by JL Caid
He looks right at me and lowers his head a little and grins. The smile cuts up along his cheeks, showing off deep cut dimples. I’m suddenly warm everywhere, feeling tingly throughout my body. Like a sudden crush has formed. His eyes have a reddish tint to them. Not bloodshot, no. Just red. His irises are beautifully, hauntingly red.
When he steps up next to Seth I realize he’s the exact same height. Now I’m staring up at two seven foot giants. He opens his mouth and flicks his tongue against a set of fangs. They aren’t like Seth’s though. Seth’s are super white, glistening like diamonds, long and curled. Poised for sight and beauty. This guy’s fangs are different. They are straighter, the color a very off white, maybe the slightest hint of red to them?
I don’t know. I’m not close enough to tell, and I’m not sure I want to get close enough.
What I do know is that the way they are looking at me, they want to get closer to me.
“Enough, brother,” he says and puts a hand to Seth’s shoulder.
Seth instantly drops his shoulder and shoves away. “Leave it, Layre.”
Seth. Layre.
Great, I know their names, but I don’t even know my own.
Layre grins again. Something about him screams the words bad boy in my mind, but I’m not exactly sure what that means.
“I can’t taste her and I must,” Seth says with his back toward the bed.
“Never turn your back on our sleeping angel,” Layre says.
“Eat shit, brother.”
Layre turns his head and lifts his left hand. A moment later, Seth stiffens like something has taken hold of his throat. His head begins to turn… and it doesn’t stop.
I gasp and cover my mouth with my free hand as I watch the impossible happen as Seth’s head is turned almost completely around.
This isn’t real.
Then what is real?
Where am I?
“Look at her,” Layre says.
Seth opens his mouth and growls. It shakes the room. His fangs shine even more. I swear I could see what’s inside them pulsing through them.
“I see her,” Seth says. “I see and I want her.”
“We all do, brother,” Layre says. “She was given to us.”
“We found her,” Seth says.
“You found me?” I ask.
Layre looks at me. “Yes. We found-”
That’s when Seth makes a sudden move. He spins his body around to correct the positioning of his head to his body. He waves a hand to break the hold Layre has on him. Layre flies to the right as though someone has tackled him. He slams to the floor, shaking the room.
Seth lunges for the bed, levitating off the floor, arms out, mouth open, head slightly tilted to the right. He’s floating in the air, coming at me. I fall to my back and kick back on the bed, seeking comfort in the pillows. I turn my head to the left and see Layre fighting to get to his feet.
“No!” he screams with a sound that reverberates through my entire body.
Seth is closing in on me when finally, something snaps inside me.
I no longer care about the sheet covering my body. I no longer care about the man on the floor, still face down. I no longer care about the cuteness and bad boy looks of Layre. I no longer care about the perfect figure and diamond fangs of Seth.
I curl my own lip and lick my teeth to feel what I assume are normal teeth.
I open my mouth and put my hand out.
I curl my fingers.
I suck in a breath and exhale as hard as I can.
There’s a smoky figure in the air now, almost like blowing out a breath on a cold day. The figure squares itself and pushes forward, slamming into Seth. I fully expect the vampire to break through whatever I just did and attack me. Instead, he’s hit, hard, and thrown back. Instead of flying at me now, he’s flying back, arms scrambling. I quickly sit up and put my hands to the sheets. The sheet covering my body falls to my waist and I know I’m exposed in front of them, but I don’t care.
Seth moves through the air with intense speed and doesn’t stop until I suck in another breath. Suspended in mid-air, he freezes, looks at me with his piercing blue eyed stare, and collapses to the floor. This seven foot tall monster of a man - of a vampire - is now on the floor, curled up, writhing in pain.
“Well, well, well, look what you did now, brother,” Layre says as he steps toward the bed again. “My sweet angel, you can stop now.”
“Stop now?” I ask. I turn my head and look at him. That’s when Seth moans and I realize I was controlling him. I attacked him as he attacked me. And I won.
“It’s okay,” Layre says to me. “He totally deserved that.”
I stare into Layre’s red eyes, feeling warmth. Feeling comfort and compassion. So much so that I reach for him. I put my hand out and then suddenly take it back.
What if I hurt him the way I hurt Seth?
As though he can sense my thoughts, Layre grabs my hand and crouches down to be eye level with me.
“Never, my sweet angel,” he whispers. “Never.”
He smells like the incense in the room. A musky smell that tingles my nose but has a lingering sweetness to it. Enough that I want to keep smelling… maybe even taste him.
“Please, I must speak,” Seth says.
I look forward and he’s at the foot of the bed.
“Seth,” I whisper.
“She says my name first,” Seth says with his eyes flaring so bright and blue, the temperature in the room drops. “Sleeping angel… I apologize for the urges I cannot control near you.”
“What am I doing here?” I ask. “I don’t…”
The door to the massive bedroom opens yet again.
In walks another man.
A fourth?
How many vampires are there… and what mess have I gotten myself into?
6.
“You two fools done trying to kiss her ass or what?” the fourth man asks, walking with defiance toward the bed.
He’s in a leather jacket with black jeans and black boots to match. He’s as tall as the others but thicker. His size makes me uneasy and so does the fact that he’s wearing black sunglasses. His black hair is messy and down to the middle of the sunglasses.
Feeling the same sense of power as with Seth just before, I lift my right hand and point to him.
“Take those off,” I whisper.
Before he could reach for the sunglasses, they break in half, falling into two pieces on the floor.
“Thanks for that,” he says in a pissed off voice. He steps forward and crunches on one of the lenses. “Those were my favorite.”
I see his eyes. Chocolate brown, but nothing sweet about them at all.
“Easy, Darick,” Layre says. “She just woke. And Seth already tried to attack her.”
“Can’t control yourself, huh, brother?” Darick says with a deep laugh.
He slaps Seth on the back and Seth curls his lip for a split second.
“Hey, where’s Kyran?” Darick asks.
“What do you mean?” Layre asks.
“It was me and him in here just before I left,” Darick says. “Went to get something to drink to take the edge off. Don’t tell me that motherfucker left her alone and she woke up.”
“I haven’t seen Kyran in hours,” Layre says. “I was speaking to-”
Seth clears his throat as though he doesn’t want Layre to finish the sentence in front of me.
“He took his sample and left,” Darick says. “Kissed our beauty here and ran off to chase his own needs.”
“Kissed me?” I ask.
“Yes,” Layre says. “We’ve been trying to wake you from your nightmares.”
“Nightmares? I was having… I don’t remember anything.”
“You will, babe,” Darick says in a gruff voice.
I stare at him. I picture in my mind bringing him to his knees and making him cry. But I sort of respect his cockiness.
“We need to find him,” Seth says. “If he tasted her and
ran off…”
“What would happen?” I ask, leaning forward.
For some reason, I thrust my chest out at Seth. He licks his lips and opens his mouth, hissing out a cold air that hits my exposed chest, making me shiver, making my nipples tighten. They pucker with a sense of desperation and need that makes my cheeks turn red.
I’m still holding Layre’s hand, which keeps me warm.
“Hey, first things first,” Darick says and bumps shoulders with Seth. “Before we start drawing straws to see who tastes what innocence she may have to give, we need to find Kyran. Without him, we’re not strong enough to take her on.”
“Take me on?” I ask. “What are you…”
A hand suddenly slams to the bed.
I pull my hand away from Layre and I scream.
The scream is so loud, I reach for my ears. I’m unable to stop screaming. I shut my eyes. There’s darkness.
And I can’t stop screaming.
7.
I’m running. Really fast. I look down. I see my… foot? Well, feet, yeah, but I’m wearing one shoe. Where’s my other shoe? And the foot missing the shoe is bare. I can see my toenails. Pretty red color. Nice. But, wait, I’m running. Why am I running? I have one shoe on and I’m out of breath. My chest is burning so badly. I just want to stop running but I can’t. Something inside me is saying keep running.
I have to keep running.
If I don’t keep running, I’m going to die.
Die?
Why?
I’m on the side of a road, running for my life.
There are trees all around.
It’s dark though.
The road is my path. The trees are nothing but silhouettes.
I hear a noise.
It’s a swooshing sound.
Like a giant bird is right near me.
I look up and around, just for a quick second.
That’s when I stumble. Like the dumb girl in a horror movie, I trip over my own two feet. I’m imbalanced already because I’m missing a shoe. Now I’m crumbling to the wet and hard pavement. I feel my knees hit. My hands hit. I feel the ripping and burning as my skin is eaten by the blacktop. But I can’t stop. I keep going forward until my face hits the ground. Jagged pieces of gravel and dirt and leftover pieces of whatever from fender benders claw against my cheek. I cry out, but nobody is going to hear me.
I’m alone.
I’m on the run.
Maybe I’ve seen too much. Maybe I know too much. But I don’t even know what that means.
When I come to a stop, I hurry to push back up. The pain is real. It’s like fire spreading throughout my body. My lungs are hurting. My hands hurt. My knees hurt. My leg muscles hurt. And my face hurts.
I start to cry, but I can’t figure out why.
Why am I crying? Why am I running?
I put my foot with the shoe on to the ground and push to stand up. My bare foot touches the pavement and it burns.
There’s another sound from behind me.
I turn my head and see a white light. Two white lights. Coming around a bend.
“Yes,” I whisper. “Yes. Help. Yes.”
I wave my arms.
I side step and get into the road a little.
I need this car to stop and get me out of here. It’s my only chance at survival.
But from what?
Who cares? The first thing is to survive. Ask questions later.
I wave my arms and try to scream, but my voice is hoarse from being out of breath from all the running.
The two lights suddenly merge together to create one giant white light. A light that instantly blinds me. The light swallows me up and I turn my head and try to shield my face. I swear for a second I feel something touch my shoulder, but I can’t be sure of it.
“Hey!” I keep screaming.
The white light gets closer. It’s coming at me really fast now. As though whoever is driving the vehicle is speeding up. But if that’s true, then they’d run me over. Right?
And if I get run over…
8.
A warmth spreads across my forehead as the nightmare quickly vanishes. I’m back in the blackness from before.
“She’s warm,” I hear Layre’s voice say. “She’s okay. You scared her, Kyran.”
“What the fuck?” another voice says. “She fucking tried to kill me. I was out on the floor for how long? And nobody checked on me?”
The guy from the floor. That’s who that was. Another vampire?
“What did you try to do to her, brother?” Darick asks.
“Nothing,” Kyran says.
I hear a swooshing sound - an eerily familiar swooshing sound - and there’s a struggle. Thundering thuds on the floor, a smashing boom against a wall.
“What did you fucking do?” Seth’s voice growls, shaking everything in the room, including the bed.
My eyes pop open again and I quickly sit back up, gasping for air. My mouth opens to scream, but nothing comes out. I take a quick survey of my surroundings and I know I’m out of the blackness. No nightmare. No blackness. Just reality.
I turn my head and see Seth with his long fingers around Kyran’s throat, holding him up against the wall.
Kyran’s mouth is curled, his fangs showing. “You can’t choke me to death, brother. I’m already dead.”
“I’ll hold you here for an eternity,” Seth says. “And you’ll starve to death. I’ll stare into your eyes as you do so.”
“That’s enough, Seth,” Layre says.
“No,” Seth says. “He tried to touch her. And she defended herself.”
“Like what happened to you,” Layre says. “Lesson learned for both. We don’t touch our angel until she commands us to do so.”
“Commands?” I whisper and whip my head around to look at Layre.
He’s now shirtless and my jaw drops. The definition of his muscles make me… well… if I could remember who I am and all that stuff, it would make me forget again. His shoulders are thick and wide, tattooed with black tribal designs. And there’s no other ink on him. It’s the hottest tattoo I’ve ever seen in my life.
“Why did you take your shirt off?” I ask.
“I was going to press my body to yours,” he says. “In case you got too cold. I didn’t want you to shiver, my sweet angel.”
“He just likes to show off his body,” Darick says.
“Don’t be jealous,” Layre says.
“I’m built the way I was intended,” Darick says. “Not like you, Layre.”
“Can we focus on our brother who is trying to kill our other brother?” Layre asks.
We all look and see that Seth is still holding Kyran in the air.
“I can take him out,” Darick says.
“No,” Layre says.
He touches my bare shoulder and I feel heat spread through my body. I am sitting here, exposed from the waist up; still naked from the waist down but covered by the silk sheets.
“You do it,” Layre whispers.
“What?” I ask.
“You make him stop.”
I want to ask how but I reach out with my right hand. I make a fist and move my arm and watch as Seth’s moves away from Kyran’s throat. He stumbles and catches himself without falling. There’s another thundering vibration in the room.
“She’s perfect,” Darick says.
“Yes, she is,” Layre says with a nod at me.
I look around the room and realize they are all the same height. Seven foot, fanged monsters of men. All of them staring me down with big bright eyes, all a different color. Seth, blue. Layre, red. Darick, brown. Kyran, green. They are all waiting for me to say something. To do something.
The silence is intense.
I lick my lips. I wonder if I should pretend to know who I am. And why I’m there in this massive bed in this massive bedroom, a total stranger to them all, yet they look at me as though they own me. But I actually own them. I’ve proved it twice so far with Seth.
I feel
the heat radiating from Layre’s body as he’s still close to the bed.
“Sleeping angel, speak to us,” Seth says.
He flicks his tongue to the super white, diamond tipped fangs in his mouth.
“I hurt you,” I say to Kyran.
“Something like that,” he says. “But I’m tough.”
“You pretend to be tough,” Darick says with a laugh.
Kyran hisses and shows his fangs.
Darick shows him the middle finger.
“What did you do to me?” I ask, looking at Kyran again.
He stiffens and guilt washes over his face.
“Yes, brother, admit what you’ve done,” Seth says.
“I tried to heal her,” Kyran says. “It went wrong.”
“Liar. You were in charge of just sitting with her,” Darick says.
“I was,” Kyran says.
“You overstepped your line,” Seth says. “You need to be punished.”
“Easy, brothers,” Layre says. “We can discuss personal matters later. This is the first time we’ve been with our angel when she’s awake. Do we want to waste it by fighting over a spilled vampire?”
I look at Layre and he grins again.
“How long have I been here?” I ask him.
He leans down and I smell that incense scent on his skin. “Far too long.”
“I want to know exactly how long. And I want to know why you’re all looking at me the way you are.”
“That’s easy, babe,” Darick says. “We’re hungry.”
“And,” Layre whispers, “you’re sitting here topless… driving us insane…”
9.
I pull the sheet to my chest and roll my eyes.
Men. Vampires. Whatever.
“Like you’ve never seen boobs before,” I say.
“Not like yours, angel,” Kyran says with a sly grin.
“Oh, please. This isn’t going to work. Letting me sleep here, teasing me. Whatever. Maybe I should go.”
“You can’t,” Seth says and moves forward.
“Easy,” Darick says. “She’s bluffing. She has no idea who she is. She has no idea how she ended up here.”
“How do you know, leather boy?” I ask.