We kiss and fool around a little, then drag ourselves out of bed, get dressed, and go upstairs.
The sibs are all off doing their things. Sam’s up in his room with Daryl and Jordan, Sophia’s in her room with Megan and at least two other girls, and Sierra’s attempting to perform some manner of Borg-type meld with the PlayStation in the living room. I think she’s going on sixteen straight hours.
Mom’s out in the yard ‘gloom-bathing’ with an iced tea in hand. We find Dad in the garage cleaning up, so Hunter and I wind up helping him out for a while. He hangs out with me all day at home, having dinner with us, then surprises me with concert tickets to an Imagine Dragons show in Seattle.
“Umm. Wow. You shouldn’t have. You need money for school.”
He cringes. “It’s okay. They didn’t cost that much. You don’t need to feel sorry for me.”
“All right. We better get ready then.”
“Back in a half hour.” He winks.
While he heads home to clean up and change, I do the same here. After a pleasantly uninterrupted shower, I run downstairs and change into black jeans with a black lacy babydoll top that’s a little heavy on the goth… and my Doc Martens. I’m not about to dye my hair, but I’ve at least got the paleness down.
I fill the parents in on the plans while waiting for my knight-in-tarnished-Buick to show up. A gloomy morning and early afternoon has become a nice overcast evening with a slight chance of rain and a constant, fresh breeze laced with sea air. Damn, it’s nice to be home again.
When Hunter pulls up, I run outside, hop in, and we suffer a tedious drive into the city. I’m a little annoyed that Ash and Chelle are so busy with work, but they’re all for me having fun tonight with Hunter. I stop texting them as we pull into the parking area for the concert.
It makes sense why the tickets weren’t a big deal to Hunter’s budget—we’re out on the grass again, but that doesn’t bother me at all. We lounge there together listening to the opening act for a while. Eventually, Imagine Dragons comes out on stage and the real show starts.
Of course, that gets me wondering, if vampires and trolls are real…
Nah.
“Oh, hey,” says a familiar voice.
I glance up at Amy, Luke, and Dante walking up to us.
“Hey yourself,” I say.
“Cute outfit.” Amy winks. “You need to dye your hair black though.”
“Pass.”
The Seattle Outcasts flop on the grass next to us. Luke is totally doing some James Dean thing with a white T-shirt and that bad boy pose. The guy can even make reclining on the lawn look bad ass. Dante, despite his being a fury, looks chill as hell. Amy’s cross-legged right next to me in a dress that can’t figure out what color it wants to be and barefoot. She’s totally ready for Woodstock 2.0.
We appear to be hanging out and listening to the show, though the four of us have a telepathic conversation catching up on the whole issue with Petra, that crazy Sybarite who tried to kill me. When I tell them that one of my friends is a Shadow who basically threatened to destroy her if she messed with me again, Amy cackles in glee.
I lean to my left and kiss the side of Hunter’s neck for no particular reason than being happy I’m home and able to spend time with him.
“So,” asks Amy, “have you bitten him during sex yet?”
My face burns with blush as a few people nearby glance back at me. They don’t know what she really means, but it’s still embarrassing.
“Umm, no,” I say barely over the music in hopes of keeping our conversation to us. “I don’t feed on people I know.”
“Not feeding.” She nudges my shoulder. “Just little ‘love bites.’”
“Any requests?” asks Luke.
Amy glances at him. “They’re a band, not a jukebox.”
“You thinkin’ what I’m thinkin’?” Dante grins. “Little Leppard?”
“I’m on it.” Luke stands, straining to stare at the lead singer.
I chuckle into the crook of Hunter’s neck. He wraps me in both arms, rocking me side to side. The current song ends, and the singer murmurs something about a sudden urge to play a cover.
The Outcasts all start snickering as soon as the first few notes play. I glance at them, clueless, then look at Hunter. At the first line of vocals, Hunter blushes.
“Okay, what joke am I missing?” I ask.
“The song.” Amy play-punches my shoulder, then snaps her teeth at me. “Love Bites.”
I pretend to nibble on Hunter’s neck. “Like this? I dunno. Not really into weird stuff.”
“It’s intense,” says Amy. “Really intense. But maybe you shouldn’t. Once you do that with him, you’ll ruin the poor boy for any other woman he’ll ever be with.”
Hunter brushes his fingers over my hair. “It wouldn’t matter, since you’re the only girl I’ll ever want.”
“Wow.” Amy rolls her eyes. “Ease back on the cheese, man.”
I tilt my head to look him in the eyes. His sincerity is like a warm blanket. If anything ever happened to me, I have no doubt he’d be alone for the rest of his life. It’s an overwhelming feeling to have someone care that much about me.
A little choked up, I rest my head on his shoulder. “It’s not cheesy when he really means it.”
fin
Acknowledgments
Thank you for reading Vampire Innocent #4!
Special thanks to my beta readers:
Dianne Webb, Brandy Yassa, David Lee Cox, Leslie Whitaker, Louise Feagans, Lee Hargrove, & Katie McMahan.
Additional thanks to Alex Thompson for the beautiful cover and interior art!
About the Author
Originally from South Amboy NJ, Matthew has been creating science fiction and fantasy worlds for most of his reasoning life. Since 1996, he has developed the “Divergent Fates” world, in which Division Zero, Virtual Immortality, The Awakened Series, The Harmony Paradox, and the Daughter of Mars series take place. Along with being an editor at Curiosity Quills press, he has worked in IT and technical support.
Matthew is an avid gamer, a recovered WoW addict, Gamemaster for two custom RPG systems, and a fan of anime, British humour, and intellectual science fiction that questions the nature of reality, life, and what happens after it.
He is also fond of cats.
Visit me online at:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MatthewSCoxAuthor
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/author/mscox
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/matthewcox10420/
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7712730.Matthew_S_Cox
Email: mcox2112@gmail.com
Other books by Matthew S. Cox
Divergent Fates Universe Novels
Division Zero series
Division Zero
Lex De Mortuis
Thrall
Guardian
The Awakened series
Prophet of the Badlands
Archon’s Queen
Grey Ronin
Daughter of Ash
Zero Rogue
Angel Descended
The Hand of Raziel
Araphel
Ghost Black
Virtual Immortality series
Virtual Immortality
The Harmony Paradox
Divergent Fates Anthology
(Non-Divergent Fates novels)
The Roadhouse Chronicles Series
One More Run
The Redeemed
Dead Man’s Number
Faded Skies series
Heir Ascendant
Ascendant Unrest
Ascendant Revolution
Chiaroscuro: The Mouse and the Candle
Temporal Armistice Series
Nascent Shadow
The Shadow Collector
Wayfarer: AV494
Axillon99
Vampire Innocent series
A Nighttime of Forever
A
Beginner’s Guide to Fangs
The Artist of Ruin
Operation: Chimera (with Tony Healey)
The Dysfunctional Conspiracy
Winter Solstice series (with J.R. Rain)
Convergence
Containment
Alexis Silver series (with J.R. Rain)
Silver Light
Samantha Moon Origins series (with J.R. Rain)
New Moon Rising
Moon Mourning
Maddy Wimsey series (with J.R. Rain)
The Devil’s Eye
The Drifting Gloom
Samantha Moon Case Files series (with J.R. Rain)
Blood Moon
Dead Moon
The Far Side of Promise anthology
Young Adult
Caller 107
The Summer the World Ended
Nine Candles of Deepest Black
The Eldritch Heart
The Forest Beyond the Earth
Out of Sight
Middle Grade
Tales of Widowswood series
Emma and the Banderwigh
Emma and the Silk Thieves
Emma and the Silverbell Faeries
Emma and the Elixir of Madness
Emma and the Weeping Spirit
Citadel: The Concordant Sequence
The Cursed Codex
The Menagerie of Jenkins Bailey
Sophie’s Light