by Rose Haven
“They can smell you,” he said. “More will come.”
Okay. That’s just creepy.
“They respect territory,” he continued. “They won’t come inside my home. But out on the street, you’re fair game.”
“You’re really freaking me out, you know.”
“Just look.” He pointed his long, pale finger toward the window.
Eliza went to window to look as instructed. Sure enough, a crowd had begun to form outside the house. It was the strangest group of people she’d ever seen. They were all pale, but it varied. Some of them looked like darker skinned people who had been bleached slightly…kind of like she had. And even stranger, they were as oddly dressed as this man’s home was decorated. One woman wore a long dress that looked like it belonged in Downton Abbey…but with a baseball cap. Another man wore jeans and looked normal from the waist down, but looked more like a pirate from the waist up with a ruffled shirt and long, unruly hair.
“What do they want from me?” She looked back at the man, whose gaze already appeared comforting in contrast to the creepy stares from outside.
“You don’t know?”
“No.”
He nodded sadly as if he was a doctor about to give a bad diagnosis. “Can I get you something to drink?” he asked. “I have a very nice pinot noir if you’re interested.”
“Aren’t you going to answer my question? Why are those weirdoes staring at me?”
“I could answer your question, but I find these things are more easily digested over a few glasses of wine.”
Eliza noticed the stack of records by his record player and thumbed through. He had some amazing albums, most of which were classic jazz and blues. All of her favorites. She held up the album, Miles and Monk at Newport.
“You like Thelonius Monk?” she asked.
“Very much,” he said, pouring her the wine she hadn’t accepted. “In fact, I was there for that show. It was an amazing experience.”
Eliza squinted at him and puckered her lips to show her disapproval. She had been wrong to say he wasn’t a hipster. He owned this stuff but was absolutely clueless. Miles and Monk at Newport was a live album recorded in 1963. Not only was this man too young to have been there, he looked too young to have even been born before Monk died in 1983. What a phony.
“Right,” she said, chuckling to herself. “I’m sure it was an amazing experience.”
She shook her head at the glass of wine that he handed her. She liked wine, but had never been a connoisseur, so how come she could smell all the detail in this wine like a true sommelier? It was an amazing aroma filled with sweet black cherries and oak. Despite her instinct against accepting a glass from a strange man, she really wanted a taste.
“What kind is it?” she asked.
He glanced at the bottle. “A 1947 Faiveley Musingny.”
“1947? I’m not wine expert, but doesn’t that bottle cost like $1000?”
“Does it?” he asked curiously. He looked at the label again and raised his eyebrows.
“Instead of the glass of wine, you could just give me $250,” she joked.
“Do you need $250?” he asked curiously.
“No,” she said, her face reddening. Okay, so he has no sense of humor. “Listen. Thanks for the overpriced wine and all, but I need to leave.”
“The herd will dissipate if you wait. They have all the time in the world, but have no motivation to stay for longer than a few hours.”
“Nothing you say makes any sense. Is this some kind of drug-induced dream? Maybe I’m still lying in the hospital.” She pinched her arm in the hopes of waking herself.
“You were in the hospital?” he asked. He had a way of looking at her that made her heart race. Despite how threatening the situation, he had such kind eyes. And she couldn’t remember any man—aside from her father—looking at her with that much attention and interest. The men she had dated seemed to be constantly plotting ways to get her clothes off. The nice ones did listen to her, but their hearts didn’t seem to be in it. They just knew that they had to take her out and listen to her talk so they could have sex with her later. Those were the rules, so they tolerated it. But this man’s questions were so sincere.
“What is your name?” she asked.
“Levi. What’s yours?”
“Eliza.” She briefly wondered if she should have lied. She at least wouldn’t share the last name. Almost out of habit, she picked up the wine and took a sip. It tasted like she had travelled back in time and was walking through a vineyard in France. Which was ridiculous because wine can’t taste like time travel. In any case, it was the most amazing thing she had ever drank. It tasted like time in a bottle. She couldn’t imagine any man tainting something so precious with rohypnol.
She took a tiny sip and then sucked the wine off her own tongue, desperate to experience every drop.
“You like it?” he asked.
“I do,” she said. The understatement of the decade. Eliza sat in one of the large armchairs. “Well?” she asked.
“Well, what?”
“You said that you would explain things over a glass of wine. Go ahead.”
He sighed heavily and sat on the 1970s couch across from her. “Well, where do you think you are?” he asked.
“Baton Rouge…phantom exit 152.”
He chuckled and smiled. He had a mischievous smile that seemed to hold secrets, or at least knowledge. If she had never dated a man that paid this close of attention to her, she definitely had never dated a man who was smarter than her. But how could he be smart? He proved he was full of it when he made the Miles and Monk comment.
“You’re exactly right,” he said.
“There is no exit 152,” she said.
“Why were you in the hospital? Were you attacked?”
“Attacked? No. It was a car accident.”
“Are you sure?” He leaned toward her, again as if he found her health status fascinating.
“Yes, I’m sure.”
He took a sip of his own wine and Eliza idly wondered what the wine would taste like if she sucked it off his tongue, or maybe even licked it off his abdomen. She shook her head at herself. She was clearly not herself.
“Well,” he said, putting down his glass of precious nectar. “Memories often get hazy. If you’ve been living in the human world all your life, your brain simply can’t absorb the truth. Sometimes the mind fabricates other explanations.”
“Human world?”
“You’d think it would be easy to explain the Gate World to someone who is sitting in the middle of it. But in my three hundred years of life, I’m still amazed at how hard new entrants find it to believe something that’s plain in front of their face.”
“Is this some kind of cult?” she asked. “Maybe you’ve all been brainwashed and you live in this secret colony.”
“It is a secret colony, but we haven’t been brainwashed. Although, it’s much larger than just one colony. The Gate World lies on top of the entire planet. We share the world with the humans. We can enter the human world, but they can’t enter the Gate World, not unless they’ve tasted vampire blood.” He raised an eyebrow at her as if he was accusing her of something. “Have you…tasted it?”
She had to admit that the way he said, “tasted” generated warmth between her legs. She again had the overwhelming urge to taste him. She thought she could lick the pheromones off his neck like sucking syrup from a tree. Of course she was a grown woman and had had urges before, but nothing like this. She wanted to bury her face in his chest and breathe him in, experiencing every cell of his body. Oh God…maybe something was in that wine.
Since he was talking about vampire blood, she clearly did have to be dreaming. So that meant she could do whatever she wanted right? There was nothing stopping her from walking over to him, wrapping her legs around his waist, and gently lowering herself down onto him. She could even suck the wine off his tongue like she had wanted. In a dream, she didn’t have to worry about what he
would think of her. She didn’t have to worry about her jiggly hips or whether or not sleeping with a man she just met made her a slut. None of that mattered. She could just focus on the pleasure.
Levi cocked his head and smiled at her. “Are you all right? You didn’t answer my question. I suppose you could be in shock. Are you in shock?”
“You asked me a question?”
“I asked you if you had tasted vampire blood?”
“Um…I don’t think so,” she said airily. Weird things happened in dreams, if she wanted to get to the sexy part, perhaps she would have to handle some off-the-wall random firing of her synapses. Apparently some vampire book or movie had seeped into her subconscious.
She stood up and walked over to him, or floated over to him. Her legs felt like they might fly up to the ceiling. She sat down next to him and put her hand on his leg. She leaned in and breathed deeply. Yes, she could taste his pheromones, like some kind of beautiful drug. She could smell his blood, and it smelled like honey.
Her mouth floated toward his neck as if it had a mind of its own. She licked her teeth and wanted nothing more than to feel his skin on her lips. Maybe even…taste his blood.
Levi pushed her away gently. “You’re not ready for that,” he said, but his voice was breathy and uncertain. She thought she saw him licking his own teeth.
He gently took her hand and bought her wrist to his mouth, lightly brushing her skin with his lips. She never thought such a gentle touch could feel so amazing. The lightest brush of her wrist felt more intense than even having her past boyfriends inside her. She felt her nipples harden against the inside of her bra.
Levi closed his eyes and inhaled. It was almost as if she smelled as good to him as he smelled to her. And he smelled like skinny-dipping on a hot summer night.
He dropped her hand and let out a shaky breath. “You’re a half-dead,” he said. “Which means you’re vulnerable. You can enter the Gate World, but you’re also good for feeding. Most half-deads don’t last long. You’ll need to learn to recognize the difference between the Gate World and the human world, and stay in the human world.” He spoke his bewildering words in an airy tone, as if he was also stuck in a dream-like state.
Chapter Four
Eliza shifted her weight, aware of the wetness between her legs. The ringing of her phone shook her back to reality. Stupid phone—bothering her even in sexy dreams.
Unable to ignore the urgent ringing, she picked up and heard her sister’s shrill voice.
“Oh my God. Oh my God. Eliza, where are you?”
“Rachelle?”
“Yes, of course it’s me. What’s wrong with you? I went to pick you up at the hospital and you weren’t there. They said you had already left. And that was two hours ago.” She let out a little moan of despair. “Jesus, I thought you were dead. Tell me where you are so I can pick you up.”
Although it would be just like Rachelle to find a way to bother her even in a dream, her sister’s words were beginning to bring Eliza out of her trance. Right…she had gotten lost in a strange neighborhood…and was now trapped in some creepy guy’s house. Or maybe she had passed out by the side of the road and this was all a hallucination. While she thought she was having some kind of odd, sexy vampire dream, she was actually suffering from brain bleeding and dying in a ditch somewhere.
Eliza stood up, feeling a little unbalanced, but she was thinking more clearly. “Rachelle, you have to help me. I don’t know where I am.”
She thought that her urgent tone might make her sister explode with worry. Eliza was the calm, rational one and Rachelle was the one constantly flailing in some kind of freak out. Who knows what would happen if Eliza actually freaked out for a change. However, Rachelle seemed to manage it well. Her voice was syrupy with tears but steady.
“It’s okay, Lizzie. I’ll come get you. Everything will be okay. Just tell me where you are.”
Levi shook his head at her.
“Exit 152 off of I-10.”
Rachelle paused on the other line. “What street? I’ll put it in my phone.”
Eliza looked at Levi for help but he just shook his head again.
“She won’t be able to find it,” he said.
“What’s your address?” Eliza asked.
“Who are you talking to?” Rachelle asked urgently.
“Some guy. He’s helping me.”
“Okay, let me talk to him then.”
Eliza handed Levi the phone and he promptly hung up the call.
“Why did you do that?” Eliza asked, her fear returning. This wasn’t a dream. This was real, and she was being held captive.
“Telling her my address won’t do any good. She won’t be able to find you. I’m happy to drive you home myself, once the attention has died down.”
Eliza shook her head, partly to say no and partly to get herself to wake up. “No. I’m getting out of here.”
She darted toward the front door. She figured she only made it because he had been sitting down and holding a very expensive glass of wine. He needed a second or two to stand and put his glass down. Also, she seemed to move surprisingly quickly. She unbolted the door with cat-like reflexes and sprinted out into the lawn. Had she always been this fast? Maybe it’s just been a while since she sprinted full out and she had forgotten how it felt.
However, she wasn’t fast enough. She once again felt like she had been hit in the back by a large metal beam. The hit knocked the breath out of her and she thought she heard her ribs crack again. How many times could she break her ribs and still be walking around? Her face hit the sidewalk, and she tasted blood in her mouth.
Someone or something was moving her like she was a ragdoll, and by the curtain of long silver hair, she figured it was the woman who had attacked her before. Eliza felt a stabbing sensation in her neck and she cried out in pain. She had never felt so terrified. The pain dulled a bit, but the fear stayed sharp. Although it didn’t hurt much, it was the lack of control that made it so scary. She felt like she was in that dream where she wanted to run but couldn’t move her legs. The thing sucked on her, draining her of her life force, and she was powerless against it.
The woman pulled her fangs out of Eliza’s neck and she could feel the warm blood spilling down her chest. Even though the woman had stopped the draining, she still had her clasped in a vice-like grip. Eliza felt like a moth that had been caught in a spider’s pincers. The woman screeched—sounding more animal than human. And then she dropped Eliza.
Eliza turned her throbbing neck to see that the woman had to drop Eliza so she could defend herself against Levi. They bared their teeth at each other like animals, circling each other. Levi lunged at the woman, and ripped the skin of her back with his teeth. Eliza closed her eyes in reflex. It was all too horrible to watch.
However, in the moment she closed her eyes, she was attacked by another angle. Two of the creatures—she had to call them vampires now--had pinned her down. One sat on her legs and the other pushed her face down against the cement. She was done for now. Levi could protect her against one vampire, but what about all the others she had seen? But for some reason, the two vampires didn’t bite, although they leaned their cold mouths toward her like they wanted to. Eliza got the sense that they were saving her for the other woman vampire who had already staked her claim.
Then the vampire on her legs was knocked off…but it wasn’t by Levi. She could still see him fighting the woman vampire. The vampire holding her head screeched at the new intruder and then jumped off Eliza to attack. Before she knew what was happening, she was being dragged back into the house again, this time by dark, feminine hands—hands that were just as strong as Levi’s had been. The presence was familiar and for a moment, Eliza thought Rachelle had found her and was saving her. But that made little sense. How could Rachelle fight off vampires?
Chapter Five
The mysterious heroine shoved Eliza back into Levi’s house and shut the door again. Soon after, Levi appeared in the doorway. He
had scratches and gouge marks on his arms and chest. It appeared that his shirt had been torn in the fight. His chest heaved up and down and he looked much more like a monster than he had before. Eliza felt certain that he would attack her now, suck his own teeth into her already mangled neck. She cradled the wound in her neck protectively.
He let out a cry, which sounded like frustration and knocked down the old-fashioned hat rack by the door. He moved toward her and Eliza cowered. Despite looking like an animal on the hunt, he picked her up rather gently and cradled her in his arms. He took her up the stairs in what seemed like two large bounds and laid her on his bed.
He left and returned with a large handful of gauze. She had to admit, that hadn’t been what she had been expecting. He threw the gauze at her angrily, as if it was her fault that she was gushing blood from her neck. Well, she guessed it was her fault. He has told her not to leave, and she didn’t listen.
She quickly gathered the gauze and pressed it against her neck. She could feel her heart beating. With every enthusiastic pump, more blood would spill from her body. But she couldn’t seem to tell her heart to calm down.
“Am I going to become one?” she asked tentatively. “A vampire?”
He was facing away from her, staring at the closet. He looked like he was trying to hold his breath.
He shook his head. “Not unless you die. It’s not like in the movies. We can feed on humans without making them vampires. If every human we fed on became a vampire, they would become extinct rather quickly.”
“But you said I was a half-dead. What does that mean?”
“It’s very rare. It means you’ve been contaminated with vampire blood, but you never died, so you never became a full vampire. The only way for that to happen is to drink vampire blood. In some rare cases, it can happen if you come into contact with vampire blood, but it would almost have to be poured into an open wound. Something must have happened in that accident…something you don’t remember.”
Eliza wiped tears away from her cheek. “I could die,” she said weakly. “I’ve lost a lot of blood. And I was already hurt from the accident. Maybe we should call 9-1-1.”
