PS01 - Tall, Dark & Lonely (24 page)

she hit someone? “What’s wrong, Jill?” she asked as her eyes ran frantically around the front of the Jeep.

“Megan’s over there.” She pointed past Madison. “I need to go talk to her.”

“You just scared the shit out of us for that?” Chris threw her a disbelieving glare.

Jill opened the back door. “I have to talk to her so get over it. See you at home, Madison.” With that she closed the door and

beelined for her friend.

“I didn’t want to say anything before, but your sister is a bit of a spoiled brat.”

“Shut up,” she groaned.

Chris laughed. A few minutes later they were driving through the center of town. “Whoa! Hold up! Go into that parking lot!”

“Chris!” she warned, she was not in the mood for games tonight.

“Go in the parking lot!” Chris sounded more urgent.

She stopped the car. “Fine.” She started to turn in the parking lot. “What the-”

“-hell is he doing kissing another girl that’s what I’d like to know.” Chris bolted out the door and started running towards

Ephraim.

******

She kept herself tightly against him. The window behind him shattered violently. He tried to jump away, but Eve tightened her

grip and kept him pushed against the car. Two large hands shot out and wrapped tightly around his arms and waist. Another set

appeared from beneath the car and hugged his legs. Yet another was suddenly around his neck. He heard the movements, but

too late it seemed.

Eve backed up, laughing. Her fangs dropped as she eyed him. Ephraim was normally stronger than any vampire, but three

vampires holding him like vice grips was too much even for him. They were crushing him. The one on top had him in a good

choke hold.

He couldn’t move. “What the hell do you want, Eve?” He tried to struggle against the hold. They wouldn’t give an inch.

She laughed lightly. “What the Master’s always wanted of course, Ephraim. Your blood.”

“I told you, Eve, my blood will not change any of you. You’re not the first vampire to steal my blood. It won’t work!” It would

kill her, but he wasn’t about to tell her that.

“I don’t believe you.” She moved back in and pressed a kiss to his neck. He tried to struggle. “Don’t be selfish now. I think you

can share. Just think how nice it will be to share the sunlight with your closest friends. I just want a little taste before we bring

you to the Master.” She sank her teeth into his neck.

He squeezed his eyes closed and half screamed half groaned. She was sucking on his neck viciously, greedily. She was afraid

she would be stopped before she took enough. What she didn’t know was that a spoonful of his blood would kill her, slowly.

The amount she was stealing would probably kill her within a few minutes.

She pulled back. “Well, boys, don’t be shy. If you wait until I’m done there won’t be any left.” She struck his neck again.

On the other side of his neck a new set of fangs sunk it. The man hiding in the car sunk his teeth into Ephraim’s side and ripped

the skin violently. The one holding his legs did the same. They were too greedy to do this right. The blood was going to come

out too fast for them to catch it all in their mouths.

“Hey, asshole!” Chris yelled.

Ephraim forced his eyes opened and looked over Eve’s head to see Chris running towards him. Madison drove up right behind

him. The headlights hit him full blast. He knew the instant Chris saw the entire scene, he froze.

Madison jumped out of the car and started running. Chris grabbed her around the waist and pulled her back.

“Get out of here!” Ephraim yelled. “Go now!”

“They’re eating him!” Chris yelled.

“Let me go!” Madison fought against his hold.

She watched helplessly as four vampires fed from him. It didn’t look like they were being gentle. Blood was streaming from

their bites onto the ground quickly. All the color in his face was gone. His head dropped back and she got a good look at a

black man on the right side of his neck and a blonde woman in front of him, latched onto his neck. She was holding Ephraim by

the back of his head so he wouldn’t disturb her bite again.

Loud growls filled the air. She watched as the black man shook his head violently while keeping his teeth in Ephraim’s neck.

Blood began pouring from that wound at an astonishing rate.

His eyes shut and he roared. “Go now!” It was soon followed by a scream of agony. The man on his torso pulled back

dissatisfied with the flow of blood and ripped into Ephraim’s arm.

“No! Ephraim!”

His head dropped to the side. He was out. The vampires tightened their hold on him so that he wouldn’t drop to the ground.

They weren’t about to lose any blood when they were this close to their goal.

“We have to get help, Madison!” Chris tried to drag her back.

The blonde woman pulled back smiling. The bottom of her face was covered in red blood and shined grotesquely under the

headlights. “Oh, don’t rush off on our accounts we’d….we’d..” Her hand went to her stomach. She moaned softly and then

groaned. “Why does it hurt?” She dropped to the ground and started screaming.

One by one the men released Ephraim to grab their stomachs. They were thrashing and screaming as Ephraim fell to the ground

with a loud thud.

“Grab him!” Madison finally managed to get away from Chris. He was too stunned to hold her at the moment.

Madison reached Ephraim. “Oh, god no.” His throat was practically ripped out. He was covered in so much blood. “Chris!”

“Madison, you have to leave him! He’s going to turn into one of them.” Chris’s eyes were focused on the blonde's open mouth

as she screamed. Her fangs glimmered in the light.

“Chris, I need your help!” Madison screamed.

That made him jump and reluctantly focus on her. “Okay, okay, okay, let’s just get out of here. We’ll bring him to the

emergency room.”

“No, I have something else in mind.”

********

Madison! We have to get him some help!”

“No, he needs to be here.” She left him to go into his room and grabbed the key hidden under his DVD player and unlocked the

mini fridge.

“I’m calling 911, Madison. He needs help.” Chris grabbed Ephraim’s phone and began dialing.

Madison lunged for the phone. “No, trust me.”

“Trust you? He’s dying and you want to do what? What the hell are you going to do?”

She turned her back on him and packed her arms with bags of blood. “I’m going to feed him.”

“A-are those what I think they are?” his voice sounded weak as he stared nervously at the blood in her arms.

“Yes, don’t worry, Chris, he’s a good guy.”

“He’d better be,” he mumbled.

Madison went into the bathroom. She heard wood snap behind her. “What are you doing?”

Chris walked into the room holding a homemade stake. “Sorry about the chair, but you understand.” He stood protectively over

Madison with the stake raised and ready to drive it into Ephraim should he make a wrong move.

“Let me feed him and everything will be fine.”

“No one’s stopping you.”

“Punk,” she mumbled.

“How are you going to feed him? He’s unconscious,” Chris pointed out.

“Good question. I could pour it down his throat, but he wouldn’t swallow. I need his fangs to come out.”

“He has fangs
?” Chris squeaked.

“Yes, now if I could get them to drop we’d be in business.” She gently pried his mouth open and pressed the bag to his teeth.

“What are you doing?”

She sighed. “I was hoping his teeth would come out if he felt the bag against his mouth.”

“He needs to smell blood I bet.” Chris pulled out a pocket knife. “Here cut the bag.”

She opened the knife, but paused. “He needs something stronger than bagged blood to get him going.”

“What are you talking about?”

Madison pressed the knife to her wrist. “Just trust me.”

“What are you doing? No! Madison, don’t!” He reached out for the knife too late. She nicked her wrist. Blood began welling

up in the area.

“Now what?” Chris asked.

“I-“

Two strong hands clasped around her wrist, pulling her into the tub. She fell on top of Ephraim. Seconds later her wrist was in

his mouth. She felt two sharp points pierce her skin and tried to yank her arm away. One hand released her arm, but the other

tightened painfully.

She looked up to see Ephraim stare at her with fiery red eyes. He looked pained.

He watched in agony as Madison tried to pull away from him. He couldn’t stop. He couldn’t. Blood lust more powerful than

he’d ever known was taking him over. His brain was screaming to release her, but he couldn’t.

The scent of her blood called him out of the darkness. He didn’t know what he was doing until her blood rushed down his

throat. It was the sweetest most enticing flavor he’d ever experienced. It was a thousand times better than he imagined it would

be.

“Let her go!” Chris yelled. He brought down a stake aimed at Ephraim’s chest and Madison's arm. Ephraim’s hand shot out and

pushed Chris away, hard. He would have hit Madison’s arm.

“Please, baby, let go!” Madison was whimpering.

Ephraim pulled harder on her arm. He was going to kill her. He brushed his free hand down her cheeks before dropping his

hand away.

It hurt so much. If felt like her arm was stuck in a powerful vacuum with teeth and she couldn’t pull away. She was starting to

feel light headed. She closed her eyes, waiting for the darkness to come. She heard a click and opened her eyes.

Ephraim held his gun against his chest. He squeezed his eyes shut before he pulled the trigger. The bullet pierced his skin and

bone like a hot knife through butter, making a path through his heart until it slammed into his spine. His body slammed violently

against the tub. Her arm fell away and she instinctively moved to cover her ears as Chris dragged her limp body out of the tub

seconds before a river of blood would have soaked her pants.

Chapter 15

“Wakey, wakey,” Chris’s taunting voice said.

Ephraim opened his eyes and swore. Chris stood at the end of his bed, holding his gun.

“Put that down before you hurt yourself.”

“Sure thing. As soon as I know you won’t attack Madison again I’ll just go ahead and do that.”

His head shot off the pillow. He tried to sit up, but was pulled short by his arms. “What the hell?” Both wrists were handcuffed

to the iron frame of the bed. Four pairs of cuffs attached to each hand. “A little over kill, don't you think?” He looked pointedly

at the cuffs.

“Oh, I would say that anyone that could shoot themselves in the heart and fully recover two hours later should be tied to the bed

with as many handcuffs as we could find.”

“Where’s Madison? Is she okay?”

“You mean after she passed out from the shock of you shooting yourself and of course let’s not forget the blood loss? Yeah,

she’s peachy.”

“Chris, I’m not in the mood for this shit, tell me where she is.”

“You’re no fun.” He gestured towards the front of the house. “After the gun went off, grandma came running. Thankfully

Madison convinced her that the gun you gave her for safety accidentally went off.” He cocked his head to the side. “By the way

you’re in deep shit with Mrs. Buckman for giving Madison a gun.”

“That’s the least of my worries right now, wouldn't you say?”

“True, anyway Mrs. Buckman, or Grandma as I’m allowed to call her,” he grinned, “dragged Madison downstairs for a

surprise birthday dinner. But don’t worry I stayed and mended you to health when Grandma wouldn’t take no for an answer

from Madison. We told her I was upset from my mom abandoning me and all that jazz.”

“So, she’s okay?”

“Yup.”

“Your mom left you?”

“Yup.”

“What a bitch.” Ephraim managed to pull himself up a little on the pillows.

“That she is, but not to worry, Madison is taking over.”

“God help us,” Ephraim muttered.

Chris placed the gun in the top drawer of the bureau. “She thinks you forgot her birthday you know.”

“Fuck, I didn’t forget her birthday.”

“I know.”

His eyes shot to Chris. “Wait, how do you know?”

Chris rolled his eyes as if it should be very obvious. “I found the boxes when I was taking your clothes off.”

Ephraim looked down at his body and for the first time noticed that he was clean and naked. “You cleaned me?”

“Hell no!” Chris said, disgusted. “Madison snuck back up to do that. Then she helped me put you in bed.”

“She didn’t see the boxes, did she?”

“No, I put them under your pillow before she turned around.”

“Good, thank you,” he said relieved. “You think you could uncuff me now?”

“Sorry, man, I have orders not to do that. Madison said she would bring me a huge slice of cake if I left you cuffed.”

“You’re leaving me like this for cake?” he asked dumbfounded that cake held that kind of power over the boy. He wondered if

it was like bloodlust.

“Well, that and you are a bloodsucker.”

“Shit. Did Madison explain it to you?”

He nodded. “Pretty much. I got the basics down. I’m to keep my mouth shut. Vampires really exist. You’re a Pyte, which I don’t

completely understand what the hell that is except you can go out into the sun and all that shit.”

“Anyone ever tell you that you swear too much?”

He pondered that question. “I believe it may have been mentioned a time or two.”