Queen of the Freaks
Chapter 4

Finn and I jumped into my black Jeep and drove down to the restaurant. I had the soft top down and the wind felt refreshing against my warm skin. The restaurant wasn’t far away from my apartment, but I enjoyed cruising down the streets of Bar Harbor and scoping out the tourists. There were always lots of hot guys having drinks on the patios downtown. I usually managed to score a few whistles and today was no different, which was pretty encouraging given that I had a guy in my passenger seat.

We went in the back door of the restaurant, which was the employee entrance, and I immediately got bombarded with comments about my hair. Even though my blood was boiling on the inside from my hair problem, I knew that I had to act like it was all well planned. The key to pulling off any new trend is confidence, my mother always taught me. Well, my human mother.

“Oh yes, blonde hair is SO in right now. Anyone who’s anyone knows that. Besides, blondes really do have more fun!” I made sure to swish my hips a little more than usual when I walked just to emphasize my point.

I introduced Finn as my visiting cousin and the staff took to him right away. The girls thought he was super cute and the guys didn’t feel threatened by him so everyone seemed to get along just fine. I was starting to think this arrangement might work out very nicely.

In the first hour of my shift I felt relaxed and ended up earning more tips as a blonde (go figure!). In the last hour of my shift, however, I started to feel irritable. Very irritable. My headache was back and my temper was starting to flare up. The simplest requests by customers would get me riled up to the point where I almost couldn’t hold in my anger anymore. My boss approached me after he overheard me telling off the mayor’s son.

“Melanie! What are you doing?” He asked as he hauled me into the back with a very firm grip on my elbow.

“He wanted another helping of butter for his lobster, but I’ve already brought him an extra butter. How much butter does the fucker need?”

“That is the mayor’s son, and one of our best customers. I don’t care if he wants a bucket of butter for his lobster, it is your job to get it for him. I don’t pay you to mouth off at my customers. Consider this your one and only warning.”

It took every ounce of strength in me to not cause bodily harm to my boss. I wanted to punch him, scratch him, poke him in the eyes. At the very least I wanted to scream and yell at him. I was literally biting my tongue as I turned around and started to walk back into the restaurant, but I felt his hand grip my elbow again. I let out what I can only describe as a growl. I had never made a sound like that before.

“Actually Melanie, I think you should go home. You’ve done too much damage and I don’t want you anywhere near the mayor’s family for the rest of the day. Stacey can take over your tables for the rest of your shift. Get some sleep and come back on your next shift with a better attitude.”

“Get your hand off of me.” My teeth were gritted and I was breathing heavily as I glared at him.

“Ok Mel, let’s go home now.” Finn had me by my shoulders and was looking into my eyes. “I think it would be best if we left work quietly and went home.”

I felt a little lightheaded and buzzed like I’d had a few drinks, but I thought Finn was right. I nodded and started walking quietly out to the Jeep.

Finn took the keys from me and drove me home. As we got closer to my apartment, my headache started to return, with a vengeance! It was another headache that hurt in the jaw. My temper was starting to return as well.

We got to the door and as soon as we walked in Finn yelled out, “Bob! We need sushi!”

POOF! There was Bob and sushi. I ran over to it and started to eat without saying a word. Finn and Bob were silent, and once I was finished eating the entire plate, I noticed my headache was gone and I was feeling much better. I groaned as I thought about what had happened at work.

“Ok, what the fuck? I never lose my cool that badly.”

“Actually, I think I know what the problem is.” Finn smirked and leaned against the kitchen counter. “It’s your vampire needs. You need blood and when you don’t get it, you get really bitchy. I mean really, really bitchy.”

“Watch it vamp boy.”

He smiled at me and continued.

“That’s why you’ve been craving sushi so much lately. Raw fish. You have probably been feeling some pain in your mouth too. Your fangs want to come out and play.”

“My fangs?” I panicked and ran my tongue along my top teeth. Phew, no fangs. Yet.

“So what am I supposed to do with this little problem. Keep a Tupperware container with sushi in it for when I’m feeling crabby?”

“When aren’t you feeling crabby?”

“What was that?”

“Nothing princess. Look, how about if I go grab some blood for you to try. You can see if it helps curb the craving for a day. Usually we vamps only have to feed once a day.”

“Um, ew. You’re gonna go grab some bum off the street and bring him back here so I can suck his blood through two holes in his neck? I don’t think so.”

Finn rolled his eyes. “Maybe if we lived in the sixteen hundreds. You know, you’re going to have to get with the times and let go of all of your stereotypical ideas if you’re going to be joining us.”

With that, he left the room so quickly he was a blur in my vision.

“You could at least close the front door!” I called out, but he was long gone. Loser. I got up and closed the door and was making my way back to the living room to have a chat with Bob when the door flew open again and Finn was in front of me, blocking my path.

“Fuck, dude!”

He ignored my comment and handed me a bag of red liquid. And a straw.

“Just think of it like a bag of fruit juice.” He poked the straw through the bag and held it out to me. I wiggled my nose a bit, I could smell the coppery scent of the blood through the tiny hole. My brain was telling me that the blood was disgusting. My mouth was aching again and I ran my tongue along my teeth, but there was still no sign of pointy teeth. I took the bag from Finn.

“Gross, it’s warm!”

“I nuked it before I brought it to you” Finn winked.

I grimaced and took a deep breath as I leaned in towards the straw. I closed my eyes so I couldn’t see the red. The straw went in my mouth, then the “fruit juice”. I gulped it down. Waited. Then shuddered and stuck out my tongue. “That’s disgusting. If you tell me I have to drink that shit every day for the rest of my life, I’m going to jump off a bridge.”

Bob was standing beside Finn and they both look confused. Finn scratched his head and looked down at the gnome.

“I don’t get it Bob. Why doesn’t she like it?”

“I’m not sure. She clearly needs blood since she’s licking raw meat and craving raw fish, but,” he froze, then stuck up his index finger, “Ah ha! Wait here.” POOF! Bob disappeared.

“That’s so annoying.” I mumbled under my breath. Which still tasted like warm, thick, coppery shit by the way.

POOF! Bob was back and he was holding another bag of blood.

“Oh no. I’m not drinking any more. I’ll stick with sushi.”

“This is not the same blood Your Maj—Tianna. I believe the fairy blood from your mother has influenced your blood preference. Fairies are close to the animal species in the forest. They communicate with them. You have been craving blood from cows and fish, not human blood. So, I think what your body really wants is animal blood. Try it.” He poked the straw through the bag and held it out to me.

I could smell the blood again, but this time it had a sweeter scent. Almost like smoked meat on a barbecue. It was intoxicating. I grabbed the bag from Bob’s hand and breathed the scent in deeply. Then I heard “pop, pop” and my mouth felt fuller. I ran my tongue over my teeth and found two new points. My eyes widened in panic as I opened my mouth to show Bob and Finn.

Finn started to laugh. Bob had a look of startled confusion, which I was beginning to get used to.

“Mirror. Now.”

Finn dug through his man-purse and found his compact mirror. He was still busting a gut when he handed it to me. Bastard. I opened the mirror and checked out my fangs.

They weren’t overly noticeable, just pointy little additions to my teeth.

Finn was still chuckling as he squinted and peered at my teeth. “Where are the rest of them? They’re so tiny!”

“Hey! Don’t insult my fangs!” I snapped defensively. But I was curious. “How long are yours?”

He gave me a big grin and sniffed the bag of human blood he was still holding. I heard two little popping sounds and then—

“Holy shit, you look like a panther!” His fangs were so long they reached the gums of his bottom teeth. And pointy! I looked back at my little stubs and pouted. “How come mine don’t look like that? I don’t even look scary.”

We both looked at Bob for an explanation. He shrugged his shoulders.

“You’re not a full vampire, so you don’t need to have the full fang length. Technically, with the resources vampires have now, there is no real need for any vampire to have fangs anymore.”

“But his look so cool! How come I feel like I’m getting the shaft here?” I pouted again. Then I remembered the bag of sweet barbecue goodness I held in my hands. I stuck the straw in my mouth and drank the whole bag in one breath.

“Ahhhhhhhh. That was yummy!” Wait, blood was yummy? My brain once again reminded me that I was disgusting.

“So she doesn’t like human blood but loves animal blood? I’m glad I’m not part-fairy.” The annoying vampire beside me proceeded to drink the entire contents of his blood bag (double disgusting!).

“Hey dumbass, at least I don’t have to raid the local blood bank for supper, I can just go to the supermarket and get some bloody steaks.”

“So much for that theory that she’d get less bitchy with a helping of blood in her.”

I watched them laugh at my expense for a few seconds and then marched off towards my bedroom.

“Where are you going Tianna?” Finn called out.

“I’m going to bed. You guys are pissing me off.” I flicked my peroxide blonde hair over my shoulder and wiped a drop of blood off my chin. “Also, I need my beauty sleep.”

Oh boy, did I ever.