Sixteen Going on Undead by Yvette Ford Page A

and stomped over to the information desk. This time I was determined to get some info on vampires. Urban legends or old myths would work and not fiction. I figured there had to be some reference books that could point me in the right direction. After that, I was going to check out a couple of kickboxing classes. If I found something good and cheap, I was going to call my dad and beg for money to pay for it. If he knew it wouldn’t be for more clothes and shoes, maybe he would be willing. A girl could hope. What I wasn’t going to do was hold my breath waiting for Lorcan to take of whatever I needed.
     
    “Excuse me, do you have any books on vampires?” I asked the librarian in a low voice so no one would overhear me. Not that it mattered. Vamps seemed to be eternally in if you asked me.
     
    With a big fake smile, the librarian led me to where they kept a couple books on the subject. I ran a finger over the spines, reading as I went, and came to Vampires: Myths and Folklore. After snapping up the book, I flipped it open to the introduction page while I was half aware that Ronnie had wandered to the end of the aisle where they kept little chairs with small tables attached to them. He pulled out his Ipod , popped his buds in his ears, and closed his eyes. I sighed. At least he wouldn’t rush me.
     
    “Vampires are creatures of the night with great strength and power. After living for centuries and watching many of the ones they love die around them, they become emotionless, shunning normal society.”
     
    I considered what I had just read. Maybe Lorcan hadn’t lived long enough because he was hardly emotionless, and for that matter neither were the other teenage vampires, Blake and Adrianne. How long had they been vampires?
     
    I tried to remember what that one vamp sounded like in the park, the one Lorcan had fought to save me. He had been older, and yeah, definitely frosty. I shivered. So they shunned society? That meant they might not live in a regular house, didn’t it? Or maybe they did, but they didn’t know their neighbors like we did. Shoot, a whole lot of humans don’t know their neighbors. You saw them on the news all the time. “No, we didn’t know his ass was crazy like that. We didn’t do more than say ‘what’s up’ while passing by in the morning.”
     
    I laughed, and I could have sworn someone else laughed with me. I looked around, but there was no one in my aisle. I went back to reading, skipped over a few pages, until I found something that caught my eye. “Vampires are very strong. They can move almost faster than the human eye can detect, and they have an insatiable lust for blood. There are only three ways to kill one of these creatures—severing his head, leaving him in the sunlight, or making him bleed out without replenishing his blood for an undetermined length of time. The old Hollywood movie myths about needing to put a stake through his heart are nonsense. He can be killed just as well with a kitchen knife if for some reason he can’t replenish his blood.”
     
    Another laugh in my head and a whispered “kitchen knife.” I ignored it.
     
    So if I could somehow hold down a vampire, I could either decapitate the sucker or drain him. Like sitting on him would hold him down. How in the world could anybody kill one of them that way?
     
    “Who are you trying to kill?
     
    “All right, enough is enough, ” I shouted and ran to the end of the aisle in the opposite direction of Ronnie.” A librarian frowned at me from across the room and tapped a finger to her lips. I was so irritated that I sneered at her. I pitched my voice low. “You better show yourself right now!”
     
    Energy crackled over my fingertips, freaking me out. I shook my hands and ran them over my denim miniskirt, but didn’t dispel the power I felt surging throughout my body. I didn’t see twinkling lights or anything dramatic like that, but I knew I was different if only for a minute.
     
    Nervous, I