Mirror Mirror

4

Ana was sitting next to Sam on the couch, her legs curled up underneath her as she ate a slice of pizza, while watching TV, it was all just Vampire propaganda and news now with re-runs of old programmes, reduced to only two channels.  

...

It was a surreal world they lived in, where magic and monsters were a daily occurrence. Espers and magicians were well known and public, although not common, and Elite vampires ruled the world now, maintaining peace…if living under the threat of being fed on was peace…four vampire Kings ruled the world evenly, with their underlings, like Senators and Mayors, running the cities and states for them. All countries had been dissolved. It was just Europe, Africa, Pacifica and the Americas now. It had been twenty years of this and people were beginning to accept their new lives, things were returning to normal for those that had managed to survive the war that had raged, giving the vampires the opportunity to gain control with their magical allies, coming out of the woodwork to pounce on an already volatile situation. Using their old world knowledge and magic to prevent the nuclear fallout, some said that would have been preferable to the rifts that had been caused in its place.

It was the demons that caused the problem, spawning randomly and too many for the new state to protect everyone, that’s where monster hunters came in, mercenaries contracted to patrol a heavily populated area and deal to any monsters that appeared, they got paid well for it and Vincent owned a whole quarter of the city, so money was good, as more and more demons seemed to be spawning every day. Vincent was well known and feared. He had magic…fire magic and a temper to match.

One thing he really disliked was Ana getting injured. He knew Ana held a secret, she had power…it had been sealed away by her mother long ago, but Vincent sometimes wondered if it was just fear that kept Ana from awakening it. As he walked in and saw Ana’s face and swollen lip he halted, his eyes going dark.

“What the f**k happened to you?”

Ana chilled, he sounded just like the vampire. “It’s nothing.” She muttered.

Vincent stepped over and grabbed her by the chin pulling her up out of her seat. She winced at the pain of his fingers digging into her flesh. “Nothing!”

Everyone else had gone quiet and were looking away…they always did. Cowards. No one ever spoke up in her defence, they knew to do so meant they would receive Vincent’s wrath as well and not change the outcome for Ana, so what was the point…

Vincent dropped his hand from her chin and grabbed her wrist and stormed off dragging her behind him.

“Obviously some more training is needed!” He growled as he led her out the back to a large garage that housed a full gym. “You will train on the mook jong until I say otherwise.”

“Big brother…” Ana breathed.

Vincent rounded on her and shoved her towards the wooden contraption. “Begin!” He ordered her, folding his arms.

Ana bowed her head, defeated. “I’m sorry.” She said as she grabbed the boxing tape and started wrapping her hands. Vincent watched her darkly.

“You will begin now…if you won’t defend yourself with everything you have available to you and go out getting into fights with monsters while sporting hang overs, then you will train so you can defend yourself adequately with only physical means.”

“Yes, big brother.” Ana sighed. It was my birthday!

………

Ana entered her room hours later after Vincent had made her train and fight and do Kata and exercises until she was sore and exhausted and it was late in the night. She dragged herself to the bathroom and stood under the shower for ages trying to ease the ache in her muscles, she wished there was a bath in her room. She contemplated going downstairs and sitting in the hot tub Vincent had out in the courtyard but decided, looking at her watch, that it was too late for that…a shower would have to do.

She wrapped a towel around herself and walked from one door to the next, from bathroom to wardrobe. She had figured she would need to start changing in there since there was now a perv in her mirror. She slipped into a singlet and pyjama shorts and crawled into bed. She was just about to turn the light off when she heard the voice in the mirror. It sounded delectable, calm and sweet…enticing.

“What’s happened, baby girl?” He asked, worried.

Ana frowned and with a huge effort she sat up and looked over at the mirror. He was still gorgeous and stylish, he had removed his tie, the shirt opened at the collar, teasingly, the sleeves rolled up to reveal the start of his well-defined forearms. He was sitting in the chair, smoking, with a whisky glass in his hand. Did he ever sleep? Oh, wait, what was the time there?

“Nothing has happened.” Ana said annoyed, all she wanted to do was sleep.

“You look broken, who did that to you?” His voice was hoarse and intense.

“No one…I’ve been training.”

“Training? It’s the middle of the night there.”

“Yeah, well…it’s the penalty for getting hurt today.” Ana said as she flopped back down in the bed.

“Penalty?” The menace was clear in his deep rich voice. “Who declared this penalty?”

“Vincent.” She groaned. “And he’s the boss…” Ana’s voice drifted off.

Adrian clenched his jaw and turned away. “Ana…put a lock on your door, we need to talk without interruptions.”

“Hmm.” Ana pulled the covers up over her head. Go away…before you make me dream of you…

Adrian looked back for a moment at the mirror as he let it go dark. “I’ll do it.” He muttered and walked off.

Ana opened her eyes, her head trying to get her to respond to that comment, but she couldn’t be bothered…whatever it was she would deal with it in the morning. Her heavy lids already dropping back to closed.

………….

The next morning as Ana was down stairs eating breakfast with Sam one of the guards came up to her.

“There’s a guy at the gate, says he’s here to install a deadlock on your door?”

Sam looked at Ana startled as Ana jumped in surprise. “What?”

“You didn’t arrange this guy?”

“Ah…yeah…sorry I forgot…let him in.” Ana stood up, brushing her hair back from her face in a semblance of trying to clear her head and remember last night. That son of a b***h!

“Ana, I’m sorry about barging in…” Sam said quietly.

“Oh, it’s not because of you…” Ana muttered darkly and walked off to meet the locksmith, her memory fully restored. Just who does this vampire think he is…?

He was in her head all night and now she couldn’t concentrate due to thoughts of him…he was so beautiful, so sexy and so god damned annoying…she had no idea what the hell to do about him. Oblivion…that’s the answer…tonight I get drunk!