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Chapter Fifteen
Jake's call didn't come until Friday, and she had to bite her tongue against some seriously sharp words. The past two days she'd been wandering the streets of London aimlessly, waiting for her phone to ring. Of course it did ring, Austin called constantly and so did Jenna. And sure, he was immortal and time probably didn't pass the same for him as it did for her, but he mingled with humans, he had to know she was waiting impatiently for him to call.
"You’re still at the Regency, right?" he asked as soon as she pushed talk.
"Yeah, still here."
"Okay, I'll pick you up out front in an hour."
He hung up without saying anything else and she stared at the phone shaking her head. Finally, she thought on one hand, and Shit, on the other. She called Jenna.
"He's picking me up in an hour."
"I don't know Anna, I have a bad feeling about this. He didn't call you all week, don't you think that's strange? And now he's just going to show up on your last night there…I mean how much can you learn in one night from these people?"
"Admittedly I'm having doubts of my own."
"Then don't meet him. Just stay in your room and get on a plane tomorrow. I promise that I will help you in your quest to learn more about this, I will research with you, okay? Let's do that."
"Tempting." She rolled her shoulders and ran her hand through her silky hair. "No, it's gonna be fine. Why give me such ample opportunity to back out if hurting me was his intention? Everything is always worse in our imagination. It'll be fine."
She repeated that in her head like a mantra, but a feeling of dread had curdled her stomach. She had to wonder if that feeling was the perception the Mistress had been talking about. Perceiving evil. Yet she couldn't back out now. Why hadn't he just called her a couple of times, just to tell her he was busy but thinking about her? At least she would feel comfy as she headed to her doom.
"Anna?"
"Still here. Look, I'm gonna go...
"I thought you were going to meet him someplace public, what happened to that idea?"
"I don't know, he just called me and said he would pick me up in an hour then hung up. I didn't get a chance to make suggestions."
"Not good Anna, I think he did that intentionally. He probably knew you would be willing to go with him since you've been waiting on pins and needles for days. He's very intelligent, he could have predicted your plan was to meet him somewhere safe and thwarted it. I don't like this."
"I'll have my phone on me."
"Yeah, as if that will matter if he holds a gun to your head and takes it away."
"Not helping." If she only knew what he really was....she'd kill me for even considering this.
"Don't go."
"I have to."
"No, you don't."
"Jenna, please. I do. I'll be fine. I love you, call Austin for me, okay, can't deal with round two of this conversation."
"No way, you call him, maybe round two will change your mind."
"I'll call you later," Anna hung up the phone and took a deep breath, then let it out slow. She got ready, than on impulse tucked a credit card along with her passport down between the box spring and the bed frame underneath the headboard.
Her phone rang startling her. She really needed to take a chill pill.
Austin of course. She pushed ignore and texted him. "Can't talk right now, on my way out, I'll call you later, love you."
She took the elevator to the lobby and walked slowly through it, the acidic taste of anxiety filling her mouth. Her hands trembled as she pushed open the glass door and walked onto the sidewalk where she stood shifting her weight from foot to foot nervously. Please let me be okay, let this not be a mistake.
A few minutes later he pulled up to the curb in a sleek blue sports car and rolled down the window. He was smiling broadly and did not appear evil in any way. He just looked like a cute guy in a cool car.
"Hop in," he leaned across the seat and opened the door.
She climbed in and smiled nervously. "Where are we going?"
"To the first day of the rest of your life," he smiled wider and gave her shoulder a reassuring squeeze.
He turned the music up loud as he raced down the streets. She could feel the bass reverberating in her chest, the vibration making it difficult to think. Where ever they were headed, it was taking awhile to get there.
He finally pulled to the side of the road in front of a large building. It didn't look like an operational business, but the amount of cars parked up and down the street suggested otherwise and made her feel more comfortable--safety in numbers and all that jazz.
"Have you ever been to a rave?" he asked as he switched off the ignition.
The sudden silence was deafening and it took her a moment to understand what he’d asked. When it sunk in her eyes widened. "That’s where we are? Why?"
"Well, because this is where a number of my kind come to party. Don't worry, it's not an orgy or anything you may have heard, it's just a place where people are a little more lax about the rules."
She stared at him blankly for a moment as she absorbed this, then felt a sudden rush of anger and narrowed her eyes. "Don’t worry? I don't want to be here Jake, I just wanted you to answer some of the questions I have and I was thinking more along the lines of a pub where we could sit in a corner booth and talk. I'm supposed to leave tomorrow, you never called, and now you're taking me to a party where it will be too loud to hear anything, and the rules are lax. Not what I had in mind. Look, if you don't want to fill me in, that's fine, I'll call a cab and we'll part ways." She reached for the door handle and he put a hand on her knee.
"Anna, look at me."
She stared at his hand and considered ignoring the quietly compelling command. She would open the door, leap from the car and dial a cab service…she heaved in a sigh facing the fact that she would do no such thing. Her curiosity was still greater than her fear.
She turned towards him, meeting his earnest expression.
"I won't let anyone hurt you. There are just some things I need to show you in order for you to understand. Words aren't always enough. You know how you can't quite describe the shadow men?”
She nodded slightly.
“It's like that."
She bit her lip. "Couldn't we at least talk about some things first, and then you could show me?"
He sighed. "Anna, you're going to have to trust me on this. What could I possibly gain from hurting you or allowing you to be hurt?"
"I have no idea."
"If I wanted to hurt you I’ve had plenty of time to do it,” he frowned, narrowing his eyes thoughtfully. “Look, just walk over there with me,” he pointed towards an alley, “and I'll show you something. We'll talk a little, and if you still want to leave then you can go. Okay?"
She nodded reluctantly and her stomach knotted as they got out of the car.
They turned down the alley and she hesitated.
"You watch too many movies,” he laughed. Then he grabbed her hand and Ran? Whizzed? down the path. A millisecond later they were behind the building and his arms went around her waist as he leapt into the air, landing on the black tarred roof. She had no time to process this before he jumped down into a parking lot, landing between two cars.
"Back up and stand over there," he instructed.
She did so a bit jerkily and leaned against another car for balance as she watched him disappear underneath a rusty old blue Buick. A moment later he hoisted it over his head and stood there grinning at her before setting it back down.
Wuhh, she thought, her eyes blinking rapidly.
He approached her still wearing the grin and put his hands on her shoulders his eyes holding hers. "So as you can see, I move faster than your eyes can process, I can leap onto buildings and hoist cars over my head…believe me Anna, if I had wanted to hurt you, there’s nothing you could have done about it. So will you now, please relax, and go inside with me?"
She nodded mutely. What could she say? She was still trying to process what she'd just experienced.
He took her hand and they "whizzed" back to the entrance of the alley. He caught her arms as she nearly tripped.
"That makes me dizzy."
He laughed and tugged her into the building. They walked down a corridor and she could feel the bump of the music on her feet from down below. He led her down a wide stair case into an enormous dark room filled with people.
The strobe lights were overkill, the pulsating effect of them disorienting, and Anna experienced a sudden case of vertigo to add to the warning bells chiming in the back of her mind. He still had a hold of her hand and was pulling her through the distorted dancers, and she blinked her eyes rapidly in an attempt to get her bearings. The flashing lights made the expressions of the people around her appear somehow malevolent and the dark tone of the music added to her unease.
Jake moved behind her and slid his arms around her waist, propelling her forward. His warm breath brushed her ear and she had the fleeting thought that it should have been chilly. Like he said, too many movies, highly inaccurate. He pulled her into him and she felt the steady beat of his heart (another myth busted) and a hardness pressing into the small of her back that made her own heart speed up. She recalled what Lena and the other woman had said about his sexual prowess and shivered.
"Relax little one, you're safe with me," he spoke softly in her ear. He whirled her around to face him and graced her with the most knee weakening smile she had ever witnessed then pulled her into his arms. As they danced she wondered what exactly it was he wanted her to see here. It was too loud to ask him anything, despite the fact that his voice seemed to cut right through the noise as if it wasn't there.
After a few minutes he whispered, "Come on, let's get a drink," and half carried her as he danced them through the crowd to the long steel counter that served as a bar.
"She'll have a Tequila Sunrise."
She immediately shook her head. "I just want a beer," she shouted over the music, "in a bottle!"
He frowned but nodded his assent to the bartender who flashed a set of fangs at her, causing her to stumble backwards.
Jake caught her. "Careful," he whispered, "you'll give yourself away."
The barkeep had eggshell white hair and eyes the color of a robin's egg. If a person was into the metro sexual look he could have been called cute, but to her he was a bit freaky. She watched as he popped the cap off her bottle then held her hand out for it. She wasn't taking any chances of being drugged.
She drank half of it down then covered her mouth as she burped, her stomach feeling a tiny bit better.
"Do a shot with me," Jake suggested.
"No thanks, no liquor for me, the lights are making me dizzy enough. I can pace myself with beer."
"You're kind of a prude aren't you?"
Her brows drew in at the slight and she frowned at her beer. "I'm just not comfortable here."
"I've already told you that you're safe. With me as a bodyguard you can't get any safer." He lifted his brows at her.
She frowned. "I thought you had something to show me."
"I do. Later. Now, I want you to have a few drinks to relax, there's so much anxiety flowing from your pores I can smell it."
She drank the rest of her beer. "I'll take another one of these, don't worry, if I keep drinking this fast I'll have no problem relaxing."
He stared at her for a moment then shrugged. "I saw someone I need to speak to. In the mean time you might consider why you bothered getting involved with me if you were going to continually doubt my motives."
He disappeared into the throng of people and she watched him go with a mixture of confusion and irritation. Trying to goad me into drunkenness? Not that easily pressured bloodsucker, she thought.
She turned away and made accidental eye contact with the bartender who was staring at her intently. A little chill made its way up her spine. The message his strange eyes were conveying made her think "Anna-it's what's for dinner."
She broke eye contact and took a long pull from her beer, wondering if some vampires could disguise their nature's better than others. Or maybe they were like people and some of them were just plain weirdos. God she wondered a lot of things, it was frustrating not to KNOW anything. Why had she come here if not to get answers? And how would she accomplish that sitting alone sipping a beer?
"Hello," someone said to the right of her, breaking into her thoughts. She turned to look and saw the flash in his eyes. Yet another, and this one was startlingly handsome. He had raven black hair that hung loosely around his face, and his eyes were the deep blue of the ocean. His skin had an olive tone, Italian, she thought, or maybe Greek.
He extended his large, long fingered hand and said, "Paulo, and you must be Aphrodite."
His line caught her off guard and she laughed.
"No? Than perhaps Luna, the Goddess of the moon." He took her hand and raised it to his lips.
As corny as the line was, with his accent and delivery it was kind of sexy. She stared at him without replying and he leaned in, his expression conspiratorial.
"A delicate angel such as you would look far better holding a glass with a cherry in it. Let me buy you a drink that will titillate your senses." He caught hold of her beer and slid it out of reach on the bar, getting the attention of the white haired freak.
She tried to protest and reach for her bottle, but he gently and firmly stopped both her hand and her words. "Trust me," he whispered.
He said a few words in a foreign language to white hair and in seconds he was pushing something towards her that smelled like strawberries and cherries. Its fragrance was so strong she thought it might intoxicate her with just its fumes.
"Go ahead," he coaxed, "try it and tell me it isn't divine."
He lightly brushed her arm with his knuckles and the effect of his touch was disconcerting. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes. Get a grip Preston, she scolded, danger here, fangs, might bite you...
He put his hand on her cheek and she jumped a little.
"Easy little Luna, you've nothing to fear from me."
My ass, she thought and found her voice, raising it to be heard, though she had a feeling it wasn’t necessary. "I'm sorry Paulo, I'm sure the drink is delicious, but I have an allergy to liquor."
He drew back, his blue eyes widening in mock surprise. "Surely not! I've never heard of such a thing."
"No, it's true, something about the sulphites…it makes me violently ill. Just beer for me I'm afraid."
His eyes narrowed a bit, his expression conveying disbelief. Then a hand came down on her shoulder and a familiar voice said, "Paulo."
"Jake."
They exchanged a few words in Italian or maybe latin, and Paulo stood up, clasping her hand to his lips once more. "Until another time little Luna."
Jake sat down where Paulo had been and Anna decided he was far less intimidating.
"So you're allergic to liquor now?" he sounded amused and a little pleased. Presumably since Paulo had done no better in convincing her. It seemed no matter the species all males were alike in matters of pride.
She shrugged. "I didn't think he'd take no for an answer."
"You're right about that, he has skills in persuasion that even I have yet to master.” He considered her for a moment, “But he didn't persuade you. I take back what I said earlier, you're not a prude you just possess a strong will." He picked up the drink that was meant for her and downed it in three swallows, licking his lips. "That was delicious, are you sure you don't want one?"
She was glowing a bit from his compliment and felt her resolve weaken. Not that the drink couldn't have been drugged, he could be immune for all she knew. But then she remembered that aside from not wanting to be drugged she also preferred to stay relatively sober until he'd "shown" her some things.
"Look, I'm relaxing now, I promise. I just don't have any tolerance for liquor and I'd rather not start stumbling."
"Fair enough." He slid her beer back down the bar and handed it to her.
She tipped it back nearly emptying it. "I can handle beer," she told him as she set it down.
He was looking at her strangely, a small smile playing on his lips. "Can you?" he asked softly.
She started to nod and nearly doubled over from a crushing wave of dizziness. She put her head in her hands. Never lose sight of your drink, she thought miserably.
Jake took her by the elbow and murmured something in her ear, but her brain was too jumbled to understand.
"Ladies room," she managed to squeak. He helped her up and led her through the club and it felt like she was floating. She glanced around and winced, pressing her face against Jake's side. In that brief surveillance she had seen fangs and lit eyes EVERYWHERE.
He opened a door for her and she stumbled over the threshold, struggling to keep her mind from cracking apart. She grabbed the edge of a sink…at least she thought it was a sink… Oh God, why did it have to be dark in here too? She desperately needed light to get her bearings. Her vision was spinning crazily as she fumbled for the knobs on the faucet. She heard water, but her sense of touch seemed to be on hiatus. Shit, oh shit, WHAT THE HELL did they put in my fucking beer! She felt a wave of anger crash over her and welcomed it greedily. That's it Anna, get pissed, you can fight this!
She needed to get outside, needed air, but how when Jake was standing on the other side of the door waiting for her? Damn it! Wait, did he do this to her, or was it that other guy? Luna, Luna, oh shit, her mind was fraying. Paulo. Paulo had white hair do it maybe. Maybe Jake's still a good guy. Oh please let him be. She felt hysterical laughter bubbling and bit down hard on her lip. If she started with that, she would be lost.
She made her way out of the bathroom straight into Jake's waiting arms. She lifted her unfocused gaze to his and said with all the venom and strength she could muster "Get me out of here, now!"
"Okay, just relax," he soothed, "let's go."
"You put something in my beer," she slurred, "Why’d you do that?"
"No, I wouldn't do that."
"Then freaky bartender did, or th’other one, I don't know," she stumbled and he picked her up.
"I told you I would take care of you, and I will," he breathed in her ear, "you're special Anna, you're different."
She struggled to comprehend his words through the thick fog of her thoughts. Was he calling her special? Was he acting weird or were her crazy thoughts making it appear that way?
She vaguely realized he was weaving her back through the gyrating masses. He's taking me out of here, she thought, Oh thank God.
She saw the stairs they’d come down, but he passed them by.
She pointed as if he missed them on accident, and he stroked her hair, turning them down a hallway. He walked her inside yet another dark room and sat her down on a couch of some sort. She could make out other shapes, but barely.
"Why is everywhere so freaking dark?" she mumbled, "I don't like it, I want to go outside, want to get out of here."
He pulled her up on his lap. "It's all right, you just need to rest a bit, let the drug work its way out of your system."
Her throat was really dry and when she swallowed it felt like sandpaper. "I'm so thirsty," she told him.
"Okay, I'll get you something. Just sit and rest."
He disappeared and she fought to stay conscious. He reappeared a minute later and put a cold glass to her lips.
"What is it?" she managed.
"It's a special kind of wine, it will help you feel better. Trust me."
She was really getting sick of that phrase and shook her head violently. She'd suffer with a dry throat.
He pulled her back into his lap again and she tried to struggle. It was futile.
"You're strong," he told her in a conversational tone that did not fit the atmosphere. "You have no idea how easy this usually is. I've never seen a girl fight this hard to keep her mind intact after ingesting S E C. Usually they’ve passed out or are babbling incoherently by now. Not you though, you’re determined. That's very good, I really believe you'll make it through the transition."
"The...what?"
He put his hand on her jaw and forced her to open her mouth, pouring the cool, thick liquid onto her tongue. She gagged, ejecting it back onto his shirt. It tasted like...flowers smell.
"Don't fight me anymore. You can't win, and if you don't drink this, you'll die."
Die? Don't wanna die! She felt tears forming in the corner of her eyes and her shoulders started to shake.
"No, don't do that, just drink and everything will be fine."
She felt the cup pressing against her lips again and knew, even in her fragmented mind she understood that she had two choices. Drink it and become...become a monster. Or refuse it and die. One way or another, she was going to die.
She parted her lips and he smiled.
"Fuck you," she managed, then pressed her lips tight.
The hand that had been gently massaging her shoulder stilled and he laughed, a dark and chilling sound, right out of a horror flick. "Oh yeah, you'll make it," he gripped her face and tilted it back then forced her mouth open and plugged her nose.
This time her throat convulsed and it went down. There was a sensation at her neck…BITING ME, she thought wildly, then a feeling of euphoria overwhelmed her senses and all thought scattered like debris in the wind.
Logo made by the incredibly awesome @papa-pepper
*Following this is where the prologue originally came from, so if you have not read it yet, now is the time. If you read it at the beginning I would still advise reading it again, as it contains information that will have context now that it did not have at the start.click here