Sam stood at the door for a moment, one hand on the handle, the other gripping the key tightly. She let a sigh of relief before pulling the keys out of the door. She turned around to find Jamie watching her, his expression half confused, half concerned.
“Everything alright?” he asked.
Sam tightened her hands into fists, not sure why they were shaking, or why the darkness had caused her heart to race with panic. She looked at Jamie and forced a smile. “Yeah, everything’s fine.” Her eyes drifted towards the library doors.
“It’s okay, you know?” he said. When Sam looked at him in confusion he gave her a kind smile and elaborated, “To be afraid of the dark.” He put his hands into the pockets of his jeans and shrugged his shoulders. “Everyone’s got something they don’t like.”
“I’m not usually,” Sam explained. “I don’t mind the dark, it’s just, it felt like . . . I don’t know, I just thought . . . ”
“Thought what?”
Sam shook her head and laughed. “Nothing . . . I’m just tired I guess. It was nothing.”
Sam stood there for a few minutes, just staring at the door, pushing at it with her senses, trying to feel if there was a presence behind it.
There was nothing.
She really must have imagined the whole thing.
But then she remembered the runes, and the feeling she’d had earlier that there was something to be seen that she just couldn’t focus on.
“So, what is your thing?” Jamie asked, after standing with her in silence for countless moments.
“What?” When she turned around he was still standing in the same place he had been when she’d turned her back to him.
Still with his hands in his pockets.
Still watching her.
“You said that Blood-Bars aren’t your thing. So what is your thing?”
Sam sighed and thought, getting people killed. She looked at Jamie, he was probably in danger right now just for the crime of talking to her. Although it wasn’t as if she could tell him that. She shrugged. “The usual boring things.”
“Is that all your going to tell me?” Jamie asked as if he had been expecting her to divulge every minor detail of what she liked to do.
“Yep,” Sam said and started walking away.
“Hey, Sam!” Jamie called. She turned around to look at him. “Uh, do you want a lift home?” he asked, and pointed to the only car in the parking lot, indicating that it was his.
Sam raised an eyebrow. “Are you insane?” she asked. He gave her a confused look. “I don’t ride home with strangers. What if you’re a serial killer?”
Jamie smiled and raised his left hand, placing his right one over his heart. “I hereby promise that I am most definitely not a serial killer.”
“That’s exactly what a serial killer would say.”
Jamie laughed. “We were in an empty library all night,” he stated. “Don’t you think if I was a serial killer you would be dead, or at the very least, kidnapped by now?”
Sam gave him a sceptical look. “Not unless you were trying to lull me into a false sense of security before you killed me.”
Jamie thought about that for a minute, then shook his head. “That’s just ridiculous, I’m not a serial killer.”
“I watch pretty much every crime drama on television,” Sam stated. “I know how serial killers work and I’m not falling for your act.”
“When was the last time anyone in this town died of anything other than natural causes?” Jamie asked. All of the police reports said natural causes, but Sam knew better than that. People get murdered in this town more often than anyone realises. “When did this conversation go wrong?” he asked rhetorically while laughing. “I only asked if you wanted a lift home.”
Sam smiled. “I wasn’t serious,” she said. “Thanks for the offer, but I still don’t ride home with strangers.”
“You sure?”
“Yeah, I only live about ten minutes away so it’s not like I’m travelling for miles or anything.”
Jamie shrugged. Sam thought that he looked a little disappointed, but it was difficult to tell with the lack of light. “Well, bye, I guess.”
“Bye,” Sam said and turned to walk away.
“Maybe I’ll see you again sometime?” he called after her.
Sam smiled to herself. “Maybe,” she said without looking back.
CHAPTER 10
Jamie looked at the car he had pointed to earlier. Why did I say it was mine? he wondered. He had just been hoping to spend more time with Sam and had blurted the first thing he thought of. I guess I’m lucky she said no, otherwise I would have had to steal that car, and then teach myself how to drive in five seconds.
Jamie laughed at his own idiocy and started walking the same way Sam had. He could see her right ahead of him, walking at a casual pace, unaware that she was being followed.
When he stretched his senses and could hear the hum of music. She had headphones on. How could she block her senses with noise while walking down vacant streets in the middle of the night? Did she not know how dangerous that could be? What if someone were to sneak up and attack her? She’d never see it coming because she was shutting herself off from her surroundings.
Jamie felt himself frown as he realised she would be walking alone at this hour every night. And sure . . . she would be safe tonight, but what about tomorrow night? Or the night after that?
Sam turned and walked up the driveway to a two storey detached house. She took her keys out of her pocket, opened the door and walked inside, using her foot to kick the door closed behind her. Jamie stood in the shadows down the end of the driveway.
He didn’t hear her speak, which he found a little strange. Wouldn’t she announce that she’s home to whoever was inside? Perhaps everyone’s asleep, he thought. He stretched his senses to see how many people were in the house.
Jamie felt an anxiousness in the pit of his stomach when he sensed only Sam. Surely she doesn’t live alone?
A light in one of the upstairs windows flicked on. Sam came into his view, she walked over to the window, looking out for a moment. Jamie prayed she didn’t look at him. What would he do if she saw him?
Jamie stood where he was. he thought and sent his thought out into the air. He hadn’t wanted to use any of his mind manipulations on her, but he didn’t want her to catch him outside her house even more.
Jamie saw what looked like a smile play on the corner of Sam’s lips, almost as if she’d heard his thought. Though that would have been impossible, Sam was human, wasn’t she? She closed the curtains without looking at Jamie once. He sighed with relief at not being caught. A few minutes later the light went off.
Jamie stood outside her house for about an hour, just staring at the brick walls and the darkened windows, stretching his senses as far as he could just so he could hear her heart beating as she fell asleep.
What are you doing? he asked himself, taking a step back as he suddenly realised where he was and what he was doing. You can’t follow a girl home and just stand outside her house in the dark. What will people think if they see you?
He shook his head, then turned and began the journey home, the whole way telling himself that the only reason he had followed her home was because it was dark and he didn’t want her walking alone. He just wanted to make sure she got home safely.
Jamie told himself this over and over again, all the while knowing it was a lie.
CHAPTER 11
Aleczander and Evangeline were the other two of Sam’s Guardians. In total there were three left standing.
Aleczander.
Evangeline.
Jack.
Not that she had really relied on anyone but Jack for the past few years.
In the beginning there had been seven. Including her adoptive parents Gabrielle and Anthony Jacobs, and then her grandparents, Joan and Henry Foster.
All of whom were now dead.
Sam picked the phone up out of
the holder and dialled Aleczander’s number. The phone had barely started ringing before it was answered. “Hello?”
Sam sighed internally at the sound of the woman’s voice on the other end of the line; she had been hoping to get Aleczander. “Hi Evangeline, it’s—”
“Sam!” Evangeline interrupted. “We haven’t heard from you in ages. How’ve you been?”
“I’m fine. How are you?” Sam asked, forcing herself to make polite conversation so that she didn’t seem completely uncaring.
“Good, good,” she said. “Everything’s great.”
There was a moment of silence, then Sam asked, “Is Aleczander there?”
Evangeline sighed dramatically. “And here I thought you called to talk to me,” she said. Sam rolled her eyes. It wasn’t that she disliked Evangeline, it was just that she was the kind of person who always seemed to be in a perpetual good mood, always enthusiastic and on the bright side about everything. Which sometimes made talking to her for prolonged periods of time extremely irritating for any person who didn’t think that the whole world was made of marshmallow fluff and rainbows.
“I actually just called because I need an address,” Sam explained, in an attempt to make Evangeline not feel totally rejected.
“Oh,” she said and took a second before saying, “He’s in a meeting right now . . . ”
Sam thought for a moment, she had called for Aleczander, but the odds were if he had the information she was looking for, Evangeline would too. “You wouldn’t happen to know the address of a Blood-Bar close to here, would you?”
“I would happen to know,” she said simply.
Sam waited for a few seconds, expecting Evangeline to fill the silence by actually giving her the information she’d asked for. When she didn’t Sam sighed and asked, “Where?”
“I’m not giving you the address of a Blood-Bar!” Evangeline said, laughing. “You could get yourself killed there Sam. Not every Vampire in the world likes to follow the rules and some of them are dangerous. If they see a pretty girl like you walking into a place like that they’ll assume you’re consenting to having your blood drained. And then a dangerous Vampire will be walking around filled to his fangs with Magic.”
“I don’t want to go to a Blood-Bar. The address is for a Vampire I met yesterday,” Sam explained. “He was abandoned by his Sire and doesn’t know a lot about his situation. He was looking for another Vampire to try explain the do’s and don’ts.”
“And he told you all of this?” Evangeline asked sceptically.
“No,” Sam admitted. “He came into the library yesterday looking for books on Vampire mythology. But he kept looking at me so I assumed he was up to something shifty and I read his thoughts and memories. He doesn’t know who I am or what I can do. I didn’t tell him anything. But, I dunno, I feel kinda sorry for him so I suggested he try looking for information at a Blood-Bar.”
“Why would you suggest a Blood-Bar? Why didn’t you just give him this number?”
Sam let a breath of frustration. “Because then he’d wonder how exactly I knew other Vampires and I’d rather not drag every stranger I meet into the middle of all of my crap.”
Evangeline laughed a little. “Right,” she said. “Sorry, that’s understandable I suppose.”
“So can I have the address or not?”
“Sure, just give me a second.” Sam could hear papers rustling on the other end of the phone. Which presumably was the sound of Evangeline searching for an address book. “There’s a few around the area,” she said when the noise had stopped. “Mmmm . . . maybe this one,” she mumbled to herself. “It’s one of the more reputable, less dodgy people. I think Claudio actually goes to this one frequently, so that would be good.” Evangeline seemed pleased with her decision. Sam could feel her smiling on the other end of the line. “Okay, two towns over there’s a good one. If you tell him to walk to the centre of town where there’s small park with a playground. If he walks past on the side of the playground he’ll be on the main street, forward on for ten minutes until he finds an old hotel, it should be all boarded up and pretty derelict on the outside. Go down the alley to the far left of the building and he can get in through the emergency exit. This is Nick’s bar, he’s good people and should be able to direct him to wherever he wants to go. And if he goes there on a Thursday he’ll find Claudio.”
Sam scribbled all of that down on a piece of paper so that she could remember it all later, when she was sure she’d run into the Vampire again.
CHAPTER 12
Jack arrived at Sam’s house just as she opened the front door wearing her jacket. She smiled a genuine smile, which was something that Jack hadn’t seen her do in almost two years. Who knew that a job would make her so happy, he thought, maybe I should have gotten her one ages ago.
“You sure did take your time.”
“Not my fault,” Jack replied, raising his hands defensively. “Death has a time difference.”
She shrugged and closed the door, stepping out onto the porch. “It was a waste of a journey,” she said. A kid riding by on a bike stopped to stare at her. She gave the kid an angry glare and he looked away. “Would you mind corporealising so I don’t look like a crazy person?”
Jack de-materialised, then re-materialised, doing it inside the house so that the neighbours wouldn’t see him appearing out of nowhere. When he was corporeal, he opened the door and stepped outside. Sam started walking, Jack beside her.
“Don’t you want to know what I found out about him?” Jack asked, not wanting the day he spent wandering through Limbo then travelling to Athens to be a complete waste of time.
“Vampire,” Sam stated.
Jack’s shoulders sagged with disappointment. “And you couldn’t have figured that out before I left?” Although the fact that the guy was a Vampire wasn’t the only thing Jack had found out about him, it was pretty much the only thing he was able to tell Sam at this time. He had to keep everything else to himself until the time was right.
At least that’s what they told him. If all of the rules had been made by Jack, then there probably wouldn’t be any rules. As far as he was concerned, secrets didn’t keep anyone safe.
“He wasn’t close enough,” said Sam. “I didn’t find out until about ten minutes after you left. They should invent phones that work between dimensions.”
“Did you know his name is—”
“Jamie,” Sam finished. That wasn’t what Jack was going to say, but he had been told that the Vampire answered to two names. “Yeah, he told me.”
“Do you know he was in the library—”
“Studying Vampire mythology, hoping it would help him find another Vampire to explain what being a Vampire means,” Sam interrupted again then laughed a little. “I know.”
“Well do you know that’s because—”
“His Sire abandoned him.”
“How would you know that?” Jack yelled, not hiding his annoyance at the wasted journey. “You said he pushed you out of his head.”
“Well, he spent the whole night hitting on me.” Jack wasn’t surprised by the fact the Vampire had been flirtatious with Sam, she was a naturally beautiful girl. She had an otherworldly aura that drew people’s attention. And, when she wasn’t in one of her more brooding moods, she was quite good company. Boys her age, and those somewhat older, often paid attention to her. Not that she ever returned their affections or advances.
Which was why Jack had to hide his surprise when he noticed that Sam’s hair had a slight curl to it today, she had enough make up on that it looked like she’d made an effort but not so much as to make her look like she was trying too hard, and she was wearing a skirt. Jack couldn’t remember the last time Sam had worn a skirt. It had to have been over two years ago. Sam chewed her lip for a moment as she stared up at the clouds while they walked, Jack smiled fondly at her.
At least she’s happy, he thought.
“He’s a complete idiot,” she continued, shaking her he
ad slightly. “He gave away a dangerous amount of information. He’s like, the worst Vampire ever . . . and I peeked at his memories to fill in the gaps.”
Jack was more than a little annoyed by the fact that Sam seemed to already know all of the information he was allowed to give her, but at least the time alone had been good for her.
Perhaps he should start leaving her alone more often.
“Did he seem familiar to you in any way?” Jack asked, knowing it was one of the things he couldn’t tell her about, but wanting her to know just the same. She had a right to, and he felt like he couldn’t know and not tell her, there were already too many things he had to keep to himself. To hell with those bitches, he thought, they can’t tell me what to do.
Sam’s nose scrunched up a little as she thought, she seemed confused by his question. “Um . . . Not really. I don’t think I’ve ever met him before.” She tilted her head at Jack. “Why?”
Consequences my ass, Jack thought as he smiled. “Because I—” A stabbing sensation shot right through Jack. He cried out in pain and doubled over, his body feeling like it was being ripped apart from the inside.
“What’s wrong?” Sam asked, her voice tinged with concern, she reached forward to place her hand on his shoulder, but stopped before she touched him.
Jack took a few deep breaths to calm the pain. Jack smiled bitterly at the sound of Lachesis’s voice in his head.
“Nothing,” he said as the pain evaporated. He looked at Sam and smiled, trying his best to ease her worry, he let a small laugh. “I was just about to tell you a secret is all.”
CHAPTER 13