“They always add something to mask the flavor. It’s usually this or a chocolate shake.”
“What else is in moonshine?” Stark had told me I’d been drinking herbs mixed with human blood.
“I really don’t know.”
“If you had to guess?” I asked.
“Probably vampire blood?”
Vampire blood would explain why I hadn’t died of starvation yet. It could cure almost any illness, so maybe it could heal a starving body, too. But what else was in the moonshine? That concoction kept me in check and believing Stark’s lies. Mostly. He’d had to use his mind tricks on me, too. I wondered why.
“I’m going to turn him into tiny vampire meatballs and feed him to a swamp turtle,” I snarled.
“Okay, but can you do it later? The helicopter’ll be here in fifteen minutes. Unless you changed your mind and want to stay?”
I glanced at Teri’s worried face. “No. I don’t even understand why he brought me here.” He knew I’d find out the truth eventually.
She tilted her head, looking at me with pity eyes. “You really don’t know.”
If one more person said that, I would rip off their head. “Can we skip the part where you try to make me feel dumb?” Because the way I saw it, I was the only person doing some actual thinking around here.
“You’re here for thePowoli Trac Erekcje. It translates to ‘slowly losing your erection.’”
“Excuse me?”
“It’s a formal ceremony reserved for a human about to become a vampire and join their coven through marriage. Iknow because Mr. Stark’s hosted these before.”
Vampires call marriage “erectile disfunction”?Thank goodness we didn’t marry, because I wasn’t about to sign up for a sexless eternity.
Teri continued, “For you, he’s pulling out all the stops. The entire month is filled with banquets, meet and greets, and parties. The most powerful vampires in the world are coming to give their blessings, including someone Stark is trying to keep a secret. Some vampire named Anna is coming.”
“Anna? You mean Queen Anna?” But she died two hundred years ago.
Teri shrugged. “I don’t know. They asked us to make over the VIP sleeping chamber, where Mr. Stark usually rests, for someone named Anna. She must be pretty important.”
I hung my head. Anna wasn’t coming.She’s already here.I was being groomed to become her. Anna, risen again.
What other explanation could there be? Stark had brought me here to meet his coven. He intended to turn me after some stupid ritual, and I would be getting nice comfy, cozy underground digs.
“That sonofabitch.” Yes, I swore, and if Stark were here right now, I’d be doing way worse to the man.
What I didn’t get was that Stark had already told the entire vampire world it had all been one big misunderstanding. I wasn’t Anna.None of this makes sense.
Suddenly, a ton of aha boulders fell on my head.Stark said… Stark told me… Stark, Stark, Stark and his lying tongue.He’d never actually confessed the truth to anyone, had he? Because I was his golden power-ticket!
I’m such a moron.My stomach sank lower. When would I learn my lesson? Vampires could not be trusted. Not even Daddy, when I really thought about it.
I’d only been fifteen when Daddy had a heart attack, and Mamma, Maybell, and I were left to fend for ourselves. The sadness had been unimaginable and affected my entire young life. Then I recently came to discover that vampires were real, living in Leiper’s Fork, and Daddy had been less than a few miles away the entire time, working for Stark. Or slaving for his master Stark. Whatever.
Point was, he could’ve come to see us and tried to explain. He could’ve been there for us, and sure, learning that Daddy was a vampire might’ve been a little scary, but it would’ve been a thousand times better than missing him like we had.
At the end of the day, though, no matter how much I loved Daddy, one thing was now abundantly clear: vampires could not be trusted.
“Thank you, Teri.” I sighed.
“Just promise you won’t rat me out? I only have a year left on my contract, and I’d really like to see my daughter again. She’s backhome with her father.”
“Contract. So you’re not a slave?” I figured that was the only way a human would work for a nasty SOB like Stark.
