by Folsom, Tina
The six and a half foot tall stranger’s head was shorn bald, and his face could only be described as cold and evil. And if that didn’t ensure Maya knew he was a bad guy, then it was the fact that he was in her apartment hovering over her bed.
Frantic, she reached out toward her right to feel for the baseball bat she kept next to her bed – and reached nothing. She spun her head around, away from the intruder.
And her heart stopped.
This wasn’t her bedroom, this wasn’t even her apartment.
She’d been kidnapped!
With her next breath she found her voice again and yelled as loud as she could. “Help! Somebody help me!”
She scrambled off the bed, putting it between the bald guy and herself as a barrier. “Get away from me! Leave me alone, you sick bastard!”
Her eyes scanned the room. It was richly furnished, which surprised her. Didn’t they keep kidnap victims in dark and dingy basements with just a bed and a chair? This room was anything but.
Perfect. She’d been kidnapped by some sick rich bastard. At least somebody else would only want money – which she didn’t have – but this guy, who knew what he wanted?
She stared at him. He hadn’t moved since her initial scream, clearly enjoying her fear. Maya wiped her sweaty palms on her pants and realized to her relief that she still wore her clothes. In fact she was dressed as if she’d just come from the hospital. Given the blood stains on her clothes she figured she’d been called into the emergency room on a consult. Had she never gotten home?
Before she could think any further, the door to the room burst open and three people stormed in. Great, now she was outnumbered.
“Zane, what the fuck are you doing in here?” a strangely familiar voice said. Her gaze zeroed in on the man who’d spoken. She almost choked on her next breath.
While he lunged at the man he’d called Zane, Maya could clearly see the large scar on the right side of his face.
He was the monster from her dream. He was real. And he was here.
He attacked the bald guy, pulling him away from the bed.
“Leave me alone, Gabriel. I just wanted to see what she looks like,”
Zane defended himself and shrugged off the other man’s hands. “Don’t be such a spoil-sport.”
“Get out!” the man with the scar thundered. The authority in his voice was undeniable.
With another shrug, the bald man left the room as ordered. Only now, the man he’d called Gabriel turned back to her.
“I’m sorry. Zane shouldn’t have been in here. We weren’t sure when you would wake up,” he said, his voice an octave deeper yet softer than before.
Soft voice or not, he took a few steps toward her – which was something Maya couldn’t allow. She scanned her vicinity for a weapon.
“Stop right there, buddy,” she warned him and reached for the wrought iron candle stick on the bedside table, ready to throw it at him if he came any closer. She was relieved to see that he yielded. It gave her a moment to assess what kind of danger he represented.
He was almost as tall at the bald guy, but not as slim. His shoulders were broader, his frame heavier. The long dark hair gathered in a ponytail softened his square face somewhat, but the scar that marred one side of his face took all that softness away. Yes, he was dangerous, she was sure. She stared at his strong arms, his large hands and knew those hands could choke the life out of her if he really wanted to do her harm.
She wouldn’t have a snowball’s chance in hell. All she had was bravado. And she was skilled at bluffing.
“Where am I, and who are you? Talk fast – I’m not very patient.”
Maya glanced past Scarface at the two other people who’d entered behind him. One woman, one man. The man was equally tall and looked like he worked out. What made his stature really impressive and intimidating was the fact he wore black leather gear. Clearly a biker, possibly a member of a gang. The woman was as beautiful as they came. Short, black hair, porcelain skin, plump lips, a Barbie doll figure.
She looked like a model – perfect body, perfect face, despite the fact that a frown curled around her mouth.
“I’m Gabriel. My colleagues here -” Gabriel gestured toward the man and the woman. “-are Yvette and Thomas.”
As he turned his face to the side, Maya saw his unblemished half for a few seconds and realized there was nothing ugly about it. His left side was perfectly sculpted: high cheekbones, strong square chin, a long straight nose, and then those eyes. Framed by long dark lashes they seemed to be as dark as chocolate, yet flecks of light sparkled in them.
When she dropped her gaze lower, she focused on his lips. Full and slightly parted, they looked sensual. Before she could tear her gaze away, he turned his head back to her.
Now that she saw both sides together again, the scarred one and the perfect one, she had to admit that he didn’t look like the monster she’d made up in her mind. Clearly, the large scar had destroyed his handsome face, but it had given him something else: a face with character.
Gabriel suddenly moved and looked as if he wanted to walk toward her. She instantly raised the candlestick above her head.
He lifted his hands in defeat. “I’m not coming any closer. I don’t mean you any harm.”
“How did I get here?” Maya asked, ignoring his comment.
“You remember nothing?”
She searched her memory, but couldn’t figure out what he was talking about. So she took the bull by the horns. “You guys kidnapped me, didn’t you? What is it that you want? Money?” They could have the few hundred bucks that languished in her savings account. If they wanted more, they’d have to wait for next month’s payday. Paying off her student loans had eaten up all her savings.
The woman, Yvette, shook her head and chuckled. “This’ll take a while, Gabriel. Why don’t I leave you to it?”
“Yvette,” Gabriel snapped. “You’re not getting out of this one.
Samson assigned you to help, so you’ll help.”
Yvette’s mouth twisted into a thin line. It appeared whoever this Samson was held power over her. Maya tucked the knowledge away –
maybe she could use it to her advantage later. The more she found out about her kidnappers the better.
Maya looked back and forth between Gabriel and Yvette, contemplating what he’d meant by his words. What was she supposed to help him with? Holding her down? Tying her up? No, probably not –
they’d had that chance while she was unconscious. What the hell were they trying to do to her?
“You were attacked,” Gabriel finally started.
“I figured that one out all by myself. So, what do you want?” Maya shot back. She knew she was outnumbered, so only calm thinking could get her out of this situation.
“We aren’t the ones who attacked you,” Gabriel claimed.
Maya gave a little snort. As if she was that gullible. Maybe she was lucky and these three criminals were too thick to have come up with any decent plan. She could probably outsmart them. For sure the woman –
having gotten it all in the looks department, she’d probably gotten shortchanged on brain cells. And the biker: he might know about his ride, but did he have any other skills? She wasn’t too sure how to evaluate Gabriel – he seemed to be in charge, but –
“He’s telling the truth,” Thomas continued in Gabriel’s stead. “Two of our bodyguards found you after you were attacked. They brought you here to be taken care of.”
Maya took a step back. Bodyguards? These guys had bodyguards?
That could only mean they were Mafia, probably Russian. To be taken care of – yes, that sounded just like the Mafia. This changed everything.
She wasn’t dealing with a few hapless criminals out to make a few bucks. She was dealing with the Mafia, the Cosa Nostra, or whatever they called themselves these days.
Maya’s stomach sank to her knees. If she’d seen something they didn’t wan
t her to see, if she’d been a witness to something, she was as good as dead. Maybe one of her patients had said something to her that implicated these guys in a crime, and they thought it was best to take her out. She read the papers. She knew what guys like these were capable of.
“I don’t recall being attacked. What did you do, drug me?”
Gabriel shook his head. “We didn’t drug you. But if you don’t remember any of it, it means the man who attacked you could have wiped your memory.”
“Wiped my memory? Please, don’t try to feed me this ludicrous crap. I’m not stupid.” She lifted her chin in a show of bravery she didn’t possess. But she wanted answers, no matter whether she liked what she heard or not. “Just tell me what you want and let’s get this over with.” If she hated one thing, it was uncertainty. Once she knew what was going on here, at least she could formulate a plan. She was good at making plans.
Yvette stepped forward and planted herself next to Gabriel. “You were attacked by a vampire.”
For a second, Maya’s heart stopped. Then she let out a breath. This was one big joke. It had to be. Nobody in their right mind, not even some criminal could come up with such an implausible explanation and expect to be believed. She looked around the room. “Okay, where’s the camera? This’ll be on YouTube, right? Who put you up to this? Was it Paulette?” Her colleague could be a total prankster. She’d have to get back at her for this practical joke.
Unfortunately, nobody was laughing. Instead, Gabriel took a step toward her. “The vampire who attacked you – he started the turning process to make you one of us. We are all vampires, but we’re here to help you.”
None of his words made any sense to her. The whole lot of them must have escaped from the psych ward. She wished she’d listened more to her psychiatry instructor on how to deal with lunatics.
Unfortunately her medical interests had driven her more toward how the body worked, rather than the mind.
“Vampires don’t exist, you creeps. You’ve been watching too many bad movies.”
“I can prove it to you,” Gabriel claimed.
“Oh, yeah? What, you’re gonna put on some fake fangs?”
He shook his head and took another step closer, too close for her liking.
Maya hurled the candlestick at him and was astonished by her own forceful move. In a move that was faster than her eye could follow, Gabriel caught it and placed it onto the chair next to him. Startled, Maya looked at him. Okay, so he was fast. That didn’t have to mean anything.
It only meant she didn’t have a chance at defeating him.
“Please don’t do that,” he asked in a calm voice. “I’m not the enemy.”
Maya gave a mirthless laugh.
“Maybe you should give her a demonstration,” Thomas suggested.
“No. I don’t want to frighten her anymore than she already is,”
Gabriel replied.
“No, no, please, do give me a demonstration,” Maya mocked. “I’ve got to see what you vampires do.”
When none of the three so-called vampires moved or did anything to prove that they were really vampires, she knew she’d called their bluff.
Now she was convinced this was all a big setup. Her colleagues from the hospital had probably all chipped in and hired a few actors to play a prank on her. Hadn’t they said only weeks ago that she was working too hard and needed to relax?
“Thought so. Now, tell me how I get out of here. Or do you expect to be tipped?”
“Tipped?” Gabriel gave her a dubious look.
“For your performance. Frankly, at first I thought you guys were Mafia. You should have stuck with that angle. Bodyguards, taking care of things – those were good lines. It would have been more believable.
But vampires. Really? Honestly, nothing against your acting skills, but that’s a tough role to pull off.”
All three looked at her like she was some lunatic on leave from the asylum. She felt almost guilty for having spoiled their fun.
“Truly, you were good. But the vampire thing is just too much of a stretch. Sorry. Hey, what time is it? I hope you guys didn’t make me late for my next shift.”
Maya looked around trying to find her shoes.
“It’s denial,” she heard Yvette say.
“Clearly,” Thomas agreed.
“I don’t know how to explain this to you without frightening you, but I swear, I’m trying,” Gabriel said.
Maya’s breath hitched when she caught a movement next to him.
Yvette had grabbed the candlestick from the chair. “Catch!” Faster than her eye could process, Yvette flung it at her.
“No!” Gabriel yelled, but a moment later, Maya found herself seizing the candlestick effortlessly. She stared at the item in her hand and couldn’t explain how she’d caught it when she’d barely seen it coming toward her.
She’d never even been a ballplayer – her hand-eye-coordination sucked way too badly for that. And now she’d caught a candlestick flying at her at the speed of a car? How had that happened?
Gabriel turned to the woman. “You could have hurt her!” His voice was harsh, scolding.
“Her reflexes are much sharper than those of a human.” Yvette merely shrugged her shoulders, then looked straight at Maya. “All your senses are enhanced. And you’re stronger too. I knew you would catch it. It’s a reflex.”
“Next time, you clear things like that with me. Do we understand each other?” Gabriel hissed at Yvette who crossed her arms over her chest and ignored the reprimand.
Maya shook her head. “It’s all a trick.” She had no idea how she’d done it, but there was no way she could have caught the candlestick by herself. Something was wrong with her. She could feel it. With effort she pushed back her rising doubts. She wouldn’t let herself be tricked by them.
She set the candlestick onto the small antique sideboard. The fragile wooden piece splintered under the force with which she’d dropped the item. Startled, she stared at it. Had she misjudged her own strength?
“Do you believe us now?” Gabriel asked.
“No!” This didn’t prove anything. Maybe the sideboard was some cheap prop designed to crumble under the slightest impact.
“Then go into the bathroom.” He pointed toward a door near the fireplace. “There’s a mirror over the sink. Look into it and tell me what you see.”
Maya hesitated. Doubts had started bubbling up in her. She had nothing to lose by looking into a mirror, did she? Without letting Gabriel or the other two out of her sight, she cautiously walked to the bathroom door. She pushed it open and glanced inside. An elegant white marble bathroom greeted her. It was much more luxurious than what she was used to.
“I’ll be waiting here,” Gabriel said.
Maya stepped into the bathroom, but kept an eye at the door. As she approached the sink, she looked at the mirror over it. She stopped right in front of it, but there was no reflection of herself. She did a double-take, then leaned forward to inspect the mirror more closely. Nothing.
“Another one of your tricks, I see,” she commented. She’d heard of movie props like this: mirrors that weren’t really mirrors so the light on a movie set wouldn’t reflect back into the camera.
“It’s not a trick. Vampires don’t have a reflection. Our auras transmit on a frequency that the mirror can’t process. So it reflects nothing back.”
“I guess that means you don’t show up in photos either,” she mocked.
“We do if you use a digital camera,” his response came from the bedroom.
“Bull,” she answered. “I don’t know where you’re going with this, but whatever you’re trying to do, it’s not working.”
“Take anything in the bathroom, a towel, soap, whatever you can find, and wave it in front of the mirror.”
She snorted. She had no intention of following his stupid suggestion.
What would it prove?
“Do it,” Gabriel
ordered in a voice that brooked no refusal.
Fine, she’d do it, and then she’d walk out of here and tell him to try his idiotic tricks on somebody else. She was done with this. It wasn’t funny anymore. In fact, it hadn’t been funny from the start.
With an impatient gesture, Maya grabbed the hairbrush from the white marble counter and held it in front of the mirror. As if held by an invisible hand, it appeared. She moved it, and it moved in the mirror.
The mirror was working. Now that she looked more closely, she noticed that it reflected everything behind her, the shower, the toilet, the towels on the towel rack. Everything – except herself.
With a loud clank the hairbrush landed in the sink.
Maya opened her mouth, but no sound came out. No scream, no words.
Her lungs fought for air as her brain processed the news. She lifted her hands, stared at them. They were visible to her, she could see them, touch them, but the mirror showed nothing. As if she didn’t exist.
What was she?
* * *
At the sound of her scream, Gabriel knew that the truth had finally sunk in. Her sobs started only a moment later.
p. He turned back to face his colleagues. “Leave us. I’ll take care of this.”
Thomas appeared relieved. “I’ll be downstairs if you need me.”
Yvette only raised a questioning eyebrow. But within seconds, the two left the room.
Now he was alone with Maya’s sobs and his own pain. He could only too well imagine what she was going through, but this was more than empathy. He’d never felt another person’s pain so intensely. Only kindred spirits felt each other’s pain like this. So why did his heart ache for her when he barely knew her?
Determined to help her, he walked into the bathroom. Like a little bundle, she crouched against the bathtub, her arms hugging her legs, her head buried against her knees. With two long strides he was at her side and picked her up in his arms.
She gave no resistance. All the fight had gone out of her. The woman who had so bravely faced them thinking they were God knows what kind of criminals, had crumbled.
