Bride of Blood:: First Kiss (13 page)

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
What did that song say?
 
It was better to have lost a love than never to have loved at all?
 
Bullshit!
 
Not if it did this to you, she thought.
 
She nestled her head on his shoulder.
 
They sat like that for several more moments, not speaking.
 
It would be a hard life that she would lead but it would be worth it.
 
Her parents, her grandparents and so on had been familiars, and now it was her turn.
 
It was better than getting a 9 to 5 job, and she loved Anton and Alexander with all her heart.
 
Still, she knew that her life would change drastically from this day on.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Actively listening, she heard her parents come outside.
 
She didn’t want the moment to end, but she knew that there would be many more moments like this to come.
 
In her heart, she wished that there could be such moments with Alexander.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
“I guess I’d better go,” she said to Anton, standing up.
 
Anton nodded and wrapped his arms around her and brought her to the ground.
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
“So, I’m sure that you’re ready for your trip?” asked Anton as he shook hands with Rick.
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
“Yes, we’ll be heading out first thing in the morning,” Rick said with a tinge of sadness in his voice.
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
“I’ll see them off in the morning and then come back to go over the books with you,” said Chelsea.
 
Anton nodded again and hugged all of them.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Anton saw them climb into their car and watched the tail lights as they disappeared for the last time.
 
It was always a little emotional, this passing of the torch.
 
Someday Chelsea would retire and she would pass the duties of a familiar on to her child.
 
Anton wondered when or if he would see Rick and Marcy again.
 
With a sigh, he walked back into the house.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Anton walked.
 
He walked on and on with his thoughts running wild while his feet seemed to have a life of their own.
 
He didn’t even realize that he walked out of town and made his way into the city, which was at least a good hour’s travel by car.
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
As city noises surrounded him, Anton became aware of his surroundings.
 
It had once been a thriving city 50 years ago, but a great exodus to the suburbs, the closing of factories and a rise in crime had steadily turned the city into a shell of its former self.
 
Stores that had once sold nearly everything were boarded up and now unofficially housed the homeless.
 
Several buildings were abandoned and not torn down.
 
Crime and murder ran rampant and there wasn’t a safe street corner to be found.
 
Anton recalled times when families would sit on their front porches and visit with their neighbors.
 
Now the houses that were still occupied were filled with cautious people who didn’t even know their neighbors’ names.
 
A large percentage of the homes were boarded up and even those were usually drug houses.
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Several projects had been started or planned to revitalize the city.
 
There was a well-known chain hotel built downtown, a nationally-televised beauty pageant, and an impressive riverboat casino.
 
But after an initial flurry of publicity and excitement, the public interest and continued financing for these projects, like so many others, soon evaporated. It seemed that nothing could bring the city back to its former glory.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Anton found himself walking down what had once been the main street of the city.
 
Soon he became aware that someone was following him.
 
From the young man’s thoughts, Anton knew that he was planning a robbery.
 
Further thought reading told him that the young man had killed three people and gotten away with it.
 
Anton could hear the young man stroking the 9mm in his pocket.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Anton suddenly spun around and the young man pulled out his gun in a hurry.
 
“Hand over your phone and wallet, mother…” In the blink of an eye, Anton snatched the gun from the young man and threw it away.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
“Shit! How did you…” he said as he turned to run.
 
He hadn’t gotten five steps when Anton suddenly stood blocking his path.
 
Anton grabbed him by his neck and threw him against a building. The thug crumpled to the ground; his waste of a life slowly leaving his body.
 
Anton took a quick glance around and then dragged him into the alley.
 
A few moments later, Anton emerged from the darkness wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. He didn’t even bother to call The Cleaners as a dead body found in this city was not a big deal to the local police.
 
He would be left in the morgue and then eventually buried.
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
A few blocks north on the same street was a bar. It was called Leo’s and there were a few cars in front.
 
Not overly busy, but still enough patrons to choose another victim.
 
Since the renewal of the pain of losing Velara had come back, Anton found himself feeding twice a night or not at all.
 
Sometimes he felt as if the extra blood would wash away his sorrow.
 
Other times his heart hurt so bad that he couldn’t even bring himself to kill.
 
It was either gluttony or abstinence for him.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
As he walked in, he half-expected to see JR at the bar, but there was a rotund black man filling beer mugs.
 
Anton approached the bar and expected the bartender to ask him to leave.
 
The man did give him the once-over, but poured him a draft, nonetheless.
 
Anton put a ten on the counter and mumbled, “Keep the change.”
 
The large tip seemed to brighten his mood. Smiling at Anton, he moved on to other patrons.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
The bar was nowhere near as fancy as JR’s.
 
There was only one neon sign and most of the posters were either ripped or faded.
 
There was a row of torn bar stools and a few tables.
 
Some basketball special was on the TV, and a small group of men were watching it and paid no attention to Anton at all.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Then someone at the other end of the bar caught his eye.
 
He had to do a double take.
 
It was Velara!
 
But it wasn’t.
 
It couldn’t be.
 
She was smoking a cigarette and taking sips from the beer in front of her.
 
She could have been her twin except for a few minor differences.
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
The first thing he did was block her thoughts.
 
He sometimes got confused when he talked to mortals as to what they said or what they thought.
 
He walked up to the woman and introduced himself.
 
She told him her name was Crystal.
 
She invited him to sit down next to her.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
What struck Anton was how similar Crystal was to Velara.
 
He recalled that she once told him about her descendants, but this was too strange to be a coincidence.
 
Could she really be a descendant of hers?
 
Maybe he was just simply seeing what he wanted to see.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
He shook his head and then looked at Crystal again.
 
Her face was still similar to Velara, but not quite as much as he’d first imagined.
 
She was slender and her body was quite seductive.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
While not large, her breasts were large enough and appeared quite firm under the blouse she was wearing.
 
The shape of her legs was quite visible through her tight-fitting jeans.
 
She had an ample bottom, and even the place between her legs looked delicious and inviting.
 
It had been so long since he’d made love to a mortal woman, but he knew that he wanted this one in the worst way possible.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
As he continued to talk with her, he let his guard down and began to read her thoughts.
 
With the help of his ability and casual conversation, he was able to learn quite a bit about her.
 
She was in her mid-40s, divorced with two children who were staying with their father for the weekend.
 
She worked at a local school as a secretary although she sometimes found her job unfulfilling.
 
She’d once had dream of becoming a teacher, but an early pregnancy put an end to that.
 
Still she was content with her life, except that she was often lonely.
 
As she spoke, Anton relaxed his block on her thoughts and began to readily read them.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
“Do you have any plans for tonight?” Anton asked even though he knew she didn’t.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
“Not really,” Crystal said finishing off her drink.
 
She set it on the bar.
 
“I’ll just have a diet, please.
 
I don’t want you to take advantage of me,” she said smiling up into Anton’s eyes. Her thoughts told him a different story, though.
 
Actually, she did want to take him home.
 
She had never been with a white man before, but she had always wanted to.
 
She wasn’t modern enough to ask a man out.
 
Although a lot of men did ask her out, she usually declined.
 
How she’d wishfully dreamed that a man like Anton to come into her life.
 
Actually, her heart wasn’t controlling her thoughts as much as her fantasies.
 
She kept looking at Anton’s chiseled features and at his crotch, curious about how well he knew how to use that thing and what size it was.
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Anton really found no evil in Crystal’s soul.
 
She never hurt or killed anyone.
 
She didn’t have it in her to steal and considered herself a terrible liar.
 
She was simply lonely and craved a man’s affection.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
“I don’t have anything else to do myself, dear,” he said, putting a $20 on the counter.
 
“You could take me home with you so we could get to know each other better.”

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
She smiled devilishly at him, as if she’d been secretly waiting for him to ask.
 
And of course, she had.
 
She nodded and then both of them got up from the bar and headed out the door.