language. The only one with a title in English was an old looking book called ‘Theories of Blood Resonance’.

“What’s this?” I asked Amylia, looking at some of the diagrams that were hand drawn and looked to be new. They looked complicated, far more complicated than anything I’d ever seen.

“A new spell I’m designing,” Amylia answered, looking up from where she was in the middle of drawing a spell diagram.

For a moment, I just stood there, looking over the clutter of her work space before asking, “What’s it going to do?”

Amylia paused from her work and let out a sigh. “You know that Gregor isn’t going to just give up. He might very well try something like that again.”

I nodded faintly at that. I’d actually been worried about that very thing, wondering if he would start tracking us mythics down one at a time. Our escape had only happened because they’d underestimated us and I knew that wouldn’t happen again.

“This is a failsafe in case he does attempt it,” Amylia stated, gesturing to the pile of papers. There was a look of fierce determination on her face. “I intend this as a way to rescue any mythics in my bloodline should he take them again.”

I gasped at that and looked over the papers again, saying, “It looks so complicated… This has got to be a class ten spell.”

“Ten plus,” Amylia responded with a faint smile. “This spell’s power requirements would be too much for even the most powerful sorcerer to cast directly. It will require a very long and exhausting ritual and some of the chain spell techniques that Gregor is so fond of.”

“Chain spell?” I asked blankly. I think that I’d heard the term before but I had no idea what it meant.

“It’s an advanced technique that we usually teach our senior students,” Amylia explained. “It’s a way of creating a series of spells and then chaining them together so that you only have to invoke one and it begins setting each of them off in turn…like pushing the first domino of a series. This is a way to create large and complicated effects, or simply to keep reinforcing the same spell to make it much more powerful. Chain spells are one of Gregor’s favorite tactics.”

“Wow,” I said, feeling impressed. “Those sound pretty nasty.”

“They certainly can be,” Amylia agreed. “However, they are extremely time consuming to cast, require enormous amounts of power, and much can go wrong. It can take up to a month to cast all the component spells and weave them together correctly. If you make a mistake in any part of this, it may cause the component spells to activate in the wrong order, fail to activate entirely, or backfire in horrific ways. And of course, as with any chain, all an opponent has to do is remove a single link to render much of it useless.”

“If they have that many problems, then why are you using one?” I asked.

“Because they can be very powerful and useful if done correctly,” Amylia responded. “I am not creating a true chain spell, just using many of the techniques to bind the component spells.” Then she paused to look at me with a thoughtful expression. “I will need assistance for this spell once I’m ready. And I need someone I trust.” She looked me straight in the eyes and asked, “Will you help me?”

“Of course,” I answered without hesitation, feeling honored that she’d trust me with something like this.

Amylia smiled at that and then handed me one of the books from her desk. It was written in the old language and I was able to make out the title enough to see that it said ‘Performing Rituals’. “Then you will need to read and study this,” Amylia told me. “Especially chapters seven and eight.”

A minute later, I walked out of Amylia’s office with a book in hand, a book that I could barely read. I knew enough old language to make it out, but it wasn’t fluent so would take a bit of time and effort on my part. It struck me almost as funny that I’d just volunteered for a lot of extra homework and I was actually looking forward to doing it.