Page 24 of After Darkness Falls

Lifting her eyes, she found that the stairs kept going up and up.

Chloe tiptoed forward and looked down. There was no handrail, no banister to prevent people from falling all the way down from the fifth floor.

What the hell? That was super dangerous.

She swallowed hard and stepped back cautiously only to find herself hitting a hard surface sooner than expected.

She couldn't be at the wall yet, right? Chloe turned, then gasped, releasing the lip she'd been nervously chewing during her little walk on the wild side.

Behind her stood a shadow.

Another vampire, the third she'd seen in less than twenty-four hours. She could tell now. Besides, he wasn't exactly hiding it, with those fangs pointing under his lips as he smirked down at her.

He was staring at her with eyes that shone in the darkness. Chloe wouldn't have blinked if he'd worn a cape, but the vampire had on blue jeans and a light silver shirt under a black leather jacket: perfectly normal attire that did nothing but emphasize his incongruity, his non-humanity. He wasn't pale, but his skin seemed to shine internally, as if fitted with its own internal light.

He was also devastatingly handsome, with his light hair and tanned limbs.

“What have we here? A curious little fledgling.”

She might have answered, if she were capable of speaking at all, but all motor function had been halted until further notice.

Unlike Anika and Levi, this person made her uncomfortable.

The vampire was enjoying her helplessness, she could tell. But his visible amusement finally managed to piss her off enough that she found her tongue again.

“I'm Chloe. I started school here today. Sorry, I didn't know I shouldn't be here.”

“Oh, but you knew. And you ignored it. Aren't you a bad girl, Chloe.”

The way he said her name was a fucking flick on her clit. Embarrassed and more pissed off, she glared. “Is that how you get off? Trying to frighten humans.”

For the briefest instant, he lifted an eyebrow in surprise, and then he smiled. “Not quite. I could show you how I get off, though.”

All right, so she'd walked into that one two feet in.

“Didn't Uncle Dracula tell you that cheesy shit like that basically negates all of your intimidating points?”

The vampire's smile was genuine, and so fucking beautiful it wasn't even fair. “He might have. I've always been a terrible disappointment to Uncle Dracula.”

“I can see why.”

Sometime over the last couple of minutes, Chloe had started breathing more or less normally. She found that when the vampire extended his hand to her, she could move without a problem. She shook it.

“Alexius,” a strangely familiar voice called.

Chloe suddenly inhaled hard, as if pulled out of a spell she hadn't realized she'd been under.

Looking up the staircase, she saw Levi stand a few steps above her, eyes set on the other vampire.

“Alexius, meet Chloe. Chloe, meet Alexius. He will not bother you again.”

She half-wanted to say he hadn't bothered her in the first place, but something in Levi's tone, almost threatening, made her stay quiet for once. What Blair had said yesterday was obvious now. Levi was dangerous. Maybe even a little scary around the edges.

“Sorry for trespassing.”

Alexius chuckled. “It's perfectly natural. You're welcome at any time.”

“She isn't,” Levi stated.

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