Bag of Blood - Vampire Mystery Romance (3 page)

The door shut behind them.

Sugary flakes swam in random circles in a bowl full of water as Lena used a plastic spoon to stir them.
In hindsight, using water instead of milk wasn't one of my better ideas.
Either she needed to go grocery shopping, or she needed to force Ness to do it for her. Lena's stomach grumbled. Their refrigerator was painfully bare, it held nothing more than a few bottles of Vanessa's perfume and a take-out box of Chinese food from Ming's.

Searching through the cluttered mess on her kitchen table, she found some scrap paper and a pen.

1. Doughnuts
, she wrote, then scribbled it out. That was just her stomach talking. Better be more practical with mom's money. She tried again.

1. Milk. 2. Eggs. 3. Chicken…

A honk from outside caught her attention and she hastily stood, dumping her uneaten, disgusting mess of a breakfast down the sink. Glancing towards her father's bedroom where she could hear soft snores, she jammed her sweater over her arms and, grabbing her backpack while making sure to lock the front door behind her, she hustled into the driveway, abandoning her list behind her.

Claire, Robert, and Megan waited in the truck, Megan and Claire's travel mugs of coffee steaming the windows. As Lena hoisted herself into the truck's blissfully warm interior, Robert tossed a scone over his shoulder into Lena's lap. She sniffed it.
Mmm, pumpkin.

"I thought we deserved something, since these two are rubbing the no-caffeine thing in," he told her even as she unwrapped it. "Split it in half and give some to me, will you?"

Lena happily complied, shoving hers into her mouth.
Crispy on the outside and soft in the middle. Thank God for Howie's.
It wasn't a doughnut, but it would more than do.

It was after Robert had started the truck up again and Lena had begun to pick the crumbs off her sweater when she noticed Claire's fixed glare and posture; arms crossed firmly in front of her chest, refusing to look at her step-brother. Nudging Megan, she nodded to Claire and mouthed "
what's wrong?
"

"I can see you," Claire snarled from the front seat. Lena froze.
Did Claire have eyes in the back of her head?

"Robert is being the world's biggest prick, if you must know," Claire continued. "He thinks he
owns
me. I simply…
explained
to him that he didn't."

Lena didn't like the nasty way Claire pronounced the word 'explained'. And sure enough, on closer examination of Robert, she saw a fist-sized bruise gracing his upper arm. (Robert thought he was too manly to wear sweaters until icicles practically formed in his hair) The bruise was dark and misshapen enough to insinuate many punches in the same spot.
Ouch…

That also explained Megan's unusual silence; the earlier fight must have scared her. Lena slipped an arm around the smaller girl. "What do you mean, 'owns'?" she asked, unable to keep the hostility from her tone. She would have gladly fought for any of her friends, but was well aware Robert didn't want her to.

"I told her she wasn't going trick-or-treating," Robert spoke gruffly without turning around, keeping his eyes focused solely on the traffic. "And she's
not,"
he added. "I don't know how many times I have to explain to you, Claire, but I'm not letting you get your sorry ass strangled. Someone killed Rebekah; do you want to get killed, too?"

Megan cringed against Lena's side, so for her sake, Lena cut in before Claire could snarl a retort (or begin punching again). "That's right! Halloween's a week from today, huh?" Without waiting for a response, she turned to Megan and loudly asked, "Do you have any plans? Because I was just going to hand out candy and watch some scary movies. Want to spend the night?"

Relief sparkled in Megan's doe-like brown eyes. "Yes! That'd be wonderful. You come too, Robert," she smiled, a dimple forming in her cheek. Lena saw the dimple and bit her lip. She had noticed a while back how Megan's dimple always appeared for Robert, how her gaze followed him as he walked. She didn't know whether or not Robert returned any of the affection, but wondered how this development would affect their friendship in the long run.

"Can't," Robert replied. "I'm supposed help out with the Trunk or Treating."

At Lena's confused
"Hmm?
, Robert explained: "it's something my extended family decided to try this year. A bunch of people park their vehicles in a circle, trunks faced inward. Then they pop the trunks and decorate them. The kids go to all the cars and get candy from us while we sit in our trunks. So much safer than trick-or treating really, since there are adults around and only people you know are involved."

At Claire's grunt of annoyance, he turned to her. "Why don't you come to
that
, if you want candy?"

She snorted. "Oh, please! Hanging out with a bunch
your
weird Jewish relatives when I could be at parties or
something
with my friends?"

Robert frowned. "Your side of the family is there, too, and my family isn't weird."

Claire smirked. "Oh, what? They're
not
all crazy alcoholics like your mother?"

Lena winced.
Yeah… that went too far.
A crunching sound caused her to look up; at Claire's words, Robert's hands had tightened so much around the steering wheel that his knuckles threatened to pop from his skin. He ground his teeth loudly in an effort to keep his mouth shut. Even from behind, she could see him start to shake, his face turning red.

Megan leaned forward, resting her chin on the back of Robert's chair. Her short hair tickled the side of his face and he turned to her for a moment before putting his eyes back on the road. Her hand crept around the seat to touch his too-tight grip on the steering wheel. As Lena watched, Robert began to relax.
Incredible
, she mused, as his face slowly returned to its normal color.

They made it to school in silence as Robert maneuvered in the cramped student parking lot before they found a good spot. "You all go," he told them in a strained voice. "I'll catch up in a minute. I just need to… compose myself." Lena nearly smiled at his choice of words.
Compose himself… Not surprising that his stepdad is an English major and an author, really.

Before even a second had passed, Claire had sprinted off to the portables, no doubt in a hurry to meet with the seedy bunch she called friends. Dying leaves crunched underneath the boots of both Lena and Megan as they slowly made their way to the buildings, leaving an upset Robert behind them. Megan turned to face her best friend, and then her bright-toothed smile died the moment she saw the dark smirk on Lena's face.

Correctly interpreting that smirk for what it was (Lena's imminent teasing of her behavior towards Robert), Megan stammered out an escape tactic.

"I—I'm hungry! Robert didn't buy
me
breakfast. I'll go buy something from the cafeteria. I think they have muffins, and… and…" she finished her stammering and scampered off, leaving Lena shaking her head in silent amusement.
Gotta love Megan…

The deliciously crisp-smelling fall breeze whooshed at her and her hair was briefly forced on-end before it calmed down. Spitting strands out of her mouth, she sighed. Messy hair was one thing, but hair that looked like she had suddenly had the urge to poke her toe into an electrical socket was another. She made her way to the nearest bathroom in order to pull it away from her face.

Eyeing her reflection critically in the mirror as she used water to pat the mess into some semblance of a style, she frowned. A pimple was making itself known on her cheek.
Hate-being-sixteen,
she grumbled to herself, trying to stave off the compulsion to poke at it. The rest of her was okay-looking, she supposed. Not
adorable
like Megan, or
beautiful
, like Hannah Miller, but she was fairly passable.

A stall opening behind her caused her to glance over her shoulder. Her eyes took in the girl standing behind her… And then she stopped, stunned.

A long, skirt-clad leg shown off in a pair of pretty heels lead up to a fashionably cinched red jacket buttoned over a white shirt and…
was that necklace shaped like a bat?
A beautifully shaped clavicle peaked from underneath the necklace. A very
pale
clavicle. Tipping her face upward to see the girl's face, Lena was struck by how
tall
the girl was. Her facial features were exotic, reminding her of pictures she had seen of Cleopatra. High, sharp cheekbones, almond-shaped brown eyes... The girl's hair was
maroon
, and stranger than
that
was that it almost looked natural.

"Hello," Lena said, attempting to smile. The girl returned the grin, revealing extremely long fangs that dripped well past her bottom lip. Lena stepped backwards in shock.
A
girl
vampire?
She had never heard of such a thing. It was well known that the vampire strain affected only the Y chromosome. And not only was this girl a vampire, but she was
starving.
A vampire's fangs extended in accordance to their hunger; generally they were barely longer than any human's canines. To have fangs that made one look like a saber-toothed tiger, one probably hadn't had a sip of blood in nearly a month.

The strange girl stepped uncomfortably close to Lena, her smile turning darker as she advanced. Her hands—nails long and painted red, Lena noticed absently—stretched out to grip Lena's arms. Bending down to bring her face close to Lena's hair, she sniffed.

"
You sssmell familiar,"
she lisped, fangs causing it to be hard to speak. Her voice was dry and husky; it hurt Lena's own throat just to hear it. Lena cringed away, until the girl forced Lena close to her, in a tight embrace, her long arms tightly clutching Lena's back.
Oh no…
In a second, Lena completely lost her fear. In fact, it seemed that she had completely lost control of her body. Sagging in the girl's grip until she was being held up by her strong arms, her head rolled back, her eyes fluttering closed.
Dammit
, a worried voice whispered in the back of her mind, but Lena couldn't bring herself to care.

"
I'm Lessslie
," the girl informed her, scraping her teeth slowly across Lena's neck. Even through the fog in her head, Lena could hear the slight twang of a Southern accent. The thoughts in the back of

Lena's mind screamed,
danger! Danger!
But she couldn't bring her body to move.

The tips of two sharp fangs pressed into her skin; she felt a tiny trickle of something wet trickle down her neck.
Help me…

The bathroom door burst open, letting in a bright blast of early-morning sunshine, and something else. Shoving the maroon-haired vampire aside, whoever it was grabbed Lena around the middle as she fell forward. Her nose pressed into the buttoned shirt of her rescuer, Lena's cotton-fuzzy mind struggled back to focus.

"Are you
crazy
?" a familiar, male voice boomed. Stepping backwards and briefly lifting Lena off her feet as he did so, her brain finally connected the dots.
Gabriel?

"Do you
want
to get kicked out of
this
school, too, Leslie?" Gabriel demanded. "I
told
you;
you can't bite anybody here
. Didn't I give you blood on Tuesday?"

Leslie didn't reply, and Lena struggled from the boy's grip. He kept a tight hold on her wrist, tight enough to bring tears to her eyes. "Let go of me." Her voice was oddly quiet and dry. He ignored her, still scowling intently at the other vampire. She struggled. "
Let go of me!"
she managed to shout. He looked down on her.

"Oh, I'm sorry for
saving your life,
you stupid idiot," he growled. She felt his eyes burning into her neck as he freed her wrist and she brought her hand up to touch it; blood smeared on her fingertips, and she let out an alarming squeak.

Turning to Leslie, Lena spoke. "I don't know what's going on," she told her. "But at Chillhowie, you can't bite people.
Ever.
Go to the nurse if you're so hungry; she has extra bags frozen for emergencies."

Shaking her head and snorting, Leslie stormed from the tiny bathroom. "This is ssso dumb," she grumbled underneath her breath. "Bagged blood? What’s next?"

Turning to the mirror, Lena moistened a paper towel underneath the faucet and dabbed at her neck. It wasn't so bad, really, just a tiny prick in her skin, barely bigger than a needle's puncture. If she turned her collar up, nobody would even notice.

"What just happened?" she finally asked Gabriel. An immature voice in the back of her mind sniggered.
He's in the girl's bathroom.

He sighed, leaning against one of the walls and running a hand down his face. "That's Leslie. She's my cousin. They kicked her out of Texas for… I promised not to tell. The point is, she's here to stay, so
keep your dumbass self away from her."
Gabriel made his way out the door after his cousin, but not before Lena saw that his fangs were longer than usual, as well.
Guess he really did give my blood to her on Tuesday,
she realized.
No wonder she said I smelled familiar. Wonder why she seemed so hungry, then.