Vampires 101 (Twilight Hunters Book 1) A Vampire Romance (3 page)

Riley drew his brows together and studied me through thick lashes. “So what did this guy look like? Which way did he run?”

I tried to shrug, but found it impossible to move both shoulders. “He had blond hair and blue jogging clothes,” I lied. “He ran toward the river.”

“Ok,” Riley painted a smile on his deeply tanned face. I was aware that he knew I was holding back something. He had that cop instinct going on, but I wasn’t budging. No way was I getting sent up to the psych ward just to help them catch Killer Tom’s killer. I had a pretty good feeling that the world would be a better place without Tom in the picture anyway. Not that I knew who he really was, or what he’d done prior to attacking me, but I had a fairly good idea, and that was enough for me.

* * *

In the short twenty-one years that I’d been alive, I had witnessed my share of the strange and bizarre. There was that séance my friends and I did when I was fifteen. Granted, I didn’t actually see anything that night, but when Millie Westover screamed and turned green, throwing up on the
Ouija
board. I was convinced she’d seen something, and that was about as close to the supernatural as I’d ever had a desire to get.

Of course I didn’t always get what I wanted, in fact, almost never. Considering this little fact, it was no surprise when I opened my closet one night to grab my robe and saw another door at the back of the closet. Problem was, there was no door at the back of my closet, at least not normally.

So did I open the door to see what was behind it?

Not a chance. I’m not usually the curious type, especially when it comes to doors that are not supposed to be there.

Without a second thought to what mysteries I might discover through that doorway, I shut my closet door and stepped out of the bedroom, closing that door behind me as well. After a few gulps of air, I’d almost convinced myself that I hadn’t actually seen a door. Sure enough, the next time I looked in my closet, the door wasn’t there. That was good enough for me. I brushed it off and tried never to think of it again.

If only life could be that simple.

A few months later another incident rocked the foundation of my reality. I woke in the middle of the night to an extremely bright light. I knew I wasn’t alone. Though at first I couldn’t see anything, I could feel their presence. Sleep paralysis was something I’d never experienced, but I was certainly experiencing something very close to that. I couldn’t move, but out of the corners of my eyes I saw shadows floating around me. I had no idea who or what those shadows were, or if I was even truly awake.

I would have never used the words schizophrenia to describe myself, but that night I was having some serous doubts about my mental health. What was happening just could not be real.

The next thing I knew, it was morning and I had no memory of falling asleep. That made it easy to chalk the whole thing up to a dream. The theory soothed my fears somewhat, but somewhere in the back of my mind I was aware that it had been too lucid - too solid to be a dream. After that incident, I began having memories of the same thing happening throughout my childhood.

So much for never having experienced sleep paralysis.

And now there was this whole vampire thing. I briefly wondered if I shouldn’t reconsider the schizophrenia theory.

After leaving the hospital, Dad drove me home and walked me to my door. “Working for that café really doesn’t seem to be any safer than police work,” he stated the obvious. I knew I was in for a lecture by the way he was leaning against the wall beside my door.

“It’s not the job Dad. It’s my lack of reliable transportation.” Hopefully he would take the hint and help me get another car. But Dad had another solution to my dilemma.

“So quit the job and come and work at the station. I’m sure we could find something for you to do … and you could catch a ride to work with me.”

I groaned inwardly. The problem wasn’t so much that I would be working for the Pine View Police; it was that I would be working with Dad for eight hours a day. I loved my father dearly, but he just had one heck of a time understanding that I wasn’t twelve anymore. “I’ll think about it,” I told him before unlocking the door to my apartment. I wasn’t lying. I probably would think about it, but not seriously.

Dad grunted, and then said something that I couldn’t understand before walking away.

“Love you Dad! See you tomorrow!” I called after him.

Dad mumbled something else and then he was gone. I’d try to smooth things over with him tomorrow, but tonight all I wanted was a hot shower and my bed. My shoulder already felt tons better. The doctor had told me that my arm should be fully functional within a couple of days. Thankfully, the injury hadn’t been too serious.

I didn’t even want to think about the strange - random things that had happened. Maybe if I just didn’t think about what happened, it would all go away. When I woke up in the morning, I might remember the true version of the night’s events.

After shutting and locking the door, I reached for the light switch, but stopped in mid motion when I heard someone behind me.

Seriously?

This could not be happening again!

I heard a giggle and then she said, “Don’t get so jumpy. It’s just me.”

No reason to get jumpy. After all, it was no big deal to come home and find a vampire in your living room. Next I’d have aliens visiting me in the shower.

After turning on the light, I swung around to face my undead burglar. Neon Girl was sitting on the large - overstuffed wingback chair that I’d picked up at a garage sale a couple of summers before. With her leg flung over the arm of the chair, it appeared as if she’d made herself right at home.

“Excuse me … but how did you get in here?” I glowered at her.

“You left your bedroom window open,” she informed me. “Not a good idea you know.”

I decided to ignore my obvious blunder with the window, and go on the attack instead. “I thought that vampires couldn’t enter someone’s house unless they were invited.”

“You watch way too many movies,” she snorted. “Not that I blame you. That’s what I thought too … up until the time that I actually became a vampire.”

I’d had just about enough of this girl’s charade. I folded my arms in front of me, ready to set her straight. “I don’t believe for one minute that you are a vampire. I think you’re probably some homeless person … that for some odd reason, has decided to attach yourself to me,” I spoke in my best no nonsense voice.

That should do it.

Shadow merely smiled and shrugged her shoulders. “It’s not my problem to convince you of what’s right in front of your face.”

“I’m tired and want to go to bed,” I sighed. If this girl was convinced she was a vampire, who was I to point out the flaw in her thinking? It wasn’t up to me to tell her that there was no such thing as vampires.

Arching one perfectly shaped brow, she said, “I thought you wanted to know who they were. I mean … the way you turned to putty in his hands … I just thought you might be a little curious.”

Ok she had me there. Curious was an understatement. I hadn’t stopped thinking about him all night. Whoever the guy was that saved me, I seriously had the deep seeded belief he was a bad boy, and I was a sucker for bad boys.

I’d promised myself I would never again date a bad boy, primarily because the last one had nearly killed me when he was speeding down Canyon Road, while under the influence of something. To this day, I wasn’t sure what that something had been, but I didn’t know how else to explain his erratic behavior that night.

Blake had been killed in the accident, but I’d somehow ended up on the side of the road with barely a scratch. There’d been no evidence that I’d been ejected from the car - no shattered windows or open doors. I was just in the car one instant, and on the side of the road the next. They never found Blake’s body either, but that could very well be because he’d been disintegrated when the car exploded. At least no one had come up with a better explanation for why he hadn’t been found.

It had been so difficult getting through the heartbreak and despair of losing Blake that I’d vowed never to date a bad boy again. The truth was, I hadn’t really dated anyone since then.

The problem was, my rescuer had thrown a monkey wrench into my carefully thought out plan of not having anything to do with bad boys. Though I’d been trying not to think about it, I still couldn’t get over the way he’d made me feel when he touched me. It was like getting my first kiss all over again, only so much better, though he hadn’t actually kissed me.

“Ok … who are
they
?” I gave in to morbid curiosity, but I had to keep in mind that he’d killed that guy like he was no more than an insect. That couldn’t be a good thing.

Once Shadow realized that I was hooked, her sly smile returned. “They are the first vampires … our creators.”

I rolled my eyes. “Seriously? Are you saying that this is one of those
find the first vampire
dramas? I’m telling you … those almost never turn out good.”

“Like I said … you watch way too many movies,” she said, laughing out loud.

Now I was really annoyed. Cocking my head to one side, I glared at her with as much anger as I could muster. “Well excuse me Miss Mistress of the Night bloodsucker, movies and novels seem to be the only reference material available on the subject.”

Shadow started tapping her fingernails against the glass top of my end table, which did little to calm my nerves. “But Cassie … how much do you think they get right in the movies?”

Again I gave her a dirty look. “Well none of it … because none of it’s real! You’re just part of a very bad dream.”

Before I had time to blink, Shadow was across the room and standing next to me. Then she pinched and twisted the skin on my good arm.

“Hey!” I yelled. “That was totally uncalled for.”

“Now … could a dream do that?” she pointed out.

“Ok … so it is a very lucid dream,” I reasoned.

Shadow waved my words away with her hand. “We’re wasting time. You are going to help me find them.”

I shook my head. “To what point or purpose? That is … if they actually exist, outside of my imagination.”

It was Shadow’s turn to roll her eyes. “You sure are thick. Not only do they exist, but they are older than humans. I figure they can reverse this disease so I can be normal again.”

“You mean the dead disease?” I asked. I couldn’t help it, sarcasm was just part of my personality.

“Yeah, well it isn’t quite that simple,’ she shot back.

“Ok then … why is it you need my help?”

Shadow started pacing the floor in front of me. “Well for one thing … you can be out during the day, which means you can do a lot of the legwork for me. Then there’s the fact that at least one of them has developed an interest in you.”

Stopping abruptly, her eyes scanned me from head to toe. “Though I can’t imagine what the attraction is,” she added.

I self-consciously glanced down at my oversized jeans and T-shirt. If Neon Girl noticed how drab my clothing was, I seriously needed to consider getting a new wardrobe.

Seeing how I had no intention of acknowledging her critique of my appearance, I ignored her and asked, “What makes you so sure they have an interest in me?”

“They’ve been watching you. That’s why I’ve been following you, which by the way, should have been one of the first questions you asked me when we met. You would think that you’d want to know why a vampire was following you.”

Deciding to play along for the time being, I prodded for more information. “How do you know that the one following me is one of these first vampires?”

Shadow opened her mouth to say something, but then clamped it shut again. Still waiting for an answer, I said nothing.

“You’re not ready to hear about that yet, considering you are having a hard enough time swallowing what I’ve already told you.”

“I guess you must not need my help that bad.” I shrugged.

Brushing by me, she twisted the lock open on my door. “You’ll help me. If you don’t … you might never see him again.” Shadow tossed the words over her shoulder before disappearing into the night. At least she had enough manners to shut the door behind her.

Though I was doing my best not to admit it to myself, the thought of never seeing him again made my insides churn. Of course, when I envisioned another run in with my rescuer, it also had a similar effect on my stomach. 

After much thought on the subject, I have come to the conclusion that once two souls become linked, nothing can ever change that. Not time, distance or even death. No matter how long those two souls are parted, they will always be able to recognize each other on a spiritual level when they come across each other again.

That is the truth behind the mystery of love at first sight. At least that’s what I would come to understand later, but at the time, I just thought my hormones were going into overdrive. Not only couldn’t I keep him out of my head while I was awake, but I couldn’t keep him out of my dreams either.