by K M Smith
Angsty Girl looked around conspiratorially then looked Adam in the eyes, “Have you ever gone traying?”
I’m in, Adam thought and suppressed a grin. “Now? Is there enough snow still? Do you have any trays?” Victory Park was home to the only hill in Albion, and the college kids found it entertaining to steal trays from Baldwin Hall and use those as sleds. Technically, it was illegal to steal school property, but traying was practically a school-sponsored event, so nobody said anything until the tray stand got low, right around the time school started after the winter break.
Angsty Girl nodded, “I don’t, but I know someone who does.”
“Lead the way!” Adam said and stood to follow her, enjoying the challenge of balancing disaffected and cool with eager and fun.
He and Angsty Girl walked side by side away from the fraternity houses, past the quad, and down the hill, leaving the relative safety of campus. Angsty Girl must’ve realized her mistake because as soon as they passed by the quad she tensed up. No time like the present, he thought, switching gears from cool fun guy to scary evil vampire. He grabbed Angsty Girl’s wrist to wrench her around to face him. She screamed, but he muffled the sound by causing an immense wind. At the same time, he twisted her arm behind her back and pulled her in close to his body. She resisted and wrestled in his grip, and he truly lamented the look of horror on her face as she realized his deception. But he was hungry, and she was full of life. Her strength and resistance only heightened his desire to feed. The woman stared at him with more anger than fear in her eyes. Staring back, he softened his features but held her firm. The wait was over. He lunged for her neck. As his fangs bit down into her creamy skin, the once fierce fighter fell limp in his arms.
During the melee, Adam had moved them off the sidewalk and down to an empty lot on a side road. Construction equipment and materials were strewn about the lot and Adam took advantage of the disarray to provide cover for their embrace. The rush from each pull of blood as he drank her in energized him. Everything about this moment filled him with life. The sound of her soft breathing caressed his ears. The sweet scent and acrid taste of young blood pouring out of a punctured artery intoxicated him. He had a fleeting thought that the beer at the party was rank. Why settle for that when he could feast on the elixir of life? Pulling her even more tightly to him, he lifted her body off the ground as he fell into a swooning trance. He ran his fingers through her hair and caressed her cheeks and neck while he pulled from her artery. She offered no response, but that was fine. As long as her heart kept beating; that was all the response he needed.
On cue, her heart beat slowed down and became weaker. This was the crucial moment where he would war with himself: pull away before the sweet final flourishes, or relish in the orgasmic high provided by the human heart as it beats its final beat. Letting go before the final flush amounted to missing the most exhilarating part of sex. Sure, the foreplay and build-up could be amazing, but compared to the fireworks and electricity exciting every single cell of his body, filling him with ecstasy and vibrancy, stopping short felt a little pale. The mission tonight was sustenance, but she was so full of life! If he just held on a little longer, sparks would fly and the night would turn to fire in his eyes. This innocent young woman would give him the greatest gift. Her death would give him life. There was no shame in this beautiful embrace. Pulling harder, Adam felt a buzzing in his hands and feet. The climax was near. Sweet release awaited him. She would be proud to have given her life to him. A thunderous noise spurred him on, and he frenzied at her neck. So close.
A tiny spark in his brain spoke up, It’s not about the kill tonight, Adam. Refusing to let go, he shook his head with Angsty Girl still attached to his mouth. He wanted her, all of her. Stop it! The voice called to him, louder this time. Still, he ignored it. Angsty Girl hung limply in his arms and her heart beat oh so slowly. The buzzing receded from his hands and fizzled out as it retreated up his arms. It was time to let go or she would die.
LET GO! The voice screamed inside his head. Finally, he relented and abruptly stopped feeding from the girl. Cradling her to him and pricking his tongue with his fangs, he licked her wounds to stem the flow and to give her a shot of healing vampire blood. That was too close. Shaking his head, he stood and carried her a few blocks to the bottom of the hill at Victory Park. It was quiet there, most of the snow had already turned to slush and was no longer ideal for traying, so most of the college kids hadn’t bothered to come out.
Adam and Angsty Girl sat cuddled up at the bottom of the hill for several moments while he caressed her and whispered beautiful words in her ear. Euphoric after the feed, he wanted to make sure this girl recovered after so graciously giving him life—no matter that she’d never know she had. Laying her on the ground, he got up to find a spare tray so he could set the scene. One had been left behind, forgotten and tossed into the trees. When Angsty Girl woke, the tray would be underneath her, convincing her that they’d just come down the hill together.
Her eyelids fluttered. Laughing, he grabbed at her playfully.
“I can’t believe we didn’t crash this time! You’ve got to learn to steer this thing!” He jostled her around to continue to wake her up.
“What? Where–? What’s going on?” Angsty Girl said, groggy and confused.
“Shh, it’s okay. It’s okay. What’s your name? We’ve been having so much fun, you never told me,” Adam said as he tried to make eye contact.
She turned her head toward his voice and blinked a few times before absently responding, “Sylvia. My name’s Sylvia.” She reached up and rubbed her neck. “My neck hurts,” she said, her voice gravelly.
Adam countered, saying, “Ooh, yeah, Sylvia, don’t you remember? Our first run we landed funny. You’ll be fine, though.” Placing his hand on top of Sylvia’s, he began to rub the back of her hand and around her neck. All the while, he stirred up the wind to swirl comfortingly around her. “Sylvia,” he said, his voice like music. “Look at me.” He nudged her chin to look in his direction. She was still looking confused but did as he requested. “That’s a good girl,” Adam spoke in his most comforting voice. “Sylvia, dear, it seems you’ve hurt your neck whilst traying. I know we were having fun, but it’s time to get you back to your room. You want to go back to your room now.” Her eyes locked with his as he spoke, and she nodded slowly, the suggestion sinking in.
“Yeah, uh, you know what? I don’t feel great. I’m sorry. Would you mind taking me back to Wesley?”
“Not at all, love, not at all.” Adam stood, then pulled Sylvia up. Wrapping his arm around her waist, he helped her get her footing before they began the long walk to Wesley Hall, back on campus. She was lucid enough to ask questions about their evening as they walked, and Adam made sure she looked him in the eyes with each response. By the time they made it back to Wesley, she had a complete history made up and planted into her memory. They stood on the steps in front of the large, brick building, the tall white columns glowing in the starry night, and he held her hands. He squeezed, and she looked him in the eyes, “I’m going to ask you if I can call you, and you’re going to kiss me deeply then tell me no. And as you walk away, you are going to feel like the most incredible badass on campus. I will be hurt but gentlemanly. The next time you go out with a man, make sure when he brings you home, he makes you feel like a million bucks. If he doesn’t just think his name, and I’ll find him and take care of him for you.” Sylvia nodded as Adam spoke and smiled at her.
“Sylvia,” he said. “Can I call you?”
She gazed into his eyes, smiled, and leaned in to kiss him. They embraced in a deep, hair twirling, toe curling kiss, and when she pulled away, she rubbed her thumb over his lips, all the while holding eye contact with him. With a twinkle in her eye she calmly stated, “No.” And turned and walked away.
Convinced that she’d been charmed, Adam left Wesley. Amused by the encounter, he wandered back to the fraternity house.
CHAPTER FOUR
Adam
At the frat house, he found only stragglers and die-hards remaining; most of the drunk kids had either paired off or gone home alone. After a quick tour of the upstairs, where he mentally scanned the bedrooms to make sure a certain upperclassman and his brothers weren’t taking advantage of unsuspecting and naive freshmen, he made his way back downstairs. No distress signals came back, so he decided to call it a night and headed toward the front of the fraternity house, dodging piles of vomit and stepping over poor souls who couldn’t hold their liquor and had passed out wherever they were. He shook his head and chuckled to himself. Stupid humans.
He finally reached the front room and was heading for the door when the hairs on the back of his neck stood on end. Fangs dropping, he stopped cold—Adam chose fight over flight every time. There was another supernatural creature nearby. It wasn’t often he was caught unawares, and this misstep threw him for a moment. With his eyes more focused and his hearing on high alert, he continued toward the front door. Instinct told him to bare his fangs and make himself appear large and frightening, but he fought the urge to hiss, keeping his mouth closed and his posture neutral. No need to make a spectacle inside the fraternity house—though as it was, most everyone was gone or passed out, so any fracas wouldn’t be noticed, much less remembered. Turning to his right, toward the front lounge area, he scanned the room before entering it.
There she was among the cushions. Her long, graceful limbs draped lazily over haphazardly strewn pillows. Her head nestled in amongst the fluffy pile and her long, chocolate brown hair flowed over her shoulders and rested on colorful throws beneath her. Adam stepped toward her, and her eyes flew open. Propping herself up on her elbows, she uttered in a languid drawl, as though she were waking from a restful nap, “I saw you with that girl earlier.”
Her eyes burned directly into his soul.
He froze. Alice, he thought. What is she doing here? She’s never at frat parties. She can’t see me here. He berated himself for being sloppy but recovered quickly and stared straight into her hazel eyes, then projected his charm in molasses-like waves to cover her. Speaking in a soothing tone, he smiled, “You didn’t see anything. You want to go ho—”
“Yes, I did,” she said. Her voice smooth and confident. “I saw you outside with her earlier. And I can see your fangs now.”
Observant.
◆◆◆
Adam didn’t waste time. Before she could blink, he ran to her, threw her over his shoulder, and hauled her outside. Once outside, he rushed across the street where he flipped her off his shoulder. Screeching as she flew over, she fell with a crunch, her body awkwardly sprawled across the snowy sidewalk across from the Sigma Chi fraternity house.
“Hey!” she shouted as she landed in a pile, all limbs and hair. “Hey, jackass!” she shouted again, more sharply. “You didn’t have to be so rough. Is that how you treat all your dates!” Snow crunched beneath her feet as she stood. “Jeez!” She swatted the snow off her pants, stamped her feet then shook her arms and head to get the rest off her upper body. “Such a jerk!”
Adam looked away, feeling a tiny twinge of guilt for being so rough with her, but she’d left him with no choice but to act quickly. Could he have been gentler when he got her outside? Sure, but it wouldn’t have been nearly as comical.
With palpable anger, her eyes bore into him as she continued stamping the ground. Full of remorse and hoping to win her over, he flashed her a sheepish grin. When her eyes met his, their worlds imploded and expanded, simultaneously.
His thoughts and memories invaded Alice’s mind, shoving their way in to fit in among the already present information collected over her own lifetime. Her confusion and her horror hit him, as many of the images didn’t make sense or resemble any of her life’s experiences. He saw, as she did, the snippets of happy people laughing and impressions of light and love from serene meadows, perfectly familiar to him, but foreign to her. He experienced her revulsion at macabre flashes of fangs, slicing and piercing flesh followed by blood and screams and incongruent feelings of euphoria. He understood her disgust as she absorbed intimate thoughts and feelings from disjointed scenes of passion with women dressed in Victorian costumes and heavily made up faces, grinding and writhing in rooms filled with gaudy gilt furniture and loud, warped circus music, then flashing to different women masked in pale goth faces and flannel shirts throwing their hair around and gyrating to dark driving music. All grotesque faces, caricatures of vile and violent creatures doused in blood and laughing maniacally with ruins of human flesh all around them.
There were more images, a never-ending stream of Adam’s memories invading hers. She began to hyperventilate, grabbing her head and screaming as she fell to her knees on the snow-covered sidewalk. “What is happening!” she shouted into the night. Adam stood silently as tears streamed down her face and her body was wracked with aftershocks from the mental onslaught of bloody, blurred specters racing through her mind.
Adam tensed as memories and images from a far shorter and much more recent lifetime leaped from Alice’s mind into his own, as though the invasion of Adam’s memories had physically pushed her memories out into the night to find the nearest recipient. Staggering backward as her presence invaded him, he collapsed on the ground next to Alice. What is happening? Feelings and images of her life flooded his mind and he squeezed his eyes shut as they reeled through. Sarah’s face in sharp focus in front of a blurred-out background as she cradled a cooing and gurgling baby Alice; giggling and tears of laughter among a group of giddy teenage girls; frantic racing footsteps and a pounding heart as Alice reached home after being bullied at school; blood running down a dusty shin after falling off her bike, and her mother’s soothing words and gentle hug to pick her up; feelings of pride as she walked across the stage during her high school graduation. This episode was less stressful and less full of gore than Alice’s, but it was no less confusing to Adam.
“I don’t know! Who are you? What is happening to me? Oh, god, it’s horrible!” A mess of sweat and snot and tears pasted Alice’s hair to her face as she moaned. She braced herself on all fours, her arms shaking after the bombardment of disturbing mental images. Her head hung low, and she coughed and spluttered as she wretched and heaved in response to everything her body and mind had just been through. Adam understood her horror. Several lifetimes’ worth of horrific and intense experiences had been condensed into ninety seconds of painful influx, but he had no frame of reference for this. Her body had rejected all of it, and all he could do was watch. He’d only gone out that night to hunt.
A few party stragglers were hanging around outside the frat house and taking notice of what was happening. The last thing he needed was to be harassed by Campus Safety or even the city police. “Alice?” Adam said, his voice as soothing as he could make it considering the present circumstances, “We need to get out of here.”
“Wha…?” She spit a glob of leftover saliva and bile out of her mouth.
Preparing to make their getaway, Adam threw waves of unsettled winds toward anyone who lingered nearby, distracting them. If they didn’t leave soon, this night would not only be confusing, it would be very bloody. The rapid change in weather and eerie conditions would create enough of a disturbance that any stories revealed later would sound disjointed and dissimilar enough not to hold much weight.
Sitting on the ground, cold snow melting and soaking into her jeans, Alice shivered and held her head in her hands.
Adam felt for her; she was understandably shaken, and as confusing as all this was for him, he could only imagine the chaos and mayhem she was experiencing. Glancing up at him, Alice carefully avoided looking him in the eyes. At least she remembered that. Turning away, she patted herself down, as though she were confirming each body part was in its place. Her heartbeat had accelerated, and her scent had changed from the pungent and bitter tang of annoyance to the charred, ashy aroma of fear. After her heaving episode, she remained on the ground, and it was clear from her posture, and t
he disorganized and crackling sparks of energy swirling around her, that she wasn’t going anywhere any time soon. The wind picked up around her, whipping at her hair and causing a few stray leaves that hadn’t been covered by the snow to jump up and dance in a frenzy. Her chest heaved, and the skin on the back of Alice’s hands pricked with sweat. The tiny beads caught Adam’s eye. She would have a full-blown panic attack if he didn’t do something to stop it.
Wild-eyed and frantic, Alice said, “Leave? I’m not going any—”
In a blink, Adam stood, grabbed Alice and hoisted her over his shoulder. He couldn’t wait for her explicit consent; they needed to leave while the weather distraction was working. It was best for the both of them if nobody had anything to report to the authorities. A few seconds later, they arrived in the visitors’ stands at the football field on the far side of campus. Football season was over, and not even the fanatics would be out practicing at two-thirty in the morning. This time, Adam carefully sat Alice down on the metal bleachers and winced along with her at the sharp coldness of the seat.
“I’m sorry,” he said, sitting next to her. When she flinched, he scooted away, grateful for the excuse to give himself space. She wasn’t the only one freaked out about what had just happened between them. How could he explain this to her if he couldn’t explain it to himself?
Shaking her fists, Alice screamed, “What is going on?” She put her head in her hands. Against his better judgment, Adam reached out to calm her. Alice flinched. The near contact of their skin exacerbated her hysteria, and she screamed again, “Don’t touch me!”
