Nightmare City

I stared at her from across the counter, dazed. I recalled the blood stain in her apartment. I had recognized it as Lucien’s blood, but I hadn’t want to think that he- he could be...

“You... killed Lucien?” I asked, feeling completely hollow.

Her eyes were emerald slits. “I had to, it was the only way I could have my own life. No matter what I said or did, he wouldn’t back down, he wouldn’t leave me alone.”

I tried to recall Lucien’s face, but the only image that came from my devastated memory was an infant’s face, asleep and peaceful. I couldn’t remember what my son looked like now. Did he look like me? I was never going to find out.

Pain flooded the emptiness inside, quickly converting into rage. I began shaking all over. This pain was familiar, this loss echoed deep inside of my chest. I had felt it before, a long time ago. Back then I tried to hold it in, to contain the urge to destroy someone I cared about. This time... this time I didn’t have to hold back at all. There was no one I cared about before me.

“YOU KILLED MY SON!” I literally flew into a rage, climbing over the counter and throwing myself at her.

There is a breaking point in every vampire’s mind, a moment when the mind becomes so consumed by hatred and anger that the only thoughts are of destroying the object of ire. No thoughts were wasted on reason or even the vampire’s own safety. The heart beats faster, to better move adrenaline throughout the body, making a vampire’s terrifying strength massive.

Some called it Blood Rage, or The Berserk. I had always thought of it as nothing more than mindless fury. I had only felt it three times in my long, long life.

With every fiber of my being I wanted to hurt her. It was my only thought, the only thing I focused on. It made me careless.

No, careless was too tame a word. My own safety no longer concerned me. If I were fatally wounded, I would not heed it. Such things no longer mattered.

********

Chris let out a sigh that ended in a moan. “Let’s just go inside for now, I’ll call the insurance company in the morning.”

“You’re not worried about leaving the car out?” I asked. “I can go put it in the garage.”

He waved his hand. “No, leave it. We’re miles away from anyone, it’s not like someone’s gonna come along and swipe my stereo.”

I put a comforting hand on his back as we turned to the house. “Come on, I’ll make you some cocoa, you’ve had a hard night.”

“The kind with the little marshmallows in it?” he asked hopefully.

“Sure thing,” I smiled at him.

“Evie, maybe you should stop hanging around this guy.” His expression suddenly changed, looking worried. “It’s not just that he’s not safe, not just that crazy things happen the more you’re around him. I’m just worried about how close you two are getting. He’s not human, he doesn’t feel things the way we do.”

I rolled my eyes. “Trust me, I’m not getting attached. I went a little bonkers when I thought he was dead, but I had an excuse, I was recovering from a head wound.”

“It’s not you that’s getting attached, though,” he said quietly.

I laughed a little, giving him a strange look. “What do you mean?”

But Chris’ face was grim. “He sees you as something that he owns now, his property. I’ve seen it with my own eyes. Whenever something going on concerns you, he gets this look about him...”

“If he does feel that way, then I’ll set him right. With force, if I have to.” I pressed the button for the doorbell.

“But it’s not going to do any good if you’re still around him. I’m not sure if it’s because he drinks blood to live, or because he’s so strong, or even because he’s been around so long, but he’s disconnected. He doesn’t care about hurting or killing the way we do.” He took a breath and finished. “And seeing him act so possessive towards you truly is a scary thing.”

I rang the doorbell again. “It’s times like this I really wish we had a second key.” I sighed.

Chris knew I was dodging his worries, and he let it go. “Maybe he’s asleep?”

“Even if he was, he’d still hear the bell.” I rang it again, twice in succession. “What the hell, Gabriel,” I muttered. “This night hasn’t been long enough?”

I walked around the porch to the back side of the house. A large glass window dominated most of the living room wall, but the blinds were closed. Chris followed me and rapped his knuckles on the glass.

“That won’t work, the entire house is sound proofed.”

“Are you kidding me?” he turned to me. “What kind of crazy bat was Katrina, anyway?”

There was a tiny slit in the blinds, a sliver of light shining out from the living room. I pressed my face close to the glass, shading my eyes with my hands. I straightened up right away, feeling cold. “You can ask her yourself, she’s in the kitchen with Gabriel.”

“Wait, what?” Chris peered through the window as well, but I was already moving, hopping over the wooden porch railing and running back to the car. “Where are you going?” Chris called after me.

“Steven’s.” I called back. “I’m gonna ask him to help me get another key!”

“Just call him!” Chris shouted after me.

“I can’t! Gabriel has my cell phone!” I hopped back into the car, fumbling with the keys a bit before I was able to start it.

As I drove out of the clearing and to the main road I noticed the sky slowly turning pink at the edges. Dawn was rapidly approaching. I’d left the house right before dark, which means I’d been up all night. With Gabriel around, I could easily forget what the sun looked like.

Did it really matter in the end? The sun was a burning ball in the sky that made me red and itchy a couple of days out of the year. Gabriel was... Gabriel was...

I gripped the steering wheel hard as I drove down the road.

********

“Please be up, please be up, please be up.” I chanted as I hopped up the front steps to Steven’s house.

The house was huge, but for most of the year he had the place to himself. His parents dropped in every few months, in between long vacations in other countries. Among my three human friends on Long Island, Steven was the most withdrawn, I wondered if that was because he spent more time alone.

I jabbed my thumb at the doorbell, hitting it repeatedly. He answered almost immediately, peering at me through a thin crack in the doorway. “Angie?” He opened the door wide. “What’s the matter?”

His hair was disheveled and his glasses drooped down his nose, but he didn’t look as if I had just woke him. He was wearing jeans and a t-shirt, so he’d probably been up all night like me.

“I’ve locked myself out of my house.” I told him hurriedly. “Please tell me you have another key!”

He shook his head. “Aunt Katrina insisted on there only being one key. Even though she let me work on the security system however I wanted, she wouldn’t agree to a backup.”

“What about the company that made the key?” I pressed. “Where are they located?”

“I made the key.” he answered. “I used the 3D printer.” He jerked his thumb behind him, back into the house.

“Then you can make me another one!” I nearly screeched with hopefulness. He shook his head again. “Stop shaking your head!” I ordered.

“I’m sorry, Angie, Aunt Katrina made me delete the schematic for it.”

“Steven, listen to me right now. I really, really, NEED to get into my house, right now.” I grabbed the front of his shirt and yanked him down to eye level. His glasses slipped right off his face and clattered on the porch.

“Have you tried the secret entrance to the basement?” he asked, nonplussed.

I didn’t hear him. My grip on his shirt fell slack. A strange feeling came over me, a calm that was unnatural, given the situation. “You have really blue eyes.” I said softly.

“Aw dammit.” he muttered. He bent down and picked up his glasses, putting them back on. The effect was broken immediately and I blinked for the first time in over a minute.

“What the hell just happened?” I asked. That feeling... it was almost like influence. I narrowed my eyes at Steven.

“Sorry about that,” he said while adjusting his glasses. “I sat on them the other day and now they won’t sit right.” He gave up and looked back at me. “I’ve got fey blood,” he said by way of explanation.

“I’m sorry... what?”

He sighed, looking pained. “Now’s really not the time for this. You need to get into the house, right?”

Gabriel was fighting vampire Katrina, all by himself. Urgency sparked inside of me. “Yes, right now, immediately.”

“Have you tried the secret entrance to the basement?”

“There’s a secret entrance to the basement?”

“Right.” Steven set his jaw. “Come on, I’ll show you where it is.”

We got back into the car, Steven taking the front passenger’s side. He looked at the busted window. “I see you’ve had a rough night.”

“Don’t get me started,” I muttered as I turned the key in the ignition.

“We can talk about something else, then.”

“Fey blood?” I asked as I steered the jeep back out to the road.

“Something that’s not that.”

“You’re the one that brought it up.”

“Well, yes I did, but I was going to eventually anyway. I figured you were used to wierdness, since you live with vampires. Which I’m guessing is the reason there’s trouble now and you have to get into the house. I’m just hoping there’s not going to be a lot of blood like last time, because I don’t really do well around-”

I hit the brakes sharply, sending us both forward, straining the seat belts. “Vampires!? Who said anything about vampires?” I asked, my voice high-pitched.

“I’m sorry, I should have told you that I knew earlier,” he said profusely. “but I was afraid Gabriel would probably kill me. I’ve seen what vampires do to each other, I’m not much of a fight.”

“You- you remember, from last year?” I asked tentatively. I eased off the brakes and switched to the gas, easing the car forward.

Last year Nora (Gabriel’s wife) had broken into the house and kidnapped Gabriel. In the process, she had nearly killed Callie. At the time, Steven had been hiding in the basement, and after Nora was gone, he helped me nurse Callie back to life. “Callie told me that she-”

“Wiped my memories?” he asked helpfully, then sucked his teeth. “Yeah, sorry, I’ve learned that anything that involves eye contact really doesn’t work on me. I can’t control it. Trust me, I wish I could forget all of that.”

“Do Ricky and Cass know about this?” I asked. Ricky and Cassandra were my other two friends on Long Island, a brother and sister pair. They both happened to have crushes on Steven, and now I was starting to see why.

“I told them, they’re my best friends. They humor me, but they don’t really believe me.”

“I mean about Gabriel and Callie,” I demanded.

“I haven’t told them. I’m not sure if they’ve pieced it together themselves, though. I mean, it’s pretty obvious when you think about it.”

“Yeah, it is pretty obvious.” I muttered. “Fantastic.”

“Well, it’s not much, but it doesn’t matter to me what Callie and Gabriel are. They seem fairly okay people. Well Callie is pretty great, Gabriel less so, so I guess it evens out. In the end, I’m still your friend. I’m not going to judge you by what they are, or do.”

Okay, now I was starting to see why Ricky and Cassandra liked him so much. “Thanks,” I said.

********

My claws dug deeply into her flesh just as her sword bit into mine. Her wounds healed within seconds, while mine poured blood.

It was no surprise, she was so much younger, and so full of blood. Human blood, vampire blood... Lucien’s blood. Meanwhile I had been subsisting on pig’s blood for months.

As my body burned, I longed to tear into her with my teeth, but the biting blade always stung, forcing me away. Taking it away from her had also proved impossible. She would not relinquish any physical advantage over me.

My mind was a red cloud of pain and rage, my only desire to tear, to rip, to kill. My heartbeat resonated with it. Shred, cut, kill.

All of my reserves were being spent, every bit of strength I possessed was pushed to it’s limit.

Things broke around us, furniture smashed to tinder, doors broken in. The refrigerator would never run again. The battle went on for an eternity.

It only took one move to finish it.

I found myself on my back, the kitchen table under me. The silver katana buried in my chest, while she stood over me, bearing it down with both hands.

Her face was a mess, scratched and bloodied, her hair wild tatters. Her vibrant green eyes full of desperation, terror, and a faint spark of triumph.

I clawed at her arms as the red cloud thickened. I tore into them, rending muscle from bone, but she did not move, only waiting for the last of my strength to fade away.

********

When we got back to the house, Steven hopped out of the car before I had fully parked. I left the keys in the ignition and hopped out after him. He jogged to the side of the house past the laundry room. Chris spotted us and followed.

“Looks like someone’s already been through here.” He studied the ground.

“Why do you say that?”

He shuffled through the gravel with one foot. “There’s no loose gravel over the door, just what was set into it.” He bent down, hooking his fingers around a few pieces of gravel, then pulled up. An iron door swung open, white gravel either glued to or set into it’s back

A narrow ladder led down into the basement, and utter darkness. “After you,” Steven gestured to me.

“Right.” I stepped down onto the first step, but Chris grabbed my arm, stopping me.

“I’ll go first.” he said.

“No, you stay here. It’s too narrow, you’ll never fit.”

“You’re not going inside alone.”

“I won’t be alone, Gabriel’s already inside. He’s probably already wiped the floor with Katrina. I’ll go down and get the key. Meet me by the front door and I’ll let you in.”

Chris glared at me suspiciously, his hand tightening on my arm. “I’m not letting you go down there.”

Steven removed his glasses and carefully folded them, placing them in his shirt pocket. He put a hand on Chris’ shoulder. “Let’s go wait by the door, man.”

Chris turned to him, shrugging his hand off, and paused. He stared at Steven as if he’d never seen him before. His grip on my arm slackened and I pulled free. “You’re eyes are really blue.” he said.

“Yes, I’m aware of that,” Steven answered. “The porch is this way.” He pointed ahead and steered my brother by his shoulder.

Quickly, I made my way down into the basement. Darkness closed around me like a blanket. I reached the bottom and felt around blindly till I found a doorknob.

I kept my arms outstretched in front of me as I navigated the sea of pitch black. Despite my efforts I still banged my knee right into something hard.

My fingers recognized it as the bench press. I was in the gym. Okay, I knew which way to go, now, mostly.

I reached the light switch and flicked it on, listening carefully. There were no sounds overhead. Had what I told Chris been true? Had Gabriel already taken care of Katrina?

Or had it been the other way around? My stomach tightened. Only one way to find out.

I made my way through the gym, and the pantry, reaching the steps that led up to the kitchen closet. This house had too many secret doors. This was the third one, by my count. One could only wonder how many more secrets Great Aunt Katrina had buried here.

Would I ever be able to find them all?

That last thought sent a shiver down my spine that stopped me cold. I shook myself and continued on, climbing the steps up to the door.

I slid the door open and was greeted with a faint light, coming through the cracks made into the kitchen closet door, after it had been smashed through.

I listened intently, but there was no sound. Carefully I pushed the broken door open. It moved a few feet before stopping, something heavy and metal barring the way.

It was our mammoth refrigerator, lying on it’s side. Thankfully there was enough room for me to squeeze out the door, because there was no way in the world I would have been able to move it.

Climbing over it would be the only way to get into the kitchen. I put my hands up on the side and paused, seeing the blood for the first time. Slowly, and with much dread, I brought my eyes up, taking in the scene before me.