Love Bites Then it Sucks by Julie Steimle (best self help books to read .TXT) 📕

Moaning, Matthew cringed. His eyes gazed apologetically to Hanz as he said, “I’m sorry. We would have told you, but she is in a bad way—”

“What do you mean in a bad way?” Hanz shouted, feeling lightheaded.

Randon and Silvia helped the victim (who was becoming a vampire right before them) to his feet. They whispered to him, asking questions.

Clearing his throat, Matthew replied, “She’s not—”

“She’s an angel of death,” their friend (who had to be Troy) breathed out.

“That I know!” Hanz snapped back. He then glared at Tom whom he knew wanted to tell him everything. He could see it in Tom’s eyes. “What happened to her? Where is she?”

But Tom looked past him and said to Randon and Troy, “Let’s get you to a hospital.”

“The nearest one?” Matthew murmured, his eyes saying volumes. It was like they were communicating telepathically.

Tom peeked at Hanz, who was fuming at being ignored like this. “Yes.”

Hanz was about to shout at him, but then he saw Art who had actually joined the group. Art came up to him, tugging on Hanz’s arm for them to leave.

Andy set his eyes on him and paled. “Art.”

Waving, Art Condie chuckled nervously. “Hi.”

“What are you doing here?” Andy asked, trying to pull Art away from Troy.

But Hanz hooked on Art’s arm and said, “He came here with me.”

Andy stared in surprise. “How do you know—?”

“We’re part of the same church,” Hanz said sharply.

“But he’s from Idaho!” Andy protested. “And how did you get here?”

“Airplane, Uber, train, feet.” Hanz shook his head. Heaving a sigh, he turned toward Daniel. “I asked you guys to help me find Eve. And you hid her from me.”

“To be fair,” Daniel raised a hand, “None of the Seven knew she was in New York.”

Hanz looked to Matthew. But he was already leading away his friend Troy with Randon. They had done it quietly. Hanz followed after them. “Hey!”

“You can follow us,” Matthew said, looking grave. “But be forewarned, you’re not going to like what you find.”

“Maybe he’ll like it,” Tom muttered.

Randon and Silva who were helping Troy exchanged confused looks.

When they got to the road, Matthew stared at it. “Who has a car?”

“Where’s your car?” Daniel shot back, marching to Randon’s.

“In the shop. Someone cut the fuel lines,” Matthew muttered. “It looked like gremlin work.”

“I’ve got a car,” Randon said, lifting out keys.

“How many people can we fit in the cat’s car?” Tom asked loudly.

“I’ve got my own car,” Andy said. “I can drive Hanz and Art.”

Hanz followed him, watching Andy then talk to the policeman with them who had been mostly silent, calling in to other cops on the beat to contain the damage and make sure no news media caught wind of the slaughtered vampires, keeping public away.

“Is JJ driving?” Tom asked

“I’m going back to the main station to make a report,” the cop said with a nod to him.

“He’s not serious about the gremlin work, is he?” Art whispered to Hanz, following him.

Hanz shrugged. He didn’t know. He had never seen a gremlin, but he had long accepted that monsters walked the earth.

“What hospital are we going to?” Andy asked.

“Just follow us,” Matthew replied, shooting Hanz yet another glance.

Chapter Thirteen

I could feel the death angels coming for me near the overpass. I knew I had to get out of there before they found out I had spared yet another soul they could have considered consigned to death, and that was breaking more rules. Faster than I had ever gone, I left the moment I saw Daniel, knowing they would take care of the vampires without trouble.

And I hid.

The hospital was bustling, and I found a quiet nook to sequester myself in where I could also watch the doors. Not that death angels would use the doors, though biker George seemed to treat it as policy. So what happened next surprised me. After I had eaten another jelly donut, bemoaning that I had forgotten to get the backpack to that kid, thinking it was too dangerous to go out now, I saw Matthew and Tom with Daniel and Peter helping some other guy (whom I did not know) with Silvia Lewis carry in that guy who had just become a vampire—followed by Andy Cartwright, and Hanz with some other guy I did not know. My eyes zoomed in on Hanz.

Hanz. He had found me.

Shivers of excitement rippled over me. I could not believe it. Though, I quickly looked to Tom and Matthew who were both secretly scanning the room for me. Had they brought that vampire victim here on purpose? For me? For Hanz? I had thought they had agreed it was best not to let Hanz know where I was. 

“You can’t bring him in here!” A doctor approached them in long strides, his eyes fixing on the vampire victim’s red eyes. I watched at a distance, realizing I did not want to make a scene. Matthew and Tom would see me, but what about the rest of them? Hanz would not be able to. And I did not want to be found by the gray angels yet.

“This is a hospital, isn’t it?” Tom snapped back.

“No,” their new-vampire friend said. “Just take me to the roof,”

“What?” The man with Silvia protested. “Why? You’re not jumping off!”

“Let the sun take me,” that new-vampire replied. “I never wanted to be a vampire.”

“But Troy—” Matthew turned with a pale face.

“No.” Troy-the-vampire shook his head, clenching his teeth. “I don’t believe my destiny is set. I refuse to accept Carlos’s prediction.”

“Don’t leave us, man,” the friend with Silvia begged. “If I can live as a cat you can—”

“I don’t want to be a vampire!” Troy snapped. “I have been trying my whole life to avoid that.”

“Then why don’t you just go back and keep searching for a cure?” Matthew said.

“There is no cure!” Troy shot back, his sharp teeth looking like they were aching for a bite. He closed his eyes, shaking his head. “I have read everything I possibly could on the subject. The only cure is death. I could have cured the bite. I was so close to finding that cure. But once you are a vampire—that is the end.”

He was probably right, but his pessimism bothered me. I had just spared his life for pity’s sake, and this is what he does with it? He was an idiot. Besides, vampirism was a chosen lifestyle, not a condition. Vampires could eat real food and live just fine. He would have to stay out of the sun, of course. And the blood craving was bad, but that could also be curbed. I knew that firsthand. I felt insulted.

“So you’d rather commit suicide?” Hanz piped up, irritation in his voice. “That is completely idiotic. And selfish. You could help a lot of people—”

“Shut up! It’s your girlfriend’s fault I am like this,” Troy snapped.

I wanted to slap him. But how did Troy know Hanz and I were connected?

“Eve’s fault?” Hanz stared.

“She was the reaper who was supposed to take my life,” Troy bit back. “And she let me end up like this.”

Everyone went silent. Tom and Matthew exchanged looks, though they seemed to be even in more approval of me for that.

“Eve does not kill,” Hanz said in a softer voice. “She saves.”

“Whatever!” Troy shouted. “Take me to the roof and let the sun take me.”

“No…” his nearest friend murmured. He looked a mite like he could be Troy’s brother, come to think of it. They had slightly different manners, but at first glance they had that doppelganger thing going on. However, this guy gave me the impression of a cat the more I watched him. It was the way he moved.

“I have died!” Troy jerked away from the others. He then rubbed his forehead. “As a vampire I won’t be able to abide sunlight. That means I won’t be able to continue my studies. My life is over. I can’t finish my PhD. What do I have left?”

“You have us,” his friend said. He was pretty cool. Cool cat.

Matthew and Tom nodded.

“Rick can get you a good job—” Matthew started.

“I don’t want to be beholden to Rick Deacon,” Troy said. He then closed his eyes. “He has enough problems. The last thing a werewolf needs is to protect a vampire.”

“Werewolf?” that guy with Hanz murmured, almost dazed. I didn’t know who he was, but Hanz seemed to know. I saw Hanz cringe with an awkward glance at his friend. It became clear that this guy had no clue what was going on. Andy tugged him aside, also familiar with him apparently, and whispered something. The man looked astonished, listening.

“Take me to the roof, or I will find another way to let the sun end me,” Troy said though his teeth. “A vampire cannot last in sunlight. And I don’t want to live in the darkness.”

The fool. I was devastated. How could this man not care about his life? Or the effect his death would have on his friends? It really was selfish. And short sighted. He could have easily lived as an astronomer… or something. He could still do research at night, for pity’s sake. There were ways to get special permission for such things. I had looked into it. But I could see from the faces of the others that they had accepted that their friend Troy was ultimately stubborn about this, and would commit suicide by sun when they were not there. At least here they could say goodbye.

“Should someone call Howie?” Silvia whispered to Troy’s doppelganger, meaning my friend Rick Deacon. People from his hometown called him Howie and Silvia was from Middleton Village.

“He’s back at Brown. He won’t be able to get here in time,” the man replied.

“It’s still dark yet,” she hissed as the group was finally allowed a key to the roof, as clearly the hospital thought one less vampire in New York was a good thing. “Call him.”

“He’s probably asleep.”

“Call him.”

Yes, Troy’s friend, call him. If this idiot Troy was one of Rick’s friends, he would want to be here… to talk him out of it. Certainly Rick could explain to this Troy that there was life after transformation into what the world considered a monster.

Slinging the backpack onto my shoulder, I followed them to the stairs at a distance, keeping an eye out for gray angels. I could feel them coming as the hairs along my neck and arms stood on end, and the ghosts we not so much fleeing from me as they were from what was coming. Slipping into the shadows, I held my breath.

This Troy was an idiot, Hanz thought as he tramped after him up the stairs. Why could he not see that life was worth living, even as a vampire? Why could he not see the concern of his friends who want nothing more than for him to stay alive? Where there is life, there is hope. Hanz believed in that axiom.

Hanz noticed Randon, at Silvia’s urging, quietly slip out his cell phone to call Rick Deacon. It was well past one o’clock—probably even past two. Rick was most likely dead asleep. Hanz looked to his watch and was astonished to see it was actually nearer to three AM. How had the time gone so