Night Feast (15 page)

“You’re not a cop?” asked Joyce, still a little bit guarded.

“No I’m not a cop” said Dalia, in a voice that she hoped would put the night receptionist at ease.

Joyce Miller grabbed the money from the desk and stuffed it quickly into the pockets of her pants.  She didn’t have to count it, she had already seen that there was at least two hundred dollars there.

“What do you want to know?” she said.

Dalia produced the downloaded picture from the internet of Amberlee Robinson.

“Have you seen this girl?”

“You sure you’re not a cop?”

“I promise you I’m not.”

“Ok, she came here a couple of weeks ago, she was a mess, looked like she’d been crying, she wanted a room, I didn’t ask no questions.”

“So you gave her a room and then what?”

“Nothing”  said Joyce defensively.  “She gave back her key in the mornin’ and she was gone.”

Dalia looked closely at the receptionist’s name badge.

“Come on Joyce you must have more than that.  She’s a young girl, she was upset, didn’t she try to confide in you at all?”

“Nope” replied Joyce flatly.

Dalia took another hundred dollars out of her purse, and put the money into Joyce’s hands.  The receptionist  immediately became a little bit more forthcoming.

“She told me that she was going to Philadelphia, to be with her daddy.”

Chapter S
even

When Jay asked Lia if his friend Kevin could come to her house in Westport, she had immediately agreed.  Jay had been talking on his cell to Kevin a lot, and Lia could see that he was missing him.  So they arranged that he and Libby would come for a visit the next day.  Lia was becoming quite accustomed to being around human beings without pouncing on them.  But she did feel that tomorrow may prove a little bit difficult for her, with two other blood filled, mortal bodies in such close proximity.  She was used to Jay, she loved him.  The vampire didn’t find being with him a struggle at all.  She put her great restraint down to the fact that one day, a day very soon, she would drink his blood, and it would be worth the wait.  Lia was so looking forward to it.  She felt a swoon of delicious pleasure, whenever she thought about sinking her teeth into Jay’s neck, in the middle of their coming together, in a physical and sensual union.  She was like a young girl, who was anticipating her upcoming marriage to the boy of her dreams.  In a manner of speaking it amounted to the same thing.  Jay would be joining the powerful ranks of the undead, and she would forever be by his side.  Lia watched him with affection from the kitchen window, as he chopped up some wood.  He wanted to impress Kevin with an open fire when he came with his girlfriend tomorrow.  Lia had decided that she would satisfy her blood lust by going back through the portal tonight, while Jay slept.  She knew that she would have to be quick, but he slept so soundly that he would never know that she had been gone.

Dalia had arrived back at the antique shop at one o’clock in the morning.  She had felt very pleased with her night’s work and she knew that her task was almost complete.   She told Abe what had happened when she’d met Joyce Miller.

“When I put the money on the table she practically sang like a bird” said Dalia gleefully.

“No kidding” replied Abe, “what did she say?”

Dalia repeated everything that Joyce had told her without embellishment.  How the girl had gone to the motel and stayed the night, and how in the morning she had told the night receptionist that she was going to her father in Philadelphia.  Joyce had finished her shift about ten minutes after Amberlee left to catch her plane, and she hadn’t seen her since.

“I don’t know what that woman’s story is” Dalia had added thoughtfully, “but I suspect that she has been in some kind of trouble.”

“Never mind about her Dalia, you got the goods, all power to ya!”   Abe was delighted with his wife’s investigative abilities.  She had put the whole of the Portland police department to shame!

“What do you plan to do now darlin’ what’s your next move?”

“I’m going to Philadelphia tomorrow” replied Dalia smiling confidently.  “Herb Clayton shouldn’t be too hard to find.”

She was in the early hours of day two of the task, and she had already made massive headway in her search for the missing girl.  Dalia kissed Abe good night and went up to bed.  She was ready to finish what she had started.

****************************************

Lia waited until Jay was fast asleep before she got out of their shared bed.  He had spent the evening telling her what a great guy Kevin was, and how she was going to really like him.  When she’d asked about his girlfriend Libby, Jay had said that they had only recently started dating, and Libby was one of the coolest girl’s around.  Lia listened as he told her about how he had been manipulated into going to the dance with Amberlee Robinson.  He had not backed out, because he knew that Kevin had really wanted him to go.  Jay said that he thinks that Libby had also been ambushed, and that she knew nothing of her date with Kevin until Amberlee had arranged it.  He added that even though she hadn’t done it for his buddy’s benefit, it had turned out very well for him and Libby.

The familiar faraway look came into his eyes when he said that he hoped Amberlee was okay, and would turn up soon.  He knew that if she didn’t, rumour and speculation would trail around after him for the rest of his life.  He then told Lia about what had happened to Elena Hudson.  Jay described how a group of them had been at a friend’s house, and how he had spent the evening talking to her.  She was quite different from the other girls, her parents were very strict, and rumour has it that they were tyrannically religious.  Jay thought that they would have chained her to the house if they could have got away with it.  Elena had told him that night how on her seventeenth birthday they had bought her a complete Book of Psalms and made her read some of them, out loud before she could have any dinner.  Lia listened without speaking.  She could feel Elena’s handkerchief stuffed between her breasts, and she inwardly winced when Jay declared that he still felt guilty, about not insisting that he walked her home that night.  He thought that she would probably still be alive, if he had been more forceful.

‘And you would be hers, not mine’ thought Lia.  ‘It would be her that you held in your arms, it would be her lips that you kissed and it would be her body that you would enjoy.’

The sharp pang of jealousy impaled the vampire’s senses like a knife made of pure ice.  She jumped up quickly and ran from the room and Jay, in complete confusion followed her.  In a voice full of concern he asked her what was wrong, he assumed that she felt sad about the death of his friend.  He was surprised when she, standing with her back to him and in a low voice, asked if he had loved Elena Hudson.  Jay was both touched and amused by her jealousy.  He couldn’t imagine Lia ever being threatened by anyone, least of all a dead girl.  He took her into his arms, and told her that he had never loved anyone-until now.  The passionate kiss that followed was so long that it made them both breathless.  Jay lifted the beautiful, light weight girl in his strong, protective arms and carried her upstairs.  They lay together on the bed, and as they kissed Lia could feel the heat of his desire growing more and more intense.  Her heart started to beat faster and faster as her body responded to him, and yielded to his touch.  She could feel his lips as they explored her long, elegant neck and she turned her face away from him, as she felt her lips open and reveal her sharp, white and wolf like fangs. Then she began to moan with pleasure, as Jay moved his hands all over her body and then tried to remove her clothes.

“I can’t not yet” she whispered with great reluctance.  She stroked his hair and her fangs disappeared, so she turned her face towards him.

“That’s okay Lia, I can wait” he said softly.  He could see the intensity of her desire in her eyes, but he did not question her decision to stop because he assumed it was the wrong time of the month.  So they lay there happily together in silence, and very soon Jay fell fast asleep.

When Lia crept out of the house she was still wearing her modern day clothes.  It was true that she was going back through the portal, but this time she did not intend to return to her parents house.  The vampire knew that she had to control her desire to drink human blood.  The recent loving moments with Jay had only served to intensify her appetite to an almost uncontrollable level.  The human boy and girl who were coming to her house would have warm, breathing and inviting bodies, so she needed to put some distance between herself, and her natural vampirical impulses.  Her parents and sister would continue to sleep for another six to eight hours at least, while she was in their time frame, because she had left at the beginning of their rest time.  But Lia knew she couldn’t stay any longer than that, if she wanted to keep time in the 19th Century standing still, and her family in their beds.  She also couldn’t risk wearing her habitual 19th century clothes, because Jay might be awake when she returned and he would see her.  He had already noticed that she didn’t seem to favour the food that she had bought from the supermarket, and try as he would when he  rubbed her back and her arms, he couldn’t seem to get her body warmed up.  She could give him no explanation for her low body temperature, but she assured him that she always felt okay.  Jay had warmed up some milk for her, that she really didn’t want to drink.  She knew however that he would not accept her excuses, so she put the warm, white liquid to her lips as her body quivered with distaste.  But when she let the milk flow onto her tongue and down her throat, it had felt good to her.  Not in a way that it could replace human blood, but she could taste that it had come from a living animal, and that had made it acceptable to her palette.  However it was not enough, she was going to need more than that, if Kevin and Libby were to be safe.

Lia had decided that she was, for the first time ever, going to disobey her father.  He had forbidden her and her sister from ever satisfying their lust for blood, outside the State of Maine.  He had informed his daughters that vampire hunters were growing in number, and had no qualms about wiping all vampires from the face of the earth.  Valentin had said that it was the fault of greedy, foolish vampires, who had been too selective with their choice of victim, and had feasted the blood of the rich and important.  Nevertheless Lia had stubbornly decided that she would go to the neighbouring state of New Hampshire.  She felt that she couldn’t be expected to take blood from the poor and diseased, after she had spent so much time with such vibrant, healthy humans who took such great care of themselves.  Besides when she finally introduced Jay to her world, she wanted him to feast like a king, and not make do with the blood of the  peasants, that she and  her family were used to dining  on.  Lia glided through the portal once again, then flew into the air, heading for New Hampshire.  She intended to take the best catch that she could.

****************************************

Dalia Jackson boarded a busy flight to Philadelphia.  She had dropped her fourteen year old son off at school first, and had made sure that she had set the alarm to wake Abe, so that he would go and pick him up.  Dalia wasn’t sure how long she was going to be away, but it could not be more than five days.  At the end of her short flight she rented a four wheel drive with a satellite navigation system.  She had sensibly made plans of how she was going to begin her search, before she had left her home.  The first thing that she needed to do was get was written evidence of the Clayton divorce.  The divorce record information would be maintained at one of the county courthouses.  Dalia intended to visit all five of them in turn. 

The Philadelphian sun was a pleasant change from the below zero temperatures that she had so often experienced in Maine.  In her line of business she didn’t get to see many members of the human race, but when she did they were always wrapped up in coats, hats and gloves in their attempt to keep the cold out.  In Philadelphia it was much different.  The people were dressed in sleeveless shirts and shorts.  Sandaled feet was prevalent, and there was a healthy glow on all the tanned skin that was on view.  Dalia thought that if she had wanted to live there, she wouldn’t have a business.

She found courthouse number one very easily, with the help of the satellite navigation system.  The well-spoken voice had been very instructive, allowing her to weave through the traffic effortlessly.  Dalia had arrived at her destination without incident.  The clerk had been reasonably helpful, but he hadn’t been able to produce the certificate that she wanted.  She thanked him and made her way to the next courthouse on her list, which took a couple of hours to get to.  The Clayton divorce certificate was not filed there either, so as it was getting quite late, Dalia decided to book herself into a hotel and continue her search in the morning.

After a restful sleep and a breakfast of eggs, melba toast and black coffee, Dalia resumed her search for the information that she required.  She went to the third courthouse on her list, and parked her car in the car park adjacent, hoping that this was the one.  It wasn’t.  Dalia was starting to lose her cool now, her third time lucky philosophy hadn’t come through, and her irritation was rising fast.  Dalia was the sort of woman who liked to think that all she had to do was just click her fingers, and everything would just fall into place.  She had got just over four days now, and in that time she had to find the missing girl, and be standing in the little antique shop with the information of what she had discovered.  Abe was depending on her, and Dalia dreaded to think what would happen if she were unsuccessful.