Your Coffin or Mine? A Novel of Vampire Love

One I was being followed. If that wasn't creepy enough, it was dark out, I was all alone, and I was standing in a smelly alley near Times Square. Talk about a Wes Craven flick. For me, however, it was just another day in the life of a fantabulous five-hundred-year-old (and hold- ing) born vampire. My name? Countess Lilliana Arrabella Guinevere du Marchette, but my best buds call me Lil. Because of my BV heritage, I ooze sex appeal, and since it's oozing out of a totally hot package (great body, great face, kickin' highlights), I've had more than my share of stalkers. Like the rest of my kind, I attract the opposite sex en masse. Okay. So maybe en masse might be stretching things a teensy bit. Particularly since I haven't had an official date in . . . Well, I can't actually remember the last time. (Fix ups DO NOT count, Ma.) To make matters worse, I was sorta, kinda dumped recently by a megahot bounty hunter after our one and only night together (sniffle). But neither of those is due to a lack of hotness on my part. The Dating Deficit? My choice. No, really. I've given up meaningless flings in favor of finding my eternity mate, settling down, and propagating the species. As for the bounty hunter . . . I'm sure (fingers crossed) he'll soon realize what a vampilicious babe I am and come begging my forgiveness. I, of course, will tell himas would any female who'd been dumped with not so much as a Later scribbled on a Post-itto go bite himself. At least that was the revenge fantasy I was currently tuning into. In between numero unoI rip off all of his clothes and we make like jackrabbitsand threehe rips off all of mine and we make like jackrabbits. I know, right? It was one measly night. I should get a life (or an afterlife in my case) and forget all about him. And the way he kissed. And touched. And tasted. Yes, I've tasted him, too, but not during sex. I'm weak, but not that weak. The tasting occurred before the sex. I'd been staked and he'd been trying to help me recoup my strength. I'd drank from him and since then we've had this mental connection thing going on. He can send me thoughts and vice versa. Not that he's sent me anything in the past months. No desperate apologies. No sweet nothings. No flowers. Not even a measly IOU for a night of hot, wild, primo mattress dancing. All the more reason to push him completely out of my mind and get back on track, right? Right. So, um, where was I? Oh, yeah. Dark, creepy alley. My being followed. No huge deal. Until now. Wedge heels tapped the pavement behind me and thundered through my head as I rounded a corner and started down another alley. The sharp aroma of cheap hair spray mingled with generic body spray burned my nostrils. I turned and caught a glimpse of a chipped manicure clutching a tiny disposable camera before my stalker realized I was looking and ducked behind a Dumpster. A man I'd expected (see the long rambling above), but a woman? While I knew chicks got off to really hot chicks everyday (I could appreciate the latest Angelina Jolie pic as much as the next mature, sexually confident, semilonely woman), I couldn't shake the gut feeling that there was more to this than a love-struck groupie eager to feed her own private fantasies. I kept staring at the Dumpster until she stole another glance at me. My gaze collided with hers for a nanosecond and her stats rolled through my head like movie credits (another perk of being a vampire is that I can look into someone's eyes and read their mind). Gwen Rowley. Thirty-nine years old. Italian. Full-time fourth-gradeRaye, Kimberly is the author of 'Your Coffin or Mine? A Novel of Vampire Love', published 2007 under ISBN 9780345492180 and ISBN 0345492188.