The Soothing Scent Of Earth (Elemental Awakening, Book 2) Read online

  “Jim Beam and Coke.” Ah, a wannabe. Not quite one of the big boys, but giving it an honest go.

  I poured him a triple. If he lasted the next two hours I might just allow myself to hunt him home.

  He handed over his money, holding onto the note a little longer than necessary. My lips finally made a believable smile. You're mine, they said. He smiled back already trapped in my web and going nowhere fast.

  I turned to the cash register and noticed Doug watching me from the other end of the bar. He knew, but he wouldn't say anything. As long as I started the hunt outside of Sensations's door. I didn't meet his eyes. I knew what they would show. Relief. Relief that I was playing at being a good little vampire at last. That I was willing to feed again.

  I returned the change to pre-college boy and slammed it home with another wattage overloaded smile. He crumbled, licked his lips and hesitated before being called back into the false security of his crowd. Safety in numbers, it does work. But, only if you haven't already swallowed the bait. It would take little for me to separate the now weakest from the herd.

  I returned my attention to the next victim in line, but he lacked what I wanted. I couldn't say why it was I hunted the younger of the species. Maybe it was their will to survive. They're not so jaded. They still believe in happy endings. Like I used to. I tried to ignore that side of me. I tried to feed from only scum. But, my Light-filled side was not as strong when I hadn't eaten for six days. I knew I should have fed closer together, then my Light would have more control over the Dark Shadow inside. But, that part of me that didn't want to feed at all was so strong too. This week it won.

  And now my Dark Shadow would get what she craves. Young, innocent, full of life. Blood. If I was a demon I'd be stealing their souls too. The younger, the better. More power for the evil in the world. But I'm not a demon. I'm a half-vampire, with a penchant for the young and beguiling. A taste only for their blood. Their souls would be safe tonight, perhaps even their lives. I did have some control over the Dark Shadow, at least where killing was concerned.

  But, my soul was another matter. Another matter entirely.

  The next few customers blurred into each other. The music my only safe haven in amongst the plethora of blood-filled bodies that swam over the dance floor and retreated to the bar for replenishment. One rapidly beating pulse after another. One sweat soaked, humanity reeking body after another. All clamouring for their next fix. Just like me. Addicts to our own personal drugs.

  Young pre-college boy was back for another round. This time he'd gained some courage. His smile more flirtatious. His eyes leaving my lips and trailing over my upper body. I was taller than him, but it might have been an illusion. The bar was the highest spot in the club. Good for spotting trouble above the rhythmic movement of the crowd. Today I could see all the way across the room to the group of vampires in the corner, sitting on the gold, brown and red plushly furnished dark gleaming wooden benches that makes Sensations the chicest spot du jour.

  No humans were with them yet, but they were hunting. Just like me. One happened to look up at the moment my eyes spotted him. He raised his half full glass in a salute and smiled a knowing smile. He knew me. He probably thought he knew all about me. He'd be wrong. His name's Marcus and he lives with Samson and Lucinda. He's part of their group. He's also going be the first one I stake. He's too cocky, too confident. He thinks he rules the world.

  A soft clearing of a throat in front of me brought me back to my mark. I smiled.

  “Sorry, got distracted there. Another Jim Beam?” He liked that I had remembered what he was drinking. I'd served over thirty customers since I last did him. It made him feel special. He should have felt special. He was the only person in this room who mattered to me now.

  “Yeah, thanks,” he replied. Smile bigger, eyes showing more than just approval.

  I poured the drink with a little vampire flourish, not enough to draw attention, just enough to impress the impressionable. It was all part of the act. The lure. The web. My Dark Shadow approved of my tactics. She practically purred in anticipation of the hunt. Doug moved closer in my periphery.

  I slid the finished drink across the bar and leaned down provocatively. “This one's on the house,” I said, just loud enough for him to hear. He swallowed and I watched the movement closely.

  “Wh...when do you knock off?” he asked haltingly, caught in my trap. So easy.

  I flicked a glance at the wall clock. One more hour. I was about to reply when Doug leant in and whispered, only loud enough for a vampire to hear, “Go now, you need to feed.” He pulled back and offered a smile. I didn't return it.

  I didn't need his help. I didn't need his concern. I could control the need. The hunger. I didn't need a free pass, a get-out-of-jail-free card. I didn't need him or anyone else.

  I turned back to the young guy and smiled. “One more hour.” Doug shook his head and walked away.

  The guy nodded and went to say something else, but a drunk pushed in front demanding a beer. I winked at the guy, his face beamed and he returned to his mates to watch me from their table off to the side.

  The next hour dragged. My Dark Shadow complained incessantly. I was starting to notice the older humans. The ones in their late twenties and thirties. The ones still capturing what is left of their failing youth. They weren't young enough for my taste, but the Dark Shadow didn't care. Their hearts beat, blood flows in their veins. What more do you want? she asked.

  I wanted freedom. I wanted my life back. I wanted the sun and hamburgers and my innocence again. I wanted the last few months to not exist. I wanted to ignore the ad in the paper for competent and experienced bar staff at Sensations, the most popular bar in Auckland City. I wanted Samson to never have entered my life.

  I wanted a lot of things, but the Dark Shadow only laughed. She laughed and laughed and laughed; taunting me, teasing me, belittling me. What I wanted was a pipe dream. What I wanted no longer existed for me.

  The young guy returned for a final drink, a final smile and his final chance of escape. Leave now, my Light-filled side commanded. Run while you can. Instead I found myself saying, “Meet me out front in fifteen?” He nodded, in a daze. And I hadn't even used an ounce of Sanguis Vitam.

  Fifteen minutes felt like fifteen hours. I worked on autopilot, but never failed to know where my target currently was. One sip of his drink. A bark of near drunken laughter in response to one of his friend's jokes. A hand through his sandy blonde short hair. A quick glance towards me at the bar. Then a furtive gaze over the top of another sip from his glass. He took a break to go to the toilet, but I wasn't concerned he would escape. His eyes never left me as he crossed the floor.

  He wanted me to follow him, but I wouldn't. Sensations was off limits. He didn't know this, but even my Dark Shadow resisted my prey's pull. Patience was the hunter's helper. Patience and a keen nose for blood.

  I served the last customers of the night and cleaned the bar top. Loaded the last of the glasses in the dish drawer under the bar, the rest would go out to the kitchen and the larger dish drawers there. The busboy could handle those. The bell was rung, the bar was closed and Doug proceeded to gently round up the crowd and suggest they head for the door. He never turfed them out immediately. Always gave them a moment to gather their courage and finish their drinks.

  The pull that brought the Norms to the bar was hard to switch off. Even if the vampires had all but left, waiting in the shadows on the street outside, the Norms clung to the safety they perceived in the dim light of the club. It was only their sense of propriety that convinced them in the end to leave.

  I chucked my apron in the hamper by the basement door and fished my keys out of my pocket, giving the illusion of normalcy. Doug watched as I crossed the floor to the front door. Normally I would say good-bye, but my fangs were too long to talk.

  I stepped out into the cool night air and walked some distance away. Stashing my keys back in my pocket, I removed my disposable contact lenses an
d discarded them in a nearby bin. No more than thirty seconds later my prey emerged from the sanctum of the club.

  I sighed. He'd had his chance not to follow. I hadn't even looked at him as I left the bar. He could have taken a bit longer to finish his drink, Doug would have allowed it. Even knowing I needed to feed, Doug still fights for the Norms rights to say no. He would have provided a safe haven for my young guy, if the young guy had indicated he needed one.

  He hadn't, so here we were. Him saying goodbye to his friends. A few coarse comments and ribbing from his supposed mates and then with hands in pockets he sauntered over to where I stood in the shadows of a tall building. Waiting.

  “Hi,” he said awkwardly. Not sure what to do now when faced with the object of his desire. I smiled winningly and batted my eyelashes a little demurely making sure he couldn't see the red that now would be obvious in the lights. This one would like a little less brash and a little more girl, I thought. He relaxed ever so slightly.

  “Do you live around here?” I had a sudden hankering for more than just blood. Or at least, my Dark Shadow did.

  “No, North Shore.” Damn. I didn't ever take them home, even when the Dark Shadow won and I let her feed off more than just blood. It was never at my place. That was my sanctuary. My haven from the evil in the world.

  “Come on,” I said and clasped his hand, “walk with me a bit.”

  His palm was sweaty. He was nervous. I didn't think he had picked a girl up in a bar before. I'd have to make sure I gave him a good memory when I finally glazed him, but first, we needed a quiet spot.

  I had no intention of harming him. My Dark Shadow may have wanted more than just blood and sex, but I was still in charge. I would take only what I needed and no more, and in return he'd have a memory to rival all others. That way, Lucinda wouldn't feel compelled to hunt me. To follow that Nosferatin pull that would lead her to a vampire about to kill.

  Young pre-college boy didn't know what he was offering, but he was offering it willingly. There was no theft about to be performed.

  I led him down a dark alley away from the late night, or early morning bustle, of Karangahape Road, or K Road as we called it. He followed without a care, he was so besotted he didn't even realise the danger he was willingly walking into. I stopped at the darkened stoop of the back door to a business, long since closed for the day. Turning to him, I laced my arms about his neck and pulled his body against mine.

  “You're cute,” I purred against his ear, his hands started roaming hungrily. I wished for the thousandth time, that they would fight. That this one would be the one to deny me what my body craves. This one would hold the key to my salvation. But he didn't. He wanted me as much as I wanted him. But, for a very different reason.

  His hand had made it under my tank top, one smooth move and he had released my bra strap at the back. I was impressed, but also hungry. My eyes when I opened them cast an eerie red glow about the alley we are in. I let him cop a feel then pulled back and whispered, “Look at me.”

  He did, they all do. It was so damn easy I wanted to cry. In a second he'd think he was between silk sheets, wrapped up in an unknown woman's embrace. She'd be hot, he'd think he was in heaven. I made him believe he performed magic with his hands and mouth. That she told him he was the best she had ever had. She cried out in ecstasy again and again and he knew it was because of him. I made him believe he was a god tonight.

  Then I bit. I bit before I lost my courage. I bit before the Light inside rebelled. I had come too far to not feed this night. If the Dark Shadow was denied now, people would die.

  The first mouthful of his life giving blood exploded in my mouth. I cried out in bliss, giving the guy in my arms real material for his glazed induced dream. One swallow led to another and another. The world dimmed to just me and my prey. So sweet, so thick, so beautiful. In that moment I worshipped the body before me. I honoured it with each pull of blood from its veins. I relished it. I devoured it. I consumed it.

  I was alive again and the world was a brighter place.

  And then I heard the faint beat of his heart; staggering, failing, slowing. The Dark Shadow growled when I tried to withdraw my fangs. This was the hardest part. The battle of wills. She was strong, but then so was I. I would not harm this boy, this giver of life. I would not kill despite my body's desire to do so. We raged a war for a few more seconds, seconds that felt too long for the boy and not long enough for the vampire within.

  Finally, I won. I licked the puncture wounds closed. And breathed freely for the first time in days. My eyes would be cerulean blue again. My skin clear and soft and supple. To a Norm I would look full of life, glowing, ethereal almost. To a vampire I would be considered dangerous. There is nothing more powerful than a well fed Nosferatu.

  The guy pulled back in a daze, his face one big lazy smile.

  “You were fantastic,” I whispered into the space between us. “Go catch a taxi and go home to sleep it off.”

  He nodded, brushed a kiss against my lips. I let him. And then he was gone. And I was alone, in the murky shadows with my guilt and my rage and my hurt and anger and anxiety.

  I was one of them tonight. I was the predator humans should fear. I was not the vampire hunter, I was the vampire.

  The tears began and I slouched down into the darkness of the stoop.

  I felt so damn alone.

  Find more Nicola Claire books at:

  http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5831941.Nicola_Claire