After Dark (The Vampire Next Door Book 2) (12 page)

“Go see who it is for Daddy.”

Jennifer answered the door and became excited. “Hi Allie!”

“Oh no,” he whispered.

It’s Them
. Martin grabbed the TV control and shut off the news. He moved swiftly so they would not be alone with the little girl. “Hello.” He forced himself to sound less apprehensive. “Hello there, Alexandra, Rick.”

“Hi Martin,” Alexandra was kneeling on the floor with her arms around his little girl. He didn’t like that. He didn’t like that at all.

Rick looked in his direction, nodded, said nothing.

“Jenny, honey, why don’t you be a good girl and watch TV.”

“But—”

“Daddy is gonna talk to Allie and Rick, okay?”

“But—”

“Go on, now, do what Daddy says.”

“Gotta sit down, Martin,” Rick whispered. “Saw something out there that was pretty ugly.”

“Like what?” they kept their voices lowered so the little girl in the next room could not hear.

Rick and Alexandra sat at Martin’s kitchen table and Rick began to describe what he had seen attacking the homeless man, and that whatever it was appeared very dangerous, “… had to be, like, very much over six feet tall. Heavy, too. Built like a truck. Looked like he would just eat that poor guy, man.”

“And you are trying to tell me it went after you, too? Rick? I don’t wanna believe what I’m hearing.”

“Yeah, like we’ve been trying to tell you, we’re all just regular people. Except for maybe a few little things.”

Martin laughed sarcastically. “Yeah, right, sure.”

“Yes, it is right,” Alexandra hissed.

“I’m worried about the guy he jumped.” Rick continued, “Don’t know if he got badly hurt.”

“Never mind those kinds a people, they’re just all street filth.”

“Hey, Martin. Look. They’re people too.”

“Yeah? They eat out of garbage cans, and vomit on the beach and— “

“Hell,” Rick stood up. “Well never mind, if you don’t care.”

Alexandra rose from her seat slowly. “Never mind, then, Martin. Thank you.”

“Hey, Laura,” the large Pontiac stalked quietly along behind her as she headed down the sidewalk away from the gallery.

“Oh!” She was surprised when the car pulled up next to her. “I thought you were out.” She took a step back. She could see his eyes flash under a street light; they almost seemed to glow, reflect the light like a cat’s eyes in the dark.

“Hop in.”

“Well.”

“Not going anywhere, just home.”

“Okay.” She opened the door to the long convertible. It was a large, heavily built car and even the door felt heavy to her. She sat down; its vinyl seat sunk in with her weight as its stuffing was crushed by time. But the car felt soft and comfortable. She felt her legs stretch the length of the floor. The top was down and the cool midnight wind circulated through her fawn golden hair. Despite its age, the well-kept Catalina moved silently along the quiet street.

“I really think I ought to go home. I think it’s so late. I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay, I know.” He turned the car around and headed in the other direction. “Don’t worry. I’ll drive you home.”

“I saw a psychic tonight.”

“What? You didn’t pay the fool?”

“Well,” she was embarrassed, “Just to get into the show. He did,” she searched for the right words, “a past life regression. This guy found out he was Cleopatra’s lover in another life. He also said I was a very positive and happy person when he did a reading for me after the show. A positive, happy person,” she sighed.

“Yeah, I know. He would probably tell me I was a day person who loved to get up bright and early. Or that I’m a good cook, which I am not.”

“No?”

“Can’t cook. Don’t eat, don’t care.”

“Oh.”

“Lots of palm readers around tourist places like this. They’ll say anything to get an easy buck.”

“Oh. But you’re real.”

“Yeah. Too real.” He drew a breath and let it out slowly as he thought of last night. “Yeah. It’s all too real.” His car pulled into the parking lot in front of her apartment building.

“The governess was instructed to never let me have friends come over to play, it was never explained why,” she said as he looked around her small but neatly kept apartment. It was like the first time she had a friend come over to play. She felt like a disobedient child.

“You never had friends?” he noticed there was little decoration in her apartment, no pictures on the walls, as if she had no past.

“Oh yes, in boarding school.” She looked away, pretending to be interested in shuffling the magazines into proper order on the coffee table so they would look neat. “But here I really do feel a little out of place, and you know, I can never go back there.” Should she have let him in? Was he dangerous after all?

She looked up and saw that Rick was staring out the window, looking down into the park behind the building.

“Is there something out there?” she asked timidly.

“Just looking, that’s all.”

“Oh.”

“No. I used to. In that park across the way, we used to walk there at night, look at the garden, see the flowers, maybe steal a few, cut them, bring them back.”

“We?” she was suddenly startled. The sadness that almost began to leave her crept back into her again.

“My wife and I. We used to walk there at night. She has passed away. Ten years ago. Never mind. Forget I mentioned it.”

“How did she...?” Old age? She hoped it was.

“Cancer. It devoured her body. So terrible. She fought it to the end, it never broke her spirit. Doctors found it too late, did the operation. Radiation. Everything. But no. It had already worked its way through her. I should have seen it. She did not always seem strong.”

“I’m sorry.” She sat on the expensive black leather couch and sunk into it and listened.

“Never wear my wedding ring anymore. Can’t look at it. I’ve got boxes of her things in the basement of my place. Sometimes I go down there. It’s like she’s still there, somehow. We don’t get cancer, don’t get heart attacks, strokes, or any of the things I see taking people around me. We live a good long time then around three hundred or so start to rapidly decline. If I could give my life for hers I would have, a hundred times over. I wish it was me and not her.”

“Don’t say that.”

Slowly he awakened with the coming dusk; a night bird sang peacefully outside his shuttered window. He wanted to rise and open the shutters, let in the cool evening air and the bird’s song. But no. Instead he rested placidly in the warm darkness of his small room.

I will not travel with that blood drinking monster!
The sudden shrieking wail shattered his silence. He stirred; his eyes opened weakly.

“But you must; he is the only one who can protect you. My father is too old.”

“Wench, your father is a heathen and a fool. If it was up to me I would have them both executed by the most painful means possible!”

“Please, Highness! He is a good man!”

“He is not so good he will lead me home and away from this hovel.”

Pavel sat up to listen. He could hear Yelena crying.

He would not enjoy this journey.

Reluctantly he rose up and looked at the last slight sliver of weak golden sunlight that leaked through the shutters. It was softly beautiful, even to his eyes, though he could not look at it for long. He turned away to slowly face the darkness.

“I will not go anywhere with that—”

It was a warm autumn night; a good night for travel.

“And furthermore, that creature you call your betrothed—”

He would need to saddle the horses, if Yuri had not already done so. Probably he did, to have a reason to leave the house.

“But please, do not say such. He is kind.”

“Do not dare contradict me!”

Pavel stepped on the brown pelt of the bear he killed last winter and slowly wandered out to greet the women in his bare feet.

The heat from the hearth was intense and the fire was bright; the sudden light stung his eyes. He nearly tripped over the little boy and girl; they huddled fearfully by the doorway to his room and watched their sister as she struggled to defend him.

“Do not say such. He protected you.”

“Olga! Stop it!” he barked.

“You will not order me—”

“That is enough. Now go outside and wait for Yuri to bring the horses. Go!”

She said nothing and swiftly left.

“Yelena—”

She silently looked away from him.

“I should never have brought her here. I should have left her to rot in that hell. If she is any more trouble, tell me. It will be the end of her.”

“Will you kill the princess?” It was little Anastasia, sitting on the floor next to her brother Ivan.

“Yes! I will have the harlot for my supper. Now! Go and help your father!”

“Our father doesn’t want any help,” said Ivan. “What’s a harlot?”

“Then go and help your mother!”

“She went back to the burned village to find our dog,” said the little girl. “Will she bring him back soon?” Anastasia always believed Pavel knew everything.

“Yes, soon. Now, then. Go and help the princess find her way home.”

“We’re afraid of the princess!” whimpered Ana.

“So am I. Let me talk to your pretty sister, little ones. Go along now.”

“You are falling asleep on me,” he said. It was a statement, not a question.

She sat up, suddenly becoming alert. “What?”

He was still standing there, staring out the window into the darkness as he spoke.

“Oh no, I just closed my eyes to try and imagine. How long was I asleep?”

“Not long. Only minutes. Go back to sleep. It’s all right. Listen while I speak, then when you sleep I’ll let myself out. You’ll wake up in the bright morning and I won’t be here. It will be as if I never was, as if you dreamed I was here, talking to you.”

A wolf howled in the cold dark night. Then another. Together their voices filled the forest.

“And, what were you doing in that castle, woman?” he asked quite suddenly. He knew she would not answer easily.

She said nothing.

He only heard the slow rhythm of the horses’ hooves against the ground. “I risked my own life to save yours. I brought you to safety. You owe an explanation.”

“I owe nothing to a blood drinking godless heathen. I have heard of such foul night creatures, but thought it only to be the tales told by ignorant old peasant women.”

“I never knew any woman could be so ignorant as you.”

“How dare you!”

“How dare you, Highness. Your own ancestors made blood sacrifices at that same altar. Yuri’s ancestors were high priests who themselves lived in palaces. If it were then, and not now, as a woman from a royal house you would be handed over—”

“What?!”

“But do not worry. I do not believe any of us would even want someone so unpleasant. But yes, it is true. It is only quite recently that we are held to be foul night creatures, as you say. The princes wish to rob the people of their land and what little they have. They need to destroy the last thing that can stop them. After all, their heavily armed soldiers fear very little.”

“They do not fear you.”

“Indeed they do. More so than any old peasant woman. You notice we were not followed out of there once it was clear who I was. Now! What were you doing in that dungeon when you should have been safely in your father’s own palace?”

“I was being held for ransom. What is it to you?”

“And how were you taken? Does your royal father not have his own soldiers to protect you?”

The wolves howled again. She fell silent.

“We will be at the town soon. There, we will find an inn. You may rest. I shall find food, one way or the other, then I will rest in the morning.”

When they arrived at the inn a servant took care of their horses; they went inside and the innkeeper’s wife offered them food. Pavel politely declined, and so the innkeeper’s wife brought the princess a bowl of stew. At first Olga demanded, “What is this swill?” But she soon gave in to hunger and devoured it swiftly and wanted more. She finished the next portion quickly and still asked for more, and more bread.

Pavel sat across from her and was amazed. “I have never seen such a small woman eat so,” Yelena ate well, but she worked hard also.

“I have never seen a man who drinks what you drink,” she snarled.

“Which reminds me,” he rose up from the table, “I must go and seek my own supper. Alas, I venture out into the cold night, while you rest in comfort. Sleep well, my lady. We shall travel together again tomorrow at dusk.”

“So you can devour me in the dark forest and throw my body away to the wolves?”