Love Bites

The bass from the music made my chest rattled. This feeling felt so familiar. I smiled, looking up on stage in front of me where my best friend, Jacquelyn Taylor was performing with her rock band, which still hasn’t been named, yet. The band can never agree on anything, I thought as Jacquelyn notices me during the guitar solo of the guitarist, Mickey Gibbons. He sure could shred on the guitar. No wonder why Jacquelyn chose him to play lead guitar.

“Go, Mickey!” I yell over the roaring of the big crowd of fans, raising my one hand up to give the signature sign for “Rock on.” He noticed me at the end of it, smiled and winked in my direction.

I blushed.

Mickey and I have been dating for a while now and it’s getting serious. I’ve feared this, but that’s a whole completely different matter lying with my boss. He had warned me of becoming close to others while having a dangerous job like he did. Love and the job I have don’t mix with what I am a profession of.

Mickey had no idea at all what his darling sweet girlfriend really did for a living and I wasn’t sure if he’d believe me if I even attempted to explain it to him. He’d never ever believe me. He’d think I was out of my mind, or some kind of lunatic, and then, he’d leave me for sure.

I didn’t want that at all. Mickey was the only truly good thing going for me now in this world, and I don’t know what I would do without him. He was truly my everything, and he knew it.

That must have been their last song because as soon as it was over, Mickey handed his guitar to one of the roadies, and practically hops down from the stage like the spider monkey he is, to engulf me in a tight bear hug. With him having the advantage of height, I end up having my face pressed into his chest. I breathe in his familiar of cigarette smoke and cologne.

“I missed you, Babe,” Mickey says in his thick British accent, arms still around me in a tight embrace. He smiles down at me and plants a kiss on my head. I sigh in contentment. He then, brings my chin up with a hand to meet his intense stare. I go weak in the knees at the connection. He smiles down at me, and brings me in for a passionate kiss as I wrap my arms around his neck. Mickey deepens the kiss, smiling into it.

“Quit it you two love birds,” my best friend, Jacquelyn yelled over the bar chatter as the next band prepared themselves to begin playing. I blushed. We both turned our heads at the same time to see her seated on the edge of the stage with a smirk on her full plump lips when she notices my reaction.

“Shut it, Lyn,” I said lightheartedly back as she hopes down from her perch. She strides over when both I and Mickey part from one another. She and I bump fist and she brings me in for a hug.

“Girl, what have you been up to lately?” she asked, taking a beer from one of the other band members the bassist, Jaime, who handed it to her. He waves at me, but doesn’t stick around to talk. I nod my head in his direction in acknowledgement. “It feels like forever since I’ve seen you.”

“Just been busy working,” I lied. I had gotten so used to lying to both her and Mickey that it was becoming natural. I hated lying to her and to him like this, but in order to protect them, I had too. “What can I say I’m a slave to the grind?” I smiled, uneasily.

“Yeah, I hear you,” Jace said after taking a swig of Jack Daniels, and putting her arm around me. She had brought it. “But seriously Lyra, we need to hang out sometime. When you off of work? We need some girl time.”

I thought about it. Maybe, business would be slow? What the heck? What could it hurt to have some little girl time with my bestie?

“Sure, why don’t we hang out Friday?” I offer as the next band begins to play.

She nods her head in agreement. “Sure, we’ll meet at my house around five, okay?” she yells over the loud music being amplified.

After a few hours of catching up, I, Jacquelyn and Mickey decide to leave at the same time. We head out the door talking and Mickey is being his goofy charming self as always. I can’t keep from laughing. Jacquelyn is drunk from all the alcohol she managed to consume. She leans on me for support as she slurs each word she says and her dark brown bangs are matted to her forehead.

“Dude, you’re drunk,” Mickey laughs as we walk down the back alley. We had chosen to take the back door of the bar to evade crazy fans. Mickey is a hit with the women fans.

She just giggles, hysterically for no apparent reason, which makes me join in. Jacquelyn was a funny drunk. One time she fell into a pizza once at a party we were having on her birthday. She had just turned twenty-one, and now, she is twenty-five. I smiled at the memory of my best friend face planting into the pizza. I shook my head. Most of the time when she gets hammered, I’m the one who looks after her. I don’t mind, though.

What are friends for?

We are halfway out of the alley. The moon in the sky shines down emitting its wonderful glow down in the alleyway and casts shadows on the walls. Anything could be lurking in the darkness of the corners, I thought as I nodded to whatever a drunken Jacquelyn is going on about.

All of a sudden, I stop. Mickey doesn’t notice until Jacquelyn yells for him to stop. He does with confusion written all over his face. A shiver runs down my spine, and I feel as if the walls of the alleyway are closing in on me. I can taste the fear in my mouth as my heartbeat pounds against my ribcage.

Something wasn’t right here, I thought.

“What’s wrong, Honey?” Mickey asked, turning to face me and snapping me out of it, and that’s when I see the figure behind him approaching. Their movements are fast, but yet, fluent, and before I know it, they’ve got my boyfriend by the throat up against a back alley wall. The vampire bares his teeth exposing his sharp pointed fangs. My mouth goes dry and I can’t speak much less cry out.

I am defenseless, I thought glancing down at my best friend, who decided to fall asleep on my shoulder standing up. She was out of it.

I narrow my eyes at the vampire in front of me, who I’m sure is going to rip out my boyfriend’s throat. “Let him go, now,” I seethed, putting my friend down on the ground. I took off my sweater and put her head underneath it, so she can use it as a pillow.

The vampire turns to me with this widening evil grin on his ugly pale face. His shoulder length ginger hair is up in a ponytail, and he’s wearing a suit without a tie.

When I stand up and turn around, I realize who he is. Disgust feels my very core as I stand my ground. The vampire just smirks in my direction.