02 How to Date a Vampire - Rylie Cruz Page 8

  “As you know, I’m a werewolf.” Holy Filet Mignon, I couldn’t believe I had just said that out loud to Jack. He’d seen me furry… and my parents, it wasn’t as if he didn’t know. But it sounded weird saying it out loud, there was no taking it back when I talked about it out in the open. “Anyway, the people at my parents’ house were vampires, as you know…”

  “Yeah, I remember that. I remember most of what happened, although I’m kind of foggy about some details.” I prayed he’d blanked out the part when he saw my buck-naked father as he shifted back to human.

  I let out a deep breath. “Okay, I’ll just come out and say this. As if I’m pulling off a bandage… I’m pretty sure you’re a vampire now. I know I said it was just a little bite, but it’s not. Actually, you’re more of a half-vampire.” Okay, now I sounded insane.

  Jack chuckled. He looked over at me. He chuckled again, but the laughter faded as he noticed that I wasn’t smiling. “So now you’re being paranoid. I’ve rubbed off on you. You know, maybe what I need is a vacation. I have been working a lot.”

  “Jack, please don’t ignore this. I’m so sorry.”

  “It’s nothing, Rylie. You’re just too caught up in the paranormal world. Everything will be fine. I’ll be fine. I’ve decided this was all our imagination playing tricks on us. I’m not a vampire. Not even half a vampire.”

  This was going to be harder than I’d thought. Now he was trying to deny it.

  We’d reached the cemetery; it was the oldest in New Orleans. I referred to it as the subdivision for the dead. Huge iron gates stretched open with a large iron cross at the top, welcoming us into its splendor. Eerily beautiful above-ground crypts filled the space around us. I’d been so consumed in my thoughts that I hadn’t noticed we’d walked so far. It was as if Jack had walked straight there on purpose. Talk about a cliché… a vampire wanting to hang out in a graveyard.

  Obviously Jack was in denial, and I don’t think the gravity of the situation had truly hit me, either. I mean I was a werewolf and he was a vampire. We were like some ridiculous Halloween card or something. The last time I’d been in the cemetery I’d been chased by a couple of crazy werewolves, and yet, here I was again.

  We walked in silence. I didn’t know what else to say. I thought I’d leave Jack to his thoughts for a while. When he was ready, he’d talk. As we made our way down the stone pathway in the middle of the graveyard, a noise sounded from behind us. I looked over my shoulder and caught a shadowy figure dart behind a vault.

  “Why exactly are we here, Jack?” I asked nervously.

  He didn’t answer, but continued walking. We turned down another path, weaving around the gravestones, and I scanned the area for any sign of ghosts. We eased our way through, careful to avoid the jagged, torn-up pavement.

  About midway down the paved path, as I stood between a couple of ornate vaults, out of the corner of my eye, I thought I saw a shadow zip by. I didn’t mention the sighting to Jack—he was stressed enough without the added spooky shadows.

  A few seconds later, the shadow appeared again, and I knew I wasn’t imagining things. The figure appeared to be wearing a cape. A freakin’ cape? Were they serious? I could assume that what I saw was ghosts, but I knew better. Had Jack brought us here because he knew vampires would be present, or was it the other way around? Had the vampires somehow manipulated Jack’s mind and forced him to come here? If they couldn’t go to him, they’d make him come to them? The dirty bloodsuckers.

  Chapter Fourteen

  How to Date a Vampire, Rule #14:

  Get ready for the nightlife.

  The graveyard was dark. It seemed darker than usual. The stones appeared more ominous than usual, and a foreboding feeling hung over the area. That strange feeling as if a million eyes watched us wrapped around us, as if it were closing in, ready to squeeze us into its small constraints. A chill traveled down my spine. The eyes that watched us traveled along every path with us, observing our every move. I guess in a way there were.

  I hadn't seen any ghosts, but that didn't mean they weren’t there. I’d seen ghosts in this exact cemetery before. In fact, I’d seen a few the last time I visited the cemetery with Jack. Of course, Jack hadn’t seen them, only me. It was rumored that the spirit of voodoo priestess Maria Laveau roamed the grounds. But what other ghosts lingered around us?

  One thing was for certain, the caped figure hadn’t been a ghost. I had sensed it. If it wasn’t a ghost though, then what was the caped figure? Would it find us? How would we get away from it? I didn’t want it to follow us home.

  We traveled through the graveyard, going further in, through the maze of the dead. The haunting beauty of our surroundings only added to the surreal sensation of the situation that I faced with Jack. I glanced over at him. He seemed to be lost in his thoughts, which was completely understandable under the circumstances. I didn't blame him one bit.

  We turned to our left and I couldn't stop glancing over my shoulder. It was as if I’d developed a nervous tic. Had Jack seen the caped figure yet? I had a feeling it would only be a matter of time until we ran into it. I hoped not literally. I figured at any moment I'd look up to find the strange thing standing right in front of us. I knew the haunted cemetery tour guides sometimes liked to dress in costume, and people who wanted desperately to be vampires would dress the part, but this wasn't either of those. Somehow, I knew that it was much darker than that. I could sense it from this being, as if it emanated a big black aura.

  We'd only moved a few steps when movement to my right caught my attention. Something jumped out from behind a tall crypt. We stopped on the spot, almost falling over to keep from running into this thing. And I did mean thing. It wasn't the caped figure though. No, I wasn't sure what this thing was. Human was not on my list of possible explanations as to what it was. This thing was unlike any I’d ever seen.

  He had some human-like features, but they were skewed. His face was long and extra drawn-out. It stretched down as if he wore a melted mask. His skin was milky white, but paper-thin and almost see-through. The top of his ears popped up toward the sky with pointy skin and the bottoms drooped down. His nose was pencil thin and his mouth nothing but a straight line. The creature’s eyes were like coal-black dots. His arms were long and reached down almost to his knees. He stretched his arm out and pointed at us.

  “What are you doing here?” he asked.

  His speech was normal like ours, but he was definitely not normal. I realized even more now since I could see everything behind him. His entire body was translucent. Was he a ghost? He wanted to know what we were doing there, but what was he doing there? Did he own the cemetery? Last time I checked, anyone could enter the place, no special pass was needed. Sure there was a warning sign at the gate stating that people should enter at their own risk, but that didn’t mean it was completely off limits. Maybe I shouldn’t have ignored that warning, although I hadn’t had much choice as I followed Jack.

  “I'm a soul collector and I'm here to collect the souls who refuse to come to the other side.” His voice held a low rumble.

  “Are you the grim reaper?”

  The little slats which I assumed were placeholders for his eyes grew even smaller. “I am not the grim reaper,” he yelled.

  “Okay, okay. Calm down. Don't get upset. We didn't know.” I gestured toward Jack. “We didn't mean to offend you.”

  With his melted face and musty, dirty, dark suit, he looked scary, and I had to confess if I were a ghost and saw this guy coming at me, I wouldn't want to go with him either.

  “Do you take them to a bad place?” I paused. “You know, to hell?”

  He shook his head. “No. I do not. Why do you assume that?”

  “Because you’ve come to collect them. If it was a good place, I think they’d be happy to go with you.”

  “Some of them don’t know they’re dead. Some are really bad at directions. I have to guide them in the right direction,” he said.

  “Kind of like herdi
ng cattle?”

  He frowned. Obviously, he didn’t appreciate my humor. Tough crowd.

  “We're terribly sorry for interrupting you. We'll be on our way.” I looked to Jack and he nodded in agreement. You wouldn't hear any arguments out of him. He looked like he might swoop me up and run away from this thing at any second.

  “You are interrupting the process. How can I collect these souls if you are disturbing the peace? You are distracting the spirits. They want to watch you.”

  Jack looked over his shoulder. I supposed to see if he'd catch a glimpse of the spirits. They were not in sight. The caped figure was nowhere in sight either. And I was grateful. Maybe it was gone for good. I should ask this soul collector if he'd had a cape on. Maybe he'd taken it off. I imagine it would get in the way of collecting all those souls. Regardless, I wanted to get out of there before he decided he wanted to collect our souls.

  Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted movement. I glanced to my right. A woman glided effortlessly around one of the vaults. She wore a long cream-colored gown and her dark hair hung below her shoulders in soft wavy curls. She didn't look our way. All I saw was her profile, then the back of her head as she rounded the corner. As soon as she’d disappeared, another spirit formed next to a grave. I knew it was a ghost because the stone behind him was visible through his body. He looked straight at us, saw the soul collector, then zipped to the left following the same path as the woman spirit.

  “See, there goes one now. They've been here entirely too long. You’re wasting my time.”

  “We didn’t mean to waste your time.” Why was I being scolded by this thing? He was wasting my time just as much and he didn’t hear me complaining.

  “I have got to get them all out of here. It's taking me too long. Now you mustn't interrupt me again. Do you understand?” he asked.

  He shook his head, guiding us to do the same and give the correct answer. We nodded. I didn’t want to find out what would happen if we didn’t.

  “We won't bother you again. We're terribly sorry,” Jack said.

  If Jack’s open mouth and widened eyes were any indication, he was stunned by this being and probably in disbelief.

  “Let's go, Rylie.” Jack placed his hand on the small of my back and helped me get my feet moving. I wasn’t sure how long I would have stood there in disbelief staring at the creature.

  I kept my eyes on this being as we walked past. I had to be prepared in case he made any sudden movements toward us.

  “Am I dreaming?” Jack whispered. “Can you pinch me? Surely, none of this is happening. We didn’t just see a creature who looked like something out of a bizarre horror movie.”

  “I'm afraid you're fully awake,” I said. I hated being the bearer of bad news. Especially to Jack. But this was reality. His reality now. Paranormal creatures were all around us, all the time. He just hadn’t known it until now. “Now that I think about it, I’ve heard about those creatures, but I kind of thought it was just a myth. I guess I was wrong.”

  “Apparently you were.”

  Getting us out of there before anything else popped up was my number one priority at the moment.

  Chapter Fifteen

  How to Date a Vampire, Rule #15:

  Let your date know you think fangs are sexy.

  Without notice Jack stopped. He stood frozen to the pavement. He turned around with lightning speed and that was when the shadowy figure came into view again. The shadow was dark, moving swiftly with a swoosh noise as a long black cape cascaded out behind it. I watched in shock. Was this one of those vampire wannabes who hung around graveyards for kicks? It was like the Night of The Living Dead. The place was crawling with vampires.

  I grabbed Jack by the arm and steered him to our left. In his current slight catatonic state, I wasn’t sure he’d noticed the mysterious figure, but I didn’t want to take a chance. When I looked at him, I knew he’d sensed it though. The panicked look in his eyes said as much. He had enough to worry about at the moment without some fake vampire taunting him—only a fake vampire would wear a cape, right? But if this was a wannabe would Jack have sensed him? What if this was the real deal? I knew it. We’d been lured here somehow.

  As we turned a corner, the figure darted behind another stone. How the heck had it made it over there so quickly? Was this thing playing games with us? I knew the figure wasn’t a human because it moved too quickly. Why had Jack been so drawn to this cemetery? It had to be because of his new vampire status. This was too weird and something for only a movie. We needed to get out of there. Maybe the walk hadn’t been such a good idea. I was guiding a half-dead man around a graveyard? What had happened to my life? And I thought things were getting back to normal. Did I even know what normal was anymore?

  “Where are we going? I’m really thirsty. I need a drink,” Jack said.

  “Come on, I’ll get you some water. How about some lemonade?”

  You know that feeling you get when someone is staring at you? Yeah, well, my neck had that feeling. I needed to find Jack blood so he wouldn’t want mine. What would happen if he accidentally turned me into a vampire? A vampire/werewolf hybrid? That was so messed up. I hurried Jack along the stone path. Just a short time ago, I’d been on a date with Jack when two crazy werewolves chased me in this exact cemetery. When would I learn to stay out of this place?

  When we rounded the corner, we stopped dead in our tracks. No pun intended.

  “We’ve come for the newly turned vampire,” the female vampire said.

  It was the curvy vamp from my parents’ house. How had she found us? Had she come for another taste of Jack’s blood? A large, mean-looking male stood beside her. His dark eyes glowed with annoyance. He was the one in the cape. This man had a muscular frame. Even under the cape, I noticed it. With his dark eyes and dark hair, he had the badass, frightening vampire look down. Yes, by the snarl on his face, I knew he wasn’t a wannabe vampire, but the real deal.

  I wanted to cover Jack’s ears so he wouldn’t hear any more of what they had to say. She’d just called him newly turned. He was in denial and I didn’t want to make him feel any worse than he already did. I’d decided not to mention his bloodsucking status again until I had concrete answers.

  “You’ve come for what? I’m not sure what you’re talking about,” I said, trying to sound calm.

  “Don’t play dumb with me. Just let him come with us, and nobody will get hurt.”

  So much for not talking about his new status, they left me no choice. “Sorry, there are no recently turned vampires here.” I shrugged my shoulders. “Maybe you should try Vampires R Us.”

  The male vampire hissed, exposing his fangs. They loved that hissing sound effect, huh? My neck suddenly felt vulnerable out in the open air. I instinctively covered my exposed skin with my hand.

  “Rylie, let me talk with them. They’re obviously confused. I wasn’t ‘turned’ into anything. Yes, I was bitten, but it was a little nick. We had a little scuffle. Nothing more.” Jack stood his ground.

  “Ah, isn’t he cute. Still in denial.” The female stepped from behind the male vamp. She licked her chops just as she did when she’d seen Jack at my parents’ home. If I remembered correctly, Sophie was her name. If she thought she was getting to Jack, she had another think coming. No way would I let her sink her fangs into him.

  “He’s not in denial. Now kindly step back or I’ll be forced to use my super werewolf skills on you.”

  The vampires exchanged glances, then burst into laughter. Smartasses.

  “My name is Nelson Rush. This is Sophie Rodriguez.” He gestured toward the female vampire. “You’ve been bitten by Henry,” the male vampire said. “He didn’t fully change you. We can’t allow you to walk around like this. You need to know some information about your status. If you come with us, we’ll explain everything. We won’t harm you.”

  Why couldn’t they allow him? Besides, half a vamp was better than full vamp in my opinion. No mess and no fuss. Why couldn’t they ju
st leave him alone? Did they want Jack to be one of them? A full vampire?

  I stepped in front of Jack as if my five-foot-two frame would stop this hulking vampire hovering over me from getting to Jack. I’d have to shift and get into a cage match with these two vampires. Where was Lily when I needed her? Probably sanding down those talons she called fingernails. Perhaps perusing a weapons catalog for wedding décor. Maybe I should reconsider ignoring the rest of my pack. I’d acted like I wasn’t one of them since I was a child—avoiding them as much as possible. I only went to the pack meetings when my parents forced me. But a little backup would be a good thing right about now.

  “We’re not against taking you out to get to him. He must come with us,” Sophie said in a sharp voice.

  I didn’t back down. I might be small, but I wasn’t all bark… I had some bite, too. “I gotta tell you, you may not be against taking me out to get to him, but I’m very much against it. So to explain this in simple terms so you’ll understand, it’s not happening… he’s not coming with you.”

  To say the fangs came out would be an understatement. I was currently in a showdown with two vampires. Me against the two of them. Sure, I had Jack, but in his whacked-out state, how much help would he be?

  “Someone is going to get hurt, but I can assure you it won’t be me,” I said.

  My brother would have called my last statement a death wish and he was probably right. I hated when he was right.

  “Out of the way, Rover,” Nelson said.

  Oh, it was so on now. So that was how it was going to be, huh? The same old tired dog jokes. My thoughts swirled and the only plan of escape that came to mind at the moment was to change over and tell Jack to run. Yeah, that wouldn’t bruise his ego much, huh? Having me fight two vampires while he ran off like a scared little girl? How would I even ask him to do such a thing? Before I had time to contemplate the thought further, the female vampire made a lunge for me. I pushed Jack backward, then darted to the left. She missed grabbing my shirt by no more than a centimeter.