SCENES

Nickolas

"NICKOLAS!!"

His fingers hesitated over his keyboard, eyes closing for the brief moment it took Sammie to bust in the door. He glanced up. She'd practically torn the bedroom door it's hinges. Sammie stood there in the door way dressed in her normal jeans and tank. Anger washed off her slender body in waves as she tried to form a coherent sentence.

"A week. A fucking week you've been back, and there's already some lousy, junkie in my apartment! God damn you, Nickolas, why do you have to bring that filth inside my house?!"

He studied her carefully, before turning his eyes back to the screen. "He's not a junkie. That would imply that he was addicted to ..."

"NOT a junkie? Are you kidding me?" She interrupted. "Nick, the kid has more bite marks than I've seen at once on anybody! He looks like he was used for a freaking pin cushion, there's no way he isn't."

Nickolas pulled off his glasses and rubbed his face before looking back at her. "Samantha, I saw the kid last night. He'd looked lost or something, but he wasn't a junkie. He was the healthy kid he should've been. I caught some of them trying to dump him in an alley earlier tonight."

She ran her hands through her long hair and let out an exasperated sigh. "Nick...that still doesn't mean you have to bring him here. There's places you could have taken him to-"

"You know as well as I do that those so called 'centers' do not actually help people. I'm not going to let some unlucky kid get stuck in one of them."

She began to pace in the confined space between the door and the bed. "You can't save them all, Nick."

"We've had this conversation before. You know my feelings on the topic." He turned away from her, clearly not wanting to talk more.

Sammie visibly shook herself. "You can't do this here, Nick! You're going to draw attention to yourself. And frankly, I may be stronger than the average human, but I'm not up for a fight against the strongest coven of vampires on the east coast. Damn it, you know what they're like, you use to be one of them!"

"I was NEVER one of them." he spat back. Nickolas stood then. He stepped around the desk and stopped barely an inch from touching her shoulder. He kept his face straight on as he whispered, "Yes, it was their leader who turned me, but I did not take part in what the others did for 'fun'." He turned his face into hers, taking a deep breath as his lips hovered over the pulse on her throat. "I may not know what I am, but I know what I can do. If killing enough of them will wake my sire from his sleep, then I will drain every single drop from their bodies."

Sammie held her breath, staying as still as she possibly could.

Then suddenly, he was on the other side of the room. His arms wrapped tightly around himself. "Get out."

"Nick..."

"Now."

She often forgot how dangerous Nickolas could be. He had mastered the art of acting human and frail but he never had to pretend to be dangerous.