Fangs for Nothing (Vampire Hunting and Other Foolish Endeavors) (21 page)

“Get off me,” Xander snarled, but the beefy boys had our arms
firmly behind our backs, twisting them so painfully that I dropped my weapon.

The vampire folded his hands and rested his chin on
his knuckles, looking at us with his fathomless eyes. “Darlings, you must understand that I cannot have people sneaking into my home at all hours of the day and trying to kill me.”

“Fine. Just stop recruiting your food out of Cleveland
, and we’ll leave you alone,” Xander offered.

This made the vampire smile. “You are such a delight. It is rare that
someone like yourself visits me.” Vincent reached out and put his hand under Xander’s chin making it so he couldn’t look away. The vampire laughed, and it sounded like a snake’s rattle. “Usually it is the plain ones that seek my attention.” His eyes flickered in Lana’s direction. “Or the pretty ones that have somehow been overlooked. Not ones like you. Not one that is so used to attention he doesn’t even realize he is receiving it.” Xander stopped trying to pull away from the vampire’s caress and looked deeply into his eyes. Vincent went on. “There is more to be gained from my favor than just beauty and confidence. My Chosen are my family. I am like a father to them, and Aerony is like a mother. To have so many brothers and sisters, to have such a large and loving family, one would never feel lonely again. Is that something you would like?”

Xander looked weird. He
had gone all glassy eyed and smiling. “Yes,” he said. “That’s something I’ve always wanted.”

“
Yes, I know.” The vampire stroked Xander’s hair. “Such a pretty face. You would make a wonderful addition to our family. Is this something that would make you happy?”

After a moment’s hesitation, Xander responded, “Yes
, very happy. I want to be part of your family. Very much.”

Sh
ort Vincent smiled. “Good. That is very good.” He addressed the beefy boys that restrained Xander. “Take him to my quarters, and have a contract ready.”

“Xander!
What are you doing?” I yelled, but he was completely oblivious to me.

My words
did bring me to the vampire’s attention. “Don’t worry. I have not forgotten about you.”

The beefy boys helped Xander to his feet and were steering him
toward one of the rooms behind the vampire’s throne. Xander gave the larger of the boys a beatific look. “May I wait for my friend?”

Although they were behind him, Vincent must have heard because he raised his hand and said, “He may wait.
I’m sure this will not take long.” Then the vampire gave his attention back to me. Leaning forward on his throne, he placed his hand on my chin like he’d done with Xander. “I find you very interesting.”

The stake
that I’d dropped was on the ground, very close to me. Even though the beefy boys were restraining me, I could have maybe jerked my arm free, grabbed it, and plunged the sharpened piece of wood into the vampire’s heart. But I found that I sincerely did not want to kill him. His noticing me and thinking I was special was wonderful. It felt like the best compliment I had ever received or could ever receive in my entire life. All I wanted to do was be worthy of his attention. Lydia was fully aware of what she was doing when she let Vincent drink from her. After all, the contract did say she might suffer from extreme loss of life. Having Vincent drink my blood would make me handsome and charismatic. I would be one of the Chosen. I would be rich and happy and loved. Everything about it sounded wonderful. It was too good to be true.

And that’s when Grandma popped into my head.

Damn her and her stupid convictions always interfering in my life. She wouldn’t want me to become one of the Chosen. But she didn’t know what it would mean to me. She didn’t understand how it would make my life better. She’d probably just focus on how sharing blood is unhygienic. She’d be too worried that Vincent would drink all of my blood and slash my wrists to conceal the murder.

My face must have been an open book of everything I was thinking because Vincent was enraptured. “Look at him, my darlings. Look
,” he said to the others in the room. “See how he struggles. He wants to be with us. He wants to be one of the Chosen, but there is something keeping him back. Look. I insist you must look.”

Everyone leaned forward to get a better
view. The beefy boys released Xander, and the three of them jockeyed to get in a better position to see me as they crowded behind Vincent’s chair looking over his shoulder. The Chosen gathered on either side of the vampire, craning their necks and squatting down on the floor. Aerony came to my side, crouched down, and gazed up into my face.

“I have never seen a human so young hold out for so long
after I decided to enchant him.” Vincent leaned back in his throne. “This is delightful. My darling...” He smiled at me, his dark eyes glittering. “I am very much going to enjoy sucking away your soul.”

That’s when the business end of a stake came bursting out of the vampire’s chest.

Chapter 30

Vincent screamed and clawed at the wooden spike. While everyone had been distracted trying to look at my face, Xander had pulled a stake from his satchel and rammed it through the back of the vampire’s chair. The Chosen started to shriek and wail as blood quickly drenched the vampire’s brocade vest.

“No, no,” Short Vincent gasped. “No, my darlings,
do not be upset. Do not cry. It is too late for me now.” His eyes lost some of their sparkle, and he started to sag around the spike that had him pinned to his throne. His gaze caught mine, and he said, “I knew I would die one day, but life feels too short.”

The waxy look of Vincent’s skin began to fade. His complexion became more flushed and rosy even as the light
was fading from his eyes. He looked younger, stronger, and even more vibrant as his blood seeped from his shirt and vest down to his silk knee breeches. After that, he appeared younger still, more like a teenager or someone in his early twenties. As blood began to trickle from the corner of his mouth, I realized that in death he was aging backwards. A few seconds after that, he morphed into a child, looking like a murdered young Mozart dressed in his father’s silks. His buckled shoes fell to the floor. The entire throne was dripping with blood. It was horrible to see the child Vincent looking at me with eyes so large and frightened.

A new transformation began to grip the vampire. His skin began to wrinkle and wizen. The blood on his face dried and crack
ed in an instant. He opened his mouth, and I thought he was trying to say something. Even worse, I thought he was trying to say something to me. I can’t be sure, and I will never be sure of what he said, but if I had to make a guess, it would be, “You’re next.”

Vincent crumpled in on himself like a deflating balloon. Soon he was nothing more than a shriveled
pile of flesh and blood-soaked clothes.

The Chosen drew back in horror
; the beefy boys released me and turned away; Aerony fell to her knees, buried her face in her hands, and screamed. “No!” Lowering her arms and rising up, she jerked her head toward Xander. “I’m going to kill you!” she shrieked, her eyes blazing red. “I will never stop killing you! I will kill your family! I will kill everyone in your life!”

Aerony’s lips began to curl back. At first I thought
they were contorted by grief, but it looked more like when a dog begins to growl. Her teeth, normally so smooth and white like peppermint Chiclets, became jagged and long. Her canine teeth especially took on an abnormal length. Perhaps it was the trauma of watching her creator die, but there was not a doubt in my mind that Aerony had made the change into a fully formed vampire.

She glared at Xander with her
enormous predator eyes. A long tongue snaked out of her mouth running along her broken knife-blade teeth. Her muscles contracted, and I knew she was coiling to spring across the throne and rip out Xander’s throat. “No,” croaked from my mouth, my hand scrabbling at the floor in search of the stake I had dropped. I couldn’t let her kill Xander.

My protest drew the creature’s attention
, and I could feel her feline eyes taking me in. She laughed in delight, causing her lips to draw even further back from her teeth.

That’s when I pl
unged the stake into her chest.

I can’t sa
y I did it deliberately. It was more like me flailing my arm in a defensive gesture and happening to find the stake in my hand. It didn’t penetrate very deep, but it did cause Aerony some pain and temporarily interrupted her plan to eviscerate me.

“
Sherbie! Ram it in deeper!” Xander shouted. He was already leaping over the bloody thrown to come to my aid. Using the heel of my hand, I rammed at the stake, and it sank a couple of inches deeper into the vampire’s chest.

Aerony let out a loud gasp. Her demon vampire
-from-hell appearance quickly faded away, and she was her beautiful self once more. This made me feel hideous, of course, even though ten seconds earlier she had intended to kill me. Xander came flying over the throne with a mighty leap. He landed in a crouch and immediately sprang up, giving Aerony’s stake an extra whack for good measure. The third blow caused the wood to protrude from her back, so it was clear she had been staked properly.

The beautiful vampire fell to the floor, her
loveliness melting as she crumpled. Her eyes became smaller and her cheekbones less pronounced. Her lustrous hair grew brittle and dry. Her ebony skin appeared chalky and coarse. Still, I had never intended to kill anyone, let alone a woman, and I felt sick as I watched her fade. “I’m sorry,” I whispered as I knelt over her.

Aero
ny’s hands flew to her cheeks, tears spilling from her eyes. “My face,” she cried. “My beautiful face.” She was quickly shrinking down to a gawky young girl, and in another few seconds, she was gone.

“You bastards!” one of the Chosen screamed. “How could you?”
It was Maureen. She shoved her way through the stunned crowded and flung herself at the bloody clothing that was once Vincent, burying her hands in the mess.

“Maureen,” I said, reaching for her shoulder to try to comfort her.

“No.” She lashed out at me. “Get the hell away from me. You’re going to regret this.” she glared at me. “You’re going to regret this for the rest of your life.” Jerking her head around to face the beefy boys, who had all gathered together and were talking quietly amongst themselves, she said, “Grab these assholes. We’re not letting Vincent’s death go unavenged.”

Xande
r scooped up the crowbar from where he’d left it earlier, and we both started backing away. Unfortunately, the beefy boys were between us and the exit. Fortunately, the vampire’s bodyguards were still a little stunned and didn’t immediately come after us.

“
What are you waiting for? I said grab them,” Maureen yelled, trying to force the guards into action with the harshness of her voice.

The largest of the beef
y boys gave her a funny look. “No.”

Maureen was obviously not expecting this reply. Her face fell a little
. “What?”

“No,” the beefy
man repeated. “We’re not grabbing anyone. Not ever again. We’re getting the hell out of here.”

“But aren’t you upset?” Rini asked, cautiously
taking a few steps toward him from where she was cowering with Lana. “Vincent is dead.”

“I know. Thank
God.” The beefy boys all look sincerely relieved.

Maureen turned her anger on them. “
You treacherous dogs. What are you talking about?”

“We didn’t want to be here,” the big man explained. “We were doing a cross country tour when Vincent and Aerony came to one of our shows.
Afterwards, they invited us to a party under the bridge. I don’t know what they did to us, but we just couldn’t leave no matter how hard we tried. It’s been like three years of being stuck down here serving some stupid vampire.”

“You guys
are in a band?” Rini asked.

“No, we’
re dancers. Like the Chippendales.”

“You guys are Chippendales?”
That did explain their all-brawn, no-brain appearance.

The big man shook his head. “We’re in a dance group that is similar to the Chippendales.” He flexed one of his already bulging biceps
and flashed Rini a flirty grin. “We put on shows for the ladies.”

“Let’
s get going,” another beefy boy said to the big man. “We’ve got to call Freddy and see if he can get us any new gigs.”

“I’ve got to call my mom,” another beefy boy added.

“We’ve stood up so many bachelorette parties.” The big man shook his head. “I bet our Yelp reviews are in the toilet.” Calling to the other faux-Chippendales, he said, “Come on. Let’s go see if we can scrape together our careers.” The group of them started shuffling toward the passageway that led to the exit, and the Chosen parted to let them through. Before leaving, the big man caught Xander’s eye. “I don’t know how you did it,” he said, “but thanks. I’ve wanted to kill that bastard vampire for a long time.”

Maureen began to sob. She’d sifted through the silk and muck of what was former
ly Vincent to find the gold signet ring he wore on his left pinky. She reverently lifted the ring to her lips, leaving a bloody stain on her mouth. Sliding the ring on her middle finger, she got to her feet. “We are Vincent’s Chosen,” she addressed the others. “He could have made his choice from anyone in the city. Anyone in the country. Did he choose arrogant frat boys and conceited cheerleaders to be his companions? No, he chose us. He honored us. And he gave us all the gifts it was in his power to give.” The Chosen appeared to be absorbed in what she was saying, so I shot Xander a look that we should grab the girls and move a little closer to the exit. As nonchalantly as possible, we shuffled toward Lana and Rini. Maureen went on. “We need to show Vincent our loyalty, even though he’s gone. We need to avenge his death.”

“The hell with that,” Rini said. “He was a blood
-sucking vampire. He cast a spell over all of us. We should just be grateful that we’re still alive.”

“You are a traitor to Vincent!” Maureen yelled, pointing
at Rini, her hand still dripping with the vampire’s blood.

“And you’re a nut job,” Rini fired back. “Come on, guys
.” She nodded toward the rest of us. “Let’s go.” Xander wrapped his arm around Rini’s waist. I grabbed Lana, and we started for the passageway.

“Wait,” Maureen commanded.
And when we did not wait, she tried calling to the Chosen, “Stop them.”

Some of the Chosen hung back,
still deciding on their loyalties, but more than a few looked upset and willing to take their rage out on us. Four or five of the angrier-looking guys stepped forward. Xander still had the crowbar, and he took a warning swipe at the nearest of the Chosen. “Back off,” he warned the guy.

His future assailant
snatched the crowbar out of his hands and whipped it across the room. “Make me,” he smiled.

“
Everybody freeze!” came the blast of a deep male voice squawking over a bullhorn. “Stay where you are. This is the police.”