Birth of the Vampire (The Vanderlind Realm) (21 page)

I also probably needed a new phone. Not that I had that many people to call, but I felt weird without one. I guess I was phone dependant, just like the rest of America.

When it came down to it, what I really needed was money. Quite a bit of money. I thought about asking Debbie to help me out. Or using my influence over Kevin. Neither of those options sounded super great. But I also didn’t think I could get away with shaking people down for better tips at the diner. It was kind of a jerky thing to do, even to the cheapskates. And eventually the customers would stop coming if they felt like they were spending too much money. I didn’t want to do that to Debbie. But I really couldn’t think of any fast way of getting cash. Plus, my voracious meat habit was really flippin’ expensive, even with getting the Stop-n-Save cashier to give me a discount.

If I’d thought my life sucked before, becoming a vampire definitely hadn’t made it any easier.

I decided I would just walk to work. It was a simple solution. I would practice the flying thing later, off of a ledge that wasn’t quite so high.

It was a cold night. People were shivering in their down parkas and layered up with fleece. But I found I just wasn’t that chilly. I could have easily gone without my jacket, but I knew that would look weird. As I walked through the center of Tiburon, I peeked in the various shop windows, stealing glances of people being normal and doing normal things. I’d always wanted to be normal. Just an average person doing average stuff. Fat chance I had of that after Dorian Vanderlind turned me into a vampire.

I stopped short in my tracks. There in the window of a fancy boutique was a mannequin in a beautiful, silvery-blue floor-length gown. It was the exact gown from my dream, down to the spangles across the bust. I wanted it so badly, I was practically fogging up the glass. My dream of going to Winter Formal with Tommy had been smashed, but that didn’t mean I didn’t want a pretty dress. Impulsively, I entered the shop.

“We’re just about to close,” a well-groomed lady said as she heard the door chime.

“That’s okay,” I told her. “I just want to try on one thing.”

The gown fit me perfectly. My new curves and shallows did a lot to help it cling in all the right places. “It’s lovely,” the saleslady gasped, clapping her hands in excitement as I exited the dressing room to view myself in the three-way mirror.

I had to be a vampire because there was no way I ever looked so hot as plain old Haley Scott. I looked like some young woman in a magazine after she’d been photoshopped. I knew it was vain, but I couldn’t stop admiring myself. Could vampires see their reflections in mirrors? I thought maybe they weren’t supposed to, but I could see myself just fine.

“You have to get it,” the woman said. “You look gorgeous.”

I had quickly checked the price while I was in the changing room, and I knew the gown was eight hundred dollars. Way, way, way out of my budget. I thought about influencing her to just give me the gown, but that seemed like a crappy thing to do. “I really love it,” I told her. “It’s my dream dress. I mean, like exactly my dream dress. But there’s no way I can afford it.”

“Hmmm …” the lady said, pinching her lips together and taking a few steps back to view me at a distance. “Do you need it for Winter Formal or something?”

I didn’t actually need it for anything, but in my dream it was for Winter Formal. Then again, why shouldn’t I go to Winter Formal? Kids were technically allowed to go stag, and I was still enrolled at Tiburon High. Just because I hated almost everyone in the entire school didn’t mean I should have to miss out on the dance. “Yes, Winter Formal,” I blurted. “I should have looked for a dress earlier, but I didn’t have a date.”

The woman shook her head. “I’m sure most of the boys were just too intimidated to ask you.”

I just shrugged, not sure what she meant.

“Tell you what,” the woman said, smiling at me. “I have a fashion show coming up in about two weeks, and I’m short on models. If you’re willing to do the show, then I’ll lend you the dress. But you have to be really careful. And get it dry cleaned afterward.”

“Seriously?” I asked, giving her a double take. She was willing to lend me the dress, and I hadn’t even used my influence over her. I couldn’t figure it out. Was this how it felt to be really good looking or something? People being nice to you for no apparent reason?

Ten minutes later, I was walking out of the store with the dress in a suit bag draped over my arm. There was actually no way in hell I could do the fashion show because it was in the afternoon, and I’d shrivel like a piece of overcooked bacon, but I decided I would figure out an excuse later. At that moment, I just wanted to enjoy the thrill of having the perfect dress for a dance. Of course, I was a vampire going to a mortal’s dance I didn’t even have a date to, but that was beside the point. Tiburon High’s Winter Formal was going to be my big blow-out before I got the hell out of town.

Chapter 32

Dorian

I really had no idea what to make of my scion. She was behaving in a way that was completely alien to me. Was this just the behavior of modern girls, or was Haley some kind of outlier that would hang around my neck like a snarky albatross?

I knew I had to speak to someone with more knowledge about being a maker than I had bothered to acquire in my years of being a member of the undead. I was too embarrassed by my rude behavior to seek help from my aunt. And the thought of admitting to my father that I’d had a moment of weakness made my skin crawl. I finally settled on a family friend who I knew to be in New York for the holiday season. She was from a very old vampire family, so I was sure she had probably encountered a situation such as mine at some point in the hundreds of years she had been on the planet.

There was a brisk headwind so it took me most of an evening to fly to New York. By the time I got there, it was approaching dawn, so I made use of a safe house that I knew of on the upper East Side. The following evening, I bought myself a new suit and sent around my card. Some vampires, especially the very old ones, preferred to keep to traditions that had long gone out of date.

“Dorian, my beautiful boy,” Lady Darby called out to me as I was shown into her Manhattan penthouse apartment. “How delightful to see you.”

“The pleasure is all mine,” I assured her, bending to kiss both her cheeks.

Lady Darby was dressed in a tweed suit with a small herringbone weave. Her silver hair was piled high on her head, and at least a dozen rings decorated her hands. I knew that her natural hair was really still jet black, but she had it dyed silver. “To reflect the dignity of my real age,” she once told me.

“So is this a social call, or do you come to me with troubles?” the lady asked once I’d taken a seat and been served a glass of refreshment.

I hung my head, a little ashamed. “Troubles,” I admitted.

Lady Darby tilted her head to the side while raising her right shoulder in a half shrug. “I supposed I should be hurt that you never think to just drop by to say hello to an old friend,” she told me. Then, leaning forward, she added, “But hearing people’s troubles is always so much more interesting.” Clapping me on the knee, she said, “Now tell me everything.”

I did as I was told, sparing no detail of the party, the accident, Haley’s resurrection, and her bizarre behavior afterward. I knew that to some extent I was putting on a show. The Lady would advise me, but she expected a little entertainment for her sage wisdom.

When I was finished, Lady Darby had a good chuckle, obviously delighted. “Who would have thought that Dorian Vanderlind would live to be a maker?” she exclaimed. “All those broken hearts and broken promises to every undead girl made me think that no one could ever reach your heart.”

“It’s not like that,” I quickly assured her.

“Tell that to all the beauties you’ve left crying on their pillows,” she told me. “I’m sure they could fill your ear with their thoughts on the situation.”

I knew when I’d decided to visit Lady Darby that I’d have to eat a little crow. “What I meant was that I am not in love with Haley. I just felt sorry for her and acted on impulse.”

“Oh,” she nodded, still smirking at me. “Is that what you’ve told yourself?”

“It’s the truth,” I insisted, feeling my temper starting to rise. “I just want to know why she isn’t bonded to me. She won’t listen to anything I say. And what am I supposed to do with her? I can’t leave her running amok in small-town Ohio.”

Lady Darby nodded and took a sip from the goblet in front of her. “You say that she was bleeding profusely from the car accident?”

“That’s right.”

“So you didn’t drink much of her blood?” she wanted to know.

I shook my head. “There wasn’t that much left to drink.”

“There lies your problem,” Lady Darby said, gesturing toward me to emphasize her point. “You were almost complete strangers when you turned her, so you didn’t have an emotional connection while she was still human. And then to have your blood never really mix. I’m sure that’s your trouble.”

“But I’ve always heard of the magical connection between maker and progeny. She doesn’t even seem to like me.”

This made the lady chuckle some more. “I know it must come as a shock to you that there are females on this planet who haven’t fallen under your spell, but I’m afraid that appears to be the case.”

I wasn’t in the mood for a ribbing, but I had to tolerate it. “But what should I do?” I wanted to know. “How do I take her in hand? Or don’t I do anything at all?”

Lady Darby looked down at her many rings while she gave it some thought. “You must try to win her,” she finally said. “If, as you claim, you are not interested in her as a mate, then you must persuade her to at least see you as a friend. A confidant, of sorts. A teacher.” She looked up, gazing straight into my eyes. “But if you cannot win her over, then you must consider the consequences. She may be surviving on the blood of dead cows at the moment, but no vampire’s willpower is that strong. Eventually, she will be tempted. And if she’s not discrete, it could lead to dire consequences.”

“So I should ...?” I asked, hoping she would fill in the words for me.

“Stake her,” the lady said, not breaking her gaze for one moment. “If you cannot win her to our ways then better that she die by your hand.”

“Do you think I should bring this all to the attention of the Bishops?” I wanted to know. Our ruling family did like to keep tabs on who was the maker for whom. It was unsafe for all of the undead if there were rogue vampires killing without inhibitions and leaving us all open for mortal discovery.

“You’ll have to do as your conscience dictates,” the elegant vampiress told me, breaking her gaze and turning her attention so some bracelets that I hadn’t noticed before as they were mostly concealed by the sleeve of her suit jacket. “But if it were me, I would make my own decisions and then update the Bishops as necessary.” She gave me a significant look and added, “Unless you would rather hand the matter over to the bureaucrats.”