Chapter 7
Chapter seven
Saiden
This is why I don’t go on these kinds of missions, Saiden thought, trying to squash his annoyance with himself.
It was more than obvious that he had handled the entire situation poorly, as was evident by the girl’s racing pulse and twitching facial muscles.
He trusted that Eliana knew what she was doing most of the time, but nobody could always get it right, and sending him here was clearly a mistake.
Maim and murder were his specialties. Covertly retrieving information and wiping memories? Not his bag.
His original plan was to compel her into destroying every copy of the script she had shared then forget about meeting him entirely. He figured he could leave a memory behind that the auditions were so awful she decided to make a different movie instead and wanted no reminders of her failed attempt.
That ship seemed to have sailed, though. His weak compulsion skills would barely take hold if she was this scared, and the slightest reference to vampires in the future might trigger something.
He sighed. Nothing he did at this point was going to end well.
Unless… He could always try seducing her to see if that got her to calm down enough. He was pretty sure that women found him relatively attractive, and while seduction would never be listed under the skills section of his resume, he could always give it a shot. He couldn’t be that rusty, right?
He took a step closer to Cora. Her eyes widened, and he fought the twinge of guilt that look of fear sparked in him.
“I think we got off on the wrong foot,” he said, dropping his voice low and aiming for a husky, sensual tone. “Perhaps we could try again. I’m very interested in getting to know you, Cora.”
To his pleasant surprise, her tight lips relaxed into a smile, and she eased up close to him, her face hovering mere inches from his.
A familiar scent wafted over him, and he had to force himself not to be distracted into analyzing it.
He needed to keep all his focus on charming this meek little mouse.
When she placed a hand on either of his shoulders, he knew he had her.
“You’re interested in getting to know me?” she asked, gazing up at him with enchantment in her eyes.
“I am,” he purred, his voice deep and sultry.
Leaning in even closer, her breath dancing over the shell of his ear, she whispered, “Well I’m not.”
Then she kneed him squarely in the balls.
Saiden crumpled to the cold floor, clutching his sac. Lilith save him from modern day women. This would never have happened in the 1700’s.
Massaging his abused genitals, he lifted his head to see her dashing across the warehouse toward the front door.
So much for seduction. And so much for that adorably awkward and innocent little creature he’d first assumed her to be.
She had fight and fire in her. Normally those were qualities he’d admire in a woman, but not when his nuts were aching, and he still needed to get the job done.
Since seducing her was clearly out, he had exactly one option left to keep her from fighting him.
He didn’t love using it, as annoying and time-consuming as it was, but this little hellcat left him no choice.
He would just have to convince her that he was a legitimate vampire, then wait for her to calm down after the truth settled in.
Eventually she would accept her fate, they always did, and compelling her would be smooth sailing.
Or as smooth as one could get when traversing the Atlantic in a rowboat.
Giving his balls one last soothing rub, Saiden climbed to his feet and raced over to block the front door. To her mortal eyes, his vampiric speed probably appeared as if he teleported, but he needed to shock her into hearing him out.
She came skidding to a halt and tried to veer around him, but lost her balance and made a nosedive toward the floor.
His hand shot out, snagging the back of her sweater and preventing yet another fall.
He wrapped his hands around her waist to steady her but dropped them the moment she started to struggle.
Cora reared back and gawked at him while he merely watched her, waiting patiently. It was always the same. She looked to where she left him and then back to where he stood now.
Yes, he thought, keep going. You’ll put it together.
“You…” she stuttered. “You were…”
“I was over there. And now I am over here,” he confirmed. “Excellent deduction, Sherlock.”
Okay, now he was just being snarky, but he was exhausted after spending his entire day in a car just to deal with this mess.
The trip had yielded nothing but a coincidence, and he just wanted to get back home to resume his hunt.
One-track mind, Marquin always said about him, and the assessment was accurate if also somewhat depressing.
When Saiden was younger he had spent some time walking amongst the mortals, trying to get to know them, but in the end it was always pointless.
They were too breakable, too easily scared, and it always hurt when he had to wipe their minds.
Humans simply couldn’t be trusted with the truth of his kind.
“No one moves that quickly,” Cora declared, shaking her head in denial.
Saiden let out a heavy exhale. This part was so tedious that it bordered on painful. It was like taking a cat to the vet. You knew you’d get there eventually, but damn it was annoying to deal with their scratching and yowling the entire way.
He crossed his arms and leaned against the door frame. “I believe I told you earlier, Cora Lee. I am a vampire. You of all people should have some idea of what that means. If you promise not to scream or hit me, then I’ll be happy to give you another demonstration.”
“Look,” she said, backing away slowly. “I’m happy for you that you’re committed to your LARPing or cosplay or whatever, but just because you can sprint faster than the average guy doesn’t mean I’m going to believe that you’re a vampire.
If you could please just let me leave, then we can both go about our day like this never happened. ”
Saiden glanced back at the distance from where he started to where he currently stood. “Now you’re hurting my feelings. I’d say that was more than just sprinting fast.”
Cora’s eyes darted side to side, and he could sense that she was about to bolt again. “Okay,” he began with as much calm as he could muster. “What will it take for you to believe that I am a real vampire? Ask for any display of my abilities, and I will oblige.”
She bit her lip for a second, eyebrows knitted together in deep thought, then tossed her braid behind her shoulder. “Any display, huh? How about you step aside and let me leave?”
Saiden didn’t even recognize the bark of laughter that escaped his throat. He was pretty sure he hadn’t laughed in decades. She was a clever one, though, he had to give her that.
“Well played,” he remarked, shifting closer to inhale her scent again.
She smelled like some kind of fruit, but it was smothered beneath something else he couldn’t identify.
Something medicinal. He didn’t like the acrid tang that reminded him of death, but his sense of smell was strong enough that he could mostly sort through it to find the sweet pheromones that were distinctly Cora.
Damn, she would be delicious if it weren’t for the chemical taint that burned his nose.
How many medications was this human taking?
Ignoring the faint tickling at the back of his brain that told him he was missing something, he smiled wanly at her and said, “Ask me for anything that doesn’t involve letting you go.
I have no intentions of hurting you, Cora.
I really don't. I can hear your racing pulse, so I know that I’ve frightened you, but I need you to settle down enough that we can conclude our business.
So again I ask, what can I do that would prove to you that I’m actually a vampire? ”
Cora eyed him warily, the visible stiffness in her muscles not fading in the slightest bit. “Okay,” she said, waving her hand toward the upper balcony of the four-story warehouse. “Fly up there.”
Saiden rolled his eyes at the lack of originality. “I can jump pretty high, but I’m not a bat, Cora. I can’t fly.”
Folding her arms, she cocked a hip and gave him a dubious look. “Fine, then turn into fog.”
He pinched the bridge of his nose. Saiden didn’t think vampires could get migraines, but she was strongly testing that theory.
“You know, based on the accuracy of your film script I would have thought your requests would be more realistic. The entire reason I am here is because your movie contained a few key secrets of our kind, but if you honestly believe that I can fly or turn into fog, I’m seriously doubting the validity we gave to this concern. ”
Cora threw up her hands. “I don’t know. Show me your fangs, I guess.”
Now that he could do.
Saiden gave her a wide, wolfish grin, allowing her to see the second set of teeth that emerged from behind his incisors.
He touched the tip of his tongue to one, offering up the ruby red drop as evidence before sucking it down and retracting the fangs.
The damn things were too sharp to be left out unless he was feeding.
Cora’s eyes widened slightly at the display, but after a second her features hardened again in disbelief. “You can do that with special effects teeth.”
Then why did she even ask to see them?
Okay, this was taking far too long. Perhaps the bulldozer approach would be more effective.
Saiden cracked his neck from side to side then unleashed his power in a blast of abilities, one after the other.
Using his vamp speed, he raced up the stairs to the balcony and leapt off, slamming down in what this new generation called a ‘superhero landing’ before springing back to his feet.
He grabbed the heavy table in the middle of the room with one hand and balanced it on two fingers, spinning it like a basketball.
Dropping the table, he grabbed one of the plastic chairs and chucked it across the room.
While it flew, he snagged two daggers from their hidden sheaths at the small of his back and hurled them at the flying object.
The knives slid perfectly through the slats of the chair, nailing it to the wall.
There. That should do it, he thought, plucking a splinter from the table out of his pointer finger.
He strolled back toward Cora, trying to keep his expression as non-threatening as possible.
Baylin would tell him he wasn’t capable of that, but he at least attempted to soften his perma-scowl.
It wasn’t even his fault that he unintentionally terrified people.
If males had the equivalent of resting bitch face, then that would describe him perfectly.
It was just how he looked. Regardless, he still made an effort to tone down his murderous vibes.
“Well?” he asked the female who stood perfectly still, watching him as a scientist might evaluate a new snake they just discovered but hadn’t yet determined if it was venomous. Cautious intrigue was what he could see glittering in her eyes. “Was that enough, or do you require further proof?”
She shook her head robotically, her wide eyes still a bit glassy from the shock.
“You believe me now?” he prodded, hoping they could finally move on.
She lifted and dropped her chin in a subtle nod.
“Any chance you’ll relax sometime soon, or do you have questions?”
Cora’s throat bobbed, her rough swallow audible, and her eyes dropped to his mouth, to the exact spot he knew his fangs would emerge when feeding. “Just one,” she croaked out.
He gave her a pitying look, confident he knew exactly what she would ask. It was what they all asked. “And what would that one question be?”
Cora lifted her face, and something bright twinkled in her eyes now. All traces of fear were replaced with a dancing excitement.
It was going to hurt him to crush her little heart.
Patiently, he waited for her to ask the age-old question that every vampire had to deal with.
“Will you be in my movie?”