Chapter 13
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
YORICK
“Morpheus is going to meet us here?” I ask Lou while she leads me into her club. The moment the door opens, the music from within floods out.
“Supposedly. I don’t see Morpheus as a club kind of guy.
I see him as an opera kind of guy. He must really want to impress you if he said he’s coming here,” Lou calls back as she takes my hand and pulls me through the crowd.
The club is obviously quite popular, and I sense a few vampires who are too young to sense me right away.
“There’s a room in the back if you’d like to feed.”
“No, I’m good,” I say, following her over to a table. People are watching us, causing her to smile at them before looking at me.
“I usually get a few looks, but not like this,” she tells me.
“It makes Niles so jealous. But how could I possibly help it? Humans are drawn to us. They have no idea why… maybe they’re instinctively drawn to something more dangerous than them.
” She grins at me and I feel a bit… confused by the look.
“Are you making Atticus jealous or Morpheus?”
My eyebrows knit. “I don’t plan on making either one jealous because I’m not with either of them.”
“Oh, don’t give me that. I saw the way they were both looking at you. I love it when men fight over me. It’s so thrilling. Do you want to dance?”
“Not if Niles is going to come out of nowhere and kick my ass for it,” I say.
Lou laughs. “I’m not worried and neither is he, I promise.”
She draws me out onto the dance floor and wraps an arm around my neck while she dances up in my space. I don’t miss the way she presses her chest against me or the way her thighs rub against mine. “I’m surprised Atticus let you come here.”
“He’s not in charge of what I do,” I say.
“No, that’s not…” She hesitates and pulls out her phone. “I’ll be right back. Sounds like they’re having some issues the boss should deal with. Are you going back to the table or are you going to keep on dancing? Looks like you have plenty who’d love to dance with you.”
I nod toward the table while ignoring the inquisitive glances I keep receiving. “I’ll wait for you.”
She smiles and hurries off as I wander back to the table and wait… and wait. I really need to get a new cell phone. I understand that Morpheus didn’t want Atticus following us, but he figured out where we were anyway.
After what must be an hour of waiting, I get a bit peeved and head toward the back where Lou went.
I’m not quite sure what she’s doing, but I would rather be at Morpheus’s than sitting here alone and bored while waving off everyone who asks if I’d like a drink.
The problem with humans is that even when vampires don’t use their allure, humans are often drawn to us anyway.
It just leads to a lot of fake interest driven by a desire for something more.
Every relationship I’ve had with a human has ended up being superficial, based on a simple desire for my strength or my looks.
I push through the employees-only door and peek inside, but I don’t see anyone back here. “Lou? Hello?”
A part of me wonders if it’s okay for me to just wander around, but at this point, I just want to go back to Morpheus’s place.
Even though I’m not sure where she went, I can follow the scent of her perfume down the hallway and to a closed door.
Unsure what else to do, I knock on the door, but Lou doesn’t answer, so I push through it.
The smell of blood drifts my way as I see her standing in the middle of the room.
“Lou, are you okay?” I ask.
Her head that was hanging down snaps up and her eyes lock on mine.
“Why did you do this?” she demands.
“Do what?” I ask as I walk toward her. “Are you hurt? What happened?”
She lunges for me and her speed tells me that she’s significantly older than me—maybe as old as Atticus.
Lou slams into me, ramming me back against a desk that skids against my weight, but the sound of it gets lost in the noise of the club.
I’m so surprised that I don’t even get a chance to block her when her nails rake my throat.
I shove her back and free myself from where I was pinned between her and the desk.
“What the fuck are you doing?” I ask as I shield my throat. She stumbles back, but her eyes are fixated on me like she’s latched on to prey.
“How could you do that to him?” she screams.
“Do what?” I ask before I decide I’m just going to leave the room and get help.
As I rush for the door, a wooden chair slams into it, busting apart while pieces fall to the ground.
The brief instant when I’d drawn back gives her all the time she needs to reach me.
Lou grabs my head and slams it into the side of the door, and I realize that I need to do something before she kills me.
My healing is still delayed, so when I hit, pain spikes into my head and my vision blurs momentarily.
She takes that opportunity to drive me to the ground, sending me staggering before I hit down on my back.
I throw her off me, but she’s immediately on me again.
She shrieks as she goes for my eyes, clawing at my face like she’s just going to tear them out.
I kick her hard, but it’s as if she feels nothing.
“What the fuck is wrong with you?” I shout before I see a wooden shard. Maybe if I hurt her enough, I can get away while she’s healing.
I elbow her in the face and twist, grabbing the shard in my hand and slamming it into her side.
She doesn’t flinch, doesn’t even act like anything’s brushed her. Instead, she tears the shard out of my hand and drives it down toward my heart. I barely manage to block the attack, but the shard goes right through my hand.
“Ow! What the fuck is wrong with you? Why are you doing this?”
Lou seems to be refusing to focus, even as blood runs out from where I stabbed her.
Is she… is she not healing the same way I didn’t?
My healing is still delayed, but hers isn’t even present.
Blood is freely flowing out of her, coating the floor.
When she tries to drive the shard down once more, she slips in her own blood and falls forward, allowing me to scramble up to my feet and rush to the door again.
I don’t want to hurt her. And I definitely don’t want to kill her.
Lou attacks me again, but I’m ready and smash one of the chair legs into the side of her face. I hear bones crack, but she acts like it was merely a fly fluttering around.
“Stop! Stop!” I beg as she grabs me and sinks her fangs into my throat before tearing back. I kick her so hard she stumbles back, licking her lips while my blood runs down them.
Is she just going to kill me? Why? What the fuck did I do to her? And what’s wrong with her?
I hurt and I’m not healing quickly, but neither is she. Can I knock her unconscious in this state?
Adjusting my hold on the chair leg, I prepare to swing it when my hand cramps and I lose my grip on it.
My other hand snatches it up before she slams into it and screams, and I discover that she pierced her own chest when she ran into it.
Staggering back, she rips the chair leg out of her chest as blood pours from the wound. I stare at it in shock.
“Stop! You need to stop the bleeding,” I plead, but she’s determined to kill me and has absolutely no concern about the blood running from her body.
I try to go to her, but every time I do, she takes it as an invitation to attack me.
And whenever I try to flee and run for help, she blocks the door.
“Help! Someone! Please.” Maybe a vampire can hear us.
I just need someone to stop her… someone to get Morpheus and help.
But most of all… I realize that right now, I want Atticus.
He’s always saved me every time I’ve gotten myself into any kind of mess.
He’s always been the one to drag me out.
Fuck. Fuck.
Lou rushes me again and staggers before dropping to her knees. She’s bleeding out. She’s going to die… she’s—
I reach for her, planning on stopping her bleeding, but I’m brought to a halt before I can.
A blade presses against my throat as fingers slide into my hair. When I look down, I see that it’s the knife I’d been given to kill Morpheus.
“My sweet Yorick, what did you do?” Morpheus asks.