NaNo in this household has been a rough go so far this week. I started out strong on Tuesday, but spent Wednesday in the city, Christmas shopping, and spent most of yesterday feeling violently ill. As such, the little headway I was making has been completely destroyed. On the upside, I’ve plowed through the boring beginnings stage of the story and have finally moved into some of the interesting stuff, so here’s hoping that I’m able to pick things up and move forward at a decent speed from here on.
Until then, here’s another short clip of Bloodlust….the story that will need massive revisions in the future. 🙂
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For a brief moment I was sure that everything I’d been through so far was just a dream. I’d dreamed the letter from Andrew, dreamed the Manda had agreed to come to Mexico with me, dreamed leaving my home and my family in search of vampires. I groaned at the thought as I opened my eyes, and was shocked to see a whole group of people looking down at me. The first was Manda, looking very concerned behind her black-lined eyes. The second was Andrew, looking equal parts worried and ecstatic. The third was the woman who had led us into the bar; there was a funny little grin on her face that indicated she was getting a big kick out of something. And the fourth was Lucas.
I immediately scrambled to my feet, though the movement made my head rush again. I was so embarrassed, but I put a big grin on my face, laughed like it was all a terribly humorous joke, and straightened my clothes as nonchalantly as I could. “Guess I haven’t been eating enough!” I lied. “So sorry about that, everyone!”
Manda and Andrew looked at me like I was nuts. The vampire woman let out a bark of a laugh that made me feel both at ease and amused. She was a happy vampire, that was for sure.
“Are you sure you’re okay?” Manda was asking me. I nodded to her with a smile plastered on my face, but in reality I was watching Lucas out of the corner of my eye. He hadn’t moved to say anything to me, and his face hadn’t changed since the second I’d opened my eyes. He looked calm, completely stress-free, and maybe even a little bored. That worried me. It worried me a lot.
“Would you like a glass of water?” Andrew suggested, trying to play chivalrous. I waved him off. “No, no, I’m fine, really,” I assured the crowd in general. “But I could definitely go for something a little stronger.” I tried to look cool, but I wasn’t sure it was working.
I did notice, however, that Lucas’ lip twitched a little when I mentioned having a drink. He didn’t smile, not really, but something changed in his face. He waved to someone off to the side of the room and suddenly there was a pin-thin girl with a tray of drinks standing next to him. She didn’t even look at him as he picked a wine glass off of the tray and she took off the second he was done with her. He leaned forward and offered me the glass with an almost painfully seductive look on his face. “For you, dear lady,” he said. His voice melted over me like warm butter. I thought I might faint again but instead I forced myself to smile and take the glass from his hand. For half a second during the transfer his fingers brushed mine. They were cool, like he’d had them in snow. Just like my books always described.
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