4. Alexander
4
ALEXANDER
I watched her from between the stacks of books, from the dark corners, using my ability to blend in to my surroundings to my advantage, and every second I spent in the library, surrounded by the soft whispers of turned pages, made the sense of urgency worse.
Something was wrong with this girl.
This woman.
I had lived for centuries now, more time than most mortals could fathom, watching the passing of the ages, but this target fascinated me in an unhealthy fashion.
She was beautiful, yes, but there were plenty of beautiful women in the world. It wasn’t her external beauty that intrigued me.
“Jen, it was the weirdest thing,” she said, turning to a friend who leaned against her desk, arms folded. “It was like I had a waking nightmare or something.”
“You know, that was probably what it was,” Jen replied, the beads in her braids clicking together as she turned her head and waved to another one of the librarians. “I’ve heard about those before. When you get super exhausted and then you wind up seeing stuff. Maybe it was sleep paralysis.”
“I don’t know if that’s possible,” Emily said.
Emily. The name wound its greedy little fingers around my dead, cold heart. Emily. Why was she so fascinating? Why did she trust this person she worked with?
The women continued speaking to one another, but the words hazed, blocked out by the consistent hum and throb that had started up in my ears as I stared at her. The book was nowhere in sight.
She hadn’t brought it with her. She didn’t appear to have it on her person. But perhaps, she had hidden it somewhere? At her apartment? In her desk?
The book was the target, not the girl. Not really. She was fodder, according to the U.C. If she died, it would be regrettable, but there were always casualties in war, and this was for the greater good.
“—alls I’m saying is that men can’t just drop out of the ceiling.”
My attention snapped back to their conversation. The woman was distracting me now, with the way she moved, the soft smiles she gave her friend that were full of kindness.
Emily gnawed on her full bottom lip. “I—I know that. But I swear it happened.”
The Jen woman gave Emily a piteous smile and patted her on the arm. “Listen, you’re probably just stressed. The world isn’t what it used to be. Times are tough.”
“Yeah.”
“Thanks for covering for me last night,” Jen said. “I appreciate that more than you know.”
“Any time, Jen. I just want you to be happy.”
“You’re the best person I know. Seriously.” And then she left, and it was just Emily seated at her desk, steadily working away, occasionally typing on the computer or getting up to fetch and shelve books.
But none of them was the book I needed, and my frustration grew thicker by the second. Not only was the book not here, but another vampire had beat me to the library. I’d smelled a hint of whoever they were when I’d arrived, a faint citrus scent, but I’d dismissed it as them scouting.
The fact that they’d already made an attempt on Emily’s life was … annoying.
Not only had they beaten me to the book, but they likely knew its whereabouts. And if that was the case, they might be stealing the tome as I stood here, impotently watching her.
Leave. To check the apartment, of course. I shifted, stepping silently between the bookcases, and Emily’s head snapped up, her gaze darting toward me, even though I wasn’t visible to her eyes.
A coldness swept over me.
How?
It was impossible that she could hear or see me. And sense me? Mortals had somewhat of a sixth sense, but not to this degree.
I waited, and a sense of curiosity nearly overtook me. Would she keep staring? Would she get up and approach?
But no, Emily looked down at her computer screen again, twisting a few strands of auburn hair behind one delicate ear. If I concentrated hard enough, I could smell her blood and something else—an essence that was purely her.
I took another step.
Again, her head lifted and her gaze focused on the spot where I’d moved.
It was enough to make me glance down at my body, even though it wasn’t visible to me.
Emily. The name in my mind again.
This time, I moved again, and her heart rate lifted. She moved in her chair, turning around, searching for what had spooked her, and I couldn’t help the smirk that twisted my lips. I stepped toward her with a predatory grace, every movement bringing me closer to the back of her chair.
She kept searching for me and found nothing.
Finally, I positioned myself behind her chair, the urge to touch her growing stronger by the moment. She was pure. That was the entirety of the problem. A person who gave to other people, willingly, when she should keep to herself. Pure and sweet, but there was something hidden underneath it all. A darkness. The fear in her eyes when she searched for what had spooked her told me everything I needed to know.
She was prey. She had been prey before. And she could sense when a predator was near, like the deer sensed the wolf.
Emily’s tapered, pale fingers touched the back of her fine neck. She massaged a sore spot there, and I watched, fascinated, by the manner in which she moved.
Slowly, against my better judgment, I bent forward and inhaled the scent of her. Like jasmine and honey, an intoxicating sweetness tainted only by the metallic tang of her blood.
Goosebumps spread down the back of her neck, and she stiffened.
She turned around in her chair, her nose inches from mine, and stared through me, searching again, terror clawing through her gaze.
I could snap her neck now and be done with it. I wasn’t gifted at probing human minds for information nor at willing them to do what I wanted, unlike Cassia, but I could bite her now unaware, feed off her, discard her body.
I could break her and find the book later.
She let out the tiniest huff of breath, and I tasted it on my lips.
The sensation was a curse.
Her name was caught behind my fangs. I straightened and stepped back.
Emily stared for a second longer before returning to her work, and I remained. Watching.
She finished her work with the setting sun, and exited the library alone, into the busy streets. I followed, speeding along behind the cab she had hailed until it pulled up, in the darkness, outside her apartment building.
Emily opened the door for herself, and I held it, still invisible, and was tempted to hold out a hand to help her onto the sidewalk.
It was insanity, and I clenched a fist and stepped back, shaking my head at myself.
Not once had I been tempted to this degree by a mortal. Or by a vampire. Even my fling with Cassia hadn’t elicited this behavior in me. It was a weakness I didn’t want to consider.
This woman wasn’t special. She was one of many beautiful women. Ones who were equally caring.
But even as the thoughts flitted through my mind, I dismissed them. There was something else.
The book. Focus only on the mission.
The last thing I needed was Cassia rising above me in the ranks. She would?—
Citrus tainted the night air just as Emily took the first step toward her apartment. A vampire dropped from the roof of her apartment building and landed in front of her.
Emily let out a terrified shriek, turned, and ran, but the vampire was too fast. He caught her by the arm and wrenched her backward a step.
I was on him within a millisecond, my hand closing around his throat.
He dropped her, and she fell to the concrete, releasing another terrified scream. I let go of my invisibility and crushed the vampire’s throat with all my power, enraged that he’d dare touch her.
His eyes blazed silver-blue, and he extended his fangs, grasping at my throat in return, but I had the advantage. More strength and size.
I drove him into the wall and punched him in the solar plexus, receiving a hiss in return. I couldn’t stake him or tear his head from his shoulders in front of my target. If Emily realized what he was—what we were—she was as good as dead .
And so? Collateral.
But I couldn’t bring myself to do it. Instead, I punched again, dodging the lightning quick response from the Sanguine Nox vampire. He wore the black cloak of Sanguine Nox, the armored corset that was meant to deflect stakes from hunters.
He grabbed me by the throat, his other hand reaching for a weapon at his belt.
I cut him off by tugging his hand from my throat and breaking it. That’s for touching her.
“911! Hello? Hello! Yes, I need help! A man just attacked me outside my apartment on—” Emily cut off as the other vampire howled and slipped away from me. He darted off, his hand shattered, and I let him go.
I let him go.
The alternative was speeding after him, leaving the book, and alerting Emily to the existence of vampires. There were ways to wipe her memory, but the cost would be great.
“Yeah, yeah, he just, he ran off.” Emily held the phone to her ear, trembling.
I went over to her and extended a hand to help her up.
She took it and rose, her lips parting as she studied me, more of that intoxicating essence exhaled onto my suit, my skin. I kept my expression impassive, trying to block myself from taking her in.
“I—” The person on the other end of the call tried to rouse her attention. She continued staring at me, frozen like prey caught before the moment of sure death.
I took the phone from her hand and lifted it to my ear. “This is Alexander Knight,” I said. “A masked man just attacked a woman outside her apartment in Kingsbridge, on Roxbury Street. Please send an officer at your earliest convenience.” And then I returned the phone to her hand. “I am sure they will be here soon.”
Emily held the phone at her side, her head tilted back to take me in. “Who are you?” she asked. “You seem familiar.”
“Alexander,” I said. “Or Alex to the people closest to me. ”
“Alexander.”
I shifted my stance, aware of how close she was to me. “Alex,” I corrected.
“Alex.”
“Yes, and you are Emily,” I replied.
“How did you?—?”
“You mentioned it on the phone,” I said. “When you were talking to the dispatcher.” The lie slipped easily from me. I’d already made a mistake. This was perilous, this strangeness about her. Whatever it was, it clouded my vision. Was it the same for the vampire who had attacked her? It was entirely possible that she had some kind of “defensive mechanism”, though we’d never found humans with the like before. Apart from those who had blood diseases, but those were an unhappy coincidence rather than an intentional defense.
Emily hadn’t said a word in all that time. Instead, she held her phone and stood on the spot, trembling. “I—I think I’m in shock.”
“You should sit down.” I held out a hand to her.
She took it with far too much trust. It angered me.
Regardless, I guided her toward the steps and sat her down, standing over her and watching the night sky for signs of others coming to take her life or the book from her cold, dead hands.
The book. It had to be in this apartment of hers, but could the vampire not gain access to it? Or had he failed to find it?
The whoop of sirens sliced through the dark.