Dancing in the Dark - 4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4.

I keep a stash of weapons and body armour under my bed in a specially designed suitcase. I grab my favourite gun from it and take it with me to the shower. I shower just long enough to rinse off the blood the vampire missed when he was feeding and then dress, loading myself with weapons as I go. I can’t hide much under my clothes, but I manage to fit two guns to my ankles, throwing knives around my waist and on my wrists, and a dirk that fits into a sheath that runs down my spine.

I want to add more guns, but I also don’t want to be weighed down by them. When it comes to guns, more does not necessarily mean safer. If you have to shoot more than six or eight times, things have gone to shit and when things have gone to shit, knives are extremely useful because they don’t run out of ammo. So, I place guns strategically around the apartment instead of wearing them.

The vampire is still out of it in my bed, but he’s not looking as ill anymore. He still looks awful, but he’s not so deathly pale now. I call in sick to work, and Jake gives me a little bit of shit before I just hang up on him. Now, I sit in a chair next to the bed and wait.

I must have been sitting there for an hour and a half before the vampire finally stirred. Every time I would glance at him he would look healthier and healthier. He looks almost normal now. Still a little on the thin side, but no longer emaciated. He doesn't even look tired anymore, although he has been unconscious or sleeping for at least twenty four hours now I guess, so that’s not surprising.

He’s starting to wake up when I hear it. Someone is picking my lock. A series of well placed mirrors lets me see the front door as it opens slowly. Before I can see who is coming through the door a hand grasps my wrist.

The vampire in my bed is awake and is pulling me down into the bed with him. “I don’t know what you did with the body of whoever I drained earlier, but you better hope they’re well hidden,” he hisses softly in my ear. “Now I need to make you look dead, so play along,” and without further ado he brings my wrist to his mouth and bites into it, pushing me flat on my back as he does so. I’m too shocked to give him any other response apart from compliance, and in short order he has me covered in blood.

“Play dead,” he hisses as someone softly calls out to him. I let my eyes glaze over and I slow my breathing so it’s indiscernible.

“I’m in here,” he calls to the intruder. Footsteps approach the bedroom quickly. To my huge surprise a human female walks through the door.

“Oh, are you still hungry? You still look awful!” the simpering bitch hurries over to the vampire and sits next to him on the bed. On MY bed. She pulls her hair aside and offers him her neck. On MY bed. I’m looking right at the vampire as he grabs her and I see the distaste in his colourful eyes as he goes to feed from her.

I don’t realize I’ve blown my cover until I have him off the bed and behind me. Throwing knives have appeared in my hands and I have my vampire behind me, backing him into the corner of the bedroom, glaring at the woman. She screams in surprise and skitters back to the bedroom door.

“You were supposed to kill him!” she shrieks at the vampire, who stays right behind me and doesn't reply. I wait to see what she does, and when she attempts to flee the room rather than call for backup I throw one of the knives and nail her right in the back of her left knee. She hits the ground before her brain registers the pain and she starts to scream. I pounce on her and muffle her screams with a hand over her mouth and haul her back into the bedroom.

“Will there be more?” I ask my vampire.

“No,” he answers and comes over to help me with the now struggling woman. She glares up at him, betrayal in her eyes.

“You sure?”

“No, but I don’t think she’d have tried to run if she could have called for backup,” he says, echoing my own reasoning. He pulls my knife from the woman’s knee and uses it to shred my top sheet into a bandage, which he wraps around her knee.

I twist the woman’s head so she’s looking at me. “I’m going to let go of your mouth and you’re not going to scream,” I tell her. She’s still in pain, but now she’s mad and the pain has taken a backseat to that. She jerks her head which I take to be assent and I let go of her mouth. She focuses on the vampire who is tying off the makeshift bandage.

“You were supposed to kill him Viktor,” she grits out through clenched teeth. I look back at him. His face is blank as he stares at her and doesn't answer.

“Why was he supposed to kill me?” I finally ask her when it becomes apparent that Viktor isn't going to say anything.

“Because you’re the only link between the death of Sofia and the…them,” she almost said their names. I look at Viktor and raise my eyebrows.

“Do you know who they are?” I ask him.

“No. They got me a couple of months ago and have been starving me so I’d become a mindless killing machine. I don’t know why they didn't just pay me to do what they wanted,” he gives me a little shrug and an apologetic smile. I smirk at him.

“That would only result in them having to then dispose of you somehow. As a revenant you wouldn’t remember what you’d done, there’d be no link to me and they’d be free and clear. I’m guessing this one,” I nod to the woman, “has no paper trail back to them.”

Viktor nods in understanding. “Of course, of course. Fuckin’ jerks,” he mutters under his breath. I turn back to the woman who is watching our exchange with confused eyes.

“Wait,” she says, “you two know each other?” She’s glancing back and forth between us. I’m getting bored with the lack of torturing going on, and as if Viktor can sense it he leans on her wound. I slap my hand over her mouth as she screams and she bites down on it and draws blood. I snatch my hand back out of her mouth and then backhand her hard enough that she’s dazed.

Viktor is chuckling to himself behind me and I smile, but I don’t join in. I grab the woman’s hands and start dragging her to my bathroom.

“Put her in the tub,” I tell Viktor as I head back out to the bedroom. I grab some zip ties from my suitcase, hesitate for a second, and then grab my most recent addition to my collection of toys. It will be fun to test it out on a human first.

Viktor is sitting on the edge of the tub, snapping his long fingers in front of her face and calling to her. “Emma . . . Emma come on, wake up. Snap out of it woman,” he gives her a rough pat on the cheek but Emma is still a bit out of it. She’s going in to shock.

I quickly bind her hands and feet together, and then fit my new toy around her neck. It’s a collar. I hand the remote that goes with it to Viktor and he grabs my hand. I’m not sure for a moment what he’s doing until he brings it to his mouth and I realise it’s the one Emma bit. The wound is already healed, but there is still wet blood all over my hand. I hadn’t even noticed.

Viktor looks up at me with his multicoloured eyes and slowly closes his mouth over the not quite dry blood. My eyes half close as his tongue sweeps away the blood and warmth washes through me. I’m quite enjoying the feel of his warm, wet mouth on me, and I’m about to start imagining other places he could be doing this when he pulls back and stares and my hand.

“What the . . . where’s the . . . where did it go?”