Bite Me Harder (Guardians of the Deep 2)

“You know what we need?” Kalina said, playing along with her friend’s demented mentality. “We need a super villain.”

“We’re not super heroes,” Faith said, then laughed and grabbed a beer out of the hand of a good-looking guy to their left.

The guy scoffed at her.

“What?” she said. “Buy a lady a beer.”

“You buy a lady a beer,” he said in a feminine voice as he snatched it back out of her hand. “Better yet, go buy your own damn beer.”

“Catty,” Faith said.

“Thanks,” he replied.

They smiled at each other and just like that, all animosity floated away on the smoke-filled breeze. Kalina watched a few embers drift from the top of the bonfire and thought they looked like lovers escaping their fiery past and waltzing into the night. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Faith laughing along with her new friend. Kalina admired Faith’s ability to be the biggest bitch on the planet and still walk away unscathed from any situation. It was a true and rare talent.

Kalina returned her attention to the floating embers and caught new ones beginning their midair dance. The music was great, the beat was sensual, and the crowd was in good spirits.

“We should move closer to the fire,” Kalina suggested. “The guys are so much hotter over there.”

“Hotter? As in because it’s hot near the fire?” Faith said. “You’re a fucking dork.”

Kalina held a hand up to her mouth to stifle her laughter, trying not to spit out her beer.

“And I still don’t get the need to wear glasses,” Faith added. “You don’t need them.”

“I heard boys like girls with glasses now.”

“Boys?”

“Men,” Kalina corrected herself. “I heard men like women with glasses.”

“Whatever,” Faith said, shooing her away with the flip of a wrist. “Men like a warm mouth and a wet twat. Besides, wouldn’t glasses get in the way of a blowjob?”

Kalina hadn’t given that any thought. She hadn’t left the island with intentions of giving a blowjob, so it didn’t seem important. She fidgeted with the glasses, tugging softly at the rims and wondering how she would get the job done with them on her face. Surely girls who wore glasses didn’t always remove them.

Faith’s right. You are a dork. Stop thinking so much.

“What you need is a man,” Faith said. “Temporary or long-term. Temporary is probably better. Long-term is dull. Lame…like this party.”

“Enough about the party,” Kalina said. “It’s not so bad. I’ve seen a few cute boys.”

“Men,” Faith reminded her again.

“Men,” Kalina repeated.

Kalina wished there was someone on the island she could couple up with, but they were all either taken already, not her type, or gay. At least she thought Oliver might be gay. He’d never been with a woman, or even spoken about one, as far as she remembered.

“Know any of our kind who are single?” Kalina asked.

Sure, she could have fucked a human guy, but then she’d run the risk of him finding out who and what she really was. Hiding her true self seemed like too much work. Of course, humans knew paranormal shifters existed, but humans were still weird about the whole thing. Most of the time it seemed as if they preferred to pretend they didn’t exist. Kalina could understand that in some ways. She could imagine being an older human and finding out her daughter was dating a wolf or a great white. That would be quite frightening.

“I can’t think of any males of our kind who aren’t already with someone, other than maybe Oliver, but I’m pretty sure he’s not into our kind,” Faith said as she gestured at Kalina and herself with a finger going back and forth between them.

“Hey, I know that guy!” Faith said. “If we hang out with him and his buddies, this’ll be the wild night you wanted. Be right back.”

“Wait,” Kalina said.

Faith leaned into her shoulder and said, “Don’t look now, but it seems like you’ve caught someone’s eye. Over there. He’s pretty hot too. If you don’t claim him, I swear I will.”