They Come by Night (27 page)

“No kidding.” Maybe he wasn’t pining for Sheila as much as I’d thought. “So, what’s her name?”

“Trish. It’s actually Judith, but….”

“Nice. Have you asked her out yet?”

“How can I?”

“Open your mouth and—”

“No. I mean after upchucking like that.”

“Give it a shot.”

“You think it’s worth it?”

“Sure.”

“I’ll—” The doorbell rang, and he jumped, and then started laughing. “Dude!
The Phantom
?”

“You know I love that music.”

“The music of the night?” He snickered.

“Very funny.” But I was nervous—Adam would just come in—and I had a strong suspicion it was another vampyr. “Eat your ice cream. I’ll be right back.”

“Take your time.” He was looking into my carton of ice cream.

I left the room, my stomach trying to tie itself into knots. I needed to feed a vampyr, but how could I do that with my friend in the house with us?

Mina was on her feet, bristling. She tried to keep me from going to the door.

“You know I have to answer it, pup.” I picked her up, more to have something to hold than to keep her from blocking my way.

I flipped on the porch light and looked through the peephole. Sure enough, a vampyr stood there, this time another female vampyr.

This was my destiny, I reminded myself. I opened the door.

The woman—girl, really; as I looked closer, I realized she couldn’t be more than sixteen—was beautiful, with long, tousled blonde hair that spilled over her shoulders and down her back and very blue eyes that tilted up at the corners. She wore a white miniskirt that barely covered the essentials, fuzzy white leg warmers, and a jacket I
hoped
was made of faux fur, although I wouldn’t have bet on it. A white top left her midriff bare. She was every teenage boy’s wet dream.

Not mine, of course, since all my wet dreams centered around one very male vampyr, but….

“Good evening, Tyrell Small.”

“G-good evening, miss.”

“‘Miss’?” she trilled. “Oh, you’re so sweet! I haven’t been called ‘miss’ in ages! Please, call me Rhiannon.” Her voice was warm, and her smile was tempting. “Aren’t you going to invite me in?”

“Of course. But… I have a friend visiting.”

“Another sabor? Splendid!”

“No. He’s a normal.”

“Even better!” She fluttered her lashes. “We can have a threesome.”

“You know I can’t have sex with you!”

“Oh, no, nothing like that. I can straddle his lap, you can kneel before me, and while he’s fucking me, I can drink from you.”

Kneel before her? Adam never made me kneel. Even the rege hadn’t.

“Your friend will love it!” She sighed voluptuously and ran her hands up to cup her breasts. “I haven’t had sex with a normal in at least a decade!” She cast a cautious glance at my dog. “Lock that beast away and invite me in.”

Mina suddenly felt so heavy in my arms I was afraid I was going to drop her. She’d been growling all the while, but now her growls were deeper, more threatening, and she struggled as if wanting to get at the vampyr.

I took a step back from the door.

“Invite me in!” the vampyr cajoled again.

“Hey, Small! You coming anytime soon? That Cherry Garcia is calling my name!” Jimmy must have finished his Chunky Monkey. He’d be here any second—my house was too small for it to take him any longer than that to get from the dining room to the front foyer. Thank God the distance between the two made it impossible for him to see around the half wall.

“You can have it.”

“Dude….”

“I’m done, Jimmy. I’d just have to chuck it out.”

“Okay, don’t have to tell me twice!”

I hadn’t taken my eyes from the vampyr. She didn’t strike me as beautiful anymore. Her eyes were red, and her smile, allowing me to see her fangs, was hungry. I took another step back.

“Go away,” I ordered, keeping my voice low. “I will not invite you into my home! You are not welcome here!”

I shut the door and threw the bolt. The vampyr shrieked, and then she shrieked again.

“The fuck, man?” Jimmy abruptly appeared beside me, and I jumped. “What was that?”

“What was what?” My heart was pounding so hard it actually hurt. Mina had quieted, and when I put her down, she gave the door a final, disdainful woof and then seemed to lose all interest in it and what was on the other side.

“That scream!”

“That… that was just the wind in the tree branches.”

“You’re shitting me.”

“No-uh….” I struggled to keep my voice from shaking. “…nope.” Casual, Small. Unconcerned. “That’s all it was.”

“Okay.” He frowned. “Who was that, Ty?”

“Who?”

“At the door?”

“Uh… Jehovah’s Witness.”

“At this time of night?”

“Go figure, right?” I laughed weakly. “Listen, it’s getting late. Why don’t you stay the night?” I knew the vampyr was outside somewhere, waiting, and if she couldn’t have me, she’d have him, and I wasn’t sure if he’d survive her attack. “You know how easy it is for you to lose your way. You got lost the last time, and that was in broad daylight. At night… and the streetlights here suck….”

“Thanks for the invite.” He looked at me like my choo-choo had jumped the tracks. “But I have to get home.”

“The love seat opens into a comfortable bed. I know it’s comfortable—I slept on it when my dad came for Thanksgiving. You can call your parents and tell them you’re staying.” I was babbling, and he was going to call me on it any second.

“Ty, I’m not kidding. I’ve got class tomorrow morning, and my mom needs her van back. I have to—”

The sound of glass breaking, metal whining, and heavy pounding interrupted him.

I moved aside the curtains in the living room. “Oh shit.” Something was beating the hell out of the minivan.

“What the fuck?” Jimmy went toward the front door.

“No!” I blocked his way. Mina sat there looking from one to the other of us.

“Ty, are you out of your mind? Get the fuck out of my way!”

“No!”

“Get out of my way, Small.” Jimmy’s voice had gone flat.

What scared me even more was the blank look in his eyes.

Mina was abruptly on her feet and growling. But she was growling at Jimmy.

“Jimmy, you’re my best friend, and I love you like a brother, but if you take one more step toward the door, I’m going to clock you!”

He laughed, and I shivered. My friend never laughed like that. Something was wrong with him.

“Get out of my way,” he repeated, “or I will go through you.”

“No!” I couldn’t let him open the door. This was my house and not his, and I didn’t know if he could invite the vampyr in. Either way, I wasn’t going to let him go out into the night, not with what was out there.

He bunched his fist, but before I realized what he was going to do, he hit me. My feet flew out from under me and I landed hard on the floor, my head whipping back to crack against the door.

“Jesus, Jimmy!” I cupped my eye. It was wet, and for a minute I was afraid I was bleeding, but it was just tears.

He took a step toward me, that scary look still in his eyes, and when Mina launched herself at him, I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

To my surprise, Jimmy shied away from her with a cry, tripped over his own feet and landed on his back, and I took that opportunity to fumble for my cell phone and press one on the speed dial.

“Please be there,” I begged. “Please….” Don’t be with another sabor. “…pick up!”

“Tyrell! What’s wrong?”

“Adam!” I almost gasped in relief. “Please come to me! I need you—” The line went dead, and I could have wept. “—here!”

Jimmy lay on the floor, Mina standing on him, her fur ruffled, a paw on his chin and deep growls spilling from her.

Through it all came the sounds of Jimmy’s mom’s van being destroyed.

It felt like forever, but it couldn’t have been.

All of a sudden the night became silent. Seconds dragged past. The slow, heavy beat of my heart hurt my chest; when I tried to swallow, I had no spit.

Then there were footfalls across my porch, and I couldn’t breathe. I stared at the door, more scared than ever before in my life as I watched the doorknob turn….

It stopped, and there was a subdued knock.

“Go….” I cleared my throat. “Go away! You’re not welcome here!”

“Tyrell.”

“Adam!” I staggered to my feet, unlocked the door, and yanked it open. “Oh, thank God you’re here!” He hesitated on the doorstep, and I grabbed him and pulled him in.

“Ty, what’s—Are you
hugging
that guy?”

I looked over my shoulder to see Jimmy sitting up. Mina was next to him, her head up, tail wagging, staring intently at Adam.

“Are you all right?” I let Adam go and knelt beside my friend.

“Of course I’m all right. Why wouldn’t I be? Except for the mother of all headaches.” He rubbed the back of his head and glanced around. “What am I doing on the floor? Ty, I’ve got to get home.”

“We’ll take you home,” Adam said.

“We will?” How? I’d spotted Jimmy’s van over his shoulder, and it was trashed.

“It’s a long ride, James. May I suggest you visit the bathroom before we leave?”

“Yeah, that sounds like a good idea. Ty, you got aspirin in there?”

“Uh… there’s Tylenol in the medicine chest.”

“Good enough.” He got to his feet, swayed for a moment, then walked out of the room, gently probing the back of his head.

“Adam?”

“Tell me quickly what happened here.” He touched my face gently, and I couldn’t help flinching. My eye hurt like a son of a gun. “My poor sabor.”

“I’m okay. A vampyr came. I wouldn’t let her in. She wasn’t happy about that.”

“I can imagine. Did she strike you?”

“No.” My eye felt as if it was swelling shut, and I poked it with cautious fingers. “Jimmy did, and that was freaking weird!”

“Oh?” His voice was like ice, and I shivered. “He dared to touch you?”

“He never did anything like that before. I don’t think he knew what was happening.”

“That is not an acceptable excuse.”

“Will you listen to me?” I grabbed the front of his jacket and shook him. Or tried to. Of course he didn’t budge. “That isn’t an excuse. Jimmy looked totally out of it. All he wanted to do was get to the door, and when I got in the way, he….”

“I… I see.”

“So you’re not going to blame him, are you?”

“No.” He looked deflated. “This was my fault.”

“How do you figure that?”

“I knew you needed to have a friend visit, and I knew no one would be able to find your home unless they were shown the way.”

“Huh?”

“I’ll explain another time. I… went into his mind and planted the image of him talking to a helpful stranger who told him how to get here.”

“Okay. So how is it your fault Jimmy hit me?”

“By doing that, I opened the way for another, less powerful vampyr to influence him and thereby get to you.”

“So fix it. Go back in there and put up a barrier. You can do that, can’t you?”

“Yes, of course I can.”

“Okay, then, there you have it. And she didn’t get to me.”

“Only because I got here in time.”

“My hero.” I batted my eye at him—the other one was swollen shut by this time.

“Not amusing, Tyrell.”

“No, I guess not.” And I supposed he didn’t want to hear all was well that ended well. “I guess she did a number on Jimmy’s van. Oh my God, what am I going to tell him?”

“A tree branch fell on it.”

“But there’s no tree there.”

“Your friend will remember a tree being there.”

“You’re going to mess with his mind?” Somehow that was different from him putting a barrier in place to protect my friend. Adam’s expression told me yes, he was. “Have you… have you ever done that with me?”

“No. As my—as a sabor, I can’t do that to you.”

I liked hearing that, and I went to him and wrapped my arms around him. “Thank you.” I turned my head and kissed his throat. Then I licked it. Oh, wow. He tasted good!

Adam gave a soft groan and shuddered, and I licked him again.

“Ty, now isn’t the time….”

“Later?” I whispered. “I need you to feed from me.”

“So, Ty. This is the creep who broke your heart?” Jimmy was back. He stood with his hands on his hips, and he looked pissed. “You’re touching him! You’re letting him touch
you
! Listen, you!” This was directed to Adam. “You better not screw around with my friend, because if you hurt him again, I’ll take you apart with my bare hands!”

“Did I hurt you, Ty?” There was fondness in Adam’s gaze.

“Of course you did!” Jimmy snarled. “He hasn’t been able to go out on a date since you broke up with him!”

I cleared my throat. “Didn’t you want to get home?”

“Yeah, but I don’t want to leave you with this bozo.”

“I’ll be fine. Have you got your jacket?”

“Yeah. Ty, who the fuck gave you a black eye?”

That startled me. He didn’t remember? Well, obviously he didn’t remember. I glanced at Adam, but he was looking inscrutable.

“Tyrell, you’d better visit the bathroom as well. As I said, it’s going to be a long drive. We’ll take your car, and then you can drive me home.”

I knew he meant this house, and I swallowed and licked my lips. My dick was getting hard; I needed him to feed from me so badly.

“Ty won’t be able to drive—”

“Yes, I will!”

“—not with his eye all swelled up like that,” Jimmy growled at Adam. Then he yelled after me, “And get some ice for your eye!”

“I’m right here,” I muttered. “You don’t have to yell!”

I was almost in the dining room, but I still heard Adam say to Jimmy, “Now, James Black. Let me tell you how things are between your friend and me.”

Mina had followed me. “Do me a favor, pup. Go back in there and make sure they don’t kill each other.”

She gave me a doggy grin, obviously uncaring blood might be spilled.

“You’re a blood-thirsty pooch!”

She woofed and trotted back into the living room.

“W
HY
’
D
I
park under that tree? Talk about bad luck!” Jimmy groaned when he saw the condition of the van. All the windows were shattered, the hood was crumpled, the passenger doors were crushed beyond belief and hung off their hinges, and the roof was caved in. Oil, transmission fluid, and gasoline puddled underneath. “What am I gonna tell my mom? She’s gonna kill me! I promised her nothing would happen to it!”