Call of the Vampire by Gayla Twist Page A

not sure which one; either Branwell or Charlotte would be my best guess. Anyway, someone in the family became a vampire and started turning the others. Most of the sisters were pretty devout. Once they discovered that they were the undead, they refused to eat and slowly starved to death.”
    “Oh, my God. That can happen?” I was surprised, although I don’t know why.
    “It used to happen quite frequently,” he assured me.
    It was challenging to summon up the courage to ask my next question, but I knew I had to. “How do you eat?” I asked in a quiet voice.
    “We have blood drives,” he replied in a matter-of-fact voice.
    “You do not.”
    “We do,” he insisted.
    “How is that even possible?”
    “Well, that’s where coming from old money really pays off.” Jessie shifted his position to hook his folded hands over his other knee. “A subsidiary of one of our corporations arranges blood drives all over the country. Most of the blood goes to hospitals that need it, but a portion goes to us vampires, who also need it.”
    “But that’s dishonest,” I said, frowning. People thought they were doing good by donating blood. Not supplying food for the undead.
    “I know,” Jessie agreed. “But we keep a lot of vampires from being hungry and, believe me, you do not want a world full of hungry vampires.”
    I shivered, remembering the crazed look in Viktor’s eyes. “You’re probably right.”
    There was a gentle knock at my bedroom door. “Aurora?” my mom said, before opening it. There was just us two females in the house, so we walked into each other’s room all the time.
    “Uh, hi, Mom,” I said, getting to my feet.
    “What are you up to?” she asked, stepping into the room.
    “Nothing,” I told her. “Just looking out the window.”
    “I thought I heard you talking to someone.” My mom glanced around the room like she expected to see someone’s shoes peeking out from under the drapes.
    “Nope, just me,” I said. “I was practicing my Spanish vocabulary. Maybe that’s what you heard.”
    “Maybe.” She didn’t look convinced. After a moment, she added, “Anyway, I’m headed to bed. Goodnight, sweetie. I love you.”
    “Goodnight, Mom. Love you, too.”
    After she closed the door, I turned to look back out the window, but the roof was empty. Jessie was gone.
     

Chapter 13
    The disappointment I felt that Jessie had left was staggering. It was as if someone was squeezing my heart. But why? I couldn’t explain it to myself. It wasn’t like I hadn’t had hot guys blow me off before. Or even not so hot guys. Freshman year, I had a date actually ditch me at a school dance. Now that was humiliating. But I had so much been enjoying my conversation with Jessie. Not only because it was fascinating, but because I felt good being near him.
    It took three hours of thrashing around in my bed with the sheets twisting around my legs before I was able to fall asleep. Even then, I didn’t get any rest. I had a horrible nightmare, one I used to have all the time when I was a little girl but that fortunately went away for the most part when I hit puberty.
    In my dream, it was dark—the pitch black of night. I was barefoot and running as fast as my legs could carry me through some type of wooded area. My lungs ached from the exertion, and there was a strong stitch in my side which I was pressing on with my hand in order to keep going. Something was after me. I wasn’t sure if it was a man or a beast. Maybe something that was a bit of both. Either way, it had long, sharp teeth that were eager to tear into my flesh.
    At some point, I stumbled and fell. Too exhausted to go any further, I tried to hide behind a log and quiet my ragged breathing as much as possible. There was a moment of pure silence, when all the creatures of the night ceased to sing their lullabies. And then the creature was on me, grabbing me, forcing me down, pushing my head back. I tried to scream, but I couldn’t. I tried to