Page 44 of Nosfer-Meet You

“We will not tolerate the non-human threat on our city,” he said on national television. They even cancelled the Rose Bowl Parade for his little speech. “All non-human intelligence will be considered monsters. Anathema.”

The flashing of camera lights went off all around the podium as he spoke into the microphone. And then he did the most deplorable thing I’d ever seen. He slammed a jar of ashes down on the podium. The reporters and journalists in the audience gasped.

“They are monsters, and will be treated as such.” He gestured to the jar. “This one was attempting to create fake blood so that they could live among us. My message to these vermin is clear. We will not tolerate your kind, period. You can create synthetic blood. You can even remove your fangs, if you’d like. It does not change reality. You are monsters, and we will take back our streets!”

The applause was deafening. I left the nest that very same night and hopped on a train for Scotland, leaving behind a shattered heart and broken unlife.

Chapter 25

Scotty

TAKING ROOT

Juliette’s eyes soften and go glassy with unshed tears, and she reaches up to caress my cheek the moment I finish my tale.

“I’m so sorry,” she says. A single bloody tear slips from my eye, and I brush it away with the back of my hand. “Harriett didn’t deserve that fate.”

I nod silently, then look down at her. This is too much. All this talking … all this remembering. It hurts more than I thought it would. But I can’t imagine it not hurting regardless of how much time passes. Remembering my little sister in two hundred, three hundred years. Will I still be filled with so much regret? Or will my damned soul finally move on and stop bleating like a fuckin’ sheep? It’s hard to imagine not giving a shit about Harriet at some point. She was—is still—so important to me. Don’t even have a gravesite to visit and maintain, which makes the wound worse.

“None of us do, Jules,” I finally murmur, then take her hand into mine and brush my lips across her knuckles.

“None of us do,” she agrees.

A week passes, and the Helsing raids continue. They redouble their efforts in eradicating all vampire nests in the city. Juliette and I lie low in her alcove, mostly snacking on rats. We don’t go to the surface to hunt. It’s too dangerous now that the Helsings have rallied. We entertain ourselves with music. Sometimes Juliette paints or crochets. Mostly, we just chat, make love, and nap while we wait for the storm on the surface to pass.

But it doesn’t. Another week goes by, then another … until I lose track of time entirely.

Juliette watches me nervously, like she’s worried I’m going to go off like a bomb. Maybe I will. I’m not used to sitting around so much. I miss my freedom. Miss the clubs. Miss the drinking. Mostly, I miss my apartment and my own bed. Juliette lets me sleep in her cot with her, but … I just want to be able to take my girl back home with me. Have her sleep in a real bed without the annoying dripping sounds.

One night, after eating a few anemic-looking rats, I pace the alcove restlessly.

“I think we should go topside for a bit,” I say. “Get some fresh air.”

Juliette looks up from her canvas. She’s been painting a field of lilacs from memory. It’s amazing what she can do with a blank canvas. Makes me wish I still had my guitar so I could play for her. Juliette sets her paintbrush down and smiles sadly at me, then shakes her head. “We don’t even breathe,” she says. “What use do we have for fresh air?”

Yeah, all right. She’s got me there. I move to her side and look down at her painting. “It’s coming along nicely. But you need a break, too, right? Let me take you out for dinner for once.”

Juliette chews on her bottom lip, and I suddenly have the urge to nibble on her bottom lip, too. Maybe it’s the isolation that’s making me hornier than usual. It’s not like I was getting laid with any regularity on the surface, of course, but I was never this pent up. We don’t have sex that often, Jules and I. I don’t want to bother her, and she hasn’t initiated in four … maybe five days? I’m totally fine with her setting the pace. Rushing things in the past has gotten me into trouble.

“Juli. Being down here with you is nice, but it’s not healthy,” I say, and take her hands into mine, tracing the backs of her knuckles with my thumbs.

She looks down at her hands as her lips part, and I can see the gears in her head turning. “Not healthy?” Juli looks up at me with wide, doe-like eyes. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be,” I say quickly, and lean down to give her a peck on the forehead. “I only meant that being cooped up for this long isn’t healthy for anyone. Not even you. You deserve to be free.”

Juliette frowns and looks away. “I’m Nosferatu. I can never be free.”

That couldn’t be true. Sure, she looks unconventional. More monster than human, but surely there’s a place in vampire society for someone like her. There has to be. Besides … we managed to catch a movie at the drive-in just fine. We could do that every weekend, probably, once the Helsings calm the fuck down.

“C’mon, let me take you out of the city for a bit, at least,” I say, extending my hand to her.

Her eyes lick up and down my hand and arm like a snake ready to bite before she places her palm in mine. “Fine,” she sighs. “But it has to be a short trip. My curfew is at dawn, after all.”

I wink at her. “That’s my good girl. Knew you had it in you. And don’t worry, princess. We’ll get you back in plenty of time before you turn into the world’s cutest pumpkin.”

Juliette says nothing in response to my light ribbing, which is totally weird. What, no snark? No, “Shut up Scotty, I don’t even know what that is?” She usually has something to say about my teasing. But no need to overthink it. We walk to the nearest ladder and climb out of the sewer hole to the city above.

It takes us forty minutes of creeping around like teenagers out past curfew before we reach the old junkyard past the city limits. When I was alive, this place smelled of garbage, burned rubber, and marijuana. Now it smells mostly the same, sans the marijuana.