Eventually I had to get out of bed. Jamie moaned and pulled me back down;
“Where are you going?”
“I have to get ready to go out.”
“Now? You still have about an hour and a half.”
“A lot of work needs to be done.”
His eyes flicked up and down me, “hmm, I doubt that… you are far too beautiful already.”
I smiled at him before leaning down for one more kiss; he watched me hungrily as I gathered my stuff and went into the bathroom. Once I had shut the door I climbed into the shower, from the next room he shouted;
“Want any company?”
I groaned and reluctantly answered, “If you come in I will never get ready.”
I heard him sigh, “I suppose you’re right… we will have to do that another time.”
My mouth curved up into a grin, “we most definitely will.”
Over an hour later I was still in the bathroom. After showering I had carefully styled my long hair, leaving it down but flicking out the bottoms of the layers so that they spiked outwards and around my face. Next I applied makeup. Normally I didn’t see the point in bothering with any but tonight I needed to look extra dangerous. My perfect pale skin didn’t need any concealer or foundation, so all I added was a thick layer of eyeliner and mascara on my lashes, along with a hint of dark silver eye shadow to bring out my icy eye colour. I topped it off by coating my lips in deep scarlet and painting my long nails the same colour.
Finally I slipped into a black dress that tightly hugged my figure before flaring out below my waist. The back was tightly laced together and the material of the skirt contained dark rose patterns. The look was completed by a little silver studded leather jacket that I slipped over my shoulders and a pair of heavy black boots that reached to the top of my calves.
I hated to dress so impractically. I would have been much more comfortable in my customary dark jeans, shirt and long coat but I knew that would make me stick out as if I had a neon sign above my head. This outfit was much closer to what I used to wear at the time when I frequented the club before.
A knock on the bathroom door pulled me from my thoughts;
“Jade? You gonna stay in there all night?”
“No, I’m done now.”
I suddenly pulled the door open, causing him to stumble back in surprise. I couldn’t stop myself from laughing as I watched his expression; as soon as his eyes landed on me his mouth fell open. He appeared to have completely lost the power of speech as I stepped around him and began rummaging through my stuff until I came out with a small and elegant black and red lace bag. I had picked it because the long strap could easily go across my body, ensuring it wouldn’t be lost if I had to run or fight.
Finally as I was loading important items like money and my phone into the bag he managed to utter a small choking sound. I smirked at him;
“You alright there?”
“You- you look… amazing,”
I shrugged, suddenly a little self-conscious, “thanks,”
He moved closer, “I mean it, you are stunning.” He leaned in to kiss me but I placed a finger on his lips to stop him;
“Careful, you’ll smudge the lipstick.” That made him laugh but he did back away. I gave him a once over; “put on something... dark… and smart.”
It took him less than ten minutes to get ready, after showering he traded his usual t-shirt for a black shirt and a leather jacket. His faded jeans were replaced by a pair of slightly less faded dark jeans. I had to admit that he looked good, very good in fact. I could tell by the glint in his eyes that he knew what I was thinking. With a sigh I pulled away from him, I knew that if I started kissing him now I would never let him leave the room.
“Right,” I said, “we’ve gone over this already, but remember how you need to act. Don’t look anyone in the eye, don’t speak to anyone unless spoken to.” I brushed away a strand of hair that had fallen into his eyes, “you can’t treat me like your equal, and you should act quiet, obedient, and submissive. Like a good pet.” I gave him an apologetic look, and his mouth turned up into a smile, “don’t take to heart anything I say whilst we are in there, I will have to act cold and uncaring. People need to fear me again.”
“ok.”
I hesitated but then decided it had to be said, “while we are in there you will probably see behavior that… you won’t approve of. But you have to ignore it. It will be none of our business and anyone there will be there voluntarily… so you can’t interfere, unless you have a death wish you haven’t told me about.”
He reluctantly nodded, “ok, I’ll try.” I knew that was the most I could ask for.
The streets were fairly empty when we stepped outside, due to the fact that most places were closed for Christmas. I knew the club would still be open however, after a couple of centuries Christmas often starts to lack the importance that it once held. I linked my arm through Jamie’s as we walked, ignoring the catcalls of a group of guys a little way back. Although outwardly I appeared relaxed nerves secretly crawled through my stomach. I was not too worried about myself but I had to wonder if taking Jamie into a building filled with hostile vampires was a good idea. I promised myself that I would always find a way to protect him, no matter the situation.
We arrived to find a line of people outside. Before we were in sight of anyone I removed my arm from his and instead placed a hand on his upper arm as if I was leading him in. I could tell from the scents that the line contained only very young vampires and desperate humans who wanted in. Some were being led by vampires and a few naive ones had gathered in an attempt to get in solo. I knew from experience that the older vampires were classed as VIPs; we were free to go straight in. when we arrived at the front of the line I found the human bouncer in an argument with a couple of human girls. Or rather, he stood there indifferently while they whined at him.
I took in their appearances; while both were fully garbed in gothic attire their outfits were shorter and tighter than mine, their makeup seemed to be attempting vampiresque beauty with the heavy white powder and dark eye makeup. They ignored the arrival of me and Jamie and continued their pleading;
“Please you have to let us in! We’ve heard about this place, it is perfect for people like us!” he raised a skeptical eyebrow,
“And what do you mean by that?”
The more aggressive looking one stepped forward, “vampires.”
I couldn’t stop the laugh before it erupted from my throat, I knew it was cruel but I couldn’t help it, this made her round on me;
“Er excuse me? Was that a laugh I just heard?”
A dangerous smirk slipped onto my face, “Yes, it was.”
“And what gives you the right-“
“Are you trying to pass yourselves off as vampires?”
“No! We are vampires!”
I stepped closer to them, allowing my eyes to change silver as my fangs slipped into view, “are you sure? Because I can hear your heartbeats from here.”
Her look of outrage rapidly changed to horror as she backed away from me, her friend whimpered in the background, “I-I’m so sorry! I-We just really wanted to get into the club and-“ I held my hand up to silence her,
“I don’t want to know. Go home, you really wouldn’t like it in there.”
Without another word I nodded to the bouncer who unhooked a rope and ushered me and Jamie inside.
Heavy rock music hit me as we entered the crowds. It almost deafened me with my sensitive hearing, but that was the objective; it enabled vampires across the club to have conversations without being overheard by everyone else.
Skirting around the packed dance floor I headed towards the bar. Luckily most of the clientele were vampires and I had fed recently so I could resist the temptation of the warm dancing bodies without too much trouble.
The bartender, a cautious looking blonde looked at me expectantly. I ordered myself a red wine and Jamie a cider after reminding myself we had to blend in. her eyes appraised us for a second before asking me;
“You want it red?” I nodded to mine but not Jamie’s. He would definitely not approve of blood in his drink. I heard his quiet intake of breath as she added a dash of the dark red liquid from a bottle behind her.
Settling onto a stool with Jamie standing close at my side I waited patiently until she was free from serving for a few moments. She looked slightly suspicious as I beckoned her over but as a human she would not dare to refuse a request from a vampire. Sliding the picture out of my purse I showed it to her,
“Do you recognize this woman?”
“Her eyes narrowed as she took in the image, “I’m not sure.”
“Have you seen her before?” I pressed,
She hesitated, “Maybe... I think I have seen her around before, but I couldn’t say for certain. I serve a lot of people.”
I knew I wasn’t going to get anything else of use from her, normally I would have thanked her and maybe smiled but I had to remind myself that I was supposed to be bad. Coolly I straightened up and left the bar without a second glance at her, making sure Jamie was following close behind. I had only managed to weave through the crowd for a few meters when I heard the sound of a familiar voice in my ear;
“My my, her royal highness has lowered herself to speaking to a lowly human! Should we all be amazed?”
For half a second I froze in shock and alarm thinking he was referring to Jamie, but then I realized he meant the bartender. Quickly regaining my composure I turned to face him, taking in his dangerous bad boy appearance with those dark eyes and a whole lot of ripped leather;
“Felix… I wish I could say it was a pleasure to see you again, it’s been a while.”
“Yes it has been a while,” his flirtatious smirk changed to something darker, “You left, disappeared without a trace-“
“It’s a specialty of mine,”
“-you didn’t even tell anyone why!”
“I got bored, it happens.”
By his glower I knew he realized that I wasn’t going to give him a proper answer so he switched track, “well why the sudden return?”
“I have business to sort out.”
“ahh business, care to share with me what kind?”
What could it hurt I thought to myself, pulling the picture back out; “Have you seen her?”
He blinked momentarily taken by surprise, “getting straight to the point now then?” he studied the photo, “What did she do?”
I frowned, “what?”
“Well she must have done something pretty bad if you are putting in the effort to find her! So what was it? Did she steal something from you? Kill someone important?”
“That is not relevant. Could you just tell me if you have seen her or not?”
“I might have… if you tell me what you want with her.”
“And why do you want to know that?”
“Curiosity.”
I could tell from his expression that he had seen her; in fact he might even know how to find her. But why was he protecting her? I knew it wasn’t due to any kind of loyalty, Felix didn’t understand the meaning of loyalty. I came to the conclusion that it was purely for his own amusement, he always did like to piss me off. Slowly his eyes widened as the flicked between me and the picture; “I can’t believe I didn’t see it before!”
I glowered, “What?”
“I knew there was something familiar about her! I just couldn’t place it!” he laughed, “You’re related!” he appraised my features, “Sister?” I nodded stiffly seeing no use in denying it. His laughter increased, “haha this is priceless! The great ice queen has a loose end!” he leaned closer to me flirtatiously, “I’ll tell you one thing though, you were much better in bed than her.”
I shuddered in disgust and had to resist the strong urge to break his nose, “You-“
Jamie made a strange chocking noise behind me which he hurriedly tried to disguise as a cough. Felix wasn’t fooled, for the first time he acknowledged his presence;
“Who is your pet?”
“He’s nobody.”
“Oh really? Well then, you won’t mind if I-“he moved closer to Jamie baring his fangs,
Suddenly I was overtaken by a strong possessiveness; the urge to protect what was mine surged through me. Without conscious thought a vicious snarl erupted from my lips as they curled back to show my deadly fangs,
“Mine!” I hissed angrily,
Startled at the ferocity of my reaction he hurriedly stepped back, quickly regaining his self-confident smirk; he raised an eyebrow;
“Well that is interesting.”
I cursed myself for acting so dramatically. Some deeply buried instinct had been triggered to defend the human who I had claimed as mine, but by acting on it I had revealed that Jamie was important to me. Exactly the thing I had been trying to avoid. I watched as he breathed in deeply through his nose; “Ahh, so you’ve been feeding from him… how nice.”
I glared at him dangerously for a moment, letting him know that I wasn’t in the mood to play; “So where is she?”
“Who?”
“My sister!”
“Oh,” he shrugged, “she will probably be here any moment, I arranged to meet her here tonight.”
I stared at him in shock; a strange mix of relief, panic and horror welled up inside me, although I had been searching for her I don’t think I had really prepared for how I should react when I finally found her. What would I say? Would she hate me for not seeking her out until now? But then again I could argue that I wasn’t even aware that she was alive until recently. Anger that I wasn’t prepared to handle added itself to the mix; where the hell had she been? Had she been hiding from me?”
hey! sorry for taking so long to upload! have been super busy lately :) but anyway, I hope you like this chapter and I will do my best to get the next one to you asap! :) x