#College

“So I’m having this party Saturday night, you should totally come. We’ll have beer and smokes. We’ll have a really good time.” Christiano charms the college girls. The only thing on his mind was stealing their soul essence to fuel his power. He found that it was a myth that virgins souls produced more energy, waste of his weekend last week, pulling those nerdy losers to his lair. No, what he needed was young and strong sexual desires to give him what he needed.
And these girls were just the ticket that he needed. He flirted along and played to the queues, as he had seen done time and time again. It was much easier when you can see their auras. Not as good as reading their minds, but close enough.
“Why wait till Saturday? We can totally ditch now and get this party started. Unless you’re all talk and no action.” The dark her seductress says. When this was all over, Christiano would enjoy her.
“I mean, I wouldn’t want to take you from your studies. Can’t have mommy and daddy finding out that your skipping class to party.”
Please take the bait. I would much rather do this now.
“I’m eighteen. I do what I want, besides. They are suckers for their little girl.” Yes! If she comes, then the rest will follow, just like the herd that they are. The rest chime in with affirmation. Only one has to decline. I guess she doesn’t have the wealthy parents the others have. No matter, the rest should be more than enough.
“Hey, Xiao! What are you doing here?” the one that escaped says. Christiano’s heart drops. What was Xiao doing here?
“You know, same ole same ole. Gonna pound someone’s face in.” Christiano tries to play it cool, but he can’t help but watch as Xiao walks around the corner and locks on to him. Being nudged to leave, Christiano follows the dark-haired one, but with a little too much haste.
“Hold up, don’t go so fast,” she calls out.
“Yeah, Chris. What’s the rush?” Xiao says, catching up unnaturally fast.
“You know me. I love to party.” He laughs nervously.
“Me too,” Xiao says, then looks over at the girls. Every girl on campus knows that look. The look of – beat it, this doesn’t concern you anymore. Commonly referred to as the Xiao special.
“I knew something was off with this guy. Did he charm us?” dark hair asks.
“Nah, just going to steal your soul for power, you know, normal warlock stuff.”
“That piece of shit! Get him good, Xiao.”
“That would be the plan,” Xiao says with a wave. Christiano tries to run off, just to have his wrist grabbed. When Xiao turns around and meets his gaze, she’s sporting the Qi vision, the one that allows her to predict the movement of others.
“I’m disappointed you thought that would work.”
“I thought you would appreciate the effort.”
“You’re right,” Xiao says, then punches him in the jaw. The hit is hard enough to take him to the ground. He falls on one of his wings on his way down. He puts his hands up in protest, hoping that will stop her from hitting him again.
“Okay, I’ll leave. You don’t have to hit me again.”
“But don’t I? I have this lovely sheet of paper with your name on it. It says to bring you back alive, but nothing about the condition you come in. It doesn’t even say anything about you being conscious or all of your limbs intact. Imagine that.”
“Okay, just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should.”
“Like how you shouldn’t have stolen a piece of a soul that belonged to a rich developer? His son has a remarkably close relationship with his dad. You can imagine that a smart kid like that knows how to look up a spell or two.”
Christiano didn’t think about that last weekend. Damn geeks, having healthy relationships with their parents. College is supposed to be about rebellion and getting away from your parents.
Christiano feels his head snap back into the brick wall behind him, with a quick jab to the face from Xiao, followed by about six more. He tries to guard himself, but the funny thing is when you have never trained for hand-to-hand combat, and a monk is attacking you, it’s tough to keep their attacks away.
Christiano cast one of the only instant spells he has. Blasting Xiao with a quick burst of dark energy. Xiao puts her hands up, and Christiano takes the opportunity to get up and fly away. One flap of his wings, then he feels her hand on his wing as she swings him face-first into the wall. He’s sure she broke something this time. Xiao is now laughing.
“Oh, thanks for the laugh. I didn’t think you would fall for the fake being blinded or that attack stung. You should know that I can’t see any variations of light when this is on. And you should know that my friends were more powerful casters than you in their teen years.”
“Okay, Xiao. I’ll go peacefully. You don’t have to pummel me.”
“I don’t have to, but I love my job.” Xiao smiles, and Christiano whimpers.
A crowd gathers while Xiao takes her, following two or three more punches. She’s disgusted at how little she got before he went out but figured at least she could get lunch now. Tossing the Angel over her shoulder, she calls for a pickup and heads to the food court. One of the students told her that they have an Orc making authentic Orcish street noodles. That’s something she didn’t want to miss.