The Dark Proposal (The Claire McCormick Trilogy) (8 page)

“You don’t need to seduce me in an elevator to get me to sleep with you,” Daniel dug into his pocket for his apartment keys.

Claire crossed her arms over her chest. What had happened? He did a one-eighty so quickly she did not see it coming.

As they entered his apartment, Daniel was silent. Claire watched him as he tossed his black leather jacket on the couch and ran his hands through his shoulder-length hair, his back to her. He was contemplating something. What was on his mind? Why did he always pick the wrong moments to do his deep thinking?

Daniel looked over his shoulder at her as though he had read her mind. There was no tenderness in his eyes anymore. In fact, they almost seemed like they were laughing at her, in a sinister way.

She was stunned. He never looked at her that before, ever. It was as though a new person was occupying his body.

Taking a deep breath, Claire said, “Okay, Dan, what is going on?”

“No, no,” he cut her off. He put his hands in his pockets. Looking down, he went on. “There’s got to be a better way.”

“For what? Tell me! This is getting absurd!”

Raising his head slowly and looking at her, Claire felt a tremor go up her spine. His eyes were cunning, so unlike him.

“It’s not what I’m about to say, Claire. It’s what I’m about to do.”

Everything paused for a second, like the moment was holding its breath for the worst to happen.

Then suddenly, the dining room light turned on with Daniel standing by the switch several feet away from where he had been standing just seconds ago.

Before Claire could blink or even gasp, a sudden blur raced across the room and he was in front of the media wall unit, staring at her with gleaming eyes.

She dropped her handbag absentmindedly to the floor as her jaw dropped. “What…What is -?”

Before she could continue, he was behind her, seated on the black leather couch across from where he was a millisecond ago.

Stumbling back against the dining table, Claire finally let out a yelp. “What? Dan, what are you…”

Slowly, he stood up and began to walkover to her.

“No, don’t…don’t come near me,” she hurried away from the table. “What…the hell is going on?”

He didn’t answer, he just kept walking calmly over to her, his satisfied eyes fixed on her.

Claire was gasping frantically as she backed up against the wall opposite the dining table. Hitting the wall, her heart was pounding like it was at the restaurant, but this time with panic. She wanted to look for a way out, but the approaching Daniel held her gaze.

He stopped a foot away from her. A moment passed with Claire’s quick gasps filling the room.

“Did-did you…put something i-in my drink?” she managed to say.

He snickered without opening his mouth.

He paused and opened his mouth wide, baring especially the top teeth. He flexed his upper lip, and suddenly his two triangular eye teeth shot out into two long fangs.

Her heart froze and her gasps stopped before she managed to let out a weak yelp. “No, no. What is…this? Is this a kind of joke?”

“You know what this is,” Daniel said in a quiet voice, in a tone that matched his sinister gleaming eyes.

“I-I don’t,” she whispered.

Taking her hand, he guided her trembling fingers to his teeth. He let go right before they reached his mouth. On her own, Claire slowly reached out and ran her middle finger down one tooth before poking at the other. The teeth were solidly in his mouth.

Pressing against the second tooth, her middle finger went against it’s pointed ends and pricked her finger. Withdrawing quickly, she saw she had drew some blood.

Daniel noticed too. He looked at the bloody finger tip as intensely as he did at Claire with wide eyes. Then his turquoise eyes seemed to change color. The hue suddenly became fluorescent and seemed to dance away as the blood ran down her finger.

He reached for her finger and slowly brought it up to his mouth, where the two eye teeth still stuck out.

She was completely frozen in fright and confusion. She wanted to blink repeatedly but couldn’t. She wanted to breathe but couldn’t. All she could do was watch as the man she thought she knew took her finger to his lips, his eyes fixed on her.

He wrapped his lips around the bleeding finger and roughly sucked on it, spilling her blood into him.

“No,” Claire whispered. Then she got louder. “No, stop! Don’t do this! What are you doing? Dan, stop!”

Just as suddenly as the whole scenario began, Daniel dropped her finger, ran his tongue across his blood-stained teeth, flexed his upper lip again and the two elongated eye teeth pulled back to their former size.

“No,” he echoed. “Not tonight. Not like this.” He looked at her as though she was a piece of meat, something he was thinking about feasting on, just not right away. “Besides, I already fed.”

Claire was clutching her finger to her chest, pressed tightly against the wall, her mouth still hanging open. She didn’t know what to say or do.

As he casually began to walk away, she managed to sputter out, “This is fake. This can’t be real. What is going on?”

He spun around to her. “Fake? Not real? You think I was just putting on a show for fun?”
 
He approached her again.

“Don’t come near me!” Claire gasped. She was slowly finding her breath again.

“I won’t do anything to you. But I don’t understand how you could think this is all fake,” he was inches away from her, placing his right arm next to her, against the wall, like he was preventing her from running away. He examined her. “You look frightened enough, so how could what I’ve done not be real?”

“It’s just…just…” she couldn’t bring herself to say the word.

“What?” he pressed her.

“You’re a vampire,” she finally whispered. How weird it was to say the word. She felt both silly and shaken at the same time. Silly because vampires didn’t exist. Shaken because somehow, they did.

“Exactly,” a slow smile spread across Daniel’s face and he removed his hand from the wall. Backing away, he continued, “Crazy as it sounds, it is true. Especially when you think about it.” He turned and went to the MP3 player and put it on. Soft alternative music began to play as he languidly sat on the couch, put one ankle on the opposite knee, put his hands behind his head and tilted it against the wall, closing his eyes.

Watching him wide-eyed, Claire slowly detached herself from the wall. Still clutching her finger, she crept over to where he sat, stopped once she stood over him and continued to look at him.

He was always pale, very pale. There were times when he appeared to have a healthier skin tone, but the next time she saw him he would be albino-white again.

She only saw him at night, or in the late afternoon. He always insisted on not spending time with her in the mornings. He always had the windows heavily covered with Swedish curtains of his apartment in order to block any sunlight. But yet, he moved around in the late afternoon before daylight savings time. How could that explain anything?

“The sun is weaker as sunset nears.” Claire shook, startled. He must have read her mind.

Opening his eyes, he said, “I’m old enough to walk in the daylight, especially when it is cloudy or rainy out. But I can’t spend too much time in the light or it would hurt me. That’s why I go to Australia in the summer.”

“You’ve always looked so much younger than you claim,” Claire said, partially to him, half to herself. “You say you are 30 years old even though you could pass for a 25 year old.”

He nodded, staring straight ahead.

She lifted her eyes to the painting above him, one of the works that were clearly old. “That is hundreds of years old, not a few decades. You probably did it yourself.”

Daniel snickered.

Claire’s already widened eyes then grew bigger. “Them! All your friends! Are they…?”

“Say it, Claire. Better get used to it.”

“All of you are vampires,” she caught her breath. More was dawning on her. Daniel’s friends all spoke with peculiar accents, similar to his, accents that could not be placed. Whenever she questioned that, they would shrug off her confusion. And like Daniel, she only saw them at night, never during the daytime. They were all wealthy, despite questionable backgrounds, and all looked young for their ages.

Claire shook her head wildly. “No! This is impossible,” her voice grew stronger. “How can such a thing exist? You’re acting. You like to think you are a vampire, but you’re not. You’re one of those freaks who goes around believing that he is -”

Within seconds, Claire found herself on the floor, Daniel kneeling over her with his hand on her throat. He was panting angrily. “What more do I have to do to make you believe me? I am not a fake. How dare you doubt me?”

She coughed and struggled to breathe. She couldn’t yet put the man she loved together with the same man choking her. Everything was coming at her too fast. All she knew was that the world was spinning around her and confusion was overwhelming her.

He held her down for a few more coughs before releasing her. As she gasped for air, he sat back against the base of the couch, watching her. “I don’t mean to hurt you, Claire. But you are leaving me with no choice. You’re going to have to believe what you are seeing.”

“But,” she gasped. “But how is this possible? I’ve never heard of any vampire being found. I never saw you freak out when you saw a crucifix.”

“That’s because crucifixes don’t bother us. That’s all myth. As for being caught, we’re just very good at keeping ourselves in deepest secrecy. That is why no one has ever found us. Besides, you said it yourself, no one believes we exist.”

“This is insane. I can’t believe what’s happening here,” she said while still laying on the floor.

“Yes, none of this is easy to hear,” he said. “But you’ll have to get used to it. There’s no going back and you’ll have no choice but accept what is happening here.”

“No,” she murmured. Then she spoke louder. “No. There’s no way I am going along with this! I don’t care what you say you are! You’re not what I thought you were! I’m getting the fuck out of here!” She scrambled to her feet and was about to make a dash to the door when Daniel suddenly appeared in front of it.

Arms over his chest, he said, “Do you really think I’m going to let you leave after everything I’ve told and showed you?”

Fright returned to her. “You have to let me go. I’ll scream if you don’t!”

“And I’ll only silence you as I did before,” he said, drawing out each syllable. “You’re trapped, my dear. Only I could set you free.”

She was shaking. Everything was happening in slow motion, as if anticipating the next strike from him.

Claire took a deep breath. “What happened? Here I was thinking you were the nicest guy, defending you to anyone who thought you weren’t…and yet, you were just what everyone said you were.”

“Claire, I am the same as always, just showing my real self at the right time.” Daniel grinned wildly. “That’s how relationships go.”

She shook her head. “No, relationships don’t involve hurting and threatening people.”

“This is only the beginning?” He stepped away from the door towards her, slowly as he did earlier.

She meant to step back, but fought to control herself. Fright was continuing to build inside and she couldn’t let it take hold of her. Daniel could do anything he wanted to her now, she realized that. Somehow, she had to survive this moment.

He stopped when he was a few inches from her and put his hands on her upper arms and gave them a squeeze. He probably meant to be gentle, but his touch would no longer be gentle to her. He was looking at her with a touch of tenderness now, as if he finally cared for her after what had happened in his apartment during the past ten minutes.

Finally, she managed to say, “How is this the beginning?”

Pressing his forehead against hers, he hushed, “The reason why I wanted you and I to be alone tonight was for me to tell you something really important.”

Not sure if she should pull away, Claire played along. “You already told two things that were important. This. Paris.”

“Why do you think I want to bring you to Paris?” When she didn’t answer, he went on. “Paris is where I originally come from. It’s where I want to show you where my life began, so you can begin yours.” Confusion spread across her face and Daniel nodded. “You know what I mean, my dear. I want to transform you so we will always be together.”

Instinctively, Claire pulled away from his forehead and roughly stepped out of his grasp. “No. No, you’re not saying…” her voice trailed off.

“Yes, Claire. I want you as my companion.”

Trying to make sense of what he was saying, and what she had gone through since entering his apartment, Claire found herself lowering to the floor onto her knees. She didn’t want to, but she couldn’t stop. Was it confusion that made her do this? Fear? Horror?

He was watching her with a blend of satisfaction and concern. When she finally reached the floor, he said to her, “You seem overwhelmed. Do you want some water?”

She vaguely shook her head. After a few heavy breaths, she said, “Why? Why are you doing this to me?”

“Because I love you, Claire,” he reached over and ran a finger through her hair. He then joined her on the floor. “I enjoy your company, I love your musical laugh, you relax me and I like seeing the world from your point of view. It can be lonely being what I am. You’re always around the same people for decades, even centuries. It gets boring and aggravating. I could use a new face in my life. Even my kind could.”

“And…what if I don’t want be with you?” She tilted her head to face him. “What if I don’t want to be with you?”

“You have no choice,” Daniel snapped. His icy stare returned and he seemed to grit his teeth. “After all that I’ve told you and shown you tonight, you must join me.”

Her eyes widened. “Are you going to make me like you now?”

“No,” he said sternly. “That wouldn’t be wise. I’m giving you the chance to absorb and accept your new life. The transformation won’t be easy on so many levels, so it is best this way.” He stood up, and began to pace around.

How could he make her a vampire like him? He had no right.