Call of the Vampire Read Online Free PDF Page A

instantly quiet. Not just quieter but dead quiet. The music stopped and everything. It was bizarre.
    The minutes dragged on, and still there wasn’t a sound anywhere in the castle. At twenty after twelve, I could no longer hold my water. I had to find a bathroom or pee in the potted palm tree that was next to the bed. Cracking open the door, I opted against the palm.
    There was no one in the hallway. I leaned out a few inches and peaked toward the staircase. Still no one. Not a sound, not a voice, not a whisper. I pulled the door quietly shut after me and started tiptoeing down the hall. There had to be a bathroom somewhere nearby. I mean, I knew it was a very old castle, but it had been modernized. They couldn’t expect people to pee in chamber pots.
    There were so many doors, and each had a different coat of arms carved above the arch. I saw a lot of knight’s helmets and roosters, but nothing that would indicate a place to empty my bladder. How did people find their way around? One of the doors was open a crack, and I decided to peep inside, hoping to get lucky. I was literally about to burst.
    There was a couple stretched across an elaborate four-poster bed. The woman was on her back, just an inert figure, not moving at all. Her long red hair was loose from where it had been pinned up, and her dress was pulled off one shoulder exposing her breast. The man was on top of her, enthusiastically hickeying her neck.
    What was up with some guys and hickeys? They were so tacky. And you’d think a classy guy in a tuxedo wouldn’t feel the need to mar some beautiful woman’s neck.
    The woman seemed to gain consciousness for a moment, let out a soft sigh, and turned her head further to the side. I thought maybe she was trying to get away, but it only served to give the man better access to her neck. He lifted his lips briefly, and I saw something drip from them. It wasn’t drool. It was red. Blood red. I could see that there was an open wound on the side of her throat. He hadn’t been hickeying her like I thought. He had been drinking from her.
     

Chapter 4
    Stifling a small shriek, I ran back down the hall as quickly and as quietly as possible. Fortunately, the room where I’d left Blossom had a very distinct crest of a wolf’s head above the door, so I remembered it.
    Inside the room, I quickly scanned for intruders then closed the door and threw the lock. “I’m losing my mind,” I said to myself. I had to be losing my mind. There was no way I saw what I thought I saw.
    I couldn’t think. I couldn’t focus. I said, “The hell with it,” and watered the potted palm.
    Afterwards, I sat on an overstuffed chair and forced myself to calm down and think rationally. Vampires do not exist, so I didn’t really see what I thought I saw. It was more likely that Vanderlind Castle was just hosting some kind of kinky sex party and the guy in the tux had crossed the line in a major way. That also explained Viktor’s behavior and why the other guests were so amused. Jessie probably thought that if my mom came by when things started getting really crazy that we would either get caught up in the debauch against our wills or my mom would call the cops.
    How long could a person bleed from the neck until she died? I didn’t know, but I was willing to bet it wasn’t that long. I had to get her help and I had to do it immediately.
    Blossom was still blissfully unaware of our predicament. I inspected the room and discovered the old Victorian wardrobe that was sitting in the corner wasn’t very full. There was room for someone Blossom’s size if I shoved all the shoes to one side. Hiding her wasn’t as good as taking her with me, but at least I wasn’t leaving her sprawled on the bed unconscious.
    Even without dragging my comatose friend, it seemed unlikely that I would be able to make it out the front door, across the immense lawn, and through the iron gates without anyone noticing me. I decided I would have to leave the way we