SOLVED Pre Twilight Vamp Book [s]

[Karen]

Hello

*Maybe some spoilers*

I read a book a long time ago, and I have no idea what it's called (I didn't even know when I read it). I read it sometime around 2000, so WAAAY before Twilight. It was a YA, about a teenaged girl who meets a vampire. They meet in a laundry mat, when he is pulled in by a bunch of thugs who try to stake him b/c he's a vampire. She thinks these thugs are insane and stops them somehow; she doesn't think that this guy is a vampire, b/c they don't exist, and runs off with him to avoid being attacked by the gang of thugs. Turns out he *is* a vampire, and he's embroiled in some type of war or fight or curfuffle. I can't remember too much after that, except that she has a little brother, and when the sun is up, vampire man takes her into a disused subway station and cuffs her to the rails; she ends up doing her algebra homework waiting for him to wake up.

When I read it, it didn't have a dust jacket on it, and I never bothered to find out the title or author. But it's been bugging me for awhile now, and with all the vampire furor these last few years, finding it has become impossible.

I hope someone can help!

Thanks
Karen

[Andria]

Companions of the Night by Vivian Vande Velde

[Karen]

oh wow that was fast! Thanks!

[Andria]

You're welcome! As soon as I saw vampire and laundromat, I knew that had to be it. Very memorable opening scene. It's pretty much all I remember from the book, in fact. :)

[Kagama-the Literaturevixen]

The ending is quite unusual too :)