Cosmopolitan Blood Loss.

Chapter 9.

Though the elevator doors were still closed, my retinas were burning beyond them to the exact space where Dr. Leone's disappointing gaze would soon be. My brain was already thinking out a million different lies with intricate little paths to give me a little extra time to plan a new escape route.

When the doors screeched open, my breath caught in my chest.

"Well, hello Miss Dempsey. Fancy seeing you here."

The words were delivered with such a harsh coldness, I could practically feel icicles forming on my skin.

My eyes blinked furiously as they adjusted closer up on the black fabric that heaved in time with the chest beneath in the doorway of the elevator. I didn't have to look up to know it was Shant, but I did it anyway. Hey, when in Rome...

I finally let the air in my lungs escape, then, in a pitiful little squeak as I looked upon Shant.

Sure, I'd seen Shant in good lighting in this exact building before, but it didn't really hold a candle to the way he looked now. Both elbows propped on either side of the doorway, pulling up at his shirt so the first five inches above his belt were visible. The neck hole of his long sleeve shirt had been cut out, leaving the fabric jagged and his collar bones exposed. Shant's shaggy mess of black hair was slicked back now, with a section pulled forward before each ear.

The only thing keeping me from melting was having been frozen by his words only minutes before. Unfortunately, I was only semi-thawed when I more closely studied Shant's face.

That first night I had encountered Shant, his eyes had a faint tint of crimson around his pupils. Now, his irises were tainted fully by the swirling crimson, spiraling so fast around his pupils it made me dizzy just looking in to his eyes. So, I looked away.

Dear God, is it too late for me to close the doors and open them up to Dr. Leone instead?

The weight of the elevator shifted ever so slightly as Shant crossed to stand beside me, reaching out to press the "L" button for the lobby. The lobby button was suddenly interesting as I tried to keep my eyes focused on anything but Shant. He remained silent as I mentally noted the French word for lobby was "vestibule" or something or other. I was wondering why the lobby button wasn't instead a "V" when the elevator jolted to a stop, dinging as the doors opened.

The noise blur of all the sounds in the lobby flooded into the elevator immediately, cutting through the silence. As I made my first step to exit the elevator, Shant's arm shot out around my shoulders, crushing me to his right side, under his armpit. The unexpected gesture heaved my messenger bag in to the back of my knees, nearly collapsing my legs, but Shant was holding me up, guiding me across the tile.

At this point I was still in the shock of getting caught by Shant, I didn't really take in any of the people in the lobby, until we crossed the reception desk. Rochelle was staring drop jawed, her eyes looking Shant up and down and then darting to me, back and forth. Holding back my laughter at her obvious misinterpretation of the situation, I decided to go with the flow as I huddled myself closer into Shant and managed to stick my tongue out as the automatic doors shut before my face.

I was surprised when we stepped into the street to see the sun was now completely hidden by large, gray storm clouds, the violent wind of last night back with a vengeance, whipping my hair in to my face as Shant came to a halt. He was clutching me so tightly, I could feel the bones through his finger tips pressing in to my skin. It was then when I looked at him again.

Shant's face was a perfect replica mask of worry as the same night when I was visited by Faust. His eyebrows were knit up in the middle, the skin between them channeled every which way with creases, his eyes were such thin slits now I couldn't tell if his eyes were even open or not. And his lips parted, shouting "Taxi!"

As suddenly as he spoke the words, a taxi jacked to a stop in front of us. Shant opened up the door of the little silver European car, shoving me into the passenger seat so hard I nearly choked on the air escaping my lungs.

"A la cathedral de Coeur d'Coeurs, s'il vous plaît." Shant plopped into the seat beside me, looking out the window as he spoke to the taxi driver. Even as the driver pulled back on to the main road, Shant was scanning through the window.

I snapped at this point. "Okay, you're really freaking me out!" Shant's odd behavior was really worrying me. I didn't like being left out and, for sure, there was something I was getting left out of.

Shant's head whipped around so he could stare me down, his eyes bore into mine and then flashed to the back of the taxi driver's head and back to me. I back downed as he mouthed, "Not here."

The ride to Coeur d'Coeurs was complete torture as Shant sat rigid as a statue, fixated on everything passing by his window while I sat in complete darkness of our current situation, trying desperately not to act out in frustration.

Before the taxi had even come to a stop in front of our cathedral home, my leg was already dangling out of the car door, dying to get inside so I could just explode in a hail of questions.

My frustration even let me walk through the room of Apocalyptic stained glass, with it's monstrous alter and it's crucified Jesus, to my room, unscathed.

The tiny cot groaned as I flopped down upon it, my mind racing as fast as my heart, but they didn't have much time to slow down as Shant pushed open the door. He was barely past the threshold when I went on my tirade.

"What the Hell is going on!? Could you be any more freaking ominous right now? Did something bad happen? Why were you stalking me at my job? Why are you even out right now? It's the daylight hours! God, you're a shitty vampire."

Shant's mouth smoothed out into a lazy smile as he came to sit next to me on the cot. I wiggled away from him as he went to put his hand on my thigh.

"Scout, really, for being such a pretty girl, you know how to turn the guys off.”