“Hey, Nick.” Catherine smiled as her friend opened the door to his home. She and Will had agreed to meet at Nick’s place and drive together to hang out with some of their former classmates at the mall. Catherine stepped inside, momentarily pausing as she suffered a light dizzy spell.

“Hi Catherine. You okay? You don’t look so good,” Nick said to his friend. Lately, it seemed like Catherine had been getting dizzy and sleepy lately. She constantly had bags under her eyes despite how much she had been sleeping lately. Her whole appearance made her seem older than she was, if only a bit.

“Oh, don’t worry about it. I’m sure I’m fine. It’ll pass soon. Will doesn’t think it’s anything to worry about, and you know how smart he is with these things.” Ever the optimist, Catherine put on a large grin. Nick was not entirely satisfied with her response, but let the issue drop.

“Hey, Catherine. Speaking of Will, hasn’t he seemed more distant lately? He’s bailed on me the last three times I’ve invited him over,” Nick said.

“Strange. Now that you mention it, I haven’t seen him as much since we got back from Florida. Is he busy with his summer job?”

“Will doesn’t have a job,” Nick deadpanned.

“Really? I was sure that he got one this time. Maybe it has something to do with what happened on the plane,” Catherine suggested.

“Could be. The FBI did question him about what happened. How can you explain magic? Maybe he’s pulling away because of that,” Nick spoke. ‘Come to think of it, Will said that he was learning magic from changelings. He said they eat love. Is that why Catherine isn’t feeling well, because she is his girlfriend?’ Nick pondered the thought for a moment. “Catherine, how do you feel around Will? Any strange feelings? Dizziness?”

“What do you mean? What does that have to do with anything?” Catherine asked.

“Well, I’m just thinking here – don’t hold me to this – but maybe magic is not the most healthy thing to be around. Why do you think humans can’t normally can’t do magic? I’m just wondering if maybe being around him is making you sick,” Nick voiced his concerns to his friend.

“Nick, do you really think that Will would do anything to hurt me? We love each other so much! Don’t worry, I’ll be fine.”

“I’m just saying…” Both teens’ moods dimmed as the seeds of doubt took root in their minds.

“Hey guys! How’s life?” I said as Nick opened the door for me. I saw Catherine sitting on the sofa. Surrounding them, I could see their clouds of emotions. There was Catherine’s love and Nicks happiness, but within both, I could see a dash of negative emotions. Catherine was worried about something, but was suppressing it. Nick was feeling strangely paranoid and hostile… towards me? That is strange.

“Something bothering you two? If you’re worried about the weather, the storm’s not supposed to hit for another few hours. We have time,” I said.

“Oh, yeah… the storm,” Catherine said. Her tone made it seem like I had not guessed right, but she was trying to pretend I had. “I wasn’t worried. Nope. Come on, let’s go.”

“Okay. I’ll drive,” I called out, teleporting the keys to Nick’s truck from his hands to mine in the process. Nick frowned, but did not say anything.

‘Seriously, what’s with them today? This mood is really starting to drag me down,’ I thought.

“Hey, I don’t remember seeing your car in my drive way. How did you get over to my place anyway?” Nick asked me. I set the display gizmo back on the store’s shelf.

‘I flew to his house, but he doesn’t know about that yet. I know…’ My finger lit up with a small amount of magic. I showed the glowing appendage to Nick.

“I got it.” For some reason, his mood darkened with that statement. It was not envy, but a dislike of me. I really don’t get it.

Catherine popped up from another department. She held a pair of handbags, one in each hand. “Which one do you like? I’m thinking this one, because it matches my hair. Or this one; it goes well with my shoes. Which do you think?” At this point, they were almost being shoved in my face.

“Hmmm… Go with that one,” I said, pointing to the one on the left. “I think it suits your pretty face,” I said with a genuine smile plastered on my face. I could not help but take a small taste of the joy that radiated from her. ‘I know I promised myself that I would not feed off of her. Dang it, she tastes too good.’ I thought to myself, and took another taste.

The wind howled outside the house. Catherine had left earlier, so she had made it home before the storm hit. I however, was stuck at Nick’s house. I don’t think that anyone will be driving in this weather, let alone flying.

“Dude, can I crash here for the night?”

“Ummm… sure. You can have the couch.” Nick thought for a moment, before speaking again, “Why can’t you just magic yourself home?”

“Too far. I overdid it on the way here. It took a couple of jumps to get here since my range is rather short. If I tried to go home, I’d have to deal with walking in this weather or getting magical exhaustion and landing in the hospital again.” I shrugged. “No big deal. You have a nice couch.”

“About that… Your magic. Can you look me in the eye and tell me that it’s safe to use? I don’t want you giving us radiation poisoning or something,” Nick said.

“Nick. My magic is as safe as electricity. Treat it with respect and use it properly, and I guarantee you that it is safe. I have textbooks in my room from whole universities that study magic and a teacher who’s an accomplished sorceress. I know what I’m doing, and I know the dangers of using it poorly. I learned my lesson from the hijacker incident,” I assured him. Though, judging from his mood, I don’t think it did much to put his mind at ease. Nick grunted in response.

The hours passed until we finally decided to call it a night. We shut off his game console. I stretched as I stood up. “Dude, mind if I take a shower? I kind of stink.”

“Yeah, you do. It’s upstairs, second door on the left.”

“Thanks, man.” I ran upstairs and into the bathroom. I shut the door and pulled of my clothes. I started the water. I changed back to my true form so that I could clean my wings and holes of the dirt that got trapped under my transformation. Unfortunately, I failed to notice that I had failed to notice that the door was not entirely shut. I also failed to notice that I had an observer.

“WHAT THE HELL!” Nick screamed. I whipped around to see him staring at me.

‘Stupid, stupid, stupid! Why the hell did I release my disguise? I’m an idiot!’ I scolded myself. My claw-like hands lit up with their green aura and dragged him into the bathroom. I pinned Nick against the wall, covered his mouth, and slammed the door shut. “You weren’t supposed to see this. Don’t scream.” I uncovered his mouth.

“YOU! You’re a changeling! What have you done with Will! Answer me!” Nick spat in my face.

I sighed. “I am William Ross.”

“Prove it. Tell me something that only Will would know.”

“Third grade, there was the noodle incident. Pasta went everywhere. We promised never to speak of it again. Seventh grade. You told me of your crush on Sally Richardson.”

“How did you... no, that does not prove anything! You have magic! You could have just stolen his memories! You just want to feed on us, don’t you!” He began to really struggle at this point. In response, I began to secrete the binding goo out of my hands to help restrain him. “That’s why Catherine’s been so tired lately! You’ve been draining her of love! And now you’re going to try to eat me! Big mistake, telling me what you are, because when I get free… ugh... I’m going to blow your cover and the government will... ugh hunt you down. Disgusting bug.”

I bound his mouth with magic. “There’s no convincing you, is there? For your information, no, I was not actively feeding on Catherine and I had no plans to feed on you.” ‘Let’s see, I don’t know any memory charms, so I can’t make him forget. There’s no way he’s going to keep this a secret on his own free will. I guess I just have to make him.’ “Now that my secret’s out, I have no choice.” I leaned in closer, my fanged mouth inches away from his eyes, and smiled.

Author's Notes:

*Ding* Have a chapter!

I managed to finally work this chapter out. It went through several versions in my head before I settled on this one.
Honestly, I don't like this section.

I have to get through it so that I can work on the cooler chapters later. *Shrugs*

Did I over do it with Nick's anti changeling hate?

Whatever... Hope you enjoy!

You know, sometimes when I publish new chapters, Fimfiction doesn't display the story in the latest updates section. It bums me out that you might miss an update because of that.

(edited 3/2/2014)