Bite Me If You Can Read online

  Bite Me If You Can

  by

  Chaste Foxxe

  (c) copyright November 2003, Judith Fox

  New Concepts Publishing

  5202 Humphreys Rd.

  Lake Park, GA 31636

  www.newconceptspublishing.com

  Pleasure and pain. I learned about those two sensations from an unusual lover.

  He appeared beside me at the bus stop where I waited on a dark and dingy street. Main Street was a depressing ribbon of glistening gray that late afternoon.

  The monotonous drizzling rain could beat down Pollyanna. Waiting in a half trance, I felt the doldrums overtaking me.

  I thought of pleasant places in the rain. Paris in the rain. Rainy days in Spain. Running through rainy streets in London to meet my lover.

  But here, now, on a late workday with the daylight nearly gone, the depot depressed and dragged me down. I bent my head back and let my umbrella hang in my limp hand. The sky train bridge loomed over my head with its huge gray cement pillars reaching down towards me. At least my pink umbrella added some cheer to the gloomy scenario.

  No sooner did the thought enter my head, then a man grabbed my umbrella from my hand. My lackadaisical reflex failed to grab tight onto what belonged to me.

  “Hey. Wait a minute. You scum. That’s my umbrella. Come back.” I pointed at him. “Someone stop that creep. He’s stealing my pink umbrella.” I pointed at the culprit running like a madman.

  From the corner of my eye, the dark stranger moved, and, when I looked over, he twisted the arm of the thief. His arm bent behind his back, he yelped and dropped the umbrella. The dark stranger released him.

  He stood in front of me, holding up my coveted umbrella. ”I believe this is yours.” He stood at least six feet, and his aura struck my mind as magic. His dark raincoat against his midnight black spiked-hair accented his interesting face. From the way the raincoat hung unbuttoned, I could see faded jeans hugging slim legs and a gray turtle neck sweater covered a massive chest. He looked normal to me. But he had an edge, and clothing couldn’t change that. He didn’t fit in the boring mundane scene.

  I tried not to stare, but my eyes starved for the sight of a man like him. I feasted my eyes on him.

  He wore dark glasses and went back to read a novel, oblivious to everyone and everything. Except in the next moment, without warning, he removed his sunglasses to the top of his head. We locked eyes again. Be still my thumping heart.

  His blue silver eyes electrified me. So this was what it was like if I ever put a finger in an electrical socket. He’d given me a high voltage shock.

  The fact that he’d suddenly appeared and then removed his glasses to return my stare puzzled me. How could I not remember seeing him arrive beside me? It was unsettling. The panic rolled in my stomach. I turned away from him, feeling my movements in slow motion.

  When a bus stopped inches from me, a wave of relief enabled me to board the bus. I sat at the front near the bus driver. Aggravated to see how slow we were moving in the traffic ahead, I sighed after estimating how long this would delay me. The journey to the library where I worked was going to be long.

  I squirmed in my seat to see the strange man sitting across the aisle. He read his novel. Goose bumps quivered on my arms. I couldn’t recall him getting on the bus. A sickening feeling of panic started in my stomach again. I was frightened. Or was I excited?

  I hoped he couldn’t see the bewilderment in my eyes.

  The fact that he could affect me at all irked my sensibilities. My instincts had always been good, always ringing true when logic proved useless.

  Nearly missing my bus stop, I prepared to jump off, after noticing that he had vanished. I was the only passenger. The heavy traffic was gone.

  I turned to the bus driver. “Excuse me. Did you see that tall man in the dark raincoat get off the bus?”

  “Lady, I see everybody who gets on and off my bus. And you can bet there hasn’t been any men. I’ve had a whole bus load of nothin’ but women on this run. That’s all I saw.” He opened his door, and I gripped the side handle to inch my way off.

  “Thank you.”

  “You bet.”

  I shook my head. I must have been daydreaming again. A habit I’d have to break. Maybe it came with the territory.

  When Dr. Nevil Shute told me what I really was, I had gone into denial and then anger. Why me? I didn’t need the burden. His shy and yet matter of fact approach to preparing me for the unbelievable news was futile.

  His belief that I was a vampire slayer had made me laughing at first. “Don’t be ridiculous.” I had jumped up from the lumpy chair in his office. That was the first day of my frequent preoccupation.

  “Please, Ms. Smith.” He pushed himself from his chair like a turtle trying to emerge from its shell. “It’s not something I thought you would take easily. But I had to tell you. It’s important. We need all the help we can muster. We’ve got to save our civilization from the unbelievable holocaust of these deadly beings.”

  As he leaned to slam his fist on his desk, I thought he was going to break it. His unexpected anger affected me. I hugged my body in reaction to the forceful movement from such a quiet man. He wasn’t much older than me, but his deportment and wisdom seemed that of an older man. The fury he showed was alien to my impression of him.

  “Look,” I said after a pause. “I’m sure you really believe what you’re saying. Heaven knows I almost believe you myself.”

  Turning his back to me, he ran his hands over his head and pivoted to face me completely composed.

  I wrung my hands. “I can’t say it’s not true, my being a vampire slayer. I suppose I could do something more exciting with my life.” I laughed like a child, the sound ringing in my ears. “But exciting and insanity are two different things.”

  He stuffed his hands in his sweater pockets. His eyes beseeched me, and he moved towards me, determined as any man on a mission. “I can’t emphasize the importance. It’s the world, you, and people like you that you should be saving.” When a man like Nevil pleads with me, it’s hard to say no.

  He shook his head. “No, don’t decide now. Here’s my phone number and my email address. I don’t want to push you into anything. You have special powers and amazing strength. You should have noticed that by now. For some reason, you’ve denied it. A man is on his way who will approach you for his own evil intentions, if he hasn’t already.”

  “Trying to scare me works. But if you’re trying to convince me to come over to your side, it sucks.”

  “Can’t see how the fact that you are a vampire slayer would frighten you.” Nevil’s British private school accent smoothed the talk about a vampire slayer as though it was the most natural thing in the world.

  I could be part of a crusade to save the world from destruction and hell. Improving the world and ridding it of a fate worse than death appealed to my values of right and wrong. But I never thought about actually being of some help. I had only hoped the world would become a better planet, more humane for future generations. I realized action was more positive than hoping. In the situation the professor talked about, waiting didn’t mean getting.

  “You’ll want to think it over.” He stood regarding my face. “So I’ll leave you to it. You’ve got to believe in yourself to increase the power. And I know you believe in right not wrong.” He walked to the door, to hold it open, and looked back at me. “My card is on my desk.”

  I took the card. “Professor Nevil Shute, Contemporary Living and Ancient History Specialist.” I read it after I was out the door, standing in the bleak hallway.

  “Uh, what exactly does your card mean…” When I turned, he had closed the door and left me alone.


  * * * *

  I always enjoyed organizing the returned books in the library. Now that I was a librarian, and not an assistant, I did research for everyone. The promotion from assistant to librarian had been a goal of mine since my childhood. I had inherited the love of books from my parents and carried the torch of freedom for the human race. I believed in the power of good in the human race against evil which lurked everywhere.

  This evening at the library, it was difficult for me to retain anything for longer than five minutes. My desk was out in the open area with little protection from the public who walked everywhere. A large assortment of people asked me a variety of relevant and not so relevant questions. It didn’t matter to me. I was blissfully happy since starting work in the library. My dream come true. I immersed myself in the world of books of ideas and stories. My life, to me, was exciting.

  My mother worried I had unwisely plunged myself into my occupation and life would pass me by. “You need more in your life. You’re young and beautiful.”

  “But, mother, you love books too. You gave me that love.”

  She stroked my face. “It’s wonderful to love books, but you need other things to round off your life. I don’t want you to miss anything.”

  It seemed silly to me. “I’m happy now.”

  My mother hugged me. “Not as happy as you will be if you experience the love of a man.” She smiled serenely. “Like the love I found with your father.”

  I watched the glow in her eyes. My father had died two years ago from a heart attack. He had been standing on a stepladder, reaching for a volume of an encyclopedia my mother had asked him to get for her. He was there, had a heart attack, and then he was gone.

  Through my own mourning, I had stayed with my mother devotedly for the next six months.

  Living together, we found comfort from each other. The old house we lived in was too big for the two of us, but we couldn’t give it up. It had so many memories.

  I recalled the suddenness of the change in my mother a few months ago. One day I had come home to the house to discover a beautiful bouquet of flowers on the small table in the entrance hallway. The hum of happy voices and laughter in the front room gave me another clue. My mother had invited a man over for coffee. An older smiling man beamed at me as I entered the room.

  She held out her arms from the armchair where she sat opposite the man. “My darling child. You’re home at last. “John, this is my daughter, Ivy, I told you about.”

  He stood and held out his hand to me. “It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

  I shook hands with him and threw him my special critical look. The one I usually gave giggling teenage girls in the library.

  “Hello John. Unfortunately, my mother hasn’t told me about you.”

  “Come sit down, sweetie, and have coffee with us.” Mother gestured to the other armchair. “I’m sure I spoke to you about John. Sometimes, I swear you live in another world, even when I talk to you.” She smiled at John and proceeded to explain, “I think I’m a boring old lady to Ivy.”

  I saw how young my mother appeared at this moment. “Wait a minute.” I gave a small smirk to John. “It isn’t true.” I gazed over at my mother as though she was my daughter. I was the old lady here. “You are never a bore and never will be.”

  Looking at me, John said, “I haven’t known her as long as you but agree about your mother.” John put down his coffee cup. “I should go.” He stood and came over to take Mother’s hand. “Remember now, Mildred. The dance is on this Saturday night. I’ll pick you up at 7:00 pm.”

  A guppy and I would be a matching pair. My mouth hung open, but neither John nor my mother noticed. They only had eyes for each other.

  Before I knew it, there was a quick courtship, and then they had married. I moved into my own apartment and left the newlyweds to live in the house.

  I had moped a little afterwards. I wasn’t needed any longer. But soon my books and my job held my full attention. I was happy. Or so I thought. Men were the last thing on my mind. That would prove to be ironical in the near future.

  * * * *

  Now I sat at my desk in the library to turn the computer on.

  A large shadow darkened my desk area. “Are you the librarian?”

  I looked up into the silver blue eyes of the dark stranger from the bus stop. He loomed over me, and it was as though he had touched me. My pulse raced.

  I stood to lean against my desk. It weakened the feeling of power he had over me. He was less intimidating at eye level, though he was taller than me. “I’m the librarian. May I help you?”

  “Thank you.” He smiled. It was his eyes that penetrated my will. He stared so intently it was as though he held his hand on my face.

  I admired his facial structure now that we were in close proximity. His jaw line was square and chiseled. The temptation to run my finger along that jaw entered my mind. Perhaps I could even run my finger over his lips. The urge to feel his face burned in my mind like a grass fire difficult to subdue.

  “My name is Vance Rapier.”

  He didn’t offer his hand to shake. Only his voice suggested longings I had forgotten.

  “Pleased to meet you, Mr. Rapier. My name is Ivy Smith.” From hearing his strong voice, I knew he was a man used to controlling. A submissive woman these days would be difficult to find.

  My will power and common sense struggled inside me. Being the librarian, perhaps I should talk to him. What harm would it do? I snickered. After all, he’s only a man, I reasoned with myself.

  “What can I help you with?” I spoke to him, letting my eyelids droop in a haughty attitude. Femme fatale was my pseudonym. I had dealt with all kinds of men in the library. But according to Professor Shute, there might be a new type of man in my life to test my power. I simpered to myself. He had said a “dangerous creature”. I considered all men as dangerous creatures, depending on their cunning and their mothers.

  This Vance Rapier with sleek shining black hair and smoldering eyes definitely belonged in the high maintenance dangerous creature category.

  Together we searched the shelves between the “t” and “u” books.

  He stood behind me while I busily searched for the book, “Transylvania”. I wished he wouldn’t stand so close. The room was too warm. His breath moved my hair. His scent was like the woods, evergreens perhaps, even heather. An irresistible scent for me. Forests were always my favorite retreats.

  “I don’t know why I can’t find that book.” My fingers fumbled through the various other books. “Let’s see. Track stars, trains, translation… Yes, here it is – Transylvania.”

  As I pulled the book from the shelf, something tickled me on the back of my neck. I brushed it away. Perfect. Another fly in the library. I’ve always hated flies. They are so uninteresting.

  I turned to glance behind me, and Vance’s eyes claimed mine. Though I tried, I couldn’t look away. He took my arm, and swift and sure he drew me close. A throbbing beat softly in my temples, then captivated my whole body. He smiled, and I thought I saw sharp teeth. Unusually sharp teeth compared to any I’d seen before. Like a cat – or a vampire, I guessed.

  I pushed him away in my weak attempt to escape from him. He banged against a shelf. I uttered a surprised exclamation at the strength I used to push him away. Or did he let me go? Confusion invaded my head. I looked at my hands, the hands he had been holding. I gazed around me. He was gone. Perhaps he had said “Thank you” and left. I held my forehead and wondered what was happening to me.

  Disjointed muttering was not one of my weaknesses. I had always been proud of my concentration abilities.

  I considered the possibility that Vance Rapier had invaded my mind. No, I told myself, it was probably the flu or a cold coming on. Feeling my forehead, I couldn’t detect any fever, but the appearance of Vance Rapier had flustered me, as no other man ever had.

  After the encounter in the library, he lingered in my mind, whether I liked it or not. I was useless the rest of the e
vening.

  The next late afternoon, going to work, I searched for him everywhere in the crowds. At the library I focused on the books, but inside I waited for him. I wanted to kick myself. Vance Rapier was the last man I should find attractive. He wasn’t the type I needed, especially now. My previous boyfriend, Michael, had been charming and charismatic too. But within six months, when I was so sure he was my true love, I found out that he was dating other women. Then the day came when he gathered up enough nerve to tell me he couldn’t commit to our relationship. He told me this while I stood, my knees shaking, in the library where I worked. I understood why he was afraid. He didn’t have the bravado to tell me without a large crowd. I hadn’t realized the strength of my power yet. I thought it was an affliction. I had given Michael my body, and he had rebuked me in the end.

  There was no way I’d blow my cool in the library by ranting at him in front of a room full of strangers. I thought of a sock to his jaw. In recollection, I remembered the frightened look on his face as he backed away from me like a scared rat. In case I attacked him with venom, perhaps hurt his manhood, because that’s what he covered when he hastily retreated.

  I knew I resembled an enraged stone statute, unable to speak or move.

  The vow I had made to myself when Michael and I separated was a promise I never wanted to break. I didn’t want my feelings trampled under a selfish man’s feet.

  Now here was this Vance person, admittedly a sensual man, and I believed a superb lover, but I was not getting sucked in again.

  As I slammed my desk drawer shut after retrieving a pad of paper and pen, the desk bounced an inch off the floor. People stared at me and walked a distance around my desk, as though I might demonstrate my strength and anger by throwing the desk. It was a revealing moment for me, as I stared at my hand in awe. I did have super strength as the professor had told me. To act out this strength in my own anger scared me too. There were a lot of attractive men in the world. The idea of rendering them all helpless and afraid struck me as a possibility to advance our civilization. At least women would be aided by my power.