I Am the Night

by Rachel E Rice

  “Then why not stay with your parents until the police catch him.”

  “That could be forever. And I can’t live my life being afraid. What do you say, are you coming with me?” Gabriela placed her hands together as she lay across the bed, “Please. Please. I’m begging you.”

  “I guess so. But how am I going to tell my parents? And I need to get a job first.”

  “Good. Now that’s done.” Gabriela glanced at her phone. She had a message and she looked around as Chase, Bryan, and Justin were walking up the back way.

  “Let’s go meet them. It seems that Justin got here just in time.” Hannah wasn’t as thrilled as she thought she should be. And Gabriela grabbed Hannah’s hand and led her through a maze of stairs and down to the door that opened up to a dark courtyard.

  When she opened the door all the guys stood there smiling, except for Justin. He wasn’t one to smile all the time. He smiled with his eyes as he watched Hannah. “Come in,” Gabriela said, but keep quiet until enough people come and muffle our voices.

  “I thought you got it straight with your parents that you would be dating,” Chase said none too happy about hiding.

  “I guess I can take that you didn’t tell your parents about me too?” Bryan said.

  “Yes. But I said that you were a friend.” Chase snickered at the admission. He felt that he had a chance since he was considered a boyfriend and not just a friend.

  “I’m not a friend. I have as much right to you as Chase here.” They were in Gabriela’s room.

  “Keep it quiet, Bryan you’re a friend with benefits,” Gabriela said moving into Bryan’s chest and pressing her body into him giving him her tongue as he sucked it and then she turned away and met Chase standing waiting his turn. Pulling away with a smile on her face she announced, “I’m getting an apartment next week and there will be no need for anyone to act like the jilted lover. And,” Gabriela took Hannah’s hand and said, “Hannah’s going to be my roommate.”

  “I thought we could be your roomies,” Chase said looking at Bryan as Justin and Hannah sat on one of the small love seats in Gabriela room watching them.

  “Come, let’s go to the screening room,” Gabriela said and they all walked across the large hall into the movie room.

  “This is just like a movie theater but you don’t have all the people talking and annoying you with their smartphones. “What shall we watch?”

  “Something with action and adventure,” Justin said.

  “Typical male. Not tonight,” Hannah said feeling a little more relaxed as she sat in one of the chairs next to Justin. He placed his hand on hers and she pulled it away. When Chase and Bryan took their perspective seats leaving one in the middle vacant for Gabriela, she called down for the pizza, popcorn, and sodas.

  Then she came back and put in a DVD and they sat and watched Game of Thrones. That was something they all could relate to and discuss afterward. It had everything. Love, sex, death and White Walkers—the undead. They would binge watch until dawn. At least that was their intentions.

  When season one finished and season two of Game of Thrones was beginning, Jovani Nightingale was ringing the doorbell to Gabriela’s parents’ home and the maid answered the door.

  Chapter Nine

  “WHOM SHALL I SAY IS calling?” The English maid asked, her eyes wandering nervously over the man’s perfectly tailored and expensive black tuxedo. His shoulders wide, his waist small. His hair dark his eyes a smoldering blue flame. His height six feet or more, hers much less. She tried to remain composed but her eyes danced over him mesmerized by the handsome man standing before her.

  “Jovani Nightingale,” he said amused at the attention she showered on him. His voice deep and sensual his tone charming.

  “Mr. Nightingale, you are the guest of honor tonight.” His eyes smiled before he did and he raised an eyebrow. “Follow me please.”

  “I wasn’t aware of my celebrity status,” he said leveling his stride so as not to get ahead of her. “It’s lovely that you would warn me.”

  The maid glanced up at him admiringly. A woman in her fifties who could still admire a young man. She felt anxious and happy to be walking alongside a man as breathtaking as Jovani Nightingale, and for him to engage her in a conversation made her feel important.

  “The party is in the grand ballroom and they’re waiting for you. When news of you accepting Mrs. Kellerman’s invitation, all the fashionable people in Manhattan were angling for an invitation just to say they were in the same room as you. Now I can tell my friends you smiled at me and chatted with me.”

  Jovani unaware that a party had been planned in his honor, accepted the invitation because he thought it would prevent unnecessary gossip, where people assumed that he thought he had too much wealth to associate with them, and another reason he showed his face was because he knew that among the wealthy crowd, there were some who managed to get away with all kinds of misdeeds, murder being the vilest of all. He knew if he combed the crowd, he would find a predator lurking among the unsuspecting men and women who frequent these parties.

  Unaware that the maid would announce him to the entire room filled with the upper society of New York, he because edgy when they circled him, and Mrs. Kellerman bounded through the crowd and took his arm. “Mr. Nightingale, how good of you to come,” Gabriela’s mother, Mrs. Kellerman said.

  Her voice breaking from nervousness. “I didn’t think you would come. I wasn’t even sure you got the invitation but apparently you did.” She stood looking into his eyes. “I met you last year at Mrs. Lubeck’s party and she spoke so highly of you that I had to have you here and here you are and my, don’t you look...beautiful, I mean handsome in your tux. You are a most fine-looking young man. If I were ten years...”

  Jovani gazed at her with a closed smile amused not knowing what to say to her.

  “You would have to be thirty years younger, my dear,” Mr. Kellerman a man in his late sixties and overweight with grey hair said placing his arms around his wife and handing Jovani a drink.

  “Now stop fawning over the young man and give the young women a chance to meet him.” Jovani glanced around the room and eyes were on him and it appeared that all the young and older women were looking directly at him.

  Those weren’t glances of admiration or curiosity, but of seduction. One woman a tall blond caught his attention merely because she used her tongue to swipe her mouth several times, and posed before him, and conveniently bent over for him to see her large breasts that she obviously wasn’t born with.

  Jovani smiled back at them in acknowledgment. Although the women were desirable, they were not to his liking. It would take more than a pretty face and a great body to attract him. He couldn’t stop thinking about Hannah. He wondered where she was.

  Sensing that she was near he could never know her exact location until she became his concubine. And as long as this was the case, Hannah would remain out of his reach and at a distance from him.

  He would go back to the place he first encountered her and then he could track her to where she lived. Listening to Mrs. Kellerman drone on about how long he had been in Manhattan, suddenly his mind focused on her. He guessed that the husband lost the war with getting her to relinquish her hold on him, and retreated across the room, leaving him to entertain his wife.

  “Jovani, can I call you Jovani?”

  “Yes of course.” His voice low and accommodating.

  “I have a daughter about your age and I know she would love to meet you. She has a friend with her and they’re watching movies, I hate to impose on my special guest but could you do me a favor? Would you go up to her apartment and say hello? You don’t have to stay long. I wanted them to see what a handsome billionaire looks like. And you’re not married. It will give the girls something to aim for.”

  “I will be delighted.” That was the last thing Jovani wanted was to meet young women. He had met too many in his life and they had fallen in love with him at first sight. It took years to
get them to forget him. And still they would show up at his apartment and declare their love for him. They didn’t know that they were at risk and he was being kind when he didn’t return his affection for them.

  There was no way for him to declare his love because he could never love them or be anything to them. He would only destroy them because at that time his love was tied to sex and sex was tethered to his need to feed on their warm blood.

  “Just take those elevators up to the third floor and Gabriela should be in the movie room,” she said pointing to the elevator.

  Jovani considered that an act of mercy when Mrs. Kellerman sent him to her daughter’s room. Maybe he could duck out on them before anyone noticed after he paid them a short visit.

  “Gabriela did you say?” Jovani asked Mrs. Kellerman before he entered the elevator.

  “Yes, and thank you. She’s always complaining that there are no good-looking young men in Manhattan and that if they are good looking they are gay. You aren’t gay are you, Mr. Nightingale?” Jovani smiled. He wished he was.

  “If you mean happy or if you mean I love men in the carnal sense then I am neither.” And he turned quickly away and strode into the elevator. He glanced around thinking he could take the easy route and disappear and reappear in the time it took to take an elevator up, but there were too many people and too many eyes on him. So he stepped into the elevator and within minutes he strode off on a floor he recognized as being that of a young woman’s apartment.

  It had all the colors of a girl who had never grown up. Everything in pink, and stuffed animals displayed like furniture in every corner. The only thing he didn’t see was a miniature dog of some kind which pleased him. He didn’t need the added attention of a dog sniffing around him.

  Dogs seemed to act abnormally when in his presence, and he knew why, and the dogs knew as well, but these animals couldn’t talk, but they would bark nonstop whenever they came in contact with him. Many humans thought this strange and began to raise questions about this weird behavior whenever he was around. And that was one of the reasons he never socialized. There were many others besides the obvious one—he was a vampire and he could never walk during the day.

  When the elevator opened, Jovani heard the rumbling of the sound system and ventured slowly in its direction and then he opened the door. No one noticed him at first. His silent demeanor was part of what he was. No one would see or hear him until he appeared and when they saw him it would be their last night.

  He gazed around the room. The door off to the right of the seating and the large television covering the entire wall. The room dark, but he could see through the dim light coming from the television.

  His eyes first focused on Gabriela kissing one guy and then shifting to the next and kissing him as the other’s hand crept up her skirt. She didn’t appear to be what her parents thought she was. She didn’t appear to be what he thought although he had seen much in his hundred years.

  Jovani turning and ready to walk out of the room, with his keen eyes spotted a shock of red hair and the flash of her green eyes, and a whiff of her scent seized him to one spot.

  In the back of the room sat Hannah and the young man he had seen her with at the bar. It was her. The one he didn’t think he could forget. The one he knew he had fallen in love with and the one who would be his and no other. But she was with that male and that enraged him.

  This time the young man had made progress. Jovani didn’t think she liked him at first, but there he was with his arms around her shoulder. Jovani’s eyes closed and he opened them again. He looked firmly at the male and then he knew. He wasn’t what he appeared to be.

  Jovani had to compose himself before fury would overtake him. He would never want Hannah to know what he was and what he was capable of doing. At least not now. Not before he claimed her as his.

  When the group looked up and saw him standing there he said, “I’m looking for Gabriela.” The lights brightened immediately and Hannah glanced up at him as if she had been a bad girl caught by a fiancé with another man. She jumped and pulled away from Justin. He didn’t see this as her acting any different than before, but she knew why she acted with surprise even if he didn’t.

  It was that beautiful man who had saved her life standing to the side asking for Gabriela.

  “I’m Gabriela,” she said her voice high and her tone eager. She rose with a wide smile and strutted in his direction with her hand extended out excited to meet him.

  Everyone with the exception of Hannah wondered why he was there, and thinking he had just ruined their night. If anyone’s night had been ruined, it would only be Justin. Whatever Justin thought he would accomplish with Hannah would not go down tonight especially with Jovani in the picture.

  “Your mother said, first let me introduce myself. My name is Jovani Nightingale,” he said his voice warm and his smile bright. “She said that you had a friend with you but I see you have some friends and that you wanted to see a billionaire and well I won’t mention the rest.”

  “There’s no need to say anymore in front of my guest.” Gabriela’s politeness contradicted her behavior. “I know the conversation. And you’re everything they say you are. I’m impressed and it takes a lot to impress me,” Gabriela said.

  “Are we going to finish this movie, Gabriela, or are you going to talk with this person all night,” Chase said rising from his seat.

  Gabriela turned and rolled her eyes, and turning back said to Jovani, “He’s just jealous.”

  “I assure you and please tell him he has nothing to be jealous of.”

  “Well I’m disappointed,” Gabriela said lowering an eyebrow and appearing to straighten Jovani’s bow tie.

  “I didn’t mean it that way. You’re a lovely woman and if I wasn’t in love with someone else, it would be you I would pursue. Now would you tell Hannah that I would like to speak to her outside?” Gabriela’s smile grew wide.

  “Hannah? I didn’t know she knew you?” At first Jovani tried not to say anything but Gabriela gazed at him waiting for an answer.

  “I saw her outside the Maze bar from my limo. And I thought she was an attractive woman.”

  “Sure. I’ll tell her.” Gabriela strutted to the back of the room where Hannah sat peering at them and wondering what they were saying.

  Gabriela pulled Hannah from her chair with Justin watching and then whispered into Hannah’s ear. “That good-looking, fucking smoking hot eye candy wants to talk to you.” And she walked back and sat between her friends with benefits. And then Jovani walked outside the screening room and closed the door and waited for Hannah. He didn’t know if she would come, but if she did, it would prove that he was right about her.

  Hannah stood a minute wondering what she should do. Justin watching her, rose from his seat and walked over and when she turned to amble away, he pulled at her hand. She stopped and glanced at him. “Where are you going, Hannah? You don’t know him.”

  She pulled her hand away and kept walking. “I don’t know you either.” Her voice wasn’t harsh it was soft. She had just spoken what was true.

  Closing the door behind her, Hannah looked long at him nervous and unable to breathe. She twisted a lock of her hair around her finger. His cold blue eyes stared into her warm green eyes. It was as if he was making love to her.

  She could feel his hands move over her warm breasts, but his hands were at his side. She could feel her nipples tingle and rise to his touch. She felt his cool lingering kiss on his lips covering her nipples.

  His body eased close to hers where he felt her heartbeat. He heard the rhythm of her young heart and it beat only for him.

  She could feel him placing his hands on her naked flesh and his fingers massaging her.

  Her head swung to the side and Hannah’s eyes closed. Her breathing slow and but erratic where she appeared to be in a deep sleep but she wasn’t.

  In her dormant state Hannah felt all this and yet Jovani hadn’t moved one inch in her direction but with one ha
nd to her heart and the other on the pulse on her neck.

  He smiled at her and she wanted to go with him. She didn’t care where, she just wanted to be with him, and never come back from where ever it was he was going.

  Jovani’s hand touched her long curls and he brought them to his nose. He leaned in to smell her scent—fresh and new like rain on a spring day. He would control his urges for now. If he felt the need to turn her he would leave before he would endanger her.

  He inched closer as much as he dared. Throughout Hannah’s eyes remained closed. He sniffed the smell of her body she had just showered.

  When he closed his eyes, he was there in the shower with her as she washed her hair and then her breasts and then her mound. He was there with her as she dried the water from her tantalizing firm body. And he was there when she stood in the mirror watching herself and wondering when she would find someone to love her.

  His lips closed on hers and he whispered into her mouth, “I love you, Hannah. Come with me,” he said quiet and loving. And he kissed her soft lips and she moaned because she couldn’t tolerate being in limbo. Neither with him in his dark place, or without him in the light.

  When she was all but his and he was ready to claim her, a door opened and Justin called out her name. “Hannah. Hannah. Where are you?”

  Justin walked purposefully and quick when he saw the two of them embraced in a lover’s kiss. He reached for Hannah’s arm and pulled her away from Jovani.

  Jovani didn’t hear Justin invade his thoughts and his space. He and Hannah had traveled beyond time and all was left were their bodies in an embrace. Justin’s warm touch brought Hannah back from wherever it was Jovani had taken her.

  “I know what you are,” Justin cried aloud. “And no amount of tricks will work as long as I’m here.”

  “Since you know what I am, it’s in your best interest that you don’t come between Hannah and me. I love her and I will never leave her to you,” Jovani said with a hard ruthless voice.