Page 4 of Hunting My Vampire

“She has a reputation,” he said, uncomfortably. “Some guys tried to mess with her… she put two of ‘em in the hospital. She’s trouble. Probably unstable, violent.”

Wonderful, it gets better and better, I thought.

The last thing I wanted was a pushover, some boring little bird twittering on for hours about clothes and parties. Human females were unfortunately often prone to this kind of behavior.

I went out to the street, my eyes scanning the crowd and I spotted her walking down the street, holding the hand of a little girl. Was this a complication? I couldn’t quite picture her as a mother. Not that this would scare me off. At this point, nothing would have been able to hold me back.

We drove back to the castle, which these days, was called the house, even though it had twenty rooms and five reception areas, most of which were unused these days. In my father’s day, there had been parties and dances, huge gatherings with entertainers and music, dancing until the early hours of the morning. My father had died a few months ago, I was still busy taking over and was head of the family business. My brother had some responsibilities, but working was the last thing on his mind. I had inherited all of this.

All of it was mine.

We all knew it.

But times had changed.

The car drove to my lodgings at the back of the castle.

As I went in, my assistant, Natania, rushed out to meet me.

“Charlotte has sent me a message,” she said, a little out-of-breath. “She is coming for the weekend after all.”

This was annoying. I had forgotten that I had tentative plans with her. Charlotte Deane was an actress with whom I had a casual relationship. Our agreement was loose and unspecified, we saw each other when we could, no strings attached. She was beautiful but unpredictable, which was part of her appeal for me. Human beings tended to be so predictable.

But Charlotte had told me she wasn’t coming.

“She’s changed her mind,” said Natania.

“You’ll have to meet her at the airstrip and let her know I had to go out of town.”

“What?” she frowned. “What do you mean?”

Irritated by this new development, I raised my voice.

“Just tell her I’m not here, ok?”

I could see Natania didn’t like this. She got on well with Charlotte and thought she was good for me. Natania was young and I thought of her as family more than an employee. She was one of the human staff members that I had appointed to help us interface with the mortals. People preferred to deal with humans when they had business with vampires, I’d found. She took her job seriously, rather too seriously, I sometimes thought. She could be meticulous in arranging my schedule, sending me endless reminders of meetings and dinners. When I blew her off, or told her to move appointments, she could become tetchy, which I usually treated by putting her in her place. But she was very efficient, which I liked. I could become distracted and disliked being bothered by details. I liked to think of myself as a big picture and vision kind of person.

“Did something happen in town?” She asked. “You seem… different?”

I often ignored her when she pried too much into my affairs. She needed to learn some boundaries, I sometimes thought, or get a life. She had her own room in the castle andwas off only over weekends. She could be like a little chihuahua, I thought, annoyed.

I went inside and closed the door behind me, quickly.

I needed to think.

My senses were sharp, heightened. I felt a keen awareness of everything around me and I knew this was because of Kaya. It was intoxicating, this desire I felt for her.

I opened the window and enjoyed the cold bite of the wind. Winter would soon be here, bringing a thick layer of snow to the fields and roads. I took to the air, heading for town. I didn’t know where she lived but I knew what her truck looked like and Hawston was a small place. It didn’t take me long to find it parked on a quiet road outside a modest house.

I went closer, saw the unkempt garden, the slightly neglected air of peeling paint and cracked windows. I snuck up through the bushes and saw Kaya on a couch in the living room reading a book. I stared at her and she looked up, not right at me but behind her. The way one does when you feel yourself being watched.

She closed the book and got up looking at the window.

I stood back, melting into the darkness.

She had sensed my presence, I realized.

Her senses were sharp too, which was not common in humans.

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