“Fanged” Excerpt 1: Hunger and Garlic

Then the restaurant door swung open, and another person came out.

He was around my age, short and chubby and six inches shorter and six

inches wider than I was. His pants and shirt were both too small and tight,

exposing a small patch of flabby skin hanging over his waistline. He had a

bowl haircut very similar to the one belonging to the girl who might have

been Sasha, and he wore a thick pair of glasses on his face. He was reading

and walking at the same time, holding a book right in front of him.

He smelled like garlic.

There was no mistaking the telltale scent. This kid had either eaten an

entire plate of garlic knots for dinner or poured garlic powder all over his

pizza. He was drenched in the smell from head to toe. It mixed with his

blood and radiated from his body like a scented homing beacon.

I don’t know who first spread the rumor that garlic repels vampires, but

that person is a godsend. Garlic is the only thing that improves human blood

from its original delicious state. It even makes cold, refrigerated blood taste

appealing.

The fat kid was almost at the end of the block. If he didn’t look where he

was going, he would walk right into the burned-out streetlamp.

I opened my mouth, and my fangs protruded from my gums. I hadn’t

eaten fresh, garlic-enhanced blood in a long time. This meal was one I was

going to savor. My teeth would tear into this kid’s neck, and the blood would

flow into my mouth.

My hand trembled. The cigarette fell from my hand and onto the

ground. The fire at the tip glowed momentarily before dimming and fading

away.

I had stopped myself just in time.

– Fanged, Chapter 1

Why write about vampires?

One piece of vampire mythology that never made sense to me was the idea of garlic warding off vampires. As someone who grew up with an Italian grandmother (and by “grandmother” I mean “father,” since Dad cooks as much pasta and homemade sauce as any good Italian grandma, I’ve always loved garlic and have considered it a staple in great cooking.

When I finally got around to reading Dracula and did a little research, I understood where the garlic myth came from, but I still didn’t want to keep it for my own story. I love garlic. And I thought, “wouldn’t it be funny if the complete opposite were true, and garlic actually attracted vampires?”

And vampires loving garlic came part of my story, one of my second twists on the genre. Much like my twist on the crucifix in question, it started off as a joke, back when I was writing a satirical vampire novel instead of a serious one.

But as the story became more serious, garlic was no longer just a source of a throwaway joke. It became the first sign of my protagonist’s struggle.

It’s the first sign that Sean has to struggle to prevent himself from killing people.