Nectar: DD Prince (39 page)

She hit send and then typed another message,

“*the closet* You didn’t look like you. Sat rocking to and fro and looked lost. Don’t know what would’ve happened if I hadn’t gotten away. You seemed confused. Maybe you were still in there somehow, stopping yourself?”

She hit send and looked at the monitor.  The light downstairs was out but there was still lighting from the TV and a lamp. She couldn’t see his face, only that he was lying on the couch with the phone. Sam was staring at the TV and yawning.

She waited a few minutes for him to reply.

T: “So sorry I scared you. You did the right thing calling Sam and going in the panic room. So glad we were here! No panic room at the house so hate to think about what might’ve happened if we were there. Or the hospital. Or the banquet.”

K: “Just plz tell me it’s going to be okay.” Her eyes welled up with tears.

T: “It is. Promise.”

K: “How can u be so sure?”

T: “We just have to ride out this week and then we can make our next move. Nothing happened when I was near the door so must be sealed well enough to block the scent.”

K: “You were acting odd earlier tonight, b4 my period even came. I wonder if it was related.”

T: “Been thinking about that, too. Prob was.”

K: “My period started very light. It’s heavier now. It could mean more danger. Did everything go ok with the party?”

T: “As well as could be expected considering I was gone for half of it. More things to deal with tomorrow when Claudio arrives. I’ll be glad when it’s over. Going to let you get some sleep. Just wanted to say I’m sorry. I’ll find a way for you to be safe. I know you could’ve run tonight.”

Kyla stared at the screen for a minute, wondering if a more apt text would be

‘should’ve’ then texted, “Would you have come after me if I did?”

After she hit send she wished she hadn’t said that.

T: “Yep.”

K: “I didn’t stay because I’m afraid of you coming after me. I stayed because I’m afraid of how it would feel to be without you.”

She caught sight of him getting up and walking out of sight on the screen.

She tensed. Where did he go?

The phone rang with her name on it.

She answered, “Where did you go?”

“The bathroom, for privacy. Disable the intercom and just listen to me for a second.”

“Okay…” She disabled the open mic.

“I would not have blamed you if you’d run and yes I would’ve come after you. Not to hurt you, or restrain you, but to make things right. I love you, Kyla. I want you. I want us. I’ll find a way out of this…this mess.” His strong voice was like a song in her heart. He continued, “Believe me. I swear. I will get us out of this. I just needed you to hear that and to know that I never ever want to hurt you, ever.”

Kyla curled up small in the bed and let out a big sigh.

“Listen,” He whispered, “Some other things have happened. I can’t get into it now but I don’t want you to let your guard down with Sam just because he’s helped tonight. Something isn’t right. Don’t, under any circumstances, let your guard down. If you two are alone it means something is very very wrong, okay? Very wrong.”

Kyla’s heart sank, “Okay.”

“He’s staying the night to make sure I can handle this and stay away from you. I don’t even know if that’s a good idea or not so I’ll be sleeping with one eye open. I’m sure I’m going to be fine. I don’t feel edgy. I feel strong. Really strong. So don’t worry. Just sleep. I’ll be up early in the morning to head back to the hotel and deal with other work stuff. Let’s swap phones in the morning before I go, okay?”

“Ok. Goodnight.”

“Goodnight, baby. Sweet dreams.”

She hung up. She watched him come back into view. He climbed onto the couch and curled up under the blanket.

Kyla laid there listening to the TV’s background noise on the monitor and wondered how on earth she could possibly fall asleep. Was she really safe?  The idea that Sam could be a foe instead of a friend was more than unsettling and if that was the case, would he do something tonight? Was Tristan just being paranoid? Or were his spidey senses tipping him off to something that could make things get a whole lot worse? This crazy night had been punctuated with something unfathomable to her. Punctuated period!

She scrunched her eyes tight and after what seemed like forever, she finally fell asleep.

Kyla felt disoriented when she woke up.  She glanced at the phone. 6:45 AM. She looked at the computer monitor and swiped the mouse pad to get the screensaver off. Tristan was asleep on the couch. Sam wasn’t in view. 

She felt her scalp prickle.  Where was he? She heard a noise on the laptop and then saw him come into the upstairs view. Kyla felt like her heart stopped. Sam was carrying a stack of clothes and towels and some shaving gear and he headed downstairs, a towel wrapped around his waist.

Kyla exhaled hard. She saw Tristan sitting up and rubbing his eyes.

“Hey,” Sam said to him and put the contents of his arm load onto the coffee table, “Coffee?”

“Yeah.” Tristan answered and got up and left her view. She got up, used the bathroom and brushed her teeth and washed her face, and then heard her name.

She looked at the monitor.

“Hi baby, good morning. I’m going to put a cup of coffee and your phone in the closet. When I get downstairs, grab them and put my phone in the closet, okay?”

She changed the settings for an open mic. “Good morning.  Okay.”

She sat up in bed and watched Tristan bring things into the closet. He looked so unsure, so wary. She caught sight of Sam behind him.

Tristan deposited the coffee and the phone and then left. When he got to the bottom of the stairs Kyla hit the green button and did the phone swap and snatched her coffee.  She got back into the closet and hit the red button quickly.

“I’m back in,” she said, “but I’d feel better doing that if there were more distance.”

“Okay, we’ll leave next time.”

Then she saw Tristan come upstairs and fetch his phone.

Uneventful. It worked.

Kyla took a big sip of her coffee and relished it.

She picked up the phone and looked up and then downloaded a period tracking app. She’d had used the birth control pill package before now but Daisy had said she’d used an app on phone and had commented it had worked wonders for predicting when her period would arrive.

She heard Tristan say, “I’m heading out, Kyla,” as he picked up his keys and grabbed the front door’s knob. “Text me if you need anything brought here later.”

“Okay.”

He and Sam left.

That was sort of a less than warm goodbye but she’d guessed it was due to Sam’s presence. Tristan had said last night that he was unsure about Sam and in the past had talked of not being seen as weak. She suspected Tristan was being very guarded. At least they could text in private.

She got a text:

“I didn’t want to say this in front of Sam but you don’t have to stay in the panic room when I’m not here. I’ll let you know when I’m on my way back in. Don’t answer the door. No reason anyone should be knocking. Be back approx midnight-one tonight. I’ll text you Sam’s contact details in case of emergency but only in emerg. Remember what I said.”

“Okay. Xo”

Kyla hit the green button and wandered out into the apartment.  She washed the coffee mugs in the kitchen and then stared out the window. She didn’t feel safe. She didn’t feel secure.  Her senses were on overdrive. She’d felt better in the closet.

“Fuck it,” she said aloud and went back upstairs and hit the red button. Three seconds later, the phone started to ring. It was Tristan.

“What?” He sounded totally out of breath.

“No, I’m okay,” she said. She heard him let out a huge sigh.

“Why are you back in there?”

“I don’t feel safe out there.” Her voice was small.

The silence between them on the phone was almost deafening to her. She knew he had to be beating himself up right now. She finally broke the silence,

“It’s okay. I’m fine in here. I have my chocolate and my grape Fanta.”

He didn’t laugh. He made a frustrated sounding grunt.

“It’s okay. I’m just gonna take a nap. Then I’ll watch some movies online or download a book to read. Do what you need to do.”

“I’ll call you in a while.” His voice was laced with tension.

“Okay.”

She wanted to take a nap to give Tristan’s brain a break but couldn’t sleep so opened a browser window and started to Google vampire information, digging for information that might help her find out more about their predicament. She couldn’t find anything worthwhile. She dug through some deep web resource pages as well, the underbelly of the internet that the average person doesn’t find on Google or Yahoo and while she found some fetish type stuff she never found anything helpful related to vampire nectar, inability to mesmerize, or vampires being driven to psychosis by menstrual blood. The research took a huge chunk of the day and really didn’t accomplish much, other than killing time. She was finally interrupted mid-afternoon by a text from Tristan,

T: “Are you okay?”

K: “Fine. You?”

T: “Meh.”

K: “Yeah…”

T: “I’ll be gone until at least midnight. Do you need anything?”

K: “No, it’s fine. There’s still pizza from yesterday in the fridge downstairs so I’ll have some of that later.”

T: “Okay. I’ll text when I’m omw there.”

K: “Ok. Xo”

T: “xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo”

Fuck the chemicals in the blood. She wished she could feel those kisses and hugs for real.

The day dragged. Kyla’s period was even heavier than usual but the cramps had subsided, thankfully. She kept busy doing nothing. She watched TV, she played games online, and she tucked herself in bed and was sound asleep shortly after she glanced at the clock and saw it said 10:16 PM.

~~~

She thought she was dreaming of the Hinder ring tone song but it played beside her from the cell phone on the floor.

“Hello?” She felt so groggy.

“Thank fuck! What the hell?” Tristan sounded enraged.

“What’s wrong?”

“I’ve been texting and calling and talking to the fucking camera for 10 minutes, that’s what’s wrong!”

“Oh no, I was sleeping.”

She heard him let out a long breath.

“I’m in the closet outside your door. I was two more rings away from opening the fucking door!”

“Tristan!” She breathed, jackknifing straight up. “Don’t open the door!”

“I didn’t know why you weren’t answering. I didn’t know if you were hurt or gone or…I couldn’t feel you in my head…” He sounded breathless.

The laptop wasn’t on. The screen was black. She pushed the ‘on’ button. Nothing.

“I was just sleeping, Tristan. Jeez, it’s unplugged.”

“What?”

“The laptop. The laptop was unplugged and it ran out of juice. The battery died.”

She leaned toward the floor and fetched the disconnected power supply cord and plugged it back in.

“I didn’t hear the phone. I must’ve been in a deep sleep. That period pain medicine knocks me out.” The computer booted up and she double clicked the security icon on the desktop. Tristan’s very pissed off looking face was on the screen.

“I’m on the software now. We can talk that way.”

“No,” he said, “I’ll call you back on Face Time. I need to see you.”

“Okay.” She hung up. It immediately rang and she answered the Face Time call.

He looked at her with a glimpse of relief and then his brows furrowed, “What happened to your eye. Did I…did I fucking hit you last night?” He looked horrified.

Kyla reached up toward her eye, which was still tender, “No. I fell when I ran from you. It’s just a bit of a shiner. It’s not that bad.”

Now he looked disgusted.

“Sorry you were worried. I was flat out.”

He closed his eyes and blew out a slow breath. Kyla was lost for words.  They just stared at one another for a moment. She felt a lump in her throat and her lower lip started to quiver.

“I should be the one locked in that room. But then whoever is behind those missing samples…”

“No, I’m okay. I feel safe in here.”

“Mm hmm.” He pinched the bridge of his nose.

“Why don’t we send new samples and see what comes of them?”

“No! No fucking way! My brilliance sending those off in the first place likely set up a whole shit fucking storm already!”

“Did something else happen? Did you see Claudio?”

He shook his head, “I’m going to grab a shower and hit the hay. I just wanted to make sure you were safe. I’ll sleep downstairs. I left Sam at the hotel so it’s just me.”

“Are you sure that’s a good idea?”

He slammed his fist into the wall. Kyla jolted in surprise.

“I don’t fucking know! I gotta go.” He switched the phone off and the screen went off. She watched him via the laptop. He left the bedroom and headed downstairs where he walked up to the kitchen counter, pulled a bottle of alcohol from a kitchen cupboard, and swigged directly from the bottle.

Something else must’ve happened. He was livid. Or was he feeling withdrawals and fighting the urge to unlock that panic room door and tear her apart with his teeth?

She choked back a sob and then let it out. She couldn’t hold it back. She was sobbing so hard she was having trouble catching her breath. She lay down on the bed and looked at the cell phone and read his messages.

              “Hi Princess. You ok?”

              “I’m on my way. Be there in 10.”

              “Kyla?”

He’d also called twice.

She held the cell phone close in case he called back and closed her eyes and cried herself to sleep. This was
so
fucked up.

~~~

She woke up to the sound of drilling and hammering. Terror spiked. She glanced at the screen. It was 8:02 a.m. and she saw that a guy was with Tristan and he was putting a panel on the wall in the bedroom, which was a disaster, filled with the contents of the bedroom closet.  Tristan stood beside him, wearing jeans and a t-shirt, arms crossed, scowl on his face. There were two guys building something constructed of metal in the closet. She was about to speak over the intercom but realized she might tip the construction guys off to something odd with a woman’s voice coming over the loudspeaker.  She muted the mic and decided to text him instead.

“Hey”

She watched him texting her back.

              “I’ll call you in 5.”

She used the washroom and brushed her teeth. As she was washing her face the phone rang so she quickly rinsed off and then answered.

“Hi.”

“Just listen please.” His voice was beyond tense, “I’m installing a cage outside the door with several locks on it. We don’t know if I’m still affected so I want to run a test. You can step inside the cage and see how I react. If it happens again you can duck back into the closet and shut the door again. The cage will stop me from hurting you but will let me scent you to see. We assume that I can’t be around you for a week but we don’t actually know for sure. We also assume that once your bleeding stops I can be around you but we also don’t know
that
for sure. We don’t know if any vampire will have the reaction I did or if it’s just me. So we will be doing multiple tests and Sam’ll help. Sam is a wildcard but he can’t get through the locks.”

“You said you don’t know if you can trust him.”

“I have to try something. He’s the only one I can use right now.”

“Alright.”

“You mad at me?” he asked.

“No.”

“You’re not giving much away…”

“Can’t you feel what’s in my head? Do I need to say it?”

“No, I can feel you. I just want to hear your voice, hear your words. Talk to me.”

“What happened last night?”

Silence.

“Tristan?”

“I can’t get into it right now.”

“Fine. Keep me in the closet or cage and keep me in the dark, too.”

“Kyla…”

“I could use a coffee machine in here. Can you get me a Keurig or a Tassimo or something?”

“Okay. And we’ll talk more when the workers are done.”

“Whatever.” She hung up.

“Fuck!” She said aloud and proceeded to pace. It was only a few paces from wall to wall. This room felt smaller, suddenly. Not a safe cocoon, a cage, a jail cell. Her face got hot. She needed to run. She needed to run and run and run and run.

“Fuck!” She growled.

She started to jog on the spot. She closed her eyes. She tried to picture a path, a road. She couldn’t see it. She tried to envision blue eyes and dimples but they wouldn’t materialize. All she saw was his ashen looking face with black eyes and huge teeth. And walls. Stone tunnel walls with blood dripping down them. She collapsed into a crouched position and put her face in her hands.

She heard commotion on the laptop and looked up.  The workers were leaving. 

She saw him flop onto the bed. She couldn’t see his face. She could only see that he was on his back.   She curled up on the bed and watched the screen.  He didn’t move for a long time. Neither did she. After a while she heard him speak,