It’s Sunday…it’s a very strange day to be sitting in a coffee shop.  After the week I’ve had, I’m really glad Lexxx suggested it, too.  I have writing to catch up on (that Wednesday deadline when whizzing right by as I sat in my grandmother’s hospital room), I need the break from my own thoughts, and I’m likely to hurt myself if I go on another cleaning binge like I did yesterday.

So, announcements:

– The grandmother will be moved to rehab next week, then go into permanent nursing care.  My mother can’t handle her anymore.

– The WIP, “Blood Doll”, is currently sitting on just over 14,000 words.  Must finish today.

– I’m at Rebel Reasoning today!  20 questions with yours truly.  Click on this link to have a read!

– Unrelated, my kitchen looks like a brand new room.  I scrubbed window sills and cabinet doors yesterday…that’s how not okay I’ve been this week.

And because I need to inspire myself to finish this story, Here’s a bit of what I’m working on.  “Blood Doll” is the story of Lana Roberts, a young woman who has come to Boston in search of her missing twin sister, Sarah.  In this club, the last place Sarah was seen, Lana meets Christian, a rivet-head who seems to have all the answers.  Unfortunately, Christian is a vampire, and one that knows where Sarah is and what’s happening to her.  In this snippet, Christian has just told Lana that she won’t likely get back into the club and see Sarah again unless things change.

The snippet:

He pulled the old car onto the main road, shifted it into a reasonable gear, and reached over to take her hand.  As he threaded his fingers through hers, Lana realized that she was in way over her head.  She had all but given a vampire the okay to bite her.  Her sister was almost one of them, and before it was over she would be too.

Then it hit her that she was talking about vampires as if they had always been real to her.  She looked down at her hand, twined around Christian’s, then up at his pale face, and the world began to swim.  It felt like she was caught in the throes of a horrible nightmare, one that she couldn’t seem to wake up from. 

She had considered all of these things, of course, but through the shock-filled haze of the last twenty-four hours.  When she wasn’t so close to it all, it made more sense.  Now that she had time to stop and truly think, to put the pieces together and make sense of everything she’d learned, all she found she had learned was that none of it made sense. 

At all.

“Christian?” she asked to break the silence.  Her voice sounded weak and reedy even to her own ears.

“Yeah?”

“What’s it like to be a scab?” In the darkness, she watched his face contort.  He thought about it for a long time, and as the city lights disappeared in favor of suburban sprawl and patches of forest, he sucked in a deep breath and let it out in a long sigh.

“I don’t really remember,” he said.  “There is a constant craving, a sort of mindlessness that leaves you feeling lost.  I mean, you’re lucid the whole time, but it’s like being lucid from inside someone else’s head.”

Lana leaned back against the seat and stared forward, trying hard to ignore the feeling of Christian’s thumb brushing gently over her wrist.  Despite that, and no matter how hard she tried to reroute her mind, she kept circling back to the same frightening thought.

“If we get in there, will Sarah know who I am?”

After a moment of silence, Christian said, “I wish you hadn’t asked that.”

“She won’t know me, will she?”

“I’m sure she’ll know you,” he replied.  “But I can’t promise she won’t try to bite you.”

She also wished she hadn’t asked.  Part of her wished she had never even come to Boston in the first place.  But even as she thought it she felt guilty for it.  Sarah needed her, whether she knew it or not.

The rest of the ride back to Christian’s house was made in silence.  He continued to hold onto her until in parking, he was absolutely forced to take control of the gear shift.  In the blink of an eye, he was around the car and opening her door, and even pulled her bag out of her hands.  Lacing his fingers through hers again, he towed her inside, then immediately rounded on her, backed her against the door, and kissed her again.