by Thea Dane
“I think I noticed. Is it because of all those Bing Crosby songs stuck on repeat?”
“It has nothing to do with the office playlist. My father was slain during this time of year.”
She stiffened in his arms. She missed a step. “I’m so sorry, Lee. Your mother told me what happened to your father. I didn’t know it was at Christmas.” She broke away from him. “I shouldn’t be here with you. Excuse me.”
Violetta didn’t make eye contact with the puzzled guests as she went to the drink table and helped herself to a cup of water.
She spent the rest of the evening drifting behind the scenes. The gala raised more money to pay for the crewmen’s medical bills. She made mindless chitchat with other guests while Lee spoke to people in the front of the ballroom. Towards the end of the night, she slipped away to return to the women’s dressing room to change back into her casual clothes.
She got into the empty elevator. Just before the doors closed, Lee got inside. “Why do you keep running away from me, Violetta?” The doors shut behind him.
“I’m not running.” She reached around him to hit the button to go to the first floor.
“This looks like avoidance.” He flipped the emergency switch. The motor stopped and the lights dimmed to conserve mode. “Now tell me what’s going on.”
Stuck in an elevator with him, she folded her arms. “You should go. I want you and I shouldn’t.”
“What did I say about going for what you want?”
“I warned you.” She unfolded her arms and moved forward to him. He seized her in a crushing kiss. She gave in to the urging of his mouth and the penetration of his tongue. She returned every kiss with her own hungry response. Her hands moved over his body, unbuttoning his jacket, unbuckling his belt.
He lifted her and pinned her between the wall and his body. She wrapped her legs around his waist. He hiked the long train of her gown high over her thighs and thrusted his length into her.
Violetta dug her nails into his back as he took her like a beast. She groaned and moaned like she was untamed herself. Her need for him was stronger than her will to leave, stronger than the guilt that previously threatened to overwhelm. “Harder.”
He pounded into her. He lowered his head to her shoulder while his fingers pressed into the soft flesh of her thighs. She felt the scrape of his fangs against her shoulder.
“Violetta....” He voiced her name in inquiry. She knew what he wanted to do.
“Yes, Lee.” She gave him permission. Her body screamed for the combination of pleasure and pain that only he could deliver.
She felt the initial sting of his fangs piercing her skin. He moaned as blood trickled into his mouth from her shoulder. Violetta’s vaginal muscles tightened as she watched him take nourishment from her. The idea that she fulfilled him in this way sparked something deeply primal, sexual, and unknown in her soul. This was forbidden, she was taught. This was for monsters. But now it felt right. Lee was no monster. But she was no longer who she once believed she was. The last thing she wanted to do was harm him. Violetta abandoned her former self and threw her head back as her orgasm flooded her body.
He kept thrusting until he came. Then he closed the wound on her shoulder. He set Violetta down. While he zipped up his pants, she walked on shaky legs to flip the elevator’s emergency switch in the opposite direction. The lights brightened and the motor came back on. The elevator resumed its descent to the first floor. “First, a moving car. Now, a stalled elevator. Why can’t we just have sex in bed like normal people?”
Lee didn’t laugh at her joke. “Because we’re not normal. There’s something I should say to you.” When he faced her, he was fully clothed in his tux again. The only indication of their prior lovemaking was his tousled hair. “Tomorrow I’m going to be made the official vampire lord of Briar City. My priorities will change. Those I allow in my circle must change.”
“What are you saying?”
“A vampire lord can’t be with a mortal woman.”
Violetta just looked at him. A part of her knew what he said to be true. She wasn’t surprised at all, and yet, a new emotion sprang up from her. “You knew you were going to be a vampire lord all along.”
“But I didn’t know things would advance like this between us.”
“So you thought you could kiss me and fuck me whenever you wanted until it was time to be crowned king of the vampires? Then what, I’m supposed to go away when you give the order?”
“What we had I will never have with another woman.”
“That’s supposed to mean something to me now? You’ve been telling me to go after what I want, what I need, and now you change your mind. It seems like you’re the one who’s running away from his emotions.”
His face darkened. “Violetta, I am not a man. I am a vampire, a predator who feeds on men. Don’t fool yourself into thinking we can have anything remotely like a human relationship.”
His words pained and stung. She barely noticed the elevator doors opening to the first floor. “I think you’re lying.”
“All this is, all this ever was, was a fling. The sooner you let that sink in, the better off you’ll be.”
Pain rent her chest. She wanted to say more, but the words wouldn’t come. There were truths she wanted to speak. Lies she wanted to dispel, but everything was messy in her mind. Messy, hurt, and confused. She shook her head at him and fled the elevator to go into the dressing room.
VIOLETTA DIDN’T CHANGE out of her gown. She grabbed her clothes and took a cab ride home. She made it to her apartment an hour later.
Everything was quiet. She didn’t hear the boom-boom of her roommate’s stereo speakers. As she turned the key, she prayed Debbie wasn’t home. The last thing she wanted to do was talk about her night at the gala and Lee Desmond. She wished she could put both behind her.
Debbie was nowhere to be seen in the apartment. Then Violetta remembered she had flown home to New York to be with family. She locked the door behind her, kicked her heels off in the middle of the kitchen, and padded across the cold linoleum to get to her bedroom.
She got the hot water going in the shower. As steam built in the bathroom, she undressed. Her skin was still tender from Lee’s attention. She got the dress down over her hips. He left his mark on her thighs in the form of dusky bruises in the shape of his fingertips. The sex they had was rough and fast, urgent because it wasn’t going to ever happen again. Nothing could ever happen between them. Lee made it clear. Mortal women and vampire lords didn’t mix.
She got in the shower and let the hot water run down her body, easing the sore muscles where he fastened his fangs on her shoulder. Through closed eyelids, she relived the intimate moments between them. Stolen moments that would be stuck in the past forever.
She leaned against the shower stall while emotions volleyed for dominance within. Anger made the water feel even hotter against her skin, while sadness sent pangs through her hands and the soles of her feet. Rejection made her drive her nails into the skin of her palms. Futility made her release her fists and lower her head.
She turned off the water. She forgot to get a towel out of the clean laundry hamper from the closet. She dripped onto the carpet as she made her way across her room. Violetta pulled the closet door open and saw her brother’s slayer kit on the middle shelf between the towels and bed linens. Looking at it made her feel guilty. She fucked everything up. From her family’s expectations, to her job at Desmond Industries, and most impactful of all, what she had with Lee.
The slayer kit sat on the shelf. Its solid wood case and heavy hardware clasps were sturdy, withstanding the test of trial and time. It seemed to mock her from its position. She snatched a towel from the shelf and slammed the closet door. She wasn’t going to do this anymore.
She threw on a t-shirt and clashing pajama pants before she reached for her phone. She put in a video call to her brother. Vince answered on the third ring. His face beamed with expectation. “Don’t tell me. You got the son
of a bitch already?”
“No, Vince. I’m calling off the hit. I won’t go through with it.”
“What did you say?” He shifted the camera. When the angle returned to his face, he was joined by Aunt Jessie and Uncle Isaiah. “Repeat what you said, sis. We all couldn’t hear you.”
“You heard me.” Violetta gripped the phone tight. “I said, I’m not going through with it. I’m not going to slay Lee. This vendetta is pointless.”
“Pointless?” Her uncle gave her a hard glare. “Look what they did to your brother. You’re saying that means nothing to you?”
“I’m sad Vince got hurt fighting vampires. I wish it never happened, but like you always say, uncle. It’s all part of the slayer code. He knew the risks.”
“Don’t talk about the code when you spit in our faces.” Her aunt shouted through the phone. “You dishonor everything we taught you, everything we raised you to be.”
Violetta gritted her teeth. Her aunt never ceased to remind her of where she came from and how grateful she ought to be. This time, she wasn’t going to fall for it. “You raised me to be purposeful and driven. You just never liked where I chose to put my energy.”
“Decorating houses? Why do you want to waste your life?”
“Trying to kill a vampire who’s making positive changes is a waste of my life. Slaying isn’t purposeful anymore. I’m not going to do it.”
Violetta never saw such contempt and rage wrapped up in the faces of the man and woman who called themselves her aunt and uncle.
“You are no family of ours anymore,” her aunt spoke slow, shaking all over. “You’re a waste of breath, unfit to carry the stake.”
The woman’s words stung, but she finally saw Aunt Jessie for what she was. “I never was your family. Vince and I were just two innocent children with hidden gifts, in need of a good home. You took advantage of us and trained us to be killers.”
“Don’t include me in this,” her brother snapped. “I’m with my real family.”
Violetta felt the tears behind her eyes. She didn’t wipe them away when they fell. “I’m sorry to hear that. But I get it. They make you feel like you belong, like you have a home. I’ll return your slayer kit. You can have mine, too.”
“Violetta, you got one last chance to get right,” the man whom she always called uncle threatened.
She stood her ground. “I’m not your tool anymore.”
Vince’s line cut out. She knew it wasn’t a malfunction of the phone. He ended the call. All three of them ended their talk with her. And she knew it was for good.
Hand shaking, Violetta dropped the phone on the nightstand. Then she sank on the bed and gave in to the heaviness reaching all the way through her body and mind.
THE MORNING OF CHRISTMAS Eve arrived with below freezing temperature. Violetta tugged her scarf closer around her neck to prevent what felt like fangs of ice slicing through her skin.
She was going in to work odd hours today. She probably should have called into the office to say she wasn’t coming, that she had family in town and wanted to spend the day before Christmas with them. But then she’d be lying. Her family was gone. They disowned her for refusing to kill Lee. Plus, no matter the fact that she didn’t want to see Lee, at least being in the office would give her something to do.
She looked around. It was only seven in the morning and people were already in their cars and on the sidewalks, hurrying to do some last minute errands before tomorrow. They looked rushed but happy. She observed them while she walked to the nearest train station, carrying her and her brother’s slayer kits in a cardboard box. Even though she was no longer welcome in her foster family’s home, she would leave both kits at their doorstep. They could do what they wanted with them. She used her kit for the last time.
As she was about to cross the street to go to the train station, a gray Rolls-Royce pulled up to the curb alongside her. She recognized the ski mask-wearing driver when he rolled down the window. “Harry? What are you doing here?”
He put the car in park. “I stopped by your apartment to take you to work, but you weren’t waiting in the parking lot.”
Shoot. She’d been such a wreck she forgot she requested a car service last night to avoid walking around in sub-zero temps. She clutched the box that held the Slayer kits under one arm. She couldn’t very well ask Harry to drop her off at her foster family’s house. “Do you think you could stop at the post office for me first? I have some last-minute packages I need delivered.”
“Yes, ma’am.” He started to get out the car to open the door for her.
“No, stay in.” She opened the door for herself and climbed into the back seat. “It’s really cold.”
Violetta closed her eyes to catch a little snooze for the next few minutes. When she opened them, she discovered they were in the industrial side of town. “Harry, I think you took a wrong turn. We passed the post office a long time ago.”
“There’s another one I’m taking you to. It doesn’t get as many long lines as the one downtown.”
“I don’t remember this side of town having a post office.” She looked at all the empty manufacturing buildings shut down for the holiday.
Harry continued driving. She saw the port in the distance. “What’s going on? I know for a fact there’s no post office near the port.” She tried to make eye contact with him through the rearview mirror. He kept his gaze straight ahead.
“What are you doing? Stop the car.”
Harry kept going, actually making the car accelerate. Violetta looked out the window in horror as the car went further and further away from the commercial side of the port area. “Let me out of the car now, Harry.”
“You should know by now I don’t take orders from you, human.” His fangs flashed in the mirror.
They were headed straight for a rock barricade. Violetta reached for the door handle. She heard a click as Harry pressed the lock button. “Stop or you’re going to kill us.”
He kept going. Desperate now, Violetta unbuckled her seat belt so she was able to shift and kick the window.
“Stop that.”
Harry yelled at her again as she kicked a second time, then a third. A small crack appeared in the glass. Harry swerved the car, cursing to himself. The road was slippery with patches of ice. Two lone male figures stood in the road ahead. He kept driving their way.
This was a setup. She had no idea whether those men had weapons and who they were. She raised both legs and kicked the window one last time. It was enough to shatter the glass.
“Hey.” Harry slowed down the car while he turned around in attempt to reach for her. Violetta threw the cardboard box containing the slayer kits at him. While the car zigzagged left and right in a slow fashion, she put her gloved hands on the windowsill and crawled out. She tumbled as she hit the pavement. Even at that slow pace, the impact was enough to knock the wind from her.
Harry’s car continued to swerve. The tires hit a large patch of ice. The brakes squealed and the car moved out of control. The two men in front got out of the way as Harry careened past them and slammed the car into the rock barricade.
Violetta climbed to her feet. She tried to run but the road was slippery with ice. She fell on her hands and knees. Someone grabbed her from behind before she had a chance to stand again. She twisted around in an attempt to throw a punch.
The vampire bared his fangs at her from beneath his sun protection mask. “Try it and I’ll tear through your jugular.”
He restrained her while the other vampire approached Harry’s car. Smoke came out from under the hood. The vampire stuck his head in through the driver side and then came back out shaking his head. “He’s gone. Neck’s broken.”
The vampire who restrained Violetta shrugged. “The boss won’t have to pay the rest of the bribe money to him then.” He gave a rough tug on Violetta’s arm. “Let’s go.”
He dragged her to another car waiting nearby. He threw her inside the backseat of a small sedan. Then he re
ached for an envelope in the front seat. “See this?” He shook the envelope and two syringe needles fell on the seat. “Humans don’t do so well with this poison. If you keep struggling, I’ll shoot them both in your arm.”
She had no choice but to calm down. She moved as far away from him in the backseat as she could. “Who are you? Who sent you to do this?”
The other vampire got in the car, holding her cardboard box. “I found this on the floor board in the other car. Looks like she was stocking up on slayer supplies.”
“The boss will want to see it.” The vampire who tossed her in the backseat slammed the door and went to get in on the driver’s side. He stepped on the gas and they sped away from the site of the accident.
Violetta had her phone in her pocket. Her mind raced to think of how she could get out of this. She heard the vampire. If she tried anything funny, he would slam that serum into her veins. She’d be dead before she could hear the dial tone to reach 911. Besides, what could untrained humans do against vampires?
Her head and body ached from landing on the concrete. Her vision faded in and out. Nausea threatened to send up bile to her throat. Her head fell back against the seat.
THE CLICK OF A DOOR opening made her open her eyes. She must have passed out. She looked out the window and saw a factory building that looked like it had been abandoned for years. The windows were all boarded up and a rusty fence surrounding the property was chained with a broken padlock.
“Get out the car.” The vampire who drove the vehicle fished her out the back seat. He deposited her in dirty, slushy snow outside. Then she saw another male emerge from the busted entrance of the building. He wore a mask but she recognized that garish puffer jacket anywhere.
“Well, I see you got my package safely delivered.” Felix strode up to Violetta. He didn’t bother to hide his fangs behind his slimy smirk. “A little beaten up upon delivery, but still intact.”
