Witchblood (15 page)

         For the first half of the evening, he seemed buoyed by the attraction I’d had for him, so ignoring Daniel’s grim smile and Eva’s raised eyebrows, he set about regaling me with his life story. He talked endlessly about how much he missed Texas, from the beautiful mountains of the west to the central hill country and rolling cattle ranches. It did sound beautiful, but after a while, his conversation, along with the husky southern drawl began to lull me into a fit of barely concealed yawns.

         Eva butted in and announced to my happy surprise that she was taking me for a walk around the club. As we left the table, Bradley who had seamlessly changed the subject, was telling an already bored Daniel about a vampire girl he’d been seeing in Leeds.

         ‘Right, come on. Sebastian likes us to do a couple of rounds of the club. Smile at the human guys and make them want to come back for more,’ Eva said as we started walking towards the central staircase, which led to the first floor bar and dance floor. The DJ was playing slower, more sensual tracks with an Indie edge. It was a welcome change from the pounding dance music I could still make out, coming from the ground floor.

         ‘Right, your first task is to get us a couple of drinks from the bar; otherwise we’ll have every man in here asking us if they can buy us one. Plus it’ll be good practise for you to talk to humans again,’ Eva said, smiling and leading the way to the nearest bar.

         ‘But I thought that we could only go to Johnny downstairs?’ I stammered, suddenly confused.

         ‘Yes, to get a
real
drink, but we’ll just get a couple of cokes here, to carry round and blend in. Like I said, its good practice for you to pretend to be human again,’ she whispered, as we neared the bar. Eva shoved a five pound note in my hand, before propelling me in front of her to the bar.

         I was suddenly wedged in a mass of sweaty humans and the smell overpowered me. I felt my fangs run out and my slow pulse drummed in my ears. I quickly turned round into Eva’s embrace.

         ‘I can’t do it Eva, I can’t. The smell!’ I mumbled, trying to calm myself, my mouth saturated with saliva and my eyes burning.

         ‘Shhh, you’re fine. Remember, you don’t need to breathe. You’re a vampire, the blood keeps you alive, not the oxygen. Close your eyes for a second and stop breathing. The scent will go away,’ she whispered, placing her cool hands on my temples.

         We must have looked a little odd, as a small space opened up around us. I heard some typical jeers from the guys around us about the hot chicks being lesbians. I sighed. Some things never change, I guess. If only they knew what was really going on, and how I was actually imagining, rather too vividly, biting my fangs down deep into their throats and sucking hard until my thirst was quenched.

         Oh yuck! That did it! Strangely, acting that little fantasy out in my head allowed the human, or witch or whatever, to take charge and I felt my fangs recede and my head clear. I nodded briefly to Eva and turned back to the bar. I found I was able to use my mental wall to push away those vampiric urges and ignore the sweet smell of dinner wafting around my senses. Instead, I flicked my hair and after checking my fangs had disappeared, smiled a wide smile at the barman, who’d been watching us out of the corner of his eye as he served some other girls. He was opposite me in a moment, drooling like a puppy.

         ‘Hi Eva,’ he nodded at Eva behind my back. ‘Are you going to introduce me?’ he asked.

         ‘No Ben, not right now. You’ve a full bar to attend to,’ she replied curtly.

         I didn’t understand her rudeness, but then I didn’t always understand Eva, so I shrugged and returned his gaze.

         ‘Hey Ben, can we have two cokes please?’ I asked, amazed at my calm confidence. Where had that come from, all of a sudden?

         ‘Sure.’ He bent down to get the cokes from a fridge and poured them into two glasses. I handed over the money and smiled at him, as Eva pulled me back through the throng of clubbers waiting to be served.

         ‘There! See, you were fine. How did you get rid of your fangs? Did holding your breath work?’ she asked.

         I thought about lying and going with the flow, but in the end I knew I could trust Eva now and so I told the truth.

         ‘Um, not quite. I actually visualised biting one of them and drinking their blood, and after a moment the urge passed,’ I explained, choosing not to elaborate upon the grossed out feelings I had.

         ‘You are one strange girl! Come on. Do you at least like dancing?’

         Now this was one thing I could confidently join in with. I loved dancing and nodded vigorously.

         ‘Great,’ and with that she popped our glasses down on a nearby table and pulled me onto the dance floor.

         The music wasn’t the sort I’d normally dance to, but it had a slow, sexy rhythm, and soon I found myself moving easily in time to the beat. With my arms raised above my head and my hips swaying, I closed my eyes in bliss and felt almost human again.

         After ten minutes and several tunes later, Eva grabbed my hand again and I came back to earth. I realised we’d ended up in the middle of the dance floor, and people had moved away a little to give us space. There were plenty of eyes upon us and Eva obviously thought it was time to go.

         ‘Come on, you don’t want to attract too much attention,’ Eva said, and I wondered if I could detect a sight note of sulkiness before she smiled.

         ‘You were really good there, Jess. Have you always loved dancing?’ she asked in a kinder note.

         ‘Yes, I did ballet as a child, and ever since I was old enough to get into night clubs, I’ve spent my Saturdays dancing the night away with Alex. We could never be bothered pulling guys, we just liked dancing.’ I smiled at the memory and wished she could be here with us now.

         As I finished speaking, we arrived at the table we’d put our drinks down at, to find two guys there waiting for us.

         ‘Hi girls, loved the dancing. We’ve been looking after your drinks for you. You shouldn’t leave them unattended. I’m Nick and this is Darren,’ said a fairly short, brown-haired guy, smiling at us and nodding towards his taller friend, who didn’t seem as enthusiastic. There was something creepy about Nick, and I noticed he had slightly pudgy hands and short fingers with freckles on them, which was an instant no-no for me. Still, I smiled back politely and reached for my drink.

         ‘I bet you have,’ Eva said, and then, before I could say anything she took the drink from my hand and holding it under her nose inhaled quickly. Her eyes darkened and in a split second, before either of the guys could react, she’d put the glass down, grabbed both of them by their collars and pulled them close. The short guy was flailing, as she held him easily with his toes skimming the floor.

         ‘My friend owns this club and half of Manchester, so if I ever hear of you drugging girls’ drinks again, I will personally make your lives very uncomfortable, understand? Now I’ve seen you, you’ll be watched in every club in town.’ Eva pulled them closer to her face and with a smile gave them a quick flash of her fangs, fully extended. Their faces went white and the taller one stumbled backwards as Eva released them and took a step back, her fangs hidden once more.

         ‘By the way Nick, you might want to go and change those pants,’ she shot at them cruelly as they stumbled away, Nick trying to hide the dark wet patch growing down his trouser leg.

         ‘Eva, you showed them your fangs, you lifted him off the ground; what the hell?’ I panicked, shocked at how fast it had all happened, and wondering what the repercussions might be.

         ‘Relax, boogie babe. No one saw anything, and those idiots will never tell anybody, because who would believe them? I don’t think they’re the kind of people who have any credibility anyway. Now here, take this drink and smell it,’ Eva said, as she handed me the coke again.

         I took it from her and inhaled. Amazingly, I could instantly detect a different scent, half-hidden in the sugary sweetness of the cola.

         ‘Obviously as a human, you’d never be able to detect the difference, which is why as a human girl I bet you never left your drink unattended, right?’ I nodded. ‘But now your senses are so much more sensitive, you don’t have to worry about scum like that and we can have some fun teaching them a lesson. Just always remember to smell your drinks before you drink them,’ she added.

         ‘Would the drugs affect us then, if we did drink it?’ I asked.

         ‘No, probably not, but with you being so….um, different, shall we say, I wouldn’t like to take the risk. Besides, I like catching them so I can report them to Seb, who in turn will get his flunkies to keep an eye out for them. After all, it’s bad for his club to have bottom feeders like that around, and we get to kick some ass!’ She smiled before adding, ‘Let’s go back to the boys. Daniel will be bored out of his mind with my all-American boy!’

         I followed Eva back down the stairs and suddenly she came to an abrupt stop.

         ‘Oh hell! That tall guy that was with Nick…Darren was it? He’s over there talking to that blonde girl. Jess, you go back to Daniel and Brad and tell them what’s up. I’m just going to remove tonight’s scum bag from the club,’ she said. I sure didn’t want to be in his shoes in ten seconds time. I grinned to myself and started walking over to our corner table, but I didn’t move more than a couple of feet.

         I stopped in shock and stood, transfixed at the two couples in front of me. Gemma and Lucy, friends from university, were sitting at a table just to the side of me with two guys, one who I immediately recognised as Luke’s best mate, Tom. I stood immobile. Was Luke here, was Alex here? No of course not. I knew in my heart I was right about that. They wouldn’t be able to come here yet, if ever, and there were no more spaces at the table, no drinks waiting to be reclaimed. The friends must be here as a foursome. I sighed a little and then froze once more as Gemma’s eyes slowly lifted to meet mine.

         Her eyes opened wide in shock and confusion, but after that initial split second she shook her head slightly and looked away. I couldn’t move. I stared for what seemed ages, rooted to my past, and to my friends. Tears started to form in my eyes and my pulse started thumping furiously in my head.

         Just as Gemma’s head started to move upwards again and her eyes began to meet mine, I flung out my mental feelers. I needed Daniel and I needed him fast. At the same time my head started to spin, and all I thought about was how I needed an escape. I needed to run. Gemma was getting up from her chair and looking directly at me, but my feet wouldn’t move.

Chapter Seven

I felt a now familiar energy build within me to uncontrollable levels, and a second later the lights of the entire lower floor had briefly flickered before making a popping noise, and gone out. We were flung into what I found a comforting darkness. The room was lit by the dull glow at the emergency exits, and light escaping from the upper level. Daniel appeared in front of me and a second later Eva was behind me. A chorus of screams and shouts went up in the darkness.

         ‘What the hell? Did you do this Jess?’ Eva exclaimed.

         ‘It’s her friends, they’re here. Let’s get her out of here,’ Daniel explained swiftly to Eva.

         By the time we reached the door someone had flipped a fuse switch and the lights came back on, instilling peace and laughter once again. Wordlessly, I was steered back through the corridor, through the back door and into the car.

         ‘Daniel, you take her home, and I’ll go and explain what happened to Sebastian,’ Eva said quickly, as Daniel climbed into the driver’s seat with a nod. I slumped back in my seat and closed my eyes. Had Gemma recognised me? I told myself that no, of course she hadn’t, she was just freaked out, seeing someone who reminded her of a dead friend. As far as she was concerned I was gone and the person she’d just seen was physically completely different to the old me. I calmed my breathing and opened my eyes. Right now she’d probably be chatting and laughing, saying how something weird had happened, how she’d seen someone just like me, but with dark hair and eyes, slimmer and prettier! I guessed I should be far more concerned about Sebastian’s reaction to the events and wondered if I could deny the lighting episode and put it down to a faulty fuse.