Club Vampire

Chapter 13

Kerry didn't know how long they stayed on that bench, each lost in thoughts they knew they would never share. Kerry's were full of self-loathing. Now, she would never know what it was he wanted to talk about, just because she had to go 'clear the air'. She was frightened that she had ruined everything. The 'anymore' was the part which really got her. It doesn't matter anymore. But it had mattered before she inferred that she didn't have feelings for him and maybe never did. She was a fool.

Kerry's head whacked against her knee deliberately, figuring physical pain would be better than this mental torture she was putting herself through.

"Kerry," Michel said quietly. "Why don't you fill me in on the meetings you've been having at the Compound."

She turned and glared at him. She had pushed him away, or he was backing off himself, but suddenly everything between them stopped being personal and went back to business. "I thought they would want to know about you, but instead they started asking me about that weird vampire-like hiss thing I did."

Michel nodded, politely urging her to continue.

"You don't know about any of this?" She asked, wondering if it was possible that seemingly omniscient Michel wasn't aware of something going on in his own peer group. Her mind immediately flashed back to Nathaniel's shock at his father's subservience, and she wondered where Michel was in relation. She had always assumed that he was someone,

"I'd like to hear it from your side," he said. His answer was one of those wonderful Ethanisms, where he replied to her question without really giving her a definite answer.

"I'm terrified," she answered with brutal honesty. He had made her forget about her fears for the most part this evening, but it was still there. She kept looking over her shoulder, expecting to be attacked at any time, even with him standing beside her. She didn't even feel a reprieve during the day. Was she paranoid? Probably. It wasn't likely for a vampire to jump out of her closet during sunlight hours unless it was on a kamikaze mission and taking her along for the ride. Great, something else to worry about. But with Michel he made her feel the safest she had felt since the night she first entered Club Vampyr. It was almost strange, seeing the man who had once terrorized and frightened her more than anything become a hero in her eyes. "How much danger am I in?"

"At the moment, or in the long run?" Michel asked.

"Do you think," she asked, finally turning in her seat to face him, "that I'll live through this."

"Sure," he shrugged. "Just prove that you aren't a threat."

"How am I gonna do that? I don't even know why I'm a threat." Kerry's eyes widened and then narrowed as a horrible, but possible, thought crossed her mind. What if Michel had something to do with her problems at the moment? "Is this your fault?" She asked, reverting back to the suspicions she had held for him years ago. He had earned the reputation of being deceitful through almost every word he ever spoke, and even now the trust she had for him was still tinged with weariness.

"No," Michel's eyes looked astonished that she would have to ask such a question, and Kerry couldn't help but uncharitably ask herself whether he was surprised because it was untrue, or because she had figured it out. That wasn't reasonable of her, she realized, he hadn't done anything this time to make her distrust him. Yet.

"Ok." Kerry replied, dropping the question. "You know, it might sound silly now, but for a while I thought you were this vampire assassin guy."

"Really?" In the dark, she could see one of his eyebrows raise.

"Silly, isn't it?" Kerry sighed.

Michel suddenly went still, turning his head and listening to something. Kerry's blood ran cold as he sat, focusing on something in the trees beyond her that her mortal senses had no way to detect. That's it, she realized, she wasn't leaving his side, ever.

"Is someone there?" She asked quietly, trying to keep the franticness out of her voice.

"No," he told her, suddenly standing. The next thing he said belied the denial. "Let's head back."

"Michel," Kerry hissed, jumping to her feet and hurrying after him. She stumbled over a tree root and it threw her off balance enough that she would have fallen if his hand hadn't suddenly reached out and grasped her elbow again. With Michel propelling her in the correct direction, they made quick time out of the park, even though the pace he set was casual. It drove her nuts, the way they were walking at a normal pace. By this time, she was imagining that the hounds of hell themselves were on their trail, and still he kept it slow and inconspicuous. Kerry's brain was moving much faster, wondering if someone was after her. Was this an intimidation tactic meant to scare her, or something far more dangerous and sinister? Maybe, and this was a new thought, they weren't after her at all. Maybe they were after Michel.

Of course, maybe he had been telling the truth, and there really was no one behind them.

Michel pushed through a bush, stumbling onto the hard, whitish sidewalk of a busy street. He dragged Kerry after him, the branches scraping against her body. The moment she was back into the light of the street, she started brushing herself off, feeling as if tiny bugs were crawling along her skin from where the brush had made contact.

"There's nothing there," Michel assured her, his lips twitching in amusement.

"You sure?" She asked, shivering a bit. Yes, bugs did bother her a bit, but what worried her more was the idea of them. This was a new affliction of hers, something which had changed over the past few years.

"You never used to be scared of bugs." Michel looked intrigued, as if this new phobia made her suddenly more interesting. He put his hand on the small of her back, directing her down the sidewalk. Quickly, she fell into line beside him, and he dropped the gentle touch.

"Last spring I crawled under a bush in the front yard to get a ball for Ian and disturbed a spider nest." Kerry shrugged casually, as if just talking about it didn't make her skin crawl and a chill creep down her back.

"I once knocked over a hornet nest," Michel responded, that grin still tugging at his lips as he surveyed her.

"Really?" Kerry asked, surprised that he was offering information on himself and that they were back to having casual, if boring, conversation. It wasn't really something he would have a reason to lie about, either. "I suppose it's something I'll get over in time."

Michel shrugged.

"Was there really someone following us?" She asked, changing the subject with a hasty glance over her shoulder. She didn't know whether she felt safer now that they were out in the light, or whether it was worse. If someone was targeting her, she was now in plain sight. Of course, she was now in a public place, with cars driving past and teenagers hanging out on the other side of the street. Witnesses made her feel a little more secure.

"Not anymore."

"But there was," she persisted.

"Why does it matter?" Michel snapped at her, spinning on her in confrontation. Kerry took a step back at the cold nothingness in his eyes. He never got angry at her: annoyed, frustrated, amused, fed up – yes. Angry was new.

"Because I'd like to know when I'm about to die." Kerry snapped back, her own hazel eyes flashing back at him. "I want to know when I'm in danger."

Michel reached over and grabbed her arm, yanking her closer so that he was staring down at her, his gaze intimidating. "You're ALWAYS in danger." He snarled, somehow managing to keep his voice level. He sighed in frustration, and she could feel the breath whip across her cheek. Letting her go, he ran his hand through his hair, staring into the evening behind her. She wanted to ask him what was wrong, and maybe slip in a comforting word or two, but for some reason she couldn't disrupt his haunted gaze. She knew he wasn't looking at anything in the real world. Instead, Kerry looked at his profile, relishing and reveling in his almost feminine nose, strong jaw, and high cheekbones. He was her age now, and just as handsome in a beautiful way as he had been back then.

He looked at her, eyes no longer cold or furious, and their gazes locked.

Kerry smiled, and for the first time in a long while, it was fully reflected in her eyes.

"I like strawberry milkshakes too," Kerry told him as a peace offering as they continued back down the sidewalk. It sounded inane to her own ears, but she was tired of real life. She wanted to go back to the almost-fun they were having in the beginning of this pseudo-date.

"Next time we'll get that then," he promised, and Kerry couldn't help but grin internally. "Come on," he grabbed her wrist and pulled her into the street. They darted across the two lanes, casually jaywalking despite the fact that the street wasn't exactly devoid of cars. Kerry didn't even have time to berate him.

"You're really leading me into a life of crime," she teased once they were safely across the street. "What's next? Are you going to give me a pen and force me to deface some money?"

Michel grinned. "Maybe." They walked a short distance down the street before he dragged her around the side of a building. Kerry blinked, finding herself in the parking lot where they had left his car. So much for her keen sense of direction, she thought. "Hold on a sec," he told her, putting his hand up in front of her as she went to open the front door. "I have to grab something from the trunk first."

Kerry shrugged, thinking it was strange that he wasn't letting her into the car, but she had learned not to question him. She almost snorted at that idea. Not question Michel? Yeah, right. To pass the time, she jumped on one of those cement parking blocks and started to walk across the line of them placed in front of the restaurant windows. Just as she prepared for a longer jump than usual, her cell phone went off and she almost lost her balance and tumbled to the pavement. She knew from experience that falling would result in some nasty scrapes and burns. She didn't even want to know what the blood would do to Michel.

"Hello?" She asked, looking at the caller display and seeing that the number was from her apartment. She immediately drew Michel's interest with the sound of her voice, though he still appeared to be preoccupied with whatever was in his trunk. More than likely, he was just trying to make it seem as though he weren't completely eavesdropping in on her conversation.

"Where are you? I'm worried sick!" Nathaniel said, sounding casual enough that she wondered if he just noticed she wasn't home yet. A swift look at her phone display told her it was hovering around the 02h00 mark.

"Don't worry. I'm safe with… Michael." She hesitated enough saying his name that he glanced sharply at her.

"Safe? How can you be safe with some uber bad assassin?"

"Because he's not," Kerry responded. "False alarm. You should see the guy who is. He's this huge…"

"He is," Nathaniel insisted, cutting her off.

"No, you don't understand." Kerry told him. "I met the real assassin guy today."

"No, Ker, you don't understand. Dad just accidentally slipped that your Michael is definitely, absolutely, one-hundred percent the internal vampire slayer or whatever the official title is. Apparently he's trying to woo and court you into falling in love with him and then you'll spill all your secrets and probably some other stuff which is equally as vital to your life at the mo."

Kerry laughed, looking at Michel to see his reaction. His face was closed to her again, and she knew without a doubt that he could hear both sides of the conversation. "No he isn't."

"Stop being so naïve!" Nathaniel snapped. "He's tricking you."

"No one is tricking me," she replied gently. Her voice took on a hard edge she rarely ever used. "Because one - that love thing? It already happened with him. And two - he is my secret."

"Kerry, I have a bad feeling about this," Nathaniel's voice was hesitant. "Be careful."

She hung up on him before promising that she would. When it came to Michel, she was never sure of anything. Once she clicked her phone closed, she looked him in the eye. The blue was calm, not telling her anything. "You lied to me again."

"You've been expecting it," he replied.

"Yes." Kerry replied, far wearier than someone her age had any right sounding. "But that doesn't mean I have to be pleased."

©RelenaFanel.Jan12.2007

So, you want to read more about Kerry and Michel, you say? Well then, I just posted a Christmas story over on the VVV LJ community. If it makes you even more inclined to check it out – there is sex. The link is in my profile.

I love feedback, as always.