Authors: Miranda Powers
“Guys, I don’t want any trouble,” I began in a pitiable voice. “My uncle doesn’t pay me enough to be a hero. And I kinda like having my head attached to my neck instead of it rolling around on the floor-”
“Whoa, calm down, Chiquita. Nobody’s ripping anyone’s heads off, especially not one as pretty as yours,” Jose Cuervo said in a simpering voice.
“I only ripped that douche’s head off because he stabbed me with a knife. And he and his friends were the bad guys,” the taller vampire noted.
“So what does that make you guys? The heroes of the story?” I couldn’t resist firing back.
Both men looked at one another and burst out laughing before turning to face me once more. “Hardly, just the opposite, really. We’re vampires who usually don’t give a crap about other humans, nor do we get involved in human squabbles. But we met this pretty cool chick who gave us a helping hand in more ways than one and that son of a bitch, Gus Prince, murdered her. So we figured he and his crew had a little karma coming their way.”
“I don’t understand any of this,” I stammered, rubbing my temples in a bid to bring myself into a state of equilibrium. “Why am the only one in the bar who isn’t compelled right now?”
“Mainly because we think you are cute,” the shorter Hispanic vampire said with absurd simplicity.
“So you’re like, what? Horny vampires or something? You don’t even know me, and I sure as hell don’t know who the hell you both are or what you even want. Why did you insist on cleaning up a mess you caused?”
“We felt bad for trashing your uncle’s place, when he had shit to do with our little vendetta with Gus and his pals,” the shorter vampire answered, a bashful smile playing on his lips.
“So now that we’ve explained ourselves a little better, maybe we should actually introduce ourselves. I’m Beck,” the taller vampire introduced, extending a lean and muscular hand towards me.
“And I’m Santiago,” the shorter vampire added, throwing me a devastatingly sexy smile. This is all too fucking weird; I think I need to lie down.
“Maybe this is a little forward, Ginger. But we stopped by your apartment earlier and found an eviction notice on your front door from your landlord. So if you need a place to live –”
“You can crash with us. We have plenty of room,” Santiago ended off.
“An eviction notice?” I asked of myself in a flurry. So that’s what was taped to the door.I grabbed the paper out of my purse. They were right. I groaned. And all because I was a teensie bit late on 3 months’ worth of rent. My landlord really needs to consider wearing boxers; his balls are getting squished out of order in those tightey-whiteys he usually wears. “Let me get this straight: you’re both vampires and you’re asking me, a human woman, to live with you? Why?” I demanded in confusion.
“We get bored easily. And you look like you might actually be tons of fun,” Beck replied swiftly. It’s officially, I’ve hit rock bottom. And rock bottom just happened to be teeming with insane vampires.
CHAPTER 3
The next day, I went to confront my landlord about the eviction notice. All he would tell me was that I had a day to clean my crap out since he’d already found a new tenant. And things got even stranger when he assured me that one of my friends had given him an envelope filled with a wad of cash to cover the 3 months I hadn’t paid rent for.
The ‘friend’ in question turned out to be Santiago, who showed up around the time that I’d procured a couple of boxes from Home Depot for my things. Beck showed up a few minutes later and both of them single-handedly packed and carried my things down to a moving truck they’d organized just for me. I guessed they really wanted me to live with them.
I wasn’t sure I’d made up my mind about anything by the time I reached the studio loft the two vampires shared in a downtown neighbourhood of Seattle called East Roxbury. But I knew I had my answer when I stepped over the threshold and gazed in awe at my new home.
It was a studio loft with wooden floors painted varying shades of light grey and walls encased with red bricks that ran all the way up to the windows which overlooked the adjacent building across the street. The walls were lined with rustic brown which matched the thin brown blinds that covered both living room windows. The living room was sparsely, but comfortably furnished with a two-seater sofa positioned in front of a big-screen TV with a massive vintage poster of a young and swarthy Al Pacino hanging above it and a small, foosball table just behind the sofa. I stared aghast at the adorable round table with four red chairs stacked all around it and an antique arcade machine.
The loft became all the more modern and extravagant the closer I moved to the four bedrooms located behind a Japanese screen of sorts which separated them from the living room area. One look at the bedroom with boxer briefs and issues of
Playboy
strewn across the floor told me that it must belong to Beck. Although his fascination with naked
human
women was a little baffling to say the least. Then I passed by a bedroom door left ajar. Inside I could see an impressive bookcase filled to the brim with every kind of novel and editorial imaginable. That must be Santiago’s room.
“This will be your room over here,” Beck informed me with a nonchalant gait. I opened the door and peered inside. The only things inside there were a queen-sized poster bed and a pedestal drawer with a chic lamp on top. But the bedroom window had an amazing view of the Seattle skyline, which made me swoon.
And just because I couldn’t stop spazzing over my good fortune, I jogged back into the hallway and opened the door to the fourth bedroom. And stopped dead in my tracks at what lay before me. It had a bed inside, but there were a few strange contraptions visible to the naked eye like a set of fuzzy handcuffs hanging above the headboard. My eyes travelled over what looked like a whip of sorts coiled around a lamp next to the bed. Then my eyes practically bugged out of my skull at a box closest to me that looked like it contained a variety of sexy toys.
“Uh…this room isn’t quite ready for visitors yet,” Santiago interjected with nervous laughter, guiding me away from the room in question.
“Of course it is; it’s set up exactly the way we want it – it’s a torture/sex chamber, depending on what we need it to be in the moment.” Beck supplied with a wicked smile.
“He’s kidding,” Santiago shot back, scowling pointedly at his vampire compatriot.
“He’s really not,” Beck retorted, his grin becoming all the wider as he continued referring to himself in the second person.
“Whatever, I don’t care about the freaky stuff that vampires do. It’s not like I’m ever gonna use that room for anything.” I offered with a mesh of diplomacy and what I thought was genuine dismissal.
Boy, was I wrong about that.
Chapter 4
A whole two weeks passed after that and I was slowly getting used to my new surroundings as well as my vampire roommates. For all his show of being an egotistical ass-hat, Beck was surprisingly kind and chivalrous on a good day. He wasn’t one for talking, but he always found a way to be there and give me a helping hand when I needed it, especially when it came to lugging hefty crap around.
As for Santiago, he and I clicked instantly. He was well-read, smart, funny, sensitive and a generally nice guy. Wait, generally nice vampire. No, generally nice guy/vampire – aww, forget it. He was incredibly easy to talk to; on my very first night in my new apartment, he and I stayed up till 4am just getting to know each other. He even told me about how he became a vampire.
I was closing up the bar by myself and Santiago was waiting for me to finish up so we could walk home together. He had left most of his glass filled with Southern Comfort untouched.
“It was three years ago when I had everything I could’ve ever wanted in my life,” Santiago began, a radiant smile dotting his handsome, tanned face. “I just got promoted at my dream job and I was engaged to a woman I loved with all my heart. I was walking home alone one night the day before Valentines picking up flowers and a gift for my fiancée when these four guys jumped me. I offered them my expensive watch and my wallet, but they wanted something completely different from me…” Santiago trailed off, his features darkening with intensity.
“They could’ve drained my body of blood and just killed me; instead, they turned me into a monster. I couldn’t face anyone I knew after that, so I just ran away. I regret it because I abandoned everyone I cared about but they would hate me more for what I became. Beck met and befriended me when I was I was trying to find a way to kill myself. He helped me accept my new abilities and create a balance. I mostly drink from blood bags that an orderly in a hospital helps me get; but every now and then, Beck and I go hunting for low-lifes when we’re craving fresh blood.
“So that’s why you killed Gus and his friends,” I remarked.
He nodded and took a sip of his drink. “That, and because he really did kill a friend of mine and Beck’s. She was a nice girl who didn’t deserve to die. Beck and I couldn’t protect her, so all we could do was avenge her in the end.”
“She must’ve been pretty special,” I surmised while wiping down the bar. I quirked an eyebrow when I noticed the way that Santiago’s mouth had curled into a seedy smile for the briefest moment.
“That she was.”
“Wait…she was a close friend, right? How close exactly?” Santiago gave a noncommittal shrug, but with a huge shit-eating-grin on his face. “No way! You and her-”
“And Beck.”
“Shut up! The three of you were fuck buddies?! You and Beck actually had sex with a woman…who’s human?” I questioned in disbelief. Is that even possible? Sure, I’ve watched TV shows like
The Vampire Diaries
and
True Blood.
But I thought this shit was fictional, if not wholly impossible.
“Of course we had sex with her,” Santiago remarked. “Vampires can have sex with humans. We just have to be…more careful. Our strength and stamina are a lot higher than the average human being. Obviously.”
“Obviously,” I agreed in a sardonic tone. “So you both just…shared her? And she was ok with that? And both of you were ok with that?”
“Some people are worth sharing, especially if it means you get to have the best parts of her.” Santiago concluded with finesse.
I didn’t even realize how hard my heart was pounding in my chest when he said that. So I remedied my flustered feelings by turning away and attempting to clean the bar counter more vigorously. “Pass me your glass when you’re finished,” I said over my shoulder.
“Think fast,” Santiago murmured from behind me.
I turned around and watched in horror as a glass half-filled with amber-coloured alcohol came skidding across the bar counter towards me. Santiago had tossed it my way. In my bid to rescue the glass from hitting the bar floor, I tilted my tiny body a little too much. And in doing so, I lost my balance and started falling backwards. But before I could hit the floor, Santiago flew off his chair and came sprinting towards me at the speed of light. His right arm moved behind me and grabbed my back. And with his left hand, he reached forward and effortlessly caught the glass as it flew off of the counter.
My heart was still pounding like a freight train in my chest when Santiago calmly put the glass back onto the counter with one hand while still holding my body close to his with the other. Our eyes were just a whisper apart; it was becoming difficult to concentrate on anything but the feel of Santiago’s cold hands encircling my waist and his warm, brown eyes burning like lasers all over me.
“Whoa,” I breathed in awe. “How did you do that?”
“When it comes to being a vampire, that’s just the tip of the iceberg, Mamasita,” Santiago promised with a devilish twinkle in his eye.
And before I could think twice about it, I had pulled him closer and pressed my lips to his in a flurry of newfound familiarity and euphoria.
CHAPTER 5
I didn’t exactly intend for it to happen, but Santiago and I slept together that night. I liked every single part of it; Santiago turned out to be quite a sweet and passionate lover. But I kinda felt uber awkward afterwards, especially since both Santiago and Beck are now my roommates. I mean, I had sex with a vampire, and his vampire roommate and friend may or may not know about it. This is all too fucking weird.
For the most part, Beck hadn’t bothered with talking to me that much since I moved in. But we somehow got thrown together a few nights afterwards when Santiago went to see his orderly friend about the blood bag supply and was out of the apartment till super late.
And in-between that time, I got to talk to Beck while he put together a new drawer that I’d bought from IKEA. Don’t give me that look – what else is having a super strong and agile vampire for a roommate good for? So there we were sitting on the floor of my bedroom, with me passing Beck nuts, bolts and other tools while he put the pieces of the drawer together. As soon as he was finished, I was going to head to the hardware store on the corner to pick out some paint and wallpaper to decorate my new drawer with.
“You know…if you’re just planning on decorating this drawer with some girly crap, Santiago and I could always pitch in and help you buy some materials.” Beck said, almost as if he could read my thoughts.
“Thanks, but no thanks. I appreciate the offer, but you guys are already letting me live here rent-free. I can’t accept any more freebies from you.” I told him with as much grace as I could muster.
“Living here rent-free isn’t exactly a freebie. We’re still making you pay for utilities,” Beck countered with a sly smirk on his face.
“Yeah, including the ones I don’t even use. What the hell do you guys need a hot plate for? It’s not like either one of you…eats.”
“The hot plate isn’t for us, genius. You are the only human around here that does eat after all. We didn’t buy the hot plate till you moved in.”
“Son of a bitch. You mean I’ve been avoiding using the hot plate because I thought it belonged to either you or Santiago this whole time? I could’ve made some really good grilled cheese.” I whined comically.