Blood Orange Soda: Paranormal Romance by James Michael Larranaga

scared you never want to do it.
    “She mentioned she sees more vivid colors and her taste is stronger, too,” I say.
    “Stage One, those are classic symptoms of the change,” Jack says.
    “She also has this other ability. She was checking me out from the back of the classroom as if she were standing right behind me. I could feel her presence.”
    “Ah, she’s attracted to you, bro. She’s calling you like a Siren from Greek mythology. Use caution.”
    “It felt like she was right behind me. How do you explain that?”
    “Bi-location,” Jack says. “She’s developing the ability to be in two places at once.”
    “Vampires can really do that?”
    “I’ve only met two Vampires in my lifetime that could bi-locate, and they were both women,” Jack says. “Vampire bloodlines that have the ability to bi-locate are very powerful.”
    “She has power over me,” I admit.
    “That’s because you’re on the Reds. You’re like a Normal. You feel the world like a Normal, for the most part. But inside you there’s a Vampire waiting to take flight. You have to get off those Reds, Darius.”
    Mom said to ignore Jack’s advice, to not let Jack talk me into stopping. He rants about this all the time. “Now that I know she’s signaling me, what should I do?”
    “Address her head-on, and ask her out on a date if you want to,” Jack says. “But take it slow, my friend. When are you planning to transform?”
    “Mom and I agreed that on my sixteenth birthday I would step down from the Reds.”
    “If you can wait that long,” Jack says. “Your dad was able to hold off. He married your mom as a Normal, and he wasn’t bitten until after you and Kira were born.”
    This was always a frustrating mystery to me. Why had my dad waited so long for my mom to bite him? Anytime I’ve asked her about this, she’s avoided the topic entirely.
    “How come my dad waited?”
    Jack stands and walks to the center of the loft and begins stretching, as if maybe his muscles are finally cramping from his workout. “That’s a long story, bro.”
    “So? I’ve got time. Tell me what happened to my parents.”
    “They broke up,” Jack says. “Half the marriages end in divorce for Normals, and it’s no different for today’s Vampires. There was a time we mated for life, but the gene pool was diluted a long time ago. Too many Vampires mating with Normals.”
    “Give me details. When my mom bit my dad, he became a Vampire. He loved my mom and once bitten, he transformed, right?”
    “Correct.”
    “Vampire life too hard on him?” I ask. “Did he leave the marriage because he regretted transforming?”
    “No, he left your mom because he enjoyed Vampire life too much,” Jack says. “He had bloodlust. He couldn’t control his urges, because Normals who transform always have a hard time adapting to their new senses.”
    “He left her for another woman?”
    “You have to ask your mother about that.”
    “She’s too embarrassed to talk about it,” I explain. “Tell me, Jack.”
    “Not one woman—many women,” Jack says, almost in a whisper. “But only after he learned that your mom had bitten another man before she married your dad. There’s another man out there with her mark. She hasn’t explained this to you?”
    “Dad wasn’t her first bite of passion?” I ask.
    A knock echoes and the doors slide open and there’s my mom, holding her Starbucks cup. For a moment Jack and I sit there, speechless, wondering if she has been listening to our conversation. Her face has a casual smile, so she probably only just walked in on our conversation.
    “Hi, am I interrupting something?” Mom stands in the doorway with her latte and she looks younger to me, maybe because she’s in the presence of her older brother.
    “Hey, Virginia! No, just two guys shooting the breeze,” Jack says. “Join us.”
    Mom enters, looking at both of us, trying to read our moods and detect what she walked in on. “I hope you’re giving