Page 8 of Incandescence

Maya

I t was surreal walking through the lobby amongst everyday people with their mundane, everyday lives. People who barely spared us a glance. The same people who were totally clueless about the monster who resided in the very same building.

A monster who’d soon wake and undoubtedly seek revenge.

The sharp ping of cutlery and the scent of grilled onions and steak, along with other tantalizing smells, wafted our way. Lunch appeared to be in full swing, and I wondered how long it’d be before restaurant staff noticed their chef was missing.

We stepped out onto the street, hurrying through the humans who were busy going about their day. Suited businessmen, blue-collar workers, and moms pushing prams. I sucked in the exhaust-fumed air. Smog had never smelled so damn good!

But I wasn’t going to get too lost in the moment. Wasn’t ever forgetting what I’d escaped.

“How long have we got before the bloodsucker wakes?” I asked.

A muscle in Alexander’s jaw flickered, his mouth tightening even as he glanced at the clear sky. “It’s after midday. At a guess, I’d say we have between three and four hours.”

“Shit.” I pulled him to a stop and he turned to face me. “But we do have time to head back to my share-house to grab some clothes, money and supplies. One of my housemates is around your height and build. I can grab some things for you too.”

He nodded, though I could see he was both fearful and distracted by everything around him. I had no idea how long he’d been locked away, but imagined the technology had dramatically changed. It would be a lot to take in.

Like he’d been in a time warp.

Two policemen in full uniform strolled past and I turned to stop them. Alexander clasped my forearm and whispered, “They won’t believe us. And unless you want to be admitted to a psych ward, I’d suggest you don’t say a word.”

I blinked back sudden emotion. Was he right? Would anyone believe us if we told them the truth? Hell, before I was captured I wouldn’t have believed it either. I bit my bottom lip until I drew blood, then nodded acquiescence. “You’re probably right.”

He released my forearm to carefully blot away the blood on my lip with his thumb. “I wish I wasn’t.”

I managed a smile, my skin tingling and my emotions dancing at his gentle touch. “My only wish was to escape from the bloodsucker’s nest. Since that came true, I refuse to push my luck wishing for anything else.”

His eyes glinted. “You’re amazing, you know that, right?”

My throat dried, my entire being responding to him. “I only survived a few hours up there,” I said hoarsely.

How he’d survived for so long in the nest I had no idea.

I turned away from the seriousness of the moment and hailed a taxi, before directing the driver to the suburb of Maychim. There was not a moment to waste on being poignant, our future wasn’t secure now we’d escaped the vampire.

It was a relief turn back and see the building we’d escaped recede into the distance. I shivered. Though I knew the vampire still slept, I almost imagined the bloodsucking monster was watching our escape through his telescope.

Fuck you, vampire.

I leaned forward in the seat, directing my attention to the driver. “Can you go any faster? We’re in a bit of a hurry.”

Twenty minutes later the taxi pulled beside the curb of the house I had with two other housemates. The driver read out his fare. But for a moment I didn’t move. It was as if shock had caught up to me and I couldn’t quite believe I’d made it home.

No, not home, I reminded myself. Nothing would ever be the same again.

I managed to smile at the driver. “I left my money inside the house. Give me a minute and I’ll be back outside with your fare.”

Before the driver had a chance to react, I climbed out with Alexander right behind me.

I pushed open the front door, thankful for my housemates’ total disregard for security as I headed to my bedroom, then flung open the top drawer of my side table.

From inside a textbook I grabbed the notes I’d stashed for emergencies, and ran back outside to pay the fare.

Alexander was still standing in the doorway of my bedroom when I returned, his expression more than a little bewildered.

“Something wrong?” I asked.

He scraped a hand over his face. “Only that we’re on the run from the most powerful being on Earth and you’re preoccupied by paying the driver out there his fare.”

I shrugged, before I pushed past him back into my bedroom. “He probably has a family to feed, bills to pay. I’m not going to deny him what’s rightfully his.”

I grabbed an overnight bag and tossed in the things I thought I might need. Two T-shirts, two pairs of jeans and shorts, a jumper, shoes and socks, and lots of underwear. I was stripping off the dress and shoes Alexander had given me, when I looked up to find his burning stare still on me.

I swallowed. How long had it been since he’d been with a woman?

He looked like a predator, ready to take me down and have his wicked way with me.

I grimaced. I’d been foolish enough to imagine myself in love with my ex, Jeremy.

I’d almost given away my precious virginity to him.

But I’d soon discovered he was a player, his love of pussy exceeded only by his drug habits.

Yet never once had Jeremy’s stare made me feel all hot and cold at once, like Alexander’s did.

My womb clenched with need even as I cleared my throat.

“Second bedroom down the hallway on the right is Pete’s.

Grab what you need. I’m sure, under the circumstances, he’d be okay with you taking some things. ”

Alexander nodded and I stared after him, trying to clarify my emotions. I was drawn to him as much as he was to me because of circumstance, nothing else. I had to remember that was our one and only connection. If only my body realized it too.

I dressed in jeans, a dark, long-sleeved cotton T-shirt and runners, before I grabbed my little cosmetic bag and jammed it full with soap, deodorant, toothbrush and toothpaste, a hairbrush and some painkillers. I threw it into a backpack, along with a little pen flashlight.

I stuffed the remaining notes into my bra and slung the overnight bag over a shoulder, at about the same time as Alexander returned. I looked up at him. Damn. Those jeans and that checkered shirt hadn’t looked half as good on Pete.

I managed a smile. “That was quick.”

He shrugged, gesturing at his much smaller backpack. “I don’t need much. And I saved enough room in the bag for food and water.”

I nodded, relieved not to be alone in all this, even more relieved that Alexander was first and foremost a survivor. “Good thinking.”

Ten minutes later, after raiding the fridge for bottled water, some energy bars and a few apples, I scribbled a note to my housemates asking them to find a new tenant to share their living costs.

They wouldn’t question my leaving or be concerned for my welfare.

I’d always been a loner and had never conformed to society’s expectations.

As for the rest of my meager possessions, I wouldn’t miss them. My housemates’ girlfriends could take what they wanted of my personal effects.

We left the house behind. I didn’t own a car. I save money using public transport. For that reason, Alexander and I had to leg it.

It could have been a beautiful autumn day, with gold and red leaves scattered across the pathway from deciduous trees, the loamy scent of fresh-turned earth and a fried chicken smell filling the air.

But all I could focus on was evading the monster we’d escaped.

The monster who I had no doubt would pursue us both.

I glanced up at Alexander. “Please tell me you have some kind of grand master plan?”

He turned my way. “Get as far away from the nest as we can, and keep on getting as far away from it as we can.”

I stopped and twisted to face him. “ That’s your plan?”

He cocked his head to the side, his dark eyes searching mine. “I lived with the vampire long enough to know I don’t want to be captured ever again.”

“Just how long ago were you captured?”

He blew out a slow breath. “Forty-six years...five weeks...three days.”

I gaped. “This is no time for jokes.”

He didn’t waiver. “I’m not joking.”

“You’re human.”

“Yes, sustained by vampire blood.”

I pressed a hand to my mouth, barely able to face the truth. “The blood kept you young?”

He frowned. “Of course.”

When he spun around and strode down the sidewalk, I hurried to catch up. “You don’t get to tell me something like that and walk away!”

“Why not?” he growled, as though already wishing he hadn’t said so much.

“Because you should be—”

“Dead?” he interjected softly, flicking me a dark look.

“I was going to say geriatric.” I looked at him with narrowed eyes, calculating the numbers. “You look no older than thirty.”

He smiled. “I doubt I’ve aged a day since I was abducted as a thirty-five-year-old man with nothing more to worry about than keeping my impulsive twenty-two-year-old wife happy and proving myself in court.”

My belly dropped a little at knowing he had a wife, a woman who had aged while he hadn’t. The same woman who’d undoubtedly thought he’d been murdered or who’d maybe even left her for someone else.

His breath shuddered out. “I also have no doubt Clara—my wife—never once

entertained the thought I was kidnapped or murdered. In her mind, all men were cheaters. She was just waiting for the day I would leave her for someone else...waited for the day to have her suspicions confirmed.”

“I’m sorry,” I whispered, hating that my worst conclusions had been confirmed.

He shook his head. “Don’t be. It’s a wasted emotion. I loved her, but I think that sentiment would have died at some point had my life continued on its course.”

“What about your parents?”

His mouth tightened, as if to suppress his pain.

“I was an only child of proud parents who wanted the best for me. I don’t doubt for a minute my disappearance sent them to an early grave.

Unlike me. Without the vampire’s blood, I would now be an eighty-one-year-old man, probably crippled by arthritis, with my good health fading as fast as my eyesight. ”

I blew out a slow breath. “You sound as if you feel bad you’ve outlived everyone you knew.” I cast him another look. “In reality, you lost all those years locked up in that vampire’s nest. Years you’ll never get back.”

He nodded. “I would’ve really liked to have said goodbye to my mom and dad—”

Not his wife, then? I wasn’t sure I was entirely pleased by the frisson of delight that one thought induced.

“But I guess, if there’s an afterlife, my parents will see me again soon enough.”

I stepped in front of him, forcing him to stop even as a heat-wave of emotion poured out of me. “You are not dying on me. Not now. Definitely not in my lifetime.”

It was only then I realized I was doing the same thing he’d done to me after I’d mentioned jumping out of a window to my death. He wanted me around just as much as I wanted him around.

Something shifted behind his eyes and I wondered if his suppressed feelings were now returning after blocking them for so many long years.

God, what had he been through?

“Without vampire blood, if I don’t die from the pain of withdrawal first, I suspect my great age will catch up with me soon enough.”

I stared up at him, willing him not to give up, not to surrender to what lay ahead. “I don’t want to face this alone. I want— need —you by my side.”

His lips pulled into a smirk. “I’m not sure if you’ve noticed, but I’m not exactly a vampire slayer. You’d be better off finding your protection elsewhere.”

I glared. “You might be running from the vampire, but you don’t get to run away on me. We’re in this together, remember?”

His stare darkened, and he lifted his hand to stroke along my jaw and leave behind a trail of blistering awareness. His smirk morphed into a smile that revealed dimples I’d had no idea existed. “How could I forget?” he said huskily.