Blood Candy (12 page)

“Freak is right,” White Paul said with a broad
grin. “That was a blood popsicle she was sucking on.”

“Blood popsicle?” Candy said, wondering how it
could possibly get any stranger. “How do you know?”

White Paul tapped his nose. “I can smell if a
bear shits in the woods a mile away. Call it one of my
talents.”

“This is weird. That chick creeps me out.
She’s younger than her son,” Jimmy said.

“They’re a blood family,” White Paul said.
“She’s the mother, so that means she made the others. They’re all
freaks if you ask me, worthy of nothing more than a bath over an
open flame or a stake through the heart beneath the rising
sun.”

Jimmy held his hand up. “Enough. I don’t like
them any more than you but we need their help.”

“You mean Candy needs their help.”

“I need your help. You’re supposed to be my
friend.”

White Paul glared at Candy and then he
softened. “Sorry. My nerves are a little on edge.”

“We’re all on edge,” Jimmy said. “But they
can’t be so bad. They openly invited us into their home, after all.
If that doesn’t show they want to help I don’t know what
does.”

“Just keep your guard up and don’t forget what
Tinch taught us,” White Paul said.

One of the downstairs doors opened and a
moment later Candy heard someone approaching. She felt Jimmy turn
to see who it was and then she heard a new voice. “Hey, I’m Blake.”
She lifted her head to introduce herself. Her mouth fell open but
no words came out—Blake was
hot
.

Chapter Nine

Blake had the same dark hair as his blood
mother, though his was short and messy. He also had the same eerie
gray-blue eyes, but on him the odd glow was irresistible. Candy
couldn’t keep from staring at his enticing, white-toothed smile. He
looked no older than twenty and in the absolute prime of his life.
She pushed away from Jimmy to introduce herself, offering her
hand.

“I’m Candy. Nice to meet you.”

“Nice to meet you,” Blake said with a broad
smile that threatened to make her swoon. “Nice to meet you as
well,” he said to Jimmy.

Medium Dave and White Paul stared at the
vampire with almost the same awe as Candy. It struck her that she
may be falling into the same trap through which Rupert had charmed
her, but she knew she had her wits about her. Blake was so good
looking she couldn’t help herself. He had everything she liked in
men right down to the perfect angles of his face. He was dressed
casually in a blue shirt and jeans that showed off enough of his
physique to pique a lady’s interest while keeping the rest a
mystery.

“You’re Anastasia’s son?” Candy asked the
gorgeous vampire.

“Of a sort. She’s my blood mother.”

“Ah,” Candy said in fascination. She hardly
noticed Jimmy fuming at her side.

When Blake spoke, his voice resonated through
the antechamber. “I’m to keep you entertained until Mother returns.
Follow me into the den if you will, please.”

Candy tried to move to his side as he headed
to one of the doors at the back of the antechamber, but Jimmy
caught her by the hand. “Stay at my side,” he whispered. “Remember
what we told you. They’re vampires. Don’t forget what one of them
already did to you.”

His words were a slap across the face; the
slap back into reality Candy needed. She nodded, but she didn’t
want Jimmy holding her hand. Blake led them through a door into a
glorified living and entertainment room. Five huge flat panel
televisions lined two of the walls, each with an assortment of
electronics and speakers. On the other side of the room were two
pool tables, and there were even two bowling lanes set into the
wall.

There weren’t any windows. Now that Candy
thought about it, she didn’t remember seeing any windows on the
inside of the antechamber, which was odd because she had seen
plenty on the outside of the mansion. Blake stepped onto the thick
carpet that covered the floor from wall to wall and then he
extended his arm out as a gesture of invitation. White Paul and
Medium Dave marveled over the televisions and electronics as if
they had died and gone to Heaven.

“There’s plenty to do,” Blake said. “We have a
basketball and tennis court in the back as well.” He strolled a
little further into the room. The guys, including Jimmy, took
tentative steps, their eyes full of wonder. “The couches are
comfortable if anyone needs a nap.”

“Holy cow,” White Paul said in a small voice
as he approached the electronics. “Look at the size of that
television. What game system is that?”

“It’s a prototype from Japan. It blows
everything else out of the water and looks amazing in high
definition,” Blake said.

Blake turned on the television and game
system, and then told them to have at it. When the game menu popped
up Candy thought the perfectly proportioned Japanese girl wearing a
yellow bikini was real rather than a graphical representation of
every boy’s fantasy. White Paul and Medium Dave gazed at it for a
long time before they bothered picking up the controllers. Even
Jimmy wandered over to watch the Japanese girl smile amiably while
blowing kisses streaming with red hearts.

Blake leaned his head down into Candy’s field
of vision. She hadn’t realized she’d been goggling at the video
game as well even though she didn’t care for such
things.

“Want to play a game of pool?” he
said.

“Sure.”

Blake fetched a pool stick for each of them
and then racked up nine balls on the red felt table. “You have some
interesting friends.”

“Who?” Candy had become lost in his motions
while he set up the game. “Oh, yeah. Sure.”

“You break.”

Candy had only played pool a couple of times
with one of her old boyfriends and she didn’t remember many of the
rules aside from the obvious ones. She put the cue ball close to
the back rail and tried to hit it as hard as she could. She managed
to make contact but when the cue ball struck the rack it didn’t
make much of a spread.

“Not bad.” Blake lined up his shot on the
one-ball. “I have to warn you I’m pretty good. I whoop my brothers
and sister regularly.”

“How many brothers and sisters do you
have?”

“A few.” He sunk the billiard into the corner
pocket he had called. The cue ball drew back for a perfect shot on
the two-ball into a side pocket. “Where are you from?”

“A small town near Gardner. It’s a nowhere,
nothing town about two hours from Boston.”

“I’ve been around there before. I like it; it
has an old New England feel,” Blake said.

Candy smiled even though she didn’t completely
agree with his assessment of her home town area. She couldn’t take
her eyes away from him as he lined up his shot. The way his soft
eyes gleamed in the lighting while he leaned over the table made
them seem almost silver.

“It’s not so bad I guess,” she said. “It’s
just nothing like the cities.”

Candy suspected that Blake missed his next
shot on purpose. He leaned against the back wall with the cue stick
in one hand while gazing at her, his face solemn and
pleasant.

“I’m sorry about what happened to you,” he
said. “Not all vampires are like that you know.”

Something about that jarred Candy out of her
schoolgirl crush. She tried to force a smile and ended up looking
down at the table. She hadn’t put much thought into
him
being a vampire. Her stomach lurched as everything came into
perspective. She glanced over her shoulder at the others, who were
completely absorbed in the video game they were playing. All of the
warnings she had heard from Tinch and the Misfits rang clearly in
her mind.
Vampires have a way of getting whatever they want.
Don’t ever trust a vampire. Don’t ever believe a word they
say
.

Candy pursed her lips, setting her resolve.
“The only thing I know is a vampire forced himself on me. What he
did was wrong. He tried to take it from me and I couldn’t even say
no.”

Blake gave a grim nod. “He deserves to be
punished.”

“Will he be?”

“I’ll make sure of it.”

Candy didn’t know what to think or if she
believed him. She had to admit that Blake and Chester didn’t seem
anything at all like Rupert and Vivian. Even Anastasia seemed more
normal. Not human, because that was the last thing the freaky
little girl seemed, but she had come off as genuinely concerned.
The Mullins had taken Candy and her friends into their house and
offered to help when they didn’t have to.

Candy figured she should at least be
respectful so long as her hosts did the same. And, no matter how
much she wanted to fight it, no matter how completely strange it
was, she couldn’t deny her attraction to this gorgeous vampire.
Actually, it wasn’t that strange at all considering this kind of
thing always happened in stories. But to a Catholic raised girl,
the idea of attraction to a vampire, to something that fed on
people and was supposed to be evil, it just didn’t sit
right.

The conflictions in her mind only raised more
questions. Evil or not, right or wrong, Blake intrigued her and she
wanted to know more about this world she never knew a thing about
before.

“How long have you been a vampire?”

Blake laughed. “That’s a very personal
question.”

“I’m eighteen. What’s so personal about it?”
Candy said.

Blake studied her for a moment, seemingly
unsure as to what he should say. “Long enough,” he said.

She could see he wasn’t going to make this
easy. “Is it true your family doesn’t drink human
blood?”

“Yes.”

“Have you ever . . . ?”

His beautiful eyes lingered on her for a long
moment, studying her, drinking her up. “I’d be lying if I said no,
but I only drink human blood when I need to. And I never hurt
anyone.”

Candy wasn’t sure she liked that answer. She
turned away from him and leaned against the pool table. The Misfits
were playing a volleyball game against each other as bikini clad,
giggling girls with very bouncy breasts. Jimmy never once looked
over his shoulder.

“I hope you won’t judge all of us because of
one bad apple. It’s hardly fair,” Blake said. “I’ve seen a werewolf
tear a man apart before. I don’t assume they are all that
way.”

“First impressions are powerful,” Candy said,
her eyes lingering on Jimmy. She wanted to be closer to him.
“Werewolves saved me.”

She caught a brief flash of light across the
room near a corner of the ceiling. Blake put his cue stick on the
table. “We’re needed in the main hall,” he said loud enough for
everyone to hear. “If you will all follow me, please.”

The boys were disappointed they had to turn
off the video game. Jimmy and White Paul walked over to Candy while
Medium Dave made his way to where Blake waited at the
door.

“Shame he’s a vampire,” White Paul said. “This
is an awesome crib.”

Jimmy had a worried if not accusatory
expression as he moved close to Candy’s side. “He the kind of
pretty guy you usually take a liking to?” He held up a hand before
she could protest. “Just don’t forget why we’re here.”

He joined the others near the door, leaving
Candy angry and a little upset. Blake waited for her, his eyes
heavy with sympathy. She walked past him without a word into the
antechamber.

Anastasia had
said
she was going to get
dressed into something more appropriate, but she looked like even
more of a tramp than before. In the style of frivolous southern
girls, she was wearing a shirt tied well above her naval, revealing
a midriff so white it looked painted. She had also put on frayed
blue jean shorts that showed the entire length of her pale legs.
Her hair was now pulled back in a short pony tail and she had on
red lipstick along with blue eyeliner.

Everyone gawked at her, no one more so than
White Paul. Blake didn’t seem to notice or care as he strolled over
to his mother’s side. Anastasia was skinny and terribly white, and
now that she had taken off all of the dark makeup she looked like a
porcelain doll. She could have stood perfectly still and passed for
a statue.

“Wonderful,” said the vampire girl. “A contact
of mine will be here momentarily, a nice Englishman who knows
better than I how to go about handling Rupert and his family.
Before he arrives we need to get our stories straight.”

“What do you mean?” Jimmy said.

“I have put some thought into this. We must
claim Candy, it’s the only way to nullify Rupert’s claim. She has
been a friend of the family for several months now. More
specifically, a friend of Blake’s—a
close
friend. That’s the
story.”

Jimmy crossed his arms and glared at the pair
of vampires.

“Tonight, Blake will make it official,”
Anastasia said.

“Make what official?” both Candy and Jimmy
asked in unison. His voice had more than a touch of anger on
it.

“That she’s claimed unto him,” Anastasia said
with a nod to her son. “Candy will be Blake’s and no other can
touch her without his consent.”