Blood and Silver Ch. One

Chapter One

Beauty Comes With a Bite

Priscilla honked her horn impatiently. Where is that idiot? she wondered, drumming her fingers on the steering wheel. To keep herself busy, she inspected her reflection in the rearview mirror. Her long brown hair, freshly permed, hung in a sleek, straight curtain down her back and her grey eyes were silhouetted by silver eyeliner. Finally, Gracie stepped out the door. She was wearing a dark green mini skirt dress and her blonde hair tumbled down her shoulder.

“About time, I’ve been sitting here for five minutes,” Priscilla complained. “If I waited any longer, Andy Paisley could’ve run off with some loser. What then?”

“Oh, shut up, Percy,” snapped Gracie. “At least I remembered to not wear red.”

Priscilla looked down at her lacy burgundy shoulder dress and black high-heeled shoes.

“Whatever. Now let’s get the hell out of here.”

The entire trip to the club, they spoke of what they were going to do when they saw their dates.  Priscilla was keen on making herself a difficult target, hoping that it would make the pathetic guy grovel over her the way guys tend to do.  She might even lose her V card and finally have something to be proud of.  Gracie, she knew was a pro at ensnaring men with her buxom form that she knew all too well how to advertise without making herself look like a desperate slut--desperate, not so much; slut, definitely.  She was most likely going to get herself laid--or get her date laid seeing as how her virginity has been lost since who know how long.  It would have been the funniest day of Priscilla's life if she found out that Gracie got pregnant during one of her regular knock-ups, or even gotten herself an S.T.D.

“Guess who texted me last night,” said Gracie. “Jack Fredrick.”

“Shut up,” gasped Priscilla. “The quarterback?”

“The one and only.”

“God, I’m so jealous.”

“Why be jealous?” asked Gracie. “You got asked out by the hottest guy on the team.”

“He hasn’t answered any of my texts,” Priscilla grumbled.

Soon they arrived at the club. Above the door the words “The Pegasus” shined in blue letters. On weekends local bands would play and much more seldom, professional bands came to play. The most recent band that came to play was Symphony X and that was five months ago.

Priscilla and Gracie went in after showing their IDs. The building was two stories high. To one side a modest-sized stage stood that was currently occupied by a trio band and in front of it was a large dance floor. To the opposite side were several round tables set in neat rows and the bar occupied the far end of the building. The second story had a large catwalk that went through the middle of the building. They met up with their friends and found a table to sit at. Priscilla was curious as to where some of them got their clothing. Polaris was a common answer, which was a bit far away from where they were in the nowhere town of Red Falls, Ohio.

Eventually, Priscilla spotted Andy Paisley sitting by himself at a table and after a brief exchange of significant glances with her friends; she got up and went over.

“Hi, Andy,” she said. Andy didn’t answer, but continued staring off into space. “Um, hello, am I, like, invisible?”

Andy looked up. “Hi, Priscilla.”

She sat down and his eyes followed her. Those eyes, they were a deep shade of blue. His hair was cut short and he had an earring in his left earlobe. Overall, he was a heartthrob.

“Why haven’t you texted me?” demanded Priscilla. “I was beginning to think that you had run off with some other loser, and I—”

“Shut up, Prissy,” snapped Andy.

Priscilla fell silent as she crossed her arms with fire in her eyes. Andy apologized for snapping at her and explained why he didn’t answer any of her texts, saying that he was working overtime. She told him that that was no excuse. As she rambled on about how incompetent he was, calling him a good-for-nothing son of a bitch, her eyes fell upon a man that just stepped into the building.

“Hello, sweet handsomeness,” she heard herself say. The man was of average height wearing a flowing trench coat that looked as if it was spun from silver over black pants and a buttoned light blue shirt with the top two buttons unbuttoned. He also had an elegant walking stick that seemed to be covered in a silver net towards the top. Priscilla couldn’t see the top too well as the man’s hand was on it, but she could just make out a round sapphire. Normally, Priscilla thought that ponytails on men were stupid, but this guy’s sleek shoulder-length brown ponytail was quite sexy. His face was pale and flawless set with bright green eyes and a sharp jawline.

Andy followed her gaze. When his eyes landed on the newcomer, they looked like they were about to pop out of his skull. “Um, Priscilla, we need to leave.”

“What, why?” asked Priscilla. “I only just got here.”

“I don’t have time to explain, can we just leave?” pleaded Andy.

“Okay, I guess.” Andy got up and grabbed Priscilla’s wrist. They left through the back door and cowered behind a dumpster.

“Andy, what the hell’s—”

He placed a finger on her lips, silencing her. He looked like he was listening for something. Priscilla didn’t hear anything, and Andy seemed to not hear anything either.

“Uh, I think we’re alone, Andy,” said Priscilla, frustration building up in her voice.

“Good,” he said. His eyes returned to her and Priscilla yelped.

“What’s the matter with your face?” she asked. If his skin suddenly looking hideously cadaverous wasn't enough, his face was even worse. His eyelids were darkened as if his eye sockets were empty but for his eyes which were still a bright blue. Also it looked like his upper canines and incisors were extended like...was it fangs?  Priscilla wondered.

“I think you’re in need of a facial,” she said, her stomach threatening to turn over.

“I get that a lot,” replied Andy. He placed a hand on her shoulder and pressed her against the wall, not too gently.  He took his other hand and clasped her jaw and forcefully jerked it to the side. He sank his teeth into her neck.

Priscilla moaned as she grew increasingly lightheaded.

“Hey, son, if you’re going to be sucking some girl’s blood, I’d pick somewhere a little less conspicuous,” said an unfamiliar deep, husky voice. “A dark alleyway is way too unoriginal.”

Andy lifted his head from Priscilla. She sighed in relief.  As her eyes swam in and out of focus, she managed to make out Andy in what looked like a defensive stance similar to what she had seen in a couple of action movies and a what looked like a silver statue standing maybe ten feet away from him. 

“Get lost, pretty boy,” Andy ordered, sounding like he thought that he just ran into some loser trying to be a tough guy.

“Don’t you think that I should be the one telling you to get lost before you get a stake through your heart, or better yet, a bullet full of holy water through your head?” taunted the stranger.

Andy scoffed. “Okay, I see you’re an amateur and you think that holy objects are harmful to me. Get your facts straight.”

The stranger laughed. “Oh, I’m well aware that holy objects don’t hurt idiots like you; the bullet will just hurt like hell. But I do know what will."

Andy seemed to lose a little bit of his composure . 

“What’s this, stakes, holy water, neck-bites?” asked Priscilla struggling to stay on her feet.

“Oh, crying out loud, vampires?” She cocked her head. “Andy, do you sparkle?”

“What?” shouted Andy and the stranger as one. Now that Priscilla had a good look at the stranger, she recognized him as the man in the silver trench coat that she saw in the Pegasus.

She smiled.  "Hey, my name's Prisci--" she got shoved aside before she could finish.  When her eyes came back into focus she saw Andy and the stranger brawling.  She did not know much about hand-to-hand combat, but from what she could tell the stranger had better knowledge of what he was doing.  "Hey, will you stop hitting my boyfriend?" she asked, trying to sound polite.  She was answered with the stranger almost getting thrown into her.  

"You idiot, you almost hit me!" she squealed.  "All I did was ask if Andy sparkled."

“Vampires…” said the stranger as he got back onto his feet. “…Don’t…” He grabbed the top of his walking stick and pulled. To Priscilla’s astonishment mixed with surprised horror, the top portion came out as if from a scabbard.  “…Sparkle!”  and, with blinding speed he threw it like a throwing knife and it landed in Andy’s chest and, seemingly in a blur, his skin deteriorated sickeningly as if he was aging and then decomposing at an accelerated rate and he crumpled to dust. “Twilight is just a books-for-films story about some shallow small town delinquent that falls for a poor example of a pretty-boy ‘vampire’. And you have to admit, the acting in those movies? Dreadful.”

Priscilla hyperventilated as she shifted her gaze between the stranger, the pile of dust, and the top portion of the walking stick that he had just jammed back into the black rod. “Am I hallucinating?”

The stranger sighed. “They never say ‘thank you’,” he muttered. “A ‘Thanks for saving my life, buddy. It’s nice to know that someone wasn’t going to let me become some moron’s decaf latte’ would be really nice once in a while.”

Priscilla scoffed. “What are you, Buffy Summers’ gorgeous, loser-reeking, guy-twin?”

The stranger's eyes lit up with so much fire, she actually thought that they would set her ablaze. “Now I have no problem with teaching another lesson before I retire for the night, so if I were you I’d put a stopper to that arrogant mouth of yours.”

Priscilla scoffed as she rubbed her throbbing neck. "Do you know who you're talking to?"

“Should I?”

“Priscilla Snypes!” she snapped.

“Okay, nice to meet you, Priscilla Snypes,” said the stranger, mimicking her.  "Teenagers," he added almost to himself, "they never cease to grow more callow."

She curled her lip. “I don't know what So now what, you turned my date into dust—weird by the way and rude—and you plan on just walking away?”

The stranger seemed to consider her for a moment. “Yep, that’s pretty much the plan. Bye bye,” he said with a wave of his fingers. And he just disappeared.

Priscilla blinked. Not knowing what else to do, she rummaged through her purse and pulled out her cellphone and dialed the emergency number.

"Nine-one-one, what's your emergency?" asked the operator.

"This is Priscilla Snypes, I'm reporting an assault--I just got bitten!"

"Bitten?" repeated the operator. "By what?"

"A vampire, you unprivileged twerp!" she shrieked.

The operator did not respond, but just before the phone hung up, Priscilla could have sworn she heard him say "Kids."

"Kid?" she repeated. "Kid! I am not a kid!" She shoved her phone into her purse so hard she thought it might rip a hole in the bottom of it.

“God, this has been such a weird night.” She looked at the small pile of dust that was once Andy and cocked her head. “And what the hell does a girl have to do to find a decent man?” she shouted bitterly.