After Dark (The Vampire Next Door Book 2) (25 page)

He watched.

The Higher Realm Being chanted softly with his eyes tightly closed, he held up a large piece of sharply pointed quartz crystal with both of his deeply tanned hands. It flashed in the afternoon sun. The audience looked on with mystified awe.

Keisha felt relieved that they did not complain about Tirrell making noise, or just being in the house. He usually occupied himself with the dog, or watched television while eating chips. And that was where he was when she returned.

He was sitting two feet away from the glare of the television screen, with the white poodle beside him, the sound of crunching snack food mixed with the sound of flying bullets, sirens, and explosions.

“Tirrell, shut that crap off!”

“Huh?”

“Did you do your homework?”

He didn’t answer. She sighed, put her heavy purse down on the table. “What am I going to do with you?” she wanted to scream, but held it in. She had returned from the home once again. This evening she found a dead cat on her driveway with a noose around its neck.

“Tirrell, we are going to find a new place. An apartment, back in the old neighborhood, where Grandma lives.”

“But Mom, we can’t have a dog.”

“I know you want to have a house so you can have a dog of your own, but we just can’t go back there no more. We can’t. Now you do your homework. And shut off that TV. It’s not your TV.” She reached for the remote. The screen went dark.

“I hate you!”

“Yeah? I don’t care.” She went to the kitchen table to fetch his book bag. “They don’t want us in their nice pretty white neighborhood. Now you do your homework. And don’t talk back.”

Rick noticed that Leon was quiet that evening. Alexandra sat at the bar, drink in hand, and she watched him, studying his every move. She didn’t speak. Perhaps she didn’t need to.

And Leon seemed to be watching her as well, while he worked.

Rick wondered about it, but he also would not speak of it. It would be better to let it just be.

Lina was beside him earlier but she had left to run her store so Keisha could go home, where she was making her home now. He was alone. Soon he would go too, and open up the gallery.

At night people walked the main street, visited restaurants, looked in shops. He usually sold at least two of his own paintings a week, plus work by many other local artists. In the summer he might once again teach art classes, only to keep away the boredom.

The constant soft rhythm of conversation that surrounded him stopped suddenly. The silence caused him to look up. Everyone else was staring. There she was, slowly and carefully descending the stairs, moving weakly, as if she would faint.

“Laura?” he whispered.

At first, she didn’t seem to notice him. She appeared disoriented, fragile. She was shaking.

“Laura?”

He rose quickly to go to her.

“Laura, look. I’m sorry, but,”
you just cannot be here
, he wanted to say, but he couldn’t get the words out. He felt himself wanting her to be there, beside him.

“Someone was following me,” she sobbed breathlessly. “I don’t know who. I didn’t even know if you would be down here. I just wanted to hide, to get away.”

The room was dimly lit, almost dark, yet it was warm. She felt safe. The chair she sat in was old, very broken in, her entire frame sunk into it. Rick dragged a small, sturdy wooden chair over to her side, sat down next to her. “You gonna be okay?”

“I don’t know. Rick? Where is this place?”

“Directly upstairs from where you came in, the top floor of our building. You’re safe here.”

Leon entered the room from the darkened hallway. “Couldn’t find nothin’ out there.”

“I am not imagining it,” she insisted. “He was following me.”

“We believe you,” Rick answered quietly. “Just tell us what happened.”

“I was walking over to the gallery, to see you. It was a nice night, so I didn’t drive. I should have. I walked by the alleyway, looked down in, just for curiosity, just to look in at the doorway. I know it’s silly of me, but it somehow seemed peaceful down there. I felt foolish, so I turned to go back to the street, but there was a man, standing there, blocking my way. There was a streetlight by the entrance to the alley, but it was behind him, so all I saw was this huge black silhouette, a shadow, hovering over me. I went cold inside. I felt so...” She buried her face in her hands. “I was terrified, and I had nowhere else to go.”

“Was he real tall?” Leon asked suddenly.

“Yes, he was extremely tall. When I think of it, I can imagine he was built like a gorilla. I know that sounds ridiculous, but he was huge. Something seemed so brutal about him, bestial.”

“Did he speak to you?” Rick asked.

“No.”

Rick looked at Leon. “Sounds like our boy.”

“What do you mean?” She struggled to compose herself.

“That guy could be the one, the serial killer.”

They did not wish for her to leave. She gradually drifted out of her dark void of fear, and she rose to return to her own home. But an elegant, dark haired woman stopped her. “No, you cannot go home all alone where there is such danger.”

“But, I’ve no other place to stay.”

“Yes you do, my dear,” she insisted. “Leon,” she called out to him as he came around from a darkened corner, “Have someone bring her some food.” Leon left to go down to the kitchen. “Now, you will come with me.”

“I can’t. I don’t know anyone here, except Rick.”

“Never mind that, come along,” and the woman’s thin pale hand reached to take hers. Laura was pulled along and Rick followed silently. “I don’t really think I should.”

“Come, little one, there is no place safer than here, especially after dark.”

She was led into a small but ornate dining room and brought a roast chicken, white wine, and several pastries. She reluctantly began to force herself to eat and then finally realized that she was actually hungry. Rick sat at the opposite end of the table. “You’re as safe as you can ever be here.”

“I know, but I don’t know anyone else here. I don’t know any of them. I mean this whole entire complex seems to be filled with—”

“Yes, I know,” he sighed.

“Rick, why won’t she send me home?” She was growing apprehensive. Why did they want to keep her?

“Laura,” Rick had to say it, “Look, some of us suspect the serial killer may be a cop.”

“You mean you really think—?”

“Yeah, and the cops know about you now. They might want to hurt you, because of me, because of us.”

She stopped eating, stared at him vacantly. “They want to kill me?”

“I hope not.”

“I was just starting to want to live.” She picked slowly at dessert. “Want any of this?”

“No.”

She laughed weakly. “No, I don’t suppose you do. So, that’s it then, the police want to kill me. The only safety I have is this dark place.”

“The darkness is a good place to be right now, Laura. Because you can hide in it.”

Later she was given a room with only a bed, a night stand, no windows, one small table lamp. “Please, you’re all being so kind, but, I didn’t expect—”

“Never mind, darling,” the darkly elegant woman said. “Tomorrow, if you wish to go, Leon will take you. You will come to no harm during the brightness of day, when he will be seen.” And she was left totally alone.

“Good grief,” she whispered to herself, “and I don’t even know any of these people,” except for perhaps Rick. “Oh hell, what have I gotten myself into now?” She sighed, and prepared to attempt sleep.

She turned off the pitifully small, ineffective lamp, fell into bed, and drew the covers close, up close to her throat. She did not like being alone in a strange place.

“Would it be improper for me to keep you company?”

“Rick! Is it you?” She sat up. It was totally dark, and she could see nothing. “Please, don’t go, I’m terrified.”

“Of what? The serial killer? He can’t come here. This place is like a fortress,” she heard him say as he let himself sink to the floor. He sat by her bed, reached up to hold her hand softly, pull it to his lips, and kiss it.

“No,” she whispered. “This whole place. Oh I don’t know. Everything.”

“It’s only for your own protection. No one wants another murder on the streets, with the body dumped outside our establishment.”

“Rick, I just realized that I didn’t hear the door open when you came in. I mean...I think I locked it.”

“Hmm?” He kissed the tips of her fingers.

“You’re not going to tell me I’m imagining that I did not hear the door. How did you get in? Did you float in like vapor, the way some legends say?”

“No, the place is filled with secret passageways. We had them put in when the building was renovated, in case we needed them. One of them runs by this room, behind the closet here. The closet isn’t really a closet. It’s an escape route.”

“And who is that lady?”

“My mother.”

“But she’s so young!”

“She arrived in the States in 1919.”

“Oh hell.”

“You’ve learned to swear. That’s good. You’ll sound like everyone else soon.”

“Rick, I’m frightened.”

“You can go home with Leon in the morning, stay here during the night, if you like, or with me, if you prefer. Don’t be alone, ever. All these murders are happening after dark, when most of the world is asleep and unaware.”

“I don’t know if I can sleep tonight. Rick, show me the secret passageways. I don’t want to stay here all night in this dark place.”

He held her hand again. “There’s nothing down there for you to see except more darkness, all the way through them. We didn’t bother to install lights.”

“But you found your way, didn’t you?”

“The darkness is our home, Laura.”

After riding through much of the night they stopped at the inn where Pavel had stayed earlier with the wretched princess. The innkeeper’s wife recognized him and welcomed them all. She brought them food but Pavel and the two maidens from the forest declined, for earlier they had found a stray goat.

“And where is that Dmitri,” Mikhail asked while he ate his beef stew and bread. His sister ate in silence.

“He insists again on sleeping with the horses,” Pavel shrugged, as if he did not understand.

“A servant must always remain in lesser quarters than his master,” Mikhail explained. “It is his station.”

“Where he remains by choice,” Pavel rose away from the table. “Coming with me, beautiful ones?”

But only Natasha followed him. “Svetlana will stay here, but I shall come with you.”

The night was not yet over, still there was an entire village to explore, a forest to hunt.

When the soft gray light of dawn rose into the star filled sky they returned and Pavel headed towards the inn. Natasha wandered over to the stables. He watched her go, but said nothing.

He returned before the light reached the sky. He ascended the stairs, entered his room and collapsed onto the bed. But he did not sleep immediately. A shadow passed over him; it was Svetlana, drifting through his room. “He will not have me near him with his sister in the same house,” she hissed.

“The girl is delicate,” he answered quietly. He knew the anger in her voice was also because she had not fed since the goat they had found earlier.

“Delicate, hah! She rules over him like a queen. He will pay me no attention with her close by.”

“Soon, we will all leave this place, find a new home.”

He slept heavily and dusk arrived swiftly. The window was open and he could hear the people in the marketplace down below packing up what they did not sell. He heard the clap of horses’ hooves as people led their animals.

“Awaken!” Svetlana whispered. “Awaken quickly, for there is trouble.”

Slowly he opened his eyes and looked up at her.

“Hunters have found what is left of the stag you and Natasha killed last night. The villagers know we are here.”

He heard Mikhail call out from the hallway. “Svetlana, where are you?”

“She is here, with me,” Pavel rose wearily. “More trouble,” he sighed. “Come on, we must pay, and leave.” He stepped over towards the window to look down. “The Dark Goddess save us! Look, Svetlana, it’s worse than you say it is!”

Mikhail came to his side to peer down and Svetlana followed to have a look: A small crowd had gathered outside the inn, they were preparing to force their way past the innkeeper and his wife.

“You’re late,” Jimmy moaned.

“Hey, I had stuff to take care of,” he said.

“Stuff? Like what?”

“Look, we have lives too, kid.”

“Whatcha got?”

“Fried chicken in a bucket. No pizza. Take it or leave it.” He handed it through the window of the abandoned broken down truck. “So, you kids live in this truck, or what?” And he climbed up onto the rusted hood and sat.