by Jen Pretty
My argument was pretty weak. My heart gave one last beat and stopped again. All my limbs were warm and tingly.
“How long have you been on this restrictive diet?”
I was high enough that my lips were loose. “Since I turned nineteen.”
"Holy shit," he whispered.
I realized I had said the words out loud and wished I could grab them out of the air and swallow them back down.
“You have been starving yourself for 200 years?” He hit the stop button on the elevator.
“Not starving myself. I just eat when I need to. It’s not a big deal. Shut up.”
He stared at me like I had two heads. I tried to push past him and hit the button to make the elevator go, but he blocked it with his body.
“Stop!” I backed into the corner of the elevator and trained my eyes on the patterned carpet floor. Everything had gone to shit. I didn’t want him to keep looking at me like that. Finally, I heard him turn and push the button on the elevator and we started moving again. When the door opened, we were on the top floor. Matthew disappeared out the door and I waited a moment longer. When I followed, he wasn’t in the hall.
I went to my suite and collapsed inside the door. Bloody tears fell from my eyes and landed softly on the tile in the entryway. After a few moments, I slipped my shoes off and took a deep breath. Then I pushed myself up and walked into the bathroom. Washing my face, I felt more like myself again.
I got changed into my uniform and walked back out the door. Hopefully, I could just pretend nothing happened and Matthew would do me the courtesy of doing the same.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Down on the casino floor, Carson found me. He led me to a table near the back, but not as far back as last time. I took over between deals as the woman who was dealing had three people sitting at her table.
Those people sat staring at me so I began. I dealt while the two men and a woman chatted about politics and the weather. One player was watching my hands like a hawk. His eyes darted every time I moved to pick a card or set one down. I used my left hand to move chips, and he noticed and got a twitch in his eye.
Thor came and stood beside me, so I stopped messing around and just dealt the cards. Thor moved on. I saw Carson a few times as he circulated or moved the staff around.
My table had traffic almost all shift and by the time I finished my shift my fingers were sore from sliding and flipping cards.
“Good work tonight, Ren,” Carson said with a smile on his face as I stopped in at the employee lounge to punch out.
“Thanks, Carson.”
“Listen, don’t get too comfortable here. You are smart and need to do something more with your life than deal cards. Don’t get set in your ways.”
He gave me a salute and went back to the floor. I wondered how long he had been working at the casino. It was easy for a vampire to get set in their ways and never change. They become mean and bitter like my father. The reminder made me uncomfortable.
I went up to my suite to change. I needed to get out and relax.
I changed into some new clothes and hit the street as fast as my legs would carry me.
It was night time again, but the city was so well lit between the streetlights, the flashing lights on the casino and the headlights of the traffic, I couldn’t find a shadow to hide in.
I walked down the strip soaking in the atmosphere and trying to figure out which bars looked most likely to welcome vampires. I wandered about until I came upon a chapel; it was kind of small, but I walked up the steps and pulled open the door.
Inside it looked like a miniature version of Father John’s chapel. There were only a few rows of pews and a pulpit at the front, and a couple of people stood to one side.
I continued to the front pew and made the sign of the cross. I didn’t see a confessional, so I just approached the priest. He looked like Elvis. It worked for him.
“Forgive me Father for I have sinned. It has been four days since my last confession.” Was it just four days? I wasn’t sure what day it was. I held up a finger to tell him to wait, took out my phone and checked. “Yup, four days.”
“Uhm, I was just about to marry these folks over here,” the priest said, in a heavy southern drawl.
“I’ll just be a minute,” I said, looking back at the couple. When I smiled at them, they took a step back.
I turned my toothy grin on the priest.
He said a prayer that wasn’t like Father John’s, but it was pretty and lyrical. Like a song. “What's your name?”
“Ren,” I replied.
“Ok, Ren looks like I have a few minutes.”
“So, at least four times I have lied. Including once telling Jenkins that I thought the t-shirt he bought me was funny. Twice I gave people the finger. I purposely scared several people including the plumber,” I laughed, remembering Henry’s face. Hooking my thumb over my shoulder at the couple by the door, I said, “I think I scared them too. And once I drank from a man in the casino even though I’m not supposed to drink from people in the casino. My new boss is overwhelming. He has so many rules.”
When the priest said nothing, I looked at him.
“There’s no job too immense when you’ve got confidence,” he whispered. I wasn’t sure if he was talking to me or himself.
“So, what should I do? Father John always tells me what to do.”
“Uhm, ok, so, don’t do those things anymore and maybe say some Our Fathers?” he said unsurely.
“Are you asking me or telling me?”
“Which do you prefer?” he asked. He was a terrible priest.
“You are supposed to tell me. You know, counsel me on how to live better,” I replied.
“Ok, I’m telling you then.” He didn’t sound like Elvis at all. I was positive Elvis would have been sure the first time.
“Ok, thank you Father,” I said.
“You know I’m not a real Priest, right?”
“That’s Ok. I don’t believe in God,” I said as I got up and walked back out of the little chapel. I’d have to remember how I got here so I could come back next week.
I found a small nightclub with crowds of people. The music had a good beat and lots of dark corners. Most importantly, the bar welcomed vampires. I knew this because it was called Vein. Nobody called their club something so obvious unless it was advertising to my fellow biters and those looking for a nice bite.
They set the club up with a bar running halfway around the space and the rest was all dance-floor. Bar stools lined the bar, but no other seating. I ordered a vampire fire, and they delivered promptly. Just my kind of place.
I downed my drink and went out to dance for a while.
Dancing was fun, but not as fun when I wasn’t hunting, so, after a few songs, I left the club and promised myself to come back the next time I wanted to dine. The short walk to the Casino flew past in a daze of lights and sounds. Before I knew it, I was walking through the lobby. As I walked past the coffee shop though, I saw the kid with the laptop. He was madly typing away on his keyboard, completely ignoring everyone around him.
I walked in and snuck up behind him. HA, gotcha! He was typing away on an SQL injection. Trying to hack someone’s bank account.
“I can do better,” I said.
He jumped and tried to get out of his seat, but I put my hands on his shoulders and held him down. Then whispered in his ear.
“Let me help you and in return, you can help me. I can get you a shit ton of cash, I just need access to your laptop. Don’t run, ok?”
His shoulders were bony, but he was stronger than I had expected. He nodded, and I released him.
“Are there cameras in here?” I asked him as I slid into the seat beside him.
He shook his head. Perfect.
“Let me see?”
He turned the laptop towards me and I thought he would make a break for it. The laptop must have more value to him than his life, because he stayed put, but sat on the edge of his seat.
/> I rolled through the SQL combinations until I mucked up the thing enough and got into the account. I turned the laptop back to the kid, stood up and walked out of the coffee shop. Hopefully, he would be back tomorrow and maybe less afraid of me. He was in fight-or-flight mode right now. I needed his heart rate much lower and his head much clearer if I was going to get some work out of him.
Up in my suite, I showered and changed into some comfy pants and the big Texas t-shirt Jenkins had bought me. Yeah, I hated it, but it reminded me of home. I curled up on the couch and flicked around channels on the TV until I found the soaps. Humans were endless hours of entertainment.
A pounding on my door woke me up. I untwisted myself from my blanket and staggered to the door with only one eye open, wiping the drool off the side of my face.
I flung the door open and before me was a perfectly coiffed Matthew. His hair was immaculate and his soft green dress shirt made his blue eyes pop. I straightened my shirt and tried to smooth it out a bit. Then realized my hair was a rat’s nest.
Ugh.
“What?” I asked, annoyed now that I looked like trash and he was at my door.
“Your shift started 5 minutes ago.”
I scrunched up my nose. “I’m sick.”
“You are a vampire, you don’t get sick, Ren. Get moving.”
I tried to shut the door, but he pushed his way in. I grumbled things that didn’t make sense and then spent five minutes in a hot shower wishing I was dead…deader.
When I walked back out in my uniform, tying my hair up into a bun, Matthew was sitting on my couch watching the news.
They were talking about Ed and how the Blood Guard couldn’t pin anything on him because their witnesses always turned up dead.
“You going to sit here all day?” I asked.
He clicked off the TV.
“You didn’t have to wait for me,” I said. “I know my way to the casino floor.”
“I thought you might forget the way since your memory seems to be lax,” he said with a smile. Was he joking around with me? That was unsettling. “You know the hotel has a wake-up service.”
That sounded handy. I had always set my own schedule when I was self-employed…I laughed out loud at that thought. Self-employed.
“What’s so funny?” Matthew asked.
“Nothing,” I said.
Over the next few days, I got into a regular routine. I went to work, then back to my suite and slept.
Then, one morning, I saw him. The kid with the laptop. The table I was running was close to the door, and I watched as the kid walked in and set up in the coffee shop across the hall. I messed up a few deals and Thor came and stood beside me.
“I need to get off work early,” I said to him after I finished dealing a hand.
He turned and left without a word. About five minutes later, Carson walked over with another dealer who promptly took over for me. That was easy.
I turned to leave, but Thor grabbed my arm. I looked at his hand and then up to his face and raised a brow.
“Boss wants to know why.”
“Female problems,” I said with a straight face.
Thor stared at me for a moment, but his eyes lost focus like he was listening to someone on his earpiece. Probably Matthew.
His eyes refocused on my face and his hand let go of me. He turned and walked away. That was easy too. I looked up at the camera above me and gave him a thumbs up, then walked out of the casino and into the coffee shop.
The kid was waiting for me. His eyes got big, but he didn’t try to run this time. He moved back in his seat as I approached.
“Hi there. Can I borrow your laptop for a second?”
He didn’t say anything, just spun the laptop towards me. There was a word document open, and it said. “I don’t speak. My name is Ben. Can you show me how you did that?”
“You don’t speak?” I asked.
He shook his head no. That was weird but oddly convenient. I didn’t have to listen to him talk.
“Perfect,” I said.
He reached over and hit a button and the screen came up to another bank webpage.
“I need to do something and then I’ll show you how to do that.”
I downloaded my hacking software bundle from the cloud and installed it on the kid’s computer. It would take a while and I didn’t want to sit in here all night. I’d have to run it next time.
Once that was downloading I pulled the account back up that the kid was hacking and went through step by step how to blast the password.
When I got him in the account, there was only three thousand dollars, but the kid happily transferred in out.
“You didn’t just put that in your personal account, did you?”
Ben opened the notepad up and typed “No, I’m not an idiot.”
“Ok, sorry,” I said. “I’ll meet you back here tomorrow. Don’t fuck with that program I’m installing. You mess it up, I will bite you.” I said, snapping my teeth at the kid, whose eyes got as big as saucers. I turned and went up to my suite.
Vampires didn’t get female problems, but I was cold and tired, which was a problem, and I am female. It was Saturday morning, and I had two days off in a row.
I spent the morning in the sauna, soaking up all the heat and listening to the humans’ chatter. It was usually as good as watching soaps. All the drama of their lives spilled into the room like the steam out of the hot rocks in the corner. But eventually, I dragged myself away from the heat to get ready for the evening. I needed something new to wear, I was tired of wearing the same couple of outfits and wanted to fit into the crowd in the nightclub.
I walked into the boutique. Deb was standing at the counter ringing up a sale for a middle-aged woman, so I looked through the racks of clothes. I needed something a bit slutty for the club. Not too over the top, but I wanted to have a fun night. I found a soft pink long sleeve dress that was form fitting, with an off-the-shoulder neck line. The hem would be mid-thigh, but the material was tight and stretchy, so I could pull it up to make it shorter.
I grabbed one in my size and a pair of strappy shoes with a heel and waved at Deb as I sailed past to try it on. Squeezing myself into it, I slipped on the shoes and stepped out to check myself in the full-length mirror.
I heard a breath catch behind me and turned to find Matthew staring like he had never seen a girl before.
“I had heard stories that you were the most magnificent creature to walk the night, but I had thought them exaggerated,” he whispered. I spun back around to try to hide the blood rising in my cheeks, but I faced the mirror and his eyes locked on mine again. I swallowed and shook my head.
“Did you need something?” I asked breaking eye contact and checking myself in the mirror. The most magnificent creature to walk the night?
He didn’t speak for a moment but finally asked: “Why did you leave work early?”
“I wanted to take care of a few things.” I looked at him again in the mirror while adjusting the hem of the dress to get it the right height.
He nodded. “Don’t make it a habit.” He turned on his heel and walked out of the change room.
Deb walked in a moment later.
“Did you find what you were looking for?” She asked, looking me up and down.
“I’d say so. Put it on Matthew’s tab,” I said as I pulled off the tag and handed it to her. I walked back out of the store, then out of the casino and down the street. My shoes would be ruined after tonight, anyway. A night in the club was not kind to pretty shoes.
I walked up to the club, and the bouncer looked me up and down. I smiled at him and he opened the door and held it for me with a fanged smile in return. The club was already full with a line up outside.
This would be perfect.
CHAPTER TWELVE
I walked through the bar and eyes flashed in the strobe lights. I was like a safe harbour in a storm, calling the humans towards me. But I was no safe harbour. My prey drive was high tonight. I didn’t
want any of the men whose eyes tracked me across the room; I wanted to hunt. I sat down at the bar and the bartender set a drink in front of me. I hadn’t ordered one, and when I looked up the bartender pointed down the bar and I saw Matthew, of all people, sitting at the bar. I toasted him and then turned my eyes back to the crowd of people dancing.
There were men of all descriptions here. The shirtless muscle-bound men and the dark-haired artistic types. There were cute boys with floppy hair and some very serious young men and women who were probably disciples. Thankfully, they didn’t recognize me as a vampire. The perks of a new city.
I waited and watched, but my eyes kept tracking back to Matthew. He was hunting too. There was no mistaking the fire in his eyes as he watched the girls dancing.
He had dressed down tonight. His t-shirt was form fitting but his slacks still said, wealthy businessman. I let my eyes linger on his profile. His strong jaw was square and masculine but his nose had a nearly feminine quality that was at odds to his jaw and a sloped forehead. It intrigued me. The way it softened his face, making him a bit pretty.
His eyes flashed to mine, and I looked away, scanning the room like I wasn’t just drooling over my boss, who is also an old vampire. I needed to give my head a shake. I finished my second drink and left my bar stool behind to dance with the young beautiful people with heartbeats. Their warmth was intoxicating as I danced between them. The room filled with the scents of aftershave and perfume and alcohol. As I moved closer to the DJ, the music was louder. I looked up at the DJ and his head was nodding to the music and keeping everyone moving with quick beats and smooth changes. The lights cycled through from colourful lasers to white strobes that made everyone move in stop-motion, animating the dancers around me like old movies. It was surreal and magical and I was maybe a bit drunk, I realized. I laughed at my own romanticizing of the nightclub as a pair of arms wrapped around me from behind. I didn’t care who it was, they could dance. I danced for hours and realized I still hadn’t found my prey.
