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I take it, wishing it wasn’t gloved. Maybe if I could touch the chill of his skin, I’d understand that he’s not the charming heartthrob my mind keeps mistaking him for.
Crushing on the new handsome, sexy,delectableneighbor is fine. Getting butterflies for a being who ripped out another man’s throat isnot.
But as I step onto the ground, the bus doors shuttering closed behind me, Samuel squeezes my hand and smiles at me, showing his perfectly straight teeth. My stomach tightens.
Maybe he’s more human than he lets on.
It’s the middle of the night, sometime around three in the morning, and the streets are mostly quiet. There are homeless people sleeping against the crooks of buildings, muttering nonsense that probably makes sense in their dreams. I tip toe past them, being careful not to interrupt their rest.
Just as he’d said, after strolling around the block, we reach a car rental business. Samuel directs us to the small parking lot on the right side and stops in front of it, hidden away from the business’s windows.
“Wait here,” he says, planting one hand on my shoulder.
He stares at me, as if waiting for confirmation that I’ll do as he asks. I nod my head.
A chill runs through my veins when he turns his back. I hug my shoulders, fighting the urge to slip into sleep like the homeless nearby, my body craving a break from standing. I’m so tired I that it’s almost impossible to refuse the desire to melt into a puddle right here on the concrete, but I fight the urge, focusing all of my attention on the obscure figures inside the rental store’s glass walls. How does Samuel plan to rent a car without leaving a trace for the mysteriousbad guysto follow?
Hazy theories bounce around in my head. Maybe he has a wallet full of fake IDs. Or maybe all the stories about vampires having the power to charm and mesmerize humans are true. If that’s the case, then he might be using mind control on me this very minute. Maybethat’swhy I find him so scrumptiously delicious.
My legs sway as he exits the door, eyes drooping.
At this distance, his eyes seem to shine with a reddish glimmer, like those of a feral cat.
“Are you ready to leave, Jane?” He asks, his voice firm but proper. The sparkle in his eyes fades as he strolls beneath the dim glow of the streetlamp.
“Yes, please,” I reply, my voice no louder than a whisper.
The car isn’t much to brag about.
Samuel rakes his hand through his dark locks, apologizing. “There was an eight hundred dollar limit at the ATM,” he says, a sly smile hinting his lips.
It’s a white, late 2000s style Honda, and it’s certainly better than the shitty 1997 Ford Escort I bought when I was seventeen. I shrug as he unlocks the doors, dislodging the weight of my bookbag from over my shoulder.
“Are you okay?” Samuel asks once we’re both seated inside the car.
I force my eyes to open wider, to appear more alert as I nod quickly. “Yeah. Everything is fine and dandy.”As fine and dandy as it can be, considering I’ve witnessed a murder and am now on the run with a vampire. Aliteralvampire.
He turns the key in the ignition but doesn’t shift the car into gear. Instead, he looks at me with an odd expression on his face—a mix of confusion and admiration, with a dash of guilt.
“Tell me what happened today,” he says, fingers clenching the steering wheel.
My mind blanks. “What?”
He arches both brows. “Tell me what happened today.”
I rub my hands over my thighs, catching the loose fabric between my fingers. Sighing, I give in to his request.
“I came home from work, and the sun was rising. Met you in the elevator. Went inside my apartment and took a shower.” My throat feels like it’s being constricted from within. I struggle to take a breath and push through the uncomfortable sensation. “Joey, an ex-customer from the coffee shop I work at. He, uh.” I glance at him, squeezing my hands tighter around my loose pants to keep them from shaking. “He attacked me, and you burst through the wall and sunk your teeth into his neck. You killed him.”
My words ring out in the car's silence, and it feels like the world holds perfectly still as Samuel watches me. He doesn’t move, doesn’t breathe. “Continue,” he demands.
I force myself to look away from him, turning my attention to the glowing skyscrapers in the distance instead. “You told me you were a vampire, and that I had to leave with you, because I knew more than I should. Thatotherswould come to hurt me if I didn’t. We packed my room and left at sundown. Now we’re here.”
Samuel puts the car into drive. “I just needed to know you were seeing things clearly.” He turns the wheel, pulling us out of the lot. “You aren’t reacting to this situation like you should.”
“How should I be reacting?”
He side eyes me, lip curling upward. “Like you’re in the presence of a killer. A monster.”
