A few weeks later, Dusk was at home relaxing on his couch when his cell phone went off. He reached over to the coffee table and picked it up, answering at the same time.
"Dusk. Get over here now." Isara's voice was urgent, with a tinge of fear to it.
Dusk frowned. "Isara? What's going on?"
"No time explain, just get over here quickly."
Isara hung up before Dusk could say anything more. The male vampire looked at his phone, confused, but got up and took a cab over anyway. He arrived five minutes later and took the stairs three at a time, getting to the door and knocking.
It was opened immediately, revealing Isara, who instantly hugged him.
"Thank you for coming," she whispered.
"What's going on?" he said softly back.
"My step-father is here."
Dusk ground his teeth as Isara pulled away and let him in, shutting the door behind her. Inside the living room, standing next to the couch, was a man who had to be her step-father. Dusk vaguely recognized him, but when he tried to remember from where it went foggy. He was average height with thinning blond-grey hair and cold grey eyes. He had slight beard scruff growing on his face and his skin was slightly wrinkled. Dusk could take him down easily.
"Steve," Isara said linking her arm with Dusk's. "This is my boyfriend, Dusk. Dusk, this is my step-father Steve."
Steve looked the male vampire over then stuck out his hand. "Hello."
Dusk eyed the hand with distaste and grunted then shook it, wanting to break the man's jaw instead. Steve turned to Isara. "So this is the new guy huh. Funny he's a vampire like you."
Dusk could hear the displeasure as he said vampire.
"Yes," Isara said. "He is."
Steve stroked his chin, eyes narrowing as he looked Dusk over. "Have I met you before? I feel like I've seen you from somewhere."
"I don't believe so." Dusk lied.
"Hm," Steve murmured. Then he turned to Isara. "So, how did you two meet?"
"I met him out on a job a couple years ago." Isara explained. "We were just friends for a while, but something changed and we started dating."
Her step-father snorted. "Right. How's that going for you any ways? I bet you make a lot of money doing what you do."
Dusk's eyes narrowed. "Why does it matter?"
Steve looked back at Dusk. "I wasn't talking to you." He looked back at Isara.
"I guess," Isara said slowly, obviously suspicious as well.
"Great!" Steve said. "I knew I could come to you." He slapped Isara on the back, making her flinch. Dusk bit back a growl.
"I need some money, you see," Steve continued. "And I knew that you had your own thing going, so I figured you'd have some money I could borrow."
Isara frowned. "How much?"
"Oh just 30 grand. You know, to pay off a few debts and stuff."
Isara's eyes widened. "Thirty grand? I don't have that much!"
Steve shrugged. "Oh come on, I'm sure you've got a few valuables lying around that you can trade in for some money. Maybe a necklace or something like that, I'll leave it up to you."
He made his way to the door, a small smile on his face. Dusk fought down the urge to kill him right on the spot.
Steve nodded to Dusk. "Nice to meet you Dusk. I'll be back in a few days to pick up the money, see you then."
He left and there was a moment of silence before Isara said anything.
"30 grand? I don't have thirty grand. What am I going to do?" Isara began to pace around the room, running her fingers through her hair. Her voice took on a panicked tone. "Even if I sold some of my stuff I wouldn't have nearly enough."
"Isara," Dusk said coming over and putting his hands on her shoulders making her look at him. "Let me talk to him." He kissed her forehead then went to leave but Isara stopped him.
"Wait!"
Dusk looked back.
"Don't kill him." Isara said.
He frowned. "Why not?"
"Because it will just make things worse between my mother and I. Please."
Dusk hesitated and nodded then stepped out of Isara's apartment, seeing her step-father already at the bottom of the stairs. Dusk hurried down and caught up with him quickly, checking to make sure no one was around.
"Steve," he said calmly.
Steve jumped at the closeness of his voice then turned around and breathed out in relief when he saw Dusk. "Sorry, I didn't hear you approach. Man you vampires are sneaky."
"I want to talk to you. About Isara."
"Oh yeah sure." Steve stopped walking and they stood in the apartment complex's parking lot. No one was around, no one was watching. Dusk stood in front of him, eyeing him.
"So, what do you need to talk about?" Steve asked. "Has she done something to make you mad? I swear-
"It isn't her," Dusk interrupted. "It's you."
"Oh." Steve said and frowned. "What did I do?"
Dusk slugged him in the jaw, making him drop to his knees. The male vampire grabbed him and picked him up by the throat effortlessly. He watched as the man pawed at Dusk's grasp feebly.
"It was bad enough what you did to her," Dusk growled. "But not even taking responsibility for it? That's even worse." He slammed the man down on the hood of a car. "I wanted to kill you in there, but I didn't want to have Isara clean up the mess."
"What do you want?" Steve managed to get out.
"Stay away from Isara. Get the money somewhere else. I swear if I see you anywhere near her again I'll kill you. Understood?"
Steve wheezed.
Dusk leaned in closer, letting his fangs come out. "Understand?" he growled.
"Y-yes."
"Good." Dusk released him and stepped back, watching as he fell to his knees gasping for air. The male vampire walked away, satisfied, and went back up to Isara's apartment. He opened the door and found Isara sitting on the couch with her head in her hands. Dusk came over and sat down next to her after closing the door.
Isara glanced at him. "What happened?"
"Don't worry about the money," Dusk said. "He'll find somewhere else to get it."
Isara sat up fully, eye's sparling with hope. "Really?"
"I wouldn't lie to you."
Isara smiled, her shoulders sagging in relief. She moved closer and hugged him, burying her face into his neck. "Thank you," she whispered.
Dusk didn't speak; he just kissed her cheek and hugged her back. Isara pulled away from his grip.
"So what did you do to him?" she asked.
"I beat him up."
Isara raised an eyebrow.
"Really," Dusk said. "It wasn't even that bad. I just scared him."
"Okay, I just hope he doesn't go to my mother complaining about my boyfriend beating the crud out of him."
"If he does, I'll just beat him up again."
Isara smiled slightly, her fingers interlocking with his. Dusk softly kissed her on the cheek then said, "I will stay with you if you want for tonight, just in case he or your mother show up."
The female vampire squeezed his hand. "I would love that."
They kissed and Dusk couldn't help but think back to what Steve had said before, about the male vampire reminding him of someone from a long time ago. Dusk brushed it aside and instead kissed Isara a bit deeper. Steve was a jerk and was just probably trying to get under Isara's skin. Dusk would ignore him, at least for now.
Please review and tell me what you think! Was it good? Enough romance? Should I add more? Let me know!