King's Blood: Vampire Lust (A Serial Novel, Part 3) (10 page)

“
I’m so sorry, this is so embarrassing,” Holly said, in between hurls. I flushed for her between each hurl.

“
Sweetie, it’s okay, we’ve all been here. Staring at toilets, vomiting your innards. I’ve been there, not because I was drunk though. I won’t get into it, but I can relate, you know?”

Finally, she must have thought she was done and washed her face and brushed her teeth. She swished with some mouthwash and took a deep breath.

“Better?”

Holly
nodded, wiped her nostrils with a tissue and sat back against the wall adjacent to the toilet. She then covered her face with both hands. “This isn’t me. I hope you don’t think I’m some sort of lush.”

I sat down in front of her and held her hands.

“I don’t think you’re a lush. In fact, you were just trying to have fun tonight and I kept buying you drinks. I should’ve used better judgment.”

Holly looked up and gave me puzzled look. She wiped a few tears from her eyes. “It was my decision, don’t blame yourself.”

“Well, it looks like you got most of it out of your system.”

Holly smiled. Gingerly, she stood up and walked to the bed. I stayed in the bathroom for a couple of minutes and cleaned up the mess she left behind
that didn’t make it down the bowl. I covered my nose in the process, my enhanced olfactory abilities didn’t take too kindly to the stomach acids of mortals. It was a step below the smell of death in my book. As soon as I was done cleaning up I exited the bathroom right away and closed the door, so the lingering smell didn’t penetrate the rest of the room.

Holly lay still in her bed in the fetal position. She was slightly trembling. I laid next to her and covered her with a blanket. I noticed that her breathing was somewhat labored but nothing too extreme.
As soon as I finished tucking her in, I stood up, picked up my belt, and started buttoning my shirt.

“
Are you leaving?” Holly asked, slowly turning her head toward me.

“
I’m not going to leave you in this state. I’ll just sleep on this nice, comfy chair.”

“
Don’ be silly. You’re back is gonna hurt if you do that.”

She coughed a little and gave me a cute smile. She patted the empty side of the bed. “You can sleep here tonight.”

“Are you sure?”

“
Yes, of course.”

With slight hesitation, I laid down next to Holly. I draped my right arm over her warm body, and gave her a small peck on her head.

“Keep me warm.”

Her shivers and slight tremors subsided as I gently massaged her scalp.

Dawn was approaching. I could see an emergent glow through the curtained window. I closed my eyes and held a beautiful woman in my arms, without an urge to bite, without even a hint of lust, just the sudden and unfamiliar feelings of warmth and care, for a person I barely knew. I’ll dabble in these feelings a bit. Yeah, just a dabble.

Chapter Five

I felt a deep resonant pressure on my chest, my head, all down through my waist and my legs, the weight cemented me into the bed. Something held my lips apart, like tiny clamps. One by one, stretching and pulling on my cheeks. A shadowy oval hovered over my head, unknown at first, familiar on direct approach. Milton’s gleaming eyes
were dark as onyx, as deep as the Mariana Trench.

“
Hello, Jack. Sorry about your unsuccessful night.”

I couldn’t speak, since my tongue was wiggling freely in space.

“I want to apologize about the other night. It was, well, very, very messy.”

My panicked eyes, the only communication tools at my disposal, darted left to right, as I scanned for my exact whereabouts.

“Your friend is either an idiot or just too damn loyal for his own good.”

I tried yelling at Milton.
Only sounds of incoherence and primal panic were produced, as I continued to be incapacitated.

“
See, there is a giant miscommunication. I mean, I’m trying my best here. Scaring you like we did last time didn’t help. We attempted to marinate into your hopes, dreams, desires and all that did was send us down the wrong path. We tapped into your subconscious, learned a few things about you, but it has made matters worse,” he said, in his squeaky child-like voice, but with the inflections of an intelligent man three times his age.

There was a faint melody beginning to play in the background.

“Ignore that, please!” Milton yelled, as he rolled his eyes. “As I was saying, there is some potential here for a mutual benefit. We can tell you things that would change your life, and in exchange you can tell us about the...”

The melody grew even louder,
Forget about your house of cards, and I’ll do mine
repeating itself seemingly in a loop, ad nauseum.

“
...dammit, stay with me, Jack. Listen, this can work...”

The infrastructure will collapse, voltage spikes...

Surprisingly, Thom Yorke’s haunting snarls sounded extremely intelligible in my imprisoned state.

“
Your REM cycle is a piece of shit, you know that. You average around a couple minutes of it and then it’s over, you wake up...” Milton stated, in rapid frustration. He continued, this time, his voice trailing off, consumed and overtaken by the the song. “The cormorant...the neck squeezed...stay away...” Milton’s voice first relegated to a dull faint, then to nothing, and suddenly, an overwhelming swoosh.

I woke up drenched. I coughed. My phone played Radiohead’s
“House of Cards” for another five seconds, then it stopped. Sure as hell, I never chose that song as a ringtone. Holly slowly rolled over and with squinty, morning eyes asked, “Everything okay, did you have a nightmare?”

“
I hope so,” I said.

“
God, my head,” Holly complained, grabbing her head and slamming it back down on her pillow.

My phone annoyingly rang again, potentially making me do the unthinkable to one of Radiohead’s most majestic tunes; deleting the fuck out of it from my phone.

I jumped out of bed, the clock said 7:15 a.m., way too early for my blood. It was Alan. Apparently, this was his third attempt at contacting me, judging from the little notifications given to me by the phone.

“
Where are you?” he asked with a fevered pitch.

“
Does it matter?”

“
Yeah well, I’m standing outside your room and you’re not answering your door. I also can’t hear your phone ringing. Did you leave for L.A., too?”

Alan’s tone was one of worry rather than the grumpy one I was accustomed to. I also was
somewhat concerned that he was a few feet from Ted’s location.

“
No, I’m still in Hong Kong.”

“
Oh, I see,” Alan responded.

“
What’s wrong? I don’t like the tone in your voice.”

“
We need to meet with Guangzhou in Guangzhou this morning, Yi has business to attend to in Moscow tomorrow.”

“
You know that’s not possible, right?”

“
We made sure that our transportation has the darkest and most tinted windows, you’ll be fine.”

“
Really?” I asked, deeply unsettled.

Yet another hurdle on this trip. Well, it
was time to suck it up. I needed to be a goddamn warrior. What the hell was I thinking? I didn’t need to be one. I
was
an immortal warrior. No need to live in fear. I’d meet the sun head on. Okay, maybe not head-on but wrapped up like a mummy, with a little help from Holly’s wardrobe.

“
So, can you make it back here in less than 20 minutes—actually, where are you right now?”

I covered the phone mic with my hand. “Sweetie, I’m sorry
, but what’s the name of this hotel?”

Holly had covered her head with a pillow, muffled, she responded, “L’Dino.”

“It’s called L’Dino,” I said to Alan.

“
Do you look decent?” he asked.

“
Yeah, I guess. Girls seemed to like what I was wearing last night,” I said, winking at Holly as she briefly uncovered herself from the brief respite that was the cold underside of her pillow.

“
Also, Jack?”

“
Yes?”

“
I had a talk with Rebecca last night. I want to apologize for my behavior yesterday. Also, I want to apologize on behalf of the company for lying to you guys.”

“
Dude, no problem. Stress messes up with people’s heads sometimes. I was kind of out of line, too. I’m sorry as well,” I said.

I was pleasantly surprised by Alan’s abrupt change in demeanor. He came off extremely prideful yesterday. I guess he wasn’t a bad guy after all.

“We’ll be there to pick you up in 20. It’s a long drive, make sure you have your passport.”

Did I have my passport? I ran over to the chair where my coat was and quickly ran my hands through the pockets. Luckily, it was in one of the pockets inside the coat’s silk lining. “Got it!”

“Great, we’ll see you soon,” Alan said.

“
See you, I’ll be waiting downstairs in the lobby in 15 minutes.”

There was no time to take a shower. I also had no toothbrush, cologne, aftershave, or deodorant at my disposal.

“Holly, is that okay if I borrow your deodorant?”

Holly snorted, “Sure, if someone asks how you remain so fresh, tell them it
’s thanks to
Cherry Mischief.”

I reluctantly applied the deodorant that I snatched from the nightstand. I then noticed a moderately sized black Panama hat laying on top of Holly’s carry-on bag, which was resting against the desk.

“Are you leaving me?” Holly asked, as she raised herself in bed, hugging her pillow.

“
Yup, that was Alan, there’s a change in plans.”

“
I thought you couldn’t go out in the daylight?”

“
I still can’t, without serious protection, which is why I’m going to politely ask you if you can please let me borrow that wonderfully stylish hat you have resting there,” I said, pointing at the hat.

Holly had this little elementary school girl chortle whenever I asked or did anything that was counter to my inherent masculinity. If she wasn’t attractive as she was, I would’ve probably been tired of it by now. I hoped, eventually, that she'd see that I was just a goofball at heart.

I wrapped my scarf around my face, put on my Ray Bans, and her Panama hat. Not flattering but functional.

Holly couldn’t stop laughing. “
Go look at yourself in the mirror; you look like Jamiroquai and Elizabeth Taylor’s love child,” she said, hardly containing herself.

“
Nah, I’m good. I’ll take your word for it,” I said sheepishly.

I then pulled the scarf away from my mouth and leaned into Holly as she lay in bed, grabbing her head and pulling her in for a big wet kiss. She quickly put up her hands and pushed me away just a bit.

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

“
My breath smells like vomit.”

“
So what.”

“
No, Jack, I can’t do that to you.”

She turned her head and pointed to her cheek. “Right here will be just fine
.”

I gently pulled her in by her bare shoulder and gave her a sweet, uncontroversial, but caring peck. Holly then pulled me in closer, and started sucking on my neck sensually, and passionately. She gently pushed me away and stared deeply in my eyes. “I still want you real bad, so don’t forget to call me when you
’re done, got that?” she told me, with a pinch of jest and a dash of seriousness.

I smiled and stood up. “We’ll go out tonight, promise.”

“I’ll be waiting for your phone call,” she said.

I tipped the Panama hat like a dragged-out Humphrey Bogart
and Holly giggled. I exited the room, anticipating stares galore from the hotel guests that were about to wonder about my mysterious and concealed look.

I stared t
hrough the glass doors in the lobby. I hadn’t been outside in the morning sun for more than five minutes since  the Northridge earthquake back in ‘94. At the time, I rented a small apartment that was part of a building that was built in the 20’s in Santa Monica. I remember waking up and seeing a small crack at the bottom of the wall that faced my bed, slowly growing longer and wider, riding up the entire center of the wall, plaster and old stucco falling off as the building shook violently, revealing the old bricks that barely kept the complex together. I remember jumping out of bed, wrapped in only my comforter, and bolting through my door. It wasn’t a particularly sharp morning sun, the type that makes you squint as if you stared directly into an oncoming headlight, but still strong enough that it left my face scalded for a week or so. I clearly recalled peeling large swaths of skin off my face that week. It was so bad that the molt ended up plugging my bathroom sink for an entire month.