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She smiled warmly, flashing perfect teeth. “Good. Now that we’re friends, Dom, can I ask a favor of you?”

I nodded. “Anything,” slipped out, and I cringed at how desperate I sounded.

She bit her bottom lip, a nervous habit maybe, and my eyes were glued.

I felt bereft as she finally took her hand away.

“Can you keep this place a secret from your classmates? I’ve noticed that the kids from that school are a lot…rowdier than the other kids that hang out here. I wouldn’t want any fights to break out. Not to say that you’re rowdy, of course. From what I’ve observed, you seem to be on the best of behavior, but I’ve seen too many of the kids at that school fighting. It’s strange, they all seem to look up to you, but they don’t follow your example of stoicism. They’re a bit too wild, as I’m sure you know.”

I started blushing again. The youths of my kind had a hard time learning control. The more powerful ones learned it early, like I had. But for the first time I felt shame at how the other ones must appear to the outside world. “I won’t tell a soul,” I promised her.

She rewarded me with a warm smile.

She pointed to my plate. “If you don’t eat that, you’ll hurt my feelings. I don’t cook for just anyone.”

I ate my burger so fast she started laughing. “What a darling boy you are,” she said as she stood.

I wanted to erase the boy part from her sentence, but was happy nonetheless to get a compliment from her.

I lingered for as long as I could without embarrassing myself. She wouldn’t let me pay as I prepared to leave. She walked me out, touching my elbow lightly. “This time is my treat. It was a pleasure to meet you, Dom. Don’t be a stranger.”

I turned back and thanked her.

She eyed me up. “My god, you’re a tall one,” she suddenly noted.

I was already over six feet tall, above eye level with her. I hadn’t realized until that moment how unusually tall she was for a woman, taller than most men. “How old are you?”

“Seventeen. Almost eighteen,” I tried the lie out on her.

She gave me a dubious look. “You are not. How old are you really?”

“Almost fifteen,” I told her the truth hesitantly, disappointed that she hadn’t bought the lie.

Her eyes widened. “My god, you’re going to grow into a brute.”

I must have looked as crushed as I felt at her comment, because she patted my shoulder comfortingly. “It was a compliment. There’s nothing more attractive to women than a physically imposing man who knows what to do with himself. I bet the girls at your school go crazy for you. That redhead already looks more than half in love with you.”

I shrugged, looking down at my shoes.

She touched my cheek softly, and I looked back up.

“It really was a compliment. Believe me, that height and those shoulders are going to get you more female attention than you’ll even want.” I knew that she was speaking abstractly, not putting herself in the category of interested females, and again I felt crushed.

I left on leaden feet after that, looking back at the café every few feet, but Jillian had walked inside and never looked back.

I came back into my own body swinging. I knew whose memories I’d been privy to. I had known it right away. I had my own memories of that first fateful meeting.

The thing dodged me easily, not even needing to step away to avoid my swing.

“There’s more. There’s so much more. You may walk away now, but if you want more of his memories, you’ll offer me blood. Just a bit. You won’t even miss it.”

“You bastard,” I said, feeling ripped open. The thing didn’t have an ounce of humanity inside of it as far as I could tell, and yet it could read needs inside of me that I hadn’t even known I possessed.

More than his memories, I’d felt what he felt, and it was addictive at first taste.

I knew it was wrong. It was dangerous, and masochistic, and out-and-out crazy, but I held out my arm for it to feed.

“This must be our secret,” it hissed, its monstrous mouth giving some semblance of a smile. “You must tell no one. That is our deal.”