Dating Dracula Read online

  Dating Dracula

  Dating Monsters Book One

  Kinsley Adams

  This book is a word of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used factitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons living or dead, is coincidental.

  The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book without permission is a theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like permission to use material from the book (other than the review purpose), please contact [email protected]. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.

  Copyright © 2021 by Kinsley Adams

  Cover art © 2020 by Molly Burton with Cozy Cover Designs

  Created with Vellum

  Contents

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Epilogue

  Loving Dracula Sneak Peek

  Acknowledgments

  Also by Kinsley Adams

  About the Author

  Prologue

  All right, boys and girls, listen up, cuz I’m only going to say this once.

  When someone says your plan is downright stupid, perk up those ears and start taking notes. Otherwise, you might end up like me, cornered in a filthy alleyway, staring down the business end of a pair of fangs.

  Let me back up a moment. Don’t worry, this won’t take long. Fang-face here will just have to wait the few seconds it’ll take me to fill you in. After all, I want you not only to mourn my death, but learn from it as well. Maybe this lesson will save your ass one day.

  Where should I start? Not the beginning—that’s boring. No one wants to know my life story. So, let’s fast-forward twenty-four years to tonight. The night I die.

  First, an important note: It’s been a week since the vampire community came out of their bloody coffins, so to speak. Which means everything is still so fresh. Humanity has no idea how to cope. Well, most of humanity. The small percentage of remaining Goths are walking around rubbing everyone’s faces in the knowledge, like they’ve always been part of the cool kids’ club.

  As if.

  And the second: I’m a professional vlogger. Or was, anyway. Maybe that doesn’t mean much to anyone, but I swear it’s relevant to all of this. See, I thought it’d be a fantastic idea to use my vlog as a media source for all things “vampiric.” To learn all I could about these elusive blood drinkers and post it on my vlog for the entire world to see. Use their popularity to bolster my fame. I mean, what do we truly know about vampires? We’ve all read the books and watched the movies, but those were fantasy. And this is reality. As a social media influencer, it’s my responsibility to shed a little light on the truth, right?

  Unfortunately, during my search, I attracted the attention of a very unfriendly vampire—the kind who stars in horror films. I honestly hadn’t expected to run into such an animal. Naïve, I know. Clearly, vampires aren’t the friendly beasts the media portrays. My ex-boyfriend warned me this would happen, but I never believed someone would actually turn me into a Happy Meal.

  Nothing but a comedy of errors led me to this dreadful moment.

  Maybe you should look away now, because I highly doubt my death will be a pretty one.

  Chapter

  One

  “This is so stupid. Remind me again why I always go along with your plans?”

  I huffed and rolled my eyes. I loved Lucy. She was the best friend a girl could ask for. But damn, sometimes she was a real stick in the mud, always cautioning me to smarten up and think things through. Well, where was the fun in that? Last thing I wanted was to tiptoe through life. Live fast and free, I always said. Gotta grab life by the horns. Yadda, yadda, yadda.

  “We’ll be fine, I promise. Let’s go! It’ll be fun.” I gripped Lucy’s hand and dragged her to the front of the ridiculously long line.

  Still, she dug in her heels. “You do know they don’t allow cellphones in the club, right?”

  She was referring to Fallen—New Orleans’s hottest new vamp club. Of course, since vampires had only recently come out of their coffin-closets, who knew which club would make it to the very top of the five-star list. For now, this was the one.

  In the week since I’d learned about this club, I’d researched the hell out of it, and came across some very interesting, albeit mildly disturbing, information. If my sources were trustworthy, this club had been around for a while, disguised as a Goth club. But true horror lay in the underbelly of this beast. A “blood farm,” as the dark web called it.

  Apparently, all the big-named bloodsuckers frequented this establishment. And why? Because the owner/manager supposedly supplied the club not only with the newest synthetic blood products but also, as rumor had it, the real stuff too. The good stuff. As in, bottles of fresh human blood drained directly from the tap. Further digging revealed that someone had also sent an anonymous tip to the police, but the club had managed to clean up before the authorities had arrived. Imagine my surprise when I stumbled across that juicy nugget of gossip. The perfect story just waiting to be revealed.

  “Earth to Anna,” Lucy said, tapping the back of my head. “Did you hear me?”

  I gave a casual nod. “I did. And I do know about their no cellphone rule. It’ll be fine.”

  “Fine?” Lucy laughed. “Girl, I haven’t seen you go five seconds without your phone since you bought your very first one. You expect me to believe you’re okay with this? Ms. Modern Vlogger? Ms. Can’t Go Two Seconds Without Retweeting Someone?”

  I snorted a laugh. “Oh, shut up.”

  Sadly, she wasn’t wrong. Far from it, in fact. But I’d planned for this. The club definitely didn’t allow any form of cellular devices, but since I absolutely needed my phone tonight, I’d taken some precautions. My very dreams hinged on the success of my plan.

  It’d been a week since vampires had made their startling debut, announcing their so-called “peaceful” presence to the world. A moment that would surely go down in the history books. In that time, there’d been mass confusion, a little hysteria, definitely some full-blown panic, and a whole lotta online chatter. While most people were still confused, wondering if this was some kind of prank, others—like myself—remained skeptical. Literary vampires had been around since long before the modern era, though the current stories seemed to focus on dramatic teenage romance. Some “lucky” girl who caught the eye of a big, bad—but actually good—vampire.

  Pfft. I highly doubted such a thing existed.

  There was no way a species that fed off human blood could be qualified as “peaceful.” In one night, these creatures had restructured the entire food chain, knocking humans down a peg. Sure, they’d tied in the release of their synthetic blood line with their show-stopping announcement, but I wasn’t fooled.

  And that was the whole purpose behind Lucy’s and my presence here tonight.

  I wasn’t a professional journalist—I lacked the credentials—but I still possessed a hungry appetite for uncovering the truth. And luckily, we lived in a digital age where any mook with decent equipment could build a story and slap it up on their website.


  Enter, moi.

  Despite my best efforts, the world had yet to discover me. But after tonight…. Imaginary stars shone in my eyes. After tonight, I would be famous. Celebritized. Viral. If the rumors were true, I would be the one to crack this story wide open. Just imagine, an exposé on vampiric blood slavery on my vlog. Everyone would know I’d scooped it. Not the police. Not the real journalists. Me. An eager twenty-four-year-old armed with a cellphone.

  I shivered with excitement—nothing would stop me tonight.

  Clutching Lucy’s hand, I dragged her into the line, butting in front of three women wearing more makeup than a burlesque performer and racy outfits that blatantly exposed their throats. In the last week, I’d seen so many articles about women like this—desperate for a nibble, flagrantly flashing their jugulars with the hope of catching a vampire’s attention. It didn’t surprise me. Too many vampire romances out there, glorifying sexy love bites and eternal life. I couldn’t imagine ever letting anyone—man or beast—sink their teeth into my throat. Didn’t these people realize how many germs the mouth contains? Yeesh and shudder. No thanks.

  “Hey!” the woman closest to me shouted. She grabbed my arm, her dangerously sharp nails catching my skin. Make no mistake, these cougars were on the prowl tonight. “Back of the line, bitch!”

  I ignored her shrill voice and instead stared up at the bouncer. I instantly knew he was a vampire, and my breath caught in my throat. Wow. I’d never seen one up close before. He was, in a word, impressive. I’d expected muscles—bouncers were always ripped. But this guy went beyond muscular to downright bulging with veins.

  His keen gaze caught mine, and he watched with a raised brow as I grabbed a crisp hundo and slipped it into his pocket. After a slight hesitation, he gave an almost indecipherable nod and pointed to our purses. “Gotta check those. No electronics allowed inside.”

  Damn, his voice was deep. The sort of deep that awoke something in the lady bits area. But now wasn’t the right moment to let his voice distract me. He needed to check our purses, and I most definitely had a cellphone in there. If found, they would ban us from the club. I couldn’t let that happen. We had to get inside. So, earlier today, I’d sewn a small pocket into the liner, hidden from sight—or rather, human sight. Then, just in case, I’d dumped silver shavings I’d purchased online into my purse and covered it up with a Styrofoam container chock-full of garlic bread.

  I had absolutely no idea if this would work. I was working under the assumption that the myths were true. Supposedly, silver weakened a vamp’s senses, and they were apparently all allergic to garlic. Personally, I loved garlic. But I could see how someone with an enhanced sense of smell might not appreciate it.

  I only hoped these two things combined convinced him not to look too closely.

  The bouncer leaned in to inspect our bags. I popped mine open and shoved it toward his face. With a choking gasp, he staggered backward, clutching his nose. Even in the dark of night, I saw his lip curl upward as he wafted the air near his face.

  “Oh!” I feigned horror. “I’m so sorry! My friend and I grabbed some pizza along the way. A girl’s gotta eat before drinking, you know. It came with free garlic bread. I wasn’t thinking when I put them in my purse. Just let me throw it out, then you can take another look.”

  The offended vamp garbled something I didn’t understand, then pointed at the doors and waved us inside. If I wasn’t mistaken, the poor guy looked to be tearing up. I was tempted to lean closer and study his face, fangs and all. But seeing as how my dream had just been delivered to me on a silver platter, I choked back my curiosity and hurried inside.

  Darkness and deafening noise instantly consumed us. The emphatic beat of what sounded like horrible techno music echoed off the walls and thumped beneath our feet.

  I grasped Lucy’s hand and dragged her farther inside. A dimly lit staircase greeted us, leading us down to a sunken dance floor. Once we braved the first step, the entire place suddenly lit up with colorful strobe lights, as though the club had simply been waiting for us.

  I grinned and squeezed Lucy’s hand. This was what I lived for. The excitement of a new story, the energy of chasing a lead, and the thrill of experiencing a new adventure. My mama always called me an adrenaline junkie with a penchant for gossip, which made me laugh, considering it described me to a T.

  At the bottom of the stairs, mystical fog swirled around our feet. I snickered—trust vampires to be stuck in the past. Techno music and fog machines. Could they be any more ’90s?

  “It’s loud!” Lucy shouted over the incessant noise.

  I was used to clubbing and the expected deafness that tended to last for days afterward. Lucy often tagged along, seeing as I never gave her a choice, but she always remarked on the noise. I suspected she preferred dark and dank bars. Quiet, lonely, withdrawn—all the words I often used to describe her. How the hell we’d ended up friends, I had no idea.

  I turned my attention toward the surrounding crowd and clapped my hands with delight. Now, this was a club. Everywhere I looked, I saw someone writhing and grinding against another person, their hips gyrating shamelessly. It reminded me of the movie Dirty Dancing when Baby first stumbled across the real dancers. The brazen touches, the heated embraces… hell, someone was actually necking off to the side of the room. And at closer inspection, fingering. Yup, that’s right. Some random guy stood pressed up against a woman, her skirt hiked up to her hips, his fingers boldly going where I assumed every man had gone before.

  “Well, that looks fun,” I shouted, nudging Lucy’s shoulder and gesturing toward the scandalous couple.

  If I had to guess, the no cellphone rule likely encouraged such dirty behavior. Easy to be naughty if there weren’t any repercussions to fear.

  “Oh. My. God!” Lucy cried out. If the woman owned pearls, no doubt she would have been clutching them right now.

  I grinned and shook my head.

  Mr. Shameless ground against the woman, then slid his knee between her legs and pushed her panties down. With her ass and other goodies bared to the entire club, he continued to ravish her without a care in the world. And she seemed quite content in the moment.

  Vampires, man. Guess they really did see things differently than us mundane humans.

  It was difficult to tear my gaze away from the couple. They were like a freaking car crash. You kept looking back to see if things got worse, and every time I snuck a peek, they most definitely were. I had a feeling if we didn’t stop watching now, we’d catch the full act in a matter of minutes.

  Every fiber of my vlogger-being wanted to whip out my phone and film this. It’d definitely get me some hits. Everyone loved a good sex scandal. But that wasn’t what we were here for, and I couldn’t risk exposing my cell for something so mediocre. No, we were here to investigate illegal bloodletting. I couldn’t allow something like this to distract me, not when there was a real story to unearth.

  We had to dance if we wanted to blend in with the crowd. Any nearby vamps had to believe we were here for the same reason as Mr. and Mrs. Shameless over there. If they got even the slightest whiff of my true intentions, they’d shut me down faster than a restaurant infested with rats.

  I led Lucy out onto the floor. With a teasing grin, I buried my hands in my hair and started dancing, swaying seductively to the beat. Lucy mimicked me, though her movements were stilted. Her attention seemed elsewhere, like she was imagining a million other places she could be right now.

  Some sidekick she was turning out to be.

  “Hey!” I tugged her hand and placed it on my hip. Touching didn’t bother me. We’d seen each other in our birthday suits more times than I could count. “Loosen up!”

  She grimaced, her gaze still roaming the club.

  I shook my head and chuckled under my breath. Typical Lucy. Here we were, in New Orleans, for crying out loud, getting our groove on in the hottest vampire establishment, and she still couldn’t relax and have a little fun. Most of our friends b
ack home called her Mother Hen. Always pecking at us, nagging us to take our vitamins and wear sunscreen, because vitamin deficiencies and melanoma were two very serious problems. I loved her to death, but sometimes I wanted to shake the sensibility right out of her.

  With an impish grin, I cupped her hips and drew her close, hoping to evoke some sort of reaction. Instead, she leaned forward and pressed her lips to my ear. To any common observer, I knew it looked sexual. Like she was taking a little taste of Anna. The guy beside us laughed and gave us two massive thumbs up.

  Men.

  “Vampire,” Lucy said, distracting me from Douche McDoucheson. “Up above. Your six o’clock.”

  Excitement stirred my blood. I quickly spun and pressed my back flat against her chest, my hands now gripping her thighs and my booty shimmying against her abdomen. McDoucheson cheered and lifted his beer in our direction. I ignored him, like most men, and let my gaze stray across the upper floor. Sure enough, a single vampire prowled above.

  Pardon the expression, but holy shit. This vampire looked nothing like our bouncer outside. Our bouncer had looked friendly. Muscled, yes, but in a way that suggested he worked out. Nothing dangerous had stuck out to me.

  But this guy? He had a giant invisible sign above his head with a flashing arrow that read Vampire. Everything about this one screamed predatory. The vamp was tall, broad, muscular, everything my lady bits generally wanted in a man, but I didn’t like the way his hungry gaze raked over the crowd. In search of his next meal, maybe? One would assume Fallen’s patrons knew what they were getting into by frequenting this type of club, but I had to wonder if they’d come for the thrill or to be a snack.