by Melody Raven
Even the basement was nice. The hallways were decorated with light, airy paintings, as though to combat the fact that there was no natural light. The corridors were untouched, unlike the wreckage above her. It was a war zone out there. The rest of the country was untouched, but this city was a whole new world.
She turned right at the end of the hall, but realized there were a bunch of doors and none of them were labeled as a restroom. Funny, Joshua had described the place as crawling with soldiers, but there was no one around now.
She pushed the doors open one by one, but it was proving to be an exercise in futility.
She was about to give up and go back to Joshua, but she tried one more door. Except this one wasn’t like the others. This room wasn’t empty. When she saw the man standing in the middle of the apparent bedroom, her heart leapt in her chest. She opened her mouth to scream, but a second later, that large silhouette was in front of her and a hand covered her lips.
Vampire. Holy shit. Even after being told the truth, she wouldn’t have believed it if she hadn’t seen it with her own eyes. He’d moved so fast. Definitely inhumanly fast.
And this beast was right in front of her. He was huge and towering over her, with large black eyes looking mercilessly down at her. She clawed at him and tried to wiggle away, but he stood there as though he didn’t have a care in the world. And considering that the door had shut behind her as she’d been pulled inside, he wouldn’t even have to rush as he killed her. As though he could do this all day. Fuck. She was better than this. She could figure this out. If struggling wasn’t going to work, she’d have to use the only asset she had. Her wit.
Forcing herself to stop struggling, she allowed her arms to go limp at her sides and blinked the fear out of her eyes. There was nothing she could do about her jackhammering heartbeat. Then, slowly and calmly, she brought one hand up to his and gently tapped.
She half expected the monster in front of her to ignore her, but shockingly, he removed his hand from her mouth.
But that didn’t mean he stepped away from her. Still, this was progress. She could work wonders with her mouth. “I’m so sorry to disturb you. I was looking for the little girls’ room. You wouldn’t happen to know where it is?”
“You’re looking for a little girl?” he asked harshly. His voice was deep, his accent somewhere between Russian and German.
“Bathroom. I’m looking for a bathroom. I said little girls’ room as a way to make myself seem smaller and less threatening. Because I am small and not threatening to you. I won’t scream or anything, I promise.”
He frowned and for the first time, her fear abated slightly. Very slightly. Enough for her to realize that this guy was hot. Very hot. Like, cover of a magazine hot. Maybe a bodybuilder magazine because the dude was built.
Priorities, Alyssa! “I’m so sorry to have gotten in your way, and if you’ll just let me leave now that would be great.”
But he didn’t move. He just kept on staring at her with that damn quizzical look. “You’re not one of them.”
Well hell, she had no idea what he meant by that. But she wasn’t going to disagree. “Not at all. And I promise I won’t tell them about you either.”
His eyes glanced down and if it were possible, she felt even smaller. He opened his mouth, but before he said anything, he stiffened and turned to the door. She was about to ask what he heard, but a fraction of a second later, he was across the room from her. That’s when she heard the footsteps.
Of course he heard them first. Vampire. Duh.
Alyssa wrapped her arms around herself. Now that he was across the room, she was so much colder. So vampires were real and they were warm. If only there was a way to cover this up from herself.
The door to the room opened and she could tell the second Joshua saw the vampire because he pulled out his handgun and pointed it at the creature, who didn’t seem all that intimidated.
“I didn’t hurt the girl,” he said simply, staring at Alyssa as though waiting for her to confirm what he said.
She swallowed tightly. “I’m fine. Just got lost on the way to the bathroom.” Come to think of it, she was damn lucky she didn’t pee herself in fear. Was that a genetic thing or did she just have really good self-control? What a stupid thing to think of. Adrenaline was odd.
“You’re supposed to be upstairs,” Joshua told the vampire warily.
“You know him?” asked Alyssa. “I thought the vampires were all being killed.”
The vampire raised a brow at her. “So small, yet so violent.”
For a moment, she was insulted. How dare he think she was violent. Then she realized that violence was a perfectly reasonable reaction to have to this situation. “I don’t answer to you,” she snapped.
Now both Joshua and the vampire were looking at her as if she were crazy. Oh, for the love of— “Are we good to go?”
Joshua looked between her and the vampire. “Yeah. Let me just radio the team that he’s here—”
“Don’t bother,” said the vampire. “I’ll be back there before they realize I’m gone.” He then moved slowly, menacingly past Alyssa and then Joshua before disappearing into the hallway.
She didn’t hear any footsteps, so she had a feeling that slow walk was just for their benefit.
She let out a deep breath she didn’t realize she had been holding. “You were right. There really were vampires hiding in the shadows.” A tremor snaked through her hand and she clenched her fingers into fists to stop the shaking.
“He’s one of ours.”
What the hell did that mean? “I didn’t realize we had vampires on our side.”
“He was working with us as we took back the city. In exchange, he’s getting some leniency.”
She hadn’t realized how formidable the invasion had been if the government was cutting deals with the devil. “So...vampires. What are we talking here? How do they even exist? Are they really dead? Like zombies?”
“That’s not need-to-know.”
“No, I think it really is need-to-know. Come on, Joshua. I’m not asking as some contractor. I’m asking as your friend.”
“You dated my brother. That doesn’t mean we’re friends.”
True, friends wasn’t the best way to describe their relationship. After Joshua’s brother had cheated on her and dumped her, leaving her unexpectedly homeless, Joshua had funneled her pity jobs for scandals in the military.
If he was truly her friend, he never would’ve roped her into this current crisis, but that didn’t mean she wouldn’t use their past relationship as leverage for more information. “Come on, man. If anyone is good at keeping secrets, it’s me. Just give me a quick rundown.”
“All right.” He sighed. “We have no idea what they really are. We have scientists working around the clock on this shit, but there are some things that we can just boil down to magic.”
“Magic?”
“You saw the portal. We sure as hell can’t find an explanation for the wall that was set up around the city. Magic is all I’ve got right now. Shit’s weird, Lys.”
“What about the vampires? Are they actually dead guys?”
“Not dead. They have heartbeats and body temps. But they’re damn hard to kill. I’m telling you, Lys, I’ve seen them heal. It’s not right.”
She thought about how fast she’d seen the vampire move and she was fully a believer. “And the whole blood thing?”
“Oh, they’re blood suckers. I hear the women in the city had to sell their blood during the siege.”
She frowned. “Only women?”
“Mostly women. There are a few vamps who like to tangle swords but for the most part, hetero.”
She frowned. “There weren’t any girl vampires?”
He snorted. “Oh no. Just dudes from what I can tell. I suppose if I came from a planet full of dick, I’d be ready to invade no matter the odds too, right?”
Goose bumps broke out over her flesh and Alyssa really hoped Joshua couldn’t tell.
“Do you still need to use the bathroom?” he asked.
“No,” she lied. “Just get me out of here.”
~~~ End of first look!~~~
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