Excerpt of The Vampire...in My Dreams by Terry Lee Wilde

MARISSA “Watch well, witch,” the woman called back to me as
she squeezed Dominic’s throat. Dressed in a black spandex
shirt, matching jeans and a pair of high-heeled, thigh-high
boots, she looked like a regular teen.My heart lodged in my
throat while my blood turned to ice, but I wouldn’t run and
hide.“See what I will do to
you next!” She turned her attention to Dominic. “Do you
think a scrawny thing like her can kill me? Do you? She’s
trembling in her sneakers as we speak. Well, as I speak.”I
froze to the concrete sidewalk, unsure what to do next to
save Dominic from the vampire. I wanted to pound her into
the ground, but the way she held Dominic tightly in her
grasp, I knew I couldn’t physically best her. I suspected
none of my spells would work against an ancient vampire,
and though the woman looked only to be my age, seventeen,
she seemed older than time in her actions and speech.She
leaned over and licked Dominic’s cheek, and his expression
turned from concern
for me to hatred for her.None of Dominic’s own words had
emotionally stirred me to save him like the unbridled
actions of the vampire at his throat. Lynetta bared her
wickedly sharp pointed canines and hissed. Her long black
hair hung wildly to her hips, tangled and teased by the
breeze. She was petite like me, but as strong as a male
bodybuilder, her grip on Dominic remaining iron tight. Her
soulless black eyes, vacant and without a care, really ate
away at my heart.I surveyed the yard for any kind of a
weapon I could use against the vampire. My heart surged
when I spied a colorful whirligig attached to a wooden
stake embedded in my mother’s pampered pansy garden nearby.
Without a second’s
hesitation, I dashed for it and yanked it out.Running at
the vampire, I screamed at the top of my lungs, “Death to
the bloodsucking vampire!” Which gave me some courage. It
wasn’t every day I had to beat one vampire off of another,
when they didn’t even really exist. Who’d ever thought I’d
have to tell Kate she was so right?All I could think of was
aiming the stake at the vampire’s heart—at least that’s
what the books said would work on them—except Lynetta used
Dominic to shield her. I ground my teeth, dancing around
them, taking aim at the vamp anywhere that I could strike,
praying I wouldn’t hit Dominic by accident.