Layla looked right at Kraordis with tears welling up in her eyes; this time of joy. "I do."
THE END
Bonus 12 of 20
My Two Vampires
Description
Maurice has been dead but still walking the earth for nearly a century. But when he rescues the beautiful Rhea from a band of late-night, human attackers, he finds himself feeling like a human again. However, his clan leader soon sets his sights on Rhea to be his next bride, and this vindictive man will tempt Maurice into a ménage just to keep Rhea in his arms. Will Rhea succumb to the power of the vampire leader, or will Rhea and Maurice be able to break free of his spell and be together?
Chapter 1
***Rhea***
I hated having to walk home after a late shift. I worked at a casino in Reno, and I often got off in the wee hours of the morning. Most of my colleagues had cars that could get them home safely. They would have someone walk them to their car and then get in and drive off. They didn’t know how lucky they were.
I was twenty-two and thrown out into the world on my own years ago. I had finally gotten to a place where I could do some online schooling to become something more, instead of couch hopping. I had to choose between things like a car and being able to feed myself and being able to pay for college or having nice furniture.
On the outside, nobody knew exactly what my struggles were. I looked like anybody else, maybe even better. I was pretty like my mother had been; I knew that. My appearance belied the struggles when I walked out the door of that casino and into the desert night. I had to walk two miles in order to get to a home that was much less than perfect. But at least I was no longer subject to my father’s drunken episodes and my brother's torture. I was free.
It was around two in the morning when I began my journey, walking away from the bright lights of the casinos around where I worked and into the dark alleys of the city. I had been safe doing this for almost a year now and had gotten quite lucky. I hadn’t ever had to use the pepper spray I carried with me at all times. Though, I knew it was only a matter of time until someone took an interest in a young girl walking alone at night in the city.
I wasn't surprised, only anxious, as I felt this odd feeling like I was being watched or followed. I began to hear the occasional footstep behind me, but I just kept walking. Part of me hoped it was my imagination running wild on me like it did sometimes, and the other part of me knew my best defense was to keep walking and hope I could get to anywhere where there would be witnesses. If I made it that far, either someone could save me, or whoever wanted to do something to me might change their mind. Looking back and acknowledging the person would only incite them to attack.
All those ideas came crashing down when I began to hear a second set of footsteps. There was more than one person following me now, and I was about halfway through my journey home. There were plenty of places around here to pull me into the dark where no one would see or hear me. I reached my hand in my bag and clutched onto two things: my pepper spray and my keys. A key could do a little damage, and so could the small knife I kept on my keychain. I didn’t know how these things would hold up against more than one attacker, but I had to at least try.
I began to look around for a narrow path that I knew was nearby. It was smelly and led through an alley that I usually didn’t feel safe in, but my thought was that it was a shortcut. I knew that on the other side there would be a couple of businesses I could get to if I ran fast enough.
I found it and took the turn to the right. I could tell that the feet were getting faster, closing in on me. They thought they had me cornered. I worried about what it was they wanted from me as I picked up my pace as well, finally sprinting as I saw the other end that would come out on a street that usually had some traffic. But just as I reached the end, a man appeared pushing me back into the alley as the two men behind me caught up.
I pulled out my pepper spray, spraying it liberally in the face of the man who had blocked my way out of the alley. I kicked at him, trying to take him down so I could get past him, but someone from behind yanked me back by my blonde hair, probably ripping a good chunk of it out.
I screamed and turned around, focusing on the two attackers that were at my back. I sprayed them until I dropped the pepper spray and then slashed out at them with my knife. I caught one of them in the face, but the man I had kicked recovered and grabbed my arms, crumpling all my defenses to the floor. I had already dropped my purse, and it was discarded and forgotten on the ground.
As one of the men held my arms tightly behind my back, I knew it wasn't my money or anything in my purse they wanted. They were there to hurt me, plain and simple.
One of the men got an evil grin on his face, and I could see he had several rotting teeth inside his mouth. It was sickening to look at.
He got real close to me and pulled a knife of his own, much bigger than mine, and held it up to my throat. His breath smelled like the rot of his teeth, and I gagged on it, trying not to throw up and cut my own throat. I had to find a way to live. I had too much to do to get my life in order. I was meant for more than a year working at a casino.
Chapter 2
***Maurice***
I found myself walking around the dark side of the city of Reno as I did most nights. I could not remember how many nights I had done this, or how long I had lived in this part of the United States. When you have been alive for over a century, your memories and time tend to blur together in a confusing mess of everlasting nothingness. At least that was how it felt to me. I hadn't been very close to other vampires who talked about any sort of human emotion. Most of our feelings were hidden behind blood lust. In my experience, it wasn't the only feeling we had, just the strongest. That was, until I heard the ear splitting scream of a woman in the night and followed the sound.
I climbed to the top of an old warehouse building that overlooked a dark alley where homeless humans would spend the night on occasion. That was where I took most of my human victims, when I had them. Those humans were often sick and weak, welcoming the idea of death so that their problems would fade away. Many of them called out to their gods or their lost loved ones as I drank them dry.
But this screaming was coming from someone who didn’t belong in a place like this. As I looked down below, I could make out three men and a woman. They were attacking her relentlessly, but she was fighting back, screaming so loud I was sure some other human must come to save her. But I didn’t have much faith in their race anymore, even though I was once one of them.
I didn’t make it a habit of saving humans in peril unless they were children or innocents being attacked by new, bloodthirsty vampires. But there was something about this woman as I zeroed in on her racing heartbeat as she fought for her life against her three assailants. She wanted to live.
Getting closer, dropping down into the alleyway with nothing but the sound of an extra whisp of wind, I could see her fearful eyes. They were a light grey like an old black and white film and her hair was made up of short blonde curls. Something about her struck me in a place I didn’t know was still within me.
I had felt little beyond boredom and some guilt for what I was and what I had to do to survive for quite a long time. So, I was surprised, almost to the point of pain, as an attraction welled up in me at the sight of this woman. My attraction had nothing to do with the blood that ran through her veins, and I could almost remember what my heart felt like when it used to beat. There was nothing else to do at that point but to save her and risk revealing what I was to her.
I came up behind the men. They had no idea I was coming. Being a vampire meant that I made little to no noise, and I could move faster than a human eye could detect if I wanted. I was not constrained by human illnesses or rules. I was nothing but the perfect evolved predator that only another creature like me could ever stop or put to rest.
The three men were easy. I picked them off with little effort or time, thrashing them against the walls of the buildings that lined the alleyway a
nd drinking their blood to quench my thirst. I would not have to eat for quite some time, their thick, evil essence making me bloated with plenty of sustenance.
The woman I had saved stood there in shock, watching the whole thing transpire. She didn’t run and she didn’t scream. I had expected at least one of those. Her grey eyes just watched me as I finished and stood before her with barely a drop of blood spilled onto my jacket or hands.
There was a chill in the air, and it began to rain, which was odd for a place known for vast deserts with tumbleweeds rolling across the busy streets at all hours of the day. "Are you alright?" I asked the woman, not knowing what else to do now that she didn’t seem to fear me at all. I hadn’t figured on her sticking around. But maybe she was badly injured and couldn't run.
The woman turned her grey eyes away from me and surveyed her own body, coming up with a small spot of blood on her arm from where a knife must have gotten her. The rest were tears and bruises it seemed. "I think I'm alright," she said, just as if she were talking to a regular human being. Was she in so much shock that she didn’t realize what I was? In that case, she was probably going to faint, and I couldn’t leave her out there to get attacked once again.
I scooped her up into my arms, cradling her. "Is there any way you can tell me where you live? I'd like to make sure you get home safe," I told her, hoping she could give me anything, if only a description of her home.
"I live in the South Sutter Apartments. Do you know where they are?" I actually did know what she was talking about, and for me, they weren’t very far.
"Close your eyes," I told her, knowing my speed would make her ill if she kept them open. I watched her close her grey eyes and felt a twinge of sadness that I couldn’t see them anymore. There was something about them that made me feel grounded; that made me feel like I was human again.
I took off in the direction of her home, the city flying by me as if I was in a plane, or like I was a bullet shot from a gun. It was the best way to travel, and one of the only things I still found fun anymore.
I slowed as we approached the entrance, letting her direct me to which unit she lived in. They were not the nicest apartments to live in, and I was even more surprised to find that inside her unit, there was almost no furniture. It wasn’t the way I expected a woman like her to be living.
I took her into the bedroom and laid her down on the mattress that sat by itself in the middle of the floor. It was the only comfortable place I could find in the whole unit. It served to make me even more curious about her.
"Thank you," she said softly. "I'm Rhea." Her name was so unique, it surprised me. The world had become obsessed with Heathers and Sarahs over the past three or so decades.
Her eyebrows raised as she tried to sit up, and she studied me. I felt strange as she did, but I couldn’t put a name on the feeling. I was too far removed from such things to remember what they were called. "You're a vampire." It wasn’t a question. She knew it, and yet she didn’t scream or try and find a Bible or cross to throw at me. It was the most interesting reaction I had ever seen.
The right thing to do was to make her forget about me. Humans couldn’t handle the information, but I didn’t know if I could stand for her to forget about me.
"Yes, I am," I confirmed for her. "My name is Maurice."
Chapter 3
***Rhea***
There is a vampire in my house. That was my first thought as I surveyed the man who had saved me from my attackers. I was trying to navigate the situation very carefully because I realized that vampires obviously didn’t go around just saving anyone, otherwise, humans would know they existed. But I couldn’t deny that I was more than grateful; I was fascinated.
His speed was otherworldly, and he had a beauty to him that no human did. His hair was a deep red, coming down to his mid chest, and his eyes were a brilliant green like a cat's. His nose, lips, eyebrows and chin were arranged in perfect symmetry and were the color of skim milk. I knew it was crazy, but I was attracted to this creature who didn’t exist in my world until moments ago. I also knew he could easily dispose of me if he wanted to, and instead, he had chosen to bring me home to safety.
"It's nice to meet you Maurice," I told him with a smile. I didn’t exactly know the etiquette for conversing with a vampire, so I stuck to general niceties, though I could easily fantasize about him crushing me into his impossibly strong arms and placing those soft, bow-shaped lips against mine. I had never met a man who made me feel this way, and maybe this was the reason why. There was no man who could satisfy the image in my head of what a man should be. "I don't imagine you get tired or thirsty, but would you like to sit down and have a cup of tea or something?" I asked awkwardly. I didn’t like the way he was just standing there with one foot in and one foot out my bedroom door. I had so many questions, and I wasn't at all ready for him to leave. I had to make sure he was real and not something I made up in my distress.
"I actually do enjoy tea," he said. I stood up carefully, the shock of the attack wearing off to reveal quite a bit of soreness, and I took his hand. It was cool but not freezing like books would have made me expect. I led him into the kitchen where I sat him down in the corner, at my sad excuse for a table. He looked so strange, sitting in my mostly bare pitiful excuse of an apartment as I brewed tea in my old, hand-me-down coffee pot.
"How much sugar and milk?" I asked politely, trying not to lose my senses. I wondered if he had the same effect on others, or if I was the only one who felt the need to touch his skin and get to know every story he had to tell.
"Two scoops of sugar, no milk," he said, with a thoughtful look upon his brow. I assumed by scoops he meant teaspoons, so that’s what I did. I sat down across from him with my own tea, sipping at it as I watched him stir his own with his finger a few times before taking a sip.
"Why do you keep looking at me like that?" he asked, meeting my eyes with his own. I felt frozen to the spot by his burning gaze.
"Well, it’s not every day I have a vampire in my house," I joked lightly, causing him to cock his head to the side much like a dog trying to catch what you're saying.
"I would certainly hope not. That would be quite dangerous," he added, seeming to have no sense of humor to speak of. "You don’t act like other humans, am I right in that assumption?" I was startled by his question, and I wasn’t quite sure what he was referring to. "I mean in regards to your reactions to me," he clarified, seeing my confusion.
"Oh, I guess I'm probably not. I'm not scared of you, if that’s what you mean. I'm mostly scared you aren’t real," I admitted, not sure as to the why. "I actually have questions."
"That’s only natural," he stated, sipping at his tea like a proper gentleman. "I suppose I can answer a few.
Instead of sticking to just a few, I found myself grilling him for the next hour on everything from his age to his weaknesses. I was surprised to find that not only did he answer each question, but he was easily amused by my curiosity. His laugh was like nothing I had ever heard, though. It just made me want to know even more.
"You know, I should make you forget about me," he finally said. "We have this power called glamour, and we can use it to influence others; humans and younger vampires. We don’t let humans walk around knowing about us, so this is what we do when we make a mistake."
"Please,” I begged, putting my hand up. "Don’t make me forget. I'm not going to tell anyone or try to hurt any of you. But I can’t imagine not knowing this now." His brows furrowed again, and I focused on those deep creases it made in his forehead. They were like some I’d seen in a painting rather than the imperfect ones I made when I frowned.
Before I could stop myself, I leaned over the table and kissed him. Maurice's body was stiff at first, but then I felt it relax into me. His hands tangled in my hair, and I knew I had made him feel something.
"You make me feel more alive than I have in a long time, Rhea," he said in a whisper, as if someone might be listening in. "But I do not know how anything betw
een us would ever work." I didn’t either, but that didn’t mean I wasn’t willing to try.
"Just don’t make me forget. We can worry about the rest later." He suddenly scooped me up and took me back to the bed, laying me down and giving me a kiss on the forehead. I suddenly felt groggy. I tried to cling to consciousness, but it was fading fast. My last thought was a tiny prayer to the universe that I would wake up and still remember Maurice.
Chapter 4
***Rhea***
I woke up the next morning, and Maurice was gone. But the fact that I knew he was gone, meant that he hadn’t erased my memory. I remembered every moment about him saving me and about our kiss. I was star struck and wondered when I might see him again.
As the day dragged on, though, I realized I had no guarantee that I would see him again. As night fell, I found that I was wide awake, unable to go to sleep with the thoughts racing through my head. I hadn’t thought it through when I had asked him to let me keep my memory of him. I hadn’t asked for a guarantee I would see him again, or how I might find him if I wanted to. All I had was the memory of his red hair and green eyes to keep me company, and I began to feel both naive and completely insane.
This wasn’t something I could call a friend to talk about, even if I had one. This wasn't something I could get on Facebook and share with my sometimes friends. It was a secret I would hold until the end of my days; the secret that I had met a beautiful vampire who saved my life and who kissed me so passionately. And I would never get to tell a single living soul, even if the memories began to fade and I never saw him again.
A certain panic landed on my shoulders like a heavy weight, and I fell into a pattern of hoping and wishing Maurice would show his face again. As the week passed me by, I had lost all hope of him knocking on my door, or meeting me on the way home from work. Part of me thought I could feel him in the shadows, making sure I was safe after work, but it was the other part of my thoughts that became more frightening. I was beginning to worry I really had made him up. That Maurice did not exist. I was some raving lunatic who belonged locked up and medicated. I was sure of it.
Dedicated: MF Priest and Single Mother Page 38
