Page 6 of Night of the Vampire
"Why are you being so insistent?"
I didn't hesitate with my answer, such as it was. "I couldn't really tell you." That was the truth. My response was as much a surprise to me as it had to be to her.
Something shuffled around behind her, drawing my eyes to the bohemian curtain that hid the back of the store from view. I heard the soft, padded steps of paws and glanced around the end of the counter. Shite! She had her dog here at the store with her. If I hadn't been so fucking distracted with the woman I would have noticed.
Well, there was not a thing I could do about it now but wait it out and see what happened.
A black nose poked out from behind the curtain, giving the air a sniff. It was attached to a little black head with pointy ears and a white muzzle, followed by a little chunky black body.
The curtain flapped down behind it as the dog waddled out on stiff hind legs. I saw right away he was no threat. This pup had to be in his last year of life, and yet when it reached its owner it stared up at me through opaque brown eyes and let out a fierce, protective growl.
Sadness filled me as I stared down at her protector. More than anything else in my life, this reaction from animals was the thing that hurt me the most. I missed their companionship. At times they were the only company I had. But now, like every other warm-blooded creature—or cold-blooded for that matter—in this world, they were nothing but food to me.
"I think you need to go," Lizzy told me. "You're upsetting my dog."
She was right. I needed to leave before I made an ass of myself. I gave her a tight smile, turned, and left the store. But I didn't go far. Ducking into a courtyard about 20 feet away, I waited for her to finish closing up, grateful the rain had stopped as it would bring more revelers out I could blend with.
A few minutes later she came out, locking the door behind her and double-checking it. Her ferocious beast was now leashed, padding along contently beside her. With a look up and down the darkened street, I watched her study a group of four young men who had stumbled a little too close, obviously enjoying their stay in the city for the holiday. Deciding they posed no threat, she turned and walked away, heading toward Canal Street.
Discreetly, I followed behind her. I told myself it was only to find out where she lived for myself. But if I were to be honest, it was more than that.
Much like the dog, I didn't want any harm to come to her.
Disgust filled me, though it wasn't aimed at her, but at myself. What was I doing? Following her like a love-sick schoolboy. Why not just take her? Force her back to the house to help Kenya. If I did it quickly, I could take advantage of her surprise and restrain her before she could start muttering her witch's curses. Her little, old dog would not stop me.
And yet, as I watched the pair of them strolling along, I couldn't bring myself to separate Lizzy from him. Not when he was looking up at her with such an adoring gaze in his cloudy brown eyes. She moved down the street at a slow pace to allow for his stiff back legs, her full hips swaying seductively as she strolled along, smiling at someone here and there, and avoiding others who'd gotten a little too rowdy. Every once in a while she'd stop and let him piss on something, and then they would continue on their way.
When they reached her apartment near the House of Blues on Decatur Street, I stayed in the shadows and watched them go inside. For a long time, I stood out there on the corner listening to the music and gazing up at the windows. I knew which apartment was hers when I saw the lights come on. Soon after, I smelled the spices she cooked in her dinner and heard the sounds of the TV show she watched as she ate. I could even hear her old dog crunching on his own meal, and then later, snoring alongside of her while she watch TV. But I deliberately stayed out of her mind. I couldn't let her emotions sway my decision.
However, it was quite hard. Did she think about me, I wondered? Or had she already put me out of her head?
Eventually, sometime around eleven, the lights went off. And still, I stayed. Watching through her windows like a peeping Tom, and wondering what I was becoming. I was a predator, aye. But unless I planned to make this woman my dinner, there was no reason for me to be lurking about.
It wasn't blood I wanted from her at this point in time, though. Nor was it magic. Tearing my eyes away from her windows, I sighed. At least it showed I still had some humanity left.
The scents of my home—seafood, alcohol, smoke, piss, and vomit, all layered over the heavy smell of the primordial swamp the city was built on—seeped through the cracks in the pavement. Pulling my sweater tighter around me, I crossed my arms over my chest, my mind racing. I needed this witch to help me, yet I could not bring myself to forcefully make her do it, for reasons I couldn't quite pin down and did not want to explore too closely. Not yet, at least.
Eventually, I wandered off and went home to check on Kenya. Her condition hadn't improved in the few hours I had been gone, but it hadn't worsened, either. Peeking in through the cracked door, I saw her eyes were closed, and I was loathe to disturb her. What would she think of me, showing up empty-handed?
As if she sensed my guilt, her eyes cracked open. "Did you find your witch?"
I walked closer to the bed. "I believe I did."
She stared up at the ceiling for a moment, then scooted back on the mattress. I helped her as she propped herself up on her pillows. Looking around me pointedly, she asked, "And where is she? Did you leave her in the swamp for the alligators?"
I shook my head.
Both eyebrows joined her forehead as she waited for me to say more, but I didn't know what else to tell her. "Is she going to help?" she finally asked in a quiet voice. "Or not?"
"I told her I had a friend who needed her help and she refused. She said she didn't make a habit of running off with strangers."
"Smart girl," Kenya said with a tight smile. "At least she didn't smite you where you stood."
A small laugh escaped me. "No. She didn't seem to know what I was. Not unless she's somehow figured out how to hide certain thoughts from vampires." An impossible feat as far as I knew, or the witches would have done it by now.
"Killian, you shouldn't invade people's private thoughts."
"But how else was I to know if she was about to 'smite' me?"
