AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Wh-who?” I stammered, whimpering when he wrenched my neck.
“Don’t play stupid with me, pretty thing.”
“I work for Ophelia,” I whispered. “For the Council. I came to close up the house.”
“For the Council?” He chuckled. He sniffed my neck. “You’re untapped. No one’s ever taken a bite out of you?” I shook my head frantically.
Please, please, please, just let me get out of this “untapped,” I prayed. Gigi is too young to be left alone. I haven’t filled out her Free Application for Federal Student Aid yet. And she still doesn’t understand that the “check engine” light is more than just a sparkly greeting from her car.
His voice was flowing over me now, pulling me under an oily surface. I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t think. He murmured, “I’m so hungry, and you smell just mouthwatering. I think I might keep you with me so I can drink you all up. You don’t mind, do you? After all, it’s the neighborly thing to do.”
The hazy brain-fog cleared enough that I found that I didn’t mind giving him my blood. It didn’t seem like such an unreasonable request. It seemed rude somehow not to offer him something to drink. I tilted my head so he would be able to access my neck. He chuckled, pressing a smacking little kiss over my jugular before sinking his fangs into me.
A stuttering gasp rippled through my chest as he broke the skin over my vein. Pain, a bright, hot, pulsating flower, bloomed through my nerve endings. I felt a trickle of blood soak through the neck of my cardigan. He moaned, making loud slurping pulls at my skin. I whimpered at the burning, tugging sensation of my blood being drained away.
His enjoyment of my blood was so complete that he wasn’t even bothering to hold my arms. My eyes rolled back, and I fought the need to pass out. Breathing deeply, I snuck my hand into my pocket and wrapped my fingers around the silver handle.
I inhaled sharply, jerking the silver pie server out and shoving it over my shoulder. There was a horrible screeching noise as the pie server met a little resistance, sinking into the vampire’s flesh. The pressure at my neck slipped away.
I stumbled out of the closet and toward the window, pressing the button that released the sunproof shades. The room was flooded with sunlight, temporarily blinding me as the vampire screamed in rage. I turned to face him, a canister of silver vampire spray in hand. I couldn’t make out his face, just the smoking outline of a very angry vampire.
The smell of burning popcorn sizzled through the air as the combination of silver and sun burned his flesh. Wrenching my shoulder, he shoved me back toward the open closet, cursing and sputtering. I pressed the spray button, aiming for eye level. He screamed, growling viciously as I added another layer of pain to his suffering. Howling, he threw me back into the open closet. Flailing, I caught the doorknob with my sleeve, inadvertently slamming the door behind me.
For a second, I panicked, thinking he might be in the closet with me. I kicked and struck out, swinging at nothing but air. Lunging for the rattling doorknob, I held it in a death grip as he yanked on it from the outside. Although the strain on my arms burned, exposure to the sunlight had obviously weakened him. I held on, despite the guttural stream of graphic, anatomically impossible death threats he threw at me.
The growling and shaking stopped suddenly, but I kept my grip on the door for another minute. I only let go when my legs gave way. Slumping against the wall, I sucked in huge, gulping breaths, closing my eyes and willing the panic to die down. My stomach rolled, and I pitched to my knees, praying that I wouldn’t vomit on the floor in Cal’s closet.
Though, clearly, I owed him a few yarks.
I pressed my fingertips into my eyes, willing myself to wake up if this was a nightmare. Because this couldn’t be the way Iris Scanlon departed this earth, huddling in a closet, waiting for the angry, weakened vampire outside to recover enough to swoop in and devour her. At this sad point, my options were:
1. Go charging out of the closet, screaming Xena-style, and hope that the vampire was weakened by the sunlight or doubled over laughing at my weak attempt at overpowering him.
Likely result: Death or, at the very least, humiliation.
2. Duck out of my closet just long enough to grab for my purse, hoping that the vampire didn’t catch me, and then call 911 … and carefully explain to the police what I was doing in a vampire’s home where I had no legitimate business.
Likely result: Three to five years for breaking and entering. Which was inconvenient, because I looked really washed out in orange.
3. Hide in this closet overnight until sunrise.
Likely result: Being yanked out of the closet and drained as soon as the vampire recovered.
I split the difference between options 1 and 3, waiting until I had the nerve to crack the door open and scan the room for Gropey Groperson. All was quiet in the bedroom. I couldn’t see the silver pie server. I wondered idly whether it was still stuck in the vampire’s chest.
From the other side of the door, I could hear the faintest impression of Cal’s voice calling. I waited several long minutes, listening for any sound of the injured vampire. I grasped the can of silver spray firmly in front of me and kicked open the door. The well-lit bedroom was empty. And my mom’s silver pie server was gone.
I was so glad she wasn’t around to ground me for this one.
“Iris!” Cal yelled, his voice tinny and remote from the earpiece on the floor. “Answer me!”
“I’m fine.” I wheezed, putting the module back in my ear. “I’m fine.”
“What happened?”
“I, uh, I just got spooked,” I told him, carefully poking my head into the hallway and flicking on the light switch. I didn’t see any evidence of a smoking vampire’s trail, but there was no way he had gotten out of the house in broad daylight. I went to the window and pushed the button to lift the shade. A breath I didn’t realize I’d been holding rushed out of my chest.
“I heard the growls and your screams.”
