Ellie Doyle and the Anti-Vampire League

by Alexandria Dunn

almost graceful for the split-second it hung in the air—before it hit a table, slid to the floor, and lay there unmoving.

  “No!” The League scattered like cockroaches under the light. Rolf turned to look at me, and Gavin sprang.

  Rolf hooked a foot behind Gavin’s knee. The tall man went down with a much quieter crash. Rolf reached down and wrapped his small hand around Gavin’s neck. “Not cool,” he said.

  Perhaps it was time to disband the chaos. Since nobody else was going to be sensible here, it was probably up to me. “Look, if we promise to disband the League, will you let him go?” I paused to think it over. “Without crushing his trachea?”

  Rolf tightened his grip. Gavin gurgled and flapped one feeble hand. He was turning an unflattering shade of purple.

  “Think about it,” I went on, taking another step forward. No way could I pry Gavin loose, but I had to do something. I had to, in Katie’s words, get involved. “Look at this group, Rolf. Do they look like they pose a real threat to a vampire?”

  I saw Rolf’s eyes flick about the room. I hoped he paid extra attention to the fact that Lawyer Stan was hiding underneath a table.

  “So?”

  “So what’s it matter if they’ve got an Anti-Vampire League, anyway?”

  “Two of them attacked me,” Rolf said, sounding like a petulant teenager.

  I merely raised an eyebrow. Alphonso had yet to move; Gavin had gone beyond puce. His face was now a kaleidoscope of reds and greens.

  “C’mon,” I continued. “Let the skinny guy go. He’s no danger to anybody. And we’ll disband the League. It’s not like these guys know the first thing about vampires, anyway.”

  A few people started to frown. I prayed that they understood now was the time to tell the damned kid what he wanted to hear so that he wouldn’t strangle their beloved comrade. Geez.

  Gavin gurgled again. I wasn’t up on physiology—how long could he survive such a grip? Should I step in? Whip out something from my nonexistent repertoire of martial arts? “Why do you care what these freaks think, anyway?”

  “I don’t.”

  “Then quit choking the string bean.”

  Gavin gargled. Perhaps he didn’t like the nickname.

  Rolf’s glare turned sulky. “It’s not just me. There’ll be others if this League doesn’t go away.”

  “Then we’ll make the League go away. But seriously, killing the nerd isn’t going to help your cause.”

  Finally, at long last, Rolf loosened his grip. Gavin fell to the floor with a wrenching, sucking noise that hurt my ears. He lay on the floor, his chest heaving. “Stick to your word,” Rolf ordered and left.

  In the following silence, Gavin’s breathing sounded amplified. I knelt to help him, but he lurched to his feet and staggered away. Slowly, people emerged from behind the bar, or beneath the table. Alphonso stirred and moaned; Katie hopped over the bar to fetch ice.

  “Everybody okay?” Cindy asked, her voice shaking.

  One by one, the others nodded. Gavin collapsed at the table; I followed him and picked up my Guinness, in desperate need of a drink. So that was what getting involved felt like. Was that the feeling Katie kept insisting I chase? Was that encounter supposed to be enriching and fulfilling?

  If so, screw getting involved. I’d rather stay the hell out of trouble.

  Alphonso moaned as Katie helped him up. “What’s going on?”

  “You were attacked by a vampire,” Mickey said.

  Alphonso’s eyes crossed a little bit. “What?”

  “A vampire came in, demanded we shut down the League, tossed you into a table, and tried to choke Gavin to death until Ellie promised him we’d disband. Then he left.” This came from Cindy.

  I blinked at her. She had sounded awfully…angry. Maybe she didn’t recall the part where I had saved Gavin’s ass.

  Alphonso’s memory also seemed to be failing him—hardly a surprise, given how hard his head had hit the table. Blood gushed over the napkins Liam pressed to the gash at his temple, but Alphonso ignored that to glare at me. “You did what? You made a promise to that creature?”

  How had this suddenly become Gang Up On Ellie Day? “Hey! I was trying to save Gavin’s life!”

  Gavin sneered. “I was doing fine.”

  “You were turning magenta!” I looked around, but it seemed that every face in the room was sullen or angry. Even Katie wouldn’t meet my eye, but that was probably because she was examining Alphonso’s head wound. “He would have killed you if I hadn’t stepped in!”

  “You should have let me die,” Gavin said, “rather than make a promise to a bloodsucker!”

  Seriously? “I guess that means the League’s not disbanding, then,” I said.

  “No.” Mickey stepped up. “It just means you’re out.”

  I stared. They’d been crazy before, but now they had jumped off the deep end. “Fine by me,” I said, my voice calm. “Enjoy your deaths when Rolf comes back to finish the job. Tell him I had nothing to do with it.”

  I stomped out. Unfortunately, my exit was ruined by the fact that I stormed right past my coat, and I had to return inside to get it. I shoved my arms into the sleeves, flipped everybody the bird (okay, that was a little satisfying) and left.

  It didn’t even occur to me until I was almost home, threading through the crazies that came out to celebrate the final night of October, even after the Change, that Rolf could have been lying in wait. Being single and twenty-something and not following the League by-laws by keeping a stake in my purse probably didn’t help, even if the vampire hadn’t gone through puberty.

  But I made it home safe. Katie was waiting for me in the dark. “Wow,” she drawled as I put a hand over my heart in an attempt to get it started again. “Jumpy much?”

  “Shut up.”

  “Can I just say, I’m glad you picked the Anti-Vampire League for your cause. I haven’t been that entertained in ages.”

  I went to the freezer, pushed aside tubs of red from the butcher to grab ice cream. “Everybody still at Liam’s, afraid to step foot outside because Rolf might be waiting?”

  “Likely. Man, they turned on you quick, didn’t they?”

  I ignored that. “Tonight was weird.”

  “It’s an Anti-Vampire League. When was it ever supposed to be normal?” Katie flicked to a new channel.

  “No, I mean that Rolf kid. Since when does some pipsqueak care that a bunch of people are meeting up in a church basement and swapping ‘I think I saw a vampire’ stories?” Ice cream bowl in hand, I plopped next to Katie on the couch and propped my feet up on our dented coffee table.

  “He was probably bored, wanted to stir something up, figured the Leaguers would put up more of a fight than they did. It can’t be easy being perpetually twelve.” Katie changed the channel again. We were rapidly running out of options, since neither of us was willing to chip in for cable. “Who cares, really? It’s done, it’s over, you saved some ungrateful guy’s ass after he spent the night pathetically trying to flirt with you, and now he hates your guts. See? Happy ending.”

  “You have a very interesting definition of a happy ending.” I nudged her with my shoulder. “Gonna keep going now that I’ve been unceremoniously tossed out?”

  “Sure. I get a perverse pleasure out of their stories.” Katie rolled her eyes at me, but she was grinning. A real grin. Which meant that her teeth were fully visible. “Don’t forget the rent. And you’re going to get involved in something. Something real this time, please.”

  “Yeah, yeah.” I decided to finish my ice cream in bed, as I’d need rest for the extra shifts I’d need to take to cover Katie’s share of the rent. “Have a good night. Don’t leave a mess.”

  “Nag, nag, nag,” Katie called after me, but she was laughing.

  I had to shake my head. Remember how I said that I’d picked the Anti-Vampire League because of Katie? Yeah. Who would have expected that they’d kick the human out before the vampire, and I lose a sure bet? Certainly not
me, which was why I now had to fork over rent.

  I hate vampires.