Your Red Always

by Leeann Whitaker

  He shuffles to the edge of the bed and picks up his jeans. He heaves and wiggles his superb cheeks, zipping them up over his naked flesh. I worm and turn over into the foetal position. I don’t want to leave this room. I don’t want to have to walk out of that door and have the reality of what he is slap me in the face again.

  “Get some sleep,” he says, thoughtfully tiptoeing through the panel.

  I don’t want to sleep. I want him back here with me. To forget what he told me. To pretend it never happened.

  I don’t know what time it is. I’ve been suspended in serenity and have lost all notion of time and space. It’s Adrien’s voice that eventually cajoles me to sit up. He’s yelling brash then low, like he’s trying not to disturb my non-existent slumber. Great. Last night, his admission, it’s all there quizzing my own sanity. I mean Sara must know what he is; she has to. She used to be Laurie’s Red according to Dom.

  I stand with the bed sheet draped over my arms. Okay, maybe what he’s told me has to remain between him and I. Best thing to do is act ignorant. Be my simple self for the behalf of Sara. I dread to think what would happen if she found out I know everything. I slip my black dress up over my shoulders, pull out my hair, and creep through the panel.

  Adrien has his back arched over, reading a piece of paper on the kitchen counter. Sara aims her nasty eyes at me. I’m not going to let her bother me. I’m here on Adrien’s wishes, not hers. And I don’t really care if my presence is putting her nose out of joint. She can be as bitchy as she likes.

  I repay her daggers with a condescending grin and subtle wave. “Morning.”

  Adrien looks over his arm at me then hands the paper back to Sara. “This can wait,” he says. “It’s new year’s day Sara.”

  I hang back with my hands held before my waist. She’s still staring at me, and now everything has gone awfully quiet. I look to the window awkwardly.

  “Its fine Elizabeth,” Adrien says. “She knows what I’ve told you.”

  Oh crap. Why am I blushing? It could be because I haven’t quite registered the truth yet myself. I feel very similar when the topic of my mum’s sex shop comes up. Like it’s some dark secret that I don’t want to go into. I feel very uncomfortable.

  “And you?” I ask nervously, because frankly I cannot say the V word again.

  “Yes I’m a Vampire, Miss Lovell,” she says, sarcastically.

  “Sara,” Adrien snaps.

  Well I guess I should have known the bitch wasn’t human in the first place.

  “Sorry,” she groans. “But do you think it’s a good idea her knowing all this.” She moves by the island, closer to me. “Maybe it would be best if we… well you know.”

  I take several swift steps back, ready to run. Adrien grabs her black sleeve as I recoil, noting a darkness in her eyes.

  “I will kill anyone who touches her,” he warns. “That includes you Sara… do you understand.”

  “Yes of course.” She smiles.

  Oh my god. This is nuts. I’m shaking.

  “Elizabeth,” Adrien gestures as I gawp. “You okay?”

  “Hmm.” I exhale the terror.

  “Sara, get hold of the Coven,” he orders. “Tell them tonight we are holding a get together at The Mill. All drinks are on the house. I want to introduce Elizabeth to everyone.”

  Coven? I thought that was a witch thing. Hell, I think I’ll just get back into that bed. My freaky dreams of clowns and red balloons are easier to condense than this.

  Sara picks up her things and heads to the door. She stops next to me and side-glances.

  “Miss Lovell.” I fidget and slowly turn, ready for her caustic lashes to hit me. “Happy new year.” She walks away and I puff out my lips in release.

  I take my phone out of my bag and sit on the bed. I have twenty-six missed calls, and seven text messages. First message from Mum, asking me why I haven’t called. Then another, wishing me happy new year. There are two from Cate. One telling me to call Nathan because he’s lost it. She’s going to Pete’s because he has kicked everyone out. And the second, she thanks me for leaving her alone. Then I see his name. He sent it at 11.30pm. There are slurred words, well this is a slurred message. I get the gist of it straightaway. I’m a total mind-fuck. Why did I kiss him? Do I have any idea how he feels, yadda yadda yadda.

  I toss it on the mattress as Adrien enters. I’ve done nothing wrong, but I feel so bad. Am I just some emotional punch bag to those who are supposed to be my friends? Because it sure as hell feels that way.

  “You don’t have to go,” Adrien says as I massage my temples. “I’d like you to stay; then later I’ll show you what I do.” He holds a tonic out to me.

  I frown. Not more revelations surly.

  “What you do?” I take the bottle and toy with it.

  He walks into the wet-room and turns on the shower. “Yeah, besides my own real-estate business… now drink up.”

  “Okay, can you explain to me what’s in this stuff?” I swish the liquid around. “I guessing it’s not a vitamin supplement.”

  “It’s supposed to decrease the scent of blood that comes from your pores. Some kind of herbal recipe created centuries ago,” he explains. “Makes you less tempting. It’s harmless to you.”

  “And it works does it?”

  “For me, no. You’re always tempting to me,” he says with shrewd ray. “But for others it will.”

  I go silent. I have to. All this is too much to take in. He wants to introduce me to all his Vampire friends. Shit. I’ll be walking around The Mill like a god damn appetiser.

  “I’m pushing this too far.” He sighs and joins my side.

  “You think.” I grin faintly.

  He lifts me onto his knees. I kneel so we’re nose to nose. He places his hand delicately against my neck and gazes completely into me.

  “I’m in love with you,” he whispers as an emotive bump grows in my neck. “If I’m going to be with you, I need you to know everything about me.” He kisses my lip. “Now… take a shower with me.”

  He cranes me up high from beneath my arms. I’m awestruck how strong he is. He has just lifted the whole one hundred and fifteen pounds of me, as though I’m as light as air. And now he’s running his nose up my belly and between my breasts. He has superhuman strength.

  With my feet back on the floor, I stand before him as his fingers slope over my hips. He chuckles at my stunned expression.

  “Elizabeth, I don’t need to hide who I am from you now.”

  He winches my limp body up again, nibbling my lips. I bind my legs around him, forgetting everything but the here and now.

  Chapter 21: Storage

  Adrien dropped me off at home so I could quickly change. He did offer to take me to one of the fancy outlets on Bond Street. Told me he would make some calls, pull in a favour with the owner of a boutique he knows. Get the poor guy to open up just for me. But I was dead-set against it. Told him I will purchase my own clothing. And no one should miss out their holiday because he thinks it’s fine to splash his cash. He was quite astounded by my obstinate tone, and not in a bad way. Plucky he called me. Plucky. I mean he could have come up with a better name.

  It’s going to take me some time to get my head around the fact he’s a Vampire. All I see him as is Adrien, not some creature of the night who drinks blood. And there are more out there just like him. They exist among us, working and paying taxes like me. I’ve decided not to think about it for now. All he is to me, is my sexy lover.

  I was gone for a full thirty minutes, listening to the mother of all lectures from Cate. Not only about the whole Nathan thing, but that my mother has been calling none stop because she hasn’t received her New Year’s phone call. I tried not to speak too much. And when Cate looked out of the window and saw Adrien’s car waiting, for a second, I thought I might let it slip out just how weird my night had been. But I managed to keep schtum on the whole Vampire issue, and after needlessly apologising, she let me go.

  I’m
now stood outside The Mill in the blustery rain waiting for Adrien to open the door. A guy appears right behind me and stands looking over my shoulder. I have to slant my head high to see him he’s so tall. He smiles, it’s a polite grin. But still I find he’s too close in my personal space. So I shuffle quickly behind Adrien as he makes his way inside.

  “Mr Knight, which bar do you want me working on?” The man asks, removing his sodden brown jacket to reveal his red crew cut and pasty complexion.

  Adrien mutters to himself, flicking on all the lights. “I think you’d be better working the forth tonight Jimmy. We have several Covens coming in. So I want you and Kim on forth, and Steve and Lisa on ground.”

  I press my lips, examining Jimmy as he goes through the door to the stairs. I can’t figure out if he’s, well you know. He just looks like the average Joe. Skinny and a bit unkempt. I stare as the door flaps back and forth.

  “Elizabeth?” Adrien calls.

  “Is he?”

  His lips curve with tolerance at my inexperience. “Yes, and a very reliable devotee he is to… wouldn’t harm a fly our Jimmy.”

  “So, how many of you are there, because he seems a normal to me?”

  Crap. That sounded awful. It was an accidental insult. I should not speak tonight. If carry on like this, I’m going to end up in a hole I can’t get out of. I sigh, hoping he understands my stupidity.

  “Elizabeth, stop panicking.” He leans over the bar and pulls out a big bunch of keys.

  I remain still, twirling my hair, admiring how he flexed over that bar like a gymnast. I note how debonair he looks tonight. Grey trousers, brown belt, fitted white shirt, and a dash of designer stubble; the kind that leaves his mark on my skin. Not really much thought gone into this combination of black leggings and cream jumper I’m wearing.

  “Come, I have something to show you.” He takes my hand and leads me to the lift.

  The door opens out onto the dark corridor. He flicks on the lights. I see the room I met Laurie and the others in for the first time, and the knots tighten in my gut. He told me he kept his paperwork in these room. But now I have the niggling suspicion, they are used for something else.

  I move nervously as he approaches the end room on the right, jiggling through the keys. It’s so warm down here; an uneasy heat that’s making me perspire. I really don’t want to be giving off body odour, not when I’m surrounded by super-sensed Vampires. Though, maybe I should encourage the sweat, it might make me less appealing. I pluck out my jumper a few times to get some air on my skin.

  He opens the door and lingers. “You will probably have some trouble understanding what’s in these rooms. But you need to see the workings of what we do, and how we have evolved.”

  Shit. I don’t want to see now. Why did he have to warn me first?

  He opens the door wide and enters. There’s a blue ultraviolet light illuminating through the doorway, and an artic mist drifting over my skin. It’s like some giant refrigeration room. I fill my lungs and gingerly step by him.

  I take a lengthy look around. So, it’s not as bad as seeing a sacrificial table with blood soaked stains, but still it’s unusual. A city nightclub with some kind of sterilised storage room, full of steel shelving units containing hundreds of polystyrene boxes.

  I approach one of the sealed cartons. The label states its batch 108, dated 24th December from Manchester. My breath vapour floats over my fingers as I reach out to the lid.

  “Don’t.” Adrien latches onto my hand.

  I catch my breath. “What’s in it?”

  “You already know.”

  “Blood I’m assuming. But why so much… for you?”

  He takes the small box from the shelf to set it down on a long clinical white desk. He unseals the lid with a scalpel and removes one bag of blood. Curiosity has got the better of me now. I no longer feel like I’m in some Vampiric feeding room. But in some scientific lesson with one shit hot teacher. I walk over to his back and peek over his shoulder, as he pulls a chrome light down from the ceiling.

  “Every bag is collected, tested for impurities, and goes through several tougher checks before consumption,” he explains, moving the bag beneath the light.

  “All this is for you then?” There has to be over two hundred boxes in here.

  “Of course not. We provide for Sang and Vigore across the city.”

  “So this is a lab, and you’re like the dealer?” I think hard for a second. “Where does it all come from?”

  “We have paid donors, and we deal with medical suppliers,” he states. “There’s always too much of one type and not enough of the other. So we scout and pay handsomely for the rare, and in exchange we purchase the excess. Blood is blood to us, so the majority of these bags are common type.”

  He places the bag into the box and reseals it. He turns and props against the worktop, crossing his arms. I think I’ve pissed him off calling him a dealer, but that’s exactly what he is.

  “I’m in charge of making sure we can feed safely without our identity being exposed. The Order have very stringent rules in place to prevent a reoccurrence of our dark age,” he says. “Centuries ago, Vampires fed freely off the living. But as the body count rose we were becoming visible; we were being hunted,” he explains.

  In fascination, I listen. I want to ask him if it was anything like the movies, Interview with a Vampire, or Dracula, but I won’t. I think he’ll take offense.

  “I’ve seen what happens to those of us who are torn between bloodlust and empathy for what we once were, as Demi or Devotee. The refusal to feed on human blood, feeding off rats in the gutter, and as a last resort killing,” he agitates. “This is a way of survival. This is the only way we can coexist.”

  I’m kind of absorbed in this. It’s like a fictional tale. He pats his knee, requiring I come closer. I move, and perch next to him.

  “That bag is all I need,” he says. “Maybe a little more after.” He playfully nudges my arm. “You know.” His brow bobs. “One bag a day is sufficient for any Vampire. That is apart from the odd greedy Vigore.”

  “So… you sell this?”

  “Yes,” he sighs. “We have to make some profit.”

  “So, all this is yours; you’re something along the lines of a mob-boss?” I smile, but his face remains impassive. “Okay, my attempts to lighten this whole thing are dire… sorry.”

  He fingers my knee. “Maybe I should ease you into all this a little slower.”

  “No… like you said, I need to know,” I insist. “So carry on.”

  “I’m owned.” He drops his head. “For now anyhow.”

  “What?”

  “I was sired for one purpose, and that is to serve The Order. I and Laurie… all of us were chosen for a reason.” He stares with a despondency in his eyes. “I run affairs for The Order because they are unable to. They cannot walk around like us.”

  “I’m guessing because of the sun?”

  He beams, amused. “Yes, we sparkle, and once we twinkle we can’t stop,” he laughs.

  I was being serious. Though, I’ve never actually seen Adrien in direct sunlight, because this country is probably the dullest on earth. I was genuinely implying that daylight must have some effect on them. I raise one brow, wanting more clarity.

  “It’s nothing like the shit portrayals you see in the movies,” he adds. “Fuck, sometimes I wish it was.”

  “So the whole stake through the heart thing, the holy water, garlic?”

  He laughs a charming giggle that’s been held back for a long time. He thinks I’m childlike, which is beginning to annoy me. He’s never had to explain this stuff to someone as dumb as me before, and is finding it entertaining. I scowl at him until his lips straighten.

  “Right.” He breathes through it. “The sun does affect me. Gives me the most agonising migraine you could possibly imagine.” He points to his temple. “And I burn, turn beet red, but I also heal. I’m like a beacon; a kaleidoscope of colours on the beach I am.”
<
br />   “So the pure ones… the same happens to them?”

  “God no… they really do sparkle.” He grins as I roll my eyes because I know he’s messing with me. “I haven’t seen Selene or her father in decades; direct sun can melt the skin off their bones. They remain in the darkness.”

  “Nice,” I cringe. “Why do you stick around then; if they remain hidden?”

  He smirks, cynically. “I have travelled thousands of miles. I have ran affairs under different aliases in over twelve different countries. Believe me, an executive is always on The Orders payroll, until you’ve served your time.”

  “Well that’s unfair.”

  “Yes… but it’s a price I have to pay.”

  “So, you can’t die?

  Again his lips curve, shaking his head at my immature question. “It’s all the romantic bullshit that has been written over the years that makes us seem magical,” he says, annoyed. “We can do things humans cannot, but there is nothing magical about it. It’s a burden,” he adds. “A stake through the heart, shit, if anything creature got stabbed in the chest with a pointy stick, I’m quite sure most wouldn’t pull through. I love garlic, though my diet doesn’t let me eat much of it. And holy water, I could shower in the stuff.”

  “No eternal life then?”

  “I will live for an eternity, but this body can die if I’m unable to heal,” he explains. “My soul is a prisoner in this flesh, bound to the dark and The Order. Even if this body can no longer contain my soul, I will still never be free,” he sighs. “I’ll be lost, neither hell nor heaven will take me.”

  “You soul was stolen, right. You didn’t sell it, make a deal, so why would it never be free?” I ask, because to me he didn’t choose to be a Vampire, it was forced onto him.

  His chest expands as he tilts his view on me. “I did have a choice… I drunk first blood from Selene.”

  “You were chained and infected by her after you died. As you said, new bloods are crazed. You’d have done anything for that blood because you weren’t in your right mind.”

  “Wow,” he smirks. “You really like to pick things apart don’t you?”