by Simone Lari
"I promise you I’ll be a good boy, or at least I’ll try" said Sting, contemptuously.
The two of them walked alongside the queue, quickly and smoothly, without bumping into anyone, moving in such a fleeting way that they passed unnoticed.
"Hey, did you see the lanky one and the dwarf?" whispered Vans in his friend’s ear, shortly after two unusual individuals had passed by them in an almost imperceptible way.
"Have your sexual preferences changed recently?" teased Gabriel, whispering in turn.
"It’s not the time to joke. When they went past me, I had a strange sensation. Let’s keep an eye on them."
"The way they move is peculiar and they’re passing up the line without anyone saying a thing to them."
They watched the strange pair exchanging words with the bouncer.
They could see the tall one moving his lips, accompanying the words with flowing movements of his hands. The bouncer’s expression, initially surly and tight, became relaxed and jovial.
He let them go past, paying his respects more than once.
"Two words, a gesture with his hand, and they’re inside” Vans commented.
"Maybe they work in the club or are regular punters" suggested Gabriel.
"If that was the case the bouncer would have greeted them differently and let them through immediately. Listen, I really can't tell you why, but I don't like those two at all."
"What do you want to do?"
"This disgusting place will surely have an emergency exit that opens to the rear. Move the car and park it there, we might need some tools of the trade."
"If you’re the one with reservations about them, why do I have to go to move the car?"
"I’m the brain, you’re the arm: equitable division of labor, no?"
"Wasn’t it the other way around?" In response, his friend handed him the keys. Gabriel snorted.
"Don’t worry, I’ll keep your place" Vans taunted him.
As Gabriel passed along the queue in the opposite direction, three girls crossed his path at full gallop.
One of them, dark-haired with red tips, was pulling the other two behind her. He stepped aside as much as he could to let them past. He even smiled as they shoved him away to avoid him and apologized with a gesture of his hand when he inadvertently struck the shortest one on the nose with his elbow.
He looked at her for a few moments and then headed to the car without further delay.
Vans saw the girls go by collecting a string of complaints and the odd muttered insult.
Just look at those three ditzy girls, they’re jumping the queue and don’t give a damn. Now I’ll make them pay for it, he thought to himself.
He stood still waiting for them to arrive, placing himself exactly in the middle of the queue. As soon as they went past him, he gave the one nearest to him a hard sharp slap on the buttock.
She jumped protesting, hand protecting her lower back, but didn't turn or stop.
It serves you right, sweetheart! Vans gloated.
Chapter 6 - A Crowded Alley
"Mmm, I don't know what’s inside this red devil, but it’s really good!"
"Jude, you say that about every cocktail you inhale!" Angelique yelled in her ear.
"Try it and tell me what you think!" her friend prompted her.
"No, thanks. At least one of us has to stay sober, otherwise who’ll take you home?"
"Look, a free table. Let’s go and sit down" Nina proposed, juggling the half full glass of caipiroska.
"Go easy, Nina, you’ve already had an aperitif and a glass of champagne at dinner. That cocktail will be fatal!" admonished Angelique.
"Don't be a spoilsport!" Jude rebuked her, pushing Nina toward the table.
Sting’s gaze raked through the length and breadth of the nightclub. Accurate and thorough, he stopped to look at every curve, savor each feature, looking for any potential prey in an attempt to isolate the heart beat in the midst of the cacophony of chaotic sounds.
"Haven’t you found anything you like yet? You’re hard to please this evening" Christopher commented, draining the second drink of the evening.
"On the contrary, there are many that are worthwhile, but I don’t want to choose too quickly" he answered, without taking his eyes from the crowded room. "I want to assess all the alternatives and find one that has something very special."
"Take all the time you want, we've certainly got plenty."
"Listen, uh, do you mind if I wander around by myself? It’s just that your look has something stale and out of date about it, and it puts the girls off" he observed, glancing at the long heavy overcoat, under which a sober and comfortable dark shirt and elegant trousers could be seen, and his leather boots.
"What’s wrong with my clothes?"
"Well, my dark and handsome man, at least you could take off that old-fashioned overcoat. Nah, forget it: keep it on, and meanwhile I'm going to have a look around."
He vanished in a few instants.
Christopher turned his disinterested gaze to the festive crowd. He scrutinized the room for a few minutes until his eyes rested on one table in particular.
He stiffened suddenly, eyes staring and jaw tightening.
He gazed more intently, focusing on one of the occupants: her long smooth brown hair, the sweet and soft features of her face, and her smile, sincere and full, made him start.
It wasn’t the beauty or the particularity of her features which struck him the most, but the deep conviction that this was not the first time he had seen them.
He knew them well; he had already cherished them and would have recognized them among a thousand.
"The, the eyes… I have to see her eyes" he stammered in a low voice.
He moved towards her without noticing the boy who was coming towards him with a resolute step.
The two collided; something brushed Christopher’s hand, which he pulled away feeling a slight stab of pain.
"Oh, pardon me, mate, I didn't see you!" the young man excused himself. With a false smile, he gave him a vigorous thump on the shoulder.
The vampire carefully examined the hand that had touched him: before closing it into a fist, he saw a slender chain on his palm.
A scratch burned on the back of Christopher’s hand. He followed the stranger with his eyes as he moved away from him, exchanging the same dark probing look.
As the guy tried to lose himself in the crush, he'd seen him furtively put a bracelet with sacred symbols of various religious groups into the pocket of his jeans.
A hunter Christopher thought to himself.
He looked for Sting on the dance floor, but there was too much confusion and the noise was deafening. Isolating his friend’s presence in that crowd was not easy even for his developed senses. Too many sounds, too many movements, too many beating hearts; the bedlam that stemmed from it made it difficult for him to concentrate and use his skills to their best.
He managed to isolate only a smell, a very particular aroma that he had perceived when the hunter had approached him. He tried to figure out what it was; it definitely wasn't a human smell.
Cat: unmistakable feline smell, he answered himself.
He isolated his olfactory tract and tried to follow the wake left by the hunter.
Finding his ideal prey at last, Sting was preparing to make his move.
"Hi, girls!" he began with a confident roguish smile.
Angelique gave him just a shy glance, without responding to the greeting, while Jude scanned him from head to foot, sizing him up with a half smirk. He happily returned a disdainful look at her: she wasn’t the one who had impressed him.
"What’s your name, gorgeous?"
"Your approach seems a little outdated and obvious" Nina replied frostily, repaying him with a crooked smile.
"Maybe, but your beautiful green eyes deserved a try" he replied, sitting down next to her.
His leather pants adhered to the girl’s bare thigh. She tried to pull away, but Jude was right next to
her, so there was no way of escaping that unexpected contact.
"You’d like me to believe that you try to pick me up because of my eyes?" she summed up, with a superficial smirk.
"Not just because of them. For your sincere smile, for your sweet face, your firm breasts, sexy hips and, most of all, your soft thighs which promise passion" he said audaciously, in one breath.
Nina opened her eyes wide and blushed.
He put a hand on her chin.
She felt an unpleasant sensation at that contact, similar to what she had experienced in the afternoon, just before her cousin burst into her room.
"What say we get out of here, just you and I?"
He stared fixedly at her eyes, preempting her penetrating gaze with a simple, but almost hypnotic, movement of his hand in front of her face.
"I, I, don’t… I don’t think I should" she objected with an extreme effort. The effects of the drinks were not helping her to react more decisively about what she wanted to do.
"Don't be shy, come with me!" he ordered her peremptorily, taking her by the hand and helping her get up.
She complied with his movements.
"Nina! What are you doing?" Angelique broke out, shocked and concerned.
"Who with, what's more. Heavens, you could have made a better choice!" Jude retorted, earning a second, quick dirty look.
"Reassure your friends" Sting whispered in her ear, with a persuasive tone.
"Everything’s ok, girls, I'll see you later" she said to them, almost without thinking, with a weak but determined voice.
The vampire headed to the emergency exit which opened to the rear. Taking advantage of a moment when the bouncer was absent, he went into the alley, pulling her behind him.
At that precise moment, Nina’s cell phone which she had distractedly left in her coat, deposited in the cloakroom, rang insistently and just as uselessly.
Tony tried to call Angelique and Jude, but the din in the room stopped them from hearing the call.
He sighed heavily, overcome for a moment by the irrepressible and liberating desire to throw away his cellphone. Then, downcast and defeated, he returned home.
For no particular reason, Christopher lost interest in his olfactory tract and felt the instinct to check the table where he had seen that very special girl.
When he saw she was no longer in her place, he immediately became worried.
He looked around in the immediate vicinity, just in time to glimpse Sting as he prepared to slip out of the club.
"Damn!" he roared loudly, and then leapt onto the dance floor, deeming it the shortest way to reach him quickly.
He had, however, underestimated the human wall that soon surrounded him.
He felt the desire to get rid of the lot of them with force, but if he did that he would attract the unwanted attentions of the security staff and, certainly, of the hunters, and end up losing much more time.
So he tried to gauge the strength and agility needed to get out of there quickly and reach Sting before he could sink his teeth, or something else, into his prey.
In the alley, Nina hugged her arms to her chest as the sensation of biting cold immediately assailed her.
Sting stared at her for a moment. "It’s not cold, it’s lovely out here."
The feeling of cold disappeared, and she relaxed again. The vampire smiled, pleased with himself, as his eyes glittered, flickering in a strange way.
He noticed a part of the alley in semi-darkness, not far from the exit, and took her there. He pushed her hard against the wall, startling her, then pounced on her.
He bent down to put a hand on her slim calf then, slowly, went upwards to the knee and thigh, which he pressed satisfied.
Nina was confused; she wanted to flee from there, get away, but it was as if a part of her was telling her body to remain there, contrary to her real desire.
Her pulse began to beat faster and she began to wheeze breathlessly.
Sting took those signs as being the pleasure she was feeling in the sudden forceful contact.
Unexpectedly, Nina began to feel a strange sensation of heat in the area of her chest.
"I, I, want to go " she stammered.
"No, you want to stay" he contradicted her, mollifying her.
The girl’s desire is resistant he thought to himself.
Sting pushed himself against her.
Nina felt his erection pressing against her, but wasn't capable of moving a single muscle to escape from him.
Sting grabbed her by the shoulders and made her kneel down. Nina found her face a few inches from the crotch of his pants.
The Trequetra that fell between her breasts, level with her heart, emanated more heat. The discomfort in her breast intensified so much that it roused her from the torpor she was in.
With her hands on the vampire’s hips, she tried to push herself away with all the force she had in her body.
"Hey what…"
Sting did not have time to finish the sentence before a strong shove suddenly threw him against the nearby dumpster.
"What the fuck are you doing?" he protested, as he recognized his friend Christopher as the assailant.
"This is not the time for this kind of thing; there are hunters inside the club!" He justified himself, far too irate.
"Okay, but you might have waited ten minutes, and perhaps not hit me so hard" complained Sting, getting up and dusting his clothes.
"Go to the car, I’ll take care of the girl’s memory and then I’ll join you."
"That idea doesn't sit well with me…"
Christopher stared at him, his face severe and resolute, and there was no further objection from his friend.
Taking advantage of their dispute, Nina tried to flee but the tripped on the uneven sidewalk, the heel of her boot snapped and she fell to the ground.
Christopher bent over her.
"Are you alright?" he asked with a reassuring voice.
The girl looked at him with terrified eyes. He plunged his dark irises into her green eyes.
"Your eyes, they're…" he said interrupting himself as he said it.
Although the burning sensation in her chest had not diminished, she was no longer feeling the sensation of discomfort and imminent danger of before.
"Give me your hand, I'll help you up."
"Hey handsome."
In the moment Christopher turned around, a fist struck him in the face, throwing him to the ground.
Vans roughly pulled the girl away, and the vampire, astonished and with his cheek burning, tried to get back on his feet.
"Do you like it?" asked the boy, admiring his knuckle duster. "Solid silver, with a different sacred symbol for each knuckle shield, because you never know which clique you monsters belong to."
Christopher jumped to his feet, revealing his prominent incisors and his fuming and snarling face.
Nina flinched in fear and pulled herself backwards with her hands to get as far away as she could.
"Run!" Vans ordered her, deigning her with a fleeting glance that gave the enemy an opening to counterattack.
Out of the corner of his eye the boy saw a bin overflowing with rubbish about to crash onto him. He brought both arms up to protect his face and chest, and tried to avoid it, but succeeded only in part.
He felt the blow, and the kick which followed even more, which centered him in the abdomen.
He fell to the ground, but got up quickly to deal with the opponent; Nina shrank against the wall of the building, trembling and cold.
"To each his own weapon. For you, filthy sewer rat that you are, a rubbish bin, while to me, as a hunter…" Vans needled him, extracting a long knife from a scabbard at his belt.
"What, no stake? Isn’t that your favorite toy?" teased Christopher in a mocking tone.
"No, I prefer to cut off your head with the machete, but if I’d known that you like to be impaled, well, I'd have brought it along" replied Vans with a scornful smile.
Sting went further dow
n the alley, intending to circle the nightclub and reach the car parked along the road.
Passing at the side of a blue mini-van, he muttered sullen invectives against Christopher who had deprived him of having some proper fun.
He abruptly snapped sideways with a feline jump: a bottle of thin glass had crashed to the ground, not far from him.
"Bad aim, bad hunter" he stated.
"I’d wait before saying that" answered Gabriel, coming out of hiding with a stake in his hand, with which he immediately made some lethal lunges.
Sting avoided them easily, then let fly a punch straight at his face that stunned his opponent. He followed that with a left hook, sending him to the ground.
"Is that all?" he asked disappointed, showing his incisors. "So it looks like I'll have to kill you now, and then I’ll go back to the alley to do the girl."
Crash!
A heavy glass bottle splintered on his head without warning. Someone had hit him from behind. After taking the blow, he turned irritated, yelling at Jude who was holding the neck of a broken bottle in her hand, terrified: "But what the fu…"
Pssh!
"Aaagh!" he howled in pain. Angelique had flooded his corneas with pepper spray.
Gabriel came back to his senses and struggled to his feet.
He took a small bottle from the inside pocket of his overcoat, opened it and stuck it inside Sting’s shirt.
"Whoa! That burns!" the vampire protested, writhing in pain.
Gabriel gently pushed Angelique and Jude out of the alley.
"Quick, get out of here!"
"No way!" objected Jude. "That thing took our friend outside. We have to find her!"
Chapter 7 – Unexpected Encounters
Vans and Christopher were ready to give each other a good hiding when footsteps and a screeching noise attracted their attention.
Without losing sight of each other, they tried to move their perception toward the source of those unusual and persistent sounds that were getting closer and closer.
Thump!
From the obscurity that enveloped the upper floors of the buildings facing onto the alley, two figures in dark clothing with hoods over their heads, suddenly plummeted down, easily absorbing the fall.
