by J. C. Diem
“Ah, crap,” I moaned and pulled the pillow over my face. If I’d been able to, I would have suffocated myself.
Luc’s hands tightened around me then one rose to cup my breast. This time he’d only stripped off my shoes and jumper instead of stripping me completely naked. His lips tickled the back of my neck when he spoke. “Since you are pretending to be my servant, perhaps you could provide me with your...service.” He ground his pelvis into my backside suggestively.
Rolling away, I put the pillow between us. Luc smiled knowingly, probably well aware of the flesh hunger that was currently raging through me. “Sure,” I replied brightly, “just as soon as you explain your centuries of resistance, et cetera.”
Luc’s smile disappeared and a small frown took its place. “We should get going,” he said heavily.
“Going where?” I asked then scrambled out of bed and started searching for my shoes.
“To the very place we wished to go,” was the enigmatic reply. Unlike me, Luc was completely naked. Pale white, he was as perfectly formed as a Greek statue. I remembered breaking his spine from intense pleasure and wished I could do it again. Turning away before he could detect my lust, I laced up my shoes and pulled my jumper over my head.
After a moment or two, I remembered what our original plan had been before we’d been waylaid by the Councillor’s guards. “So, we’re off to Romania, huh?”
“Yes. The Councillors, and by that I mean the Comtesse, wishes for me to check to see if the Prophet has any new information for us. We leave immediately.”
“Why doesn’t she just pick up a phone and call the guy?”
Luc gave me a rueful smile. “She doesn’t trust telephones.”
“C-C-C. Cripes,” I substituted for ‘Christ’ and ignored Luc’s fleeting grin at my stutter. “She really needs to get with the times.” Personally, I was glad to be leaving the place. All in all, we’d gotten off very lightly considering I had been prophesized to kill most of the vampires in the building.
With our bags in hand, I kept two steps behind Luc as we were guided by a red suited servant to the ground floor and then outside. It was drizzling and after taking a few steps, fine mist clung to my face like cobwebs. The same black car awaited us with Igor as the driver again. Geordie sat in the back with his arms crossed, clearly sulking. I climbed in beside him and gave him a curt nod.
Brightening, he slid closer and put an arm around my shoulders. “It is a long drive to the airport, chérie,” he said in a low voice. “Perhaps we could keep each other company.” His wink was sly and far too old for his young face.
“Hey, Luc,” I said to the back of my pretend maker’s head, “Geordie wants to have sex with me in the back seat. What do you think?”
“I think,” he replied without turning around, “that Geordie should keep his distance from my servant.”
Sliding away again, Geordie eyed me speculatively. “So, the rumours are true. He finally made a servant after swearing he would not.”
Barking something over his shoulder, Igor put his foot down on the accelerator and the car surged forward. My ears heard an unintelligible language that wasn’t French and might have been Russian. My brain translated it just fine: “Keep your mouth shut, servant. Do not speak of things you have no knowledge of.”
I smirked at Geordie who subsided back into his sulk. My curiosity about Luc increased. What did I really know about him? He was a vampire version of a cop. He was possibly Italian. He’d flown to Australia to take down my maker and any others from the faction that supposedly supported me. Instead of trying to kill me on the spot after finding out who and what I was, he’d flown me halfway across the world. Instead of ratting me out to the Comtesse and other Councillors, he’d pretended I was his servant. Everybody seemed to be amazed that he had chosen someone after apparently going centuries without his own personal slave. I wanted to know more about him but I didn’t want to ask while we had company.
At the small airport, Igor dropped us off then took off without ceremony. The black car disappeared and we were on our own. I presumed this was the same airport we had arrived in but I had no recollection of it. We headed straight to the check-in desk. We had a female clerk this time so my powers would be fairly useless. Luc pulled his vampire mojo and got her to hand over the boarding passes without question. It really was handy being able to bamboozle humans.
Hungry for blood, I was too preoccupied and worried to do anything about it at the moment. On the plane, I sat several rows behind Luc. I tried not to feel like an abandoned child who expected a grownup to scoop her up and rescue her. I might have been twenty-eight in human years but as the undead I was still brand new.
Sitting beside me was an elderly woman with blue hair that had been recently permed. She wore an expensively tailored linen suit in the same shade as her hair. She’d drenched herself in lavender perfume and the smell was overpowering. Maybe that was just my vampire senses at work but I doubted it. All around me I could hear the quiet whispers of my fellow passengers as plainly as if the conversations were going on right next to me. Most were in foreign languages but my strange and quirky mind translated them all.
An announcement came over the speakers to say that our flight was delayed due to a mechanical problem and groans issued around the plane. After half an hour of listening in to the private conversations around me, I was bored. People spoke about the lamest things. I tried to remember if I’d been that boring and realized I probably had been. All the things that had once worried me had faded into insignificance; being unable to pay the rent, rats chewing a way into my bedroom, not finding shoes in my size, never having enough food in the cupboards, rats eating me while I slept, getting mugged on the way home from work, losing my job, rats feasting on my tongue as I tried to scream for help. The list went on and on, mostly focussed on how much I feared and hated rats.
Now there were only three things that I worried about; blood, sex and survival. Most prominent right now was survival. I’d always thought the earth was a big place and that if I ever wanted to disappear it would be easy. I’d just have to choose a destination, sell enough of my belongings to buy a plane ticket and fly off into the sunset. Now I wondered if I would be able to hide from the Comtesse, the other Councillors and the Court when they finally discovered who I was. As for flying off into the sunset, I might as well douse myself in petrol and light a match, it would have the same effect.
After two and a half hours of waiting, we were finally cleared to take off. Sitting up as high as I could without actually standing, I peered over the seat in front of me and spied Luc’s arm on the armrest a few rows ahead. As if sensing my scrutiny, his head turned and his face came into view. One eyebrow went up in silent query. I nodded to indicate I was fine and sank back down out of sight again. It was pathetic but I felt reassured after seeing my brooding companion checking on me.
Why was Luc helping me? What was in it for him? Maybe he wants to see the destruction of his race. I didn’t know why that thought popped into my head. I didn’t know him well enough to make that kind of guess. Maybe I was projecting my own wishful thinking into the equation. What I’d seen of vampires so far hadn’t been flattering. It seemed that the more powerful you were, the bigger arsehole you turned into. I had the feeling that Silvius had been very powerful indeed. Yeah, well look at him now, I scoffed inwardly. The great and powerful Silvius had been reduced to a stinky puddle by a brand new vampire. Sure, it hadn’t been planned and I’d killed him in sheer self-defence not to mention by accident. Now I wondered what I could do if I really put my mind to it.
A snore came from my right then I was engulfed in a cloud of lavender as the old lady’s head came to rest of my shoulder. Grimacing at the flowery smell, I peered around her to see the passenger in the aisle seat was also asleep. His mouth was open and drool ran down his chin. Moving slowly and carefully, I put a hand beneath the old lady’s blue head and gently shoved her upright. When she began to slide toward me again, I pushed her further to
the right. When her head was resting on the drooler’s shoulder, I sat back and stared out through the dark window. Trapped in the window seat, I was almost glad to be undead during the six and a half hour flight. Without any form of circulation, at least I didn’t get cramped. I also didn’t need to climb out to go to the toilet.
My thoughts were going around in circles and were getting me nowhere. I needed a diversion. Pulling out the French romance book, I switched on the overhead light and began to read. Reading without the light might have been seen as suspicious and I didn’t want to stand out if I could help it.
Now that I knew I was reading a foreign language, it took me longer to translate the words. I was just as captivated by the story as I’d been when I’d had no idea I was magically reading French. Who knew cheesy romance novels could be so entertaining? Especially one that had been written before my grandparents had been born.
Eventually, the captain pronounced that we were about to land. I wondered how far away dawn was. I had a feeling it was closer than I’d like thanks to our lengthy delay before taking off.
As soon as the plane coasted to a stop and we were cleared to disembark, Luc appeared. The old lady squawked when he reached across and dragged me out of my seat. My legs scraped across the drooler and the old lady rather rudely. I shot them an apologetic look when I was plonked back on my feet.
“Have some patience, young man!” My mind translated the old lady’s words half a second after she said them. Luc ignored her and yanked my backpack from the locker and shoved it into my arms.
Startled stares followed us as he bullied his way through the line, pulling me after him. “Jeez, what’s the rush?” I complained. I’d barely had time to shoulder my backpack before he’d started dragging me along like a naughty kid.
Flicking a glance at his watch, Luc pointed to the windows. “Dawn is near and we must be under cover before it arrives.” The windows were still dark but I could now sense what he could, the earth was rolling closer and closer toward the sun.
Motivated not to fall unconscious and draw unwanted attention to us, I hustled along beside him as we exited the plane. It was my turn to use my mojo on the customs officer after close to an hour of waiting for our turn. Six feet tall with wide, manly shoulders, she sported an extremely short buzz cut hairdo. I could see her scalp through her dark hair. After one look at Luc, she dismissed him instantly. The smile she gave me was unprofessionally warm. Ok, she is clearly into girls. Luc sent me a sardonic grin and I unleashed my new charm on the officer. She let us go through with a huge smile, missing my fake passport completely and stamping the counter instead.
Without baggage to claim, there was no need to hang around the airport. We headed straight to the rental car desks. Luc chose a desk with a female clerk and managed to procure a small, foreign car without providing any identification. Taking the keys, he grabbed my hand and fast walked toward the exit.
I was beginning to feel lethargic now as sleep came knocking. “I’m not going to make it,” I slurred as Luc pushed the door open. Whatever magic had created our kind was too powerful for me to fight against. It demanded that I sleep and I was helpless to disobey.
“I will take care of you, Natalie,” Luc promised. My feet left the ground and wind began swishing past me as he scooped me up and broke into a run. I would have felt safer if his promise hadn’t sounded quite so grim.
·~·
Chapter Thirteen
Sleeping in the back seat of a car the size of a can of tuna wasn’t comfortable, I discovered when I woke. Luc was still asleep, squashed beneath me with his knees bent almost to his chest and his neck bent at an awkward angle. I was half on him, half on the floor. Touching Luc’s pale and clammy face, I revised my idea that we slept when the sun was up. He was absolutely and without question dead. For that matter, so was I. I just looked less dead because I was moving.
Squirming forward to the front passenger seat, I looked curiously out through the windscreen. We appeared to be in an underground parking lot. Genius. At least one of us was capable of thinking. At least one of us had still been awake enough to get us to safety. Luc might have built up some resistance to the need to become unanimated but I was probably still centuries away from that.
He had backed into a parking spot at the far end of the lot from the entrance. There was no chance the sun’s rays could find us this far back. No other cars were near us at the moment but he’d taken a huge risk by parking here.
Luc’s eyes opened and he was instantly alert. He sat up and checked his watch. “How long have you been awake?”
“A minute or two,” I replied with a shrug.
Too big to climb through into the driver’s seat, Luc got out, straightened his clothes then climbed back in the conventional way.
I voiced the disturbing question I’d been thinking of just before he woke. “What would happen if someone found us while we were down for the day?”
“The police would be called, we would be examined and taken to the closest morgue,” Luc explained calmly. “If we were extremely unlucky, they would perform an autopsy immediately.”
Shuddering at the idea, I brought my knees up to my chest. “Has that ever happened to you?”
He shook his head. “No. I usually find safer places to while away the daylight hours than this.”
“Would the pain wake us, do you think?” At Luc’s enquiring stare, I elaborated. “When they started the Y incision.” I mimed cutting my chest open with a pretend scalpel.
“No. We do not feel pain when we are...asleep.” We both pondered how helpless we were when the sun came up. Humans definitely had the upper hand there. Pain usually woke them up, unless they were dead drunk. I guessed we didn’t feel pain when we were out of it because we were just plain dead.
With our disturbing discussion over, Luc started the car. Buckling myself in, I finger combed my hair as we exited the underground parking lot. It was automatic to tidy myself. Dead or alive, we women were all alike.
We drove in silence and I took little notice of the scenery. It was very different from Queensland, that much I took in. Even in the dark, it was too green. Where was the dry, brown grass? Where were the gum trees? It was the lack of flies that told me I was in a foreign country. Maybe it was too cold for them here. I was desperately trying to distract myself from my growing hunger and wasn’t having much luck.
When I began to fidget, Luc increased his speed. “Which is it?” he asked cryptically but I knew what he meant.
“It’s a toss-up,” I replied honestly. Both blood and flesh hungers were assailing me. I alternated between dreaming about the salty sweetness of blood and the sleek hardness of Luc’s body. Given the choice, I’d take his body anytime. It was a pity he was off limits.
We were driving down a deserted, ill kept road with nothing resembling human habitation anywhere in sight by now. I was becoming desperate enough that I was going to jump my pretend maker in another minute, promise or no promise. Red and blue lights suddenly flashed us from behind as a cop car took chase after us. We must have run through a speed trap. Unfortunately for the cop who had set the trap, he’d chosen a very remote spot to stop unwary travellers in.
“Thank G-G-G. Shit, will I ever get used to that?” I asked in exasperation as Luc slammed on the brakes.
“It took me a year before I trained myself to no longer try.” He grinned in amusement at my inability to remember I could no longer say ‘God’.
The car skidded to a halt and I unbuckled myself with unseemly haste. Blood hunger was roaring through me, demanding immediate fulfilment. The cop exited his car warily and panicked when I started running towards him. Using his door as a shield, he yelled at me in Romanian to put my hands over my head and to lie down on the road. Ignoring the order, I ran over and yanked his door out of the way. I pulled a bit too hard and it popped off its hinges with a metallic screech. A loud bang that sounded like a firecracker going off nearby seemed unimportant so I ignored it. Grabbing hol
d of the panicked cop, I forced him to stare into my eyes. The fight instantly left him and he became pliant in my hands. My fangs descended then warm blood was flooding into my mouth.
After drinking my fill, I eased the cop into the car and sat him down. Wearing a foolish grin, he attempted to holster his weapon and dropped it to the floor instead. “Sleep,” I told him. His eyes closed and he began to breathe evenly, still smiling faintly. I wished him happy dreams.
Luc stood a few feet away, shaking his head in disgust. Wind rustled through the trees that grew alongside the road and ruffled my hair. “You must not let your hunger grow out of control.” Lifting the door easily, he rested it against the car. “Humans become suspicious when they can’t explain this kind of destruction.” It would be difficult to understand how the door came to be detached from the car.
“I’m still new at this,” I reminded him and frowned at a strange whistling noise. “Do you hear that?”
“Hear what?”
“A kind of...whistling sound.” It was coming from somewhere nearby. At another gust of wind, I realized it was coming from me. Bending down, I saw a small hole in my jumper. Lifting my clothes, I verified that I had a hole in my stomach. Numbly feeling behind me, I encountered a much larger hole in my back. Darker red than normal, my blood sluggishly oozed from the wounds. It hadn’t turned black and noisome yet but it was on its way. I’ve been shot in the guts, I thought dazedly. Feeling light headed, I took a step away from the car on wobbly legs. So that’s what the loud bang was.
Luc was suddenly on his knees before me with his hands on my hips to steady me. In any other circumstances, it would have been erotic. Right now, I was trying not to dry heave onto his head. He peered through the hole, assessing the damage. “I’ve had much worse,” he decided. “You’ll be fine. The wound is already closing.”
In disbelief, I bent to take another look. Sure enough, the hole was smaller and blood had already stopped oozing down to stain the top of my jeans. It was strange, I hadn’t felt a thing when the bullet had passed through me. Maybe my hunger had masked the pain. Climbing back into the car, I sat hunched forward on the seat.
