In Exchange for Magic

A clap of thunder burst out from the sky, causing me to jump the second his lips touched mine. He thought I'd jumped away from him, though, so he took my face in his hands and forced his lips harder on to mine.

I could sense this utterly guilty vibe radiating off of him. He was tense and shaky... He really didn't want to do this.

For lack of a better weapon, I raised my hand and slapped his face. He started and dropped his hands in surprise. I took the opportunity to brake away from him.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" I demanded.
"I'm making it so that you're not all human."

He kissed me on the mouth once again.

Disgusted, I shoved him backwards with all my strength.
"And you plan to achieve this by kissing me?"

He rolled his eyes. "You obviously know nothing! Why don't you trust me for once?"
"Uh, maybe because I've seen what happens to people you kiss... They have seizures, Ez! Seizures!"
"That only happens to Shades. And, besides, I saved your life, sweet. You shouldn't be complaining."
"I'm not particularly fond of having seizures!"

He took me by the shoulders and forced his lips upon mine, mashing them together like symbols.

I froze up. I was a block of ice. Squeezing my eyes shut, I clenched every muscle in my body and waited, prayed, begged for it to be over. I was doing as I was told... Trusting Ez. And I hated it.

He was trying to make me cooperate, moving his lips about and such. He wanted me to participate in this horrible lip lock? I don't think so!

He tried to part my lips with his own, but I stayed completely immobile.

Ez pulled back a little. He stayed close, so that, when he spoke, his mouth brushed against mine.

"God, you are so awkward," he complained. "Do something."
"Like what?" I scoffed.

Ez rolled his eyes and pushed me gently. I stumbled back a few steps, glad to get away from him. He reached into his handy-dandy-shiny-pointy-weapon belt.

"Never mind. I'm going to check if the damned kiss worked."

He quickly pricked my finger before I could protest. A single drop of pink-ish blood rolled out of the small slit.

He held it up to the sun... And it sparkled!

"Ez!" I squeaked. "What the hell did you just do to me?"
He gave me a long look. He apparently decided to ignore me, since he didn't answer my question and, instead, casually licked my blood off his finger.

"Ezekiel Sullivan!" I cried, slapping his hand away from his mouth. "One, I'd appreciate it if you didn't consume my blood. Two, what the hell did you do to me?"

After a long pause of thought, Ez managed to say,
"I... took away part of your human essence."
"You what?!"
"I made you part vampire."
"You what?!"
"Well, part elf, too."
"You what?!"
"Can't you say anything else?"
"No!"
"Okay, then. Let's go home."

-_-_-_-_-_-

"Ez," I said, quite seriously. "You need to explain. Now."

He rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly and leaned back against the trunk of a tree.

"Okay," he said, forcing the words out. "Okay... Okay... Okay..."
"Ez!"
"What?"
"Spit it out!"
"Okay!"
"And quit saying 'Okay!'"

"Alright," he said, just to tease me. "Well... When a magical and a non-magical creature share a... a... When they... When they share a..."
"A kiss?" I finished for him.
He flushed. "A kiss. When a magical and a non-magical creature share a kiss, they also share a bit of their... essence."

"Ew! I've got your essence in me?" I squealed. "Gross!"
He wrinkled his nose in disgust. "I'm the one who should be complaining, sweet. Now I'm part human!"

My eyes widened. "Can the Shades track you?"
"No!" he laughed. "Mine is the most confusing soul anyone's come in contact with for a while. The tiny drop I gave you is enough to mask all the weak human blood in your puny body."
"Hey!"

He chuckled slightly. Then, upon realizing that he was actually happy, he forced his face back into it's usual scowl.

"Really, this is a unique situation," Ez continued. "Under normal circumstances, I'd have to bite you in order to transfer my essence into you."
I wrinkled my nose in disgust.
"But the magic in my body is unnaturally strong. I don't have to bite you like a vampire, or mix our blood together like an elf. I just have to... Kiss you."

The alarm that was coming from the Shade's HQ suddenly went off. Surprised, we looked around. The siren was replaced with a new noise.

Buzzing.

Intense, loud, and ear-shattering... It was the sound of the Shade's beetle creatures. They rode the gigantic beasts, calling out to each other across the sky.

About thirty of them flew over our heads.

"They're going off to look for us," Ez told me. "They know I've hidden you, and they won't stop looking until they can present our heads to the King."
"But they can't sense me," I reminded him, proud.
"Yes," he agreed. "But that will only make them angry."

What I had thought was supposed to comfort me, protect me... Now, only made me scared. I looked at him... And I guess I must have had that slight indication of fear in my eyes, because he told me not to worry.

"You'll be fine. When my essence wears out of you, we'll just repeat the... erm... procedure."
"It wears out?" I groaned in agony. "When?"
"Well, we didn't really kiss for a very long time so..."
"When?"
"A couple days."

I hid my head in my hands. I was going to have to kiss him again?

Now, you may not think that it's that big of a deal to kiss a perfectly decent looking -- Okay, hot-- guy in order to survive... But I just don't wanna!

Imagine the biggest asshole in your school. He's probably one of the more popular guys. He's pretty good looking, isn't he? In fact, he might even be downright cute!

Just because he's cute doesn't mean he's not an ass.

This is the same situation with Ez.

"Are you kidding me?" I whined. "We're going to have to have a weekly make-out session?"

"Jeez, I didn't think I was that bad of a kisser," Ez said.
I looked up at him, astonished. He was wearing a smirk!

"Oh my God!" I cried. "Ez!"
"What?"
"I'm so proud of you!"
"For what?"
"You just made a joke!"

He tried to turn down the corners of his mouth to hide a smile. "I... I suppose I did, didn't I?"

"And it was funny!"
"You say it like you're surprised, Rose," he pouted.
"I am!"

He rolled his eyes, going back to regular old aloof Ez.

"Ready to go home?" he asked me, standing gingerly to his feet.
"Ready."

The first smattering of rain started right then. The drops were large, and the sky spat on us with no mercy. It was a matter of seconds before the ground was a light soup-y mixture of mud and leaves.

I stood on Ez's feet and wrapped my arms around his neck. Taking a deep, forced breath, he began concentrating.

I knew something was wrong even before we got in the air. Ez was shaking like a leaf in a tropical storm, and every muscle in his body was tensed to the breaking point. This was causing him too much pain... For some reason, he'd grown weaker.

Was the kiss responsible for this?

"Ez!" I shouted above the rain, which was pouring down now. "It's okay! You're too weak to fly, but you can try again later!"
"No!" he shouted back, and ignored me.

He continued to rise in the air, until we were about ten or fifteen feet above the wet forest floor. The rain had plastered his bangs to his face, and his heavy shirt was molded to his arms. Beads of water obscured his vision, but he determinedly blinked them away.

His face looked strained and his mouth was set into a hard line. He was determined to fly... Even if it meant killing himself!

"Ez! Put me down now!" I ordered.
He ignored me and continued to rise.

Tucking my fear of heights and falling into the back of my mind, I did the only thing I could do.

I complemented him.

"Ez... You smell good!" I shouted, trying to make myself heard above the pouring rain.
He ignored me, staring straight ahead, his face filled to the brim with concentration.
"You're cute!"
He uttered a small laugh, but didn't waver.

I was getting worried. Ez wasn't supposed to be flying right now. He was weak and trembling. But, for some reason, he thought he had to prove me wrong.

Obviously, the complements hadn't taken him by surprise. So, for lack of a better plan, I slapped him smartly across the face.

He blinked in surprise.
"Rose, stop! You're going to make me fall!"
"That's the point!" I roared, tugging hard on his ear.
He wobbled slightly, but regained his balance of the large pocket of air he was standing on.

"You're too weak!" I cried, digging my fingernails into his shoulders.
"I am not!" he replied defiantly.
"Ez... You're going to hurt yourself!"
"No, you're going to hurt me!"

I sighed in frustration. "Put me down!"

A giant wave of rolling thunder drowned out what he said in response. Lightning crackled a bit too close for comfort.

"Ez, please!"
His body shook with the effort he was putting forth to continue rising. He ignored me.
"I'm afraid!" I yelled at him.
"I don't care!"

We were now about thirty feet above the forest floor. Ez was flying much slower than usual because normally, even with all of the distractions I'd been dishing out, we'd be sailing over the tops of the trees by now.

My hopes of making Ez crash land safely were now dashed. But... I could still make him crash land, and pray that neither of us would be hurt. I had to make him fall. He'd never be able to fly us the entire way home.

I decided that it was better to fall thirty feet onto a squishy, muddy ground, than a hundred feet, onto the branches of prickly, unforgiving trees.

"Ez... Please don't make me do this!"
Silence. Thirty-five feet.
"Ez!"
Forty.

I gritted my teeth, took a deep breath, and kissed Ez Sullivan.