The Vampire Stalker Read Online Free Page B

what I’m telling you.”
    I inched away from him as subtly as I could. “I don’t know what to say. I told you I just want to call the police.”
    “And I told
you,
the police are ineffective. Rather than patrolling the streets at night, they adhere to the curfew. They are not qualified to take on Vigo and his coven. This cannot be news to you.”
    He genuinely seemed to believe what he was saying, which only left one option: He was crazy. I didn’t see any choice but to play along. “Yeah, I guess you’re right. Anyway, if you want to get to the Byward District, it’s just, uh, a couple of miles north of here. Turn left at the stop sign half a block down, and keep walking.”
    “Thank you for the directions.”
    He stood up, and so did I. I was hoping that he would head for the door, but he didn’t move. His next words were very measured. “You keep referring to these books. Please tell me why.”
    I sighed and glanced back at the waiting elevator. “Alexander Banks is a character in the Otherworld books.”
As if you didn’t know that.
    “And what role do I supposedly play in these books?”
    “You’re James’s cousin. The vampire stalker.”
    He considered that. “I am aware of my actions being reported in the
Daily Sentinel,
but not in any books. Whatever these volumes say, I assure you they are entirely unauthorized. I am the real Alexander Banks. I give you my word.”
    “Okay. You’re Alexander Banks.”
    His nostrils flared. “You clearly do not believe me. How can I prove who I am?”
    He probably expected me to quiz him on the books, but that wouldn’t prove anything. If he was this much of a fan, he probably knew them even better than I did.
    And then something occurred to me. I could end this, here and now.
    “You could stick out your tongue.”
    “I beg your pardon?”
    “Alexander Banks can’t drink anything too sweet or tart because his tongue got slashed by a vampire’s blade. If you show me the scar on your tongue, I’ll believe you.”
    “Very well.” He stuck out his tongue.
    I gasped. There it was: a deep scar down the bottom half of his tongue. I was speechless.
    He wasn’t supposed to be able to prove that he was Alexander. What was I supposed to do now? Believe him?
    He didn’t stop there. “I have several other scars that may reinforce the verdict.” He pushed back his coat and unbuttoned his shirt to reveal a circular white scar beneath his collarbone. I felt myself blush, despite my fear and frustration.
    “James and I were nine, fencing with tree branches. He impaled me. I almost bled to death.”
    I nodded dumbly. The story was in
Otherworld.
It had been a terrifying experience for both boys, but it had brought them closer, making them more like brothers than cousins.
    He began to roll up one of his sleeves. His forearm was muscular, and that made me blush, too. “I also have —”
    “It’s okay. I — I believe you.”
    The world was shifting around me. What choice did I have but to believe his wild story? It could be that he was crazy enough to mutilate himself in order to be Alexander. But the scars looked too old for him to have made them since the books came out.
    Did that really mean, then …?
    Was this guy actually …?
    I closed my eyes for a second, trying to take it all in. When Iopened them, Alexander was still there, life-size and three-dimensional. Despite the wariness in his eyes, he looked slightly younger than I’d pictured him. He was, after all, only a couple of months shy of nineteen.
    “I just don’t understand,” I said. “How could you
be
the Alexander Banks from the books?”
    “I have absolutely no idea. Which is why I must see these books you speak of. But first, please, tell me where I am. I know this city as well as I know the lines in my own palm, but I must have chased Vigo farther than I thought.”
    Vigo.
    No. No way. Vigo could not be here. He could not have attacked me.
    But then I had a flash of memory of silver-blond