PROPHECY

Excerpt:

“Do you have to be invited in?  You know, like into a person’s house?” she asked.

“Did you invite me in?  I don’t have to be invited in.  I don’t know where that myth came from, but that’s another one of those things that Hollywood never gets right.”

“So the garlic thing isn’t true?” she asked, a piece of the garlic chicken gripped between the ends of her chopsticks.

Seven smiled, his eyebrow arched sarcastically.  He then leaned forward, taking the piece of chicken from her chopsticks with his teeth, chewing and swallowing.  “Myth.  That’s actually pretty good.”

“What else is a myth?”

“What do you think is a myth?”

“Crosses.”

Seven nodded.  “Myth.”

“Holy water.”

“Yeah, that’s a myth.”

“The wooden stake in the heart.”

He winced.  “Partially fact.”

Rhoswen moved closer to him.  “Wait a minute, the wooden stake in the heart, that’s true?”

“It is and it isn’t.  A wooden stake through the heart will kill anything.  Although, according to my father’s journals, anything wooden thrust through the chest of a sired vampire will cause it to dissolve into a pile of bones.  Not exactly the dust story that is famous now.  Wood does harm us, regardless of our origins.  Not all wood, but like fresh wood, lumber and things like that.  It has to have been treated in some way.”

“Treated?  What do you mean?”

Seven’s face became serious.  “Soaked in the blood of a virgin for at least 24 hours.”

The color drained from Rhoswen’s face, she felt sick in her stomach.  “Are you serious?”

The smile cracked the serious expression in his face.  “No, I’m not.”  They both laughed, Rhoswen more out of relief than anything else.