Page 7 of Vampires Don't Give Hickeys
Chapter Three
My dreams were wildthat night, blazing hot with naked flesh, sweat, and moans. It wasn’t just Eddie starring in them, either, but all three vampires, one right after the other. I woke panting with a throb between my legs ten minutes after my alarm was supposed to go off. Too late to do anything about it myself.
But, like the badass I so badly needed to be, I’d already emailed my finished economics paper and whisked through the door of The Bean Dream right on time. Sylvia, my boss, glanced up from the customer on the other side of the counter and smiled. I waved as I skirted around to the back office to clock in.
Humans didn’t know about the existence of vampires. That is, until they were bitten and then became one. If a human happened to see a vampire, they would forget about the vamp as soon as they looked away. That lack of knowledge also applied to me, the slayer, except humans didn’t forget about me when they looked away. Word was still out on whether that was a good or bad thing. I sometimes wanted to be forgotten about, by vampires, demons, devils, and humans, so I could just fade into the background and exist on my own terms.
No can do if you happened to be me.
My split-shift day went quickly, the customers’ orders keeping me busy between thoughts of the devil’s proposal, this darkness coming for me, and the three mystery vamps. With my stinky red apron folded over my arm so I could take it home and wash it, I walked outside, the crisp evening air filling my lungs. It tasted like fall and apple cider and reminded me of pumpkin carving with Mom.
My heart pinched at the memory. Someday, I would be able to think about her without it hurting so much, but today was not that day.
A sound like TV static hesitated my steps on the sidewalk. The street was practically empty since Podunk City liked to nestle down right at dusk. The first glimmers of starlight shone along a ribbon of cobalt blue, but it wasn’t quite dark enough for the vamps to come out and play.
I jaywalked across the street to the empty lot where my car was parked, a 1999 burgundy Pontiac Phoenix, also known as my hoopty. Before I made it to the curb, the static sounded again, louder, and sharp enough to prickle through my skin to my bones. I stopped and looked around, my senses tingling.
Was the demon fucking with me? Because it couldn’t be a vamp. Not yet. Which meant the stakes in the trunk of my hoopty would be worthless against the demon once again. Yet standing around like a dumbass wasn’t going to solve anything either. I leaped up on the curb, and my brisk steps carried me across the parking lot.
“Lovely...”
I stopped at the sound of the voice that came from everywhere and nowhere at once. It sounded as if someone had swallowed broken glass, and ancient. Not like the demon’s smooth-as-silk voice. Not at all.
“Why, thank you,” I said, loud enough for the words to roll on the breeze. “Care to show yourself?”
Across the street, the lights inside The Bean Dream went dark, and Sylvia stepped out, trying to juggle her keys, jacket, and purse. Aside from her, nothing else moved along the street.
“Okay, then,” I muttered, and crossed toward my hoopty.
No time to waste listening to weird, disembodied voices. I had a marriage proposal to thwart and a vamp nest to visit.
* * *
DESPITE MY HOOPTY,I always chose to walk to the graveyard at night. Brand new vampires tended to flock there, to what should’ve been their final resting place. Since they were young and inexperienced, they were usually easy pickings. The older ones knew not to cross paths with the slayer except, of course, the three who lived next door. While I patrolled, I sniffed myself, trying to smell what had lured them to me. Did all vampires think I smelled like desire and sunshine, or just the ones I wanted to lick?
After a few uneventful hours of patrolling, it was Jacek who answered the door of their house wearing his heart-stopping grin. He seemed to have forgotten his shirt, which did everyone with eyeballs a favor, really. The guy was ripped. His stacks of lean muscle moved like water as he crossed his arms and leaned against the doorframe.
“You came back.” The moonlight sparked in his amber eyes and glinted off his short dark hair.
A blush heated my cheeks, which made me glad it was night, but he could probably hear the blood crashing underneath my skin. “I did.”
“Did you find anything?”
It took me a second to figure out he was referring to the stack of books, not his chest. It was an honest mistake given that I couldn’t tear my gaze away from the smooth expanse of skin.
“There’s a lot about how to kill demons, but like Eddie said last night, the devil will just send more,” I said. “I didn’t find anything concrete about how to make the devil propose to someone else.”
“That’s a shame.” Jacek shoved away from the doorframe and stood up tall. “Well, want to come in and see what else, uh, strikes your fancy? Is that a term people still use?”
I chuckled. “Not for people with heartbeats.”
He held the door open with a wide smile. “Well, I’m out of luck.”
“I guess so,” I said, sliding past him. For a dead guy, he could sure tremble the air around him enough to make it hard to breathe.
