Darkling - Jessica Kelley (free ebook novel .TXT) 📗

was him. It had to be. You might dismiss it as some kind of cologne but it was more. I don't know how to explain it, but it was more than a smell--it was a taste; a touch. A sixth sense that I wasn't aware of. It felt like... him. Like if I were to look at his soul, his spirit, it would be like honey. I could taste it in the back of my throat.
I looked at him and he smiled. I felt heat rising to my cheeks. What the hell?

I had never been this way in front of a guy before. Something was up. Something not right. I know strange--and this was strange. People like me aren't supposed to be able to sense someone's spirit. My instincts were right. I had to check this guy out. 

 

 

2

 

"You smell weird." That was the first thing I said to him. And it was on the bus ride home. I hadn't gotten a chance to speak to him before now. Alright, I was a coward. I had put it off until the last possible moment. When I spotted him sitting down I flitted down the isle and crashed heavily onto the seat before anyone else could take it. And then I insulted him. 

He took a moment to respond, but when he did it was the word of a genius. "Okay." 

"Like honey." 

"I wasn't aware that honey is weird." Well. At least this wasn't awkward. 

"What's your name, honey-boy?" I figured the best path was intimidation. When people are threatened they talk more and tend to slip up. 

"I kind of like honey-boy, but Adrien works just as well," he responded, holding out his hand. I stared at it deliberately until he put it down. "Who are you?" 

"That's none of your concern." 

"And here I thought you were asking to be my friend." 

I rolled my eyes. "I don't need friends. They slow you down." 

"That's bleak," he said, frowning. 

"That's life." 

We sat in silence for a while.

"Then why did you sit here?" 

"I--I wanted to talk to you," I admitted. 

"Well, you've got my attention. What did you want to talk about?" 

I leaned back, trying to get some room to think. His scent was starting to irritate my nose. So far I hadn't seen anything that would make him suspicious. He seemed normal, apart from that damned smell. I had to make sure. If he really was a monster, if I pushed him hard enough, the claws would come out. Eventually. But I didn't have time for eventually. I was leaving after I got off of the bus. I had to know, now.

My answer came immediately: I slammed once again into the seat in front of me as the bus came to a grinding stop.

And Adrien stayed perfectly still. Ms. Andy's reckless driving had no effect on him.

Which, of course, was absolutely impossible. Even if he was the most well-balanced person on the planet, he couldn't escape the force of--what was it? Inertia. It was a scientifically proven fact. And in my experience only something supernatural could escape the laws of physics. 

All of my awkwardness flowed out, replaced with an ice cold attitude. Now that my suspicions had been confirmed, I was all business. Well, more or less. I had to keep him talking until we got to his stop. 

As the bus peeled away again Adrien narrowed his eyes. "Wasn't that your stop?" 

"Not today," I said. 

"And why not?" 

"Because we're not done talking," I said matter-of-factly. 

"Then how are you going to get home?" he wondered. 

I rolled my eyes. "I have legs, you know." He sat back, looking me over. I guess he was trying to make sure I wasn't weird. Too late, buddy.

"I assume you'd like to talk about more than this," he said. 

"You assume correctly." I don't know why, but I was sort of enjoying this. Usually forced conversation is painful but with him it was... easier, I suppose. Not that I liked him. He still wasn't human. 

A long and uncomfortable silence took place as we waited for his stop. Gradually the others got to their stops, leaving us alone. Which was swell. I would just love to take one of the many free seats and ignore Adrien until his stop. But no. I had to keep my freaking eyes on him so he didn't try to escape. Work can be tiring. 

Suddenly the bus swerved onto a side road then turned onto a hidden dirt road. It looked like it hadn't been used in decades; Even Adrien couldn't keep from bumping around like an idiot. 

"What the hell--?" I muttered, looking at Ms. Andy, who acted as if nothing was wrong. I turned to Adrien. "You don't happen to live down here, do you?" I hoped he did. Because if he didn't something was seriously wrong here. 

He shook his head. Once again I looked at Ms. Andy, just in time to see her look into the mirror and grin at me. And for that fraction of a second, I saw fangs protruding from her mouth. 

Oh, of course, I thought. Something just had to go wrong. As if my current predicament with honey-boy wasn't enough to keep me busy. 

3

 

I turned away from Adrien and propelled myself at the next seat as fast as my body would go. In midair I raised my arm and, upon impact, shattered the window with my elbow. A few pieces of glass dug in, which would hurt later, but I paid them no mind. I grabbed Adrien--who sat stunned--and hauled him through the window. I immediately followed, landing hard on branches and twigs. Adrien was luckier than me; He had landed on a soft pile of leaves. 

Figures, I thought. I save his ass and he gets the soft pile.

I stifled my aggravation, knowing we had more troubling things to deal with at the moment. Like a bus driver who was suddenly hell-bent on eating us. 

How did I know she was a long-pig-lover? Because of her teeth. They were sharp and stained red from previous victims. Which is just lovely, let me tell you. 

Speak of the devil. The bus was stopping. The doors were opening. And for the main course, Ms. Andy stepped out fully transformed. Long arms and legs, parchment-like skin. Dead eyes. Terribly thin; I could see her bones protruding at the joints. And her eyes were aimed directly at me. 

Just as she started shuffling toward me, Adrien popped into view. He was screaming at me, something about me being a crazy psycho bitch and him suing. Great, another mess to deal with.

"Move!" I shouted, pushing him behind me. I whipped out the glock-19 and fired off a couple of rounds, scaring the ever-loving shit out of honey-boy. I wanted to look back and make sure he wasn't running away but I wasn't about to take my eyes off of that thing. It hadn't even faltered when the bullets made contact. Which meant this thing was a vampire. An old and powerful one. 

"Shit..." I muttered, pulling a silver dagger out of the back of my shoe.

I ran straight at the thing, leaping into the air and raising the knife. I almost didn't see it start to duck but I realized just in time. It was planning on clawing me as I sailed over it but I was faster. I shifted my stance so I knocked it down. When I came down I was already crouching and stabbing. It was a messy affair, showering me with brownish blood while the thing writhed underneath me. It took ten cuts to make it stop, severing the head completely, and by then I was soaked. 

I stood up, wiping my face and making sure none of the blood had gotten into my mouth. If I had swallowed some I would have turned into one. 

Then I noticed Adrien. He was on his hands and knees, pale and breathing heavily. His eyes never left the rotting corpse, not until he heard me fiddle with the gun and put the safety back on. Then he stared at me like I was gonna shoot him. I noticed that the honey essence was ebbing and flowing with his every breath. Something was definitely different with this kid, I just wasn't sure he knew it. So far he was acting the same way any other human would if put in a similar situation. 

I came to a decision. "Get up," I said, nudging him with my foot. 

"Where'd you get those?" he asked, looking at the weapons. 

"Santa gave 'em to me," I replied nonchalantly. 

He looked at the bloody mess of bones and skin as he slowly stood up and said, "What is that thing?" 

"Judging from its reaction to silver, I'd say it's a vamp," I answered as I wiped the blade on my jeans and slipped it back into my shoe. 

“Vamp. As in--” 

“Vampire, yes.” There was a long pause.

“Right...”

“If you don't believe me, then what do you think that creature is?” I said. 

“Some figment of my imagination?” he said hopefully. 

“Then why can I see it? Am I just a 'figment of your imagination' too?”

He didn't have an answer for that. 

“Look,” I said, surveying the area for any other possible threats. “You're not going to like this, but you have to come with me.” 

“What? Why?” His voice cracked a little at the end. 

“Because,” I said, “old vamps don't just attack random people. They never go for minors. It can't be a coincidence that she attacked the day after you got here.” 

“It—it could have been after you! You're the one with a gun.” I sighed. I didn't have the time or patience for this.

I socked him in the jaw and he crumpled to the ground. Hmm. That was easy. It hadn't even been a hard punch.

* 

*

As I leaned back in the driver’s seat of my faded green pickup truck, a thought occurred to me: Adrien’s snoring was worse than the vampire. He was sprawled across the back seat, emitting a noise that was similar in volume to that of a lion’s roar. Every time I had tried to drown it out by turning the radio up, he seemed to get louder, so I had just resigned myself to the fact that it was inescapable. Knocking Adrien unconscious had been easy enough, but getting him back to the motel was another story. Although he had the physique of a fourteen-year-old, he was as heavy as a man twice his size, and I’m small for my age.

And then there was the matter of actually getting him to the motel. All I had to work with a freaking school bus, and those things are hard to steer and have terrible brakes. In the hands of a sixteen-year-old