“Cut!” the director’s voice boomed. Nova slumped her shoulders and dared a peek at his direction. This was the 51st take of one single scene and the sunlight was burning her in her voluptuous Snow White costume. This was how a vampire would feel under the sun, she thought sarcastically. “Snow White’s supposed to be sad thinking about her late mother.” he shook his head. “You looked freaked the hell out. This is her birthday. She is ‘lonely’. Again!” Her jaws felt so stiff, almost paralyzed with trying to get into that sad smile the director wanted for hours straight. Before she was ready, the director shouted, “Action!” She looked at the giant birthday cake and sighed. “Happy 16th Birthday, Princess,” said the co-actress. She smiled wryly, or tried to. Thankfully, it worked! “Cut.” Director Clark rose from the chair. “Good job, everyone.” She exhaled in relief, before slumping down into a nearby chair. For today’s scenes which started at six am in the morning, she had to wake
When he led her down the stairs, she eyed Marie, who was biting her lips and giving her a conspiratory look. An hour later, she was in his mansion, having lost the crowd at last. Marc and Loyd arrived with Marie, Both whining they would have come sooner if they had known. In the garden, they sat down for dinner, five of them. Reign asked Mr. Hacke to join and the old man cried before he took a seat at the table. “You’re coming with me back to the kingdom, my darling,” he announced, in the middle of their noisy chats.“Am I? Why?” she set down her fork. “Are you…giving me orders? Already?”He tilted his head, candle lights half-shadowing his face. “If you’d love to stay behind, of course you can. I’m not giving you an order. Chaos could break out soon without me or you with the remnants of…” he halted as though searching for words, “my enemy. I simply thought you’d agree with me to come along.”She looked down at her plate.“I’m sorry I brought this up at our engagement dinner.” He k
Danica’s blood was boiling, seeing a male and a female being intimate three tables away. They were unaware of her watching them. A man and a vampire. She forced herself to calm down; a hunter needed to be clear-headed. Leaning against the back of the chair, she scrolled her smartphone screen as though she was relaxed and bored out of her mind, instead of planning how to take out the bitch. It should be tonight. The night was still young.A partition half-covered their table, but the observant could see what they were doing, or rather what she was doing to him, to be specific. Was bloodsucking illegal? No. But what the vampire was going to do was illegal.Her hands were so itchy with the urge to pull a pistol out of hostlers hidden beneath her shirt, and to send a bullet straight to ‘her’ heart. That would be pointless, not to mention Danica would be thrown into jail for assaulting an ‘innocent’ vampire. As much as she handcrafted these bullets with silver and wood, a single shot was
It was a royal emblem of the Eclipsis family, and it symbolized a solar eclipse and blood stars. A symbol that represented the family that ruled all vampire races: their monarch. This meant two things: either she was in trouble or she was not. Simple as that.An ordinary vampire could have that tattoo because they liked it, or this vampiress could be distantly related to the family. Wait. Why should she care? No matter what, this was a serial killer. In her 23 years of life, she had never spared a monster just because of wealth or social status. After dinner, she headed home. Past the skyscrapers, the neighborhood she lived in was dominated by red brick buildings. Her apartment was rather a shoe box than a studio apartment. From head to toe, she was smelly and dirty; she took a long bath and washed her hair, which was as red as a blaze, the opposite hue to forest green eyes. After that, she spent three boring days. Not even a summon from the ORP. Apparently, she had been overthinkin
Damn, it was the buzzer, loud and insistent. Was it morning yet? She lifted the curtain at the bedside. No. Who the hell was it at this hour? Normally, she’d wake up with the slightest sound. That’s why alcohol and hunters did not go well, but man did they drink.The earlier phone calls popped into her mind. Was it Dave? Did he show up at her door because she was not answering her phone? They had broken up for like, what, three years? Unbelievable.After their relationship ended, for months he had constantly called her and had annoyed the entire building by buzzing every door until she let him in. No. It was not because he loved her. His ego just couldn’t take the fact that she dumped him.Danica had known better then. It had been the second breakup. After the first break-up, she had accepted him back out of pity, but what did he do? He cheated on her again, with multiple women. She had fallen hard for a playboy without an ounce of loyalty. Dave had broken her heart repeatedly.In pa
They met at a cafe. Dave was rid of his usual smugness. He looked in a dream just like the hunter, but was not as crazy as yesterday. He admitted that there was something weird about his memory.“Tell me how you spent yesterday before you called me. Describe the way you remember.”“I don’t know. Everything’s confusing. The night before that I went into a fight with—you know—umm”“Elaine?” Her former friend who he slept with while he was dating Danica.“Yeah. Now it was like a dream. I was angry with her—and you—because normally you’d call me and ask me if I was okay. But you didn’t. The weird thing was I found out the date and the changes around me, but I was still confused.”“Like you were living in two different timelines at the same time.” That’s how George described his experience.“Exactly. How do you know that? When I woke up this morning, I also remembered I’ve already broken up with you, but—”“Do you remember meeting any suspicious non-human?” She did not know an other-race t
Danica hesitated to continue. Being lit up meant whoever was in the building might not be a thief. Or was this light the magic of the building itself?With caution and silence, she set forth, the safety flipped off of the pistol. She pulled the door–heavy, thick, and decorated with ornate carvings–, and it opened with a draggingly long creak. That was freaking loud. She cursed at the door inwardly. Stupid door! So much for the silence.At least nobody jumped out, yet. Stepped inside, she found herself in a brightly lit empty hall. Vast, vintage furniture against the walls, old paintings on the wall, and dark curtains hang at the windows. She did not need to touch a thing to find out how every surface was squeaky clean. If the light had not surprised her, this should be. In the middle of the hall, she waited for something to happen. Nothing happened. There was a door before her. She took slow steps towards it. Upon opening the door, the pretentious tranquility ended. An utterly unexp
After the brief phone conversation, Danica spent her morning in the boxing room ten minute drive from her place. She was alone in the entire hall; it was too early for the day. She wore her hair in a tight ponytail and headed to a 200-pound punching bag near the corner. Mirrors covered the walls around, making the hall look more spacious. In a red crop top and black tights, she was leanly muscled, not the curvy type. Walking, she put the boxing gloves on. Early this morning, an ambassador of theirs had made a live video statement on the ownership of the mansion. The vampire prince had inherited the mansion when he was born a century and a half ago. The ambassador also cleared the ‘rumors’ about the prince missing in his statement. Reign was not missing, but on vacation instead. He was in Umbre City. Then he was the owner, and she invaded his home. Still, was this the reason he wanted to kill her?It didn’t matter. As much as he was, she was also out for blood. She threw a punch at