Wednesday, November 24, 2010

City Limits



Chapter 2

"What an idiot" Alexis kept her eyes on the boy even though his attention had now been snared by the vampire. She navigated the crowd until she was on the other side of the bar where could keep an eye on him. "Why did I bring him here? Here of all places?" she was chastising herself - a habit she'd cultivated over the years.



"You okay babe?" Lex recoiled from the heavy alcohol smell eminating from the man's mouth. He'd leaned in close to her, much closer than she was comfortable with. He was looking at her chest even as he apparently asked after her welfare and he made no attempt to hide it.

"That's enough of that!" Lex snapped at him. She snapped her fingers in his face, bringing his gaze back up to her eyes in surprise.



The bartender set a drink before him, saving her from any more of his lustful stares. As he turned his attention to the drink, Lex scanned the room, looking for Rick and the vampire. "Oh no, no no no!" she pounded her hand on the bar and earned herself a few curious glances from those around her. She grabbed the perv's drink and took a giant gulp. She grimaced as the liquid seared down her throat.

"Hey!" he sputtered and started to get up from his chair. Clearly intoxicated, he stumbled back though and had to cling to the bar to keep from crashing to the floor.



Lex barely spared him a glance as she continued to search for her missing date. She knew that he was gone though, already in the female vampire's clutches. For all she knew the woman had already drained him and disposed of him like garbage. She picked out two other vampires in the club, both with a gaggle of needy humans around them. Why couldn't they see what was in front of them? They had to feel it; they had to feel the danger that emanated from these beings! But then, a couple months ago she'd been as blind as they were.

The bartender was cleaning a glass when Lex's gaze zeroed in on her. "Where would she take him? The woman in black from just a few minutes ago, where would she take him?" The bartender's gaze was blank. Her eyes didn't focus on Lex, they didn't seem to focus anywhere. Lex reached over the bar and tried to find purchase on the leather monstrosity the woman was wearing. Finally she pulled her closer, "Where would she take him?"



Their noses were almost touching and still the bartender's eyes didn't focus on Lex. "Thirteen, can't say thirteen, floor thirteen, just don't say it." Her voice was almost like a whisper on the wind, scared and uncertain. Lex let go of her and dropped back, tilting her head in confusion. She sounded like she was talking to herself, battling herself really...but why? Lex shook off the question; she didn't have time for it, Rick didn't have time for her to waste with an unstable bartender.

The elevator seemed to be painfully slow in rising to the club level. As she waited, she turned back to look at the bartender who had returned to her duties. She never once seemed to make eye contact with anyone. The customers were either too drunk or too occupied to care. The loud ding jolted her from her thoughts; she turned back to the elevator and crossed her fingers that no one else boarded.



"Lucky 13." she said softly as she pushed button.

Nothing happened.

"Crap. Move you damn box!" Lex hissed at it, hoping and praying it would move before a vampire came on board and saw her. Being trapped in an elevator with a blood sucker was NOT how she wanted to spend even a minute of her life. She jammed the button again, with more force and conviction. Suddenly the doors slid shut and the elevator began it's ascent. She let out of sigh of relief.

A hallway with what looked like an abandoned reception desk greeted Lex as the doors opened onto floor thirteen. She stuck her head out of the elevator and glanced both ways. It was a narrow passage with doors and curtained archways lining each side. She could hear soft music coming from further down the hall and occasionally muffled voices, probably from the curtained rooms. She glanced at the log sitting on the desk and saw that at least three of the rooms were "in use." She was pretty sure she knew what that meant and shuddered at the thought. Of the notations in the log, only one looked like the name of a female..."Mirelle" Lex whispered the name outloud.



She was halfway down the hall when the attendant returned to her duty station. "No! You can't go back there!" she shouted. Lex spared a moment to look back and assess the situation. She was a vampire but she wasn't as graceful as the others she had encountered. She was uncertain, a quality she hadn't seen in their kind yet. She could count her vampire encounters on a single hand but so far they'd always seemed arrogant in her experience. Turning away from the attendant, she continued on to room 2 and threw open the door.

The soft light in the room glinted off the vampire's fangs as she licked Rick's blood from her mouth. Unlike the attendant, this one was just like the vampires Lex had seen before, which meant it was time to get the hell out of here. Rick slumped away as the vampire released her grip on him.



Clearly he had served his purpose. Lex scrambled over to him, trying to keep Mirelle in her sights at all times. She placed her fingers to his neck and nearly gagged when her fingers came back coated in a thin layer of blood.

"He's not dead." Mirelle said, pouring herself a drink.

"Well why not?" Lex sputtered.

Mirelle raised her eyebrows and grinned, her fangs still extended. "Would you have preferred him dead?"

"No!" Lex shouted. "I just...nevermind." she considered what she might have said. What would this vampire do if she knew of Lex's other encounters?

Mirelle was looking at her quizzically, almost as if she were watching a specimen in a cage. "I was wrong about you." she said finally, thinly masking her frustrations. "You're not entirely uninteresting after all." she took a sip from the glass. "What are you?"



Now it was Lex's turn to be confused and frustrated. "I'm just here for the boy..." she heaved Rick into a straighter position and tried to formulate an escape route. She didn't have much chance of fighting off one vampire, let alone the four that were probably on this floor alone. What if there were more inside the club?

"Then take him...I'm done with him." Mirelle said. "For now." she added with a wickedly playful smile. "He was rather tasty." she added quietly, as if they were two girlfriends sharing gossip.

"Um..eww." Lex recoiled from her. With a powerful thrust, she got Rick to his feet but his nearly dead weight threatened to pull her back down. "Is he going to...ya know, get less stupid anytime soon?" she asked, referring to the euphoric haze he was under.

"Well that is a matter of opinion but highly unlikely at his age," Mirelle was smiling again, clearly amused by the whole scenario. Lex glowered at her but bit her tongue, it seemed as if the vampire was willing to let them just walk out of here and sparking a vampire's rage wasn't going to help matters. "Or did you mean the thrall? He'll snap out of it soon I imagine. You're welcome to stay here while he comes out of it...we can share a drink." she said, flashing a hint of fang.

"I'd rather not thanks." Lex said. She readjusted herself and Rick; the new positioning was shooting spasms of pain through her calves thanks to the insipid heels she was wearing. She promised herself that she would burn said shoes as soon as she was no longer in a den of vampires. "Well it's been a pleasure but I think we'll be going now." she said sarcastically, dragging Rick along with her to the door.

"Of course - do come back for that drink." Mirelle said, raising her glass to her in a psuedo-salute. "Tell Rick I had a wonderful time...I doubt he'll remember it in the morning."

------



Lex looked over her shoulder a dozen times as they waited for a cab away from that place. She was sure a hoard of vampires would be coming after them any minute now. Why had she let her leave with him like that? Why was he even still alive? Every other encounter had involved a dead human - drained of all blood and tossed aside in some ditch somewhere. After she'd seen the first attack, she'd watched the papers for days - surely the teeth marks at the neck would have raised a red flag with the coroner. But there was nothing! No one in this town seemed to know what lurked in the night except for her - no one else human anyway!

When a cab finally stopped for them, she shoved Rick inside and directed the driver to her apartment. He came out of his stupor a few blocks later so she didn't have to drag him up the stairs to her fourth floor apartment thankfully. She did, however, have to listen to what a great time he had at the club. Apparently he'd danced the whole night to a live band - some memory Mirelle had given him. Lex just rolled her eyes.

Despite the fact that it was after three in the morning, Rick tried to insist on going back to his motel where he and his buddies were staying. Lex was afraid Mirelle or someone would come to finish the job if he did, and probably take out his buddies in the process. So she poured him a drink and leaned in close to him, pressing her body to his. He stopped talking about leaving after that.



Lex barely slept as Rick snored the night away. Between the alcohol and the blood loss, he had passed out quickly and didn't seem to be waking up any time soon. When she first saw the thin rays of sunlight peaking over the horizon, Lex felt like she could breathe again - all the vampires would be tucked away in their coffins...or wherever vampires slept. She finally let her eyes droop closed.

It felt like mere minutes of sleep had been won when she felt someone shaking her and heard an annoying ringing sound. "Hey Lex..." Rick grumbled sleepily. "Your phone..." He shook her harder and then pulled a pillow over his head to block out the sound of the phone and the sunlight streaming in the window.

Lex stumbled out of bed, pulling her hair back into a sloppy ponytail and grabbed her cell phone from the dresser. "Hello!" she barked into the phone.



"Well good morning to you too." the voice on the other end sounded amused. She was sure Link was smiling. "Ever the morning person sister?"

"It is an ungodly hour to be calling." she muttered, looking over at the digital clock. Between the sleep in her eyes and glare of the sun on the plastic surface - the numbers were difficult to make out.

"It's after ten Lex." he said with a chuckle.

"Is it really?" she moved closer to the clock, shielding it from the sun with her body. It was! She'd gotten a few hours of sleep anyway. A rumbling snore erupted from her houseguest and she resisted the urge to throw a pillow at him or shove him out of the bed. "What do you want Link?"

"You coming out today? You said you'd be there and Jenny baked a pie." he was trying to induce her with food, Jenny's pies were legend.

"Yeah yeah. I'll be there in a couple hours." she said, looking over at the mound of person in her bed. "I have to take care of a couple things first."

"Great!" Link said cheerfully. "I'll try to save you some pie before the guys devour it."

After she hung up the phone, she looked at her pillow with longing. With a heavy sigh, she picked up the pillow then brought it down on Rick's head with a thump. He jumped in surprise and nearly fell out of the bed. "Wha?!" he looked over at her wide eyed. "Whaddya do that for?!"



"Time to get up." she said with a smile. "I have stuff to do and you need to meet up with your buddies and go back to Betham or whatever that town you're from is."

"Birkham." he said, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. "There are nicer ways to wake a guy up ya know" he protested, tossing the pillow back at her.

"Not today there aren't." Lex said, trying to keep the ire out of her voice.

------

Link and his family lived on the edge of the county. They were technically inside the city limits but out here, there weren't any skyscrapers or clubs, just suburban neighborhoods and a few long stretches of land. Over the years the land had been bought up and was slowly being developed into outlet malls and strip centers. It wouldn't be long before this area blended in with the rest of Auchlin.



Lex could hear the laughter of at least a dozen people inside the house as she approached the door. She didn't bother with the doorbell, she never had. Link wrapped his muscular arms around her tightly and several of the guys let out loud greetings. Jenny, a tiny creature in this den of burley men, poked her head out of the kitchen and smiled. She looked almost relieved to have another woman in the house - even though Lex was practically one of the guys around here.

"Please tell me there's pie." Lex said hopefully. Pie would help her forget, pie would make everything better - at least for today.



End Chapter

5 comments:

  1. I am loving this Cami. Your descriptions are perfect and I can really imagine what is going on!

    ReplyDelete
  2. The comment that Mirelle made to her has me thinking, I wonder if Lex is something a little superhuman.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thanks guys for the comments :D

    ReplyDelete
  4. Great chapter, Cami! :D I'm really loving this story! The writing is great and the pictures are awesome!

    ReplyDelete
  5. I think Lex is going to be my favourite character! You did a great job creating her, she's so strong and self-assured. You've developed a bit of a mystery too, I wonder what is special about her that she knows about the vamps but no one else seems to. Great job, I'm off to read more :)

    ReplyDelete