So I Might Be a Vampire - Book 1 (Original Version)

53: Bad Habits Don't Leave

There was a huge expensive steak on my eye, and I was seriously considering having it grilled for breakfast. The steak was still in a Ziplock bag, and since it was now on my eye, helping tremendously with the swelling, I considered that it was now my steak.

The ceremony was going on a hundred feet behind me, obscured by the crowd of people either trying to get a better view of what was going on or to escape unnoticed. Apparently, not everyone was interested in watching Sebastien get his final initiation rites, either because they didn't care or just didn't know him. That was pretty telling on its own, and comforting that the vampires weren't all mindless zombies following Harry's orders. That was either going to be a good thing or bad thing...

A tall good-looking black man was walking towards me. He looked vaguely familiar, like he was on tv or something, a celebrity I'd forgotten I'd known about, and to be truthful, it wasn't that surprising to me that he was a vampire. I just wished that I could remember his name...

"Nice one," he said and offered a fist for the obligatory fist-bump. Of course I fist-bumped him. I mean I'm not stupid. I might have misplaced his name, but I wasn't completely stupid.

"That was pretty stupid of you," he was saying. "But totally worth it to see the look on Harry's face when you knocked the shit out of Golden Boy over there."

The crowd cheered at something just then and I grinned at my newfound admirer. Something clicked in my head and a name attached itself to his face.

"Glad I could provide a momentary distraction for the King himself," I said. "I even got a free steak out of it."

The King was one of the biggest rappers in Toronto, wildly popular, and when you stopped to think about it, with all of the music videos and public appearances he had to make, he'd actually managed to achieve a perfect balance of lifestyle that made him look like a perfectly normal if eccentric rich human being. If you actually had to live through his schedule, you'd see quickly that he was one hundred percent a vampire.

The King gave me a business card and grinned at me. "Text me sometime. You can come hang with my crew when you get tired of this place. It's not for everyone..."

"Isn't this the official spot for vampires to hang out?"

"Only if you're rich and pretentious. The new ones Harry's got coming out seem to love it, but some of us have been around a little bit longer. We just ain't got the patience for all this bullshit."

"Plus it's full of blood-sucking bastards, right?"

"You said it man." His eyes flickered over to the crowd where Sebastien was no doubt being anointed with oil or some shit to the approval of said crowd. "Be careful here tonight." And with that, the King was gone.

Another roar came from the crowd and I glanced over just at a moment that there was a gap between people. I could see Sebastian drenched head to toe in what looked like blood, the red making him glisten even more than before. Sebastien grinned at the crowd and his fangs were huge even from where I was sitting. I subconsciously rubbed at my own mouth where my fangs still hadn't made an appearance.

Someone shoved a beer into my face. I looked up to see Beatrice holding the beer and not even looking at me, her gaze firmly in the direction of the thoroughly bizarre ceremony.

"It's called the Ritual of Magazi. For the past fifty years, all new vampires have gone through the ritual. It reminds them of where they've been and what they are... or at least that's what Harry says. I think he just likes to drench these idiots in blood."

Well, that answered that question. Beatrice was really good at the exposition thing.

"Is that real blood then?"