Vampire Addiction (14 page)

Jeno was waiting for her at Hector’s house. As the two boys stepped from Hector’s front porch and walked across the yard to meet them, Gertie nearly lost her breath. They both wore nicely cut suits and ties and black dress shoes. Their crisp white shirts gleamed against the dark black blazers. Their skin also glowed. One boy was pale and blond and shining in the moonlight, and the other was dark with twinkling black eyes and thick, curly hair.

As the two girls stepped from the car, Klaus asked Gertie, “Are you sure about this?”

He hadn’t been told about Jeno. The girls had been worried he would spill the beans.

“Yes,” Gertie said.

Klaus backed from the driveway, waving goodbye, and then went to pick up his date, leaving the other four alone in the moonlight.

They were silent and awkward as they climbed into Hector’s car—Nikita in the front and Gertie in the back with Jeno. Gertie focused on keeping her thoughts trained on Jeno even though she noticed Hector glance at her more than once in his rearview mirror.

“You look beautiful,” Jeno whispered beside her.

“So do you,” she said.

He smiled. “That isn’t the first time you’ve told me that. It’s nice to hear.”

“You know I speak the truth.”

He squeezed her hand. “Thank you so much for this night. I can’t remember the last time I attended an event among mortals. Wait, yes I can. It was thirty years ago, I believe.”

“That’s so sad.”

“Yes. And this is a happy occasion, so let’s not talk anymore about sad things.”

Nikita made small talk with Hector up front, as Jeno and Gertie continued to whisper their private conversation.

“I see your thoughts about dancing,” he said.

“I suck at it. I hope you don’t expect…”

“I do, actually. I love to dance and haven’t in ages. You must dance with me, Gertie.”

“I don’t know.”

“Leave it to me. I will lead you. You will see.”

She hoped she wouldn’t disappoint him.

“Never,” he said.

When they followed Hector and Nikita into the high school gymnasium, Gertie was delighted by how the building had transformed. The dimmed lights, disco ball, colorful strings of lights along the walls and tables, and bronze steampunk props gave a mystical quality to the atmosphere. A big banner over the stage read: “Dance Through the Ages,” and beneath it was a live band. Currently, they were playing a big band sound, jazzy and spastic.

“I like this music,” Jeno said.

Unlike Gertie, who worried about others detecting Jeno for what he was, Jeno took her hand and led her with confidence smack dab in the middle of the dance floor where no one else, not even the chaperones, were dancing.

“Give in to me with your mind,” he whispered. “I can lead you.”

She gazed into his eyes and allowed him to control her as they moved flawlessly around the center of the room dancing what she soon recognized was the Charleston. She was no longer aware of the other students and faculty watching from the sidelines. Everyone fell away, and it was just the two of them laughing and dancing to the music from the band on stage.

When that song ended and a new one began, Jeno said, “Oh, this is from Fred Astair. Let’s keep going.”

Gertie couldn’t believe how easily she moved as Jeno told her mind and body what to do. He swung her around and around, making her dizzy with laughter, but when that song was over and another began, he said once again, “We have to dance to this one.”

“Seriously?”

“It’s by Glenn Miller. Come on!” His smile was contagious.

Before she knew it, they had danced to Bing Crosby, Elvis Presley, the Beatles, the Beach Boys, the Bee Jees, Jefferson Starship, Madonna, Michael Jackson, and Mariah Carey. Other students eventually joined them on the dance floor, but Gertie had barely noticed them.

“I need some water,” she said when Celine Dione’s
My Heart Will Go On
rang from the stage.

They found Hector and Nikita standing beside Klaus and Joy by the refreshments. Jeno found a cold bottle of water and opened it for Gertie.

“Nice moves,” Nikita said.

Both Hector and Klaus had stiffened and had exchanged glances. Gertie wished she could read their minds. “Thank you,” she said. “Jeno deserves all the credit, though.”

“Klaus, can you move like that?” Joy asked.

“I’m afraid not,” he said.

“I could help you with that,” Jeno said.

Gertie clapped a hand down onto Klaus’s shoulder. “Why don’t you give it a try?”

Klaus glanced at Jeno, who gave an encouraging nod.

“Okay. Come on,” Klaus said to Joy as he led her away.

The other teens watched as Klaus expertly moved Joy across the dance floor. Then Gertie noticed Jeno moving his fingers in subtle motions in front of him.

Incredulous, she wondered if Jeno was really helping Klaus to dance.

Jeno gave her a smile and a nod. “He asked me to.”

“Who asked you to do what?” Nikita asked.

Jeno did not reply, but kept his focus on Klaus.

Gertie leaned closer to Nikita and explained what Jeno was doing.

“So that’s why you looked so smooth out there,” Nikita said to Gertie. “Jeno was helping you, too.”

Even Hector seemed delighted by Jeno’s puppeteering. It was quite entertaining, Gertie thought with a smile.

Eventually, Nikita convinced Hector to dance one dance with her. It was a slow song, and as he took her in his arms and held her close, Gertie felt her stomach tighten. Jeno reacted immediately with a frown.

“Let’s go for a walk,” Gertie suggested while Hector and Nikita and Klaus and Joy were still on the dance floor. “Klaus can handle the dance on his own from here.”

Jeno broke his tie to Klaus, who immediately looked a lot less smooth as he swayed with Joy to the slow music. Gertie stifled a snicker as she led Jeno out of the gym and into the cool night by the fountain at the front of the school. A few others passed by. Some kids were already being picked up by a line of cars that had formed in the parking lot.

“I need to ask you a favor,” Gertie finally said.

“Ah,” he said, somewhat sadly. “I should have known.”

“What do you mean?” Gertie asked.

“I should have known this night could not be as perfect as it seemed. Everything in my life comes with a catch.”

“There’s no catch.”

“You asked me to the dance so I would bite you again,” he accused.

She looked up into his doubting eyes. “I wanted to ask you to the dance way before I thought of asking for the favor.” She opened her mind to him, allowing him to see her concern over Phoebe.

“This isn’t the way to solve her problem,” he cautioned.

“You could do it for me, then. Find out what’s wrong with her.”

“For such probing, I need eye contact.”

“So?”

“I haven’t been invited into their apartment.”

“Then bite me. Please? I could help them—the whole family. They’ve done so much for me.”

She stretched her chin up and rested it on his chin. “Please, Jeno? Just once more. You know you want to, anyway. I can tell.”

“Of course I want to,” he said with a sigh. “I want nothing more than the taste of your blood, except to be desired by you as a man.”

“You can have both.” She caressed his lips with hers. “Please say yes. It would make us both happy.” She closed her eyes and kissed his throat, feeling the breath rush from his lungs.

She wrapped her arms around his neck and pressed her body against his, overcome by the sensation of his large stature, his strong arms encircling her waist, and his breath, though cold, against her.

He kissed her hard, and she melted into his arms.

Then he whispered, “Not here.”

He waved his hand at the passersby and then lifted her up into the night sky. He flew with her away from the school, away from the city, back to the rock beneath the Parthenon.

Chapter Twenty-One: Third Bite

The night was cold. Gertie shivered in Jeno’s arms, but he could do nothing to warm her. She distracted herself with the beautiful lights of the city, which looked much like the stars above them. When they landed on the rock, Jeno took her into a tight embrace.

“My poor baby,” he said. “You are so cold.”

He moved his hands up and down her arms, trying to create heat.

“I’ve missed you so much,” Gertie said. “Why don’t you come see me more often?”

Jeno frowned. She wished she could read his mind.

That made him smile. “I’m trying to—how do you say—proceed with caution. You frighten me, koureetsi mou—especially in this red hot dress. It’s my favorite color.”

“How?” Frightened seemed like a strong word.

“It’s not nearly strong enough. I can’t get you out of my mind. I think about you every moment of every day. This is not good for you
or
for me. We need to take things slowly.”

“Why?” She bit her lip. “I don’t understand.”

He gazed at her mouth, as though anticipating blood. He snapped his attention back to her eyes and said, “We must both make it past the lust.”

“Lust?” Although she thought he was hot and she wanted badly to kiss him, she wasn’t ready for sex.

He chuckled at her thoughts. “Your lust for my
power
and my lust for your
blood
.”

“I don’t lust for your power,” she said.

“Isn’t that why we are here tonight?”

“We are here tonight because I want to help the Angelis family.”

“Let me tell you something, koureetsi mou,” he said softly. “You remember the woman I told you about, the one whose deathbed I was leaving as I met you on the bus?”

Gertie nodded.

“How many times in the thirty years I knew her do you think I drank her blood?”

“I don’t know. Hundreds of times?”

He shook his head. “Not once.”

“Why not?”

“One taste of her blood, and I wouldn’t be able to get enough. It’s easy sometimes to confuse love and lust. I wanted to
love
her. And I did.”

“You knew her thirty years, and you never drank her blood?”

“Not until the night she was dying, and then only because she asked me to.”

“She wanted to become a vampire?”

Jeno sighed. “No. She knew how hard such an existence can be. She never wanted that.”

“Then why?”

“Because she loved me, and because she wanted me to have her blood in my veins as she was leaving this world for the next.”

“Oh.” Gertie looked out over the city below. Now she wished she had never asked Jeno to bite her. No—she was glad she had. To experience his amazing powers was something she could not regret. And after one more bite, she would never ask for another. She just needed one more night of mind reading. She bit down hard on her lip and turned to Jeno.

He stared with longing at the blood beading there. “You did that on purpose.”

“Kiss me.” She reached her mouth to his.

He cupped her face in both hands and gently licked her lips. A moan escaped his throat as he pressed his mouth hard against hers. She felt him trembling as his touch turned feverish. He ran his hands from her cheeks to her neck, pressing his thumbs against her pulse. She had aroused him past the breaking point.

“Indeed,” he whispered right before he sank his fangs into her throat and drank.

The bright stars in the sky turned into swirls and swirls of light, spinning like the images at the end of a kaleidoscope. Gertie felt so light and airy. Was she floating?

“Thee moy.” Jeno wiped the excess blood from his mouth onto the back of his hand and then licked his hand clean.

Gertie had barely noticed. So many sounds and images and scents were hitting her all at once.

“Are you okay?”

She closed and opened her eyes as she was assaulted by his thoughts.

This was a mistake. She is overwhelmed.

“I’m okay.”

The spinning lights finally settled into a fixed point, and she could now see that the stars were more than light. She could see they were distinct bodies, and outer space was full of many moving objects. She felt small and insignificant, but for only a moment, for her eyes then moved to the earth itself and to all the houses and cars and people below, and she felt like a powerful being among them.

I
am
a powerful being
.

“Yes,” Jeno said. “But don’t let it go to your head.”

His last word reminded her of her purpose. She needed to get inside Phoebe’s head. It was time to discover what was preventing Phoebe from speaking, and what had lately made her withdraw more than usual.

“Are you sure you want to do this?” he asked her. “Some things are better left unknown.”

“I’m sure. Can you help me?”

He stepped behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist. She leaned her back against him and tried to relax.

“Focus on the Angelis apartment,” he coached.

“Yes, I’m looking at it now.”

“Can you sense the little girl? She is walking around in the kitchen.”

“Oh. Found her.”

Gertie reached into Phoebe’s mind, searching her memories. Phoebe’s indecision about what she wanted to drink was getting in Gertie’s way.

“How can I read beyond her current thoughts?”

“It’s better to be close to her, so you can look into her eyes.”

Gertie hadn’t anticipated having to face Phoebe, but she’d gone this far. She couldn’t give up now. “Will you go with me?”

“Of course.”

They held hands as they flew. Gertie was no longer cold. In fact, now that the dizziness had worn off, she felt strong, energetic, and focused.

I am a powerful being
, she thought again.

“This is true,” Jeno said. “Even without the vampire virus in your blood.”

Gertie didn’t think so. It was a nice thing for Jeno to say, but she knew it wasn’t true.

“You have to believe in yourself,” he said.

She read the string of thoughts that followed.

This beautiful, intelligent girl has no self-confidence. Her parents have ripped her limbs from her body, too. Did they know what they were doing to their daughter? Or were they like my mother—driven by forces beyond their control?

“You have such deep thoughts,” she said, and was unable to stop her own:
for a vampire.
“I didn’t mean that. You have deep thoughts for anyone, for any kind of being.”

She covets my powers but abhors my race, just like everyone else.

“No. that isn’t true! I don’t abhor your race. I love vampires, remember?”

Fictional ones,
his mind accused.

They arrived and landed on the sidewalk in front of the Angelis apartment.

“No. You do believe me, don’t you?” she asked.

“You have good intentions,” Jeno said. “But your attitudes betray you.”

Gertie frowned.

“It’s okay,” he said. “I loathe myself and my race, too.”

Gertie grabbed the lapels of his blazer in both fists and brought him close. “I could never loathe you, Jeno. I’m falling in love with you.”

He made no comment, but his thought was,
We shall see.

Gertie sighed. “Can you come with me?”

“The rules governing the ways of vampires are strict,” Jeno said. “I have to be invited into a home before I can enter it.”

“I’m inviting you.”

“You are a guest. I don’t know if that counts.”

“Hmm.”

“I’ll be right here, koureetsi mou. You can do this.”

“What exactly am I doing?”

“Sit with the girl, and look into her eyes. Look deeply, and you will find what you are looking for.”

“I can’t be seen by Mamá and Babá. They think I’m still at the dance.”

“Take off your clothes.”

Her eyes widened. “What?”

“Use invisibility, until you’re alone with Phoebe.”

“But then when I appear to her, I’ll be naked.”
That would certainly freak her out.

“Use an illusion to cover yourself.”

“How do I do that?”

There’s not enough time to teach you
. “I’ll do it for you. Now take off your clothes and go, before the dance ends.”

Reminding herself that he had x-ray vision anyway, and turning with embarrassment away from her own x-ray view of him, she pulled her energy inward—just like a turtle into its shell, until she could no longer see herself. Then she slipped out of the red dress and handed it to him.

He laughed at her. “Your underwear, too. Unless you want your bra and panties to appear to be floating around on their own.”

She slipped out of them, her face red hot with mortification, and handed them over, too.

“Shoes,” he said.

She bent over to undo the strap, but couldn’t without seeing her own fingers.

“Let me help you,” Jeno said.

He crouched at her feet and unbuckled her straps. Then he slid off each shoe. It was sensual and sad at the same time. She felt like Cinderella in reverse.

She shuddered. “Thank you.”

“My pleasure,” he said. “And stop already with the embarrassment. I can’t see you when you’re invisible. Besides, I can see through your clothes anyway.”

“Like that helps.” She laughed nervously.

Someone is coming.
He balled up her clothes and hid them inside his blazer. He left her red pumps on the steps.

I’m terrified.
She couldn’t hide her thoughts.
What if I get caught?

You don’t have to do this.

Yes, I do.

She flew up to one of the opened windows and climbed inside, right by the television. It was on, and Mamá and Babá sat together on the sofa watching it. As quietly as she could, she crept from the room and down the hallway, looking for Phoebe.