Page 16 of My Road Trip with a Vampire: Season One
“I’ve done it three times.”
“From this moment on you will not touch anyone like that, even with their permission. You will be repulsed by human touch. Your dick will shrink if your fingers come near another person.”
He breaks the compulsion.
“Beatrice, love, do your thing.”
I look at the ghost and step close to her. “Sorry about what happened to you. You can go on now. Have your dance.”
I pull a crystal amulet from beneath my shirt.
“I don’t know your name, but I do know what happened here. You can be free after all these years.”
The ghost’s eyes go wide, but she doesn’t fight. She simply lets go and fades into wisps of white against the night.
Dennis coaxes Jessica to the car, and James stands alone in the dark looking extremely confused.
“We were just passing by and saw you needed some help.” He compels the girl into believing his story when we drop her off at her house. “You’re safe now. You can’t remember what we look like.”
Dennis waits until we’re out of the neighborhood before he turns to me.
“So, what do you think, Beatrice? Are you down for the ride, or do you want to return home?”
I don’t like his tactics, but I see that my work has a real purpose. I’ve been called to send these spirits to their final rest.
I'm going to be fucking good at it too.
“I’m down,” I say, looking out the window, watching Pennsylvania drop away. The life I know fades behind me, and I can feel myself becoming a nameless wraith in the night. I’m not even sad about it. I feel like I’m finally living the life I was meant to.
9
FIRST STOP
Iwake up with my head pressed to the window. I squint at the lights, and I’m slightly surprised when I remember I’m riding shotgun next to a vampire.
“Where are we now? Didn’t mean to fall asleep,” I say around a yawn.
“We’re in Philadelphia,” he says. “You seemed tired, so I didn’t want to wake you. We’re almost to the hotel.”
I blink at the wordhotel. I haven’t had enough time to think about all the logistics of this trip. Of course there will be hotels and stops involved. I twist my fingers in my lap, and as if he can sense my nervous energy, he laughs.
“Our boss is wealthy enough. We’ll have separate rooms.”
“Good to know. I wasn’t sure how far you’d take the whole fiancé thing.”
I shoot a glance at him, and the corner of his lip pulls up in a half-smile.
“For the record, the fiancé thing is a front. I might have to pull that card every now and then, but despite my old age, I’m a very modern man. You have all the freedom you want, Bea.” His words wrap around me, smooth and silky. “We’ll share some dark moments on this journey, so let’s try to have fun when we can.”
I study his hands on the steering wheel and think of how he was able to pin me down at the graveyard. I wonder how they’d feel in other places…
“Do you mean you want to have fun with me?” I ask as he pulls into a hotel parking lot. It’s one of those luxury high-rise ones that I’ve never stayed in before. The city is lit up and alive around us.
He snorts, running his eyes over me. They come to rest on my neck where my coat is open at the throat. Then I realize he’s looking at me like a snack, and not because he thinks I’m cute.
I grasp my coat shut and press back against my seat.
He laughs.
