Birth of the Vampire (The Vanderlind Realm) (2 page)

Chapter 3

Haley

“I love you, Haley,” he whispered.

I froze, my heart hammering in my chest. I couldn’t even express how long I’d waited to hear someone say those exact words. “You do?” I asked, not sure if I should raise my defenses or lower them.

“Of course, I do,” Tommy said, kissing my collar bone. “Can’t you tell?” He moved his body tighter against mine, and I could feel the swelling in his Levis. We were in the back of his mother’s Mercury Sable, so there wasn’t a lot of room. He was crushing me a little bit, but I didn’t say anything. I was too focused on his words.

Tommy Sherman wasn’t the sharpest knife in the drawer. There was a good chance he didn’t know the difference between love and lust. Actually, I was starting to think that most teenage boys didn’t know the difference. But I so desperately wanted someone to care about me—I mean to genuinely care about me—and Tommy was the closest I’d come in a long time.

“So are we going to start telling people we’re together?” I asked, hating the fact that there was a hint of pleading in my voice. Tommy was on the football team. He was tall and good looking and popular. Being his girlfriend would open up a whole new world to me. Tommy would be my access point to acceptance, friendship, and popularity.

“But we aren’t together,” Tommy said, kneading the flesh of my left breast through my sweater. “Not really.”

I squinted at him through the shadows. Was he saying what I thought he was saying? I couldn’t tell for sure. “What do you mean?” I asked. We’d been making out in various dark corners for the last month. He’d had his hands all over every inch of my body. He’d just told me he loved me. Wasn’t that us being together?

“I mean, if we’re going to start telling people we’re together, then I need us to really be together,” he said.

“Oh.” He was saying what I thought he was saying.

“Or don’t you want to?” He pulled away from me a little.

There was a portion of my brain that told me,
This isn’t right. He shouldn’t be pressuring you like this
. But my heart, my hormones, and my lips all said, “Of course, I want to.”

Tommy grinned and went to unfasten the top of his jeans.

“But, Tommy,” I said, putting my hand on his arm to slow him down. “I need to know that you really love me and that we’re going to be together. I mean ... this isn’t just about you getting laid. Is it?”

Tommy kissed me hard as he wiggled out of his jeans. “Of course not. Don’t be stupid,” he said. “I love you. Okay? Now take off your pants.”

A few minutes later, it was over. My virginity had vanished into the night. Tommy’s rhythmic humping had become more spastic. He’d let out a long grunt and then rolled off me. “Don’t get any blood on the seats,” he said quickly, shoving at my thighs a little.

Sex wasn’t exactly what I had been expecting. I knew that my first time there would be pain, but I had thought there would be a lot more pleasure involved as well. The pain part had been a brief flash as I felt something tear inside of me. But after that, it was just awkward as Tommy jerked and bobbed. I had insisted that Tommy use a condom, so the whole thing really felt like he was just ramming at me with something firm and covered in a plastic bag. When it was over, I was disappointed, but at least I had someone who loved me. I had a boyfriend. My life was going to get better.

Tommy yanked up his pants and then pulled out his cell phone. He immediately started texting.

“Are you telling people about this?” I exclaimed, suddenly alarmed.

“No,” he said, tipping the screen so I couldn’t see what he was writing. “I just told some of the guys I was going to meet them later.” He glanced up at me. “You need to get home. Right?”

I suddenly felt like I was going to cry. I’d lost my virginity, and the guy—who had just been telling me he loved me—was now trying to ditch me so he could go meet his jock friends. I had the very distinct impression that I had just been used.

“Hey, now,” Tommy said, lowering his phone and putting his arm around me. “What’s going on? You’re not crying, are you?”

I sniffed and shook my head. “No,” I told him, but my voice sounded watery.

“Don’t be like that,” he said, his voice soft and tender. “I hate it when you cry.”

“Then why are you trying to ditch me?” I wanted to know.

“I’m not trying to ditch you,” he said, gathering me in his arms and pulling me close. “It’s just, I know you usually have to go home early, and I didn’t want to leave my friends standing around.”

“Are you telling me the truth?” I asked. His change of attitude was so abrupt that it left me suspicious.

“Of course, I’m telling you the truth,” he insisted. “Haley, I just told you that I loved you. Isn’t that enough? What else do you want from me? You’re not going to start coming after my blood next. Are you?”

“No,” I said with a small laugh, wishing that snot wasn’t dripping from my nose. “So we’re together now?” I wanted to know.

“Of course, we’re together,” he said, brushing the hair out of my eyes. “I’m not going to just bang some chick and then kick her to the curb. I’m not like that.”

“Okay, good.” I felt better. Tommy really did care about me. “I guess I was just having a rush of hormones.”

Tommy shook his head. “I’m glad I’m not a chick.”

When we kissed good night, Tommy whispered, “I’m really glad we did this.”

“Me too,” was my reply, but I wasn’t being one hundred percent honest. I felt kind of weird about not being a virgin anymore. But as long as Tommy loved me, then I guessed it was okay. “I love you,” I said in a small voice, suddenly feeling acutely shy. Those were three words I’d never said out loud before.

“Yeah, okay,” Tommy said. He was looking at his phone again. “I’ve got to go. I’ll talk to you later.”

I felt a little sick to my stomach as I crossed the street and headed into the house. A thin dusting of snow had fallen, and it made a crunching sound beneath my feet.

“You’re home early,” Uncle Kevin said. He was still on the couch, but I could see the pint was almost empty beside him on the end table.

“I didn’t want you to worry,” I lied.

“Want to watch the game?” Kevin asked, shifting over slightly as if he was willing to make room for me.

“No, thanks,” I said as pleasantly as I could, but that was definitely something I did not want to do. “I’ve got some reading to do for school, and then I thought I’d go to bed. I’m kind of tired.”

“Suit yourself,” he said, his words quickly followed by a belch.

Once in my room, I lay down on the bed and thought about what Tommy and I had just done. I was expecting to feel all squishy and warm, but instead I felt oddly detached. It was almost like it had happened to somebody else, and I was just a spectator.

I could still smell the cologne that Tommy drenched himself with on my sweater. I wanted it to trigger a scent memory where I could revel in thoughts of our flesh pressing together in a passionate embrace. But instead, it kind of made me a little nauseated. I sat up, deciding to take a shower.

Showering was the right decision because once I had undressed, I realized there was a fair amount of blood on my thighs. I had a flash of embarrassment as I thought about the seats in Mrs. Sherman’s car. Were they stained? That would definitely be pretty gross, but Tommy could probably lie and say I cut my hand or something. I wondered if I should text him with an excuse in case he couldn’t think of one but then decided it was too embarrassing.

Shortly after that, I was ready to crawl into bed. But before I did, I took a precaution that a fellow foster child taught me when I was barely ten and we ended up in a house together for a few months. The wife was nice, but the husband could be a little weird. He’d be fine for a while and then get out of sorts. He’d mope around the house for a few days until he would decide that a good bender was the only way to get out of his funk. Tanya and I were sharing a queen-sized bed. Every night, she’d lift each corner of the bed and I would stick a t-shirt or socks or something under the legs. That way, when we shifted the bed twelve inches to the right to block the door, there wasn’t a dragging sound on the floor to give us away. The next morning, we would wake up early and do the whole thing over again in reverse.

It might have sounded like we were being paranoid, but on bender nights, we’d hear our foster father bumping into our door in the middle of the night. He’d curse and then sometimes give the door a good kick, but he usually gave up pretty quickly. No one would say a thing the next morning, and a day or two later, he would sober up and go back to work. He never tried to get into our room when he wasn’t drinking, but we put the bed against the door every night just in case.

When we were removed from that foster home, Tanya and I tried to stay together. She was the closest thing I’d ever had to a sister, and I’d grown attached to her. A social worker did her best, but no one was willing to take both of us. Then my mom decided to get sane again for a little bit, so I had to go back to her. I asked the social worker if maybe Tanya could come live with us, but she said, “I’m afraid your mother wouldn’t qualify to be a foster parent.” If that was the case, I found it curious that I was allowed to go back with her as my real parent.

Tanya and I eventually lost contact as we were shuffled about. I didn’t remember her last name, so there was no way I could even search for her online. But I always remembered the lessons that she taught me. I made it my habit to shove my bed against the door no matter where I slept. It was easier to do by myself at Kevin’s because I slept on a twin.

As I lay in bed trying to fall asleep, I tried to picture what my life was going to be like as Tommy’s girlfriend. I knew there was a Christmas Eve party at Blossom Coster’s house the next night, and I knew the entire football team was invited, so I assumed that meant we were going to go. A party with the popular kids sounded pretty exciting to my attention-starved heart. And I wouldn’t be an outsider crashing the party or a guest that was invited because somebody’s mother felt sorry for me. I would be there as Tommy Sherman’s girlfriend. I would be part of the in crowd.

I don’t know when I drifted off, but I was deep in dreamland when something jolted me from my sleep. Startled, my body stiffened, and I lay tense in my bed trying to figure out what was going on. I wanted to reach for my phone to figure out the time, but I also didn’t want to move until I knew what was going on. My room was more of a large closet than an actual bedroom. It didn’t have any windows, so half the time when I woke up, I didn’t know if it was day or night. My heart was beating rapidly in my chest, but I didn’t know why. Did something just happen? What had woken me?

Then I heard a faint thud and felt a slight bumping against my bed. My body grew even more tense. There was no lock on my door, and my Uncle Kevin was making a sneaky attempt to enter my room. I didn’t know if he was in an angry mood and looking for someone to punch or if he had other intentions that had a lecherous leaning. Either way, I was profoundly grateful that all those years ago I’d listened to Tanya.

Chapter 4

Dorian

I haven’t spent much time at the Vanderlind Castle since Grandfather had it shipped to America stone by stone from where it was originally constructed in the fifteenth century outside Budapest. The castle just doesn’t feel the same in the New World. I understood his reasoning. At the time, Hitler had started making some noise in Europe. Grandfather saw where it was headed—every psychopath knows his own. Even so, the castle has never felt really like home to me since it was rebuilt in Ohio. I still had no idea why Grandfather picked the spot. Maybe he somehow thought a giant medieval castle would look less conspicuous in a small town. That sounded about like his reasoning. After all, he was the one who decided turning his entire family into the undead was a good idea. I wished I could have asked him about it, but the old bastard had been missing for quite a few decades now, so it was safe to assume that he was gone for good.