Natalie couldn't believe how busy it was for a Friday afternoon, her first Friday since her boss, Kaitlin, had agreed to hire her on a temporary basis at the odd little book store in the center of town. The entire place was buzzing. It was a gorgeous day with beautiful sunshine radiating through the mid July afternoon. Still, people had been coming in and out of the shop since early that morning. She couldn't even blame curiosity for the surge of shoppers, as the quaint mystical shop had been there for a little more than a year.
It was a pretty shop, though not dark and gloomy as most of her friends expected. Instead, it was light, airy and a fun place to be. Her boss was smart and sweet; a genuinely nice woman who cared what everyone thought and always paid attention to her customers. There was a book for the customers to fill out at the front desk for any queries or complaints, questions or notes of what they would like her to bring into the shop. The back room—mostly used for psychic readings and the occasional monthly séance—was always filled with one customer or another, but that was what Natalie liked. Her boss always found the time for her customers, day or night. Even if she was just about to close up the shop and someone arrived, Kaitlin would take them into the back room for coffee and a chat. She was a friend as well as a boss and that was nice.
Natalie knew she wasn't the best employee in the world, having already caused quite a few incidences, even though she had only been working there for five days. On her first day, Kaitlin had laughed when Natalie went down to the basement and dropped a glass jar of sage, having been frightened by a plastic skeleton that was kept there as part of the Halloween decorations. Of course, she knew that if she'd turned on the overhead light first, then it wouldn't have happened. She felt bad for it, but it had been easily and quickly forgiven by Kaitlin. Then two days later she mis-sold a forty dollar spell book for less than half the price because the tag had fallen off. She thought that she had remembered pricing it that morning. Thankfully, Kaitlin understood how sorry she was. She still didn't understand how she hadn't been fired yet. Even Maria was really nice about it, trusting her to take the lead of the shop while she was on her day off.
Kaitlin took a client into the back room for a tarot card reading—which was one of her boss' special gifts—while Natalie manned the front. Natalie was glad because she had a lot to do. But it didn't take her long before she was wandering through the shop with some newly delivered books, placing them in their rightful places with the other books, whistling and singing to herself along with the music that played quietly in the shop.
The cheerful chime of the doorbell rang through the shop as another customer entered, but his appearance immediately made Natalie suspicious. She didn't know why she was so cautious of the new customer, but she was and kept her eye on him as she rearranged the candles on the other side of the room, watching the man as he walked through the shop with interest. She couldn't see his face. A grey sweatshirt and its hood hid any distinguishing features, except that the rolled up sleeves revealed a tattoo on the back of his hand. It was barely recognizable, just two curved lines meeting together at both points, forming a nondescript oval. Natalie wanted to get a better look at his face, so she moved to one of the bookcases and played around with the books that lay there.
His energy felt vaguely familiar. But as she watched him move about the shop, he seemed completely disinterested in the objects that lay before him. He lifted one of the candles from her display as he glanced at the base to check the price tag then placed it back down on the table. It seemed to be more of a scrutinizing interest, as he repeated the same process of glancing at the price tags of certain items, showing a complete lack of interest and moving on. But it wasn't until he moved over to the fabric barrier between the shop floor and the back room that his interest sparked.
He seemed more interested in Kaitlin than anything else as he parted the fabric with his hand and peeked into the back room. Natalie decided that being curious wasn't enough. He was a very suspicious character as it was and no one was allowed into the backroom without being invited by Kaitlin first. Partially secluded from the sight of the customers, it was Kaitlin's policy to make sure that no one was tempted to peek in. Also, a lot of very interesting books were placed on the shelves beside the throughway as a deterrent. Walking over to the mysterious figure, Natalie tapped him gently on the shoulder, about to inform him of the policy, when all of a sudden he spun around, grabbed her arm and held a knife to her throat.
*****
Maria was exhausted by the time she made it home from dropping her new find, Rob, off at the morgue. It had been a backbreaking day and all she wanted was a nice, quiet, relaxing eight hours of sleep before she had to get up and do it all again. She went straight home and slept right through Friday, her day off. She woke briefly around six o'clock to get something to eat and then retreated back to bed again. Unfortunately for her, about an hour after she fell asleep safely tucked up in bed, her new friend Rob made his way in through the kitchen window of her bungalow, as quiet and deadly as a great wild cat prowling closer to its prey with every second.
Rob wasn't one of those TV vampires that could magically move from one place to another in the speed of light, travelling great distances with practically a single thought. Rob and his people were more like the old black and white movie vampires, creeping in the shadows like Nosferatu. So it still took him just under a few minutes to go from her kitchen to her bedroom. He had deliberately waited until she had fallen asleep. Rob concentrated hard enough on her breathing from her back garden to tell when it was shallow.
Outside her bedroom door, he knocked over an ornament to make sure that it wouldn't wake her. Then he advanced toward her bed with stealth and precision. It wasn't until Rob perched himself on the edge of her bed, brushed the hair away from her neck and sank his teeth into her flesh that Maria woke with a strangled cry. It lasted barely a minute before the loss of blood drained all of the energy from her and she found herself unable to think or move. She was even surprised at how much of a struggle it was to breathe.
Rob turned her into a vampire that night, much to her reluctance. But she was simply too drained to fight back and couldn't deny the hunger that the lack of blood created within her. So when Rob tried to feed her, she was unable to refuse, desperate for some kind of sustenance. And the forceful way that he told her to either feed from him or die was enough of an incentive to make her do as she was told. She hated to let it happen, but she had no other choice. Rob was right. If she didn't do it, she would die and she wasn't going to give him the satisfaction.
Maria was still weak as he took her out to her own car and drove with her into the night until they reached a large mansion, shrouded in darkness that only seemed to grow. He lifted her out of the car and carried her through the front door. She slowly drifted in and out of consciousness as he passed his clan, carrying her up the winding staircase to the expansive row of bedrooms on the second floor. He laid her on a bed before leaving and shutting the door behind him, knowing she wasn't strong enough to run off.
What Rob didn't expect was the frosty reception he got when he went down to the storage room—which would have been the kitchen if they were human—in search of blood for both himself and his new girl, Maria. As he passed, a few people stared at him with disapproving looks that he knew only too well. When a young kid walked in whistling to himself, barely older than fifteen, he couldn't help but finally admit to his night's prize.
"We thought you were a gonner when Eric and James came back to say you'd been unresponsive so they'd left you. What happened? And why do you look so happy?" the kid, Karl, asked, intrigued to see how happy Rob was. After all, he should have been raging mad at Eric and James for abandoning him to save their own skins. Rob explained that he was saved by a girl and he turned her. But when he revealed that her name was Maria, the kid wasn't as open to letting him celebrate. Karl had a terrible feeling about this and ran off to find someone who knew better to get their advice.
Rob was confused, but still happy. The elders had been furious with Eric and James for abandoning him to the mob. The elders said that if anyone found Rob or if he came in, he was to be sent straight to them when he arrived, but what Karl had to tell them wasn't what they wanted to hear.
Rob had just made it back up to the room he had left Maria in and was walking across to the bed when the door suddenly blew open and an elder walked in. With just one look, it was clear to the elder that it was indeed the same Maria that Karl had feared it was. The elder was glad that someone, even so young, had the initiative to know better and report this disaster.
"Take this woman to the master ... now," he ordered angrily.
"Now, wait a minute," Rob protested. "I turned her for myself, not for anyone else to take her away."
But the elder, Louis, didn't care what Rob thought. He knew the rules of the clan. It was forbidden for this woman to be touched or turned since she was a child. It was even forbidden to make contact with her unless she approached them first or it was an absolute necessity for the safety of the clan. "That woman is the reason we have an understanding with the authorities. That woman is Maria Macintyre, our only human advocate," he exploded in anger.
The raised voices woke Maria from her unconscious state. She sat up in the bed, confused, holding her head. "What's going on? Where am I?" Maria asked, disoriented.
No one in the room knew quite how to answer.
"Don't worry my dear. We'll find a way to make it right again," Louis replied, trying to soothe her worries, but his words only made her panic.
Suddenly, she realized just where she was and what was going on. She raised her hand instantly to her neck as flashes of the night before ran through her head. She remembered saving Rob, who was standing just a few feet from her now. She remembered leaving him with Yuri at the morgue and going home, then her eyes flew open wide with shock, remembering that she woke up as he bit into her neck.
"After all I've done for you ..." she sighed, confused and moved to tears. She couldn't understand why they would mistreat her so, when all she ever did was to support and defend them her entire life. And now they repaid her by making her one of them? At the moment, she wanted to get as far away from them as possible to figure out what she was going to do with herself. She slipped off the bed and backed over to the window that was already open. "I can't believe you'd do this to me!" Maria cried as tears rushed down her cheeks.
"But, Maria ..." Rob said, making a move to grab her before she reached the window.
"Don't you dare touch me!" Maria screamed, rushing to the window. Not even taking a moment to think it through, she looked at the ground below her then at the two men behind her ... and jumped. It frustrated her even more when she landed on her feet, but she didn't have time to be angry at herself or anyone else. She just wanted to get as far from the place as possible. As soon as her feet touched the ground, she ran into the dark.
Maria was so unmindful of where she was going or what she was doing—other than running for her life—that she wasn't paying any attention to what little energy she had. She hadn't fed since Rob had forced blood down her throat in her own house. After only a few minutes of running, her legs grew weak along with every muscle in her body. She was physically exhausted and drained, so much so that as she turned a corner onto a street, she looked over her shoulder to make sure she wasn't being followed and ran into someone, practically bouncing off him as they made contact.
"Hey, princess. Be careful." The guy smiled at her, catching hold of her shoulders.
She looked up at him, terrified, baring her fangs in natural instinct. He clearly recognized the well publicized face and panicked at the very thought of her being one of his kind.
"Maria?" he asked, then she collapsed into his arms, exhausted. He thought about his bearings and realized that the nearest vampire clan was just around the corner. Knowing that they might be responsible for turning their only protector in the human world, he decided to take her back to his own clan for protection.
*****
Damian was worried about Chase's unwillingness to feed when he got her back to his clan's estate, but he had managed to force enough blood into her to make sure she was able to walk by herself, even if she had to lean on him a little. He took her into the mansion and up to one of the rooms on the first floor of the old 1920s hotel, surprised at how quiet she was as they walked through the halls.
She recognized bits of her surroundings as flashes of memories and events rushed through her mind. She held onto Damian's hand as he passed all the other clan members with complete authority that radiated power and determination. Suddenly, scenes of dancing and music swirled through her head, along with memories of council meetings and running through the hallway as a little girl. She didn't know what was happening to her as he led her into a bedroom. A hand moved to the small of her back, ushering her into the room. Neither spoke the entire way inside the mansion, but Chase didn't really feel like keeping quiet any longer as she saw the double bed before her. There were only two other pieces of furniture in the room: a large dressing table to the far right behind the door and a wardrobe to the left.
"What did you do to me?" she asked, confused and angry with him.
He let out a sigh, not really feeling like explaining anything to her. His job was simple, bag and tag: find the girl, turn her and bring her home. Everything else was out of his control and, frankly, he wasn't sure if he really wanted to know anything more.
"This will be your room from now on. There are clothes in the wardrobe that are your size and my room's down the hall if you need me." Then Damian briefly explained her situation to her before she was called upon by the elders.
Chase realized that he wasn't going to tell her more. She sat on the edge of the bed quietly, unsure of herself and of what to do, as he left her to deal with it alone.
And since she knew she wasn't going anywhere anytime soon, she decided to get familiar with her room in case she ended up being there for a long time alone. Rummaging through the wardrobe, she was relieved to find that the dresses were to her taste and in her size. When she investigated the dressing table, it was the same thing. All of the items were to her liking. Finding a scrunchie, she tied her hair back and noticed that apart from a few items of jewelry, there was nothing else on the dressing table except a framed mirror. It looked so familiar that she couldn't help but reach out and run her fingers across it. The moment she did so, disturbing the dust that had settled there, an image shot into her mind so suddenly that she couldn't put it together into a meaning. She reached out to steady herself, feeling as if she was going to fall over with the force of the image and knocked it over. The glass smashed onto the floor. A feeling of such intense dread and regret ran through her that she fell to her knees in tears. Tears ran down her cheeks as she frantically tried to gather all the pieces of glass together and carefully placed them on the bed cover, then searched all the drawers and cupboards again trying to find something to put them back together with.
Damian had been hovering outside the door talking with Kurt when he heard the glass smash onto the floor. He rushed inside and found Chase throwing clothes out of the wardrobe behind her. Bloody marks dotted her new clothes. "Chase ... what's going on?" he asked with a sigh. He'd only left her alone for a few moments and he knew that he wouldn't be able to leave her alone again if she was going to go crazy from it. He tried to catch her hands, but the minute he attempted to, she started screaming at him.
"No! You have to help me. Please ..." she pleaded with him desperately as tears streamed down her face. But as much as he wanted to help her, he didn't know how, since he didn't know what was so wrong in the first place. He restrained her as best he could until she pulled away from him, sending him off his feet and crashing on top of her as they landed on the bed. His only thought was to stop the blood from pouring from her hands. He used the weight of his body to pin her down on the bed, then reached out to her hands, as she struggled against him.
The racket she was making attracted Kurt's attention. When he walked in to find Damian on top of her, he closed the door behind him with a sigh and said, "You'd better get off her before someone catches you."
"Don't be an idiot. You heard the smash. Her hands are bleeding and she won't stop screaming," Damian growled in frustration. "Are you going to help me or just stand by and watch?"
Kurt sighed as he stepped into the room. He grudgingly ripped the end of his t-shirt into two pieces and wrapped it around her hands to stop the blood flow. Neither of them expected the sudden booming voice that followed his action, resonating behind them. They both knew they were in trouble.
Chase was supposed to be left for five minutes, then ordered to dress if she hadn't already done so. Then they were to take her down to meet the elders, but none of that had happened because she was a bundle of trouble.
"Let her go!" the voice demanded, making Damian jump to his feet and stand to attention at the side of the bed, waiting for another command. He didn't even bother trying to explain and elder Matisse never asked him to. He just watched quietly. Chase was on her hands and knees, trying frantically to piece the frame and the mirror glass back together, still sobbing.
"Sire ... her hands," Damian reminded Matisse, referring to Chase. Although he never stepped out of the shadows, Matisse nodded in agreement, silently telling Damian to take care of it. He crossed the room to Chase, then eased her onto her feet before sitting her on the bed. Matisse spoke quietly to Kurt, who left the room and returned about five minutes later with a first aid kit. It was more of a cosmetic prop for them than anything else, but in Chase's case, it came in handy.
Matisse exited silently, leaving Kurt to explain to Damian what he had whispered to him before he was sent for the first aid kit. At the same time, they worked together to calm down Chase and clean up the wounds on her hands.
"You know about the mirror, don't you?" Kurt asked Damian, surprised by the smile on his face as he tied a bandage around Chase's hand.
Damian laughed, knowing Matisse had obviously told Kurt about it, but he considered the pros and cons of explaining the truth before talking. "Yes, I know about the mirror. In fact, I was in it for almost a century," Damian explained, confusing Kurt.
"What are you talking about?" Kurt asked. Chase sat between them, looking straight ahead at nothing, traumatized by whatever made her break the mirror and then frantically try to fix it.
"Centuries ago, I was the bodyguard of Amelia, the girl we're looking for. She was the natural born daughter of the elder Lucius and his first queen. The queen died and all he had left was Amelia, his only child. I was to guard her night and day and I did my job for about four centuries until she started running away from me." Damian went on to explain how she came up with ploys to escape and even ran away when she was out with her father one day. Her natural instinct was to run away, Damian explained, which led to her being held prisoner in the mansion with him standing guard. He was in her room with her day and night and was never allowed to leave unless she left, which was forbidden.
"So the two of you lived in her room together ... for how long?" Kurt asked, knowing that no elders ever talked of their lives. In fact, he never knew that Lucius ever had a child other than Matthew, who was turning out to be just as troublesome as his daughter seemed to be.
"We lived that way for nearly a century before Amelia found a way to run away without having to go anywhere," Damian explained.
"And how's that?" Kurt wondered, listening intently to the story as Damian worked on autopilot, rechecking the tightness of the bandages he had just wrapped around Chase's hand, then laid her back onto the bed, tucking the covers around her properly.
Chase was still sobbing away, but both men ignored her, deciding to let her sleep it off. Damian explained how Amelia had contacted a Haitian witchdoctor who had powerful magical abilities. He was able to put a spell on her to transfer her spirit into another human body, giving her the gift of regeneration so that she would never truly die.
"If her human body was injured, it healed. If it was killed, then her spirit would move into another body ... forever, until she felt safe enough to return to who she really was," Damian explained. "Amelia was found to be missing the next morning. All that was left in the room was a note that said what she had done to herself and how she had punished me for following her father's instructions. Her letter expressed regret for it, saying she wished she could turn back time and undo it all.
"She had the Haitian trap me within the frame, like an ever moving picture. I was unable to hear the outside world and no one could hear me. We could see each other, though. For a whole century, we could see each world moving, but no one knew how to get me back," Damian sighed, pacing the floor as he talked, extremely uncomfortable with having to run through it all again.
Kurt knew that Damian had already said enough, and he couldn't expect him to explain more. It was too disturbing for him to relive. So he quickly changed the subject, suggesting that they leave Chase to rest and get back to work. It seemed to cheer him up a little and within a few minutes they were both busy getting back to the jobs that they had each been assigned.