Free How to Be a Vampire by R.L. Stine Page B

him sharply. “Not yet. You’re still a vampire-in-training.”
    â€œYou mean there’s a chance I won’t make it?” Andrew asked, his hope starting to build. “You mean I might flunk vampiring?”
    â€œNo,” the vampire said. “No one who’s started down this path has ever failed. No one has turned back.”
    â€œNo one?” Andrew’s hope dimmed. “Ever?”
    â€œNever,” the vampire replied. “See, kid? You’ll make it.”
    Andrew’s heart sank.
    â€œTime to go,” the vampire said. “Ready to change into a bat?”
    â€œI don’t know.” Andrew shrugged. “We did bats last night. How about turning us into red mists tonight?”
    â€œI could,” the vampire told him.
    â€œAnd then how about turning us into wolves?” Andrew asked. “Oh, man! I’d love to run around Shadyside as a wolf.”
    â€œWolves and mists. No big deal.” The vampire shrugged. “But they’re only ways to travel. The main thing is the feeding.”
    â€œI know,” Andrew said. “But it’s not even two o’clock yet. We have the whole night to . . . feed. Come on. Make me a mist!”
    â€œAll right, kid. All right,” the vampire said. “But only a small one. Mists are tricky.”
    For a minute, Andrew didn’t feel anything. And then he began to shake. He teeth chattered. His fingers trembled. But he didn’t feel cold. He felt warmer and warmer. Then hot. A red-hot mist!
    Andrew couldn’t see exactly. But he felt everything. He was everywhere in his room at once. He pulled himself together and drifted toward the window.
    â€œOh, no, you don’t!” the vampire’s voice warned him. “Stay in here. I don’t want you getting blown to the south pole!”
    Andrew drifted away from the window. He floated slowly out the door of his room and down the hallway. The door to Emily’s room was shut. But so what? Andrew the mist slid easily through the tiny space between the door and the door frame. Nothing to it! He filled Emily’s room and then slipped back out the way he had come in.
    The vampire waited for him at the doorway to his own room.
    Andrew slid past him. He hovered over his bed.Before he realized what had happened, he was sitting on his bed, shivering.
    â€œThat was totally awesome,” Andrew told the vampire.
    â€œRight,” the vampire agreed. “And useful, too, if anyone slams the door in your face.”
    â€œHow about changing me into a wolf?” Andrew asked.
    â€œNot now,” the vampire told him. “I have to get started with your lesson, kid. Tonight you’re going to track your first human prey. Humans are trickier than rabbits.” The vampire leaned closer to Andrew. “But much tastier. They’re worth the trouble.”
    The village clock chimed three as the vampire began hunting lesson number two. He explained how to listen for a human heartbeat. How to follow it. How to hypnotize a victim. How to find the juicy artery that runs along the side of the neck.
    â€œNow,” the vampire said when he had finished, “have you got all that, kid?”
    â€œI’m not sure,” Andrew said. “Could you go over the stalking part again?”
    The vampire sighed. Then he repeated the stalking instructions. “Now have you got it?” the vampire asked him.
    Andrew nodded. “I think so.”
    He needed to stall only a little more.
    â€œAnd I know who I want for my first victim,”Andrew went on. “See, there’s this kid who gives me a hard time in art class. Once he pushed my face down in a bunch of wet plaster, and he held me down for so long, I practically smothered. Finally our art teacher came over and pulled my head out, and—”
    â€œStop!” the vampire cried. “I don’t care about your puny human activities! We have to get on