Teacher said she met her true love from horseback riding.

LANCE

When the humiliation is too much for me to bear, I marched down to where he stands and yank him by the neck.

"Let's get out of here." I hissed.

"Wait, wait I'm not yet finished – "

I take the stairs two at a time. Magnus unbalanced on his feet behind me. Thrice he attempt to get out of my hold yet and unsucceed. After tripping and cursing and grumbling miserably for another floor or so, I let him go.

We're standing in front of my room. He stumble on his feet, wobbling, barely standing on his own two feet.

"What's wrong with you?" He keeps blinking and shaking his head.

"I – I'm…" He foundered on the ground face first.

"Magnus!" I missed trying to catch him while he falls. He slammed with a loud thud. When I flipped him over, blood flowed out of his nostrils. Probably from the impact of hitting his nose on the waxed floor.

"Don't…touched…me." He croaked.

"What?"

"I said…don't touch me. With your bare hands."

At that moment, the sudden rush of foreign energy fills my veins. From the tip of my fingertips up to my hammering heart. I quickly let him go. His face is ploddingly turning white. He's chest is rising and falling in fast pace.

I recognized that look in his face, his almost chalk white cheeks and lips. As if he's a sickly old man at the verge of death.

"Am I…slowly killing you?"

He chuckles between rasp breath.

"So this is your blessing huh. Absorb life force? Is that how you kill the 'Auf'. Touch him and he die?"

I slowly nod. Guilt tore itself in my chest. Is that how my power will be? Just by touching other people and they die? Without me ever have any control over it? Will it always be like this?

Can't I have a say? If blessings are like this then it's better if I go back to who I am. Living a peaceful apple pie life, not raging deaths all over cornfields and man shifting bat.

"Damn those old mud freaking Rank Elders. They told me your blessings are not that dangerous. To think they force me read a mountain of books just to familiarize myself with non-existent chanting which don't even work in this realm. Crap those shizt."

He groaned and propped himself up with his elbows.

"Hey, hey you shouldn't get up. I'll bring you to the infirmary so –"

The light from the windowsill came through and cast a glimpse on his pallid face. Something crawled in his veins and popped up. Something black and inhuman. The same one I saw on that humanoid face.

Magnus noticed me staring, and he covered the veins at the side of his neck.

"I know what you think."

I blinked at him. "What?"

"You think I'm some inhuman didn't you? The same kind with that 'Auf' you killed, the humanoid in your dreams and the 'Tylwyth' in your vision?"

My heart skipped a beat.

"Look, I know about it all okay? How your mother performs that caging death spell on you. Trust me, that was one of the Ancient forbidden spells in the magical realm. Even the Rank Elders, the masters and enchanters of blessing won't dare to perform."

"Because the price is your soul?" I said. He cocks his head and crack his neck. The color is coming back to his cheek. His lips aren't that white anymore.

"I think we need to talk about this. It's surprising how you knew stuff that isn't supposed to be disclosed. Especially when it's only yesterday you discovered your power."

He's retracting. He doesn't want to venture into the topic any longer. Why? Just when I finally met someone who can shed some light on my problem.

"Why? I think we can - "

The school bell rang one two classrooms from where we're kneeling. I look around and notice nobody's here in the corridor. Only us.

"Time to go back to class, little kid." Magnus grinned.

***

The teacher, thank God it's not the ugly b*tch from hell earlier, drones on about history in medieval times and how horses are useful back in the day. She showed us powerpoint presentation. Openly pace back and forth in front of the class.

Ever since that slight contact with Magnus, my hands are itching and I can't sit still. It's like my body is on fire, burning my veins, inflaming my guts, corroding my cells. My very being is on hot pot roast for dinner.

"Psst, transferee stink!" Someone beside me, the one on the left hissed. I can't risk moving my head. Needles and pine sticks are alternately roasting whole chickens on it.

"Hey, are you alright?" The girl with short bob cut hair and freckles asked. Her face came out blurry in my eyes. "You're face is red. Do you have a fever?"

If I say yes, will you buy it for $10 from me?

I shake off the smart remark. And slowly swipe my head from left to right.

"I really think you should go - " I raised my hand to stop her.

"It's okay. I ditch class yesterday, then made a very wonderful job in making myself the target of bullies today. So any more actions that show how spineless little horse ass I was and I'm done."

Damn. It's because of this teacher who won't shut up about how her unforgettable experience of horseback riding in Africa made her meet her true love, I'm starting to speak horse ass language.

"Pssst, deaf transferee stink!" The hissing of my new nickname is getting closer. I think that guy just move two seats just to have my attention.

I tried my best to ignore him. I take a deep breath and slowly exhale. The hotness boiling in my body increases. Like I'm standing at the center of the earth, gaping at the core to give me a thousand degrees hot bath.

I held out my arm. If my eyes can't focus on any faces that are far, near ones might work. Let's start with my hand. At first, I get my palm structure, the color of my skin and the veins clear. Then it gets weirder I started to see black root like liquids popping out of my veins.

Just like what I saw in Magnus' neck.