Free Kissing Corpses by Amy Leigh Strickland

sleeve. There was a scar across his right forearm that looked like two puncture wounds that had been dragged before pulling out near his wrist. “I mean demons with fangs who just won't die.”
    Cody sat up. “Is that a bite?”
    “Doesn't look like a dog bite, does it? Ten years ago, while you were trying to decide what to wear on your first day of high school, Rawdon Hale took a bite out of me. Hurt like a son of a bitch.”
    “You called him a demon,” I said. “Do you mean it?”
    Gilchrist stood up and took off his coat. He folded it over the arm of the couch and sat back down. “By now you're aware that your new beau is a walking corpse,” he said. “No pulse, no breath. Blinking is just a game of pretend for him.”
    I nodded.
    “What did he tell you about vampires?”
    “He told me about his maker, and about his maker's maker who raised him. He told me about his powers.”
    “Did he tell you about his weaknesses?”
    I shook my head. All I knew was that he couldn't go out in sunlight. I didn't even know exactly what would happen if he did. Would he catch fire?
    “Now wait a minute,” Cody said. “You don't actually expect me to believe that he's a real vampire.”
    “I starts with Lilitu in Babylon, the first demon to infect a human. She sired Lamashtu and Gallu. These first demons didn't resemble much about the vampires we know except for the fact that they drank blood. They were slain long ago. More followed, Lamia, Empusa and Izcacus sired their own lines. Each demon sired a lineage of vampires with unique powers and weaknesses as different as the demons themselves. Guire Grando is the first of the particular line that Mr. Hale comes from. The demon who sired him is unknown.”
    “You mean like hellfire and damnation demons?” I asked for clarification.
    He barreled on without acknowledging my question. “Demonic possession is something you hear about in scary movies and haunting tales. Possession of the living is an infrequent but troublesome issue within spiritual warfare. Vampirism should be seen as possession of the dead. As you know by now, Rawdon Hale is dead.”
    Geneva came out of the guest room at this point. “What did I miss? Ooh, hello!”
    “Who is this?” Gilchrist asked.
    “My roommate.”
    Geneva offered her hand to shake. Gilchrist took it, shook it and turned back to his pastry and his lecture on vampire origins.
    “Kendall thinks Rawdon is a real vampire,” Cody said.
    “What?”
    “Right, so, vampires are possessed corpses. Got that? Demons need permission to enter a human being, just like vampires need permission to enter your home. So good job on inviting it in.”
    “Technically I invited him in first, I think,” Geneva said.
    Gilchrist snorted. “Three things are needed for a vampiric transformation.” He held up a finger. “One, exsanguination. Two, blood. Three,” he held up three fingers by now. “Covenant. You need to be completely drained to the point of death before drinking the blood of a vampire-- the sire-- and you have to want to become a vampire. It only takes the tiniest hint of desire to make the transformation, but you can't be made a vampire if your heart is totally against it. The transformation won't complete, and you'll kick the bucket.”
    He stared right at me with that last bit. I stood up from my perch on the opposite end of the couch and started pacing. “Okay. So I got that he's evil and crazy when I found out he killed Jeremy. And I know he's going to kill me if I let him. What do I do to stop him?”
    “You found me. That's a great first step.”
    “So you dated this guy?” Cody asked, breaking his long silence. “For a week? I'm sorry, but if you really think he's a vampire and this is not just some practical joke, how would you not know he was a corpse for a week?”
    “Well he always wore gloves, and he was a gentleman,” I said. “And I may have known since Sunday.”
    “You should have run the hell away,” Cody