Page 2 of Cloak of the Vampire
Ignoring the man, I walked over to the woman and squatted. “Hey,” I said quietly, “can you stand?”
She tensed and lowered her arms. She was beautiful, but her beauty was marred by an ugly wound on her forehead that kept on bleeding, and purple-blue bruises over her left eye and cheek. Her nose, too, seemed broken.
She looked at me, but she didn’t seem to really see me. There was too much horror in her emerald eyes for her to be able to see I was there to help.
“Come on,” I said, grabbing her arm gently and helping her up. She let me, rising as well, and then I turned to the man, who stared at me with evident displeasure. “I heard you hitting her,” I informed him, my voice low and threatening. “I live next door, you see. I recorded your fight tonight and all the noises I heard, including our little conversation.”
I paused, leveling a meaningful look on his scowling face, and then said, “Don’t you dare follow us, or I’ll end you.”
The woman leaned her entire weight on me as I wrapped my arm around her waist and half carried her toward the door. But then the man’s hand was on my arm, and he growled “Nosy bitch” before he made a move to grab the woman.
But I wasn’t having any of it. I whirled around, used his hold on my arm to grab his arm in return, and twisted it. He gasped in pain, but I strengthened my hold.
“You don’t want to mess with me, bastard, or you’ll regret the day you were born,” I warned, locking his gaze with mine. For a moment, Icould swear his eyes glowed with wrath, but then he curled his lip, and the moment was gone.
I wanted to do far more than just twist his arm. I wanted to grab his neck and crush his windpipe, a residual result of my extensive martial arts training. I wanted to see the whites of his eyes bulge with pinpricks of crimson. I wanted to see him opening and closing his mouth, trying to get a sound out to no avail. I wanted to cut his forehead, show him what his girlfriend felt when he did those things to her.
Some part of me hoped he would push me, that he would give me a reason to do all these things. But then he let me go as if my arm was on fire and stepped back, wincing in pain as he caressed his newly bruised arm.
“Bitch,” he hissed.
Pulling my violent instincts in and locking them in a cage, I showed him my back, took the woman, and stepped out of the apartment, closing the door behind me.
And if he followed me, I would make him pay.
CHAPTER 1
I’d rather be anywhere else on a Friday night than the Hole. But Cassidy was my friend. The first friend I’d made since starting my new life away from my hometown. The moment I rescued her from her abusive relationship and we became fast friends, I promised to attend every show Cassidy was in, and I was proud that I’d kept up the commitment in the past three years. I would keep on doing so, too, even if it meant hanging out in places like this.
I wasn’t one to go clubbing, but at least the other nightclubs where Fourcorns performed weren’t as sleazy as this shithole. And at least I wasn’t alone. Skye was the other friend Cassidy had roped into attending her shows.
“I got this new under-eye-bag concealer; wanna try it?” Skye asked, glancing at me. She was the only person who could disguise an insult inside an offer to help.
At once, I gave her the fake bright smile I’d perfected throughout the years. “Thanks, but it’s fine. It’s not like there’s anyone here I need to look well rested for,” I said, my attempt at making a joke failing.
She shrugged and shook her head as if how I looked was a personal affront to her. “Working night shifts in thatgrocery storesure takes its toll.”
The mockery in her voice was palpable, and normally, it would take more than a gibe at my chosen occupation to get to me. But today had been shitty enough already, what with a customer filing a complaintabout me to my boss because I refused to accept her expired coupons, and being in this hellhole now, it was hard to keep up my act. I needed that job. I’d worked my way up to shift manager in a matter of months. And the extra two dollars per hour really made a difference.
She harrumphed loudly and checked her phone, the brightness of the screen blinding in the dim light of the club. “It’s almost ten already. When are they going to start?” she said, not really talking to me. It wasn’t like Cassidy’s band ever went on when they said they would.
Murmuring an unintelligible “I have no idea,” I turned to the bar and asked for a glass of water. The bartender took my order but kept his eyes glued on Skye. He waited a few moments for her to notice him before sighing and returning to work when she didn’t. It wasn’t surprising, really; she was pretty, and she had men fighting for her attention on a daily basis. And there was a time when she would have appreciated his interest. But now she was with Tyler, and unlike the other men she’d dated, Tyler knew how to play her to keep her.
“Cassidy texted,” Skye said as I sipped my water. She eyed my choice of liquid in disapproval. “They’re on in five.”
Thank God.
As shitty as this club was, it was packed. Cassidy’s shows were never this packed, so I had to imagine it was the drink specials that had brought the crowd in tonight.
Skye started scrolling and tapping on her phone, ignoring the people pushing and shoving around her as if they didn’t exist. As usual, she was ignoring me, which was great because I was not in the mood to talk, at least not about makeup. Instead, I hoped for some air; the place was too stuffy, and the people too stinky. I wasn’t claustrophobic per se, but it was too much even for me.
Before I could tell Skye I was heading out, something moved to my right, and my spine stiffened. Surreptitiously, I took a long sip from my water and glanced sideways to see what it was. What I found made my entire body freeze.
A man stood there, leaning his back against the bar. He was extremely hot, with shoulder-length dark-brown hair, dark eyes, tanned skin, and a face that was both sexy and completely expressionless. His broad shoulders accentuated his tall frame and muscular figure, both evident even in the dark trench coat he wore. I instinctively moved in his direction, focusing entirely on him and ignoring the hair standing up on the back of my neck. There was an intense sense of danger in the air now that he was mere feet away.
Run,my instincts told me.Run, and don’t look back.
I couldn’t move, though. My eyes were glued to him as if watching him might turn off the eerie warning bells in my head. It wasn’t a creepy vibe I got from him; I’d encountered my fair share of creeps before. This was something else entirely, and I wasn’t sure I wanted to find out what it was. So shifting from foot to foot, I watched him, sneaking long glances I hoped no one noticed.
