And another snippet from My Fair Vampire in which our vampire Dori runs into Jude, a sympathetic vampire hunter, once again, though this meeting is not as encouraging as earlier ones.

I snatched up my purse and bolted out the door and into my little Hyundai.  The clock on my dashboard read eight o’clock, four hours before I’d agreed to meet Jude.  I prayed for a feeding miracle in those hours.

With a sigh of resignation, I headed for Midnight Rodeo.  By the time I got there, the crowd would have swelled to healthy proportions.  Who knew, perhaps I’d get lucky.  Maybe I’d meet someone so loathsome that I’d happily sink my fangs into him.  It could happen, especially if I got thirsty enough.  My backup plan was to go to the park early and look for some drunk I could swap a bottle of cheap wine for a feeding.

As expected, Midnight Rodeo had attracted a boisterous and thick crowd that night.  The line to get in trailed the entire depth of the lobby and half of one wall outside, but it seemed to be moving quickly.

“We need to stop meeting like this,” came a hushed but familiar voice above my right shoulder.

I smiled and turned.  “Hi Jude.  I didn’t expect to see you…here.”  My words trailed off when I noticed he was with a woman.  My smile dropped like the price of Enron stock.

“Oh, ah, Dori, this is Katie.  Katie this is Dori,” Jude said without the least hint of guile or guilt.

A petite blonde woman stepped between Jude and I and shook my hand.  She smiled at me in that thin-lipped manner that screamed, “He’s mine; get away!”

“Nice to meet you, Katie,” I said then glanced up at Jude, who seemed one hundred percent clueless that two women had been sizing each other up as rivals for his attention.

Jude’s pulsing jugular called to me and I wondered how difficult it would be to lure him away then tap him.  I made that my mission.  Maybe Donovan would teach me the hypnosis if I came home fat and happy.  I gave Jude a saccharine smile and would have turned my back but he wanted to chit chat.

“Did you come with anyone, Dori?” he asked.  Katie still hovered nearby, a look of abject adoration on her face for Jude, deep suspicion for me.

“Umm, yeah.  Well sort of.  He dropped me off because he got an emergency call from the hospital.”  I looked at Katie then said, “He’s a doctor.”  To Jude I added, “But he’ll be back later in the evening.  Til then it’s just me.”  I shrugged and made a cheerful face.

“Hang out with us while you wait then,” he said, then over the top of Katie’s head, he mouthed something I couldn’t make out.  I was never good at lip-reading.

I frowned.  What was going on?  But it fit with my master plan, especially now that I had tuned in to Jude’s scent.  I hadn’t been lying before when I told him he smelled delicious.  Katie, on the other hand, smelled rank, probably ate too much broccoli.  “Yeah, sure that sounds nice.  I hope you don’t mind a third wheel for a little while, Katie…just until my friend arrives.”

“Hmph.”  Then her pouty, fire engine red lips said, “Why not,” but her khohl-lined and glitter dusted eyes said, “Drop dead, bitch.”