Birth of the Vampire (The Vanderlind Realm) (16 page)

Kevin let out a surprised squeal of pain. He tried to slam me in the head with his elbow, but I saw the blow coming, so while still holding the steak, I blocked him with my forearm. I fought back the urge to rip out Kevin’s throat with my bare teeth. And even though that sounded like an insane thing to do, for one split second I really felt like I could do it.

But that would have been demented. I didn’t love Kevin, but he was a human, and we were all supposed to value human life. Still, I was sick of him bullying me all the time. So I twisted his finger back even more. “Listen, Uncle Kevin,” I said as he crumpled to his knees. “You’re a nasty drunken bully, and I’m sick of it. Now you’re going to stop harassing me. You’re going to leave me alone. And I’ll stay here as long as I want. Got it?”

“Yes,” Kevin yelped as I gave his finger an extra twist.

I released him and headed up to my room with the raw steak still in my hand. I began ripping off giant mouths full, chewing it until all the juice was gone, and then spitting out the rest on the floor. I knew I had probably broken Kevin’s finger. It wasn’t a nice thing to do. But in comparison to what I had wanted to do to my darling uncle, it wasn’t that bad.

Lying on my bed fully dressed, I wanted to just close my eyes and sleep, but I felt wide awake. In fact, I felt more awake than I had ever been in my life. And I was starving. I must have been getting my period soon because I was really craving red meat. I usually craved chocolate, but I did tend to get a little anemic, so I probably just needed another steak.

There weren’t a lot of twenty-four-hour shopping options in Tiburon. There was a Shell station near the highway that stayed open all night, but the closest thing to a steak they sold was prepackaged lunch meat.

There was an all-night grocery store two towns over, but I didn’t have a car. I thought about the pickup truck that I’d ditched just a few blocks away. There didn’t seem to be any reason not to use it for a quick run to the store. I would put it back in less than twenty minutes. I thought about changing my sweater before heading out. But then I thought, why? The blood didn’t bother me, and I sincerely doubted I was going to run into anyone I knew.

I expected to run into Uncle Kevin as I headed back down the stairs. I thought he might be pulling an all-nighter of binge drinking and watching TV to celebrate the holiday. But instead, he was in his room with the door shut. That was a good thing. I wasn’t in the mood to deal with any more of his nonsense. I did notice on my way through the kitchen that all the ice trays were empty and in the sink. I wondered if he was using them to ice down his hand. I felt a little guilty for hurting him. Then I remembered that two nights after I got dumped at his place he had given me a fat lip for asking him a question during some crucial play of some stupid football game. Like they weren’t going to show it a hundred more times in instant replay. The memory made me feel less guilty.

Even though I couldn’t wait to get to the store, I took a minute to refill the trays and put them back in the freezer. Uncle Kevin was probably going to wake up in a lot of pain, and he’d want more ice.

I stepped outside and inhaled sharply. I had never realized how beautiful Tiburon was at night. Maybe there was a full moon or something, but the whole town seemed to be sprinkled with phosphorescence, giving it a faint, unearthly glow. Or maybe it was that blow to my head messing with my vision again. Either way, I felt like Tiburon was more alive than I’d ever realized. I could smell the pine trees from the front rooms of people’s houses, the faint sweetness of sugar cookies, the lingering hints of roasted meats from Christmas dinner. My stomach growled quite audibly. Part of me wanted to climb up the side of a neighbor’s house using an exposed chimney or handy trellis to watch the different families as they slumbered in their beds.

Breaking myself out of such a creepy fantasy, I started walking briskly toward the pickup truck. But the faster I walked, the more I wanted to walk. And the faster I wanted to go. I felt strong and healthy, like I could take on the world. I started running as fast as my legs could carry me. But I wasn’t breathing hard or struggling with a pinch in my side like I sometimes did in gym class. I felt like I could run forever.

The houses and buildings went gliding past me. Before I knew it, I was in the middle of town, speeding past the diner. There were barely any cars on the road, and all the streetlights were flashing. I noticed a couple in a blue sedan staring at me as I sprinted past, their mouths hanging open. I wondered if somehow smacking into that tree had turned me into a superhero.

Chapter 24

Haley

Before I even knew it, I was in the parking lot of the 24/7 grocery store. I had just run a couple of miles, and I wasn’t even winded. In fact, I felt great. I wondered how far I had run. And how fast I had done it. And was there a way I could leverage my newfound speed to earn some money? Did people get any kind of prize money for winning a marathon? It was something to think about.

The Stop-n-Save was mostly empty. There was only one cashier leaning against her register picking at her nails. There was a bag boy too, but I was willing to bet that was more for security than for any need for him to actually load groceries into bags.

I walked directly to the meats and immediately grabbed a roast wrapped in cellophane. I couldn’t stand it any longer. Running across two towns had really heightened my appetite. I ripped through the plastic wrapper with my teeth and began sucking at the raw meat. It tasted so good.

“You’re going to have to pay for that,” I heard somebody say.

I looked up to see the bag boy. He was somewhere in his late twenties with some very luxurious sideburns and a small soul patch, so more like a bag man. “Okay,” I told him, begrudging the few seconds it took to lift my lips from the meat to give a reply.

With my free hand, I gathered up more roasts and a few steaks. I’d forgotten to get a cart on the way in. I schlepped them over to checkout and dumped them on the conveyor belt, still doing my best to drain the slab I was pressing urgently to my mouth. The cashier looked at me like I had lost my mind, but I didn’t care. After she’d slid all the meat on the conveyer belt across the scanner, I extended the roast I had in my hand so she could scan it.

“You should just keep that one,” she said as if she was afraid to get too close to me. “It’s on me.”

“Thanks,” I mumbled as I slid my bank card through the machine and signed my name.

“Have a good night,” the bag man said to me as he handed me my purchases. “Do you need any help getting this to your car?”

I looked up at him a little surprised. No one had ever offered to help me get anything to my car. Even when it was obvious I could use a little help. “No, thanks,” I told him, flashing him a suspicious look.

What the hell did he want? Or maybe he was just bored on a slow night. Not that many people seemed to want groceries in the middle of the night on a holiday.

I chucked the first lump of meat in the garbage on my way out the door. It had gone from a fresh red to a pale gray with my insane need to ingest all its juice. “What a freak,” I heard the cashier whisper as the automatic door swung open.

“A hot freak,” the bag man told her.

“She just sucked all the blood out of that roast,” the female said in reply.

“Yeah.” He did not sound at all grossed out by my behavior. “Imagine what else she could suck.”

“Don’t be such a perv,” the cashier told him.

As soon as I was outside, I cut around to the back of the building. I was too hungry to wait until I got home. I needed more meat. I had a headache that wouldn't quit. There were dumpsters behind the building, and it didn’t smell great, but I didn’t care. Ripping the wrapper off a T-bone steak, I shoved the meat in my mouth and let the juices flow over my tongue. I usually wasn’t that big of a meat eater, but I just couldn’t stop myself. I was craving flesh. Thoughts of going back into the store and draining the cashier of her life force filled my brain.
Not good
, I told myself, shaking my head vigorously to chase away the visions. I rubbed my eyes and tried to focus on the steak.

“Well, hello,” a voice called out to me. “What are you doing back here?”

I saw that the bag boy had sought me out behind the building. “Eating,” I said with a snarl. “Why are you here?”

“I’m on my break,” he said, pulling out a cigarette as he sauntered over to me. “I couldn’t help but notice you’re a little hungry.” He gestured toward the meat. “Do you want a plate or something to go with that?”

I couldn’t believe the guy was just standing there looking at me. I could see him perfectly, even before he lit up his smoke. I could hear his heart beating in his chest and feel the blood pumping through his veins. He wanted something from me. To kiss me. To push me up against the side of the building and have sex with me.

And I wanted something from him, too. It was a feeling I’d never had before. I wanted to consume him. Not sexually, but literally. I wanted to tear into his flesh and drink my fill. All sorts of insane thoughts started filling my brain. I didn’t want to hurt anyone, but I was just so hungry. And there was this guy just standing there looking so delicious. I walked right up close to him, took the cigarette out of his hands, and tossed it on the ground.

“Now that you bring it up, there is something I want,” I told him.

“What?” he asked, sounding both excited and a little nervous. I don’t think he expected his little ploy to work.

“You know,” I said, pushing him so his back was up against the wall.

“Are you serious?” he asked, sounding much younger than he had a few seconds ago. It was like his fourteen-year-old self had made his voice heard from the past for just a second.

Once I had him pressed against the wall, we started kissing. And not little tentative kisses like strangers who have just met. I was too hungry for any of that. We were really going at it.

“I can’t believe how hot you are,” he whispered as I started unbuttoning the front of his shirt. I wanted access to his flesh. “I’m sure you hear that all the time.”

“Not really,” I told him with a shrug. In fact, no one had ever told me I was hot. Not even Tommy. But somehow, it didn’t matter anymore. I started kissing his neck.

“Oh, yeah,” my anonymous temporary boyfriend said. “Yeah, go lower.” He put his hand on top of my head and tried to shove me down more toward his zipper region.

“Forget it,” I said, gruffly shoving his hand away. I hated when guys pulled that kind of physically aggressive crap. Besides, it was his delicious throat that had caught my attention, not whatever nonsense he kept between his legs.

“Come on,” he said, putting his hand on my head and pushing down again, this time much more forcefully. “You know you want it.”

I guess it was no surprise that the grown man sniffing around behind a grocery store to make out with a high school girl wasn’t a gentleman. I was sick of guys not being gentlemen. I thrust him hard against the wall, yanked his head to one side, and then plunged my teeth into his neck. He struggled and started to scream, but I didn’t care. The red ambrosia flowing from his neck was so delicious. It was like nothing I’d ever tasted before. I gulped it down like a starving man stumbling across a buffet.

Suddenly, I was flung to the side with such force that my feet were lifted off the ground, and I crashed into one of those short yellow posts that were supposed to stop people from parking where the grocery store didn’t want them parking. I leapt to my feet, ready to tear to pieces whoever was keeping me from the bag boy’s blood.