Safe Hex With a Vampire (2 page)

When he finally arrived in San Francisco he
found a parking garage with a monthly rate located near the area he
would be searching, but in a safer neighborhood. He’d find a hotel
later. For now, he wanted to look around. Maybe he’d get lucky and
find her right away.

Yeah right, and pigs could fly.

He hated this city, well all cities. The
streets were overcrowded. There were homeless people, and
panhandlers pretending they were homeless, everywhere. Since he
didn’t have a sympathetic bone in his body it irked him to be
approached by these humans. His father had raised him to have more
compassion for humans than most of the family but he had his limits
with them. He hated people begging in the streets. He was still in
the section where the streets were pressure washed daily and the
beggars were already surrounding him. He could only imagine how bad
it would be when he crossed over to the streets that were not
pressure washed and reeked of urine and rotting garbage.

“Spare some change for a pregnant lady to
buy food?”

His eyes focused briefly on the sickly
looking woman sitting on the sidewalk of Mission Street. Without
another glance at her, he slipped money into her cup and walked on.
Not that he cared what happened to her. No, it just seemed easier
to give the really pitiful looking ones money. If he didn’t, they
would just keep pestering him with their sob stories, and that was
annoying. The motivation was purely selfish, he assured himself. No
need to justify it.

After three hours of scouring the streets,
he was cold, hungry, and he had no more cash in his wallet.

“Can you help a guy get a meal? I haven’t
eaten today.” one of the beggars asked.

Aiden sighed. “Sorry, but I don’t have any
money.” Then he looked down at the guy and sighed again. This one
looked like someone had shoved his face into the curb. His front
teeth were cracked and his chin was bruised. Aiden kept walking and
wished that he hadn’t given the last of his money to the guy
missing a leg. He should have just given him half. Again, it was
just to avoid being harassed by the truly pitiful humans.

He couldn’t think of any place to eat in
this part of town so he decided to head back to the financial
district for food. He walked back up to Market Street to find one
of the underground train stations. Then he remembered that they
called them BART stations. He wondered idly who had come up with
that name. It sounded harsh and not at all inviting. He knew it
stood for something, but acronyms should at least sound appealing.
Then again, if he remembered correctly, the trains weren’t any more
appealing than the name.

Just as he spotted one of the station
entrances his luck finally changed. It wasn’t Claudia, but it was a
distraction to make this trip more palatable. A young woman was
walking down the stairs into the station he was heading toward. She
was a petite blonde dressed in a long flowing skirt and tank top.
It was surprising that she wasn’t cold. San Francisco wasn’t
exactly warm at this time of year. He was freezing his ass off with
a heavy jacket on. She wore her hair short which made her angular
face stand out even more. There was no way to make out her eye
color until he got closer and removed his sunglasses. Judging from
her creamy skin and pale blonde hair he would guess that her eyes
were a light color, probably blue.

Most of Aiden’s relatives only interacted
with humans when they had to. Aiden didn’t form any lasting bonds
with them because he couldn’t risk them realizing that he didn’t
age. Still, he’d never felt any reason to avoid humans. He’d had
some friendships that lasted several years. He’d even dated some
for a few months, because he wasn’t about to go without sex. He
liked sex, a lot. It occurred to him that he hadn’t been with a
woman since before the unfortunate incident. Well, it was time to
remedy that.

Spotting a flower stand, he stopped and then
remembered his empty wallet. Lucky for him, he’d paid for the
parking garage with cash and then shoved the change into his front
pocket instead of putting it back into his wallet. He quickly
purchased a bouquet, and headed down into the station behind her.
He spotted her on the platform right away and circled around so
that he could approach her from the front. In his experience, women
responded better when they saw him coming toward them.

Her gaze drifted past him as he made his way
toward her. She didn’t acknowledge him at all, but he refused to
let that discourage him. He was old enough that he wasn’t afraid of
being rebuffed anymore. Despite what his recent actions might
suggest, he normally just brushed off any rejections knowing there
were plenty of other women.

With his most charming smile, he bowed and
presented the bouquet. She seemed like the romance novel type so he
decided to play the dashing suitor. “Although these flowers cannot
compare to your loveliness, I hope that you will accept them as a
token of my adoration. Please say that I might gaze upon your
beauty for just a moment and perhaps hear the sweet sound of your
voice.” Yes, he was laying it on pretty thick. He’d even allowed
his Irish brogue to become more prominent. Normally, it was barely
perceptible, but when his emotions ran high, or when he was trying
to get laid, it was thick.

She blushed and smiled shyly. Her hand
reached out to take the bouquet nervously. “Thank you. No one has
ever given me flowers.” Her voice was soft, and he had to strain to
hear her over the sounds of the people in the station and the voice
announcing that the elevators were working at all stations.

“I find that hard to believe,” he said with
a smile “My name is Aiden, and I’m honored to be the first man to
give you flowers.”

She turned to watch the train coming out of
the tunnel, clearly distracted. “It’s nice to meet you, Aiden, but
I’m afraid that I have to go. My train is coming and I’m meeting
someone.”

“Please don’t leave me without at least
telling me your name.”

“It’s Ivy,” she said without looking at him
again. “Thank you again for the flowers.”

Sensing that he was about to lose her, he
made one last attempt. “Stay and have lunch with me so that I can
spend more time gazing into your lovely blue eyes.” Sure he could
have tried giving her a compulsion to make her want to stay but he
only did that to feed, never for sex. It seemed too much like rape
to use mind control for sex.

She laughed. “That would be difficult since
my eyes are brown.” With that she walked into the train.

He laughed at his inept flirting skills.
That certainly wasn’t his finest moment and it proved that he was
more than a little out of practice. He shrugged it off. Oh well,
she wasn’t why he was here anyway. At the very least, making a fool
of himself had relieved some tension.

That was when he spotted the
raven haired woman boarding the train and he instantly noticed
the crescent shaped birthmark on her shoulder. He wondered how
these women managed to wander around wearing so little clothing.
This woman had on skinny jeans and a turquoise camisole. The
turquoise beanie seemed somehow out of place with the outfit. There
was no mistaking the woman, she was Roman’s Claudia. He could see
what Roman meant about her predatory nature. She was attempting to
look helpless, but she radiated strength. He could also see why
Roman had first been attracted to her. She was probably the hottest
woman he’d ever seen, and she made him forget all about the little
blonde. He quickly raced to the next car and boarded the train. He
didn’t want the little blonde to think he was stalking her. She
seemed pretty timid.

Once on the train he worked his way toward
Claudia. Luckily, it was still a couple of hours before commute
time so he was able to move freely through the cars. At the next
station, he stopped to look out the window and spotted her getting
off of the train. He barely made it out of the doors before they
closed. The driver must have been in some kind of hurry because
Aiden could see people in some of the other cars banging on the
doors as the train pulled out of the station.

Claudia was pretty far ahead of him when he
reached the street level and he had a hard time keeping up with
her. He considered calling to her until he noticed the bright green
ear buds. She likely wouldn’t hear him over the street noise and
the music. Occasionally, she would look around nervously but then
she would continue moving.

He moved quickly after her. Trying to catch
up with her was his only concern. He didn’t pay attention to the
street names as they zigzagged through the city. He followed her to
a small alley, not more than ten feet behind her. When he made it
to the alley, he was shocked to find it empty.

“Damn! I can’t believe that I lost her,” he
said as he looked around.

One minute he was moving toward the back of
the alley to look around and the next he was moving at a
frightening speed backwards into a solid brick wall. He heard the
sickening sound of his head hitting the wall and then the world
went black.

I spent the next three days stalking
Claudia. Vampires, like most predators, take great pleasure in
stalking. She was very skilled at avoiding me, which made it even
more exciting. At least it was exciting in the beginning. By the
end of the second day I was feeling more than a little
frustrated.

Excerpt from Roman Draksel’s blog

Tempest pulled out her cell phone as she
studied the man on the ground. Sad how evil could come in such an
attractive package. His neighbors would probably describe him as a
very nice man. Sociopaths wore a mask of humanity that hid their
grotesque nature from the world. Shaking her head in disgust she
turned away and called her cousin.

Her call was answered on the first ring.
“I’ve got him. Hurry, he has a nasty head wound that I need to
stitch quickly.” She felt her own cheeks flush with embarrassment
when she admitted that. She wasn’t normally this clumsy.

Tempest studied him again as she waited and
had her first inkling of doubt. His victims had described him as
attractive in an almost feminine way. This man was attractive, but
feminine? No, that wasn’t a word she’d use to describe him. Then
again, he had stalked her for several blocks. He had also been
putting off some major predatory vibes.

The van with her cousins, Rose and Willow,
pulled up to the front of the alley and they quickly loaded the man
into the back. He was heavy so Tempest opted to move him the easy
way. She reached out with her mind and lifted his weight. Willow
opened the side door and helped her settle him in while Rose drove.
Rose and Willow were sisters and helped her run a center for abused
women, along with her own sister, Ivy.

Her cousins sounded like ditsy teens and
looked like librarians. They both had straight brown hair which
they kept in severe buns most of the time. This skill for securing
hair was quite useful when Tempest needed to secure her own long
blonde hair under the black wig. They both wore large round glasses
over their deep blue eyes. Neither wore makeup and they tended to
dress in clothing that resembled parochial school uniforms.

“He totally does not look like I thought he
would,” Rose said as she took a moment to study the man from the
driver’s seat before she drove off.

Willow nodded her agreement. “So not what I
expected.”

That only added to Tempest’s sense of
unease. “Just give me my kit so I can stitch the head wound. He
won’t be any good if he bleeds out in the back of the van.” He was
resting on his side so she pushed him onto his stomach to make it
easier to get to the head wound. “Where the hell is Ivy?”

Ivy always stayed close to her when they
hunted because she was the one with the talent for identifying
their target. She could also communicate with Tempest mentally if
they were close enough. Normally, Tempest wouldn’t have continued
with their plan without Ivy, but she couldn’t risk letting this guy
get away. His violence had escalated in the past month. Besides, he
was pursuing her by the time she realized that Ivy wasn’t close by.
At that point, it was too late to abandon the trap.

“She got penned in trying to get off of the
train and couldn’t exit at the same station as you did. I’m on my
way to pick her up before we head back,” Rose explained.

Tempest filled the syringe with a sedative
and injected her patient. It was risky to give him a sedative with
the head wound, but it could be riskier to have him wake up in the
van. This guy was dangerous and, like any animal, being injured
could make him more dangerous. In order to stitch his head wound
she needed to shave a small patch of hair. That made her wonder why
his hair wasn’t covered. The victims had all said that he kept his
hair covered so they couldn’t identify the color. At least his eyes
were masked by dark sunglasses like she’d expected. Maybe he’d
simply forgotten to put the hat on.

Willow had just finished checking him for
weapons and had a look of confusion on her face. “O M G!
This guy only has a pocket knife on him. Didn’t you tell me that he
carries a really big knife or something like that?”

Tempest’s brow furrowed. This was not
good.

The van pulled to the side of the road, and
Ivy slipped into the passenger’s seat. “Sorry about the mix
up.”

“Can you please help her?” Willow whined.
“I’m getting a little car sick.”

Tempest knew the truth; Willow was kind of
squeamish, but they all pretended that they didn’t know this about
her.

“Sure,” Ivy said and scooted into the back.
When she looked down at the man she nearly screeched. “That’s
Aiden!”

“Who?” Tempest asked as she finished the
stitches. She was having trouble processing what she was seeing,
and that made it hard to focus on Ivy’s words.