Without a Shadow by Julie Steimle (red queen ebook TXT) 📖

on the both of us, but so far he only was affecting Jane. A slight trickle of sweat beaded on his brow as he stared more flirtatiously at me, grinning in his peculiar, close-mouthed way.

“Not odd, I think,” the man said, “Merely a coincidence.”

“I don’t believe in coincidences.” I grabbed a hold of Jane’s arm, dragging her back down the sidewalk with out further ado.

Jane sputtered when I pulled her off to her front step. The man blinked at me, his mouth opening slightly in shock. He followed us.

“Well, maybe you believe in destiny then. It was destiny that brought me here to you.” So cliché. It sounded like he was making a last desperate attempt to get my attention.

I opened Jane’s front door amid her protesting, and shoved her in. “I don’t believe in destiny either, you stalker. Leave us alone!”

When I jumped into the house, shutting the door behind me, Jane broke out into a shout. “What did you do that for? He was nice!”

“He was too old for us, Jane.” I groaned, wishing I had stayed home. It seemed that trouble would not quit following me. “What is wrong with you? Since when do you flirt with thirty-year-old strange guys?”

“What’s wrong with me? What’s wrong with you? I saw wings popping out of your back!” Her voice cracked. Jane’s face had gone red, and she was blustering uncharacteristically.

I stepped back to the door, grabbing the doorknob.

“I’m sorry! I don’t know why I said that!” she broke out a once.

“Wings?” her mother cried from across the room. “She has wings?”

I opened the door and hopped back onto the porch, shaking my head. “I knew it was too good to be true. Good bye, Jane.”

“No, wait!” she shouted, but I was already in the air. She looked up at me as I flew above her rooftop, turning towards home with a flap.

“So that’s it,” Marvin’s now-familiar voice said from below.

I looked down. The thirty-year-old man grinned at me, staring upward. He still stood on Jane’s walkway, waiting for us. Jane swayed on the step, her mother gaping through the doorway at the stranger in the tux.

Dropping right to the ground between them, I glared at the man with my hands set on my hips. “Are you still here? I said to leave us alone.”

The man grinned at me, his teeth now shining in the porch light. He approached me. “Leave two darling, young, fresh, delicious girls all alone on a dark evening? No. Heaven forbid. I am here to escort you to your school dance.”

Jane drifted past me as if ready to leap in his arms. “You are? How wonderful!”

“How stupid!” I snapped, blocking her way with my arm.

Jane’s mother grabbed her arm and yanked her back.

The stranger quit smiling at me. “Little winged Eve. I really have had it with your petulant attitude. Look deep into my eyes and know that you want to be with me forever.”

I peeked once at his eyes to see if there was anything to bark about, but all I saw were blue irises that were turning red.

“You look hungry.” I threw back my head with a snort.

Jane’s mother yelped, and yanked my friend inside, locking the door. The man before me hunched, then hissed at her house.

“And what big, sharp teeth you have,” I added with a tilt of my head, folding my arms. “You know, my father is a dentist. He can fix that.”

The vampire (I decided that is what he was) tramped the rest of the way up walk to me, reaching out with his arm. My wings were still out so I just hopped back with a large flap. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Jane and her mother both peering at us through the living room window. Luckily Jane looked sensibly recovered and was now staring bug-eyed at the man.

“Your father?” the vampire shouted, swiping his arms at me but missing as I took another flap backwards. “You don’t know your father! No mortal man gave you life! Your father was a vampire!”

“My father is a dentist!” I retorted, now flying over his head to lead him away from Jane’s house to the street.

He followed after me as I had hoped he would, looking more furious with each second. “I know your real father, you freak! Your real father was a vampire who broke with Order of Blood and ran off with an imp, one who never should have given birth to you! You are a demon freakish thing that should have been put down as soon as you were born!”

I halted midair, almost forgetting to flap to keep myself aloft. “What? Are you saying my mother was one of those tiny imp things, and my father was one of you blood suckers? That’s impossible!”

“Improbable, but not impossible,” a very unwelcome voice answered from across the road.

Both Marvin the vampire and I turned to see Mr. McDillan in leathery clothes standing on the opposite curb with a crossbow in his hands. Marvin hissed at him then started to change shape. There was a click. Then I heard and saw that wooden stake fly, striking the vampire in the chest. He fell, mid-transformation, to the ground. The second click sent a stake flying towards me.

I caught it.

Chucking the wooden stake to the ground, my feet dropped to the grass. I said to him with a growl, “You were supposed to stay away from me if I never bit anyone.”

My History teacher fixed another stake into the crossbow.

“No!” Jane flung open the front door and ran in front of me, throwing out her arms between us. “Don’t hurt her! She was protecting me!”

Mr. McDillan barely lowered his crossbow. “It may appear that way—”

“It’s true,” Jane’s mother said, gazing at me with tears in her eyes. Her voice shook. “I saw it all.”

Jane’s mom never liked me before. She tolerated me because of Jane; this I knew. Now, her gaze was different. It was filled with gratitude. With a relieved sigh, I bowed to her, retracting my wings into my back.

“But she still is a vimp,” Mr. McDillan said, shaking his head at us. “And that is a powerful demon that only comes around every three hundred years. A monster so horrid that it takes seven holy people to kill when it is fully grown. She is a cursed beast that must die tonight.”

Jane remained between us, standing more solidly. “You can’t kill her! She’s my best friend!”

“Why must I die tonight?” I asked, stepping forward, though not quite so much that I would be a target. Despite his creepy manner, I was curious to know about what I really was and suddenly my bloodthirsty History teacher seemed to have all the answers.

Mr. McDillan nodded his head at me. “You must die before midnight tonight because it will be the end of your fourteenth Halloween. It is the decision gate.”

I tilted my head and raised a finger. “Fifteen. My adoption day is in November and—”

“Marking the end of your thirteenth year. It is your fourteenth Halloween,” he corrected me.

“Fifteenth,” I repeated, growing annoyed. “My parents found me on Halloween fourteen years ago. I’m fourteen years old in real years. I was born earlier in October.”

He growled at me. “You can’t count your first Halloween! That is the starting point! That was when you were born!”

“Not according to my mother,” I said, folding my arms. “She says I looked at least a week old, if not two weeks. I was born mid-October.”

“Don’t argue with me, mongrel! You will die before midnight tonight!” He lifted up his crossbow again and pointed it at me.

I sprang into the air, dodging his flying wooden sticks with ease. Jane screamed, as her mother shouted for Mr. McDillan to get off her lawn. I decided that it was a bad idea to stick around in case Jane got hurt. I soared off over the houses and out above the trees into town. If anything, I thought that perhaps I might also lead away any other monsters that might be lurking in the dark to attack Jane. Never in all my fourteen years had I met a vampire. It was too much of a coincidence that I met one tonight. I decided that I was a magnet for trouble, and I just had to keep out of the way—at least for now.

I landed in a tree in the public park. Below me, partiers ran around and kids lugged their full bags of candy home. In the distance I could hear music coming from the high school. The dance had long since started. So, I had missed it anyway. All the coaxing and pleading was for nothing. Yet, still, for the first time, I was just hoping to live to see next Halloween, thinking that maybe I’ll dress up as Guinevere.

“Lonely?”

Looking up to see who was speaking to me, I searched around the bare boughs and yellowed leaves. I saw nothing in the dark.

“Why would a pretty girl like you be lonely?”

Rubbing my eyes, I tilted my head. There, next to me in the branches, sat a young man dressed in old musty silk and decaying lace. He had a handsome face and an even paler complexion than my own. With a frown, I turned away from him.

“And shy? Why so shy?” He flew quickly to where I sat in the tree.

I immediately recoiled and moved to a far branch. “I’m not particularly interested in talking to vampires tonight, so why don’t you leave me alone?”

The man leaned on the branch and frowned at me. “Well, that was an unexpected response. Here I thought I was looking at a mortal playing coy in a tree, and you just blew my perception away. Pray tell, what are you, then, if you recognize me for who I am and are not yet charmed?”

Letting out an annoyed breath, I replied, “I am, according to the local vampire hunter in town, a vimp. And I am not in a good mood today, so leave me alone.”

“A vimp?” He looked at me with widening eyes. “No, not a vimp. The vimp. We’ve been looking for you everywhere. How delightful I found you first!”

“Second,” I replied.

“Pardon?” he said, blinking politely at me.

“I said second. You are the second vampire that I’ve met tonight. The first one was killed by Mr. McDillan.” I gazed at him frankly.

He leaned away from me, putting some distance between us. “What do you mean killed? Who?”

“I think he called himself Marvin,” I murmured, glancing up at the moon through the branches.

The vampire seemed flustered then quickly transformed into a bat and flapped away from me. “Marvin? Dead? What tragedy! The Order of Blood must know about this! You stay here, and I’ll go fetch them at once!”

He flew off, scattering the dry leaves off the boughs until he was above the trees and nothing of him was left but a scented wind. However, I decided it was high time I left for home. No point in lingering. I flew down to the ground and retracted my wings. The trip on foot, I figured, would actually be the safest route to take. Knowing Mr. McDillan, he would be watching the skies first for me.

The park cut through the center of town. I passed jerks smashing pumpkins, kids struggling to keep their Halloween candy from punks, and one big dog that had gotten loose. Of course, in my present mood I wasn’t about to pass by without doing something. That handful of jerks ended up with pumpkins stuck on their heads. I made sure the punks got stuck up in a tree with empty candy bags crammed on their heads. As for the dog, I chased it back into its yard and then its doggy door. Clasping my hands behind my back, I strolled the rest of the way home, kicking the leaves that covered the sidewalk.

“There you are!” A voice shouted at me from my yard.

I spun around,