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I took one last look in the mirror, hardly recognizing myself. You’re still you, Masie Kicklighter. Don’t let that nasty ol’ vampire convince you otherwise.
I grabbed my black satin clutch, the only one I owned, and added my lipstick, cell, ID, credit card, and new pepper spray.Thank you, Thomas. For once he’d come in handy.
At seven on the dot, a black sedan rolled up to the front gate. I buzzed the driver in and went outside to wait.
As I stood on my porch, I looked up at the sky, noting how the lack of moonlight made the stars shine brighter than ever. A great metaphor for my life. The darker things got, the more determined I became to show strength. Not that I was special. People around here always rallied when the going got tough—tornados, floods, the odd blizzard. We always pulled together, which made me wonder: What would the town do if they found out about vampires? What would the world do?
Would we humans finally set aside our differences and see that we had way more in common than we thought?
It wasn’t that differences didn’t exist, but somehow we’d all been convinced to believe they outweighed our actual, and very real, similarities as human beings. We all wanted to thrive, to reach our God-given potential, to pursue our dreams, and to live safely from crime and violence. We wanted to raise our children in a world where they could love themselves exactly how they were, instead of feeling they had to change themselves to find happiness.
Would these divides fade away if everyone found out that we, humans, were not at the top of the food chain?
Made me wonder if vampires might be a blessing in disguise.
I burst out laughing. “Masie Kicklighter, your wagon wheels are loose. Vampires. A blessing.Pfft.”
The car pulled up, and a driver with cropped dark hair got out.
“You-you’re Ronnie’s friend.” I’d never forget the face.
“Was.” He opened the passenger door and waited for me to get in.
I didn’t budge. Mostly because I worried about this being a trap.
Probably noticing my horrified expression, he said, “Hey, I’m sorry for what Ronnie did to your friend. Okay?”
My friend and me.“Okay.” I stayed glued to my porch, thinking through options. Run inside and grab Betsy or get in.
“I know what you’re thinking,” he said, “but I’m not a bad person.”
“Then why were you hangin’ out with that piece of trash?”
“Because Ronnie’d never done anything like that before. Something got into him. But he was a good friend. A good person.”
Good person?The Ronnie I’d met was a disgusting human being who had no problem accosting me in public and then committing murder.
“Please?” He jerked his head toward the open car door, urging me to get inside. “Stark won’t be pleased if we’re late.”
I had to decide between debating a dead man’s goodness or getting what I needed to run Stark out of town.Or kill him.In short, I had to stay focused.
Whatever the cost. Right, Masie?I slid into the back. The driver got behind the wheel, and we started our journey to wherever Stark planned to try to seduce me.
“What did you mean,something got into Ronnie?” I asked, feeling like it could lead to valuable information.
“We were on our way home from a day of fishing—a boys’ day out before Ronnie’s wedding. We stopped for gas in Leiper’s Fork, and Ronnie went to the bathroom. He came back acting all weird. Aggressive. Said he wanted to go across the street to your bar. He insisted.”
They’d been at Al’s gas station. Maybe Ronnie had the chili. “So he was a peace-loving hippie before that?” I asked.
“No, but he was active in the community, always volunteering and running fundraisers for the church. His dad was pretty active, too.”
I remember reading that Ronnie’s dad was a city councilman in Nashville. “Did something happen earlier? A fight with his fiancée? Did he eat anything strange that numbed his tongue?”
“Nope. We just went to the Rooster, and the moment he saw you, a switch flipped. I thought it was just nerves or something until he touched you. Then I knew something was up.”
That was suspicious. “What happened after you left? Where did you guys go?”
He watched the road for a long moment before answering. “I…don’t really remember. I just woke up a few nights later, and now I work for Stark.”
