The Vampire Executioner (A necromancer romance novel)

Chapter 15: Put those fangs away

Esmeralda

I was so excited about the date, I knew it was stupid of me because he had only agreed to it because Dana had practically forced him, but I still felt the butterflies raging inside my tummy.

We had arranged for the date to be in two days time. I admit I had text Dana the minute I had gotten home and told her and also thanked her. She had replied: ‘yes! See, I knew it would happen! Have fun and flirt outrageously! She’d ended the text with an emoji of a thumbs up, a heart and an eggplant for some reason.

I still hadn’t forgotten about the attack and found myself avoiding walking in quiet areas and jumping at any sudden loud noises.

It was the day of the date when Dana had made me go shopping with her during our work break to find an outfit for me to wear, even though Lucan had asked if I could please turn up as myself and without all the makeup and sexy outfits.

I told Dana this, but she made a shooing motion with her hand and said, “oh, ignore him, he used to say that to me, but he’d be on his knees practically begging for s**x whenever he saw me all dressed up and in sexy lingerie. He’s just trying to be gentlemanly because he’s super old or whatever, but trust me, he won’t be able to resist you when I’m done doing you up.”

I don’t know how she managed it, but she did. She managed to take us into every clothes and makeup shop in the town with our twenty-minute break. I didn’t even know what she had bought, just that it was a dress, some shoes and some makeup.

I was carrying two bags, and she was carrying another two, it was ridiculous, especially if the date ended badly. I was blushing so hard having to carry all the bags into our workplace where Lucan was.

He looked at the bags and asked, “what’s with all the bags?” Then before Dana could answer he said, “wait, never mind, I already know because it’s you and you never listen to me.”

He was giving Dana daggers, while she simply smiled sweetly back at him. I wished I could be like her, it must be so nice to be so comfortable around such a beautiful and powerful man like Lucan and know you could get away with driving him mad because he cared about you. I don’t think I could have ever gotten away with half the things Dana did, I’d definitely have a stake through my heart.

The closer it came to the date, the more nervous I became, so much so that I was more anxious about the date than the fact that I could be killed by one of my clan any second.

I did wonder a couple of times if the date was even still going to happen because Lucan hadn’t mentioned it, I still didn’t even have his phone number, and he was more of his cold and neutral self today, as if he was back to hating me again.

I was glad when work was over and Dana brought everything I needed back to my place to get me ready. If she was still wanting to get me ready I could only assume it was because she knew the date was still on.

It took her over an hour this time around to do my makeup and hair and I was even more impressed than before when I saw myself in the mirror.

I looked beautiful and elegant in the cream tight dress that somehow complimented my shape, the bottom had a split halfway up on the left side and the chest area really showed off my cleavage and how big it was, enough to make me feel self-conscious and wonder if it was too much.

She made me slip into the black high heels and I felt even more self-conscious, especially as I couldn’t walk in heels and if he decided to take me somewhere like McDonald’s, then I’d look ridiculously overdone.

My makeup was perfect, she had created a shimmery nude eyeshadow with black liner on my waterline along with the cat eye look again. The foundation that she used somehow made me look two shades lighter and softer, some of how midnight black I was, was to do with my vampiric power.

My lips she had chosen to make a bloodred, but she’d somehow made it ombré so that it became lighter towards the middle of my lips. She had straightened my hair and somehow managed to make this beautiful braid across the top of my head and did some complicated messy looking bun up do with some ringlets hanging down around my face. I really, really hoped I wasn’t overdone.

If I was overdone then at least Lucan knew it was Dana’s fault and not mine because he text her to let her know he was outside, clearly knowing she was here with me.

“He’s outside, come on,” she grinned.

She practically pushed me out the door and shut it behind me, so I had to embarrassingly make my own way towards his car.

Of course I just had to choose the bottom step to slip down and land hard on my a**s, and if the ground could have swallowed me up I would have gladly welcomed it, I even considered asking Lucan to use his necromancer powers to make it happen.

He climbed out of the car and came over to help me up. When I was back on my feet, he gave me his arm to hold on to and I did, tightly.

“Sorry, I told Dana I can’t walk in heels, but she really doesn’t take no for an answer.”

He laughed lightly, “yeah, that’s the perks of having her in your life. I told her you didn’t need to dress up for me.”

“I know, I feel overdone.”

He stopped then and seemed to realize he had been insensitive.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it like that, I meant you didn’t need to do yourself up for me because I’m not bothered about that makeup and looking like a model for me stuff, but, you do look really beautiful,” he smiled.

“Thank you, so do you,” I blushed hotly and looked to the ground, unable to make eye contact.

He did look absolutely gorgeous in his trousers and white button up shirt, but then he could wear anything and still look gorgeous to me.

He laughed and answered, “I look beautiful, do I? Well thank you my lady…sorry, I mean Esmeralda.”

He held the car door open for me and when I sat inside, he closed it for me.

We got to the restaurant and thank God I wasn’t the only one done up all fancy. A waiter came over and smiling politely he guided us to our table in the corner.

When we were seated, and he had gone off to get us some drinks, I asked Lucan, “how come you corrected yourself earlier? When you said, my lady, to me? I notice you do that sometimes, you seem to speak like you’re from another time.”

He looked down at the table and cleared his throat like he was uncomfortable. “Yeah, sorry about that. I’m from the medieval times, I used to be a knight with the sword fighting and all that s.hit,” he laughed awkwardly like it was something to be embarrassed about.

So he was older than even me, but how I wondered because necromancers didn’t live any longer than humans.

“That’s really cool and nothing more attractive to a lady than a knight in shining armor, right?” I joked and then cringed at my obvious flirting.

Thankfully he laughed and replied, “apparently not in today’s society, Dana’s almost knocked it completely out of me, but every so often I still slip up with some old way of talking or something I do.”

“Well I really hope it’s not completely knocked out of you, I love it, I really love the whole old-fashioned gentlemanly thing of courting a lady and the politeness of how they spoke back then, I definitely wouldn’t mind being called ‘my lady’ when spoken to,” I smiled and again looked away. I found it so hard to keep eye contact when he was so beautiful and staring back at me like he was.

He actually looked away too, laughed and then cleared his throat and I realized it was what he did when he was feeling shy and flustered, and it was adorable.

“So uh, what about you, how old are you?” He asked.

“I’m two hundred years old,” I answered shyly.

“So I am actually older than you,” he laughed.

“Yes, speaking of which, how are you still alive, last I checked necromancers only live as long as humans.”

I hoped it wasn’t too personal a question, I didn’t want to ruin the date when it seemed to be going so well.

“I am not entirely sure, as you’ve guessed, I’m not your typical necromancer. I still remember everything, but at the same time I feel like there are pieces of my life I can’t remember at all, like someone wiped part of my memory and for all I know they have, or it could just be old age catching up finally,” he laughed at the end.

We were having a nice time, and he was being nice and sweet to me, but every so often insecurities would creep up on me and my mind would drift to him and Dana.

They were friends she had been adamant about that, but I had seen them in the car that time, the chemistry and passion had seemed pretty strong.

I had turned my head away as quickly as I could, but not before I had seen Dana performing what I had learned from the internet was called a blow job on him.

“What’s wrong?” He asked.

I snapped out of my thoughts and quickly looked up at him. “Huh, oh nothing, why?”

“You just seem quiet and lost in thought.”

For someone who was so shy and quiet, my mouth certainly was blurting out too much tonight.

“I was just thinking about you and Dana, how come you’re not a couple if you sleep together?” Oh god, I should have kept my mouth shut.

His eyes instantly lost their humor and became cold and empty, but surprisingly, he did answer me. “Please do not think about me and Dana, I swear to you that we really are just friends, we may have s**x on occasion, but that’s simply from pure s****l frustration and nothing else, I could never love Dana in that way.”

“Why not?”

“She’s really not my type, and I’m really not hers either.”

My eyes widened, “but you and her are so alike, you banter, you have the same sense of humor and you get on so well, she even gets away with talking to you like trash when I’m sure you’d kill anyone else who dared tried speaking to you like that.”

I blushed and cringed when I realized how jealous I sounded and stopped talking.

He gave a soft laugh, clearly realizing I was jealous. “Come here,” he gestured for me to give him my hand.

I lifted my hand and let him take it and hold it gently in his hands, he looked me in the eyes. “You really don’t need to be worried, I feel nothing for her in that way, she’s far too masculine and bossy and high maintenance for me. She is my best friend and my best partner on a hunt, and that’s it.”

“What’s your type then?” I asked shyly.

He let go off my hand and sat back against his chair. “Umm, I suppose I would like to find someone like the ladies back in my time, shy and sweet and loyal. Don’t worry, I don’t mean I want a lady to cook and clean for me and all that, I just would like someone who doesn’t feel offended by me wanting to protect her and look after her.”

I nodded and smiled, and then our food came along. I had ordered chips with half a chicken and some salad on the side. I thought the smell of the food had made me hungry, but I realized it wasn’t the food I could smell.

Someone had accidentally cut their finger with their steak knife, nothing major, and they simply used a tissue to clean it up. The hunger raged through my stomach, and my throat felt like I hadn’t had a drink all day long to quench the thirst.

I had mostly learned to ignore the hunger to the point I barely blinked when someone cut themselves, but every so often it would hit me, like now, and I cursed myself for it.

Of all the times it had to happen, it had to be now while I was on a date with a man who despised vampires and had only given me a chance because of his best friend and the fact I didn’t drink blood.

I tried to ignore it and dug my nails into my skin under the table. I could feel my fangs wanting to extract, and it took all my effort to not let them out.

Lucan looked at me with concern and asked, “are you ok?”

Oh God, he was going to kill me. I nodded, but didn’t open my mouth, that was until the person walked past our table to go to the restroom to clean up their bloodied finger. My fangs came out and the force of it made me gasp, which meant my mouth opened enough for Lucan to see them.

“I’m so sorry,” I spoke through my hand which I’d slammed over my mouth and tears were falling down my cheeks as I got up and ran to the restroom.

I couldn’t use the same restroom as the bleeding person, I could control myself, but I couldn’t control my fangs, and they wouldn’t go away until I was away from the blood. I found a disabled toilet and ran in there and locked the door behind me.

I cried and sobbed hard and couldn’t stop myself, I felt so stupid, I knew I had ruined the date and that he would hate my guts again.

A soft knock on the door made me jump.

“Hey, you ok in there?” It was Lucan.

I quickly tried to compose myself and wiped the tears away and shakily answered, “yes.”

“No you’re not, let me in.”

I very reluctantly opened the door and stepped back. He came in and shut it behind him.

“I’m so sorry you had to see my fangs,” I whispered, looking at the floor.

He came and stepped up to me and gently lifted my chin up, so I would meet his eyes.

“Don’t be silly, I know what you are Esmeralda, I’m under no illusion that even though you choose to feed on people’s emotions that you won’t still feel the hunger for blood. The fact you’ve managed to ignore that every single day for two hundred years is incredible.”

He tilted my head up more and leaned down gently pressing his lips against mine.

It was very light, fleeting, and sweet and left me wanting more, but he stepped back and asked if I wanted to leave.