by Various
“Yes,” Veronica answered. “Raven thought this would be a good place to observe the meat.”
The ancient vampire’s gaze fell on me. Her mind sliced through mine. She knew everything about me in a second. I didn’t think she sensed I was a phony, but assumed I’d just been turned because of the humanness about me that she couldn’t stand. She hated the cretins she fed on, fucking and playing with them. The image of the beast within her flashed in my mind. It was twisted, everything Veronica was not. This ancient one could not stay in the daylight more than half an hour or she’d ignite like dried wood. Her mind left an imprint as she withdrew from my thoughts. I assumed I’d passed the test because I was still breathing.
“Yes, this place has a certain atmosphere that draws many of us. It’s neutral territory. We do not fight here, and many mortals are already marked, so you must be careful not to take one that is.”
“We’ll be careful. Come, Raven.” Veronica tugged on my arm, steering me through a small passageway and into another dance room. This one played music I was more used to. Good old-fashioned goth.
Veronica grabbed a stool at a side bar and I sat next to her. She gazed around the room and then back at me. The muscles in her face relaxed. I could almost see the tiny hairs along her arms lying down.
“She’s old. She’s a bitch. She almost didn’t buy you were just a youngling. I thought she’d tear you apart for a second.”
“Maybe we should go then. I mean, if you think it’s not working?”
“Nonsense. I think your disguise will work on many. Most others don’t inspect minds unless you’re considered a threat. I don’t know why she did that to you. Those that are possessed by the beast can do strange things. Especially vampires that only crave power and domination. I didn’t expect that she would do that. Most of the others couldn’t care less about you. They just want blood. She’s right; this place has an atmosphere that draws others of my kind here. I wonder why? How did you know about this club, anyway?”
I grinned. “It was a frequent hang out of mine in college.”
“I’m surprised you weren’t picked off.”
I hit her hard on the shoulder. “Hey!”
She laughed. Her laughter was genuine. It was the first time I’d known her to be completely comfortable in public.
Her hand came to rest on my knee. I glanced down at it, hoping there was something more to the gesture.
I traced the veins of her wrist, admiring all the differences about her, remembering when I first met her. The attraction I held for her was nothing sexual. She intrigued me more than anything. I deeply wanted to help her, but after seeing inside her soul, things had changed. I had changed. I caught myself falling in love. Veronica caught my finger with her other hand, applying some pressure to my knee with the other. Her eyes swirled, going from black to red to something in between. They pulled me in. They weren’t hypnotic, just alluring. At first I assumed it was her other half close to the surface that made her eyes dance, but it was all the emotions surging through her. They overwhelmed her senses now that many of her walls had come down. So much had changed in such a short time, I didn’t want to hurt her, but I wanted her.
I leaned in for a kiss, her breath hot upon my lips, but a song came over the speakers that drew my attention away from her.
The lyrics were about vampires dancing in a moonlit garden. I smirked and watched as people gathered on the small dance floor. I grabbed Veronica’s hand, pulling her from the stool before she could protest. If she didn’t want to dance, she’d have stopped me with a minute portion of her strength. She didn’t. She came with me, joining the small throng of people. She looked at the others dancing, not knowing what the moves were. I laughed and gave myself over to the beat.
The fogger filled part of the club with smog as it mixed with the already thick cloud of cigarette smoke and sweating bodies. I twirled, ignoring the boning in the corset and the fact I wasn’t able to breathe. It had been a long time since I just enjoyed the music. Opening my eyes, I checked on Veronica and saw she had also fallen into the beat.
Dancing in a goth club was not the bump and grind of regular clubs, nor was it the jumping of the rave scene. It was melodic and slow. The hands and body told a story as music filled the senses, caressing the insides, infiltrating the brain, and ruled for the duration of the song. I lost my balance a few times, but caught myself, falling into a belly dance step. It didn’t matter what I looked like. No one watched me.
I shifted through one song and into the next, as the number of people dwindled from the dance floor. The beat of the next song moved up a notch. It was harder to find a rhythm in it. Some dancers decided to take their one-man show to the top of the stage or inside a small cage on the outskirts on the dance floor. The ancient vampire set her drink down and came to the floor, her movements pointed and exact. She’d heard this music before and knew how to manipulate it and those around her. She pulled the tune into her, drawing attention to herself, and drew focus from those humans in the crowd who might become her next meal. I was spun into her web, but Veronica grabbed my hand and gave me a sharp yank. I looked into my companion’s eyes, finding the strength not to lose myself again.
I stretched my arms out to her, welcoming her into my dance space, but she shook her head. I wasn’t going to let her get away. I moved within the beat until I was inches from her, encircling my arms around her waist and then pulling her to me so our breasts touched. The coolness of the vinyl slipped beneath my fingertips, as I struggled to get a grip on her. Veronica tensed a moment, but I never took my eyes from hers until our bodies moved in time.
One of her hands traced my shoulder blades, igniting my hunger for her. Her nails traveled along the back of my neck, then the side, passing over the punctures she’d given me. It seemed my immune system had taken to healing them fast. Maybe some of her ability rubbed off on me. More likely the wounds were never bad to begin with. We danced together through the rest of the song and into another. I was losing my breath and about to suggest that we stop or at least I sit down, when she tensed against me. This time it was not because I had touched her. It was something else. I heard a low growl building in her throat. Her other half had broken free.
Her nails cut small holes through my corset. The sharp pain of flesh tearing as her claws went into my skin seared me, but I held my tongue. I tried to turn around, but she wouldn’t let me go.
“Veronica,” I whispered.
She didn’t hear me. The muscles in her face twitched.
“Veronica!” Still nothing.
I sighed and gathered my mental strength. I hoped she was distracted enough not to have shields in her mind or I would never be able to get through. I would be torn to shreds before she realized what happened.
Veronica! I yelled, finding a small opening in her barriers.
Her beast jumped once my thoughts penetrated her mind. Then it retreated and Veronica let me go, realizing what she had done. She backed away an inch or so, and I was able to turn and see what had set her off.
A man leaned against a pole wearing black skintight pants and a black leather vest that exposed his pale chest. He had short spiked black hair and a silver cross dangling in his right ear. He was familiar somehow. I had seen him before, but not in Boston. I thought a moment. I had seen him in New Orleans, right before I spotted Veronica. He had invaded my thoughts, demanding my attention. I knew when I looked at him. He was something different, and he had let me have Veronica. He was another vampire. That was why I recognized him.
“Veronica, he’s okay. I’m sure he means no harm.”
She took a step forward, not taking her eyes from him. “That’s Devon.”
I stared at her in disbelief. He was not the same man who had seduced me. The man I had fallen for was blond, all-American looking. It couldn’t be him.
“How could it be Devon? There’s no way. The man I slept with was beefier, had blond hair. How could he change into, well, thirty pounds lighter, short
er hair, all in a matter of a week?”
“You know we’re shape shifters. Did it ever occur to you we could change our appearance as a matter of will? Damn him!” Veronica walked past me and headed for Devon.
The temperature rose in the room as her anger seethed into every corner. Tension ignited in the club. I caught a look on the face of the ancient vampiress. She was salivating, waiting for a fight, but I remembered what she’d said. This place was neutral ground. Devon was only here to provoke Veronica. If she made a mistake, it could be fatal. I threw up my hands, not wanting to get between two vampires, but that didn’t matter because I already was. I ran over, trying to block Veronica’s rage from my head, but it came, pounding on me like a man ramming a hammer onto a railroad spike.
“She’ll be mine, Ronnie. Just you wait,” he smirked as I walked into the conversation.
I glanced down and saw Veronica’s hand ready to slash his face. I threw on a smile and joined the discussion. “It’s so nice of you to come by, Devon. If you don’t mind, we were just leaving,” I said while staring at Veronica. “Remember this is neutral ground,” I chided her.
She stopped her hand in mid-swipe, centimeters from his face. She looked at me and then back at him. She fought to gain control. After a moment, she took in a deep breath and regained her composure. “You’re right, Brenna. This place is a little too crowded for my liking. Shall we go?”
I nodded and took her arm. We got a few steps before I heard Devon say something to me. I turned back to him. “What did you say?”
He grinned, exposing his fangs. “I said it’s a great act, but I saw through your guise even back in New Orleans. You tried so hard to be one of us, but all you are is her lackey. She doesn’t love you. She’s incapable of the emotion. Besides, we both know she isn’t a good fuck.”
I launched myself out of Veronica’s grasp and hit Devon hard across the face. My knuckles impacted with his nose. Blood appeared in a trickle on his upper lip. He looked at me with a shocked expression and tried to come after me, but Veronica turned around, confronting him.
“Now remember, Devon. This is neutral territory. No attacking others of your own kind.”
Devon’s pale complexion grew blotchy as he tried to hold in his anger. “She’s not my kind. She’s just meat.”
Veronica looked at him. “There are others here who would tell you different.”
She pointed to the ancient vampire in the back. Her arms were crossed over her chest. Everything about her was calm and collected, except her index finger on her right hand tapped impatiently against her wrist, one long black nail turned into a talon. When Devon noticed the ancient vampire he backed off. I looked and knew she’d helped both of us, but now she wanted us to leave. I nodded my thanks, and Veronica and I both walked out of the club and down the street, waiting for a cab to stop and take us back to Boston.
Once we grabbed a cab, we both sat silent in the back seat. My vampire wasn’t mad. She was lost, brooding, wondering how Devon had found us, what he was going to do next. I tried not to think about it. All I wanted to do was get out of the corset and take care of the seeping wounds Veronica had inflicted. Blood oozed down my back and stuck to my shirt. I didn’t care. I just wanted to wash up.
Finally, we returned to the house. Veronica used her mental powers on the cab driver and got out of paying the bill. I waited as she pulled up a loose brick and got a spare key to unlock the door. Once inside, I went up into the bedroom to change. I found myself staring into the night as cars moved by on Beacon Street and college students talked amongst themselves as they came back from clubs or bars. I realized what kind of a world they lived in and what type of situation I’d stepped into. No matter how long I lived my life, I was never going to be the same. I was always going to be on the outside looking in because I truly knew what the other side of reality was.
Chapter Twenty-One
My name is Veronica.
Brenna walked up the rotting wooden stairs and into the bedroom, but all I could do was stand in the doorway, a slight breeze licking at my back, chilling the vinyl outfit I wore. I ignored the chill, letting my body temperature adjust itself. It’d been a shock to see Devon, his looks intact even after I had nearly taken his eye and half his face. Even as I thought of this, the anger creaked in my bones as the beast in me struggled to break free from its resting place, but it was not going to get out this time. When I brought Brenna up here, I had known that it was inevitable Devon would eventually find us.
We could run, each of us going our separate ways, trying to stave off my Master. Devon would find both of us, and he would force the other to watch as we were tortured. No, it was no use to run. The standoff had to be here and now.
Cocking my head, I heard Brenna moving upstairs. I listened to her steady heartbeat as it raced life through her fragile and tiny veins. I yearned to take her into my arms, but I didn’t want to feed on her. I just wanted to hold her so she could warm my frigid heart. The thought of anything happening to her turned my brain cold and drove me into a frenzy. I didn’t know when Devon would strike next, but it would be soon. I sighed, thinking of the ancient vampire at The Black Rose.
She knew Brenna was not a vampire. She knew that from the scent of her. I had to say something to ease Brenna’s fears. I did believe her camouflaging worked, but the ancient vampire was too old. I thought maybe it would work on Devon, but he already knew she was mortal, so he would have made the effort to penetrate her facade. I couldn’t be sure if he was too old as well.
I mounted the stairs, thinking of something to say to Brenna. She’d reaffirmed my heart wasn’t dead. She gave me the hope I could still go on living, finding some type of beauty in a human world, considering I was no longer part of it. I climbed halfway up the stairs and suddenly wondered how long it would be before the old boards would not support my weight. I glanced up at the ceiling, noticing the chipping flakes of paint, and the little sag underneath the light fixture. How long would it be before it all came crashing down? I didn’t care. Edmund had been right, this place wasn’t haunted. The only ghosts it held were in my memory. I was the haunted one who needed to be free of an old memory. I didn’t need this place anymore.
I smiled as I reached the top of the stairs. I’d put it on the market. I didn’t need the money, not really. Maybe then this house could see life back in it once again. Brenna and I would go away, probably back to New Orleans, where I knew she was happiest. I didn’t care where we went. I’d spend the rest of my days with her, even as she grew old and then finally died in my arms.
I walked into my old bedroom, no longer afraid to think of the awful things that had happened so many years ago. Brenna peered out the window down at the street. The streetlights caught her hair. It was dark and luxurious as it fell across her neck. I moved slightly, admiring her beauty when she turned and noticed me.
I smiled at her and waited for her to decide what to do. She was so peaceful, her expression so serene, I didn’t want to break the fragile moment. I wanted it to go on forever until there were no more nights and no more days, just time blending and stopping. Until Devon was just a memory and there was nothing else left between us except the space in the room, and then she would be in my arms.
Chapter Twenty-Two
My name is Brenna.
Veronica stood in the doorway waiting for something. Brought out of my thoughts, I knew someone was there, but I couldn’t sense who it was at first. My energy had been drained from keeping my shields up at the club and having the ancient vampire rifle though my thoughts. I imagined if I’d been like Veronica my energy would have remained intact, but I was only human.
“Are you all right?” Veronica asked.
My forehead wrinkled as I realized how she kept asking me that question. She seemed to think I was some type of porcelain doll, when only I knew how breakable I was. Combined with my mental exhaustion and the events of the night, I didn’t need her doting on me as if I were a needy child.
; “I’m fine,” I muttered. “Can you please leave me alone a while?” My voice contained a coldness I didn’t feel. I wanted it quiet so my mind could have time to recharge. Veronica’s presence vibrated against my brain like an insect in a spider’s web. I knew how I felt and I didn’t expect her to understand. I couldn’t keep her out any more than I could block out my own thoughts. She was everywhere.
I stayed, staring out the window and not knowing what else to do. I couldn’t see her because it was too dark, but I knew she left. The floorboards groaned as she retreated somewhere else in the house. I sighed as my heart sank into my stomach.
Damn it, I thought and went after Veronica.
I might be in a bad mood, but I shouldn’t be taking it out on her. I checked the other rooms upstairs and then downstairs, but she was still nowhere to be found. The door wasn’t open, and the house was silent. I didn’t have the strength to expand my mind to see if she was in the basement or even some hidden attic. I was not going to go exploring anymore. It was old, and normal houses and old sites didn’t creep me out, but this place did. I didn’t know why. I shivered at the thought of being left alone here. It was so lonely and deserted. One could tell no one had lived here for a long time.
The house had become an entity unto itself, holding sadness I had never seen in an abandoned building, and I had been in plenty. The whole place needed life, and in a bustling city like Boston, I was surprised the homeless hadn’t decided to find their way in here and make a home. But no, there was no one, just the occasional visit from Veronica, and it seemed she rarely came to this part of the country. I assumed the only reason she brought me here was to get away from Devon, and it was the only place she could think of. An instinct to go home. My instincts told me that whenever she came here something in the back of her mind told her there would be a warm fire and a family to greet her. But whenever she opened the door, all she was met with was a looming emptiness. She thought this place to be haunted because it held so many bad memories. From the first moment I woke here, I knew there was nothing in the building save a few termites gnawing away at the wood. Even they were scarce. All that lived here were ghosts of the past.