Blood Candy (5 page)

“Oh, I don’t know.” There was so much she
could wish for. One thing popped into her mind. “Maybe a big plate
of pancakes. With lots of syrup.”

“That’s an odd wish.”

They paused at the edge of the fountain. The
trickling water distorted the speckled brown stone at the bottom of
the basin and the bodies of giant goldfish rippled with the surface
of the pool above. An odd feeling passed over Candy when she looked
into Rupert’s depthless eyes.

“This isn’t real, is it?”

“It’s real if you want it to be,” he said. His
smile, meant to ease her, instead made her uncomfortable. “Why
don’t you wish to forever be with me?”

Candy didn’t feel it would be proper to tell
him that she thought he was a dork. He frowned and grabbed her
wrist.

“Proper ladies don’t refuse men like me,” he
said from behind clenched teeth. “You don’t want to go back to your
drunken mother, do you? To that run down shack she calls a home?
She’s the worst kind of hypocrite, your mother, always going on
about the Lord and how
your
life needs saving when it’s she
who brings a new man into her bed each month. That’s no life for a
young lady such as yourself. This is where you belong.”

Rupert gestured to something behind Candy. She
turned and shielded her eyes with one hand from the glare of the
sun. A four story mansion stood on the other end of the yard with
an expanse of tall trees in the distance. It almost didn’t look
real, like something she would only see in a picture or painting,
like a place a princess or starlet might live. It looked absolutely
wonderful except for the shadows moving in the windows, pulsing as
if they had life of their own.

Candy looked down at the long, blue dress
embroidered with silver and gold she was now wearing. She smoothed
out a crease and turned back to the vampire.

“How do you know about my mother?”

Rupert tapped her forehead. “It’s all in
there. We’re connected now, you and I.”

“I think I know what I’d like to wish
for.”

“Oh?” said Rupert with a satisfied
smile.

“I want to be a wolf. I want to run through
the woods with the wind in my face.”

The bright day suddenly darkened. Candy lifted
her head to look at the sky. Ominous clouds rolled overhead. When
she looked back at Rupert, he was glaring at her, baring his teeth
and fangs. She took a step back and bumped into the fountain.
Someone called her name off in the distance. Over and over Jimmy
called out to her while darkness spread out from Rupert to consume
everything.

* * * * *

“Candy!”

She shot up in the back seat of the
Pinto.

“What!”

Jimmy backed away from the opened door. “We’re
here.” He looked dead tired. “I thought you were in a coma for a
second there.”

Candy got out of the Pinto and stretched. She
had the oddest dream with goldfish and pancakes, or something like
that—and with Rupert. She couldn’t remember everything. She only
knew she hated it and she didn’t want to remember. Running a hand
through her messy hair, she surveyed her surroundings. They were in
a neighborhood in only God knew where and it looked to be
mid-morning. She didn’t see Tinch anywhere. She grabbed her handbag
and closed the car door.

“Where are we?”

“The Kennel.” Jimmy walked towards the center
house in the cul-de-sac.

“Which is where?”

“Tinch didn’t think it would be a good idea to
tell you.”

Candy kept her arms crossed in front of
herself as Jimmy led her up the driveway of what appeared to be a
rundown shack. As a matter of fact, all of the houses in the
cul-de-sac were in the same derelict state. Gutters hung down from
roofs, windows were broken, and what little paint remained barely
clung to the wood. When Jimmy opened the door and stepped into the
entrance, she couldn’t get her legs to move.

“Come on in,” he said, waiting at the
threshold for her. “There’s nothing to worry about.”

“There’s everything to worry about. I’ve
nearly been killed twice and I have no idea where I am.”

Tinch appeared behind Jimmy. “What’s wrong?”
With a glance at Candy his question was answered—she looked like a
frightened deer caught in the wolves den. “You can trust us,
Candy.”

That was just it: Candy didn’t know if she
could trust a werewolf, never mind a whole house full of them. She
could maybe trust Jimmy because he was her age, but she couldn’t
say the same about Tinch. She had seen him turn into a wolf—a
huge
wolf with teeth that could shred her to bits. Then
again, he had gone out of his way to save her life.
Twice.

She shook her head. Why be paranoid now? She
didn’t know what to think anymore. Had they wanted to do something
to her, they would have surely done it by now. It was irrational to
think they had brought her there to cook and eat her.

Jimmy stepped out onto the porch. “We’re
letting all of the cold air out. Come on inside and meet
everyone.”

“Everyone?”

“Yeah. There’s Melvin and—” he paused when
Candy looked as if she might turn and run away. “Felicia!” he said.
“You’ll like her. She’s our age. Come in and you can meet
her.”

Candy rubbed her aching temples, feeling more
mixed up than she ever had in her life. She had
wanted
to go
with Jimmy and now she was about to hyperventilate. She took a deep
breath, swallowed her fear, and went into the house with him. There
were stairs on her left as soon as she stepped in through the door
and a kitchen on the right. She heard people talking down the hall
ahead in hushed tones. A moment later, the light in the kitchen
came on and Tinch walked in with a young man who was skinnier than
Jimmy and a girl with long, golden-red hair and narrow green eyes.
The girl seemed to be studying Candy as if she was an animal at the
zoo.

“This is Felicia and Melvin,” Jimmy said.
“This is Candy.” He went into the kitchen and leaned against a
wobbly table.

Tinch lingered at the back near an open
entrance into a dining room. “Melvin is the leader of this outfit,”
he said. “He’s smart and trustworthy.”

Candy thought Melvin certainly looked smart
with his round glasses, spots of acne, short stature, and lack of
muscle. All of that combined with a name like Melvin gave him the
downright persona of the worst kind of nerd. She shook her head,
not believing that was the first thought that came to
mind.

“You’ll be safe here with them,” Tinch
said.

“Wait, you’re leaving?” Candy said.

“Yes. I have to get to New York. While I’m
away, everyone is to make Candy feel welcome.” He singled out
Felicia with his eyes. “She’s our guest until we get everything
figured out. Lay low, I shouldn’t be gone long. Stay here and don’t
do anything until you hear back from me.”

Without another word or any acknowledgment
from anyone, Tinch left the house. Felicia crossed her arms over
her chest and glared at Jimmy. He didn’t seem to notice.

“It’s nice to meet you,” Melvin said in a
voice much deeper than his frame should have allowed. He extended a
hand out to Candy and she reluctantly shook it.

“Where the hell have you been?” Felicia asked
Jimmy, still glaring at him.

“Did you miss the part about having to fight
off vampires?” Jimmy said.

Felicia rolled her eyes and then turned her
attention to Candy. “So what’s your deal?”

“I don’t have a deal.” Candy looked to Jimmy
for help. “Do I?”

“Christ, Felicia,” Jimmy groaned. “We’ve had a
rough night, okay? How about being pleasant for once.”

As if nothing had happened up to that point,
Felicia beamed with a wide smile. “Okay.” She turned and went into
another room through the dining room, calling back to them, “Let’s
get started already.”

Melvin and Jimmy shared worried
glances.

“It will take our minds off everything,”
Melvin said. “Let’s play. There’s not much we can do until we hear
back from Tinch.”

Candy followed them through the dining room
and into what she thought was a living room, though there didn’t
appear to be anything indicating normal people lived here. Two
neglected recliners sat against the back wall, both straddling a
couch in dire need of cleaning, or better yet a place in the
dumpster. The walls were bare with the exception of random holes.
Three guys she had never seen before sat at a table near a sliding
glass door. Each of them appeared about the same age as Jimmy and
Melvin.

“Everyone,” Melvin said. “This is
Candy.”

One of the guys had short cut sandy hair and
eyes set deep into a gaunt face. The first thing he did was look at
her cleavage. His eyes bulged and then he hurriedly looked away.
Felicia took a seat at the table across from him and Jimmy sat down
on the same side near the sliding glass door. Melvin sat next to
the sandy-haired guy.

One of the other guys stood up. He had thick
brown hair beneath a blue baseball cap with a red B stitched on the
front. “Hey, beautiful,” he said with a wink. “My name’s White
Paul. Is it hot in here, or is it just you?”

Felicia rolled her eyes and Jimmy glowered at
him. Candy wondered what was up with his name.

The last guy at the table had a shaved head
and a prominent nose. He watched Candy with a blank face, not
bothering to hide his wandering eyes. It became more than apparent
to her that she must look like a cheap hooker in the revealing red
dress that looked like it had been dragged behind a car with her
still in it.

“Take a seat,” Melvin said.

As she looked around, Candy was amazed that
all of them were werewolves. They looked liked ordinary young
people, if not a little dorky in most cases. She noticed books
scattered all over the table along with pencils, paper, and oddly
shaped dice. While everyone watched and waited for her to take a
seat, except for Felicia who had her back to Candy, a slow
realization furrowed her brow.

“Are you playing Dungeons and
Dragons?”

“Yeah, why?” said Melvin, not bothering to
lift his head, instead glancing up at her over the top of his
glasses.

“Why?” Candy said. “Because you’re
werewolves.”

Everyone’s head shot up except for Jimmy; and
Felicia, who was again glaring at him. White Paul
winked.

“Not this again,” Felicia said. She turned
sideways in her chair to get a better look at her guest, and she
didn’t hesitate to flip her long hair around so that all the boys
would notice. “It’s perfectly okay for lycanthropes to play
Dungeons and Dragons.”

“It is?” Candy said, not bothering to hide the
cynicism on her voice. “It seems kind of . . .” She wanted to
refrain from saying “retarded” and instead said, “Dumb.”

Melvin looked a little angry while Jimmy
seemed positively tortured. Felicia gave a heavy sigh as she hefted
a backpack from beside her chair onto her lap and started digging
around in it.

“You obviously don’t understand what a
role-playing game is,” said the redheaded girl. “The key word is
‘role.’ We assume the role of something completely different than
what we are. As a matter of fact, we made it a point to not include
lycanthropes of any kind into our world.”

“Or vampires,” Melvin chimed in.

Felicia found what she had been digging around
for in her pack. She chucked a worn paperback onto the table. Candy
read the title out loud, “
Tempest Season: Book One of the Urban
Wizard Archives
.”

“Now, a
wizard
who plays Dungeons and
Dragons,” Felicia said, nodding her head at the book, “is ‘dumb.’
There’s no reason for someone who can already cast spells to
pretend to be in a world where spell casting is an imaginative
possibility. And you can’t have Dungeons and Dragons without the
wizards and spells, it wouldn’t make any sense. You see? Oh, I can
tell you haven’t got a clue.”

Candy looked from Felicia to Melvin and then
to each of the other werewolves, or lycanthrows, or whatever they
wanted to be called, with confusion she couldn’t hide had she
wanted.

“You’re all nerds,” she said. “Werewolf nerds.
I never thought I’d see the day.”

“First of all, we’re lycans,” the guy who had
introduced himself as White Paul said. “And second, why don’t you
sit down and try it before you knock it?”

“I’ll pass,” Candy said. “I wouldn’t be caught
dead playing one of these stupid games.”

“That’s the second bad adage you’ve used,”
Felicia said. “What
would
you be caught dead
doing?”

“Not this, that’s for sure.”

The guy with the shaved head said, “Why is she
here again?”

“Everyone shut up!” Melvin said, blue eyes
blazing behind his glasses. “We are all going to get along with
each other, got it? Tinch gave us orders and we will follow those
orders and be civil to our guest. On the same note,” he looked at
Candy over his glasses again, “this is our house and we expect some
respect. If you don’t like the game and you don’t want to join us,
then you can go over there and sit on the couch.”