On the Edge of Eternity

I was surprised at how full the bar was, and it was filled with a strange assortment of people too. I took a seat at the bar and waited for the bartend to serve me. Sitting at the bar along side of me were several men dressed in three piece suits and sipping anything from beers to tumblers full of brandy. There were even women who probably worked in one of the tall skyscrapers, and they had come here to socialize with people they never would by the light of day. Then there were the Goths, dressed in their back, pentagrams and boots. They were the ones who fit in best here. The Bar on which my elbows rested was made of a polished ebony, and the stool I sat on was upholstered with black leather. The walls were pained a chilling blood red, and hung on the walls were photographs of Bela Lugosi, all of them as Dracula of course.
“What can I get you miss?” The handsome bartender asked.
“Bloody Mary, please.”
“Coming right up.”
I had never had a Bloody Mary before , but for some reason it just seemed like I should be ordering it in a bar with a vampire theme. But I still had the sneaking little suspicion that there were some real vampires sitting in this bar with me. Actually I was fairly certain there were a group sitting in the back of the bar, all of whom were dressed as Goths. But I supposed that being a Goth was a good cover for a vampire, no one would question how pail you were. But every member of this group was sitting there with full glasses of whatever it was they were drinking, had I not known Lestat I would never questioned their status among the living. What was it with vampires and black. At least Marius, like to wear red. I thought as I scanned the rest of the bar.
I noticed someone sitting alone in the corner, he was an older man, forty I would guess, dressed in, you guessed it red velvet, his eyes were shielded by a pair of dark glasses. A gray had sat atop his blond hair that was flecked with gray, he had a handsome square face, with hollow cheeks and a broad forehead. He had to be a vampire. He was beautiful but not in the way Lestat was beautiful to me but I felt a strange draw to him, a strange desire for him, I wanted to taste his blood. All sorts of thoughts began to run through my mind, like me tearing at the soft flesh of this strangers throat to get at his blood. Or him slitting his wrist and letting me feed from him. Or even the thought of his lips on my neck and my fingers on the back of his head pulling him closer, his blond hair on my cheek my head tossed back in ecstasy.
Then we made eye contact. My heart leapt in a strange way and my stomach began to churn ‘Oh god!’ I thought,’ what if he can read my thoughts.’ He nodded as a gentleman might, out of politeness I nodded back, and half smiled before quickly looking away. I didn’t want to look like a creeper. Was that Marius? Was he coming to kill Lestat? Was he reading my thoughts? I wanted more than anything to go and speak to him but how would that conversation go? ‘ Hi are you the vampire Marius? I’m Amber and I’m Lestat’s mortal Lover, you know the vampire that betrayed all of your secrets. ‘ But the history major in me was begging and pleading I go and talk to him to ask him questions about Ancient Rome when he had been a human. I mean as a historian you never pass up a primary source even if no one would ever believe me. I was going to go talk to him, I simply had to know. However when I glanced back he was gone.
“Here you go miss,” the bartender said setting my glass down in front of me.
“How much is that?”
“Oh, the gentleman over there,” he said pointing to where the possible Marius had sat, “Well the gentleman who was over took care of it.”
“Do you know who he was?”
“No, I’ve never seen him in here before, but I’ve never seen you here before either.”
“Yeah I’m not from around here,” I said sipping the drink.
“What brings you to town?”
“Um the guy I’m seeing is in a band and they’re filming a music video.”
“Would I have heard of the band?”
“Umm I donno, they just released their first album. The Vampire Lestat?” I said out of the corner of my eye I noticed that the group I had thought was vampires had stopped talking and were now looking at me.
“Oh the dude that claims to be like a two hundred year old French nobleman vampire?”
“Yeah.”
“Who are you seeing in the band?” The woman on my right asked smiling.
I didn’t really want to say I was seeing Lestat just in case the suspected vampires were already aware of his betrayal, and would hurt me. But here these humans were and they were asking and I had been the one who had brought it up, I smiled and said, “The lead singer.”
“I’ve seen a few pictures of him, in FYE, on the CD displays, ” the woman on my right said, “he is quite tasty.”
“ That he is. And my best friend took the photographs for the album, you should defiantly pick a copy up, and the book too.”
“So there is a book too?”
“Yeah, it quite an interesting tale,” I said smiling.
“Hmm, well I will have to look into that,” The woman said.
“So what are you doing here alone?” The Bartender asked looking slightly concerned.
“We got into a fightish. And I left my cell phone back at the sound stage, actually could I use your phone?”
“Yeah go right ahead, I’m Jim by the way,” Jim the bartender said handing me the phone.
I ended up having to leave myself a voice mail. Telling myself that I was at Bela Lugosi having a drink and I hope Lindsey saw that before the bar closed. I sat there on my stool making quiet conversation with the woman on my right. She was an intern at the DA’s office and she hated it. She knew there was something more to life that going to work every day. She told me that she wished she had been an art major in college. She was simply fascinating. I didn’t know just how interesting making conversation with strangers could be. Then suddenly a handsome young man no more than twenty one who had been sitting with the group I suspected of being vampires sat down on my left.
“Good evening,” he said his voice was gentle and low. He was tall and skinny, his shaggy black hair looked unnaturally soft, his green eyes unnaturally vibrant, his pale skin was flawless, and then his finger nails, how like glass they were, how like Lestat’s they were. This was no man, this was a vampire, and he knew I was with the criminal Lestat, I was in danger. I knew it.
“Hi,” I said hoping by playing along I could get out of it.
“I’m Tyler.”
“Amber.”
“Its nice to meet you.”
“Nice to meet you too.”
“What’s a pretty girl like you doing here by yourself?”
“I’m tougher than I look,” I said smiling wishing I had monsieur blowtorch avec moi.
“The bar’s about to close do you need a ride home?”
“No, no thank you, thanks for offering, actually Jim,” I said looking at the bartender, “Can I see your phone again.”
“Sure,” he said handing it to me.
Again my voice mail, “Damn it,” I cursed.
“Sure you don’t need a ride?” Tyler the vampire asked.
“Yeah.”
“Where do you live?”
“Well I’m actually staying at a hotel.”
“Which one?”
“Tyler,” Jim the bartender began, “leave the girl alone.”
“I’m just trying to be nice.”
“She has a boy friend.”
“I think I should be going,” I said standing a slipping off the bar stool, “It was nice meeting all of you!” I quickly walked out of the bar and started quickly down the sidewalk. I knew my brisk pace wouldn’t be a match for a vampire. But I hoped that Jim had put an end to it when he had told Tyler to leave me alone. Paranoid I looked back over my shoulder, but when I snapped my head back around Tyler was standing in my path, I screamed, but he clasp his hand over my mouth. All that was running through my mind was ‘Oh shit. Oh shit. Oh shit. Where’s Angel damn it?’
“Now there’s no need for that,” he said dragging me in to an alley kicking and screaming. Standing there waiting for him, were two others, a short woman who was wearing black lipstick and heavy black eyeliner, and a stocky young man. Tyler whispered in my ear, “ Now I’m going to let you go, but don’t scream or try and run away you know that won’t do you any good, you’re no fool you know what we are.”
I nodded and he released me with a push, my mind was racing I was fairly certain that I was dead, and no one could save me because if someone tried to help they’d get killed too, Lestat was going to be so pissed when he found my body. I had a lighter in my purse and hand sanitizer that was flammable yeah that could get maybe one of the them. I was dead.
“So, sweet heart, why don’t you tell me where the traitor Lestat is staying, and it won’t hurt too bad when we kill you.”
“Who’s Lestat?” I asked playing dumb, if I was going to die I wasn’t going to betray my lover, and I was going to piss them off as much as humanly possible.
“Don’t give me that bull shit, and why can’t I read your thoughts?” Tyler asked as he began to pace.
“That I really don’t know,” I took the opportunity to dig in my purse looking for my lighter, and hand sanitizer and what was that? My cell phone on mute? I really hated myself at this point, “Aha!” I said pulling out the lighter and the hand sanitizer, “ This is a lighter and hand sanitizer and you know what hand sanitizer is very flammable so I squirt this on you you’re gonna look like the fourth of July.”
“I’d like to see you try,” He said knocking them out of my hands.
‘Fuck’ I mentally cursed, as I hung my head, “Why don’t you let me go?” I asked trying to sound diplomatic.
“Why the hell would we do that?” The chick asked.
“Out of the goodness of your little black hearts?” I asked hopefully.
“Tell us where Lestat is and we might let you live so we can kill you in front of him before we rip him limb from limb.”
“Who is this Lestat you keep talking about?” I asked my wicked smirk crossed my face, yeah I as a retard, a dead retard.
“The vampire who you are seeing, the vampire who betrayed us all, the vampire who we are going to kill!”
“Vampires? Vampires aren’t real silly,” Oh yeah, those are going to be my last words.
“Now we’re just going to kill you, cause you getting so annoying.”
“Oh shit!” Yeah those were going to be my last words heard aloud, as Tyler, closed in on me I began to pray, and beg God for forgiveness. ‘God, I’m sorry for my cursing, and drinking, and being evolved with a vampire, please forgive my sins.’ Then something unexpected happened, Tyler stopped. I opened one eye and then the other very slowly.
Then I heard and deep voice from the shadows say, “I’d leave her alone if I were you.” The voice didn’t belong to that of Lestat’s but it didn’t belong to a human either the timbre was off just enough to not be human, it was like Lestat’s.
“What are you going to do about it old man?” Tyler asked approaching the shadows. Old man? I decided it was then I should make my break for it. I wasn’t going to wait around and find out who this old man was. I began to run, or at least as best I could in the silver heels. I didn’t get very far, I heard the heels that belonged to the chick behind me, and then I felt something collide hard and painfully with the back of my head, and everything went black.