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

the guy to share this information with him.

“The leader of the Holy Seven’s name is Andrew Cartwright. I didn’t know who he was at the time I met him, but every guy from the Massachusetts area knew who he was.” Art sighed, thinking back on that. “At the time he was a basketball jock, and a soccer player also. Um, but uh, there was a group of people at the camp who said he had been kidnapped by some human sacrifice cult a year before, and he had survived it—along with his other friends.”

Troy drew a breath.

“But I have learned since that that was a lie,” Art said. “A story they made up to hide the real truth. But I don’t know what the real truth is except that that previous winter they rescued a bunch of basketball players from several schools in their district from some kind of curse that turned them into their school mascots.”

“You’re pulling my leg,” Connor said.

“Nope,” Art replied with an eye on him, shaking his head. “You see, that’s not the only rumor about them. All of them came from the town of Middleton Village, which according to one of the guys I roomed with, was a witch-infested, witch-run town.”

Art’s eyes trialed to Troy. This, of course, was something true. It was where Silvia’s coven was located.

“Now you have to be joking,” Leslie said.

Art shook his head. “But I gotta tell you, I didn’t believe in it. I thought all that stuff was paranoid hokey nonsense. Not that I didn’t think there were people out there that believed in witchcraft. But I didn’t think there was anything to it but people believing in garbage. You know, like people worshipping gods of wood and stone.”

Troy raised his eyebrows, wondering where that put Art’s god. What proof did he have that his god was real?

“However, I have seen Andrew at work,” Art said. “And my mind was blown.”

That one thing, honestly, Troy felt the same way about. Andrew terrified him. He could not get the memory of that scorching white light out of his head. It was real. It could have vaporized him to dust if he had been in it any longer than he had. Whatever power they were drawing from, it was real and it was stronger than anything he had ever seen. No vampire could combat that.

“And the big thing—I saw the FBI come to our camp, try to arrest him, and he stole their car,” Art said. “And he escaped in it.”

Troy gaped. “No way.”

Art nodded earnestly. “Yeah. And he didn’t come back to camp after that. His mom came and picked up his stuff and that was it. I haven’t seen him up until recently when I met Troy. But I did bump into his buddy, Rick Deacon in Germany and asked about him.”

“Rick Deacon?” Alexandra gasped, guessing. “Do you mean, H. Richard Deacon the Third?”

Art nodded to her. “Yeah.”

Everyone except Troy gasped. Troy shot Art a wan look. He really did not want to bring Rick into this.

“Do you know him?” Nicole asked Troy, wide-eyed.

Heaving a groan, Troy nodded. “Yeah. His father owned the special school we all went to, and Rick went there after his parents divorced.”

They all drew in breaths.

“So he knows about all this supernatural stuff?” Cameron asked.

Troy nodded. “Yes. And they are good at keeping it a secret.” He said this, hoping Art would also.

The rest of the meeting Art explained what the Holy Seven did and what he had witnessed them do in Germany. Troy found it interesting how well Art did not reveal that Rick was a werewolf. Rather he told the story about meeting Jordan Hague not long before he was killed my man-eating wolves and how members of the Holy Seven had rescued them. The story was internationally known, just the details were missing. Then Art explained what his friend Hanz told him about the Seven. This, Troy did not hear before and he listened more intently, again wondering if Art was holding back this information from him on purpose.

“…My good friend Hanz, whose fiancée knows them personally and he’s met a few of them, says the Holy Seven’s main purpose is to protect the people from the supernatural world. As he puts it, they are even to hide the existence of the supernatural from the public.”

“Hide it?” Conner nearly laughed. “Why?”

Brandon leaned next to Nicole, whispering something that made her laugh.

Art replied, “The world would freak. Anyway, what they do, according to Hanz’s fiancée—”

“What’s his fiancée’s name?” Joshua asked.

“Eve,” Art said, “And don’t ask more about that. I am not at liberty to explain her connection to them.”

“And why not?” Cameron asked.

“Because she is more dangerous than any vampire,” Troy replied. “And she’d scare you witless.”

Art closed his eyes, lowering his head while the others drew in breaths. He was now looking to Troy silently asking why he had brought that up. Weren’t they going for discretion?

“What is she?” Brandon asked.

“Death,” Troy said, which wasn’t inaccurate. But he refused to elaborate.

Art even raised his eyebrows, nodding. But then he said, “Well, anyway, the point is, you all have access to get help from the Holy Seven if necessary.”

And he set his pen to paper again to indicate that he was finished with his two cents for the meeting.

Troy heaved a sigh then gestured to them, indicating he had his first trial of infusing comfrey with olive oil, taking out the sample bottle as well as the fresh leaves while explaining what it was. “Try it out and let me know if it works. If it doesn’t, I still have several leaves you all can use.”

They all gathered around him for the possible cure, Leslie lowering her shirt collar and beckoning Sue to help her out so they could try the oil. Sue also helped Alexandra. But Brandon helped Nicole, massaging the oil into her neck wound as if it were actual massage oil and he was thinking about getting frisky with her. Connor smirked at them, making mocking eyes.

Troy watched to see if the infused oil worked, at little unsettled at the expressions on their faces as they tried it out… but it didn’t staunch the bleeding. Dribbles still came out of their wounds and their hands were now red from the blood.

As Art handed out wet wipes, guarding so people in the park were not observing their group, Troy dug into his bag for the comfrey leaves and handed them out. “Well, it was test run anyway. These will work. Crush the leaves in your hands and rub it into the wound. You just might get a rash also.”

Nicole grabbed one leaf and crushed it, rubbing it deep into her bleeding bites with her bloodstained hands. The blood staunched quickly. But her skin also grew red from the rubbing.

“Oh… give me one,” Leslie said, reaching for a leaf.

Sue grabbed one handing it to her.

The others took theirs.

A few of them got more of a rash than others, but the bleeding on each of them stopped. Dalton was the only one who was entirely fine. Troy wondered what the difference was. Dalton was not that different from the others, though he did have on an odd smelling cologne. It could have been that.

All of their bleeds clotted entirely, leaving a reddened scab.

“I’d still wear bandages,” Troy said, “but uh, this will reduce blood loss and make you less light headed. You will be able to sports again as long as you stay away from vampires.”

“It does itch,” Leslie said, frowning. “Which is worse? The itch or the bleed?” She looked to the others.

“The bleed,” Alexandra said, nodding. She touched her wound with delight, taking another wet wipe from Art with a nod of gratitude.

Nicole scratched the mild rash around the wound, but smiled up at Troy. “Not bad.”

“Why aren’t you itching?” Joshua demanded of Dalton who was stretching and feeling his drying wound with satisfaction. He also accepted another wipe from Art who was collecting them into a bag for disposal.

Lowering his arms from the stretch, Dalton shrugged. “Don’t know. Maybe it’s my body lotion. I also put on some tiger balm for sore muscles after exercise this morning. Maybe the balm cancels it out. It’s got clove oil in it that numbs pain.”

“Tiger balm?” Troy murmured, wondering if that was it. He would have find out what the other ingredients were.

“So, do want to go get some coffee?” Brandon said to Nicole, wiping off the rest of his hands and handing the stained wipe to Art’s bag. “I can take you to that place I told you about.”

She grinned at him, nodding. “That sounds fantastic. Can I get something a moment before we go together?”

Smiling with pleasure, Brandon nodded.

Nicole came up to Troy and said, “Thanks for organizing this. Despite the itch, I haven’t felt this relieved since finding out my date had bitten me.” She surreptitiously slipped something in Troy’s hand before saying, “Is it alright if I get another comfrey leaf for the road?”

Chuckling, feeling the paper in his palm, Troy nodded and gave her two leaves. “It’s worth it to go to a garden shop and buy a couple comfrey plants for a widow box or a small balcony garden.”

She nodded grinning and sauntered away, linking arms with Brandon. As he watched them go, the rest of the group dispersing, Troy waited to see what she had given him. Turning it in his palm he saw it was a business card. On the back she wrote:

 

Can we meet up for dinner tonight? Text me, if YES.

 

Shivers went through him. He had not read her wrong. Though that guy Brandon had been hitting on her, she was flirting with him, giving him signals the entire time. And honestly, Troy thought she was sexy. Girls like that didn’t usually give him any attention. Most people didn’t. Then again, Troy realized, he had been so engrossed in his research that he had not really thought about dating since high school.

As he tucked away the card, his mind went back to his time at Gulinger Private Academy. Back then, he was a mess of emotions. He didn’t know up from down until he met Randon. Randon helped him stop jumping at shadows. Randon was everything Troy thought was cool—which was why he had secretly crushed on him. To be cursed by witches as a black cat familiar, yet he still did not let people bully him. Randon used to say there was nothing scarier than a witch—and he stood up against them all his life, until he married one, which Troy found ironic.

But then Troy had also openly crushed on Selina, whom Randon also crushed on. Selina was a goddess. But she never saw either of them as anything but cute ‘little brothers’—and worse, she overtly drooled over Rick who was not only younger by three years, but also saw her as a huge annoyance, as well as a pain in his highly sensitive wolf ears. He hardly gave her the respect she deserved. It wasn’t fair. The guy he liked was straight and the gal he wanted was interested in wolf-boy.

The fact that Selina had broken up with Tom (whom Rick had set her up with) after they had dated for a while had always made Troy feel whatever he was attracted to would never be attracted to him. But here he was wrong. Nicole, that sexy woman with those lips and that tasty figure, who was making eyes at him, was interested.

“Should we go back? Or do you have other errands to run?” Art interrupted his thoughts.

Sighing, Troy thought for a moment then said, “How about we find this tiger balm Dalton mentioned? Maybe it will help my research.”

Art nodded, gathering up the last of their trash so the park was like they had never been there. “We can either check out a pharmacy or go to Chinatown.”

Chinatown….

Troy chuckled. Now that brought him back…. The Gulinger campus he