The memory of Daniel sucking at the waitress"s leg flashed in Claire"s mind and she nearly lost her composure. Fortunately, her back was turned as she placed her coat on the hook near the door. Turning around, she brightened her eyes and told them about dinner and dancing at a club.
"Now if you don"t mind, I"m going to lay down for a while. See ya!" With that she went into her room and closed the door.
Resting against the door, she let go of her facade and allowed the tears to well up again. Putting on a show like that was so stressful, not to mention the agony of what she had done late last night. As her face became moist with tears, Claire began to head for her bed, but the sound of her friends talking made her press her ear to the door.
"Something"s off about all this," Samantha was saying. "I hope she"s not staying with him because she feels like she has to."
"I still don"t remember him treating her badly," Monica responded. "But I do know we kind of pressured her to pursue him in the beginning."
"That"s what I mean. She shouldn"t be staying with him for our sake or because he helped her with her freelancing. She"s never been the strongest person: that"s why she has us. But hey, we can"t tell her to leave him. She"s going to move in with him and that"s that."
Never been the strongest person. That both rattled Claire and infuriated her. She knew when it came to guys, she tolerated too much, though never abuse. But she was faced with a life or death situation, and her choice depended on those in her life. She made the decision because she felt it was best. There was no way out of her situation. She somehow fell in love with a man who turned out to be a murderous vampire with a plan she could not have foreseen. If she only let her suspicions over his paleness and odd behavior rule her heart. If only she had heeded Nancy"s warnings.
Looking at her bedroom walls, Claire choked a bit on her tears. There were a few photo collages of sunsets, something she had always enjoyed. Would she ever enjoy those again? He"d told her it would take centuries. Could she tolerate not seeing the beautiful skies as the sun came and went for that long? By then, what would she be like? Would she so used to the night that daytime wouldn"t interest her anymore?
Feeling dizzy, she went over to collapse on her bed. She closed her eyes, knowing that was her only escape from her h.e.l.l.
"I can"t believe it," her brother spat out. "You know Mom and Dad are going to hit the roof over this."
"Zachary," Claire rolled her eyes. "It"s no big deal. It"s just another stage of our relationship."
Shaking his head and looking at Kristina sitting next to him, he looked back at the computer screen. "Seriously, do you think Christmas is going to be all fun this year?"
"Oh come on!" Claire sat up at her desk. It was late in the afternoon and she had woken up from her nap an hour earlier. She decided to break it to her brother about her moving in with Daniel.
"You come on!" he retorted. "You know how conservative they are. Dad is going to hate Daniel and Mom wouldn"t want to talk to you. It would be like the time I snuck my girlfriend into the house back in high school."
"Yeah, but that was high school," Claire said. "You and I are both full-grown adults now. They"ll have to accept our decisions."
"I guess they"ll really think New York City corrupted you," Kristina giggled good-naturedly.
Claire shrugged and looked at Ava, who was sitting on Kristina"s lap. Her niece was chewing on a teething ring, nonchalant about what was going on around her like any other baby. "How many teeth does she have again?"
"Two are coming in," Zachary answered. "Now admit it, Claire. You know Mom and Dad were not crazy about you dating an older man, and now you"re moving in with him?"
She sighed. "Like I keep telling you, Zach, they"ll have to accept it. They can"t disown me for moving in my boyfriend."
"She"s right," Kristina said.
Zachary seemed to be at a lost for words before saying, "Fine, do what you have to do. But don"t expect Christmas this year to be all happy and fun. Oh, and don"t forget to tell them before I come get you. That would really screw up everything." He paused. "Claire?"
She blinked a few times before coming back to her senses. She was watching Ava drop her teething ring and whining about it.
"I"ll tell them now. How about that?"
"Do what you like. But remember what I told you."
They logged off of their video messaging program, and Claire placed her head in her hands. She spoke to her brother not just to tell him of her plans, but also to get a glimpse of Ava. Watching that precious girl made her wonder if she was making the right move.
Yes, Daniel had a point: there was no way she could go on knowing that vampires were causing so much death in the world. She would have been locked away with the Brothers, being a slave to them. As the first vampires, they probably didn"t have any remorse to hurting humans. But for Daniel to tell her that everyone around her would die if she said no sounded like a game to her.
Game or not, it was possible he could - or could have someone else - murder those very close to her. Her roommates. Her family. How funny he told her they would be allowed to live, yet he would keep her away from them.
Claire sighed heavily. Was there any way out of this, any hope? No one would believe her if she said Daniel was a vampire. They would think she was insane.
Unless...
Claire went online and searched for those websites that discussed how vampires were actually real. She found the same ones she had seen over Thanksgiving weekend, including the blog that discussed the death of Henry, the wayward vampire. She read more of the blog and discovered that the blogger, who called himself NYCHunter and was a policeman a.s.signed to lower Manhattan, was watching Daniel, Hilde, and Michel. He said the neighbors claimed that those three only seemed to leave at night and were almost never seen during the day. But he never approached Daniel or the others because it was not part of his job to do so; that was for detectives specially a.s.signed to tracking down vampires. But he had been keeping an eye on those three for a few years. He also mentioned The Black Roses, though he said he was not sure what part of the city they came from.
Claire searched for that blogger"s email address, copied it and opened her email to begin composing a message to him.
She had typed the salutation when she heard Monica calling her.
That jolted her into reality. Daniel had erased Monica"s mind that night, making her forget everything negative about him. He could also read anyone"s mind. If he could detect what she was thinking right now, he would know she was contacting someone for help.
Should she take the chance?
She thought of Ava, how he threatened to kill her last night. She couldn"t risk putting her dear niece"s life on the line.
But what if this was a way of not ever seeing her again? Of not becoming a murderous vampire herself?
"Claire! Time to make dinner!" Monica called again.
"Yeah, I"ll be there!" she called back, and quickly typed a short message, Hi NYCHunter, I found your blog online and I really need your help. Daniel Bertrand is a vampire. I know because he told me and he wants to make me one too. You"ve probably seen me around him during these last few months. Please help me.
Claire Without looking over her email, she hit the Send b.u.t.ton and went to help out in the kitchen.
Monday night came, and there was no answer from that policeman. Maybe it would take time. Maybe he had to investigate further to make sure he wasn"t being trapped. Either way, Claire did not lose hope that she would somehow be rescued from the h.e.l.lish mess she was in.
She managed to complete one of her a.s.signments during the day and emailed it in just before going to Richmond to meet with Daniel. There was another one due at the end of the week, and she was halfway done with it. There was still time to work on it.
Walking onto the campus and heading towards the building where he taught, Claire fought to clear her mind. She was hoping to catch someone following her in case NYCHunter got her message and was investigating further. But she knew Daniel was not too far away; she couldn"t give away what she was doing.
It was another cold night, so she sat indoors again, playing her phone games. It didn"t take long for the students to start leaving. She could hear them complain about their final essays due at the end of the week. She knew which ones were Daniel"s students; they complained the most.
After the crowds thinned, she headed for his cla.s.sroom, but he was halfway down the hall. A smile came to his face and he rubbed her arm upon meeting with her. "You"re giving your notice tomorrow, right? There won"t be any need for you to come all this way from TriBeCa once everything is squared away."
"Yeah, true," she said, a sad pang falling over her at his words.
They took the express bus to the city, with him paying for her again. Daniel wanted to spend a few hours at his place before they went for a movie, so they went there. The traveling was like all the others before, no tension or painful silences. He gave her his full attention and Claire was more than willing to place her head on his shoulder.
They arrived at his apartment, and Claire went straight to the MP3 player and put on music from a favorite singer of theirs. He took out his paperwork from cla.s.s, telling her about how his students were complaining about their final essay a.s.signment. He had a.s.signed a five page paper last week and it was due by the coming Friday. "It sounds brutal to them," he said. "But I tell them that"s college life and they better get used to it."
Claire was about to open her mouth to respond when there was a knock at the door. Frowning, Daniel open the door to find Hilde and Michel standing there.
"h.e.l.lo Dan, h.e.l.lo Claire," Hilde said as she walked right in.
"h.e.l.lo to you both. What brings you here unannounced?" Daniel asked, closing the door.
"We got him," Michel said.
"Got who?"
Claire felt her heart plummet. Hilde gave her a cold stare and said, "That guy who is always following us. Better known as NYCHunter."
Claire would have let out a shriek but had enough willpower to stop it. Besides, Hilde"s icy eyes were frightening her.
Even worse, Daniel dropped his confused expression and looked at her with eyes just as cold. He knew what was going on the whole time; his calmness was just a facade.
The vampires looked at Claire, waiting for something from her. She just stood there in front of the media wall unit, not knowing what to say or do.
Hilde took the initiative. "Well?" she snapped. "What say you?"
Claire let out a stutter before Michel rolled his eyes and sat on the couch. "She"s trouble; she"s as bad as Henry. We should"ve known. I think its time we taught her a lesson."
"Yes, I agree," Daniel said slowly.
She shook her head violently. "No, you don"t have to. You really don"t! I get it, I get it now!"
"No you don"t!" Hilde sped over and threw her arms around Claire, literally lifting her off the floor. With her supernatural strength, she began squeezing her body. Claire could have sworn her bones were beginning to crack. She tried to scream, but Hilde covered her mouth, and to Daniel, she said, "You know what you have to do."
He gave her a deep nod and glanced at Claire for a brief second before opening the door and heading out, leaving Claire screaming his name through Hilde"s hand. Once the door slammed, Hilde let go.
"Oh G.o.d, no! Daniel! Where did he go? What"s he doing?" she gasped.
"Teaching you a lesson," the vampire snapped, sticking her face right into Claire"s. "That"s what you get for turning against your vow to join us."
"But - but how did you know?" she said.
"Simple," Michel said. "That cop had been following us for weeks. Our heightened senses pick him up even when he was blocks away. Last night, he followed us in the subway, taking notes on us. Using our mind reading, we heard him mention that email you sent to him." He shook his head slowly at her. "Did you really think you would succeed in this? That you would actually win?"
She sunk to her knees and hands, and put her head down to prevent herself from fainting. She wasn"t really sure why she did that, since she would welcome any kind of escape - death even - to get out of this situation.
Hilde scoffed at her and sat next to Michel. "She"s disgusting. What does Daniel see in her?"
Michel rolled his eyes. "It happens all the time; she"s not the first one to act like this. I just think Daniel is making the mistake of drawing this out. He should"ve changed her the moment she said yes."
"Well, there"s a chance it might happen tonight," Hilde kept her eyes on Claire, watching her reign in her panic. "No sense in letting her loose with everything she knows."
Michel nodded in agreement, and the two watched as Claire took a couple of deep breaths and sat up. She wiped a piece of hair out of her face and turned to the vampires. Gulping, she asked, "Who is he getting?"
"That"s not for you to know," Hilde said. "At least not now."
"He can"t be..." her voice trailed off.
"Ava? That niece of yours?" Michel threw his hands up. "He may get her; it"s possible. He has an idea of where she lives and with his vampiric speed, he could be back in less than hour."
"And your poor baby niece would be all gone," Hilde taunted.
Claire felt her teeth grit. "You were once like me. You were both once human too! How could you laugh at me, think my feelings are nothing?"
The two vampires glanced at each other, smirks on their faces. They did not answer her.
Standing up, Claire raised her voice. "Don"t you remember being human? Or did you forget all about that?"
Hilde spoke. "Claire, my dear. Once you become like us, you won"t want to go back. You wouldn"t want to feel the pain and fear of being human. There won"t be any weaknesses, no vulnerabilities."
"Once you see the world with your vampire eyes, you won"t want to go back to being human," added Michel.
Claire wanted to argue with them, but it was no use. They had existed as vampires for nearly one thousand years. How could they remember being human? They were set in their ways.
For the next hour, Claire sat on the floor, against the wall, underneath one of the old paintings Daniel owned. It was that of a naked woman reaching for the shining heavens while devils grabbed and pulled her toward h.e.l.l. Claire felt like that woman. She was naked in her emotions in front of two devilish creatures who were forcing her into darkness.
She didn"t say anymore to Hilde and Michel; she just stared straight ahead, speaking in her heart to her niece. She told Ava she was sorry she caused her death, that she foolishly thought she could outwit a group of demons, and she only did what she thought was best to save her and herself. Somehow, there had to be a way for Ava to hear her aunt"s voice, wherever she was.
A turn of the lock made her flinch and the two vampires muted the TV. Daniel then walked in looking slightly tired. He ran his hand through his shoulder length hair in an aggravated manner as he closed the door behind him. He then turned to face the other three.
Nodding, he said, "It"s been done."
"You found the place with no problem?" Hilde stood up.
"It took a while, but I did find it," Daniel looked at Claire, who still sat against the wall. Pointing his chin at her, he said, "How"s she been?"
"Whiny. Tempestuous. Everything you would expect." Hilde took slow steps over to him. "I highly suggest you do the deed now."
Daniel paused while Claire felt nothing. She could be transformed or die a thousand deaths, and nothing would stop the guilt and loss she was experiencing.
He looked at her, tightened his lips and then shook his head. "No. No, I can"t have her go back to her apartment to get her things looking like she will. Her roommates will be very suspicious."
Hilde"s eyes widened. "Daniel! It is best to do it now! What if she does something else? You know how stupid she is."
"Yes, I know," he kept looking at Claire, who"s face remained blank and eyes barely blinking. "But this is tricky. There are people in her life. We"ve got to stick to the plot and cannot afford a slip-up. Besides, Casames wouldn"t allow the transformation without meeting her."
"I"m in agreement here," Michel spoke up. "Casames would be livid. Also, it"s not like we should go after her two friends, unless it gets to that point." If that last part was meant to be a jibe in her heart, Claire didn"t show it.
Hilde let out an irritated sigh. "Fine, do what you like."
Daniel nodded and walked over to Claire. He stopped a few feet away from her, waiting for a response or reaction. Deciding to go along with everything, she got to her feet and said, "Should I go home, or stay here until morning?"
"You have work tomorrow, don"t you?" he said.
"In the afternoon, like always. And I"m giving my notice then."
"Good. Then I"ll take you to the ferry." He reached to put his arm around her shoulders. Claire expected some outrage from Hilde, but the vampire simply sat on the arm of the couch, arms folded with a st.u.r.dy eye on the couple. She didn"t do or say anything as the two left the apartment.
In the cab, Claire and Daniel were silent, as if they had gotten into another fight. As the cab pulled up at the terminal, she turned to him and tried to be as icy with her gaze as the vampires had been. "Whatever happens, don"t expect me to ever forgive you."
"Don"t expect me to hold it against you," he replied and ran a finger through her hair. She pulled away, sneered and got out of the car.