Blood and Burning

8

“Hazel, what’s wrong?”

“Nothing!” I insisted.

Concern was written all over Erin’s face, and everyone else around us was oblivious. I tried hard to focus on the thump, thump, thump of the music, on the ridiculous lyrics. I knew this song word for word—it was my favorite old Escape the Fate song, if I had to pick one, but f**k, I could hardly hear it over the whispers. They just wouldn’t stop. The song was about s*x, and my racing mind latched onto a memory of Van, at a place similar to this, with one hand pressed to my lower back, the other one grasping my jaw to tip my head up as he leaned in close and whispered things into my ear that he shouldn’t have. I could still feel the firmness of his chest beneath my fingertips, and I could still hear his devilish chuckle at my response.

The whispers stopped.

And then it hit me.

It wasn’t just nerves. Somebody here recognized me.

I felt somebody behind me, but it wasn’t just another dancing stranger. This somebody moved with intent, and they came much too close, too fast, and I whipped around again to find…nothing. The woman who was standing about two feet behind me gave me a look as if I had two heads, and with the distraction, the whispers returned.

I bared down. I let go of Erin’s hand, I threw both of mine in the air, and I screamed along with the shitty cover band. I concentrated hard, on the lyrics, on the way the vocalist’s shoulder’s rose with high notes, I revisited memories of concerts that Van and I had been to, I swayed my hips and jumped up and down—anything to keep my mind busy, to block out whatever overconfident fucker was inside of it.

It kept the whispers at bay and it suppressed my anxiety, but the physical disturbances increased in frequency. Whoever this was was toying with me. Breath on the back of my neck, an unsettling presence that surrounded me and made goosebumps rise on my skin. It felt like a very unwelcome game of cat and mouse, like I was being hunted, but I couldn’t actively participate.

Someone grabbed my arm, and I screamed, my focus shattered.

It was just Erin.

She leaned in close. “Come on.”

She all but dragged me back through the crowd, back the way we came.

“No,” I tried to wriggle my wrist free, but she was stronger than she looked, “I’m fine, Erin, let go!”

She took me straight back to the bar, and sat me down on the same barstool from before. She plopped down next to me and looked me in the eyes. “Did somebody f*****g drug you?” she asked. “Like, did somebody put something in your water?”

I shook my head. “No, I’m fine,” I motioned vaguely towards the dance floor, “it’s one of these fuckers.”

“What do you mean?”

“It’s one of them. One of them must recognize me. Somebody’s f*****g with me.”

“What are you talking about?” she asked, exasperation clear in her tone. “You must be exhausted. We’ve had a long couple of days. Maybe we shouldn’t have come out tonight.”

“I’m telling you, it’s one of them.”

“Even more of a reason to get out of here,” Erin reasoned. “We need to go back to the Airbnb and get some rest. We’ll try this again tomorrow.”

I noted that the whispers had ceased, and I wanted to argue with her, but I was tired. “Fine.”

I checked the time on my phone as we navigated to the door. I scoffed in annoyance when I realized we’d only been there for about an hour and a half. I glanced around one more time before we stepped out into the cool night air, to see if I caught a glimpse of any bloodsuckers I knew—I didn’t.

As soon as we set foot on the sidewalk, I felt better. I threw one last glance at Club Monarch over my shoulder as we walked away, and from what I could see, nobody had followed us out.

“How do you feel now?” Erin asked.

“Much better,” I replied. “I told you, somebody there was f*****g with me.”

“Conrad says they can’t really mess with your head.”

I laughed. “I have no idea why Conrad would tell anybody that. He knows they can.”

“What do they do?”

We turned back onto the same street we’d wandered down for hours earlier in the night. It was still busy.

“Ask me when we get back to the Airbnb,” I said. “I’d be happy to explain it to you. It’s important. You need to know how to fight it.”

We stopped at a little convenience store for bottled water, on the way out of the downtown area. We paused outside for me to crack mine open and gulp nearly half of it down. As we stood there completely exposed on the sidewalk, I half-expected to be attacked. I didn’t want to fall into a false sense of security, but if whoever was messing with me at Monarch hadn’t made any moves by now, it was likely they weren’t interested enough to follow us home. There were hardly any people around now. Erin seemed nervous, and I noticed she was clutching the strap of her purse again.

I swallowed a mouthful of water. “Enough excitement for our first night here, yeah?”

“I’m exhausted.”

I nodded.

We passed by two more shops, and then we turned down the alleyway that cut into our neighborhood. It was illuminated only by the moonlight, and by one streetlamp on the other side of the street.

“Tomorrow,” I said, “ we’ll get out and talk to—”

I was cut off by a flash of black and white to my right, and then Erin was ripped away from my side. Her scream reverberated off the brick walls around us, and I heard the rip of fabric and a heavy thud! when she hit the wall. I caught a glimpse of her limp body slumped on the dirty ground before I was roughly seized from behind.

Fuck.

A cold hand twisted my arms behind my back, capturing my wrists in an iron grip, and another hand clamped my mouth shut. I was pinned against the wall on the opposite side of the alley from Erin, the front of my body slammed against the hard brick.

I screamed against my captor’s palm, enraged, and when I inhaled through my nose, preparing to scream again, a painfully familiar scent overloaded my senses.

It couldn’t be.

The bloodsucker exhaled heavily on a low, throaty growl, and I froze.

No f*****g way.

I knew that growl, but it was impossible.

He chuckled.

Dread washed over me and it was suffocating. My stomach plummeted. My heart was hammering wildly against my ribcage, so fast I was certain it would burst from my chest.

“Never thought I’d see you again, princess,” he purred into my ear.