A Girl's Guide to Vampires

'Are you all right? You look like you're a million miles away, and you're breathing funny. Is it your asthma? You want me to go get your inhaler?' Roxy's voice was tight with worry.

I shook my head to clear the remnants of the… there was no other word for it but vision… and pushed the glass of beer away from me with a shaky hand. I still felt sick and dizzy, but it was fading. 'Sorry. No, I'm fine. Just spaced out there for a few minutes. I guess I'm not meant to be drinking alcohol anymore.'

Roxy shot me a curious look, part concern, part exasperation, but said nothing further about it. She chatted to Arielle while I tried to pull myself together, tried to analyze what games my mind was playing on me. It had to be the beer, I've never been the type of person to experience anything creepy like that. Not even the ill-fated rune stone reading at the Womyn's Magick Festival had made me feel as if I were a pawn to a force I didn't understand, let alone believe. Either I was having some sort of reaction to the beer, or I was going insane. Maybe that was it, maybe I was going mad. That seemed almost a preferable fate than to thinking the vision I had was real. I licked my dry lips. I could still taste the metallic bite of blood as it flowed over my tongue and down my throat.

'What did you mean, 'latest victim'?' The words were out of my mouth before I realized it. All three women stared at me. Something Arielle had said suddenly seemed to be important. 'You mentioned a couple of other women who had been to your fair, women who died afterwards, and you said one was the latest victim. What did you mean?'

'Nothing,' Tanya spat. 'She meant nothing. There is no connection, as the German police have proven to their satisfaction, so your accusations will serve no purpose.'

I pushed the worry of my potential insanity aside, surprised by the intensity of Tanya's verbal attack. 'Look, Tanya, I'm sorry if you think I'm accusing you of anything, but I'm not. I'm just curious about what Arielle said about there being more than one murder victim.'

'Arielle said nothing of interest,' Tanya said sullenly and stared into her beer. I pursed my lips and looked at Roxy. She shrugged. I sat back, ignoring the darkness creeping into my mind to concentrate on the bit of information Arielle had presented. I've always loved murder mysteries, and this seemed like the ideal thing to occupy my mind while I waited for the guys in the white suits to show up and take me away.

'So… there was more than one body?' I asked Arielle. As soon as the words left my lips, my mind was flooded with the immense satisfaction found in acts of dominance and conquest, the heat of another's body pressed tightly against mine, the scent of her shampoo, the silk of her skin against my mouth, warmth trickling through me, filling the icy regions, quieting the beast that howled within… I snapped my eyes open, coughing and choking to clear my mouth of the horrible substance. Blood.

He was feeding.

It was too much for me. I half stood, clutching the table for support. 'I think… I think I…' A red pit opened before me. I clawed at the table to keep from falling into it.

'Joy?'

Roxy was there in an instant, her arms around me, pushing me back into the chair. 'Put your head down between your knees. It'll pass in a minute.'

I did as she ordered, unable to stop the trembling that racked me. My mind was shrieking, screaming with the need to know what was going on, what was wrong with me, why I was suddenly seeing things I had no desire to see, let alone believe in.

Vampire, whispered the wind. I shook my head vehemently, banging the back of my head against the underside of the table. I clutched at the sensation, welcoming the pain since it was real, not imagined. Real—I desperately needed something real.

'Joyful, you OK?'

I opened my eyes and lifted my head cautiously. Roxy was squatting next to me, applying a cold wet cloth to the back of my neck. 'Geez, you scared the crap out of me. Your face went absolutely pale, and your eyes were empty like there was nothing there. Don't ever do that to me again, OK?'

'OK,' I agreed, mustering a ghost of a smile.

She hugged me tightly for a moment, whispering, 'Don't make me get tough with you, sister,' before she pulled back.

I gave a shaky little laugh at her order as I sat up slowly. Arielle stood on my other side holding out a glass of water, the bartender next to her speaking rapidly in Czech. I swallowed a bit of the water and in German assured the man I was just fine.

'Delayed jet lag,' Roxy told him. 'Jet lag Delayed Looong time,' she repeated louder in that weird pidgin form of English so many Americans abroad adopt.

'He's Czech, Rox, not deaf,' I pointed out, wiping my face with the wet cloth before handing it back to the bartender. I sipped a bit more water while everyone drifted back to where they were sitting, just as if nothing earth-shattering had happened. I rubbed my forehead and wondered why my mind had chosen that moment to snap, and what I was going to do about piecing it back together. What I needed was some time to myself with a big gallon jug of brain super glue.

'I think you should go lie down rather than go to the GothFaire,' Roxy pronounced, evidently reading what remained of my mind. 'You look like death warmed over.'

'Thanks a lot.' I struggled to block out the feeling of danger that surged within me until it howled like the wind in a storm. I gritted my teeth as Roxy chatted on, unwilling to give in to the sensation, clutching the arms of the chair in an attempt to focus on what was real, not what my mind was generating. The wood, that was real. It was hard and smooth from years of polishing, the intricate scroll carving on the arms was deep, the edges blunted with use. I fought to control my breathing, denying the need to pant as the blackness drew closer.

He is coming, a voice whispered in my head.

There is no one! I yelled back at it. I wondered if somehow Tanya hadn't slipped me one of her hallucinogenic drugs. Maybe she put it in my beer before I came, intending on pulling a little prank. If so, I didn't appreciate it, but at least it served to comfort me in an odd way. If I was suffering the effects of a drug, I wasn't going insane. Or worse.

I grabbed at the water glass and choked back a swallow, unable to hear the conversation around me for the howling of the wind. I was surprised no one else commented on it, but a slow glance around the room confirmed that everything was normal. People chatted, laughed, smoked, and drank just as if they weren't caught in the middle of hurricane-force winds. A pleasant-faced dark-haired man in a suede coat walked through the door, pausing to greet the bartender and several of the men clumped together before accepting a glass of wine and joining a lively group. A barmaid wandered through the crowd with a tray of beers. Someone brought out a pack of cards. It was all utterly normal.

The wind rose to an unbearable volume, shrieking and screaming out words of torment and pain, but just when I thought I was going to scream myself, just when the red pit opened up before me again, all was suddenly quiet.

He had come.

'Joy? Did you hear what Arielle said? Their rune reader up and quit last week.'

'Huh?' I turned my head slowly, my gaze touching each person in the room as I turned to look at the door. No one looked out of the ordinary. How could it be that no one else could feel the danger that sparked through the air?

'She says Dominic is looking for someone to take her place. You could ask him about taking on the job for a few days while they're here in Blansko. That would be so cool!'

'Dominic? Runes?'

'She's great at predicting natural disasters,' Roxy bragged to Arielle.

The door burst open as she spoke, the blackness of the hall beyond untouched by the lights within the room. I froze, my breath a solid lump in my chest as I waited to see him, waited to see what horrible creature my mind had conjured up. Would he be a hunchback? Would he be twisted and maimed, with flesh hanging off him in rancid strips? Would it be something worse?

With a swirl of black material, a man stepped through the door, pausing dramatically to survey the room before sauntering forward. He had dark blond hair that curled back from a pronounced widow's peak, dark eyes, and a face so handsome it would make an angel weep. He was followed by another man, taller than the first, probably