The Vampire Executioner (A necromancer romance novel)

Chapter 13: Getting along

Esmeralda

The rest of the day was uneventful, and nobody wanted a loved one raised from the dead.

By closing time, the warm orange glow from lamps outside painted the long shadows across the windows.

Dana stretched her arms over her head dramatically.

“You’re coming with us,” she announced.

I blinked. “Coming where?”

“For a drink.”

“I can’t get drink.”

“Or hanging out then, or people-watching. Whatever.” She waved a hand dismissively. “You don’t need alcohol to have fun.”

I smiled softly.

Being invited somewhere still felt strange.

Nice, but strange.

We walked together through the cool evening air, taking a quieter route through side streets lined with brick buildings and flickering streetlamps.

Lucan and Dana had gone ahead, arguing about something stupid.

“No, because that movie was terrible,” Dana was saying.

Lucan looked offended. “You have absolutely no taste.”

I couldn’t help smiling.

Then suddenly someone grabbed me from behind and hissed, “I knew it.”

Ice flooded my veins.

“I wasn’t sure at first,” a male voice hissed in my ear, “but I know he’s the Executioner, and you haven’t told the queen, you’ve betrayed us!”

I barely had time to react before pain exploded across my face.

A hand struck me hard enough that I stumbled sideways, crashing painfully against metal bins.

The smell of damp cardboard and garbage filled the alley.

My vision blurred.

The vampire holding me was beautiful in the same unnatural way they always were.

Short brown hair. Emerald-green eyes. Perfect features. Perfect monsters.

Lucan and Dana were still several yards ahead. They hadn’t noticed. Not yet.

A few minutes later Dana called out, “Es?”

This vampire had the gift of flitting, so he had snatched me faster than I could blink.

They both came running back down towards us and the vampire whistled. Two other vampires came out of the shadows, one I did recognize as Matilda.

She was, of course, beautiful, with long locks of black hair and green eyes and red lips curved into a cruel smile. She was usually Sadie’s little helper when t.orturing me or tormenting me.

The other vampire was another male, and he took me from the one holding me and wrapped his hand around my throat. “Come any closer, hunters and she dies.”

Dana withdrew a sharp blade and staked Matilda before the male had even finished his sentence.

Matilda stared down in shock.

Then collapsed to the floor, skin turning grey, black veins covering it as she lay dead.

The vampire tightened his hold around my throat.

“Move an inch and I tear her throat out.”

Dana slowly lowered her weapon and didn’t move.

Lucan, however, stepped forward and snarled, “you think I give two f.ucks about this vampire, she’s nothing to me, you’re all plagues that need to be destroyed.”

He withdrew a stake from inside his trench coat.

“I wouldn’t, Executioner,” the vampire tightened his hold even harder around my throat making it hard to breathe.

Lucan took another step. “I will stake your heart through her heart first if I need to.”

The vampire holding me hesitated.

I realized Lucan really wasn’t joking because he started coming towards us. The vampires’ realized this too, I felt their fear and uncertainty about what to do, they really hadn’t expected this reaction from him.

The vampire let me go and went for Dana. He knew he didn’t have time to bite her, he would naturally want to feed and that would require effort on his part to control himself, so he withdrew something sharp of his own. I saw the glint of silver in the air, and he shoved it towards Dana’s chest.

I ran in front of her and took the hit, the feel of the blade sliding into my chest felt so strange, and I couldn’t understand why my legs felt so weak. I collapsed to my knees and saw Lucan run forward and stake the vampire.

The other male started to run, but Lucan managed to grab his arm.

The air itself grew heavy.

Cold. So cold.

The streetlights flickered violently overhead.

Those strange blue veins lit beneath Lucan’s skin again, glowing beneath his forearms like ice rivers beneath glass.

Power rolled from him in waves.

Lucan unleashed that power and focused it on the vampire until he began to rot in front of my eyes. He screamed and screamed.

I watched in horror as his flesh began peeling away in chunks, sliding from his body in wet, sickening pieces. Fingers struck the pavement with soft thuds. Skin sloughed away like rotting paper.

The smell hit next. Rot. Decay.

Wet earth and something foul enough to make my stomach twist violently.

The screams grew weaker.

Then stopped.

It took less than a minute before he was nothing but a pile of gooey fleshy meat on the floor.

Lucan wasted no time and picked up the flesh and started throwing it into the dumpsters. It was truly barbaric.

When the evidence was mostly gone, he ran back over to me on the floor and picked me up in his arms, cradling me to his chest. His body radiated warmth. His arms felt impossibly strong around me.

“Thank you,” he whispered to me.

“We need to take her to the hospital,” Dana said and quickly opened the door to Lucan’s car, so he could slide me into the back.

She climbed in with me and placed my head on her lap.

Streetlights streaked across the windows as Lucan drove.

Everything blurred together.

The glow of shops.

Passing headlights.

Dana kept brushing trembling fingers through my hair. “Stay awake, Es,” she whispered.

Bright fluorescent lights hit my eyes the moment we entered the hospital.

Voices echoed. Footsteps rushed.

The sharp sterile smell of disinfectant and antiseptic burned my nose.

Nurses rushed over and put me onto a gurney and wheeled me in, ceiling lights passing overhead in bright white lines.

They asked for my information and when Dana said I was a vampire they stopped running and slowed down.

They took notes, but made no effort to make me a priority now, seeing as vampires usually heal very fast on their own and maybe with a little help from the hospital sometimes, depending on the severity of their injuries and how recently they had fed.

Lucan stepped up to the nurse and said, “you need to hurry up, she doesn’t drink blood like other vampires, so without your help she will die.”

The nurse looked at me properly then. Her eyes traveled over my face, my thinning greying hair, th dark circles beneath my eyes, and muttered to him, “is that even possible?”

Lucan folded his arms.

“Yes.”

His eyes flickered briefly toward me.

“But not without consequences.”

She gave a nod and went off somewhere.

I lay back in bed and waited patiently. Both Dana and Lucan waited with me for the nurse to return, when she did, she hooked me up to an IV and attached a blood bag to it.

“Uh..” I was about to protest, but she waved her hands at me. “Don’t worry, it will heal you and this way you don’t even have to drink it.”

She started humming, so I couldn’t argue any further and then went off to see another patient.

Half an hour later, I was feeling myself again and was completely healed up.

It was nowhere near enough blood to make me as healthy as a normal vampire, but it had at least healed me back to how I had been before I was stabbed.

I got up off the bed and Dana smiled, running her hands together. “Right. Bar time.”

Lucan stared at her. “Are you nuts, she literally just got stabbed for you, and you still want to go drinking?”

“Yes, why not? If anything, she could do with the company right now, and she’s fully healed like nothing happened, right?” She looked at me.

I nodded. “yeah, I’m fully healed and to be honest, I wouldn’t mind not being alone right now.”

“See!” She said to Lucan and walked on ahead, pulling me with her.

She made Lucan drive us to her house first and told him to go home and change, and come back and meet us in an hour.

He rolled his eyes at her, but didn’t bother to argue about it.

Entering her house I looked around in surprise. Her home was done in soft baby pink, pale gray, and powder blue decorated everything. Diamond chandeliers hung from the ceiling, scattering little prisms of light across the wall whenever they swayed. Mirrored drawers reflected the warm lamp light, making the room seem bigger and softer somehow. Fluffy cushions and blankets were piled across a huge sofa, and candles sat neatly arranged on shelves, filling the air with the scent of vanilla and something floral.

I hadn’t expected her home to be so feminine and girly looking, considering her leather jackets, gothic looking style and tattoos.

I slowly turned toward her.

“Don’t you dare tell anyone,” she made a fake serious face and then sat me on the sofa while she ran upstairs to grab something.

When she came back down, I groaned inwardly when I saw her holding a big makeup case. It was pointless, I’d be ugly no matter what she did to me. I’d had it drummed into me over and over again by my clan and I absolutely believed them because I saw it in the mirror every day.

I’d even gained more weight in the last few months from comfort eating, which was crazy because vampires didn’t gain weight. As I mentioned before, we didn’t need to eat or drink, but I ate for the taste, I liked the normalcy of curling up with snacks and watching movies when the loneliness became too much. Our bodily functions still seemed to work.

Dana got a headband to keep my hair out of my face even though it was already tied back and got to work.

Brushes swept softly across my skin. Powder dusted my cheeks. I could smell vanilla from her makeup and something fruity from the products she used.

She hummed quietly while she worked.

When she was satisfied and grinning overly proud with her work, she had me try on a red dress that belonged to another friend of hers who was a similar size to me.

She dumped it in my arms and I stared at it.

Then stared at her.

Then stared back at the dress.

“Dana…”

“Bathroom.”

I sighed dramatically, cringing, but put it on and felt so n***d, I wasn’t used to wearing dresses at all.

She forced me into some small red high heels which I knew was going to end badly for me, and then she got to work on my hair. She got black eyeshadow and started applying it to parts of my hair, I had no idea why or what she was doing, but I didn’t say anything.

When she was done with me, she took me to the bathroom mirror, so I could see myself.

I looked, and for a moment, I truly thought I was looking at someone else. I actually looked beautiful for once, not vampire beautiful, but still beautiful, especially for a bigger girl like myself.

The red dress surprisingly complimented my curves and certainly made my cleavage the most noticeable part of my body. I had no idea how she had done it, but she’d made my skin look a softer tone and shimmery along my cheekbones too.

My eyes were done smoky with a cat wing that gave an elegant look and made my eyes appear more almond shaped. The lipstick I wore was a bloodred and made my lips appear fuller looking.

I took notice of my hair next and realized why she had used black eyeshadow, I couldn’t see any of the usual gray that was running through it and she had curled my already tight curly hair and made them look healthier.

She had flicked my hair to one side, so even though it didn’t come past my b.reasts it still looked thicker on top where she had styled it all to one side, giving it the illusion of thick healthy hair.

I almost cried, and she said, “don’t you dare ruin that makeup.”

“Sorry,” I laughed and then asked, “how did you manage to soften my skin tone, it looks so pretty now.”

“You were pretty anyway, stop putting yourself down, and it’s my friend’s makeup, we usually get ready together when we go out, so she leaves some here. She’s African American, so I had products that matched your skin tone.”

I looked back at my reflection.

And for once in my life…I didn’t hate what I saw.

Dana had herself ready minutes before Lucan arrived outside. Her hair blonde was curled too, and she wore a nude lipstick with Smokey eyes and black eyeshadow with a similar dress to mine except in black, and with her amazing toned body, it looked incredible on her and I felt a little disappointment. Standing beside Dana, I knew nobody would look twice at me. I shook the feeling away and we left the house.

We started walking toward the bar that was only five minutes up the road, or more accurately—Dana was walking.

I had to hold on to Dana’s arm to keep from falling in the heels.

Lucan was wearing jeans and a tight white long-sleeved muscle fit top, showing off how very muscular he was.

His hair was styled into a tousled look and I found myself staring at his strong jaw line, those extremely kissable full lips and those amazing eyes. Ice blue with flecks of gold running through them and that strange ring of violet around the rim. I truly had never seen such beautiful eyes, I’d never even met another vampire with such a unique looking eye color before.

He stared back at me and smiled. I think if my heart were still beating It would have skipped a beat, it was the first time he had ever smiled at me before, and it was the most amazing feeling to have that smile directed at me.

I absolutely ruined the moment by blushing hard and breaking eye contact, I just could not find the confidence to keep eye contact with such a beautiful man. Damn it.

When we reached the bar, Dana went up and ordered us drinks even though I had told her to save her money and not bother as I couldn’t get drunk anyway. She shushed me and said it was the experience that counted and got me drinks anyway.

It was a loud and crowded bar with people dancing, flirting and talking and at some point Dana had disappeared with some burly man to do god knows what with.

Lucan came and sat beside me and asked, “are you alright?”

“Oh.” I looked away from the crowd. “Yes, sorry, I was scanning the room for Dana, she went off with someone.”

He laughed and answered, “she’s probably not coming back tonight. Trust me.”

I must have looked as confused as I felt because he laughed again and said, “you’re really sweet and innocent, aren’t you.”

I just smiled at him not knowing what to say to that or how to respond to him being so nice to me, I wasn’t sure if it was some kind of trick.

“You look really pretty tonight,” he murmured in my ear and laid his arm behind the back of my chair leaning in closer to me.

“Thank you,” I answered shyly, heat flooding my

Cheeks.

“No, seriously, Thank you.”

I looked at him.

“If it wasn’t for you, then Dana wouldn’t be here right now. You saved her life.”

He leaned in and kissed my cheek and I did the really awkward thing of turning my head in surprise so that our lips connected.

I pulled back and quickly panicked, “I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to do that.”

“It’s fine,” he smiled and leaned in and kissed me on the lips so chastely that I barely felt it, but it still made me all giddy.

“You want me to take you home?” He asked.

I hesitated, and he asked, “what’s wrong?”

I looked down at my hands. “I’m just scared about being alone after today, my whole clan will probably know by now that I know about you and didn’t report it to them.”

“I’ll stay with you if you want,” he said.

I nodded yes way too quickly, and he laughed.

We stood up, and he rested his hands on the bar for a second. “I probably shouldn’t have gotten drunk, I didn’t think about the fact you might want a bodyguard tonight.”

So that was why he had given me a kiss and been so nice, he was just drunk. I ignored the sinking feeling in my stomach and smiled at him before leading the way out.

We got the train back to my place and halfway there I tripped in the heels, he caught me before I fell and was polite enough not to laugh at me, and then he allowed me to hold onto his arm. It was one in the morning by the time we got inside my front door.