My Blood Approves

My Blood Approves

a novel

by

Amanda Hocking

Smashwords Edition

Copyright © 2010 by Amanda Hocking

http://amandahocking.blogspot.com/

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment
only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people.
If you would like to share this book with another person, please
purchase an additional copy for each person. If you’re reading this
book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use
only, then please return to Amazon.com and purchase your own copy.
Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

-1-

The goose bumps stood all over Jane’s
shoulder and she stomped her foot, at least partially because of
the cold. She’d claim it was only because of her frustration over
the line and insist that chain smoking cigarettes kept her
warm.

“
This is truly
infuriating,” Jane said, flicking her cigarette to the dampened
sidewalk and smashing it with her stilettoed boot.

“
Maybe we should just call
it a night,” I suggested.

Our fake IDs had not been as impressive as
Jane’s connection had promised, and this would be the third club
we’d be turned away from, if we ever managed to make it to the
door.

Since we were going out, I had allowed Jane
to dress me, so everything was ill-fitting and far too revealing
for the Minnesota night. A heavy mist settled over us, but she
refused to shiver or admit that any of this fazed her. Her plan was
to get crazy drunk and hook up with somebody completely random, and
I couldn’t reason with her.

“
No!” Jane shook her head.
“I have a good feeling about this place.”

“
It’s after midnight,
Jane.” The pair of heels I borrowed from her caused permanent
damage to my feet, and I shifted my weight to ease the
pain.

“
I just want to dance and
be stupid!” She started whining, making her seem much younger than
seventeen so we’d be even less likely to get into the club. “Come
on, Alice! This is what being young is all about!”

“
I really hope not,” I
muttered. Waiting in line for hours and getting declined from clubs
did not sound like a good time. “We can try again next weekend. I
promise. It’ll give us more time to find better ID’s.”

“
I don’t even have any
alcohol.” Her expression had gone all pouty, but I knew that she
was starting to cave.

“
I’m sure we can find some
somewhere,” I said

Jane could find alcohol the way I found
water. She had nothing to complain about. Wherever Jane went, a
party was sure to follow.

“
Fine.” Sighing, she
stepped out of line and headed in the direction towards my
apartment, away from the bright lights of the clubs and drunken
people smoking cigarettes. “But you owe me.”

“
Why do I owe you?” I
demanded.

“
For making me leave
early.”

We’d made it a few feet from the line when I
couldn’t take it any longer. I stopped and ripped off the borrowed
shoes, preferring to walk barefoot on the dirty cement than risk
any more blisters. Most likely, I’d get gum or something in a fresh
wound and end up with typhoid or rabies, but it still seemed like a
better option.

We walked far enough away from the clubs
where it started to feel deserted, and two teenage girls walking
around in downtown Minneapolis wasn’t the safest thing in the
world.

“
We should get a cab soon,”
I suggested.

Jane shook her head, negating cab ideas. We
didn’t have very much money, so the farther we walked, the shorter
the cab ride would be. I lived by Loring Park, which really wasn’t
that far from where we were, but it still wasn’t within walking
distance.

A green and white taxi sailed past us, and I
gazed longingly after it.

“
We need the exercise
anyway,” Jane said, noticing my expression.

I don’t know why I ever agreed to her
shenanigans. They were always much more fun for her then they were
for me. Being the less sexy sidekick wasn’t a very glamorous
life.

“
But my feet hurt,” I
said.

“
Beauty is-”

“
-pain, yeah, yeah, I get
it,” I grumbled, cutting her off.

Jane lit another cigarette, and we walked in
silence. I knew she was sulking about the club and trying to plot
some exciting adventure to drag me into, but I wouldn’t fall for it
this time.

The sound of the traffic from Hennepin
Avenue had faded enough where I could hear the footfalls echo
behind us. Jane seemed oblivious, but I couldn’t shake the feeling
we were being followed.

Then the footsteps behind us started to
hurry up, becoming heavier and louder, combined with the sound of
ragged breathing and hushed male voices.

Jane looked over at me, and the panic in her
eyes meant that she heard them too. Out of the two of us, she was
braver and stole a look back over her shoulder at them.

I was about to ask her what she saw when she
started sprinting forward, and that was answer enough for me. I
tried to catch up to her, but she wasn’t about to slow down for me,
remaining a few steps ahead.

The street ended with a parking garage, and
Jane ran into it, and rather dumbly, I followed her. There had to
be other places with crowds, but her first choice had been a dimly
lit underground parking garage.

I allowed myself a look back for the first
time. In the darkness, I could see little more than the silhouettes
of four large men. When they saw me looking at them, one of them
started to cat call.

I ran forward, only to realize Jane wasn’t
in front of me. I didn’t have a very good fight or flight reflex,
so I just froze when I didn’t see her.

“
Over here!” Jane hissed,
but the acoustics in the garage were awful. I couldn’t tell where
her voice was coming from, so I just stood frozen underneath a
flickering yellow light and hoped that my death would be quick and
painless.

“
Hey little girl,” one of
the guys purred in a voice that sounded anything but
friendly.

I turned to face them. Since I had stopped
running, so had they, and they strolled over to me.

“
Do you always run from a
good time?” another one asked. For some reason, the rest of them
thought that was hilarious, and their laughter filled the
garage.

The hair on the back of my neck stood up,
and I opened my mouth to say something, maybe even scream, but
nothing came out. I stood in a pool of cold water and oil, and the
light above me decided to go out for good.

Closing my eyes against the dark, I didn’t
want to risk seeing anything they did to me. They talked amongst
themselves, laughing and making perverted jokes, and I knew I was
going to die.

Somewhere behind me, I heard the screech of
tires, but I just squeezed my eyes shut tighter.

-2-

“
Hey! What are you doing?”
a voice shouted to the side of me. As soon as I heard him speak, I
knew that it didn’t belong to the group of guys closing in on me,
and I opened my eyes.

“
What’s it to you?” a large
tattooed guy growled, but he started taking a step back. A car had
pulled in the parking space to my right, shining the bright
headlights past me.

“
I think you should just
back off,” the new voice said.

I peeked over to the side at him, but the
shadows from the headlights hid him. It was too dark for me to make
anything out, except his pink tee shirt.

He took another step forward, and my
would-be-attackers continued taking steps back. They weren’t moving
very fast enough, and then suddenly, the blur of the pink shirt
rushed towards them.

The darkness and my fear couldn’t let me
trust my eyesight anymore. It looked as if the pink shirt was
moving faster than humanly possible, and the guys yelled as he
pushed them, sending them flying out of the garage.

I blinked my eyes to adjust them better, and
then everyone was gone.

Not everyone, exactly. The light above me
flickered on again, and the guy in the pink shirt stood next to me.
In big black letters across his chest, his shirt read, “Real men
wear pink.”

He looked older than me, probably in his
early twenties, and he wasn’t particularly well-built or tall. In
fact, he leaned more towards wiry than he did muscular, and I
couldn’t imagine what had frightened off the other guys.

His face was open and friendly, and he had
an easy smile that I couldn’t help but respond to, even though I
had just been a few moments away from death.

“
Are you okay?” he asked,
appraising me.

“
Yeah,” I said in a voice
that barely sounded like my own. “You saved my life.”

“
You shouldn’t be out here
alone,” he replied, completely ignoring the fact that he’d done
anything heroic.

“
My friend Jane is around
here somewhere.”

I remembered Jane and looked around for her.
Part of me was angry that she had done nothing to save me, but then
again, neither had I, and I didn’t think that I should hold her to
a higher standard than I did myself.

“
Two girls?” He raised an
eyebrow.

“
I think Jane has mace,” I
added lamely.

“
Where is this alleged
friend?” He took his turn scanning the parking lot, and then
pointed to something by a van parked on the other side. “I think I
see her over there.”

“
Where?” I squinted at
where he pointed but couldn’t see anything.

“
Over there,” he repeated,
taking a step towards the black Jetta parked next to me. “Come on.
We’ll go over and pick her up, and then I’ll give you guys a
ride.”

I walked around to the passenger side of the
car, and it never occurred to me to say no. Something about him
made me trust him.

His car stereo played Weezer, and in the
glow of the blue dashboard lights, I got my first real good look at
him. His skin looked flawless, but his hair was perfectly
disheveled.

He sped off across the parking lot, and I
pulled my eyes away from him to look out the window. Jane cowered
down behind a white van, and I wondered if she’d bothered to call
the police or anything. He stopped the car next to her and rolled
down the window so he could lean out.

“
Jane?” he said, and she
turned to look at him.

I expected her to be afraid, maybe even bolt
and run after what had just happened. Instead, she gave him the
strangest look. It was almost as if she was in awe.

“
Hi,” Jane said. It wasn’t
her normal flirty voice, even though I’m sure that’s what she was
trying for.

“
Jane, he’s giving us a
ride,” I said when it appeared she would just stand there staring
at him. “Get in the car.”

“
Sure.” She smiled at him
before sliding into the backseat.

“
Are you okay?” I looked
back at her.

“
I’m great,” Jane said,
still gaping at him. “Who’s your friend here?”

“
I don’t actually know,” I
admitted, looking over at him.

“
I’m Jack,” he said,
filling in the blank. “And you’re Jane.” Then he looked over at me.
“And you are?”

“
Alice.”

“
Well, I don’t know about
you guys, but I could really go for a cup of coffee right about
now.” Jack dropped the car into gear and sped off without waiting
for either of us to respond. It wasn’t really a question anyway,
and neither one of us would’ve protested.

“
This is a really nice
car,” Jane said, and her voice had fully regained that sickeningly
sweet tone. Jack didn’t say anything, and the silence started to
feel awkward.

“
Is this Weezer?” I asked,
just to say something.

“
Yeah,” Jack
nodded.

“
I like that song ‘Pork ‘n
Beans.’” As soon as I mentioned the song, Jack quickly flipped it
to the track.

“
I saw them when they were
on tour with Motion City Soundtrack,” he said.

“
Really?” I ignored the
annoyed glare Jane gave me and continued. “I really like them. How
are they live?”

“
Pretty good,” Jack
shrugged, and turned sharply into the parking lot outside an all
night diner.

When we got out of the car, Jane scampered
over to him, looping her arm through his. He didn’t look pleased by
it, but he didn’t pull away either.