by Mari Mancusi
“What about you? You have feeding needs, too, right? But I’ve never see you with your donors.”
He grimaces. “I don’t like the idea of donors. I get my blood by mail order.”
I raise an eyebrow. Interesting. “Really? Why?”
“Would you like seeing the cow before eating your steak?”
“Uh, no. But I’m a vegetarian. No cows for this chick.”
Jareth chuckles softly, the dim light catching his fangs and making them sparkle. “How are you going to become a vampire if you don’t like the taste of blood?”
Good question. One I hadn’t really given much thought to. “I figure I’ll learn to love it,” I say with a shrug. “Sunny was totally grossed out by the idea of drinking blood until she actually tasted it. Then she developed an unquenchable thirst for the stuff.”
“I see. Well, then I’m sure you’ll be fine,” Jareth says. “So have they told you who will be your blood mate yet?”
“No. After the whole Sunny mishap, I’m back at the bottom of the waiting list. Which sucks, pardon the pun. You’d think Magnus, being the master and all, could pull in a few favors for his girlfriend’s sister, but evidently not.”
“Maybe it’s because they haven’t found you a perfect match yet,” Jareth says. “Remember, your DNA has to be compatible.”
“Yeah, I know. Knowing me, there will never be another vamp with compatible DNA. I’ll be doomed to be a slayer for eternity.”
“That’s not true. They’ll find you a match. Actually I think you’d make a good vamp,” Jareth says shyly. “Though perhaps a very stubborn, aggravating blood mate.”
“Heh.” I laugh. “So what’s your story? You on the prowl for a blood mate of your own?” As I ask the question, I suddenly realize I’m worried about his answer. For some reason, I really, really don’t want him to say yes.
He’s silent for a long moment, then says, “I don’t want a blood mate. They offered me one a few years back, but I refused.”
“But why?” I ask. “I thought that was every vampire’s dream. To have a partner to spend eternity with.”
“Eternity is a long time and it doesn’t always work out that way,” Jareth says, a bit bitterly. “It’s worse to love someone and then lose them, then to never love at all.”
“Heh. I know the feeling.”
“Oh?”
I feel my face heat. I hadn’t meant to be so revealing.
“Ah, nothing,” I stammer. “It’s just . . . my dad. He took off four years ago to find himself. Haven’t seem him since.”
“And you miss him,” Jareth says softly. It’s not a question. Or a judgment. Or even pity.
“Well, yeah. I mean, sure I do. Sometimes. Though sometimes I don’t.” I know I’m not making a lot of sense, but I’m not really used to talking about this stuff. Especially not to a hot vampire in a broom closet. “But anyway, I guess it doesn’t matter now. He’s coming for our birthday this week. So I mean, I guess it’s all good.” I pause, feeling awkward and not knowing what to say.
“Yes. That seems very good,” Jareth says, a bit distantly.
“What about you? What’s your story?” I ask, so ready to change the subject. “What makes you such a bitter biter?”
“It was a long time ago. It doesn’t matter now.”
Hm. Stubborn. But I’ll get it out of him. “It obviously does. It obviously upsets you. Maybe it’d feel good to talk about it. To a stranger.”
“A stranger like you?”
“Sure. I can’t say I’ll be able to give wise advice, but I’d be happy to listen. And we’ve got time.”
“But you’re a slayer.”
“Dude. I’m like a good slayer—”
Jareth suddenly puts a hand over my mouth. I stop talking and listen. Footsteps. Coming closer. Shit. I hope the cleaning crew doesn’t need to get into the broom closet. We’ll totally be caught!
I look up at Jareth questioningly, having no idea what to do. His eyes are wide and frightened.
“Follow my lead,” he whispers.
And then he leans down and kisses me!!!
Uh, sorry, have to continue this later. Mom’s totally yelling at me to get to bed. . . .
POSTED BY RAYNE McDONALD @ 1 A.M.
TWO COMMENTS:
CandyGrrl says . . .
He kissed u!?!?! How can u leave us hanging like this? Tell ur mom this is more important! Gah!
Soulsearcher says . . .
Making out in a funeral home. Sooo romantic. Oh, so romantic.
SunshineBaby says . . .
You kissed Jareth? Dude, I’m your twin! How come I’m always the last to know?
17
THURSDAY, JUNE 7, 8 A.M.
Closet Kisses and a Lot of Wishes
Quick entry before school since you’re all annoyed that I had to cut out at the kissing scene. Believe me, I didn’t want to leave you hanging either, but Mom was being totally adamant. I think she’s still pissed that we scared off her date. Oh, and speaking of? I think she’s still seeing the guy. Grrr. I’ve got to have a talk with her.
Anyway, where I left off: footsteps approaching and I’m getting ravaged by the sexiest vampire on earth. But forget the footsteps. You just want to know about the ravaging, right? Heh.
You know how I said how heavenly the bite from Jareth was? Well, the kiss he gave me last night was even better, if you can believe it!
Here’s how it went down:
His mouth captures mine. I know that sounds funny, but that’s exactly what it seems like. Total domination of my lips. I’m so surprised that my jaw drops, which inadvertently allows him full access. And he takes advantage, his lips pressing hard against mine, his tongue finding my own and meeting it with almost a worshipful caress. Obviously it’s hard to describe kisses, but think of your best kiss ever and multiply it by three and a half million and you’re probably pretty close. Every nerve ending in my body is like, singing, at this point. Just like in romance books, there’s, like, this electricity flowing through my veins. Suddenly I don’t care why we’re kissing or the fact that we’re probably, like, this close to getting busted by whoever’s coming to the closet. All I can think of, focus on, is his lips against mine.
Half of me wishes you could all kiss Jareth, just so you can feel for yourselves. The other half hopes that Jareth never kisses anyone else but me for the rest of eternity.
The footsteps fade and Jareth pulls away, way too soon for my liking.
“Sorry,” he says, his normally pale face bright red. “I just figured if they caught us, it’d be better to look like we snuck off together, than were hiding for some other more nefarious purpose.”
I nod, not trusting my voice at the moment. I’m madly praying the footsteps come back so we can go for round two. But I’m just not that lucky. Whoever it was hits the lights and slams the front door closed. They’re out.
I involuntarily lick my lower lip, nearly desperate for another taste. So delicious. So, so delicious. My whole body is humming. I’m dying to just jump him. I wonder what he’d do if I did. Would he pull away? Be disgusted? Or does he feel the same attraction I do? I wish I knew.
We stand in silence, still so close that I can feel Jareth’s cool breath on my face. I wonder for a moment why vampires need to breathe, seeing as they’re technically not alive. I’ll have to look it up later.
Five minutes go by. Then five more. It seems like an eternity. I wish, not for the first time, that we could kiss again. But Jareth seems to be stuck in full-on listening mode.
Finally he speaks.
“I think they’re gone. We’re safe,” he says. He pushes open the door and puts a hand around the small of my back to lead me out into the hallway. Just that small touch sparks a thrill strong enough to curl my toes. I wonder what it’d be like to get it on with him for real. I probably wouldn’t be able to handle it. Would he be rough and demanding? Or gentle, soft, and sweet? And what would he be like afterward? Would he want to cuddle? Or
, like most of my past boyfriends, reach for the PlayStation controller, afterward. I’m so over those guys.
Guess I’ll never know. And there’s no use fantasizing about it, now is there?
Anyhow, we creep through the dark hallway, down the stairs, and into the basement. There, Jareth finds a hanging light and pulls the string, enveloping the room in a dim yellowy glow. I look around, my breath catching in my throat as I recognize what surrounds me.
Corpses. Everywhere I look. Freak-y. I’ve never seen dead bodies in real life before.
Of course, they don’t seem to bother Jareth even the slightest. I guess that’s probably because technically speaking he’s a living, walking, breathing corpse himself. He heads straight over to the wall, where there’s a large filing cabinet- like setup and starts reading the drawer labels. He pauses at one and then pulls open the drawer. Out pops (surprise, surprise) another body. Ugh. I’m so going to have nightmares tonight. This is worse than the time Spider and I had an all-night Friday the 13th-watching marathon. Every time I closed my eyes for weeks later I saw hockey-masked Jason lumbering up to me with his machete, ready to creatively murder me for my sex, drugs, and rock-and-roll sins.
“This is one of them,” he says, motioning me over. “And she hasn’t been drained yet. Excellent.” He reaches into his black leather trench coat pocket (way cool) and pulls out a small silver dagger, an empty vial, and a pair of rubber gloves, which he slips on his hands.
“Wait. You’re not going to—” I start, stopping only when I realize indeed he is going to do just that. He draws a small slash across her arm and holds the vial underneath to catch the blood. I involuntarily cringe.
He looks up and laughs when he sees my face. “Relax, dear,” he says. “She can’t feel it. She’s already dead.”
“I know,” I say, annoyed, but more at myself than at him. Some super vampire-chick-in-training I’m turning out to be—afraid of a little blood. What’s going to happen when I have to dine on it every night? Maybe I’ll do what Jareth does and get takeout. At least that way I can pretend it’s wine or something. Though it sort of takes all the romance out of the process.
The vial fills quickly and Jareth plugs it with a small rubber stopper. Then he reaches into his pocket again and pulls out a small cloth, which he presses against the open wound. “To stop the blood,” he explains.
“Don’t want her to bleed to death, eh?” I quip.
He grins. “Definitely not,” he says. “Not to mention the smell of the stuff is driving me crazy. It’s taking everything I’ve got not to lean down and take a sip.”
“You’d better not. We don’t know what’s in that stuff. What if she is the reason Kristoff ’s out of commission?”
“Exactly. That would be . . . as you humans say . . . so not cool.” He says it in a total valley girl voice, causing me to giggle. He really can be funny when he’s not being a jerk.
“I’m glad I can make you laugh,” he says with a small smile and I totally feel my face going beet red. I have no idea how to respond to him, but luckily it turns out I don’t have to. A moment later he removes the cloth and examines the corpse’s wound. “Okay,” he says. “Let’s get out of this place.”
We leave the funeral home and Jareth drops me off at my place. The good-bye scene is très awkward for some reason. As if neither of us really wants to part company. And as if both of us want a goodnight kiss when we do. Unfortunately, we’re both total chickens and instead of confessing our desires we stumble over our goodnights with much stammering and blushing and I get out of the car and head for the house.
And that’s about it. Time for (sigh) me to head to school. TTYL.
POSTED BY RAYNE McDONALD @ 8 A.M.
ONE COMMENT:
NotYourMama says . . .
Wow, that sounds like quite the kiss, girl! I would love to get me some of that. You let us know if you decide he’s not the guy for you and I’ll be all over that sheeyat.
18
FRIDAY, JUNE 8, 12 A.M.
Gamer Girls
After school I go to my room and sign on to my video game. Spider and I are supposed to join our fellow guild members to do an instance. For those of you who think I’m speaking some other language when I go all gamer geek, a “guild” is a group of friends who play together online and an “instance” is like a special dungeon in the game where your characters can kill computer-generated monsters for really good treasure. (If you still don’t get it, ask your brother or boyfriend. They probably play and will be overjoyed to go off on a way-too-detailed explanation that you’ll get bored of after about half a minute.)
Anyway—Spider and I had a long chat about Jareth while we played.
Pasting the transcript here. The stuff in “whisper” is Spider and my private convo.
KELAHDKA: Everyone in? We ready to start?
RAYNIEDAY: Yup.
SPIDER: Yup.
RUKKU: Yup.
HAXOR: Yup.
KELAHDKA: Okay, here’s the plan. . . .
SPIDER WHISPERS: So how’s everything going with the whole slayer thing? You kill the bad guy yet? Save the world?
RAYNIEDAY WHISPERS: No. ☹ Not yet. But something weird is definitely going on. Some donor girls who visited the Blood Bar died after infecting their vampire with some kind of weird blood disease.
SPIDER WHISPERS: That doesn’t seem so good.
RAYNIEDAY WHISPERS: Watch out!
**Spider firebombs Acolyte for 40 damage.
**Scarlet Monastary Acolyte hits Spider for 450 damage.
SPIDER: Uh, can I get a heal?
SPIDER: Anyone? Hax?
HAXOR: Hang on. I’m on the phone.
**Scarlet Monastary Acolyte hits Spider for 230 damage.
**Spider dies.
SPIDER WHISPERS: Grr. He did that on purpose.
RAYNIEDAY WHISPERS: ☹
SPIDER WHISPERS: It’s ’cause I broke up with him, you know. Ever since I broke up with him I never get healed when we’re playing.
RAYNIEDAY WHISPERS: You’re imagining things. Why would he not heal you? It only delays the whole group. Surely he’s not that stupid.
SPIDER WHISPERS: He is that stupid. He totally is. Why do you think I dumped him?
HAXOR: Sorry. Back. Oh, Spider, you’re dead?
SPIDER: . . .
RAYNIEDAY WHISPERS: Be nice.
SPIDER: Why, yes, Hax. I died. How sweet of you to take time out of your busy real life to notice.
RAYNIEDAY WHISPERS: Uh, when I said nice . . .
SPIDER WHISPERS: Forget him. Tell me more about the vamps.
RAYNIEDAY WHISPERS: Hehe. I’ve got MAJOR scoop actually.
SPIDER WHISPERS: Oh?
RAYNIEDAY WHISPERS: . . . I kissed Jareth!!!!
SPIDER: OMG, YOU KISSED HIM!?!
SPIDER: Uh, mistype.
HAXOR: Who kissed who?
SPIDER: I said MISTYPE. As in I didn’t mean to type it to you. So eff off.
**HaxOr cries.
**Rukku comforts HaxOr.
SPIDER WHISPERS: God, this party sucks.
KELAHDKA: Okay, we’re going to attack the boss now. Here’s the strategy. . . .
SPIDER WHISPERS: Anyway, you kissed him? Why did you kiss him? I thought you hated him. Or at least thought he was annoying.
RAYNIEDAY WHISPERS: Well, it wasn’t like a real kiss. I mean, we were in this broom closet and . . .
SPIDER WHISPERS: Broom closet? OMG, how sexy is that?!
RAYNIEDAY WHISPERS: Uh, at a funeral home . . .
SPIDER WHISPERS: A Goth’s dream come true.
RAYNIEDAY WHISPERS: And someone was coming. We were afraid they were going to open the door. . . .
SPIDER WHISPERS: . . .
RAYNIEDAY WHISPERS: And so he kissed me. So we’d look like we snuck away from the wake or something if caught.
SPIDER WHISPERS: And . . .
RAYNIEDAY WHISPERS: And what?
SPIDER WHISPERS: Don’t play coy with me, y
oung lady. What was it like?
RAYNIEDAY WHISPERS: /blush
SPIDER WHISPERS: LOL.
KELAHDKA: Okay, here we go! Spider, go ahead and fireball these guys. Hax will keep you healed.
SPIDER: kk.
SPIDER WHISPERS: I want to hear more after this battle.
**Spider firebombs Scarlet Henchman for 400 damage.
HAXOR: Uh, my dog’s scratching at the door. I’ll BRB.
SPIDER: Wait, I already attacked!
**Scarlet Henchman attacks Spider for 430 damage.
**Scarlet Hound of Hell attacks Spider for 200 damage.
**Scarlet Priest attacks Spider for 235 damage.
**Scarlet Rogue attacks Spider for 500 damage.
**Spider dies.
SPIDER: GDAMNIT, HAX!
HAXOR: Okay. Sorry I’m back. Oh, Spider. You’re dead again?
SPIDER WHISPERS: Worst priest ever.
RAYNIEDAY WHISPERS: Sigh.
SPIDER WHISPERS: That’s it. I’m logging out. I can’t take it.
RAYNIEDAY WHISPERS: But don’t you want to hear the rest of the kiss?
SPIDER WHISPERS: Oh, yeah. Okay. One more try. But so help me if he doesn’t heal me again.
RAYNIEDAY WHISPERS: kk.
SPIDER WHISPERS: You can tell me what the kiss was like while my ghost runs back to my dead body.
RAYNIEDAY WHISPERS: Well, it was the most amazing kiss in the entire history of kissing. Like in that movie Princess Bride where they talk about best-ever kisses? This had to be one of them.