Min's Vampire (60 page)

“
Call it a present!” Lucy
snapped unexpectedly. She flashed back to the last gift she’d
received—raising a dead dog on the side of the interstate. Gabriel
was looking at her uncertainly. “I just don’t like that word. You
know, ‘gift’.” She took a deep breath and plastered a smile on her
face. “It’s a thing.”
And now he thinks I’m
crazy...

Gabriel continued with a
confused little smile on his lips. “It’s almost pure silver—with
just enough iron to keep it from breaking. More than pure enough to
incapacitate and even kill most supernatural beings. Werewolves,
vamps,”—
It kills vampires?
Lucy looked at the blade again with renewed
interest—“Shifters, demons… well, most of the things that you might
run into while you’re in my company… except fairies.”

“
Fairies!” Lucy laughed.
“You mean I have to be afraid of Tinkerbell?”

“
The kind that forge weapons
like this one?” Gabriel moved the blade in his hand so the
moonlight glinted from its blade. “Yeah, those kinds of fairies are
human sized, as strong as, if not stronger than, most monsters, and
they’re very hard to kill. Only a pure iron sword wielded with
enormous strength and skill would do the trick.”

Lucy didn’t like the way his eyes
gleamed as he said that. Had he fought a fairy? If so, he’d
obviously enjoyed it. She tried not to feel scared all over again,
but she couldn’t help it.

She clamped her attention on what else
was in Gabriel’s hands. She took his hand, not wanting to touch the
lacey little garment, but found touching Gabriel’s hot flesh more
than distracting. She played it off though, even though he was
looking down into her eyes with undisguised hunger.

“
I don’t know if this is
some sacred ceremonial g-string thingy, but you can just count me
out on wearing it.”

Gabriel laughed one harsh
bark. “No...
no…”
he said, “the blade is for protection. This is for
concealment. It’s a sheath.” He slid the knife into the thin, lacey
sheath and then gently took Lucy’s arm and tied the thing to her
forearm. His fingers tickled her as he tied the little
straps.

“
So much for concealment,”
Lucy said holding her arm up to show Gabriel. But then the sheath
and the blade shimmered, there was a slight tingling sensation, and
then it just disappeared. Lucy gasped and ran her hand over where
it had been. She felt nothing.

“
That thing didn’t just melt
into me, did it?”

Gabriel raised his eyebrows.
“Interesting guess… but no. Both were made by fairies, and both
have their own magical qualities. The blade itself has an
enchantment that brings it back to the sheath if it is lost—either
in battle or by accident… or if it was stolen. But that’s only if
you still possess the sheath.”

He took her hand, and ran his other
hand over the flesh of her forearm. “The sheath obviously has a
concealment charm. Not just invisibility. It truly disappears
completely when worn, and no one will know it’s there—you won’t
even be able to tell it’s there—until you call to it.”

“
I’m going to call it to
me?”

“
Either verbally or
mentally.”

The sensations Gabriel’s fingers were
causing as they stroked the flesh of Lucy’s forearm were starting
to make her squirm with pleasure. She pulled her arm from his
grasp, gulping, taking a deep breath and then stepping back a
step.

“
So, does it have a
name?”

“
As long as you wear the
sheath, whatever you call it, it will appear. It will know what you
mean.”

Lucy held up her arm, turning it so
she could see where it had been. She smiled. “Mr. Winkie, come to
me.” Immediately she felt it, but she still couldn’t see it. She
shot Gabriel with a questioning look, her hand finding the still
invisible sheath.

“
Until you withdraw the
weapon, it will only be detectable to you.”

She grasped the handle of the blade
and pulled it out. Instantly it flashed back to its shiny,
menacingly sharp prior form. And the sheath was now visible too.
She held the blade in her hand, and even though she didn’t know how
to use it, it really did feel like it was made for her.

“
Wicked,” she said, catching
her reflection in the polished silver. “I usually never wear
silver—white gold and platinum are more my style—but this is…
gorgeous.”

“
I’ll teach you how to use
it later. But you could still do some damage with it.” Gabriel’s
face fell a little, and Lucy could tell he was torn for some
reason. And then she realized he’d just given her something that
could kill his girlfriend.

It made everything more complicated,
and way too serious. Lucy slid the blade back into the sheath, and
the moment her fingers lost contact the sheath and knife evaporated
again in a shimmer, and with a tiny tingle.

Gabriel was looking at her arm, and
she could tell he wanted to reach out and touch her again. She
wanted him to, god, did she want him to touch her again, but she
was afraid they wouldn’t be able to stop touching each other if he
did. And she was still feeling a little too much like the entrée…
or maybe the dessert.

Gabriel looked like he was trying to
mentally shake a thought out of his head, and when he looked up
into Lucy’s eyes again he looked more in control—cool, calm, not
remotely ready to devour her. “I should go.”

Lucy nodded agreement and watched as
Gabriel slowly moved away from her, his gaze staying with her until
he descended the porch steps and began walking toward the street.
Suddenly he stopped and looked back up at Lucy.

“
Nice T-shirt, by the
way.”

Lucy looked down at
the
Team Edward
shirt she’d worn out of spite and cringed.

Crap!

Gabriel turned and headed out to the
street. A moment later his pretty midnight blue Jaguar roared to
life and sped down the road and out of sight.

Lucy let out the breath she
hadn’t know she was holding, and felt her body relax. She was
relieved he had left, but she was disappointed too. She brought her
hand to her face, feeling the heat where she’d been blushing
non-stop for the last hour or so, and let her finger play across
her lips—where his lips had been
.
She walked slowly into the house.
No, my life isn’t complicated at all.

Chapter 15

LUCY stretched out on her bed. Not
that it was anywhere near as soft as her old mattress, but now,
after all these months, it was her bed. It was such a relief to
know, no matter what she was going through, had gone through, or
what kind of monster was trying to kill her, that her bed in her
room—and this little room in her grandmother’s house was now truly
her room—was a true refuge. Often she fell deeply asleep the
instant her head touched the pillow.

But not this night.

This night there came a tap
at her bedroom window. Lucy’s first thought,
Delia…

But both Gabe and Vin had promised her
that Delia was incapacitated. So the cold shiver that passed
through her body was just needless worry. But then she thought of
Gabe. How strong he was, how beautiful (was it okay to think of a
guy as beautiful?) and how just looking at him anymore was making
her entire body heat up, was even making her heart beat like the
wings of a hummingbird.

Another rap on the window. Since
Lucy’s room was on the second floor, either someone was tossing
pebbles up at her window, or they were floating high enough off the
ground they could just knock. Lucy was hoping it wasn’t someone
floating. Of course, Lucy didn’t know if vampires could float… she
hadn’t asked.

Cautiously Lucy slipped out of her
nice comfortable bed and padded barefoot over to the window, taking
a steeling breath… or three, before flinging the curtains aside.
She hopped back as the curtains fluttered and she saw nothing
floating outside her window. With a heated little thrill she hoped
it was Gabe. Just the thought that it was him made part of her
shudder and she giggled as she pulled the window up and looked down
to the earth below.

But it wasn’t Gabe, and it wasn’t a
psychopathic blonde vampire trying to kill her. Standing there on
her grandmother’s lawn was Abbey Adams. Her pink and black hair was
done up into two pompom sized ponytails on the top of her head. Her
pale skin was accented by the dark multicolored eye shadows and
blushes that decorated her face. And as usual she was dressed like
a rock star… a punk-rock rock star. Her lipstick was black and made
her smile practically glow up at Lucy.

“
I need your help,” Abbey
said, fidgeting and switching her weight from five inch platform
boot to five inch platform boot.

Lucy looked at her alarm clock and
furrowed her brow at Abbey. “It’s quarter till
midnight.”

Abbey shrugged. “Then we’ve got like
fifteen minute to do this.” She was giving Lucy that look smart
people sometimes give her, like she needs to catch up. But having
that look come from Abbey was just funny/cute.

“
Do what?” Lucy asked,
leaning out the window and smiling at Abbey.

Abbey looked to her right and then to
her left, then she looked back up to Lucy mysteriously. “A
spell.”

~*~

Lucy slipped on a pair of jeans and a
UCLA sweatshirt she’d picked up a couple weeks ago, when she’d
decided that she would indeed be going to college. She wasn’t real
sure which school she’d pick, but she’d liked the sweatshirt the
instant she’d looked at it. It took the place of the Stanford shirt
her father had given her. When the Feds took it with all her other
belongings it had literally felt like they were stealing her future
away from her.

She pulled on a pair of Sketchers and
took a look at herself in the mirror she’d installed in her room.
Her face was still freshly scrubbed looking, but her hair was a bit
bushy from lying in bed. She ran a quick brush through it and then
tied it back with a hair scrunchy.

It might be the middle of the night,
but she wasn’t about to go out looking like the monster from the
black lagoon.

Lucy suddenly wondered if the monster
from the black lagoon was real. After all, so far two movie
monsters had turned out to be not only real, but alive and kicking…
well, the living dead in the case of vampires.

Or undead… Lucy remembered hearing
someone saying Undead Americans once. Had it been a book or a
movie… or on TV? Buffy the Vampire Slayer maybe?

Lucy shook the thought off. No use
thinking of dark, slimy monsters when you were about to venture out
into the dark, shadowy night.

Abbey waited for Lucy outside her back
door, sitting on the porch steps, her arms clasped about her like
she was cold.

“
Do you want a sweater or
something? You look kinda cold.”

Abbey stood and shook her head, making
her ponytails shake. “I’m fine. We’ve gotta go if this is going to
work.” And Abbey turned and started walking briskly towards the
woods behind Lucy’s house.

Lucy jogged to catch up, and then
caught the fiercely serious look on her friend’s face.

“
Why the dire face?” Lucy
said, falling into step with Abbey. “And what kind of spell are you
going to do?”

“
We… we’re going to try a
spell.” Abbey led Lucy into the trees. She tripped on a tree root
but caught herself on a tree trunk and kept going. A moment later
they were free of the trees and in a small clearing. There in front
of them was a high iron gate, the kind you see in scary
movies—every iron bar of the gate was capped with a sharp
looking
Fleur de lys
. Abbey ducked down and slid through a gap in the rails of the
gate. Lucy looked around nervously, but then ducked down too,
squeezing through the bars.

Once on the other side of the gate
Lucy lost Abbey for an instant in the misty fog. But with a few
hasty steps she found herself not only caught up with Abbey, but
surrounded by long rows of head stones. They were in a
cemetery.

This is so turning into a B
horror movie.
Lucy stopped, shaking her
head. “No offense, Abbey, but I’m not up for this whole spooky trip
you’re taking me on. I’ve had a really hard week.”

Abbey turned around but kept walking
backwards. She had her arms held out imploringly. “I swear, this is
so important. I wouldn’t be asking if it weren’t.” There were tears
in her eyes, making them glisten in the moonlight.

Against the insistent feeling she kept
getting that she should turn and walk away—or was that turn and run
away?—Lucy took a deep breath and said, “Okay,” then started to jog
through the strange cemetery to catch up with her friend again. She
just couldn’t stand that look in Abbey’s eyes—desperation. She knew
the feeling, unfortunately, and since Abbey was truly her only real
friend, she just couldn’t let her down.

It was probably just some chanting
thing, maybe an embarrassing little dance under the moon and
stars.