"What's wrong, babe HOLY SHIT!"
Zoe looked askance at her undead friend, whose jaw had just about hit the floor.
"Heath, what's the matter? I just felt a little faint, that's all!"
"Like hell that's all, Zoe!"
"What do you mean? Tell me!"
"Babe, maybe I'm going crazy, but refresh my memory here. What's immune to hexes?"
"Immune to Warlock Cock? Well, guys are, but I can tell it didn't turn me into a guy. Undead are, because it can't change dead flesh, but I can still feel my pulse."
"Jesus, Zoe, listen to me a second. Don't tell me what's immune to warlock cock, tell me what's immune to hexes."
Zoe winced a little when Heath said "Jesus", and she wasn't sure why. She thought for a second, then answered him.
"Well, hexes are black magic, and, well, it's said they're harmless against those that first taught them to mankind..."
"Come on, Zoe, you're a smart girl, put two and two together."
"Demons. Demons are immune to hexes."
"Damned straight girl, now go to the mirror and tell me what you see."
Zoe went to the mirror, and immediately let loose a string of obscenities.
"Goddamn it! It made me my human self again?"
"Not exactly, Zoe. Look closer."
Sure enough, as she looked, she saw she wasn't exactly back to the way she was before her Chrysalis. The differences were subtle. Her ears were slightly pointed, her eyebrows oddly arched, her hair coming to a sharp widow's peak, with a new unnatural streak of scarlet. Her canines were little demi-fangs, and a frantic look down her nightshirt revealed the presence of a new third nipple on her left breast.
She was herself, but with the devil's marks, all the signs of being a demon masquerading in human form.
"Hmm," she said, a little too casually for Heath's taste, "this could prove...interesting..."
"I I need to find a mate."
"Jesus, Karyn, we just had our first kiss tonight. Isn't this moving a little fast?"
"You said you wouldn't freak out!"
"I'm not! It's just, well, isn't it a little soon for the biological clock to start ticking? We're just teenagers!"
"It doesn't have to do with that, Jon. It's hard to explain."
"Try me. Couldn't be weirder than half the stuff we've been through in the past day or so."
"Well, for starters, even though I'm still me, we expanded the definition of 'me' to include me as a wolf, right?"
"Right. Go on."
"Well, about wolves, they go into heat regularly."
Jon suppressed a chuckle.
"Don't laugh! I'm deadly serious."
"Yeah, but isn't that like once a year?"
"Yes, it's called estrus. Coincides with menstruation, which wolves do about once a year as well."
"So no rush, eh?"
"Wrong. I still menstruate monthly. If anything, I'm regular as clockwork now because the moon influences me. That means..."
"Shit."
"You guessed it. Estrus once a month too."
"But isn't that something a few cold showers can fix?"
"I can't be sure, Jon. What if I make an ass out of myself? Could you take me hitting on guys randomly just because I'm feeling randy?"
"But how does a mate enter in?"
"Well, that's another thing about wolves. They mate for life, and the estrus is controllable if they have a mate. I..."
"Come on, Karyn, spit it out."
"Jon, you're the only guy I trust enough to ask to be my mate, to help me control this when the full moon comes around."
"So you're asking me to make hot sweaty monkey love to you once a month? Come on, Karyn, you'd rip me to shreds!"
"It's not like that. I...I'd need to bite you, so you'd be a werewolf too, but most mated pairs don't even remember the night of the full moon. They just go, do their business, and forget the whole thing."
"And the rest of the time?"
"The rest of the time we'd...we'd just be boyfriend and girlfriend, and we'd do normal things, and we'd proceed at a normal pace for our relationship. Promise."
"This is a lot to think about..."
