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How Not To Become Lunch: 9 - Don’t Make Vampires Jealous
Jack sat hunched over his desk, working diligently at his math assignment along with the majority of the quiet room. Little did he know that just a couple rows back, a certain vampire was smirking and waiting for her devious plan to unfold.
*cough* *cough* *cough*
A student coughing, somewhere in the back of the room, nothing out of the ordinary. No one even looked up from their papers, not even the teacher. Sarabeth’s smirk broadened.
Add the zero, carry the one, add them together… Jack was concentrating on his work, he didn’t suspect a thing. The wooden floor creaked in the silence of the class.
…
“Jack watch out!”
Jack shot up straight and looked around. He didn’t find anything dangerous, but eventually found the kid who had called his name, a boy a few seats back whose hands were currently fumbling around his waist.
“Mr. Emeral, what has gotten into you?” asked their teacher, Ms. Hali, with an irritated, vampiric glare.
The boy finally managed to pull out his wand from magic class and pointed it at a seemingly empty space near Jack’s desk.
“Revelare!” he cast. Out of thin air appeared another student, now quite conspicuously standing just a few feet behind Jack.
“I saw him cast his invisibility spell,” the boy explained. “He was planning to eat another student during class.”
“I was not!” the formerly invisible boy countered.
“Then what were you doing?” Ms. Hali asked accusingly, shifting her piercing gaze over to him instead. “Come here.”
The boy reluctantly walked up to the front desk. She took hold of his chin and pulled it firmly towards the floor, his whole mouth stretched like elastic, an obvious sign of a novice predatorization spell.
“You know full well that eating another student while class is underway is expressly disallowed, just look at the disruption you’ve caused. That’s a detention for you this afternoon, now escort yourself to the principal’s office.”
And to think he swore to me that he could get Jack without anyone even noticing, I should have known better than to believe him, Sarabeth thought.
The student’s jaw lazily returned to its natural position as Ms. Hali released it, and he slunk, humiliated, toward the classroom door, muttering angrily under his breath. Jack looked away from him as he left and back toward the kid who had saved him. Not only was he grateful for the help, but he was impressed by his use of magic. Also… he looked vaguely familiar.
“Hey, thanks a lot. What’s your name?” Jack asked, obviously trying to figure out where he recognized the other boy from.
“Ozzy,” he replied. “We’ve been sitting together at lunch the last two days.”
“Oh yeah, you’re one of the guys who doesn’t leave when Fiona shows up.”
“Ha, yeah. I’ll admit I was a little freaked at first, but then I heard you guys talking. I figured if another human was so friendly with her she couldn’t be that bad.”
“Alright everyone, let’s return to our mathematics,” the teacher instructed. The boys smiled at each other and then turned back to their work.
…
“Ms. Hali, could I use the bathroom?”
“Yes, alright. Just hurry back.”
Jack stood up from his desk and walked toward the door. Sarabeth watched with the smallest of scowls, still quite annoyed that that buffoon, predator-wannabe had gotten himself caught earlier. But she wasn’t out of tricks just yet.
“There he goes,” she muttered quietly to herself. Or at least, that’s how it seemed. Really, she was targeting her voice very carefully, and just loud enough that only the student right in front of her could hear. The boy’s fox-like ears perked up slightly; she knew she had hit her mark.
“Hard to believe no one has managed to eat him yet,” the cunning vampire continued. “Honestly, a marked prey just roaming the halls, he’s practically begging to be claimed by the next predator who crosses his path.”
Sarabeth returned to her assignment. About a minute of silence passed. Then the fox boy raised his hand.
“Ms. Hali, could I go to the restroom?”
Their teacher nodded permissively. Sarabeth’s smirk returned.
He stood up from his desk and headed out the door. As he turned and walked toward the bathroom, he hardly even had to sniff to catch Jack’s alluring scent. The vampire in class had been right, it was amazing that no one had gotten him yet, too bad she hadn’t taken the initiative to go after him herself. His stomach growled in anticipation, even as he opened the restroom door and was greeted by the less-than-appetizing smells within.
Jack had just stepped out of a stall and was walking to the sink. The pred did his best to act casual and pretended to go towards a stall himself, but instead he crept along the row of doors as the sound of running water filled the room, masking his approach. He got closer and closer, readying himself for a stealthy attack.
Just before he was about to pounce, he saw Jack start to glance up. Realizing that his prey would see him coming in the large mirror, the fox boy quickly tried to duck down below his line of sight. Unfortunately, he hadn’t realized quite how wet and slippery the floor was.
“Wha- Whoa! Oof!”
A startled Jack looked to see a fellow student slide and crash headfirst into the wall next to him.
“You alright?” the marked boy asked with a mixture of surprise and concern.
The fox, realizing he’d slipped up and blown his cover, stammered and frantically tried to stand up again, only to hit the back of his head hard against the underside of a sink.
“Oh man!” Jack exclaimed. The other student fell limply onto the ground, unconscious. “Are you okay!?”
No response.
“Uh- don’t worry, I’ll get you to the nurse!”
…
It had been twenty minutes, and Sarabeth still hadn’t recovered from the shock of Jack walking back into the room- quite clearly not in the belly of a predator. And she couldn’t believe that fox had missed out on the meal of a lifetime by slipping of all things! And he had screwed up so badly that he had knocked himself out? How could these kids even call themselves predators at all!?
*ring*
“Alright class, that is all for today.”
Students all around her began to pack up their stuff and leave, including Jack, who she was sure just couldn’t wait to go and see Fiona again. As he left the room and wandered out of her sight, her eyes settled on one of her other classmates. This vampire wasn’t done yet. With an irritated yet determined expression, she walked over, putting on a face before she spoke.
“Oh my, did you see how fast that boy Jack left?”
The other student, a tall neko girl, glanced at her with an inquisitive expression.
“No, why?” she asked. She was always one for gossip, and Sarabeth knew it, but that’s not all she knew.
“He’s off to meet up with his werewolf friend. He’s marked after all, so he had to find a predator who could protect him.”
“Pft, werewolves,” the girl replied with a roll of her eyes.
“Yes, he seemed quite set on finding a werewolf specifically. He asked around a lot yesterday, said they were the strongest and the most loyal if one could get on their good side. I even saw a neko offer to help protect him instead, but he turned them down.”
Objectively, those weren’t all total lies. Jack had been determined to find Fiona- a werewolf- the previous day. He had also told people she was strong and a loyal friend. And a neko had offered to ‘help’ him, but it had been quite clear that she only really intended to help herself to a tasty meal. Of course Sarabeth’s pawn didn’t need to know any of those details.
“Ugh, the nerve of some people,” the neko grumbled.
“Indeed. But he has a point, it would be pretty hard for any predator to claim him with his werewolf friend on the watch.”
“Oh, yeah? Watch me.” The girl stormed out. Sarabeth followed at an inconspicuous distance.
“Hey Jack!” came the call of an unrecognized voice. The boy turned around to see an unfamiliar cat girl staring him down. He couldn’t quite read her expression, but she didn’t seem happy. For a moment, he considered just running, after all a pred of any disposition calling him over was almost never a good sign, but he decided to give her the benefit of the doubt. Besides, if he did try to run, she wouldn’t have much trouble chasing him down; if he came quietly and things turned out for the worse at least he might be able to stall long enough for Fiona to show up. He walked over reluctantly.
“Um, hi. Do I know you?”
“I hear you have something against us nekos.” Her abrupt and accusatory tone caught him well off guard.
“What!? No!” he replied with a strange mix of dignity and anxiety.
“Well then I guess you wouldn’t mind…” she reached out, put an arm around him and pulled him in against her chest “… getting a bit closer,” she finished.
Jack immediately pushed away out of fear, and to his surprise the girl let him go without a hint of resistance. She stayed right where she was as he took a few good steps back.
“What’s the problem?” she asked with feigned innocence.
“I’m- I’m just not comfortable being so close to-”
“A neko?”
“A predator.”
“Oh, but that’s not true either, is it? I hear there’s a werewolf around here that you have no problem being close to.”
“Fiona? Wait, that’s different, she’s-”
“You don’t have to explain it to me, I get it. She’s a werewolf, so she’s obviously much stronger than any of us cats.” She reached out and grabbed Jack’s wrist. He tried to pull away but this time she held tight. She pulled him closer again.
“Let go!” he protested.
“Come on, I just want a chance to show you how tough us nekos can be.” She reached out with her other hand and shoved his head up against her torso, just below her breasts. “Feel that? I’ve got plenty of muscle in there.”
‘Muscles’ weren’t what caught Jack’s attention, nor was it his uncomfortably intimate position, instead his mind was overrun with fear as his ears picked up the not-so-subtle sounds coming from just beyond her skin.
*glurk* *gurgle* *blorp*
He took a sharp breath.
“As for being loyal, I wouldn’t be so quick to complement those overgrown dogs. After all, your friend isn’t here right now, is she? Personally, if it were me protecting you, I’d make it so we were never apart- not even for a second. Doesn’t that sound so much better?”
*guuuuurgle*
“Listen, I really-”
“Wait,” she interrupted, “before you give me your answer, I just have to give you a demonstration; a firsthand ‘taste’ of neko.”
She licked her lips and Jack’s eyes widened. He saw her open her mouth slowly, running her feline tongue across her many pointed teeth. His heart began to pound. He wanted to glance out into the hall to see if Fiona was nearby, but he was too scared to look away. The neko opened her mouth wider, preparing to shove him inside. He shut his eyes and braced himself for the wet embrace of her maw.
“You!!” shouted a slightly more familiar voice.
“Ahh!!”
Jack heard the cat girl shout and drop him abruptly. He did feel something slimy slide past his chest, but only for a moment before leaving him completely unharmed. He opened his eyes. The neko was now several feet away from him, with a thick, pink mass wrapped around her arms and belly. He followed the strange form further back and realized with a start that it was a tongue- Lily’s tongue.
“You’re the one that’s spreading rumors about me!” she said. The words weren’t the clearest with her tongue sticking out, but it was still quite clear that she was not happy.
“Wha-!? Huh!?” the neko stammered in reply, still trying to figure out what was happening.
“You went around telling people that I was dating Max! Max!!” she accused. The neko finally looked back and saw the frog girl.
“Lily!? W-wait, no- that was supposed to be a joke!”
“Well this isn’t!” she replied, and in a forceful, emphatic motion, she pulled her tongue in and sucked the neko right between her lips. Jack saw the bulge appear in the girl’s throat, but just after noticed that she already had a rather sizable lump in her belly. That didn’t seem to worry the angry predator though, as she took a large gulp and swallowed the neko up to her chest.
A few of the other students around stopped and started staring. They whispered amongst each other.
“Hey, is that frog girl eating another pred?”
“That’s Lily. Yeah, it looks like she’s eating a neko.”
“I thought preds only ate humans.”
“Man, she’s gonna get in so much trouble for this.”
“Is that even allowed?”
“Sort of, but they’re not really supposed to.”
As Lily took another gulp, two things happened. First, she felt the head of her meal begin to pass into her stomach, pushing up against her lunch which she had only just begun to digest. She felt her belly protest, warning her that its limit wasn’t too far off. And second, she started hearing some of what the other students were saying, and realized that even if her body managed to hold out through all of this, her reputation might not. She faltered for a moment, the neko’s limbs flailing in front of her.
*burrrough- BLECH*!
With a bit of angry reluctance, Lily forced her ‘prey’ back up her throat and let her fall back to the ground, landing on her butt soaked through with the frog’s saliva. The cat girl coughed and sputtered, trying to wipe the slimy goop from her face, but only managed to draw long strings of drool between her fingers and her head.
“You’re lucky I didn’t have room for you,” Lily said spitefully. “This better teach you not to go spreading lies about me. Have fun cleaning my lunch out of your fur.” She turned and walked off, other students stepping out of the way to give her a wide berth.
“Hey Jack.”
The boy nearly jumped, but was ultimately relieved when he turned to see Fiona walking up to him.
“What happened here?” she asked.
“Lily tried to eat that girl,” he explained.
“Really? Another pred? Wow, that neko must have really pissed her off. Well at least no one tried to eat you this time. You know, I wish there was a way we could stay close by all the time, so I didn’t have to worry.”
“Fi, I know you mean well, but please never say that again.”
The werewolf looked at her friend with confusion.
“Let’s just get out of here,” he said.