20
Bec changed her clothes numerous times before we left. She assured me she didn’t have an ulterior motive despite my persistent questioning. “Just tell me, I’ll find out anyway” I demanded as she disassembled my wardrobe. Justin sat in the car, waiting.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about?”
“You never do this just to go to the uni bar. I don’t know why you want to wear a skirt anyway, you will be way overdressed, the jeans you had on were fine.”
“I don’t feel comfortable in them.”
“Will Joel be there?”
She huffed “How would I know, I haven’t spoken to him since the party. Stupid stoner.”
“You look fine, come on let’s go already” I said grabbing her hand and dragging her to the car.
The uni bar was already crowded when we arrived. Bec introduced me to a few of her uni friends. Joel and Tim were standing in the far corner, wearing matching Hawaiian shirts; I turned to Bec trying to gage her reaction. She was scanning the room casually. Appearing to look for no one in particular, when she locked eyes with Joel across the room, she turned to me “Urgh, he’s here.”
“Really!” my retort was laden with sarcasm.
“Nic, he’s coming over here.”
“Have you actually told him it’s over?”
“Not really” she bit her bottom lip.
“Bec, you have to tell him.”
Joel and Tim were now standing in front of us just as the lights went dark and the band started to play. Bec knew what she needed to do; she took Joel’s hand and led him outside to talk. Leaving me standing at a table with her uni friends I didn’t know and Tim, who seemed to be chatty again. “Hi Nicola. Like the shirt” he gestured to his clothes like a spokes model.
“It’s very… original, Tim.”
He laughed, apparently missing the irony “You think so?”
“No” I looked towards the door, searching for Bec.
“Hey, you missed the end of a great party; it got really wild after you left.”
I looked at Tim, his eyes weren’t red and partially closed like they were at the party. He seemed fidgety and his pupils were dilated, I leaned forward and asked him quietly “Are you high?”
He giggled and nodded “Joel and me tried an E for the first time. It’s wicked; it looks like everything is moving in slow motion. Do you want one? I can get you one if you want.”
I shook my head in disbelief “I don’t do drugs! And you’re crazy for messing with that stuff; do you know how people make that shit? They use rat poison and toilet cleaner and God knows what else!” Mum had drilled into me from an early age the dangers of drugs, she had seen too many people in the emergency department with overdoses or reactions from them, and the lives some of them led afterwards.
“Hey, relax, it’s all good. I feel fine.”
“You feel fine now, but what will happen when you have a brain aneurism and spend the rest of your life being spoon fed custard?”
He held his hands up defensively “I didn’t realise you were the New South Wales anti drug commissioner.”
“My mum is a nurse in the emergency ward at Belles Cove Hospital; she sees it all first hand. Bec’s right, you guys are just stoner losers” I pushed passed and headed for the door, Bec almost ran into me as she came inside. “Let’s get out of here.”
“Where do you want to go?” I asked as we headed for the exit.
“I just want to go home, I’ll call Justin to come and get us” She stood outside trying to find reception on her phone. Two of the girls I met early were also leaving. “Hey Bec, do you guys need a ride?”
“I’m heading south.”
“Me too, I’ll take you.” One of the girls offered.
“Thanks that would be great. I just want to get out of here” Bec turned to me.
“I’m going to Vaughan’s, I’ll get a cab.”
“We have room” the blonde girl offered.
“It’s out of your way. It looks like a cab’s coming now. Thanks anyway” A car turned the corner with a white light on the top, and I waved in the direction of the driver.
“You sure you’ll be ok?” Bec asked.
“Fine. I’ll talk to you tomorrow and you can tell me what happened.”
“Ok” she said as she hugged me goodbye. I watched the three go back towards the campus car park. As I turned back to wait for the cab to pull up, a man with sandy blonde hair appeared beside me. “Hello Nicola.”
I looked him over. Vaguely recognising him, he did seem familiar and he seemed to know my name. But I had no idea where from. “Hi” I answered cautiously, crossing my arms across my chest to hold off the cold. A light mist of rain had started to fall.
“Vaughan has asked me to pick you up” his voice was smooth and confident. The taxi pulled into the curb in front of me, the man standing between me and the car. Something didn’t feel right. I knew Vaughan wanted to make sure I was safe, but he would come himself, or send someone I recognised. I looked toward the cab, the driver watching impatiently. “Who are you?” I asked the mysterious stranger.
“Will, I’m a friend of Vaughan’s, he asked me to come and get you, take you back to Ivory.”
My heart started pounding with fear and my stomach felt heavy. Again I looked over Will’s shoulder to the cab driver, trying to get his attention; all he did was throw his arms up at me with frustration. I tried to sidestep Will, to go to the taxi waiting for me, but Will caught my arm and whispered “I insist, and if you think of making a run for it. I will kill you before you draw breath to scream. Then I’ll go after your friends” He led me to a silver car that was in front of the taxi, opening the back door and pushing me inside. The car sped off as he slipped into the seat beside me. In the front Dante was driving and Elisabetta by his side. “So, we meet again” she taunted.
“What do you want?” I shot back, my pulse racing.
“Ah, you really think we’re going to give away all our secrets straight away? Where’s the fun in that? Now, sit back and relax. You may want to put your seatbelt on; Dante thinks he’s driving Formula One.”
I blinked back the tears in my eyes and looked out of the car window. I could feel Will’s eyes on me, but I didn’t dare let any of them see my face. I would not give them the satisfaction of seeing me scared. We drove North West, out of Belles Cove and toward the escarpment. To an old miner’s cottage, that appeared abandoned from the outside. My mind thought back to Vaughan’s story of how he became to be. The old abandoned house the vampire had taken him to and tortured him until his body had lost the will to live. Would this be my fate? It would be a few hours before Vaughan even realised I was missing. Then he would need to find me. How long could my body sustain, until it gave up?
Will pulled me from the car by my arm and I staggered behind him up the steep driveway, toward the little house, my feet slipping under the wet ground as the rain started to fall harder. The house looked similar to Gerri’s from the outside, but much smaller and poorly maintained. All the windows were boarded up with plywood and leaves overflowed the gutters and roof. No one had lived here for quite some time. As we entered, floorboards creaked under foot. The house smelled damp and dirty, the stench of animal faeces penetrated the air. The furnishings were long outdated and appeared to have been chewed by animals, rats or possums maybe; it had not lived in for 40 years or more. A thick layer of dust coated just about every surface and cobwebs hung from the ceiling. I could hear the faint hum of a generator rumbling outside, lighting the house.
Will pushed me along the hall and shoved me into a small room and I tripped, falling to the ground. The window was boarded up and Will blocked my only exit. He looked at me with a sardonic grin. “Have you figured it out yet?”
“Figured out what?” I said as I backed myself into a corner of the room.
“How you know me” He slowly stepped towards me “I could see it in your face when you saw me, there was a flash of remembrance the
re.”
He was right, I did recognise him.
“Oh come on, think” he tapped his finger to his temple. “I didn’t completely compel you. You have to remember. Although, you were very intoxicated at the time, that’s what made it so much easier. You needed little coercion” Will reached out and touched the inside of my elbow, his finger ran over my scar and an icy sensation shot through my limb. I shrunk back from his touch and held my arm instinctively to my body. “You!” I hissed.
He smiled sleazily at me.
“Who else?”
Will over theatrically pretended not to know what I was asking “Whatever do you mean?”
“I know there are other marks on me. Who did them?”
He threw his hands up in surrender “You’re right, I can’t take all the credit, although I was the one to lure you here. We are a family here, and families share.”
My body shivered and I felt an acidic burning in my throat. “What did you do to me?” I whimpered, trying to fight back tears.
Will took a step closer and brushed a strand of hair away from my face, then leaned his arm against the wall just above my shoulder. I could see he was enjoying this. He leaned forward and whispered “Not as much as I wanted to” and his lips grazed along my cheek, his breath caressed my face. I doubled over, trying not to be sick.
Heavy footsteps marching along the hallway distracted Will, and he stepped back from me. I crumpled to the floor and held my knees for support, tears streaming down my face. Whoever it was strode into the room and pulled me up by my hair. I screamed at the stinging pain in my scalp and came face to face with Heidi. She let go of my hair and pushed me backwards, Dante and Elisabetta stood behind her. “Look at you” Heidi spat at me “Fragile, human, crying! This is what he wants!” Heidi was pointing at me as though I were a sideshow freak; her eyes were black and wild with rage. Nothing about her looked beautiful anymore, she had now transformed into a monster. Dante and Elisabetta looked excited by the prospect of Heidi killing me, their fangs were exposed and Elisabetta ran her tongue over her elongated canines. Something hard and cold hit the side of my face and I fell to the floor, my body spinning as I went. Heidi had back handed me. The left side of my face felt numb where she hit me. Ringing filled my ears and my vision blurred, a warm trickle of blood flowed over my bottom lip and hissing broke out behind me. I heard footsteps edging closer to me and I cringed, squeezing my eyes shut. “Stop!” Heidi ordered. “The master said she is to be unharmed. Once he is done with her, she is mine. That was the deal.”
“Just a little taste?” Will begged.
“No. I have a worse fate in store for her.”
I slowly turned my head to see the four predators standing over me, eyes all black, long sharp fangs exposed. They were waiting for the order to kill me. I knew Heidi would make it slow and painful. I only hoped the others would be more merciful.
A tall hooded shadow appeared in the doorway and the vampires parted. He approached me, so quickly; he almost appeared to be gliding. I looked up, it was another vampire, but he seemed to have a regal elegance about him. He wore a long black cloak with a hood, which he pulled back once he had approached me. I assumed this was Ulrich, the one they called Master. He held out his hand. “Do not fear my child. I will not hurt you” Taking his hand, he helped me to stand. He moved my hair from my face and looked at the marks on my forehead, which were healing and smiled to himself. Then he saw the blood on my chin. His voice was silky smooth, monotone, almost soothing. “Who did this?” He asked the others without raising his voice, but without taking his eyes from mine.
“I did Master” Heidi answered in a timid voice.
“I specifically said she was not to be harmed.”
“Sorry Master” Heidi’s voice was much smaller now, shaking and no sign of the anger she displayed moments ago. He spun around quickly. Heidi was propelled through the air and crashed through the wall into the hallway. Pieces of splintered timber lay over her. Dust billowed into the room. He then turned his attention back to me as though nothing had just happened. “Nicola, we have not been formally introduced. I am Ulrich” he took my hand and held it to his lips, kissing it. “I’m sorry we have had to meet under these circumstances. I’m sure you will appreciate; there are rules in our world that need to be followed. Unfortunately Ivan has broken one of those rules. We claimed this area first, he has trespassed, and hence we need to take action.”
I looked at him confused. “I thought you had an agreement with Ivan?”
He smiled “Yes, we did. That was until it occurred to me how well his business was thriving, all that potential and he was wasting it. So I changed my mind” Ulrich seemed so matter-of-factly when he spoke in his soft timbre.
“Why am I here?” Ulrich had made it clear that I was not to be harmed and this made my confidence slowly creep back, I could see Heidi stirring in the background.
“Well. Ivan didn’t heed my warning last weekend and leave, so now I need to take more drastic measures. Unfortunately, once I have what I want you will be collateral damage my dear” he smiled at me apologetically. My confidence quickly drained away and my heart started beating faster. Ulrich closed his eyes and listened. “That is a glorious sound. I can see why Vaughan is drawn to you” Heidi growled at this remark. “I also sense a great strength burning inside you. I knew it the first time I saw you,” his eyes seemed to move to my forehead again and back “Something that would be a great waste as a human. Your life essence is strong, you could be powerful.” I shrunk back at his words and shook my head. “Well, if that is your answer. So be it. There are some preparations that need to be made for when your friends arrive, please excuse me” Ulrich bowed and left the room, the others all followed.
I sat huddled on the floor in the corner. My breath misted in the cold night air and I could hear the rain tapping on the iron roof. My body started rocking backwards and forwards and I let myself go, crying uncontrollably and shaking. I wiped the blood from my mouth and the tears from my cheeks. Pull yourself together? Stay strong. I told myself and I stood and started pacing the room, taking deep breaths to control my nerves and hold my tears at bay. I dug through my handbag and looked for my phone, the screen was blank and there was no reception. It would have been useless anyway, my captors hearing was much too sensitive. They would have known what I was doing before I made my first keystroke. I continued pacing around the room, kicking the debris Heidi left earlier as she was propelled through the wall by Ulrich. A long shard of wood scuttled along the floor to the corner of the room, dust swirled around my feet. Creaking floorboards made my every move known and I intentionally pressed on each board, taunting. Footsteps approaching made me back into my corner again, another vampire I had not seen before opened the door abruptly. He looked my age, maybe younger. He was sent to check on me. After looking me up and down with disgust, he turned and walked away, muttering something under his breath I couldn’t make out.