FANGED

Chapter Fifty-Four

As his horribly disfigured hand floated towards me like something out of a nightmare, I slammed my lips shut tighter than a bear trap. My teeth clacked together making an audible snapping sound, and I jerked my head away as if I was a toddler being force-fed a spoonful of beets. There was no way I was letting those nasty digits of his anywhere near my mouth.

Sensing my obvious reluctance to let him touch me, Dr. Kleinrosebroom listlessly dropped his hand back on the blankets. "Forgive me," he said in a raspy whisper. "You survived. I still cannot believe it. I have been so worried something might have happened to you. That you would," he swallowed hard, "die. But here you are...thriving as a vampire." He gasped out the words as if he still didn't quite accept the fact I was indeed alive. His light green eyes looked at me with total admiration, which was a rather pleasant change, although it was also a little disturbing. But, since most of the vampires around here had been looking at me like I was something stuck to the bottom of their shoes, I was willing to bypass the creepy factor. It was a nice change of pace to be seen as something other than a freaky science experiment gone wrong...or worse...as an abomination.

"Oh, well, you know, I've always been a tough cookie." I puffed out my chest with pride. "There was this one time, all the kids in my high school came down with mono, but not me. Nope. I was as fit as Hey Diddle Diddle's fiddle. Not even a sniffle."

Of course, everyone knows Mono, or Mononucleosis is referred to as the "kissing disease", and since the only kissing I was doing at that time was long make-out sessions with my life-sized poster of John Stamos, the chances of me catching anything but an infection from a papercut was virtually impossible.

Yeah...I had a huge crush on the dreamy Uncle Jesse, so sue me. I don't care if he used to rock a mullet, he was sexy as hell and still is. The dude can make me buy yogurt for crying out loud, and I hate yogurt...so there you go. Undeniable proof of his hotness status.

"Yes, Melanie has astounded all of us with her remarkable fortitude," Fang said, totally ruining my moment to bask. "None of Stoker's other experimentations have lived for more than a few hours, and if they did, they were not," he paused for a moment, his head turning to run his eyes over me from head to toe, "as complete with their mental facilities as she is."

The velvety soft rumble of his voice sent tingling shivers of hunger down my spine. I was starving, and not for food...if you know what I mean. Suddenly, Fang grinned, and my knees tried to melt. But, fortunately, I was sitting down and safe from ending up in a puddle of swooning female flesh at his feet. Drat! I keep forgetting him being tapped into my emotions like illegally spliced cable. Sighing, I inched away from him as far as I could go without falling out of my chair. I swear the vampire was making me lose my mind. But...I suppose...as long as I managed to retain the part that tells me when I need to pee, I should be okay. I hoped.

"The question is, why did your serum succeed? What made your formula so different than the rest that it managed to create a vampire?" Fang asked, his glowing eyes leaving me to concentrate on the doctor.

Him turning his attention away sucked because I was in the process of sending him one of the best you've-got-to-be-fucking-kidding-me glares of all time.

"Really? That's your pressing question? Not, why did you pop poor Melanie in the ass with something that could have killed her? Or worse, turned me into a drooling idiot with the IQ capability of a kumquat?"

"But it didn't kill you," Dr. Kleinrosebroom gurgled happily, causing me to look down at him. Ugh, the guy's face really was a disaster. A small river of spit, drool, blood, and God only knew what else was leaking out of the corner of his mouth, making my stomach hopscotch up my throat. "I have a theory it was the Chinese food."