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Chapter 4

I awoke to darkness sometime later. I sat bolt upright, disoriented and confused; my heart racing and my breathing heavy.

And dammit, my head was killing me.

It took a few minutes to realize that I was back at Michael’s apartment; this was his bedroom. I was laying on top of his comforter, a throw blanket wound around my legs. I kicked it off, as I sat up and swung my feet to the floor. The movement only intensified the pain in my head, and I stumbled through the dark towards his bathroom.

The light was blinding when I hit the switch, and for a moment I wanted to gouge my eyes out; but I figured counting to ten and slowly cracking them open was the better option. I squinted as I searched the counter around Michael’s sink, finally spying what I was looking for. I popped the top off the tiny bottle of aspirin and downed two of them with some water from the tap.

I leaned heavily against the wall next to me, as I willed my head to stop hurting. I could feel my heartbeat in my face; a steady thump, thump, thump – and every thud felt like a hammer to my skull.

“Hey.”

The soft voice startled me so badly, I jumped a foot into the air and screamed. “AAAAHH!”

As if my head wasn’t hurting bad enough…

“Jesus, Danni! Don’t scare me like that!” I gripped my head tighter, as I turned, looking at her through one eye.

“I’m sorry – I thought you heard me come in,” she replied, hands out in front of her in surrender. She stood in the doorway looking just as panicked as I.

“It’s ok,” I managed to say through gritted teeth. “It’s not your fault I’m jumpy. It’s been a rough night.”

“Yeah,” she stated slowly.

“So, where is everybody?”

“They went to grab something to eat, but they’ll be back in a little bit.” She chewed on her lip nervously, before blurting out, “Are you ok?”

“Define ‘Okay’,” I responded. “Cause it kinda feels like my head’s about to explode.”

“Well, it does look like you got punched in the face,” she admitted, looking at me thoughtfully, as she nibbled on her thumbnail.

My shoulders slumped as that memory came back to me. “Backhanded, actually, but close.” I finally opened my eyes and took a look at myself in the mirror. Ugly, purple bruising covered my entire right cheek – from my jaw to just beneath my eye. Damn, that guy must’ve had a huge hand. I tried moving it; it wasn’t broken, but it still hurt. I reached up and grazed my fingertips across my cut and swollen lip, wincing in pain.

“Shelly-“ Danni began, but I cut her off, noticing that I was still wearing the hospital gown.

“Hey – how did I get here? Who carried me?”

“Huh?” Confusion crossed Danni’s face at my abrupt change in tone. “Uh…Ben carried you up. Why?”

“Please tell me you kept a lookout?” I asked, gesturing to the flimsy material I was wearing, and giving her a concerned look. Thank God it was one of those gowns big enough to wrap around my body twice, instead of being open in the back. I mean, I wouldn’t put it past Michael to try and sneak a peek…he is a guy…

“What? No – you’re fine; nobody saw anything.” She answered, once she understood what I meant. “But, listen –“

“Whew! Good,” I interrupted again. “That’s the last thing I need to add to tonight’s events. I mean, it’s bad enough that the cops have my favorite pair of jeans–“

“Shelly!” This time, it was Danni who interrupted me. “Stop, ok?”

“Stop what?” I asked, innocently.

“This!” She gestured all around me. “You’re deflecting! I think we should talk about what happened. I mean, I saw you come flying out of that alley, and there were two dead guys, and you were all bruised and bloody, and just…what happened?”

“Aside from all that?” I deadpanned.

“I’m being serious” she stated firmly, crossing her arms over her chest and glaring at me.

“So, am I,” I shot back, closing my eyes again; against the harsh bathroom lights and against her questions.

Maybe I should just pretend I have amnesia and don’t remember…

“Look – it’s ok. No matter what it is, you can tell me,” she said, her voice softening. “I’m your best friend, and I’m here – maybe it’ll help if you talk about it. Whatever they did -”

“Whatever ‘they’ did?” I snapped. “Last I checked, ‘they’ were dead, and I’m still here.”

“Yeah, but-“

“But, what?” I looked at her, my defenses going up. “I got attacked. I defended myself. I didn’t mean to kill him – I was just trying to get away – but I did. He’s dead, I’m not. End of story.”

It was quiet in the bathroom for a few moments. I didn’t mean to snap at Danni, but I didn’t want to talk about it, I didn’t know how.

“End of story? Really?” she asked, a hint of sarcasm in her tone. “Do I look stupid?” She held up her hand to silence the smart-ass response that she knew was on the tip of my tongue.

I sighed, turning back to the sink and leaning heavily against it, eyes closed, head down. “I don’t want to talk about it.”

She stepped closer, leaning down a bit to try and catch my eye. “But, maybe you should…?”

“Why? It won’t change anything,” I replied quietly.

“No, it won’t, but that doesn’t mean you should bottle it all up, either.” She answered smoothly.

“I’m not bottling-“ I started to deny, but she cut me off.

“You’re bottling.” She stated firmly. “It’s what you do, how you deal; I’ve known you long enough to know how you react to things.” She paused. “It’s the same way you were after Brad….”

I shot her a sideways glare; one of my tried-and-true go-to-hell looks – effectively putting a stop to the route this conversation was taking. Brad was a dick, and thoughts of him and the hell he’d put me through were the last things I wanted to think about on top of all the other turmoil in my head. Although, if not for him, I probably never would have taken those self-defense classes… so, there’s that.

“Look – there’s really not much more to tell,” I stated, shrugging my shoulders. I turned to face her, crossing my arms over my chest. “I lost you guys in the crowd, I got grabbed, I fought back, and here we are.”

I tried to sound nonchalant about it, but inside I was anything but. I had killed someone. I had blood on my hands. Even if it was self-defense, I took someone’s life. That was heavy, and scary. Scarier still, I didn’t feel as bad about it as a part of me thought I should.

Probably just haven’t processed everything that happened, yet…

“Wait a sec,” she began, and I was pulled from my thoughts. Her hazel eyes were narrowed in thought, and I could tell something was dawning on her. “You said you…you know…’took care’ of one guy…so, what happened to the other one?”

I tensed. Not only because of her question, but also because I had the realization that I could still feel ‘him’. It had been there from the moment I woke up – that un-natural sensation that I couldn’t quite describe, but I hadn’t noticed it until now. Which meant…

He’s here…somewhere…

Well…what the hell does that mean?

“Shelly?” Danni was watching me carefully, taking in every change in my expressions, as she waited patiently for me to explain.

But what was I supposed to tell her?

“There was…someone else; another …guy who came out of nowhere. He…he was…” I fumbled with my words, because I simply didn’t know how to explain what I’d seen – not in a way that would make sense, and not leave me looking completely crazy.

How do you tell your friend that you were saved by a vampire? Better yet, how do you make them believe you? Especially when you’re not sure ‘you’ even believe you?

“He was what?” she prompted.

“I don’t know. I mean, I couldn’t really see – it was dark,” How the hell do I explain this?!?  “I think he’s the one who pushed me out of the alley. He’s the one who killed the other guy….”

“And you didn’t see what he did? What he looked like?” she questioned, and I could tell she was suspicious.

I squeezed my eyes shut and rubbed my temples, trying to think my way out of this. If I tell her it was a vampire, she’s going to call the nearest mental institution and I wouldn’t blame her one bit. Danni knew about my…abilities; one of the very few people I trusted with that information. She’d seen it happen on many occasions and she fully believed. But it was quite a big jump from believing your best friend was some kind of psychic to believing in vampires.

In the end, I decided to lie through my teeth. “No. It was too dark.”

“Uh-huh…”

She didn’t need to say anything else. I knew she didn’t believe me, but I didn’t care. I’d rather her be upset, thinking I wasn’t telling her everything, than to think I was insane; she’d get over it. Eventually.

“Look – I am so tired, and my head hurts,” I said, letting the exhaustion creep into my voice. “All I want to do right now is borrow Michael’s shower, let that aspirin kick in, and go to sleep. Ok?”

She stared at me a minute, before giving in. “Sure.” She gave a resigned sigh, knowing I was done talking, and letting me know she wasn’t happy with me. She turned to leave the bathroom, throwing back over her shoulder, “I’ll let you know when they get back with the food – in case you’re hungry.”

“Thanks,” I mumbled, closing the door behind her.

I stripped off the gown and took a shower, getting the water as hot as I could stand it, hoping the events of the night could be washed away. I noticed the scrapes and scratches on my palms and a few bruises here and there.

Probably happened when I hit that wall and landed on the sidewalk. I’m going to be sore in the morning.

Wait – what time is it? It’s probably already ‘morning’…

Michael’s place was well and truly a bachelor pad; all he had was 2-1 shampoo and conditioner, and some generic body wash. It wasn’t what I was used to, but it was better than nothing, and the hot water relaxed my tense muscles.

After shutting off the water, I toweled off and dried my hair as best I could. I went straight to Michael’s closet and stole a pair a sweat-pants and a t-shirt. No way was I staying in that hospital gown a second longer; I didn’t even look at what I grabbed. The pants were too long, and I had to roll them up to keep from stepping on them, and I tightened the drawstrings as much as I could. The shirt was loose and comfortable, the fabric soft from many washes, and I pulled it on over my head before turning back to the room.

I noticed the McDonald’s bag on the edge of the bed almost immediately. They must’ve gotten back while I was in the shower. The scent of fries hit my nose and my stomach growled. I heard low voices coming through the closed door, and briefly thought about joining them.

I grabbed the bag of fries and turned toward the window instead. I brushed the curtains aside. It was still dark out, but it had to be nearing dawn. I looked out over the parking lot and nearby buildings, but everything was still and quiet. No movement at all.

I closed my eyes, and breathed deeply…and for just a second, I connected with something truly powerful.

Hunger, anger, cold…and curious…so curious…

A sharp pain lanced through my skull, and I grabbed my head with a tiny cry of pain. The connection was gone, but the feeling that I was not alone, that something, or someone, was watching me, lingered. It wasn’t a bad feeling…it simply was.

He was near. I couldn’t pinpoint where, but he was close.

Why do these things happen to me?

Obviously, this was my first run-in with a…vampire - Wow – does that ever get easier to say…er, think? Whatever… - but I tended to find myself in troubling situations all the time. Ok, yeah – some of them were probably my own fault; I could be a little impulsive sometimes. But I could honestly say that most of the time things just seemed to happen - like I was some kind of magnet for trouble and weirdness.

It didn’t help that I seemed to be perpetually attracted to the bad-boy type, or that I sometimes saw and felt things others couldn’t – you know, like glimpses of the past, or ghosts, or…vampires. I guess that combination would make for an interesting time.

I nibbled one of my fries, as my eyes wandered over the parked cars on the silent street below. I wasn’t expecting to see anything, and I didn’t; not even the leaves on the trees were moving. I felt goosebumps rise over my arms, and I simply allowed the sensation that was ‘him’ to roll over me.

Well, ok. There’s a vampire following me. Now what?

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