Blood Candy Page 6

  Medium Dave strolled back over to the rest of the Misfits and gave them the news. “They’ll meet with us tonight. They said they can help us with the Brits. They know what to do.”

  “So we’re really going to walk into a vampire nest?” Were-Jew asked Melvin. Candy waited for the answer. She didn’t think it was a good idea either.

  The leader of the Misfits pondered the situation for a moment, his eyes darting around behind his glasses. “I’ll go,” he said. “There’s no reason to risk everyone. I’m the leader and it’s my responsibility.”

  “You take this way too seriously,” Felicia said, rolling her eyes. “We all go or none of us go. Misfits stay together.”

  “I made my decision.”

  “Screw that,” White Paul said. Without his hat on, his thick hair stuck out everywhere. “I’m going with you. I have to see one of these vampire families with my own eyes. Besides, if they try anything, you’ll need some muscle.”

  Candy sighed and leaned against the SUV while they argued. She felt bad that they had to leave their home, and about them arguing over who should go meet with the vampires. This was all her fault. Jimmy put his arm around her shoulder, making her feel a little better. Medium Dave glanced between everyone as if he had something to say.

  “Shut up guys,” he said in his soft spoken tone. After repeating himself three more times they finally shut their mouths and looked at him. “I have to go. They agreed to meet me and Candy.”

  Candy pushed herself off the car and shook her head. She had no intention whatsoever of meeting a vampire family. She shivered thinking about it.

  “Candy’s not going. I’m not letting her go to a vampire nest,” Jimmy said.

  “That’s the deal,” Medium Dave said with a shrug. “Candy has to go.”

  Jimmy stared at the ground while chewing on his lower lip. “This is a bad idea. We’re not doing it. I’d rather hide out than bring her to the vampires.”

  “They’re not like other vampires,” Medium Dave insisted. “They can help us. They want to help us. They don’t like the Brits.”

  White Paul raised a skeptical brow. “How do you know these vampires?”

  “I just do.”

  White Paul didn’t like that answer. “Nobody ‘just knows’ vampires, Dave. I can tell when you’re hiding something.”

  “I’m not,” Medium Dave said without the conviction to convince anyone. “I know Chester and his mother.”

  “His mother?” Candy said.

  Medium Dave’s face turned red. He was shy and quiet for the most part and it frustrated him being put on the spot. Melvin tried to draw attention away from him.

  “It doesn’t look like we have a choice,” he said. “And Felicia’s right—we all go together or we don’t go at all. Where are we meeting them?”

  “Providence.”

  “Then we should get going. We’ll be on the road for at least a couple of hours.”

  The Misfits made their final preparations to leave, making sure they had everything they needed out of the Kennel. Medium Dave made another phone call and then informed everyone that they could crash at his parent’s house near Providence while they were out of town. Melvin approved the plan and they set out.

  Jimmy, Candy, and Medium Dave rode together in the Pinto while everyone else had the privilege of riding in the comfortable SUV, which followed behind in case the old piece of junk broke down. Medium Dave was the only one who had ever been to Rhode Island before. According to Jimmy, he was born and raised there before joining up with the Misfits.

  Jimmy took them onto the interstate and they rode in silence for a while. The Pinto, of course, didn’t have air conditioning. The lowered windows rattled incessantly. Candy couldn’t take the racket anymore and rolled her window up.

  “Are you sure it’s a good idea that I go?” she said, her nerves on edge. As far as she was concerned, she never wanted to have anything to do with vampires again. She didn’t care if these vampires wanted to help, which was strange in itself.

  “You’re not going,” Jimmy assured her.

  “She has to, Jimmy,” Medium Dave said from the back seat.

  “Why?”

  “I don’t know. I spoke with . . .” Medium Dave trailed off for a moment. “I spoke with someone close to the family who knows how to get in touch with them. He insisted Candy needs to be wherever they decide to meet us.”

  “Why didn’t you just talk with one of them?”

  “They sleep during the day,” Medium Dave said as if that should have been completely obvious. “They’ll call me once they wake up.”

  Candy thought about the situation. She put her hand to the wound on her neck, covered now with a single band aid. It still felt a little weird and it tingled if she pressed against it too hard. The vampire who did that to her had already found her once, found her cell number, was close to finding her a second time, and he had also been in her dream. She just wanted this to end.

  “I should go,” she said reluctantly. “I’ve already put you and your friends through so much. It’s not fair to them. They had to leave home because of me.”

  “This isn’t anything we’re not used to,” Jimmy said. “We’ve always been at odds with vampires, especially the Brits. This is what we’ve been preparing for.”

  Candy shook her head. “How do you think this makes me feel knowing it’s my fault? Don’t try to sugarcoat it, Jimmy. None of this would have happened if it wasn’t for me. I’ll go.” She swallowed, unsure if she wanted to say it. “Alone.”

  “You are not going alone.” Jimmy turned to face her. There was no leeway in his eyes. “I’m here for you and I’m going with you. We’ll get this all settled and then we can return home.”

  “I told you I have to go,” Medium Dave said. “They don’t know you and they won’t meet you without me.”

  Jimmy peered at him in the rearview. “Are you sure?”

  “I’m sure.”

  Melvin called Jimmy and told him to get off at the next exit so they could hit up the mega-store in town. They needed to get some supplies, but they didn’t have much money. They ended up arguing for fifteen minutes outside in the parking lot over what they needed. Once they had finally come to a decision, they split up into groups. Felicia and Candy went to the women’s clothing section together.

  “Here are some shirts,” Felicia said. She grabbed a few for Candy and herself. “Get a pair of shorts or two, or jeans if you want. Make sure to grab a pack of underwear too.”

  Candy hoped this would be over soon; the idea of buying a pack of panties for the road wasn’t appealing at all. The thought of being back home with her own closet full of clothes was sounding really good.

  Nearly an hour later everyone converged at one of the checkout aisles. Felicia yelled at the guys for not getting deodorant and toothpaste while they were back at that part of the store and she had to go get it herself. They crammed their new supplies into the SUV; mostly snacks and the things Felicia and Candy had bought. Jimmy and Medium Dave snagged a few bags of chips to eat in the Pinto.

  The trip to Providence took nearly two more hours. Medium Dave gave directions to his parent’s house in a suburb about thirty minutes away from downtown. Candy was surprised when they pulled into a well kept middleclass neighborhood. She had expected a trailer park, figuring his parents might be poor. But the neighborhood was full of big houses and even bigger lawns, and she wondered why he left here for the shack the Misfits called home. Jimmy pulled into the driveway of a house with a white picket fence and bright green grass.

  As everyone exited the cars and stretched out, Jimmy pulled Melvin aside, but not far enough away that Candy couldn’t hear them.

  “We decided that me, Candy, and Medium Dave are going,” he said. “There’s no point endangering everyone and Dave thinks they won’t meet with us if we all go.”

  Melvin sighed, clearly conflicted, and then he nodded. “White Paul’s going with you. For safety and because he won’
t shut up about it. The rest of us will follow in case you need back up.”

  The house they stood in front of was like every other on the street: Two stories with a big lawn spotted with a few trees. Flowers and trimmed bushes lined the walkway to the front door. Medium Dave invited everyone inside, which was just as nice as the outside, if not a bit stuffy because no one had been there for weeks. At his insistence, everyone made themselves at home in the living room while he went to turn on the air conditioning. The living room had matching furniture—sofa, love chair, and recliner—and a big flat screen television.

  “I never knew his parents had a house this nice,” Were-Jew said.

  “Me neither,” Felicia said with an appreciative look around.

  “I wonder if they have anything to eat,” White Paul said. He headed towards the open entrance of the kitchen but then paused at the door to the back yard. “Holy shit, they have an in ground pool.”

  Felicia hustled over and pulled down hard on the blinds. “Nice! I wish I brought a swimsuit, or bought one.”

  “That’s what we need to be spending the money we don’t have on,” White Paul said. “Besides, we don’t need swimsuits. You and I can party in our birthday suits later on.”

  “In your dreams.”

  White Paul shrugged and went over to the fridge. “Suit yourself.”

  Candy was looking out the window in the living room when she noticed a table lined with framed portraits. In one of them, a middle aged woman with brown hair and a worn face smiled in a brass frame. She must have been Medium Dave’s mother. She looked pleasant enough, if not very tired. A photo to the right of that one showed a teenaged Medium Dave sporting the same docile face on an even skinnier body. Next to that was the recent graduation photo of a young woman in tassels and robe. She resembled Medium Dave in pretty much every way—the same hair and eyes, the same gaunt face, and the same thin lips. She could have been his twin. Candy had to lean close to see the next photo of a seven or eight year old boy sitting on the back of what looked like a moose. She squinted at the picture; it was indeed a moose and the kid was crying his little head off.

  “That’s my father,” Medium Dave said.

  Candy backed away from the table and nearly knocked over a picture. She glanced back at the photo of the kid sitting on the moose and noticed the one next to it was a photo of a young man in a Navy uniform. The man in the photo strikingly resembled Medium Dave and she presumed it was his father.

  “Oh,” she said. “Is this your mother and sister?”

  “Yeah.”

  His phone rang and he wandered off into another room to answer; it didn’t seem he wanted to talk about his family anyway. Jimmy came over to take a look at the photos as well.

  “He never told us much about his family,” he said. “Then again, he never told us much of anything.”

  “What exactly are the Misfits?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I mean who are you? It’s odd you don’t know anything about your friends.”

  Jimmy glanced over his shoulder. “I know plenty about them,” he said, but then his face sagged into a frown. “I’ll tell you another time. I don’t want to talk about it in front of the others.”

  Candy was about to ask why when Medium Dave came back into the room to announce the Mullins would meet with them at a bookstore at seven o’clock. The Misfits then set about coming up with a plan. They decided everyone who wasn’t going to meet with the Mullins would wait near the bookstore. Felicia would watch the front, Were-Jew would scout the inside as backup, and Melvin would wait with the SUV just in case.

  “Sounds good,” White Paul said impatiently. “There’s nothing to eat in here. I’ll be back in a few.”

  Jimmy opened the back door and motioned for Candy to follow. The backyard was spacious, with plenty of trimmed bushes and a garden and a shed. It was the perfect model of suburbia. They walked together to the side of the drained pool. Candy gazed out over the yard.

  “Are you sure you want to do this?” Jimmy said.

  “No. I’m terrified.”

  He put his arm around her shoulder. “Maybe we shouldn’t.”

  “No. He’s after me and I don’t think he’s going to stop. I had a dream about him, but it wasn’t a normal dream.”

  Jimmy frowned, looking as if his mother had taken away his favorite toy. “What kind of dream?”

  “I don’t know. I don’t remember what happened. All I know is how it felt, and it felt real, like he was really there with me in the dream. Like he was in my head with me.”

  Jimmy glanced out over the lawn, remaining silent.

  “I’m scared and I want this to end,” she said.

  He pulled her into his arms. “I’ll be with you.”

  “Before yesterday I didn’t know vampires existed. Why did this have to happen to me?”

  “Everything will be fine. I won’t let anything happen to you.”

  Candy imagined him as a wolf, as someone who could truly keep her safe, and it made her feel better. Then again, she had watched Tinch run away from Rupert and Vivian.

  “What do you know about vampires?” she said. “Are they the same as in movies and books?”

  “Kind of. I don’t read cheesy vampire books, but the classics got them fairly right on. They drink blood and will do anything to get it. They have to have it or they die. And as you know, they can charm people. Tinch calls it ‘glamour’ and he says to never believe anything they say.”

  “Do they kill people when they drink their blood? Would he have killed me . . . ?”

  “Normally they don’t, but that’s not the point. They always hurt people.”

  Candy thought back to the previous night with Rupert. She felt ashamed that she recalled the pleasure from that moment so much more vividly than anything else.

  “It felt good,” she said awkwardly. “It was . . .” she shook her head. She didn’t know how to express herself, or if he wanted to hear it.

  “That’s how they do it, how they addict you,” Jimmy said. “The first time is good, but it gets worse until it’s only pain. Tinch told me about the addicts and you saw that waitress in the diner. Pain is what they get, but they only remember when it felt good. They don’t care or maybe they don’t realize when a vampire feeds on them it’s only going to hurt. They become addicted to a memory they can’t have anymore.”

  He took in a long breath and gripped both of her shoulders, staring intently into her eyes. The worry creasing his face made him look more handsome in some weird way.

  “I don’t mean to scare you with all of this but you need to know the dangers,” he said. “I don’t want to see you get hurt.”

  His insinuation that she might be or become an addict made her angry, though she couldn’t argue something she knew so little about. His point hit home when she thought about Rupert in her dream.

  “I understand.”

  “We have to be careful tonight,” he said. “Be careful when you talk to them and don’t look at their eyes. I don’t trust vampires and I don’t care if they’re American or not, or if they drink pig’s blood. We have to be careful.”

  “What’s with the British vampires anyway?”

  “I’m not sure. The way I understand, they’ve always been here. There are different families or covens or whatever they call it.”

  “Are there a lot of vampires?”

  Jimmy frowned, the worried expression not matching his otherwise vibrant and youthful face. “Tinch thinks there are too many. They’ve been moving out of the cities because there are too many of them there. He said the only place he didn’t feel safe when he was young was in the big cities and look at us now. They are everywhere.”

  “I heard you and Tinch talking about that in the car. What’s he going to do?”

  Jimmy sighed and took Candy’s hand into his. Though he didn’t seem to want to talk about it, he said, “As far as Tinch and some of the others are concerned there’s only one way to handle vam
pires, especially vampires like those Brits. I can’t say I disagree with them.”

  “He wants to kill them?”

  Candy wasn’t sure why that bothered her. He was talking about murder, but was it murder to kill a vampire? Jimmy didn’t answer, which was answer enough.

  “Considering what Rupert did to me, what he’s put us through, I can’t say I disagree,” she said. “They were heartless monsters in the diner—all of the things Rupert said and did. Maybe they deserve what they get.”

  Jimmy gave a grim nod. Candy turned her head when she heard someone approaching. Were-Jew and Felicia came around the side of the house.

  “What’s up? You two okay?” Were-Jew said.

  “Yeah,” Jimmy said. “We’re just talking.”

  Were-Jew nodded. “We scouted around. This place seems pretty safe, but I’m nervous about being here with the way Rupert seems to be tracking her. Dave didn’t say anything, but I don’t want to compromise his parents’ home.”

  Candy headed off to take a shower while they talked. Felicia offered to grab the supplies out of the SUV and meet her upstairs with the clothes as well as some toiletries. Medium Dave told them that they could use the bed or pull out couch in the guest room to take a nap if they wanted. Candy went into the bathroom and stripped out of her dingy clothes—the dress definitely needed to be thrown away. She made sure the water was blasting hot and then she stood beneath it for a long time. Her feet stung from having run through the parking lot without shoes, but she didn’t care. She closed her eyes and tried to let the water wash away her concerns.

  After showering she dressed and went into the guestroom. Felicia was on the bed reading a book with one of her long legs crossed over the other. She glanced at Candy and then turned back to her book.

  “Feel better?” she said.

  “Marginally,” Candy said. She rubbed her eyes, frowned at the couch, and then sat on the bed next to Felicia. “I was thinking about taking a nap.”

  “I can lie on the couch.”

  “Nah,” Candy said. “I just want to rest my eyes for a bit. You can stay so long as you promise not to get fresh.”