Once Bitten, No Longer Shy by Julie Steimle (chrome ebook reader txt) 📕

the ear, like a hypnotic echo, “Oh, did he? Tell me, then—what’s your purpose?”

Troy took off his sunglasses. “Look, I’m just like you. Last night the Order of Blood caught up with me and forced their blood down my throat. This is my friend Randon.” He gestured to him. “He’s known me since we were kids. You can hear his heartbeat.”

“It’s a peculiar heartbeat,” Mr. Lenox said.

Heaving a breath, Troy nodded, as he had thought so himself when he had heard it finally. “Well, he’s cursed.”

Randon shot him a look. “I wouldn’t say cursed.”

“You used to,” Troy retorted, mildly bewildered.

Rolling his eyes, Randon replied, “Well, that’s before I met Silvia and decided to make it work.” He then extended a hand to Mr. Lenox. “I’m Randon Spade. My mother and sister are witches—and I am a familiar.”

Mr. Lenox’s eyes widened, but he took Randon’s hand in a grip. “Gerard Lenox.”

“I’m Troy Meecham.” Troy did not extend his hand though. Instead he lowered the collar to his shirt to show his old bite mark. “Both my parents became vampires when I was a kid, and they bit me, trying to force me to become a vampire at the age of twelve. I’ve been running from them ever since—until the vampires caught up with me last night.”

Mr. Lenox came in closer, inspecting the bite. He nodded to himself. Eying Troy, he said, “I never knew such things existed until a pair of vampires started to attend my class and they decided to play a prank on me.” Mr. Lenox bit those words out. “They thought it funny to force vampire blood down my throat, just to see what would happen.”

“I’m so sorry,” Troy said, really feeling it. In a way, it was worse than his situation. This man had been blindsided with the supernatural.

Mr. Lenox nodded.

“I can walk out in daylight, you know,” Troy added, hoping now to help this man.

The man’s eyes widened on him. “You’re teasing.”

Troy shook his head. “No. Honestly, this morning I was ready to embrace the dawn and let the sun burn me up. I so did not want to be a vampire.”

Randon cringed as the event was still fresh in his mind.

“But I didn’t burn up,” Troy said, trying to continue toward what Will had asked him to do.

“Thank heaven,” Randon muttered. He then punched Troy in the arm. “I’m still mad at you for that. You gave us such a scare.”

Troy shrugged. “I did not want to become a vampire.” He then looked to Mr. Lenox, getting to the point. “Dr. McAllister believes that you might be able to walk in daylight too if you have never drunk human blood.”

 But the man only shook his head. His eyes lowered to the linoleum as he breathed weary sighs and said, “Oh no. I have no desire to risk it. I like living. And I don’t mind the dark, though I miss the sun.”

“A better attitude than yours,” Randon muttered to Troy.

Troy shot him a dirty look. This was not helping.

“Ok, fine,” Troy said. He then shrugged, wondering what he needed to do next. He didn’t think he had the power to change the mind of a man set in his ways, especially a man who could have been one of his own professors. “Is there anything I can do for you then? I’m currently finishing my doctorate in pharmacology. I was researching a cure to heal a vampire bite but—”

“Really?” Mr. Lenox pulled back, eyes widening on him as if he had just seen Bigfoot.

Troy nodded. “I’m a bite victim, like I told you. I was looking for a cure for myself. The eternal bleed was such a—”

“I know a few people like you,” Mr. Lenox said, his eyes staring a moment into space as he was thinking of something a little short of an idea. “Or how you were.

Both Randon and Troy stared, surprised.

“Dr. McAllister would send them my way to help them see that they could continue on with their lives.” He then chuckled. “You are the first sent to help me out.”

Troy wondered about that. Perhaps the good doctor was intending both outcomes with every person sent. It wasn’t like the doctor could present his unusual sister as evidence that daylight was possible when she was actually a demon and not a victim of a vampire attack. Besides, Troy was still shaken up over his own transformation. Dr. McAllister seemed the type to kill two birds with one stone.

“What I wouldn’t do to help them find a cure,” Mr. Lenox murmured, thinking more.

That put Troy to thinking. “I’m still going to continue working on the cure for the eternal bleed,” Troy said. “But maybe by sending those people to you, Dr. McAllister was trying to start up a support group….”

“That makes sense.” Randon nodded.

“The problem with that is those nasty vampires who put me in this mess won’t leave me alone,” Mr. Lennox muttered with a taste of bitterness. “And no one wants to come to a place where their wounds open up and they start bleeding.”

Troy and Randon exchanged a look. The man was still being stalked? Had he not mentioned it to the good doctor? Or did he just not want to trouble him?

“He used to say if his sister were here, she’d take care of it.” Mr. Lenox chuckled, shaking his head. “I never quite believed him when he said his sister was half vampire. But after meeting you two, I am starting to wonder.”

“You know,” Randon said with a look to them both. “We really should just introduce them to the Holy Seven.”

Mr. Lenox leaned back from them with a flutter of revulsion. “The Holy what?”

Troy rolled his eyes toward Randon. “Don’t they have more pressing things to deal with?”

“Like what?” Randon retorted impatiently. “They helped me out with my witch problem. They were there last night for you.”

“Three of them!” Troy snapped back, not wishing to get into a debate over those guys with the flaming swords and red crystals. There was something so utterly intimidating about them. When he had seen the light that emanated from Andrew Cartwright, he felt like he truly was going to burn down to ash.

“It was last minute!” Randon retorted, not quite realizing what was upsetting his friend. “I bet if we contacted the Seven and informed them of Mr. Lenox’s situation, they would come and help us deal with his vampire problem, and… and they would help set up something so these other bite victims get the same kind of alert tag as you have. Come on, Troy, it saved your skin.”

“I still ended up a vampire,” Troy bit out. He shuddered over his recollection of Andy’s light again.

“Not entirely,” Randon shot back, inclined to slap him.

“Hold it.” Mr. Lenox held up a finger. “Who is this Holy Seven? What are they? Supernatural police? I’ve already met some of those and I don’t want to have anything to do with them.”

Both Randon and Troy gazed at him. Supernatural police? The Holy Seven were not that. But one group came to mind.

“So the SRA have come around to visit you?” Troy asked.

The professor darkly nodded, shuddering. He did not elaborate. The SRA had probably threatened him. It was most likely he was barely spared due to the fact that he had not bitten anyone or drunk blood aside from what had been forced down his throat. The SRA were nasty to bite victims. Some of them had harassed Troy when he had first run away from home, trying to use him to get at his parents. If he had not escape them and run into Officer Johnson of the NYPD homicide division, he probably would not have survived to adulthood.

“The Holy Seven is not the SRA,” Randon said sharply.

Troy shot him a side glance, wondering about that. As he had to be sure, he pressed, “But they are monster hunters, aren’t they?”

He could tell Randon was annoyed with him. His best friend looked him straight in the eye and said in the most solid voice he could muster, “No. They are warriors for God. Look, I know it sounds hokey, but it’s the truth. And their job is to fix messes like this—to help victims, to make things right. They are supposed to hold the supernatural world in check.”

“Isn’t that what the SRA—?” Troy started, thinking on all the hunters he had met in his lifetime who boasted of their duty to God and country for the eradication of demons and monsters in modern America. But Randon cut him off.

“No,” Randon replied sharply so he could not be mistaken. “As Rick likes to say, the SRA wishes they were the Holy Seven. But the SRA is nothing more than a union of monster hunters. They don’t cure people. They don’t actually even help people. Don’t you remember what happened to that guy, Steward McGivens? The SRA tried to use him as bait. You know they tried that with you. The Holy Seven don’t do that. They are commissioned from a higher power to help people like you and me. And they saved my life when my mother found me.”

Troy felt chills. He never got the particulars about the time Randon’s mother and sister caught up with Randon except that Rick had called in his sword-wielding friends from Massachusetts. He had a feeling Randon’s sister or mother had tried to kill him. The only thing Troy knew for certain was that both witches were now in prison.

“So I know they’d help us out here,” Randon said.

“Can we test that?” Mr. Lenox cut in.

They looked to him.

“Test?” Troy puzzled. What kind of test did this man have in mind?

Randon nodded. “You can meet them. Most of them don’t live far from here. And I can promise you, if you are not going to do them harm, they will certainly help you out.”

“And you believe that?” Mr. Lenox’s skepticism was all over him like a coat made of Kevlar, protecting him from the nasty, deceptive world around him.

Nodding once more with confidence, Randon replied, “Most definitely. The leader of the Seven is best friends to a werewolf.”

Troy laughed. And he could not help but nod, recalling with amusement how Rick had a sort of hero worship for his best friend. And he had finally met the guy last night—the famous ‘Abey’ Cartwright—the redheaded doctor with the stare of a war-weary knight who radiated a light that could sear his face off.

“A werewolf?” Yet Mr. Lenox drew in a breath as if someone nearly punched him in the gut.

Both men nodding, Randon said with a grin, “Yeah. Do you want to meet him?”

The math professor stared in to space, just swaying there on his feet. They could tell he was contemplating the expanding weirdness of the universe, one which he had been thrust into so unwillingly before but now could not escape.

“The world is a lot more amazing than even you know, Mr. Lenox,” Troy said, chuckling.

Sticking out his hand to him, Mr. Lenox grinned and said, “Call me Gerard.”

 

The Vegan Vampire

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter Seven

 

Gerard Lenox turned out to be an open, friendly sort of man. He had a family, whom he lived apart from since the incident. Once he, Troy and Randon