Page 3 of Black Bird

“Nothing, actually. I’m on my way out. I was bringing this back,” she said as she placed her half empty beer on the bar. “I didn’t see a trash can.”

“Oh … thanks dear. If you come back, just leave the empty ones against the wall. I’ve got a busser that takes care of the mess. It’s nice to meet you—” he paused, waiting for her name.

“Sarah.” She extended her hand, and he took it, shaking it gently. His fingers were ice cold.

“Sarah.” He smiled sweetly, releasing her hand. “I’m Tony. Let me know if there’s anything else I can get ya, okay?”

“Actually, I was just gonna ask … the guy in the hood earlier,” she pointed a finger toward where he had been standing. “Is he a regular?” She didn’t know why the hell she was asking, but it had proved impossible not to think of him throughout the evening.

“Athan? Nah, not anymore. I’d steer clear if I were you, doll. He’s the broodin’ type. Doesn’t talk much and typically prefers that nobody talks to him either. Tonight was the first night I’ve seen him in here in the better part of a year.”

“Oh, I see. Thanks.” She smiled.

“Have a safe trip home.” Tony nodded his goodbye and slung a bar towel over his shoulder, turning to tend to another guest. Sarah made for the door and fished the tag out of her pocket to hand to the security attendant. The man disappeared into a small closet and brought her leather jacket back with him, double checking the number and handing over her belongings.

“Thank you.” She dipped her chin and shrugged on her coat, stuffing her hands into the pockets and stepping out into the night. Her phone buzzed in the back of her denim shorts, and she pulled it out, sliding her finger across the screen and opening up a text from Wren.

Wren: oh I’m takin this one home tonight bitchhhh!

The text was followed up with a picture of her hand grabbing the crotch of his pants. Sarah rolled her eyes and sent off a response.

Me: make good choices … slut.

She smirked at the screen until she realized Brent hadn’t even bothered to check in and shoved her phone back into her pocket. She was in an unfamiliar part of the city and had no idea how to get home. She debated on calling him to come get her but then remembered how irritated she’d been with his attitude at the club.

Bus stop it is, then.

The question now was: where was it? Lightning flashed down the dark street, the pavement already wet with rain. It must have stormed while they’d been in there. She started down the direction sheremembered them coming in from and was hoping to find a spot teeming with more traffic. It wasn’t long before she ended up turned around and instead found herself down a dark alley. Sarah cursed under her breath, pulling her phone back out and opening her GPS app.

No signal.

“Fuck me,” she snapped, raising a cigarette to her mouth and fishing around for her lighter. Thunder rolled in the distance, echoing off of the brick walls of the alley. She flicked the lighter closed and dragged hard, blowing a frustrated puff of smoke, and holding her phone out in front of her. She neared the end of the alley and could faintly hear the sounds of traffic nearby. “Thank you, God,” she breathed, pocketing her phone and walking toward the sound of salvation. Something clanged from behind her, and she spun on her heel. “Hello?”

Nothing.

“Wren?”

Just an empty alley with steam rising from an open crack on a manhole cover.

“Oh, hell no. Nope,” she whispered, making to turn back around. The moment she did, her body was hurled into the brick wall, her breath knocked from her lungs and her cigarette thrown from her fingers. She tried to scream but couldn’t catch her breath as a force stronger than any man pinned her against the brick. She kicked and fought with everything she had, seeing nothing but a blur of darkness.

It happened so fast.

A pain like she’d never felt tore through her neck and every muscle in her body seized to it. She stared lifelessly into the darkness, her limbs going limp at her sides as she slumped against the wall. Something strange and peaceful overtook her as she sank into the void, and it was then that she realized she was dying. Her phone clattered to the pavement, and she managed to utter only a single word before everything went dark.

“No …"

He had tried so hard to spare her. Tried so hard and yet …

Athan gasped for air as he tore his fangs from that girl’s throat. The pain in his chest ached through to his dark soul from a heart that hadn’t beat in over two hundred years. It was the same every time except—except this time his body was thrown into a reaction from her blood that he’d never experienced in his immortal life. It left him staggering backward as that same ancient scent from before lodged itself into his senses.

Thump-thump …

Athan growled in pain—the first true pain he’d felt in centuries as he grasped the material of his hooded jacket over his chest. The girl’s once flawless body landed with a sickening thud to the pavement, her glassyhazel eyes unseeing. He heaved in gaping breaths between the long pause before another lashing of pain surged through his chest.

Thump-thump …

“Fuck!” He ground out between clenched teeth, backing himself against the wall on the other side of her body. He nearly tore a hole through the breast of his jacket. He’d felt this pain before … only once. The night his heart had beat for the last time. The night that Dahlia had hand-picked him from a pub in Old London and whispered sweet nothings into his ear. He had been foolish enough to go home with her that night and she turned him into a monster. A demon that couldn’t control himself and snatched the lives of people like that beauty that lay on the wet street before him.

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