Read Star, Starland Vamp Series, Book 1 Online
Authors: Theresa Oliver
Then understanding dawned in his eyes. “You’re not Steve.”
Without loosening my grip, my body quivered and shook, my features changing and morphing until I looked like myself, a teenage female vamp with long wavy brown hair stretching down my back, with black skinny jeans, white T-shirt, black leather jacket and black boots. “No shit, Sherlock. Now,” I began again, “Who’s this ‘V’?” I waited. “One, two, …”
“We have company!” Rick yelled, heading for the van. Annie was behind me, having my back as Rick quickly pulled the Mercedes SUV behind me, too, blocking the way. I looked over my shoulder to see what the fuss was about, and ten of The Others were walking purposefully toward us.
“Who the hell is ‘V’?” I said, shoving the knife closer to his throat. I looked over my shoulder and The Others were coming.
“Star!” Rick yelled, warning.
“WHO IS ‘V’?” I demanded.
“Alright! The bartender! Verus!” he yelled into my face.
“Verus? The Gladiator?” I asked, as the realization of who the bartender really was set in. I knew he looked familiar! “Here we go, Boy Blue!” I said, shoving him into the van, as The Others ran toward us.
“Let’s go!” Annie yelled into Rick’s ear as he spun out with the van, racing down the highway. The Others ran after us at vamp speed. Two jumped onto the van, but Rick shook off one, but not the other.
“Watch him!” Annie said, shoving Big Bird at me, still knocked out, as she opened the passenger side window. She literally sat in the window, and leaned around to get a clear shot, then pulled the trigger multiple times, emptying a clip into the vamp’s brain. Then he let go. He probably didn’t survive.
“Way to go!” I yelled as Annie climbed back into the SUV.
“I’ve been dying to use this!” Annie said cheerfully, her cheeks flushed from excitement even though she was a vamp. “I just got it last week!”
“What the hell?” Boy Blue yelled, reminding us that we still had them.
“To the lake?” Rick asked, smiling, driving out of town.
“To the lake!” I agreed, grinning, as we headed down Broadway, making our way toward 26
th
Street to Cedar Lake. It was pitch black out, but the lights from the city shone brightly in the distance. But even without the light, we could all see perfectly.
Rick pulled up at Cedar Lake just as Big Bird started regaining consciousness. Annie grabbed him, restraining his arms. “What’s going on?” Big Bird asked groggily.
“Oh, Boy Blue here was just telling us about ‘V.’ Other than that, nothing much,” Annie said, matter of fact.
“You
what?
” Big Bird yelled at Boy Blue.
“Man, I had to!” Boy Blue defended himself.
“What else is there to know?” Annie asked, pulling his head back, shoving the gun to his temple.
“Nothing, nothing!” Big Bird yelled, his bright yellow Mohawk wilting a bit.
“Who is ‘V’ supposed to call?” Annie asked, shoving the gun to his temple.
Then Mohawk boy looked straight into Annie’s eyes, “You’re going to have to ask ‘V.’”
“Not in the van, Annie!” Rick yelled, warning. He didn’t want to have vamp brains and blood covering the inside of his van.
“That works,” Annie said, matter of fact, pulling Big Bird from the van as I followed with Boy Blue.
“No, man, no!” Boy Blue shouted.
“Shut up!” Big Bird yelled. So he was the one with the balls.
“What do you think?” Annie asked Rick waving the gun, matter of fact.
Rick shrugged. “Go for it.”
Then she turned to Big Bird and pointed the pistol point blank at his forehead. “Tell me what I need to know,” Annie said in a sing song voice. “One … two … “
Nothing.
“Well, then,” Annie said, matter of fact. “You won’t mind if I waste your friend then.” And she pointed the pistol point blank at Boy Blue as Big Bird cringed.
“Okay, okay!” Big Bird began to sing. So, he did have a crush on Boy Blue. “The only thing I know is that he has an English accent.”
“That tells us nothing,” I interrupted. “Half the vamps in New York have English accents!” Especially if they’re from our era. “Go ahead, Annie, you do him and I’ll waste this one.”
“No man!” Big Bird yelled, singing again. “I don’t know his name!”
“What did he look like?” I asked, shoving the knife closer to Boy Blue’s throat.
“I don’t know!” Big Bird said, shaking. “I didn’t get a good look at him.”
“Right!” I asked, grabbing a hunk of his friend’s cobalt blue hair, shoving the knife closer to his throat.
“Okay okay! He wore a power suit, had dark hair and an ear ring!” Big Bird sang.
“Is there anything else you can tell me about him?” I asked, waiting.
“He’s a vamp!” Big Bird yelled, his eyes wide. Boy Blue said nothing.
I rolled my eyes, now growing impatient. “Anything else?”
“No, man,” Big Bird said, his eyes wide. “That’s all I know.”
“Well, thank you very much then,” I said sweetly, as I slit his friend’s throat and his head fell into my hands.
At the same time, Annie unloaded her clip into Big Bird’s forehead, and watched as his brains covered his friend and the ground.
“Hurry,” Rick said, looking around. We hadn’t been interrupted yet, but we might have company soon after hearing the gun shots. We’d been lucky so far. Gun shots in New York City were pretty common place, but our luck couldn’t hold out for long.
Together, Annie and I gathered the pieces of the bodies. Then Annie pulled a lighter out of her pocket, lit it, and threw it onto the pile. Suddenly, a flash fire rose up brightly illuminating the night as the flames consumed the bodies of Big Bird and Boy Blue. Well, at least they died together. And just as suddenly, the flames died out—except for the flames burning the surrounding grass—leaving a pile of hot gray ash behind.
“Amazing,” Annie said, shaking her head.
“Yeah,” I replied, looking at the pile of ash. “It never ceases to amaze me how quickly we burn.”
“Well, at least it’s quick,” Annie retorted.
“Let’s go,” Rick pulled a gallon of water from the back of the van and doused the last of the flames. We dispersed the ash, sending most of it into the lake. “We’ve got company,” Rick announced, obviously reading someone’s mind that wasn’t visible yet.
Then abruptly, a car rounded the corner, shining its bright headlights on us. Thank goodness we had already dispersed most of the ashes. In the night behind the bright headlights, I could see it was a police cruiser.
Annie quickly stuffed her weapon into the back of her pants, as I stashed my Ballistics knife. Tires squealed as the car came to an abrupt stop and two armed police officers stepped from the car.
“Good evening, officers,” Rick said cordially. “What seems to be the problem?”
The heavy-set driver—with a badge that said O’Malley pinned to his chest—looked around, his eyebrows pulling together. “What are you doing out here so late?”
“We’re just enjoying the lake,” Rick replied, gesturing to the beautiful lake behind us. But to the officers, it was pitch black.
O’Malley wasn’t fooled. His thin, but well built partner, Smith, stood nervously behind his open car door, letting O’Malley take the lead.
“Well, it’s too late to be out here,” O’Malley continued. “There’s a curfew around here.” Then he caught the scent of the burned vamps. To humans, it smelled just like marijuana. “What have you all been up to?”
“Nothing officer,” Annie replied, feigning innocence.
O’Malley placed his hand on his standard police issue Smith & Wesson automatic weapon strapped to his side. “You haven’t been smoking dope out here, have you?”
The three of us feigned innocence and shook our heads adlibbing choruses of, “No!” “Not us!” “Wouldn’t touch the stuff!”
“Well, then you wouldn’t mind if I searched you?” O’Malley asked Rick, unclipping the weapon by his side.
“Yes,” Rick answered casually. “Actually, I would.”
Within a second, Rick grabbed O’Malley by the throat as I grabbed Smith at vamp speed. Then, looking deeply into their eyes, we both implanted the suggestion that they hadn’t seen us, they hadn’t even been there, and they saw nothing strange out by the lake. Then we strongly suggested that they leave.
“Well,” O’Malley said, looking around after Rick released him, not seeing us. “You see? I told you there was nothing out here!”
“Yeah,” Smith replied, nervously looking around, unable to see us. Then he climbed into the passenger seat of the car. “I can’t place it, but I just get this feeling …”
“You and your ‘feelings’!” O’Malley exclaimed, getting into the car. “Now when you’ve been on the beat as long as I have …” he finished his sentence after slamming the car door.
Rick, Annie, and I watched silently as they pulled out and drove away.
“Quick thinking!” Annie replied, giving Rick a pat on the back.
“I had no choice,” Rick replied hesitantly, looking at us over his shoulder. “Let’s get out of here before we have more company.”
We all nodded, as we piled into the van. Then Rick backed up to the pile of remaining ash, and gunned the engine, using the exhaust to disperse what was left of the remains of Boy Blue and Big Bird into Cedar Lake.
“Let’s get my car,” I said, leaning my head back against the headrest as Rick pulled the van onto 26
th
Street.
Rick nodded, making a few sharp turns and in no time we were back in Manhattan. Well, what do you know? Cheap Suit was still waiting for us as we pulled into the lot.
“Well, the days of miracles aren’t over,” I said nonchalantly as Rick stopped the car.
“Are you going to be okay?” Rick asked, referring to the drive home after what we’d just endured.
“Yeah,” I replied, then looked at Annie, who was excited at the prospect of having Rick to herself. “Besides,” I said smiling, “Annie is coming with me.” Annie looked suddenly crestfallen as I suppressed a smile. Rick had been through enough for one night.
Then Annie’s mood changed into excitement again. “Hey, Star! Can I drive?”
“You’ve got to be kidding!” I laughed. “
I
haven’t even driven it yet!”
“Hey, you can’t blame me for asking,” Annie replied as she got out of the car, giving Rick a parting wink, then shut the door as she headed excitedly past Cheap Suit to the car.
“See you at home,” I said to Rick. He nodded, smiling. Rick pulled the van into a corner, waiting for me to get my car.
I met Cheap Suit halfway across the parking lot. “Thanks for waiting. You really didn’t have to do that,” I said, giving him a dazzling smile.
“No problem!” Cheap Suit replied, wearing a plastered on smile. “I didn’t want to lock the gates until you’ve picked up your car. Otherwise, you wouldn’t be able to take it home tonight.”
I nodded, then smiled, wondering what he would have thought coming into work tomorrow and I had taken the car out of the gate. Actually, I could have lifted the car over the gate singlehandedly if I wanted, but there would have been too many witnesses. So I would have just broken the chains on the gate, then refastened them after getting my car out. “Thank you. That was very kind of you,” I replied, smiling to myself.
“Well,” Cheap Suit replied, walking toward the gate. “You ladies have a nice night!”
“You, as well!” I replied, giving him one last smile over my shoulder. He faltered in his step.
“Nice car!” Annie said, already waiting in my new black Camaro. It was a 45
th
Anniversary edition, modeled after the 1967 body style. And mine had a V8 engine.
“Thanks,” I replied, sliding into the driver’s seat. The seat was as if it had been made for me, wrapping comfortably around my frame.
Cheap Suit waved, holding the gate open, as we drove out with Rick following, even though it was close to 1 a.m. A late night for a working man. But then again, he’d just made his biggest sale of the day, so it was worth it.
Before long, we were on NY 17 W headed toward Cooperstown. I loved driving—the feel of the tires pulling against the black asphalt, the roar of the powerful engine as I gunned it. Most of all, I liked the speed. I looked at the speedometer and I was going 110 mph, but it felt like 80. The car, my new baby, handled like a dream. Too bad I didn’t have one of these 200 years ago.
Then my thoughts turned to Zac, his azure blue eyes, his sun-streaked hair, broad shoulders falling to narrow, sexy hips …
“What are you thinking about?” Annie asked, noticing my quiet mood. She had been prattling on, but seeing I was blocking her out, she suddenly stopped.
“Nothing,” I said, smiling a half smile, taking my eyes off the road. My peripheral vision was perfect. I could carry on a whole conversation, never looking directly at the road, and still not have an accident.
“Come now,” Annie said, lowering her head, looking directly into my green eyes. “You’re talking to me, Acantha. Your friend for well over 200 years. Spill.”
I shrugged, turning my attention back to the road. “There’s nothing really to tell.”