This is scene two in my current work in progress. You can read the first scene here: Vampire Story (excerpt).
Miranda got a shot of absinthe from the bar and sat down in the corner, pulled out her tablet and started to read. Now and then she scanned the crowd, looking for someone she knew.
Everyone at the Goddess was either a vamp or a donor. On this particular night there were more half-vamps than usual. Pretty pale creatures with odd back-lit eyes. They wouldn’t reach the age or power of a blue-blood but they were still better the human.
Miranda saw a few familiar faces, but no real prospects. She went back to her laptop and got lost in her work.
“Hey Miranda.”
A small, pretty girl with long, silky black hair was standing on the other side of the table. Miranda smiled up at her. “Hey Lily.”
“Daniel’s home,” Lily said happily.
“I know.”
“He saw you?” Disappointment flashed in Lily’s pretty blue eyes. In somebody else, it might have morphed into jealousy. In Lily, it faltered and faded. She was too tender to be vindictive. Too sweet to hate. “I thought you two were fighting.”
“We were.”
“Oh.” Lily turned her fingers one against the other. She had a on white filmy blouse with long gauzy sleeves. The sleeves covered her hands all the way to the ends of her fingers. She gestured quickly over her shoulder. The motion was artless and graceful together. “Someone wants to meet you.”
Miranda looked. There were a couple of vamps standing up against the wall on the other side of the room. “Which one?”
Lily giggled. She was twenty years old. Young enough to still be cute when she giggled. And she was with Daniel—getting her snug little world rocked into gravel. “By Kali.”
Miranda saw him. Their eyes met and then parted. He was young. Trendy. Sharp. Dark hair. Thin build. Nothing special. But willing. Willing was good. “He’s a half-vamp?”
“Aren’t they all?” Lily shrugged her small shoulders. “Aside from Daniel.”
Not all, maybe, but most.
Blue-bloods were rare and precious commodity. They could do things with energy that half-vamps only dreamed of. But they didn’t have to trade blood to get fed.
Half-vamps, on the other hand, had to trade. They couldn’t pull enough energy to compel people. Which made them safe in a way that no full-blooded vampire could ever be.
Though not completely, of course. Some half-vamps were unstable and unpredictable.
The half-vamp at the end of the bar looked familiar, but Miranda couldn’t quite place him. “Do you know him?” she asked.
“Sort of. His name is Tony G. He’s okay. Never caused any trouble.”
Lily could have walked away or sat down. But she didn’t do either. She just stood in front of the table, smiling softly. “Daniel’s back,” she said again dreamily. She drifted for a few moments and then she floated slowly back up to the surface. She smiled a small, trembling smile. “He was away for eight and a half weeks. After you guys fought.”
As if it was Miranda’s fault instead of Daniel’s. Which it kind of was. Either way, it was for the best, for her if not Lily.
For Lily, Miranda guessed, the eight and a half weeks must have seemed endless. It would have been nice if Daniel spent a little time with her now that he was back. But nice wasn’t really Daniel’s thing. “What’s he up to now?”
Lily shrugged her small shoulders. She hadn’t been told and she hadn’t asked. She was only a kid, but she knew the rules. “He said that he’d text me so we could meet up.”
“But he’s not coming here?”
“Probably not.”
At least there was that.
Lily smiled. “Good luck with Tony.”
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Read Excerpt 1: The Black Goddess
Excerpted from Trancing Miranda
©2024 Barbara Graver Wilder
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