The Call of the Moon

by Kristy Breckenridge

  Leaving the door be, she headed back down the hall in a sluggish manner. She had to figure out something to do with her time alone, at least until Roy came back with food and whatever drinks he planned to bring as well.

  This house, with as old as it was, she was happy to discover the woman at least had a washer and dryer. This brought on pure relief, because it was some serious laundry day. She’d only packed enough for a four day trip, and she’d already worn almost everything twice. Why hadn’t she thought of this before?

  With her suitcase in hand, she lazily dragged it all the way to the back of the kitchen. There, lo and behold, behind a sliding door - of which she once thought was just a simple pantry - was a brand new washer and dryer set. Who would have thunk it?

  One by one, she emptied her luggage into the washing machine, poured in some detergent and hit start. With that off her chest, she turned and began walking around the house. A shower suddenly felt nice to her. After all of this commotion, it had been nearly two days for her.

  As disgusting as that sounded.

  In her bedroom, she grabbed a simple pair of pajamas. They were black pants, with Betty Boop imprinted on the fabric. A matching black tank top was all she needed to top the ware, in which she finally went across the hall and into the guest bathroom.

  Flipping the light switch on, she instantly caught a glimpse of herself. She looked…almost ghastly. She looked like she had a bad experience with make up, or getting ready for Halloween.

  Did they even have Halloween here? If they did…she definitely looked the part.

  Shaking her head, she had to force herself to look away. Turning her back to the mirror, she pulled her sweater up over her head, tossed it onto the floor, and then did the same with her pants. Her under clothes came next, and she made sure she had a towel resting on the toilet for the very end.

  Turning the shower on, she waited for the temperature to be just how she liked it. The chill in the air, meant she would want it even hotter. The woman sure did have a lot of drafts in the house.

  Stepping in, she practically sighed in pleasure at how amazing it felt. Placing her head under the water, her fingers ran through her hair to saturate it. She felt like she could stay like this forever.

  Forever was not enough though, because the water, which she’d quickly come to get used to, went cold eventually. The woman also had a bad water heater, at that.

  Stepping out, she dried, dressed and ran a comb through her hair, and she took great care not to look at herself in the mirror. At this point, doing her make up was out of the question, and trying to make her hair look presentable was not even going to happen.

  It was getting to the point now, where any mirrors were becoming a drag to her.

  With her clothes in her hand, she flipped the light switch off, and stepped across the hall, back into her bedroom, but only to dump the clothes she’d just taken off, right onto her bed.

  “Faye.” She heard a familiar voice, and she stepped out of the hall, looking down at the opposite end from before, to see Noct standing there very well dressed. For a guy who owned a simple coffee shop, he sure did know how to dress. She smiled from ear to ear, because she now was able to have someone extremely familiar to be around. “Did you get some rest?”

  She shook her head. “Not really.”

  “And why not?”

  “I just…” She shrugged. “I couldn’t sleep.”

  He paused, as if he were listening. “The house is quiet.”

  “Everybody is gone.” She motioned to the door, now heading to the entry way of the house. “Selene, Fenrir, and Sam all went to find some kind of witch.” She shrugged hopelessly. “And Roy is picking me up something to eat. I’m sure he might bring you something as well. Maybe.”

  “I am in no need of it. But thank you.”

  She nodded and headed for the living room. “So you met Selene?”

  “Yeah.” She nodded again, and fell down onto the edge of the couch. “She pretty much gave me the 411. And at first, she seemed like she was going to give completely up but…they are all off on a hunt for witches.” She shook her head, and looked over at Noct, who was now standing nearby, but not too close. “Fenrir…he wont go for it.”

  “He wont go for what?”

  “Let’s say, he does choose to make me his mate. Just for the time being, right?” She felt like she was onto something here. “And say, we found a witch later on, who could reverse this, wouldn’t that be better?”

  “Faye…I don’t think it works like that.”

  “But how do you know that?”

  “That Roy man, said, once you are mated, it’s for life. You never know, if something like that could have some bad consequences.”

  She nodded. That was understandable. “So that it then.” She nodded, as if accepting her fate. “If they don’t find a witch….then I’m as good as dead.”

  “Don’t say that Faye.” Quickly, he walked over to her, and took a seat right down next to her on the couch. His hand came to rest over hers, and he held it tightly. “Don’t you ever talk like to me. Not ever. You understand me?”

  “Selene said it.” She said, while looking over at him with tired eyes. “She said that not only would I die. But so would Fen.”

  “I will not let you die.” He simply said. As if it really were all that simple.

  Something puzzled the hell out of her, and it had been nagging at her since he showed up. “How did you know where I was?” She kept her gaze on him. “Better yet…why are you so…okay with what they are?”

  He smirked. “There’s nothing okay with what they are.” But his smirk faded, and now he had a look of sorrow on his face, as he looked down. “There are some things that you don’t know about me.”

  “Like what?”

  He was silent.

  She rolled her eyes. “Come on, Noct. I’ve spent the last entire week, knowing strange things. I doubt one more can do any difference.”

  As if something clicked inside of him, he straightened and perked up. “I think it would do some difference.” He looked over at her. “Here’s a thought. With werewolves, you also have to the vampires.”

  She let it sink in, and her eyes widened. A big grin played on her lips. “Get out of here.” She stood up, and possibly a little too quickly because she had to steady herself. His own hands came out, resting against her hips to help her do just that. “You’re trying to tell me, that you are a vampire? Noct…I’ve known you…how long?”

  “Three years and eight months.”

  “I’m being serious here.”

  “As am I.” Slowly he stood, and towered over her. Sure, he was not as tall as Fen, but he was a good six three. “I am always coming in at night, aren’t I?”

  That was damn true.

  Her brows furrowed, as she took a step back to take him in. To take all of this in. “You’re being…serious aren’t you?”

  Slowly, he brought his lips over his gums, and as if telling his gums what to do, ever so slowly, tips protruded from somewhere within those gums. Slowly, a separate set of teeth elongated; producing the infamous fangs. A grunt even sounded from him, as if there were a hint of pain somewhere in there.

  Holy fuck, if he wasn’t a goddamn vampire.

  “Oh f-uck.”

  “Faye!” He snapped. “I’ve never heard you speak like that.”

  “Well what else am I supposed to say!?”

  He shook his head.

  She did the same. She stared at him like he was some rare creature that she had never seen before. Well, she wasn’t no rocket scientist or nothing, but she hadn’t.

  Finally, she watched as his fangs slid back into their…compartments? Fuck if she knew what they were, or where they truly came from. He was like a whole different kind of specimen.

  There was silence.

  “So this is…weird.” She finally said.

  “Is it?” He asked. “I’d been meaning to tell you.”

  “My boss is a vampire
.” She just could not wrap her head around that one.

  “Does it…scare you?” He took a step back, as if he truly did think he was scaring her.

  Only she shook her head. “Scare me? Are you kidding? This whole week has been filled with nothing but things I thought were in movies and books. I don’t think a vampire could change that, or make it anymore weird than it already is.” She fell silent for a moment, and glanced at him. “Even though it is hard to wrap my head around this.”

  For three years, she’d known a vampire. And that vampire was her boss.

  “So like…you really can’t come out in the day time?”

  He shook his head. “Not possible. Unless of course it’s a good cloudy day but even that is risky.”

  “What would happen?” Of course she knew what would happen. He’d fry.

  “Combustion.”

  Huh?

  “The sun heats up a vampire’s body so much, that our blood…boils…literally, and makes us explode.”

  He must have seen the shocked expression on her face, because he chuckled. “We do burn at first, but we can’t spend no more than a few seconds in the sun without it becoming worse.”

  Shiiiiiiit.

  “Don’t you miss the sun?”

  He pondered that for a moment. “Of course it’s…not nice not having the day to live by. But…I’m over 300 years old. It’s become a thing of the past.”

  Her mouth made an O. Three hundred years old? Then she grinned. “You should feel lucky though. For an old man, you sure do look good for your age.”

  That made him smirk, and shake his head. Truth be told, he didn’t look a day over thirty. “Even for you?”

  She looked down to the floor. Truth be told, she could help the fact that a blush now stained her cheeks. At least it gave a little bit of life to her discolored face. He had stepped close to her, and brought his cool hand up to her cheek. “Does that bother you, Faye?”

  She looked up at him then. “Honestly, Noct. I don’t even think it matters anymore.”

  “Don’t say that. Remember what I said; don’t be talking like that to me.” He shook his head and delivered a stern look, like a parent would a child. His gaze traveled down to the necklace around Faye’s neck. “As for how I found you, it’s because of this.” Gently, he took the ruby into his hand, holding it out so that she may see it too, as if she hadn’t already looked at it a dozen times. “The ruby was made, with my blood. I believe it was somehow injected.”

  She blinked.

  “So when I said that I would want you to keep this with you, around your neck at all times…that is why.” He allowed it to fall back onto her chest. “Because my blood is with you. I will always be with you. It’s like a sense. I will always know where you are, at all times.”

  Well that was a handy thing to have.

  She looked down at the ruby. You would have never thought that there was blood in there.

  “And your friend. He is here.” He finally said, and took a step back with a soft sigh. It was as if Noct didn’t want Roy to be there. That was another handy thing, knowing when someone was near, so easily as Noct did.

  Sure enough, Roy came in with enough bags that looked like enough food for five different families. “Geez.” She muttered, and laughed nervously. “That’s…a lot of food.”

  “I got a little bit of everything.” He looked directly at the vampire, and…he seemed to recoil. Did vampires and werewolves truly hate one another? “So uh. Come and figure out what you want, yeah?” He asked, and now had a smile on his face. He was definitely trying to hide the fact that he did not like Noct being even in the same atmosphere as himself.

  “Alrighty then.” She said, and moved towards the kitchen, where Roy had placed the bags all over the counters. There was Mcdonald’s, KFC, burgers to galore. There were even jugs of ice cream. “Uhm…Roy? Who is going to eat all of this?”

  He grinned as he began taking one item at a time out of each bag. “If you don’t, I will. Us wolves have quite the appetite.”

  The food was splayed all over the kitchen island, and then there was a big black bag, in which he began to empty. A big box of beer came out of that bag, a big bottle of red velvet wine - “I figured you might like to try this.” - and a big bottle of whiskey.

  “This is enough liquor to put all of you wolves down.”

  He chuckled at that, and reached for a Wendy’s burger. “Dave’s Double at your service.”

  Good, she thought, and reached for it. The first bite made her realize just how hungry she actually was. A soft moan even escaped from her, as she took another bite. Without knowledge she was practically scarfing that burger down.

  “Sit, Faye.” She heard Noct say, and the sound of a bar stool could be heard sliding against the tiled floor. He helped her, by coming up behind her, wrapping his arms around her frame, and hoisting her up onto the bar stool.

  “Thanks.” She muttered, and finally felt like she could relax and enjoy a meal. She couldn’t even remember the last time she’d actually sat down and ate a meal. Mostly, since being here, she’d been eating quick things from the fridge.

  Within thirty seconds, that burger was gone, and she quickly began working on the fries. “Have you heard from the others?”

  “No. Well.” Roy swallowed his food down. “Where they are headed right now is a couple hour drive from now. If that don’t work out, then they will be heading else where, that is about a twelve hour drive.”

  “Twelve…hour?”

  He nodded. “Yeah. Out of that whole list of people, there were only two that seemed to know what they were talking about.”

  She frowned at that thought. That was a lot of people that Selene and Fen had been calling for hours. And only two of them might click. And that was if they were the real deal.

  She sighed heavily, looking down at the fries. Suddenly, she just didn’t feel all that hungry anymore. “I think I’m tired.” She simply stated.

  “Why don’t you go rest?” Noct said, and brought his hand around her arm. With that and the help of her hand against the counter top, she managed to jump down from the chair.

  “Yeah. I think I might.” She was heading out of the kitchen, when she remembered something. “Roy, save me some of that beer.” She said, looking over her shoulder briefly at him. He smiled and gave a curt nod. Noct placed his hand upon her lower back, like a gentleman would, and escorted her back to the bedroom that she felt like she had been spending a lot of time in lately.

  But she just couldn’t stop thinking about sleep and how tired she was.

  ◆◆◆

  “I think we are coming up to it right here.” Fenrir said, while pointing to a road, that looked a lot like the one on the description.

  Sam let out a long sigh, throwing his head back against the headrest in the back seat. “Why do I feel like this is going to be a bust?”

  “Don’t think like that.” Selene demanded, looking at him in the rear view mirror, before pulling onto the road. It was a road that led to only one place. A two story faded white house rested behind a tall black fence. Only one single driveway, broke the fence from going completely around the entire front of the home.

  “Well.” Fenrir said, once the car came to a stop. “Let’s see for ourselves, shall we?” With that said, he stepped out of the SUV and onto the pavement. The house was definitely old, and he wondered if this person truly was a descendant from a Salem witch.

  Selene went up to the door first, and rang the doorbell. They waited merely seconds, but it felt like an eternity. A middle aged woman showed up at the door, wearing nothing but…black. She wore some sort of pendant around her neck, and had a big smile on her face. “You must be Miss Whitton. Please, come in.”

  And with that, one by one, they stepped over the threshold, and into the old house. The floor had previously been swept and mopped - black painted hardwood floor. The walls were covered with artifacts, and several other bouts of strange decorations. Just like Selene�
�s house, it was definitely a fire hazard.

  “Please, come into the sitting room.” She motioned from behind her, for them to follow. Sam closed the door, and the room’s lighting suddenly became dim. A long hallway that passed a stair case, was where they headed. Behind that staircase, was the main living room. Strangely, it was not as large as what Fen had thought it would be. Surely there had to have been another living area in this big old house. “So you wished to know of my relatives?”

  Selena nodded. “Sorta. We do have some questions though.” Selena sat down on the couch, Fenrir followed suit. All three of them sat extra close on this tiny cramped couch. The living room looked barely touched.