by Melody Raven
He looked down at her. “Are you always this honest with men?”
She was surprised at the question. “I never liked lying.”
Charles’s whole life had been a lie. His smiles, his laughs, his friends had all been one big lie cultivated to make the world believe he was something other than a monster.
“I found the one honest woman in New York. No man has managed to spit you up and chew you out yet? I think you’ve managed to amaze me.”
She frowned at the statement. “Trust me. I’ve been chewed up and spit out enough times for plenty of lifetimes.” It had just been her father and not a boyfriend. But she wasn’t ready to tell him the whole truth about her past. She needed a few tricks up her sleeve when dealing with him.
Another awkward silence fell between them. Anna broke it by saying, “Let me grab some things, and I’ll be right back.”
She was still tired from her restless sleep and long day, but she needed to talk to Nicolas. She grabbed her bag and headed toward him.
On the way, she got a quick glimpse of herself in the mirror. Her jeans and t-shirt were casual and not especially flattering. Her ponytail had fallen flat, and tendrils had escaped to rest all around her face. Altogether with her glasses, it gave the effect of one very frazzled nerd.
Because her sweatshirt was now lost, she’d worn an old leather jacket today. That made her look a bit more like she belonged in the city and not back on a farm in Michigan.
She rushed past the mirror to the doorway. For all she knew, if Nicolas got very impatient, he could break down the invisible barrier that kept him out of her apartment.
As she walked through the doorway, he moved out of her way. After she had her door securely locked, they went out onto the street together.
He didn’t pull her along as he had the night before. They walked together as though they were friends, or coworkers. It was also a noticeably uninterrupted walk. People seemed to move out of his way, as though they knew they should keep their distance. When Anna walked to work, she ducked and weaved around people. Nicolas wasn’t the ducking and weaving type.
Anna noticed a few women’s eyes seemed to follow him as he walked by. Some were appreciative, while others were downright lustful. One very tall blonde with an exceptionally short skirt stopped for the sole purpose of watching his backside as he walked away.
Anna couldn’t help but chuckle. “Is it always like this for you?”
“Like what?”
She motioned to the street around them. “All the guys running out of your way and all the women wishing they could get in it?”
Nicolas looked around them at the spectacle he was making. “I guess I don’t pay attention.”
She shook her head. “You’re such a liar. I happen to know you enjoy making people feel uncomfortable.”
“Is that how I make you feel? Uncomfortable?” he asked.
“Don’t play innocent. You do it on purpose.”
He didn’t deny it. “Do we really have to get coffee?” He said the word as if it left a bad taste in his mouth.
“I guess we don’t have to. Do you have any better ideas of where we can talk?”
“There are a lot of bars I go to, and any one of them would be better than getting coffee.”
“Stop saying it like that. Obviously, because of the whole vampire thing, you have never had a seven a.m. class. On those days, coffee is my salvation. I think I might actually die without my coffee some mornings.”
“You’re a student? That’s so darn cute,” he said with a sardonic smirk.
“As a matter of fact, I’m also a teacher,” she said. Cute my ass.
“Teach? Who do you teach?”
“I teach intro English classes,” Anna said proudly.
“You teach college freshman? You’re no older than a college freshman.”
She let out an annoyed sigh. She’d been confused with a student on more than one occasion. “No matter what I look like, I know a lot more about writing and literature than most centuries-old vam—” She cut off before she said the word in the middle of the populated street.
Nicolas steered her toward a dark and ominous-looking door. “Where are we?” she asked.
“Somewhere we can get my kind of drink.” He led her into what turned out to be a bar. And not a very nice-looking one. Nicolas wasn’t the biggest man in the room, and everyone seemed to stare right at her.
As with most bars, the lighting was bad, but there was no loud blaring music as there normally was at the places Anna would go to with friends on the few occasions she actually went out.
The place wasn’t very busy, but a few booths and barstools were occupied and some patrons played a game of pool.
Nicolas walked in front of Anna and led her to an empty booth. The one next to it had two men sitting together and talking. When Nicolas sat down, the two men immediately got up and walked to another booth.
Anna’s eyes followed them as they left. “That was rude. What did you do to piss them off? As infuriating as you can be, I didn’t think that even you could provoke someone that quickly.”
“They are loyal to the one we both seek,” he said.
“The one we both—oh. The one whose name shall apparently not be spoken?” she asked.
“Yep. That’s the one.”
“But what does that have to do with them walking away from you?”
“Well, you remember that he wanted me dead, right?” Anna nodded. “Well, anyone who housed or helped me would be executed. The kill order has been rescinded, but some of these cowards still can’t even abide to be in the same room as me.”
“Are you sure that’s why they ran?” asked Anna.
“What do you mean?”
“I never got any order to stay away from you and yet I can barely stand to be in the same room as you.” She gave him a playful smile.
He stood. “That, Annabelle, is a lie.”
She didn’t fight him on that one.
“Would you like something to drink?”
Anna shook her head and watched him walk up to the bar. He ordered his drink, but she couldn’t hear what he ordered.
Her eyes were once again drawn to the men who had moved away when she and Nicolas had sat down. She thought about Aleksander ordering no one to shelter or help Nicolas. How long ago had he said that was? Sixty years ago.
These men appeared to be in their thirties. She’d spent most of her life looking for vampires, and here she was in a room with at least three. She scanned the rest of the room, trying to tell whether anyone in the room looked supernatural.
No one stood out to her. Then again, even the men she knew to be supernatural looked like two perfectly normal, if not a bit scary, men. No wonder the Stakes never found any. How often had a vampire passed her on the streets with her being none the wiser?
Nicolas walked back to her. As she watched him, she felt another unwelcome burst of attraction spread through her.
Despite the chill, he wasn’t wearing a jacket tonight. Instead, he wore a dark blue v-neck sweater that he filled out beautifully. His shoulders stretched out the fabric, and the rest fell and hit all the right places. Just a bit of his neck was revealed, showing the end of his collarbones and cords of his neck.
When she looked at his neck, she almost felt like a vampire. All she could currently think about was running her tongue along it and taking a gentle bite. Her dream of him came back to her. She remembered she’d tried to see his chest, but couldn’t seem to focus. That had been right before he bit her.
As Nicolas sat down in the booth, Anna shook away her dirty thoughts and tried to appear as innocent as possible. She stared at the tall black glass he brought back with him from the bar. When she worked up the nerve to look at his face, he didn’t appear to suspect anything.
“So,” he said. “We should get down to business.”
“Probably,” Anna agreed, though she wasn’t looking forward to this conversation.
“Have you hear
d from this Mr. X today?”
Anna frowned. “I haven’t gotten any calls from him. He contacted someone else I know before he told me about you. I’ll have to write Dennis an email to see if he heard anything else.”
“Try to do that. See if you can arrange a meeting at night. I would like to know who is running around and giving amateur vampire hunters my address.”
“He knew I was running by your building. He called me right as I was passing by. So he must have been watching me from somewhere, but I didn’t see him anywhere on the street.” She shivered just thinking about it. “Speaking of strange men watching me, did you follow me home last night?”
He smiled an all too innocent smile. “Why would you think that?”
“The wonderful surprise of finding you waiting for me at my door this evening was a big clue. You either followed me last night, or you knew where I lived before.”
“It only seemed fair that I know where you live. You have already violated my private space.”
She did feel a bit guilty about that. “I didn’t violate—”
“You were in my room. On my bed.”
“It’s impossible to get anywhere in that room without getting on the bed. It takes up the whole space.”
While she was on the defensive, he changed the subject. “Where were you today?”
Anna wasn’t sure she wanted to tell him about Abigail. If he really wanted to know about her, it wouldn’t be too hard to find out who raised her and who the majority of her outgoing calls were directed to. “As you might know, I’ve had a few stressful nights. I took a day trip to see a friend,” she said.
“Did that help you?” he asked.
“She helped me to realize a few rather important things.”
“What did she help you to realize?”
“You scare me,” she admitted, without working up the nerves to meet his eyes. Instead, she stared down at the table. “On a massive scale, you terrify me. You scare me multiple different ways. Do you realize that?”
She did find the will to meet his eyes to read his reaction to her blunt statement. He didn’t appear to look guilty, but at least the news didn’t make him happy either.
“You could’ve killed me so easily so many times now. All I have is your word that you won’t. I met you last night. I have no reason to believe anything you say.”
He remained silent and let her continue. “You want me to help you with this...” She stopped to look at the company that surrounded her, which was mostly unfriendly. She continued, “With this...little project of yours. You want me to help you do this to some man or thing that I’ve only seen once for a few minutes fifteen years ago. Hell, I only have your word that it actually is the same person. I still don’t know what he did with my father.”
“What can I do to convince you I’m being truthful?”
“That’s something my friend helped me to realize. One of the reasons I’m so scared is that I have no control. You’re bigger, stronger, and scarier than I am, and I have no way to double-check the information you’re giving me.”
“I can’t help any of that,” he responded.
“I know. I think I have a compromise though.”
“I can’t wait,” he said sarcastically.
“Let me talk to the, well, the one ‘that we both seek’ before we do anything rash.”
He raised an eyebrow at that. “Talk to him? Who exactly do you think you’re dealing with? He’s not going to let us talk to him and then allow us to leave alive if you have a sudden change of heart and can’t bring yourself to kill the bastard.”
“Well, I can’t just take your word for it. I need more. I’m sorry.” Anna went to push herself up, but his hand shot out and grabbed her wrist.
“Don’t go yet.”
Anna stared at his hand on her skin. It was so big, it looked as though it would swallow her hand whole. She felt tingles of warmth spread through her body, all centered on the point their skin touched.
She sat down and slowly pulled her arm away from his grip. He released her arm. She watched his beautiful hand as it went back to his glass. “That was the other thing I wanted to talk to you about.”
“What?”
She steeled herself and met his eyes. “We need to talk about sex.”
Anna could feel the blood rush to her face as he laughed out loud, causing a few heads to turn. He dropped his voice a little. “Sweetie, we can talk about that whenever you want to.”
She’d been dreading this part of the conversation on the whole trip back to the city. “We need to talk about the fact that we’re not going to have any.”
He wasn’t laughing anymore. “Are you kidding me?”
She glared at him. “Yes. This is my favorite thing to joke about,” she said sarcastically. “I’m dead serious. We can’t do anything.”
He opened his mouth to say something, but snapped it shut before any sound came out. Instead, he took a long swig of his drink.
Anna looked at the glass and tried to decipher what was in it, but the sides were too dark for her to make out much. “What are you drinking?”
He handed it to her. She looked inside, but it was too dim to make anything out. She tilted the contents toward the top of the glass and took a small sniff. Immediately, she gagged at the coppery scent.
“Why would you hand that to me?” she asked, so loud it was almost a shout.
He didn’t answer her. His eyes were focused on something over her shoulder. She glanced behind her and saw two big, beefy men talking with the two vampires who had moved earlier.
She diverted her attention back to Nicolas, and he appeared to be trying to listen to what the group of men was talking about.
Anna snapped her fingers in front of his face. His attention immediately reverted back to her and she waved his dark glass in the air. “What the hell?”
He shrugged. “I wanted to see your reaction.”
Anna rolled her eyes. “Jerk,” she muttered under her breath.
His smile stayed in place, but his eyes seemed to get serious. “You have no idea.” Before she could ask him what he meant, he said, “I think you might’ve been right about coffee.” His eyes once again looked beyond her.
Anna turned around and saw that the two muscle-bound men Nicolas had been watching now approached their booth. The closer they got, the more she saw how big they really were.
They weren’t quite as tall as Nicolas, but they were still around six feet. The sleeves on their t-shirts could hardly fit around their biceps, and Anna had a feeling they purposely bought shirts too small for them. They walked intently toward her and Nicolas, but he didn’t seem concerned. Instead, he finished off what was left in his glass. He set the drink down just as the two big shadows fell over the table.
The one on the left said, “You should leave.”
Nicolas calmly looked up at the one who’d spoken. “We are in the middle of a conversation. You may speak to me when I’m done with her.”
Anna groaned as Nicolas patronized the man. The two men didn’t appear too happy about it either. The second man picked up Nicolas’s glass and slammed it into the table. The glass shattered.
Anna jumped back as shards of glass shot toward her.
Quicker than her eye could follow, Nicolas was on his feet. He had one hand on the back of the offender’s neck and had his face pressed onto the table, against the broken glass and blood.
The other man took a step back, shaking his head. Apparently he wasn’t willing to actually get hurt.
Nicolas seemed to press his captive harder into the sharp shards. “Apologize to the woman.”
Anna’s gaze jerked up to Nicolas. His face was stone cold and his fangs protruded from his top lip. His eyes were jet black, just like she’d seen once before. When the man at his hands remained silent, he pushed his face harder into the glass on the table. Anna saw blood start to pool around his face.
“I-I-I don’t—I don’t think that’s necessary,” she st
ammered out.
He turned those black eyes on her. She moved to get out of the booth and could feel his eyes bore into her. She didn’t want to see what Nicolas would do to the man at his mercy but couldn’t bring herself to run.
Nicolas looked her over and the intensity of his gaze caused goose bumps to break out over her skin. She crossed her arms in discomfort.
“I think this is very necessary.” Nicolas squeezed the man’s neck, and he let out a scream. Nicolas shouted over the scream, “Apologize!”
Anna’s gaze was caught by a movement out of the corner of her eye. A blur approached Nicolas. Acting on pure instinct, she jumped between Nicolas and the blur, which hit her at full force and sent her body flying onto a table in the middle of the room. Her momentum carried her off the table, and she tumbled to the floor.
She tried to push herself up to see what happened, but a hand reached out and grabbed her neck. She wheezed as the strong fingers cut off her air. The second man, the more cowardly one, stared down at her. Apparently his style was to go after weaker prey who couldn’t fight back.
His breath went into her face as he whispered, “This is what happens when you side with traitors.” She closed her eyes as she waited for the bite to come. Suddenly, the hand was no longer around her neck, and she once again collapsed to the floor.
Anna scanned the room and took in the damage. The man Nicolas had pinned to the table was also in a heap on the floor. One of his wrists was bent at a strange angle, and he was trying to crawl away with his one good arm. Why didn’t he get up to walk?
A commotion behind her drew her attention. Nicolas punched the man who had just pinned Anna down. Even though he appeared half unconscious, Nicolas kept on hitting.
Anna tried to yell and stop him from killing the man, but it only came out as a whisper. Even so, Nicolas stopped and looked at her. Anna tried to drag herself up with as much dignity as possible under the circumstances. Nicolas was suddenly there beside her and pulled her up.
He let her lean against a table as he walked past the wreckage of their booth to grab her bag. When he came back, he braced one arm around her back to help her walk.
