He had been the captain of the football team and pretty much the most popular guy on campus, but high school reunions had never appealed much to Jim Bader.  Of course that was before he became a vampire.  Now he actually looked forward to seeing some of his classmates again, especially the ones who had been a pain in his ass.

Jim pinned his name tag on as he walked into the banquet hall.  The tag included his high school yearbook picture, his name and his occupation, which he had boldly given as “vampire”, figuring everyone would get a big laugh out of it.

As Jim wandered through the crowd he saw that most of the girls he had found attractive in high school had either ballooned in weight, lost much of their hair or otherwise held little interest for him.  The exception stood at the bar; a tall, leggy creature with long, chestnut hair.  She wore a skin-tight sequined red dress, stockings (the ones with the line up the back) and red stiletto heels.  She looked familiar, but Jim couldn’t see her name tag.  He ogled her as she walked from the bar back to her table.

As she reached the table a scrawny man sporting bent wire-frame glasses and a comb-over held her chair out for her.  She kissed him on the cheek and sat down.  Jim didn’t have to look at the guy’s name tag to figure out that this gorgeous woman had come to the reunion with none other than the class dweeb, Chester Nelson.

Jim had kicked Chester’s ass more than once back in school.  Chester (who Jim had dubbed “Chester the Molester” for no good reason) had been the source of much aggravation for Jim.  Jim’s beef with the dork had centered on Chester’s girlfriend, Denise Wixom.  Denise was a looker in high school, and Jim could never understand what she saw in the kid with the pocket protector and the glasses held together by paper clips.  Jim had tried to lure her away, but she had refused his advances.  This pissed Jim off to no end.  So Jim started spreading rumors about Denise.  He told people she was a slut, and people started to believe it.  Denise accused Jim of ruining her reputation, and Jim didn’t deny it.  Truth was, he didn’t give a crap.

As Jim approached their table, he glanced at the woman’s name tag.  Could this possibly be Denise Wixom?  The picture on the tag was definitely Denise’s high school mug shot, but the name below it was Denise Nelson.  Jim’s mouth dropped open.  Chester “The Molester” Nelson had married this hottie?

“Jim!  Great to see you!”

Chester was standing up, extending his hand to Jim.  Jim closed his mouth with a audible snap, took Chester’s hand and shook it, deliberately squeezing too hard.  Chester winced.

“Jim, I’d like you to meet my wife, Denise.  You remember her from school?”

Denise stood up and leaned forward, holding out her hand.  Jim took her hand and gave it a cursory shake, but it was her cleavage he was staring at.

“Nice to see you again,” Jim said, finally shifting his eyes to Denise’s face.  “And of course I remember you.  How could I forget?”

“Nice to see you, too,” Denise said, smiling.  She didn’t seem to be harboring any ill feelings toward Jim, and neither did Chester.  Denise sat down and Jim followed suit, glad to be able to hide his growing erection.

“Hey, Jim,” Chester said, “I’m gonna grab something to drink.  Can I get you something?”

“No, thanks,” Jim said.  If he was going to drink anything tonight it wouldn’t come from behind the bar.

“OK.  I might as well mingle a bit while I’m up.”  Chester kissed Denise, this time on the mouth.  Jim thought he saw their tongues flitting briefly as their lips parted.  Chester straightened up and smiled.  “I can trust you with Jim, can’t I?”

“Of course, silly!” Denise said, smiling back.

Chester chuckled and walked off toward the bar.  Jim opened his mouth to say something and then felt Denise’s hand high up on his thigh.  Jim’s mouth snapped audibly shut for the second time in sixty seconds.  He looked down at her hand, then up at her face.  Denise was grinning.

“You wanna go outside for a while?” she asked.

“Sure,” Jim answered, “but you’re gonna have to walk in front of me.”  Denise glanced down at the tented front of Jim’s pants.

“I see.  Well, just follow me.”

They stood up, and Denise led Jim by the hand toward the exit.  A smile spread across Jim’s face as he realized he was finally going to have the one girl who had shunned him in high school.  And by have her, he meant kill her.  And then he’d drink her blood.

Denise led Jim around the back of the banquet hall and behind a Dumpster.  She leaned against the wall and pulled him to her.  Jim’s hands grasped Denise’s buttocks, and as he mashed his mouth against hers he could feel his canine teeth lengthening into fangs.  Denise pushed him away, gasping for air.

“We’ve been waiting for you to come to one of these reunions,” she breathed.

Jim was puzzled.

“You mean ‘I’ve been waiting’.”

Jim was startled by the throaty growl behind him.

“No, she means ‘we’ve been waiting’.”

Jim spun around and looked up at what appeared to be an enormous wolf.  A pair of bent wire-frame glasses sat askew on its muzzle.  In the instant before Jim’s head was ripped from his shoulders, the name tag hanging from the creature’s tattered dress shirt caught Jim’s eye.  He had enough time to wish he’d paid more attention to it earlier.  The name on the tag was Chester Nelson.  Chester had listed his occupation as “werewolf”.

—
© 2009 Robert C. Eccles

The Marradith Ryder Series Part 13

We stopped at a motel around 11:00 that night.

The room was nothing special, but it was warm, clean, and came with free cable, so it was a palace in comparison to the warehouse we’d slept in the night before.

While Justin went and got food for us from the taco place across the street, I took a long, hot shower. I changed into a fresh pair of jeans and a t-shirt. By the time he got back I was going over my hair with a blow dryer.

“I didn’t know what you wanted, so I got some of everything,” he said, spreading the bags across the bed. I sat down and ate with him. Or more accurately, watched him eat.

He did eat like a werewolf. Once he finished it was his turn to shower, and I sat, watching television. Not thinking, I manipulated the channels the way I do when I am at home alone: I snapped my fingers, flipping the channels back and fourth with a flick of my wrist.

It took a minute before I realized Justin was standing in the doorway, watching me do this.

“What I can’t figure out is which side of your family that comes from,” he said.

“It’s not a werewolf trait, I can tell you that for sure. Handy, though.”

“Blame it on Mama,” I said. “I’ll tell you one thing. I bet she knew full well about her family… the vampire link. It explains some things about her, personality-wise.”

Justin shrugged. “You’ll have to talk to her about that.”

“If I see her again, you mean.”

“No, you’ll see her, and the rest of your family. You should get some rest. We’re going to drive another full day and night before we reach The Compound.”

“You should have told me that before,” I said.

“The Compound is where we’re going. It’s a safe house. Your family is in another place right now, but I promise, when we get there, things will be better. You’ll be able to make plans for your life again. After some time passes and the situation has calmed, we’ll be able to bring your family to you.”

“How much time?” I asked.

“That, we won’t know, until we’ve had time to get off the road.”

Justin sat down in a battered recliner on the far side of the room.

“Are you sleeping over there?” I asked.

He nodded. “Yes.”

“You sure? I promise to beat you if you get too close.”

He raised an eyebrow at me. “It’s not a good idea, Ryder.”

“Okay.”

I raised my hand and the lights went out. Apparently this amused him. He laughed softly.

I laid down and pulled the covers around me. From across the room, Justin’s irises glowed green in the dark. It made me think of the other night, after we plunged into the river, when his eyes were the only light I could see.

“Thanks,” I said. “For what you told me about my family. I needed to hear that.”

He must have blinked; for a moment the green shine was gone. “You’re welcome.”

Though it was a comfort to know that Justin was there, watching, I already knew that I liked having his arms around me much better.

***

“I expected you to have Marradith by now.” Leighton growled.

Syd and Leighton were in the living room of Leighton’s mansion. Syd sat with a glass of whiskey in his hand, which he’d filled and drained twice within the hour. Leighton stood, arms crossed, staring out the back door into the woods that surrounded his house. The moon was obscured by clouds, only a sliver visible above the treetops.

“I know what you expected, but this is where we find ourselves. My men are handling the situation,” Syd took another small sip and relished the heat in the back of his throat. His pale eyes were sensitive during daylight hours, but were much worse at night. Leighton’s figure seemed twisted under the moonlight, a shape that was not Wolf nor entirely human.

He blinked and saw again his friend’s regular human form. Long blond hair, sharp chin, thin, rounded mouth. He cared not to count the years that they’d known each other, but Leighton was only a child compared to Syd.

“I’m surprised,” Syd said, “that you did not want to be there to see Granthem die.

All these years, I thought you’d want to enjoy it first hand.”

Leighton shrugged. “He is not my priority. It’s a coincidence, that he’s involved in this situation with Marradith. The Sojourners could have sent anyone else for her just as easily.”

“I see. Whatever reason that you want to acquire her. I’d urge you to remember. The Circle will have to be answered to if this is not done correctly, beneath the notice of the humans. This is why we’re proceeding as I explained to you earlier. You don’t want to inflame the Elders.”

“Well I have you for that, don’t I?”

Syd chuckled, a low, grating sound. “You know very well I am only one. There are the others.”

“However you’re going to do it. I need this done. I don’t like waiting.”

There was pain in Leighton’s voice.

Syd frowned. He didn’t understand. “Are you intending on telling me what your obsession is with this girl? I see that she has powers. But that is not entirely it, is it?”

“I’ll tell you,” Leighton replied. “But not before I tell her.”

__
© 2009 Lori Titus

Lori Titus’s The Marradith Ryder Series appears each Wednesday on Flashes in the Dark. Many of her short stories have appeared on MicroHorror and Shadeworks, and she is currently writing an anthology of short stories with a tentative release date in 2010.

For more information see her at http://www.myspace.com/talesforthedark.