by Gayle Keo
*****
Sandy Cruise sensed danger the moment that it came, and the guys seated across from their table did not feel right to her. For one, they avoided making eye contact with anyone, and that meant that she could not make out if they were vampires or not. She felt her blood freezing in her veins, the hairs on the back of her hands rising. Before she had moved to Smallville, she had lived in a place that was infested by bad vampires. All of them had somehow tried to win them over and in the end, she had ended up shooting one of them to death before fleeing to Smallville. She knew that she was wanted back there, but doubted whether they would ever find her here in this small, almost unknown town. When she had gotten to Smallville, she had ran into Nathan, and from then on, she had known that he was one man that would always look out for her, he was her own kind. In the beginning, Sandy had a mad crush on Nathan, but as the months flew by, she had known that there would never be anything between them, and had began treating him like family. To her, he was the only family that she had, since all of her blood relatives had been killed by the bad vampires.
If these guys on the next table were actually bad vampires here in the town, they were probably here on a revenge mission for one of their own, and that was something that brought her extreme fear. The only consolation was that before they discovered it was her, they would have had to look very well. When she had moved to Smallville, Sandy had changed her looks and taken on the body form of someone else, since that was one of the abilities of her bloodline of vampires. Each bloodline of vampires had different super human powers that distinguished them, and she was glad that was one of the powers that she had inherited.
“I find it pretty odd that you are not the least afraid of vampires,” Ethan was telling Nathan as she listened absentmindedly, one eye on the table next to them, where one of the men was shamelessly fingering a chick.
“I've always wondered what it would be like to be a vampire, you know. Well, apart from the drinking of blood, I think that everything else about them is pretty cool. I read that some of them can even travel through time,” Ethan as Ethan listened attentively.
If she was not mistaken, there was some sort of hot vibe flowing between these two men, and it finally hit her why none of them, handsome as they were, ever seemed to have the slightest interest in women. They were attracted to men. The thought intrigued her even more, and especially when she tried to imagine two extremely hot men together. Why were the hottest dudes always the ones that were out of bound for her? One of the newcomers from the next table, the one who’d had a blonde on his lap and had been busy fingering her, got up and pulled the blonde away with him. She sluttily leaned against him and Sandy watched as they melted into the crowd towards the washrooms. Something just didn’t seem right here, but Sandy decided that she was probably just being paranoid because the guys were faces that she had never seen. She joined into the conversation with Nathan and Ethan despite the way that she saw them stealing glances at each other, and at times even holding hands on the table as if by mistake.
“Well, gentlemen, if you will excuse me, I would like to use the ladies’ room,” she said, excusing herself. “Sure, Sandy, go right ahead, and make sure that you come right back here. We don’t want to lose you in this crowd, and I would like to get you all home in one piece,” Nathan said, winking at her.
“Sure thing, daddy,” she slurred, pushing her seat backwards and grabbing her handbag as she headed off for the ladies’ washroom.
She did her business in the washroom and then stood in front of the mirrors to adjust her makeup. The drinks had quite gotten into her head, but she still couldn’t shake the odd feeling from her mind. She could sense danger and almost felt as if she was being watched by unseen eyes. This was the first time that she had ever felt like this since moving to Smallville and she could not understand why. She heard something dropping with a thud in one of the toilet cubicles, and when she looked toward it, there was a hand protruding under the door. She screamed before finally getting her guts back and opening the door. Inside there was the blonde women that had walked off with one of the guys at the table next to theirs, and she was naked and possibly dead. She had bite marks on her neck.
*****
Nathan looked at his watch again, worry beginning to cloud his mind. Sandy had been gone for well over five minutes, and that was not possible, unless she had gone outside to energize herself with her stash of blood.
“Is everything okay, Nathan?” Ethan asked, “You look worried.”
“I'm not so sure, Ethan, but we are going to find out. Come on,” Nathan got up quickly, Ethan following suit.
Ethan wondered why the sudden change in attitude, and he could swear that he had even seen Nathan's eyes turning a fiery orange, almost as if he were some sort of animal.
“What about Sandy, aren’t we going to wait for her?” Ethan was confused at their actions, because to him everything seemed in perfect order, and he had actually been enjoying himself very much in Ethan's company.
“She is the one that we are going to look for. Something bad might have happened to her and I would never forgive myself. She is like a sister to me,” Nathan said, shoving people aside on the dance floor as they made their way across it.
“What do you mean something bad. She simply went to the washroom, and being a lady I'm sure that you know that they can take hours in there toying with their makeup,” he was still confused, but beginning to get a little frightened by the whole situation.
“Ethan, don’t forget that this place is called the Vampire’s Bite, and anything is possible in here,” Nathan said seriously, and Ethan almost laughed out loudly.
“Don’t tell me that you believe in all of that crap, and that what Sandy said earlier about the history of this place is true?” he said in exasperation, throwing his hands in the air and unable to believe how dense Nathan was in believing in all that crap.
Despite the fact that there were tales that made their rounds about vampires and all of that, no evidence had ever been found of vampires in existence, and so Ethan did not believe in any of that. It was all superstition that at times gave him the creep too, but nothing to believe in at all. There were bodies across the continent that had been found with what the media referred to as vampire bites on their necks, but that was probably just some sort of sect that killed people and marked them like that to instill fear in people. If vampires did exist, there would have at least been some evidence, like their dead bodies, or even some captured alive. It was amusing how someone that he really admired, and who was one of the brightest students on the campus, like Nathan, could believe in all that superstition.
Nathan took a hold of Ethan's hand and they practically ran toward the washrooms. Nathan kicked the ladies’ washroom door open, and Ethan almost died of shock at the scene that was inside. There was an injured body of a woman lying on the floor, but that was not the frightening part. Sandy had turned into some sort of animal, her eyes the same orange that he had seen in Nathan's, and she had fangs sticking out of her mouth. She was fighting with an unfamiliar man who also looked the same as her, eyes and fangs. Vampires!
“Vampires,” he shouted, turning to face Nathan so that they could race out of the room and back to reality, but he was surprised to see that Nathan too had transformed into a vampire.
Fear gripped Ethan in the worst way possible, and he felt as if he was having some sort of horror dream. Before he knew what was happening, Nathan dashed past him and knocked down the vampire that had attacked Sandy and was sinking his fangs into her neck. The vampire made as if to strike Nathan with a blow, but Nathan seemed much stronger as he grabbed the guy’s hand mid air and squeezed his fist, until Ethan heard the vampire’s bones breaking. Nathan kicked the guy in the balls, making him fall to the ground before he pulled something like a small laser gun out of his pocket and basted it through the vampire’s brain. It made no sound at all, but the vampire fell to the ground, dead. Nathan then knelt down next to Sandy.
/> “Did he hurt you?” he said, his voice filled with worry.
“Just a little. I think that you had better breathe some strength into that woman first, I can take care of myself,” she said to him, everything like something out of the movies for Ethan.
Ethan was still trying to digest all that was going on around them when someone grabbed him from behind. He turned around to throw a punch into the assailant, but the guy turned out to be yet another vampire, who simply held him by the shoulder and head and brought his mouth to Ethan's neck. Ethan did not know what happened next, because everything in his world went dark.
*****
“Nathan, watch out, behind you,” Sandy screamed, and as Nathan turned around, he felt a fist connecting with his jaw, sending him flying to the ground.
With all of his might, he sprang back onto his feet and charged into the attacker, his chest connecting with the guy’s stomach and sending him across the room and into a wall. Nathan then punched the guy’s jaw, sending blood flying across the room, before reaching for the guy’s balls and squeezing them as hard as he could through his pants. The bad vibe he had been feeling over these two new strangers had been right. They were a bad breed of vampires, and before he killed the guy, he needed to know if there were more vampires around. As the guy went down on his knees, defeated, Nathan grabbed him by the neck.
“How many of you are here?” he asked, squeezing the guy’s neck as he looked into the vampire’s eyes for answers.
The vampire tried to close his eyes, but Nathan squeezed his neck harder, concentrating on reading the guy’s mind. He finally let go of the guy slowly, letting him fall to the ground, before he took out his special laser gun, specially made for killing the bad vampires, and shot the guy dead. He then turned his attention to Ethan, panic gripping him when he saw Ethan lying on the floor with bite wounds on his neck. The darn vampire had sucked out some of his blood, and Ethan would soon be dead if he did not do something. He hurried over to his side and natured his head, Nathan's mouth going to Ethan's neck. Vampires were made with a special enzyme that could cure vampire bites on human beings, and it was in their saliva. Nathan began licking the wound and blowing warm air into it. Ethan had taken quite a severe biting, but Nathan was eager to revive him and bring him back to normal.
“Don’t you worry, he is going to be alright,” Sandy said, squeezing his shoulder as she knelt before the blonde that had been lying on the ground and began doing the same to her.
“I think that we had better get these guys out of here before people find us. We can take them to my place and heal them there,” Nathan said, getting up. “Will you be able to carry her?”
“Yes, but how are we going to get them out of the club?” Sandy asked.
“We will just pass them off as friends that are completely drunk. Cover his wound with something,” he said, pulling Ethan's collar over his wounds and then lifting him off the ground.
He opened the door of the washroom slightly, and seeing that there was nobody paying any attention, he signalled to Sandy and they quickly exited and made their way toward the exit.
“These friends of ours are extremely drunk tonight, and we need to get them home,” he said to a bouncer who blocked their way as they were leaving.
“Can I see some ID?” the guy asked.
“Sure,” Nathan said, handing the guy his driving license.
He scrutinized it before handing it back to Nathan and nodding them through. Nathan breathed a sigh of relief as they left the establishment without any drama, because he had been ready to knock the bouncer senseless if he had refused. They put the bodies in the back seat of the jeep and Sandy took the passenger seat, while Nathan took the driver’s seat, and within no time, they were cruising away toward his place. The night was bright since there was a full moon, and Nathan knew what had guided those vampires to town. They were lone rangers that usually went as far as the moonlight could take them, and once the moonlight disappeared, they became normal human beings until the next moonlight. They drove in silence, his natural night vision on full alert in case there were any more surprises to be pulled on them.
“I think those guys were coming after me, Nathan,” Sandy broke the silence.
“Why in the world would they do that?” he was a little surprised. “I mean, you strike me as a very innocent and decent person, what affiliation do you have with those goons?”
“It is a really long story, Nathan. A couple of years ago, we lived in the city of Brooks. We had a peaceful life. My dad, mom, brother and sister. The town was infested by bad vampires, but somehow, we found ways of avoiding them and disguising ourselves. Everything went well, until my elder sister fell in love with one of the bad guys. She had always been a rebellious girl who did the direct opposite of what everyone expected, but it was probably because she was just a teenager,” Sandy said sadly, and Nathan wished that he could hug her. “One day she went out and spent the night with him, and while they were having sex, I think he discovered what we were. He killed her instantly and then alerted the rest of his kind, who came hunting us down. We have the ability to change our looks and I was just trying out being different people when I saw them coming down our driveway. I was in the backyard and with no time to inform the rest of the family, I hid in a nearby shed. They killed everyone, and at times it still haunts me today because I can still hear the screams.”
“Oh my God, Sandy, I'm so sorry to hear that,” Nathan said in utter shock.
“Yeah, well, I stayed hidden for a number of days, but one day one of them caught me. I killed him due to all the pain I was feeling at the loss of my whole family. I then ran away from that town and lived in many other places before settling here. When I first met you, I fell in love with you, but when I realized that that sort of love could never work between us. You became like the big brother that I lost. Thank you for coming to my rescue tonight, that bastard would have killed me if you hadn’t arrived on time,” she said to him gratefully.
“You will always had a special place in my heart, Sandy, and once again, I still insist that you should move closer to me, or into my house, so that I can watch over you and take care of you,” he said, taking her hand and squeezing it.
*****
His mind was a little clouded, and Ethan felt a little pain in his head, but he was pretty sure about what he had just heard, and it broke his heart into a million pieces.
“You will always be like a sister to me,” Nathan was saying, making Ethan feel much better as he wondered where they were and what was happening.
The last thing that he could remember was that they had been at the club, and that they had gone to look for Sandy. They had probably found her and had way too many to drink, because his head was super heavy and he could not recall a single thing.
“Well, now that you and I have agreed to become brother and sister, maybe it is time for us to be honest with ourselves,” Sandy was saying as Ethan felt them bumping around. Could they be in a car or something?
“What is it you want to know, Sandy” Nathan asked, his voice sounding sexier than Ethan could ever remember hearing it before.
“I noticed the way that you and Ethan look at each other. What’s going on between you two, are you an item or what?” Sandy said, and Ethan felt himself freezing wherever he was.
“Sandy, what sort of question is that?” Nathan sounded surprised, while Ethan was longing to hear the answer.
“Come on, Nathan Loft, I haven’t known you for a long time, but I think I know pretty much about you as you know about yourself. You are in love with him, aren’t you?” Sandy insisted.
“Why don’t we put it into smaller bites because you are taking things a little too fast for me. Sandy, I have a crush on that guy, he makes my world rock. I feel as if I'm alive when I'm around him, although I've never told him how I feel,” Ethan almost died of pleasure as the words rang though his ears over and over.
“Well, I think that it is only fair for you to go and tell
him exactly what you feel. Today was a near death experience, and you wouldn’t want someone to die, or you to die before you told them exactly how you felt. You would live to regret it for the rest of your life,” Sandy said thoughtfully.
“Well, I'm just glad that Ethan and the blonde are alright,” Nathan said, and shock registered in Ethan's mind. No way, could he have gone and started making hits on a blonde woman, because he would never forgive himself for doing it, and especially not in front of Nathan.
He tried to lift his head and there was something painful on his neck. “Ouch,” he groaned, and he felt the vehicle almost braking to a halt.
“Ethan, is that you?” Nathan asked quickly. “Are you awake?”
A light in the car flicked on and Ethan looked around him, unable to talk. He was shocked to find his head resting on a woman’s lap, and she seemed to have passed out. They were in Nathan's jeep and he was seated in the front with Sandy. Ethan tried to talk, but he could not. No way, he was going to quit drinking as of this very moment, because never had he drank so much alcohol before. His tongue felt as if it was swollen, filling his mouth until he couldn’t talk.
“I think he has the swollen tongue effect and amnesia, but he will be alright soon,” Sandy said, in almost a whisper.
What exactly was Sandy talking about, swollen tongue effect? That was something that happened when a scorpion stung someone, their tongue would remain swollen in their mouth for 24 hours until the poison faded away. And what about the amnesia? It looked like something really serious had happened, and he had no idea what it was. Drinking was certainly not a specialty of his. Ethan had so many questions on his mind, but he could not talk nor even lift his head, and so he kept his thoughts to himself. He was still lying there when he drifted off into an unknown land again.