What i Found In You (14 page)

Alyon Alik

Chapter 18.0

              I had just two weeks before Vanessa would go off to school and she could possibly be so far out of my life that I would no longer matter, and my mother could be intrusive to no end or silent as a ghost. I couldn’t rely on my mother intrusion into Vanessa's life to possibly keep me in her thoughts. I had to think of something. I brooded over this singular idea that entire night after I dropped her off at home. My mood somehow snaked its way up to my mother’s penthouse and pulled her down to my rooms four floors below.

              “I think you did good, why are you moping?” she asked, taking a seat and making herself comfortable in my room without invitation.

              “Really?” I sighed, not looking at her.

              “Well, that is unless you went off on some horrible tangent and became your usual morbid self.” I didn’t respond. “You did, didn’t you...” She then sighed and mimicked my posture with her arm over her eyes, head leaning over the back of the chair.

              “Can I help you?” I said, annoyed that she was still here.

              “No, but I think that I can help you. I know that I haven’t given you much advice over the years apart from the many ways you know how to kill men and vampire or seduce women with your charms. So I will give you some advice on how to make a woman love you.”

              “What is that exactly” Despite myself, I was interested.

              “Gifts and jewelry will not win you a woman’s heart, just what’s between her legs. In the days of the knights, it was their promise that won them a maidens favor and their actions captured hearts. They would quest for the maidens they desired. It could be anything from picking a flower that only grew near the mouth of a dangerous beast lair to finding her lost father stolen by bandits. You need to figure out your quest.”

              “Vanessa,” I said in a deep voice trying to sound gallant. “I am here to serve you, please bestow on to me a singular quest so that I may win your fair heart,” I said mockingly, moving to one knee in front of my mother as I took her hand. She gave me an exasperated look and kicked me with her foot so hard that I slid the few feet between us. “Oww!”

              “That’s not what I mean and you know it. I’m trying to be a mother for once and you're not helping me out much here.”

              “Okay, okay. So you’re saying that I should do something specifically meaningful for her?”

              “Yes, you need to find out her likes and dislikes, dreams and passions.”

              “That would take time, I have two weeks before she starts her first semester of college.. In Ithaca.”

              “What is she studying?”

              “I don’t know, I only know that she is going to Cornell as she mentioned it to a guy at Masteria.”

              “Do some digging,” was the last thing she said before she stood. “Brooding here isn’t going to help you.”

              I called Vanessa the next day to ask if she wanted to get lunch.

              “I’m not going to be on the menu, am I?”

              “Only if you want...”

              “No, I would like pizza.”

              “Done.”

              “See you in thirty minutes?”

              “See you then.”

              New York was the hardest place to find a good pizza place so I was feeling confident. When I got to her house, Vanessa wasn’t ready yet but her mother Marie and Sam were cooking downstairs in the kitchen. I felt bad for a moment, taking her away from what her mother was cooking, but then I found out that Sam was cooking under the watchful eye of Mariee. The end result wasn’t pretty...

              “So Alik, do you have a brother?” Sam asked and I smiled.

              “No, I only have a sister. We were both adopted by our mother.”

              “Oh,” she said like she might have made a mistake.

              “Have you ever tried to find your real parents?” Sam continued with renewed boldness. Nothing kept her back for long I saw.

              “No, Lilith is my mother now. Whatever situation my real parents were going through doesn’t matter. I like my life. Everything that has passed led me to sit in this kitchen and wait for the most beautiful girl I know.”

              “I thought you were here for Vanessa, not me...” she said, shocked, and Mariee laughed. I couldn’t help but laugh, too. She looked so genuine when she said it.

              “I hope this doesn’t sound insulting, but I don’t see how you and Vanessa are friends, you are just so different.”

              “We get that a lot,” smiled Sam.

              “Sam actually gave Vanessa a black eye when they were in elementary school,” Mariee stated, trying to salvage what Sam had tried to cook.

              “Really?” I asked,my interest peaked.

              “I got a bloody nose in return,” Sam informed, smiling at the thought. “I knocked my juice box over on a picture she was drawing. All around kids were drawing their mothers and fathers, Vanessa was drawing the Empire State Building.” Vanessa’s mom laughed.

              “She has always been fascinated with buildings,” Mariee finally said. “Ever since she could hold a crayon. Some of her work is very beautiful, and I’m not saying that from a mother’s perspective.”

              “She has designed stuff before?”

              “Oh yes, she has tubes all over her room full of designs she has done. You should get her to show you.” She sounded very proud. “I wish I had the means to build one of her homes. They are so beautiful.”

“What died...” Vanessa chimed in as she walked into the kitchen she gasped as she caught a smell of Sam’s cooking at full force.

              “Shut up, I’m still learning...” Sam pouted. “But let’s show Alik some of your work.”

              Sam took my hand, pulled me from the table past Vanessa and up the stairs to Vanessa’s room. I think Vanessa was shocked at the turn of events as it took her a moment to realized where we were headed.

              “Whoa, whoa, whoa. No.” She ran after us, managing to pass us and block the way to her room.

              “Move Nessa, this is good for boyfriend here.”

“One, he isn’t my boyfriend, he is just a boy. Two, what about what is good for me?” she shouted.

              “It will be good for you as well.” Sam picked Vanessa up off the ground, locking her arms next to her. “Go on,” she told me. My next action would damn or save me, but I decided to go and open the door.

              Vanessa’s room was simple: a bed, a dresser, mounted TV, and a mirror all in a corner. However, about two thirds of the room was taken up by three bookshelves and two glass drafting tables. The two walls without windows were covered in artistic sketches of homes and actual blueprints of those homes.

              “Wow...” I said as I looked around. There was one in particular I really liked that was hanging up. It was a one bedroom, multi-level, of mainly steel, wood, and glass. The artistic sketch of the house colored in showing how light would reflect off the glass walls.

              Vanessa managed to wiggle out of Sam’s arms, pushed me out, and slammed her door. “Okay, you’ve seen enough,” she shouted, pushing Sam and I back down the stairs. “We have pizza to eat,” she said to me. “You have slop to fix,” she glowered at Sam.

              Sam stuck her tongue out as Vanessa pushed me out the front door, slamming it as we exited. We were in the car for a moment before I was brave enough to ask.

              “So you’re going to study Architecture at Cornell?”

              “Yes,” she said, stiffly. “Just how much did you see?” her tone now timid.

              “Everything out on the walls. I can still see it. It was all beautiful. You have a gift.” She didn’t even say anything about me looking her in the eye as I drove.

              “You mean it... Thank you.”

              My mother was right, I thought. Damn it, she would be smug later. The rest of the date went well, Vanessa mostly asked about me, but when I told her where I had gone, she always wanted descriptions of the places and things I had seen. I enjoyed the looks on her face most. She lit up like a child when she talked about buildings and homes. When I dropped her off, I managed to get another kiss on the doorstep, a more private moment without her mother and Sam watching.

              “I enjoyed myself,” she whispered.

              “So did I. Can I see you tomorrow?”

              “We will see.” She smiled and went inside.

              It was still early, so as soon as I got into the car and drove off, I pulled out my phone and dialed Sam’s number, which I stole off of Vanessa’s phone.

              “Hello?” she answered, I heard the suspensions at the strange number in her voice.

              “Sam, it’s Alik.”

              “Oh, hi, what’s up?”

              “I need your help.”

              I had found my noble quest.

Vanessa Stanton

Chapter 19.0

              I spent the next two weeks mostly with Alik and I nearly forgot that he was a vampire. It might seem strange to say it, but there was just so much human in him. He told me he didn't have to act around me, but what did that mean really. That bothered me a lot because I would ever really get to know just who Alik was. Was he a sophisticated and well-traveled man, or that dark brooding vampire all the female leads love in the books. It was all so damn confusing especially because while he opened a new Masteria, which brought back an old vampiric practice. He shunned the old vampiric practices of Masteria, and still he would not stop the humans practicing these practices.

              Also, it felt like he was trying to keep me away from anything vampiric and wouldn’t go in depth with anything on that subject. That was until two night before I was to leave for school. That morning he messages me asking to stop by, I reply and he knocks about half an hour later

              “Do you know how to dance?” he ask before I can say anything and without a hello when I open the door.

              “Do you have a black dress?”

              “Yeah, but why.”

              “I want to take you to one of my mother’s clubs tonight,”

              “One of Lilith’s,”

              “Yes, and it will be a black tie affair.”

              “Why this all of a sudden?”

              “Because I've been trying to hide what I am from you and I've been starting to think that is wrong, in this place I can be who I am.”

              “What time?”

              “I will be back around seven,”

              “I will be ready.”

              He gave me a quick kiss on the cheek I blinked and he was in his car driving away. That was the first time he had moved like a vampire since that first night he told me what he was. He was serious, and I was actually scared.

              At exactly seven Alik knocks on the door and I open it and he just looks at me for a moment. It gets to the point its uncomfortable and I blurt out “What?”

              “Nothing its just your beautiful.” I was wearing a simple long form fitting black dress, I curled my other wise straight hair and put it up letting a few extra bouncy curls hang. I highlighted my eyes in a little black eyeliner and a light silver eye shadow and out lined my lips in black.

              I blushed, “Well lets go,” I said walking out the door. He followed me and opened my door and I sat down, he closed it then got in and drove heading into the heart of New York. We didn’t head into the more upscale areas, he weaved through the streets eventually parking on a street with little light. He got out and opened my door and lead me over to a set of stairs that headed down under the sidewalk. I could hear the music the moment my foot hit the first step, I could smell the air grow sweet with the scent of obscure tobacco. My tense state relaxed and by the time I made it to the last step I was at ease. Alik knocked twice on the door and a slit opened, I a pair of eyes looked out and then the slit closed and the door opened. As we walked by Alik shook hands with the door man.

              Inside a low a mix of purple and blue tinted light illuminated the room. People or I assume Vampire all looked at us and then back towards the four men on a short strange playing a melodic Jazzy tune. I could see men smoking in a corner playing poker, another couple wrapped in each other just enjoying the sounds.

              “Who here is human?” I asked in a low whisper,

              “You are, and no need to whisper, they can all hear you no matter what.”

              “Oh,”

              “You said you could dance, so lets dance,”

              Alik led me to a dance floor where a few other couples were swaying to the tune. He took my hand in his and placed a hand low on my waist. I just began to react to his movements and we were dancing. There was no space between us as we moved around the dance floor and I didn't mind. The air was thick with the sound of music as the piano slowly danced around notes, inviting the guitar to join in the graceful movements, all the while the bass kept everyone in line but for the Saxaphone, who let its presence be known in bold unique movements swept up in the passion of the moment.

              “I want you to try something for me,” Alik says,

              “What,” I answer a little breathless.

              “Close your eyes and just move don't watch anything just feel.” I did as he asked and closed my eyes for a few seconds and it felt the same then every never in my body came alive, Alik then moved my hand around his neck and placed a second hand on my waist and I think he knew what I was feeling as his fingers began to play on my skin. “Let the music control your movements focus only on mytouch. I did as he asked and I could feel his fingers move and him guiding me around the dance floor almost in slow motion, the graceful dips and slow spins excuses to explore my body with his hands. I felt things on this dance floor I had never felt, or thought possible. “Open your eyes,” he whispered and I did. What I thought was slow motion was blinding speed and I felt it all, meaning I was moving on my own. However I could only focus on it but for a second or two and we slowed. I was breathing hard and he smiled down at me, I saw we had the attention of the room, to the point the musicians had stopped playing. “Come on lets sit,” Alik guides me to a booth where we sit and he waves to a bartender who brings over a plate of strawberries.

              “What just happen,” I ask him.

              “That was as close as you can get to feeling what a true Vampire would feel without being one, all of your other senses shut down so everything focused on just touch. How was it?”

              I blushed in the low light, “amazing, your hands…” thinking about it made me shiver.

              “Try this, he said picking up a strawberry, close your eyes again.” I did as he asked, he placed a hand on my thigh where the slit of my dress ran its course up to my waist, I ignored where his hand was moving as I began to smell the strawberry. “Vampire can resist blood easy but the smell will make us want it, almost like a survival mechanism for those of us who stop eating. You're still human so food will cause close to that.”

              “Uh huh,” I said going along with it, everything that was his touch on my inner thigh was clouding out everything. In the back of my mind I smelled the strawberry dipped in chocolate but when it touched my lips I could taste so much that I had been missing my whole life. My tongue moved to taste and wrapped around the strawberry biting off the bottom. The flavors on my tongue fired off explosions of flavors, sweet, sour, tangy. I knew I was breathing hard and that when I felt Alik get too close, I swallowed the strawberry and felt his lips on mine. His scent filled me and everything he was I wanted. In the back of my mind I knew we were in a crowded lounge, but I didn't care, I wanted him.

              “Open your eyes,” he whispered softly into my ear and I did. What had come over me faded as I looked into his eyes, I mean I really looked into his eyes and I saw more than the smooth gold colored irises, I saw a cold calculating machine, but also the man he was, so gentle and kind. He slowing took his hand from under my dress, all the while I stared into his eyes. “I moved you between each sense leaving sight for last.”

              “You did more than that,” I was still breathing heavy. “I didn’t know sensations like that where possible.

              “Much more is possible,” he said moving to my neck when I felt his lips move across my skin.

              “Down boy, we are in public.” I said lightly pushing him back.

              “Would it make a difference if we weren’t?” The idea made me shiver again, temptation was through the roof.

              “No,” I said and I think I saw relief flash across his face.

              “I didn’t think it would, come on I should get you home.”

              “We just got here,”

              “Its been almost five hours, its close to midnight. Your parents trust me, I wouldn’t want to break that just yet.” and he flashed me a smile. I had lost all sense of time. He slid out of the booth and held out a hand for me and I took it, we made our way across the floor to the door where the doorman opened it for it with a slight bow. I fidgeted in the car the whole time he drove me home, we had light conversation here and there but nothing too heavy. Until he stopped outside my house. “I should admit I had another reason for taking you there tonight.”

              “Other than letting yourself be vampire?”

              “It was a way for me to show you off, you earned a lot of respect tonight even if you don't know it. You said no to vampire.”

              “It was hard,” I said softly.

              “Was it,”

              I felt him get close but didn’t look at him till he was almost on top of me. “Hardest things I have ever done but just not yet.”

              “I can wait.” He sighed, and again I felt as if he was relieved about something. He was out of the car and at my door the next instance and I stood, he walked me to the door then kissed me. “Goodnight Vanessa.”

              “Good night,” I said slowly closing the door.

              Relationships like these must be why people say love hurts, I wanted to really care for Alik I did but I just didn’t yet, I wanted this night to really help me understand him but it just added to the confusion. The next day I didn’t hear from him except for a ‘good morning’ text message, and a ‘sweet dreams’ later at night. We had already made plans for him to help us move in at school but I was wanting to see him. I didn’t even get the good morning the next day.