“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!!!!