Blood on the Moon

by Jennifer Knight

  We didn’t talk on the ride back to my room.

  I got out of the car and leaned down to Derek’s eye level, clutching the plastic bag containing my new cell phone like it was my lifeline.

  “Thanks for taking me,” I said in my nicest voice.

  “No problem,” he said icily.

  “Derek, if there’s something you want to say to me, you can. I won’t get mad or anything. I just want us to be friends again.”

  Derek squeezed his eyes shut and his knuckles turned white on the steering wheel.

  “Faith,” he whispered. “Just please go. I’ll—I’ll call you okay?”

  “You promise?” I asked.

  “Yeah. I got this thing planned for the first snow in a few weeks, so . . . so maybe you can come. I don’t know. I’ll call you, okay?”

  I felt my face lift. “Okay,” I said. “Bye.” I shut the door and watched Derek drive away.

  I didn’t know what to think about him anymore. I stared up at the building above me, dreading going back to my room to be alone or worse, with Ashley. I didn’t think I could take her perky smile right now.

  My skin felt like it was crawling, itching for something. Then I realized it had been days since I last ran. I wasn’t exactly dressed in running clothes—jeans and a thick hoodie—but I was wearing sneakers and that was all I needed.

  I tucked the shopping bag into the pocket of my sweater and started jogging down the campus walkway. It was late afternoon, so most people were done with their classes by now. A few couples walked hand in hand, a man in too-tight running shorts jogged by, his earphones dangling. I pushed myself harder, trying to ignore everyone else as I snaked in and out of the elm trees dotting the walkway. I tried very hard not to think about Derek, but the temptation grew, and soon I was close to tears.

  I would be more than happy to be friends with Derek again, even after all of this, but he just wasn’t going to be happy unless we were together—he’d made that much perfectly clear. And he refused to accept the fact that I didn’t want the same thing, that I was scared to trust him again after he’d broken my heart. As much as I might still care about him, might be jealous to see him dating someone else, I refused to let Derek hurt me again.

  I ran faster as the tears spilled down my face. My body pulsated with energy, my heart hammering to the beat of my shoes pounding the cement. I could hardly see. Finally, I slowed only because I was concerned that I might hit a tree.

  That’s when I heard someone calling my name.

  “Faith, slow down!”

  I stopped and turned to see Mark hustling up to me. He walked like a duck—bowlegged and waddling. It was a wonder that he moved swiftly enough to play lacrosse.

  I hastily wiped my face as he approached.

  “Fancy meeting you here,” he said.

  I just grunted and started walking. As he fell in next to me, I gave him a disgusted look. I still wasn’t sure if he was working with Vincent or not, but either way, I detested the jerk.

  “Still hating me for no reason, I see,” he said. “You should get over the dream you had on the La Poudre already. I never did anything to you.”

  “Yeah, well, you have your version and I have mine. I know I wasn’t dreaming.”

  He chuckled, but I could tell it was forced.

  “I saw you out with Derek today,” Mark commented.

  I made no response. None of his business.

  “You break it off with Lucas Whelan?”

  I swung my head around to look at him. “Who said I was dating Lucas?”

  He shrugged. “Word gets around.”

  “Well I’m not. And how could word possibly get around after one night of sleeping at his place?” I eyed Mark’s profile, trying to see what he knew. “Did Ashley tell you I wasn’t home last night, or something?”

  Mark seemed to relax when I said this. “Oh, yeah, yeah. Ashley told me.” But then I knew he was lying. Ashley was out all night with Courtney and she didn’t know I’d been at Lucas’s. What was Mark playing at? Why would he lie to me? Before I could respond, Mark elbowed me lightly in the side, winking his beetle-brown eye at me.

  “You and Lucas, huh? He any good?”

  “Ugh!” I exploded, dodging his elbow. “Can’t a girl just be friends with a guy and not be sleeping with him?”

  “Not when they spend the night in his room.”

  “What do you care anyway? Why are you even talking to me?”

  Mark picked at a zit on his cheek as he pondered my question. “Just trying to make friends. You are my girlfriend’s roommate.”

  “Well, please don’t. I think it’s obvious that I can’t stand you.”

  Mark just smiled, shrugging his sloping shoulders nonchalantly. I wished he would go away. I was having such a lovely wallowing session until he showed up. I blew out a long breath and turned my face to the sky, trying to calm down, when I noticed it was getting dark fast and I’d run halfway across campus.

  Mark and I were standing in a remote area between the tall, brick chemistry labs. I could smell herbs and other foliage growing in the greenhouse at the end of the walkway. I stopped and turned around.

  “I have to get back,” I said.

  “Why? We’re having such a fun little chat.”

  “Oh, right,” I grumbled sarcastically. “No, I really have to go.” As I started to turn, Mark grabbed my arm. I tried to jerk him away, but his grip was like iron. “Get off,” I said, still struggling.

  “Just stay,” he said. “I’m not done talking.”

  “Well, I am. So get off.” I yanked my arm hard on the last word, but to no avail. Mark was unnaturally strong. I wished I had been watching where I was going. Especially now that the night was coming and my window of sunny safety was waning.

  “I just want to hang out,” Mark cajoled. “Is that so bad? Am I really such a dick that you won’t give me a chance?”

  “Well, you’re being a dick now. Let go!”

  Instead of letting go, Mark grabbed my other arm and steered me toward the greenhouse. I struggled, but there was no way I was getting away from him. I glanced up at the sky as Mark threw open the greenhouse door. I prayed Vincent wouldn’t be able to find me here.

  Mark slammed the glass door shut behind him and tossed me to the ground. I hit the dirt with my face and promptly sprang back to my feet, ready to fight.

  But Mark seemed totally chill. He flipped open a cell phone and was speaking in seconds.

  “Got her,” he said.

  Pause.

  “I know, I know . . . sundown. I’ll keep her here.” He eyed me for a moment and then said, “Hurry.”

  He slapped the phone shut and put his meaty hands on his hips, regarding me like someone about to scold a dog for peeing on the rug.

  “Why do you have to make things difficult?” he asked. “Couldn’t we have had a nice walk in the moonlight? Why make me manhandle you?”

  “I didn’t make you do anything, you psycho.”

  Mark darted forward and grabbed my chin hard. His face was inches from mine. He stunk like decaying flesh. “Not nice. I’m not crazy, Faith. Just resourceful.” He let go of me roughly.

  I grabbed my jaw, rubbing it. “What are you talking about?” I asked, trying not to let him see how scared I was.

  Mark shrugged his shoulders and strolled the aisles of potted plants. Abruptly, he began knocking them over. The piercing clatter of ceramic shattering made me start every time one hit the ground. “I’m a cunning guy,” he said. “I know what I want and I use whatever—or whomever—I have to, to get it. In this case, that person is you. My guy says he wants you. So he gets you.” He winked at me from across the table, letting another plant topple over.

  A chill ran down my spine. Minutes to nightfall—I had to get away. I began edging toward the door, trying to obscure myself behind the lush plant life. “Your guy?” I asked, distracting him.

  “I won’t tell you his name, if that’s what you’re thinking. Hell, I d
on’t even know his name. He uses fake ones. Napoleon, Caesar, Barack Obama . . .”

  “Well, this is all very fascinating, but what does your guy want with me? I haven’t done anything.”

  “You know what you’re into,” he said. “Same thing I’m into, just different sides of the coin.” He sent a table of beautiful crimson flowers crashing to the ground. They looked like droplets of blood scattered in the dirt. I crept closer to the door.

  “I don’t know what you mean.” The air was thick and hot in the greenhouse and I was beginning to sweat.

  Then Mark looked up from behind a potted fig tree and I halted. “Why do you fear the night?” he said in a low voice. He stared me down for a long time. “You know what’s out there. You know what’s coming for you.” He looked up through the dewy glass ceiling and into the sky.

  I shook my head, and his grin became all the more sinister.

  “The vampires,” he breathed, eyes glittering. He snickered as my eyes widened. “Don’t pretend to be shocked. If my guy wants you bad enough to send me after you, you must at least know about them.”

  So I was right. Mark was involved with the vampires. As I watched him, I suddenly made a connection I hadn’t thought of before. That night on the La Poudre, Mark had been talking to Vincent . But Vincent didn’t even know me then, or that I knew Lucas, so he couldn’t have been trying to get to me. So what had they been discussing?

  But now that Vincent thought I was involved with Lucas, he’d gotten Mark to ... what? Find me? Keep me here? Why? Vincent knew where I lived; he’d picked me up outside my dorm room on Halloween. Why would he need idiot Mark to get to me? And what did Mark get out of it all?

  I sucked in a steadying breath and made myself focus. None of that mattered right now. All that mattered was getting out of there alive. I had no hope of Lucas coming to rescue me since he didn’t know where I was, so I was on my own. I had one chance: if I could keep Mark distracted, I might be able to reach the door in time and make a run for it.

  “So I guess now I know who you were talking to out on the La Poudre,” I said, trying to sound much braver than I felt. “It was a vampire wasn’t it? Your guy?”

  Mark said nothing, but a smug look crossed his features.

  “So why didn’t he just kill us all then?” I wondered aloud. “He could have made it look like an animal attack and saved himself all of this trouble.”

  Mark’s smirk widened and he let out a puff of laughter. “He wouldn’t do that.” The sound of yet another pot cracking in half made me jump.

  “Why not?” I warbled.

  “Because I told him not to.”

  Now it was my turn to scoff. “And why the hell would a vampire care what you wanted?”

  “Because if he doesn’t keep me happy, I won’t be willing to do him any more favors, and he’ll have to find someone else—he needs me.” He lifted his head proudly and glowered at me. “If it weren’t for Ashley, I probably would have let him kill you all ... he was hungry.”

  A shiver rippled down my spine at the thought of what might have happened that night. I knew I needed to play for time so I decided to get a few of my questions answered. “Why would the vampires need you? I mean, they’re vampires.”

  “You really don’t know anything, do you?” Mark asked, mocking me. “The vampires might be strong and fast and whatever, but for all that, they have some pretty dumb shortcomings.”

  “Like?” I was actually interested now.

  “They can’t go into anyone’s house without being invited—and that includes dorm rooms.”

  I blinked. “What?”

  “Yeah, I know. Dumb, huh? It usually doesn’t matter much, cuz there’s plenty of people for them to feed on without having to get into their houses. But for cases like yours”—he said, as he leered at me and began tearing petals off of a tray of flowers—“when a mongrel’s stuck his nose into things, it makes things difficult for the vamps. They gotta bide their time and wait for the right moment. And they don’t like to wait, see? Rather have a human help ’em out, like I am now.”

  “So what do you get out of it?” I asked. “I’m sure you’re not just helping him for the thrill?”

  Mark looked away, still destroying flowers, as I inched toward the door. A few more feet and I was golden.

  “You ever get vamped?” he asked.

  I stopped for a moment.

  “What?”

  He shot me a withering look. “I don’t know why he wants you so bad. You don’t know a damn thing.”

  “Enlighten me,” I challenged.

  “Humans can drink vampire blood,” Mark said. “It gives them powers, like what the vampires got, but not as strong. And it makes you high if you drink enough.”

  “You drink their blood?” I asked, aghast.

  Mark nodded and then looked thoughtful. “Well . . . technically I guess they don’t have blood, do they?”

  I stared blankly.

  “Usually they’re empty,” Mark explained. “But right after they feed, they’re full of it—full of human blood. Once it enters their bodies it gets poisoned, but a human who hasn’t been bit can drink it without turning into a vampire.”

  “And they just let you drink from them?”

  “Nah, like I said, you gotta help ’em out first. They drain it out for you into a vial or a cup, and then you just take a sip. Just a tiny sip and you’re like a superhero. You can run faster, lift more. Hell, I even aced a calculus exam on the stuff.”

  I sneered at him and he strolled away from me. I didn’t give a crap if Mark lived or died right now, but I definitely had to pretend to care if I wanted out of there. Maybe I could make him see that Vincent was using him. Not the other way around. And once Vincent was through with Mark, he was dead meat.

  “Listen Mark,” I said, scooting toward the door again. “I know it seems like a great deal right now. You help—Vin—your guy get his blood and in return he gives you a little, but just think of who you’re dealing with. These are vampires. Evil, bloodthirsty murderers. You can’t trust any of them to keep you alive once you’ve worn out your usefulness.”

  “Who said I trusted them?” He held up one of the flowers he had been tearing apart. “This is a saffron crocus flower. See these little antenna-looking things here? It’s what people put in their Spanish rice and enchiladas. Saffron. It’s fine for us humans to eat, but totally lethal for vamps. They used to burn it in Catholic churches way back when. It’s where all those myths about vamps and crucifixes came from. Holy water like acid ... please . . .” He guffawed to himself, dissecting the flower.

  I mustered up some courage, intending to shake Mark a little right before I made a dash for the door. It was full-on dark now. I had to run now or never.

  “Saffron?” I said dubiously. “Really? That’s it? You’re ingesting saffron so that if a vampire sucks your blood, it’ll kill him?”

  “Yup,” he said proudly.

  “And who told you about that? A vampire? To give you some insurance, no doubt.”

  Mark faltered with this dumbfounded look glazing his face.

  I smiled coldly. “Yeah. Good luck with that!” I bolted through the door and ran for my dorm room, legs pumping so fast I’d swear they were a blur beneath me. I heard Mark yelling after me. I was a fast runner, but if he had vampire blood in his system he might be faster. He would catch up. I needed Lucas.

  The cell phone.

  I grabbed it out of my pocket, wrestling with the bag. Thank God I activated it at the store.

  I pounded the speed dial for Lucas. One ring.

  “Where are you?” he snapped. “It’s past nightf—”

  “Lucas, I need you!”

  “Where are you?” he said again.

  “Running . . . toward your room ... Mark . . .”

  “Can you make it someplace secluded?”

  I heard Mark closing in. Frantic tears bubbled up on me, choking my throat.

  “Never mind,” Lucas said. “Gi
ve me fifteen seconds.”

  He hung up. I let out a sob and glanced behind me. Mark was less than ten feet away.

  “Stop, Faith! He’s coming any minute, just give it up!”

  I pushed myself harder. Run. Run. Run. Don’t stop.

  I saw the courtyard in front of the dorm rooms in the distance, less than fifty feet away. But I wasn’t going to make it. I cast around for some place to hide—there was nothing. Where is Lucas?

  Then I saw him.

  The front end of a massive black wolf crouched in the gap between two buildings on my right.

  “God damn it!” Mark roared from behind me. “STOP!”

  My legs burned; I couldn’t breathe. I wanted to stop. But there was no way I was letting Mark win. I was fast approaching the gap where Lucas hid.

  I glanced behind me.

  Mark was two feet away, stretching out his hand to grab me. I lunged forward, out of his reach, but tripped. I rolled to the ground, landing face up. My head lolled to the side and found Lucas’s hulking body, poised to attack. His eyes were trained on me with an intense hunger engraved in their silvery depths—hunger for the kill.

  Then I saw the blur of Mark’s body as he leaped over me to avoid tripping. I rolled into a ball, readying myself for his blow, which was sure to come next. But then Lucas pounced. His eyes were still locked on me and for a split second I feared that he wouldn’t know me, that he would attack me instead of Mark. I looked into Lucas’s fierce metallic eyes as he came at us, and suddenly an electric shock passed through my body, stronger than anything I’d ever felt. Vertigo warped my vision, and my mind felt like it was stuck on repeat. Attack Mark, not me, not me . . .

  And then the moment was over.

  Lucas’s body flew over me and collided with Mark. I bolted upright and watched Lucas drag Mark, screaming and struggling, into the darkness. I heard a gurgling, retching noise and then a quick crunch. Snap, snap ... drag...

  Bile rose in my throat. I swallowed it down and stood, shaking. I slowly approached the shadowy gap. There was no sound coming from within.

  “Lucas?” I whispered.

  Nothing.

  I put my hand on the cold brick wall and leaned in.