by Alice Bell
We pushed two tables together. I bought a round of lattes. Henry and Wong commented on the stories in a serious manner, which thrilled the girls. Under the table, Henry's leg pressed against mine and I felt content. This is what Dr. Sinclair meant when she said nice was good.
We told jokes. The girls gossiped. Wong ordered pita bread and hummus. The late crowd came in and the cafe got noisy again. I had to drag Chastity away from a man twice her age.
It wasn’t until Chastity and Charity’s mother called them home by sending a cab that the party broke up.
When the girls had gone, Wong and I finished the hummus and Henry tipped back another beer. It must have been nearing two a.m. when we left. We walked three abreast with Henry in the middle. We turned onto Irving. Cars zoomed and honked. People walked in groups, dressed for the clubs. Wong and Henry talked about spring break.
And then, up ahead, on the sidewalk, I saw Zadie and Inka coming toward us. My mouth went dry.
Inka wore a blue leather jacket with tight jeans and spiked heels. Zadie was sleek in peach and black, a fur stole around her shoulders. I could barely breathe. They were beautiful and terrible.
Zadie winked at me as they passed. I touched my lip where she’d bit me and wondered if I was the only one who could see them. But Henry spun around to stare. “Who are they?”
Wong glared at him. “Really? You’re such an ass.”
Henry put up his hands. “Sorry. I just—wow.” He cast me a sheepish glance.
I knew he thought he’d offended me. He had no idea. The night had taken a sinister turn far beyond his ability to grasp. Zadie’s wink had seemed like a promise, a promise that left me shivering.
Devon
I missed Todd. And Dru. I wondered what they were doing when I sat in my room alone without even a book for company.
One night, a smattering of gravel pelted the high rectangular window above my bed. I looked out and down to the fenced yard, expecting to see Todd, but it was Dru. The motion light had detected her. She shielded her eyes from its glare.
I went down the narrow metal stairway to let her in.
She wore the same black outfit as before, black dress with tights and sturdy shoes. It reminded me of something Scarlett would wear and I had flash of memory; Scarlett sitting at the bar, alone.
“Hey, you,” I said.
“Hey, stranger,” she said. “I finally tracked you down.”
I let her in and she glanced around at my sparse furnishings. Downstairs, there was only a counter where I ate my rations, a sink and cupboards, and the closed door to the small vestibule that was my bathroom.
I had on black fatigues, which I mostly wore and preferred. My rock star wardrobe wasn’t really mine. When there was an occasion, like a photo shoot promoting the New Army, or a campaign event for one of the progressive Archangels, a white limo picked me up and took me to a film studio to be dressed.
“Do you have any good booze?” Dru said.
“No, I’m in training.” It was the simplest explanation.
She made a face. “That’s no fun.”
“We could always talk,” I said. “Get to know each other.”
She arched her eyebrows. “Can we go upstairs?” Without waiting for my answer, she went up, her steps ringing out on the metal rungs.
She stood in the doorway of my room. There was nowhere else to go. “They sure have you hidden away,” she said. “Shielded from polite society I guess.”
“They dust me off and bring me out as needed,” I said.
Sitting on my bed, she gave the mattress a little bounce. “Want to take it for a test drive?”
I leaned against the doorframe and assessed her. Was she coming on to me? She was gorgeous, and I liked her. There was something dangerous and exciting about her. But I wasn’t supposed to fraternize with Vampires. And the truth was, I wasn’t ready yet. I just didn’t feel like being that way with anyone. It reminded me of the loneliness of my nights before I met Scarlett. And whenever I thought of Scarlett, she was all I wanted.
“I imagined you living in the lap of luxury,” Dru said.
“Sorry to disappoint.”
“You’re famous, you know. I read about you all the time in the tabloids. We all do. You’re a hero to us Vampires. Some of us… fantasize about you.”
Our eyes met, before she glanced down at her shoes. I couldn’t figure her out. Was she shy beneath her bravado? One thing I felt sure of—she had secrets. I didn’t know if they were part of what made her dangerous or if they were just sad secrets.
She got up and came toward me. She reached up to touch my face and my trimmed beard that made me Decimus’s twin. “I like this,” she said. “It’s sexy.”
“Dru,” I said. “I can’t.”
She dropped her hand. “Because of training?”
“Right,” It wasn’t as simple as that but no need to hurt her feelings.
“So you’re just going to play by their rules?” she said.
I wondered why she liked to live so close to the edge. She’d just got out of the dungeon where she’d been whipped. She was the one who told me about the three strikes rule. Was she a glutton for punishment?
“What if I am?” I said. “Don’t you think it’s a good thing? The New Army? I thought you said I was a hero.” I honestly was still looking for a way out. But I was pretty sure I stood a better chance at finding an escape from this side of the dungeon.
She sighed. “You can still have fun,” she said. “Come on, go out with me. I want to show you something.”
So we snuck out, like teenagers. She knew how to keep within the shadows so no one noticed us. She took me to the vampire quarter where she showed me my face painted on the sides of buildings. My name was graffiti on doors to the underground.
“See?” she said.
She knew every secret place; skivvy dance clubs, strip bars and back rooms with pirated movies playing on the wall.
We started meeting up as often as she could get away and it was a damn relief. My training had stagnated. Decimus was on tour and I was still playing that dumb video game where I killed Vampires, even though I could do it in my sleep.
Dru offered me what I couldn’t resist—friendship.
She’d been born a vampire in the realm but she was a rebel. She’d got into the underground scene as a teenager and lived vicariously through the stories of Vampires who’d come from the human world. As soon as she’d had a chance to escape, she took it. She said she’d do it again in a heartbeat. “Next time, I’ll take you with me,” she said.
But I said nothing. I was biding my time. I knew I had to play my cards exactly right. Because I had to get back to Scarlett.
“Don’t you miss it?” Dru often asked. “Aren’t you just dying to get back?”
I told her how sick I’d been, that I couldn’t remember who I’d been before, that I didn’t even know my sire. I said there was only one good thing that came out of that whole nightmare and I told her about Scarlett. I liked talking about Scarlett, remembering her, and Dru listened patiently.
If it wasn’t for those nights with Dru, roaming free on the dark side of town, I would have lost my mind.
Scarlett
Henry was taking me rafting. He spread a giant map across the bar in my kitchen. We pored over it together but I couldn’t make sense of it. The lines on the map were too tiny to be real and the names of the landmarks were straight out of an old western.
Henry’s cheeks were ruddy with anticipation. “The weekend will be hot.” He showed me the weather report on his phone. There were five suns all in a row, starting Friday. The high temp was supposed to hit seventy-nine in the city. “Always warmer in the canyon,” he said. “Bring sunscreen.”
“Okay, I want you to look at this.” He pulled up a picture of a leafy green plant. “See the shape of the leaves?” he said. “It’s poison ivy. Don’t touch it. Turns out I’m not allergic. But wow, my ex-girlfriend got it bad. Welts as big as a baby’s arm. Nas
ty stuff.”
Fear coiled in my belly. “What about rattlesnakes?” I said.
“Ah, don’t worry,” he waved his hand. “I always bring a snakebite kit.”
I didn’t find that one bit reassuring.
“I’ve only run into a few snakes down there,” he said. “You respect them, they’ll respect you.”
Why did people always say that about dangerous wild animals? The best way to show respect, I thought, was to stay at home. In my own habitat.
I couldn’t imagine riding in a raft, trying to sleep on the hard ground, poking bushes with a stick to check for snakes and making coffee over a fire. “Cowboy coffee,” Henry called it.
He left a giant green backpack on my living room floor and a list of what I was supposed to put in it.
After he’d gone, I stashed the pack in my utility closet so I wouldn’t have to look at it. We weren’t leaving until the day after tomorrow and I was dreading it, like I would the apocalypse. The only reason I was going was because I didn’t want to spend spring break alone with Zadie and Inka out there.
Initially, I told myself it would be fun. I pictured roasting marshmallows over a campfire, like people did on TV. I thought it would be romantic too, cozy in a tent with every excuse to be close. Once I realized there was nothing about it that would be fun for me, I thought at least I’d be out of the city, and safer with Henry. But was it really safer? With poisonous plants and deadly snakes and who knew what else?
* * *
I ordered everything online that Henry had wanted me to get and it came that afternoon. I put the packages in the closet with the backpack and then the evening yawned in front of me.
I hadn’t slept well ever since I’d run into Zadie and Inka. I took my medication religiously, I tried to eat nourishing meals but I couldn’t get much food down. I wanted to go back to my old ways, my old rituals, to get me through the nights that once again seemed fraught with menace.
If only Dr. Sinclair wasn’t on vacation. Already I was forgetting so much of what she had taught me. She was starting to feel unreal, like she’d never existed, but then so did the rest of my life.
I felt a crawling beneath my skin, a low buzz in the back of my mind, which was how it always started—the downward spiral. I shouldn’t be alone, I realized.
I thought about calling Wong but she was a social butterfly and if she wasn’t out, she was probably with her family. I was too shy to intrude on her plans. Henry was who I wanted to be with anyway. It would be nice to lay in his arms.
To my surprise he picked up right away. “Rubes,” he said, like he was glad to hear from me. He’d never called me Rubes before. But his voice was strange, thick. “You got that backpack balanced?” he practically shouted.
I held the phone away from my ear. I had no idea what he was talking about.
“Rubes… you there?”
I swallowed. “Can you come over?” I said.
“What? Speak up.”
“Will you come over?”
“Right now?” There was a long silence, followed by a muffled, scratching sound.
“Please?”
“Um, yeah. Hold on. Get another pitcher,” he said to someone else. Then to me, “I’ll come by later. Okay?”
“Okay,” I said, but he’d already hung up.
I put on a black silk dressing gown and combed my hair. I played The Smashing Pumpkins and looked out my vista window at the building across the street. Someone had moved in. Party lights edged the windows. A pot of red geraniums bloomed by the front door.
I expected Henry soon. I ran a bath with my phone nearby on the counter so I could let him in when he came.
Only he never came.
I fell asleep just before dawn. I didn’t wake until a gash of sunlight broke through a part in the curtains. My head ached. My eyes were grainy.
I got up and retrieved my phone from the bathroom. It was 1:39 p.m. Oh no. I put a hand over my mouth. Henry had wanted to leave for our trip no later than ten this morning.
His first call had come in at eight. He left a voicemail. “Hey, Scarlett. Sorry about last night. I'll swing by in an hour or so.” He also texted the same message. He'd called from downstairs at quarter past ten. “Look, I'm really sorry about last night… where are you?” At 11:27, he called but didn’t leave a voicemail. He texted: Really?
I took three aspirin and crawled back into bed. My skin felt painful to the touch, like maybe I was coming down with a fever.
A little after four, I dragged myself out of bed for the second time that day. I ate a croissant and an apple and tried to read a book I’d picked up from the bargain bin at the bookstore.
Later, I showered and put on a red and white floral pattern dress with a red cashmere sweater and red strappy shoes. The lowering sun made the sky pink and gold.
My plan was to walk down to the cafe on the corner and get a coffee. Screw Dr. Sinclair and her damned green tea. I wanted a triple shot cafe au lait, served steaming hot in a bowl.
When I came out of my building, I saw a battered Volkswagen bug pulling in across the street. I watched as a dark haired woman got out. My pulse raced. She’s familiar, I thought.
My hands trembled.
I waited for a car to pass before crossing the street. The woman had climbed the stairs to my favorite building, the one with the stained glass red rose. She was unlocking the door. The way her black hair hung down her back, I suddenly knew why she was familiar. She reminded me of Autumn. She had to be her mother. There was no doubt in my mind.
“Excuse me! Hello!” I picked up my pace, trotting towards her. I was wobbly in my heels. But I needed to catch her, to talk to her. It felt paramount in that moment.
She turned.
“Hi!” I waved.
She came down the stairs to meet me.
I was breathless, like I’d run a marathon.
She had an open, lovely face; big brown eyes and a sophisticated streak of gray in her long hair.
“I'm Scarlett Rain,” I said, my voice shaking, like it used to when I talked to Henry. “I'm your neighbor across the street.”
“Oh, you live in the old hotel,” she said. “I hear it's been magnificently redone.”
I was confused, thrown off track, like meeting a long lost friend who doesn't recognize you. “I—are you Autumn's mother?”
“Why, yes,” she smiled. “I'm Erin.” Now there was a question in her eyes, and something else—awareness.
I remembered she was psychic, according to Autumn anyway. I hoped she hadn't glimpsed a tragedy in my near future. Blood rushed to my head. “I used to be one of Autumn's teachers at the academy. How—how is she?”
“Well, I think she is doing quite well. As well as anyone can at eighteen. She's in New Orleans. At art school.”
“I’d heard,” I said. I licked my lips. “I'm glad.”
“Are you alright?” she said. “You look faint.”
“I just need to eat. Low blood sugar. I, um… I was wondering if you do psychic readings? Autumn mentioned something about it.”
She nodded. “I'm afraid I don't these days. I'm sorry.” She looked as if she truly was, as if she pitied me, in fact.
“Oh… okay. Please tell Autumn hi for me. She was one of my favorite students.”
“Thank you. Of course I will. Next time she comes home, I’ll send her over.”
I hurried down the sidewalk.
“Wait… Scarlett!”
I stopped and turned back.
“Do you want to come inside for a minute?”
I doubled back, hoping maybe she changed her mind and was going to do a reading for me. She smiled and ushered me through the door.
Inside, it was cold. It was the type of place that would never be warm. Not even in summer. My grandmother’s house had also had cold pockets. It was one of the reasons I was glad I’d moved.
I followed Erin up the winding stairs into an apartment where a furnace churned out moist heat. The antique furnitur
e reminded me of my grandmother’s house too. The wine colored Turkish rug across the dark wood floor was almost identical to the one I’d left behind.
“Listen, love,” Autumn’s mother said. “I want to give you something I hope you’ll accept.” She pulled a book from the shelf. It was thick, hardbound. The title had gold and black lettering: Vampires Among Us. Beneath the title was her name: Erin Jones.
I took it from her, frowning at the cover, wondering what was meant by Vampires. “Is this why you don’t do readings anymore? So you have time to write?”
She tucked a strand of hair behind my ear. Her touch was so tender, I could have cried. “I can’t do readings anymore,” she said. “They took too much out of me. But I can still help people. Through my book.”
“Is it fiction?” I thought it must be.
She surprised me by shaking her head. “No… the Vampires I’ve written about are very real. They feed on your emotions,” she put her hand to her chest. “Right here,” she made a fist over her heart. “They want your soul. You have to read my book to understand. It goes into great depth. Mostly, it will inform you how to protect yourself. I hope you’ll have a chance to read it.”
“Thank you,” I said.
“Do me a favor and read it right away.” There was an urgency in her tone that made me uneasy. “If you have questions, come over. We’ll talk. And have tea. Okay, sweetheart?”
I nodded.
She reached up and took off her necklace. “I’d like you to have this too.”
She stood before me, so tall, like Autumn. I gazed up at her, thinking she could have been a Greek goddess; Athena or Artemis.
“It’s a bit crude,” she showed me the amulet, a blue stone the color of a robin’s egg. “You have such beautiful clothes. I know it isn’t your style. But it’s a protective crystal. In will ward off those who mean you harm.”
“It’s yours though,” I said.
“It belongs to you now. May I put it on you?” She leaned down to clasp the chain around my neck. Her skin, brushing mine, was soft. Her scent was exotic, like a magical forest. She whispered in my ear, words I couldn’t fathom but understood were a prayer.