by Mel Teshco
Fuck you, vampire.
I leaned forward in the seat, directing my attention to the driver. “Can you go any faster? We’re in a bit of a hurry.”
Twenty minutes later the taxi pulled beside the curb of the house I had with two other housemates. The driver read out his fare. But for a moment I didn’t move. It was as if shock had caught up to me and I couldn’t quite believe I’d made it home.
No, not home, I reminded myself. Nothing would ever be the same again.
I managed to smile at the driver. “I left my money inside the house. Give me a minute and I’ll be back outside with your fare.”
Before the driver had a chance to react, I climbed out with Alexander right behind me. I pushed open the front door, thankful for my housemates’ total disregard for security as I headed to my bedroom, then flung open the top drawer of my side table. From inside a textbook I grabbed the notes I’d stashed for emergencies, and ran back outside to pay the fare.
Alexander was still standing in the doorway of my bedroom when I returned, his expression more than a little bewildered.
“Something wrong?” I asked.
He scraped a hand over his face. “Only that we’re on the run from the most powerful being on Earth and you’re preoccupied by paying the driver out there his fare.”
I shrugged, before I pushed past him back into my bedroom. “He probably has a family to feed, bills to pay. I’m not going to deny him what’s rightfully his.” I grabbed an overnight bag and tossed in the things I thought I might need. Two T-shirts, two pairs of jeans and shorts, a jumper, shoes and socks, and lots of underwear. I was stripping off the dress and shoes Alexander had given me, when I looked up to find his burning stare still on me.
I swallowed. How long had it been since he’d been with a woman? He looked like a predator, ready to take me down and have his wicked way with me. I grimaced. I’d been foolish enough to imagine myself in love with my ex, Jeremy. I’d almost given away my precious virginity to him. But I’d soon discovered he was a player, his love of pussy exceeded only by his drug habits.
Yet never once had Jeremy’s stare made me feel all hot and cold at once, like Alexander’s did. My womb clenched with need even as I cleared my throat. “Second bedroom down the hallway on the right is Pete’s. Grab what you need. I’m sure, under the circumstances, he’d be okay with you taking some things.”
Alexander nodded and I stared after him, trying to clarify my emotions. I was drawn to him as much as he was to me because of circumstance, nothing else. I had to remember that was our one and only connection. If only my body realized it too.
I dressed in jeans, a dark, long-sleeved cotton T-shirt and runners, before I grabbed my little cosmetic bag and jammed it full with soap, deodorant, toothbrush and toothpaste, a hairbrush and some painkillers. I threw it into a backpack, along with a little pen flashlight.
I stuffed the remaining notes into my bra and slung the overnight bag over a shoulder, at about the same time as Alexander returned. I looked up at him. Damn. Those jeans and that checkered shirt hadn’t looked half as good on Pete.
I managed a smile. “That was quick.”
He shrugged, gesturing at his much smaller backpack. “I don’t need much. And I saved enough room in the bag for food and water.”
I nodded, relieved not to be alone in all this, even more relieved that Alexander was first and foremost a survivor. “Good thinking.”
Ten minutes later, after raiding the fridge for bottled water, some energy bars and a few apples, I scribbled a note to my housemates asking them to find a new tenant to share their living costs. They wouldn’t question my leaving or be concerned for my welfare. I’d always been a loner and had never conformed to society’s expectations.
As for the rest of my meager possessions, I wouldn’t miss them. My housemates’ girlfriends could take what they wanted of my personal effects.
We left the house behind. I didn’t own a car. I save money using public transport. For that reason, Alexander and I had to leg it.
It could have been a beautiful autumn day, with gold and red leaves scattered across the pathway from deciduous trees, the loamy scent of fresh-turned earth and a fried chicken smell filling the air. But all I could focus on was evading the monster we’d escaped. The monster who I had no doubt would pursue us both.
I glanced up at Alexander. “Please tell me you have some kind of grand master plan?”
He turned my way. “Get as far away from the nest as we can, and keep on getting as far away from it as we can.”
I stopped and twisted to face him. “That’s your plan?”
He cocked his head to the side, his dark eyes searching mine. “I lived with the vampire long enough to know I don’t want to be captured ever again.”
“Just how long ago were you captured?”
He blew out a slow breath. “Forty-six years…five weeks…three days.”
I gaped. “This is no time for jokes.”
He didn’t waiver. “I’m not joking.”
“You’re human.”
“Yes, sustained by vampire blood.”
I pressed a hand to my mouth, barely able to face the truth. “The blood kept you young?”
He frowned. “Of course.”
When he spun around and strode down the sidewalk, I hurried to catch up. “You don’t get to tell me something like that and walk away!”
“Why not?” he growled, as though already wishing he hadn’t said so much.
“Because you should be—”
“Dead?” he interjected softly, flicking me a dark look.
“I was going to say geriatric.” I looked at him with narrowed eyes, calculating the numbers. “You look no older than thirty.”
He smiled. “I doubt I’ve aged a day since I was abducted as a thirty-five-year-old man with nothing more to worry about than keeping my impulsive twenty-two-year-old wife happy and proving myself in court.”
My belly dropped a little at knowing he had a wife, a woman who had aged while he hadn’t. The same woman who’d undoubtedly thought he’d been murdered or who’d maybe even left her for someone else.
His breath shuddered out. “I also have no doubt Clara—my wife—never once entertained the thought I was kidnapped or murdered. In her mind, all men were cheaters. She was just waiting for the day I would leave her for someone else…waited for the day to have her suspicions confirmed.”
“I’m sorry,” I whispered, hating that my worst conclusions had been confirmed.
He shook his head. “Don’t be. It’s a wasted emotion. I loved her, but I think that sentiment would have died at some point had my life continued on its course.”
“What about your parents?”
His mouth tightened, as if to suppress his pain. “I was an only child of proud parents who wanted the best for me. I don’t doubt for a minute my disappearance sent them to an early grave. Unlike me. Without the vampire’s blood, I would now be an eighty-one-year-old man, probably crippled by arthritis, with my good health fading as fast as my eyesight.”
I blew out a slow breath. “You sound as if you feel bad you’ve outlived everyone you knew.” I cast him another look. “In reality, you lost all those years locked up in that vampire’s nest. Years you’ll never get back.”
He nodded. “I would’ve really liked to have said goodbye to my mom and dad—”
Not his wife, then? I wasn’t sure I was entirely pleased by the frisson of delight that one thought induced.
“But I guess, if there’s an afterlife, my parents will see me again soon enough.”
I stepped in front of him, forcing him to stop even as a heat-wave of emotion poured out of me. “You are not dying on me. Not now. Definitely not in my lifetime.”
It was only then I realized I was doing the same thing he’d done to me after I’d mentioned jumping out of a window to my death. He wanted me around just as much as I wanted him around.
Something shifted behind his eyes and I wondered
if his suppressed feelings were now returning after blocking them for so many long years. God, what has he been through?
“Without vampire blood, if I don’t die from the pain of withdrawal first, I suspect my great age will catch up with me soon enough.”
I stared up at him, willing him not to give up, not to surrender to what lay ahead. “I don’t want to face this alone. I want—need—you by my side.”
His lips pulled into a smirk. “I’m not sure if you’ve noticed, but I’m not exactly a vampire slayer. You’d be better off finding your protection elsewhere.”
I glared. “You might be running from the vampire, but you don’t get to run away on me. We’re in this together, remember?”
His stare darkened, and he lifted his hand to stroke along my jaw and leave behind a trail of blistering awareness. His smirk morphed into a smile that revealed dimples I’d had no idea existed. “How could I forget?” he said huskily.
He bent his head and I tilted back ever so slightly. He captured my mouth with his own, his lips soft yet firm, skilled in the art of kissing. I didn’t dwell on the fact he’d kissed possibly dozens of donors. I wanted only to focus on the here and the now. After all, even that small moment in time might be taken from me—from both of us—all too soon.
He broke away first, his stare fierce and his jaw set. “I won’t let you die. Not now. Not ever.”
Chapter Five
It took an hour to walk to the train station, where I purchased two tickets to the next suburb. Of course, we’d be going a lot farther north than that, but, with the funds I had, I wasn’t about to pay for the privilege.
We took the first carriage, and Alexander stared around and took everything in like he’d never seen a train before. Perhaps he hadn’t. I sighed, allowing my head to droop. He put his arm around me, his shoulder pillowing my head. I was too tired to argue, the adrenaline of the last few hours fading into bone-deep weariness.
I breathed in his dark-spiced scent even as I pretended to ignore how right it felt being in his arms. My eyelids fluttered closed about the same time my belly gurgled. My next breath tore a sharp pain through my midsection and forced my eyes open. I leaned forward, biting back a gasp.
Alexander moved his hand up and down my back, a steady, reassuring touch. “Push through it,” he said gently, “the pain will be intermittent for a while yet.”
I twisted to glare his way and froze at his somber expression. I swallowed back denial. It was hardly his fault my craving was only going to get worse. I squeezed my eyes closed. I’d distanced myself from these hunger pains before. I could do it again. Eyelashes fluttering open, I asked, “How do we overcome this?”
“More vampire blood.”
The train slowed, a tinny-voiced announcement of the next station dragging my attention away from the plight of my health. The pain subsided even as I glanced at my ticket. “Let’s get off here.”
His eyes gleamed speculatively. “What happened to running and keep on running?”
“There’s an internet café just around the corner.” I yearned for my cellphone, which would have enabled me access to the internet. “We need to see if there’s any real information out there, anything that can help us overcome the bloodsucker, and find a way for our bodies to safely detox.”
“Internet?” he asked.
Sadness filled me, overriding the last of the cramping and pinching in my belly. Never mind that the world had advanced technologically at a staggering rate—it was nothing compared to knowing his parents were dead while his wife might still be alive somewhere. I cleared my throat, but my voice cracked. “I’m sorry you’ve been locked away for so long.”
He shook his head, strength flashing in his stare. “If it wasn’t for you, I’d still be a prisoner in the nest.”
I took his hand. “We got out of that hellhole together. And together we’ll keep out of it.”
A smile warmed his eyes. “I believe we just might.”
We alighted from the train, pushing through the crowd of people at the station before finally stepping out onto the street. The yeasty aroma of a bakery made my mouth water while my belly clenched with rejection. Was I already halfway addicted to vampire blood?
No. I sniffed appreciatively. There wasn’t a better smell or taste than fresh bread, cakes, slices and tantalizing coffee. But even if we’d had the time and money to stop, we had enough food and water to stave off hunger pains for the moment. I forged past the shop, gaining strength from the warmth of Alexander’s hand on the small of my back.
Ten minutes later, we stepped into the internet café before I logged in and searched for anything related to vampires in Sydney. I ignored most of the trivial stuff that popped up to browse whatever might give us at least a clue of what to do next. But nothing even slightly correlated with the vampire who’d abducted me and changed my life forever in such a short time.
I chewed my bottom lip. I could only imagine what Alexander must be going through after having been incarcerated for so many years. Exhaling softly, I tuned out all introspection to focus on the task at hand, dragging the mouse down to scroll through dozens of subtitles until one caught my attention.
Vampires live amongst us.
I clicked on the link and read the passage of information with a quickening pulse.
Critics mock the claims of once-distinguished academic Doctor Lester Newry, who believes vampires and the supernatural world actually exist. Those same beliefs have forced him into early retirement. But he stands firm on the subject and has safeguarded his house against the ‘blood sucking predators’.
There wasn’t much more to the article, but excitement filled me even as I clicked on the directory listings of anyone named Newry. There was no Lester recorded, but there were two others with the same surname who I hoped were family and who’d give me Lester’s phone number for my troubles.
Scribbling them on my wrist, I then counted my change and walked back outside for the nearest public phone, Alexander right by my side. We strode three blocks before we found one. Again, I wished for my cell phone, and that the convenience of everyone having one hadn’t almost made public phone booths extinct.
I pushed in some change before pressing the numbers and turning to Alexander, who waited outside. He peered up at the sky like a man constantly glancing at his watch. I frowned. I knew time was a precious commodity, and contacting Lester was a long shot, but it had to be better that than running all our lives.
The money clattered and a voice answered. “Hello, Amy speaking.”
I swallowed any further anxieties and doubts, and put on my best friendly voice. “Hi, Amy, this is…Sally. I was a student of Lester’s and wondered if you might know how I could get into contact with him.”
I almost felt Amy’s tension leaking down the airwaves. “Oh, my god. Please tell me my father’s not brainwashing yet another student with his supernatural theories?”
I forced a chuckle out of my sandpaper-dry throat. If only Amy knew! “No, far from it.” My brain whirled. I needed to evade the truth and quickly, before Amy decided I was as deluded as her father and disconnected the call. “If you could give me his number—”
“He doesn’t have a phone. He’s hidden away in his little apartment with his cats and his research. Little wonder my sister ran away.” She sighed in disgust. “Look, if you really want to contact him, you’ll have to go see him. Don’t expect him to answer the door, though.”
After she’d rattled off the address and hung up, I leaned my brow against the phone booth glass with a soft exhalation. My eyes involuntarily looked skyward. We were running out of time.
“Maya, is everything okay?”
I turned and stepped outside. “I have his address.” I smiled. With all but a couple of dollars left, luck was shining on us. “It won’t be any more than a twenty-minute walk.”
He frowned. “In twenty minutes the vampire will be waking from his nest.”
I resisted shuddering and instead nodded, s
aying briskly. “Then we’ll get there in ten.”
* * * *
Though the sun was sinking slowly down the sky, its brightness hidden by big buildings, I couldn’t help but appreciate every second of being free.
The world was a vastly different place from the one I’d known, and seeing it from up high had given no perspective to how crowded and advanced human society had become.
I breathed in the outside air that was now saturated with pollution. I recalled an air that had been much cleaner and sweeter before I’d been taken away. But there were still familiar scents. We passed a little florist shop and I slowed to smell the roses.
When I looked up, I saw Maya approach a buff, shirtless man with a shaved head who walked out of a liquor store, a carton of beer hoisted over a tattooed shoulder.
“Excuse me, sir.” She smiled up at him. “I hoped you might be able to help my friend and I out.” She twittered nervously, and waved an absent hand my way. “My car is getting fixed and we really need a lift. It’s only ten minutes away, and we wouldn’t ask except for a family emergency.”
The man gave her a frank, appraising look that showed his approval. I dropped the rose and stepped forward, my gut churning for a whole different reason. But then the man nodded. “Yeah, sure. I’m a sucker for pretty ladies.” He jerked his head to the old sedan parked nearby. “‘Course, you’ll have to put up with my obnoxious little brother. He’s eighteen today and hasn’t yet learned how to handle his alcohol.”
She nodded. “That’s fine, we’re just thankful to get a ride.”
The man looked my way. “Shame your friend there doesn’t look half as happy.”
She laughed. “Oh, don’t worry about Jack. He’s the strong, serious type.”
Jack? I hid my surprise at the name she’d christened me. Guess I should tell her changing our identities was all but useless at this point. At least until the vampire’s blood cells died off and our systems created our own. In the meantime, the vampire could still track us, no matter what name we went by.