I think that this chapter is another one of my favourites, its possible it could be my favourite but i cant decide
-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-
Chapter 10
To say After Life was packed would be an understatement; it was so crowded there was almost no space to move. I had a suspicion that this club was likely over the allowed capacity but they probably never got in trouble with the city, those were some of the perks you got when your club’s best customers were vampires.
This club obviously didn’t care about the standard club rules as the bouncers seemed to let anyone in no matter the age and the craftsmanship of the ids. The bouncer only briefly glanced at my id and handed it back seconds later.
The After Life seemed like an average club on the surface, but experienced people could see things normal humans couldn’t. There were subtle differences between vampire clubs and regular human clubs. People who knew about vampires could pick out vampires in the crowd with a bit of work. They knew that there were certain room dedicated to VIPs or in other words, vampires. They knew there was a special menu for those VIPs. The club’s colours even seemed to be indicative; the colours were a dark blood red and deep black. Most humans were clueless to what went on around them.
Erik distanced himself from me and made his way to a group of hot girls as soon as we got in the club. I shook my head amused at Erik’s actions; he got to act like a normal teenager at a club while I would be dealing with more serious things. As much as I wished I could join Erik I knew I couldn’t. If I didn’t find my brother who would?
As I neared the bar a stool vacated and I smiled slightly at my good fortune. I sat down quickly before anyone else could snatch the seat. Then I pulled out my phone, busying myself until a bartender came over.
“What’ll you be having?” asked a bartender, his lips just barely covering what looked like sharp white fangs. Once again I didn’t expect humans noticed and if they did they probably convinced themselves they saw nothing weird.
“A scotch,” I replied and moments later a glass of scotch slid towards me. I reached out and caught the glass just as it was about to pass me and then looked into the amber liquid as I swirled it around in the clear glass.
A muscular, jock type guy in his twenties that sat beside me sighed depressed into his beer. I looked at him out of the corner of my eye as he took another swig. I eyed the various bruises in different states of healing on his arms. He’s an abusive drunk, I guessed. He most likely got drunk at a club and then got himself into fights. He caught me staring and scowled proving my theory. He cracked his knuckles in a menacing way and reached for his beer to down the rest. I sighed; I wouldn’t remain inconspicuous for much longer if this drunk started a fight with me. He slammed the beer bottle on the counter and glared at me. He opened his mouth to say something and I got a whiff of alcohol. I raised my eyebrows at him unwilling to back down despite the fact that I didn’t want to fight. Neither of us moved for a moment, then someone lightly tapped the drunk’s shoulder.
“Could you move? I’d like to sit down and you should really stop your little party of binge drinking,” said a musical female voice. I watched as the girl moved closer to the drunken jock and looked into his eyes after he remained sitting, stupidly stunned at being asked to move. “Move,” ordered the girl backing up as the dazed jock stood up quickly.
Although rather than leaving he scowled and took a drunken swing at her. She easily avoided his punch and he stumbled unbalanced. He took a few steps forward trying to regain his balance but crashed into a medium-sized glass statue of a girl. Everyone watched in silence as it toppled to the ground and shattered into pieces. He sat there as a few bouncers came towards him and dragged him off. Someone came moments later, she swept up the glass and soon there was nothing to hint something had happened minutes before. Everything went back to normal, the humans quickly forgetting the incident had happen.
I turned back to my drink just as the girl claimed the seat beside me. Now I could see the girl clearly and I had to stifle my surprise as I realized she was actually a vampire and not just any vampire, she was the vampire from the last club we went to, it was Alexandria.
She gave a short nod to the bartender then a slight smile that he returned without hesitation; it seemed she was a regular here. The bartender immediately walked over to her ignoring the customers he was up until recently serving. They stared after their bartender in outrage but he never turned back to look at them.
“So what’ll it be?” The bartender asked. His gaze went to me momentarily and I looked away.
“I’ll have your special, you know the one I always get?” she said jokingly. The bartender brushed his black hair out of his eyes and moved away before looking over his shoulder at her.
“One blood orange martini coming up.” I almost laughed at that. One of the ingredients might be blood orange but the drink most likely had the word blood in the name because it had human blood in it. All vampire drinks had blood in them.
After the drink was prepared the bartender personally came over and handed it to her. She took the glass out of his hands and smirked at the bartender as he left to get other people their drinks. She took a sip of her red martini and closed her eyes savouring the taste of her drink.
“Why don’t you take a picture, it’ll last longer,” she said with her eyes still closed. I scanned around surprised and then determined that she was talking to me. I was tempted to reply back that I even if I took a picture she wouldn’t show up in it but that would be stupid because one, I would reveal that I knew she was a vampire and two, vampires not showing up in pictures was just a myth.
I looked at the mirrored cabinets of the bar and met her purple eyes in the shiny reflective surface. She was smirking at me as she smoothed out her short tight black dress. She looked amused that it took me that long to figure out she was talking to me. I shrugged and feigned indifference at her comment.
“So what brings you to the After Life?” she said smiling slightly at the pun, “You don’t look like someone that comes to clubs to party, but yet you’ve been at two clubs in two days.”
“Then you must have a mistaken impression of me,” I lied. Her smile grew a bit bigger as if she knew I was lying. I took a deep breath and met her eyes making sure to not look away.
“If you say so…,” she replied picking up her drink again.
“I do, I’m just here enjoying some free time. Also, you’ve been at two clubs two days as well,” I responded a bit annoyed at her questions.
“So you’ve noticed me, I flattered,” she laughed. My eyes narrowed at how she managed to twist my words. “I come to clubs pretty much every night though,” she explained. “It’s quite a coincidence that we seem to keep going to the same clubs. Perhaps it more than that, maybe its fate?” she suggested.
“No I wouldn’t read too much into this weird coincidence. We probably won’t see each other again after this,” I replied.
“Maybe, maybe not,” Alexander said quietly. “I go to clubs a lot so we might run into each other again.”
“I wouldn’t count on it. So where’s the blond guy and the group you were with yesterday?” I inquired curiously because it seemed to me yesterday that the blond guy was quite protective of her and wouldn’t let her out of his sights anytime soon. Alexandria sighed.
“Umm, yeah, see I came here tonight to have fun and definitely not to have people pry into my life. Since you’re obviously here just living it up I’m going to leave. I mean it’s not as if you’re here looking for information,” she said, her eyes meeting mine briefly as she got off her seat and turned to walk away.
“Wait, what?” I asked quickly before grabbing her wrist, did that mean she knew something about Tristan?
“Yes?” she said spinning around. She looked at me expectantly.
“Do you know something?” I asked urgently. She gave me a look that conveyed that she thought I was being stupid.
“That’s hard to say considering I have no idea what you are talking about,” she said slowly. I looked at her undecided about whether I should ask her about Tristan but my worry for Tristan won me over. I reached into my pocket and as I did so I caught a peculiar expression on her face, something between fear and disbelief but it disappeared quickly leaving me wondering if I had actually seen what I thought I had. I pulled out a crumpled photo of Tristan out of my pocket and smoothed it out before showing it to her.
“Have you seen this guy recently?” Her purple eyes scanned the photo briefly.
“Is he related to you? He looks like you,” she murmured. She looked up curiously comparing me to the photo in my hands.
“That doesn’t really matter, answer the question,” I pleaded. She rolled her eyes.
“I haven’t seen him since two days ago, sorry I couldn’t be much help,” she replied as her eyes surveyed the club. “I actually have to go now, so good luck with whatever you may or may not be doing,” she said with a smirk back on her face. She drained the rest of her martini, sent it down on the bar counter then was lost in the crowd.
Well that was a waste of time but at the same time I didn’t think she was lying about seeing Tristan two days ago. I didn’t understand why all of a sudden I felt I could trust what a vamp said; there was certainly no reason I should but regardless I trust she told me the truth. As I debated about this I searched around the room for Erik but he was nowhere to be found.
I reached into my pocket and discovered I had received many messages from one person; Erik. The messages all said the same thing, something had come up and he had had to leave. He also told me that he thought I should leave to but even if I would have gotten the texts at the time he sent them I still wouldn’t have left.
As I exited my phone’s message screen I noticed the time, it was a few hours past midnight, as I yawned I decided it was time to go so I paid for my barely touched drink and left the club.
I pulled my jacket closed and squinted suspiciously down the dark street with no working lamps I did not have a good feeling about the dark, deserted street but it was my only option as I didn’t see any taxies around and my phone died just as I left After Life.
A few blocks later I looked back and didn’t see the club lights at all and that gave me a feeling of dread. Maybe I should have stayed at the club and asked someone to call a taxi for me.
I pushed my doubts out of my head and continued on, there was nothing I could do now and I might as well keep walking. I tightened my hand around the stake in my pocket as I walked around a small transport truck that was protruding out of an alley. Right after I passed it two hands grabbed me and dragged me into the dark blocked alley. I kicked out hitting something solid and heard a grunt as I dropped to the ground.
“Why you little-,” she said. My breath caught, it was the vampire from the café. “You should have just died from poisoning, the amount I put in your drink was way past the lethal dose.”
I pulled out my stake and whipped it at her; it hit her but only her leg not a place that would kill her. She cried out and hopped on her uninjured leg as she pulled out the stake with another cry of pain. She then advanced toward me grinning menacingly with the stake in her hand.
“Getting staked isn’t fun, how about you get a taste of your own medicine,” she called before throwing the stake like a spear at my torso. I breathlessly cried out as the stake entered my abdomen. I shakily looked at my bloody stomach and saw that the stake was pretty much embedded in my body with only a few inches still outside.
Her eyes went dark at the sight of the blood staining my shirt and she grinned evilly as she leapt towards me. She pushed me down on the ground causing my head to slam against the ground. Blackness filled my vision for a moment and when I came to again her mouth at my neck. She took a deep breath clearly savouring the moment before biting down hard, I tried to push her away but I was all of a sudden too weak. I stopped protesting all together as the vamp viciously sucked my blood.
I had long lost hope of getting out of this alive when the vamps body was no longer on mine; it was being slammed into a wall. The blond vampire got up slowly and licked her lips clean of my blood. The top of her shirt was splattered with blood.
“How’s it going Desiree?” asked a female voice sarcastically. The voice seemed to be coming from above me but I didn’t see anything. Then I realized that my eyes had shut. I forced my eyes open and looked up in surprise at the figure above me.
It was Alexandria; her straight brown hair was swirling in an almost nonexistent breeze and she was standing defiantly with her hands on her hips and her eyes narrowed at Desiree.
“Mind your own business, this has nothing to do with you,” Desiree snarled. Desiree took a few steps forward towards me but Alexandria blocked her.
“Yeah, you’re right, I have nothing to do with the problem you and him have,” she said looking down at me, “but you annoy me and so I love to get in your way any chance I get,” she finished once again looking at Desiree.
“Leave me alone so I can finish him off,” commanded Desiree with her fangs showing.
“Yeah you’d like that wouldn’t you…I’m sorry though, today’s just not a day I feel like leaving you alone,” taunted Alexandria.
"Why can’t you leave me alone today? He along with his stupid friend killed my sister, he’s a hunter,” Desiree explained trying to persuade Alexandria.
“Oh I know he’s a hunter, do you think I didn’t know that?” I frowned how did she find out? “I don’t care what he is, he could be a werewolf for all I care, the only reason I’m interfering is because I love getting in your way,” answered Alexandria.
With a hair raising hiss Desiree threw herself at Alexandria with her sharp nails aiming at Alexandria’s eyes. Alexandria laughed amused and pushed away Desiree’s hands as they came close. They continued to fight with neither of them getting at all injured; only their torn clothing showed any signs that they fought.
Eventually Alexandria got tired of their fight and caught both of Desiree wrists then sent her flying far away from both of us. Desiree landed on her feet and turned around quite pissed off now but seemed to realize fighting Alexandria was not a good idea. It definitely wouldn’t turn out the way she wanted so she took off running at a high velocity only vampires could reach.
Alexandria smirked at having won the fight then turned to look at me. She started walking towards me. panicking I sat up and got another stake that was lying next to me and waved it around warning her not to come closer.
“Do you really think you can fight a vampire while you’re seriously injured?” Alexandria questioned.
“Stay back,” I ordered.
“What are you going to do? What can you do at the moment that can harm me? Do you seriously think I can’t disarm you of your stake? Please, you have a much too high opinion of yourself if you think you can take me while you have a stake in you stomach, I don’t even think you could take me when you’re completely healthy and uninjured.”
“Now who has a high opinion of themselves?” I muttered.
Alexandria smiled at me showing her dangerous looking fangs before stepping back and leaning against the brick wall looking quite formidable. I considered yelling for help but at this time of night either no one would hear me or no one would care enough to help, not to mention Alexandria would make sure I made no sound before I even opened my mouth to scream. Why wasn’t she attacking me? Like she said, I posed no threat to her; she could do whatever she wanted regardless of what I could do.
“You may be wondering why I’m not taking the stake away from you so I’ll just save you the trouble and tell you. Honestly I’m just waiting until you pass out from blood loss cause then I can do whatever I want,” explained Alexandria smirking even as my vision wavered.