My stomach growled at the smell of pizza filling the car, a reminder that I’d skipped dinner to make it on time to the bookstore Uptown.
Three things made me think of home, my New York City: an authentic bagel with cream cheese, pastrami on rye, and my personal favorite, a dollar slice of New York style pizza.
The train stopped, so I rose and headed toward the opening doors. Looking over my shoulder through the crowd of people, I noticed the mystery man was gone.
A woman pushed me from behind, knocking the bags I held onto the platform, and kept going. My items scattered across the floor. All I saw of her was the back of a blonde’s head.
“Hey, watch it,” I shouted after her.
While most exited the train and walked around me, Mr. Unattainable appeared at my side. The heat I’d felt in his gaze on the train only intensified at his nearness.
“Need assistance?” he asked in BBC-style English with a hint of Jersey. He towered before me at around six foot four of dense muscle. His voice told me more than I’d ever thought to hear from being caught staring on the train.
“Fuck.” That was usually not the answer to give, but the smile he gave me showed he wasn’t a prude. Oh, I was swimming in the deep end of the pool. The air between us sizzled.
“We didn’t get a chance to connect, and this must be fate,” he said. “I’m headed to dinner. Would you like to join me?”
He had on a five-thousand-dollar suit, and I was wearing something that cost not even one percent of that. I glanced over his shoulders and around in search of a camera. Surely, this was a moment someone wanted to make viral.
“Uh, you want dinner? Oh, sure, you must not be from around here. You’re probably lost, as that happens with many tourists. You should only ask those with name tags on, though. Someone might try to take advantage, you know, uh…?”
“I’m Alistair, and you?”
Good thing he figured out I’d wanted to ask his name but was too tongue-tied to speak coherently. Warmth wrapped around me like he’d sent a ball of happiness right at me. His name made butterflies take flight in my stomach and tickle me from within. Surely, I looked besotted or maybe drunk.
The blue specks in his eyes seemed to invite me to test out what this might become. After all, when did a grand knight appear to rescue the girl—my things—from being trampled on?
As for the rest, I was sure he didn’t intend to ask me out. I had to be imagining things.
“So?” he asked after a few moments of silence. “Dinner?”
Gods, he had asked me out. Alistair waited for my answer as I kept looking around to make sure I was in the real world. The platform had emptied pretty quickly, and yet, he seemed relaxed and comfortable. Could he be a psycho? No … I just didn’t get that vibe.
He held a stack of my stuff—books, papers, a pen I’d had between my lips. As he passed them to me, our hands touched. Just like the cliché, my heart skipped a beat. I couldn’t hold back my smile any longer. He drew it out of me.
“Gorgeous…” I sighed.
“Yes, that is what I’d call you, too.”
I cleared my throat. “No, I mean, Leslie, please.”
“Gorgeous Leslie. Yes, now, how about that dinner?”
Chapter Six
Leslie
The crowd had moved on, and we headed toward the subway station exit. He waved me forward, and we bounded up the first flight of stairs to the main landing.
A panhandler strummed a guitar, singing a sweet Eurovision-worthy Icelandic ballad, while his wolf-dog hybrid rested before him.
The dog, with its black, gray, and white fur, stared hard at me, as if it were seeing into my soul. My brain tried to connect the dots. For a moment, I saw wolves and vampires fighting. I blinked to clear my vision, and the Icelandic words washed over me.
At first, I understood nothing, and then the words shifted. The singer stared at me, called my name, and sang, “You are the seer.”
I stumbled, and Alistair’s steady hand caught me.
I had no idea what that could have meant. A seer of what?
“I’m sorry. I’m not sure what’s gotten into me.” I tried to cast aside my confusion. Finding my footing, I glanced at the panhandler one more time, but again, he was caught up in his song and flute playing. “Sure,” I finally said. “I’d love to have dinner.”
I beamed like I’d probably just won a pageant. No way could this be happening. But, I wanted to see where things might go.
Okay, to be frank, I’d ogled my share of men on the subway, but I’d never had one call me gorgeous. Swoon.
Life in the city was never what one could expect. We walked on, exiting the subway hub. Finally, back aboveground, all of the neon lights, taxi headlights, and sounds of the city returned.
“Where are you from?” I asked, trying to confirm my suspicions.
“The UK is where I call home, currently, but I am pretty transient.”
“Oh, military?” He didn’t look like military—maybe special ops, maybe MI6, but not a regular soldier. His arms were the size of my thighs. He could surely bench-press a small car.
“Something like that.”
Since we were both from Western culture, we should have certain things in common, and I also considered myself something of an anglophile. Nothing got my heart gunning like a handsome man with an accent.
Everyone had their own biases, and I’d often sought to trade parts of me to become more likable. Then I learned the importance of intuition. The signs always showed me the way. Maybe Gran had people on the other side, my ancestors, guiding and protecting me, too. Of course, self-love and care propelled me to chase my dreams and happiness.
Sneaking a peek at him made my head swim. Even more, I felt a strange comfort as though I’d met him before. I couldn’t figure it out. Surely, if we’d crossed paths in the past, I would not have forgotten him.
“I need to pick up a package from a friend,” I over-explained.
There were no warning bells about this guy. Still, I wasn’t going to take him to Sunflower’s apartment. Who knew what might happen? There were tons of serial killers who happened to be disarmingly charming, and then one wound up chopped into little bits. Nope.
“I know this place not far away where we can have dinner,” I suggested. “But they usually have a wait. Do you like spicy food? I just need to run that errand, as I said.”
“I will walk with you, and then we can grab dinner.”
“I like that idea.” We walked in comfortable silence for a couple of minutes. “Do you miss home?”
“Home has several different meanings. Home is where happiness waits. The Highlands are filled with ancient magic, they say.”
“Well, unless you have elves living in the hills, as they do in Iceland—”
He snickered. “Scotland also is a land of magic and myth.”
“Okay, I’m all ears, but this is why I wear lavender. It’s supposed to be magical, too. The way to my heart is ancient lore, I warn you now.”
“Your heart is where I’m hoping to find a place.” His answer was loaded, and my heart hiccupped. “The most famous mythical creature is Nessie, of course.”
“Of course, a water dragon,” I said. “I heard that’s a hoax.”
“You can’t believe everything you hear. In my hometown, well, I’ve learned to believe in more than a myth or two.”
Finally, we stopped in front of Sunflower’s building. Her doorman stood at attention. “Hello, Ms. Leslie. Are you here to see Sunflower?”
“Hi, Elm. Yes.” I glanced around him to see if someone different might be at the desk. The last time I was here, it was like stepping onto a movie set. Tonight, Elm was quite different, even in answering my questions. Who’d have thought it possible? “I hope you didn’t get into trouble because of me.”
“Of course not. You are Ms. Sunflower’s dear friend. She surely will wish only good for you. She has been away for a few days now. Can you take up her parcels, as well?
”
Sunflower and I just jelled for sure, like we’d known each other forever.
“Not a problem,” I told Elm and then turned my attention back to Alistair. “Please wait here, and I’ll deliver these and be right back down.”
His stomach rumbled loudly. “Good, because I love a good curry.”
I moved through the golden doors and toward the front desk, where a days’ worth of Sunflower’s mail waited. I didn’t recall her telling me that she was stepping out of town for a few days. A cold shiver raced down my spine. Fear echoed in my ears, and a panic I couldn’t understand caught me in its embrace, unwilling to let go. I had to get to Sunflower’s apartment and see it for myself. How? What?
With my hands loaded with mail, I raced to the elevator and impatiently double-pushed on the elevator button, calling it to me. Time flowed like molasses until the elevator arrived.
Again, I pushed Sunflower’s floor’s button and held my breath. I pushed up my light sweater’s sleeves to my elbows as best as I could. The hairs on my arm stood at attention. Whatever waited for me wasn’t good at all. That gut feeling rose and screamed in my head, growing ever louder with each step closer.
The elevator doors opened, and I raced down the corridor to Sunflower’s apartment door. My imagination ran amok, thinking of discovering the worst. Was she dead? I pushed my key into the lock, turned the doorknob, and threw open the door.
Alistair
Nothing was ever as it seemed in a world where supernatural creatures lurked in shadows and lived undetected among humans. This place was no different.
Alistair had previously scanned the building and knew its layout. Should things go south, the quickest way to Sunflower’s apartment was through the fire escape, as the old elevator rocked and careened, moving at a snail’s pace, and the stairs made it too easy for someone to escape.
He stepped back outside into the cool night breeze. He inhaled deeply. Something wasn’t right. The air wafted through his nostrils, over his tongue as he tried to taste what was nearby. What sort of creature could be masking himself in the shadows?
“Elm,” he called out. “Have you been taking great care here?”
The golem stood at attention. He, like many of his kind, was active around the city. Of course. Elm represented the perfect human effigy. With his bellman’s cap fitted in place, his shaggy hair conveniently covered the glyph on his forehead.
“As requested, sir, I have kept watch.”
“And? Have you seen the woman, Sunflower?”
He shook his head. “The woman has not returned to her apartment, nor has anyone requested entry there until today, with Ms. Leslie.”
After the initial attack, when the wolves returned to Sunflower’s apartment, they’d discovered only evidence of a fight: no bodies, no puddles of blood.
Alistair nodded. With a golem, one had to ask a succinct question, for they could only answer that until they either learned or were programmed to do more. “And have any strangers appeared around here?”
“Yes,” Elm acknowledged. “There were a new cleaning crew and a new man at the desk earlier today. Hunter came and chased him away.”
“Were these changes expected by management?”
“No, sir. But they had all of the credentials and paperwork. I passed this information on to the central office as commanded.”
Raising his left wrist, Alistair spoke into his com unit. “Beau, I need you to run a check on the names Elm provided the central office regarding Sunflower’s apartment. We’ve got strange movement here.”
“Roger that,” Beau said. “We are still looking for her, as well, sir.”
“Yes, please ensure—” Before he could finish his statement, he heard a piercing scream—her scream.
“Elm, you are to watch this door and make sure that no harm befalls any humans.”
Alistair then dashed around the side of the building and scaled the fire escape at record speed.
Finally, he came to stand outside of Sunflower’s window and saw Leslie tussling with a young vampire. He had her pinned down on the table, and she held what appeared like an athame, a ritual blade.
“You, seer, must die so that we may live.” The vampire flashed his fangs. “Your blood will give us the breadth of life. True life in the sunshine.”
Alistair shot through the window like a cannonball and unfurled. His skin puckered with blue dragon scales. “Let her go, bastard!” he bellowed.
The creature of the night turned at his order, and Leslie staked it right in the chest.
The vampire didn’t burn or fall into a heap of ashes. Instead, a murder of crows with big black wings formed, and they all flew in place before falling dead at Leslie’s feet. Their feathers fluttered slowly onto her, sticking to her exposed forearms. Her eyes, once brown with flecks of gold, now turned black.
For a moment, he stood deadly still. In all of his life, he’d never seen anything like this. Upon touching her skin, the feathers slowly disintegrated, leaving behind only a glowing Fehu Rune.
The goddess Freyja’s rune.
Their gazes clashed, and in Leslie’s terror-filled eyes, he wasn’t sure what to expect or how he should respond to this insanity. She’d captured the darkness from the vampire, freed it with the athame, and then released it as a flock of corvids.
Taking the knife, she now pointed it at him. “Who are you? Who are you really?”
“I’m Alistair McLeod, and I’m here to save you.”
Chapter Seven
Leslie
The Next Day
Sleep eluded me. I’d made my way back to the safety of my apartment, and even though I’d taken a sleeping pill, I could only replay events in my head. What had happened?
This whole mess with the supernatural wasn’t real. I tried to convince myself. Sure, I couldn’t explain the crows, but the way I saw it, some guy attacked me, and I defended myself. The last thing I was going to let happen, though, was for such an incident to throw off my last chance of catching and holding on to my big break.
Finally, when my alarm blared, I shuffled around the apartment stuck in my thoughts, while Gran flitted around. I was a stranger in my skin but focused on what I had to do to survive. Yes, survive. I could thrive once my desperation’s grasp lessened and when I knew I could pay my bills.
“Don’t forget the ring,” Gran called. “Dear girl, did you hear me? Why are you staring at your feet?” She perched next to me on her two ghostly streamer trunks wearing a lovely boarding dress with a matching wide-brim, deep moss-green hat, and cream-colored gloves. She looked every bit like she, too, could have traveled on the Titanic for sure. “You are awfully glum.”
“I don’t wanna talk about it.” I headed to my jewelry box where I’d placed her ring for safekeeping and eased it onto my hand.
“You didn’t wish to talk about it last night, either.” Instead of answering, I turned, exiting my bedroom, pulling my suitcase behind me. “The only thing that can make a woman this frustrated is surely a man.”
“Nope. I don’t wanna talk about it.”
“Well, I will instead blabber on about what I heard from Ms. Delacroix in Apartment 19B. She said she spotted vampires outside her window the other night when we heard all of those fireworks. The night the lights flickered.”
Ms. Delacroix was a leftover fixture like so many of Gran’s ghostly friends. I still didn’t know, though, why she remained earthbound.
“Thankfully, we have a generator that kicked in,” I admitted. “I’d have hated to lose all of the meat in the freezer.” I waited for Gran’s double-entendre. One couldn’t mention meat without some retort.
“What?” She eyed me and shrugged. “I got nothing.”
I snickered in reply, my mood lightening. To be honest, Gran’s humor could run amok, and often her responses surprised even me.
“Yes, well,” she continued, “we were lucky the building agreed to our demands about the generator.”
“They didn’t a
gree to your demands. You and your ghostly friends decided to haunt the building’s superintendent until he submitted.”
“He still agreed, and it worked out. This building has so much history. We felt a ripple from the ether—our instinct, really—as fate wrestled with the things of this world and beyond.”
“Destiny?”
“Divine intervention. This, Leslie, is the time to batten down the hatches. There is a whole lot more going on in this city than even I know.”
A shiver coursed through me, and my phone chirped. “Come on, the car’s downstairs.”
“Maurice ordered you a car? Fancy.”
My response could only be a tight-lipped smile. How could I tell her that what I thought was success had evaporated in my hands? I pushed down those feelings of disappointment so she wouldn’t catch wind of them.
Struggling with my suitcase down the steps and outside, I gasped upon exiting the building and spotting the waiting black town car, where the driver stood with a sign bearing my name. This was not what I’d ordered.
“Um, I think there must be some mistake,” I told the waiting chauffeur in his black uniform.
“No, no mistake, Ms. Love. My name is Hans Ganz, but you can call me Goose. I’m to transport you to the port.” He reached into his pocket and retrieved an envelope which he passed to me. “Mr. McLeod has informed me that he will see you there.”
Goose opened the door to the backseat. I didn’t have time to order another ride. Instead, I reluctantly took a seat. “Hmph,” I vocalized. After last night, I wasn’t sure I wanted to see the attractive man who wouldn’t answer any of my questions.
“So, there is a man.” I heard Gran lightly whisper as Goose closed the door behind me.
After a couple of minutes, he pulled into traffic, and we were on our way. I found my manners. “Did Mr. McLeod say anything else, Goose?”
Once Bitten: A Vampire Urban Fantasy Mystery (Order of the Dragon: Wolf's Den) Page 4
