Humanity

She stood on the edge of the parking garage, looking down at the small city below. It didn’t surprise her that he would come here to Castle Hills, Connecticut. The small town with approximately three thousand inhabitants. Castle Hills was about half an hour away from the Rhode Island border and home to a coven of powerful witches. The fall air rushed past her, causing her long silky black hair to fly back. Her alluring and unusual violet eyes, peered through her dark sunglasses to the handsome gentleman heading into the small emergency clinic. The only clinic in Castle Hills for that matter.

Her black trench coat flapped around her slender legs and she licked her plump red lips. She knew they had come here, seeing Henry Packard walking into the clinic proved that. Of course, it really was no surprise to Lux Monroe that Zac Archer would come here. It was the place that the love of his life was killed nearly one hundred years ago. He still had a chip on his shoulder for it too, he went on a rampage and killed five vampire proteges to the Ancients. She was one of his targets, but she managed to get away.

Zac was unlike any other vampire, his senses were stronger than most. While he wasn’t a young vampire, his strength, speed, and healing abilities were almost on par with a vampire that had been around for five hundred years. Zac on the other hand was merely 236 years old. He shouldn’t have had power like he did, especially not back then. That’s why Lux had come for him, to see just how strong he had become since they had last seen him. Dimitri had sent her and he was an impatient vampire.

Turning on her heels, Lux started walking towards the stairs that lead to the ground level. She was just going to pay Henry a friendly visit, of course he probably wouldn’t think so. His exact words last time were that ‘I’ll rip her throat out’ and that she shouldn’t come around. That was three years ago and they hadn’t made contact since. She had tried when they were in Chicago, but Zac caught wind of her and fled like the French Army. This time though, she would get his pet and have Zac at her mercy.

She crossed the drop off port and entered the hospital lobby. Her candy apple red heels clicked on the linoleum floor and she looked around. There were a dozen people sitting around the lounge and a handful of nurses and doctors walking around, chatting, and scribbling on their clipboards. Lux pursed her lips and pulled off her sunglasses off. She clicked her tongue and wondered where Henry would have gone. It clicked in her mind though, Henry was a nurse’s aid back in Chicago.

“Excuse me,” Lux said politely as she walked up to the front counter where a middle aged woman wearing too much mascara was sitting. “I’m looking for someone. He’s about this tall,” she gestured to an estimated height, “dark hair, drool worthy.”

The woman looked at Lux for a moment, studying her features. She looked young, pretty, sexy, and completely devious. It came with the territory of being a vampire, Dimitri always told her to tone it down. Not that she ever listened, she took advantage of it and made men melt right in front of her.

“Is he a patient?” the woman asked in a bored tone. She wore teddy bear scrubs and seemed completely bored. Lux didn’t really want to play around with this, so she decided to take matters into her own hands.

“His name is Henry Packard,” Lux said, staring into the woman’s eyes. “He’s probably applying for a job, I really need to speak with him please.” Lux’s eyes started turn completely black and then woman seemed to be lost in a trance.

She looked down at her clipboard and searched for a name. “Yes, he is in an interview with Dr. Wagner. Please take a seat in the lobby,” the woman said robotically.

“That’s quite alright, I’ll just wait outside. Don’t tell him I dropped in, okay?” Lux asked the nurse with a cheeky grin. She patted the blue-gray countertop and walked off, leaving the nurse slightly confused. For whatever reason though, the nurse didn’t seem to remember what Lux had asked her. She shook her head and went back to work, forgetting about the dark haired beauty.

When Lux was back outside, she decided to go wait around the corner of the building. She leaned against the beige brick wall and crossed one leg in front of the other. Lux put her sunglasses on and stared straight ahead into the street. She wondered where Zac was going to be staying. He was always the fickle type, bouncing back and forth between good and evil. He never did excel in picking a side, which is why Lux was there to force him onto the vampires side.

Fifteen minutes later, Lux caught Henry’s scent. She smirked and pushed off the wall, turning to see Henry walking out of the hospital. He hadn’t changed much at all, in fact he looked exactly the same. Lux followed him to his car and as he was unlocking the door, she tapped her nails on the trunk of the red car. When Henry turned to look at her, she smiled and waved to him.

“Lux!” Henry gasped and took a step back.

“Hello Henry, it’s been a while,” Lux greeted sweetly.

Henry swallowed hard and shook his head. It was starting to make sense why Zac wanted to leave Chicago. If Lux had come to Castle Hills, some nowhere town in northeastern Connecticut, that meant the Ancients were after him. And nothing good ever came from the Ancients; they both had experience.

“Aren’t you happy to see me?” Lux asked mockingly.

“Ecstatic,” Henry glowered. “Why are you here? Why am I seeing you?” His anger was building up and he could feel the heat stirring inside. Zac had taught him to keep his cool though, so he quickly calmed himself.

“Temper, temper,” Lux chided with a wave of her finger. “You’re as aggressive as always.” She smirked and pushed off of the car.

“Answer the question, you blood-sucking--”

“Shut your trap!” Lux snapped harshly, covering his mouth. Her eyes had gone black and Henry grabbed hold of her wrist and slammed her back against the car. She grunted and was taken by surprise that he was able to fend her off. It was obvious that Henry was well trained now, Zac had probably pushed him to his limits. “Zac has you pretty well trained, being able to fight off my compulsion.”

“Why the hell are you here?” Henry seethed, grasping her thin neck and squeezing it tight. Lux started grunting and tried to break free, but he was much stronger than she imagined he would be. She was kicking herself for not feeding before coming to face Henry. “Answer me!” Henry snapped, tightening his grip on her neck.

“I need to talk to Zac, that’s why,” Lux managed to get out.
Henry shoved Lux away. She stumbled back and coughed a few times, rubbing her neck. When she straightened herself up, she chuckled seeing that Henry’s usual blue eyes had gone gold. His teeth had grown sharper and his nails hand become claw like.

“Leave,” Henry growled darkly. “Now.”

“They get what they want, Henry,” Lux pointed out sternly. “Zac can run and run all he likes, but they’ll get him.” She ran her fingers through her hair and sighed softly, flattening her trench coat down.

“You can’t do this to him, he’s finally getting his shit together,” Henry told her cooly, clenching his fist at his sides. His golden eyes faded back to their ocean blue hue and he shook his head. “I’m warning you, Lux. Stay away or I will rip you apart and burn all the pieces.” He fixed up his jean coat and opened the car door. When he got into the car, he turned the keys in the ignition and pulled out of the small parking area in a hurry.

Lux groaned and shook her head. All she wanted was to talk, but now it was going to be something personal. She couldn’t go back to Dimitri without one of them, he would surely kill her if she did. If Henry wasn’t going to help her, she would just have to be forceful. This would definitely require her to feed though, she couldn’t handle an angry shifter and vampire. She would need to be at full strength and ready to fight.

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“Vampires don’t exists!” Winnie interjected after hearing Zac explanation of being a vampire, but it was very brief with a lot of holes and questions. Which was the main reason that Winnie was having such a hard time believing him. He claimed that he was over two hundred years old and he was now a vegetarian vampire. “I’ve read all the books, you can’t possibly be a vampire.”

“Sorry I don’t sparkle in the sunlight,” Zac replied jokingly with a shrug. He was sitting on the bar, watching Winnie pacing the floor. She was slightly happy that someone could see her, but she didn’t like the fact he was a vampire. “But I am a vampire.”

“This can’t be happening, vampires don’t exist, and your friend what is he a fairy?” Winnie snapped, pointing an accusing finger at Zac. He snickered at her accusation of Henry being a fairy.

“Close, he’s a shifter,” Zac corrected, but Winnie wasn’t even listening. All she was doing was pacing and rambling about how it was all a bad dream. He frowned and shook his head, obviously he’d opened the flood gates. She had been alone in this bar for so long that she just had to let out all her emotions, someone was finally their to listen to her. “Winnie! Stop!” Zac interrupted urgently and she turned to him.

“I’m sorry, I just...” she trailed off and groaned, burying her face in her hands. She sat down in the middle of the room and shook her head. For so long she had been unseen and now some guy claiming he was a vampire could see her. It didn’t make any sense, of course for the past two years nothing seemed to make sense. Everything was just blurring together and all Winnie knew was that nothing would change.

“I know this is hard,” Zac said kindly and she looked up at him. “I can help you.”

“Help me?” Winnie asked with a raised brow.

“Yeah, I can help you find out what your unfinished business is,” Zac agreed with a soft smile. He’d come across a few ghost in his time, he knew the only reason they were trapped in limbo was because they had unfinished business.

“I had my whole life ahead of me, can you really help me finish all of that?” Winnie asked skeptically.

“Normally your unfinished business is something that had to do with your death or something happening before your death,” Zac explained to her and Winnie nodded stiffly. What was really surprising about it all was that he wanted to help her in the first place. “Something that you need to fix.”

“Why are you helping me?” Winnie asked him. “We don’t even know each other.”

It was a valid question, he couldn’t deny that. He had his reasons for helping her, many reason actually. Some reasons she would probably never understand. Zac licked his lips and stared at Winnie, she was just a beautiful young woman who had life ripped away from her before it deserved to be. Much like himself and Henry. None of them asked to be made into these monsters, hell all they wanted was a peaceful death and instead they got turned into supernatural beings.

Zac was about to answer her question when the front door flung open. Henry was standing in the door way, panting heavily as if he had just run a marathon. Winnie had quickly stood up while, Zac just gave him a confused stare. It was then that he saw that Henry’s claws were out and his eyes were changing between gold and blue like a rippling pool.

“Why did we come here, Zac?” Henry asked, kicking the door shut with his foot. He glanced over at Winnie, who seemed a bit shocked by his sudden entrance. “It wasn’t for this girl. It’s because they are after you again, aren’t they?”

“What are you talking about?” Zac asked rigidly. “Chicago was just getting dangerous.”

“Don’t lie to me!” Henry growled sharply. Winnie stepped back when she saw dark fur starting to appear on his arms. Zac let out a breath and knew that something terrible must have happened. It wasn’t like Henry to get this upset. “They’re after you again aren’t they? Which means you did something to put us back on their radar.”

“Henry, I can--”

“What did you do?” Henry asked viciously with narrowed eyes.