Page 54 of Prince with a Chance of Darkness

Emotions and feelings are for losers and quitters. Murrays are neither.

I shivered as her voice rang through my head. For so long I’d bought into her nonsense. I’d believed in her teachings, and I’d wanted to be just like her. That was before I knew she was a psychopath.

“All around the world… The vampire chased the slayer… The slayer thought ‘twas all in fun…”

I sat up fast, looking around, trying to see through the wall of darkness that was around us, in an attempt to see the source of the creepy feminine voice.

The song it sang was a play on a childhood nursery rhyme, yet the lyrics were anything but playful. Not that the original meaning of the song was sunshine and roses or anything. The person singing it sounded demented and oddly familiar.

Whoever it was sounded close.

They giggled, and a shiver raced up my spine.

I nudged Drac (because I flat out refused to even consider calling him Dracula), wanting him to wake and drop the darkness he’d been creating.

My father had mentioned once that darkness was something only the most powerful of vampires could create. I hadn’t realized he meant they could form darkness into something like a wall or dome in our case, or that they could hold that form even while they were asleep.

He didn't budge.

I tried again.

Still, he didn’t wake.

“It’s raining… It’s pouring… The vampire should be snoring…”

Oh, good. Creepy Chick was moving onto a new rhyme.

I reached for my jeans, which were close, but couldn’t find my panties. Giving up, I slid my jeans on and yanked my T-shirt over my head next, skipping my bra. I hurried into my boots and laced then, trying to wake Drac as I did. Still, he didn’t move.

Worry gnawed at my gut. I wasn’t a vampire. I just had some of their traits, and I knew how good my hearing was. If he was powerful enough to create darkness, he had stellar hearing, to the point he could probably hear a butterfly fart.

Creepy Chick kept singing and giggling, only making her sound creepier. I wasn’t even aware that was possible.

I grabbed for Drac’s pants and laid them over his groin, wanting to shield him from her view if she could see through the wall of darkness.

“Little slayer, little slayer, let me come in,” the woman sang.

Not by the hair of my…I stopped myself from saying it, despite the line running through my head.

I shook Drac. “Wake up!”

The man didn’t budge.

Creepy Chick repeated the screwed-up nursery rhyme about the vampire who should be snoring. Why was she back on that?

It hit me and I gasped, leaning over Drac fast, checking for breathing. There was none. I was about to start CPR on a guy who started out dead when she chimed in again.

“He’s fine,” she said in a sing-song voice that I was positive I’d heard before, I just couldn’t remember where. “But Astria and the others won’t be for long.”

Astria?

What in the hell did my roommates have to do with this?

“If you even think of hurting my friends, I’ll hunt you down and rip your heart out!”

Creepy Chick giggled again. “I’m not the one who is a threat to them. Hurry. You’ll be too late if you don’t.”

My gaze flickered to Drac and I went to start CPR.

---