Vampires 101 (Twilight Hunters Book 1) A Vampire Romance (6 page)

At first I was horrified by what I saw, but then I noticed that the people were smiling and conversing with those outside the cages. Whatever their reasons for being imprisoned, it was apparent that they were doing so of their own free will.

As I followed Shadow through the club, my eyes fell on a couple that were sitting in at nearby table. They looked to be indulging in some very wicked foreplay, at least that’s what it appeared to be. Then as we walked by them, it became clear that the man had his fangs buried in the artery of the woman’s neck.

My step faltered. Maybe it was common sense, or just an instinct for survival, but I managed to look away and continued walking. Even if I’d known how to help the woman, there was no way I’d stand a chance. The club was full of bloodsuckers.

It was not until that instant that I really began to accept the things Shadow had been telling me. Before the moment I saw the vampire feeding on his victim, it had all seemed more like some kind of fantastic story, than anything that could actually be a reality.

By the time we sat down at the bar, I could feel dozens of eyes on me. I went through a panic moment, and was suddenly sure I probably wouldn’t live to see another sunrise. Under normal circumstances, I might have thought that the attention of so many men was kind of cool, but on this occasion, it made me feel like a walking smorgasbord.

Damn! Who would have guessed there were so many vampires in Pine View?

“Ok … so now what?” I asked under my breath.

“We wait.”

The cold hand on my shoulder sent chills running down my spine. Jerking my head around to see which bloodsucker was making the move on me, I gasped before I could stop myself.

Nothing like giving yourself away within the first minute.

The vampire’s eyes widened in surprise as recognition set in. “Cassie Jordan!”

There I stood, gaping at my high school crush like I’d just been caught in the act of savoring his cute behind in math class. Thank god that never actually happened - the catching me part.

“Hey wait a minute!” Shadow jumped in. “You guys know each other?”

I gave her a sideward glance and a nervous smile. “Kelsey Warren. We went to high school together.”

Kelsey was still hot, in a dark vampire sort of way. His blond hair was darker than I remembered, but I figured that could have something to do with him no longer having the help of the sun to bleach it lighter. His blue eyes were always kind of bright, but now he had that vampire glowing thing going on with them.

“Imagine seeing you in a place like this,” I muttered, totally losing the seductive vixen façade. Now I knew why the heartthrob of Pine View High had disappeared.

“Yes … it is a little crazy.” The smile that touched his lips was dark and foreboding. Suddenly the idea that I might be able to trust him with my blood supply quickly went from the column of slight possibility - to don’t even think about it.

I was hurt. My superhero had turned into the bad guy.

I had tons of questions, such as when did he turn - did he ever date Misty Roderick, like everyone in school thought, but I kept my curiosities to myself. Kelsey had a different vibe about him than Shadow. He seemed darker, more sadistic. Not that Shadow didn’t have her sadistic moments, but for the most part, I didn’t think the ideas floating around in her head involved draining my blood and burying me in the basement of some abandoned building.

Ok then. So now what?

“Would you like to dance?” he asked in his most seductive voice, as undead as it was. My first thought was to run for the door, but the painful pinch Shadow delivered to my arm changed my mind.

My head was racing a hundred miles an hour trying to find a way to get out of dancing with Count Kelsey, without seeming too rude. Not that rude really mattered in this particular situation, but still.

Nope, couldn’t think of a single way out of it.

Though I was reluctant, I finally agreed to a dance. We had been on the dance floor less than thirty seconds when he crushed me to him and began kissing my neck. I briefly wondered if making out with him before he killed me was a possibility. He’d never given me a second look in high school, but better late than never. It took a little more effort than what I care to admit, but I managed to brush my ludicrous thoughts aside.

I really needed to start dating again.

Then I felt his fangs scraping against my skin, and was jolted with the realization that I could easily be infected. I wouldn’t even get any of the much-anticipated foreplay with it.

Placing my hand on his chest, I pushed him back. “I’m not entirely sure I’m ready for that,” I told him, batting my lashes. I hoped I looked edible enough that he’d be patient and back off a little. I needed to put him off long enough that either Shadow or my mysterious vampire knight could come to my rescue.

He stared down at me, his eyes gleaming with hunger. Unfortunately for me, it wasn’t the kind of hunger I wanted to see in them. I had a nagging feeling in the pit of my stomach that told me I wasn’t going to be walking out of the Sundown quite as easily as I walked in.

With my heart thumping so hard I knew it was about ready to jump out of my chest, I looked around for Shadow. She was already making her way to us through the crowd. I realized that she had probably sensed I was in trouble, even before I did.

Suddenly there was an obnoxiously loud buzzing in my ears. It was even drowning out the music, which was equally intolerable. The band really needed to tune their guitars. I wondered if they realized that it sounded as if they were playing the song backwards.

Damn! That buzzing felt like it was going to split my skull right in half.

But it wasn’t just the music that was weird. Everyone around me was moving in extreme slow motion. Not like the illusion created by the strobe lights, but really moving in slow motion. My heart jumped into my throat as it began to dawn on me what must have happened.

The jerk bit me and now I was turning.

Then everything just stopped. The people around me appeared to be frozen in time and the music was just gone, as was the buzzing. I frantically look around the room, convinced that I’d just died and entered some kind of really bizarre realm of hell.

His smooth - deep laughter caught me by surprise, sending ripples of heat through my body to settle in the pit of my stomach. I couldn’t see him, but I could feel him as surely as if he were standing right next to me.

“Should I let him do it?” His soft voice was filled with amusement. “Should I let him turn you? It is nothing more than what you would deserve.”

Ok, now that was totally uncalled for. If he wanted to pass judgment on me, he should at least have the guts to do it to my face.

Folding my arms in front of me, I put on my best,
don’t screw with me
look.

“You’re not being very fair about this. The least you could do is say it to my face.”

Again I heard his deep - sizzling laughter. It reminded me of the distant rumbling of thunder on a sultry summer night. Before another thought could form in my mind, he was standing next to me.

The only thing I could think of was,
damn, how could any guy be so hot?

His beauty was perfection - blending seamlessly with the intense masculinity that radiated from every pore of his body. Just being close to him was like getting a massive does of aphrodisiac.

Now that I could see him in the light, I was even more impressed than I was the night I saw him in the graveyard. His thick - wavy black hair was to die for. I knew I would risk life and limp for the chance to run my fingers through it. Standing a little over five feet, I was far from being tall, but he was huge, easily over seven feet. I couldn’t help but wonder if all of him was as big.

Now his clothes were seriously weird, even for a vampire. He was wearing black clothes that looked as if they were made out of some kind of leather that molded itself to his body. His cape seemed a little retro, as in medieval. It even had a hood, though he wasn’t wearing it.

He was gazing down at me through thick lashes, and I noticed that his eyes radiated the light that I had come to associate with the vampire, but they lacked the bloodlust I’d seen in Kelsey’s eyes.

A smile tugged at the corners of his mouth. “Your wish is my command … Princess.”

My breath caught in my throat. “You were really there the other night … in my bedroom!”

He nodded, but said nothing.

Ok breathe Cassie!

I had to keep telling myself that he was just a guy. Granted, he was a very hot - sexy immortal kind a guy, but a guy was still just a guy.

“Why?” I was only able to manage that one word.

He shrugged his wide - linebacker shoulders. “To make sure you were ok.”

That was so sweet and romantic, in a strange stalker sort of way. “Who are you?”

Again he laughed. “I think you should be a little more concerned about what I am, and not who I am.”

As bizarre as it may sound, at that moment I didn’t care so much about what he was, but I sure wanted to know who he was. I couldn’t get over the feeling that if I let him slip through my fingers, I would forever be comparing other men to him, and no doubt all of them would come out lacking.

“I don’t think it’s too much to ask to know who you are. I mean … you have seen me in my pajamas and all.” As soon as the words left my mouth, I wanted to bite my own tongue. Knowing what to say to guys was not one of my strong points. With this guy, my lack of poetic words seemed to be even worse.

“Fair enough,” he nodded, but before he said anything more, he grabbed my arm and led me toward the exit.

“Where are we going?” I asked, suddenly just a little worried.

“Somewhere a little less uncomfortable,” he answered.

I had to give him that one. It was a bit weird talking when you were surrounded by a bunch of vampires, even if they were frozen.

“What did you do to them?” I nodded toward the motionless bloodsuckers. Not that I was all that worried about it. Having them frozen in place was probably a good thing, except for Shadow. I’d grown to kind of like her, though there was no denying that we had a love-hate relationship. So maybe he could keep her frozen for a while too.

“Nothing,” he said, a secretive smile on his face. “It is time that I’ve manipulated.”

Stopping abruptly, I stared at him in disbelief. A vampire was one thing, but a vampire that could stop time was something else altogether. “That’s impossible.”

“Is it?” he asked, arching one brow.

“Well yeah it’s impossible.”

“Don’t worry. It’s only temporary … and it’s only in this isolated space,” he explained, sweeping his arm wide to indicate the interior of the Sundown Club.

He was right. Once we stepped outside, the world appeared to be moving at normal speed. Sirens wailed in the distance. Nearby, I could hear a group of boys calling for their homie to hurry up. I couldn’t help but wonder if the sirens and the boys were connected somehow.

Ok, so maybe I was stereotyping just a little.

A warm breeze whipped at my hair, as a bolt of lightning lit up the dark cloud-covered sky. The world appeared so normal - so natural, that was except for the guy that had a hold of my arm, leading me up the stairs and onto the sidewalk. Everything about him seemed supernatural.

“So where would you like to talk?” he asked.

Hmm. I drew a total blank. To be honest, I was in shock that I was talking with him at all.

“How about where we first met?” he suggested with a grin that added a totally wicked element to his sex appeal.

I wasn’t exactly thrilled about going back to the cemetery, but at that point, I was so overwhelmed by his presence, that I’d have gone to the moon if he’d asked.

When I didn’t answer, he wrapped his arms around me and pulled me so close that I half wondered if I would sink into his body. That was the last thought that entered my mind before I found myself filled with the most amazing warmth and tingling. It was like being covered with a blanket made of pure light, so warm and comforting that I never wanted the feeling to stop. But stop it did.

My eyes fluttered open and I found myself in the tree house I’d built as a child. I can be somewhat odd sometimes, and this was one of those times. Instead of being curious about how we got to the tree house in the first place, I wondered if my dad was home. I knew if he found us in the tree house, he would be seriously confused, and maybe even a little pissed off.

Not that I could blame him. I was way beyond confused myself. What were we doing at Dad’s? This wasn’t where we’d met.

Nothing that he’d said or done up to that point had provided much clarity. In fact, nothing was making any sense at all, so I decided it was time to speak up. “I think you are a little mixed up. We met in the cemetery the other night.”

He shook his head. “The first time I saw you was when you were in here.”

Now I can be as open minded as most anyone, but I knew for a fact that I’d never set eyes on him before that night in the cemetery.

“I don’t think so,” I told him.

He sat on the floor, pulling me down with him. With his back against the wall of the tree house, he positioned me to where I was resting against his chest. “Think about it Cassie. Remember back to the night that you were angry with your father and decided to run away.”