x Chapter Three x
Alleys, graveyards, creepy haven't-seen-a-good-dust-lately attics—these were the typical places vampires were, and where I'd be especially if I were PMSing like I was right then.
A public library was not.
Yet a bookshelf away, one of the night denizens was browsing the array of books as if he was eyeing a lineup of humans to pick for dinner. I shuddered at my choice of vivid imagery.
I'd been in mid-high reach on a step stool when I spotted him. Nearly losing my footing, I'd been busy barely saving myself and my book from an unscheduled meeting with the ground, and in the glow of my relief, I finally noticed his disappearance.
Fear and uncertainty rooted me to my spot. I looked up and down the long, empty aisles for flashes of his sunny blonde hair and the black blazer he'd been wearing.
When it came to a point where I had to unfreeze and move to the end of the aisle, I reverted to full hunter mode. Crouching low, I flanked the thick, 700-page dictionary to my side in much the same way I'd hold a knife and stalked forward to the break of the shelves from one section of books to the next.
It went on like this, as I passed through row after row of evenly-spaced shelves searching for my prey. After clearing the whole second floor twice, I was prompted to call it a night as the speakers of the building buzzed to notify the library was closing. On the lonely and uneventful ride down I chalked it up to my imagination.
I mean vampires and library? Clearly I'm hunt-deprived.
And I was. My last good tumble was nearly two weeks ago, and my fingers just itched with the withdrawal of the battle-high so often the reason I got through, what would have otherwise been, a horrific deed.
On the main floor, I lined up with the rest of the last check-outs and had just resigned myself to absentmindedly flipping through the contents of the book in my hand when the line moved, and as I looked up to avoid unnecessary contact with the person in front of me, my eyes flitted to the queue over and rested on a black blazer and bright blonde hair.
Shocked, I almost forgot where I was and had to be so rudely reminded by a tired-looking student behind me. I let him pass with a half-bow, refusing to look away from the vampire in case he decided he wanted to chew on the neck of the poor simpletons standing so close to him.
Absorbed by my self-appointed task, a throat clearing to my immediate side re-shifted my glare. Irritation and, what I could only imagine to be the colouring in my face, ebbed to a fast flow.
Although he appeared entirely normal, dressed in what I was beginning to figure was some sort of matching school uniform blazer and dress pants, I knew the vampire for what he was.
At first I wasn't sure if I was seeing a double, but a surreptitious wayward eye shift over confirmed the initial vampire was still standing stoically between two unsuspecting humans.
Thankfully my recovery was quick, and I brushed off the surprise by dropping my head and stepping aside. This second vampire passed by me without so much as a lingering glance, and I took this as a sign that he'd sensed nothing out of the ordinary, and definitely no immediate danger on his life to consider me further.
Turning around immediately, I glued my eyes onto his back, not yet entirely out of my element to call for back up. Instead I clutched my book tightly and concentrated on this new arrival.
Black hair shimmered under the glare of the warm overhead lighting; less a hallmark than the blonde but equally alluring in that its colour rivaled the darkest night. But that's all I was going to get from the back.
The line moved. Years of training worked against me as my foot stepped over the waiting line in reaction to the vampire settling across the counter of the human librarian. Hunters were sworn in to protect humanity, and right now it was difficult to tell if anyone was under threat. Nothing transpired, however, and instead in a manner so un-vampirelike, the black-haired man replaced his library card in his wallet and collected his borrowed books.
Then it was my turn. Spaced out didn't capture what I was doing as I waited for the librarian to sign me out. While filling out some forms for a library card, I spared as much glances over to where the first vampire. The second one had moved towards the entrance, his spectacled, red-eyed gaze perusing the passersby with a look I could so easily misconstrue as fascinated hunger.
The multi-tasking was draining, and I almost regretted the process of borrowing from the library. And I wasn't the only one who seemed entirely fatigued by the copious pace of the staff.
A loud sigh pulled a look over my shoulder.
Behind me in the same position as I was in the parallel counter, the blonde one had come to life.
Frustration marred what had just been the relaxed nature of his brows. He had pulled one ear bud out while addressing the older man behind the counter. His mouth moved in only a way I could describe as being predictable. I could imagine how whatever he was saying to the flustered librarian had been chosen carefully.
I continued to stare openly until blue eyes flitted around and locked on mine.
Uh oh.
I turned away, affecting a casual glance around despite wondering if he could hear my heart from where he stood.
Handsome wasn't the right word, not to define the stunning compilation of his features full-on. He was, hands down, a sexy, sexy man.
And apparently a pissed off one, too.
The irritation that had been so palpable even from my distance both surprised and frightened me. Gathering my newly-borrowed book, I moved towards the library front where I found the blonde vampire was now trailing his black-haired counterpart an arm's length away.
I had no plan, but a myriad of scenarios popped into my head on the short trek to the library's exit. Most centered on my striking out, luring them into a battle, but there was no way I could that there in front of humans. Hunting law kept strict reservations on layman knowledge of the existence of vampires. The thought alone of human media feeding on the frenzy of a discovery of the supernatural would blow centuries of hunting tradition, and I wasn't prepared to do the blowing.
Yet I felt disconcerted by letting them just walk away. So this was what prompted me to decide to follow them for as long as I could. Or at least this is what I intended to do when I felt a blur pass by me. The hard-bodied contact pushed me, succeeding in knocking the book out of my arms and jangling my purse down from its hold on my shoulder to the floor, where I managed to hold onto it by its strap.
"Ne. Daijoubu desu ka?"
Millimeters from my ear it seemed, the whisper washed down over my skin and I yelped and stumbled from the source. The purple-haired young man grimaced, violet eyes widening above tired and bruised flesh. It took me a little longer to see he was holding something. A teddy bear dangled from the crook of his arms, which left me more speechless than the second, more crucial fact: his fangs were out and they were working his lower lip in a worrisome fashion.
Of all three of them, he was the one who appeared most like Hollywood's distinction of a vampire. Unusually pale, he looked both insatiably tired and hungry.
"Urusai da yo. Sonna oogoe hanasu na."
My Japanese was particularly good, but sometimes speed and dialect evaded me, so I was left blinkingly piecing together what I could catch from his comment. It took another few seconds to conclude none of it was pleasant.
Anger trickled through me. Before I could do much to verbalize the rage, he stooped down to pick up my book. "Dozo."
Accepting his gesture, I was hardly placated but he was already moving away. Having joined the other two, he walked alongside the tall blonde in a similarly silent fashion.
My foot had just brushed the exit threshold between two metal detectors when their alarm rang sharply; the noise successfully halting my hurried pace and forcing me to wait on the library staff member who rushed over.
I knew by the time I convinced my accusers I hadn't in fact stolen anything from the library, the mysterious trio would be long gone. And sure enough, I stepped out into the early, chilly night without as much as a hint to remember their ever having existed.