by Cas Martin
He shuddered at the feel of her tongue running over him, and she opened her mouth wide. Her teeth felt larger than they had ever been, as if the strength of her need had made her into something more than she had ever been before.
And then she was lost.
She felt him tense and she wasn't sure if she had timed her bite with his climax or whether it had caused it, but she knew the moment it happened, and he was weak on top of her, weak in her arms as she began to clamp down on him.
The blood flowed into her mouth freely and the taste of it called to something deep inside her being. As she gulped it down, she thought she would have something of a hangover tomorrow morning. It had been so long since she had taken this much blood in such quick succession. Not since she was an inexperienced teenager alone for the first time.
The metallic taste flowed across her tongue as she sucked on him greedily, only stopping when she realised that the full, dead-weight of him was now on top of her. She pulled away, allowing her saliva to slow the bleed to a more manageable level. This was not how she did things. A sudden horror hung heavy in her stomach as she realised that she had nearly bled him dry.
She licked the wound to ensure that it would heal and the blood would cease to flow. Once she was satisfied it was done, she pushed him off her. There was no way that he would wake up now. It would take the rest of the night for his body to rejuvenate itself.
She looked at him, knowing that despite his perfect appearance his body was going into overdrive, into self-preservation, where all his organs began working furiously to keep him alive. She had gone too close to the line this time. Her body, naked and sated, felt too heavy to move. It was almost as if the blood had settled within her. Had she taken too much? Had she gone beyond what the human body could reasonably repair? She turned her head to the side, reason coming back to her, to see just what damage she had inflicted.
She was answered with a sudden, deep, shuddering snore, and she realised that Connor had passed out, the combination of good sex, blood loss and alcohol taking over his body, until he could take no more. This was the point she would normally get up and leave. Yet tonight, the amount of blood she had consumed made her completely unable to move. Instead, she lay there, trapped in her own body, allowing her mind to wander unbridled through the car crash of a life she seemed to be living.
It was only when Connor's snoring got too much to bear that she dragged herself out of bed and into her clothes. Walking home would be the best thing to do to sober her up. Worryingly, she knew that a walk home would provide her with even more opportunities, and until she was certain she could control what she had somehow unleashed tonight, she knew it was her duty not to take any chances.
19
Whilst Monica gave in to her hunger and Elizabeth did her research, both of them were blissfully unaware of the events unfolding in the city without them.
David had lived here for a couple of years now and knew the territory well enough to go out on a hunt of his own every now and again. He had made one or two contacts, nothing like the ones the professor had made over his lifetime, but it was enough to keep him alive.
The professor had taught him many things, but the golden rule had been that these creatures did not automatically need to be hunted down and killed. It was something that David still fought against every day. His human instinct always told him that they should not be trusted. One of the reasons why the Professor had instigated the golden rule was the chance of killing them in a fair fight, one against one, was actually quite small. It should always, therefore, be a last resort.
David had been into this whole thing for a lot longer than Elizabeth, and he had seen many more things. True, he knew that nothing came close to the horror Elizabeth had witnessed, but when it came to sheer numbers, he would win hands down.
Regardless, she clearly had an instinct for the kill. When it had come down to the wire, she had killed and she had won. Then she had carried on walking around and living, wearing that talisman round her neck like it was a trophy.
Now she was here, in his city, and he wasn't sure yet whether she was going to be a help or a hindrance. Being freelance meant that he was a master of his own time, but there was no way he could be at her beck and call while she was over here. Yet somehow he felt like he should be watching her back. Not to protect her as such, but more out of a sense of loyalty to the late professor. He just hoped she had done the sensible thing tonight and decided to stay in. The news of her arrival would have spread like wildfire now, and he was certain that every vamp in the city tonight would have one eye peeled for her.
They wouldn't all be as friendly as Monica Carletto. Other families needed much closer attention.
Even the most notorious families, those that tended to kill without an inch of remorse, they knew how to keep out of the spotlight. Laying low was what had kept them from being exposed and extinguished over the centuries. Lately, there had been far too much coming and going. Not just within the family units, but David could have sworn he had seen families meeting up. That only happened in an emergency situation.
He hunched his leather coat around his neck as he walked. The evening had turned out to be much colder than forecast, and he wished he had put something warmer on underneath. He knew where he was going and the sense of apprehension was growing within him.
Professor Hastings’s golden rule number two: listen to your instinct. That was one thing David was sure Elizabeth had gotten down just right. There was something about doing this job that made you reliant on your gut. It was something that kept you alive if you just learned how to listen to it. For most people, by the time they felt the fear it was already too late.
David had learned how to recognise the tingle that came before the fear. The animal instinct that told you when to run for cover, and when to look behind you.
Automatically he turned into a 24 hour pizza joint and took the remaining booth by the window. He was a regular here now. The window seat gave him a good view of the building just over the road, and the low lighting meant that he wasn't too obvious.
Luckily for him, the place did a pretty decent pizza too, which meant if you were stuck there for a couple of hours, at least the food was good. The waitress came over and took his order, along with a coffee to keep him going. It was free refills and he would have more than his fair share over the next few hours. But he always tipped big, and that was enough to make sure they kept coming over to top him up and didn't cause him any problems.
The building over the road looked innocuous enough, a set of small offices where people came and went all night and day.
Especially all night.
David could tell even from this distance that the security guard on the front desk was a vamp. There was something about them that he could sense now, and the bulk and swagger of this man suggested he was doing nothing to hide it. He may only be a security guard, but he certainly seemed to exude an ego. David knew it would be best to keep his distance from this guy. There was no way that he could beat him in a fight.
He sipped his coffee while he waited for his pizza to arrive, wishing there was a way he could get into the building and find out what was going on. Even his own contact within the family had become increasingly quiet over the last few months, until a couple of weeks ago he had dried up completely and pretty much gone to ground.
Over the past few days it had all started falling into place. David was increasingly certain this family knew something about the journals. If they didn't have them, then they must at least know who did. Neither option appealed to David and he knew there was nothing he could do about it alone.
His pizza arrived and he pulled a piece of pepperoni from the top, bringing a bit of stringy cheese with it, and popped it into his mouth. He let it sit there on his tongue, savouring the flavour, not wanting to rush his meal too much. An empty plate invited conversation.
His plan had been to get there before the action happened. It was easier not to be noticed if you wer
e already there, rather than turning up at the same time and pretty much announcing your presence to them. Experience had taught him that.
A couple of hours in, and the pizza was long gone. The evening had turned out slower than he had anticipated, with only three people entering the building the entire time he had been there. For that matter, only one person had left, and it was nobody that he recognised. He was even starting to get more bored than normal. Perhaps he had misjudged it.
His eyes scanned the room around him, and he was about to look back out of the window and across at the building when his brain kicked in with a sudden observation. There, in the corner booth, was the same boy who had been there when David had first arrived. In fact, he had been a bit annoyed, because the boy had been in the very best seat for viewing the events that took place opposite, doodling in his notepad. He was still there after all this time.
David stiffened, trying to tell if he was one of them, or maybe a vampire from another family, sent to keep watch. If that was the case, then he had made a big mistake this evening. He had been sitting there with him in the same room for hours, less than ten feet away, without even noticing his presence.
He tried to gauge the boy, without being too overt. The worst thing he could do now was attract attention to the fact he had finally noticed him. After several minutes of assessing, as far as David could tell the boy was entirely human. There was no reason he could think of why someone who was human would be interested enough in a vampire pseudo-company to spend hours sitting in a pizza place so he could watch them.
David wracked his brains, but couldn't recall ever seeing the boy before. Dressed all in black, it was only his orange-red spiky hair that made him stand out. He had no other distinguishing features.
David was about to attempt to sneak another look at him, when movement in the street outside caught his eye. A long black car had pulled up, and the man who David recognised as the head of the family got out. David instinctively slouched down lower in his seat as the man looked around, although he was more likely trying to scent out any rogue vampires that were encroaching on his territory. Apparently satisfied, the man turned back towards the building and made his way up the steps.
The security guard was already leaping to his feet to open the door for him, the deference with which he moved completely taking away from the arrogance that had been in his posture earlier in the evening. This man meant business, and he was the man at the top.
While the security guard was jumping to attention, David turned to look at the men that had followed out of the car. More importantly, the box they carried between them. It didn't look like it was particularly large or heavy, so it stood to reason they were more guarding it than carrying it. The adrenalin that had been on a slow build earlier in the evening now spiked to a point in his gut.
He felt helpless, knowing there was nothing he could do but watch, knowing there was no way he could follow them into the building. Once they were inside, any chance of finding out what the box contained would vanish into thin air.
As the security guard relaxed enough to go back to his seat and prepare for some quality hours pretending to watch CCTV, David noticed the boy had smoothly got to his feet and was heading out of the door. He watched as the boy pulled a beret out of his coat pocket, covering the brightly coloured hair. Now he was completely dressed in black, and able to move stealthily in the darkness. It would not make him entirely invisible to any patrolling vamps, but it would give him the additional elements of both surprise and cover.
David watched as the boy casually walked outside, looked left and right, and then started down the street at a casual walking pace. Had he got the information that he had been waiting for? David didn't see how some kid could know more than he did, or how he would know anything at all for that matter.
David slipped a fifty under the edge of his coffee cup and walked out of the diner, hoping he had left a reasonable distance between himself and the boy. Until he knew what was going on, he didn't want to take any chances, and that included raising the boy's suspicions. Until you knew whether you were dealing with a friend or a foe, it made sense to stay below the radar.
He only followed him for a couple of minutes before the boy crossed the road, and turned north as he got to the next block. David broke into a silent jog once the boy was round the corner, determined not to lose him now that he had come this far. He slowed down when he got there and cautiously looked around, letting out a sigh of relief when he realised the boy was up in front of him, still walking along at the same slow steady pace, seemingly unsuspicious about the fact that he was being followed.
David began walking again, staying as close to the buildings as he could, hoping they provided him with sufficient shadow to keep him out of sight at this distance. He was surprised when the boy got to the next block and immediately took another left. He was doubling back on himself, and as far as David was willing to guess, that probably meant that he was going to head back to the building. Only this time, he would be approaching it from the other side, the one without the security guard and the reception. The only way into the building that David knew of from that side was a goods entrance. From his previous scouting missions he knew it was permanently closed. Certainly at night. In all the time he had been coming here, he had not got a single indication of it ever being used. Once again his interest was piqued by what this boy could possibly know.
He continued to follow him until he disappeared into the small yard at the back of the building. David slowed down, approaching the yard with caution, knowing he was fairly exposed. There was no sign of the boy, and he hesitated for a moment. Was he being foolish doing this?
Curiosity killed the cat and all that stuff.
He stopped, unsure whether or not to make his move or just turn around and walk away, taking the opportunity to live another day. It was silly to even think about walking into a situation that was already potentially highly explosive. Too many chances, too many risks. He couldn't even justify it to himself. There had to be another way than this. Perhaps wait until tomorrow and speak to Elizabeth to get her opinion on what would be the best thing to do?
Knowing all this, David found himself stepping forwards and easing into the yard.
He tried his best to stay in the shadows by the perimeter, beyond the sensors which could activate the lights above the door to the goods entrance. There was no sign of the boy, but the light would surely have come on if he had tried to get into the building, regardless of whether or not he had a key or some other means of access to it.
David edged his way forwards, moving around a pile of boxes that were sodden from the downpour earlier that afternoon. His eyes darted left and right, trying desperately to work out where the boy could have gone, but there were no signs of even the tips of his hair in the shadows that surrounded the lot.
He barely suppressed a yelp of shock and anger as he felt the cold steel of a blade pressed to his neck, and the firmness of a hand at his back, letting him know that if he moved, he was going to be losing enough blood to make sure that even if it didn't kill him, it would draw the attention of everything in the building next to them and turn him into an impromptu midnight snack.
'Who are you?' came the voice, quiet and determined next to his ear.
'Who are you?' David replied, trying to get his thoughts in order and come up with a way out of the situation he had put himself in. He had known this could happen, but he had gone ahead and done it anyway. Was there no end to his stupidity?
'I'm not the one with a knife pressed to my jugular,' the boy replied, pushing the blade a little closer as a reminder. A quick slicing motion at that pressure would spill David's neck right open. 'So, if I was you, I'd be answering my questions, and not trying to be smart about things.'
'My name's David.'
'Why were you following me?'
'I wasn't.' It didn't even sound true to his own ears, and there was no way that the boy was going to buy it. Trouble was, he could
n't think of any plausible excuse, and there was no way that he could actually tell him the truth.
'Do me a favour and don't lie to me. I don't think you realise what you could have done here tonight, you idiot.'
'It's you that doesn't know what you're doing,' hissed back David, aware that with each passing second they risked exposure, and then they would probably both end up dead.
'I know what I'm doing. I was here first, you were the one who followed me and nearly fucked everything up.'
'You don't know what fucked up is kid, trust me. Now I'll leave you alone if you'll just let me go. We can both walk away from this and we'll both be okay.'
'That's funny, but I don't think you're really in the best position to be calling the shots tonight. What with the knife at your neck and everything. I think I get to decide what happens next.'
'Trust me, what I said is the best thing for both of us.'
'Best thing for you, you mean. You don't scare me. I've seen things much more terrifying than some dirty old man following boys down alleys.'
'I'm not some pervert, you idiot.'
'Well, you were following me. If that doesn't make you a pervert then I don't know what does.'
'Look kid, I have no interest in you at all. My only interest is what goes on inside that building, and if you think you were going to do a bit of breaking and entering, then I've probably saved your life and you should be thanking me anyway.'
'Thanking you?'
'Believe me, if you're caught trying to get into that place, there's a good chance you won't be around long enough to see a prison sentence. Things they do in there are not exactly legit, if you get what I mean.'
'You have no idea what goes on inside there. And besides, I'm not some petty thief.'
'I have every idea of what goes on inside there.'
'Yeah right.'
'Are you telling me that you know what goes on in there?' David felt the blade ease off a little, as the banter between them started to sink in. There was a chance that the boy really could know, even though he clearly wasn't a vamp. David weighed up whether or not he should take the risk in looking like either a crazy, or just outright blowing his cover. Either way, as the boy kept pointing out, he had a knife at his neck and this whole conversation was going nowhere fast. 'You're not one of them, and you know I'm not one of them, so just let me go.'