by Simone Lari
She went red in the face at her own cheek.
"Well, first I think we should understand what happened to you, don't you agree?"
"I think... I think so. In fact I think I may have underestimated the thing, but that doesn't mean that I don't want to shed some light on the facts of the matter. Can you help me to understand?"
"Of course, trust me."
"Trust, you say? After all, I hardly know you, and what's more you don't even seem to be a nice kind of person" she said with some irony.
"It's true; you shouldn't trust anyone at all, neither us hunters nor the vampires. And you're right when you say that I'm not a nice type, because I'm not in the least. However, I'll try to deserve your trust with the facts that, in the end, are the only thing that really counts. And then, I've never been much good with words."
"It seems to me that you do alright…anyway, thanks, Vans."
"Wait before you thank me, there's still a long way to go, but you'll see, we'll know something soon. I'll be in touch, goodnight."
"Night."
Smiling, she fell heavily onto the pillow and then, fingers interlaced behind her head, she sighed.
Her chest filled with air, all exhaled in one breath.
"Perhaps he deserves a little trust" she murmured quietly.
She reached for the lamp and put out the light.
A slight noise on the roof drew her attention for a moment. The Trequetra became lukewarm, but she did not take much notice of it, tired as she was and lost in very different thoughts.
Christopher, with an elegant leap, jumped down from the roof of Nina's house. He had heard the entire conversation and, not at all pleased that Vans had beaten him to it, set off at a brisk pace towards his motorbike.
He shouldn't be there, and yet he couldn't stop thinking of her. He got in the saddle, put on the helmet and before leaving threw one last look at the second floor of the house.
Alyna walked nervously back and forth in the hall on the ground floor.
"Hey, stop it! The noise of your heels is annoying me" Sting called, out of patience, and exaggeratedly turned up the volume of the television.
"With your hearing, there's no need for all this commotion!" she retorted.
"Maybe, but as it happens I like hearing all the jokes and even the surrounding noises, and I don't give a damn about your harlot-like heels…" he stopped himself suddenly to admire Katrina's sinuous walk as she went up the stairs, heading to the upper floor.
"I'm going to my rooms, try to make less noise down here" she ordered.
"Yessir!" he answered.
A few moments later, as soon as she disappeared from their sight, Christopher opened the front door.
"Welcome back" Sting greeted him, without taking his eyes from the video.
"Where have you been?" asked Alyna.
"None of your business" he retorted abruptly.
"You didn't go to that little girl?! She's a witch! It's useless beating about the bush, it's better to own up" stated Alyna, attracting Sting's attention and Christopher's ire.
The vampire grasped her by the neck and lifted her up off the floor sticking her hard against the wall.
"Don't you dare to speak about her that way!" he barked in her face enraged and showing his teeth.
She replied with a cheeky grin: that shudder of fear had excited her.
"Otherwise?" she challenged him languidly.
Angry, he let go of her neck and without deigning her with any further attention, headed to the stairs to go in his room.
Alyna turned then to Sting, annoyed: "You think that too, don't you? Tell him that you do!"
"What, that you're a masochistic sexually repressed idiot? I certainly think so." Gripped by fury, the vampire was to about to set onto him with murderous intentions, when he added: "Perhaps the girl is not a witch, but she wears something strange around her neck or, rather, between her boobs." Christopher stopped half-way up the stairs. "I'd gladly check that out, but maybe you'd prefer to do it."
Christopher snorted and withdrew to his rooms. Alyna did the same, but not before taking a transfusion bag, extra nourishment which she needed to calm her nerves.
Left alone, Sting turned down the volume and for a few minutes reflected on how to pass the evening. He looked at the door. He had a sudden unexpected desire to go into the city, to Jude's place, enter her room through the window, pounce onto the bed and have sex with her.
Savoring the idea, he turned off the television and stood up from the sofa. He headed to the door but suddenly stopped before reaching it.
He shook his head, as to convince himself that he didn't need the same human twice to satisfy his appetites, so he turned back, turned on the television again and fell heavily onto the sofa.
At that precise moment, Jude stood up abruptly from her bed, as if someone was calling her. She rushed to the window and looked outside, waiting for someone or something to appear, but there was nothing, at least not what she was expecting to find.
While Christopher and Alyna were thinking things over in their rooms and Sting was enjoying his favorite shows, Katrina was intent on writing a long missive on a sheet of parchment.
When this was finished, she sealed the parchment with black wax.
She opened the window and an owl quickly landed majestically on the windowsill. She attached the letter to its claw, without it showing any sign of rebellion.
Then she ordered: "Go."
The raptor took flight. The vampire elder closed the window and stayed to contemplate the night from behind the thick glass.
Author's Notes
A warm greeting to you as you finish my novel. I hope you enjoyed it and that it has given you pleasant hours of reading.
With the first volume of "The Keeper of the Teardrop" my intention was mainly to introduce the many characters that bring this story to life; their first significant interactions are the basis upon which the story will unfold.
I have been deliberately cryptic about various aspects of the plot which, I hope, you can still easily interpret and in part predict with the clues and the veiled information I have provided in the course of the work.
The second volume of the series will be published later.
Thank you for taking the time to read my novel.
Simone Lari
If you want to contact me, my email is: larson.gr @hotmail.it
I will be happy to answer you.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1 – Nina’s Eighteenth Birthday
Chapter 2 - Vans and Gabriel
Chapter 3 - Christopher and Sting
Chapter 4 - Festivities
Chapter 5 - Black Sun
Chapter 6 - A Crowded Alley
Chapter 7 – Unexpected Encounters
Chapter 8 – Abraham’s Villa
Chapter 9 – Jared’s Chalet
Chapter 10 – Tiptoeing back home
Chapter 11 – The Lair of the Duergar
Chapter 12 - Request for Mediation
Chapter 13 - Contact
Chapter 14 - Shades of Grey
Chapter 15 - A Difficult Meal
Chapter 16 - the Agreement
Chapter 17 - It's Part of My Job
Chapter 18 - Interesting Intervals
Chapter 19 - The Enemy's Lair
Chapter 20 - Surprise Counter-attack
Chapter 21 - To Each his Own
Epilogue