Club Vampyr
Chapter 19
"What?" Kerry asked in a whisper. She took a deep breath, "I need a second." She was not aware of the expressions flittering across her face – the confused frown of her eyes, and the shocked 'oh' of her mouth – but she was aware of the thoughts of betrayal circling in her head. "But Tim said his boss…"
"I'm Tim's boss," Michel reminded her.
"Your boss, then. I assumed he was the one who changed her."
"No. Which is why he's so dangerous to her. He likes the new ones, and he hates me enough to assume she means something to me."
"Does she?"
"She was a means to an end."
It infuriated Kerry to hear him speak of her best friend in such an unemotional manner, but at the same time she was grateful for that answer. She didn't think she could have dealt with learning Nelle was now his. She still felt a sense of ownership towards Michel, as though he was somehow hers because she met him first.
"But I don't think you really get it," he continued. "He likes mind games at first, and then he gets mean. It isn't only Nelle who is in danger."
"You think he'll come after me?"
"I think if he knew about the past, he would have started already. All you need to know is to stay away from him."
"Good plan," Kerry said. "And how am I supposed to do that without knowing what he looks like?"
This time, Michel did look startled. "Weren't you watching?"
"Of course I was!" She exclaimed. Michel grinned smugly, probably because he knew her well enough to subtly manipulate her into acting as he wanted, using her own curiosity against her. Kerry scowled at him. "But how am I supposed to stay away from someone whose face I couldn't see?"
"I checked the camera position. I made sure you had excellent visibility and I wasn't standing in front of it."
"No, you weren't. It was like his face was masked by shadows," Kerry muttered, beginning to feel like it was her fault.
Michel looked slightly surprised, and then frowned the smallest bit.
Kerry began to worry. "What is it?" She didn't like it when Michel's dark eyebrows rose the way they did. It rarely meant good things when she managed to surprise him, except for maybe when she did so out of her own stupidity.
"Obviously, he knew someone was watching. He rarely ever bothers to hide his face." Michel shrugged as though he wasn't concerned and moved from the desk.
"How could he know?" Kerry demanded, her questions coming out more rapidly now that he was moving away from her. "What does that mean? Am I in more danger now?" He crossed over to his gun cache and allowed the wall to open to reveal the display. "More importantly," Kerry continued, "what does that mean for you?"
Michel looked at her, his blue eyes immediately locking with hers. Kerry knew she asked the right question. "Nothing," he answered shortly.
"Nothing!" Kerry echoed. "Don't give me that. What if he knows?"
"Kerry," Michel started, the tone of his voice reminding her of how he used to say her name when he finally had enough of her questions. "You're thinking too much."
And you aren't thinking enough, she wanted to snap back at him, but wisely kept her mouth shut. Michel was one of the only people she knew who would make sure he got out of a situation alive. He probably had about five contingency plans in place to maximize his survival. "Do me a favour. Try to make sure I live through this too."
"Do you really want to owe me that much of a debt?" he asked mildly, finally picking out a gun from the rack, and replacing the one he already had on him. He held on to the gun he had in his belt, and Kerry would have wondered briefly at the reason he would change weapons when there didn't seem to be much of a current threat if he hadn't currently manage to divert her attention with his question.
"Debt! You owe ME!"
"That life has already been repaid," he told her, crossing the room and placing the gun he had been carrying earlier beside her. "This is now yours." Kerry moved automatically to pick it up, the metal surprisingly cool despite his touch, and yet hot beneath her palm. She couldn't take the last step and allow her fingers to curl around the butt.
"Repaid? Are you referring to the fact you let me live?" Kerry asked crossly, wanting to aim the gun at him.
"No."
"Then what? Nelle?"
He ignored her, placing his hand over hers and the gun. He leaned forward, his blue eyes a tangible beauty. "Do you know how to use one of these?"
Kerry nodded. "After the incident a few years ago one of my dad's ex-marine friends took me to a shooting range a few times."
"I bet you're amazing," he breathed against the pulse of her neck, causing her skin to flush. Kerry swallowed as his fingers softly brushed the skin of her cheek, the caress so gentle, it was like a feather tickling skin. Like always, he changed the situation to fit his purpose. He continued speaking, "You threw me for a loop that first night when you said you didn't love me anymore."
"Why are you bringing that up now?" she asked, allowing her warm breath to slide across his neck. Turnabout was fair play.
"Because, what I wanted to tell you that night was that I turned Nelle."
"Are you having sex with her," she asked again, ignoring what seemed to be an apology for keeping another secret.
"Would it bother you if I was?"
"Yes."
"I'm not," he said, pressing his mouth against her pulse. It jumped beneath his lips, and Kerry wondered just how much restraint he had. She leaned into him, allowing the quick rhythm of her heart to beat against the soft press of his cool kiss.
"Michel," she warned. "This is the reason I told you I don't love you."
"Kerry," he said, mimicking her habit of using his name when she was trying to be serious. "You know I don't care for love."
She pulled away harshly, rolling back on his computer chair farther than she meant to. Fortunately, it put her out of his immediate reach, though she knew it would take little effort on his part to bridge the gap. He stared at her sardonically. "Bastard," she said.
Michel smiled.
"Sometimes I really think you're bipolar," she muttered, staring at the computer screen as the screensaver clicked on. She watched the image of herself in that foolish white corset, her back arched and face contorted into a snarl. It was the hissing scene, and it was set to repeat. "What is THAT doing there?"
Michel spread the fingers of his hand, hitting the mouse so that her game of solitaire flickered back on the screen. "I don't know," he said calmly, looking her straight in the eye. It was a sure sign he was lying, but she didn't need familiarity with his habits to tell her that.
Kerry crossed her arms over her chest. "Do we need to talk about this?"
"Talk about what?"
Kerry glared.
"No."
She was silent for a moment. "Ok. I have to know. Why is that your screensaver?"
"Because it turns me on?"
"I think you're lying."
Michel shrugged. "What can I say? We've already established how good I am at it."
"Eugh! I want to go home. Now!"
Michel complied with little fanfare. It wasn't until they were in the car that he spoke again, since she determined it wouldn't be her who said something first. "Tonight has been a productive night for you."
"What do you mean?"
"You've forced answers for things I would rather not have admitted unless necessary."
"I think it was pretty damn necessary," Kerry said crossly. "I think there is a lot more you should be telling me that is equally as necessary."
"This is why we'd never get along."
Kerry's heart tripped. "What do you mean?" she repeated. "We get along fine."
"When? All those times you accused me of lying? All those times I actually was lying, and manipulating, and toying with you? Oh, I know, how about those three nights you were scared shitless of me?" His knuckles turned white on the steering wheel.
"Yes!" Kerry said anxiously. "Yes."
"That's messed up." He looked at her from the corner of his eye, his dark hair masking the deep blue color.
"We're messed up," she responded stubbornly.
"Kerry," Michel warned.
"But you're also forgetting that we haven't been like that since we met the second time. We got along fine that night at the movies."
"There is no 'we'."
"When people spend time together, there is always a 'we'," she said obstinately.
Michel slapped the steering wheel with his palm. "Don't you understand? I'm trying to make this easier for you."
"To hate you? I get it." Kerry crossed her arms under her chest, staring out the window so she wouldn't have to look at him. With the darkness and passing streetlights outside, it just served to make the window into a reflecting surface, so his wavering image was still over her shoulder. "I somewhat even get why. What you don't get is that hate and love are too strong a category to put my emotions into, and these obvious attempts at pissing me off will only amuse me once I gain some distance from your annoying and smirking face!"
"You are angry," he pointed out, but there was no smugness behind his tone.
"You're still a bastard." Kerry turned away from the window as they pulled up in front of her apartment. She gathered her things off the floor where she had left them.
"I know." He paused. "Look, the screensaver isn't all that important. It's to remind me to get back to work and ground my focus when I haven't moved for a while."
"I'll see you tomorrow," she said as a peace offering back.
.x.
Kerry wasn't sure how it happened, but on her walk back from classes the next day she found herself smiling about Michel's screensaver. In the image, she looked like a piece of artwork by Victoria Frances, but what really struck her as ironic was the moment he had chosen to display. Out of every second of footage from that night, he had picked the one second where she was channeling his powers. She didn't think he was attracted by her palpable fear and heaving cleavage, and she knew he wasn't worried or frightened by the strange and inexplicable power radiating off the human girl. What she did believe was that he was concerned that his secret could come out in her one second of reaction, and so he was displaying it to remind himself of his tenuous situation.
It was in that moment that she realized that the real reason he had saved her life during the vampire attack the other night had been because he needed to protect his power source. She could remember what he said to her last night about how if she died his power would rush back into his body and he wouldn't be able to hide it, though it seemed like that conversation had been ages ago. Lost in thought, she stepped out into traffic on automatic, not even seeing the don't-walk sign.
"Whoa there," a voice behind her said, the man grabbing her by the upper arm and pulling her back to the sidewalk. He put his hands up once she stumbled backwards and turned to shoot the stranger a glare. "Sorry. I didn't mean to take liberties. You just looked like someone deep in thought and I figured you didn't really want to be hit by a car. If I was wrong, then by all means run into traffic. I won't be a hero this time."
"Thank you," Kerry muttered, slightly embarrassed. She didn't know this man, though there was a nagging feeling she had seen him before, but she couldn't place where.
"Andrew Howard," he introduced himself, offering his hand. "And don't take this as a poor excuse as a pickup line, but I'm sure I've seen you somewhere before."
"I'm Kerry," she replied awkwardly, allowing him to give her hand a quick shake. She deliberately left her last name off the introduction. She really was suspicious by nature. "I'm sure you say that to all the girls you pull out of oncoming traffic." The sign finally said walk, and she stepped back on the crosswalk. "Thanks for the save," she called over her shoulder, hurrying across the street as quickly as she could. Don't trust anyone, the voice in her head whispered. She was sure that guy had been above board and not some stooge the vampires had sent to kill her, especially since he had possibly saved her life, but that didn't turn her into a fool – even if he had been good looking, if slightly too old for her.
Of course, he was probably years younger than the guy she was currently pretending to see.
Kerry got home and quickly started her homework. The required readings she had to do for the week seemed to be never-ending, and she hadn't even started the ones she was supposed to do over the previous weekend yet. Kerry knew that once the sun went down, she wouldn't be able to concentrate on anything anyway, and that prediction came true. Shortly after sundown, Nathaniel sauntered into her apartment, heading towards the kitchen first and digging through her fridge.
"Don't you have anything good to eat?"
"When the heck am I supposed to find time to shop?" Kerry called back from her seat on the couch. A highlighter was clenched in her mouth, and she formed her words around them. "I barely have time to sleep!"
"You need to stop these wild party habits of staying out until three in the morning," he pointed out, gnawing on a chunk of frozen chocolate.
Kerry paused as she looked up at him, her highlighter falling out of her mouth in shock. "Oh, you didn't."
"Wha?" Nathaniel asked innocently from around the Hershey bar.
Kerry fumed. "Don't you know not to come between a girl and her chocolate?" she seethed.
He observed her for a second, then pulled the bar out from where it was stuck on his front teeth and handed it to her. "You look like you need this way more than I do."
"Thanks," she responded sarcastically, looking at the chocolate with the imprint of his teeth. She shrugged, savagely breaking off a chunk and passing it back to him.
"Whoa. Hostile. What did he do now?"
"Nothing," Kerry lied, depressed. "Did you hear that he found Nelle, and she's safe for the moment?" Kerry made sure to attribute the success to Michel. It wouldn't hurt for Nathaniel to think a little better of him.
"Yeah. Dad called. He also said he caught the two of you making out."
"That's none of your dad's business!" Kerry said hotly, jumping up from the couch and staring down at him with her hands on her hips.
"Holy fuck, Ker. What are you doing? He's dangerous."
"I know."
"Sit down," Nathaniel demanded, "I'm not done."
Kerry complied, more intrigued by Nathaniel giving orders than she was concerned about listening to him. "What lecture do you have for me today?"
"He eats people like you for lunch."
"People like me?"
"Trusting. Naïve."
"You think I'm trusting and naïve?" Kerry echoed with surprise. That was exactly the opposite of what she would have said about herself.
"You're playing suck-face with a vampire!"
"So'd your mom!"
"Don't bring my mother into this!"
"Fine!" Kerry snapped, and then got control over her emotions. "There isn't much difference between what I'm doing with Michel and what you're doing with Nelle."
"I knew Nelle when she was human. I know her core personality, I know her facial expressions, and I know how she thinks. Do you even know what Michael is really like? Do you know anything about him?"
"No."
"You know nothing about what these older and more powerful vampires can be like. They look for games to play to alleviate their boredom."
"I know. And Michel isn't the one I have to be concerned about." She pulled the gun out from where she had hidden it between the couch cushions. She placed it on her lap to emphasize her point, the barrel pointing towards the center of the room. "He's worried."
"Oh, fuck me," Nathaniel exclaimed eloquently.
They had a moment to appreciate the profoundness of that statement before the phone rang. Kerry dove for it, her sense of time telling her it had been at least an hour since the sun had set.
"Hello?" She asked, picking up the cordless phone and immediately crossing into the kitchen. She didn't recognize the caller ID, which meant it probably wasn't her father, but she wasn't a hundred percent sure it was who she wanted it to be, either.
"Do you want to try for that date again tonight?"
"Of course," Kerry said, her breath hitching with his question.
"I'll pick you up in an hour."
"Wait," she said rapidly, preventing him from hanging up before she could ask her question. "Where are we going?"
"You can wear jeans and sneakers," he promised, avoiding the question and at the same time proving he knew a decent amount about women. "Or that white skirt."
Kerry laughed. "I'm only wearing sneakers if we're going to hang out in a cemetery."
"A cemetery?" he asked incredulously. "Really Kerry. Could you be more cliché?"
"Not even if I tried."
Michel paused. "You may be walking, but I promise there will be no graveyards or abandoned subway stations."
"This already sounds better than some of the other places we've been."
"Why do you continuously remind me that—" Michel broke off, the sound of other people rustling in the background. "I've got to go. Later."
Kerry hung up the phone with a smile, only to encounter Nathaniel standing in the doorway with his arms crossed, the gun hanging loosely from his fingers. "What?" she asked defensively, stalking up to him and grabbing the weapon. She glared at him for a second, brushing by on her way to get ready for her date. Pausing half way to her room, she turned back. "Yesterday you seemed to support us going out, and today you're giving me the protective dad glower."
"If only. At least I know you'd listen to your dad if he told you you were making a huge mistake in judgment."
Kerry frowned stubbornly. "Not this time."
"Really?" Nathaniel questioned, not sounding as though he believed her. "But you're such a daddy's girl. What would you do if I called him and explained the situation?"
"Try it," Kerry dared. "Do you think you could take the cold shoulder I would give you for the rest of your life?"
"At least you'd be alive for it."
"I know the risk," Kerry snapped. "But remember that it was you who first forced me to go to Club Vampyr. I'm just attempting to make the best of the situation. My survival hinges on Michel!" Kerry closed her bedroom door with a sense of finality.
When Kerry exited her room close to an hour later Nathaniel was gone, as was the rest of her chocolate. "Bugger," she muttered, shoving her feet into a pair of ballet flats. She was wearing jeans, the leg wide enough to hide the fact she was wearing bulky mansocks stolen from her father under the nice shoes. Her blouse was charcoal grey and flowing, classy enough for a restaurant, but casual so it wouldn't be overkill if he took her to the movies again. She hated dressing for dates, as so much compromise went into the outfits. It was an art she hadn't quite mastered. She couldn't wear the fancy dress to the movies, and a sweater would be conspicuous in a more formal area. Usually, she wasn't all that concerned with getting the proper image on these dates, but for some reason she always strived to show Michel she was attractive.
When she wasn't trying to make him believe she didn't care what he thought, that was.
"Hey!" she exclaimed, opening the door when he knocked. "What's the temperature out? Light-weight or winter?" She opened the sliding door to her coat closet, wondering if Nelle would care if she borrowed her cute brown jacket.
"Below freezing," Michel responded, looking at her with one of his trademark unfathomable expressions.
Kerry pulled out the black wool coat and shrugged into it, surveying his face. "What's wrong? Are we postponing again?"
"What? No. Are you ready?"
"That depends. Am I dressed properly?"
"You're fine," he told her, holding the door open for her to exit before he did. It had not been the response she was looking for. Kerry locked the door behind them, trailing behind him down the hallway.
"Where are we going?"
"It's a surprise," he reminded, pressing the elevator button to the basement. Kerry didn't know how he had managed to get a parking space actually inside the building without proof of lease, but if anyone could manage it, it was him.
"You aren't kidnapping me, are you?"
He just looked at her again, mild annoyance across his classic features.
Kerry grinned.
"Stop antagonizing me," he warned, stepping off the elevator with his car key in hand.
"Or what?" she pressed. "You'll threaten my life." She wasn't sure how safe it was to goad him in an isolated underground garage, but she had never really learned the concept of limits when it came to her conversations with the vampire.
"How about your brother's. Ian was it?"
Kerry stopped cold. "Don't bring my brother into this. That is sooo uncalled for. This is between you and me."
"I agree," Michel said calmly, automatically unlocking the doors to a nearby SUV with his keychain. He opened the passenger side door for her, and she slid in, glad she wasn't wearing a skirt. Five minutes into the date and they were already at each other's throats. There was something in what he said that struck her as more than an idle threat, and they were on the road before she thought of a way to phrase a question.
"Was that a warning?"
"You can take it however you want." Michel turned the car in the direction of the business district. "How was your day?"
"Okay," she answered, picking at her fingernails and staring at him out of the corner of her eye in the dim light, and then continued speaking so they wouldn't have to sit in silence this time. "I almost got hit by a car. Nathaniel's mad at you, and therefore me by proxy—"
"Or the other way around. He's angry at you and so hates me by proxy."
"True," she agreed. "I'm sure there are tons of reasons for him to be angry with me."
Silence.
"How's school?"
"I'm behind on my readings. I was actually thinking about it in my class today. This thing," she waved her hand for emphasis, "could take months. I don't know if I can keep living in this state of constant fear for that long."
"It'll be over soon," he promised.
"But what if it isn't? Soon probably has a different meaning to vampires. In your version of soon I could be thirty, or older."
"It'll be over soon. If not, you won't have to worry about thirty."
Kerry froze in horror, gaping at him across the expanse of the seats. "Does that mean what I think it does?"
"The fact that your life is under threat isn't a new piece of information. I can't make it all better."
"I wish you could."
Michel sighed. "Sometimes I do too." He turned the blinker on, smoothly pulling into the parking lot of a mall.
"You're taking me shopping?" Kerry questioned, mentally calculating her bank account and wondering if she could afford new clothing right now. She had a moment of anxiety that maybe he hated the way she was dressed, and then she brushed it off as a foolish thing to think of.
"I could if you want, but I had something else in mind," Michel said cryptically, getting out of the parked vehicle. Kerry slid out her side, knowing is she hesitated long enough he'd open the door for her. "Come on," he urged from the front of the car, holding his hand out to her. Kerry wondered if he was willing to hold her hand to present an image of unity to other people or if he was telling her this was really a date. She hesitated for a moment before sliding her palm against his. His hand was warm, if not humanly hot, and she knew he had taken that hour for a meal.
©RelenaFanel.Nov22.2007