The Dance

Buy Senior Year Bites HERE

By J.A. Campbell

I’ve been asked a few times, what happened at the dance? Well, now you get to find out. This is a scene I deleted (and slightly modified to conform to the published versions of the stories) from the original MS. Stick around at the end for a giveaway.

The Dance

“You look wonderful,” Tad said, perhaps to break the uncomfortable silence.

“I didn’t have a dress to wear.” I plucked at the black velvet. “Thank you.” I was pretty sure I was blushing.

Tad grinned. “It looks like you found one.”

“Yeah, it was my mom’s.”

“Well, it’s perfect. Very elegant.”

I smiled. “Tad, I don’t actually know how to dance.”

He laughed. “It’s not to hard, but I don’t really know how either.” He pulled into the school parking lot. The dance was always held in the gym and this year the theme was ‘under the starry night.’ I thought it was somehow appropriate and couldn’t wait to see the decorations.

“I think Steph and Gary are here. Alexander and Ann aren’t.” I refused to think about how I knew. Tonight I was normal. Tonight I was just a teenager on a date. Nothing else.

Tad nodded and parked the car. He came around to my side and took my hand, tucking it under his arm so that we walked arm in arm. I felt very special as he led me to the entrance. The teacher chaperone took our tickets and we went inside. The school was transformed and I stopped and stared for a moment. Stars twinkled from the ceiling and black cloth covered all the walls, making it look like we did walk though a starry night.

“Pretty,” Tad said.

“Yeah.” I tugged him forward and we went the rest of the way into the hallway outside of the gym. “Let’s find Steph and Gary.”

“Lead the way.”

It didn’t take long to find our friends, and Alexander and Ann showed up while we made small talk with Gary and Steph. It wasn’t like we didn’t see each other all the time but it seemed like we were all a little nervous.

After a while Tad put his arm around me. “Want to dance?” He whispered in my ear.

I shivered as his breath tickled my neck. “Yeah, sure.” I tried to sound excited, but I was nervous.

“Relax. I’m not good at this either.”

I forced a laugh.

Tad put his arm around me and squeezed, leading me into the gym. The music was uncomfortably loud, but I managed to ignore it. It was hard to recognize the gym under all the black cloth, stars, glitter and lights, and the transformation made everything feel a little unreal. Tad picked a spot near the edge of the crowd, close to an exit door. I was certain he’d done that on purpose and I grinned at him. Butterflies danced in my stomach and I shivered when he wrapped his arms around me and pulled me close.

“And now we just pretend like we’re moving to the music.”

“You make it sound easy.”

He winked.

I stepped on Tad’s feet more than once, but he didn’t complain, and after a while we had the hang of moving together and I started to relax and have fun. It seemed like it was the first time I’d really had fun since Steph’s birthday half a year ago. Tad was grinning and a happy light shone in his eyes.

The DJ played a slow song and Tad pulled me close to him, almost as if he was hugging me instead of holding me to dance.  It was comforting.  I rested my cheek against his shoulder and listened to his heart beating while the music filled the gym, drowning out the other conversations. 

“You ok?” he whispered into my ear – breath tickling my neck.

It took me a minute to find my voice.  “Yes,” I said a little hoarsely.

“Good,” he rested his cheek against my head and held me tightly, moving slowly to the music.

The music faded out and Tad stopped moving.  I looked up at him when he didn't release me as I had expected.  He stared down at me, taking one hand and brushing a few stray hairs out of my face.

Everything faded to the background until there was just me and him.  I looked into his eyes and almost asked him what, but he smiled slightly.

“Will you hit me if I kiss you,” he whispered.

I felt my jaw drop, but I couldn't answer, frozen, eyes wide and almost ready to run.

Amusement danced in his eyes, but before I could be annoyed he leaned over.  “I'll take that as a no,” he said, his lips brushing mine as he spoke.

A small, almost terrified sound escaped my lips and he smiled before he kissed me firmly.  It was chaste, we were still in a school, but it filled me with pleasure, sent desire rushing through me. My arms trembled and my legs felt weak, but Tad held me close.

Maybe I could have a normal life after all. 

Gage’s Guide to the Supernatural

by J.A. Campbell

A short intro. My name is Gage. ‘Course my parents didn’t name me that, but Gage is much better than Charles. Especially when you hunt the supernatural. I’m in college right now in this small town in the New England states. (Can’t tell you exactly where, don’t want anyone reading this to come after me.) I grew up in Montana. I met these other dudes, Tad and Gary, in one of my history classes, 101 I think, and we started talking about some of the weird shit we’d seen. We decided someone needed to be vigilant, and that we might as well do it. Imagine our surprise when we ran into a real vampire? Guess she’s all right, but most of the rest of ‘em aren’t. We joined forces with the girls and this other dude, Alexander, and now we keep our corner of the world safe from the supernatural.

First off, the biggest baddies out there. Vampires – Everyone hates them, even other vampires. They are strong, fast, allergic to the sunlight, and pretty surly. Obviously, they crave human blood and most of them are killers. I’ve met one exception to the last. She doesn’t kill humans, just other supernaturals. I’ve heard from others that you can’t assume that all vampires have the same powers, but they all have the bloodlust, and you just can’t trust them. Cutting off their heads and burning them are both really good ways to bring them down. A stake to the heart won’t kill them, but it’ll slow them down.

The Sidhe – People hate these guys almost as much as they hate vampires. They are arrogant, use magic, and generally think they are better than everyone else. I think their severe allergy to cold iron proves otherwise. We’re working on some spells, yes, real magic, to keep these guys away from us, but you can deck yourself out in cold iron and carry a shotgun and they’ll usually leave you alone. Unlike vampires, the Sidhe aren’t out to kill humans (most of the time) but they do like to control you, mess with your head, things like that.

Selkies – People who turn into seals. Who’d’a thunk it huh? Apparently not just legend, these seal people are real and have small colonies all over the world. They’re usually mischievous and they leave normal humans alone as long as humans leave them alone. Haven’t met one yet, but I hear they also have minor problems with cold iron and are related to the Sidhe.

Werewolves – Haven’t met one of these yet either. I’d guess a pissed off werewolf would be almost as dangerous as a vampire. Traditional weakness is silver and I carry silver bullets. Will update when I have more concrete information.

Aliens – hey if vampires and werewolves exist, why not aliens? Tad just looked over my shoulder and told me I needed to tone down the conspiracy theory crap, so there you go. They’re out there. I don’t think tin foil hats are going to keep you safe though.

Until next time.

Gage.

Senior Year Bites blurb:

Senior year is supposed to be fun: boys, dances and graduation.

It's significantly harder to enjoy it when you’re dead.

Truth or Dare is supposed to be fun too. It’s not even close to dangerous, so playing at Steph's house didn't seem like a bad idea. My dare? Spend the rest of the night in the graveyard next to her house. It was only a couple of hours until false dawn, my proscribed return time, so no big deal right? Right.

I survived the attack, but it took me a few days to figure out what was going on. I mean vampires might stalk pop culture, but they're just myths. Yeah. Not so much.

School is a lot more difficult when you're a nocturnal creature of the night. I was managing, but I couldn't keep it hidden from my friends for long. After I managed to accidentally save one of our cheerleaders from her drunk and ill-intentioned boyfriend. Steph decided that we should be cool, like superheroes, and fight crime.

Only I’m a vampire, not a hero, and we live in a sleepy New England town, so crime's a little harder to come by. At least it is until a serial killer moves into the area. He’s got the authorities stumped, but then again, the cops don't have a teenage, blood-sucking, non-hero on their team.

Bio:

Julie writes fantasy novels. When she’s not out riding her horse, she can usually be found sitting in front of her computer with a cat on her lap and her dog at her side. Gage is a character in her first Young Adult Urban Fantasy, Senior Year Bites.

As a thank you for commenting, we’re giving away one copy of a Decadent book of your choice. Leave a comment telling me what your favorite supernatural species is and a way for us to contact you (email is best). I’ll contact the winner in 7 days.