Note: Enjoy. Please R&R.
Chapter 3 – Adrenaline
My mental stability was rather complex. Disciplining the mind is very difficult, but the control one gains in the end is very useful. I acted completely pathetic for my first encounter with a vampire. I did not plan on acting like that ever again, even in the face of death himself. I would take whatever fate that was chosen for me bravely and gracefully, never plead for my life in a shallow pathetic attempt to live (Of course, it was always easy for one to tell themselves that).
Regardless, I was determined to keep my composure in front of this vampire. If he had wanted me, he would have taken me already. Simple as that.
Almost flaunting my sapphire eyes, I looked up to him. In all honesty, his face was more handsome than that of any human model I've ever seen. Blond hair curled just slightly over his eyes when his short hair had fallen over his face like it had now; the locks framed his eyes so perfectly it almost gave him the illusion of a soul able to draw a person in. His tall cheeks were shallow; his lips were thin and gently pressed upward into a smirk as he gazed down at my surprised stance. I didn't let these observations distract me, however.
He seemed to be playing civilized, so I would do the same, for Felicia watching. "My name is Ally." I replied sharply, "But thank you anyway." I added more gently, and tilted my head just slightly. His hands moved back down to his sides, but the little space between us did not grow. For a moment, his eyes flickered down and then met with mine again. I shuddered when thinking he had inspected my neck.
He became amused by my entire performance of serenity around an audience, compared to yesterday when it was one-on-one. "All the same, this night is yours tonight." he replied, smirk turning to a smile. His smile was thin and didn't reveal his teeth enough to see his fangs. If I hadn't known any better, it appeared he was...human.
Before another word could be said, he walked off into the crowd and disappeared among the jubilant bodies, leaving me speechless. Felicia grinned and winked at me, implying how 'well' she thought that had gone; and I simply rolled my eyes thinking of how ridiculous she would feel if she knew what that model really was. Next Lucy came and grabbed me, coaxing me up onto the platform in the middle of the room; a platform several birthday presents had been set on that managed to escape my notice before this point.
"Attention everyone! It's time to make a toast."
The toast for the occasion of the entire party had come. Lucy stood next to me on the platform and signaled for the music to silence and everyone to pick up their drink. I held a glass of champagne in my hand and looked out at the crowd; each person had their own glass in hand. "To Ally Lovett on her twenty-third birthday." Lucy announced proudly, raising her glass.
Again, the vampire with the icy eyes appeared in front of me, this time in the crowd with his own glass in hand. I noticed, and probably nobody else, that a red liquid filled his glass and I knew that red liquid was blood. "And many more." he added in a husky tone, his eyes almost mocking my age. Several clanging noises rang through the room, including Lucy's glass to mine, and all drank in the honor of my birthday.
I didn't drink at first; only stared as the handsome vampire made a motion of recognition towards me with the glass, than drank the blood red drink to its very last drop. A satisfied sigh came from his mouth after, followed by a grin that fully revealed his fangs.
And again, he was gone.
I suddenly felt sick to my stomach. I couldn't even down my drink; when attempting, my mind shot back to the blood and I spit the sweet champaign back into the glass and handed it to somebody who was in between Lucy and I.
"Luce," I began, trying to keep my voice down and my face relaxed, "who is that model with the short blond hair that is-"
"More gorgeous than any man alive?" Lucy finished for me.
Nice choice of words, I thought. "I suppose."
"That'd be Luke, one of the newer male models. I invited him because I thought you and he would have some potential together." she announced happily.
Wonderful. My friend was trying to set me up with a vampire. "Thank you for the thought, Lucy. But I don't think it's going to work out." I replied flatly. It doesn't have anything to the fact that for a first date, we could skip through the cemetery together admiring graves and instead of a first kiss we could share a friendly biting of the neck. And the second date: funeral grounds.
Lucy looked crushed. "Why not? I thought for sure not even you could resist his looks... Have you met him yet?" she said in her innocent tone.
I tilted my head. "Yes, more than once I'm sorry to say. He's not my type." I'd rather live.
The blonde looked at me in disagreement. "Everyone isn't your type. How can you deny his looks?"
When my life is on the line. "Appearance isn't everything." I stated simply. "Models were always too high-class for me anyway. His tastes are probably too rich and he'd get bored with me in a second. Just drop it."
Defeated, Lucy stomped off, hopefully to find Daniel and rant. Not even a full minute later, Daniel came strolling up to me slightly out of breath and looking rather dazed. "Blimey, I swear I had just seen you and Felicia walking out of the door together. Ran after the lass and...well, it very well wasn't you. Anywho, I wanted to ask if you knew what Lucy's plans were for the rest of the night."
I raised a brow at the odd explanation. "Another lady in a blue dress? Really, you should start looking up at women's faces more and less at their 'eyes.'" I told him, than set a hand over my cleavage, which his eyes darted up from when I mentioned I noticed. He blushed under his dark curls. "Lucy went that way, that's all I know." I pointed. "But I'm heading home. It's passed midnight and I'm not feeling so well."
Daniel started moving the direction I pointed. "That's fine, go turn in. I'll cover a bit for you, if you want; keep Lucy distracted." The slight glint in his eyes told me of a more foreboding objective. I laughed to myself and shook my head. "And don't worry about all of the gifts, Luc' and me will bring 'em over later."
I thanked him before walking out. The rush of cool night air seemed to clear my senses. Any nausea I was experiencing lessened the more time spent in this refreshing evening setting. I decided walking alone in a nice dress and heels at night wasn't as bad idea; even if my mind was screaming idiot, suicide at myself. What could I say, I took risks every now and then, probably more than one should, but at least I was still alive to account for them.
I walked through alleys and streets, taking the fastest route to my house. I was okay for the first few blocks, just trying to focus on getting home and not about the sickening and confusing events that had taken place with vampires these passed couple days. Finally I became very paranoid; and it wasn't because I was afraid of the dark, but even the bravest of people have to be apprehensive of what's lurking around the corner. There was a gloomy, ominous feeling whichever direction I went. My own heels against the pavement was the only out-of-place sound I could hear, but the hairs on my neck were standing on end.
The faster I walked, the more fearful and more horrible I felt. So many ridiculous thoughts swam through my head now, making it worse; things like any sort of human or vampire jumping out at me. I did know a bit of self defense, but nothing useful against the supernatural. I thought of the vampire Luke and how he might be the one giving me this paranoia, stalking me like a lion does its prey.
Suddenly I screamed when the lid of a trashcan clobbered to the ground, but stopped when I saw it was only a stray cat scavenging for food. I tried to calm myself the best I could as I began walking again and now I was regretting not taking a cab.
I laughed silently to myself; I was acting pathetic again. This entire night has been something else. Just get home and take a nice long shower in the morning... Relaxing thoughts. Nothing was wrong and everything was alright.
The very ominous and threatening atmosphere swept back over me when I turned the corner. The only street light was flickering here, making monsters of shadows and then to darkness again. Taking a deep breath, I held my arms across my chest and continued on.
The street light turning on and off again kept at an uneven sequence as my heels made hollow sounds on the damp cement. I kept my eyes straight ahead of me, concentrating only on getting to my destination.
That was until I felt another pair of eyes on me. Getting an instinctual shiver, I immediately stopped and looked up, and the light flickered off again.
Almost instantly the bulb began to illuminate again and I surveyed the small alley built behind me. There was a simple dumpster surrounded by smaller trashcans with plastic bags full of garage littering the ground around them.
The light flickered on and off again, and this time my eyes focused around a body leaning on the pile of garbage bags next to the canisters.
My body tensed and my nose wrinkled at the smell. Could they have been watching me, just as intently?
The streetlight flickered again.
I found myself walking closer. Perhaps, due to the position they were laying in, that it was a person who was hurt? They made no sounds, no movements; only lay on the garage with outstretched arms and legs as if the mounds of waste were a comfortable bean-bag chair.
The thought crossed my mind to speak and ask if the lifeless person was alright. No sound would produce when my mouth opened. I quickly closed it and continued closer until only a yard separated the body from mine.
Instant darkness and then instant light.
My eyes focused on the yellow dress clinging to the body of a woman. A familiar woman when surveying her perfectly shaped legs ruined by several fresh and bleeding slits and canine bite marks; one leg twisted unnaturally to the left. The dress was destroyed with tears and stained with blood; it hardly covered any important areas. Her thin twisted arms were strewn over the garbage, covered in more wounds than her legs and a different kind of bite mark; two fangs breaking into the skin. The lovely tan Latino skin was disgraced; she was still so alive with blood oozing but obviously dead.
I cringed when my mind tried to produce what had happened to this poor woman.
I gasped shakily when skipping her neck and looking to her face; she was familiar in her dress and beautiful build because she was somebody I knew. Somebody named Felicia. A model I had spent a good chunk of my night with. Her eyes told the story of her death as they stared wide, lifeless yet with so much fear, open to see through like a mirror into the world of the living from the realm of the afterlife. The most gorgeous dark hair fell in blood soaked tangles around her shoulders.
This drew my attention to her neck. Two prominent fang-like marks bruised her skin there; hardly any blood leaked from the wound, like it was cleaned thoroughly. Her collarbone was sharp and protruding, but carved mercilessly into the soft skin at the base of the neck was a word I had to squint my eyes to read clearly.
'V-E-N-G...E? A-N-C-E' Some letters were hard to make out but the point was very crystal clear to me after a moment.
My mother and this model shared a killer. There was no possible way that the word 'Vengeance' left with the bodies were a coincidence among vampires, among any killer with a signature.
Again, the light flickered into darkness, and this time stayed in darkness.
The adrenaline was pumping faster than my mind was working. I was scared but at the same time had a breakthrough in my entire investigation to find my mother's killer. I took more deep breaths, did not move an inch in the darkness and only counted the seconds before the light came back on. I felt an unmeasurable amount dread when light cast my shadow over Felicia's body, who had not changed a hair, but my eyes now darted up to a new presence standing at the end of the alleyway.
A man, thin and tall, wearing a long dark jacket that reached his calves and swished violently back and forth as he came closer with unmistakable speed, so that it looked as if was wasn't walking at all.
The adrenaline began rushing through my legs, turning my body the opposite direction to run even though I knew it was completely useless against a vampire's speed. I didn't know what to do; I could have been running from the murder, I could only have moments to live!
I didn't know what else to do besides carry myself away as fast as I humanly could!
And naturally in this panic, I would twist my legs and fall over my own feet. I closed my eyes and covered my head with my hands. I felt numbness wash over my body, mostly because I was so convinced this was the end. Oh, why had I lingered so long with the dead!
I waited. I waited so long the numbness was slowly withering away and the pain of falling over into the cement had set in. My eyes shot open, body shaking slightly, and I looked up into the backside of a man who seemed to be defending me from the vampire dressed in the long overcoat, and I recognized the short blonde hair atop his head as Luke's.
Looking at the ground eye-level, I saw the tall and thin vampire's feet walking very slowly over to Felicia's mangled body lying in the trash.
"Taylor." Luke said with no sure emotion.
"Lucas." the other vampire replied politely. There was a darkness underneath the manners. "If the human is no relation to you, I would feel better if you disposed of her properly." I felt my body slowly going numb again, my voice refused to follow the will I gave it. The little adrenaline running through my veins still hoisted my body back unto two legs, where I stood in total awe with the meeting of these two vampires.
"She is with me." he told the other vampire protectively, a low growling in his throat. I could see his shoulders tensing as he stood in front of me, as if shielding me from a danger.
The other vampire surveyed Luke and then me from afar, before he seemed unphased and turned back to Felicia's body. A cell phone had found its way to his hand from his pocket and he began speaking into the device. "I need a clean up crew in the Gaddsbury alley for a victim, killed by her." He paused. "Yes, I am sure it wasn't from the covens and it was her, that is why I am calling you to get rid of every shard of evidence from human eyes until we apprehend her." he spat angrily.
I was bewildered. My eyes were wide as I stood and listened to the tall vampire and tried to make heads or tails of what he was talking about. I had so many questions that I wanted answers for but as soon as Luke turned around to face me, my mind went blank out of fear.
The tall vampire glanced our way when he was finished on the phone. "Lucas, make sure she doesn't interfere anymore. I'd hate to see the poor mortal have...an accident."
When Luke was defending me a moment ago, I felt relatively safe behind his sturdy build. But now that he was facing me with a very stony and serious expression, I lost most of my composure and melted under his eyes. There was a weakness I felt under him I'd never felt before; so weak my legs gave out and he quickly caught me, face so close to mine I could feel the curled hair tickling my forehead.
"Forget everything you've seen, Allison."
I didn't have a chance; I couldn't even scream before the vampire called Luke pressed a strong hand on the base of my neck and I fell into darkness.