The Black Flame Ch. 01

I wrote a gift story for Arania (http://arania.kamiki.net/).  There's four parts that I will post during the month and I really hope y'all enjoy it!

June rubbed her eyes while leaning back in her chair until it creaked ominously.

Everything is so damn ancient here, she thought to herself, almost saying it out loud until she felt the weight of the oppressive silence bearing down upon her.

The Carpenter Library was the oldest building on campus and it showed in the state of the original furniture strewn about the enormous structure.  Historical documents listed it as the only original building left from the founding of Innsmouth, having survived a great fire that razed the rest of the village to the ground.  The owner's name was lost to history, but his immense wealth - donated to the city with no descendents on record - was used to rebuild everything and his personal library was the cornerstone of the first university built in the country, decades before Harvard.

It was renamed years ago when a wealthy alumni attempted to assuage his guilt by throwing money at the school to pay for repairs and upkeep.  It didn't appear to work as the man took his own life a few months later in a grisly incident that left some whispering that it wasn't a suicide like the police firmly stated.

Tia sat to June's right, bent over her textbook with her fingers through her curly black hair.  She tapped a pencil against her lips before bringing it down to write a few notes.

To June's left was Nicole, also studying, but her phone was out and she nervously checked for notifications every few minutes before sighing and returning to her open books.

They all floundered in the absence of Emily - their resident genius who rarely had to study anything all yet still found herself squirreled away in her rented house studying whatever new thing had her attention at the time.

Machine Learning, June remembered suddenly while lowering her chair carefully down to the carpeted floor.  Something to do with artificial intelligence.  Whatever it is, she's ignoring her damn phone.

They'd all messaged her separately, reminding her they'd promised to meet and study together in the library.

"I need to walk a bit," June whispered to the group.  Nicole sheepishly jerked her hand away from her phone, but June caught a glimpse of a dating app on the screen.  Tia stretched and nodded quietly.

"We'll be here," Nicole whispered back.  "Wait, you're not leaving us for the party, right?"

Her boyfriend - June caught herself and restarted her thought process.  Mike wasn't her boyfriend since they'd just started seeing each other and neither of them had specifically asked for exclusivity even though to her, she thought that should be implied despite-

"Ugh, no, and that's tomorrow night anyway," June said.  She punched Nicole's shoulder before taking the girl's phone, turning it upside down and moving it further away from her. "Don't be so desperate, Nicki.  And study your stuff or you'll fail and we'll leave you behind."

"Way behind," Tia said quietly while pushing her glasses up to massage the bridge of her nose. June touched the girl's shoulder and Tia nodded her acknowledgement before returning to her studies.

"Oooookaaay," Nicole sighed quietly while stretching her arms out on the table before her and lying her head down on her book.

June went up to her tiptoes to stretch.  After a quiet, satisfied sigh, she walked away from the table.  Her black tights soaked up the dim light far overhead.  She thrust her hands into her pink sweater, emblazoned with the university's name and a black flame they used in their designs.

She took the opportunity to go up the spiraling steps to the second floor for the first time.  A senior glanced at her where he sat in a leather chair, pouring over an enormous book with gaunt, tired eyes.  She frowned at him and took two steps to the side before choosing a different path.  Away from him.

A sense of claustrophobia seized her when she stepped into one of the aisles. There was a musty, faintly rotten smell permeating the floor that deepened when she walked between the books and the light seemed to fade even further, leaving her with a sense of foreboding that made her back itch.

English slowly vanished from the spines of the books, replaced with Latin and other languages.  They were ragged things, worn down by centuries even though students rarely visited the mostly abandoned section.  She raised her left hand to the books as she wandered with her eyes unfocused into the distance.

The other girls looked to her as their leader.  She was the extroverted outspoken one, stolen away from the popular crowd when they tried to bully Emily back in high school.  She'd stood up for the geeky girl their freshman year and was ostracized for it, which went poorly for that little group when her own popularity didn't waver.  Afterwards, she'd gravitated towards Emily, eventually befriending her while gathering Tia and Nicole to create their own motley crew.

"And then you went off to your nerd school," June whispered.  There was nobody around her - nobody to hear her speak in her normal voice and yet she found she couldn't summon the strength for it.

Emily had spent her junior and senior high school years at a gifted school, only returning briefly over summer before vanishing again.

June had suffered through a few thoughtless comments asking why she hadn't gone to the same gifted school.  Because, after all, she was Asian and all Asians were smart.

June Hosaka sighed.  Her parents immigrated before she was born.  Both were loving parents that wanted nothing more than her happiness, stereotypes be damned.  And she hated the few kids that teased her about becoming a doctor since that was actually something she was considering.  Helping others.  Healing them and seeing them recover, knowing she did her part to save someone's life - all of it guided her.

And now they were in college.  Now, they were together once more.

Hopefully for a long time, she thought to herself.  A gloom settled within the aisle, too slow for her to notice until she was surrounded by it.  The pressure increased as the shelves bowed inward around her.

June gasped and jerked her hand away from the book she'd just touched.  She turned while massaging her finger to stare at what she'd just felt - warmth.

In the sea of black tomes, embossed with gold, rested an unmarked book the color of bloodless human skin.

She approached it carefully with her breath held, cocking her head slightly to the left and then the right before going to her tiptoes to see past the covers to the pages within.  Her hesitant, slightly trembling hand reached out.  With her index finger barely an inch away from the spine, she paused.  Finally, she frowned, firmed her lips and felt the cover once more.

The girl exhaled a breath she hadn't realized she was holding when she felt nothing but the cool touch of old leather.  She pulled it away from the shelf and goosebumps rose along her shoulders and forearms when the vacuum created by its sudden absence made an all too-human sounding sigh.

An outline of a black flame was stamped into the center of the supple cover, eerily reminiscent of the school's log but rougher.

"Whoa," she whispered while tracing the groove with her fingertip.

Voices whispered behind her.

June spun, suddenly sure that someone stood next to her, staring over her shoulder with the weight of their presence engulfing her.  Her stomach dropped while adrenaline spiked and her heartbeat stuttered beneath her chest.

There was no one, of course.  She opened her mouth to call out but words failed her. Instead she looked through the gaps in the books, even squatting to peek through the bottom shelf.  Horror movie scenarios filled her mind.  Her skin ran cold while sweat broke out over her body.

She was fully prepared to see a pale child on all fours with eyes too large for her head, crouched on all fours.  Perhaps even with her head twisted upside-down.  Fanged, of course, with blood leaking from eyes and ears, all while grinning.

"Nothing," she said when she finally gathered the courage to look.  "Thank God."

The sensation of someone watching her was unshakeable.  More than one person.  Her hackles lifted and her father's stern voice echoed in her mind: Always follow your gut instinct.

She left, quickly, with the book held tightly against her chest.  Each step was faster than the last.

The presence had returned.  Sharper than before.  The aisle seemed impossibly long, stretching into the distance as her vision narrowed.

"Damn it," she gasped, switching into a quick jog in defiance of the solemnity of the library.

June reached the end of the shelves while nearly out of breath.  The same young man glanced up at her irritably when she leaned over the glossy wooden railing.  She gasped and wheezed and waved her hand at him in apology.

After she'd properly calmed herself, she slipped past the studying senior as quietly as possible before making her way back to the main floor.  Her eyes narrowed when she spied Nicole with her phone in hand and her finger tapping on the screen.  The other girl squeaked when she spotted June in the corner of her eyes.  She powered her phone off and nearly tossed it away while adopting a crooked, innocent-ish smile.  June rolled her eyes in return.

"You found something?" Nicole asked, desperate to shift focus from her phone.

"I-" June jolted when she realized she still held the book.  "Uh.  Yeah.  Check it out."

She took her spot back at the table, in between her friends. Tia glanced at the cover and her hand reached up to touch the small cross she wore around her neck.

"What in the world is that, June?" Tia asked with a bewildered frown.

"I know, right?" June said.  She opened the book, eager to see how old it was and who had last checked it out.  The thought of finding something last borrowed centuries ago made her giddy.  "Oh."

There were no stamps inside, no card with names or anything else.  The pages were coarse with threads sticking out from the edges.  No publication date was marked - the book simply began with a chapter heading and flowing, handwritten text beneath that.

In Latin.

"Well, that's ominous," Tia whispered.  She reached out to touch a passage at the bottom of the page with her fingernail.  "Is that Arabic?"

"Does Arabic have wavy lines and boxes with circles in them and- and whatever the hell that is?" Nicole asked while tapping a five-by-five grid of tiny circles in between the other characters.  Three of the circles were larger than the others.

June shooed their hands away before flipping through the rest of the book.  Nearly all of it was Latin but the strange unidentified script was interspersed throughout with a scattering of random sketches included in the margins.

"Emily knows Latin," June said suddenly.  A few people glanced her way and she lowered her voice in return.  "She took it instead of Spanish at her fancy school."

"Huh," Nicole said while flipping through the pages.  Her hand froze and she blinked twice while her lips opened in a soft 'o' shape.  "Oh, gosh."

"Wha- oh, what the heck, June," Tia gasped.

The page showed a rough male shape with his hands raised.  His fingers were touching together with circles drawn around them and imperceptible symbols drawn around the circles.  Three nude women were genuflecting before him.  Before his naked erection.

"This is a spell book," Nicole said with a squeaky voice.  "Look, look, next to the picture."

"I'm not looking at that," Tia said with her hand up to her face, blocking her eyes.

"These little paragraphs are numbered," Nicole continued.  "I'll bet you anything it's some weird spell book.  That's amazing.  Like mind control or something?  Sexy magical love potion?  I could use some of that."

"Nicole!" June hissed.

"With, uh, with consent," Nicole added.  "Consensual.  Um.  Mind control.  To, uh, make my own personal, yet consensual, man slave.  June, come on, I'm drying up!"

"Noooobody wants to hear about the desert between your legs," Tia groaned.

"I'm going to check it out," June told them.

"You can't," Tia said.  "There's no card for it.  And it looks like an antique.  They'll probably take it away to store it in that section with-"

"No!" June snarled.

"Christ, lady," some random man said from two tables away.  "Can you all just shut up?  I'm trying to study."

"We're going to see Emily," June whispered.  "Field trip.  If she won't come to us, we'll bring the party to her."

"A... study... party?" Nicole asked with a glance towards her phone.

"Sure."

---

"Eeeemilllyyyy!" June called out while bonking the bottom of a wine bottle into the girl's front door.  After waiting a few seconds, she knocked with a second bottle she held in her other hand.  "Emily, let us in!"

They waited, shivering in the cold while snowflakes whirled around them on gusts of biting wind.  Tia pressed herself against Nicole who wrapped her arms around the petite young woman.

Finally, the sound of a deadbolt clacked and the door opened.

"I forgot," Emily told the three girls when they hustled into her room.  "I'm sorry, I was just really caught up in what I was doing.  I didn't even hear my phone buzzing."

"You're forgiven if you can grab some cups," June said while placing the two bottles on an open book filled with code and mathematical formulas.  Emily swiftly relocated them to an empty space instead.

"I don't have a corkscrew," Emily told her.  "And, anyway, how did you buy wine?"

June snorted.  "With my charming personality, brilliant smile, and blurry fake ID.  And if you think I'm rich enough to buy wine with corks, you're sadly mistaken.  I almost got boxed wine but these were on sale.  They twist off.  We live like kings!  Uh.  Queens!  Grab the cups, woman!"

Tia shuffled over to the threadbare couch facing Emily's computer desk while Nicole took a small beanbag chair and June spun the computer chair to sit facing the couch.

"And some snacks!  Please!" Nicole called out as June opened one of the bottles.

Emily returned with a stack of plastic cups and a bag of pretzels.  She set everything down on the tiny coffee table sitting in front of the couch before taking a seat next to Tia.  June separated the four cups and poured generously into each until Tia shook her head with a quiet 'no thanks.'  Instead, Emily grabbed an unopened water bottle from a pack on the floor. She handed it to Tia who twisted the top to take a sip.

"Not really the right... kind of... what's that?" Emily asked when June pulled out the book she'd taken from the library.

"Our house warming gift," June told her. She held the book out and Emily took it carefully.

"Whoa, this is real leather.  Really really old leather," she said.  Her fingers caressed the cover while her nail traced the outline of the flame.

"Open your gift!" Nicole exclaimed.  She took a cup, sniffed it and settled back before taking an experimental sip.  When nobody moved towards the pretzels, she leaned forward to snatch the bag.

Emily touched the edge of the cover carefully with her fingernail to turn it.

"Oh, wow," the girl said.  Her eyebrows bunched together and her lips moved soundless as she translated the text.  "It's hard to read. I don't know a lot of these words and that's weird."

"Weird why?" June asked.

"Um," Emily hesitated while trying to think of a way to explain it.  She took a cup while her eyes swept over the page.  Her nose wrinkled when she drank from the cup.  "It's, well, it's not quite Classical Latin.  Or Vulgar.  Definitely a bit of Old Latin in here with alterations to the endings but the roots are different.  A lot of them.  Like, um, twisted?  In some way.  Mixed with something else.  And I have no idea what this other language is."

"Not Arabic?" Nicole asked.

"No way.  I mean. I guess a little of it is visually similar?  That's it.  I only know a little bit, of course.  This is nothing like that.  And it looks like it was added in later.  Squeezed in at the bottom of the page.  Maybe by a different author?"

She massaged her temples as she focused on the strange text.  A blood vessel burst in the corner of her right eye, as thin as a strand of hair.  She groaned and blinked and rubbed her eyes while shaking her head. Tia frowned at her.

"So, what is it?  The book, I mean," June prompted after a few seconds.

Emily turned the page and then another.

"A diary, I think," she said.  "A man.  Um.  I think it says 'From the depths beneath the land of-' uhh, the name is hard to hard.  'Ishuel'?  And that might be 'mines' instead of 'depths'?"

She read silently for a few more pages.

"Says he's a, well, basically a sorcerer," she told them.  "Although here he says more like 'soul taker' or something like that.  Not 'soul' but more like the essence of humanity.  Buuuut, he goes on to describe that he can twist it.  Or he learned how to do it from an unnamed group of people.  So, anyway, he can twist or- is that 'corrupt'?  Something like that.  He can change his own essence or others to-  Oh."

She paused on the page with the sketch of the man and three women.

"Well.  Like that," she finished.  "Subjugation.  He even lists steps-"

"A spell!" Nicole crowed.  "I knew it!"

"Yeah, kind of," Emily told her.  "It's really hard to translate so a lot of this is me just filling in the gaps and, well, guessing a little.  It's pretty fascinating.  It sounds like he found a group that was cast out, learned a few spells from them and then divined their original location and descended.  And found an ancient civilization.  The sketches are from things he found there.  And the, uh, spells.  Most of their underground city was- was burned?  The word is wrong here.  I feel like it's saying the civilization was destroyed.  Or imploded?  So all he found was scraps."

Emily tipped her cup and was surprised to find it empty.  Red warmth touched her pale cheeks and the tips of her ears.  June took the cup and refilled it with the remains of the first bottle.

"He traveled for years," she continued.  "Always down.  It says his beard turned white and that's how he knew how long he was gone.  Nnrgh."

"You okay?" Tia asked.

"Yeah, dunno, my head hurts a little,"  Emily said.  She looked up from the book.  Tia reached over to rub Emily's back until Emily mouthed 'thank you' at her.  "The further it goes, the less Latin there is and the more of that other language until that's all there is."

"Is there a spell that will get boys to message me back?" Nicole asked with a slightly hopeful smile.

"I told you, Nicki, you just need better pictures," June sighed.

"If I show any more cleavage, I might as well just go topless and- oh, hey," Nicole said while tapping her lips and pressing her impressive tits together with her arms.

"No," June told her.  "Bad girl."

"The spells are even more difficult to understand," Emily told her.  "Because he's translating the other script into his own language.  I can pick one if you want, but I don't know how exciting it'll be."

"Yes!" Nicole yelled.  She held out her cup.  June raised a single eyebrow in return.  Nicole sighed and made a mock bow from her beanbag.  "Oh.  Please, may I have some more, madame?"

"You may," June told her while opening the second bottle.

"Ummm, let's see," Emily muttered while flipping backwards through the book.  She stopped and her lips moved once more with her fingernail touching individual words.  "This one changes self while granting... power? It's a strange word.  Like dominance almost.  There's a note he copied down below it.  Sounds like it was a holy ritual of some kind. Um.  Creating a deity?  No, that can't be it.  A guardian?  No, not quite that, either.  Almost, though."

"Just read it," Nicole told her.  "If any of us is closest to a goddess, it's you and that brain of yours."

"Do you have any cheese?" June asked.

"In the fridge," Emily said with a distracted voice.  "And some crackers.  Cupboard."

June walked towards the kitchen while Tia leaned into the arm of the couch to watch Emily.  Nicole nibbled on a pretzel and her eyes shined gleefully.

Emily cleared her throat before speaking. She enunciated slowly, haltingly.  Her vowels were uncertain and her consonants subdued.  However, the more she spoke, the more confidence she gained and her voice grew smooth.  Deeper.  Tia frowned and reached out, touching her shoulder when she grew concerned at the dazed look in her friend's face.  Her other hand touched the cross she wore on the golden chain around her neck before going down to Emily's thigh.

"Mutashtos," Emily finished, just as June walked back into the living room with a plate of food.

The word hung in the air.  The howling wind outside the house fell silent.  Tia snatched her hand back from Emily with a sharp 'tsk' of pain.  A glistening line of drool slid down the corner of Nicole's mouth as she stared past at the top of Emily's head.

A sulfurous smell wafted from between Tia and Emily.  Tia gasped when the gold chain slid around her neck and down her chest.  She grabbed it and blinked at it, confused until she realized the cross was gone.  Her left hand touched her chest and the subtle, pale cross-like mark on her dark skin.

"See it," Nicole whispered.  Her pupils were fully dilated as she continued to stare at the top of Emily's head.  "The burning crown, I see it.  I-  I-"

"Soooo, what did I miss?" June asked while glancing around the room.

Something slammed into the window.  June, Nicole, and Tia shrieked.  Crackers slid from June's plate.  Emily blinked rapidly while the book slid between her thighs to fall to the floor.

"What the hell was that?" June asked.

"I'll- I'll go check," Nicole said.  She stood and swayed until she reached out to steady herself with her hand against the wall.  "Whew.  Wow."

Nicole kept her hand braced against the wall as she made her way to the front door.

"You- you okay, Emily?" Tia asked.

Blood rushed through Emily's body and a great roar filled her ears.  Her tipsy, reddened ears and cheeks deepened while a dark crimson blush bloomed over her chest.  She panted through her parted lips, as if she were unable to fully catch her breath.  Her fingers trembled on her knees.  They jerked, clenching and clawing at her skin.

Emily's heart beat like a powerful drum, pushing pushing pushing the blood down until her pussy ached from it.  Her labia swelled and her clit emerged from its fleshy hood.

A tiny bump showed against the girl's gray sweatpants.  She groaned, biting at her lip and the bump grew. Her smooth clit lengthened slowly, stretching outward while dragging against the inside of her sweats.  The girl arched her back and sweat soaked into her t-shirt.

She could feel it.  Aching as it grew.  Bulging slightly when it stopped, almost half an inch long from the base.  Her teeth grinded together in an attempt to ease the throbbing pain in her gums.

The girl pawed at her clit.  Pushing it down until she felt the burning wetness of her dripping pussy smearing over the smooth pink tip.  A single red hair emerged between her shoulder blades.  Another grew below it.  A third, jet black, emerged further down.  More appeared, red with a few black hairs, scattered over her spine.  Trapped by her shirt, they flattened against her body, slick with the sweat forming over her skin.

"-ly?  Emily!" Tia yelled while shaking her friend.

"What?" Emily asked.

"You're freaking me out a little bit, girl," Tia said. "Are you okay?"

"Guys, there's like a dead crow outside," Nicole said when she rushed back into the house.  She paused, tilting her head with a thoughtful expression.  "Raven?  I dunno.  Right outside the window."

"Let me go," Emily growled harshly while pulling her arm away from Tia.

"Emily!" June said.

"I just- I just need to-" she mumbled while rubbing the base of her palm against her swollen clit.

The girl bounced up without finishing her thought.  She walked past June and into her bathroom, pushing the door half-closed with her heel before leaning over the sink.  Her flame red hair slid over her shoulders to fall around her face.

"Show me the bird, Nicki," June said from the living room.

Emily rubbed at her pounding head, massaging her temples and then twisting her hands to scratch at her forehead, deeper and deeper with every passing second until dead skin flaked away.  Her nails scraped against a thin layer of keratin forming high on her scalp, along the sides of her head.

"Emily, are you sure you're-mmph!"

Tia stepped into the bathroom to check on her friend and was slammed against the wall when Emily turned and pushed into her, pressing her lips against Tia's mouth with her tongue slipping inside.

"MMmmph!" Tia's voice was muffled as Emily moaned and thrust her tongue deeper. The flesh stretched, reaching for Tia's throat while her hands massaged Tia's ass and back.

Layers of new nails grew out from her nail beds and down, anchoring them to the bone while the nails themselves folded into sharp little claws that scored Tia's body to leave marks on her skin.

Emily grinded her erect clit against Tia's belly while Tia beat her hands against the girl's shoulders.  Suddenly, her hands slowed and her tongue writhed, twisting with Emily's tongue.  Tia wrapped her arms around Emily's body, pushing into her for-

"No!" Tia pushed, separating them.  A line of drool connected their mouths before collapsing.  The girl's nipples were hard bumps against her t-shirt.

Emily stumbled back against the bathroom sink while wiping her mouth with the back of her hand.  Her stomach pulsed with the need for release and she growled.  Her canines flowed, enamel sliding over their tips before curving away to push at her lips. The new fangs scraped together when she closed her mouth to swallow.

Tia felt dazed. Drugged.  She moaned and her head swayed back and forth.  The girl slid to the ground and was barely able to raise her head.  Emily growled again and shoved at her sweatpants and panties to expose her clit.  Fine little rust-colored hairs, peppered with black, pierced the wrinkled skin of her hood as she pinched the clit and stroked herself.  Her thumb rubbed the tip and she bucked.  And snarled.  Clear liquid seeped from her pussy lips, sliding down her leg in thin lines before soaking into her sweatpants.

"Nuh-  Nuh-" Tia tried to say.  Her body was aflame and her knees spread apart while her hand, resting on her stomach, strayed towards her own pussy.

The girl had never masturbated.  Her father was a conservative Baptist preacher and both he and her mother beat the fear of God into her, along with the horrors of what they viewed as sin.  Despite the occasional urge to explore, she'd been able to resist.

Now, as she watched Emily touch herself, her head began to pound and an aching, empty need spread through her belly.

Thick hairs spread from the base of Emily's hooded clit.  The fur spread slowly through her well maintained pubic hair and outward, reaching out into a wild, curly peak up to her belly button and off to her hips.

Release.

Drool dribbled from the corners of Emily's mouth while spittle flung from her fanged lips.  She snapped at the air as she orgasmed and her pussy clenched, tight pink muscles gripping and loosening while she snatched her hand away to grab the edge of the sink to steady herself.

Tia's hand rubbed her stomach and she gasped.  Her eyes rolled back.  She spread her fingers wide and dragged them back and forth while rubbing her legs together.  Lightning shot through her body, up to her nipples and further to the roof of her mouth.  She pressed her tongue up and swirled it in endless circles as she continued to stroke the strange new flesh growing beneath her stomach.

"Tia," Emily groaned.

As her orgasm finished, her mind began to clear and she dropped to her knees.  Just as she was about to touch her friend's wrist, she realized her pants were down. The girl yelped and pulled them up and then winced when she felt the squelch of her soaked panties against her crotch.  Her clit retreated slightly back within its hood with the tip peeking past the opening.

Sharp red and black hairs pierced Emily's swollen outer labia.  More and more gathered, covering the puffy skin before trailing outward to her thighs.  She knelt and her skin shifted around the muscles bunching within her legs.

"Tia," Emily said more urgently, pulling at her friend's arm.

Silky sable hairs grew between Tia's small breasts in a thin line that began to creep down her chest towards her stomach.  They grew long but scattered, surrounding her belly button and continuing down through her plain, triangular pubic hair.

"-what killed it," June said as she walked back into the house.

"Tia!" Emily whispered fiercely while closing the bathroom door with her shoulder.  Her fangs rubbed against the inside of her lips and she was forced to swallow an excess of drool when her thick tongue moved awkwardly in her mouth.

"Wha-  Emily?" Tia asked.  She let Emily take her hand and she stared at the traitorous limb that had just, moments before, caressed her body.  "What's- what happened?"

Emily could still feel it.  The throbbing ache centered at the apex of her pussy.  Her short fangs screeched when she grinded her teeth.  The girl's ears twitched at the sound just beyond her hearing.

"I- I don't know," she said while wrapping her arms around the girl's chest.  She exhaled and her clit stirred when she felt Tia's erect nipples rub against her.  "Come on, get up.  I'll help you up."

Muscles tensed in Emily's legs.  Her own strength surprised her and she nearly yanked Tia to her feet with force when she lifted the other girl.

"There, I've got you," Emily said.  She licked her lips.  Moaned.  Tia's scent filled her nose - soap and flowers and the sharp scent of her wet pussy.  Once more her clit slipped past its hood to rub against her soaked, warm panties.  It was painfully distracting, but she did her best to ignore it in order to help her friend.

"I feel dizzy," Tia mumbled.

"You're burning up," Emily told her with a frown.  Sweat welled from Tia's forehead before falling down her cheeks and nose.  "Here, lean on me.  I'll get you to the couch."

"Is she okay?" Nicole asked when the pair stepped out of the bathroom.

"She's feverish," June said when she reached out to help.

Tia moaned and twisted. She pushed away from June and harder into Emily's side.

"Help me get her to the couch," Emily told June.  Although she asked for help, Tia seemed to weigh nothing in her arms. Emily's shoulder blades flexed, pushing against her shirt while muscles shifted in her back.  A single vein stood out on her small bicep.

They both laid their friend down and Emily stroked Tia's hair with a gentle, caressing touch.  June left her to grab a wet washcloth, leaving Emily with Nicole hovering anxiously over her shoulder.  When June returned, Emily took the towel and used it to wipe the sweat from her friend's face and chest.  After a moment, she took her friend's glasses, folded them and set them on the end table.

A single curly black hair lay exposed on Tia's chest, just above her sternum and the collar of her shirt.  Above it, where the faint cross shape marked her skin, a white hair grew inside its boundaries.  Emily stared curiously at the two hairs until Nicole spoke behind her.

"Should we take her to the hospital?" Nicole asked.

"Can you get my thermometer from-" Emily started to ask.

"On it," June interrupted, bouncing away only to return with the device.

Emily wiped the towel over Tia's forehead and June swiped the thermometer over the girl's bare skin.

"Ninety-nine point four," June read.

"That's not terrible," Emily said.  "I'll keep her here tonight.  If she's feeling better in the morning, I can bring her to class.  If not, it's Friday tomorrow so she can skip and take the weekend to recover.  And I have a car if she gets worse."

"It can't be the wine, could it?" Nicole asked.  She fidgeted in place beside the other three.  "I feel a little off, too."

"I feel fine, so I don't think so?" June said.  "Emily?"

The past ten minutes were a blur to Emily.  She felt off like Nicole had mentioned and, with her mind wandering, she realized she was strangely horny and that was disturbing with her friend laying on the couch with a fever.  Worse, the whole thing was an odd sensation - her entire body ached and her teeth were sore.  She had a strange urge to grab and...

Bite? she thought while rubbing her tongue over her teeth.  Her entire body was on edge.

"I'm okay," she lied, unwilling to give details in case they asked for them.

Emily glanced down to see a wet spot showing in the seat of her sweatpants.  Worse, she found herself spreading her legs slightly and swore she could feel the stickiness of her pussy against her thighs and she was terrified that the others were able to smell her as strongly as she smelled herself.  Strong enough as if she had her own head buried in her crotch like a bitch licking herself clean.

"You guys head out, we'll be fine," Emily said while forcing her legs together.