As I navigated my way through Tampa’sdarkened streets, I remembered the night six years ago that hadstarted it all and how my best friend had become one of the livingdead in the first place.
It had been a night not unlike thisone—meaning it was hot and sticky, too humid to go out. I had beenin favor of staying in our cozy little two bedroom apartment,ordering pizza, and whipping up some frozen drinks in the blender.But since my break-up with Todd, the guy I’d been sure was Mr.Right for most of college and part of grad school, staying at homewas all I did.
Taylor was always on me for moping aroundour apartment and she pointed out that we needed to go cut looseand have some fun, or as she put it, “Get off your ass and try toforget about Prince Charming turning back into a frog.”
I reluctantly agreed and when Taylor wonsome tickets to see Celeste, Mistress of the Night’s VampireBedazzlement on a radio show during her drive home, it seemedpositively providential. We went for the Goth-chic look, wearingall black like the real fang freaks and Taylor even produced someblack lipstick and nail polish to top it off. By the time we gotout the door, nobody would have known the difference between us anda couple of glam-heads looking for a fix.
We were as giggly as a couple of schoolgirls as we entered the Embassy Suites banquet hall where the showwas being held. Celeste was a very strong three-star vamp withincredible powers of persuasion and her show was a popular touristattraction, ranking right up there with Disney World and BuschGardens. But despite living in a vamp-heavy town, neither Taylornor I had ever seen a vampire in action. We were good little gradstudents, keeping our noses to the grindstone, and didn’t have muchtime for partying. I was working on a PhD in nineteenth centuryEnglish Lit and Taylor wanted to be a veterinarian. Both of ourdreams were shattered that night, although for very differentreasons.
We found seats right up near the front rowand the lights dimmed dramatically. Then soft, hypnotic flute musicbegan from somewhere offstage and suddenly Celeste was standingthere, almost directly in front of us, looking like some kind ofgoddess.
She was dressed like a flapper, although Iknew the roaring twenties weren’t her era of origin. Two hundredyears earlier would have been more like it but with her slender,waifish figure and pale, pixie cut blonde hair, the three-star vamplooked a lot more at home in her sleeveless fringed and beaded gownthan she would have in an outfit from the seventeen hundreds.
“Ladies and gentlemen—humans of all ages andpersuasions, you have come here tonight to be amazed and enthralledand I promise you shall be.” With the first sound of the vamp’ssoft but penetrating voice a hush fell over the crowd. I looked toeither side of me and saw that every eye was trained on Celeste andthat the faces of my fellow audience members were filled withlonging and delight. Every one of them seemed to be under some kindof spell, even Taylor—especially Taylor. I began to feeluneasy as I realized that I was the only one who wasn’t immediatelyenraptured by Celeste.
“You have all signed that silly little pieceof paper the human lawyers make us hand out before we can begin,”the vampire continued. “So let us get the show on the road, as theysay. I’m going to need a volunteer from the audience.”
Every hand in the room went up. I mean,every single one. Except mine, of course—there was no way Iwas getting up on stage with that ancient thing dressed up like apretty young flapper. The longer I sat there, the moreuncomfortable I got and the show hadn’t even really started yet. Iturned to Taylor to tell her we needed to go but by then Celestewas already calling her up on stage.
“You have great depths in you, my dear. Truepotential,” she said, staring directly into my best friend’s eyes.“You are an old soul. Come, tell me about yourself. Let me healyou.”
“Taylor , no,” I hissed, gripping herupper arm but she shrugged me off like a gnat and walked quickly tothe stage.
“Celeste, I am ready.” Her pupils weredilated and her voice sounded somehow robotic. It was frighteningbut there was no one I could ask for help. No one but me who wasn’tunder the vampire’s spell.
I learned later that this was Celeste’sspecial gift as well as the key to her popularity. She could glaman entire auditorium of willing humans just with the sound of hervoice and make them believe anything she wanted. The actual showwas pretty cheesy, Celeste asking audience members up and tellingthem trivial details of their past like where they had mislaidtheir favorite pair of earrings or predicting their love lives. Butbecause they were under her spell, they left thinking they hadwitnessed something life changing and profound. It was all a bigcheat but try telling the tourists that—they adored Celeste and sheloved being worshiped so it all worked out. Well, for her, anyway.For my best friend, not so much.
The vampire mistress played Taylor like aviolin. She dropped a few hints about the recent frustrations ofher love life and my best friend melted like ice cream on a hotsummer day. She cried and begged the vampire to help makeeverything all right.
“You shall be healed of all your sorrows,beautiful one,” Celeste intoned, stroking Taylor’s cheek softly.Right then I knew something more than a show was going on. At fiveten with a curvy, statuesque figure and long black hair, Taylorlooks like a heroine on the front of a bodice ripper romance novel.I’d always admired her flawless, freckle-free skin and her model’sphysique but from a friend’s perspective. However, I could seeCeleste’s dark gaze crawling greedily all over my best friend’sbody and it was clear the vamp wanted more than friendship from herlatest “volunteer.”
I sat helpless in the crowd while thevampire
