A Tale of Two Vampires Read Online Free PDF

afraid?”
    “Me? No, I’m a curious little kitty. I like to poke around mysterious sorts of places. Besides…” I pulled from the bag a small canister the size of the palm of my hand. “I have your pepper spray, so should there be any weirdos camping out in the forest who feel like attacking me, I’ll be set. OK?”
    “I don’t like it,” she repeated, shaking her head.
    “I know, but just wait until you see the pictures. They’ll knock your socks off.” I glanced at my watch. “How about you pick me up at six? Will your book group be done by then?”
    “Yes, six will be fine. Io, be careful.”
    “Promise! Nothing will happen except I’ll spend the day in the spooky woods getting bit by mosquitoes and taking tons of fabulously moody shots.”
    “I hope that is all you are bitten by,” she said darkly, but, to my relief, got into her compact—but expensive—car and started it up.
    I waved, straightened my navy and white print sundress, hoisted the camera bag, and with a deep breath started for the woods, musing on her words. “She hopes that’s all I’m bitten by?” I shook my head as I left the warm sunshine and entered the coolness of the shade cast by the dense growth of trees, the pines filling the air with scent, while the sound of discarded needles crunched underfoot. “Like what else would bite me? A vampire? Ha! I laugh at that.”
    I did laugh, but it came out strained and curiously flat, as if I was trying to convince myself.
    “I am so not afraid of trees and vines and the weird trick of light that makes it look like there are little sparkles of things floating in the air around here. It’s just a small wood, nothing more.”
    The words were brave, but the sensation of closeness seemed to wrap around me, almost like an embrace, leaving the everyday sounds—the noise of cars traveling on the road, the occasional airplane droning high overhead—muffled and distant.
    “It’s just muffled by the trees,” I told myself as I pushed aside a long tendril of vine to march resolutely toward a particularly bright spot where light streamed through the branches. “Trees do that to things. Even the normal stuff like birds and insects get damped down by the—” I stopped as I listened intently for a few seconds.
    There was no birdsong, no whine of insects. There was no noise whatsoever except the muted rustle of the vines as they rubbed on the branches.
    Just like they were alive and reaching for me.
    “It’s all that talk of vampires and Viking ghosts and haunted forests. That’s what’s making you scare the bejeepers out of yourself,” I said with a nervous laugh, trying hard to shake off the feeling that everything around me was aware that I was in its midst. “You’re not in a Tolkien book, Io, and there are no Ents around here to scare the snot out of you, so just mellow out and get down to business, or you’ll have to explain to Gretl why you spent the entire day sitting on the rock next to the road because you scared yourself.”
    That little pep talk did the trick—mostly—and with a squaring of my shoulders, I walked resolutely toward the spot I wanted, and spent the next few hours snapping photos of it, and various other locations. There was a particularly magnificent outcropping of rock that rose some twelve feet in the air, almost like it was part of the ruined castle to the north, all covered in ferns and creepers, surrounded by budding little pine trees. I shot it from all angles, imagining in my head the composition of a series of pictures with Imogen set against it.
    “This is going to be great,” I said quietly to myself as I pushed deeper into the woods. The sunshine was less plentiful here, since the trees fought for space, their branches tangled and twisted together, making an effective fir canopy. The air was cooler, as well, and sharp with the scent of the trees and earth, enough that it made me shiver a little as I skirted another large boulder. Although I