Nectar: DD Prince

by Prince, DD

  She heard Tristan say, “I’m heading out, Kyla,” as he picked up his keys and grabbed the front door’s knob. “Text me if you need anything brought here later.”

  “Okay.”

  He and Sam left.

  That was sort of a less than warm goodbye but she’d guessed it was due to Sam’s presence. Tristan had said last night that he was unsure about Sam and in the past had talked of not being seen as weak. She suspected Tristan was being very guarded. At least they could text in private.

  She got a text:

  “I didn’t want to say this in front of Sam but you don’t have to stay in the panic room when I’m not here. I’ll let you know when I’m on my way back in. Don’t answer the door. No reason anyone should be knocking. Be back approx midnight-one tonight. I’ll text you Sam’s contact details in case of emergency but only in emerg. Remember what I said.”

  “Okay. Xo”

  Kyla hit the green button and wandered out into the apartment. She washed the coffee mugs in the kitchen and then stared out the window. She didn’t feel safe. She didn’t feel secure. Her senses were on overdrive. She’d felt better in the closet.

  “Fuck it,” she said aloud and went back upstairs and hit the red button. Three seconds later, the phone started to ring. It was Tristan.

  “What?” He sounded totally out of breath.

  “No, I’m okay,” she said. She heard him let out a huge sigh.

  “Why are you back in there?”

  “I don’t feel safe out there.” Her voice was small.

  The silence between them on the phone was almost deafening to her. She knew he had to be beating himself up right now. She finally broke the silence,

  “It’s okay. I’m fine in here. I have my chocolate and my grape Fanta.”

  He didn’t laugh. He made a frustrated sounding grunt.

  “It’s okay. I’m just gonna take a nap. Then I’ll watch some movies online or download a book to read. Do what you need to do.”

  “I’ll call you in a while.” His voice was laced with tension.

  “Okay.”

  She wanted to take a nap to give Tristan’s brain a break but couldn’t sleep so opened a browser window and started to Google vampire information, digging for information that might help her find out more about their predicament. She couldn’t find anything worthwhile. She dug through some deep web resource pages as well, the underbelly of the internet that the average person doesn’t find on Google or Yahoo and while she found some fetish type stuff she never found anything helpful related to vampire nectar, inability to mesmerize, or vampires being driven to psychosis by menstrual blood. The research took a huge chunk of the day and really didn’t accomplish much, other than killing time. She was finally interrupted mid-afternoon by a text from Tristan,

  T: “Are you okay?”

  K: “Fine. You?”

  T: “Meh.”

  K: “Yeah…”

  T: “I’ll be gone until at least midnight. Do you need anything?”

  K: “No, it’s fine. There’s still pizza from yesterday in the fridge downstairs so I’ll have some of that later.”

  T: “Okay. I’ll text when I’m omw there.”

  K: “Ok. Xo”

  T: “xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo”

  Fuck the chemicals in the blood. She wished she could feel those kisses and hugs for real.

  The day dragged. Kyla’s period was even heavier than usual but the cramps had subsided, thankfully. She kept busy doing nothing. She watched TV, she played games online, and she tucked herself in bed and was sound asleep shortly after she glanced at the clock and saw it said 10:16 PM.

  ~~~

  She thought she was dreaming of the Hinder ring tone song but it played beside her from the cell phone on the floor.

  “Hello?” She felt so groggy.

  “Thank fuck! What the hell?” Tristan sounded enraged.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “I’ve been texting and calling and talking to the fucking camera for 10 minutes, that’s what’s wrong!”

  “Oh no, I was sleeping.”

  She heard him let out a long breath.

  “I’m in the closet outside your door. I was two more rings away from opening the fucking door!”

  “Tristan!” She breathed, jackknifing straight up. “Don’t open the door!”

  “I didn’t know why you weren’t answering. I didn’t know if you were hurt or gone or…I couldn’t feel you in my head…” He sounded breathless.

  The laptop wasn’t on. The screen was black. She pushed the ‘on’ button. Nothing.

  “I was just sleeping, Tristan. Jeez, it’s unplugged.”

  “What?”

  “The laptop. The laptop was unplugged and it ran out of juice. The battery died.”

  She leaned toward the floor and fetched the disconnected power supply cord and plugged it back in.

  “I didn’t hear the phone. I must’ve been in a deep sleep. That period pain medicine knocks me out.” The computer booted up and she double clicked the security icon on the desktop. Tristan’s very pissed off looking face was on the screen.

  “I’m on the software now. We can talk that way.”

  “No,” he said, “I’ll call you back on Face Time. I need to see you.”

  “Okay.” She hung up. It immediately rang and she answered the Face Time call.

  He looked at her with a glimpse of relief and then his brows furrowed, “What happened to your eye. Did I…did I fucking hit you last night?” He looked horrified.

  Kyla reached up toward her eye, which was still tender, “No. I fell when I ran from you. It’s just a bit of a shiner. It’s not that bad.”

  Now he looked disgusted.

  “Sorry you were worried. I was flat out.”

  He closed his eyes and blew out a slow breath. Kyla was lost for words. They just stared at one another for a moment. She felt a lump in her throat and her lower lip started to quiver.

  “I should be the one locked in that room. But then whoever is behind those missing samples…”

  “No, I’m okay. I feel safe in here.”

  “Mm hmm.” He pinched the bridge of his nose.

  “Why don’t we send new samples and see what comes of them?”

  “No! No fucking way! My brilliance sending those off in the first place likely set up a whole shit fucking storm already!”

  “Did something else happen? Did you see Claudio?”

  He shook his head, “I’m going to grab a shower and hit the hay. I just wanted to make sure you were safe. I’ll sleep downstairs. I left Sam at the hotel so it’s just me.”

  “Are you sure that’s a good idea?”

  He slammed his fist into the wall. Kyla jolted in surprise.

  “I don’t fucking know! I gotta go.” He switched the phone off and the screen went off. She watched him via the laptop. He left the bedroom and headed downstairs where he walked up to the kitchen counter, pulled a bottle of alcohol from a kitchen cupboard, and swigged directly from the bottle.

  Something else must’ve happened. He was livid. Or was he feeling withdrawals and fighting the urge to unlock that panic room door and tear her apart with his teeth?

  She choked back a sob and then let it out. She couldn’t hold it back. She was sobbing so hard she was having trouble catching her breath. She lay down on the bed and looked at the cell phone and read his messages.

  “Hi Princess. You ok?”

  “I’m on my way. Be there in 10.”

  “Kyla?”

  He’d also called twice.

  She held the cell phone close in case he called back and closed her eyes and cried herself to sleep. This was so fucked up.

  ~~~

  She woke up to the sound of drilling and hammering. Terror spiked. She glanced at the screen. It was 8:02 a.m. and she saw that a guy was with Tristan and he was putting a panel on the wall in the bedroom, which was a disaster, filled with the contents of the bedroom closet. Tristan stood
beside him, wearing jeans and a t-shirt, arms crossed, scowl on his face. There were two guys building something constructed of metal in the closet. She was about to speak over the intercom but realized she might tip the construction guys off to something odd with a woman’s voice coming over the loudspeaker. She muted the mic and decided to text him instead.

  “Hey”

  She watched him texting her back.

  “I’ll call you in 5.”

  She used the washroom and brushed her teeth. As she was washing her face the phone rang so she quickly rinsed off and then answered.

  “Hi.”

  “Just listen please.” His voice was beyond tense, “I’m installing a cage outside the door with several locks on it. We don’t know if I’m still affected so I want to run a test. You can step inside the cage and see how I react. If it happens again you can duck back into the closet and shut the door again. The cage will stop me from hurting you but will let me scent you to see. We assume that I can’t be around you for a week but we don’t actually know for sure. We also assume that once your bleeding stops I can be around you but we also don’t know that for sure. We don’t know if any vampire will have the reaction I did or if it’s just me. So we will be doing multiple tests and Sam’ll help. Sam is a wildcard but he can’t get through the locks.”

  “You said you don’t know if you can trust him.”

  “I have to try something. He’s the only one I can use right now.”

  “Alright.”

  “You mad at me?” he asked.

  “No.”

  “You’re not giving much away…”

  “Can’t you feel what’s in my head? Do I need to say it?”

  “No, I can feel you. I just want to hear your voice, hear your words. Talk to me.”

  “What happened last night?”

  Silence.

  “Tristan?”

  “I can’t get into it right now.”

  “Fine. Keep me in the closet or cage and keep me in the dark, too.”

  “Kyla…”

  “I could use a coffee machine in here. Can you get me a Keurig or a Tassimo or something?”

  “Okay. And we’ll talk more when the workers are done.”

  “Whatever.” She hung up.

  “Fuck!” She said aloud and proceeded to pace. It was only a few paces from wall to wall. This room felt smaller, suddenly. Not a safe cocoon, a cage, a jail cell. Her face got hot. She needed to run. She needed to run and run and run and run.

  “Fuck!” She growled.

  She started to jog on the spot. She closed her eyes. She tried to picture a path, a road. She couldn’t see it. She tried to envision blue eyes and dimples but they wouldn’t materialize. All she saw was his ashen looking face with black eyes and huge teeth. And walls. Stone tunnel walls with blood dripping down them. She collapsed into a crouched position and put her face in her hands.

  She heard commotion on the laptop and looked up. The workers were leaving.

  She saw him flop onto the bed. She couldn’t see his face. She could only see that he was on his back. She curled up on the bed and watched the screen. He didn’t move for a long time. Neither did she. After a while she heard him speak,

  “Kyla?”

  She leaned over and unmuted the mic.

  “Yeah.”

  He didn’t say anything. He didn’t move.

  Kyla made the window for outside the closet door bigger. There was a tall metal dog run looking cage outside the door.

  Lovely.

  She watched Tristan get up. He looked shattered. He brewed two cups of coffee and came back upstairs and she watched him open the cage with five separate keys. He placed the cup of coffee on the floor in the center of the cage and put a keychain with the keys beside it.

  “I used 5 locks,” he said, “It takes concentration for me to open a lock and I did it this morning and timed myself at 53 seconds to get through all of them so I figure five will give you time to get back in the panic room while Sam takes me down with a tranquilizer gun. I’ll put a gun in there for you so you, too, can take me down. Sam is on his way now. I’m leaving the apartment so you can get your coffee. He’ll be here in half an hour.”

  Kyla took a deep breath. What a stupid idea. Stupid stupid idea.

  “Kyla?”

  “Okay,” she said.

  “Baby?” He breathed.

  “Yeah?”

  “I love you.”

  “Mmm.”

  “Damn it, talk to me!”

  “What do you want me to say?” She croaked, “That this is a stupid idea? It’s stupid, Tristan. So stupid. Do you want me to tell you I’m scared? Cause on top of all of this shit I don’t know what’s going on with you that you’re not telling me. Fine, I’m scared, Tristan. Do you want me to also tell you that I’m going crazy and that these walls are closing in on me? Will that help you to hear that out loud as if you can’t hear it in your head already? Do you want me to say I think about pushing that button and running out the door every time you leave and that we both know I’m a fucking moron for not doing it? Do you want me to say that I don’t even care if you bite me and kill me because I just want to feel you again?”

  “Baby…”

  “Or do you want me to tell you those 3 magic words right back? Maybe I’m just saving saying those three little big words that I don’t ever remember saying to anyone ever in my whole life for them to be the last words I utter to you before you end my life.”

  “Baby…” His face was so full of pain.

  “Go take a walk, Mr. Vampire. Lack of caffeine is making me grumpy. I need coffee like you need blood, okay? I’m getting a migraine.”

  “About that…”

  She tilted her head.

  “I think I need you to take some blood for me and pass it out. I..I think it’ll help me regain my balance. I’m really off right now.”

  “Seriously? Give you even more steroid heroin so you can kill me faster?”

  Just like Jackson. Another fucking addict.

  He shook his head and pinched the bridge of his nose with his thumb and index finger, “Fuck. I don’t know if I’m coming or going.”

  “You’re going. Go.” She folded her arms and shot daggers at that screen with her eyes.

  “Back in 10 minutes.”

  Kyla drank the coffee, took two ibuprofen, and got dressed in a pair of yoga pants and a hoodie. She tied her hair in a ponytail. She did all this with a scowl on her face.

  She got on the floor and started to do the Pilates 100. She needed to burn off some energy so then she did push-ups and then crunches.

  ~~~

  A while later she saw on the screen that Tristan was back and with Sam. Sam had a messenger bag and they walked into the kitchen. He opened the bag and pulled out what looked like 3 large pistols. He loaded each with a cartridge, passed two to Tristan and kept the third.

  Kyla’s fingertips came up to her temples and she took a big deep breath and let it out slowly.

  “What’s happening with Donovan?” Tristan muttered.

  “Waiting for him to make his next move.” Sam muttered, looking at Tristan cautiously.

  Donovan?

  “Let’s do this.” Tristan said and the two men found their way upstairs.

  Kyla stood up and flexed her fingers and toes. She didn’t know why. She just felt like she had to physically prepare for this experiment.

  “Kyla…” Tristan called out.

  “Yeah.”

  “Alright, well let’s do this. Sam, point that at me. If you need to, shoot me twice with it.”

  “One shot’ll take an elephant down for an hour, Tris.”

  “Twice.” Tristan repeated, teeth clenched.

  “Alrighty. If you have to shoot me, just shoot me once, please. I don’t think I’d survive two.”

  “Right. Kyla?” he stepped into the view of the camera inside the closet, “I’ve put one on the floor of the closet here. If you need to shoot either or both of us, d
o it. Then get back in the panic room and wait for me to come to and then we can re-group. Hit the green button and come into the closet.”

  Tristan backed up outside the closet door, holding the gun at his side. She could see Sam standing behind him, pointing the gun at him. Tristan closed all the locks.

  She felt frozen to the spot where she stood.

  “Kyla,” his voice was stern.

  “Okay,” she whispered. What if he didn’t come back around? What if he stayed the monster? What if…what if…

  “Kyla!”

  “Okay! Fuck.” She hit the green button and heard Tristan’s phone ding from the bedroom. She took a slow breath and opened the door and stepped out into the cage.

  She could see Tristan and Sam behind him. Instantly, Sam’s face changed. It turned grey and his fangs shot out.

  “Oh fuck.” Kyla gasped. Tristan spun to look at Sam and it looked, for a second, like a showdown. Sam shot Tristan in the leg and then again and it hit his torso somewhere. Tristan lunged at Sam, punched him in the face, and then shot Sam in the leg with his tranquilizer gun. Sam shot Tristan a third time and then collapsed, falling face first into the carpet.

  Tristan was winded. He looked back at her. She let out a deep breath. So far, he still looked like Tristan. Was everything going to be okay after all? She felt a gush in her panties. She’d be gushing all day long. That’s how it always was from day 2 to day 4 of her period. Tristan’s face was changing.

  Blue? Gone. Black eyes.

  Skin? Gray. Oh no.

  Click,

  Oh no. The locks.

  Click, Click,

  Please no.

  Click.

  Fuck. That was four clicks and was no where near 53 seconds. One more click to go. She bolted back into the panic room and hit the red button.

  Shit! I forgot the tranquilizer gun. Fuck, fuck, fuck!

  A breath later the last click was heard and then another. The panic room door! It flung open.

  This is it… Goodbye blue eyes and dimples. Goodbye fluttering butterfly kisses on my face and goodbye butterflies in my stomach and fire and maple syrup and bliss in my blood. Goodbye cruel world. 24 years old and done with not much of a life to show for it. Goodbye gorgeous vampire prince. Hello death.