Looking for Love (1of 2)

When I turned and looked, I saw Gideon. His hair perfect, his smile gleaming. He was like a model that the outside world could not touch. "I have been looking for you." He repeated.

I felt my heart rate increase and I could not take my eyes off his. His eyes were so blue. His lips were…. I shuttered and tried to collect myself, "I.. I.. got to tooo go." I stammered. Then I turned and ran away ignoring his alluring voice calling out my name. A few times I wanted to turn around but caught myself before I did. Was puberty screwing with my head? I felt warm and cold at the same time and did not stop running until I was in my room.

I tried reading after I calmed myself down, but I found myself thinking about him. When I finally fell asleep, he haunted my dreams.

***

It has been a month since I first saw Gideon at school. We have a weird cat and mouse game going on. He has been trying to get me alone and I have been avoiding him to the best of my ability. It is harder than it sounds. Gideon turned out to be a prince of our nation. Girls flocking to him and me shunning him has caused some girls to become angry at first. It took me a week of talking to them. I had to explain that I was not interested in him and that one less person trying to become his bride should increase the odds of all the others. That gave me "forgiveness" from most of the girls.

I did not understand what he was doing. My mind would become foggy every time he was near me and I finally noticed that my charm resistance had been increasing. It was already up to eight. This is what confused me. As a prince, my family had zero power to stop him from making me a bride or concubine. Why would he even bother charming me if he could just put pressure on my family? On top of that there were dozens of girls ready to bed the overly handsome jerk.

I am currently hiding away in the library. I have never seen him here so I was feeling pretty safe. That was until a pudgy hand caressed my shoulder. I jumped up and away from whoever was behind me, only to see the prince staring back at me. I drooled like I had the most delicious food was in front of me. I felt the anger I held dwindle in front of his dazzling looks. I needed to leave before my brain became mush. My leg already felt like jelly and I had a fire burning in me that I knew he could quench.

That was the other issue. The more I see him the more I reacted against common sense. I felt like Pavlov's dog except my drooling was not over food. Oh how I hated him when he was not in front of me. I did not even bother trying to talk anymore. I just dodged around Gideon and headed to the nearest exit. He did not give chase. He never did. Glancing back I noticed that even his cruel smile looked so good on him. I saw a +1 resistance window flash open and closed. I almost never saw them because I was staring at him so intently that everything else is lost.

The reason I have been in the library was to find a cure to what he was doing. The anti-charm potion idea I had will not outlast him. At most I could make six of them and they only last an hour per potion. He has been doing this for a month! I tried filing a complaint but was told I had no proof and should not accuse royalty unless I did not value my life. I asked Bella and Lilly but was assured that the prince was an upright man that would never do such things. Then they just said I had puppy love. As if!!! What I had was a huge issue and no way to fix it.

I materialized my wings as soon as I was outside. At this point I did not care if people saw my undies. I just wanted to hide and the rooftops may offer the sanctuary I crave. I flew up to the library roof and peaked over to see if he left yet. I saw him come out five minutes later with a girl and they began to look around. Prying my eyes off of him I checked out the girl. Was she the one that told him I was here or was she a victim of that charm of his? She acted like an accomplice but I knew if I gave in I would also do whatever he said to make him happy. Maybe I could just drop one of these statues onto his head and crush that sultry body.

Shaking off my bloody fantasy, I focused on the girl again. Her health window was like Victoria's and had question marks all through it.

Stacy

?o?l P???n

?h????d

??ak??e?

F???g??d

I saw a few more people that can block me from seeing their health windows. It bothered me. I do not even know why. Perhaps it was just because I got use to the function. I was just happy that it was not a lot of people. The fact that Gideon was with one of them bothered me even more. At least I knew her name which means I have met her at least once. I might be able to use her to get to him. That is assuming I can figure out how to stop him from charming me into his bed. By the time I came out of my little bedroom fantasy they were nowhere in sight. I felt disgusted with myself. The longer this goes on the weaker my resolve becomes and the more I notice men in general. Since I liked girls before and had no feelings for men, my feelings were a mess.

I knew I had to hide out for an hour for the effect to go away. Until then, I would eye the teens like they were top swimsuit models and that in itself was uncomfortable, especially when the influence wore off. If I fell asleep before that hour I would dream of Gideon all night long and being a healthy male teen my mind used all that porn knowledge to full effect. For the next hour my thoughts kept going from 'I am going to make that bastard pay for this' to 'I wonder if he has a six pack or an eight pack'.

Once I got over my schizophrenic thoughts. I went back to reading everything I could on charm magic and anti-charm items and potions. My thought was if I could make a permanent enchantment I could wear to counter his spell then I could deal with him. Sadly, the only one I found so far was so expensive that a commoner like myself could never afford it. The school would not even think of giving me a loan for millions of gold coins so I needed something cheaper or a way to stop Gideon from charming others. Perhaps if I poked out his eyes…

***

I spent the next week in class or stalking Gideon from the rooftops. Only the air mages knew I was up here but for whatever reason they did not warn him. I counted my blessings. I found out that I really, really stink at stalking. He would walk into a crowd and vanish. He would turn a corner and by the time I turned the corner he was no longer in sight. After a full week, I was no closer to knowing anything about how he was charming me. I did see a boy and a girl that could block their health windows so I could not read them but while that was interesting it was unimportant compared to dealing with prince charming.

He, on the other hand, was extremely good at stalking. He tracked me down in the lunch room and loudly declared that he was going to woo me. Blair and Lilly literally shrieked, and I blushed so damn hard I thought I was going to pass out. Oddly enough, I did not feel the charm working that time so I could keep a cool head and told him not to bother. He had one of his lackeys bring over a rose to him, took it away and then tried to hand it to me. That was the first time that week, but variations of that scene replayed in romantic fashion in the classroom, the training ground, library, the front of the freaking dorm, basically, anywhere there was a crowd. His charm got me three more times during those confessions. I even took the damn flower once before I came to my senses and ran off.

I was at my wits end and I could not figure out what his plan was or how to counter it.

***

A man in a stylish business suit, went room to room whistling. His delight would spread happiness to all that saw him. Sadly, there was only a pretty lady, in a nurse's uniform, that was following him. "Any other issues to report?"

"No sir, only the five died this week"

"Excellent, keep up the good work." Micatlan said. He continued to inspect the rooms. His steps were light and his happiness never wavered. 'Without those two interfering there is nothing stopping me.'