Lengths For Love (9 page)

I moved in for the punch and nicked his jaw. He pushed me down to the floor and we were rolling around on the carpet, trying to get the best out of each other. I got him in the stomach, which made him wheeze and he nailed one across my chin.

“What’s going on in here?” That was Alexis who had made it downstairs. She found the two of us, a bruised boyfriend and an angry owner, sitting in the middle of the floor and a crowd of vampires watching us. “Oh my God! What the... what is...”

Vincent stood up and dusted himself off, the crazy look of murder gone from his face. “My dear, I am so sorry we disturbed you.”

“No, it’s just... what happened? Why are you on the floor, Ian?”

I didn’t bother replying. I just got up and tried to grab her hand. “We’re leaving.”

“What?” She blinked, pulling her hand away. “I can’t just pack up and leave. My treatment’s not over.”

“We’re leaving and that’s that!”

“And where will you go, Ian?” Vincent asked. “It’s too late to find another place. At the very least, you will have to spend the night here.”

“I’d rather be out in the streets than spend another night here!” I snarled, trying to grab Alexis and lead her out. However, she inched away. “You owe me an explanation, pal. If you are as good as you claim, then why do this?”

“Do what? Can someone tell me what’s happening?” Alexis wanted to know.

“Didn’t you hear the screams?”

“Yeah, I heard the screams and I was coming down, but it takes forever for me to get down a hallway. And no one was there to help me.”

For some reason, that softened Vincent up and he took her hand. “I apologize. I thought I had left Jenny to look after you.” He shot Jenny a look and she leaned into the wall, swallowing hard. “Here. I will make it up to you tomorrow. Let me escort you both back to your room.”

“I don’t need an escort!” I turned away with a huff, but Alexis grabbed me before I could walk out. Clearly, I was being made to look like the insane one, the one who needed to be stuffed in a straitjacket. That might have been true; the more I looked at Vince, the more I wanted to throttle him.

He motioned the other vampires to make way for him and shot Jenny another death look before we left. I saw Jenny mouth “I’m sorry” to Alexis and I felt great pity. If Vince could rip someone’s piercing out, who knew what he could do to a girl like Jenny? I only prayed that he did not hurt her while I was asleep. I saved this vampire and I didn’t know if I had strength to protect anyone else.

We kept walking down the hallway in silence, me stewing in anger and Alexis just looking confused and tired. It was that moment that I saw what the chemo had been doing to my girlfriend. Her hair was starting to fall out in clumps and she looked like she had aged twenty years. Her face looked a lot thinner, too, despite the fact that she was eating. Her eyelashes and brows were starting to fall out, too, and I felt terrible. Here was my girlfriend, being brave and going through chemotherapy by herself, and I was getting into fights with douchebags. Go me. No wonder she seemed to be upset by me behavior. I knew better.

Vince, however, was trying to smooth the disaster over. But I didn’t believe his act. I had seen him. I knew what he was capable of. He could fool her, but I was going to expose his secret, whatever it might have been. And once that happened, we were getting out of here.

“I really don’t want you to worry about this,” he said, straightening his tie. “It’s an honest mistake.”

“Honest mistake?!” Now I was belligerent. I couldn’t take the calm demeanor anymore. If it hadn’t been for Alexis, I would have grabbed him and thrown him out of the window. “There was nothing honest about that! You were ready to kill me!”

“I... I don’t understand,” Alexis said as Vincent led us both towards the elevator. He grabbed us both by the hand and we followed like we were in shackles. I felt like his slave, but I wanted to do anything except what he told me. “What was that screaming? What happened? Why were you two in a fight?”

“Because he’s a sick, sadistic, murderous bastard!” I snapped, glaring at Vincent. However, he didn’t shoot any angry looks at me. He was calm and he didn’t tighten his grip on my wrist as we waited for the elevator.

“I’m not sure what your boyfriend is talking about. I haven’t killed anyone,” he replied. “I admit I may have lost my temper...”

“Lost your temper?!” I cut him off, bewildered. “Dude, people yell when they lose their tempers, they don’t rip anyone’s bellybutton ring out!”

Alexis looked at us both. “Is this true?”

“I didn’t rip anything out. It was an unfortunate series of events. Trust me when I say she’s fine. Rose will be okay.”Vincent rolled his eyes and the elevator stopped before us. “Forgive me, my dear. It’s late. I was angry and I lost my cool on them. But I didn’t mean to hurt Ian, he just got in the way. Believe me when I say that I would never hurt either of you. You’re guests in my house. I know how to treat my guests.”

I was desperate to say more, to punch the smug asshole in the face, and then strangle him with his necktie, but Alexis stepped into the elevator and I followed. She pressed the button to our floor as I stared at the floor. He waved to us as the doors closed while I fumed and drummed my fingers against the elevator wall. Alexis just stared at me, waiting for an explanation.

“What was that all about?” she finally asked when I didn’t cave in.

“The man is bad news!” I blurted out. “If you had been there, if you had seen it on time...”

“Well, forgive me for not getting there as fast you’d like, Ian,” she cut me off, now growing mad at me. “The chemo slowed me down a great deal. I’m sorry I can’t be there at the nick of time like you want me to. So what are you going on about?”

“I know the chemo is slowing you down, babe, but that’s not the point. The man was ripping all kinds of studs and rings off some girl. You should have seen it. There was bits of skin still stuck to it! It was just... didn’t you hear her screaming?”

“I heard screams, Ian. I started coming down the moment I heard them. Unfortunately, it’s hard to walk down a hallway to get to the elevator these days. So forgive me if I miss out on the action. But Vince said it’s an honest mistake.”

“It’s not a mistake!” I snapped. “In what realm is ripping somebody’s piercing out a mistake? If that wasn’t bad enough, he started choking me! He was close to killing me when you came in! Anyway, Kristine was telling me...”

“Kristine?” Once again, she cut me off. “That female vampire? You’ve been hanging around with her a lot lately.”

“And what the hell is that supposed to mean?”

“You listen to her when she talks to you! She’s the one filling your head with all the lies!”

“Lies?! You’re the one who believes that creep over your own boyfriend!” I yelled back. “And for your information, Kristine and I have done nothing but talk! You’re the one who told me to get more involved here! You told me not to bother you during your treatments, okay? Now that I have done as you said, you don’t like it?”

“But that’s another...”

“What, girl? Are you threatened by a girl that I have no interest in?” I asked. “I bet that’s it. You think I’m cheating on you.”

“I didn’t say that!”

“You implied it! You believe that I’m lying to you right now!” The elevator door opened up and we stared at the floor we were on. It was ours. We had arrived. Alexis shuffled out and I followed her to make sure she wasn’t in pain. “I swear to you that we’re not having an affair!”

“I want to believe you,” she murmured, reaching our room and turning on the lights. She crawled into her bed and pulled the covers over her body. “But I see the way you look at her. She holds your interest.”

“That’s because she knows about this place. She knows all the secrets and she believes we were stupid to come here,” I explained, taking off my shoes and changing into my pajamas. “I know you aren’t around much, but these vampires aren’t like the ones we read about. They’re more subdued. It’s like they want to fight, want to kill, but something holds them back.”

Alexis said nothing, but she turned off the lights and I knew it meant that the conversation was over. She hated it when I made sense about Kristine. I had no idea how Vincent had come out of this so cleanly, but he did. He hadn’t said much, yet he had managed to put the blame on me. He had made Alexis paranoid about our relationship. Realizing this, I dug my nails into my pillow and vowed that I would get to the bottom of this.

The incident was fresh in my mind when I woke the next morning. Alexis had already gone downstairs, but I lay in bed for a while. It was unreal what I had seen. Vincent, the same guy who gave me all that money, was ripping out a body piercing. It made me sick and I sunk under the covers. I didn’t know if I wanted to face anyone today. At the same time, I couldn’t stay here. Forcing myself out of bed, I got dressed and prepared for the worst.

Kristine caught me just as I was about to leave. “Oh good, I was coming to get you. Your girlfriend was worried.”

“Nah, I just overslept.” I shrugged.

“I didn’t expect you to be out, especially after what happened,” she said. “How are you feeling? I saw the bruises so I figured you’d want to be in bed.”

“They were nothing,” I lied.

“Really?”

“Really. I can get over them. They are just bruises. But there’s something more important that I need to know.”

“What?”

“How’s Rose doing?” I asked. “I mean, will she be...”

“She’ll be fine.” Kristine nodded. “She’s lucky she’s not alive. The pain would probably be much worse. Of course, Mr. Augustin and his family always find new ways to make vampires feel pain. But Rose will be doing good and she’ll be back to herself in no time. Although I doubt she’ll get anything pierced. Not unless she wants to be humiliated.”

“I’m sorry,” I apologized, remembering the hoopla I had caused. “You told me to stay out of it and I didn’t. But I couldn’t. I just don’t like to see anyone hurting that way.”

“I know,” she squeezed my shoulder. “You’re a good man, Ian Choi. You stand up for what you believe is right. In this world, not very many people do. I wanted to tell you that what you did for Rose back there... I respect and I admire that.”

I blushed. “I didn’t succeed in anything but making a fool of myself.”

“But you tried. You have to admit that it was good to try even if you failed.”

“It would have been better if I could have stopped it sooner,” I murmured.

“It stopped, anyway. And she’ll be okay. We’re a tough bunch.”

I was about to protest more, but Jenny came running into the room. “You guys! You guys! You guys!”

“Yes?” I asked, turning to find her at doorway.

“You guys have to see this!” Jenny exclaimed, barely able to stay still. It was the first time I had seen her looking so thrilled about something. Sure, I saw her happy when we went to town, but I expected her to revert back to the girl on the train. I had thought that she’d speak in monotone, but she sounded like a happy, young girl and that surprised me. This time, it was double the excitement. This had to be good.

“What is it?” Kristine asked.

“You have to come down to the stables and see!”

She was now about to jump out of her shoes and torn stockings so we figured to head down. As we got outside, I saw Alexis standing a couple of feet from the stables. She had wrapped the tie-dyed scarf around her head instead of the wig that she was normally wearing. Dressed down in her robe and pajamas, she looked out into the stables where two horses were resting next to each other. It was Vincent’s black horse, sitting in the hay and nuzzling a brown mare I had never seen before. My girlfriend smiled at them and it was the first time in a long time that I had seen her happy. The smiles she had given before were forced. I knew deep down that she felt pain and wanted to give up the fight. But she held on for everyone.

“Alex?” I spoke up. She turned around and motioned me to come closer. “Look, about last night...”

“Shh!” She silenced me, pointing to the horses. “Look at them.”

The two were nuzzling each other and clearly in love. Jenny started to get closer to them and I heard Kristine say, “Wait, don’t go! Let Ian check it out!”

I looked up. “Check out what?”

“The mare doesn’t seem to be feeling well.” Alexis replied. “I told Jenny to go get you since you know veterinary medicine. I would go down myself, but the medication has made me...”

“No, don’t go down,” I warned her. “I don’t want you to catch anything from the animals.”

“Well?” Jenny looked at me. “Shall we go see them?”

“We shall,” I agreed and she led me closer to the horses. The male seemed to get closer to this horse, which was strange. No wonder Alexis kept staring. The horses reminded her of us before the cancer. How close I used to be and then she became too sick for us to do anything. Seeing them made me feel like scum. Even though Alexis told me she was okay, she wasn’t. Somehow, I didn’t see it.

“She looks sick.” Jenny went on. “Is she going to be okay?”

I looked at Alexis, who nodded to the mare. Oh brother. I hated this part. I got close to her and expected the male to kick me in the face. I had not had good experiences with barnyard animals at school. I always ended up getting squealed at, pecked, had water and mud dumped on me, and a few animals that thought I was their private toilet. God knew the number of times I had come home with all my clothes stained. Those were days that I had wished I was studying something other than veterinary medicine. Being an English major couldn’t hurt. At least I wouldn’t end up smelling like a barnyard if I read Eliot and Dickens for a living.

So I braced myself to get spit on and lose a hand in the process from the male. Instead, he stayed by her side while I checked her out. I was no veterinarian yet; I only had taken a handful of classes. But I didn’t need to be one to know what was wrong with the mare. Sighing, I wiped my hands on my jeans and turned to them.

“She’s going to be fine,” I said, my eyes on Alexis. Somehow, I knew she was the one who was the most worried. “But keep an eye on her.”