Antecedent

by Susan Stumpf

I was hoping Wu or Li would still be at the shop, but they weren't. I helped Bo out of the car. Vampires aren't supposed to be weak and shaky. I dug the keys out of his pocket and opened the door. I got to the coded door inside and told him that I still hadn't been given the code. I hadn't pushed the issue, Wu was always there to let me in and I figured they would give me the code when I was trusted with it. Turned out today was that day.

  "140208" Bo muttered, and I entered it in the keypad. The light turned green and I opened the door and made sure to shut it behind us. As we descended the stairs, I called out to Thor and Loki, not sure if that command was really necessary with Bo with me.

  I got him to his bedroom vault door and expected him to enter in that code himself. This was the door to his sanctuary, but he said the code aloud for me to enter there too. "291613"?another green light. As many times as I'd been downstairs, I had yet to even see what was behind this door.

  "Where's the light switch, Bo, I can't see."

  "I can," he said. We walked to the bed and he laid down. "There's a lamp on the bedside table," he said. I reached to turn it on and with a simple touch of the shade a very soft glow barely lit up the room.

  The bedside lamp was the only source of light and it had a very dark burgundy shade on it that gave the room a bit of a red glow. The walls were dark, and there was a huge area rug on the cement floor. Bo lay on a very ornate, antique canopy bed. It was brass I think, with heavy dark red curtains pulled back and tied to the posts. It looked like something out of an old movie. Bo was up off the bed and a light came on across the room. He was throwing up again. He couldn't possibly throw up much more, there had to have been about a gallon of blood so far. Then I remembered something he'd said to me before; "A whole human is a lot of blood, probably the equivalent to a five-course meal to a mortal."

  I walked to the bathroom, "You ate a person didn't you?"

  "Yes," he said leaning over the sink. "Damned diseased prostitute, I should've known better." He turned on the water. "And that should be the last of her," he said rinsing his bloody vomit from the sink.

  "Wait, I thought you could smell disease in a person's blood?"

  "I can," he said. "There could have been some drugs in her system that I didn't pick up on. There are certain kinds of cancer that I can't smell. It could've been anything really."

  "So why go to a prostitute? Wouldn't it be safer to find someone?you know?cleaner?"

  "Because I wasn't just hungry," he said. It took me just a second to understand what he was getting at.

  "Oh."

  Awkward. I wondered why he was throwing up in the sink, but then another awkward moment came.

  "Ummm, Bo?"

  "Yeah?"

  "I have to pee."

  His bathroom had no toilet and that was something I'd never seen before. Did vampires not have to use them?? There was a sink and a shower, that was it.

  "You'll have to go upstairs," he said. I had him repeat the door codes to me one more time, and I repeated them over and over in my head the whole time so I wouldn't forget. I did my business then made my way back to the stairwell, chanting the codes in my head with each step.

  I was so focused on not forgetting them that I forgot to call out to the dogs on my way down the stairs, and they both charged at me. "THOR, LOKI! STAY!!" I shouted. Both dogs slowed their charge to a walk and sat down at my feet. Holy crap that was scary! Good thing I already peed! I didn't think the dogs would ever attack me since I had been taking care of them for weeks now. I guess I was wrong. My heart was racing as I walked past them without petting them as I usually did. Underestimating them was a mistake I wouldn't be making again.

  "Are you feeling better?" I asked when I came into the room.

  "A little," he said.

  "That thing you did with the washcloth at your house felt pretty good, will you do that again?" he asked.

  I got a washcloth from the bathroom and rubbed his face and then placed it on the back of his neck.

  "Some big scary vampire you are," I said. "You got blood on your shirt. Take it off and I'll soak it."

  "It's all over your pants too," he pointed out. "Sorry, and sorry about your couch."

  "It's ok. Do you have something I can wear?"

  "Help yourself," he gestured toward a dresser against the wall. He removed his own clothes and laid back down. I picked out a pair of silk boxers and turned around.

  "Are you going to serenade me this time too," he asked smiling. He must be feeling better to be making jokes.

  I stuck my tongue out at him then went into the bathroom to change.

  His bathroom was beautiful, elegant like the rest of the building. There was a lot of stonework, and the design of the tub and sink were very unique. After I changed, I set our clothes to soak in the washer in the back corner of the apartment. By the time I came back, Bo was already asleep. I guess all that throwing up really took it out of him. I looked at my watch, it was almost 3 a.m. There really wasn't much point in driving home, and I didn't know if Bo would need me since he was so sick, so I lay down next to him and went to sleep.

  Sometime during the night, Bo put his arms around me and pulled me to him. He nuzzled his face into my hair and ran his nose against my cheek. I could feel his breath on my neck, and this sent chills down my body. He kissed my neck slowly then moved to my mouth. My heart pounded. Did I want him to do this? He's my boss, will this make things awkward? He slid his body on top of mine and held my arms down to the bed. The bedside lamp with its dark shade gave a very sensual red glow to the room.

  "You're so gorgeous, I could just eat you up," he said.

  Then a sinister smile spread across his face as he lunged forward and bit my neck. Blood sprayed everywhere, spurting between my fingers, as I grappled at my neck urgently to stop the flow but couldn't.

  I sat straight up in bed clutching my neck. I looked at my hands, no blood. Bo was still asleep? it was a nightmare. I jumped out of bed looking at Bo like he was a wild animal ready to attack. He lay there motionless still asleep, but in this moment, I was scared of him.

  I went to the bathroom sink and washed my face, trying to wash away the terror of the dream. I looked at my watch, it was a little past seven. I was still really tired, but I wasn't going to get more than just those few hours of sleep it looked like. I decided to take a shower to wake myself up, besides I needed to pee again. I didn't want to go upstairs without pants so yes, I peed in the shower, we've all done it. After the shower, I dressed in Bo's boxers and put my tank top back on. I would stick around long enough to finish washing and drying my sweatpants then go home.

  I opened the heavy vault door as quietly as I could and slipped out, closing it behind me. As I made my way to the laundry room in the back corner, the upstairs door opened and Wu looked down from the top of the stairs.

  "Oh, Em, I'm sorry," he said looking away like I was naked. "I didn't know you stayed the night, there is a silent alarm on the vault door when it opens between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m."

  "It's not what you think," I stated. "I didn't?we didn't?Bo got sick," I explained. "He asked me to bring him home. He threw up on my clothes. I was just going to wash them so I could go home."

  "Oh," he said. "How bad is he?"

  "Well I've honestly never seen a vampire vomit up a whole person worth of blood before, so I don't know what to tell you."

  "Ok, I'm going to need you to run an errand in that case."

  "Really?" I whined. "Wu, I'm tired and starving." All I'd eaten yesterday was crackers and tea, and my stomach was making its complaints known.

  "Ok," he said, "go on home, eat, and get some rest, but be back here no later than three o'clock, ok?"

  It was eight o'clock by the time my pants were dry. I'd rushed out of the house last night wearing sweatpants, a tank top, and sandals. It was freezing out but when your vampire boss is puking blood everywhere you don't really think about weather appropriate clothing. So, I grabbed one of Bo's shirts out of the armoire to
wear home. I'm sure he wouldn't mind, after all, I'd been wearing his underwear for the past five hours. I had on gray sweatpants, a pale purple tank top, a light blue, soft cotton button down, and my silver sandals. I think it's safe to say I'd be going out the service entrance.

  I stopped on the way home to get something to eat. I wolfed down two bacon egg and cheese biscuits before I pulled up to my house. I forced myself not to look in the living room as I walked up the stairs, I was afraid it would induce more nightmares. I'd have to clean that mess up later. I was exhausted, and I only had about six hours till I had to be back at Bo's. I slept solidly for the next five hours, got up and dressed, then reluctantly drove back to the antique shop to see what kind of errand it was that Wu had for me.