The Soul of a Vampire #1

by Rachel E Rice

  The bartender a tall burly red head with red patchy skin, came over and stood in front of me, after replacing a bottle of liquor on the shelf. “Do you want another drink? Your friend in the pool room paid for drinks for you and Terry early on.” I looked and wondered how he would know we would be in here. I chalked it off to Terry making a date with him.

  “Do you know him?” I asked.

  “First time I’ve seen him,” The bartender said.

  “I’m good,” I said.

  The way I behaved, I can’t blame men from walking away from me. You come to a bar to socialize at least that’s what Terry does. When I glanced to my left, trying to decide if I should join her, Terry was strutting out of the room with her arm thrust under the blond guy’s arm. They looked good together. She was smiling, and it looked like he had charmed her with that handsome face, and that incredible young hard body wearing jeans that fit him in all the right places.

  She strutted up to me with a wide grin. “I found this Scandinavian god to escort us to our car.” She winked at me. I know what that meant.

  I shot him a quick smile. He had not too long tried to pick me up. He could have spent more time to get to know me, I thought. However, this is the era of speed dialing, speed dating, and texting. Why would he waste his time with me? A girl that’s hard to get, but easy to keep. That sums me up.

  Some men who want a quickie don’t want to spend their time on girls like me. I guess he spotted that the minute I refused a drink from him. Too complicated. Too intense. Too needy.

  I knew it was impossible to tell Terry anything about men. And this one was to die for. Maybe he thought he could have us both the way he eyed me. When he walked up standing behind me the first time his eyes had roamed my neck and breasts the entire time he talked to me.

  By the look on Terry’s face, her eyes darting around his body, her speech rapid and smooth, she knew, and I knew she wanted to fuck him like yesterday. And looking at him with his tall youthful strong body, she was going to have the best fuck of her life.

  Terry nudged me in the side. I glanced up at her, and she directed me with her chin moving up, signaling for me to get the hell up from that seat. Reluctantly, I stood and followed her.

  “I thought we were going to stay a little longer. I thought we came to shoot pool,” I said. She stopped and directed the blond to wait for her at the door.

  “We came here not for the pool but for the men, remember,” she said coolly with a tight mouth.

  “Do you know anything about him?” I whispered.

  “What is there to know?” Her voice high and tone angry. “He’s tall handsome, young, virile, and naïve. And when he looks at me I want to do anything for him. It’s something about the way he looks at me that gives me chills.” And she smiled and quivered.

  I could see her mouth salivating at the thought of him being virile and inexperienced. That way she could teach him what turned her on.

  “Are you sure of that. Look in his eyes, he looks like he’s been around,” I said. How would I know? She didn’t ask that and if she had, I wouldn’t have had an answer. It was just a feeling that I had seen that look once before, but I couldn’t remember where and on whom.

  “Well you can never be sure of anything, but I’m not going to question a gift from the gods.” She turned to walk away and I held her arm.

  “We can’t bring anyone to our apartment. You don’t know anything about him,” I said trying to plead with her to stay a little longer.

  “Do you even know his name?”

  “Aare. Now are you satisfied.”

  “What kind of name is that?”

  “For fuck sake, Zoey, I’m leaving.” Trying to stall her wasn’t working. I wanted to be in this seat in this bar when my gift from the gods came back if he ever did. But I knew I would be back again with Terry, in hopes that I might see him again. I just wanted to lay eyes on him, not tomorrow, not the next day, but now.

  Not too many handsome men like him comes along and shows me that kind of attention. I didn’t get the same feeling about him as I did Terry’s date. The feeling I got from my admirer was warm and nurturing.

  Chapter Three- Zoey

  “The way you’re behaving, all nervous and looking around, you don’t want to leave this bar. What is it?” she said. I wrinkled my forehead and gave a closed smile. “Oh, I know. You met someone. I can tell. You can’t fool me,” Terry said in a low sing song voice. That brought on a large smile. I rarely smile as wide as I am doing now.

  “No. Not really,” I twirled my hair like a little girl who had just met the boy of her dreams, “but I saw him for a few minutes and I’m hoping he comes back. He looks like the kind of man I could like.”

  “Like? We don’t have time for like. Like takes too long. You need one you could fuck,” she said.

  “Please, someone will hear you, and there’s more to life than fucking,” I mouthed looking around.

  “Who’s going to hear me and this crowd doesn’t care who you fuck or if you use the F bomb a hundred times. It goes with the territory. Look around you. Nothing but desperate men and women. Why else would they come to a bar on a weekday? They’re looking for the same thing we are. Someone to take us through the night and make life worth living. ”

  I threw my hands up closed my eyes and gave way to her absurd logic.

  “Just one more drink. Please.” I raised my hand to the bartender and Terry spiked it down.

  “I’m leaving now. You can come if you want, or drive my car back. But I’m leaving with that hot guy,” and she waved at him and he smiled back at us. “We can’t wait around here hoping this man comes back. I bet you didn’t even try to talk to him or give him your number.” She didn’t wait for me to respond because she knew and I knew she was right.

  “Zoey why would he come back? He’s probably fucking someone else at this time. You missed your chance,” she said shaking her head, “you know what they say when you’re slow you blow. Maybe I didn’t use that in the right context. But I’m turning around and I’m walking out with that hunk and you’re not going to ruin it for me. I’m going to wiggle my ass over to him before he decides to leave.” Terry turned and waved and strutted in the blond guy’s direction with a smile on her face, and I followed with a scowl.

  The blond opened the door and Terry and I walked through and when we were outside, Terry stopped and turned to make sure he was behind us, and no woman had snatched him. He trailed behind us until we were in the dark, away from a street lamp, and then he caught up and placed his arm around Terry’s shoulder.

  “Where is your ride handsome?” she asked. He pointed to a black Porsche Carrera. “OMG,” Terry leaned in and whispered to me. “I found a good one. No more cheap piazzas for us.”

  “Where is your ride?” He said to Terry and she pointed to her piece of valuable junk. “Since we both have small cars, then you should ride with me, Terry.” He knew her name. “And Zoey, you drive Terry’s car back to your apartment.” He had a commanding tone to his voice which he didn’t have before. He appeared to be used to being in control of women.

  How did he know my name? I hoped Terry didn’t discuss my life with him. I warned her about letting strange men know all about us. But of course she had to have said something.

  Despair over took me at the thought that she could have discussed my childhood. I hoped she wasn’t that careless as to reveal what happened to me when I was five years old. I didn’t want anyone to know about that. I was just accepting it myself.

  “I think we should ride together. I don’t drive that well,” I said to Terry. I needed to know how much she told that stranger and I didn’t trust him. It was something about him. Oh he was likeable enough and extremely handsome, but then so are some serial rapist and killers.

  Terry and the blond glanced at me. It was as if I had committed murder. They appeared to be hot for each other the way she was leaning her hips into him and he was holding her too close. I was the only one standing
in their way. They didn’t say anything to me and I kept walking to Terry’s car which had been parked in the dark a block away.

  When I reached the car, I turned and Terry and the blond were grinding against each other and kissing. Terry appeared to be taking the lead. She had both hands on his butt and squeezing it.

  And then I watched as he grabbed her by her neck with both hands and licked the side of her face only stopping at her neck. It looked embarrassing and it was as if I was watching a dirty movie with the loud sucking coming from him and moaning and groaning coming from Terry.

  The blond had one hand around her neck and he began kissing her breasts through her shirt, and then her hands dropped to her side and it looked as if she was being held up by his large hands. Her body became limp when his mouth moved back to her neck.

  With the darkness and the shadows, I wasn’t sure of what I was witnessing, so I strode in their direction to see what had happened to Terry. It was so strange and eerie I didn’t know what to think.

  I hollered at her, “Terry, I think I’ll drive the car back and you and your man can have time together.” She didn’t respond or turn to answer me and as I walked closer, the blond raised his head and I saw blood dripping from his mouth.

  “What are you doing to Terry?” I wanted Terry to turn and give me a snarky remark. I stood looking at him and he never reacted except to hiss at me. And place his mouth on her neck. I stayed on that one spot watching as he appeared to be feeding on her. I must have been in shock. I had never seen anything the likes of that before.

  Terry’s body looked small and white as if she was shrunken and when he let go of her, what was left of her body, cascaded down to the ground like a wrinkled bed sheet. Her face pale and her eyes closed. All I could say was “What the fuck? What did you do to Terry?”

  I pivoted around and began running. And in a second, the blond was standing in front of me with a strange look in his eyes. His eyes were no longer grey, but icy and glaring at me merciless and cold. Then they flashed red to match the blood dripping down his mouth. I don’t know where the scream came from, but I opened my mouth and nothing came out but a muffled weak cry for “Help.”

  But someone heard me. When I turned the man from the bar, the one I saw staring at me, the one I thought so handsome, was standing between me and the raving lunatic who had just killed my friend. There was no doubt about that. Terry was dead and I was standing afraid to move, and shivering, and ready to pee on the spot like a scared puppy.

  “What are you doing here?” I heard a soft cold voice ask the blond killer.

  “Vesper wants to see you.”

  “Tell him I’m not coming back. I’ll never go back.”

  “But you have to,” the blond insisted with emotionless patience. “You know how he hates to wait on anything. That’s why he sent me for you.”

  “He should have sent someone who could bring me back, not you. Remember the last time you came for me, I took pity on you. This time I won’t,” the cold voice said.

  “This time you won’t have to because this will be the end of this and our father won’t have to worry about you any longer,” the blond said flexing his hands.

  And the blond rushed to the cold voice and they gripped each other by the shoulders. They stood looking in each other’s eyes for a moment. Then there was a gnashing of the teeth and sound of hissing like a snake would before it struck.

  When they pulled apart they rushed at each other with closed fist and pound each other in the chest. Neither one affecting the other nor gaining any ground. When one would land a blow it was as if the thunder had struck and the sound rumbled through the street.

  When the cold voice struck the blond in his chest, the sound and reaction was that of lightning. It was quick, it was hot like blue fire and it was deadly. I saw the blond slump forward, but then like someone had poured water on a dead plant, he rose and attacked the cold voice as he walked to me, spinning him around.

  I stepped backward away from the cold voice trying to get away from them both.

  They fought and pummeled and beat each other and whirled around as I stood in one spot unable to move and unable to speak.

  I didn’t have the good sense to move out of the way of a freight train, and that freight train of two strong powerful beings, came rolling in my direction, and I saw the pain in the cold voice’s eyes when he knew he and that killer blond would hit me like a bullet from the barrel of a gun, sending me sailing into the front of that chrome bumper of that little indestructible car.

  Chapter Four-Zoey

  I’m waiting for Terry to come into the room and tell me she or I won the lottery. Why else would I be in a place like this. The room is bare, just a bed, and one dresser with no mirrors, but it’s elegant with heavy silk off-white drapes. If I were to guess, I’d say whoever decorated this room was a minimalist, so that rules out Terry because she’s the bag lady of Seattle.

  There wasn’t an old couch she couldn’t pass up or a broken table lamp she didn’t need. By the process of elimination, I ruled out that this was my place or Terry’s. Then who is it? And where am I? I tried to stand and my weak legs wouldn’t cooperate. I held on to the bed, as the room moved around and around. Not wanting to fall and cause another injury to my body I planned to get to the nearest wall and try to make my way to the door. I touched my head and it had a bandage wrapped securely around it.

  Then it came back to me. Something had happened to Terry. Tears welled in my eyes and then fell hard on my cheek when I realized she had died that night. When I remembered how she looked when that thing got a hold of her, all I could think about now was, I warned her about strangers.

  It was a stranger who had befriended me when I was a child. It was a stranger who took me and brained washed me where I no longer knew who I was. Now it was a stranger who saved my life. But from whom and why?

  What kind of dangerous world had I found myself in? I’m remembering now. The stranger knew that blond. He said something about father so that would make him his brother. Searching around with my eyes, what happened to him, and where am I?”

  I concentrated and put my legs down and managed to step out of bed. I had to do it. I couldn’t stay there forever waiting until someone came. I put one shaky weak foot in front of the other and held on to the side of the bed trying to make my way to the door. It appeared so far away. And I was so weak.

  Then I looked down and I had on a gown. A white gown. Not the kind they give you in a hospital, but a gown if you’re going on your honeymoon kind of gown. My hair had grown long but it didn’t appear unkempt. Someone had tended to me and groomed me. Cut my nails but didn’t take off the nail polish. Looking at my nails, I came to the conclusion I had been here a month or more.

  Pulling at my hair and running my hand over my face it appeared I had to have been here maybe two months. In a coma? I questioned. But how could I stay here so long and no one came for me? I managed to finally get to the door and touch it and then open it. I looked out at the stairs that led to the downstairs foyer and out the door.

  How am I going to get down those stairs? I wondered. I turned around looking at a series of closed doors, but there was one that had the door ajar. I hobbled to it holding on to the wall for support. When I reached the door, I pushed it open and in the large room, there set a large grand piano and paintings hung on the walls. Old masters and books and newspapers strewn everywhere.

  And then I spotted it. A computer on the desk in a corner. I stumbled over to the computer, sat in the chair, and turned it on. When it came up there was a news bulletin. Still no sign of Zoey Miller. I continued reading for my own interest. I wanted to shut down the computer but my curiosity wouldn’t allow me.

  Zoey Miller has a long history of being kidnapped. It started when she was just a child. At age five she had been abducted and presumed dead after years of her parents and Detective Cole leading the search for her. She showed up in England at the age of fifteen with no memory of what had ha
ppened to her. Zoey’s family got all the help she needed and she appeared to be adjusting nicely where she went on to college and was due to graduate this fall. However, another unfortunate incident occurred.

  From what we can piece together, she disappeared outside of a club with her roommate. No signs of her or the roommate since.

  I clicked the arrow and a video came up. The detective, Ryan Cole, who handles my case, a young looking man in his late twenties with light brown hair and a handsome face spoke about my kidnapping into the local news’ cameras.

  “I was just a teen when I heard of the kidnapping of a young child by the name of Zoey Miller. I will never forget this case. It defined my life from that day forward. I knew then I wanted to be a policeman and solve the case of these missing children. I will not rest until I find out who took her.” He looked directly into the camera. “Whoever you are and wherever you try to hide, I will track you down and I will find you. There aren’t enough holes for you to hide in and you can be sure that I will be there.”

  Detective Ryan Cole turned without answering any questions and walked away. Clearly he was upset. I recognized him as one of the men who brought me home from England. He comforted me through the twelve hour ride into New Jersey and then on the flight to Seattle.

  That was six years ago. And now he’s searching for me again.

  Finally, I sat up not knowing how to feel. I couldn’t feel. I just stared at the computer hoping this wasn’t my life they were writing and talking about, but it was me, Zoey Miller and I was going through another nightmare. “Terry is dead,” I kept mumbling. It was true because I saw her die, and I saw the terrible fight that had ensued between the blond and the cold voice. I wondered who had won and who I would belong to next.