He smiled above me and took my lips again. My tongue grazed his teeth, and I instinctively pressed on a canine, making it grow against my tongue. He stiffened above me, pressing me harder into the couch. I arched up to meet him and pulled harder at his hair. His lips sank to nuzzle at my neck, and I bit him in response. Not hard enough to break skin, but enough to make him moan into my neck and kiss me again. “God,” he whispered. “Made out with many vampires?”
I smiled slowly and pulled his lips back to mine. It had been so long since the weight of a body pressed into mine. My nature wasto revel in this, the delights of the flesh. He kissed me again, longer, slower, enough to make me melt. Responding to him, I kissed him back, but concentrated on thinking about just the meeting of our passions and nothing else. He pulled back and looked at me. His breath hitched, his eyes glowing brighter than before. “You aren’t easily distracted. Whether you think about it or not, I will solve the mystery about you.”
I nodded. He probably would. Hopefully, Mia would be back and I could move far, far away. Otherwise, if he figured me out, he probably would try to kill me.
And I would have to kill him.
CHAPTER Four
I woke with a gasp. A soft, almost inaudible, high pitched noise echoed through the dim room. Windowless, the complete darkness of the room didn’t change my surety that it was morning. The noise came from near the dresser, but I couldn’t identify it offhand.
Then last night crashed back to life in my head.
I pulled a pillow on top of my head, as if in defense against the onslaught of an unbelievable reality. Then I heard the noise again, a malicious chuckle which rattled like some demonic child in a horror flick. I stilled and listened for more.
Nothing.
I peeked out from a corner of the pillow. A Gremlin sat on the dresser, the outline just barely visible. Not a nice fuzzy one from the eighties movie, the bad one, fed after midnight. The
evil
Gremlin.
I slid
yes, slid. Silk sheets, baby
off the far side of the bed and fumbled under it for a weapon.
Shoe. Yeah, shoe would work.
Creeping around the bed, I stood behind the dresser. I whooped a battle cry as I smashed the thing with great force and furious anger.
Sven and Vickie looked fuzzy and pink with sleep as they came to the doorway and peered inside. I beat down the Gremlin. And when it fell from the dresser, I kept at it, determined to slay the beastie. Then Vickie laughed. “Mom, you just killed a Furby with a stiletto.”
“Or you killed a
stiletto
with a Furby. Honey, that was a Jimmy Choo.” Sven pushed a hand through his hair, expression somewhere between horror and awe.
“I knew that.” I hadn’t. After last night, I’d thought anything believable. Apparently not Gremlins, though. They, it seemed, were the only creepy movie creatures
not
coming out of the closet. On that note, day two at Odd Stuff began.
~
Coffee,
I thought after climbing out of the shower. I really needed some coffee. I could smell someone toasting bagels, but I smelled no coffee.
My hair, freshly washed, wasn’t too hard to tame. In moments, I had it brushed and stuffed back into a wad on my head. I put on a bra and some underwear, topped it with jeans and a black T-shirt before I added a Steelers hoodie for warmth. Checking my reflection, I was pleased to see that most of me looked normal. My hair was tight against my head, not a strand free, and my clothes were all okay, but I stepped closer to look at my face.
A pale me gazed back from the looking glass, the long night leaving my eyes with a slightly bruised look from too little sleep.
The eyes…shit.
My eyes weren’t true blue like my mother’s. Mine were hazel and tended to change hue. I preferred blue, so I bought contacts—one of my few vanities. I padded to my bedroom, grabbed my bag and slunk back to the bathroom. It only took seconds to turn my brown eyes blue and a dab of foundation under my eyes hid the dark circles. After a coat of chapstick, I decided I was appropriate for school. On my way out to the kitchen, I smelled coffee.
Pouring myself a mug, I considered Vickie. Dressed in new jeans and a pink sweater, her feet kicked out happily under the table as she munched on strawberry swirled yogurt topped with granola. A half eaten bagel and a half drunk cup of juice sat next to her and she chattered away about some God-awful boy band to Sven, who spoke with equal animation.
Well, at least she isn’t worried about him being an ax murderer anymore.
Her hair was a disaster, looking like a blond rat’s nest perched on her head, and I frowned. “Can I fix your hair?” I awaited her battle cry of,
No!
“Okay. Anyway—” And she went back to her conversation.
My eyebrows rose, and I grabbed the brush. Splitting her hair in two, I quickly wove and French braided each side. She didn’t complain and finished her breakfast as I went back to my coffee. Leaning on the counter, I watched her some more. “Are you nervous about your first day?” I blew on my coffee while waiting for her reply.
“No, mom.” She smiled a beatific smile.
This was going too well to be true. Something was up. “Why?”
“Grandma called while you were sleeping. She said she would meet us at the school office.” She smiled at me sweetly, the little creep. I
knew
she was being too cooperative.
Well, I guess I couldn’t put off seeing my mother anymore.
~
In the car in front of the school, I flipped through my folder. Social Security numbers, birth certificate, custody papers…yup, had everything.
I checked again while Vickie shifted in her seat. Social Security numbers, birth certificate, custody papers…yup, I still had everything.
I looked at Vickie. She glared at me. I checked again. Social Security numbers, birth certificate, custody papers…yup, of course, I still had everything.
“Mom, I am going to be late. You have everything, and Grandma will just wait for us, no matter how long you flip through that folder.”
I scowled at her, but she was right. There was no putting it off. We strode into the school. The smell of crayons, dirty sneakers and industrial cleaner still permeated the school. Puke green and brown lockers lined the corridors and the black and white tile of my childhood still covered the floors. Art hung from the walls and ceilings of the hall, lots of it Christmas-y. I smiled and dawdled some more gazing at it. Vickie nearly danced with anticipation by the time we got to the office.
The door to the office stood open. I took Vickie’s hand, and she looked up at me as her cold fingers closed around mine. All joking about her Grandma aside, she was clearly nervous. I smiled at her reassuringly. I didn’t get to do that as often now that she was older.
We went in together.
There, seated on one of the metal fold-out chairs, was my mother, looking very out of place. A molten cloud of red framed her delicate, heart shaped face. Petite and pale, her face’s did not show her age. Vibrant blue eyes, very nearly violet, snapped up to meet mine. Her spine was ramrod straight, her posture elegant but aloof, as if she sat at a king’s side, rather than on a plain, old, metal chair in an elementary school office. She looked as out of place in the room as a vampire had in Mia’s kitchen. Vindictively, I hoped the last occupant of that chair had lice.
“No wonder you ended up divorced.” She frowned at me. “What are you wearing? Do you shop in the boys section of Walmart? How can you bear to be in public with her, Victoria?”
I sighed.
It took over a half an hour of sheer hell to enroll Vickie. We met with the principal and vice principal, I filled out a small mountain of redundant paperwork then I signed my name after a lot of X’s. Since I wasn’t really reading what I was signing, I could have signed over custody of Vickie to the school for all I knew.
The whole time, my mother continued to berate my life choices, wardrobe choices, and parenting abilities. I smiled at her and nodded when it seemed appropriate. The principals got to know much more about our lives than I thought necessary, including the fact I had been slow to begin talking.
We toured the building and met her teacher. My mother shut up for that part, but on our way to the door, she explained I handled it poorly. I was, apparently, expected to form a bond with Vickie’s teacher. “Do you still exchange Christmas cards with my old teachers?” I couldn’t help the sarcasm as I twirled my keys.
It was the wrong thing to say. Besides a scathing look, it earned another ten minutes of lecture in the parking lot. In summation, it would be wonderful if I
did
end up life-long friends with Vickie’s teachers, since it would beat my previous life choices. Aside from not wanting to give her further reason to berate me, I couldn’t argue with any degree of certainty after the night I had due to Mia.
Finally, I breathed in her spring-like scent as she kissed my cheek. I was only half paying attention as she told me to call her if we needed anything. She, it seemed, was glad we were closer to home, even though the circumstances were unfortunate.
Unfortunate,
meaning in this case,
my fault.
Hugging her, I could, at last, dive into the warmth and relative safety of my Ford Focus. My mom pulled away while I waited for my car to warm up. I rubbed my hands together for a minute then picked up my cell phone. One missed call.
Wow, am I popular.
Looking at the readout, I was glad my mom wasn’t near enough to hear me shout, “Damn!” Mia had called. I quickly dialed voice mail.
“Hi. Hear you had a rough night. Also you didn’t listen to me—you ran into Vance already. Just kidding. Anyway, I am at Puritan Bakery. Meet me? We can do lunch and you can tell me what I’m missing. Love ya.”
Click.
I stared at my steering wheel. Well, that was fast. She was back in town. Thank God. She could take her crazy life back, and I could go back to job and apartment hunting. I ignored the twinge in the pit of my stomach. If I hadn’t, I might have called it regret. A relationship with a vampire was out of the question anyway and I hadn’t needed all of this additional weirdness.
Right.
I pulled out and headed for the bakery.
~
My all-time favorite bakery, Puritan was a tiny store, with hardly any room for tables and the display cases. The size, though, condenses the scent of warm, sweet things and melty, buttery goodness. Their donuts made everyone else’s donuts look like stale wheels. Their bread made everyone else’s taste like large cracker loaves. And cakes? I would kill people for their cakes. They weren’t a bakery, they were a way of life. I walked to the counter and ordered a pumpernickel bread sandwich with spinach dip spread and juicy ham.
Which, by the way, is the only way I will eat spinach. I spotted Mia seated at a table toward the back, not in any way trying to be incognito. Her floaty skirt, trademark Mia, hung in shades of blue. Her tiny feet were wrapped in blue, semi-precious stone beaded sandals, matching pendants of crystal hanging from her swanlike neck. Dark curly gypsy hair hung to her shoulders in artful disarray. In deference to the weather, she had a blue velvet blazer draped over her chair. Suddenly, we were hugging and gushing. “It has been so long! You could have visited more often, you know. I have missed you so much!”
I grinned at her. “Same goes, witch.”
“Sit down, and gimme the long version of what’s been going on.”
So, I did. I left out
all
of the vampire kissing. Girl talk was okay if the guy had a pulse. When he didn’t, you wondered if you had flipped your lid. You do not gush over that which you yourself know was stupid. Knowing Mia, she guessed anyway. She chewed her lip when I got toward the end and I finished with, “So, now that you’re back—”
“I’m not.” She shook her head, bells in her hair clip musically emphasizing her gesture. “I’m still in hiding.”
I quirked a brow at her.
In hiding
did not fit sitting in a public place chatting it up.
“So, I’m not very good at hiding! Anyway, can you keep covering for me?”
“Why?”
“Well, aside from the whole
police
thing,” she began, rolling her eyes, “someone is trying to kill me. I think it has something to do with Vance.”
“Uh, huh. He said as much.”
“Well, I have to try to get to the bottom of it before they stake me, too.”
I nodded. Then I shook my head. “The police can help. I mean, say they lock you up? Great! Hard to stake someone in jail.”
“Not so much. These aren’t exactly normal people we’re dealing with here. We have shifters, witches, vampires and drug lords, none of which are fond of Vance. If they want to get me, they will find a way around jail. My only chance is to keep moving and hope I can stay ahead of the pack.”
“Uh, huh.” I raised my eyebrows at her to show her I thought she was nuts.
“You saw last night that I am
not
nuts.”
Couldn’t argue with that. Unless I really had gone bonkers myself, which was still on the table.
“I’m a mom. I can’t do this.”
“Yeah, but you are also my best friend. And Vickie must be okay or you would have shipped her off to your mom’s by now.”
I frowned.
True.
“But I found a freaking vampire in your kitchen last night. That is not a safe thing to have in the house with a nine year old.”
She nodded and nibbled a carrot stick. “The vampire in question would crawl into the sun before biting a child. I know, he’s a good friend of mine.”
“That’s swell. I don’t know him from Lestat.”