A great crash came from the kitchen. Pots and pans clattered to the floor and Simon the chef started shouting.
Aurora hurried to the kitchen and found Simon, always in a sour mood but even more sour on account of the fact that one of the shelves had fallen from the drywall, spilling all the pots and pans all over the floor. He cursed and complained in Creole, and Aurora helped him wash each pot by hand. By the time she was done, an hour had passed and she found the café empty except for Bett, who was still stationed behind the counter.
Aurora was a little disappointed that Stephen had left so soon.
But Stephen had tidied up his table before leaving. Hehad even tucked in his chair. A five-dollar bill waited for her underneath his empty mug, an extravagant tip for only a coffee.
On his paper napkin, he’d made an ink drawing. The lines were thick and confident, his control of the pen a masterful display of practice and an artist’s eye. He had drawn a sketch of her hands. She recognized the dozens of rings she had on her fingers. Below the sketch, in careful script, were the words:
This one’s on me, too
—SC
Aurora thought of Aldrich’s cruel words.What are you going to do? Marry a bleeder?A mortal. She traced Stephen’s drawing on the piece of paper. Why not? It had been thousands upon thousands of years. Maybe this time, it could be different.
Marry a bleeder?
She just might.
Pierce My Soul
byKAT CHO
HUNTING A VAMPIREisn’t easy.
Not that I’d done it before. But as I prepared for my first (and hopefully last) hunt, I was a ball of anxiety.
The hunt was not off to a good start. I was sitting in my car outside my family home. Well, it had actually stopped being our home exactly one day ago, when I handed the keys to a man I was pretty certain was a vampire.
He’d said his name was James. An Asian man in his late thirties. At least he was when he died. Now who knew how old he was. He could be thirty, he could be three hundred. And not just because Asians don’t age; it was definitely supernatural. That’s still true about vampires: they’re immortal.
I was hesitating because I was kind of scared shitless. Ididn’t have firsthand experience with vampires, but I knew if you wanted to catch one, you had to do it before nightfall. Counter to what the myths claimed, vampires could, in fact, go out during the day. They didn’t burst into flame or sparkle or anything. They just weren’t super strong or fast under the sun. I didn’t know the actual science (or magic) of it all. But at night, they were so powerful, they could crush a human with their bare hands.
Knowing all this, it probably seems like a horrible idea to try to catch a vampire, but I was desperate. I needed the money for tuition after learning my dad had used my college savings to pay off his debts. This was my last chance. I had to get out of this town.
I double-checked the list of supplies I’d bought from one of those fanatic anti-vamp stores (oh God, I sound so ridiculous):
iron stake (to immobilize)
dead man’s blood (reportedly made them sick if injected)
iron chains
I’d bet half this stuff was useless, but it was better than running in unprepared.
I really don’t have any intense opinions about vampires.
When the world found out they were real, many freaked out, especially with all the rumors and exaggerated stories that were circulating on social media.
Now most people knew the basics. They drank blood. They were strong. You turned into one if you died with vampire blood in your system. Some said drinking their blood would let them control your mind, but those were just rumors.
The government’s reaction was to do the two things they love the most: overreact and make a new acronym. Thus the NVRD—National Vampire Regulation Department—was born. They had carte blanche to do whatever they wanted as long as the only ones who ended up dead were vampires. (Some people said it breached human rights. Others said vampires didn’t have any because they weren’t human.)
Then there were the rewards for bringing in vampires, dead or alive (though live got more money).
Which brings me back to why I was doing this. Because college wasn’t cheap. When Dad had dropped the bomb of my depleted savings, I was pissed. But he’d pulled out the whole “respect your elders” line. My father was only Korean when it suited his needs. He’d told me he could give me enough to go to the local community college and my como had offered to let me live with her. But I refused to stay here. This town reminded me too much of all my regrets. Decisions I made that ruined everything. Decisions that led to losing two people I loved. College was supposed to be my ticket out, and I was taking it, one way or another.
Okay, Anna Ee, stop being a chicken and just do this, I said to myself. I grabbed my bag and ran across the street before I could change my mind. The one thing I had goingfor me was that I knew exactly how to sneak into this house.
