Vampires Don't Sparkle! Read Online Free Page A

reached the RV and let himself back in.
    The first thing he did was go into the bathroom. He washed his face and then looked at his reflection in the mirror. He noted his pallor, his sunken eyes. He looked at himself closely, paying close attention to his mirror image for the first time in years. And then when he found what he was looking for he looked at himself in the mirror some more, then let himself out into the main living quarters of the RV.
    He sat down on one of the front bunks and thought long and hard. He was still thinking about things when they returned, talking and laughing as if they didn’t have a care in the world.
    Sammy looked up at them as they entered and noticed Gus seemed a little different; he was more loose and relaxed. Melissa had her arm around him, and his was around her waist as they entered the RV. Frank cast him a baleful glance as they piled in the RV. Only Olivia made any lasting eye contact with him as they gathered around, taking seats in the RV. They all looked flush and healthy. Sammy took a deep breath, psyching himself up to ask them what had been turning over in his mind.
    “I just have a few questions for you before I make my decision,” Sammy said, the sound of his voice getting their attention.
    “Of course,” Frank said, speaking slowly. “Go ahead.”
    Sammy nodded and swallowed a lump in his throat. “You said that the other…servants, you called them…didn’t want to go to the higher level, yet they remained faithful, lifelong servants. How long did they stay with you?”
    Frank and Melissa glanced at each other. Robert and Jason grinned and Olivia merely looked at him. Sammy tried his best to resist her gaze, but it was hard. Finally Frank answered him. He frowned, as if trying to remember. “Well, Gus has been with us for, how long now?” He looked at Gus. “Fifteen years?” Gus nodded. Frank turned back to Sammy. “And before Gus there was Carlos Espinoza, a nice gentleman that was our friend and servant for about forty years. Before him it was a couple, Marion and Lemuel Jones. They were with us for thirty-seven years.”
    “You forgot Mike Johnson,” Melissa said, rubbing Frank’s neck. “That bootlegger we ran into in Alabama just after the Great War.”
    “Oh yes,” Frank said, grinning over at Sammy. “I almost forgot about him. Fellow used to be a sharecropper. I seem to remember that we saved him from a Klan lynching.”
    Sammy nodded. He looked at them all, wondering how they all came to be in their state, but then figured he would find out soon enough. He looked over at Olivia, who smiled at him, and he knew right then that as long as he stayed with them Olivia would keep him company for as long as he decided to remain with them in this physical state.
    “You said you had more than one question,” Frank said. “What’s the second question?”
    Sammy grinned. “Provided I serve you well, and I mean to do so, how long do I have to wait before I take the next step?”
    There was silence for a moment. Jason chuckled and Melissa smiled. Olivia’s smile was wide and triumphant. Frank laughed and the tenseness lifted. Frank reached across and clapped Sammy on the back. “As long as it takes to find another unique human like yourself, Sammy. As long as it takes.”
    As Sammy took the wheel of the RV to take them out into the desert, Melissa took Gus to the rear of the RV to take him to the next step. The night was endless and black, the highway unwinding before them like a long snake, and as he piloted them along to the next town Olivia joined Sammy in the cabin of the RV and told him what it was like to live through the sinking of the Titanic.

WHAT ONCE WAS FLESH
    Tim Waggoner
Tim Waggoner’s novels include the Nekropolis series of urban fantasies and the Ghost Trackers series written in collaboration with Jason Hawes and Grant Wilson of the Ghost Hunters television show. In total, he’s published close to thirty novels and two short story