I'm ready, you know.
Ready and willing, baby," she says, easily mastering that sultry voice thing I was attempting a few minutes before.
I glance over at Magnus, who has suddenly lost his confident swagger and looks like he's sweating bullets.
I mean, the guy wasn't all that tanned to begin with, but now he looks positively glow-in-the-dark white.
He stares at me, then behind me.
I turn around and see Rayne approaching.
"Sunny, what are you doing talking to Magnus?" Rayne asks disapprovingly as she approaches.
"He hasn't... told you anything weird, has he?" "Rayne, what the hell is going on here?" I demand.
"There's ...two ..." Magnus the once-smooth lover stammers.
"But I thought..." "Rayne is my twin sister," I explain to him, marveling at how in control my voice sounds.
"But you look ...I thought..." Magnus trails off.
Rayne's face drains of color.
"Oh no," she cries.
"You didn't!" She places a hand on my shoulder and yanks me around to face her, peering at my neck.
"Oh no!" she cries.
"No, no, NO!" "Will someone please tell me what is going on here?" I demand, hands on my hips.
This has gone way too far.
"And I mean, now!" "Now Sunny, don't get mad, but..." Rayne begins, her voice trembling.
I shoot her an angry glare.
"But WHAT, Rayne?" "I, uh, think you've accidentally been turned into a vampire."
4
A Bloody Bad Case of Mistaken Identity
"A vampire?" I cry.
"Is this your idea of some kind of sick joke?" Rayne shakes her head.
"No joke, Sun.
But a serious problem." She turns to Magnus.
"How could you have screwed this up? You're supposed to be my sponsor.
And you can't even tell when it's not me?" Magnus moans, then leans over and starts spitting onto the pavement.
Attractive.
I can't believe five minutes ago I thought he was hot and sexy.
Someone I wanted to hook up with.
At this point, I'd sooner kiss the Cryptkeeper.
"You look exactly alike," he whines.
"How was I supposed to know?" He closes his hand into a fist.
"Lucifent is going to kill me." "Um, technically aren't you already dead?" I ask in my sweetest voice.
I'm so over this game already.
He turns around to shoot me an evil-looking glare.
"I take it you were absent the day they covered 'figure of speech' in school?" I raise an eyebrow.
"At least I showed up when they taught us not to bite the other kindergarteners." "Guys, please!" Rayne interrupts.
"Stop arguing.
This is serious.
It doesn't matter why this all happened.
Just that it did.
And that we've got to make it unhappen.
Sunny can't turn into a vampire.
She's got field hockey play-offs next week." For the record, field hockey would be the least of my concerns were I to turn into a vampire for real.
I'd be thinking bigger picture: like the fact that the whole "sleeping all day, hunting humans all night" gig might be a deal breaker at all the colleges I'm planning to apply to.
Magnus hocks another loogie on the sidewalk.
Ew.
"Uh, do you mind the whole spitting thing?" I ask, backing up to put distance between me and his spray zone.
"It's really grossing me out." He looks up.
"I'm trying to remove all traces of your blood from my mouth.
You weren't tested first.
Who knows what kind of diseases you could be carrying?" he says, a horrified look washing over his face.
"You don't have AIDS, do you?" Of all the ...
Gah! This guy is pissing me off big time. It's not like I freaking asked him to start munching on my jugular. It'd serve him right if I did have some weird communicable disease.
Rayne rolls her eyes.
"Puh-leeze. Sunny's pure as the driven snow, Mag. Total Virgin with a capital V. So unless she has some hidden heroin addiction she hasn't told me about, I think you're clear. And," she adds with a smirk, "I'm pretty sure she's not a smackhead.
After all, she doesn't exactly have that waiflike heroin chic thing going on, now does she?" "Oh, thanks a lot, Rayne." Now we need to bring up the circumference of my hips as well? This night is getting better and better.
"Right," Magnus says. "No diseases. Well, at least that's something.
But still.
An unauthorized bite! Do you know how badly Lucifent is going to kill—er, kick my arse? I mean in this day in age no one turns someone into a vampire against their will.
It's simply not kosher and an absolute lawsuit waiting to happen." "I can sue you? Cool." I rummage around in my purse for a pen, wanting to write this down.
"Under what? Medical malpractice? Assault with a deadly fang?" I look up.
"How much you think the courts would award me for that?" Rayne frowns.
"Sunny, stop being a bitch.
Can't you see poor Magnus is freaking out here?" "I need to stop being a bitch? For Magnus's sake?" I stare at her, unbelieving.
"Uh, hello? He's the guy who walked up and bit me for absolutely no reason whatsoever." "I had a reason," Magnus remarks, more than a bit sulkily.