by Jenny Allen
Slowly, she twisted the knob and opened it up to her bedroom. It was a stark contrast to the living room. Rich red walls rose to meet gold treated crown molding. Swaths of rich fabrics in reds, golds and purples covered the room. Teak wood embellishments from India accented the walls and low tables. This was her sanctuary, the one part of the apartment that was truly her. This was her place to feel powerful, sensual, exotic. Of course, no one ever saw it. Just like the most important parts of her, it was hidden away, secret. It wasn’t that she didn’t date beyond Gloria’s horrible matchmaking, they just weren’t allowed here. She didn’t want any of her painful flings to taint her little version of Eden with venomous memories. It was the one thing that was just hers, no one else’s. A soft smile melted some of the dread as she kicked off her shoes and crossed the plush carpets. She always loved the way the cushy carpet felt on her bare feet.
After a brief moment, relishing the light glinting through the colored glass lantern panes, she turned her back on her haven and ran into the bathroom. After a quick shower, she pinned her wet hair back, threw on some makeup and slipped into the closet. She passed up the comfy jeans after a longing look and grabbed a pair of sleek dark purple dress pants.
There was a rebellious moment, considering her favorite t-shirt paired with the dress pants. It was bright yellow with two pandas on the front and beneath them…”I didn’t slap you, I high-fived you in the face!” Somehow she didn’t think Gregor would see the humor, so she settled for a Lavender button up number, fitted and sleek. Modern humor was something her father just didn’t get. He was old fashioned that way.
Lilith shimmied into her clothes, grabbing a knee length dark green coat to keep out the fall chill and crossed the room to grab her phone and Bluetooth. A little red light was blinking on the phone. The address Gregor sent wasn’t one she was familiar with, someplace near central park. Definitely not a neighborhood for strolling around at night, so after calling a cab, she jogged down to the lobby with her aluminum kit.
It wasn’t an opulent apartment building, but even modest with a security officer at the desk cost a small fortune in New York City. The lobby was done in tasteful, neutral tile with a little desk set to the side of the door and a couple fake plants. An ageing man in a crisply starched grey shirt smiled up from the counter. Lines crinkled around his eyes as he tipped his hat. “Ms. Adams. Lovely to see you."
Lilith returned his smile and crossed the lobby, setting her case down by the desk, and leaned against the counter. “Hey, Charlie. How’s your night?”
The old man shrugged his thin shoulders and looked down at the security screens. “All's quiet, Ms. Adams. You going out there on foot or would you like me to call you a cab? Because I really don’t think you should be strolling around by yourself after dark.” His smile changed to a cautionary look, full of fatherly worry. Perhaps more like grandfatherly worry. Charlie had been working the security desk of this building for over 40 years. He was one of those kind old men that knew every single tenant and thought of most of them, Lilith included, as his children. There were pictures of tenants, their kids and grandkids, littering the wall behind the counter. There wasn’t a single picture of Charlie’s own family, which led her to believe that he may not have one outside of the building. For some reason, that just made him more endearing.
Lilith flashed a soft smile at Charlie. “I had the very same thought tonight, actually. I already called a cab and it should be here in a few minutes, but thank you.”
A bright look lit his smile-wrinkled face suddenly and he pulled open a drawer. “I nearly forgot Ms.” He slid a cream envelope across the counter. “This was dropped off for you.”
Lilith frowned at her name scrolled on the front in vaguely familiar swirly calligraphy. It tugged at her, but she couldn’t quite place it. She flipped the envelope over but there was nothing else. “Who dropped this off?” Inside was a small slip of parchment paper with a faint rubbing of an arrow. She opened the envelope wide, but there was nothing else inside. A strange feeling of dread settled over her shoulders like a lead weight.
Charlie seemed to share in her confusion. “Well, I don’t really know.”
Lilith looked up from the odd scrap of paper sharply. There was a tingling up her spine, and the weight seemed suddenly heavier. “How is that possible?” She tried to keep the edge out of her voice. Charlie was old and she didn’t want to go off on him and give him an aneurism. Still, no matter how sweet Charlie was, no matter how much she liked him, she paid a lot of money for the safety of a building that had a security guard on duty at all times as well as a video surveillance system of the foyer.
“Well, I left the desk for just a moment, had to use the men’s room. Anyway, when I got back to the desk, this was sitting there. I didn’t see anyone.” Charlie actually looked a little nervous. He took his job pretty seriously. “I…uh…tried to look back at the tape, but that new guy, Gary, he didn’t switch the tapes out this afternoon.” He shook his head with a stern look. “These youngsters just don’t have any self-respect for the job they’re given. I am so sorry, Ms. Adams. I understand if you want to file a formal complaint with the apartment association.” Charlie straightened up like a man preparing to take his punishment.
The anger leaked out of her as she stuffed the slip of parchment back into the envelope and plunged it into her coat pocket. Blowing up at Charlie wouldn’t do any good and she certainly wasn’t going to file a complaint just because the poor man had to take a leak. It wasn’t going to magically reveal the author of the mystery note. All it would accomplish is scaring an old man that loved his job and already felt incredibly guilty.
A car honked outside and brought her back to her senses. “It’s all right, Charlie. That’s my ride. Have a good night.” She flashed a smile and grabbed her aluminum case. Lilith raced for the cab, pushing through the lobby doors and into the cool, crisp night, her dark green heels clicking against the pavement. The thoughts of the weirdly ominous envelope were pushed to the back of her mind.
Lilith stared out the cab window, then dug out her phone and double checked the address. This couldn’t be the place. She looked back out at the decaying building that used to be a classy Italian restaurant once upon a time. The huge glass windows were boarded up and artfully decorated with numerous layers of graffiti. The canopy consisted of fading, shredded material that only slightly resembled the classic Italian colors of green, red and white. Whatever the name had been, it was impossible to tell. The fluorescent sign was smashed and unrecognizable. Most of the streetlights here were either burned out or broken, leaving the place surrounded by an unsettling darkness.
A small cough from the front seat shook her out of her trance. This was definitely the address Gregor sent. With a sigh she handed over the cab fare, grabbed her aluminum case and slipped out of the car. The air seemed colder here and she pulled her coat tighter around her. It didn’t seem to help. Somehow she doubted that the cool, fall air had anything to do with the chill traveling up her spine as the cab sped away.
The front door was boarded up solid, so there had to be another way in. All restaurants had back doors or sidewalk accesses to basements for deliveries. There didn’t seem to be anything up front, but she noticed a faint glow from the side alley. She swallowed the nervous lump in her throat and shook herself. It’s just an alley, just an ordinary alley exactly like ones she’d seen a hundred times. The clink of a bottle falling against concrete echoed from the dark. It’s just a dark alley in the middle of a rundown block in a bad neighborhood in New York City. So much for the pep talk.
With a deep shaky breath that wasn’t anywhere near as comforting as she thought it should be, Lilith edged around the corner and peered down the alley. Rusting dumpsters lined the brick walls with trash and boxes littering the wet pavement. Plenty of places for a psycho to hide. Not for the first time, Lilith wished she really was impervious to harm like the Hollywood vampires. Wouldn’t it be nice to throw on a black latex suit and be
an instant bad ass? Hey it worked for Catwoman and that chick in Underworld.
There was a lone bare light bulb over a faded green doorway. It had to be the delivery door to the restaurant. She frowned for a second and leaned against the wall. Why the hell did Gregor want to meet here? He was eccentric, granted. He’d been alive at least since the colonies, probably even longer. He never liked to talk about it and he wasn’t the sort of person you pushed the issue with. Lilith always figured that if he wanted to talk about it, one day he would. Still, this was way beyond eccentric. A very real fear started creeping up her spine, deep down in her bones, worse than some homeless nutcase or gun toting gang member. Something was very seriously wrong. She could feel it, smell it in the air. This wasn’t just her hyperactive imagination.
The flood of genuine worry pushed her forward down the alley. She still had her finger poised over a bottle of pepper spray, but she strode past the dumpsters with purpose. There were a few sounds of scuttling feet, too tiny to be anything larger than a cat. The tip of her dark green heels hit the cone of light from the bulb and immediately she felt better. Funny how a little light can scare away the bad men. At least in theory. Technically, it just made you easier to see, easier to find, but it was still a universal comfort against evil thanks to the cathedral architects of the early renaissance. Oh yeah, her internal monologue was definitely rambling.
The terrifying sound of metal scratching metal sounded just a little farther down the alley and she jumped whirling around. It felt like her heart leapt right into throat and pounded loudly in her ears. The air smelled like death and decay, though that could have been the dumpsters. Deep down, she didn’t believe that.
Lilith turned back to the door and knocked as loud as she could. She bounced impatiently and kept looking around her as the metal screech sounded again along with a very faint wet gargling sound. “Come on. Come on. Come on.” She whispered under her breath feeling completely terrified. She tried as hard as she could to banish the thoughts of a million different horror movie villains as her whole body trembled with the desire to run. Her pulse quickened with every passing second as her chest became painfully tight. Just as she was about to run for the street in sheer panic, the door swung open enough to let her into the bright kitchen and closed quickly behind her. Lilith scrambled in so fast that she bumped right into a six foot three wall of lean muscle. Even in her heels, she had to look up as Chance flipped the locks.
His laugh was warm, deeper than Alvarez’s, as he caught her by the arms to steady her. Unlike most men his height, he wasn’t overly muscular or lanky. Chance was all lean muscle, just slightly bigger than the ideal swimmer’s body, with the agility and ease in his own skin that would make most people jealous. Years of martial arts training gave him fluid movements that made him seem light for his tall, lean frame. His medium brown hair with hints of auburn was tousled in a casual style that might have looked sloppy on anyone else. A very large part of her felt completely annoyed with the whole attractive package.
“Whoa, Beautiful. Someone chasing you?” His hazel brown eyes were flecked with green and they glinted with his magnetic smile. That smile would melt any woman and Chance not only knew but definitely used it. The smile faltered as soon as he truly looked at her. “You’re pale as a ghost. Are you okay?” There was a strong undercurrent of concern in his voice. When she didn’t answer, he looked her over carefully, his hazel eyes narrowing and focusing on her frightened face. “Lily?”
Lilith pushed away from him with a frown. Come on, get it together Lilith. “Uh…Yes.” Yeah it didn’t sound convincing to her either. When in doubt, resort to anger. After all, it’s an easy transition from fear to anger. “Could you guys have picked a worse place? Really not kidding with the cloak and dagger bit are you? I think there’s someone sharpening their machete at the end of that alley.”
His smile actually brightened for a minute and then eased into a more serious look as he leaned back against a counter with all the agile grace of a jungle cat. “Hello, Chance. Nice to see you? How have you been? Thank you for saving me from the machete wielding madman. You’re my hero.” A sarcastic smile spread across his lips which only earned him a deep frown.
“Everyone’s in a cute mood tonight it seems. What the hell is…?”
Chance held up a hand to stop her. “I don’t know why Gregor wanted to meet here and I have no idea what it’s about. He just said he wanted to talk to you first, privately.” That warm, magnetic smile returned as he quirked a curious eyebrow. “And for the record, did you just call me…cute, Cher?” There was a faint touch of a Cajun accent to his voice. It was a very subtle undercurrent that people never noticed until he used some Cajun word like Cher. His head tilted to one side and she almost smiled despite herself. Almost.
Lilith narrowed her eyes for half a second and then pulled on her sickly-sweet, sarcastic smile. “Yeah cute. Like one of those puppies at the pound, all scraggly and mangy, but you can’t help feeling sorry for the cute lil guy.” She winked, patted him on the shoulder as he actually faltered with a comeback. She ignored his gaping look and crossed the vacant, dusty kitchen and set her case down on the aluminum countertop.
“Harsh, Lilith. I’m a dog now?” His voice almost sounded wounded. She turned with a smile, enjoying the pained sound in his voice.
“I just call them as I see ‘em. So how’s Sonja?”
Chance let out a chuckle and shook his head. “Last week’s news. That girl was all kinds of insane. A couple dates and she wanted to stitch our names on pillows and exchange keys.” Chance’s bravado faltered for half a second as his eyes fell to the floor. Instantly, he looked up and pushed himself away from the counter, all business. “Well, if you’re calmed down from your brush with death in the alley, I can point you in Gregor’s direction. Don’t want to keep you distracted all night.” There was a glint in his smile that made her frown.
“If you intend to list all the insane people you’ve dated it definitely would take all night. Like I said, Dog.” They both chuckled this time, a familiar feeling. Lilith met Chance 13 years ago when she was just 15. He was a 17 year old Half-blood that had fallen through the cracks. It happens a lot with Half-bloods. Vampires aren’t born needing blood, won’t find any baby bottles that look strangely red. The need doesn’t hit until puberty. After that, Half-bloods only need blood to replenish their own once a month or so and sometimes it’s so minor that it’s actually diagnosed as Anemia or an Iron deficiency. The second diagnosis was dangerous. A lot of half-bloods died from Iron Toxicities thanks to powerful supplements. Most human doctors just couldn’t figure out our unusual physiology.
Some of the more thorough doctors actually label the disease Thalassemia. Chance would be what they call a severe case. Someone whose blood has such low levels of hemoglobin, that they require regular infusions of blood monthly. They would be at a complete loss with a full-blood like her. Most of the documented cases of Thalassemia are in the Mediterranean, India, Thailand, which makes a certain sense, since the Mediterranean is the cradle of civilization and all. Our families stretch back a very, very long time there with little dilution of the blood lines.
Gregor found Chance in a children’s hospital in Louisiana through some of his contacts. It was an underfunded city hospital, so they never really looked into his condition. Had it been someplace like St. Jude’s, they probably would still be researching him in some lab someplace. Her father became Chance’s mentor and placed him with a family. His own parents died when he was 14 in a horrific car accident.
Chance trained in a Dojo for years and took courses in criminal justice at the community college, working his way through school by running errands for Gregor. Contrary to popular belief we don’t come standard with bad ass fighting 101. Those that care to, train, just like everyone else. Eventually Gregor assigned him as his bodyguard. Lilith spent a good bit of time around him over the years, but nothing beyond a little friendly banter between acquaintances. Gregor never really tal
ked about him much and he was more a part of the scenery than an acting participant when it came to dinners and meetings. Attractive scenery perhaps, but still scenery.
“Well as much as I enjoy swapping dating horror stories with you, I should see what Gregor wants. “ She pushed off the counter and grabbed her kit again.
“Oh come on, kitten. Swapping would imply that you had any stories to share.” He winked and strolled past her through a double swinging door. She stared daggers at his back. Somehow that didn’t seem very effective.
Chapter 2
The open dining room was just sad. Dusty linens clung desperately to abandoned tables. Dead, decaying flowers drooped sadly from glass vases with only remnants of moldy water left in them. Chairs were knocked over or tossed carelessly on top of one another. The big plate-glass windows were filled with cracked holes behind the plywood. Some were the size of rocks, others looked suspiciously like bullet holes. Whoever thought a fine dining restaurant would go over in this kind of neighborhood definitely discovered how wrong they were in a hurry, not that any of them really lasted all that long. There were at least 5 restaurants opening each week, and just as many closing down. It was the social cycle of New York City that extended equally to nightclubs.
Chance led her to a flight of stairs in the rear of the dining room and started jogging up them. Lilith glanced down at her dark green heels with a sigh and slowly made her way up the stairway. She loved her collection of high heels and stilettos, but they weren’t always practical. Her father often argued that since Lilith was five foot nine barefoot, she didn’t need the heels anyway. They agreed to disagree. The wooden boards creaked dangerously as her pointed heels clicked against the surface. She looked up to see Chance leaning against a wall at the top of the stairs with his arms casually crossed and a Cheshire cat grin.