Chapter 15
A look of relief washed over Drake’s face. “Well, I’m glad they do. Saves me some major explaining.” He sighed and leaned back against the couch, sipping the cup Monty had given him. “How’d they take it?”
“Well, I think I took it the best.” Monty jerked a thumb at himself. “The other three, not so much.”
“I only had a chance to break it to Monty and Lauryn, and Monty’s right, he definitely handled it better. I thought Lauryn was going to take off screaming or collapse into a coma. But after a long conversation, she seemed to accept it. He told the other two.”
“They took it a little better than Lauryn. Although Ernie tried to argue with me a hundred ways that it wasn’t possible,” Monty said.
Drake nodded. “Like he does.”
Monty paused, eyebrows raised at Drake. “And Callie cried.”
“What?!” Drake’s eyes widened. “No! You’re lying.”
“Why is that such a big deal?” I looked back and forth at both of them.
“Callie never cries,” Monty said. “Ever.”
“Oh, she’s legendary at school for it. She never cries when she breaks up with boyfriends or gets hurt. She once played two whole basketball games on a broken foot and didn’t shed a tear. Asked her dad to take her to the hospital when the games were over and the doctors were shocked. It was snapped clean through.” Drake nodded.
“I once saw her break a finger when she hit it with a hammer while we were building the sophomore float for homecoming. Not a sniffle. She’s bad-ass,” Monty said, his voice edged with awe and admiration. “How are you feeling with all this man?”
“I don’t know.” His mouth was a firm line. “I’m glad I’m not dead. But it’s not exactly the most pleasant thing to find out when you wake up, no offense Vicky.” He patted my hand.
“At least you woke up with friends and an explanation,” I said quietly and looked at the floor.
“Aw, babe, you’re right, I’m sorry to say it like that.” He grabbed my hand and squeezed it and I tried to force a smile.
The door opened at the top of the stairs with a squeak.
“Everything cool?” Ernie’s voice floated down to us.
“Yeah, man, come on down,” Monty called up the steps.
I moved so Drake could swing his legs around and put his feet on the floor as they thudded down the stairs.
“Drake!” Lauryn shouted as she ran across the room, prepared to throw her arms around him. She halted suddenly, meeting my eyes as tears streamed down her cheeks. “Is it, I mean, is he okay?”
“I’m fine,” Drake answered and raised his arms to her. “And just because I am whatever I am now, I can still hear you just fine. In fact, I can hear better than fine.” He pulled Lauryn into a bear hug, patting her on the back.
“When I saw you lying there with that giant hole in your stomach, I just wanted to die myself. It was horrible! I’m so glad you’re okay,” she said between happy sobs.
“Oh, come on now, group hug,” Monty shouted and pulled Ernie and Callie to him and pushing them all onto the couch on top of Lauryn, Drake, and I.
“Mmm, you guys do smell good.” Drake took a deep breath. “It’s like a buffet.”
“What!” squeaked Ernie. “Get up, get up!” he shouted at Monty, trying to hoist himself off the couch.
“Calm down, man I’m just kidding. Too early for the vampire humor?” Drake lifted the corner of his mouth,
“You’re an idiot.” Callie clipped him playfully in the head as they all rose from the couch and spread back out around the room. Callie dropped into one of the armchairs with Monty sprawled at her feet. Ernie and Lauryn sat in front of the coffee table. Ernie grabbed a can of Pepsi and popped it open.
“So now what?” Callie asked.
“First of all, I need to get ab-man over there a shirt before we all start drooling over his hot bod.” Monty rolled over and climbed to his feet. “Be right back.”
Drake glanced down as my eyes, along with Lauryn’s and Callie’s were drawn to his still-naked torso.
“Wow. That’s amazing! I’ve tried for years to get one of these.” He rubbed a hand over his washboard abs and I tore my eyes away, not wanting to get caught staring.
Monty returned with a gray Bartlett Hawks tee shirt, and Drake pulled it over his head, his lovely new body disappearing underneath the fabric. The shirt was long enough to cover some, but not all of the bloodstains from the night before. “Um, I might be needing to borrow a pair of pants too, look at these. Jesus! Did I really bleed out that bad?” He stood and inspected the dried rivers of blood that had run down his pant legs.
“Drake, need I remind you,” I paused, “you were dead. You had a hole in your stomach from a tree branch.”
Drake dropped back onto the couch, reached towards me with one hand, and twined his fingers with mine. With the other he rubbed his forehead. “I’m trying to remember, but it’s so fuzzy. What happened there, anyways? The last thing I remember was you bolting after drunk Morgan started mauling me on the couch. Oh, and thanks by the way, for leaving me there with her.”
“What? I was this close to ripping her head off. I had to leave! Besides, you weren’t doing anything to stop it.” I pulled my fingers out of his and folded my arms across my chest.
“I was just trying to be polite, she was hosting the party. I figured we would just leave anyway before you stormed out.” Drake grabbed at my hands and tried to disentangle them from my arms.
I reluctantly let him have my hand. “It’s for the best we didn’t all leave then anyways,” I said. “They were waiting for me by the car. We got lucky with you, that you’d had some of my blood. Lauryn and Monty wouldn’t have been so lucky.” I glanced around, their mood now sober.
“How many?” Drake asked, squeezing my hand.
“Three this time.”
“What? Three? This time? What does that mean?” asked Monty, eyes wide as he rolled onto his side and propping his head on his hand.
“Damn,” Drake said. “The first time Vicky and I hung out, another vampire followed her to Lou’s.”
“And when I first woke up, one was waiting for me,” I said. “But I got away.”
“And the second time?” Ernie asked, eyeing me carefully.
Drake jumped to my aid. “Let’s just say it was the first night I realized just what she was.”
“So what happened to the three vamps last night?” Callie asked, absently playing with Monty’s ponytail.
“I didn’t notice them until I got out to the car. They had me surrounded. I ended up attacking one of them, but I was using him as leverage to try and get them to leave. I didn’t want them to go into Morgan’s house. Anyway, one of them attacked me while I was still holding the hostage and, he…”
“He what?” Ernie’s handful of popcorn was frozen mid-air.
“He killed the other vampire just to get to me, and then I killed him.” I lowered my eyes, not wanting to look at them. They had to know it’s not like I was trying to go out and find people, alive or otherwise, to kill. I looked up, their eyes fixed on mine. “You came out then.” I pointed to Drake. “And you lunged at the girl vamp with that huge branch, but she was quicker and stronger, and she put it right into your stomach. You had grabbed a hold of it. I think that’s why it didn’t go all the way through. And then she ran off, leaving you dying in the snow.”
I glanced around the silent room, mouths hung slightly agape, eyes stared, but I could barely hear any of them breathe.
“She better hope I never run into her in a dark alley,” Callie said, breaking the silence.
I leaned back into Drake. His arms, stronger and more solid than they had been before, slid around me and I shivered at his touch. “She better hope I don’t run into her again either,” I said. “I owe her.”
“So the big question is, why d
o they want you? And why haven’t you just gone with them?” Ernie gazed at me thoughtfully.
“Let’s just say they didn’t exactly seem like they wanted to welcome me with open arms, more like they were pissed that I wouldn’t come quietly. They mentioned some guy named Steve and it sounded like he wanted me really bad, only he couldn’t be bothered to come and get me himself. They said he made me, and they also seemed shocked that I was as strong and fast as I am.”
“Duh, don’t you get it Vicky? You’re special, even as far as vampires are concerned. The most important thing you’ve got going is being able to walk in the sun. And if you’re faster and stronger, you may be like their secret weapon or something.” Ernie palmed his forehead.
“So? We don’t know they can’t do that,” I said.
“Have they ever attacked you during the day?” he asked.
“Nope.”
“That has to be somewhat convincing evidence, at least.” Ernie popped a chip in his mouth.
“I think it’s clear we’re going to need to defend ourselves.” Monty nodded and rubbed his hands together. “Since you two are already able to defend yourselves, Ernie and I will try to come up with some kind of weapons so we aren’t caught off guard.”
“What are you going to do? Sharpen a few stakes?” I asked with a raised eyebrow.
“Stakes are so Bram Stoker, Vicky. We have modern technology at our disposal. I’m confident in Ernie’s brainiac abilities that he’ll be able to come up with something far superior. Those vamps don’t know who they’re messing with, no offense.”
“None taken.” Drake hugged me tighter. I couldn’t have asked to find better friends. I worried that I had put them in danger, but deep down, the little selfish part of me was so happy I’d found them.