Lengths For Love (8 page)

I was baffled by how nonchalant she was by this. “That doesn’t seem fair, though. She’s a young girl. She deserves to have some fun. Yeah, she might be undead, but that doesn’t mean she has to act like it. I swear, on the train, I had to check to make sure she was awake. The girl who took us to her favorite spot is not the same vampire I met on that train. This Jenny is the one I expected to see.”

“That’s because the vampire on the train is the vampire that Vincent wants her to be. The vampire who took you to town was Jenny. Everyone has two sides to them. Which side you get to see depends on how you treat them.”

“So I get Mr. Augustin’s full-of-himself side?” I asked. “I never asked him to treat me this way. I can’t remember saying anything to him that got him to be like that.”

She chuckled. “Oh, he’s always been that way. The best thing to do is just nod and accept what he says. Disagree, but politely. Don’t rattle him in a way that will upset him. And you’ll be on his good side, too.”

Great. I had come here to be a supportive boyfriend and instead I had to deal with the well-dressed ass that ran the house we lived in. But Kristine kept staring out the window to where Vince was standing. Even from a distance, I could see him smoking a cigarette and looking into the forest. There were couple of younger vampires running around him, though he didn’t seem to mind. Maybe I was looking too far into this. Maybe he wasn’t so bad after all.

“I still can’t see what’s so fascinating about all this,” I said. “Being a vampire. I mean, sure you’re undead, but it can’t be that great. I never got why Alexis wanted to be turned into one. No offense, but it seems like more trouble than it appears to be.”

Kristine looked at me and I couldn’t tell if she was offended. “That’s because it is. I don’t understand why she is so fascinated with us. I went to see her in her room and all she could talk about was turning into a vampire. Wanting to be able to roam the night and sleep through the day and never deal with pain. I pity her. I really do. She cannot be going through anything short of hell. But this isn’t the solution.”

“Yeah, try telling her that,” I grumbled, staring at Vince. He put out his cigarette and was now heading to the forest. “What’s in there?”

“The forest? Oh, that’s where the stables are.”

“Stables?”

“Yeah, we’ve got quite a few horses there. Mr. Augustin loves riding them. Christian’s his favorite horse and he takes him out a lot. And sometimes,” she lowered her voice, “we have to drink their blood.”

“You... You kill them?”

“No, you are mistaken! We drink their blood, but not to kill them. It just stuns them for awhile, but they are fine afterward. We even drink from Christian, but don’t tell Mr. Augustin that. He hasn’t noticed anything yet.”

“Oh. Well, my lips are sealed.” I pretended to zip them up and she chuckled. “Seriously, I doubt I’ll be spending nights braiding his hair and telling him every deep, dark secret that lurks in the depths of my mind.”

“You are amusing. I swear. No one has made me laugh since John.” She said, letting out a deep sigh. “He was my husband back in the day. We had such a good relationship up until the moment I was turned. I couldn’t stand there and let him deal with a vampire wife, so I ran.”

“Did he ever find out about you?”

“No. I’m sure he searched long and hard, but I couldn’t face him. I let him believe I died in the woods. He’s dead now. I found out when I went back to my town to get his whereabouts. Apparently, he caught pneumonia and I died. I assume he didn’t want to see the doctors. I never really revealed myself there.”

“I’m sorry.” I said. I felt like I had been apologizing a lot. “It must have been tough to leave him and not tell him why.”

“It was, but it’s for the best. I’d rather him die not knowing than live with the fact that his wife had turned into this deadly creature. I don’t remember very much about my turning, but I knew I couldn’t let him suffer. He deserved better than to be burdened with such knowledge.”

“And everyone else? Are they here for similar reasons?”

“Some are, some aren’t. Just like humans, we’re all very different. But our goal is the same. We just want to live in this world without everyone hunting us or hating us. We can’t help what we are. But that doesn’t mean we don’t think or care.” She looked down at the floor. “I should stop now. I think I’ve said enough.”

“But I still didn’t understand...”

“I’ve said enough,” she repeated. “You should go back to Alexis. I’m sure she’s waiting for you upstairs.”

I got up and started to head out. Alexis was waiting upstairs and I had to spend time with her, too. I had left her alone to talk with Vince. Now I was missing her. She was still very much human, but I was afraid. We had a long way to go before the transformation, but I missed her.

And now, after hearing what Kristine said, I had a horrible feeling that I was not getting her back.

Try as I might, I could not stop thinking about Kristine’s story. It was slightly disturbing how she had run away from her life after being “turned”. She had left behind a husband in fear of scaring him and maybe even killing him. It kept reminding me of Alexis. Would she leave me once she got turned? Would she kill me? While I still found the whole thing to be ridiculous, a part of me was scared. What if everyone was right? What if I was in greater danger?

Kristine was the only one who could answer my questions now. She had given me some insight to all this and I knew she would lay it to me straight. She wouldn’t loop me around the way Vince would nor would she convince me I was silly, like Alexis. It might have annoyed her, but I needed to know. I had to hear it from someone who lived in this situation.

I knocked on the door, which made her look up. For some reason, she seemed relieved by my presence. “Hey there. Do you have a minute?”

“Mr. Augustin isn’t here,” she began.

“I know. It’s you I want to talk to,” I explained. “I’ve been just waiting for a moment where Vince left and Alex fell asleep so we could continue our conversation. So much is going through my head that I don’t know where to begin. I know I haven’t been positive about this place, but I need to know more. I always get this weird feeling that Vince and his family are hiding something.”

She snorted as she closed her drawer and headed to the refrigerator in her room. It was the first time I noticed it. “Just a feeling? You mean you haven’t seen him?”

“Seen him?”

Kristine opened the fridge and began looking through it. Letting out a sigh, she got what she wanted and closed the door. “Then I guess you haven’t seen how upset Vincent can be. Sure, he’s nice to look at, but that’s where all the good stuff ends.” She held up a pouch of blood. “Type O. It’s my favorite. Would you like some?”

I tried my best to smile, not sure if she was sincere or not. “I just ate, but thank you, anyway. But what do you mean that Vince is nice to look at, but that’s where it ends?”

She started to drink the blood like it was a pouch of Capri Sun. I was both amused and sickened by this. I knew it was part of her lifestyle and I was not trying to be disrespectful. Yet a part of me wished she wasn’t drinking it like juice. The whole world grew cold every time she took a sip. She motioned for me to sit down on the bed while she paced around, still drinking.

“You’ve grilled me enough so I should be asking you some questions. How much do you know about the Augustin family?”

“Only what Vince told me,” I admitted. Once that came out, the rest of my thoughts were spilling from my mouth. “Why? Are they made up of werewolves or something? Can I ask why the heck every vampire has to have a werewolf nearby? Why can’t they just live separately? Are they sworn enemies or something? I swear, anytime Alex makes me read one of those vampire books, there’s a...”

“What the hell are you talking about?” Kristine interrupted me. A little dribble of blood was running down her chin. “The Augustins are not werewolves or vampires. In fact, they despise anything supernatural.”

I blinked. “But the Vamporium...”

“Did you think it was a good place? Wow, you’re completely out of the loop.” She realized, wiping her chin and putting the pouch of blood on the nightstand. “The Vamporium isn’t built for our safety. It’s a prison.”

“Prison?” Now things were getting weird. “Come on. You have to be exaggerating.”

“I wish I was exaggerating. I would give anything for this not to be true. But Vincent Augustin isn’t the angel he makes himself out to be. Nobody in that family is!” Now she was getting angry and I found myself sinking lower on the bed. “He isn’t a savior, he just stays at bay and he waits. He waits for the moment, for someone to fuck up so bad, and he strikes then! Haven’t you gotten the look from him yet?”

“What look? What are you going on about?” I demanded. “Vince has done nothing to me!”

“And he won’t do anything to you. You’re mortal. You’re worth nothing to him.” She threw her hands up in the air. “Look, you need to get yourself and your girlfriend out of here. Tell her to find another doctor for her treatments. Get out of Vienna and get as far from this place as you can.”

“But you’re not giving me a reason why.”

“I can’t,” she shuddered. “You... You can’t get close to Vincent. Try to pretend he’s not there. You shouldn’t try to provoke him. He might look small, but he has enough power to break you down.”

“He has power? What is this guy?” I was exasperated with her going in circles and not giving it to me straight. “You keep pointing out that he’s a danger, but you don’t say why. So tell me. If it’s important, I need to know! What makes him so dangerous to you?”

But what that was, she never got to tell me because of the crash downstairs. It was enough to get me on my feet and running out the door with Kristine hot on my heels. I didn’t know what I was heading toward or why I reacted this way. I just knew I had to get there and stop a disaster from happening. Kristine kept yelling my name, but I barely heard her. As I ran, I could feel a crowd growing behind me. Everyone else had heard the crash and the noises from below got louder. I could hear a girl screaming and then someone shouted.

“You stupid bitch! I told you not to go and get it done! I told you there would be consequences, didn’t I?! And what did you do?! Tell me, you dumb bitch, WHAT DID YOU DO?!”

It took only three seconds for me to realize the swearing was from Vincent, but I didn’t know about the screamer. Kristine tried to grab me, but I was moving faster. Alexis had been wrong about vampires being super fast then. At this point, Kristine would not only have caught up with me, she’d have pulled me away and told me what was happening. Instead, I was still running down the stairs and Vincent was still yelling. The further I went down, the louder everything got. I finally found myself in front of the door that blocked the scene. My hand turned the knob as Vincent raved on and the girl screamed.

“You lazy, worthless, useless, STUPID BITCH...”

“ENOUGH!” I screamed, bursting through the door. “STOP IT!

Unfortunately, I had come in at a bad time because I saw Vincent reach down and rip out the girl’s belly-button piercing. He didn’t take it off, but literally tore it out of her skin, nearly taking her navel with it. Looking down on the floor, I saw plenty of other studs and rings with pieces of skin still stuck to them. Everyone behind me was watching in horror at what was happening. Vincent wasn’t a tall guy and he didn’t look like much, but he had the upper hand. While I couldn’t see the girl under Vincent’s body, I had a feeling she was not in the best of shape. He looked furious like a ravenous crocodile.

Holding in the vomit that had lurched upward, I ran over to them. “What the fuck are you doing?!”

“Get away!” Vincent snapped, pulling out a piercing from this girl’s ear. “She’s getting what she deserves!”

“What the hell does she deserve?!” I demanded, trying to yank him away. “You’re hurting her! Let her go! LET HER GO! LEAVE HER ALONE!”

“Ian, stop!” Kristine yelled. “You don’t know what you’re doing!”

“Listen to her!” Vincent hissed, kicking the girl aside and facing me. It took me a second to see that the girl was Rose from earlier. Immediately, I regretted my decision because he put his hand on my throat. The whole world started to spin and grow dark. He was breathing hard, beads of sweat lining his hairline and upper lip. I did my best to get out of his grasp, but it had taken all the strength in me. Kristine had a good point; Vincent wasn’t as weak as he looked.

“Who the hell asked you to intervene?” He demanded, delivering a kick to my gut. I winced but didn’t scream. “I have rules here! And when someone doesn’t follow them, I have to punish them! I thought you understood!”

“Dude... you... you’re hurting her.” I said, sitting up and glaring at him. “What the hell is wrong with you? You can’t justify that! You ripped everything out of her body! That’s not punishment, that’s torture!”

He sneered down at me and took a step forward, kneeling so we saw each other’s face. I could get a good look at all the gaps in his teeth and was afraid that he was going to gouge my eyes out. While the look of rage was gone, his anger was pretty much burning up his insides. However, I wasn’t going to go down easily. I sat up taller and looked him in the eye. If he wanted to get me, he wasn’t going to get me while I was down.

“I will admit that I admire your bravery,” Vincent began. “Not very many people would do what you did. However, you fail to realize that this isn’t your show to run. I will keep everyone in line. I will do it as I see fit. I thought we made this very clear the day you came here.”

“Well, you never said that keeping everyone in line meant ripping out a girl’s navel piercing or anything else on her body for that matter,” I shot back, standing up. He followed me, pissed off that I had ignored his words. “What is wrong with you, man? I should be asking that question. That’s just disgusting.”

I looked at the girl who crawled over to Jenny and a few other vampires. They were comforting her while keeping their eyes on us. It was like they were waiting for a volcano to erupt. Here we were, two grown men in a standoff, waiting to pull our next move. He looked like a hungry wolf and I was clearly his main course. Feeling more brave, I shot him an angry look back. That would teach him to intimidate me. Ha!