I Am the Night

by Rachel E Rice

  When he killed one and the other disappeared, he wasn’t worried. He would be back. Maybe not today but sometime in the future when the other man thought everything was over and done with.

  All Jovani thought about was the woman in his arms. He was attracted to her like he had never been to another woman alive or dead. He took in her youthful fresh scent and he smelled her. The sour smell of liquor and food on her breath didn’t mask the sweet smell of her youth and beauty. He couldn’t smell anything but her warm tantalizing blood.

  She was having her cycle and the smell of her blood was too intoxicating for him.

  Chapter Five

  JOVANI HAD TO GET AWAY from Hannah but first, he had to make sure she was safe.

  He had to find someplace to bring her to revive her. He glanced up at the roof of the building but that would pose a problem. He couldn’t explain to her why they were there and how he got her up there.

  Needing her more than he ever experienced before with a female, he didn’t want to leave her. So he thought about bringing her to his apartment. However, that wasn’t a viable option. How could she be with him with the temptation of her sweet blood, without turning her into what he was? He questioned himself as he held her in his arms and glanced down at her sleeping.

  He didn’t want her to become what he was. He wanted a warm bloodied woman. There was no answer coming and he decided that someday he would have her. But not today. He had to leave her.

  When she looked up at him and asked him to put her down, he happily gave in to her wish.

  Before he could ask her name, some young man a few years younger than he, strode out of the bar calling for Hannah. That was her name. Hannah. He liked the sound of it. He liked her face and her hair and how small she felt curled up in his arms. But most of all it was how her heartfelt beating next to his chest.

  A young strong steady heart. A heart he could never feel again in his chest beating for a woman he loved. He closed his eyes and imagined that heartbeat for him. He imagined that her heart was his and beat for Hannah.

  He liked how she needed him that moment in time and how grateful she appeared to be when she looked into his eyes and saw only a protector and not a night demon and her heart never raced in fear of him.

  He liked her eyes and her mouth. He liked everything about her. When she turned to thank him, he wasn’t there. Jovani stood watching her and the young man from the top of the building. He glanced down to see the young man ask her to sit and wait for him and he saw his limo turning the corner and stop. He trod toward it and entered. Connor wasn’t surprised to see Jovani. He would return quickly to the limo after he had fed.

  “I thought you were weaning yourself off human blood?”

  “I was, but it seems that some humans won’t let me. I gave them a way out. I asked them to leave the girl and I would take care of her, but instead like all greedy monsters, they refused. He was just a necessary inconvenience.”

  “And the girl?”

  “Pull over in front of the bar and stop. I want to see her one more time.” Jovani’s voice forlorn as if he thought he would never lay eyes on Hannah again. As if she wasn’t real and his heart would stop beating if he couldn’t get a look at her. But his heart had stopped beating many years before, but he had the desire of a young man in love, which hadn’t stopped.

  Abstaining from sex was another way to curb his desire for the blood of humans. He no longer engaged in sex because he thought the addiction to blood was in some way entwined with his desire for a woman and so he withdrew from relationships. It had been over fifty years since his last encounter with a woman and it didn’t go well.

  Jovani thought he loved the woman and he would be with her through her lifespan, but during heated passion, and with her permission, he began feeding on her blood, and when he opened his eyes, she lay under him naked a shrunken skeleton of skin and bones. The sight of what he had done made him vow to himself to never love or care for a human again. And because he was tortured by what he had done, either he would find something to free himself or he would free himself of his existence.

  And now he found himself again in love. It was more intense than anything that had ever happened to him. It was more consuming of mind and body. He couldn’t pinpoint when it happened. It just happened. Was it when he looked into the warmth of her green eyes or was it when he felt the warmth of her skin and took in the smell of her blood that he wanted to possess her? All of her and he never did he want to let her out of his sight. He wanted to stare at her, caress her and kiss her and make love to her which could prove deadly.

  And that’s why he had to stay away from her. But could he?

  Where did that emotion come from; how can I not see her when I ache for her now, More than the desire to feed on blood?” he questioned.

  The desire to hear and feel her heart against his empty cold body and to love to her and have her love him in return consumed his mind.

  In the past when he turned a woman by tasting her blood during sexual intercourse, he thought that was love, where she would be devoted to him. But it’s different now. He wanted to become Hannah’s slave. He wanted to devote all of himself to her. Give her his kingdom. Or give up his kingdom of riches and vampires if that was what she asked of him. Live the life of a devoted husband who works at night and sleeps during the day.

  He could do it. He could do it for Hannah. He could do it for love.

  Jovani sat in the car and watched at Hannah as she fiddle with her long strawberry blond curls. She appeared to be a nervous sort. Maybe unhappy. He wanted to make her happy. What could he do to see a smile on her face, and created a yearning for him? It became clear to him that he had to have her at any cost?

  Waiting in the car long enough, he could see the relationship between Hannah and the young man. He determined at a glance that she didn’t love him. Not that it would stop him from wanting her or leaving her to that man if she loved him. He would find some way to convince her. After all, he had all the time in the world.

  The young man stood with her purse on his shoulder and handed it to her. Her expression never changed from the painful look she had in her eyes. If he had meant anything to her, and she to him, he wouldn’t have left her alone. He would have stayed to protect her and therefore those men wouldn’t have approached her.

  Jovani began to blame the guy for leaving Hannah to be taken. He didn’t protect her enough from men like that or a man like him. The thought of how he felt about himself stirred him and he didn’t want to think about it anymore.

  “I’ve seen enough. You can take me home now. I think Hannah is safe.” Connor steered the limo to the right and the car slid effortlessly into the traffic.

  “That’s a nice name. Hannah,” Connor said to Jovani as he peered at him in the rear car mirror.

  Jovani still apprehensive and unsure about it all paused and put his fist under his chin. “It appears I should prepare myself for Hannah. I would need to convince her that I’m the one for her.” A smile crossed his face and he sat back at ease watching the people walking around and window shopping. He spotted a man and a woman about Hannah’s age looking into Tiffany’s and the woman pointing to a ring. Then she kissed him and jumped up and down.

  He wanted to see that joy and love from Hannah. He wanted that life that the young man and woman had. At that moment he forgot who he was and what he was. He forgot everything and everybody except Hannah.

  “What made you change your mind, Mr. Nightingale?” He didn’t answer. “I mean about our talk. Are you sure you’re ready? What about Sasha?” He hadn’t thought about Sasha in years. She must have forgotten about him. When Jovani focused on the conversation Connor was still asking questions.

  “Don’t you think you should wean yourself off human blood before you start a relationship with the girl?”

  “Her name is Hannah,” Jovani said distractedly.

  “Sorry, sir. But how do you know Hannah will like you? Do you plan to use your powers on
her?”

  “I would never make her fall in love with me. I want her to love me in her own time.”

  “What if she doesn’t?” Jovani had no answer to that question nor was he prepared to live without her. She had to fall in love him and be willing to give up everything and everyone to be with him. His love was deep for Hannah, but was it or would it be that way for her, otherwise what good was it to even be in love, he thought.

  “Sir, you never answered my questions about Sasha.”

  “I didn’t answer you Connor because I don’t want to be reminded of that unfortunate time in my life. I can never free myself of that and I’m happy as long as I don’t think about her. Someday I will have to face her and I will have to tell her that she will have to find another master. She is free to do as she wishes. I can no longer reign over her and the others.”

  “Master, did you think about freeing Sasha now?”

  “I thought of that. It’s all I’ve been thinking about. But she has this notion that she’s mine and belongs to me as if we were married. Vampires can’t marry. We take mates but we can never marry each other.”

  He had practiced that speech over and over trying to convince himself of Sasha’s intentions, but he knew she would never give him up. She had been searching for Jovani for a century. He thought if he gave her everything she needed, she would let him go and find another vampire she deemed worthy of her cruelty. And she did, but that wasn’t enough for her. She still wanted and desire Jovani.

  She needed to make him her slave as she had been to him.

  Once Jovani freed her he would no longer be bound to protect her from the older vampires.

  Jovani had turned her when she was eighteen and her thirst for blood became intense. He didn’t realize then the consequences of that decision simply because he didn’t want to be lonely in the world. He wanted companionship and he found it but he didn’t know Sasha was a psychopath.

  Because Jovani was handsome, charming and exceedingly rich, all manner of women would flock to his parties. The parties were notorious and would go on for days. At first, Sasha enjoyed the idea that she had the most desirable vampire and man as he was thought of, but the attention that they gave Jovani was too much for her to bare, and if women or men looked on him with desire, she would torture them in the most obscene ways.

  The vampires Sasha turned she would command them to rape and drain the bodies of every ounce of blood and leave the corpses for the police to see and for Jovani to know that these were the women who she suspected had fucked him.

  Young women were disappearing all over the globe, but Venice was awash in the blood and bodies of young women especially the ones who had been last seen at Jovani’s parties, or at his many villas in Italy. Although he assured Sasha that he cared for her and she was special to him, it didn’t matter. She would send the vampires out to drain them of blood after she had her turn with them first.

  Chapter Six

  “HANNAH, HOW DID IT go last night?” Gabriela all smiles caught Hannah by the arm as she headed for the lecture room door. Walking with her head down and clutching her book like she was in high school, Hannah glanced up and felt relieved it was Gabriela. She liked her. Gabriela wasn’t the snooty rich girl who would never talk to her. Hannah found a kindred spirit with Gabriela.

  They had the same interest in reading and movies. But it seems that’s where it ended. Gabriela was more sexual than Hannah. And Hannah would be mortified if she had two men chasing her at the same time.

  “Ok,” Hannah said meeting Gabriela’s indiscreet brown eyes.

  “Just okay. I heard you were over at Justin’s apartment after you walked outside. You never came back to say you were leaving.”

  “Didn’t Justin tell you?”

  “No, he didn’t. That could be dangerous you know. Justin isn’t one of us.” Hannah didn’t know what she meant and it was the first time she had included that in her conversation. It was different than what she had heard from Gabriela. But did she mean that she was one of them? Hannah was never one of them. She never had the money or the lineage to be one of them. Her family couldn’t be traced back to the revolutionary war or the first migration from Ireland.

  Hannah glanced at her and slanted her head to the side, and narrowed her gaze, a bit confused.

  Gabriela felt the need to clarify what she meant. “I mean we just met him. One day he just showed up and started following us around and he became a part of the group. We still didn’t know where he came from or if he’s a student here.”

  “He appeared to be a nice person. Non-threatening. Concerned for my welfare,” Hannah said. Have you talked to him and what did he say that you would ask me about this?” Hannah curious about what Justin would say about her.

  “He didn’t say anything, as a matter of fact, he was reserved, but I figured if you went to his apartment you must have been serious about him. I didn’t know you to date much or even go somewhere alone.”

  “I don’t. I have to get to my last class,” Hannah said trying to get away from Gabriela before she asked her more questions. It’s not that she was secretive but there just wasn’t anything to tell. Except she met a stranger that prevented her from being raped and killed. A stranger that she felt so attracted to that she would have gone with him anywhere if Justin hadn’t come along just in time.

  When she left with Justin and cleaned up at his apartment, he was a perfect gentleman. He handed her a cloth to wash her face and even gave her a new toothbrush to wash the sour taste from her mouth. And then he offered to pay for a taxi home and she refused. She used her money for books to pay for the taxi.

  Hannah and Gabriela walked in silence navigating through students on their way to class. Hannah stopped at the door leading to a classroom.

  “I’m here, too. These Saturday classes are bummers. Why don’t we skip and go window shopping and then we can go to my house. I promised my mother that I would stay in and not hang out because she’s having a party tonight. The guest of honor is some billionaire who happens to be hot. I mean sizzling hot. I saw his picture in the New York Times. The kind guy you would want to lay down and let him have his way with you. Not once but over and over again. And from what I hear from my mother, he’s a sex addict.”

  “Why would she think he’s a sex addict?”

  “How should I know,” Gabriela said. “If my mother knew I had been having sex with two guys she would send me in for therapy. I guess I’m a sex addict because I like it a lot. You need to try it if you haven’t. You can’t go around being a virgin all your life. You’re missing out on a lot. I mean a lot.” Gabriela laughed and opened the door to the room.

  They walked in the lecture hall and sat down and Gabriela was still talking. “Well, it’s too late now to get out of this class.” She sighed. “I guess we should at least stay we might learn something.”

  “I have to stay. Remember I have to bring my grade point average up or I can say goodbye to my scholarship.”

  “Then I hope you don’t mind if I text my boyfriends.” Hannah glanced over and shook her head.

  “Go ahead.” Hannah leaned over to Gabriela and whispered, “I didn’t know you were dating both Chase and Bryan. How do you get away with it?”

  “They don’t mind. They know I like them for a different reason and neither one wants to see me with the other so we work it out somehow. As long as I can have both of them, it’s great for my self-esteem and sex life. I have a terrific time with both of them.”

  “You don’t do them both at the same time?”

  Gabriela leaned to Hannah and said, “I wanted to, but they were just too chicken to go along with it. Didn’t want the other to think that their dick was smaller than the others.”

  “Is that the only reason?”

  “They never gave me a reason. I just came up with that on my own.” Hannah stopped talking and looked up at the PowerPoint presentation and tried to follow along as the professor continued his lecture.

  Gabriel
a lowered her head and checked Snapchat and Facebook. Then she posted a picture of her, Chase, and Bryan on Instagram eating and drinking at a café. When Gabriela glanced around the room students were gathering their backpacks and the hour class was over. She rose stretched and took a deep breath as if the class had been so demanding on her mind and body.

  “Well that’s over with,” Gabriela said. “Come on, Hannah, let’s get out of here.” They walked outside with the few students left on campus who bravely and diligently gave up their Saturdays for a class in creative writing.

  “Why are you taking this class, Gabriela? You were the best writer in high school. I need it to keep my grade point average up.”

  “I need to get out of my house and away from my parents. They still think I’m a little girl. That can be suffocating. And they don’t go anywhere. They just have these parties and everyone who’s anyone their age and younger comes. It’s a real madhouse and boring as hell. If only they would go to their lodge in California. Then I could have a party myself. And now I’m stuck with them again, and I have to spend my Saturday night acting like a good little girl.”

  “That could be fun. At least your parents have parties. Mine complain about how they can’t afford to go anywhere. Not even to the movies. They blame me for their golden years being a disaster. They seem to think it was those private schools that sucked up all their funds when in fact my grandmother left me money to go to college and they spent it all.”

  “That’s a bummer.”

  Gabriela glanced over to Hannah. It was the first time Hannah had said something about her home life. “Why don’t you come over and we can sneak the guys into the house. My parents will be busy and they won’t know they’re in there.”

  “Do you think we should?” Hannah questioned.

  “We’re crazy if we don’t,” Gabriela leaned into Hannah and whispered as if they were planning a robbery and she thought someone would hear.