I was standing in the dueling circle with Kaellie, who currently had a smug look on her face. Master Tonkas was acting as the referee for our duel while our friends stood nearby to watch us. There weren’t quite as many other people here to watch as there had been when I’d dueled Teressa, but we definitely had a bit of an audience.

“Begin,” Master Tonkas announced.

Master Tonkas had barely uttered that word when Kaellie cried out, “Activate.”

Suddenly, the token I’d just grabbed cracked and crumbled in my hand. I gasped and reached into my pouch for another, but all I found was crushed rocks and sand. Kaellie’s opening move had been to use the same rock cracking spell that I’d used to escape the ward circle. I quickly glanced to the ground, seeing that the dueling circle was perfectly intact. Of course, it would have been designed with protections from that kind of thing since duels were held in here all the time.

“Frak,” I spat out in annoyance. I’d spent a lot of time and effort making those tokens and Kaellie had destroyed them all in one move. Of course, that was what she’d intended. Destroy my tokens and I wouldn’t be able to do anything else and she’d win the duel.

Unfortunately, the spell I had loaded into Vera right not wouldn’t do me any good. I’d gotten so tired of being forced to run around naked that I’d gotten the spell to conjure clothes from Amylia and had that ready instead. That would be useful if Monica came at me with her talent, but not for taking down Kaellie.

If Kaellie had tried this just a couple days ago, she would have had me dead to rights. However, I’d learned my lesson about going anywhere without tokens. I had another bracelet around my wrist right next to Vera, a bracelet made of plastic beads that were each about the size of marbles. I’d bought this while on the run with Amylia and Monica. It might be ugly, but each of these beads was a token that contained an emergency spell.

I reached for the bead I wanted and stated, “Engage.” The plastic bead crumbled away and a large blast of wind was unleashed, hitting a surprised Kaellie and throwing her back…and right out of the spell circle.

“Duel over,” Master Tonkas called out. “Erin wins.”

“What?” one of the boys in the audience cried out. “But they only used one spell apiece… That duel sucked…”

“Wait,” another girl yelled out in surprise. “That’s it?”

“That was among the shortest duels I’ve witnessed,” Master Tonkas agreed pleasantly. “Both spells were well chosen for maximum effect.”

“That’s not fair,” Kaellie exclaimed while Teressa nodded agreement and Monica just stood back shaking her head and looking embarrassed.

Sylvia nearly jumped in Kaellie’s face, snapping, “Oh, so it’s fair to destroy someone else’s tokens but it’s not fair to have more?”

“Congratulations,” Todd said, coming up and giving me a kiss.

When we pulled apart, I just grinned, feeling very happy at the moment. I’d beaten Kaellie and I had a totally cute boyfriend. “You know,” I teased Todd, “I’m starting to get the feeling that you like me.”

“I can’t resist you,” Todd told me.

I just grinned at that and responded, “Resistance is futile.”

“Hey, get a room,” Sylvie told us with a broad grin. “Oh, in case you missed it… I just challenged Kaellie to a duel.”

“That should be fun,” I commented. “Just watch out for her trying to sabotage your tokens.”

Sylvie snorted at that. “Yeah, I kind of caught that.” Then she gave an almost evil grin and added, “I do have this nice little curse that will make her smell like a skunk. I’m thinking of trying that one out on her…”

We all laughed at that, then I looked to Todd and sighed. I still had to talk to him about what had happened with Traci. But before I could say anything, he exclaimed, “Oh yeah, I believe that I promised you a good dinner…” He grinned at that and gave me a wink. “I’m not as good a cook as you, but I can order a mean pizza…”

“And they deliver all the way out here?” I asked with a wry smile.

“Of course not,” Todd responded. “But they will deliver to the house one of the gates goes to so I can pick it up from there.”

“That sounds great,” I told him. “But I won’t be able to stay too late. My aunt is coming tonight to go over a few things with me.” Then I hesitated before adding, “But there is something I want to talk to you about.”

A short time later, Todd and I were in his room, watching the latest sci-fi blockbuster that had just come out on blueray. The pizza was decent, though I couldn’t help but thinking that the pizza my mom liked to make was even better. Of course, her pizza had truffle oil and some other high end ingredients that a chain pizza place didn’t.

“Next time, I’m cooking again,” I told Todd when we were halfway through eating.

“But this is a great dinner,” Todd protested.

I rolled my eyes and muttered, “Boys,” under my breath. Then I looked to Todd and we both began laughing at that.

“It’s kind of cool having a girlfriend who really understands guys,” Todd told me with a broad grin. Then he admitted, “Of course, there could be a few problems with that too… I mean, how am I going to get away with anything when you know how I think?”

“Then you’ll just have to make sure you don’t try anything,” I pointed out smugly.

When we were nearly finished, I decided that it was finally time. I knew that I didn’t have to tell Todd about Traci, that I could have kept it completely to myself. However, I’d made a point of trying to be honest with my friends, and if I wanted this thing with Todd to continue, I had to trust him.

“You know that I’m a Were succubus,” I told Todd carefully. At his curious nod, I continued. “Well, as a succubus I have certain instincts and feelings that are a bit stronger than when I’m human.”

“You’ve mentioned that before,” Todd said.

“Well, when I was at the party, there was a girl there,” I explained. “A Were Satyr…”

Once I was finished, Todd stared at me with a look of surprise. “Damn,” he exclaimed. “That sounds like you were going through pon farr.” I giggled as he made the same Star Trek reference that I did, referring to when a Vulcan went into heat every seven years.

“Pretty much,” I admitted with a bright blush. “I couldn’t help myself at all.”

“Was this Traci girl cute?” Todd asked, seeming more curious than shocked.

“A bit,” I admitted. “I probably would have been into her before I changed, but now…” I shrugged at that. “I just think of her as a good friend…”

“With benefits at night,” Todd teased me. Then he abruptly asked, “So, which is better…?”

“What?” I asked him blankly.

Todd just grinned. “Come on… You’re probably one of the only people who can tell me if sex is better as a guy or a girl…”

“Um…,” I gulped, feeling extremely self-conscious. Then I admitted, “I never did it as a guy.”

“Oh,” Todd responded, looking a little embarrassed.

I gave him a weak smile and added, “And the only time I’ve done it as a girl was as a succubus… I don’t know what it’s like for normal girls.”

Then I stared at Todd, suddenly even more aware of the fact that I was currently having my period. I blushed even more deeply as I realized that if it hadn’t been for that, I might have asked Todd to help me experience sex as a normal girl.

“I…I really should get going,” I told Todd awkwardly. “I’ve got to meet my aunt for some lessons.”

“Then I’ll see you later,” Todd said, looking vaguely disappointed.

I suddenly realized that if I didn’t have to leave, he might very well put the moves on me and try getting into my pants. I actually felt excited about that and disappointed as well. If only I didn’t have to go. And if only I didn’t have this horrible period.

After giving Todd a long kiss, I went to go meet aunt June at the hall of doors. When she arrived a few minutes later, she looked me over with a look of amusement.

“Your lipstick is smeared,” aunt June pointed out.

I blushed and reached for my mouth, feeling more than a little embarrassed. I’d tried looking nice for Todd on our little date and now wondered if I’d made a mistake.

Aunt June reached into her purse and pulled out a wet nap and began wiping at my lipstick. “If you’re going to wear makeup,” she told me gently, “you’ll need to keep checking it to make sure it doesn’t smear.”

I nodded at that, feeling a bit embarrassed. “Um, I was wondering,” I asked hesitantly, looking to one of the bracelets around aunt June’s wrist. “Can you teach me how to make jewelry into reusable tokens?”

Aunt June gave me a thoughtful look for a moment but didn’t tease me as I half expected. Instead, she nodded and said, “Of course. And after your ordeal, I think we need to work on some more self-defense spells. My strength is in flashy magics I can use on stage in front of normal, but I do have a few spells that will be great for distractions and misdirections…”

With that, aunt June and I started for the hall of sorcerers and the study where we would be working. I knew that between this, the homework she was bound to give me, and the homework Amylia already had, I would have to stay up the entire night working. Of course, it certainly wouldn’t be the first all-nighter that I did in succubus form and it wouldn’t be the last.