Fang Me

by Parker Blue

  YOU DID AGREE TO WORK FOR HIM UNTIL THE BOOKS WERE FOUND AND HE COMES OUT OF THE CLOSET.

  I know. I'd found the books, but he hadn't done the second part yet.

  SO, THIS IS PART OF YOUR JOB. WHAT'S THE MATTER? YOU'VE ALWAYS WANTED TO TRAVEL MORE.

  Yeah, but not this way. Okay, yes, I was pouting. So sue me.

  Fang didn't say a word, just looked at me with reproachful brown eyes framed in his adorably fuzzy face. Dang. He'd pulled out the big guns. I gave up."Okay, okay. I'm coming."

  I hobbled toward the house, feeling every ache and pain the vamps had hammered into me. More like eighty than eighteen.

  NEXT TIME, WEAR SILVER, my unfeeling hellhound advised me.

  I'd thought of that, but it seemed like cheating when the vamps were supposed to be helping me. Then again, being a vampire was kind of cheating, too, wasn't it?

  Fang just snorted, which I took to mean he agreed with me.

  Alejandro's people had been careful not to create any paths into the woods, but it was easy to follow the lights to the house. I trudged up to their back door and saw that Austin was waiting there for me, holding the door open. He'd put his hat back on, too, so he looked more like himself."I'm coming," I muttered.

  "I know."

  He grinned again, but didn't move when I passed him. Our energy fields intersected in the close confines of the doorway and Lola licked into him. I didn't pull back—he deserved a good licking.

  The tall, lean cowboy didn't react, though. He just raised an eyebrow as if to say,"You really want to go there?"

  POINT TO AUSTIN, Fang said with a laugh.

  Shut up. I shoved past him into the kitchen, disappointing Lola once more."In his study?" I asked without looking back at him.

  "Yes, ma'am." Austin didn't bother to hide the amusement in his voice.

  I tried not to stomp out my frustration as we headed to find Alejandro. Luis gestured me into the room I'd visited far too often. Very masculine, very Mediterranean, very dark . . . except for the sun-drenched mural of a beach scene covering the wall across from Alejandro's desk. Then again, if I'd been unable to see the sun as long as he had, I'd probably want a view like that, too.

  I flopped into a chair across from Alejandro and his massive wooden desk and said,"So, boss, what's this I hear about us going to Austin?"

  Luis scowled. He hated it when I treated Alejandro so informally. That's why I did it, of course, and Alejandro didn't mind. Luis and Austin took up positions behind their boss and I wondered where Rosa was.

  MAYBE SHE WAS PUT IN A CORNER FOR SPILLING THE BEANS, Fang suggested.

  "I am afraid the trip to Austin is necessary," Alejandro said.

  "Why?"

  The vamp leader absently rubbed the bust of Cortes he kept on his desk."The situation in the state capitol has changed. The legislation we were counting on to protect us when we come out and keep the unaffiliated ones in their place is . . . stalled."

  I grimaced. I hated politics as much as I hated secrets.

  MAYBE BECAUSE THEY GO HAND IN HAND.

  Probably."What does that mean, stalled?"

  Alejandro shook his head, a puzzled expression on his face."I wish I knew. My calls are not being returned, and there has been no communication from my supporters. We shall have to go there to see what is happening."

  I was all for getting those laws in place so the Movement could come out and I could satisfy my contract with Alejandro, but . . ."Why do you need me?"

  "Because you can go where I cannot," Alejandro said with a smile.

  Who was going to keep a vampire out of anywhere he wanted to go?"Like where?"

  Austin's mouth quirked up."Like daylight."

  Oh.

  "Indeed," Alejandro agreed."You are the only one I can trust to protect my interests while I'm there, to live in my world and not reveal what you discover, to act for me during the daytime."

  Fang huffed with amusement. HE WANTS YOU TO BE HIS RENFIELD.

  I didn't find that at all funny. It was a pretty tall order. But, unfortunately, I couldn't argue with the vamp leader's logic."Rosa seemed to think you wanted me to be some kind of bodyguard."

  Alejandro waved away my objection."Rosa is overly protective. We cannot invade another vampire's territory without permission. Without it, we risk . . . much. I have gained that permission, but have agreed to bring only four with me. I shall take Austin and Vincent, and leave Luis and Rosa in charge here."

  No wonder Rosa was peeved, with only two vamps to guard her boss's back."If I'm the third, who's the fourth? Fang? Does Fang count?"

  FANG ALWAYS COUNTS.

  "No, Fang does not count as the fourth," Alejandro said with a smile,"though I see no reason why he cannot come. The fourth will be Jack Grady."

  Grady? The former keeper who was supposed to be training me on how to tap the magick potential in the Encyclopedia Magicka? Ha. The only thing he'd done the past few days was pig out on Gwen's food and hog Shade's bed."Why him?"

  "The encyclopedia can be a powerful weapon in our favor. He knows how to wield it, and you do not. We need him to get you up to speed as fast as possible."

  Good luck with that. I'd tried with no luck.

  "I have already spoken with Mr. Blackburn and the Demon Underground has agreed to let me take both of you," Alejandro said."I have made arrangements for a place to stay so we can leave tomorrow night when the sun goes down."

  Why not? I'd only been to Austin a few times before, and it would be something different than the same old, same old."Do you have any idea how long we'll be gone? Mom will kill me if I miss Christmas." And since Mom and I had kind of a truce going on, I didn't want to screw that up.

  "It's little more than an hour away," Austin drawled."I think you'll be able to come home to mommy when you need to."

  I clamped my lips on an unwise comeback and resolved not to let him get to me."Okay. Should I pack?"

  "Yes," Alejandro said."Pack for a couple of weeks. It'll make it easier than returning here for a change of clothing or necessities. You may go now if you wish."

  I wished. Glancing down at Fang, I asked, You ready?

  In answer, he got up and trotted away, pausing in front of the study door to glance expectantly over his shoulder at Austin.

  The cowboy rolled his eyes, but followed Fang's unspoken bidding and opened the door for him.

  How do you do that?

  CHARISMA, BABE, SHEER CHARISMA.

  Shaking my head, I followed him down the hallway and out the front door. I straddled my Valkyrie motorcycle and waited for him to jump up into his own leather and sheepskin seat, then put on his goggles.

  I sped home on the dark, silent streets of San Antonio. There weren't many people out in the early hours of the morning, so I was able to drive on autopilot and make plans for the unexpected free time. I could take a hot bath to soak out my aches and pains, maybe even get some extra sleep before I had to show up at Alejandro's tomorrow. After all, who knew what awaited us in the state's capitol?

  When we arrived home, I took off Fang's goggles and he jumped down.

  "Hungry?" I asked. Usually, he'd be pestering me for food right about now.

  SORRY, BABE, BUT IT'S THE WINTER SOLSTICE.

  "So?" What did that have to do with anything?

  A dark cloth fell over my head and someone grabbed me, trying to pin my arms. What the . . . ? I struck out with my foot, connecting with someone who let out an"oof."

  YOU'LL HAVE TO SEDATE HER, Fang said, and I felt the sudden prick of a needle in my arm.

  My mind grew fuzzy. Fang? What's happening? No response.

  "Thanks, Fang," another man said."We owe you one."

  I had only one thought as I lost consciousness. Traitor.

  If you love Val Shapiro, you'll love Allie Emerson

  The Unbidden Magic Series

  Marilee Brothers

  Book One: MOON STONE

  Book Two: MOON RISE

  Coming in 2010, Book Thre
e: MOON SPUN

  MOONSTONE

  Allie Emerson is destined to fight evil and save the world.

  But first she has to survive high school.

  Chapter One

  One minute, I was on a ten-foot ladder adjusting the TV antenna on the twenty-four-foot trailer behind Uncle Sid's house, where I lived with my mother, Faye. The next minute, I sailed off the ladder, grazed an electric fence and landed face down in a cow pie.

  Swear to God.

  Though groggy and hurting, I rolled onto my back. A window in the trailer cranked open and I heard my mother scream."Allie! Ohmigod! Somebody call 911!"

  I was surprised Faye managed to open the window. She'd spent most of the last two years in bed since, at age thirty one, she Retired From Life. But really, call 911? We had no phone and I was the only other person in the area.

  Who was she talking to? Blaster the bull? I smiled weakly at the thought of Blaster in a phone booth, punching in

  911 with one gigantic hoof.

  Okay, technically, I landed in a bull pie, not a cow pie. The mess dripping off my face was compliments of my Uncle Sid's prize bull, speaking of which . . .

  It was then my wits returned. I felt the ground vibrate, heard the rumble of hooves. I reared up to see a half-ton cranky bull racing toward me, head down, mean little eyes fixed on my prone body.

  Faye continued to scream shrilly. I moaned and crawled toward the fence, looking over my shoulder at Blaster who bore down on me like a runaway train. When I tried to stand, I slipped in the wet grass and landed on my belly. Oh God, he was just inches away. I wasn't going to make it! I rolled into a ball and screamed,"No, Blaster! Go back! Go back!"

  Laying on the wet grass, trembling with terror, I watched as Blaster stopped on a dime, blew snot out of his flaring, black nostrils and released a thunderous blast of flatulence—that's what my teacher, Mrs. Burke, calls farting—and, of course, is the reason Uncle Sid named him Blaster.

  "Back off, Blaster," I said between shallow, panicky breaths."Good boy."

  I hoped the"boy" comment wouldn't tick him off, what with his fully-developed manly-bull parts dangling in full view as I lay curled on the ground looking up. Yuck!

  Suddenly my vision narrowed and grew dark around the edges. It was like looking down a long tunnel with Blaster front and center, bathed in light. A loud buzzing filled my head. The next moment, Blaster took a tentative step backward, then another, walking slowly, at first, then gradually picking up speed until he was trotting briskly backwards like a video tape on slow rewind.

  Mesmerized by the sight, I sat up and watched Blaster's bizarre retreat back through the tunnel. At that precise moment, I should have known something strange was going on. But hey, I was a little busy trying to save my life.

  As I crawled under the fence, my vision returned to normal and the buzzing faded away. I stood and swiped a hand across my sweaty face. At least, I thought it was sweat until a trickle of blood dripped off the end of my nose. Surprised because I felt no pain, I touched my face and found the blood was oozing from a puncture wound in the center of my forehead.

  I glanced up at Faye, who continued to peer out the trailer window, her pale face framed in a halo of wispy blond curls, her eyes wide with shock. She inhaled sharply, and I knew another scream was on its way. I held up a hand."Come on, Faye, no more screaming. You're making my head hurt."

  "But, but, the bull . . . he, he . . . " Faye began.

  I wasn't ready to go there."I know, I know."

  I staggered around the end of the trailer and banged through the door. Two giant steps to the bathroom. I shucked off my clothes and stepped into the tiny shower.

  "You okay, Allie?" Faye asked.

  She peered through the open doorway, paler than usual. Her right hand clutched the locket that held my baby picture, the one that makes me look like an angry old man. The only time she took it off was to shower.

  "I'll live," I muttered.

  "Weird, huh? Blaster, I mean. I heard you yell at him. Bulls don't run backward, Allie."

  When I didn't answer—what could I say?—she waited a beat."Use soap on your forehead. Did it stop bleeding?"

  "Yes, Mother." I reached over and slid the door shut.

  Deep sigh."You don't have to be snotty. I told you to be careful."

  The TV blared suddenly. Oprah. Not that I'm a spiteful person, but I blamed Oprah for my swan dive off the ladder. Late last night, a sudden gust of wind knocked over our TV antenna. When I got home from school today, Faye insisted she had to watch Oprah. Like that was going to change her life. I finally got tired of hearing about it and borrowed Uncle Sid's ladder. Moral of story: Never wear flip flops on an aluminum ladder.

  I turned on the water, stood under the weak stream and checked for damage. Other than a slight tingling in my arms and legs and the hole in my head, I seemed okay.

  I toweled off my curly, dark-brown hair and pulled it back into a messy ponytail. When I wiped the steam off the mirror, I saw a dark-red, dime-sized circle the size in the exact center of my forehead. I touched it gingerly, expecting it to hurt. But it didn't. Instead, a weird sensation shot through my head, like my brain was hooked up to Dr. Frankenstein's machine, that thing he used to make his monster come alive. I must have given a little yip of surprise because Faye said again,"You okay, Allie?"

  "I'm fine," I said."Just a little sore."

  "Did you check the mail?"

  "The first's not until Friday. Today's the twenty-ninth," I said.

  "Sometimes it comes early."

  The welfare check never came early. The state of Washington was very reliable when it came to issuing checks.

  "Yeah, okay," I said, not wanting to burst her bubble.

  Wrapped in the towel, I took two steps into the living room/kitchen, reached under the table and pulled out the plastic crate containing my clean clothes. I dug around and found clean underwear, a tee shirt and a pair of cut-off shorts.

  I slipped into my bra, once again thinking how cool it was I finally needed one. Though I hoped for peaches, I'd managed only to grow a pair of breasts roughly the size and shape of apricots. Oh, well, apricots are better than cherries. Our valley is called"The fruit bowl of the nation," hence, my obsession with naming body parts after produce.

  I slipped into my treacherous flip flops, headed out the door and spotted Uncle Sid darting behind the barn. Faye says Uncle Sid is not a people person but I thought he was just trying to avoid Aunt Sandra and her constant nagging. That woman's voice could make a corpse sit up and beg for mercy.

  I trotted down the driveway, stopping suddenly when I spotted a pair of denim-clad legs sticking out from under the Jeep Wrangler parked next to Uncle Sid's house. Legs that belonged to Matt, Uncle Sid's son and older brother to spoiled brat, Tiffany.

  How can one kid—Tiffany—be so annoying and the other—Matt—so totally hot? I tried to avoid Matt because of the way I got when I'm around him. Though I'm normally loquacious (last Wednesday's vocabulary word that I copied and vowed to use at least three times,) one look at Matt and I lost my power of speech. My jaw dropped and my mouth went dry. There's just something about him—sleepy blue eyes, light brown hair that usually needs combing, a crooked grin and a sculpted, rock-hard body.

  It wasn't some creepy, incestuous thing since Matt and I weren't real cousins. Sid was Faye's step brother. Nope, we didn't have the same blood coursing through our veins. Matt's was probably blue, while mine came from the mystery man Faye refused to talk about.

  I tiptoed past the Jeep to spare myself further humiliation. I'd almost made it when he rolled out on one of those sled thingies and grabbed my ankle."Hey, kid, how ya doin'?"

  The warmth of his hand against my bare skin turned my normally frisky brain cells to mush. Sure enough, my lower jaw was heading south."Uh, just great, Matt," I said, averting my eyes and licking my suddenly parched lips.

  He released my ankle and stood up."Good," he said."Your mom still got that . . . whadda
ya call it?"

  "Fibromyalgia." As I said the word, I felt my upper lip curl in a sneer."So she says."

  "She getting better?"

  "She's trying to get social security benefits, you know, the one for disability."

  The words tasted bitter in my mouth.

  "Oh yeah," Matt said."I saw Big Ed's car here the other night. He's her lawyer, right?"

  My hands automatically curled into fists. I narrowed my eyes and studied Matt's face, looking for a smirk or maybe a suggestive wink. Even though I didn't want to punch him, I could and I would. I knew how to punch. Faye had made sure.