Rated: PG-13
A/N: BJ is my OC, the adopted daughter of Mick and Beth. She was first introduced in Milestones, Part 1. It is not absolutely necessary to read that first, but it might help. BJ also has her own Halloween and Christmas stories.
Huge thanks to Moonlighter for being my idea bouncer this time as well as my beta. You would not be reading this if it hadn't been for her.
I update every other night.
Previously in BJ’s Freshman Adventure ...
Josef read Dana’s email, growing angrier by the minute. “Let me make some calls. The vamp who runs the UCLA club is a business associate of mine.”
Chapter 5
Josef pulled out his iPhone and called his secretary. “Put me through to Mark Henderson,” he barked. The noise in the plane prevented Mick from hearing the other end of the conversation, but he followed along well enough listening to Josef’s side.
“Mark? Josef Kostan. Tell me about that First Timer’s Club you run. Where do you get your girls? Uh huh. Do all the clubs get them the same way? No? Okay. How do you place them after they’re no longer virgin bites? What? NO, I’m not interested in having my own club!” Mick snickered and Josef rolled his eyes at him. “And you manage these other clubs as well? How do the payments work? Uh huh, I see. And the girls get their fair share? Are you independent, or do you have someone above you overseeing all the UC clubs and their subsidiaries? I thought so. I need his name. Yes, I really do. Now.” He motioned to Mick to write it down. “Henry Stallsworth, in San Diego. Got it,” he said as Mick wrote down the name and nodded. “Does he ever check up on the clubs he runs? When was the last time? Yeah, great way to run a business. One more thing, Henderson. Do you know anything about the guy running the UC-Berkeley club? Yeah, Gerrard, that’s him. What’s that? Okay, thanks. What? Yeah, yeah, I’ll stop by soon. I’ll bring a friend,” he said, grinning wickedly at Mick as he ended the call.
“Well?” Mick asked, ignoring Josef’s remark about visiting the club. “What did you find out?”
Josef stuffed his phone back in his jacket pocket. “After no longer being first bites, the girls are assigned to work as freshies in one or more subsidiary vampire clubs, all under the management of the specific UC campus First Timer Club owner. Vamps pay the local club manager. He gets a cut, the freshies get a cut, the UC owner gets a cut, and there’s a head honcho, Stallsworth, over all the UC clubs who gets a cut.”
“That’s what Dana said this Curtis guy told her,” Mick said. “He pays the club manager and the manager is supposed to give the freshies regular wages.”
“Stallsworth is supposed to go around and visit the ten campus First Timer Clubs, as well as their lower subsidiaries two or three times a year. He used to run a pretty tight ship, but according to Henderson he hasn’t been around for over eighteen months.”
“If Gerrard is keeping the money for himself, doesn’t Stallsworth notice?”
Josef shrugged. “You’d think so. Maybe Stallsworth has an accountant take care of it all.”
“In which case, the accountant is probably in cahoots with Gerrard and cooks the books so it looks like Gerrard is making his payments,” Mick added. “Then they split the proceeds.” Josef nodded. “So what else did this Henderson tell you?”
“There’s no set way to recruit the coeds; it’s up to each First Timer owner. However, they are all duped into it at first. That’s the appeal of the virgin bite,” Josef said matter-of-factly. “Henderson runs two secondary clubs, one high brow and one of the plebian sort. But he swears all his girls are treated well and paid well. He doesn’t allow any rough stuff. He said he can’t speak for any of the other clubs.”
Mick sighed. “Okay, then it looks like this Eric Gerrard at Berkeley has gone into business for himself. Does Henderson know Gerrard?”
“Not really. Met him at some gathering Stallsworth had for all the First Time Club owners. Said he was glad-handing everyone and really putting on a show. Henderson stayed as far away from him as possible.”
A flight attendant came back to their seats. “Mr. Kostan, we’ll be landing in ten minutes.” Josef nodded and turned to Mick as the attendant walked away.
“Listen, let me handle Stallsworth. I deal with guys like him all the time. Do you think you and Beth can handle things here?” Mick grabbed Beth’s hand and they both nodded. “Okay, then I’ll fly down to San Diego immediately. Keep me posted,” he said as the wheels touched down. “Good luck,” he called after Mick and Beth as they deplaned. As the door closed he reached for his phone again. “Ryder, get me all the information you can find on a Henry Stallsworth at the UC campus in San Diego.”
MLMLMLML
Dana sat at a table in the library, textbooks spread out in front of her, playing Angry Birds on her iPhone. She tried not to look nervous, but she was sure everyone in the building could hear the pounding of her heart. She hoped no one noticed how often she glanced around the room, especially at the door.
“Dana?” someone asked softly. She was so startled she dropped her phone and it clattered on the table, getting her dirty looks from the other students. She looked up into the smiling face of a woman she recognized as BJ’s mother. “Dana, I’m BJ’s mom,” Beth whispered.
Dana nodded. “I remember you. I’m so glad you’re here!”
“Gather your things, and let’s go for a walk.” Panic rose in Dana at the thought of leaving the safe confines of the library. Beth noticed. “It will be okay,” she whispered. “Nothing will happen. I promise.” Dana swallowed and nodded as she stuffed her things back into her book bag. Then she and Beth walked quietly out of the library.
MLMLMLML
BJ rushed towards Curtis, but Gerrard stopped her.
“You have a choice now. If you agree to come with me, I will relieve your friend there from his unfortunate circumstance and release him. If you refuse, you can stay here with him and watch him die slowly and painfully from silver poisoning. If you have the noble intention of trying to save him yourself by removing the stake, he will in all likelihood attack and drain you. Vamp self-preservation is very strong, and since you would be the only source of blood around…” Gerrard’s words trailed off and he shrugged his shoulders. “The choice is yours,” he added, and left the room.
BJ heard the door lock and went to kneel down by Curtis. “I’m so sorry, Curtis,” she said tearfully. “I should have listened to you.” She hung her head down. “Now I don’t know what to do. I can’t agree to go with Gerrard. Euww, it gives me the creeps just thinking about it! I’d end up like Dana, or probably worse.” She looked into Curtis’ eyes. “And I don’t believe for one minute he would just let you go free.” She looked at him and noticed how yellow his eyes were, and how full of pain. She held his hand and with her other brushed his bangs from his forehead. “You’re burning up. I need to take that stake out.”
Curtis’ eyes filled with fear and he blinked several times, his only way to communicate. Inside his head he screamed, No! Don’t do it! But he could only stare at BJ, willing her not to touch the stake.
As if reading his thoughts, BJ sighed and laid his hand down gently so she could stand up and walk around. “I wish I knew how old you were, Curtis. We never talked about it. I need to know if you are old enough that you might be able to control yourself if I take the stake out. I could let you drink from me, enough to get your strength back anyway, if I thought you could stop. But if you’re fairly young, that might not be such a good idea. Damn it! I just don’t know what to do! I can’t just leave you like this, in all that pain, slowly dying!”
BJ sat in the chair by the little table, looking at Curtis. His eyes had been following her all around the room. She wiped the tears off her cheeks with the back of her hand. Think, Bethany! Think! Then a thought struck her. “Curtis, did you try to come find me?” He blinked a couple of times back at her. “Okay, two blinks means yes. And you told Dana you were going to look for me?” Two more blinks. “So it’s safe to assume that Dana knows we’re both missing now, right?” Curtis blinked again. “Then let’s hope by now it has occurred to her to call my dad,” she said hopefully. Then her shoulders sagged. “Except his number is on my phone, which Eric Gerrard now has. I hope she figured out how to contact him.” She sighed. “But it’s going to take him a couple of hours to get to Berkeley. And then he has to find us here.” She looked around the dismal room. “Wherever ‘here’ is.” She looked back over at Curtis. “And there’s no way you can last another couple of hours.”
She got up and walked back over to Curtis, kneeling down beside him again. “Curtis, how old are you? Older than 50?” Two blinks. “Older than 100?” Two blinks. “How about 150?” Nothing. “No? So somewhere between 100 and 150.” She swallowed the lump in her throat. “Let’s hope that’s old enough. Look, I need your help to get out of here. We don’t know when my dad is going to be able to get here and the longer we wait, the harder it will be for you to control yourself. So I’m going to remove the stake, okay?” She saw the fear return to his eyes. “I am going to trust you not to attack me, and to drink only what you need.” Her mind made up, she smiled at him reassuringly. “Besides, I’d sure as heck rather have my first bite from you, even under these circumstances, than from that creep Gerrard.” She took a deep breath to steady herself. “Ready? Then let’s do this.”
To be continued...
You guys are cracking me up!
