Moonlight Calls (Demon's Call Series Book 1) (6 page)

“You mean, like
I pushed you tonight?”  I asked.  Was she saying this was all
my
fault?

 She nodded.  “I
have trouble controlling myself when I’m near you.  I wasn’t ready for that
much emotion to hit me.  I was afraid that I might lose control and you would
see what I was.  To find out that way would be- startling- to say the least.  I
don’t want you to be afraid of me.”

I nodded again. 
My God, what had I almost started?  “You said that you could pass? What does
that mean?”  My skepticism was rapidly losing out to curiosity.

“I’ll show you,”
she said happily.

She closed her
eyes for a moment.  When she opened them she looked different somehow-
foreign.  Her ivory skin had lost almost all color, making her look icily
pale.  She was still beautiful, but in a completely different way.  She was an
ice queen, a goddess.  Her eyes made me do a double take.

 “I knew it!”  I
exclaimed, “Your eyes change color.”

They had changed
from their usual dove gray to a chilling liquid silver that sparkled with
light, almost glowing.  Looking into those eyes gave me chills and made me
flush with warmth at the same time.

 “Is it true
that you shouldn’t look into a vampire’s eyes?”  I asked, breaking the
connection. 

Her lips parted
and I gasped.  She smiled before answering me, showing off the wicked looking
canines that now filled her mouth.  They weren’t that long- not like the horror
movies or those fake Halloween teeth- but they were longer than usual, and very
sharp.  The tips were so narrow they actually looked like needle points.  Well,
I guess that made sense.
 She really is a vampire.

 “It is usually
a good idea for a human to avoid gazing into the eyes of any supernatural
creature,” she said with a sultry look.

I frowned at
her, but let that one pass.  I didn’t even want to consider that there may be
other
supernatural creatures running amok out there.  The vampire in my
living room was enough to deal with right now thank you very much.

“What about all
the other stuff?  I mean, I’ve seen you eat garlic bread.  So I know that one
isn’t true.  And you go outside during the day.”  In fact, just a few days ago,
we’d lounged on the patio for hours, soaking up the sun.

“Most of that is
just crap,” she said with a laugh.  “I think vampires started those stories for
their own amusement, or to hide what we are- after all, I can’t possibly be a
vampire if I walk in the sun.  Don’t put any faith in stories and legends.”

I raised my
eyebrows.  Don’t put any faith in stories and legends.  Oh, except the vampire
in your living room.  Believe that one. 

Ailis seemed
happy that I was asking questions.  I suppose because that meant I wasn’t
running and screaming.  “So sunlight isn’t an issue.  What about silver and
religion and all that?”

She shook her
head.  “Sunlight is hard on babies.  It takes a long time to build up
tolerance. Even then it won’t kill them.  It’s just painful.  I have a lot of
silver jewelry.  And I used to go to church every Sunday after I was turned. 
I’ve never melted or burst into flames.”  I smiled a little in response. Were
we really having this conversation?

I was quiet for
a moment, trying to digest what was just now sinking in.  Oddly enough, it
wasn’t really bothering me that my beautiful new roommate had just turned out
to be a vampire.  I wasn’t fooled though.  I knew this was eventually going to
hit me like a ton of bricks. Hopefully, it would wait until I was alone in my
room, where I could shake in privacy and Ailis wouldn’t see me completely lose
it.

“Are you okay?” 
Her soft voice startled me out of my thoughts.

I glanced up to
find that she was passing again.  She looked as normal as could be sitting
there in her pajamas with a look of friendly concern on her face.  Well, she
had
said that she was still my friend.  My friend that may want to eat me, but
then I guess she had always been a vampire, I just didn’t know it.  I guess she
could have eaten me at any time in the past month.  That was a wonderful
thought.  At least now I knew why I had the urge to be close to her.  She was
just unconsciously drawing in
prey.

“I’ll be fine,”
I said with a sigh “It’s just a lot to take in.”

“You aren’t
afraid.”  She said wonderingly.  “Why?”

“Don’t worry,” I
said, with a grimace “I don’t have the energy for screaming and running.  I
will be properly afraid when the booze wears off and I realize that this isn’t
just a bad dream.”  She winced.  “I’m sorry Ailis, I didn’t mean it that way.”

“I know,” she
said, fidgeting with the piping on the couch cushion with her graceful
fingers.  “But I haven’t told you everything.”

I got that bad
feeling again.

“What do you
mean?”  I asked, wearily.  “You aren’t going to eat me are you?”  I was
joking.  Mostly. She didn’t seem to find it funny.

“No,” she
snapped.

“What more could
you possibly have to tell me?  Are you going to grow wings and start emitting
rainbows and glitter from your ass?”  She did laugh at that one, but it didn’t
last long.

“Mya, it’s not
just a coincidence that I’m your roommate.  I was sent here to watch you.”  She
stopped and watched my face closely, no doubt looking for warning signs of the
eminent volcanic eruption.

I glanced at her
in surprise.  “What do you mean
sent here to watch me
?”

“Your aura is
more prominent than most humans’.  The vampires wanted to observe you to see
how your powers were manifesting, and if anyone else was aware of them.”  She
said all of this in a matter-of-fact tone that I was starting to hate.

“Oh, yeah,” I
said sarcastically, “my powers.”  That would mean her ad had already been in
the paper by the time I decided to get a roommate.  I sat up, crossing my
arms.  “And how in the world would you possibly know that I needed a roommate
before I even started looking for one?”

She had the
grace to look guilty.  “The coven has been watching you for a long time- from a
distance.  There is some history with your parents.  I don’t know what,
exactly. Master Argenou knows everything that happens to you.  All his attempts
to get a vampire close to you have failed until now; but that doesn’t mean he
can’t keep tabs on you in other ways.  He knows that you’re struggling
financially.  It was kind of a long shot, but he asked me to place the ad
anyway, just on the off chance…”

I raised my
eyebrows.  “Argenou is a freaking master vampire?”

She nodded her
head.  “I know that you aren’t aware of your abilities.  I know that
now,
after watching you for weeks.  Let me explain.”

“Oh yeah- my
abilities.  By all means,” I said bitchily, “be my guest.”  I gestured grandly
for her to continue and she rolled her eyes.  Yes, I was taking my confusion
and frustration out on her, but I didn’t care.  She was apparently a vampire
after all.  She could handle it.

“I suggest you
calm down,” she said in a deep, rich alto voice that I had never heard from
her.  It thoroughly creeped me out- and made my fingertips tingle.  I decided
to take her advice and shut up.  Immediately.

“You are what my
people call a sensitive.  We aren’t really sure what the extent of your
abilities is.  Sensitives are humans with something…extra.  Every sensitive
seems to have slightly different powers.  You seem to be able to sense
supernatural creatures.  We’ve been sending watchers for months, but you
somehow avoid them all.  They just can’t seem to get close enough to you to get
any real information.”  I had a lot of objections to this statement- I hadn’t
pegged her as a vampire after all, but I firmly clenched my jaw and nodded for
her to continue.

“The power you
have could potentially develop into useful weapon.  So far, it seems to operate
without you even knowing, but it could be that you’re just coming into your
power.  If you really are a sensitive, there is no telling how strong you could
eventually be.  You could make our coven stronger.  Help us keep the balance
among other supernatural races.  My master sent me here to observe you.  He
didn’t know the extent of your powers, or whether you even knew they existed. 
He’s been having you watched, but you never do anything overtly inhuman.  Whatever
power you have seems to be subtle- but he thought maybe you were just being
very careful to hide what you could do.”

I looked at her
like she was crazy.  “What?  What powers?  I don’t have
powers
.  What
the hell are you talking about?”  She made it sound like some kind of Marvel
story.

Ailis looked at
me directly.  “You have something.  Your aura is much stronger than a typical
human. I can see the gold ringing you without even trying.”  I swallowed. 
Gold?  Just like John had always said.

“Just what am I
supposed to be able to do that’s so amazing?”  I demanded.   “So I see colors
once in a while, and apparently I unknowingly avoid your friends- that’s it?”

She took a deep
breath.  “It’s hard to explain.  From what I understand, sensitives are all
different.  You seem to have instincts that border on premonitions. I don’t
think you’ll be a true psychic,” she said thoughtfully.  “We have one of those,
and she says she’s been that way since she was a child.”
 I rubbed my temples. Premonitions?

Ailis patted my
head.  “Your abilities may get stronger.  This may just be the beginning.” She
shrugged.  “Then again, this could be it.  That’s why I’m here- to see what
powers you’re manifesting.  And if there are other abilities we don’t know
about.”

“Okay...”  I
said, taking a deep calming breath.  I wasn’t even going to process the
sensitive thing right now.  I did not have special powers.  I didn’t want to
think about how all of my little oddities pointed to her being right.  Besides,
I didn’t consider visual disturbances and headaches to be particularly special
or powerful.  Call me crazy.

There was a
bigger issue here.  “So what you’re saying is that you’ve been lying to me this
entire time- not just about what you are, but about why you’re here.  You
pretended to be my friend in order to gather information.”

My voice was
rising dangerously and I dropped it down a notch- with difficulty.  I was
yelling at a vampire.  Probably not smart, but what did I know about vampires? 
Until about five minutes ago I thought they were make-believe.  However,
shouting did have the unpleasant tendency to send stabbing pains through my
head while my headache steadily increased in intensity, so I made a stupendous
effort and got a grip on my emotions.

“Please believe
me Mya,” Ailis pleaded.  “I couldn’t tell you what I am or why I was here, but
I never lied to you about being your friend.”

“And this...”  I
asked gesturing to the couch, to us, and what had just happened.  “Was it part
of your orders to seduce me so you could get more information?”  Despite my
resolve, I was almost shouting now.  I really didn’t care.

She looked hurt,
but also a little guilty.  “I was ordered to do whatever I needed to in order
to get information.  But I didn’t mean for this to happen.”  She made a
helpless gesture with one white hand.  “I stopped this because I don’t want to
lie to you that way.  I want you to know the truth.”

I couldn’t deny
that.  She’d stopped me from making a
complete
ass out of myself, and
told me the truth.  She didn’t have to do that.  She could have kept up the
lie, if not about what she was, then about why she was here.  I suppose she
could have used some kind of vampire whammy on me so I didn’t even remember
what had happened.

“I’m sorry,” I
said, sighing in exhaustion.  “I just really don’t know what to think about all
of this.”

She just
nodded.  “Understandable.  You’re taking this much better than I expected.”

I just
shrugged.  Little did she know, I was just too numb right now to have the
nervous breakdown to which I was entitled.

“Well,” I said
reluctantly.  “What now?”

“Now,” Ailis
said brightly, “you go to bed and get some rest.  Tomorrow everything will be
back to normal.”  She closed her eyes in a long blink, as if bracing herself
for something unpleasant.  “As for me; I’ll tell Argenou that you’re pretty
much talentless.  I’ll do my best to keep him from finding out that you know
about him.  It’s probably best if you pretend to be ignorant for a little while
longer.”

Yes, ignorant,
that’s what this feeling was. I shook my head.  God, my life was getting
weird.  It was like something out of a bad movie.  Ailis stood and picked up
our glasses.  She stooped and dropped a light kiss on my forehead, then glided
off to the kitchen.  I heaved myself to my feet and made my way to my bedroom,
wondering if I should get a deadbolt installed on my door.  Then I wondered if
it would even slow her down.  There was actually a vampire living in my house-
either that, or I had a brain tumor.  Maybe the margaritas were just
that
good.

The next day was
a lesson in avoidance.  I woke later than usual, no doubt owing to the drinks
and the restless tossing and turning I’d done all night.  My head had pounded
with migraine-like intensity into the wee hours of the morning.  I stuffed my
feet into my fuzzy red slippers and shuffled to the bathroom.  Taking a look at
my puffy face, I noticed my nicely flawless neck. 
Thanks be to God for
small wonders,
I thought sarcastically.  Maybe it
had
just been an
alcohol-induced nightmare after all.