Glory St. Clair is mentoring new vampire Penny. When the teen manages to "whammy" the frat guy who'd been indirectly responsible for her becoming vampire into asking her for a date, Glory trails them to a movie theater where they watch the latest vampire flick. The pair almost give Glory the slip when they leave the theater before the movie is over and head to Penny's apartment. It seems the fledgling has something more than a simple date in mind and Glory's afraid the new vampire will go too far.

"Open up, Penny, or I'll knock it down." The door jerked open and Penny stood there, her fangs gleaming in the light from a dozen candles. "What the hell are you doing here?" Penny growled. "Thought you'd given me the slip? As if." I shoved past her to see Josh sitting on the couch, the telltale look on his face that meant she'd whammied him. Yep, my little fledgling had put the guy into a trance. I didn't see fang marks yet. I turned and reached behind her to slam the door shut. "First, you tell me. Why the whammy, Penny? What's Josh going to do while you have him under your little spell?" I stared hard at her. "What do you think? That I'm so desperate I've got to put a guy in a trance before he'll have sex with me?" She flounced over to the couch and sat close to him, even put her hand on his thigh. "I'll have you know he was all over me before I did this to him." "Yeah, I'm sure he got the message that you were good to go when you agreed to leave the movie before it was over." I sat across from her in a sagging leather chair. A fat orange cat stared at me from under a table across the room. I ignored it. "I'd seen it before. Jenny dragged me to it the first week it was out. I wasn't into vampires then and this time I could see how fake it was." She rubbed Josh's leg. "Isn't he cute? He offered to take me to the vamp movie because he'd heard girls like it. You did such a great job of making me look good, he couldn't keep his hands off me." "You do look good." I shook my head. "But then you had to screw things up, didn't you?"

Penny frowned. "What do you mean? You're the one who burst in here, checking up on me."

"Come on. Admit it. Josh is sitting there looking zoned out for only one reason." I leaned forward and gave Penny a hard look. "Despite my warning, you were about to test drive your fangs on this mortal, weren't you? You think I can't see them?"

Penny swallowed and looked everywhere but at me. Finally she turned, chin up. "Yeah, so what? I can control myself. I'm not your ordinary fledgling, Glory. I can do this. Watch me." She put her hand on his jugular.

"Stop right there." I gripped her wrist. "This isn't some intellectual exercise, damn it. This is bloodlust. Your eyes are dilated. Your fangs are down and I can see you're about to lose it."

"So?" Penny snarled. "Feel him. He's so incredibly warm and that's his heart pounding under my hand. Then there's the smell." She inhaled and a look of near ecstasy came over her face. "God, but he's, he's driving me crazy. He's alive!"

I kept my grip on her, though she was trying to pull away. "Forget it, Penny. You can't do it. Let him go. Plant the idea in his mind that he liked you, but he can't call you again because you dumped him. You just can't forgive him for leaving you on that hilltop. It's the right thing to do."

"No. I want to see him again. He—he makes me feel alive." She leaned against him, gasping when he fell over to land on the couch. "Geez, this is ridiculous." She grabbed him and straightened him back to a sitting position.

"That's because he's basically unconscious with his eyes open." I sat on his other side to keep him propped up. "Give it up, Penny. Don't you think it's a little creepy to accept a date with a guy and then take advantage of him by drinking his blood?"

"Maybe." Penny showed me her fangs. "But he left me on that hilltop, you know. So maybe he owes me this. I can hear the blood going through his veins, his heart pumping. It's calling to me. I . . . I want it. Need it. Bloodlust? What the hell? It's fantastic." She kept brushing her thumb over his jugular, then leaned in and inhaled again before she shuddered, forcing herself to sit back.

I knew what she meant. Wasn't immune myself. But I'd had a long, long time to gain control over my urges. In a way, I almost envied her the newness of this experience. But it was a dangerous thing, easy to get out of hand.

"Slow down, Penny. I get it, I really do. But you're letting your baser instincts take over. That's not like you, is it?" Not according to what she'd told me, this genius teen.

"Maybe becoming vampire has changed more about me than just my sleeping and drinking habits." Penny sighed, still staring at Josh like he was the last cookie in the jar. "Come on, Glory, you saw that movie. So much blood. Is it weird that it made me thirsty?"

"No. Even though I knew it was all faked, it made me thirsty too. But I can ignore my thirst when I have to." I wondered if I should give in on this. At least I was here to stop her before anything too drastic happened. "You had two bottles of synthetic before your date. You aren't really hungry, Penny, just drawn to the real deal. Am I right?"

Penny frowned like she was doing a gut check. "Guess so." She kept stroking his jugular. "I can feel his pulse. So strong, so warm."

"I may be sorry, but I'm going to teach you how to drink from a mortal safely. Even I realize I can't dog you every waking moment." I glanced at Josh. He was a healthy mortal, a fairly big guy who could spare a pint or two.

"No, you can't. Better to train me than to just ignore the fact that I'm going to have this bloodlust issue." Penny actually smiled, sure she'd won something here. "Do I just lay his head back?" She gazed at him hungrily. "Oh, God, thanks, Glory. I thought I was going to have to fight you for him."

"And that wouldn't have ended well, Penny." I didn't say that I knew I could take her. Let her keep her illusions. "Forget the neck for now. Too dangerous. Pick up his wrist." I grabbed his other arm for a demo. "Find his vein. You can see it and feel it, of course. Easy, isn't it?"

"Sure, it's practically calling my name." She pulled his arm up close to her mouth and her eyes closed. "Mmm."

"Now open your mouth and your fangs will know what to do." I sighed, not allowing myself to join in on the fun. "I'll tell you when to stop and you'll obey me if I have to physically pull you off to get you to do it."

"Got it. I don't want to kill him, Glory." Penny's hand was shaking as she held his wrist. When her fangs sank in, she was obviously surprised. Then her eyes closed and she moaned. I didn't need to read her mind. A new vampire's appreciation of real blood bordered on orgasmic. Penny gulped and sighed and clung to Josh's arm like she'd never let it go. But I knew she'd have to and well before she'd want to.