Dating Dracula, Jr

by Minda Webber

  I was so caught up in his kiss that I didn’t worry about getting my tongue cut on his fangs. I felt his arms grip me more tightly around my back and my hands went up to his thick blonde hair. His hair was so soft and I loved running my fingers through its thickness.

  Suddenly, I could feel goose bumps breaking out on my arm while my toes actually curled. Miraculously, I felt something warm curl up inside me and fly free. I couldn’t help but think, that wasn’t it romantic to be young on a night like this, on a night when a kiss suddenly became something new and treasured?

  Finally Dagan pulled away from me and I just looked up at him, my eyes wide with wonder. “Oh V.J…V.J.”

  I leaned back, my heart pounding in my chest. I felt like I had run a mile.

  “I’ve never felt like this after a kiss before,” he said thoughtfully, his breathing a little strained. “I can’t believe it. I meet this beautiful girl robbing my grave.”

  “It beats dying by wasp.”

  He grinned and I smiled. The kiss was something else.

  “I’m barely dead, sent to the wrong city, attacked by ghouls and vampires and I meet the girl of my dreams. It’s crazy.”

  I could feel my stomach clench when he said the “girl of his dream”’. Did he really feel something special for me, or was I just an available girl in an attic when the music of the night brought out the romantic in him?

  I looked back at him and he reached out and pulled me close as he placed his arms around my waist. My arms automatically went around his neck. This time the kiss lasted longer and was sweeter, so sweet that I wondered if my toes would uncurl before morning.

  He finally drew back, breathing heavy, and set me away from him. “V.J, V.J, you’re something else. And you better go now, before I forget you’re still sweet sixteen and I’m under your dad’s roof. I would be abusing his hospitality if we kept this up.” He glanced away, embarrassed, I think. “Besides, we’ve got our boat loaded with problems enough without adding more to the mix.”

  I knew he was right and I also knew that I wasn’t going to do anything more than kiss. I wouldn’t. I hadn’t been raised that way- to value myself lightly and give something away in the heat of the moment that I could never take back. “I know. It wouldn’t be fair to my dad. He probably won’t find out, but still, my parents trust me and once trust is lost, it’s hard to regain.”

  “It’s bad enough that you’re keeping a vampire under wraps.”

  I nodded and he smiled at me, his blue eyes glowing. “You were raised with the old values too, then. Trust is everything between those who love and those who serve. But I wouldn’t expect anything less from a Frankenstein.”

  I smiled too, wanting him to kiss me again and wanting to forget that we had a big mess to figure out before anybody got hurt. “I’ll be seventeen in late November.”

  He laughed but stayed away from me, his arms crossed across his chest. I kept my distance too, even though I wanted just one more kiss. Still, I’d been kissed by royalty, but mostly I’d been kissed by Dagan. I couldn’t wait to tell my best friends, although I’d keep quiet for a while around Debbs. Our mutual staring contest was interrupted by a shout from downstairs.

  “V.J, where are you?”

  “My sister, Roxie,” I groaned. “She reminds me of a wart, irritating, but attached.”

  He cracked up laughing. “I know, I have a little sister too.”

  “Listen, I better go. We can’t have her coming up here.”

  “Sleep well, my gray-eyed Frankenstein girl.”

  I smiled and opened the door. “We’ll be in bed in about an hour. My dad will work for about two hours in his lab and then go to bed. Then the lab is clear. There’s blood in the second refrigerator on the left.” My dad always kept blood in the refrigerator due to his work. “I’ll see you tomorrow night.”

  He hesitated as if he were thinking to try and stop me from helping him, but finally nodded.

  “Promise?”

  “Yeah, V.J. I’ll meet you tomorrow night out by your garage under the big oak.”

  “Gotcha.” I closed the door to the sound of my heart beating happily. I had a new boyfriend-sort of. It didn’t matter that he was a vampire. All was good with my world. If only my little sister would shut up and we could figure out why everyone was out to kill us, life might pretty well be perfect.

  “V.J!” She shouted again. I could hardly wait until she was old enough to have a boyfriend. It would be payback time. Big time.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  It was a great day. Last night I had gotten kissed by maybe the love-of-my-life and today I was in my favorite class. I had secrets to tell and my other best friend was sitting next to me. We were also doing dissecting, a fascinating thing to me. I loved to see how body parts worked. I know, a chip off my old Frankenstein block. Like father, like daughter.

  Yesterday in biology lab we had named our frog Jeremiah before we dissected him. He is a big fat grandfather of a frog. He looked grand in our lab tray, while the teacher made some comments, which were rather dry. Today we had a substitute teacher for first period biology. Joy to me and Bea, because a sub meant we could talk more in the science lab while we labeled the inside of the frog on the diagram the sub had given us.

  Beatrice Franklin was my other best friend. Although Franklin is a common name, Bea is related to the royalty of Franklins. Yep, Ben Franklin. I know a Frankenstein, Van Helsing and a Franklin, who all hung out together and were all best friends, might be considered an odd combination by some. It was Founding Fathers and Founding Monsters, but our personalities meshed perfectly.

  “You forgot to label the heart,” Bea said, as she glanced down at the drawing that was placed in front of me. Bea Franklin was also a junior, short, at least three inches shorter than I was, and slender with a tiny little waist. Bea had sandy brown hair that was cut just below her shoulders and deep jade green eyes, which were almost too large for her sharply pointed face. She would never be a great beauty, but she was extremely attractive like a pretty elf. She was as smart as Jason and on the school newspaper. But most of all, Bea was forever inventing useful stuff like neon eyeliner that didn’t wash off if it got pizza sauce on it or a cell phone that would take notes in history class, then spit out what would most likely be on the history test for the week and stuff like that.

  We always took science together and most years won the yearly science award for the school. Two years ago we won the statewide competition with our science experiment. We had worked on cellular regeneration and had an eel growing an ear on its head. Everyone was very impressed and we even got to meet the governor.

  Unfortunately, last year we made a volcano that accidently erupted so strongly that it blew out two of the vents in the lab and broke a lot of beakers. But it was a sight to see. Did I forget to mention that we hated our science teacher last year? This year the school board voted that we couldn’t do our science project together. Which was silly, we loved our science teacher this year, Ms. Emily. She was a good teacher and smart. She let us throw pennies at her when we didn’t like her lecture. Well, after the first time we threw pennies, she insisted on quarters. See, I told you she was smart. By keeping us occupied in quarter-pitching and planning for her retirement all at the same time, she was sharp.

  As Bea and I worked on the frog labeling, I had been telling her all about last night. I mentioned the ghouls, the death race, the morgue, hostile vampires and the Prince of Darkness’s grandson rescuing me from being ghoul food; just your usual best-friends-are-forever, kind of girl talk. “I really wish I could have been there,” Bea remarked wistfully. Her stepmother, though only married to a Franklin the last seven years, took the Franklin name to heart. Bea couldn’t go with us last night because her stepmother was too concerned with keeping up the family name.

  If we had been after George Washington’s or Thomas Jefferson’s corpse it might be okay, but not just a plain old corpse. Bea’s stepmother was kind of like a Mayflower snob even thoug
h they didn’t come over on the Mayflower. Her father was almost as bad. They wouldn’t let Bea go with us on any graveyard or ghost haunts, since they thought it was beneath the dignity of a Franklin to get involved with dead people. Bea, of course, had other ideas. She was always upset with her stepmother for not letting her join in with what she called the Frankenstein games. “I can’t believe I missed all the fun again.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Trust me, it wasn’t that much fun. You know I hate ghouls! And look at Jason. He got bit. Not to mention Debbs and I are bruised, Hart got bit by a vampire and both Debbs and I got scratched by vampires, nasty scratches too.”

  “Well, besides that, I always miss the good stuff,” she said as she sighed again wistfully. “When I turn eighteen, we are going to hit every cemetery between here and Houston.”

  This time I sighed. I had been to every cemetery between here and Houston, so that was nothing exciting for me. Certainly nothing new.

  “Just think, you unearthed a descendant of Dracula last night and oh, you misspelled that last word.” Bea was looking back down at the frog diagram we were labeling.

  “And I almost got eaten.” Still, there was a silver cloud in every lining, my mom always said, or a vampire prince in every cloak, I guessed. “But you’re right. You should have seen Dagan take on that ghoul. He made dog meat out of it, just like that.” I snapped my fingers.

  Bea shook her head. “Something strange is going on in the neighborhood and it’s not ghosts. Monsters, monsters everywhere and not a one to question.”

  “Oh yeah,” I replied. I knew just what she was talking about. Someone had set us up to get eaten by ghouls or if not eaten, at least hurt badly. “I wish I knew who hired the black magic.” We had already racked our brains trying to figure out who had it in for us to do something that underhanded and nasty.

  “Seth and I are the only ones that knew where you guys were going, besides your graveyard contact. So I’m betting somebody heard you telling me in the library yesterday.”

  “That makes sense.” Bea and I were trying to find a certain research book on ghosts yesterday in the library when I had told her about the mascot hunt. With all those shelves and books around, it would have been easy for someone to hide and listen to us.

  “I think I remember Julie Nault standing over by the gremlin section. I’ll see if she remembers anybody lurking around. I have her in my last period class.”

  “Good.” Bea was always observant- a Franklin habit. She also had the determination of a Rottweiler. Once she got something in her teeth, she didn’t let it go.

  I finished labeling the frog as I glanced over at the sub. She was busy helping Calum Wiseman finish dissecting his frog. “We’re going to check out the River Walk Haunted House downtown on the River Walk. My informant Rhonda is working there tonight.”

  “I think I can go to the haunted house,” Bea said thoughtfully. “My stepmom let me go last year.”

  “I can use your help. Jason’s not going since his arm is bothering him from the ghoul bite. He isn’t even at school today. Seth still’s busted and stuck home at night except for football games, so that leaves you, me, Debbs, Hart and Dagan.”

  “You think it will be dangerous?” she asked her eyes bright with suppressed excitement.

  “I hope not,” I replied. I’d had enough excitement last night to last me at least two or three weeks.

  “Beatrice Franklin, you are talking too much. Have you finished your diagram yet?” the substitute teacher asked. “And you too, Victoria Frankenstein.”

  We both rolled our eyes at our full first names being called out. Neither of us were crazy about our first names. They were both so old-fashioned. “Yes, we have,” we both answered. I held up the diagram which was completed.

  “Very well, talk softer then.” The substitute went back to pointing out some labels that Avonlea Reid and Lauren Ramirez had missed on their diagram of the frog.

  “Bea, I need to tell you something, but you can’t tell Debbs.” I looked around the room making sure nobody was paying attention.

  Bea looked at me funny. The three of us had no secrets from each other.

  I felt guilty, but I was dying to tell somebody about the kiss. I just couldn’t keep it to myself any more. I was about to burst like an overripe tomato. “I’ll tell Debbs, but not yet.”

  “Okay, what gives?” she asked curiously. It was unusual for me to keep secrets from either Debbs or Bea. If one us knew a secret the other two knew as well.

  “Well, Dagan kissed me last night,” I said, feeling better getting that off my chest. I couldn’t help but grin. “He really laid one on me.” I would tell Debbs, but I’d wait at least until she got over her little snit about Dagan being a vampire. We were too good of friends for her to stay peeved at me for very long over something like a boyfriend with fangs, even if it was her family’s arch-enemy.

  Bea’s eyes grew round with excitement. “He kissed you! Was it good? Does he kiss like royalty? Did he kiss you more than once?”

  I giggled. If there is one family more cursed with curiosity than the Frankensteins, it’s the Franklins. If you think the Frankensteins are curious, you should hear the questions tumbling from the Franklins. They never shut up like why didn’t the Founding Fathers of vampires write a Constitution or which vampire said “give me a coffin or give me death.”

  “It was very good,” I started, then stopped a moment trying to describe it. “I can’t tell you what it was like because it was the best, the most amazing kiss ever. And what the heck does royalty kiss like anyway?”

  Bea looked embarrassed. “I don’t know, but it’s just really so sweet, he kissed you and he’s Dracula’s grandson. Hey, he didn’t try to bite you, did he?” She started bopping her head this way and that as she looked at my neck.

  “Oh Bea, come off it. He didn’t bite me. Just kissed me some.”

  “More than once?”

  “Yeah,” I said with a silly grin on my face. “I like him, I mean I really like him. More than anybody…ever.” He makes me feel like I am the most important person in the world. His kisses make me feel like mushy warm chocolate with little butterflies.” I think I was a little crazy about him. Maybe more than a little crazy.

  Her pretty green eyes grew wider. “You like him, I mean really, really like him.” She grinned happily. “Maybe you’ll fall in love with him. A Dracula and a Frankenstein, they could make a movie about it or write a book. You will be famous in the supernatural community and probably even the human one.”

  “I will not.” I denied it. “At least, probably not.” It was too soon, wasn’t it, to fall head over heels in love? Especially since he was a vampire and my other best friend was a vampire hunter and I had ghouls on my trail and somebody wanted me to get hurt or dead and I didn’t know who yet. My life was too messed up at the moment to be thinking about love.

  “You’re crazy about him,” Bea said firmly. Then she smiled. “A prince. Does he have a brother or a cousin?”

  We both laughed. Like Bea’s stepmom would let her date a vampire. I mean, hell would be frozen solid before that happened and the Devil would be ice skating. Of course, there was that one time when the Devil tried to bribe the Olympic Ice Skating team of Russia. Of course, being Russian they just swigged some vodka and then spit at the Devil. To say he was red-faced with anger and waving his pitchfork around, would be an understatement, so I won’t mention it and the fact that it occurred on national news coverage as the ice rink melted.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  The pep rally was starting in about ten minutes. I was on my way when I noticed a gang of girls harassing a freshman again. It was the gruesome twosome, Carol Jonewell and Robbie Lerue. They were the instigators and had five of their flunkies surrounding the poor kid. I think I had seen them picking on the same freshman last week when I was driving off campus. The freshman wasn’t very cute, with dishwasher-blonde colored hair and thick black glasses. She hadn’t outgrown her baby fat and her
hair was too short and cut wrong, but in a couple of years, she’d probably be pretty cute.

  Still, it didn’t matter what she looked like, she didn’t deserve to be taunted by seven other girls all standing in a semi-circle around her. Well, I guess it was Frankenstein to the rescue. I can’t stand to see anybody get picked on because they are different. I also can’t stand to see Robbie doing the picking.

  Robbie Lerue, was my arch enemy, my mortal foe, a Parisian werewolf in Texas. She had that cute little accent, which made my own Southwestern drawl sound all drawn out and like a hick. Her eyes were a deep brown; I liked to think of them as the color of really old mud. Her hair was so black it was almost blue and hung halfway down her back in puffy little curls. She was taller than I was by two inches and she swayed like a model when she walked. (I can be honest on occasion).

  She hated me from the very first day she started school with us when she was in seventh grade. I beat her out of Class Favorite that year and the next. She got back at me by getting on the student council in high school, so that when we voted for school’s favorites like Most Beautiful, Best Human Athlete, Best Paranormal Athlete, Most Popular, Most Scary Paranormal and Most Likely to Suceed, she cheated and wrote out enough ballots so that she would win two of the awards. That meant Debbs lost out and Bea.

  Robbie is also a cheerleader and tries to make our lives a misery whenever she can in cheerleading stuff. She also tells lies about me, Debbs and Bea. Not to mention that she tries to steal away anyone we like as boyfriends. At least I can give Jason a pat on the back, since she tried that on him when we were going out and he was so on to her. Jason cleverly ignored her while he was dating me and even afterwards.

  Even though she’s kind of cute-at least that was what my freshman boyfriend said just before she gobbled him up. She really did. He became a werewolf because of her when they got too carried away making out. (I always suspect more to the story, like what else was she doing besides kissing?) Anyway, she took the love of my life for the freshman year and turned him into something that got furry and howled.