Blood Curse Read online

  Across the room, a man watched me through the cluster of people on the dance floor. He was about Davin’s height, but not even half his size in weight.

  Very slim, slender and fully punked-out. He looked like an older Sid Vicious (if he wouldn’t have OD’d and was able to make it past 22 years old). The baby face was there, but instead of rich black hair standing straight up all over his whole head, he had silver specs running through it, showing that he had aged out of his twenties.

  He was wearing a crisp white t-shirt, tight black jeans with a chain hanging from his pocket, and combat boots. There was a ring on each of his thumbs, and his eyes were lined in black liner. I hadn’t noticed him in the bar earlier and wondered if he had just arrived. He was watching me though, and once I took notice, he began to make his way over to me.

  “Is this seat taken?”

  “Yes.” Technically Sarah or Robbie would be coming back at any time, so I wasn’t lying.

  “Okay, then would you care to dance?”

  I started to shake my head but before I could do so, he put his finger up stopping me. “Tonight’s Halloween night, and you’re sitting here by yourself while your friends are all enjoying themselves.” He looked over at Gretchen and Andy. “I don’t think a single dance will kill you.”

  He winked at me, making me shiver. I looked for Robbie at the bar, but he wasn’t paying any attention to this side of the room. Every other time he would’ve taken the rare opportunity of Davin being away to be up my ass, begging for a date. Why now did he find something else to entertain him, especially Butch the overgrown bartender? Robbie’s innocent advances would be annoying yet welcomed right about now.

  The guy held his hand out for me to take. My hand took on a mind of its own by reaching out for his, and I walked onto the crowded dance floor with him, despite the voice of reason that hollered inside my head not to go anywhere with a stranger, even if it was just to dance. He wrapped one arm loosely around my waist, clutching my hand he still held firmly in the air, and turned us in small circles.

  Somewhere deep inside me, something felt wrong about his presence, but he was so intriguing, I couldn’t seem to make myself walk away from him. The room fell silent around us. People and objects had no recognition, and any movement around me ended in trails of light passing by. My head was spinning slightly, telling me I had had enough to drink. His warm breath blew on my ear.

  “This is the night of the damned. Some will live, many will die, and one will be reborn. Which category will you fall into tonight?”

  I wriggled backwards, trying to focus on his exotic face. After a couple blinks, I was able to see him more clearly. “What did you just say?”

  He didn’t repeat himself, instead he continued on. “Come with me now, and I will show you how it really is to live amongst the cursed. Your vampire can’t show you the things I can.”

  Fear grasped at my throat, shoving down anything I tried to say back into the pit of my stomach. I put my hands against his chest, pushing his body away from mine.

  “Your friends aren’t doing their jobs very well now, are they Adelay?”

  The snaky tone in his voice was familiar. I backed away just as a body moved towards me followed by a trail of light, catching me as I tripped backwards.

  “Whoa Adde, you don’t look so good. Come sit down.” It was Robbie’s voice. He guided me back to the couches, where I should have never left to begin with. Kneeling in front of me, he brushed a strand of hair out of my face soothingly. Gretchen immediately moved in next to us, unsure of what was going on.

  “What happened to her Robbie?”

  My vision was a little clearer than it had been a minute ago, but the room was still spinning around me. He ignored her.

  “Where did he go?”

  “Where did who go?”

  “The man I was with on the dance floor!”

  Robbie looked around confused. “There was nobody out there with you. You were dancing there by yourself, like you were in a world of your own. You almost landed on your ass before I caught you.”

  “But I was talking to him! He was the one that made me go out there! You had to have seen him.”

  “Uh huh.” He wasn’t buying my story for a second. Robbie picked my glass up off of the table. It was still half-full, showing I hadn’t drunken much of it. “Did you drink this Adde?”

  I nodded. He shook the glass, causing a residue that had settled on the bottom to float around in the mixture.

  “I think you were drugged, Adde!” He waved his hand in front of my face. “How many fingers am I holding up?”

  His hand still trailed, but I couldn’t register how many fingers he was holding up because he wasn’t holding still long enough for me to see them.

  “None because you won’t quit moving her hand.”

  “Oh, oops sorry.” His hand stopped letting my eyes focus. They were still blurry, but I could make it out.

  “Three.”

  “Who gave you this drink?”

  I thought back to where I had originally acquired it. “Gretchen.”

  He darted a look at her. She lifted her hands defensively. “I didn’t buy it for her, this guy at the bar did. He bought both of our drinks.”

  “And you gave it to her? Are you dumb, Gretchen?”

  “I thought it was nice! I didn’t know he did anything bad to it! Mine was fine. He looked harmless.”

  “No shit, Gretchen. Weirdo’s don’t usually come in looking like Charles Manson. Where’s he at now?”

  She examined the crowd. “I don’t know; I don’t see him. I actually didn’t even really see him after he gave me the drinks.”

  “Luckily you didn’t drink it all Adde, or you’d be in big trouble.” He dumped the rest of it in a nearby plant.

  “There was to someone out there with me. He was talking to me.”

  “Yeah Adelay, lots of things talk to you when you are drugged. I think we should go.”

  “No!” Sully told me not to leave until him, or Davin came for me, and I was going to do my best to listen. “I mean, no. I’m feeling much better now. I just need to splash a little water on my face.”

  If my drink was drugged, I guess it did make sense that my mind could be making me see things that weren’t there. But wouldn’t I have seen something that was familiar, something that my mind recognized, not a complete stranger? Robbie had no idea what was happening in the supernatural world around him; therefore, he could only explain what was happening to me as being drugged.

  I knew it was more than that. By the way Gretchen was biting on her lip, I knew she believed the same thing. Robbie moved his hand off of my knee he was using to steady himself when he was on the ground. I stood up slowly feeling the tips of my fingers and toes tingle from the sudden rush of circulation.

  They both watched me as if expecting me to collapse. “Really, I’m fine now guys.” I assured them, snatching my purse off of the table. “I’ll be right back.”

  I moved past them, making my way to the nearest bathroom. There was still tons of people crowding the bar and dance floor, but the man I had been talking to before was nowhere in sight. I wished badly that Davin was back and I was safely in his arms.

  A woman walked out of the bathroom as I was walking in, leaving it empty for the moment, so I set my purse on the bathroom counter then turned on the rusted faucet. Cupping my hands underneath it, I splashed the cold water on my face, feeling my cheeks instantly flush.

  I looked at myself in the broken mirror while patting the rough paper towel on my face. “Everything is going to be okay. Davin will be here for you soon.” Why was I talking to myself? My reflection wasn’t going to answer back -- at least I hoped not.

  My cell phone twinkled elegantly inside my handbag. I hoped more than anything it was Davin, or even Sully, so that I could just go home. I was tired and starting to feel sick to my stomach.

  Xander’s name blinked in bold letters on the screen. My heart pumped faster as I fumbled
to answer it, almost dropping it in the sink. “Xander! Hello?”

  Static sounded on the line, then his voice broke through.

  “Adelay... Adelay are you there?” His voice crackled. “Where am I?” He was questioning himself, or something I couldn’t hear or see. “I need you Adelay. Now!” His voice was distant like wind was whipping through the speaker breaking his voice in and out.

  “Xander, where are you?” Even though he had asked that same question a second ago, my mouth still blurted it out. I wanted to know just as much as he did. I strained to hear him. No answer. “Xander, answer me! Are you okay?”

  “I…I don’t know.” He paused for a moment, before the rustle on the phone mimicked the melody of a buzzing mosquito loitering by my ear, making the hair on the back of my neck stand on end. “I don’t know where I am. I think it’s a cemetery or something. I don’t know how I got here.”

  I shuddered remembering my vision that day at Brando’s Coffee Shop, chasing Xander into the cemetery I never truly stepped foot into. I squeezed my eyes closed, praying that maybe the accused drug that had been slipped into my drink was causing me to dream while I was still awake, similarly to the time before, and when I reopened them no one would be on the other end. I peeled them slowly open again, seeing the phone still pushed tightly against my ear in the dingy mirror.

  “Let go of me! Ouch! Dammit that hurts!” Xander’s distressed voice was still there. The phone call was real, and there was pain present now. “Holy shit! What the fuck are you man?”

  The phone crackled once more and a deafening scream shot through my ear followed by the drop of his cell phone on the ground.

  “Xander what happened! Xander answer me! Hello…”

  Absolute silence indicated the phone call had ended. A woman walked into the bathroom, looking at me in aghast from my shouting that echoed through the bathroom.

  “What?” I screamed at her before running out the door. I rushed past Robbie and Gretchen, who had been waiting on the couches for me to come back.

  “Adelay, where are you going?” Gretchen hollered after me.

  I didn’t bother to answer her. I had to get to Xander as fast as possible. He was in trouble, and I didn’t have time for any hold ups. I wrestled with the buttons on my phone, punching in Sully’s number.

  Figures -- it went straight to voicemail. So I pressed Davin’s, hoping for better luck; again, there was no answer.

  What were the odds that Xander would show up in dire straits, and neither one of my protectors would be around? This was the epitome of what Davin had warned me about when he told me not to go off trying to be little miss noble, which was exactly what I was unintentionally about to do.

  I pushed open the heavy steel door leading me straight into the dark alley. The neon sign above still made its zapping sound, as though it was on the verge of blowing out from its many nights of use. Light snow was now falling, so the bouncer had set up base inside the door to stay out of the cold, leaving me by myself in the dark, shadow ridden backstreet.

  I stumbled clumsily off of the last concrete stair that led me away from the underground club, landing my high heel on something squishy that was obviously not the expected hard gravel.

  A sopping wet newspaper stuck to the bottom of my patent leather shoe. Welcome to part one of my vision.

  The words were too smeared to make out any of the print, but if it was a current one, then there was no doubt something about the attacks or disappearances strewn all over the front page before the rain and snow had turned it into shoe mush. I didn’t have to read it, to be reminded of the danger I was walking into.

  Plucking it off, I tossed it back onto the ground giving my hand one last shake to flick off any excess water. A sudden burst of wind swept through the alley, rustling a couple of metal trash cans that rested against the wall, startling me and making me trip over my own clumsy feet. This was the scene of a horror movie waiting to happen.

  I was unsure exactly where to go from here, but if my apparition from Wednesday was correct, then heading straight down the alley should lead me directly into Hanover Cemetery.

  My veins pumped incessantly with adrenaline, so fear hadn’t had its chance to set in -yet- nor the cold. I descended down the narrow path, wondering how stupid I could possibly be to willingly venture off on my own, when every other time hadn’t worked out in my favor; instead it only tended to put me right in the line of fire.

  Brick walls rose high above me on each side swallowing my little body in between them, thus making the area I was traveling seem a lot smaller than it actually was. Alice down the rabbit hole? No, more like Adelay down the rabbit hole.

  Alice was on her way to a drug induced land of make-believe, with talking cats and rabbits. I was on my way to a cemetery of death and destruction, fully fucking sober -if you didn’t count my tainted drink mishap earlier- because the spike of adrenaline from Xander’s call had counteracted any alcohol from earlier.

  Suddenly I was gasping for air. My claustrophobia had set in full force, feeling like a boa constrictor wrapped tightly around my chest, squeezing slowly and tortuously only allowing my lungs to push out and take in short, shallow breaths every couple of seconds. My lungs hurt from the pressure of my own phobia.

  I picked up the pace to get out of the enclosed space; even though coming to the end would only bring me to something terribly worse than a little case of claustrophobia.

  One thing was for sure, running around in heels and a dress was not as easy as they made it look in the movies. The end of my rabbit hole finally came, bringing me back into the spacious night air and directly in front of Hanover’s Cemetery, concealed behind an ominous wrought iron entrance.

  Part two of my vision. Before entering, I pulled my cell phone out of my purse to call Davin and if he didn’t answer, Sully, one final time out of desperation.

  Beep…beep…beep was the only repetitive sound reverberating on the other end. Of course, no service. What were the odds?

  I looked pleadingly to the sky. “Could you please cut me a little slack here? I’m trying to help an innocent soul in need.”

  I exhaled the breath I had been holding in during my failed calls for help, gathering up whatever nerve I could find to shuffle my feet a few more inches forward, and into the graveyard that should be solely an eternal resting spot for the dead. Not where werewolves lured in their prey for whatever type of perverse act they intended to commit. Here I was, standing alone at the end of the path with no sense of direction except straight and absolutely no vampire by my side for protection.

  What the hell was I getting myself into? I tossed my phone on the ground, planning on grabbing it later because without reception it was of no use anyways; plus, this little dress had no pockets. I chose the wrong night to not wear jeans.

  Moving forward inside, I prayed tonight was one of the nights when Davin could hear my thoughts wherever he was right now and know that his beloved was in danger.

  The night of my first attack, after I left the Nugget Theater, it had been pure luck that Davin knew something was wrong -that was before I knew that he was a vampire. And so was the night at The Cell, when Gretchen decided to run into the woods, but everyone’s luck runs short now and again. Hopefully, luck would take a little pity on me by giving me one more chance at a successful rescue.

  Hesitantly I drug my feet through the arched entrance. The snow had begun to pick up in small flurries, leaving the cemetery grounds speckled with a very thin white sheet and hundreds of headstones with a light dusting of snow on their tops. Fog eerily seeped in through the gaps of the wrought iron fence, encasing the entire cemetery. Some patches of brown grass still peeked from underneath the freshly fallen snow, showing the threatened storm hadn’t arrived at its worst yet.

  One headstone stood out from the rest like a sore thumb. It was a statue, much taller than me, of an angel reaching her hands to the heavens and very much resembling the tattoo on Davin’s back.

  Davi
n’s sexy back that went hand in hand with his entire sexy body, that I would kill to be at home with right now wrestling underneath the covers of his oversized bed, feeling his mouth all over my body; not poking around some cemetery in the dead of night -no pun intended.

  But instead, he left me here alone with a werewolf on the prowl when I knew deep within my gut that it wasn’t a good idea from the beginning. I shook the vision out of my head. It was time to think clearly, not cloud my mind with sexual and angry thoughts of Davin. Looking again at the lifeless granite statue, I read the engraving that was chiseled beneath her stone dress embedded deep within her base.

  HERE LIES OUR CHERISHED ADELAY DARLEY

  My stomach trembled as I frantically brushed away a small layer of snow from the cold stone, taking a closer look at the engraving.

  HERE LIES OUR CHERISHED AVELINE DAY

  Whew! My insides simmered down a bit, but not enough before I looked up again at the angelic statue. A single tear sparkled on her weathered cheek underneath the full moon’s light representing an almost identical picture now to the one on Davin’s back. I reached up to touch her cracked stone face, feeling a piece of snow, not a tear; melt underneath the warmth of my finger.

  My eyes were playing horrible tricks on me, causing me to see things that weren’t really there. Or could it be that it was possibly something more? Someone merely playing tricks with my delicate mind that wanted to let me know that it was aware of my presence?

  I shivered when a cold wisp of wind lifted my hair off the nape of my neck.

  Running from the club I had forgotten my coat, and the cold was now numbingly noticeable on my half-bare body. Rubbing my arms briskly with my hands to warm me up a touch, I moved deeper into the historical marble town leaving the mourning angel behind me.

  Everything was exactly how I had seen it in my vision.

  The graveyard was nestled against the surrounding forest but was enclosed by a sturdy wrought iron fence designed to serve as a barrier from the woods that was cloaked in a layer of transparent fog. Some of the fog was still cascading in through the wrought iron bars, mocking a ghostly waterfall.