by Melody Raven
It amazed her. She didn’t know whether she’d ever met someone with such eclectic tastes. She wondered why a bloodsucking monster would be so interested in reading. But it kind of made sense. Of course someone who lived forever would have a lot of time on their hands.
She wandered around the room for a bit longer but soon realized she would find no proof of Nicolas being a vampire among all the books. She crossed toward the hallway.
There wasn’t anything on the walls. No pictures or posters showing personality, nothing to give the space a more homey feel.
Two doors lined the hall. She went into the first one. A small but efficient bathroom greeted her. The older style bathroom was in desperate need of a remodel, but the room itself wasn’t horrible considering a bachelor lived there.
The sink had soap, razors, and shaving cream all along the border. She’d never thought of vampires having to shave before. Of course, she’d never considered what the bathroom of a vampire would look like.
She opened the medicine cabinet. It was empty, save a few hygiene products. In this day and age, almost everyone at least had pain-killers somewhere in their home. However, they didn’t necessarily store it in their bathrooms.
Anna moved onto the second doorway. This one contained the bedroom. The space was mostly taken up by a huge bed. She guessed it was a king. There was hardly room to move around the massive thing.
A few books lay atop rumpled covers. One was written by a former aide to the president. The other was a horror novel by an author currently on the bestsellers lists.
There was no room for any other furniture. The shades in this room were much heavier than the ones in the living room. Although, anyone who goes out at night, or works the night shift, would want to have heavy curtains in a bedroom. So would a vampire.
She looked in the closet. Luckily, it had sliding doors, so the bed wouldn’t get in the way. Not too many clothes or shoes. Nothing caught Anna’s attention, so she shut the doors.
She left the bedroom and continued her search. The hallway emptied out into a kitchen area. The windows in this room were the ones she saw from the street.
She waved her light around until her beam caught on something shiny that made her stop dead. The refrigerator door had a shiny black padlock and massive chain to keep the door shut.
Her heart kicked up a notch. She sank down on her knees and dug frantically for her lock picking tools.
She’d never worked with a padlock before, but she had to see what was so important it needed to be locked away. A shaking hand finally pulled the tools out of her bag. She had to put down the flashlight to continue the task, but a little light still reached the lock from the floor.
She tried to still her shaking hands and focus on opening the lock. After ten minutes of continued fumbling, the lock finally popped open. The sounds the chains made in the quiet darkness seemed loud and out of place in the silence.
She placed the loud metal on the ground as gently as possible and opened the door. Light from the fridge filled the room. There was normal food inside. A gallon of milk, along with other meats, fruits, and vegetables sat on the top big shelves. But what caught Anna’s attention was on the bottom shelf.
About eight jars full of a dark substance were lined up in a neat row. One was a bit farther forward from the others. That one was the only one that wasn’t filled to the top. She grabbed it and held it up to the light.
Where the liquid slid along the inside of the jar, it left a coating on the inside of the glass. A coating that glowed a bright red under the light. Anna opened the jar and sniffed the interior.
When the metallic, coppery scent hit her nose, she felt bile on the back of her throat.
Her breath came out in pants. She was inside a vampire’s home. What was she doing? She needed to leave. He could be home any second, staring at her with those black eyes.
She put the lid back on the jar with still trembling hands. She tried to get the chains and padlock on the fridge door to look exactly like they had before she’d ever disturbed them.
She grabbed the bag and positioned it at the front of her body. She inserted one hand into the bag and rested her hand on the butt of the gun.
After she took a few deep breaths, Anna headed straight for the door, convinced she hadn’t disturbed anything enough for Nicolas to ever even realize she’d been there. She reached the door and practically ran out of the dark apartment without ever looking back.
She was out of the building in a matter of seconds and her feet pounded the pavement in her rush to get home. It wasn’t until she was a good block away from his building that she finally risked a glance around her to look for those eyes looking back at her. No one was around. Even so, she couldn’t shake the feeling he was just waiting for the right moment to pounce.
Nicolas was weary when he returned home in the early morning hours. His head pounded from the offending smells that had surrounded him in the clubs, but he didn’t regret it.
That bottled shit they called food couldn’t sustain him. Some nights he needed more. He needed the hunt.
He headed up the stairs to his resting place. He climbed the stairs at a normal speed, since he was in no hurry tonight. Sure, he had the headache, but his whole body rejoiced in the thrill of the fresh blood that rushed through his veins. If it weren’t for the rising sun, he would be out in the city running circles around Manhattan just for the joy of feeling.
He walked inside his sanctuary and immediately froze.
Someone had been here. He took a deep breath in and studied the various scents. A woman... He followed the trail to his books, walking up to one the woman had paid particular attention to.
He then followed the scent trail through the bathroom and bedroom. When he got to the kitchen, he looked at the padlock, which was right where it was when he’d left the previous evening.
He knelt beside the steel chain and held the lock to his face. He inhaled. The scent was strong here. She’d struggled with the lock. With a vicious tug, Nicolas ripped the chain off the door. The refrigerator handle came off with it and smacked into the opposite wall. A small dusting of drywall rained down on the kitchen floor.
He was oblivious to the mess as he opened the door. He immediately knew the jar she touched. He grabbed it and held it in his hand.
As he stood up, he felt the sun rise up above the horizon. He was trapped in this place while this woman who had violated his space was out on the streets, running around. She could come back at any time. She and her friends would come with stakes and silver.
His anger caused tremors through his muscles. His hand clenched and the jar exploded in his palm. The contents mixed with his own blood and fell to the floor. He threw the remaining shards in his bloodied hand at the wall and growled his frustrations.
If he was still alive when the sun went down again, someone would pay for this violation.
Anna canceled all of her classes for the next day. She hadn’t slept at all. Visions of blood and monsters haunted her sleep.
She went running to clear her head but made sure to go in the opposite direction of the building that housed the mysterious Nicolas. Even though the sun was out, she couldn’t bring herself to take any chances he would find her.
When she finished her jog, her worries still waited for her at the apartment. She desperately wished she had Laura’s phone number and could confide in her, but that wasn’t an option. Even if she had the phone number, there was no way Anna could trust her.
She needed this vampire alive no matter how much he terrified her. She needed to know whether he could help her find Evie. For the life of her, she couldn’t figure out how she could ask these questions.
She knew nothing about him. There was no casual way she could knock on his door and tell him she knew what he was. The only way she had of contacting him would be to “accidentally” run into him as he left one night. Running into a vampire in the middle of the night didn’t seem like the safest option.
&nbs
p; She would have to find some other way to approach him. Anna could always find out what his hobbies were. He left his apartment around the same time every night. It shouldn’t be too difficult to find out where he went to.
If there was one thing Anna was good at, it was blending into the background.
Satisfied with her plan, she hopped into the shower to wash the sweat of her workout off of her skin.
The rest of the day seemed endless. She had to respond to student e-mails and remind all the students that even though class was canceled, they still had to do the assigned reading.
As the sun finally started to set, Anna contemplated which outfit could help her tail Nicolas while not being noticed. She decided on her jeans and a black tank. She threw her sweatshirt on over the tank and put her glasses on.
Once her long hair was pulled back, there was absolutely nothing about her that would stand out. The brown hair was nondescript enough that it wouldn't draw attention and she put on some foundation and mascara to mask her sleepless night and the bags under her eyes. Happy with her “disguise”—which was strangely close to how she normally dressed—she grabbed her bag.
She packed light: a bit of money, cell phone, identification, and her gun. The most important item was stored in her closet.
She opened up the storage closet and pulled out the slim folder. Inside was the most important sketch she’d ever drawn. It contained the face of the monster she was looking for.
Not long after that terrible night fifteen years ago, she’d been afraid that time would erase her memories of the monster’s face. To make sure she always would recognize the creature, she’d drawn countless sketches of it. Some of the faces were covered with blood, while she tried to make some appear like a normal human face.
She grabbed one of the normal-looking drawings from the folder. She folded it into a square and put it into the back pocket of her jeans. She also grabbed one of the few pictures she had left of Evie and the obituary photo of Charles. She kept no other pictures of him. The only reason she kept the obituary was to prove to herself he was actually dead.
Her nerves kicked up as she prepared to leave. She took a deep breath and ran out the door before she could change her mind.
She got to the bus stop at the same time she had the night before, but she didn’t have to wait as long. At quarter to eleven, the lights went out on the fourth-story apartment. Anna stayed back in the shadows and stared intently at the door.
It wasn’t long before his massive frame filled the doorway. As he walked onto the street, he turned north, and she discreetly followed, staying a safe distance back.
He crossed the street after a couple of blocks, so they were now both on the same side. Tonight he wore a rather ratty long coat that hung to his knees. She made sure she kept her eyes on that coat.
A wind kicked up behind her and blew her hair into her face. Some tendrils whipped out of the ponytail. She impatiently pushed them out of her eyes as she tried to keep her gaze locked on her target.
Nicolas almost stopped as the now familiar scent wafted from behind him. The woman was following him. She was watching him even now. He wanted to turn around and face his enemy, but he knew better.
He’d lain awake all day, surrounded by her scent. Memorizing it for the time he would smell it again. He didn’t realize that again would come so soon. He smiled at the thought of confronting her.
But he knew she probably wasn’t alone. If he led her into a deserted street, her partners would rush in. He would have to cut her off from all help and get her alone.
There was a place nearby Nicolas had fed at a few times. Young people went there and pretended to be vampires. There was nothing better than a willing food source, even if they wouldn’t remember it the next day.
The club was always crowded and busy. Her friends couldn’t attack him in plain sight. He, however, had no such qualms.
Anna’s legs were getting tired. She’d followed him for almost forty minutes so far, and she felt overheated in her sweatshirt.
He turned a corner and was out of her sight for a few seconds. She walked faster to get him in her line of vision again but when she turned the corner, all she saw was a swarm of people standing outside a doorway. Pounding rock music blared even through the closed door, and Anna grimaced at the noise.
She scanned the crowd of smokers outside, but he wasn’t there. She looked around, trying to see whether he’d crossed a street, and sighed in frustration.
When she looked back at the doorway, she realized it was some sort of Goth club. All of the people out front were in their late teens or early twenties, with lots of black clothes and white powder on their faces.
With one more look at the otherwise empty street, she decided he must be inside the club. A vampire going to a Goth club? How stereotypical...
Anna walked into the black doors of the club. The bouncer gave her a strange look, seeing how she obviously didn’t fit in with the regulars.
She gave him his money and walked into the crowd of densely packed young bodies and loud, raging music. The heat immediately overwhelmed her, and she unzipped her sweatshirt and took it off. She held it like a shield in front of her to protect her from the hard dancing bodies surrounding her.
She tilted her head as she looked for Nicolas. She started to look for his coat but reminded herself he would probably take off his outer layers in the heat of all of the people. To make matters worse, she was continually knocked around as she tried to make her way around the club. She wasn’t short, but it seemed that even the tiniest of the club patrons wore platform heels. She could hardly see over any of their shoulders.
She’d almost reached the back of the club when hopelessness sank in. She couldn’t see anyone who looked remotely human, let alone like the man she’d followed here. Though she looked different than everyone in the club, no one seemed to pay any attention to her.
At first, when someone brushed against her back, she didn’t pay much attention, so used to all of the bodies around her. But there was no mistaking the menace in the arm that snaked around her waist.
She jerked away, but the arm tightened and captured her arms in the process. She screamed, but a thick forearm cut her off. Any sound she did make didn’t carry over the music.
The body behind her pushed her forward. She glanced up and saw he was pushing her toward an exit. She renewed her struggles with extra effort, and in response, he tightened his arms even more and lifted her so her feet dangled in the air.
They got closer to the door. Anna’s wide eyes frantically scanned the crowd, willing someone to see her plight, but no one spared them a glance. She wanted to cry in frustration. Instead, she channeled her fear into more useless struggles.
When her captor got to the exit, he kicked it open with a booted foot, and splinters from the broken wood tumbled to the ground. The cool air rushed over her as he carried her forward and pressed her body into the wall outside of the club.
The rough brick pressed into her face, and the large body was as hard as steel. She felt so stupid and angry with herself. She wasn’t the victim she once was. Who was this beast to change that? She felt tears well up, but she forced herself to hold them back.
His deep whisper shook her to the core. “Where are your friends now, little one?”
Her mind swam as he stroked her cheek and neck with one solitary finger. She shivered and bucked back against him. “Friends? What friends?”
Was he asking about the Stakes? She didn’t want to think about how he’d found out about them. She bucked again in a fruitless struggle. In response, he slowly used his own hips to push her back into the cold brick.
“No!” she screamed at the sexual threat. “There is no one else,” she said in a scared, breathless voice. “Only me.”
He bent his head and ran his nose along the soft skin of her neck that his hand had just traced. He took a deep breath. “Why would you come alone, and so defenseless, little one?”
She opened
her mouth to answer but he gently bit down on a sensitive spot on her neck. She felt two distinct points threaten to break the skin. She went still for fear of those teeth. Tears did start to fall.
She realized he was about to kill her. She would die the same death that had haunted her nightmares for all these years. All because of her own stupid ideas to find a vampire. She recalled the joy Charles would get whenever she would fight back. His growing smile as her fear would increase.
Anna willed herself to calm down. She might be facing her death, but she would go out the way she wanted to go. She wouldn’t give this son of a bitch the satisfaction of her fear.
She let her body go limp and forced her neck to relax. Her head lolled against his shoulder.
He stopped as he had to readjust his grip to keep her body from sliding to the ground. He flipped her around to face him, not loosening his hold on her. “What are you doing?” he asked in an annoyed voice.
She squeezed her eyes shut. “I don’t like theatrics. Just do it,” she said in the calmest voice she could muster.
“What is this ‘it’ you speak of?” he asked.
She finally gained the courage to open her eyes. Nicolas’s face stared down at her. His eyes weren’t black. She swallowed her nerves. “You’re going to kill me.”
His eyes left hers and stared at her neck. “As tempting as that is, I need to know what the hell you were doing in my home.”
It wasn’t a question, but an order. She debated lying to him, but she couldn’t see the point. Besides, it would be hard to think of a convincing story on the spot. So she truthfully replied, “I was looking for proof of what you were.”
He stared at her face as he judged the truth of her words. His eyes were mesmerizing. The deep dark brown contrasted with the pale of his skin. The random thought popped into her head that it wouldn’t be a terrible last sight to see.