Bound to You

Eliza woke up some time later needing to use the bathroom, but as she slowly came back to her senses, she heard loud voices coming from outside the bedroom. She recognized one immediately as Zack’s, but the other was muffled and indistinguishable. She shrugged, too tired to really care what they were arguing about as she pushed the blankets off of her body and walked towards the bathroom. When she was finished and had taken a shower, she walked back into the main bedroom towards the closet to get dressed. She found three outfits set out for her and rolled her eyes. She was getting tired of not being able to choose her own clothes. She picked out the clothes she liked the most and pulled them on, studying herself in the long, floor-to-ceiling length mirror.

The outfit had obviously been put together to please Zack. It consisted of a thigh-high, purple dress with a lattice-laced front and a pair of black ankle boots. She sighed, wondering why he was dressing her in this today, and pulled the dress over her head before leaning over to put the shoes on. When she had finished, she heard the bedroom door open and walked out to see who had walked in, spotting Val and a man with just as many tattoos as Zack had.

“Eliza, this is Matt.” Val told her, her voice guarded. “He’s going to stay in here with you. Brian will be along in a little while, but don’t pay any attention to him. They’ll—“

“Cut the crap, Val.” Eliza said, her voice stronger than she felt. She had no idea what was going on, but she knew it couldn’t be anything good. She’d not only heard Zack arguing loudly with someone, but now Val was bringing in two men that she’d never met before, most probably to protect her from something. “Tell me what’s going on.”

Val sighed, but nodded. She didn’t want to lie to her friend. “Well, here’s the thing. A threat’s just been made on your life, and Zack’s taking it just a little seriously.”

“What?” Eliza asked. “Who would want to kill me?”

“Does the name ‘Sean’ ring any bells?” Matt’s voice asked suddenly, breaking his silence as he looked at her. He didn’t seem angry at her; in fact, Eliza would guess he was fuming angry about something else. Either way, she didn’t envy whoever got in his way. He looked ready to kill.

But she pushed that thought out of her head, and tried to push what he’d asked her out with it. He’d said Sean’s name. But why would he want to kill her? How did he even know she was here?

“He’s my ex-boyfriend.” Eliza told him. “I don’t…I don’t understand.”

“He came here demanding that we negotiate or he’s declaring war on Bat Country.”

“How is any of this possible? How does…What does he have to do with any of this?”

Matt sighed. “You obviously don’t know Sean Castro very well, do you? You’ve been with him for so long, and you don’t know one real thing about him. Everything you know about your ex-boyfriend as you call the bastard is a lie, Elizabeth. He’s just as much a vampire as we are.”

“What?” Eliza asked. “No, no…He can’t be…I would have known.”

“Would you have?” Matt questioned further. “You didn’t know that Zack was a vampire until he told you.”

Eliza sighed, pushing a hand through her hair. This was too much to handle right now, especially since she’d just woken up. She walked back to the bed, laying on the mattress before pulling a pillow over her head.

She heard someone walk closer to her and felt the bed shift, and then felt the pillow being pulled away from her.

“Eliza, I know this is a really fast transition for you. But you’ll get through it, okay?” Val said to her, her voice kind and soft. “You just need to accept that this is your life now, and that it’s only going to get stranger from here on in. After you do that, everything will get so much easier.”

Eliza nodded, but she didn’t believe a word her newfound friend was saying. How could any of this get any easier? Her life had been turned upside down, the one boyfriend she’d thought she’d loved was allegedly trying to kill her, and she was in a twisted half-relationship with a vampire. There was nothing ‘easy’ about that.

She heard a crash come from downstairs and squeezed her eyes shut, trying to block out the noise. Val sighed, and then looked over at Matt. “That better not have been Brian. He knows he’s supposed to—“

“Don’t get your panties all in a bunch, Val. I’m here.” A voice that Eliza recognized from somewhere said from the doorway of the bedroom. She turned to look and see who it was, and she was surprised to see the man who’d held the gun to her head the night she’d been kidnapped.

Brian saw Eliza looking at him and smiled, a slight glimpse of a fang evident. He pushed a hand through his hair and then walked over to the bed.

“I never properly introduced myself to you, so I’m going to do that now. Hi, my name’s Brian. I’m a vampire, and one of Zack’s best friends. And also, I want to apologize for threatening to shoot you that night…I wouldn’t have shot you, y’know.”

“Shut up, Brian.” Val told him, glaring at him. “You’re late. What if he’d—“

“Don’t count Zack and Johnny out yet, Val.” Brian cut her off. “They’ll take care of Sean, and Jimmy’s got his back.”

“It might not be just Sean.” Val told him, worry passing through her eyes. “You know just as well as any of us do that he’s full of tricks. There’s a reason why Zack prefers to keep his distance from him.”

“I know.” Brian sighed. “And in the event that anyone does manage to get past Zack, Jimmy, and Johnny, me and Matt are here, and nothing will get past us. Guaranteed.”

Eliza didn’t say a word; she was feeling a mixture of confusion, fear, and anger.

As time went by, the sounds of fighting got louder and louder, though no closer to the bedroom than they had before. As they all sat near the bed, Eliza couldn’t help but wonder where Zack was, and if he was going to be okay