Chapter 3 #2
“Good,” Kate said, finally pushing the door open to reveal a dark navy sky. Wispy clouds concealed the moon, threading among the stars finally revealing themselves for the night. “Have you got someone coming to meet you tonight? Better not walk alone, not with all those recent attacks in the city.”
“Rideshare is my best friend,” Tobias said, drawing out his phone and pretending to pull up the app. He brushed her concern off with a shrug. “I’ll be fine. But are you okay?”
Kate pointed to the man waiting against the gate of the Old Library’s garden, who waved back at her.
“I’ll be fine. My husband is here for me. Just be careful.” Kate’s aura glowed the grey of concern, the faint light flickering around her frame.
“You, too. See you tomorrow.”
Tobias stood straighter as the two of them parted ways, even raising a hand and waving at her. He felt a sinking in his stomach that she needed a chaperone to navigate the now-deadly streets of Oxford.
My bad.
Tobias had found a perch on the roof of the church opposite the library and watched Alexander show up again, pacing in front of the exit.
Two minutes more and Tobias would have run straight into him, instead of being able to watch as Alexander had waited and waited for Tobias to show himself, clearly increasingly furious at the way he was ignoring Alexander’s attempts to reach him.
Alexander Damianos wasn’t a man who was used to being refused, so it delighted Tobias to vex him.
He waited for Alexander to give up and followed him back to his office within the Clarendon Building, watching as he’d pulled out his phone and made a call. Twenty minutes later, a car had deposited a slight, curly-haired man out on the street, who’d then sauntered into the office building.
Through the window, Tobias watched the man lay himself out like a meal.
Which was exactly what was about to happen.
Tobias peered into Alexander Damianos’ office, squinting through the window as he watched the scene within unfold.
The professor was, for all intents and purposes, grinding himself against the young man who was laid out across a mahogany oak desk.
Tobias’ traitorous mouth watered as he watched the vampire feed and he tried to ignore the other parts of him that were stirred by the sight.
Alexander latched his teeth into the column of the poor man’s throat until blood dribbled down the skin.
The human arched his back up, and Tobias heard his moan clearly through the lead-paned glass of the window.
There wasn’t a move that Tobias missed. Alexander’s hand skimmed down the man’s ribs, grabbing the waistband of the jeans his prey still wore, and made a move to tug them off.
Tobias couldn’t tear his eyes away – nor did he want to – as Alexander hooked the victim’s narrow thigh over his hip and unbuttoned his own trousers, all while his mouth still sucked at the human’s neck.
Alexander moved with such practised ease that he didn’t need to stop feeding. Not once did he come up for breath, nor did he care to clean the smear of blood that spread across his lips, coating them a cherry red that made Tobias’ own stomach grumble.
He wondered if this was Aubrey, the erstwhile former colleague of Kate’s that she had referenced.
By tomorrow, Tobias knew that worrying about Alexander’s hunger would no longer be a concern.
Because, unsurprisingly, Alexander didn’t stop drinking until his victim was completely empty, not a drop left.
Unlike when Tobias fed, Alexander didn’t call an ambulance.
Aubrey, if that was who it was, was clearly dead. His unseeing, glassy eyes stared at Tobias through the window, his neck bent back over the desk, the half of his face a mask of gore.
Alexander stood abruptly, tucked himself away, and begun pacing, his mouth marred with crimson. Tobias blinked, drawing up the aura that surrounded Alexander. But the colour he expected to dance around his frame wasn’t what he saw.
Regret always presented itself with a warm orange hue.
Normally it was muted, but around Alexander, his regret glowed brighter than a summer sun.
Surely the great Alexander Damianos didn’t feel bad for taking the human’s life?
Yes, Tobias hadn’t seen many die by his hands over recent years, but that didn’t take away from what being a Damianos meant.
They were monsters. And yet here one was, scrubbing his hand over his face as he looked down at the corpse laid beneath him.
Pathetic.
Alexander dove his hand into the pocket of his jacket, which he had neatly placed upon the back of his chair before he’d casually murdered poor Aubrey.
In a moment of panic, Tobias thought Alexander was going to try to call him again.
But when he placed the phone to his ear and continued pacing, Tobias’ phone stayed silent.
Through the single-paned glass the conversation was muffled, but clear enough to a vampire’s enhanced hearing.
“Maria,” Alexander ground out. Tobias knew the names of all the Damianos family members, so he already knew of Alexander’s older sister. “I’ve got a slight… issue I’ll need some assistance resolving.”
Said issue was staring at Tobias through the window, very clearly lifeless.
Although he wasn’t privy to what Maria was saying, Tobias could work out the missing gaps of the conversation by what Alexander followed up with.