by Yvette Ford
“Can you only go out at night?” I blurted out.
He glanced down at his pasty skin on his arm and rubbed it. Funny how neither the skank nor Lorcan looked like vampires, but if lack of color was a factor to pick them out, Blake was so it.
“Well I could if I wanted a wicked suntan.” He chuckled. “Seriously though, the older you are, the stronger you are, and some of the elders in our Coven can tolerate the sun a little longer. An hour or so.”
“Coven?”
I waited for him to answer, but his eyes grew glazed. He frowned and shook his head. I turned around to look over at the girl, but she seemed deep into Ronnie. In fact unless I was crazy, she looked like she was about to bite him right there in the middle of the library! I jumped to my feet and ran over to them.
I shoved her. “Back off!” I turned to Ronnie. “Are you nuts playing around with her?”
Ronnie blinked up at me looking like he was coming out of a daze. “What?”
“Calm down,” the girl on her butt told me with a sneer. Her teeth were normal now, and I wonder if I’d made a mistake. Maybe I was crazy. “We were just getting to know each other, right Ronnie?”
She purred it in the most disgusting way. I cringed.
Ronnie surged to his feet and bent down to help her up. “What’s the deal, Tanesha? You okay, Adrianne?”
She poked out deep rose lips and clung to his arm. Where was her boyfriend? That reminded me I hadn’t asked about Lorcan.
“I’ll talk to you another time, Ronnie.” She cut her eyes at me. I set a hand on my hip ready to take whatever she brought, but she turned away again. “When we aren’t rudely interrupted.”
“What are you talking about, Adrianne?” Blake cut in. “You told me it’s time to get out of here.”
So that was why he’d gotten that weird look on his face. She’d been speaking in his head.
Adrianne released Ronnie, who said not another word, and turned to sashay toward the exit. Before Blake could join her I rushed up to intercept him. “Hey, Blake...uh...can you tell me anything about Lorcan real quick?”
A slow grin spread over his face. “That I can’t.”
“What!”
“Sorry, dude. We were to scope you out a bit, see why he’s so obsessed with you, but that’s it. No talking about the L man.”
The L man? Give me a break. “Please, can’t you tell me something useful?” I pleaded.
Adrianne stepped up to his side and grabbed hold of a couple of nose rings. She tugged, and he cried out. “You keep your mouth shut, Blake. Nobody even told you to tell her what you did. They’re going to come down on you, and you’ll be lucky to see the beautiful night for a month!”
She pulled Blake away, and from the looks that passed between them, I knew they were arguing in their heads. What I wouldn’t have given to have that trick again, this time longer, to know what Adrianne had meant by “they” and more about covens. What I desperately needed to know was why Lorcan was obsessed with me and how to stop him. Something told me if I could get Blake alone, he’d spill it, but I had no idea where they lived or if it would be safe to visit.
Who was I kidding? Of course it wouldn’t be safe! I needed some help from someone before I became the undead.
* * * *
“Tanesha, I have the results of your test,” my doctor told me. “I’m not sure why you felt you needed this done, but from the looks of things, you’re healthy. Your blood count is a little low, which concerns me.” She flipped through her reports.
I glanced up from studying my feet. “My blood’s low? I have less? B-But I feel fine. Strong and healthy.” I’d wanted to know if Lorcan sucking my blood had some bad effect on my body, but now that I was here, I wanted to deny everything, to pretend none of it had happened. I hadn’t seen any of them in a couple weeks, this being the soonest my doctor could squeeze me into her busy schedule. Was I ever happy that once you hit a certain age, your parent did not have to know anything about your medical sessions.
If my mother knew I had requested blood tests, she would have freaked and suspected the worst. Not that I could blame her. This experience was worse than anything I’d learned in health class.
“Nothing to worry about, Tanesha,” Dr. Morgan told me. “It’s probably your menstrual cycle that’s the culprit. Your body will compensate and make new blood.”
Yeah, but what if more is siphoned off before my body does that? I wondered. I wanted to throw up. I wanted to scream. Most of all, I wanted to kick Lorcan’s butt. Well, right after I had one more kiss. Just one more. How could any of the boys at my school compare to that? Easy. They couldn’t. I sighed and closed my eyes.
“Nothing at all to worry about. You’re fine.” She marked my chart. “I will see you back here in six months for your annual checkup.”
Still worried, I hopped off the table and prepared to leave after my doctor had shuffled on to the next patient. A few minutes later I was out on the bus stop squinting in the sunlight because I’d forgotten my sunglasses. I glanced down at my bare arms and was relieved that I wasn’t burning in the least. I was not undead.
When a 1982 Camry with one yellow rusted fender on the right side pulled into the grocery store parking lot beside me, I thought about Mrs. Knowles. That looked like her car, and I knew for a fact that she came all the way out here near my doctor’s office to get food rather than the Stop and Shop near us.
I waited to see if it was her, and sure enough she shuffled out of the car in a big floppy straw hat and a dress that covered all parts of her body, her arms and her legs. For a minute, I thought maybe she was a vampire, but I remembered it was broad daylight, and they would burn. Then again, she could be one of the older ones.
My heart hammering in my chest, I decided to follow her into the store, and if nothing else, I could ask her about the other night and what was up with her going in the house watching TV like nothing happened.
I slipped into the grocery store not a minute behind Mrs. Knowles, but when I stopped just inside the doors and glanced around, she was nowhere in sight. Strolling along the front of the store, I looked down every aisle but still didn’t spot her. I began to wonder if maybe I’d been wrong about seeing her in the parking lot, but a quick glance out through the floor-to-ceiling windows on the front of the store showed her ugly eyesore of a car still there. She was here somewhere, and I’d find her if I had to take over the intercom and yell out for her. I laughed at, thinking she’d be as embarrassed as Ronnie was that time we took off for the gaming section in Wal-mart, and his brother’d had someone call for him that way. You’d have thought we were three instead of thirteen at the time. I ribbed him about it for a week until he found a way to get me back.
While I stood there near the registers with people moving past me to get to the shortest lines, I started getting this funny feeling, like someone was watching me. Considering where I was, I dismissed it and started back along the aisles, but the feeling refused to go away.
Trying to be nonchalant, I scanned the area around me and began thinking maybe Mrs. Knowles had seen me following her in here, and she was hiding while watching me look for her. I mean the woman was strange after all. That steel wool-like bluish hair, frumpy clothes, and penchant for ignoring knocks on her door, didn’t put her in the normal category, in my book.
At last I found her. She was at the other end of the crackers and cookies aisle, gesturing and moving her lips like she was talking to someone. Grateful that there were a couple people in the aisle, I made it half way down, staying out of sight. When I came within hearing distance of Mrs. Knowles, I stopped beside a cardboard display with the latest double chocolate fudge wafers on sale. For a minute, I was distracted, mentally counting up the amount of money I had in my purse to see if I could snag a package, but then I shook my head to focus on what Mrs. Knowles was saying.
If only I had that freakish super hearing thing going on that I had that one night, it would be easy. I strained harder, forcing myself
to concentrate, to block out all other sounds around me except for Mrs. Knowles’ voice.
“She’s awakening more and more every day,” Mrs. Knowles was saying. My chest tightened for no reason as I wondered who she was talking about...and to whom. The other person must have said something, but I couldn’t even pick up a whisper.
I opened my eyes which had drifted closed when I concentrated. The closer I inched to the her, the more Mrs. Knowles and whoever it was repositioned so that I couldn’t see the other person. Not even a hand or a piece of clothing.
Did she know I was there? Did she want me to hear her?
Mrs. Knowles continued. “She’s valuable. You know that. She can be used. The others won’t stop until they get her. If they know for sure that—”
Someone bumped me, and I almost went flying over the display I’d been crouched behind pretending to tie my shoe. I glanced up in irritation, ready to tell whoever it was off, but no one was there. I searched up and down the aisle. All the customers that had been there before were gone. Swinging around to where Mrs. Knowles was, I growled under my breath to find her and the person she’d been talking to gone.
“Of all the stupidest—” I bolted to the end of the aisle and looked up and down. Almost running, I searched the store, but Mrs. Knowles was nowhere in sight. Checking my watch, I realized that the bus I’d been waiting on outside, had most likely left. I’d be standing out in the heat of the sun for another twenty minutes for the next one. I could so cuss my head off right about then.
While I thought about whether to call it a day or look for Mrs. Knowles one more time, if nothing else than to see who she had been talking to—the old woman had never been sociable and never had visitors to her house that I knew of—the feeling came back, of someone watching me.
This time when I looked up, I saw them. Three men, tall as anything, maybe like seven feet. That might have been an exaggeration considering my heart jumped up into my throat, but they were up there. And they wore thick black coats with hoods on them.
“In this heat?” I wondered.
What I could see of their faces, they weren’t monster-like, which is what I had expected. In fact they were hot as hell, rivaling Lorcan in beauty. I couldn’t see their hair, but their skin was pale, almost translucent, and their eyes were all green. I had the feeling that whoever these three men were, they were related.
They moved like a single unit, coming at me from different positions. I wasn’t waiting around to see what they wanted. I jetted in the opposite direction. Over my shoulder, I saw that they weren’t moving at the same speed I was. It could have been that they weren’t trying to draw too much attention to themselves.
“Oh crap, too late,” I quipped as I zipped between aisles. With their looks and style of dress, they stuck out big time. I made it back around through the bakery section with my heart pounding in my chest, hopped a baby carriage, and did a power walk toward the front of the store.
In my shorts pocket, my cell phone buzzed. I yanked it out and found that it was Ronnie calling. “Ronnie! I need—”
“Hey, I came to pick you up, and you already left—”
“Wait, you’re at my doctor’s office?”
He sighed. Ronnie hated when I cut him off. “I was. They told me you left. Now, I’m at the light ready to head back into the city. Could have had a ride. I gotta get the car back.”
“Wait!” I picked up speed and zipped through the automatic doors, just missing cracking my elbow on the edge of one since they moved so slowly. In the short distance, I spotted Ronnie at the red light on the corner. “Wait for me, Ronnie. I’m right behind you.”
I didn’t pause to see if he would agree. I closed my phone, tucked it in my pocket and took off in Ronnie’s direction. Scared to look, but knowing I needed to be sure, I checked behind me. The strange men had stopped in the lobby of the grocery store’s exit. They seemed hesitant to risk the sun. I stopped running and turned around to face them. Anger blazed in one of the men’s beautiful eyes. He took a step out, but his friend or brother grabbed at his arm. Steam rose from both their sleeves, and they jumped back with small grunts of pain. I thought I would pee in my panties at that.
Vampires. They were freaking vampires! Real life ones, here in my city...and after me. My throat went dry. My head began to spin, and I wanted to throw up. How did they get in the store in the daytime if they melted in the sun? No, that was witches, wasn’t it? Melting? I shook my head and ran a hand over my face. I didn’t know a thing other than what Hollywood produced like the Wizard of Oz.
Tires screeched behind me. A car door opened, and I heard Ronnie grumble, “Get in. I’m late.”
I continued to stand there staring at the men while they stared at me. Something came over me. My mind clouded. I took a step in their direction. Ronnie’s annoyed tone faded from behind me. I took another step.
“Get in the car.”
I don’t know who spoke in my head. I didn’t recognize the voice. I looked around me for who might have spoken, but no one else was near. At the entrance to the parking lot, a big black van, with windows tinted almost as dark as the body itself, turned in my direction. A warning went off in my head. Somehow I knew that van was coming to get the vampires, and once they were mobile, Ronnie and I might be in big trouble.
I spun around, dove into the car, and slammed the door behind me. “Step on it, Ronnie. Let’s get out of here.”
He shot me a dirty look before putting the car in gear. “Like I haven’t been telling you to come on. You know how Renard gets when I’m late. We’ll be lucky to get the car before another month, maybe two. What were you doing?”
I buckled in, pulled my knees up to my chest and stared into the side mirror. The van stopped, but the vampires didn’t come out. I leaned back with a sigh and closed my eyes. “Just drop it. I don’t want to talk about any of this.”
“Any of what?”
I didn’t answer. None of what had just happened was real. I was a regular teenager, with a regular life, and my biggest priority right now was to find a way to make some cash.
Chapter Four
I was still in serious denial when I dragged Ronnie to the mall later, but that was my favorite place to go, to blow off some steam, when my mother was getting on nerves, or just to hang out. You could do some people-watching, buy something healthy to sip on or something fattening to soothe hurt feelings, all in the same building. My main like was jumping from store to store, trying on clothes, and then when I was too tired to do anything else, go around to the back of the mall to the movie theatre and get lost in watching somebody else’s issues.
“Are you going to put in an application up here?” Ronnie asked.
I rolled my eyes at him. “You’re saying I’m a bum with no ambition?”
He shoved me. I started to chase him when he ran but didn’t when I spotted a cute boy. I’d remembered my sunglasses this time and was glad of how dark they were inside so I could enjoy the view. He was with a girl I assumed was his girlfriend. I sighed.
Ronnie came back. “I figure you should get something since I’m going to be busy this summer.”
I planted a hand on my hip. “My world doesn’t revolve around you, Mr. Jenkins.”
“Whatever. Which store?”
I was about to answer and then groaned. “Oh here we go. Skank-alert.”
Just ahead of us, with her pack of wild hyenas, was the dirty girl I’d mentioned before that Ronnie had fallen for last year. Annoyance rose in me, and I felt my nostrils begin to flare. Why did she have to come here today of all days? When I needed a serious break to pull my head together.
“Well, well, well, if it ain’t Tanesha.” She planted a hand on her slender hip and rolled eyes that were heavily made up. Her lashes had to be fake they were so thick and long. Black rings circled her eyes, not like somebody had belted her, although I wish they had, but like she had applied eye liner. I was jealous. No matter how hard I tried to put mine on, I screwed up in so
me way and had to scrub it off. The only makeup I’d ever put on that was half way decent on me was lipstick and rouge for my cheeks. That was it.
My mother liked to say I had natural beauty, that I didn’t need as much as Butterfly, but I know she was lying. And yeah, the dirty girl who was already simpering like a dang fool at Ronnie had been named Butterfly. What her mother had been smoking when she named her, I didn’t know. At one point, I thought she was making it up, but even in school, when I had been cursed to be in her French class, the teacher had called her Butterfly from the roll sheet. Whatever. It took all kinds, I guess.
