Jaden
Chapter One
"Get out of my way or be added to my menu"
... Jaden ...
Present Day
Jaden stood under a street lamp, the pounding rain beating down harshly upon his skin. His black hair was slick to his face as his vibrant brown and green eyes forever watched the crowd.
Humans scurried around him completely unaware of his presence, which was the way he liked it.
Leaning his broad shoulders against the lamp he watched them leisurely.
Their frantic pace, as the rain beat down upon them, cursing and fumbling for their car keys... it all fascinated him. They were weak and vulnerable, ignorant to the point of naivety but still he envied them.
He envied them their free and simple lives.
A cruel smile curved his lips as a human male wearing a suit, fell onto the rain soaked road after misjudging the curb, his frantic curse, and wet slacks brought momentary amusement to Jaden's dead eyes. How weak and pathetic they all were.
He envied them only their freedom, nothing else. Personally he would rather be dead than powerless and weak like they were.
Looking up at the aging building opposite him, he could see nothing through the large Victorian lace covered windows, but he knew there was still someone inside. And that was who he was waiting for...
He could just walked in there and get what he had come for, but that would complete his task too quickly, and he had no desire to return any quicker.
He knew exactly what would be waiting for him...
He wondered absently if the human within knew what was waiting for them?
Of course they wouldn't... they wouldn't know until it was too late, and water wasn't the only thing running along the wet pavement slabs.
Jaden clenched his fists, just the thought of blood was enough to make his mouth water. He needed to feed.
The thrill of the deliciously warm liquid slipping over his tongue, the rush of fresh energy, the gentle hum over his body as his powers regenerated. There was nothing quite like it.
He licked his dry lips, the blood he had bargained from the demon earlier hadn't been enough... he needed more.
He looked up at the gray bricks and wondered what the person inside would taste like...
He didn't know why he had chosen this human, something on the wind had whispered to him, telling him of their presence, and since he had nothing better to do, he had decided to wait.
His incisors elongated as he looked intently at the windows willing the human to come outside.
He wanted just a small taste until he found something better. Just a little nip...
He grinned devilishly as a small woman stepped through the door into the night. He watched as her face scrunch up at the pounding rain, as she pulled the corners of her coat closer to her chest.
He traced the curves of her body, and groaned, he could barely remember what a woman tasted like. He wondered if she would be sweet...?
Sweet like...
His thoughts were shattered by the pain of the past. His incisors shrank back, as he recalled the last woman he had tasted. That bitch... he growled low into the night, uncaring of the way humans glanced around nervously at the sound.
The closer she came towards him, the more he could smell her blood pounding beneath the surface of all that pale skin.
His heart beat picked up at the sound.
Screw the past!
This woman would be at his mercy.
Not like before...
Fran cursed herself for forgetting her umbrella. How stupid could she have been! She should have borrowed one from the office. Instead she was walking briskly over the cobble pavement, searching the street for her car...
Where the hell had she parked it?
Her bag slung over her shoulder began to vibrate with her cell phone hidden within. Stopping abruptly, she bent over her purse to stop any rain getting inside as she fished out her cell phone.
Bloody thing hadn't stopped all damn day!
Glancing at the caller ID, she groaned, as she flipped the phone open and lifted it beneath her rain soaked mahogany hair.
Jaden watched as the small, brunette got a cell phone from her purse, and once more began crossing the street towards him. He could hear every word she spoke clearly regardless of the noise the rain made when hitting the lamp above him.
"What? How many times do I have to tell you!" Her voice wasn't soft as he had expected, instead it held bitterness and rage. He knew her blood would be passion filled and hot, just like her temper.
Good… he didn't want anything sweet. Not anymore. He liked his blood like his women… hot, and full of spice.
"I'm perfectly safe... this is stupid... why do you think that?" Jaden listened to her conversation, wondering who she was yelling at. A lover perhaps, her husband? He didn't care who it was, what bothered him was he was unable to pick up on who the caller was. There was no trace in her mind, no thoughts…
"Christ, Lia! I'm not going to stand here, freezing my ass off whilst you tell me utter crap! Do you have any idea what the weather is like here?"
He watched the way the rain soaked her hair, making it cling to the sharp definitions of her face.
She wasn't unattractive in her looks, her eyes were particularly attractive, as was the color shade of her hair, but there was a coldness to her features that offset any physically attributes she may have had. This was not a warm, or friendly woman. This was a cruel, and determined woman.
He watched as she struggled with her bag and cell phone as she fished around for something within. He guessed car keys as she was walking straight for a red Austin Martin.
He began a slow, leisurely walk towards her. He couldn't allow her to get into the car, he had spent enough time waiting, he couldn't wait any longer.
He watched her curse as her keys dropped to the floor, landing in a mud laden puddle, bouncing with fresh rain.
"Yeah, I hear you! Call me when your back... I don't have time for this right now" With a mumbled curse, the phone was thrown into the black bag.
Fran mumbled aggressively as she bent down, to pick up her car keys. Damn things had slipped from her hand. Could this day get any worse?!
Plucking her keys from the puddle she shook the rain from her hand, and keys as she continued to walk towards her car.
She didn't even notice the figure closing in on her...
Jaden's teeth sunk deep into unprotected pale skin.
A tingle spread over his body as the blood began to pour into his mouth. Her frantic scream was muffled by his large calloused hand, which only added adrenaline to her taste.
She gave a desperate bite to his hand, to make him let her go. He wished he could, but he needed to feed.
If he continued to wander the streets without supplement he would become more of a lethal predator than he was already.
He would wipe her memories clear anyway.
No hurt. No foul. This was just plain necessity.
He had never experienced anything like it, her blood seemed different... powerful? He closed his eyes in bliss, it had been too long since he last took a vein.
Suddenly a blackness fell around him. Jaden shook his head, keeping his steady pull at her throat.
Only a little bit more and he would let go...
Then there was a vision. A flickering view into the future or perhaps it was just a fantasy?
He frowned at the oddity of seeing a vision. He often felt the human's emotions, maybe collecting some of their memories but never before had he received visions.
Was this woman an oracle? He hoped not, whoever she was an oracle for would be pissed, and the last thing he needed was to fight another pissed off God.
His vision suddenly clouded, before showing a large bed, silk and tapestry hung from the walls, lace curtains floating elegantly on the evening breeze. But it wasn't the serenity of the room that caused his breath to stop, and his heart begin to pound.
There was a woman.
Young, beautiful, intelligent eyes that held an emotion no one had ever bestowed upon him. Love.
He watched as her delicate arms reached up and plucked his gold chain from his neck.
No one could remove it.
No one.
It was a sign of his confinement, its removal meant his freedom...
The shock had jerked him back to consciousness just as the last breath had left his victim, her heart had faltered, beating a slow rhythm till that too had died. Clutching her body to his chest, his head by her neck, he tried to regain his breath, as the rain pounding down upon them.
This must mean something!
He wasn't naive enough to believe it was coincidence, he had been alive long enough to not believe in coincidences. Why had he chosen her? Why had he been drawn to this place?
He shook his head from the cloud of uncertainty, and turned the woman in his arms.
No! She was dead...
He sighed as he held her to his chest once more. He clutched her head to his chest... how could he have let this happen?
A meaningless death.
But maybe not entirely worthless ... he now had the vision...
Jaden closed his eyes... could it be real?
Could he be free?
Finally?
He hated the tingle of hope that blossomed in his gut, he had thought it would have died by now. But it was there, tiny butterfly wings beating, his heart skipping a beat, his breath laboured... he could almost taste his freedom, and for once it wouldn't have the taste of his own blood within it.
His cell phone vibrated in his pocket, shattering his thoughts. Plucking the phone from his jeans he flipped it open.
Caller ID: Atlantean.
Acheron?
"I want ..." Jaden didn't have to finish his request to find the woman from the vision. Acheron interrupted immediately.
"I have her address..."
Twenty miles away, shoving the door shut with her foot, Lia dumped the box she carried on her wooden floor. She couldn't believe her sister hadn't listened to her, again.
Sighing she began rolling her jeans to her knees to keep the rain soaked material from dampening the floor, as she walked towards the kitchen. Flicking on the lights as she passed them, she pushed her wet hair away from her face.
Doubting her day could have gone any worse she pressed the play button on her answer phone and started making a sandwich.
"Amalia, it's your mother…" Lia groaned at the sound of her mother's voice. Licking the jam from the knife, she pressed delete and listened for her next caller. There wasn't one.
It was a testimony to how great her social life was at present that the only person to contact her over her business trip weekend had been her mother.
She had been hoping Franceska would have called back. Sighing she bit into her jam sandwich. It was completely like Fran to hang up on her, but it was not like her not to call back and argue for three hours.
Lia had been worried about her sister for some time. Maybe, Fran was right, maybe she should just leave her alone. But that was easier said than done, since their youngest sisters death three years ago, Lia had been punishing herself. She was the middle sister, the one who had always tried to glue the three of them together and she had always felt responsible to protect them.
Lia choked back the tears that threatened to spill, as she put the sandwich down. She was no longer hungry. The pain of losing her baby sister was still so fresh.
Leaving the kitchen she picked up the box, that held the skeletons of her previous life, and made her way into her bedroom, tossing the box carelessly into her wardrobe, she slumped onto her bed.
Finally her divorce was finalised, she was starting afresh. Her career had been shattered thanks to her ex husbands best efforts, so it truly would be a fresh start. Staring at the ceiling Lia wondered why it didn't feel like a fresh start.
She still felt like the same woman.
Tired, lonely, drowning in guilt.
Her phone began to ring and Lia immediately got up, knowing it would be Fran. Though why her sister had left it so long to call back and bitch at her, Lia had no idea.
Picking up the phone, she waited for the outburst of anger, but instead she heard "Amalia Watson? This is Police Detective Madison–"
Thank you for reading :)
Next chapter: Amalia and Jaden meet.
Take Care...
x Emmalisa x
