Sweet Blood of Mine (15 page)

I sighed and roled my eyes. "What's not nice is sneaking up on me, not to mention trying to suck out my soul."

"You are entering decidedly dangerous territory, my dear toy. Have you thought further about the deal I offered you?"

"Becoming your sex slave? I don't think so."

She stood behind me. Much as I didn't like the thought of a very strong, not to mention fanged, woman standing at my back, I stood my ground. She hugged me and nipped my ear. Then, of course, she licked me. I pushed her away.

"Wil you stop licking me? Your tongue feels like fine-grit sandpaper and it's gonna give me a rash."

"But I like you," she said. "Can you not see that?"

"What, with al your posturing and caling me

'morsel' and 'toy', blah, blah, blah? And you talk like a pretentious idiot. Maybe you've been around a while, but pretentious idiot. Maybe you've been around a while, but you should probably use the lingo we use in this century, not two centuries ago."

Her eyes glistened like large amber pools. Tears weled precipitously before spiling down her cheeks and over trembling lips.

"Look, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to hurt your feelings."

"Why do you not like me?" she asked, her voice plaintive.

Freaking girls and their abilities to turn the tables on you. Not two minutes ago she was acting super-cool and condescending, and now she sounded like the only girl I ever broke up with back in fifth grade. I put a hand on her shoulder. "Look, I'm sure you're not al bad, but you have to admit, it's not polite to suck people's souls out of their eyebals."

"But it is my nature."

"Just like the scorpion and the frog? That's a cop-out."

"It is not a cop-out," she said, reverting back to her haughtier tone and wiping at the moisture on her cheeks.

"Think about my proposal, Justin. You are in grave danger.

I can protect you from those who would do terrible things to you, and I would teach you to protect yourself." She ran her hands slowly down her body and smiled. "In return, you may enjoy al I have to offer. I wil show you just how inventive we older women can be in bed." She ran her fingernails up my jeans-clad leg.

I leapt away with a yelp as she squeezed my butt.

"Wil you cut that out? What kind of danger am I in?"

She smiled and shook her head. "I wil only tel you that it is right before your eyes. You have no idea who or what you even are."

"Yeah, wel Google hasn't helped me figure this one out." I sighed. "Look, I have deep personal beliefs that prevent me from having sex with you. Maybe we could just mess around a little?" The thought of seling my body to her was appealing in an egotistical sense, but also frightening. If her tongue was like sandpaper, what would her private parts be like? The thought of that was enough to banish my stiffness issue on demand. I tucked that feeling away for future use.

She wrinkled her nose. "Mess around? What rubbish is this? I want someone to be with me, not a one-night stand."

"You want to go steady?" I was utterly perplexed.

"I want a committed relationship. What is wrong with that?"

I laughed at the innocent blink of her big round eyes. "An old-fashioned vampire?"

"Are not intimate relations a great deal more enjoyable with someone you like? Especialy when you can practice frequently and learn new things?"

"But we hardly know each other." I paused. "Wait, we are talking about sex, right? Not blood sucking, because I don't want to be anybody's snack pack."

She broke into a deep-throated laugh. "I speak of normal but fantastic sex, you adorable little man. Blood sucking is not a requirement." She giggled. "I wil give you more pleasure than you can imagine."

"I'm a teenage guy, so I can imagine quite a bit."

"Give it your ful consideration. I fear if you take too long, it wil be too late for me to protect you." She paused and pursed her lips. "And, Justin, I am not a vampire."

"Then what are you?"

She ran her fingers through my hair and gave a wicked grin as I shivered. "Perhaps you wil figure that out with your clever little mind. Eventualy."

"Are you the reason I changed into whatever I am?"

One corner of her mouth rose in a lopsided grin.

One corner of her mouth rose in a lopsided grin.

"I'm afraid that, my dear, is al you."

With that, she sped across the parking lot, her body a blur, jumped halfway up the three-story school, and then cleared the remaining half by vaulting to the roof from a window ledge. The darkness swalowed her.

"Badass!" I said. I ran as fast as I could toward the school. My legs moved faster than I'd ever seen them go.

The ground blurred. It was amazing. Then I tripped on the curb. Smacked into the side of the building. Rebounded, and skidded backwards on my butt. Apparently, such an athletic feat took a lot of practice.

I picked myself up. A scrape on my hand healed right before my eyes, leaving only a glistening smear of blood atop the new skin. At least I didn't have to learn how to use
that
ability. I went home the old-fashioned way—I drove—and turned on my computer once I arrived at home, with Stacey's dire warning echoing in my brain. I had to find out what I'd become before the boogey man got me.

Ugh
.

That was my first thought of the morning. I stripped and went into the bathroom for a shower. As I passed the mirror, I noticed something odd about my chest. No, I hadn't grown more than the few wisps of hair that had sprouted from my left nipple a couple of years back, but my man boobs looked smaler. I touched my left pectoral. My finger met a layer of hard muscle hiding under the flab. My stomach also looked slightly less paunchy and doughy than before. I flexed my biceps. Meh, they stil looked pathetic, but at least they weren't sagging.

This revelation made my morning seem a bit brighter despite the lack of sleep. I thought about suspension with Ms. Foreman. I thought about Elyssa giggling. I was actualy looking forward to staying after school. I couldn't wait to see Elyssa in the gym. My brain, the spoil-sport it is, decided to play back a few choice samples of my disastrous experiences with humans of the female variety. Dark clouds blocked the rays of feel-good sunshine, squashing al my warm and fuzzies of the morning. My brain was right. I was faling for Elyssa and my track record with girls looked like a zombie apocalypse.

Just take it slow. Really slow.
I wondered if I should take it anywhere at al. So far I hadn't discovered what I'd become or who was going to kil me for it. If I started anything with Elyssa, the mysterious boogey man might hurt her too. But the only way to find out was to enter a serious relationship with Stacey the British supernatural chick. And that would kil my chances with Elyssa. I muled over the frustrating situation while I showered, ate, and brushed my teeth. I'd hoped for a light bulb moment, but ended up with a cranial power outage.

When I got to school, I puled my backpack from the passenger seat, stood up, and nearly colided with Katie. I jumped away from her. God only knew what would happen if I bumped into anyone, much less the catalyst for my woes, nowadays. Principal Perkins—or Jerkins as Elyssa caled him—might sentence me to the electric chair.

Katie smiled. It wasn't a warm smile, exactly.

More of an
I-have-your-nuggets-in-a-vice
smile. "Helo, Justin," she said in a tone that could freeze sunshine.

"Hi." I turned to leave.

"I can't believe I wanted to be friends with you. It makes me feel gross to even think about it."

"Cool story, bro." I was amazed how little her cruel remark fazed me. The part of me that wanted to ravish females detected something off about her emotional state. If I had to guess, I would say she might be lying. It wasn't like I could read her mind, but I could sense insincerity roling off her, buried in waves of anger. Loitering beneath it al throbbed a white-hot pulsar of sexual energy. I had to think about

Stacey

and

her

possibly

sandpaper-lined

unmentionables to keep Justin Jr. from getting too riled up.

She glared at me. Everyone seemed to glare at me nowadays. "You should watch your back. I know a lot of footbal players who'd love to teach you a lesson."

"Are you doing the deed with them too?"

She slapped me. It stung like crazy but I smiled through the pain.

"Were you always just a fake friend to me, Katie? I understand being pissed about what I did. It was wrong and stupid. But this is ridiculous."

"No. I used to genuinely care for you, Justin. Then you went and posted how much of a whore I was on my Facebook wal where my parents and al my friends saw it.

Do you know how mortified I was?"

"Look, I don't have any excuses for it, okay? I was

"Look, I don't have any excuses for it, okay? I was drunk out of my skul. Can't we just cal this little war off and be civilized again?"

Her bottom lip trembled. "I don't think I can, Justin." A tear trickled down her cheek. "How would it look if I forgave you after al the pain you've put me through?"

"You'd look pretty good, actualy. Magnanimous, even."

She shook her head and reached a hand out to touch mine. Her hand jerked back like it had touched a hot stove. "Things have gone too far. It's too late for us to ever be friends again."

Coming from her like that, it actualy hurt. "Was it realy so horrible?"

"It was painful. Maybe because you hit a sore spot. I'm not proud of what I did with Brad." She sighed.

"I don't realy regret being friends with you." Her face flushed and she looked away. "I realy treasured our friendship, Justin. I know you think I'm a horrible person for putting Brad over you, but just because I didn't want to date you didn't mean I valued you any less. I guess that's why your words hurt me so much."

"Hey, I get it. I mean who would want to date a chubby loser anyway?"

"Please don't say that. You're not a loser."

I laughed. "I'm social poison to anyone who gets near me now. Besides, I kind of understand things a little better than I did then." I reached a hand toward her, thought better of it, and lowered it. "Can you cal the dogs off? Please?"

"I can't. I don't control them." She wiped away tears. Her gaze settled on something behind me and widened slightly. "Be careful, Justin," she whispered and hurried away.

Before I could turn around, the sound of a fist hitting an open palm alerted me to yet another confrontation. I turned to see Nathan and three of his biggest buddies baring their teeth and trying to look menacing. Instead, it appeared as if they were straining to drop a deuce in the parking lot.

With great effort, I kept my silence. What else could I do? If I fought them, I'd lose politicaly. If I did nothing, they stil won.

"What did I say about harassing Katie, you little stalker?" Nathan sneered. "Looks like we're gonna have to teach you a lesson real soon. You won't know when or where, but it could come at any second."

"I'l bet your parents are so proud," I said. I turned and walked into the building. The morning was starting off so wel I could hardly wait to see what came next. The bel rang for homeroom and I groaned. It was too late to get to the gymnasium to see Elyssa. "Damn," I muttered. My heart sank. I missed her already.

Lunch roled around. I noticed immediately something was vastly different at the Goth table. In the place of pale-faced mascara-slathered individuals with nauseating amounts of piercings, sat two dejected guys.

Ash, who was surprisingly Asian under al the makeup he usualy wore, had a dark bruise under one eye that definitely was not eye shadow. Nyte, despite his black-dyed hair, had a ginger complexion and a scab on his lower lip.

I dropped into my seat and dropped my bagged lunch on the table. "What happened?"

Ash frowned. "The principal informed us we were no longer alowed to wear our 'devil-worshipping costumes'

as he caled them."

"And he hit you?"

He shook his head. "No, that happened when Nyte and I were leaving the mal last night. It was dark and three big guys in ski masks did this." He pointed at his eye.

"And one of them jerked out my lip ring," said Nyte, his face flushing scarlet as only a carrot-top's face can.

his face flushing scarlet as only a carrot-top's face can.

"What the principal did is against freedom of speech," I said. "You can wear makeup, jewelry, and clothes just like any of these other people." I pointed at Lisa Gibbs who wore so much foundation her face looked like baked mud. "And see those letter jackets?" I pointed at Nathan and his group. "If they can wear those, you can wear your Goth gear."

Ash nodded. "I agree. We could fight this in court." He looked at Nathan. "But if we do, I have a feeling those guys wil put on their ski masks and come after us again."

I looked at Nathan and his leering companions again and saw red. This couldn't continue, but what could I do about it? I'd already tried physical violence and that had just ticked them off more and caused them to go after my friends, not to mention triggered punishment for al of us. I glanced back at Ash and Nyte. I hadn't known them long but it was true: They were my friends. They'd brought me in when times were tough and stood by me. Mark and Harry had shown me what fake friends they'd realy been.