The women were obvious and their conversation dulled me. Who knows what I expected, but hearing them tell him all the dirty little things they wanted to do to him was gross.
Then he shoved back from the bar. He took the hand of the blonde with purple streaks in her hair and started for the door. My eyes followed and he glanced back at me. Again? Yes, and to my shock, he made a little pistol, a finger gun like kids do, and he pointed it straight at me. Nothing scary, just saying he was aware of me.
I got up to follow, then remembered the dark haired girl he left behind. “Hey, there.” She looked over at me. I was nonchalant. “Who was that guy?”
She glanced at the door. “Logan. He’s so damned hot.”
It took everything in me to not show my shock. Hot, no, but maybe she had too much to drink. “Yeah, he is.” It felt ridiculous to fake, but.... “Does he come here a lot?”
She glowered at me. “Yeah, he does, but you can’t have him. He promised tomorrow night is mine. He’ll choose me, not you, so forget it.” She snatched up her drink and moved down the bar.
Choose? What in the world was that all about? Choose her next for sex? Drugs? I wasn’t sure what to think and since my reason for entering this place had left, I left too. My curiosity might get me in trouble, I knew, but this guy’s vibes were sort of haunting.
They had a few minutes lead but Logan was easy to follow. He was headed towards the empty beach. The lights along the pier weren’t that bright, and it surprised me how easily I saw their silhouettes stand out from the sand. I wandered toward them, unsure. What if it really was a drug sale? Or sex on the beach? Yuk! I didn’t want to watch that.
They weren’t talking. He was holding her and she was hugging him back. They kind of moved, swaying together, and she turned her head slightly and bent it back. I got closer and the silhouettes became clear figures. The night didn’t hide a thing and neither did Logan. Suddenly he glanced my way and I realized that he knew I was there, but it didn’t stop him from being with her right in front of me.
I felt like a peeping Tom, like I should get out of there, but at the same time I was intrigued, even though this was sheer voyeurism and sort of repulsive. I didn’t think it was full on sex, so I moved closer at the edge of the shadows.
He leaned into her but still didn’t seem to be kissing her. Then he was. His face nuzzled next to her face and her long hair fell back. She turned a little in his arms and made a happy sound and he moved his head against her. I’d been very quiet, but the man slowly lifted his head and looked straight at me and smiled. A wide smile. A horrible, contented smile. His tongue flicked out and he gave a short nod and smiled again.
For a very long, strange moment our eyes connected, but his shocking smile struck me as so wrong. I stared hard at his mouth, then shot deeper into the shadows of the pier and crouched in the cool sand, trying to understand what I’d seen. Darkness staining his lips and his teeth. His teeth! Long teeth. Like Sonar’s. Even in the dark I could see the girl’s neck and that same dark stain was on the skin where he kissed her. No, not kissing! Logan had long teeth like my dog, and they were wet and dark with that woman’s blood.
I wanted to run, but I couldn't tear my eyes away. Half in shock, I edged closer and saw that his face was dipped alongside her cheek again. Clear, so sickening clear, I saw that same wet darkness running slowly down her chest below his chin, staining into the top of her white Tee. And I could hear her moan in pleasure, heard him sucking, lapping at her, making little slurp sounds as he swayed with her in his arms.
I could scarcely breathe. Disgusting grunts now and I heard chugging throat sounds when he swallowed. He hugged tighter as her hands drooped down and her head rolled back. I gasped. Was he going to kill her? I should call the cops but if I used my phone, would he hear me? Maybe from the sidewalk. It wasn’t too late, since I still heard her moans, like good sex. I closed my eyes, but I couldn’t resist. I needed to watch, needed to know what I was seeing.
Logan had dropped to one knee with the woman on her back over his thigh. He leaned over and put her gently on the sand. After making her bleed, after smacking and gulping and making kinky sounds like an animal, after swallowing that - that woman’s blood - now he was gentle?
Logan ran his hand over her face, down to her shoulders and chest, touching her repeatedly and saying something I couldn’t quite hear. His hand was under her top, then on her thigh, pinching, I thought. It was ghastly, what he was doing, and she moaned all musical and sexy, liking it. He bent once more and nuzzled her neck, his head moving up and down. My God, he's licking. Finally he stood, leaving her on the sand.
I shrunk back as he smiled again in my direction, eyes right on me, those long teeth shining with horrible color. He swiped his tongue around his lips and nodded, then suddenly pointed at me and swept his arm, as if to shoo me off. Without meaning to, I nodded. Before I could even think to run, he turned down the beach. I crouched frozen until I could no longer see him in the dark, until the sense of his presence no longer lingered in the air.
The woman was still there and I stepped towards her. She stirred and sat up, her dazed eyes finding me next to her. Her head seemed to clear and she pushed up from the sand, grabbed up her shoes and headed back towards the sidewalk. For a moment I felt dazed - then I chased after her.
“Wait!” When she spun around, her hair lifted and I saw the reddish stain on edge of her top. But there was more than that. Four red points on her neck with a drop oozing blood on each one. She frowned at me and turned straight on and I saw the deep flush of her skin. She twirled one of the shoes and frowned. I stopped, uncertain.
The woman took a step towards me. “What!”
My chest heaved. What was going on? She didn’t sound drugged. She sounded challenging. Should I call 911 or just get out of here? What if Logan came back? I had the feeling she’d welcome that. Did she even realize what he’d done?
The woman glared. “Hey, do I know you?”
“Uh,” My mind whirled. “Are you okay?”
She giggled. Drunk? I went back to drugged. But, the blood I’d seen oozing down her chest? No, that blood was definitely gone. He cleaned it off. Licked it off, I realized. Just the edge of her top had that splotch of red on it. And the awful holes.
I stammered. “Um, Miss, there's blood on your neck.”
She wiped at it. “So what.”
“Just, are you okay?”
“I couldn’t be better. Logan is always fantastic.”
I shuddered. “But, I mean, what just happened?”
She gave me a nasty look.“Good girls don’t play dirty and talk about it to strangers.”
Oh, geez. She did know, then.
“Are you and Logan - um - together?”
“Sometimes. What’s it to you anyway?” She clicked her tongue and looked past me with a pitiful expression. In the streetlight I could see the skin on her neck was still red, but the little holes I'd just seen were gone.
Amazingly, I only asked the rational question. “Doesn’t it bother you that he just left you on the beach alone?”
She fluffed her hair. “Nah, I know he isn’t much of a cuddler.”
This woman was crazy. She sounded like it was sex, not bites. Didn’t she get it? Logan did something vile to her and walked away and - why didn’t she care that he bit her?
Confused, I looked out in the dark where he'd disappeared. I didn’t get the chance to tell her about the blood on her top, because she was up the street entering another bar before I realized.
I reached out with every bit of power I had and searched for him. Wherever he was, it wasn’t around here. Probably stupid of me, but I lumbered back down the beach, sat in the sand and stared out at the ocean. Earlier today my senses had been open to all of the beauty and salt water smell of this beach, and now I looked around and wondered what was real and what was not. Of course, I could feel the emptiness of the night around me. Knew that Logan wasn't there. But the sand where he left her was,
and the horror repeated itself in my brain.
Logan drank her blood. What does that? Animals. He’s not an animal. So vampires? That’s for scary stories with bats. An illusion? What I just witnessed was no illusion. A cult initiation? No, this wasn’t her first time and she liked it.
A sicko guy with a sicko blond and tomorrow a sicko brunette? A loathsome man who smiled big and showed me fangs. Long ones, easy to see - cripe! - and covered with the blood he sucked out of her.
Think clear, Henna! This has an explanation. He didn't kill her, so probably not a psycho. He didn't care that I saw and happily displayed those fangs. Back to the impossible, then. Was Logan a vampire? Do I believe in vampires? Stupid question. Halloween coffins and haunted houses? Dracula? I almost choked. Dracula was just as real as King Kong.
But Logan knew I was here so he must be extra sensitive like me. No, he’s nothing like me. He's a creepy leech who drank blood. And yet, he made that finger pistol and knew I followed him. And clear as a bell he waved his arm and told me to leave. And to not bother the woman, I believed. In spite of what I'd seen, somehow not a speck of fear remained inside.
I lay back and stared up at the sky. Logically, I should be locked in my room with Sonar guarding the door. Or tearing up the freeway at a hundred miles an hour, on the phone to the police. Those actions would have made sense. But I felt something entirely different, unexpected and totally bizarre. I felt an increasing - what? Wonderment. Awe that he existed. And disbelief that he not only didn't care that I saw, but he actually opened his lips and showed me.
Why wasn't I freaked and running? But I also remembered that sense of him, his energy that felt comfortable, sick as that sounds. Both new and startlingly familiar - lately.
Like a piercing stiletto realization slid in. My body jerked as scene after scene assailed me. Was it too big a stretch? Was I going all loony tunes? No, I knew what Logan reminded me of. Brecken.
Oh Lord, what else was the same?
I made my scrambled thoughts tick off small and repeated oddities. I always sense Brecken and he senses me. In the Tavern when I sing, he taunts, those green eyes glittering at me while he is surrounded by colors no one else has - except Logan at the bar tonight. In spite of the noise, Brecken hears me across the room when I talk privately to Jeff. That night when I looked for someone in my room, he was there. I felt his presence, but didn’t get it then.
I squirmed in the sand, my brain racing. Brecken was too quick on the grass playing flag football. On our hike, the rattlesnake. The venom didn’t make him swell up or get sick. He wasn't at all concerned because he knew it wouldn't affect him.
True, he flirted and said romantic things. But he was so very atypical. He drank a ton of coffee but have I ever seen him eat anything? Lasagna, but did he really eat it? A little salad? I couldn't picture one solid time I knew for sure that he ate. How could I have missed that? Did he bite me and I didn't know, just like the woman on the beach? I sucked in air at the thought.
Yet, Brecken protected. If Logan was manipulative, Brecken persuaded. Logan was obviously a loner, Brecken has friends. Logan, Brecken, Logan, Brecken, they were different, yes. But they both felt the same Oh God, they did!
I had to move. I took off my shoes and ran along the beach in the direction of the motel. The ocean breeze hit my face, no longer refreshing. My steps sloughed through the sand and I couldn’t move fast enough. I ran like I was being chased, ran from the image of Logan and what he had done - and ran from thoughts of Brecken.
My calf muscles tightened and I veered towards harder sand then stumbled and crashed to the ground. I huffed a moment. Ground was good. Solid and real. If anything was real. My knee throbbed and unwanted choking jerked my shoulders. Then came the tears and I hate, hate, hate tears.
My hands dug into the gritty sand and tore and scratched away at nothing. Brecken can’t be like Logan. I made all this up. He can’t be. A scream tore out of my throat. Anyone could hear, but no one heard. No one came. I shrieked into the night, “No, oh please, no!”
Tears and more tears. Hugging myself, trying to block this awful knowing. Rough sand on my face, down my top, the grit grinding truth into me. I hardly knew when I finally rose and made my way back to the motel. No thoughts. No struggle to understand. My mind was dead. And I wanted that.
Sonar was glad to see me. For him, nothing had changed. My body went through the bedtime motions: take Sonar for a business walk to the grass, shower, brush teeth, crawl into bed and stay dead.
I don't know when I fell asleep, but I woke to Sonar's paw pushing on my shoulder. Okay, normal stuff. I dragged myself out of bed and splashed my face and stared in the mirror. Eyes not puffy, like they should have been. I looked like I did every other morning. But I wasn’t the same at all. Nothing was the same.
I was in a nightmare but at least I’d slept enough to face it. It took me only a moment to dress, leash my dog, and head out. Sonar pulled me along, stopping as he sniffed yesterday’s prime spots.
As usual, the coffee shop around the corner brought me sanity. I’ve been here quite a few times before and knew their coffee. Tying Sonar to an outside table, I dipped inside and ordered the largest size - straight black cause I needed it. Normal acts, everyday life in a world that was nothing like it has always been.
The view of the ocean was perfect from my seat. No breeze and the calmness of the day allowed me to think calmly about the evening before. Brecken is logical when he talks and I can be logical, too. Besides, I needed to work it out now, far from Claremont and the Tavern and long nights talking and snake bites in the hot sun.
In the sun? Wait, maybe I've taken a dive off the deep end. How could he be what I thought and still be out during the day?
But no. My shoulders sank. I saw Logan in the sun, too. And I saw his mouth wet with blood in the night. I saw those round, bleeding holes on her neck. So the myth of the dark and the moon and all of that, is made up. But I couldn't pretend, couldn't lie to myself. If Logan is what I think he is, and Brecken is the same, then walking only by night is folklore stuff. Of course, so was the existence of - I didn't want to say the word.
Denial of crazy ideas came with gut punching coffee. Thank God, I’ve seen Brecken everywhere, public and private. In the dark, under bright lights and shade, in the rain and the moonlight and, almost daily, I’ve seen him in the full sun. Last night's beliefs were fantasies of my screwed up mind. Brecken was different, yes, and he admitted it, saying I was different, too. Well, I knew that.
But, dang it, Brecken is also a lying stalker who said he cares about me and whether I should or not, I care right back. A lot. Christina called it love, but I couldn’t go that far. Whooo.
I scoffed at myself. If the “L” word was scary, how about the “V” word?
VAMPIRE” I whispered, drawing it out all spooky.
I gulped coffee and scolded myself for being so overboard dramatic. But what about that silvery web in the kitchen and the way it surprised both of us? He asked me why I did it, but I didn't do it, so he must have. YetI saw it later in my aura. I remembered the way he lifted me so easily against the kitchen wall, the way he touched my cut. Oh wow, did he feel that it was bleeding? Did he make me bleed? That must be why he ran. Or was I making this all up?
I needed to understand. I had to face it now because, damn it, the Venice stalker felt similar to Brecken and similar to Logan, too. I kept going over the same thing again and again, but I wanted to get it over with before driving home. Before I saw him again.
Brecken may be – gulp – different, but he put himself in the way to save me from the rattler. I can tell when he lies and he isn’t lying about how he feels. His kisses don't lie and his body pressed against me doesn’t lie. Have I ever seen his teeth? Yes. Are they long? No. So, I'll laugh at my stupid self tomorrow.
But why does he have the same colored energy as Logan - who swallowed blood? Ack, my head.
I slumped, my insides beginning to throb again. Could I still g
o out with him? And when did I cross the line into believing this crap might be real? That was easy. Right from real Logan's smile and the real blood on his face and those impossible fangs.
I took a deep breath and sat up straight. Okay, I needed to find proof, even if I was sort of positive already. Sometimes, the way Brecken looks at me - it’s as if he exists to be with me. And before me? Are the folk tales true that they live a long time? How old is he really? No, too much. Don't even go there. Unless I get my proof.
Sonar touched me with his nose. He was ready to go and I agreed. I needed to make a decision about Brecken and I have. Calmly and rationally, I believed, in spite of tearing at the sand last night. In spite of screaming into the dark.
He has a mega big secret, but I was on to it now. The incredible speed, the old fashioned words he uses, maybe even the roommate he doesn't want me to meet. So many secret things. And when I get home? Ha! Since I have an upper hand, I intend to play with that liar, Brecken. My hand slipped in my pocket and slid along the curve of the earring. I was going for double and triple proof and I would do it my own subtle way.
I drove an hour down the coast, got another room and spent the day firming up my new world. That evening I took up my guitar and journal and worked on a song that had formed in my head. It was different, about meeting up with mysterious strangers - strangers in hiding. Male and female. I practiced that song because I intend to sing it when I get back. With Brecken listening, of course. I wouldn’t make a big deal of it, but he might find it a more intriguing than everyone else would and I'd spot that. And who knows? I've had an odd feeling about someone else, so maybe there’s more than one real life vampire out there in my life.
Like, uh, mega charismatic Conor?
Chapter 51
After the puzzle of Henna storming through my home yelling at me, I waited for her to settle and come back. Then waited for her to go to the P. R. office. I’m not sure when I first realized that the biting, deliciousness of her anger was gone. In fact, all sense of her was gone. I jumped in the car and went looking. No idea of direction, so I drove to logical areas. Nothing. I glowered at the world.
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