After Dark (The Vampire Next Door Book 2) (10 page)

“Wait a minute, Alex!” Jim pretended to be interested. “My newspaper loves to get photos of aliens! Let me call over one of the staff photographers! Is your flying saucer parked outside, Mr. Zontar?”

Lina could not stand it any longer. “Jim? Alex? Please, they’re both quite harmless.”

“No, sir,” Zontar continued, “I travel by psychically transcending the space-time continuum.”

“Out!” Alex barked. And he flung the magazine across the room at them both. “Both you two weirdoes get out! And don’t come back until you can pay the damned rent!”

After she returned home from work she gathered her clothes and put them into a basket and went to the laundromat. She took the bus. She was still afraid to drive her new car, the one she purchased recently and had delivered to the parking lot outside her apartment building. It was entirely paid for. On some mornings, she would get the courage to get in it, start it, put it in gear. But then she would quickly panic and get out and walk to where she would get the bus.

She had never been taught to drive. She had never been allowed to go anywhere on her own, until she finally went to college. It was a miracle she passed the test to get her license six months ago.

The basket of clothes was heavy in the late afternoon heat. She was not used to carrying things and her thin arms began to hurt.

She tried to open the door with one hand without dropping the blue plastic laundry basket and spilling the clothes out onto the pavement. The basket fell anyway, but did not spill its contents. She pulled the heavy door open and finally kicked the basket in. The same girl was at the counter, still scantily dressed, and on the phone, but the vagrant was gone. Like Rick, maybe he, too, only came out at night.

She didn’t bother to sort the clothes the way she once saw the maid do it, or the way she once saw in a television commercial. Instead she dumped them all in, like Rick did. It took her a few moments but she did figure out the machine’s controls.

She sat down in the same cheap and uncomfortable plastic chair that Rick sat in that night. Then she remembered the stupid thing she said.

Oh God. How could I be such an idiot? I must be really, really stupid. Daddy was right.
She looked through the pile of magazines to help distract herself, make her forget. There was a Jehovah’s Witness publication, and another beside it. Under that was a comic book, a cheap romance novel, a tabloid newspaper with the headlines
I Had an Alien’s Baby!

A single page advertisement fell out of the pile as she searched through it—it was a large sheet of colorful glossy paper with a photograph of a well-muscled blond man.
Zontar! Traveler from the Past, Sees the Future! Channeling. Past Life Regression Therapy. Clairvoyance. Sexual Healing!

She smiled, almost wanting to laugh. It couldn’t be real. Could it? It could be. There were other strange things in the world which were real and not imagined. Laura read it briefly. Zontar would lecture tomorrow at a local auditorium. She watched her clothes spin in the machine and put the advertisement in her purse.

Fred felt relieved to finally be out of the tight blue pants that made up his costume. He slipped into his jeans and T-shirt and tossed the foolish looking fake gold amulet into his suitcase.

The cheap motel room was okay. It had a color TV and a view of the pool, where he could look at the girls in their bathing suits. He was glad he at least had something to look at, because he could not go out of the room during the day time, or go out without his costume. Someone might see him in a bar or on the street, see him off stage and out of character and recognize him and see that he was just really another person. Sometimes he hated life on the road, but it brought in good money.

Russell, his manager, knocked on the door and Fred let him in. “Hey Russ. How’s it goin’ man?”

“Damn good. Brought in lots a cash from last night’s show. I knew these dumpy little tourist trap beach towns would be good for us. Plenty of stupid vacationers just dying to spend money on stupid fortune tellers and psychics.”

Fred laughed, “Yeah, after like two years of doin’ this crap, I still can’t believe what suckers they all are out there.”

“Yup, everybody wants to speak to dear Aunt Edna.”

“Since we did good, why not get us a couple of six packs?”

“Sure. Why not?’

“Yeah. And bring me a couple of broads too.”

“A couple of broads? You’re gettin’ expensive these days.”

“I’ll share one with you.”

“Fred. Look. The hookers cost money in this town.”

“How would you know? You spendin’ our money behind my back on girls when you won’t let me have one? Now go on! Get us some beers. I work hard for you, man.”

“Yeah, sure,” Russell agreed. “You did a good job last night. Okay. Sure. Say, what’s with the airhead you got in the suburbs out there? The strange one you picked up at the psychic fair?”

“Oh. Her. She calls herself Sky Something. Actually believes in this stuff, too. I think. Now hurry up with the beers!”

“Sure, a few cold ones coming right up for Zontar!”

“Hey, I told you not to call me that when I’m not working. “

Pavel awakened peacefully as the soft quiet dusk came into the cool dark autumn sky. He looked up to see the red stained altar above him; he had fallen asleep at its heavy stone base. As he longed for fresh blood his hand reached to feel the dried stains of blood that had forever flowed over its surface, that had run uselessly onto the temple floor. Most of it had fed his ancestors, to keep them near, keep them from moving on to where the hunting was better. And finally, after centuries of offerings, they did remain and make this land their home. The blood only flowed at certain times of the year, before a harvest, before a war. They were needed once, he knew, to protect the people from invaders from the east, to defend the land. Now they were few, and the land was constantly fought over and the people were trampled under the hooves of charging war horses.

Yelena rested beside him. He sat up to look at her in the darkness. He delicately ran his fingers down the soft line of her white throat, and felt the gentle constant pulse of the vein he hungered to pierce.

She stirred, and reached to take his hand.

“You’re not mine, not yet.” He stroked her dark golden hair. “No. You don’t belong to me yet,” and he grasped her shoulders and swiftly pulled her up, pulled her close and held her tightly. His cool lips caressed her throat and she quivered in fearful anticipation. “No. I swore to your father.” He held her tightly and felt her heart race. She shivered in his grip. “You are so beautiful, I hunger for you. I hunger for you.” He tasted the sweet moist flesh of her throat. She closed her eyes and felt the sharpness of his teeth. “No. I swore to your father.” He loosened his grip. “He would give me anything, but I swore to him. But once we are wed you will be all mine.” She turned away from him. “You mustn’t be afraid, Yelena.”

“I’m not. Not of you.”

“Then of what?”

“This. You are not like other men.”

“Be happy that I am not, for they all would have ten women each if they could, so I am told.” He reached again to touch her silken hair, brushing it away from her neck. “I would never hurt you. I would kill a stag in the forest, drink my fill until I need but little, and then return home to join you and keep you warm, and you shall finally enjoy my gentle kisses.” He drew her close again and spoke softly. “How I hunger for you. You do wish to marry me, don’t you?”

“I wish for my father to release you from your promise, only so that you can keep me warm now.”

“The little ones are awake,” he cautioned.

“They are afraid of you,” she whispered.

“So is your father,” he lowered his voice. “So I believe.”

“No. He loves you like a brother, only perhaps he fears the darkness within you.”

“There is darkness in the hearts of all men, Yelena. It is not good when people always step back when you come near.” He kissed her cheek. “It is not good to see strong men fearful if they believe they have offended you, and to be always hunted, pursued like an animal.” He heard footsteps and grew silent.

“Excuse me, Pavel.” It was Yuri. “Her Highness wishes to return to her father’s castle, as soon as possible. I insisted she not attempt to awaken you.”

“Yes, of course,” he whispered. “We should get ready to leave this place.” He caressed Yelena’s golden hair and looked away from her; her head now rested softly on his chest. “I will escort her back. Your family can remain at my home. You can stay as long as you like.”

Yuri considered it silently. “Thank you, I will tell my wife.” He slowly returned to the smaller chamber behind the altar.

“Take me with you!” she demanded.

“What?”

“All alone on a journey with a beautiful woman? I won’t have it.”

“You think I would want that sow? Come to your senses, girl.”

“Let me come, then,” she whispered. “In case you cannot catch anything in the forest.”

“Yelena, I can always catch something in the forest. I am the greatest and most cunning hunter there ever was. Are you saying I cannot hunt?”

“I am saying my father will never know.”

“I must keep my word.”

“Why? It won’t matter. He will not know.”

“Because it is dishonorable. And so rather than be dishonored I shall live in constant torment. Now come.” He stood up and pulled her up with him. “First I shall bring you and your family to my home where they will be safe, and then I must bring a miserable wretch who calls herself a princess home.”

“...so then he took them to the little house in the woods and gave Yuri money for food and whatever else they needed, then he spent the next day in bed after he told the wretched princess they would be traveling at night. And she did not like that at all.”

“You’re not making any of this up, are you?”

“No. Just one of those tales handed down generation after generation, one of those stories I grew up with.”

“I almost can’t imagine you as a kid.” She sipped the herbal tea he had brewed for her earlier; it was nearly cooled now. “I mean, where did you come from? How did all this happen to you?”

For a minute Rick almost did not understand. “Happen to me? Oh, I see. No. I don’t really come from anywhere special. I was born right in this town. Nothing really happened to me. Just kinda grew up this way, that’s all. My mother is a vampire, and my father was not, and I just take after her side of the family, that’s all, so do my sister and brother, although they are actually hers from a previous marriage, and they were born in the old country. There are more of us, you know, not just me.”

“What happened to your father?” Laura asked suddenly, thinking that something dreadful must have happened to him.

“He got old, that’s it. Passed away in a nursing home, a good while ago. Hell, it was kinda funny, though, when he was still around, back then, everyone thought he had a young wife.” He smirked at the irony. “But no, she was so much older than him. Doesn’t matter now.”

“Was it so terrible, Rick?” She frowned with deep concern on her face.

“Oh no, he went peacefully, the nurse said, in his sleep.”

“No! I mean, your mother? Was it really awful for you to have that kind of a mother?”

“Laura! She is a wonderful woman. What is it with you people, anyway? You expect my painting should all be dark and moody, you bust into my place so I can make it easy for you to kill yourself. What do I look like, Jack the Ripper?”

“I’m sorry. I just assume, always, that everyone else’s family is miserable like mine,” and she did not know what else to say. “I guess I’m just a useless idiot.”

“No. Cut that out.”

“What else can I—”

“You don’t know any better, that’s all. Besides, I guess most people believe a lot of gruesome things about us, anyway. I mean, no one ever wrote down any stories about Pavel. Only we know about him. Everyone just hears all about Dracula, and he wasn’t even one of us, so why even bother with him? So, he’s got a castle named after him, that’s all.”

“I didn’t even know he was real. And you’re saying he was just human?”

“He was definitely not our kind. He executed lots of enemies, fought in a lot of wars. Definitely quite human.”

“Oh, now Rick. That’s a mean thing to say.”

“Really? Don’t you read the papers lately? Serial killer out there, running around loose eating people and running amok. Some nut out there is having a party in the dark alley doing in homeless bums, and the only reason the cops care is because next it might be a tourist.”

“Rick.”

“And guess who the cops want to dump the blame on?”

“You?”

“No. All of us. My kind. But I am walking you home tonight.” He got up and went into the kitchen. She heard him open the microwave. “Want another cup of tea? Sorry, I’ve got nothing else you’d like.” He bought it just because of her. “I only have that. And this.”

But she would not stay off the subject. “There was another murder?”

“Yeah. Hey, you better not walk around the streets alone, okay? I mean,” and he thought about how they met, “just don’t. Because I know you’ve felt depressed. So just don’t, okay?”