Dark People

Chapter One

I crawled along the edge of my bed and flopped off the side, landing with a thump. The bed sheets had come with me. The early evening glow from outside flowed through my silver-barred windows and filled my eyes. I hadn't always been an early riser.
I rolled onto my back and stared at the ceiling, my superior eyesight picking out tiny cracks and rivets, flaws no human eyes would ever see.
I felt sick, like I was going to vomit, though I knew that was impossible, my being a vampire and all. I could almost imagine my stomach actually rumbling, I was so hungry, but of course that hadn't happened in years either. Still, the impression was there and that was all I needed.
I knew how I must look. Pretty funny, probably, to see a vampire lying on her back next to her bed, squirming like a newborn kitten. Another wave of nausea shook me.
Shit, I thought, this is pretty painful. I hope Jay feels better about himself!
I closed my eyes against the pain and searched for another immortal mind nearby. Yes! Dmitri was a few streets up. I reached out with the fingers of my mind, searching. I grasped onto Dmitri's mind and pulled. He replied with a gently questioning shove.
I had begun to respond when a horrible pain twisted in my belly. I clenched my muscles and gritted my teeth, my long fingernails carving deep wounds into my palms as I squeezed my fists shut. My palms filled with blood, which started dripping down my wrists. I raised my hand and stared at the blood, hunger screaming in my brain. I watched, fascinated, as the edges of the gashes I had made drew together and the skin knitted itself up neatly.
I rolled onto my stomach and clawed at the floorboards, trying to drag myself to the boarded up door that I could not open, anyway. I got halfway before I gave up, panting, my long incisors bared in frustration.
I closed my eyes.

A faraway voice was saying my name.
My eyelids felt like heavy steel as I dragged them open. Dmitri was leaning over me, looking worriedly into my face.
"Red? Red? Can you hear me?"
I tried to sit up.
He put his arm round my shoulders and lifted me with easy grace. ”How long have you been locked in here?" he demanded.
I blinked. "What is the date?"
"It’s Friday, Friday the twenty-third."
I counted up.
"Then I guess I've been here for about two and a half weeks."
"That bastard Jay!" Dmitri was furious. He swung around and smashed through the door. How had he done that?
In a minute we were at his place. He swung me gently onto his couch.
"Stay here. I'll get you something to eat."
I sank back into the couch.
Dmitri came in, with a young male hooker, about twenty years old, trailing behind him.
"This place yours, honey?" the boy asked Dmitri, a lisp making his speech faintly comical.
He glanced at me as he came by, and then stopped for another look, staring openly. I gave him an indulgent smile. He came forward eagerly. I gracefully stood up, swaying towards him, playacting as always. I gazed into his eyes like a woman in love, and he gazed back, hypnotised. I drew him into my arms and slid my mouth along his throat, my tongue etching warm patterns. He stood still, and gave a contented, dreamy sigh.
I grasped his forearms and slid my teeth into his neck. He stiffened slightly, but to his credit, did not cry out or flinch. I took what I needed and let him fall.
Dmitri came out of the bedroom. I glanced over at him, wiped my mouth with my sleeve and looked down at the body.
"Well, I feel heaps better!" I said, without remorse.
"Sure you do," Dmitri grinned at me. I grinned back.
"Dmitri, where’s Maire?”
“At her place, I guess. Why?”
“I want to go shopping!”

Maire and I strode confidently forward, ignoring the lustful glances many men sent our way. Dmitri followed close behind, like a tall, handsome watchdog, the tails of his black coat billowing.
“The usual?” I thought to Maire. She nodded, smiling mischievously. We swayed into an expensive department store. Dmitri immediately closed the door behind us and stood there, his arms crossed. He flipped the sign to “closed”. The sales clerk, a pretty, middle-aged woman, opened her mouth, alarmed. I pinched her optic nerve, and our images disappeared. “You saw, you see, nothing,” I whispered kindly to her. She nodded dreamily and went to sit at the chair behind the sales counter, a small smile playing about her lips.
Maire and I raided the whole shop, then a few more like it. Coming out of Gucci, I felt a very odd presence. I turned around, glancing sideways at a man nearby. There seemed to be a very strange vibe coming off him. It was totally unlike any I had ever felt on a human. It was almost as though he were…something else. I looked him up and down. Short, middle aged, balding, wearing a shabby brown suit. Ordinary. And yet…
I sent out a pulse. Just a weak one. To see what would happen.
Nothing.
He still had the odd aura though. I tried again. This time the pulse was much stronger.
Looking at him, I saw the moment when the pulse hit him. It was like smashing a mirror and seeing another reflection underneath.
The short, shabby man shattered backwards, pieces flying away, quivering. In his place was a tall, extremely attractive young man. Black hair and green eyes. Those eyes stared into mine for a moment, calmly. And then the illusion was back. The older man slid back over the younger one, shrinking him, aging him, like putting on a wrinkly mask.
I stepped closer to him. My heart was pounding wildly. While I didn’t know the older man, had never seen him before, the face of the younger one was etched into my soul.
He had come to get me back.
“Give it up,” I said, my voice dead. “Take it off, Jay. Take it off!”
Staring into my eyes, Jay dissolved the illusion. As usual, I was breathless looking at him. I couldn’t help it. No matter what kind of a bastard he was, or how long he locked me in that room, I could never kill the attraction.
He held out his hand. I looked down at it, as though it were a poisonous spider. “Come home with me,” he said. I opened my mouth to form ‘no’, and heard Maire’s laughter. Turning, I saw her talking to Dmitri, still in the store, unaware of what was happening.
Jay whispered in my ear. “Come,” he breathed, putting his hand over mine, “and I won’t hurt them.”
I turned and folded myself against his body, closing my eyes. The noise of the street died gently.
I opened my eyes, still in Jay’s embrace. I could hear no cars, trains. Nothing city-like.
“So where are we?” I said dully, “The Estate?”
The Estate was one of Jay’s many prestigious properties throughout the world. It was severely isolated and self-sufficient. It was in the Carpathian Mountains.
“Yeh.”
I wasn’t surprised. I had ceased to be amazed by Jay’s abilities long ago. He was, after all, over half a thousand years old. What more to expect from the king of the undead.
I shoved away from him and went to a window. Jay stayed motionless where he was, surveying me silently.
I suddenly felt furious. Spinning to face him, I screamed, “Why do you always do this to me? Why? Why?”
He remained silent. I picked up an ancient vase and flung it at him, hoping to smash him away. I was rather frustrated and further enraged when he caught it easily and set it back on a bench.
So I barged around the room, grabbing heavy objects and sending them his way. Somehow he managed to dodge them all without appearing to move. I got a great deal of satisfaction in hearing his priceless pieces shattering onto the floor, though.
Finally he’d had enough. I didn’t know he’d moved until he was holding my hands behind my back.
He placed his face next to mine and whispered into my ear. “What a temper you have…” I twisted away and gave him a hard shove. Swearing violently, he gave chase.