Braced to Bite (11 page)

Read Braced to Bite Online

Authors: Serena Robar

Tags: #Vampires, #Fiction, #Horror, #Horror & Ghost Stories, #Schools, #Juvenile Fiction, #School & Education, #High schools, #Fantasy & Magic

A few minutes later a woman in her early twenties came to sit down next to me. She was in some sort of trance and I was sure she was under Thomas’s vampire mojo spell.
Did he believe for a minute I was going to feed on a woman? What made him think I was going to act out his warped vampire fantasy? I told the girl to go home. She stood up abruptly and continued walking down the path. Suddenly, two guys stepped out of the shadows in front of her. I jumped up when I realized she wasn’t aware of them since she was still operating under orders and not thinking for herself.
“Let her pash,” I said, surprising them with my stealth.
“Why should we?” one sneered, his tattooed neck exposed by his sweatshirt.
“Becaush you can play with me inshtead.” Oh, ya had to love the intimidating lisp I had going.
By this time their original victim was farther up the path. She was still on her way home, not letting anything prevent her from that task.
Both men looked at me in shock. Then they looked at each other when I sighed heavily.
“Guysh, I don’t haff all night.”
“What are you wearing?” one of them asked.
“Headgear.”
“Like braces? Is that why you talk so funny?”
“Kinda like brashesh but more for eating. And I don’t talk funny.”
“Weird,” he said, coming closer for a better look.
I took offense to the weird comment—hey, it wasn’t my fault I was fang handicapped—and grabbed him by the collar, lifting him up slightly. He was pretty tall so I couldn’t lift him much, but it certainly got his attention.
“Wanna go in the shadowsh for a little bite to eat?” I asked softly, my steel fangs flashing when I spoke.
The guy widened his eyes and tried to speak but I softly shushed him. Then I looked over my shoulder at his buddy who was still in shock seeing me hold up his 200-pound friend.
“You wait here quietly. Don’t bother anyone elsh.” He nodded his head in agreement, very slowly. I let his buddy down and ordered him to take a few steps back into the shadows.
Once I had my willing victim standing obediently in the shadows with his buddy playing lookout, I was at a loss on how to continue. After all, every vampire movie I ever saw represented nightstalkers in a ruthless, cruel way, toying with their prey, and then devouring them with relish.
In reality, it was a fairly unexciting yet necessary transaction, much like going to the cash machine. I would get sustenance and he would lose a cup of blood, none the wiser. Seemed almost anticlimatic.
I told him to look to the side and show me his neck. He obeyed instantly. I went on tiptoe, barely able to reach, and giggled. Then I giggled some more. My giggling turned into full-fledged hysterical laughter. It must have been the most ridiculous sight to any passerby. A tiny blonde vampire with headgear standing on tiptoes to reach her linebacker prey who was docilely baring his neck to be dinner.
When I finally got hold of myself, I couldn’t help noticing the heat radiating from his neck and put my mouth to the pulsing vein. I tentatively bit. My victim stiffened, but did not struggle. The first flow of warm blood flooded my mouth and I opened my throat to drink. It was the sweetest nectar I ever tasted and instantly, I felt alive again. Well, not truly alive but the closest to it since I became Undead. I wish I could have drunk forever but I felt full very quickly so I licked his neck and the wound instantly sealed.
“Uh, shank you,” I said very formally, my meal still standing, looking much like a deer in headlights.
I directed my speech to both of them. “You and your buddy need to go shtraight home. You won’t remember any of thish but you will be polite to all ladiesh you meet in the park and let them pash. Got it?”
They both nodded dumbly, still staring with unfocused eyes.
I wasn’t sure how to continue so I gave a sort of royal wave with my hand and said, “Be gone.”
When I was alone or at least thought I was alone the scent of chocolate chip cookies lingered faintly in the fall evening air.
I removed my headgear, wiping it on my jeans to try and remove any traces of leftover blood. I hated the lisp thing. All words with “s” and “v” came out totally lame. Dropping the gear in its box, I methodically placed it back in my bag. Thomas stood next to me. I chose to ignore him and he chose to let me.
I was so conflicted and confused, and felt terribly vulnerable. So this was it. The rest of my life I would be slinking around dark alleys and deserted parks looking for would-be hooligans or confirmed felons to feed upon so I could survive. I fought down a sob, hiccupping instead. I was the most pathetic vampire—no, scratch that,
half-blood
vampire to ever stalk a skate park.
Thomas gently put his arm around me and I sort of melted against him. He turned to hold me, stroking my hair and crooning an old Irish lullabye while I clung to him, sobbing dry tears.
“I hate this! I miss cheeseburgers and milkshakes. I mean, I never ate them because I have to be the top of the pyramid, but if I would have known the last piece of cheesecake I ever had was truly the
last piece of cheesecake
I would have eaten more than one crummy bite!”
Thomas mumbled something into my hair.
“What?”
“I miss Mallomars.”
I hiccupped and giggled at the same time. We held each other another moment. Then I said, “You know, I used to suggest going for ice cream after the game and I’d watch everyone else order and when it was my turn I wouldn’t indulge. I would just buy bottled water. That way I could watch everyone else eat their ice cream and I’d think to myself I was so much more disciplined than they were.
“What a twit I was. Now what I wouldn’t give to go back and order the biggest brownie nut sundae and inhale the whole thing.”
“Eating isn’t the only thing that is different now, Colby. I don’t want to upset you further, but being immortal is … difficult. You will outlive your parents, friends, loved ones, etcetera. Not everyone adjusts.”
“It doesn’t have to be so hard. I mean, I’ve met you and surely I’ll meet others I get along with. Then it won’t be so lonely, right?” I pleaded.
“Colby, there are no other half-bloods. You are alone. I don’t want to frighten you, but you must be told. I’m not sure if you heard the murmurs in the tavern, but vampires do not acknowledge or socialize with half-bloods. In their eyes, you should all be destroyed. They won’t allow you to intermix with them.”
“They let me intermix today,” I pointed out.
“That was because you were with an Investigator. The laws as they know it dictate that an Investigator will eliminate half-bloods.”
“Well, I don’t get it. Why would an Investigator take a half-blood he plans to whack into a tavern?”
“Some Investigators have been known to, uh, toy with half-bloods before eliminating them. It is a practice that is not encouraged, but neither is it condemned.”
I wasn’t sure what perimeters “toy with” covered, but it sounded bad. Very bad.
“Thomas, are you toying with me?”
“Certainly not! That’s an abominable practice left over from the days of savagery,” Thomas replied in disgust.
Well, I guess that answered that.
“So, I would be stuck within the human world. That doesn’t sound so bad. I mean, I can do that.”
“For how long, Colby? Your parents and family will pass on. You will be alone. You will need certain things only the vampire world can give you but you won’t be able to get those things easily, since other vampires won’t allow half-bloods to buy their goods or services.”
I shivered in his arms. “Why are you telling me all this? You make the future sound bleak and miserable.”
“We don’t even know if you have a future yet, Colby, but forewarned is forearmed.”
I looked up into his eyes and asked, “Would you still be around for me? That is, if I’m allowed to … ?”
Thomas didn’t answer but squeezed me in response. He would stand by me. Right now, in the middle of the night, in Thomas’s arms, an eternity of smelling chocolate chip cookies didn’t seem like such a rough deal, even if other vampires were dissing me.
“It will be dawn soon. Let me get you home.”
We walked back toward his car, his arm slung over my shoulder and mine wrapped around his waist. It would have been a perfect night if it wasn’t for the fact that he was a bloodsucking vampire and I was a mutant half-blood who wasn’t allowed to exist. But hey, all couples faced some bumps on their way to true love, right?
Waking the dead is not easy, or so my mom told me. When 10 A.M. Tuesday morning arrived, I had about four hours of sleep under my belt. Mom tried to rouse me but I don’t remember that. She was in a mood when I finally came around. Apparently, I was surly at best, but what did she expect? Four hours of sleep was tough for the living; imagine what it was like for me.
I tried to dress for the mall in something bright and cheerful, but my mood had me searching for something dark and soothing. I settled on a soft gray sweater and jeans. I even added a bright pink tank top under the sweater to perk myself up a bit, but it really wasn’t helping. I was tired and grumpy and misery loves company.
After a lot of eye rolling, deep sighing and backtalk, Mom reached her limit.
“Listen, young lady, being Undead is not an excuse for being so negative. I am not spending my day with such an unpleasant person. Shape up or go alone.”
I mumbled an apology and shuffled my feet with a little less attitude. I didn’t want to shop alone. Besides, Mom had all the money.
We arrived at the mall and went straight to the optical center. I was wearing pink-tinted sunglasses decorated with rhinestones on the rim. I didn’t want to take them off and show the clerk my eye color so my mom did all the talking.
“We have her prescription on file and need to pick up a pair of opaque blue contacts.”
“Certainly, I’ll just get the prescription,” the saleswoman said. “Please have a seat over there, where you can try them on to see if they fit comfortably.”
“Since Colby’s had them fit before, we just need the new color.” Mom leaned closer to the aging saleswoman and added in a whisper, “We’re in kind of a hurry. It’s that time of the month for her.”
I rolled my eyes behind the sunglasses and deliberately turned my back to them. Mom was getting me out of explaining my yellow eyes but still, embarrassing me was hardly my preferred plan of attack.
“Of course.” The lady nodded in sympathy, leaving to find my new contacts. She returned with several boxes and asked me which blue I preferred. I picked the one closest to my original eye color, a blue-gray, much to the surprise of my mother. When I had gray eyes, I wanted nothing more than to make them look blue; but now that I had yellow eyes, I wanted nothing more than to look like my original self. Weird, huh?
After our contacts purchase, we hit the cosmetics counter.
I was checking out new colors when the M.A.C. gal, decked out in all black, suggested a sunscreen so I could avoid another sunburn. I stared at her like she was crazy, but Mom gasped when she looked at me under the bright lights of the store. She handed me a mirror. Sure enough, I looked like I had basked on the beaches of Mexico all day. It was sunny outside, but if this was the result of a walk through the parking lot and fluorescent indoor lighting, I had to rethink my desire to be out during the day.
We picked up the highest SPF available from another line and I stocked up on new M.A.C. loose powder and concealer. I even picked up a softer pink blush and lip gloss. I think Mom’s generosity was firmly rooted in pity for my fried skin.
As we window-shopped, I made a mental battle plan to secure my date for Homecoming. I thought of my upcoming Tribunal appointment and briefly wondered if it would be fair to snare Aidan as a date if I couldn’t manage to secure a license. It might be pretty traumatic for him to learn his Homecoming date was dead when he arrived to pick me up, corsage in hand.
Shaking off the feelings of uncertainty, I chanted a positive affirmation instead: I was going to get a license and get Aidan as a Homecoming date. Period. End of story.

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