by Nicola Rose
“Someone’s got to be serious around here to run this motley crew,” Zac shoved Leon off the chair and scooped me into his lap.
“And how did this gang come together? I mean, I know how Zac came to be a freak vampire by not following his nature and all that, but what about the rest of you guys?” I asked.
“Did she just call us freaks?” Eva sat forward.
“She’s one to talk,” smiled Leon, giving me a wink and settling on another armchair. Zac gave me a sidelong glance and my throat bobbed involuntarily. Leon acknowledged the nerve he’d hit by clearing his throat with a tight smile.
“She’s right about you, Leon, you’re the biggest freak going,” Ruben piped up, which took me by surprise. He rarely spoke.
“Why don’t we tell Jess about your little fetish, then we’ll see who the biggest freak is?” Leon snorted.
“Shut up, prick.” This wasn’t banter, Ruben meant it. Anger twisted his face.
Leon just rolled his eyes. “Me, Jess? I didn’t choose this life, it chose me when Zac crossed my path. We share some common ground in our history, some painful experiences that drew us together—”
Ruben snorted, “And of course those painful memories involve pussy. You two are the kings of failed human relationships—”
Leon leapt across the room and pinned Ruben to his seat. They snarled in each other’s faces until Zac ordered them to stop. Leon shrugged away, a rage simmering under his skin that I’d never seen on him before.
Zac had tensed, too, but then I blinked and when I looked again, the room was back to normal. Leon was draped casually in his seat as if nothing had happened. How the hell did they do that?!
“Anyway, Jess,” he continued. “Aside from dickface there, you’ll find that most of the other guys here were people who were turned into vampires in a violent way, torn away from a good life too soon, they never came to terms with it and so rejected the normal way of life once they learned of this great leader Zac, who could teach them some self-respect.”
He made a mock bow to Zac, who nodded in return.
“I wish you could teach them to bow to me like that.” Zac made a sweeping gesture around the room. “Bunch of ungrateful cocks.”
“Fuck off,” came the loud shouts from at least five other guys around the house, who’d heard despite their distance from the conversation.
“Gathering followers when I live this way is no easy task,” Zac said. “So I stopped chasing and let them come to me. The ones that understand will always find their way.”
“So what’s your backstory, Jess?” Ruben sneered. “Why would a nice girl decide to come hang out with a bunch of vampires? Didn’t Mommy and Daddy give you enough attention when you were little? Or maybe the opposite, maybe you were the spoilt rich kid with too much attention?”
“Get a life,” Eva huffed.
“Careful,” Zac warned with a piercing glare. Jesus, did Ruben have a death wish?
“Soooo,” I continued, resolving to ignore his hatred towards me. “Was it really hard for you all, learning to live this way?”
I wondered if Zac could see through my questioning or if it was innocent enough. Gauging the hardship they’d encountered, weighing up whether it was something I could put myself through.
“For some of us more than others,” Leon said, shooting a look to Ruben, who simply stood and left the room coldly.
I gave Eva a questioning look and she crossed her arms, mouthing the word, “Later.”
“Right, who’s up for an ass-whooping at Road Racer?” Zac moved me off him and leapt up like a sleek, silent cat, grabbing a control pad. He sat back down and kissed my cheek. “Not you, my sweet. I will tire of having to deliberately crash to give you even the minutest of chances to win.”
I dug him in the ribs and winced as my finger met his unwavering, tight muscle. Leon picked up the other pad and tyre screeching filled the room from a giant soundbar. The flatscreen was more like a cinema screen, taking up almost the entire wall.
“Hey, I wasn’t ready,” Zac shouted as his car tore after Leon’s.
“Snooze you lose, brother.”
Zac’s lightening reactions meant his car was still roaring off only a fraction behind Leon’s, nothing to the human eye, but behind to him. They shouted at each other as they wrestled their way around the track side by side. Zac won with Leon 0.3 seconds behind him.
As mesmerizing as it was to witness their perfection, it got pretty tedious as far as computer games were concerned. I left them to it and strolled off to the kitchen to see if Zac had got any decent food in for me. He’d been trying, really hard, to remember my human needs, but food wasn’t his forte.
I opened and closed a few cupboards, finding the usual emptiness. As I closed the final one, Ruben materialised from behind it.
“You’re a silly little girl,” he whispered, so low I almost couldn’t hear, but he’d positioned himself right up against my ear. I shuddered at the contact, his hands on my shoulders. “You think you can walk into the middle of a vampire lair and just chill with us? Everything’s peachy and no one gets hurt? I’ll be laughing when it all goes tits-up for you. Unless you cause problems for me or Eva in the process. Then I won’t be laughing, and nor will you.”
My stomach swelled in appreciation as I devoured a steak, sitting in one of the fancier restaurants on the North side. The little encounter with Ruben had left me shaken. I should have gone to Zac I suppose, but I didn’t want to give Ruben the satisfaction of knowing he’d got to me. And Zac had enough to deal with already.
My hunt in the kitchen had come up empty, so I’d left them with their game and popped out to eat. It took a great deal of persuasion to convince Zac to let me go anywhere alone. But he was friends with the owner of this place and finally conceded that I’d be safe. Even so, I wouldn’t put it past him to have someone following me.
I’d eaten here a couple of times before. I resolved to make ‘sometimes eat here’ into an ‘always eat here’ because I was already slim, but starting to look skeletal from all the nights I’d spent not eating enough. He’d noticed it too. He couldn’t argue that a human needed meat sometimes, and cooking it myself has never been a strongpoint. As for him in the kitchen?! Ha, bless him, he’d tried before without much success. I knew he hated the smell, too.
An unrecognised number flashed up on my phone and I answered it absently, pushing the plate away.
“Hey, darlin’. Guess who?” came a velvet voice into my ear.
I choked on the food in my mouth. People turned to gawk as I coughed like a maniac, before regaining composure with a gulp of water.
“I’ll give you a clue. I’m tall, dark, irresistible, and I’m your favourite kind of guy — the wrong one.”
“How did you get my number?”
“I was thinking, you ought to swing by my place tonight.”
After struggling to find words for a while I eventually asked “What are you talking about?” and finished with “No, thanks.”
Creative, I know.
“Don’t be like that,” he said.
‘What do you want this time, Alex?” I pretended to sound bored, despite the hammering in my chest.
“Did I not make myself clear enough? I told you to get over here,” the tone in his voice dropped.
“No.” This time I intended to sound assertive, but my voice got caught somewhere in my throat.
“Well, excuse the fuck out of me. I guess I’m still not speaking clearly enough. I suppose that friend of yours, what’s her name, Anna? She’s cute. I could focus my attentions on her, if—”
“Keep her out of this,” I jumped from of my seat and caught the plate, knocking it to the floor with a crash. Nodding a brisk apology to the waiter, I hurried out the door with the phone to my ear.
“Right now she’s singing and dancing around the kitchen, blissfully unaware that a predator has her locked in his sights. I can get into that apartment in a heartbeat.”
“NO! Please, don’t do anything
.” I charged down the sidewalk, tripped over my own feet, and shoved a teenage boy out the way as I went.
“I’ll see you soon then, darlin’. You know where my place is, right? The big house Southside that my brother has pointed out to you — with a big warning to stay away? Oh, and talking of Zachariah, it wouldn’t be wise to mention any of this to him. I’ll know if you tell him, I’ll be able to feel his rage from miles away. You wouldn’t want anything to happen to sweet little Anna, would you?”
My mind raced furiously ahead and I couldn’t keep up with any of it. Terrified about what would happen to Anna if I didn’t go, and terrified of what would happen to me if I did. Bottom line, I’d rather take my own chances than risk hers. I couldn’t let her get caught up in this too.
I entertained the idea of going straight to Zac, but Alex’s warning rang heavy in my ears. I didn’t doubt what he’d said about knowing, and I couldn’t take the chance when my best friend’s life was on the line.
I typed out a message to Zac.
Jess: Hi, was thinking, I’ve neglected Anna since you stole my heart, I ought to spend tonight with her. Hope you don’t mind. J x
The ping of a return message was instant.
Hot Stalker: You OK?
Jess: Of course. Thank you! See you soon.
Hot Stalker: I don’t mind at all, but are you sure you’re alright? You would tell me if you weren’t?
For fuck’s sake. Could he hear my heart getting ready to explode from wherever he was? No, I suppose he could hear my thoughts.
The shrill ring came abruptly… Hot Stalker calling.
For actual fuck’s sake! I couldn’t talk to him in this state. My throat felt as dry and scratchy as sandpaper. He’d be sure to sense it in my voice. He picked up on everything. Any slight nuance in voice, body language, even my own damned heartbeat. I had no control over the messages that my body would send him.
I stuffed the phone away. Better make this quick before he comes looking.
38
Jess
I paused, hovering my trembling finger over the call button on the security gates, but before I could gather the strength to push it they were already opening. The sweeping driveway was edged by huge, spindly pine trees. To the side of the house was a swimming pool, the size of an average house on its own, surrounded by rows of loungers, tables and chairs. The place was eerily deserted, only a slight rippling on the surface of the pool. Coloured lights made the water glow a bright, sparkling crimson.
Alex’s home couldn’t be more different from his brothers’. Instead of the vast, timeless grandeur of Zac’s place, this mansion was a modern architectural dream. All crisp, angular lines and shining metal, illuminated by swathes of spotlights. One whole side of the house was mostly window, blacked out with shutters.
I clutched at the churning in my stomach. It was entirely possible my heart might go ahead and beat right out of my chest. Wonderful. That was going to get a houseful of bad vampires really excited. Nothing I did had any effect at slowing the beat.
This depth of fear should have had me turning round and heading for the safety of Zac’s arms, but there was something else going on inside me. A curiosity. An excitement. I couldn’t help wanting to find out what Alex was actually like. Surely if he wanted to kill me, he could have done so by now?
I parked my bike next to the only other vehicle in sight – my original Ducati, my Loki. Left there to stand lonely and isolated, mocking me. Straightening out my jacket, I swept my hair back and rang the door buzzer. It swung wide instantly.
There he was. Those cool blue eyes, fierce and predatory, gazing down at me. He wore only a pair of faded, torn Wranglers that hung low off his hips. No shoes or socks. I tried, but I couldn’t look at his feet for long, his ludicrously muscled torso was like some sort of magnet. I felt so compelled to reach out and touch it that I had to grab my hands together behind my back.
Taut and chiselled to perfection. Dark tribal looking ink ran from his shoulders, down the whole length of his arms and across the top of his chest. Just like Zac, except no colour, only black.
A shining barbell pierced through his left nipple, calling out to me to lick it. I’d had a lot of kinky dreams about him recently, and he’d always had his nipple pierced in them, with the same tattoos… but I could swear this was the first time I’d actually seen him without a shirt.
“When you’re done assessing me, would you like to come in, darlin’?” he graciously swung his arm to gesture me through, power rippling from his every pore. My head snapped back up to look at his face, ablaze with the brightness of his seductive, smug smile.
“After me then,” he turned, leaving me to follow inside. The whole of his back was also tattooed, thick black swirling lines and patterns that danced like tribal visions as he moved, walking with the speed and grace of a predatory animal. Zac attempted to hide his un-human traits from me, always trying to move and behave normally. Alex would not be the same. He would get more pleasure from showing me exactly how vampire he was.
I caught up with him in a living area once he stopped. I’d been so consumed by his presence that I only now took in the surroundings, and immediately wished I hadn’t.
The room was inky dark, only patches of soft illumination from a few scattered lamps, their light stretching out but swallowed up by black before it got very far. I felt like there were things happening in that blackness, the corners and shadows hiding their secrets. Peering into the gloom only revealed flashes of skin, glimpses of movement.
It was too quiet… but I could feel them. Feel the presence of many bodies, yet no noise, aside from some shuffling and… wet sounds.
A naked man lay sprawled out in a patch of lamplight to my left. Another man straddled him, pouring something thick and oozing into his mouth, only the gentle slurping providing any indication that the spread-eagled man was even alive, he lay so limp.
My breathing came so rapidly, such short, shallow pants, that it began to be the only sound I could hear — the rattled gasping of my own fear.
A hand touched my shoulder and I screamed. The room exploded with hisses and growls, the shadows seeming to move and close in on me. Groaning and snarling, sniffing…
“Quiet,” Alex commanded, squeezing my shoulder. The eerie silence slammed right back down in an instant, the shadows retreating back to the corners. “Perhaps we should go somewhere a little more inviting,” he whispered in my ear.
I felt him disappear from my side and the sudden absence of his demanding energy left my skin cold. I went to follow him but my feet wouldn’t move. Literally, they were rooted to the spot. I pulled and strained at myself, my body paralysed from the waist down.
A low, evil chuckle whooshed past my ear on a breath. Then a roar, full of rage.
A man, still chuckling, swam into view from the shadows, pulled forward as if by an invisible force. His feet walked him toward me, but he seemed to be fighting it. The smile slid from his face and the laughter stopped as I once again felt Alex beside me.
“Sit,” Alex said.
The man shook his head, but slumped to his knees.
“You will stay here until I’m ready to deal with that mistake you just made,” Alex smiled, and this time he took my hand and led me down the hall with him.
Stammering for words, I tried to turn around and head back for the front door, but his fingers were closed around mine and the tingling shot right to my head, dizzying and confusing.
Alex paused by a doorway and released my hand. I became aware of a new noise; a rhythmic squeaking. A man approached us, pushing a wheelchair; the wheels scratching as they came down the wooden floor. He was the size of a house, towering over the frail, wraithlike woman seated in the chair. Greasy, dark hair hung limply over her face. Her body as white as the delicate lace slip that she wore, barely covering her. So thin, so gaunt. Bruises and puncture marks were dotted along her bony arms, her hands limp in her lap. A saline bag hung from a pole attached to the chair, the t
ube running down and into a needle taped to the back of her hand.
The man breezed past us, giving me a sly smile and a little wave with his fingers, like he was waving at a child. I sucked in a breath as he passed. I’d seen him before, on the motorway, when my bike tyre had blown.
The woman’s face, half hidden by that lank hair, swam past me like an apparition. Haunted, lost, broken. I knew her face, too. I could see the articles, the social media links that had continually popped up for a few weeks about the B-list celebrity that had fallen off the wagon and into a mess of drugs and public brawls. I never read that shit, but the headlines had flitted by me enough times. Then, as is the case with celebrity gossip, it went quiet just as quickly as it had come.
I whirled back round to Alex, “That… that was—”
I didn’t bother to finish the sentence once I realised that several women had attached themselves to him whilst I’d been gawking at the wheelchair-bound ghost.
Alex raised an interested eyebrow, urging me to continue, as one of the women leant back in his arm with a line of white powder spread across the top of her breast. It gleamed in the dim light against her smooth umber skin. She was slender, but in the right way, curves in the right place. She stood in complete contrast to the wan figure that had been pushed past me. Her lips were full, her eyes bright and eager, her afro hair styled and preened.
When Alex realised that I’d gone back to staring without speaking, he snorted the powder from her in a flash. The relaxed, doting bombshell of a woman eased up and pawed at his chest, nuzzling his shoulder.
Another woman to his right… no, a girl – she barely looked legal – had her hand running up and down his thigh, inching ever closer to the goods. Three more ladies stood right behind, in the room off the hallway, eyes to the floor, hands clasped in front. All buck naked. And beyond them, deeper into the room… I couldn’t even look. There was writhing bodies in all manner of sexual encounters.
Alex gently brushed aside powder-girl’s afro and whispered into her ear. Her face took on a hazy, wistful look as she held an upturned hand out to him. He locked his gaze onto mine, a wicked smile plastered on his lips. His tongue snaked out to run along her wrist. Something in his face changed, flickered for a moment, more sinister. The usually piercing blue eyes darkened.