Free Eternal: More Love Stories With Bite by Anthology Page A

the appropriate noises. I told him a Volvo like Mom used to have would be nice, and watched him flinch. I ate as much as I could, and when he was finished I fled upstairs, turned up the music in my room, and threw up everything in a curdled rush as the sun slid toward the horizon and the wind rasped, moaned, and whistled.

    When it was done I rested my feverish forehead against the cool porcelain of the toilet. It felt good. I cleaned myself up and felt a little better now that I didn't have the food weighing me down, and it was getting to be dusk. So I brushed my teeth, gagging at the mint in the toothpaste, and put on a pair of jeans and a cami, and went out in the backyard. Consuela was washing dishes and my dad was in his home office on the phone.

    Nobody saw me leave.

    * * * *
    The gardening shed was full of cobwebs, the smell of oil and grass clippings, and weird shadows. The riding mower hunched under a tarp, for those times when Dad got a bug up his ass about the lawn. I sat on an old concrete bench that had been hauled in here probably before I was born, and waited.

    Night filled the one little window. It was hot and the wind moaned, flinging dust everywhere. My hair filled with electricity, but the waves were springy. Go figure, the day I feel like shit warmed over is the day I have good hair.

    I waited, chewing on my fingernail. The scab on my left palm throbbed, and the two little puncture scabs on my throat sent a zing through me every time I moved.

    The door quivered. I swallowed hard and sat up straight. Lift your chin, sweetheart, it takes years off.

    Goddamn.

    "And what are you doing in here?" The red dots were back in his eyes. He shut the door casually. "You've said your good-byes, I guess. Right?"

    He sounded so sure. I curled my left hand around the wood. "Yeah."

    "You certainly don't disappoint. Are you thirsty, darling? Say yes."

    Just say yes. Sourness filled my mouth. "Yes."

    "Well, come on. There's a whole world out there." His eyes glittered and his teeth gleamed. The fangs all but glowed.

    I held up my right hand and smiled. It felt like wood on my frozen face. "Okay."

    He stepped closer. His fingers closed around mine. "You know, as a rendezvous, this isn't—"

    I jerked at him hard with my right hand, brought the stake up in my left. It was braced against the wall, a long round piece of wood left over from the bonsai experiments that had been here when we moved in. It had taken a little bit of hacking with a rusted machete before the end was sharpened enough. It went in with a meaty sound that would have made me throw up again if I wasn't already so sick.

    Jack's face went slack. The red lights in his eyes dimmed, but his teeth champed together twice. His head dropped like he'd just fallen asleep, and he almost fell on me. The end of the long-ass stake skritched against the wall of the shed, and I landed on my knees. He folded to the side, landed slumped against the bulk of the riding mower, and a long rattling hiss like an angry snake filled the shed, overpowering the sound of the wind.

    I let out a coughing sob. Stumbled for the door. The stake whapped against things as his body convulsed. I don't know what I was expecting. I thought maybe he'd turn to dust, or explode, or something. But he just kept making that hissing sound, and the end of the stake kept hitting things. It seemed to last forever before he fell down between the riding mower and the shed wall, the stake pointing up before cocking over to the side. His legs made one final little dancing movement and then were still.

    Deathly still.

    It was like a nightmare where you can't run fast enough. My dumb fingers closed around the doorknob. I ran, the door slamming shut behind me, lungs bursting and heart pounding, and made it into the house. I shut the pool door, locked it, and stepped quick and soft up the stairs until I reached my room.

    As a plan, it kind of sucked. But it was all I had. And here in the house the