A couple of hours later I had an almost perfect image of my sister in front of me. Although, as a vampire I had made her skin paler and her features sharper than the image in my memory. Her white blonde hair curled around her face, framing her blue eyes. I quickly sprayed the image with the hairspray to stop it smudging before I stood up, Jamie came over to stand behind me;
“Whoa, Jade that’s amazing!”
I shrugged, “it will do… but thanks,” I had been thinking carefully, “we will have to be cautious of who we show it to… if- if word gets back to her that we are looking for her… she might flee.”
“Yes that’s probably a good idea; we don’t want her to run before we find her… if we find her.” He frowned, “but why would she run from you? You are her sister after all,”
I sighed, “I don’t know… but if she has been walking around all these years… well, I haven’t seen her yet.” There must be some reason why she would avoid me, if she had been around this long… and as time went on I was getting the sinking feeling in my stomach that told me she was…
When we entered the bar a few minutes later a couple of the locals glanced in our direction before going back to their drinks. I knew the place would soon grow crowded as people came in for dinnertime, so I took the opportunity to saunter up to the bar near to where the bartender was standing. Experience told me that he was the most likely person to have seen her, having to spend most of his day interacting with the public. He greeted me warmly as I approached;
“Ah hello my dear, what can I get for you?”
I ordered drinks to keep him happy and made small talk for a while until he set them down in front of me. When he asked me if there was anything else I shook my head and paid him, before pulling the picture from my pocket.
His eyes widened as I laid it on the wooden surface in front of him,
“I hope you don’t mind me asking, but I was wondering if you have ever seen this girl before?” I put on my sweetest voice, hoping he would simply tell me anything he knew. Frowning he retrieved a pair a glasses from a pocket and examined it closer. Looking back and forth between me and the picture a crease formed between his eyebrows,
“Is this girl related to you?”
I hesitated before I nodded. I didn’t see any harm in letting him know the truth; it might make him more willing to help me find her. “Yes… she is my sister.”
He nodded his head, “yes, you have a very strong resemblance… apart from your hair of course.”
I was growing impatient but I didn’t let it show, “so have you seen her around here before? “
His eyes narrowed in thought, “yes… I think I have.”
If I had a heartbeat it would’ve stopped at that moment. I leaned forward, struggling to keep the desperation out of my voice; “really? Was it recently?”
One of the locals had wondered over to stand at my shoulder; “yeah I saw her a couple o’days ago.”
The bartender shook his head, “it must have been at least three days ago she came in… maybe four. Had a few drinks with a young man and left again.”
That seemed strange, “Has she ever been in before? Apart from that?”
“Yes she has been coming down the last few years now, for Christmas you know?”
Odd, unless she shared the same guilt that I did in abandoning everything and leaving. Maybe she came every year to pay her respects… although I hadn’t caught the scent of any vampire in the graveyard.
I sighed, “I don’t suppose either have you have seen her in the last couple of days? Since we arrived?”
They both shook their heads and replied with negatives. A bad feeling trickled into me, what if she saw us that first night and instantly left town? How would we ever find her then?
Thanking the men I led Jamie away from the bar. I could see that they were not going to provide any more useful information and I was anxious to do something to find her. Or at least feel like I was doing something.
Being December it was already dark when we got outside, although it didn’t bother me with my excellent night vision I could tell Jamie felt slightly lost. I slipped my arm through his as we walked along. He looked at me curiously;
“So what’s the plan now then?”
“I am going to search the village, see if I can pick up any useful scents.”
“Oh… at times like this I feel slightly useless.”
I grinned and snuggled closer to him, “you could never be useless.”
We made our way to the place where I had lost the trail before and I bent down to examine the ground. Faint traces of the scent were still there, but I could tell that there hadn’t been another vampire there since. Breathing in I re-memorized the scent so that I could identify it in an instant, Jamie looked at me skeptically.
“Can you really smell it that clearly? How can you tell it was a vampire? Doesn’t everyone smell basically the same?”
I grinned as I started walking again, “So many questions…I could identify everyone who has walked here in the past week easily, and it’s easy to tell it was a vampire… everyone has their own unique scent but vampires…” I frowned trying to think of a way to explain it, “they all have a certain… feel to them, a sense of power that the humans lack. That’s what makes them easy to identify.”
He was silent for a moment while he digested that, then he frowned, “If your sense of smell is that strong then I must smell really bad.”
I laughed and moved closer, “actually… you smell really, really good.”
“But we’ve been walking around all day.”
“It doesn’t matter, your… natural scent is… nice… it’s very clean and sharp but… warm at the same time.”
“Oh…. Well I’ll take your word for it.”
I grinned, abruptly worried that I had freaked him out, “too weird?”
He shook his head and smiled down at me, “no, I just wasn’t sure how I should react to being told how nice I smell… but I guess I could say that you smell extremely good to me too.”
Laughing I replied, “well, that’s good I guess… although I should probably point out that I am supposed to smell good to you, it’s all part of the predator thing… you know, to draw you in.”
His arm slipped around my waist, “oh yeah?” when I didn’t reply he sighed, “Jade… I think we should talk.”
Freezing in shock and turning to look at him fully, I cautiously asked; “what about?”
“Well… I…” ok so he wanted to break up with me, I mean really what could I expect? I had so many issues and- “about what we discussed the other morning before we left,” oh. The memories of him looking down at me as we lay in his bed came back to me, if I could have blushed I would have. Suddenly I narrowed my eyes, although the effect was probably lost on him in the darkness.
“I thought that I made it clear that it would be dangerous if we… were to be together in that way.”
He ran a hand through his hair, pushing it back from his face, “I know you did… but I’ve been thinking.”
“About what exactly?”
I could tell he detected the threatening note in my voice but he continued anyway, “I don’t care if it’s dangerous,”
“Well I do. I couldn’t… I couldn’t live with myself if I was to hurt you,”
His eyes softened but his expression turned teasing as he tried to lighten the mood, “Well at least it’s not because you aren’t attracted to me or anything.” I laughed so he continued, gesturing at himself dramatically; “what? Who could resist this?” I shoved him playfully, but it was slightly harder than I realized because he stumbled slightly as we walked.
“Whoops sorry!” I couldn’t resist smirking as he pretended to glare at me angrily.
“You should be!”
“Well… I’ll just have to make it up to you then.”
“Oh really? And how are you going to do that?”
“Hmm I’m sure I can think of a way…”
His lips were surprisingly warm in the cold air as they met mine softly, sending heat rushing through my body. I leaned into him deepening the kiss when suddenly I froze and pulled away; a light breeze ruffled my hair.
He looked at me in confusion before he registered the expression on my face.
“What is it?”
I breathed in deeply, “I was sure I just caught the scent of…” I frowned trying to catch it again… vampire! I was already moving when I shouted back at Jamie, “it’s her!”
We both pounded down the road; Jamie at his full speed, me at a fraction of mine. He realized I was waiting for him and waved me on,
“Go I’ll catch up!”
Free to run at my own pace I followed the scent to the churchyard in moments. It led me right to the back corner of the graveyard; mine and Jamie’s scents were still strong in the air from where we visited last.
When I reached the graves I stopped and stared; beautiful bouquets rested at the base of my parents stones, my eyes picked out the deep red of roses and the rich purple of hyacinths although god only knows where she had found them at this time of year.
Desperately I looked around but whoever had laid them was long gone, following the scent I ended up leaving the opposite side of the graveyard and going back down to the road where the scent abruptly stopped; she must have gotten into a car. There was no way for me to track her now. Dejectedly I walked back to the gravestones and fell to my knees. A distant part of me noted that the stone with my name had not been touched, although the scent led up to it as if she had stopped and stared at it for a while.
There was very little doubt in my mind now that my sister was alive in some form. What other vampire would be laying flowers on our parent’s graves on Christmas Eve?
Jamie found me in the same position a few minutes later, gasping quietly as he took in the scene. Silently he placed a comforting hand on my shoulder and waited for me to explain. I looked up at him desperately;
“we have to find her.”
hello! I hope you like the chapter, but please let me know if you spot any mistakes because as usual I haven't had time to read it through and edit! once again thank you so much if you have followed the story so far and I would love to hear from you to see what you think! :)
I willl be uploading asap as I hate to keep people waiting!
<3
lauren