loud. Patent leather stilettos already made up a pretty big concession towards suffering for beauty. Aisha tried a few different up-dos, only to frown at each one as she wound up looking like a girl trotting off to her first prom—and her dress did way too many flattering things to her body to be wasting it on hair that made her look all of seventeen. Jewel red, it hung from Aisha’s shoulders by thin straps before plunging down her chest in folds that more than hinted at her cleavage and would require quite a bit of strategic readjusting at the club unless she wanted to give everyone a free show, swishing against her hips just so before ending right at the midpoint of her thigh. The dress made Aisha feel powerful, as if every man she ran across tonight would be hers for the taking purely by her wishing for it. It was the kind of dress that required the rest of her be worthy of it.
Ai sha dropped her hair to fall around her shoulders and down her back and went to work on her makeup instead. With her deep skin and nearly flawless complexion, she focused her efforts on touching up her eyes with liner and mascara, spreading a deep red lipstick across her pout.
“There you go, girl,” Aisha said to herself as she viewed the finished product in her bathroom mirror, and laughed. “That’s what a man -eater is supposed to look like.” She laughed again. Aisha’s family might carry a certain amount of were blood in their family tree—after the past century of comingling, it was honestly difficult to find a family that didn’t—but the line had been diluted so much that her heritage only came up when she had to go to the doctor for blood work. More and more, it looked as though she had dodged a bullet.
A knock sounded at Aisha’s apartment door. “Coming!” she yelled. Aisha dabbed perfume behind each ear, started for the door, and then wheeled back to hold up her hair one more time to be absolutely sure she didn’t want to pin it up. She wiggled uncertainly until the knock sounded at her door again, more insistent this time. “Okay, okay!” Aisha compromised by pinning a portion of her tresses back from her face with clips, grabbed her clutch, and dashed for the apartment door.
“Geez, took long enough,” said the woman on the other side of the door. She stood several inches shorter than Aisha and wore her blonde hair in a bob falling just past her chin to frame light pixie features and amber-gold eyes. No one ever mistook Cassie for being fully human, not with those eyes.
Aisha lifted her eyebrows. “Seriously, Cassie?” she asked as she shut and locked her apartment door behind her. “You were waiting for ninety seconds at most. Who aims to get to a club early, anyway?”
Cassie made a fretful noise and wrinkled her nose. Between that and her strange coloring, she looked more like an elfin creature than ever. “Sorry,” she said. “Doctor switched my suppressants this month. The side effects are kicking my ass.”
“Are you sure you want to go out?” Aisha asked as she cast her friend a sideways glance. Now that she paid attention, Cassie’s skin was paler than normal, with dark shadows beneath her eyes defying even an expert application of concealer, and her cheeks seemed slightly more hollow, as if she hadn’t been eating well.
Cassie flapped her hand and made a dismissive noise. “I’ll be fine. I can be home, uncomfortable, and alone, or I can be out with you getting a nice distraction. I’ll take door number two.” She rolled her eyes and twitched her shoulders. “I swear, though, one of these days I’m just going to pitch that stupid prescription right out the window. What’s the worst that could happen? I call in sick for two days and buy stock in a battery company?”
“That’s not the worst thing that could happen and you know it,” Aisha said, more harshly than she intended. Weres experiencing uncontrolled
Ai sha dropped her hair to fall around her shoulders and down her back and went to work on her makeup instead. With her deep skin and nearly flawless complexion, she focused her efforts on touching up her eyes with liner and mascara, spreading a deep red lipstick across her pout.
“There you go, girl,” Aisha said to herself as she viewed the finished product in her bathroom mirror, and laughed. “That’s what a man -eater is supposed to look like.” She laughed again. Aisha’s family might carry a certain amount of were blood in their family tree—after the past century of comingling, it was honestly difficult to find a family that didn’t—but the line had been diluted so much that her heritage only came up when she had to go to the doctor for blood work. More and more, it looked as though she had dodged a bullet.
A knock sounded at Aisha’s apartment door. “Coming!” she yelled. Aisha dabbed perfume behind each ear, started for the door, and then wheeled back to hold up her hair one more time to be absolutely sure she didn’t want to pin it up. She wiggled uncertainly until the knock sounded at her door again, more insistent this time. “Okay, okay!” Aisha compromised by pinning a portion of her tresses back from her face with clips, grabbed her clutch, and dashed for the apartment door.
“Geez, took long enough,” said the woman on the other side of the door. She stood several inches shorter than Aisha and wore her blonde hair in a bob falling just past her chin to frame light pixie features and amber-gold eyes. No one ever mistook Cassie for being fully human, not with those eyes.
Aisha lifted her eyebrows. “Seriously, Cassie?” she asked as she shut and locked her apartment door behind her. “You were waiting for ninety seconds at most. Who aims to get to a club early, anyway?”
Cassie made a fretful noise and wrinkled her nose. Between that and her strange coloring, she looked more like an elfin creature than ever. “Sorry,” she said. “Doctor switched my suppressants this month. The side effects are kicking my ass.”
“Are you sure you want to go out?” Aisha asked as she cast her friend a sideways glance. Now that she paid attention, Cassie’s skin was paler than normal, with dark shadows beneath her eyes defying even an expert application of concealer, and her cheeks seemed slightly more hollow, as if she hadn’t been eating well.
Cassie flapped her hand and made a dismissive noise. “I’ll be fine. I can be home, uncomfortable, and alone, or I can be out with you getting a nice distraction. I’ll take door number two.” She rolled her eyes and twitched her shoulders. “I swear, though, one of these days I’m just going to pitch that stupid prescription right out the window. What’s the worst that could happen? I call in sick for two days and buy stock in a battery company?”
“That’s not the worst thing that could happen and you know it,” Aisha said, more harshly than she intended. Weres experiencing uncontrolled
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