by Kallysten
* * * *
It hurt to see her cry.
It hurt even more to know he was the one who had caused her tears.
Matthew had to remind himself that it was all for the best, that he had probably saved her life by scaring her tonight. It didn't make anything easier, but it allowed him to move on, rather than to remain across the street from her home, where she might notice him if she only looked out.
He returned to the corner of the street where he had asked his cab to wait for him, and directed the driver to go back to the club. The night was still early, and he hadn't fed yet. He still had ample time to find a willing prey.
He almost changed his mind as he stepped down the staircases and toward the dance floor. Claire's scent was still clinging to him, and the prospect of finding another girl wasn't so appealing suddenly. He shook the thought away as well as he could. He'd never get Claire, not like that, and especially not after the way he had sent her home. It was time to move on.
When he reached the last few steps, he noticed Diane and the two men she had picked at the beginning of the night. They were still dancing, now almost on the edge of the crowd, and Matthew thought about joining them. Before he could do as much however, a woman made her way to him and started dancing close enough that he could hear the heartbeat even with the music blaring around them. It was the girl he had danced with the previous night, the one who had told him about Claire. She was a pretty thing, even prettier naked, and it wouldn't hurt, for once, to break his ‘never twice’ rule. After all, he had already broken his own rules, first by talking to Claire, then by telling her his name.
Without much conviction, he started dancing along with the girl, just a little closer so that they brushed against each other now and then, and managed to give her a smile. Her own brightened a little more, just like Claire's had, on this very same dance floor, not that long before.
Without care for the fast beat of the music, the girl moved even closer to him, molding herself to his body, her arms looped around his neck.
"I knew you'd never go ahead with her,” she said, pulling him down to talk right against his ear. “I told her you were playing with her but she didn't believe me. Silly—"
Wrenching her arms from around his neck, Matthew glared at her.
"You told her what?"
Apparently unable to understand what had happened, the girl blinked and reached for him again, looping her arm through his just as he was turning away. Matthew whirled on her and growled as he pulled his arm free. He flashed his fangs at her and this time she understood the message. She shrieked, her cry drowned out by the music, and stumbled as she tried to back away from him. She would have fallen if not for the mass of bodies behind her. She caught back her footing and slid between dancers, hurrying away.
Matthew kept glaring at the spot where she had disappeared until arms wrapped around his chest from behind. The tension instantly drained out of him and he leaned into the familiar touch, bowing his head while Diane cradled him against her. He didn't need to even look back to know it was her. He would have recognized her anywhere.
He followed the gentle sway of her body and let it calm him, soothe him, until she murmured against the back of his neck.
"I was about to accompany my friends home. I'll share if you want to join us."
The offer was tempting, even more so because Diane would know what was going on in his head without him needing to explain. He shook his head however and pulled away from her.
"Another time,” he said as he pressed a kiss to her cheek, and left her to the care of her boys.
She caught up with him again just when he was reaching the first floor. She was alone. She simply slipped her hand in his and kept walking, regal as ever, without a word. As they were waiting at the coat check for her jacket however, two men came up to them, one of them a vampire. Large and dressed entirely in black, they each had an earpiece and microphone to the side of their face. Nothing marked them as such, but Matthew knew they were part of the club security staff. And he could guess before they even said a word what they wanted.
"The kind of behavior you showed tonight was unacceptable,” the taller man said, arms crossed over his chest. “Whatever quarrel you may have had with these two women, chasing them off the property was not an answer. It's because of incidents like this that Special Enforcers visit the club."
Matthew nodded.
"The manager says to give you a free pass for tonight,” the second man added. “In regard to your usually perfect behavior. But any more slip-ups and you will not be allowed in again."
Another nod was Matthew's only answer. Diane was more vocal and assured them, on a tone that promised hell for Matthew if he made her lie, that the incident would not be repeated.
The two men inclined their heads and let them walk away. Matthew expected Diane to ask what had happened exactly, but she didn't. Instead, she remained silent all the way back to their apartment building, which was only five blocks away from the club. Matthew would have stopped on the third floor, where his apartment lay, but Diane held on to his arm and led him up two more floors to her own.
"I won't let you bury yourself in the past tonight,” was all she said as he walked in after her.
He followed her to the kitchen and sat down at the table while she pulled out bagged blood from the freezer. Blood was the only thing in there. The microwave oven's only setting warmed the two packages to perfection, and she poured each into a tall glass. Matthew stared for a long time at the practically black liquid when she placed one glass in front of him, and only when she nudged him did he pick it up and drink.
She sat next to him and took small sips of her own glass, as though sampling a rare wine.
"Maybe,” she started, picking her words carefully, “it is time to let go of that promise you made before it earns you a stake through the heart."
Matthew raised a sharp gaze at her. “Claire would never—"
"She might not. But her ex might if she asked him."
He wanted to deny Claire would do any such thing, but in truth he did not know that she wouldn't.
"If you're still worried she'd go back to On The Edge,” Diane insisted, “I could convince her not to."
"No.” He did not hesitate for a second. “You're not thralling her. There's no reason for you to do it."
He held her gaze until she nodded.
"Then I want you to think about this. Your vow was to protect them from afar, and you already broke that by talking to her. Stepping back and leaving her alone would be the safest thing to do now."
She had not asked for an answer, and Matthew was glad not to have to give her one. When they finished their glasses, he let Diane take him to her bed and spent the night and most of the following day with her.
He knew, already, that he would continue to keep an eye on Claire, whatever the risks. If anything, he needed to make sure that she would heed his warning. And as long as he was in town, he might as well keep trying to get proof of Jonas’ after hours staking.
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Chapter Seven
The stack of papers on Claire's desk seemed to be towering as high at the end of her workday as it had that morning, even though she had spent eight hours checking each piece of paper. She had checked all her files, all her notes, everything on, in or under her desk, and she still hadn't found it. She would, though. She simply had to. She couldn't afford to have her boss find anything wrong with her work this month. Not again.
Three months earlier, a couple of weeks after she had broken up with Jonas, she had lost an important customer and been reprimanded for it. The entire office had heard about it, and they had been watching her ever since. She would be in trouble if she didn't find the contact sheet for that new customer. Jane had asked for it again this morning as soon as Claire had walked into the office. She had to find it now.
However, the more she looked at her notes and documents, the more she tried to focus, the less the words i
n front of her made sense; the less she understood what had happened at the club the previous night. The vampire—Matthew, if it was even his real name—had made no sense. She had been scared at first, then angry, but now she was mostly bewildered, both at the way he had played with her and at how he had treated like a naughty child that needed to be taught better. She had half a mind to return there, if only to prove to Matthew that his warnings and unpredictable changes of mind did not rule her life and decisions.
"You're playing with fire, Claire."
The words, so reminiscent of what Matthew had told her that night, had the same effect as a bucket of icy water. Claire blinked out of her thoughts to see her boss standing by her office door.
"I beg your pardon?” she replied, wondering if she had missed something or if that had been the extent of what he had said.
Josh walked in and closed the door behind him, then leaned against it.
"Have you found that contact sheet yet?” he asked, his face impassive.
She didn't even ask how he knew. It was his job to know about things like this.
"I'll find it."
"When?"
"Soon."
"That's not soon enough, Claire. We need the Dawson's account. We need the commissions, and we need the publicity and referrals he'll bring us. You know that."
His voice was getting colder with each word. Claire's hands closed into fists on her knees.
"I'll find it,” she repeated. “I will."
"I hate to pry,” he said, grimacing slightly, “but I couldn't help hearing rumors..."
Claire blinked. She could feel her heartbeat pick up speed as she imagined what he might have heard. Had someone from the office seen her at the club? Had they seen her talking to Matthew, maybe? By law, no employer could discriminate against employees for their choice to associate with vampires, but it still happened regularly.
"I know the end of a relationship can be painful,” Josh continued after a second, taking the compassionate tone of a long-time friend, something he certainly was not to Claire. “Clearly it is affecting your work, so maybe you should think about taking a few days off. You've earned yourself a vacation. Just relax, find yourself again, and I'm sure everything will work much better for you."
She nodded dumbly at him, finally figuring out that he didn't know about her visits to the club, and intensely relieved about it. He left after a few more seconds, and for a long time she stared at the spot where he had disappeared, wondering why she had been so afraid anyone would know where she spent her evenings. Wondering also—and the thought struck her out of the blue—why she had never admitted until that instant, to herself or to anyone else, how much she hated her job.
It had been the first position she had been offered after graduating, and although she had asked herself if she wanted to work for a large company like this one, where customers were nothing more than the amount of money the company pulled from them in commissions, she had accepted the job. She had worked well enough to earn herself a few promotions and a real office along with an assistant, but after more than fifteen years the job was still the same as it had been on her first day at Morrens & Son. She hadn't liked it much then, and had needed to tell herself that it would get better and she'd get used to it. She had, in time; but she had never come to like it. On the contrary, she had become bitter at the cynicism and greed forced on her.
The decision was surprisingly easy to make, and she was typing her letter of resignation before she even realized what she was doing. This job was stifling her. It paid her bills nicely, but she hated it. Did she spend so much time in that bar to escape the dullness of it all, with the thrill of being surrounded by vampires? If she did, then quitting was certainly the best thing she could do, before she found herself on the wrong side of a pair of fangs.
And if she was making important decisions, maybe there was something else she needed to decide. Realizing that her dissatisfaction with her job and life had pushed her to tempt fate was an important step, but it wasn't enough. She also had to stop taking risks. She had to stop going back to the club. The irony that a vampire had been the first to caution her against it wasn't lost on her.
* * * *
Less than a block away from the club, Matthew heard steps behind him and Diane. A quick glance assured him she had heard them too.
"Your girl's ex,” she murmured, and touched her nose with a finger to let him know how she knew.
"Go ahead, I'll join you in a moment."
"You're sure?"
If he hadn't known how protective of him Diane could be, Matthew might have felt insulted by the worry in her voice. As it was, it made him smile.
"I'm sure. Don't worry for me."
She brought his hand up and pressed a kiss to his fingers.
"Don't hurt him too much. I want to leave this town, but I don't want Special Enforcers chasing after us when we do."
Letting go of his hand, she walked on toward the club without looking back while Matthew stopped and turned on his heel. The footsteps ceased, and for a few moments the only sounds were those of muted music in the distance and passing cars. Matthew waited, immobile, his eyes on the street corner where he was sure Jonas would appear. When he finally did, he had a crossbow in his hand, raised in Matthew's direction.
"I could dust you, right here, right now."
Matthew did not move, nor did he reply to the boast. Jonas took a few more steps forward.
"I just need to hit the trigger. I never miss."
Matthew snorted. “If you were going to try to kill me, you'd have done it by now. So why don't you tell me what you came here to say?"
The crossbow wavered, just a hair but enough to let Matthew know Jonas was taken aback.
"Claire."
"Claire?"
"You know her. Pretty woman, in her thirties, short brown hair. The same woman you danced with last night. The woman who ran away from you when you lunged for her neck."
Matthew wasn't all that surprised that Jonas knew about that; he had to have informants in the club. What did surprise him was that the man hadn't tried to kill him yet.
"What about her?"
A passing car drowned the sound of Jonas’ boots hitting the pavement. He stopped only four feet in front of Matthew. The crossbow was still raised, but the angle was wrong, and an arrow released now would have done no more than wound Matthew.
"If you ever talk to her, if you approach her—hell, if you even so much as look in her direction, I will kill you. Do I make myself clear?"
Jonas’ voice was strained, its low pitch hinting at how hard he was working to restrain himself. Matthew could guess why, just like he knew why Jonas hadn't hit the trigger yet. They were in an exposed area, with cars and pedestrians passing by. Jonas was much more cautious when killing vampires than he had been when cheating on his then fiancée, as Matthew had realized recently. He knew Jonas had killed vampires without cause since he had started shadowing him, he was sure of it, he just never had caught him doing it.
"What is clear,” Matthew said as he turned his back on Jonas, “is that you have control issues."
The shuffle of feet was all the warning Matthew needed. When Jonas tried to shove him against a wall, he evaded him, turning quickly so that he was behind Jonas, and pushed him face first into the wall. Jonas struggled, but Matthew used all his weight to keep him pressed against the damp bricks.
"I listened to your warning, so here's mine. If you keep up the stalking act with Claire and don't let her move on with her life, I won't kill you. That would be too fast. I'll turn you. I'll make you the thing you hate most. And I'll make you enjoy it, until a Special Enforcer puts you down like a rabid beast."
He pushed against Jonas’ body for good measure, then abruptly let go of it. By the time he had turned around, sputtering insults and threats, Matthew had reached the entrance of On The Edge, where too many witnesses would stop Jonas from doing anything. He looked back, and indeed Jonas was looking at him, shak
ing in rage but not coming toward him. This was just another reason to keep resisting Diane's attempts at convincing him they could leave town. As long as Jonas kept such a close watch on Claire, she wasn't completely free of him and Matthew couldn't be satisfied.
* * * *
As far as Matthew knew, it had been two weeks since Claire had last gone out at night. He hadn't seen her at the club since they had danced—since he had scared her away—and every time he came by her house, he could see some lights on inside, and sometimes her silhouette passing in front of a window.
On one hand, he preferred for her to be home and safe. The club where they had met was hardly the kind of environment in which he had wanted to see her. He had never liked any of his girls to get too close to vampires, as ironic as he realized it was. On the other hand though, that meant he couldn't see her anymore, not as clearly as he had at the club, couldn't either talk to her, or get to really know her. He had liked exchanging a few words with her, after so many hours spent keeping an eye on her. She was the first of his charges he had had the chance to get to know.
After one more detour by her house to check on her, Matthew returned to his apartment. He wasn't particularly surprised to discover that Diane was there. Reclining with a book in his living room, she gave the impression that she was home, which, in a sense was true. Her apartment was only two floors above his, but she spent as much time down here with him as he did up there.
