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

Troy leaned back and stared at Randon for a second. A thought crossed his mind and he was glad he could not blush as he whispered low. “Did you know?”

“Know what?” Randon said without much meaning, putting another puzzle piece into the picture. Troy could now see one eye of the dragon they were currently assembling. It was Smaug from the Hobbit.

“Never mind. I don’t want to make our friendship weird,” Troy said, annoyed that either Randon was playing with him but more that he could not face this one thing.

“Our friendship has always been weird,” Randon said, picking up another puzzle piece. “I’m a cat.”

Troy blinked at him. It was such an odd point.

“And you…” Randon shook his head. “You were the only one who did not mess with me—not with the spell or anything else… no matter what you felt.”

He knew. Damn. He probably always knew. Troy stared at his best friend, remembering why they were best friends. Randon had always accepted him for exactly who he was. And he never embarrassed him.

“I want you to be happy,” Randon said. “But we all have to grow up, and I can’t give you what you need.”

Chuckling, Troy nodded. But then he said in a hushed voice, “But I am jealous of Silvia. I’ll admit it now. You’re the best person I’ve ever known.”

Slapping him on the back, Randon laughed. “That’s because you need to get out and meet more people.”

Troy laughed, nodding—not that he intended to suddenly change old habits and become an extrovert, but he understood.

“And next time you come over, bring your girlfriend,” Randon said again. “Silvia can help her. She knows how to deal with an ex, and she knows a thing or two about old curses—including vampire ones.”

Chuckling, Troy nodded. It was about time he did a bit better. Nicole might actually like Silvia for all he knew.

Troy slept in on Monday. The Sunday before, he had stayed at Randon’s and Silvia’s on their couch. They had hung out most of the day to the evening. Nicole would not be back until Monday evening, and Troy slept most of the way on public transport. When he got home late, he had crashed in his bed.

Groggy, Troy stumbled downstairs and went to the fridge for breakfast. Jazz was not playing, but something else. It sounded like the blues. When Troy saw Bobo walk into the room, also in his pajamas, he asked, “Is something wrong?”

Bobo shook his head then nodded. “Jandra is angry with me.”

Troy waited wondering what had upset his girlfriend. Maybe she got hurt. But Troy waited for Bobo to explain.

Shaking his head, Bobo said, “I told her we couldn’t do parties in this place anymore, and she demanded to know why. I couldn’t tell her the reason.”

“Can’t you just blame me?” Troy said with a shrug. “It’s kind of my fault anyway.”

Bobo laughed, waving that away. “Nah. It was my fault for thinking it was ok in the first place. Don’t worry. She’ll get over it.”

“But if she breaks up with you—”

“Then she wasn’t mine to begin with,” Bobo said. “And maybe it should end.”

Troy frowned, though, Bobo was most likely right. It just bothered him that he was talking so casually about it.

Gathering his notes, Troy prepared for the group meeting that noon. Over the weekend, after Randon’s remarks and the things Matthew had said, he had thought about all the vampire information he had already collected and what his friends were now using, realizing that he really ought to type out his notes clearer, annotating them, and maybe even publishing them. Dr. McAllister had suggested publication to him at the big meeting and he intended to visit Will McAllister after this one, bringing his notes.

When he arrived at the park, everyone but Nicole was there—including Brandon whom Troy had thought would have been too mortified to show his face. All eyes set on Troy, some widening, while Joshua said out loud, “Where’s Nicole? I thought she’d come with you.”

From their looks, Troy read they had been talking about him and her before he had arrived. He wondered what rumors had been spread, especially with Brandon standing amongst them so boldly.

“Nicole,” Troy said while setting down his bag on the nearest bench, “went home to her family for the weekend.”

Alexandra pulled up her cell phone to verify it. She texted first, then called—possibly not trusting a text message as she could not hear a voice to verify the person. Nicole picked up on the third ring.

“She felt harassed,” Troy said with an eye on Brandon, “And believed it necessary to get away for a while.”

“She moved in with you,” Brandon snapped.

“She did not.” Troy rolled his eyes. “Though she does stay over.”

Leslie exchanged a look with Sue, though they looked to Alexandra who was smiling and winking at the gals to indicate that Nicole was safe and in exactly the place Troy had said. Alexandra also inched away from Brandon.

“Look. Are we going to have this meeting or not?” Troy gazed around the group. Dalton was listening in on the phone conversation, nodding absentmindedly to Troy that they ought to start. Marcus was glaring at the threesome of men.

“You sic’d your cop friends on me,” Brandon growled.

Delivering him a wan look, Troy replied, “You were manhandling Nicole.”

All three ladies jerked back from Brandon.

“I did not—” Brandon’s face turned dark red, looking from one face to another, his heart racing. “She was coming on to me!”

Troy stepped closer to him, saying “Not from what I saw.”

Brandon groaned. “She and I have been dating for—”

“That does not give you permission to just stick your hand into her shirt and up her skirt!” Troy shouted. “She told you ‘no’, and that means ‘no’!”

“You just want to keep her for yourself,” Brandon growled, sticking his face into Troy’s. His heart was booming temptingly in Troy’s ears. Just one bite.

Troy resisted the urge to grab him. Instead, he spoke in his deep vampiric voice, hands decidedly off, “Get out. You are not welcome here.”

His words seemed to sink into Brandon’s hears like acid, reaching his bones and nearly melting the joints of his knees. They certainly buckled. Troy could also detect a faint ammonia smell.

Dalton shot to Troy’s side and quickly put himself between, Hands up toward Troy. “We don’t want a scene.”

Troy nodded, stepping back.

Shooting Troy a frightened yet scathing look, Brandon stormed off.

Connor shook his head and left also. Joshua paused before leaving as well, shaking his head at Troy.

“Oh, don’t you shake your head like that,” Marcus called after him. “Nicole is confirming Troy’s story as we speak.” He had been standing next to the ladies, listening in to Alexandra’s phone conversation. Marcus then nodded to Troy. “Before you got here, they were saying stuff about you that, well, frankly, made you look pretty bad.”

“What were they saying?” Troy asked. He recalled that all three had been at the party, including Alexandra.

“That you’re a predator. That you contrived all this with corrupt cops to—”

“I knew it was crap the moment it came out of their mouths,” Dalton said. He then winked at Troy. “This guy is shy. If he and Nikki had hooked up, she came onto him first.”

Troy was, for the millionth time, glad he could not blush.

Alexandra ended her phone call, grinning at Troy. She nodded to him. “Exonerated. Nicole confirmed everything you said and then some. But what I want to know is how long you two have been together?”

Now he was extremely glad he could not blush. “Irrelevant. Look. Are we having this meeting or what?”

They all nodded, taking their seats around the small nook in the park. Troy stuck to the shade and listened as they shared their current issues and he got to give advice.

All of them were pleased to hear about the book he was thinking of publishing. It was a step closer to getting all the help they needed. Then Sue suggested Troy put out a newsletter about his progress in research.

“It will be online,” Troy replied, noticing Sue sitting close to Dalton. Apparently they had hit off. “The website is nearly up and running.”

“Is someone else doing it now?” Dalton asked. “Since it was Art’s thing, right?”

Troy nodded. “Yes. I have another assistant who is taking care of that. I haven’t met him, so I don’t know him personally. We communicate digitally.”

There was not much else to say after that. But as they rose, Marcus suggest they all go together to get something, hang out a bit longer. Thinking on it, Troy said, “I know a place that has some great gelatos.”

They all chimed in that gelatos sounded good.

Unfortunately, when they arrived, Troy realized the place had a garlicky smell about it. He used to go there for calzones when he was in the city, and he had completely forgot that garlic was the key spice. It was all he could do to keep from sneezing.

After parting from the others with gelatos in hand, he quickly hurried to the clinic where the McAllisters were serving the community, hoping for an antihistamine to help with his now stuffed up nose. He wasn’t sure if a regular one would do it.

The clinic was full of people who clearly did not have health insurance aside from the basic government Medicare. Which really didn’t help much at all. Some were there for rashes, bumps, swelling, scaly dry skin, and other ailments which looked suspiciously bad. Many were there simply for their shots. When Troy went to the counter, the nurse’s eyes went wide on him and she called to the back room.

Jane quickly came to the front then smiled. “Don’t worry. This only is a friend.”

Chuckling, Troy nodded—as he was allowed in.

“William is busy at this current second dealing with a nasty set of boils.”

“Boils?” Troy’s mind quickly went to some biblical story passage, wondering exactly what archaic disease it was.

Jane nodded. “Yep. It requires a surgical procedure and a bit of pain, as you have to lance them and get the core of the puss out.”

Troy cringed, shuddering. He also noticed a fetid stench mixed with blood. It was like poison blood really.

“How about you come into the office? I’ll get you something to eat and he will be there as soon as he can,” Jane said, leading him to a room.

What choice did he have? He was still waiting for Nicole to get back and he wanted to pass on information.

Jane left him in a clean but not fully stocked room which pretended to be an office. It was more like a closet with a desk and two chairs. On the wall was a poster encouraging people to ‘hang in there’ with a cat barely hanging on to some kind of rope, meowing pitifully. For a moment Troy felt like he was staring at Randon. He had seen that desperation on his friend’s face a number of times. He knew it well. Troy pulled up a sticky note from off the desk and put it over the cat’s face so he would not have to see it

William McAllister came into the room, saying to someone behind him, “I just have one patient in here to see. I’ll be back out as soon as I can. He has a standing appointment.”

Then he turned around and smiled at Troy. “How’s it going?”

Troy rose from his seat. He had been doing a Sudoku from one of the puzzle books that had been in a rack near the desk. “It’s been an education.”

“Can I give you an examination?” Dr. McAllister asked.

“Is it necessary?” Troy asked, raising his eyebrows.

Nodding, the good doctor gestured for Troy to take off his shirt. He then picked up his ear light and waved Troy closer so he could take a peek into his facial orifices. Troy hung his shoulders and allowed him to. The examination did not take long. William merely checked to see if Troy’s heart truly was no longer beating, if he was