In the Dark

by Melody Taylor

  “Unfortunately, the leads we had go nowhere,” Sebastian went on, as if no one had interrupted. “The license of the car led to a woman who vanished sometime last week. I spoke to her husband tonight. From what I could find, she was simply another victim in this. Ian saw one of the women who attacked Kent. That led us to a woman of similar appearance, perhaps even just a coincidence. Josephine, you admit you aren’t certain when Evan disappeared, but you do know he left the house of his own free will. Without knowing where he might have been attacked or where he might have been taken, I have no way to track this. These women are not native to Seattle – none of us knows them, and we are the only vampires here. There are no further leads.”

  A frown twisted on Emily’s pretty face. My face probably mirrored it.

  “That’s it?” I slumped back on the couch.

  “No,” Sebastian said, unmoved. “Setting a trap is still an option. Not tonight.”

  Josephine seemed lost somewhere of her own. Emily had her hands over her face. I turned to look at Sebastian, but he had turned away and started off down the hall. I stared after him, blinking. Him walking away like that didn’t seem very polite – but then, I guessed he had a lot to think about, what with our conversation earlier and now trying to find two killers who wouldn’t come out of hiding.

  A second after his back vanished down the hall, Josephine got to her feet and went after him, a determined look on her face. I thought about stopping her and letting her know he had a lot on his mind. The expression on her face made me keep quiet. It didn’t seem just determined; I saw compassion and concern there as well. She wouldn’t hunt him down and bark at him.

  So I stayed on the couch. With Emily.

  Now that I had her here, alone and confident that she did want more from me than friendship, I didn’t know what to say. She had her eyes on her knees, her face sad. I wanted to draw her eyes to me somehow, but all that would come to mind were lines – things I could do or say to seduce her. I didn’t want that. Or rather I did, but not like when I fed from strangers in clubs. I wanted to talk, to hold her, listen to her woes and tell her mine. I wanted to make that sad face go away.

  “All right?” I asked, easing a hand up to touch her arm.

  She lifted her head to look at me, her rich brown eyes tired and in pain. I felt my own mouth tug down in sympathy and squeezed her shoulder.

  “I’m scared.” She reached up and set a hand over mine on her shoulder.

  “Me too.” I didn’t say more. I didn’t know what would come out if I tried to talk about it.

  Emily took her hand from mine and set it on my cheek. It felt very warm, and very soft. I could smell a hint of scent on her wrist; sandalwood, I thought. Her eyes flicked away for a second, then came back up to mine after her cheeks had colored just a shade.

  Adorable. If only our budding flirtation hadn’t happened in the middle of all this shit.

  “Emily, I understand if you don’t –” I started, but she touched a finger to my lips and shushed me. I shushed and waited.

  She kissed me.

  A very light kiss, very brief. Everything in my mind flew out. She opened her lips a fraction, just enough to close over my lower lip before she leaned away. My eyes opened. She watched me, her brown eyes sparkling.

  If she’d wanted to distract me, that did it. The only thing on my mind now was how she tasted – clean, salty, just a hint of cinnamon – and an urge for more.

  I replied to her kiss with one of my own, soft at first. She accepted with a hunger that surprised me – delightfully so. Her tongue slid into my mouth, running along my fangs to leave a sweet trail of blood. I slid my hands under her shirt and pulled her to me, kissing her hard. She gave a little sigh against my mouth –

  “Ian, do you know why he’s so –” Josephine’s voice stopped suddenly, like she regretted even speaking at all. I jerked back from Emily like a kid caught playing doctor. Josephine looked at a wall, a little embarrassed.

  Emily didn’t move away from me. She looked up at Josephine, one arm around my shoulders, as if we hadn’t done anything wrong.

  We haven’t, I realized, too late to undo my guilty kid act.

  “He’s got a lot on his mind tonight,” I said, answering Josephine’s unfinished question.

  “Ah,” she said. “Well, I should leave him to it, then. Shall I meet you at home, Emily?”

  Emily looked back up at her, considering, then back to me, her brown eyes no longer sparkling. “No, I’ll come along,” she said to Josephine. She leaned close to press her forehead against mine. “She misses Evan terribly –” she paused. Swallowed.

  I didn’t let her keep talking. “It’s all right. I’ll see you later. You go keep her company.”

  The smile I got for saying that was worth losing her for the rest of the night. “Tomorrow?” she asked, face still close to mine. “Around eight? We could maybe go out somewhere . . .”

  She was asking me on a date. A real date.

  I nodded. For that I got another kiss and another smile.

  She got up before I wanted her to, brushing her fingertips against my cheek. “Tomorrow,” she said again, and turned to leave with Josephine.

  Josephine didn’t say anything, but she gave me a knowing little smile before they got on the elevator. I ducked my head, and then the doors slid shut, leaving me alone.

  Well, I had Sebastian. Back in his dojo, swinging a big stick or whatever he did to relieve tension. I sat on the couch a long time, staring at the elevator, thinking of the feel of Emily’s lips against mine. The memory made me smile.

  Tomorrow seemed so far away all of a sudden. I sighed and swung my feet off the couch to go to my room. Better start amusing myself now. I still had that portrait of Sebastian to work on. Maybe I could chase Gypsy around this mansion that pretended to be an apartment. I got up and headed back, my footsteps the only sound in the place. Back in my room, I grabbed up my pad and flopped down on the bed.

  I did not do such a great job focusing on my art. I drew a little, then drifted off into a wonderful daydream that involved Emily and not a lot of clothing.

  “I would not recommend it,” Sebastian said. I nearly jumped right off the bed.

  He stood in the doorway of the guest room, arms crossed, face blank. I thought about snarking at him for startling me, then decided that would go over his head. Or invite him to make a creepy joke.

  “It?” I repeated instead.

  His eyes flicked meaningfully back toward the living room. My eyebrows shot up. “I have seen enough things in my life, Ian, to know when two people are attracted to each other. I would not recommend it."

  I blinked. He knew. There was no dancing around the subject, no decision to come out, just boom. He knew.

  His eyes flashed a silent laugh. “You seem surprised.”

  “A little,” I confessed, and looked down at my drawing to look away from him. “How did you – I mean, am I that obvious? How did you –”

  “You are not the first woman interested in other women I have met, Ian, nor are you the most proficient actor. I am advising you against forming an attachment to her.”

  “Why?”

  “Humans are fragile things.” His voice went suddenly soft. Just slightly. “Vampires are not. If you care for her, you won’t pursue a relationship with her.”

  “You think I’d hurt her?”

  His eyes darkened. “Not intentionally, certainly. But yes.”

  That had not occurred to me. But as sincere as Sebastian sounded, I couldn’t picture it. Me hurting her. Me hurting anyone. I shook my head.

  “It is only my opinion,” he said, in the hard voice that I’d come to know again. “Take it for what you will.”

  I looked down at my drawing pad again, at the pencil Sebastian silhouetted in the pencil doorway. At his face. The far away face I’d glimpsed on him for just one second when I’d asked him if he was happy. I bit my lip, then looked back up at him in my real doorway.

  “Seb
astian –”

  He wasn’t there. I hadn’t heard so much as a swish of fabric. I stared at the empty doorway, then sighed. I’d sort of wanted to see him in the doorway like I’d drawn him, to see if I’d gotten all the details right.

  And I’d wanted to ask him about why he thought I’d hurt Emily. Why he said humans were fragile things. See if maybe he’d talk about whatever had been eating at him earlier.

  I waited to see if he’d come back. When he didn’t, I shook my head and went back to my drawing.

  IAN

  I sat up out of bed with a gasp, certain for one horrible second that I hadn’t woken up, that I hadn’t been dreaming and it was all real.

  With another gasp, I realized I was sitting in bed, awake. Just a nightmare. For another, equally horrible second, I felt incredible relief. Kent hadn’t been murdered, it was all part of the bad . . . dream.

  No. That part was real.

  Gypsy blinked up at me, all sleepy-eyed adoration. I rubbed her head between her ears. The nightmare slowly lost substance, became a thinner type of memory than real-life.

  I had watched a faceless creature stalk and kill first Evan, then Kent, then Emily, all one right after the other, then turn around and come after me. It had a wide, smooth skin patch where a face should have been – with two glowing red pinpricks for eyes and ice-pick long fangs in a thin slit of a mouth. A vampire, definitely. As soon as I thought that, it turned into Sebastian, chasing me through downtown Seattle with that huge sword of his, the whole time telling me to trust him, while he cut down the people we passed on the streets. They fell screaming and moaning, bleeding more than real people would, until the blood covered the sidewalk and I slipped on it, falling to my knees and thinking –

  – I’m going to die –

  Just before the sword came down on my neck, I woke up. Thinking about the dream now, I saw the symbols of my waking-world fears. Maybe the dream didn’t make a whole lot of sense, but it didn’t have to make sense to scare the shit out of me.

  I scratched Gypsy’s chin. She lifted her head to let me get a better angle. “I’m scared,” I told her. She purred.

  Sebastian wanted to use me as bait. Set me up and wait for them to come and get me, and hope that he could stop them from succeeding.

  If he couldn’t save me, I felt certain he’d avenge me.

  I snorted. Gypsy opened her eyes to give me a questioning look. I gave her one more good chin-scratching, then got up. I wanted nothing more than to hide under the covers until my enemies went away, but I couldn’t do that. Hiding was no kind of life. And I doubted they would simply go away if they couldn’t find me.

  Gypsy got up with me, heading straight to the two bowls I’d set down for her food and water. I chuckled at her.

  “The only thing you fear is an empty stomach,” I told her, and filled her dish for her. She happily stuffed her face in the food. I left her to it, going to pick clothes for the night. Some nice clothes. Because Emily would be over later.

  My fangs inched over my lower lip, dragging across it slowly, leaving a thin little welt that didn’t quite break open and bleed. I was still hungry. More so thinking about her – this was steal-it-with-a-kiss hungry, not like the other night when I’d needed to open a real vein and take a few mouthfuls.

  I dumped my duffel bag out on the bed, surveyed my options, and sighed. I had a few nice enough things along, but nothing really wow. Then again, this was a first date. Did I want wow, or just nice?

  No choice. Decision’s been made.

  I pulled out a low-cut wrap-around shirt in dark green, with a set of tight black slacks to go with. It would have to do. I thought about trying to do something with my hair besides the usual bun, then remembered all I’d brought with to Sebastian’s was a brush and my hair chopsticks. Decision made. I got dressed and did my hair, shoved the rest of my things into my duffel, and left Gypsy in my room curling back up on the bed.

  Sebastian had the little TV on in the living room again, standing in front of it with his arms crossed. Watching the news. I came in and stood beside him, watching little black-and-white people talk about local events in tinny voices. A break-in here, a fire there, a high school girl won an award for helping the elderly. Sebastian leaned forward and flipped the set off when they started on the sports.

  “Hi,” I said.

  “Good evening.”

  I nodded my head towards the set. “Keeping up with current events?” Personally, I couldn’t imagine being five hundred years old and giving a damn about current events.

  “Looking for coincidences.”

  He didn’t have to say what kind of coincidences. I looked at the blank screen and swallowed.

  “Any luck?” I asked.

  “No.”

  I felt a stupid, shaking, giggling relief at that, and had to yell at myself in my head. That means they’re still out there, moron.

  I swallowed again to keep my composure, nodding at his answer. “Ah.” I didn’t want him to find either of these women because then it meant I’d have to face them. Have to face him really killing one, like when he took that girl behind the club. Only this time it would really happen.

  And if he found them, maybe they would kill him first and come and get me.

  “I assume you expect Emily some time this evening?” he asked, utterly derailing my train of thought. It took me a second to catch up with his question.

  “Yeah, she’s coming over tonight. I’m not sure exactly when. Is that all right?”

  He lifted one shoulder in an indifferent shrug. His blue eyes stayed flat, agreeing with the gesture. He honestly didn’t care. “I still say it is unwise. But I have given my opinion and the choice, in the end, is not mine.”

  That song and dance again. That I might hurt her, because I was a vampire and she wasn’t. It baffled me that he could even think that about me. I had to be the biggest wimp known to human kind.

  “I appreciate what you’re trying to say,” I said, “but it just doesn’t apply. I’m not going to hurt her. I would never hurt anyone.”

  “You will live long enough to test that statement.”

  This had gone far enough into the creepy zone for me. I opened my mouth tell him so, but his eyes caught me. Made me stop cold.

  He meant it. He meant it in a way I could never understand.

  I nodded slowly. “I’ll keep that in mind.”

  Sebastian looked away from me. “I assume you’ll be leaving with her?”

  “If . . . if that’s okay, I’d like to.”

  He shrugged again. “I would not advise it, but it is your decision. I would like to know where you intend to go.”

  I scuffed a foot against the hardwood floor. Where did I intend to go? To a movie? Dancing? Dinner? Going out anywhere didn’t seem terribly safe. But I didn’t want to stay in Sebastian’s apartment, where he’d listen in on everything we said. Or did.

  “Probably just down the street for drinks,” I said finally. “That’d be safe enough, right?”

  Another shrug. “As you like.”

  “Well, that’s what I’d like.”

  Sebastian just nodded, then walked off down the hall, his boot heels thunking against the wood floor. I watched after him after he’d disappeared, then shrugged to myself. If he wanted to be all inscrutable, well, fine. Me, I had a date. I thought about calling her, then realized I only had Josephine’s number. Awkward. I checked my cell for missed calls, saw none, and decided to sit down and wait. Maybe do some drawing if it ended up taking her a while.

  Just as I had really started to get into a new drawing, the house phone rang. My dead heart wanted to kick up into high gear. I still got the little rush associated with a pounding heart, just not the actual hammer-against-my-ribs thing. Emily was here.

  I picked up the phone and got the lobby guy telling me yes, she was here – with Josephine. That made me pause, but I went ahead and said I’d let them up. Sebastian had said not to just let them up next time they came over, bu
t I couldn’t go down and meet them without an elevator key. Besides, he was right in the next room.

  The elevator doors opened. No crazy women with a grudge against me stood there, just Emily and Josephine, both dressed up like they were ready for a date. Emily in a soft-looking white sweater, off the shoulders and tight enough to leave little to the imagination; Josephine in a red dress that made her look simply vibrant.

  I didn’t care for the idea of Josephine coming along to chaperone, but if Emily felt like she wanted a third party there I’d give in. Just being with her would be worth it.

  They both drifted off the elevator, Emily straight towards me with a wonderful, warm smile. She took both my hands in hers, warm human hands over mine.

  “You look lovely,” she said.

  “Thanks. So do you.”

  Josephine wandered past us with a knowing little smile.

  “Hello.” I wanted to go on, ask if she’d be joining us tonight, but I felt too unsure to say it out loud.

  “Hello, Ian,” she said back, still smiling that mischievous little smile. “Is Sebastian at home?”

  I took in her tight, swirling dress, the smile on her face, the too-innocent way she asked, and felt my eyebrows lift. If she thought she had any chance, she dreamed bigger than I ever would. But hey, at least I knew now why she’d come along.

  “Yeah,” I said. “He’s in . . . a room down the hall. Fourth door on the right.”

  She nodded a thanks, winked broadly at Emily, and turned to go down the hall. I watched her vanish down the same way Sebastian had and shook my head.

  “She has ambition, I have to say that.”

  Emily loosened one hand from mine to trail a finger along my cheek, drawing my gaze back to her. The touch sent electric shocks through my face, down through my body, and for one, panicked moment, it was too much, too fast – but then she cupped her hand against my cheek, eyes meeting mine, and I knew whatever she wanted from me tonight wouldn’t be too much at all.

  “You wanna get outta here?” she asked, smiling with her own mischief.

  “If you do.”

  She lifted the hand she still held away from my side, turned it over in hers and brushed her lips against my palm. Her touch sent a tingling rush through my body. My eyes half closed, still looking into her dark eyes from under my lids. She opened her mouth against my palm, wet, warm tongue sliding across my skin until it reached the edge of my hand, and bit. I felt my skin break and winced, while unexpected ripples of exquisite pleasure trailed across my hand. Liquid welled up from the cut, my wet, sticky blood, which she licked off my palm in a slow, languorous movement.