Read Online Vamped by Lucienne Diver - Free Book Online Page A

from his rancid breath and the wet nastiness of the thing.
    He smacked his lips and cocked his head as if considering what he’d tasted.
    “Ahhh, the fly in the ointment.”
    My inner child was about to take me over and scream Don’t touch me until someone big and strong came to kick his ass. But I didn’t see that happening, so I locked her in a closet and mentally girded my loins or whatever.
    “I’m not a fly.”
    He laughed and a swarm of spiders skittered up my spine. My skin seemed to tighten in an effort to get away. “More like the butterfly beating its wings that causes the monsoon halfway across the world.”
    I didn’t get the whole butterfly thing, but it beat the hell out of being a common housefly.
    “I’ll tell you what I told her ,” he said, tasting me again, as if it were the cost of doing business. “The boy, morsel, he matters .” Then his voice dropped to a near-normal octave and his eyes seemed to unfocus, like he was looking within. He murmured,
    “The bonny boy debates
    The universe he holds in his hand.
    He is the key who will unlock the doors,
    The catalyst of change.”
    Riddles. Oh joy. He couldn’t have settled for knock-knock jokes … or even limericks? “I don’t get it,” I said. “What boy? Bobby? What does it mean?”
    “And you ,” he continued, as if I’d never spoken, “ You , chick, chick, chick, are chaos made flesh. The boy is the key, but you will explode the locks.”
    While I was still processing that, he struck, yanking my head to the side to expose my neck. It felt as if a ring of needles pierced my flesh. Pain and terror made a toxic mix that turned my mind to mush. The violation of the bite froze me in horror and shot the toxic terror deep down inside, where I silently shrieked for it to stop. My sanity was hanging by a thread when the thing raised its mouth and I saw the needle-like teeth glistening with my blood. He licked them off, probably nicking his own tongue in the process, and the thought of the mingling of my blood and his nearly made me ill.
    His eyes, which had rolled up into his head with pleasure, suddenly met mine and I felt pinned to a bug-board. “Stay. They come.”
    He released me and leapt like a creepy camel cricket for the open window, dragging it shut behind him just as the office door opened. I cringed back as far as I could go against the wall, hoping my feet and figure didn’t show, hoping my neck wound had closed unnaturally fast and that I wouldn’t be leaving a blood trail.
    Most of all, though, I wanted that mental floss.

11

    R ight this way,” Mellisande was saying, heels clacking on the floor as she approached. There were other footsteps as well, at least one set also in heels, but I didn’t dare peek.
    “We thank you for seeing us on … no notice at all. The council has been hearing some disturbing things about you, Mellisande.” The voice was much deeper than that of the boogeyman, but just as eerie. “They say that you’re building an enclave with an eye toward empire. Might I remind you that your sire’s death, which we have still not heard satisfactorily explained, released you only from his control, not ours . ”
    My opinion of the source of that voice went from bad to worse. He sounded smooth as maple syrup, and just as sticky. I’d seen girls fall prey to guys who sounded like that, implying insults without ever coming straight out with them, their extreme attention almost flattering at first. Then started the comments on appearance—the length of a skirt, the amount of makeup—and escalated into crazy jealousy and even violence. Totally obvious if you asked me, but power, even the wrong kind, had a way of attracting. The urge to look was nearly killing me; I liked to know my enemies, and I was pretty sure he’d be one of them.
    “Please, sit,” Mellisande responded. I wondered if she knew she sounded like royalty granting her subjects an audience. She seemed in control, completely recovered from