HER NIGHTFALL DESIRE

Reacquainted pt. 3

Isadora slyly smirked as she got back into her car and drove away. Joshua was definitely getting under her skin, and her Audi seemed to automatically navigate its way in the general direction of his apartment building.

Joshua was still in a degree of shock as he drove to his apartment across town. Fortunately, his building paid for all-hours gate security services for the small guard shack at the entrance to the underground parking garage. It meant he paid quite a bit more for rent on an already Spartan income, but that night it seemed perfectly worth it. He pulled into a spot not far from the elevator and made his way up to his apartment on the third floor. He entered and immediately set the deadbolt after shutting the door behind him.

He glanced around his small, somewhat cluttered apartment. Aside from the medium-sized bedroom and attached bathroom, there was a living room that opened into the combined small dining room and kitchen.

After dropping his keys onto the small counter that separated the kitchen from the living room, he draped his leather jacket over one of the two barstools. Frowning, his mind kept repeating the flurry of events that comprised the attempted robbery. He marveled at how Isadora seemed to appear out of nowhere to help him. Actually, it was more like she came to his rescue. He smirked at that.

He plopped onto the worn leather sofa and reached over to the television remote sitting on one of the glass end tables. A small entertainment center sat in the corner next to the twin, medium-sized windows that looked out onto the fire escape. He pointed the remote at the TV and then changed his mind. Gazing towards the sheer curtains, he couldn't help feeling watched. He got up and looked out one of the windows, but only saw the aged red brick wall of a nondescript warehouse across the alleyway. Immediately outside was the rather unattractive, black metal fire escape platform that ran across each floor of the building. He sighed, chuckled, and silently berated himself for his paranoia.

Then his phone rang, which startled him. Damn it. He stormed to the kitchen counter.

"Hello," he answered in a terse voice. "Joshua?" Melanie asked.

"Yeah," he replied with a heavy sigh.

"What's wrong?" she pressed as her TV played in the background.

He absently ran one hand through his hair and explained, "Well, I got mugged in the college parking lot tonight."

Melanie gasped slightly. "That's terrible! Did they take your wallet?"

His eyes widened with surprise, and he demanded incredulously, "My wallet?"

"Well, yeah," she insisted. "If so, it's a real pain! My friend at work, Terri, had her purse stolen, and it took like forever to cancel her credit cards and get her IDs remade."

"Huh?" he muttered in confusion as he took the phone away from his ear and stared at it with disgust. You're kidding, right? he thought wildly before putting the phone back to his ear. What about me? "Well, he didn't get my wallet," he said. "Thanks to Isadora, of course."

"Isadora? Who's Isadora?" she demanded in an annoyed voice.

Joshua took perverse pleasure in her response. "Isadora Reynolds. She's one of my history students," he proudly replied. "She's leading the class

average by a mile, in fact."

Melanie paused, and the TV clicked off at her end of the line. "When did all this happen?" she asked with sudden interest.

"About an hour ago," he said as he glanced at his watch. "It's a good thing she was there because the guy was carrying a huge knife, Melanie. I tell you, I was-"

"An hour ago? Didn't class end way before that?" she abruptly interrupted.

His mind reeled, and he frowned. "Well, yeah, I guess. I was working late in my office grading some essays, and-"

"And was Isadora in your office, too?" she interjected.

"What?" Joshua asked incredulously. "Melanie, what are you trying to say? I get mugged, and maybe stabbed if it weren't for Isadora, and you don't seem too damned concerned about that," he snapped.

She sighed in a huffy manner and retorted, "Of course, I'm glad you're okay, Joshua."

He didn't think she sounded too convincing. "Well, I was alone in my office, thank you," he replied matter-of-factly.

"Okay, fine," Melanie replied. "I'm glad that you're okay and that you didn't lose your wallet."

"Thanks," he said, unconvinced.

"Do you want me to come over or anything?" she asked.

He thought about it for a moment and was surprised to find he really didn't feel like her company. He felt exhausted, wanting only to take a shower, have a beer to calm his nerves, and maybe go to bed. "No, that's okay, Mel," he said tiredly. "I'm beat. I just want a shower and some sleep."

"Well, call me tomorrow, okay?" she insisted. "Sure," he replied. "G'night, Mel."

"'Night," she said before hanging up.

He laid the phone on the kitchen counter and headed to the refrigerator for a beer.

Isadora quietly leaned against the black metal railing of the fire escape outside Joshua's apartment window, well to the side in the shadows so that nobody could see her standing there. She was easily able to hear his voice

as she watched him through the sheer curtains of his living room. While concerned for his well being, she felt a little like a stalker.

She sighed. It wasn't like she could just call him or stop by his apartment to check on him. Isadora readily detected his interest in her, and the feeling was certainly mutual. But she didn't want to jeopardize his job. It was all she could do not to seek him out after each class ended. Still, there were only two weeks left before the semester ended, and she would end her brief stint at college. She was going to miss listening to him lecture; he had a real talent for teaching. But more than that, she longed to just sit and chat with him, or sit and kiss those soft-looking lips of his.

From the warmth growing inside her, she felt a longing to do other things with him, as well. She longed to share his body, to partake in his blood. She let those thoughts playfully linger for a moment as she observed him.

One thing she knew for certain, based upon Joshua's conversation with his girlfriend, she definitely didn't like Melanie at all.

He deserves someone much better. Someone like me, she mused with a sly smile.

As she watched him drink his beer and head into the bedroom, she decided it was time to go. While it was fairly dark where she stood, she didn't want to press her luck on being noticed. Instead, she quickly but quietly negotiated her way to the ground level and headed down the alley to where she had parked her car.

Much later that night as Joshua lay in bed, he kept thinking back to the robbery attempt and how quickly Isadora had reacted. She seemed unusually calm and collected about everything, while he had felt scared to death. Maybe she was just cool under pressure, but he somehow felt there had to be more to it than that.

Those same feelings of familiarity began to stir in him again. What is it about Isadora that keeps nagging at me? However, no answers were forthcoming by the time he fell asleep well past midnight.

Isadora sat at her home computer, partaking in the variety of diversions that marked her time in seclusion during daylight. Though engaged in a variety of online financial evaluations and investment activities, her mind kept wandering back to Joshua. She adored listening to him and watching him lecture in her evening history class, and once again she considered how he seemed to have a knack for instruction. Isadora was an avid history fan herself, having appreciated the considerable culmination of personal experiences and observations as a vampire.

Her brief time around Joshua brought an appreciable, fresh dimension to her existence, making it feel more like a life and less of a drudgery. She had enjoyed their brief interactions and longed for more. The semester will be over before I know it. Then we'll see what happens.

She sighed and diverted her attentions to email. Since her reintegration into the world nearly two decades ago, she had reacquired a sense of enjoyment in the interactions with others of her kind. There were a number of fellow vampires from her past that she reached out to again and was pleased to find that most of them returned her interest.

Unfortunately, she was having trouble lately getting a response from a vampire named Garett who'd been living in Paris. He was usually very good about keeping in touch, so she was surprised. However, vampires were often reclusive, so Isadora anticipated that she would hear from him again soon.

She marveled at how much easier technology made everything for her kind. Blood supplies were delivered to nearly anywhere in the world via a specialized courier service. Email and text messaging made quick communication as personal or impersonal as she liked. Transportation around the world was effortless, though often at a considerable cost. Cable television provided hours, or even days, of alternate reality immersion. Every film ever made was available either on demand, online, or on DVD. And the wonderful virtual conduit known as the Internet provided hours of information and online distractions.

Her reverie was interrupted by a text message on her cell phone from a vampire named Alton, who was as close a friend as she'd ever known: Lost contact with Octavia in Trondheim. Just arrived in Paris.

Isadora frowned. Strange, she mused. Maybe Alton will at least be able to contact Garett for me.

The last two weeks of the semester passed very quickly. And while Joshua felt a sense of accomplishment at having successfully taught his first semester for the college, he was somewhat remorseful that one particular evening history section was coming to an end. On the last class meeting, he passed out the final exams. He lingered at Isadora's location for a moment longer than the others, smiling down at her with a hopeful, yet melancholy pause as he sat the exam before her.

Isadora felt an emotional stab of pain reach to her heart as she took in his expression, and she returned a reassuring smile. "Don't worry, I studied," she offered with a wink. He smiled genuinely, and it warmed her heart for a moment. She couldn't read his thoughts, but she had accurately assessed his mood.

As was customary, Isadora finished before anyone else. She brought the exam to the front of the room as more than one set of eyes in the classroom followed her. She placed it onto the podium in front of Joshua while her eyes never left his, and she offered him a generous smile. With her back to the class, it was discreet enough that nobody was the wiser.

I'll miss you, he silently declared as he stared into her beautiful green eyes, wishing that propriety didn't prevent him from whispering his thoughts out loud to her.

Her hand faltered as it hovered over the exam that she placed before him. Her smile faded as she read every emotion in his pale blue eyes, which seemed to call to her in an almost helpless manner. As she withdrew her hand with a quick, smooth motion, she managed to caress the tips of her fingers gracefully across the top of his hand as he gripped the side of the podium. She audibly heard his heartbeat skip in that instant, and she smiled slyly at him and nodded her head ever so slightly before turning to walk away.

He watched her go with his eyes, even as his face was tilted towards the top of the podium, and his mind raced with the desire to call her name. However, he remained silent and turned his gaze to the remaining students with a sigh.

Joshua spent the next week grading exams, meeting with students regarding their grades, and trying to bring order to the chaos often accompanying the end of a semester. It was the first time he had

experienced the process completely from the opposite side of the podium, and he gained immediate sympathy for his previous college professors.

He sighed. On top of the hectic pace at work, Melanie was annoyed with him. His responsibilities had ruined her plans for them to join some of her friends on a weekend getaway trip to Florida. He tried to explain that his evenings and upcoming weekend would be swamped with a litany of semester-ending activities, but she brokered no sympathy for him. Never mind that in October it's too late to fully appreciate the beaches.

On Thursday evening, he sat alone at his office desk wearing a pair of blue jeans and dark blue T-shirt with the college's name emblazoned across the front of it in large white letters. He had just finished posting the grades for his evening history class, in which Isadora made a perfect "A." Her accomplishment, while uncanny, somehow failed to surprise him. He found her to be quite a remarkable woman at many levels. Melanie would kill me just for thinking that, he realized.

His cell phone rang, and he noticed it was Melanie's number. Speak of the devil, he mused.

"Hey, what's up?" he absently asked as he filed away some graded essays in a small filing cabinet drawer for safekeeping.

"Hi," she replied in a surprisingly perky manner.

Everything must be forgiven, he resolved.

"So, I was wondering," she tentatively ventured, "How would you feel if I went ahead and joined my friends on the Jacksonville trip this weekend? I mean, you're just going to be distracted most of the time with school stuff anyway, right?"

He considered her logic with a raised eyebrow. "Well, sure, Mel. I don't mind if you go without me." He wasn't sure exactly how much time he'd have to devote to her on the upcoming weekend anyway. And if it makes her less angry with me, so much the better.

"Great!" she replied with renewed excitement. "I knew you wouldn't mind."

She must know me pretty well after six months of dating, he considered.

"Jodi said that a friend of hers, Greg Betwich, was going by himself.

So it evens up the couples count again."

"Greg Betwich?" he asked with uncertainty.

"Yeah, you remember Greg? He was the guy at the Valentine's costume party we went to who was dressed as the peanut M&M," she explained. "The accountant with the odd sense of humor."

Oh, that Greg. He recalled Greg Betwich, all right. Greg was the guy dressed as the M&M who kept asking women if they wanted to prove he melted in their mouth and not in their hand. What a creep!

"So, this Greg thing," Joshua began carefully. "Are you planning to be with Greg while you're there?"

"Huh?" she asked. "Me and Greg? No silly, he's just going to even out the numbers for our group."

Much better, he corrected. At least she seemed to appreciate his concern. "Oh, well, that's okay," he replied more smoothly.

"I mean, we'll probably sit together and may do some dancing," she casually added. "But it's not like we'll be staying in the same hotel room together. He already booked the room across from me."

They already booked the rooms, and she's just now calling me? Okay, so maybe she doesn't appreciate me as fully as I thought, he considered as an afterthought.

He grit his teeth. "When are you guys leaving?" he asked with an edge to his voice.

"Well, probably early tomorrow morning so we beat the Friday afternoon rush," she answered. "We're all piling into Candace's minivan."

"Well, call me when you get there, so I'll know you're okay," he insisted in a resigned tone.

"Will do," she replied matter-of-factly. "And don't stay too late up at the college. There might be more muggers out there or something."

"Sure," he replied. "Talk to you tomorrow then." "'Night!" she said before the line went dead.

Joshua shook his head and stared out the window at the campus, although it was so dark outside and so much lighter in his office that he really couldn't see anything. Reaching up, he turned the blinds down so he wouldn't feel like a fish in a bowl. He noted how eerily quiet the building was. It was only around eight o'clock, but most of the faculty had left for the day, and finals were over so there weren't any students around anymore. It felt lonely to him, actually, and sort of matched his mood at that moment.

"You're quite the night owl."

Joshua nearly bolted out of his chair, and his heart felt like it stopped in its tracks. "Holy –" he exclaimed with a start.

Isadora smiled down at him with a mischievous grin while folding her arms across her chest.

His breath was having a hard time returning to him, but it wasn't because of surprise. Joshua took note of her snug black denim jeans and brilliant blue, long-sleeved turtleneck sweater. Her red hair was pulled back into a ponytail, giving her a sexy, yet edgy, appearance. She was simply beautiful.

"Sorry to startle you," she playfully offered.

He grinned and shook his head despite himself. "You got me there," he conceded.

She raised an eyebrow at him and muttered, "Lucky me."

He stared at her for another moment in silent admiration. "So, Isadora, what brings you up here at this time of night?"

"I thought I might find you here," she answered simply.

"Oh, really?" he asked with raised eyebrows. "Were you wanting to know your final grade? It should be no surprise that you made a perfect score on everything, including the bonus questions." The completely unusual nature of that registered on him with remarkable impact. Suffice to say, while not impossible, it was a highly unusual level of performance.

"Thank you. That's nice to know," she absently replied. "Actually, I came by for you."

Came for me?

She noted the momentary look of confusion on his face with silent appreciation. Slow down, Isadora, she silently chided in a split second's time. She warmly smiled at him as she listened to his pulse, noting he had a strong heart. From where she stood, she could almost hear the blood rushing through his body. His blood momentarily called to her, and she steadied the innate desire for it that rose in her system.

"I was hoping that we could talk, actually," she amended with a gentle

tone.

"Sure," he replied while gesturing to a small guest chair next to his

desk. "What's up?"

She tentatively smiled with a sparkle in her green eyes. "Actually, I was thinking that maybe you'd like to talk over coffee somewhere."

He was disappointed as a small warning bell went off in his head. His smile faded, and he responded, "I'm sorry, Isadora. I shouldn't; what with you being one of my students and everything."

But her smile was confident as she raised an eyebrow and countered, "Have you posted our final grades?"

"Well, yes, as a matter of fact," he carefully answered. "But you're still a student."

"Really?" she asked. "I don't believe I'm enrolled here anymore."

A momentary look of surprise played across his face. "I don't understand," he ventured with confusion. "Aren't you enrolling in other courses?"

She shook her head in an almost self-satisfied manner.

"But –" he paused. "Your potential is amazing. Surely, you want to finish a degree or something."

Isadora smirked, regarding his confusion with a sly expression. "No, my college experience has come to an end," she replied. "It provided me with all that I needed."

Joshua blinked once and asked, "Well, what other courses have you completed?"

Her expression turned serious, and she paused before answering in a quiet voice, "History."

His mind momentarily reeled at the odd implications of her simple statement, and his thoughts seemed to seize as he got lost in the pair of beautiful green eyes staring back at him.

"Coffee?" she ventured while never losing eye contact. "I'll drive."

In the parking lot, Joshua stood before the sleek, jet black Audi sports car in awe. Even by the dim lighting it was a spectacle of automotive engineering. He couldn't even dream of something like that given his salary. "This is your car?" he incredulously asked.

Isadora smirked at him as she unlocked the doors with her remote. Ah, he likes it, she complimented herself. "Hop in," she offered while sliding behind the driver's seat.

He gingerly sat in the passenger seat and reveled in the luxurious leather interior. The vehicle fit him like a glove, and he glanced sidelong at Isadora with a wide-eyed expression. "This is new," he noted while breathing in the scent of the new car smell mixed with fresh leather. "Cool."

Isadora smiled during their drive through the Atlanta city streets as the radio played alternative rock tunes. She basked in the sense of anticipation emanating in small waves from him and took pleasure in having piqued his curiosity.

She studied Joshua with interest as they sat across from each other at the Starbucks on Northeast Moreland Avenue. The place was bustling with people at that hour, but the atmosphere still felt cozy as they secured a small table in the corner of the room near the magazine rack. Pleasant acoustic guitar music serenaded them over the speakers, and they viewed the busy street outside through the front window. Despite the invitation to coffee, Joshua carefully sipped at a mug of Darjeeling. Realizing it was still too hot, he sat the cup down and smiled at Isadora as he noticed her intently observing him.

She enjoyed just watching him sip his tea. It was satisfying simply to sit across the table from him with no impediments to her interest in him. Gone were the premises of the college environment in which she initially sought him. He was hers to focus on entirely. She momentarily paused to consider the possessive nature of her thoughts and found that they suited her.

"Do you like it?" she asked. "Granted, it's not coffee, as I originally suggested."

"It's tasty, actually," he conceded with a hint of surprise. "I don't drink a lot of coffee anyway."

In truth, he didn't tend to stray too far outside of his comfort zone, even when it came to tea. But that night had a different feel to it; somehow daring, yet surprisingly comforting to him. "Yes," he added, his mind back on the tea. "It's light, but there's a sweet hint of nuts and something buttery."

She nodded with a smile while sipping appreciatively from a cup of the same flavor. She relished that vampires could appreciate many beverages and even some foods, though they derived no nutrition from them. In fact, large quantities of human food usually caused her unpleasant digestive effects.

"What did you want to talk about?" he asked.

She regarded him for a moment, once again reveling in the intimacy of their conversation. "Anything," she said simply. "Tell me about yourself."

He smiled, not having expected such an open-ended invitation. And yet he frowned ever so slightly as he considered whether it were appropriate to be sitting across the table from her.

"Am I complicating anything?" she asked in an intentionally vague fashion. While Isadora didn't want to cause him undue guilt over being here with her, she also didn't really care what Melanie might think. The more that she learned about Melanie, the less she liked her.

"Um, not complicated, really," Joshua offered awkwardly before pausing to collect his thoughts. The truth was that after the conversation with Melanie earlier that evening, he wasn't at all certain just how much more complicated anything could be between the two of them. Even after six months or more he still wasn't entirely sure where he and Melanie stood as a couple. Just when he thought he had it figured out, another unexpected event sprang up. Overall, he sometimes felt that he was just "Mister Right Now" when it came to his girlfriend.

Isadora noted his struggle and patiently waited for him to continue.

"What I mean is, I want to be here with you," he said finally with a sheepish smile.

He's cute, she mused. Much like when he was a child.

"I'm glad to hear it," she answered with an encouraging smile. "Because I want to be here with you, too."

They sipped their tea for a moment, silently appreciating each other's company. Then something that had been on Joshua's mind since he first saw Isadora in class came to the forefront of his thoughts.

"Forgive me if this sounds strange," he tentatively began. "But do we know each other from somewhere? And not from class, of course. What I mean is, have we met somewhere before?"

Isadora curiously arched one eyebrow at him, and fell silent for a moment. He still doesn't remember, she confirmed. She was surprised that the little hypnosis trick during his childhood had worked so well. However, he obviously has some orphaned sense of awareness in the back of his mind, she assessed as an afterthought.

"You're looking at me like I'm the subject of a study," he noted with a hint of amusement.

"Sorry," she apologized before carefully answering his original question. "I've only been in Atlanta for a few months now. I relocated here earlier in the summer."

He frowned and nodded. "Oh, I see."

Isadora hoped that would be the end of that line of thought for the moment.

"Well then, what about pastimes? Shopping? Reading?" he politely inquired, but with an immediate sense that it was a horribly generic place to start.

"Oh no," she gently chided. "I asked you to tell me about yourself." He grinned at her and remarked, "Busted."

"Indeed," she observed with mock-imperiousness.

Joshua thoughtfully sipped his tea before continuing, "I grew up in Ohio near Columbus. My mother raised me from a fairly young age as a single parent."

"Divorced?" Isadora casually asked. He frowned. "Abandoned, I think."

She raised an eyebrow at that and gently ventured, "You sound as if you're not certain."

His frown deepened as he stared into his tea. "My father wasn't necessarily a kind man, you see," he explained in a vague manner. "And he drank. But one day he simply disappeared. My mother said he just left, and then we never heard from him again."

Isadora was fascinated by his recollection. Your father was a sadistic, despicable man, Joshua, she thought to herself. I'm glad I killed him, she added. Still, she maintained a neutral expression for Joshua's benefit.

"Mom raised me from that time. But something changed in her after my father left," he recalled. "She ensured the household was stable again. She had a great job in Columbus working for a mortgage processing company, and she worked her way up to senior mortgage processing supervisor before she passed away. She never remarried though; never dated much, either. Although she didn't like to talk about that much."

"Your mother sounds like a remarkable woman, Joshua," Isadora said.

"For the most part," he agreed with a frown. "But she was kind of a paradox to me sometimes."

"Oh?" she tentatively asked.

He smiled as if remembering something and explained, "After my father left, Mom became pretty obsessed with security around the house. She took a self-defense class, bought a shotgun, and made sure we had a great home security system. But she never wanted me involved with any of that. When I asked if she would take me to the self-defense class so we could do more together, she wouldn't let me. And when I asked her to take me shooting, she nixed that pretty quickly, too. It was as if she wanted to shelter me or something."

Isadora silently nodded as she absorbed and analyzed every word. She wanted to keep you away from violence. She feared it would take its hold on you, as it did your father.

"I asked her once what she was afraid of," he added almost as an afterthought. "And she would never really answer me. But I kept thinking..."

Isadora's eyes darted to meet his. "Yes?"

The corner of one side of his mouth rose slightly. "I know it's crazy, but I kept thinking...it's like she was waiting...waiting for something to come after us."

Your father, she mused. Don't worry, Joshua. He's gone forever, she willed with her piercing green eyes as she bored into his with a sudden intensity.

He stared into Isadora's eyes, which fleetingly appeared so cold to him, and felt a shiver go up his spine before abruptly looking away from her.

"Are you okay?" she softly asked after practically seeing the shiver run through his body.