Bill

I felt a pang of amusement and excitement. “This is extremely impressive. What is it exactly? It’s not quite magic, though it has magical elements.” I sat down at my desk to get a better view of her handy work.

“It’s a DNA mimic, with a kind of ignore spell. I get a sample of someone’s DNA, I can mimic what they look like and then have people ignore the details.” Her voice even held a light tenor and huskiness to it that did things to me in ways no student ever had.

“Ah, that’s what the rough edges were. Most of the details were there, but sometimes if I’d look at it just the right way I’d catch the seams of it. Still, quite impressive stuff.”

“Well, congratulations are in order, Professor. When would you like your next date?”

“You free this evening, or later this afternoon…. Or right now maybe?”

She still wore the student disguise as she slid into my lap then leaned down to kiss me.

I immediately felt attraction and serious warning vibes. I didn’t know the name of the student whose identity she had borrowed but the student was fairly attractive. The other thing I immediately noticed was that the magic wasn’t just surface level. When something solid pressed against me, my something solid responded in kind.

My halfhearted protest was lost with her mouth on mine. She was enticing in so many ways, but it made me wonder if this was an ethics violation. She may not be the real student, but Izabella definitely looked like my student. See, even as a demon, I have morals, they happen to be more flexible that’s all.

“Okay, wait, wait… this is all kinds of uh, wow, but this is a student here. I can’t. If he shows back up….”

“But what? You didn’t do anything wrong. It's not him.”

“But still. I need to be able to teach.”

“...Without getting distracted?”

“Yes, something like that,” I said but the kisses grew more insistent and she moved her hips which caused an all too familiar friction. She’s done this before, was the thought that went through my head. I was enticed by the possibilities but the student aspect finally decided me. I was prepared to push her away when Shelby opened my office door only after a quick knock and disregarded my response to give me a moment.

“Billy, how did it…. go?” At seeing the taboo in progress, Shelby came in and quickly closed the door.

“William Tennesson, you have ten seconds to explain what you are doing with Scott Michaels before I call campus security.”

Oh, great, now I had a name to go with the face. “Shelby, it’s not Scott Michaels.”

“Oh? Really? Scott, what are you doing here?”

“He asked me to stay after class,” Izabella, the successful mimic said. “I, uh, thought it was an invitation for another date.” She used the same voice she had earlier and the smaller demon in my pants twitched.

“You’ve been dating a student, Bill?” Shelby said. She sounded pissed and disappointed at the same time.

“No, Shelby. It’s Izabella, my date from Friday. Look for the magic. It’s not Scott Michaels. I know that much.”

She squinted and then her eyes grew wide. “I’ll be damned. That’s impressive stuff.”

“Very,” I said dryly. I managed to put Izabella back on her feet and stand up since I was no longer afraid of revealing my intentions toward the Scott-Izabella mimic. The disappointment in Shelby’s voice had gratefully taken care of that.

Izabella pulled off her ball cap with a flourish and dropped the magic. Shelby clapped and Izabella took a slight bow. They shook hands and started chatting like I wasn’t there. I cleared my throat to gain their attention.

“Well, I’ll let you two alone,” Shelby walked back toward the door. She motioned for me to call her later. I nodded.

“Would you like to head out?” I asked.

“Sure,” Izabella said.

The day was a little overcast, but it didn’t look like rain. Izabella donned a long trench coat, with a hood that she put up. I gave it an odd look until I remembered that water burned her. I was surprised I hadn’t seen her wear it before.

“Is that new?”

“No, but sometimes it looks out-of-place so I don’t wear it if I need to blend in.”

“That’s a pretty big risk, isn’t it?”

“Sometimes.” She glanced out of the hood of the coat and I was rewarded with the hint of a smile.

We kept walking in the general direction of my apartment building. I didn’t live too far from campus. I opened the outer door and we walked up to my apartment on the third floor. Once we were inside, she shed her coat and I dropped my things on the couch and indicated she could do the same with her coat.

“Wine?”

“Certainly.”

I pulled out the same cup with the straw that she used for orange juice the last time she was over. I filled it with a quarter pour, then filled a glass for myself. I closed the cup and handed it to her.

“You remembered.” She took the cup and carefully took a sip. She seemed to savor it.

“You are unforgettable in a lot of ways. Do you like it?”

“Yes. This one has a nice dry, fruity flavor. But I like red wines in general.”

I was hesitant to ask, but what happened in my office made me wonder. “That mimic effect, that was a bit more realistic than I realized.”

She smiled, “Oh? Liked what you saw?”

I swallowed past the tightness in my throat, “I’ll admit it was tempting to find out if the illusion held up completely.”

“Oh, it would have. All except for body fluids. My internals don’t match the externals, but everything would have worked in the mechanical sense.”

“That has to be expensive, very tailored magic. I’ve known a great many people that would prefer to be someone other than themselves for any number of reasons.”

“It is tailored to me, and the magic only lasts for an hour at most. Plus, some of the tech involved is experimental, if not a bit illegal.”

There was something she was leaving out, but I didn’t press her for more. “Are the people you borrowed DNA from all right?”

“Perfectly. I only had to find samples and people leave samples all over the place. It was fairly easy to acquire what I needed without their knowledge.”

“Which is illegal.” We both said at the same time and laughed.

It was an interesting kind of theft. I let the temptation of it spin out in my head for a minute. I took a deep breath and put it aside.

“So, what would you like to do this evening?” Izabella asked.