The headlights of Garret's truck glared through the glass door as he pulled up. I went out to meet him. He heaved himself out of the truck and gave me a yellow toothed smiled.
"Nova! Good to see you girl!" Garret was the kind of guy that either loved you or growled at you. Him and Vince were on a strictly growl relationship for reasons that I couldn't fathom. We didn't know how he would react to Dana yet, but there was no reason to risk it when we knew for sure that he was fine with me. Besides, I felt kind of special to have the truck driver's approval, and I didn't want Dana to spoil that for me.
"How has the painting been going?" I asked.
"Remember how I told you that I had trouble with the faces on my last painting? Then I spent hours, on a burst of inspiration, getting them just right. Well, this time I just said 'Screw it!' and I gobbed on black paint, where the faces were supposed to go. Lilly thinks it's the most meaningful thing I've painted and she's got some friend from a gallery coming to look at it this weekend! Can you believe that?! I spend hours painting beautiful faces, and Lilly doesn't look twice. Then I spend a few minutes dishing black paint onto the canvas, and Lilly loves it!" He sighed in exacerbation. "I've been with her for 389 years, and there are still things about her that I don't understand."
"What does she think the faces mean?" I asked, perplexed. I was a lost cause, when it came to understanding art.
"Hell, if I know," he said, making me wonder how many of the famous masterpieces out there were the result of some artist throwing together meaningless garble, only for it to be proclaimed to have meaning by someone else.
Garret handed me the electronic signature pad. "Somehow having them delivered to your door takes all the fun out of it, don't you think?" Garret asked, jumping to a different topic with no warning.
"Um, I guess," I muttered as I scrawled "Nova" across the pad. I had realized, when signing my pseudonym for the first time, that I couldn't remember how to do a capital cursive "N." The result was that my signature now included a capital printed "N" connected with cursive scribbles that somewhat resembled the rest of my name.
"Oh I keep forgetting that you were born during Darwin's War. Since you were turned at a time when the vampires were taking over the world, you never really knew what it was like to live in the shadows." Garret took the pad back and led me to the back of the truck. "I guess you just seem older than that. You seem like someone who would be familiar with the shadows."
"How do you think I lived before I was turned?" I asked.
Garret assessed me for a second. "Yes, the war certainly was the beginning of our backwards world, with humans living in hiding. One day we will set it right, though, and you will get to experience the true glory of living in the shadows." He turned to unlatch the truck.
"Don't fill my head with tantalizing promises," but my skin was crawling with an eerie feeling, even before he turned to show me his dead serious expression.
"I don't make promises lightly, Nova. This is one I intend to keep."
I let a slow smile pull at the corners of my mouth. "Well," I said, "I apologize for doubting you."
I didn't know how to feel about this whole "setting the world right" attitude that most certainly involved murdering masses of vampires. And the end goal was what, exactly? To enable the remaining vampires to secretly murder humans while living among them? Nes was right. Violence plagued the vampire race.
***
I found myself on a date with Dominik, apparently without the intention of breaking up with him. For now.
"My lady," he said, taking my hand and making a show of kissing it when he arrived to pick me up, despite the fact that our only audience member was Dana. I was strangely relieved that he didn't show the same sentiments to Dana, even though my life would have been a lot easier if he had been captivated by her like every other guy that encountered her. She didn't seem to mind, since she only looked up from cleaning to give me an approving smile and mouth the word "wow."
"You look stunning," he said, peeking up at me from under his dark eyelashes. I looked down at my usual corset, leather pants, and combat boots attire. Today my corset was green. Not my favorite.
"Oh cut it out, Dominik," I said, pulling my hand away.
He laughed and raised my chin with his index finger. He leaned forward and gave me a short but surprisingly sweet kiss.
"Um," I said, feeling a little breathless. How could a vampire make me feel that way? But he'd probably had a lot of practice.
"Ready for the movies?" he asked, clearly aware of the effect the kiss had on me.
"Yep," I said. "You okay here?" I asked Dana.
"Um hi? I've been working here for a while. I know how to clean." She was smiling innocently, but we both knew she would probably stop cleaning as soon as nobody was looking.
"I'm heading out Vince!" I shouted in the direction of his office.
"See you on Monday!" he yelled back. Dana was going to handle Saturday by herself again. Part of my job could easily be manned away from the office, so Vince figured he could continue to give me the weekends off. He had given me an electronic datebook that I could keep at home so that I wouldn't have to go into work just to update the reservations.
With all my affairs in order, I bravely stuck my hand into Dominik's, knowing that he would initiate contact if I didn't, and set off for our walk to the theater. The summer air was warm, even this late at night, and humid. A slight breeze lifted my long dark hair and cooled the tacky sides of my neck. I felt oddly at ease, considering that I was walking hand in hand with a vampire. It made me feel a little invincible, actually. Zermia, Tamer of Monsters. I could do anything. The wide eyed stares from the other vampires on the streets fueled my feeling of power. That's right. I'm the girlfriend of the vampire mayor, I wanted to say to them.
Deciding that I was powerful enough to tempt fate, I leaned into Dominik's shoulder and pulled the whole of his arm into my grasp. "What's that?" I asked, looking up at a dome-shaped building made out of glass. Behind the windows was a green world filled with trees, grass, and flowers. A dragonfly flitted passed us, and I felt a moment of embarrassment that Ekai would see us like this. But then my embarrassment melted into anger. What was Ekai doing spying on me?! He knew that I was stuck with a vampire boyfriend. He could at least have the decency to not watch me while I did what I had to.
Dominik hadn't noticed the dragonfly, and his attention was still on the glass dome building. "You don't know?" he asked, surprised, but clearly pleased at my sudden display of affection.
I shook my head, but I was still thinking about the dragonfly. Let him watch! See if I cared. I was Vampire Tamer Zermia, and I could do what I wanted. Besides, everything I did was for Novashi. If Ekai didn't like it, I would find Novashi without his stinking help.
Who was I kidding? I would loathe losing Ekai again.
I realized that Dominik was assessing me with a strange expression, and my attention came back to the conversation. I hoped I hadn't let a stupid question slip. I should have just kept my mouth shut and pretended to know exactly what the giant snow globe was. "Veins live there," he said.
I stared at Dominik in shock. The Veins lived in a greenhouse?! In the middle of the city for all the vampires to see?
Dominik took my silence as in invitation to keep explaining. "A number of restaurants have tunnels leading to here. The one you work at is one of them. The Veins can all interact with each other, but they are grouped in houses by which restaurant they belong to. You can see the house for your restaurant through these trees up here." Dominik stopped and aimed me in the right direction, pointing through the foliage. A cute, cottage looking house sat behind the trees. It was much bigger and nicer than the shitty house I lived in before Vampire Village.
"It's like an exhibit at the zoo," I muttered, thinking of an earlier conversation with Nes.
"Yeah, except the humans hide out in their houses most of the time. I think the public's a little disappointed with it." Dominik said, gesturing to the passing vampires, who didn't even spare an interested glance toward the dome. "But when the humans do come out, everyone will fight each other to press their faces against the glass. Lucky for me, I get to experience humans in the comfort of my own home."
"Yeah, lucky you," I said, imagining vampires ripping each other apart just to see a human. I didn't think Dominik was talking about the literal image in my head when he said "fight," but who knew. These were vampires we were talking about.
"You could too," Dominik said, as we began to walk again.
"I don't want a Vein, Dominik," I said, feeling tired of the issue. Couldn't he just drop it?
***
The movie had my eyes wide in horror for the entire two hours of it. The plot line alone was enough to be disturbing, but the incredibly realistic 3D made me wonder if people were actually being murdered in front of me. The audience whooped and cheered in a frenzied excitement at every scene with blood in it, which was basically the entire movie. Dominik was no exception to this rule. At times, he would become so excited that he would turn to me, grab the edges of my face, and pull me into a kiss. A glance around the audience revealed that other females not only tolerated this behavior from their dates, they often initiated it themselves. A few vampires went so far as to let out a primal growl, jump into their partner's lap, and nip playfully at their throat. To my relief, skin was never broken, and Dominik never tried to pull this particular stunt on me.
Even people that weren't on dates found ways to release their excitement by cheering or snarling with bared fangs. To avoid drawing suspicions to myself, I attempted to show signs of enjoyment at the terrible movie. I triggered my fangs and pumped my fist to encourage the violent characters. Every once in a while, I would work up the energy to throw my hands behind Dominik's head and yank him to my mouth, making sure to moan in obnoxious pleasure before releasing him. I had no idea watching a movie would be so exhausting. Note to self, don't agree to see movies with vampires.
When the end credits finally filled the screen, I felt like I was fending off puking, while the rest of the room seemed to be fending off orgasms. I couldn't wait to go back to my crappy hotel room, so I could forget this horrible night ever happened.
"Want to go back to my place?" Dominik asked, leaning in so that the puffs of air from his words tickled my ear.
"Um, I kind of would rather go home. I'm tired and..."
Dominik was smirking at me like he'd already won the battle, and I let my words fade off, wondering what kind of trouble I was about to get myself into.
"Let's go," he said, grabbing my wrist and yanking me out of my chair. I stumbled behind and took a moment to catch up with him before I could pull out of his grip.
"Listen here, Dominik," I said, trying to grab his attention with my firm tone, but he was too busy trying to navigate us out of the crowd to notice. Everyone seemed as eager to leave as Dominik. They kept trying to force their way between us, despite the fact that I was holding onto his arm to keep up.
I don't know what made me glance over my shoulder, but when I did, I saw Nes standing in the doorway of a nearby theater, beckoning to me. I met her friendly brown eyes with relief just as a particularly aggressive patron bumped into me. I let the impact throw off my grip from Dominik. The crowd swarmed passed me as I came to a stop. Dominik was still turning around to look for me when I slipped into the theater hall with Nes. We grabbed each other's forearms as soon as I pulled out from the crowd.
"He's going to come back for me," I whispered.
"Go hide in the theater," Nes instructed, "I'll catch up."
I nodded and ran into the dark theater, crouching as soon as I reached the other side of the wall.
"Looking for something?" I heard Nes ask. Luckily, the movie was at a quiet part, so I could make out her words.
"What the hell, Vanessa, what did you do with her?!" Dominik growled.
"Who do you mean?" Nes asked.
"I swear, Nes..." He sounded pretty angry.
"Don't do anything you'll regret, Dominik," Nes chided.
If Dominik responded, I didn't hear it because the previously serene buildings in the movie spontaneously exploded, making me flinch from the way-too-realistic shrapnel. I looked past the shrapnel and noticed an emergency exit tucked in the corner of the theater. I made a dash for it, feeling as if I was just barely dodging incineration from the explosion. The audience groaned at the impending sunrise when I opened the door, but I was gone before they could voice their complaints.
I automatically ran in the direction of the pub that I lived above. I considered hiding out in Ekai's lair, but I didn't want to risk leading Dominik or Nes there, if either of them came after me. Even though my hotel seemed like the obvious place to look for me, I didn't think that the vampires would bother this close to sunrise.
So I burst into the pub, puffing for air, which was a very human thing to do, but the few remaining drunk patrons didn't seem to notice. In the corner of the pub, I spotted Stephanie and Lissa. I saw them before they saw me, so I quickly straightened and composed myself. They rose, probably getting ready to leave, and saw me, just as I regained my vampire appearance.
"How was your date?" Stephanie asked as we approached each other.
I shrugged. "I'm not a fan of movies," I said.
Stephanie made a disgusted look. "You went to the movies?" She said the word in the same manner that someone might hold a sweaty sock. "Those things are so gross these days."
"You won't feel that way if you go any longer without drinking blood," Lissa commented.
Stephanie rolled her eyes and tried to share a look with me. I half-heartedly returned it. Her intentions were pure, but didn't she realize that her periods of fasting were bound to result in killing binges? She wouldn't always have us to stop her from doing something stupid. Or maybe she would. Lissa seemed pretty relentless about the issue.
"Did you find a friend of the missing human?" I asked Lissa, conveniently changing the subject.
"Yeah, actually. We questioned her parents and found out that she was particularly close with this girl named Novashi." Lissa seemed tired. I didn't think I would be able to keep her here long.
"So did you talk to this Novashi girl?" I said, probably trying a little too hard to disassociate myself from her.
"Yeah. She's pretty confident that Zermia's dead."
"What?" I sputtered. How could she think I was dead?! Maybe she was just covering for me. That had to be it.
Lissa blinked, looking very ready for sleep. "Zermia's the missing human girl..."
"No, no, I gathered that. I meant, why does her friend think she's dead?" I tried to tone down the interest in my voice.
Lissa glanced at the door behind me. "According to Novashi, Zermia was late for school, which is an offense punishable by Vein-hood in this particular compound, and the girl heard Zermia knocking on the school doors to be let in. Novashi went to let her in, but when she got to the doors, Zermia was gone. Novashi stepped outside and called for Zermia. She certainly regretted that decision." Lissa worked up enough energy to emit a small chuckle. "The vampire guards I had stationed there grabbed her. Brought her to the city to be a Vein. She says that she had assumed Zermia had been captured and sold off as a Vein as well. The thing is that I would know if that's what had happened. I think the guards killed her for sport. In their version of the story, there was only one human girl. They've been assisting me on a wild goose chase this whole time. I'm going to ask them to resign on Monday."
So then she didn't think I was dead? I didn't ask, though, because I really just wanted to know where she was. "So her friend's a Vein, now?" I prompted.
Lissa eyed me. "Yeah. So what?"
"Did you have to get her owner's permission to talk to her?"
Lissa clearly did not see the point to my questions, which was good, I suppose. "Yeah, but that's really more of a formality. He was pretty much legally obligated to talk to me. He didn't give me any trouble, anyway."
"That's good. So who was he?" I asked.
"Who? The owner?" Lissa asked, beginning to look suspicious.
"Yeah." I was so close to finding her. Please just tell me!
"Why do you want to know?"
"I'm just making conversation," I said, wishing I could give her a reason so she would be more inclined to tell me.
"Well, if it's not important, I'm going to bed. Talk to you later." She gave a tired wave. Stephanie threw me a departing smile and followed Lissa out. I watched in depression as the chance to find Novashi faded with them.
I knew I'd find some other way to get to Novashi, but I couldn't keep my hope from diminishing. I'd been so close!
When Lissa and Stephanie were out of sight, I retreated upstairs and into my room. As I pulled back the bed covers for an early retirement, my foot bumped into something under the bed. I bent over and scooped up a chocolate bar. Oh yeah. I had forgotten about that.
I stared at the wrinkled wrapper, which had resulted from its encounter with my combat boot, and wondered at Nes's motivation for giving it to me. I thought about everything she had told me. She had warned me about the vampires and robot dogs. I had taken her warnings as a symptom of her insanity, but she turned out to be saner than us ignorant humans. Later, she had told me how humans were an object of fascination for vampires. Then I saw the human zoo exhibit, rendering me unable to argue with her. She also tried to scare me with stories about the vicious nature of vampires. About how they would eventually cull their own population to return to the shadows. And then Garret presented himself as having those exact intentions. Apparently Nes had helped me by sending in vampire blood to the registration office, as if it had come from me. She had shown me the escape hole from the human compound, which I had initially ignored, but later found to be quite useful. And tonight, she miraculously rescued me from Dominik when he had been so determined to take me back to his house. Nes had been there from the beginning of my world turning to chaos, and even though my instinct was to mistrust her, the information and the help always turned out to be reliable. She knew I was human, but hadn't attempted to share this fact with anyone.
"What game are you playing at?" I asked the chocolate bar, imagining the perfect taste resting beneath the damaged wrapper.
It had no answers for me.
She said she wanted to be my friend. I was almost positive that she intended it to be a mutual friendship, meaning she wanted something from me in return. But I really needed a friend, right now. A friend that could help me find Novashi.
Damn chocolate bar! I thought, unable to take its mocking stare anymore. I ripped off the wrapper, savagely broke off a chunk, and thrust it into my mouth.
"Oh, wow," I moaned, realizing I hadn't eaten very much that day. I rode a wave of pure ecstasy, thinking that the chocolate must be saving my life. I had been starving to death and hadn't even noticed. But this chocolate bar...I owed Nes my life. I bit off a large bite, thinking that I would gladly give it to her. She didn't even need to ask. I would go find her as soon as I was done eating. I would beg for her help and give her my life.
I took another bite.
And another.
I just felt so damn good! The corners of the room shimmered around my pleasure lit eyes. Eyes that were dark brown. Just like the chocolate.
I was lying on my bed, but I didn't remember moving. Oh, yes, the room had moved. That was what the shimmering had been. The bed had come to me. How nice of the room to be so accommodating.
I raised the bar to take another bite, but found an empty wrapper residing in my hand. I shook the wrapper, thinking that maybe the chocolate was just stuck up inside. Or otherwise it was hiding from me. Nothing. I threw the wrapper aside, disappointed. I thought for sure that I hadn't finished it yet. I tried to remember eating the last bite, but my thoughts were too flighty to form a solid memory of eating the chocolate. What if there never was any chocolate?! But my panic quickly faded. Of course I had eaten chocolate. That's why I felt so good. It had saved my life, you know. Where was Nes? I wanted to thank her.
The room was shimmering again, and I laughed with glee when I realized Nes had materialized. What an accommodating room!
Another shimmer. Nes was holding the wrapper. "Wow, you ate the whole thing." She sang the words, I think, because she sounded like an angel.
I laughed. "Yes, it saved my life!"
Nes was looking at me over the wrapper as she disappeared into a shimmer that settled as a beautiful and overwhelming light.