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

raised his eyebrows and Mr. Lenox nodded.

Sighing, Troy said, “Ok… I was just wondering, as an extension to what Cameron asked, if the only risk to a lover is biting them. We are physically stronger now. At least I know I am stronger than I used to be. Could we do serious damage? You know, during sex?”

“That’s what I was I thinking.” Cameron nodded to Troy. “If things got a little too frisky, could it hurt her? Do we have to be more careful from now on?”

“I would,” Mr. Lenox said with an earnest nod. “You never know. And you would not want to hurt someone you love.”

Steve sighed, nodding. “Your passion might overtake you. But, if you take your cues from your lover, you won’t harm her. Or him.” And he winked at Troy.

Cameron sighed with relief, nodding to himself. Mr. Lenox frowned. But Troy was glad once more that he could not blush. Steve read him like a cheap magazine.

Troy also wondered what was bothering Mr. Lenox, but several more questions came to Troy now that that concern has been discussed. He addressed the first one. “Ok… so correct me if I am wrong, but as far as I know vampires are no longer able to procreate, right? Women can’t get pregnant and the men are, lack of a better way to put it, ‘shooting blanks’?”

Steve groaned, nodding. “Yes.”

All three partial vampires stared at him. Was Steve upset because a vampire wanted kids? Or was he upset because they still thought of having children? Mr. Lenox most especially watched the supposedly-repentant vampire with disappointment.

“Look,” Steve said. “Most vampires don’t care about that stuff. Vampirism is the worship of passion and eternal life. Nothing else. Who thinks about mewling kids when your focus is on mad hot sex?”

A horrible, awful, wretched, almost demonic thought rippled through Troy. The phrase ‘mewling kids’ echoed in his skull along with ‘vampirism is the worship of passion…” So he braved to ask, “Are there vampires who would…?”  He choked on the idea. It was too heinous.

“Who would what?” Steve stared at him. Times like these Troy wished everyone were like Matthew. Some things were too vile to be said out loud.

But Troy drew in a breath and decided to lead up to it more delicately. “Vampires try to get blood from any source they can, right?”

Steve nodded, nonplussed.

“I know they go to blood banks,” Troy added, explaining.

“Really?” Cameron exclaimed, actually surprised.

Troy and Steve nodded to him.

“Some haunt hospitals,” Steve added, then looked to Troy as he could see the question still had not been not asked.

Troy, feeling sick as he thought over his concern, asked, “But do they haunt abortion clinics? You know, for the dead…”

Silence filled the room. Mr. Lenox appeared to go paler.

Steve stiffened. Yet he breathed hard and said with the gravity it deserved, “Yes. And to be frank, I’ve even heard of one run by vampires.”

Cameron’s eyes grew wide. Troy could see him add up what Troy had. He looked inclined to vomit.

“Human life is not valuable to vampires except as a food source,” Steve said, his voice resonating deeply in their ears. “And promiscuity is loved. Combine them together and…well, yes, visiting an abortion clinic, for a vampire, would like be going to a fast food joint—and a great enterprise for those who want to remain under the radar of the SRA.”

Troy nodded, shivers running down his arms. “Vampires love to corrupt the innocent, and too many people don’t value life beyond their own.”

Looking to him, Steve nodded frankly. “Vampirism is corruption. Drinking blood is the first step. The rest is a dangerous, slippery bloody slope.”

That was a true statement. In all Troy’s research, he found that vampires from every era looked for ways through politics to feast upon the innocent and to destroy them. If vampires could legally convince naïve people to bring their food to them, they would do it. It was a game they knew how to manipulate.

“Ok, one last question,” Troy asked. “How vulnerable are we to communicable diseases, the actual venereal ones?”

“Yeah,” Cameron asked, “Vampires who sleep around would be exposed to all of them, right?”

Steve smirked at him. “We’re invulnerable. But we can be carriers. Fact is, who was it in our group that was bit by a hooker who was a vampire?”

Snorting, Cameron said, “That guy, Marcus.”

“Marcus Williams,” Troy said, nodding.

With a dirty wink, Steve said, “A lot of vampire ladies take up prostitution. They generally don’t bite unless they want to. And if you get too rough with them, then they are most likely to bite.” 

“Oh.” Mr. Lenox made a face.

“And it is likely Marcus is also being treating right now for a venereal disease, so… you might want to warn the ladies,” Steve said.

Cameron nodded.

Troy cringed, hoping Marcus would not seek a relationship with any of the ladies in the biting group. He suspected he might—especially with Nicole. The other ladies were fine and all that, but Nicole was more likely to be less averse to dating within the group. She had left with Brandon after all, and had sex with him.

 “I once heard werewolves think vampirism is a venereal disease,” Steve murmured unironically.

“Werewolves?” Cameron and Mr. Lenox pulled back. They seemed a little paler, though Troy did not know how.

“Are there werewolves?” Cameron asked.

Steve gesture to Troy. “Yeah. He would know.”

They looked to Troy.

Shooting Steve a slightly dirty look, Troy said to Cameron and Mr. Lenox, “I know a number of interesting individuals with a wide variety of supernatural problems. The special school I was taken to…” He shook his head. “I don’t tell the bite victims this as I don’t want to scare them. But imagine all the kinds of monsters than can and do exist in legends, stories and mythology. They all, as far as I know, do exist in real life.”

Mr. Lenox leaned forward, staring so wide his mind seemed to have gotten stuck in shock. Cameron flinched as if Troy had just kicked him in the groin.

Maintaining his composure as an informer, Troy explained, “You met already a guy who is psychic, a woman who can see ghosts, and you saw my friend Tom throw that demon, right?”

They all nodded, including Steve who most likely already knew what Tom was.

“Well…” Troy said, hoping this would not cause his friend trouble, “Tom’s not entirely human.”

“Is he a werewolf?” Cameron breathed out.

Steve laughed, shaking his head. He winked at Troy as if to say ‘Sly move. Good diversion’.

“No.” Troy rolled his eyes. “He’s half imp.”

Mr. Lenox drew in a breath.

“A what?” Cameron stared, completely confused. Clearly the word invoked a weird image in his mind.

“Imp?” Mr. Lenox echoed Troy. “As in a little devil?”

Troy shrugged. “Yeah.”

Cameron and Mr. Lenox both stared in near horror now. Steve smirked.

“I’ve only ever seen one imp in my life—Tom’s father,” Troy explained. “And Tom did not meet him until he was fifteen. The old imp only stayed one day to wreak havoc on the school and blame it on Tom.”

They stared more, though Steve chuckled.

“I don’t want to scare you.” Troy lowered his voice gravely. “And for the record, Tom’s a great guy. But, there are all sorts of supernatural beings out there, more than I even know. I mean, I last month I saw a death angel.”

They all nodded, as their conversion to vampirism included the same kind of meeting.

“I’ve met elves. I’ve encountered a boogieman. I even know this guy who if you bump into him, he turns into every animal of the Chinese Zodiac.” Troy sighed, thinking of Miranda and Selina. “I even know a gal who, if he hates you, can convince you to walk off a building—or she can just drown you with the water in your own cup.”

“How come… how come nobody sees them,” Cameron asked, practically breathless.

Shrugging, Troy replied, “They do see them. People just don’t recognize what they are. Most of them don’t want to be found out, but they walk the world like you and me.”

They stared.

Cameron visibly struggle with this idea. “Yes, but—”

“It is arrogant for people to assume they can comprehend all that can exist in this world,” Steve said, nodding. “You did not know vampires existed until a pair attacked you and forced you into this life.”

Troy watched Cameron consider this for a moment, still struggling with the idea that the world around him contained more than was visible to his eye. He even stuttered. “I, I, I get that. But, but, uh… wouldn’t it be obvious if, if, if there really were so many monsters running about the world?”

Steve laughed. His voice resonated almost mockingly in the room, laughing at these ‘mere mortal’ points-of-view, though his eyes said that he knew Troy knew better. He seemed proud of Troy, actually. Proud that Troy was not that kind of ignorant. In a way it was like a mentor expressing approval at how Troy was handling things.

“Most of them play nice,” Steve replied. “You would not know an ordinary mortal from a supernatural being, even up until one walked into the room and bit you. And even then, you might just think the guy was crazy.”

“There are so many weird people in the world,” Troy explained to Cameron, and then realized Mr. Lenox needed to hear this also, “that you would hardly know their weirdness was because of something supernatural. All of it can be explained away as allergies, or some neurological condition.”

“How would someone explain away your friend Tom?” Cameron asked, exasperated.

“ADHD?” Troy said. “You didn’t know he wasn’t all human until I told you. Most people never know. They just see a hyperactive guy with pale skin and light blonde hair… and orange eyes, if they ever catch a peek. And he is not half as hyper as he used to be. He keeps on the ground in public these days, and has restrained the urge to steal things to only his close friends who would understand.”

Mr. Lenox and Cameron sat there, hanging their shoulders with overwhelm from this information.

Steve burst into laughter, nodding. “Yeah. And can you imagine the flack your friend Tom gets for that little disparity in our modern age. A pale, blonde white man who gets into mischief easily? I can only imagine what would happen to the first person who would dare call him a white supremacist.”

“Well, Tom has learned an enormous amount of self-restraint since high school,” Troy said, thinking on that. It was not wise to mess with Tom Brown. “He’s had CIA training.”

“CIA?” Mr. Lenox echoed.

Looking to him, Troy said, “Didn’t I mention that? That he worked for the CIA? I thought I had.”

Cameron shook his head, but Mr. Lenox slowly nodded.

“Maybe just to me,” Mr. Lenox said.

Cameron was stunned.

“And werewolves?” Mr. Lenox asked, now sounding curious. “How would they hide?”

Troy inwardly groaned. It always came back to them.

“In plain sight,” Steve replied with a wink at Troy.

Both Mr. Lenox and Cameron looked confused.

“How do we hide?” Troy said shooting a sharp look back at Steve, wishing he would drop the subject. Clearly Steve knew about the Deacons. “Only a rare few seeing us would believe we were vampires.”

“My wife would,” Mr. Lenox retorted.

They looked to him. Troy frowned, wondering if that was true. If it were, the man had to be miserable.

True Friends