The Vampire Next Door

Cherie Marks-1

Cherie Marks

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales, is entirely coincidental.

The Vampire Next Door

COPYRIGHT© 2014 by Cherie MarksAll rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission of the author or except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.

Contact Information: authorcheriemarks@gmail.com

For more interesting reads, visit the author at h***:://www.authorcheriemarks.com

Published in the United States of America by Cherie MarksTHANK YOU FOR PURCHASING this book. This book is the copyrighted property of the author, and may not be reproduced, copied and distributed for commercial or

non-commercial purposes. If you enjoyed this book, please put a review at your favorite online book retailer and either share with or encourage your friends to download or purchase their own copy, where they can also discover other works by

Cherie Marks. Thank you for your support.

DedicationThis is dedicated to my wonderful sisters and brothers. Heather, Becky, Amber, Christy, Brandon, and Samuel. You’ve been my friends as well as my family. Though we didn’t get a choice, I’d choose you all over again. So much love your way!

AcknowledgementsThanks again to my editor and to my many favorite authors who inspire me to be better with every story I write. I love to write because I love to read. Thank you for opening my mind to the magic of fiction.

Chapter 1

MIA ALEXANDER WOKE, hands around her neck. They were her own and there to protect against an attack, guarding her exposed skin from some unknown horror. Yet, she recognized there wasn’t any real threat near her. A quick glance around reassured her she was still in her bedroom and seemed to be completely alone.

She dropped her hands to her sides, using them to brace herself on the mattress below her and sit up, slick droplets of sweat sliding down her torso. Another nightmare. She’d had another nightmare. One just like the others where she fought for her life against dark figures she could never quite bring into focus. And as before, she’d reacted in real life, trying to protect herself against the acts going on in her dream world. These vivid dreams were driving her crazy.

A quick look at the red glow of the clock showed 2:34 A.M., the same time she always woke when she had the nightmare. An odd coincidence, surely, but not one easily explained away.

Something was off in her brain, and it was beginning to affect her everyday life.

She’d researched the heck out of repetitive dreams, specifically about ones in which the dreamer was attacked, but all she’d figured out was that she might have trust issues with the people around her or she might be beating herself up over recent experiences. Well, duh! Either way, with such vague answers, she was pretty sure dream interpretation was a throw-a-dart-at-the-wall kind of science, and she’d better look for answers elsewhere.

The t-shirt she’d worn to bed stuck uncomfortably to her skin. She threw the covers back, deciding to change before attempting to drift back to sleep. As she rose, a feeling she was being watched raised the hairs on the back of her neck. Using the scant light from the streetlamps and the moon shining through the closed French doors that when opened led to the tiny balcony outside, she scanned the bedroom. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary. She shook off the sensation, feeling a little silly. Must just be a remnant of the nightmare.

She turned to the oak wood dresser and pulled another shirt from the top drawer. With careful movements, she peeled the damp shirt she wore over her head. Thank goodness she’d gone braless tonight. One less piece of sweat-dampened laundry to worry about.

She jerked her head up at a low, strangled sound behind her and covered herself quickly as the cool night air cascaded through the now open door to the outside. She caught a glimpse of a shadow exiting and took two steps back toward her closet as the figure turned one last time before disappearing over the rail of the balcony. Her instincts had been on target, and she didn’t have a weapon. Why didn’t she have a weapon? There had been someone in her room. From the tall, broad frame, over six feet at least, it had to have been a man. And son of a beezy, she’d undressed in front of him. Eeeewww!

Mia swallowed a few times and waited, paralyzed. After a few moments, she realized the intruder was truly gone and crossed to the open door to search the grassy area below, but nothing stirred. Whoever it was seemed to disappear in the blink of an eye, but he’d left a trace of himself behind. A rich, spicy aroma, a sensual promise in its very essence, still floated in the air and tickled her nostrils. She paused, processing the enticing smell, committing it to memory. Her skin sizzled and electric fingers slipped down her spine, spreading through her mid-section. Surprised by the intensity of her reaction, she worked to slow her breathing and stepped back into her bedroom. She closed the door and turned the deadbolt, watching the metal slip into the casing to be sure it was locked.

Nervous energy fired through her as she stood in the dark trying to understand what had just happened. Someone had been in her bedroom while she slept. Tune her guitar to freaked-the-hell-out. That s**t was scary.

The first call she made was to the police. Once they took down her information and assured her a squad car was on its way, she turned her attention to the necessary moral support she needed right now.

Even at three in the morning, Janna Thompson, Mia’s best friend until the end, picked up on the second ring. “You need bail money?”

The tension eased the minute she heard Janna’s voice, but she couldn’t help but ask, “Now why would you automatically assume that’s why I’m calling in the middle of the night?”

“You’re right. Does Hope need bail money?”

“No. No one’s in jail. Yet.” Mia explained the situation, trying to downplay the seriousness of her internal panic, but Janna clearly wasn’t fooled.

“I’m picking up Hope and Roxy, and we’re coming over.”

Mia sighed loudly. Nothing sounded better right now than being surrounded by her friends, but she felt guilty asking all of them to sacrifice sleep on her account. “There’s no need for you guys to come over. We have class in the morning, and a policeman is on his way. I’m fine.”

“Okay. How about just me then? I really need your advice about something anyway, so really you’d help me out.”

A knock sounded at the door, and Mia crossed to peek through the peephole and check out the two officers on the other side. “Well, when you put it that way...I’d really appreciate having you here tonight.”

“I’ll be over as soon as I can.”

Satisfied the policemen were the ones she’d expected, she began twisting the locks to open the door. “Thanks, Janna. You’re an amazing friend.”

“Hey, what are accountabilabuddies for?”

Mia paused in her motions. “Accounta...what?”

“You know, accountabilabuddies. A friend you get in trouble with who’s probably the bad influence your parents warned you about.”

“Well, that about sums it up. I’ll have to remember that one.”

They hung up the phone and Mia finally opened the door. The officers took down her information and scoured the apartment and the surrounding area, but nothing was out of place.

None of her belongings had been touched and there weren’t even any footprints in the soft dirt on the ground outside her balcony.

One of the officers, a tall, willowy fellow asked, “Has anyone shown unusual attention to you lately? Like making you uncomfortable at times?”

Mia thought through the people she interacted with regularly. “No. I can’t say so.”

The other officer, a wide-shouldered man with a tight buzz-cut spoke to her as they backed away from her door, “We can’t find any evidence anyone meant you any harm. Still, not a bad idea to look into a home security system. Stalking is a real problem. ”

“I’m not some celebrity. I’m a nobody.”

“Often it’s just a co-worker or ex-boyfriend who develops an obsession. Something to think about anyway.”

“Thanks. I’ll look into it.” But the idea seemed absurd. Other than school at the community college, participating at the research lab, and the occasional lunch with her friends at a restaurant near the school’s campus, she didn’t go anywhere or do anything. No one came to mind as someone giving her extra attention, unless you counted the intern conducting the current study she was participating in. He’d shown a lot of concern for her lately, but that was part of his job. The study was for an experimental drug made to improve short-term memory. Part of his job was to ask her personal questions, draw blood occasionally, and give her weekly injections of an experimental drug that was in its final trials. It was a way for her to make a little extra money.

And who didn’t want to improve their memory? It was all pretty mundane.

When it came down to it, her life was actually boring, and the thought that someone would obsess over her was laughable.

Yet, as she checked the locks on her balcony door again, the faint odor of rich spice came to her once more, and she ran her hands along her arms, soothing the raised chillbumps there. One thing was certain, someone had been in her room, and she’d never forget the way he smelled or the sensual feelings his aroma evoked in her. It was...other-worldly.

* * *CAMPBELL REID LEANED against the wall in the shadows, arms crossed, gaze locked on Mia as she slept. She’d thought to keep him out tonight with an alarm system. It was high-end and probably would have stopped him if he’d been an ordinary man. In reality, it only took him a couple extra minutes to get past the top-notch security. It would take much more than an electronic alarm to keep him from completing his mission. It was humorous, really, if he could afford to laugh in this situation. He couldn’t blame her for trying to protect herself after his amateurish slip-up last night, but an alarm was useless against him.

For one thing, the knowledge and skills about electronics and computer systems he’d gained over the years often came in handy to get him into, and sometimes out of, tight spots. This alarm system wasn’t that complicated for someone such as he, who probably could’ve written the manual. Of course, if the system had stumped him, he could’ve shifted into a dark mist and slid through the cracks, something he’d had the ability to do since shortly after he was changed. It came as part of the vampire package, and though he’d not met another vampire who could, he’d been able to for almost five hundred years. The only thing that might block his entrance was a lack of an invitation from the human home-owner. It was an unusual curse placed long ago on his kind to protect humans at their most vulnerable, and it was unbreakable. However, he had a way around that. Though she didn’t realize it yet, she was no longer human.

She shifted on the bed and mumbled in her sleep. Probably having another nightmare. Every night for the past week, he’d spent the night in the shadows of her bedroom, and every night she’d tossed and turned with nightmares. Perhaps if he were human, he might be drawn to give her some relief from whatever haunted her. He wasn’t, and he clenched his fists to remind himself he was supposed to remain invisible. He wasn’t supposed to want to comfort her with a light touch on the exposed skin of her arms or across her perfect cheek.

He’d almost blown it last night, but he hadn’t expected his reaction to her naked body to be so immediate and so intense. He’d lived for over five hundred years, had seen many beautiful women, and surprisingly only to others, he’d practiced a self-imposed celibacy for most of that time. After the tragedy that made him, it was the only thing he could do to keep his sanity. Yet, when the moonlight shone on this woman’s curves, his body reacted as if she were the first he’d seen in centuries. It had caught him by surprise and the involuntary response had nearly exposed his mission.