Stregoni Benefici: Italian vampires said to be on the side of goodness, and mortal enemy of all evil vampires.
What was evil? I wondered.157
It was a relief, that one small entry, the one myth among hundreds that claimed the existence of good vampires. This was a chance I was willing to take.
Overall, though, there was little that coincided with Squaw's stories or my own observations. I'd made a little catalog in my mind as I'd read and carefully compared it with each myth. Speed, strength, beauty, pale skin, eyes that shift color; and then Squaw's criteria: blood drinkers, enemies of the werewolf, cold-skinned, and immoral. There were very few myths that matched even one factor. I was probably safe.
And then another problem with the theory, one that I'd remembered from the small number of scary movies I'd seen—vampires couldn't come out in the daytime: the sun would burn them to a cinder. They slept in coffins all day and came out only at night. Fredward definitely didn't do this; I had definitely seen him during the day. School was during the day, I chortled.
Aggravated at everyone else's stupidity, I snapped off the computer's main power switch, not waiting to shut things down properly. I was too aggravated to wait. Through my irritation, I felt overwhelming embarrassment. It was all too stupid. I was being stupid. I was sitting in my room, researching vampires, on the... on the Internet! What was wrong with me? I decided that most of the blame belonged on the doorstep of the town of Forks—and the entire sodden Olympic Peninsula, for that matter.
I had to get out of the house, but there was nowhere I wanted to go that didn't involve a three-day drive. And I wasn't sure if I'd feel this upset in three days, much less in six, which would be the time it would take me to drive somewhere and back. I pulled on my boots anyway, unclear where I was headed, and went downstairs. I shrugged into my raincoat without checking the weather and stomped out the door. No one heard my dramatic stomping; it was no matter, I was protesting fate itself.
It was overcast, as always, but not raining yet. I ignored my truck158
157. Do you know what evil is? Please turn to thought question #4 to explore.
158. Wouldn't even give it the time of day.