very grateful for how fast and strong she was. We weaved through the crowd and dodged the cops whenever we saw them, all the while trying to keep our drunken personas. I could tell her patience with it was wearing just as thin as mine. She smelled like roses and blood.
Finally, we broke out of the last of the mobs and ventured down one of the side streets of the French Quarter. She kept cutting across alleys and through side streets until we were the only people out and it was dark and quiet. The buildings changed from bars and restaurants to homes and local grocers.
“How much farther?”
“Not much. The hotel is just around this corner.”
“What about a hospital?”
“Hospitals ask questions that I can’t answer.”
“You think they won’t be booked up for Mardi Gras?”
“There’s always a room at this hotel for me. Just trust me.”
I looked at her for a moment as we made our way around the corner, and our destination became clear when I peered down the rows of old buildings to spot a red neon sign that read The Waiting Room . She carried me over to the red front door and set me down on the street just to the right of it. She bent down and met my eyes, examining my condition carefully.
“Are you okay?”
“What is all this?”
“You are going to be okay. We’ll get you some rest in a minute, but you need to wait out here first while I talk to the owner.”
“No, I mean, what is going on? What are you? What is all of this?”
Anna looked at me thoughtfully for a moment. She took a deep breath and let it out slowly before she spoke again.
“What do you think it is?”
“Some really bad vampire movie?”
She laughed out loud at the comment, but I wasn’t entirely kidding. Everything tonight seemed like it came out of a movie, and with how dizzy and weak I felt, who knew what was real anymore. Surely Dracula would make an appearance any moment and she would bow to her prince of darkness and offer me as a midnight snack. When she managed to stop laughing, she held my face in her hands. They sure didn’t feel cold like a vampire’s should, and I blushed at the intimate contact.
“Yes, it is something like a bad vampire movie.”
The answer should have been shocking, but I was too weak to be shocked. She began to walk up the steps to the red door when I called out to her.
“Anna, wait. Does this mean you are going to kill me and drink my blood like Lea was trying to?”
The question came out weak and indifferent, and I suppose if I were sober and heard someone ask me that, I would have laughed. However, I was serious and frightened, and given my current condition, I couldn’t count on my own judgment to deliver me from my own confusion. Even though it was not funny to me at all, Anna laughed out loud again.
“No, Grant. You are perfectly safe. I don’t do that anymore.”
I heard her open the door, and a little bell dinged inside as she waltzed gracefully across the threshold. All became quiet then except for the muffled murmurs of the voices inside. She had left me to sit alone on the street to consider the full gravity of a simple, innocent word like anymore .
Chapter Nine
Lea
I ran fast across the rooftop even though everything in my body screamed for me to go back and finish off what I’d started with Anna’s pet boy. I had not fed enough, and the smell of his blood had corrupted my judgment. That was the only way Anna could have gotten the upper hand on me.
She knew it too. In an even fight, I could beat her, but she thought and planned things out in a way that I never could since she no longer hunted to feed. The blood lust didn’t take her over like it did me ever since she went all vegetarian on me. She knew I was weakest when I hadn’t fed and that I would make careless mistakes if I was near all that blood, so she’d used her boy as bait. She always was clever in that extremely annoying way.
The edge of the roof was near, so I launched myself off of the ledge and
Finally, we broke out of the last of the mobs and ventured down one of the side streets of the French Quarter. She kept cutting across alleys and through side streets until we were the only people out and it was dark and quiet. The buildings changed from bars and restaurants to homes and local grocers.
“How much farther?”
“Not much. The hotel is just around this corner.”
“What about a hospital?”
“Hospitals ask questions that I can’t answer.”
“You think they won’t be booked up for Mardi Gras?”
“There’s always a room at this hotel for me. Just trust me.”
I looked at her for a moment as we made our way around the corner, and our destination became clear when I peered down the rows of old buildings to spot a red neon sign that read The Waiting Room . She carried me over to the red front door and set me down on the street just to the right of it. She bent down and met my eyes, examining my condition carefully.
“Are you okay?”
“What is all this?”
“You are going to be okay. We’ll get you some rest in a minute, but you need to wait out here first while I talk to the owner.”
“No, I mean, what is going on? What are you? What is all of this?”
Anna looked at me thoughtfully for a moment. She took a deep breath and let it out slowly before she spoke again.
“What do you think it is?”
“Some really bad vampire movie?”
She laughed out loud at the comment, but I wasn’t entirely kidding. Everything tonight seemed like it came out of a movie, and with how dizzy and weak I felt, who knew what was real anymore. Surely Dracula would make an appearance any moment and she would bow to her prince of darkness and offer me as a midnight snack. When she managed to stop laughing, she held my face in her hands. They sure didn’t feel cold like a vampire’s should, and I blushed at the intimate contact.
“Yes, it is something like a bad vampire movie.”
The answer should have been shocking, but I was too weak to be shocked. She began to walk up the steps to the red door when I called out to her.
“Anna, wait. Does this mean you are going to kill me and drink my blood like Lea was trying to?”
The question came out weak and indifferent, and I suppose if I were sober and heard someone ask me that, I would have laughed. However, I was serious and frightened, and given my current condition, I couldn’t count on my own judgment to deliver me from my own confusion. Even though it was not funny to me at all, Anna laughed out loud again.
“No, Grant. You are perfectly safe. I don’t do that anymore.”
I heard her open the door, and a little bell dinged inside as she waltzed gracefully across the threshold. All became quiet then except for the muffled murmurs of the voices inside. She had left me to sit alone on the street to consider the full gravity of a simple, innocent word like anymore .
Chapter Nine
Lea
I ran fast across the rooftop even though everything in my body screamed for me to go back and finish off what I’d started with Anna’s pet boy. I had not fed enough, and the smell of his blood had corrupted my judgment. That was the only way Anna could have gotten the upper hand on me.
She knew it too. In an even fight, I could beat her, but she thought and planned things out in a way that I never could since she no longer hunted to feed. The blood lust didn’t take her over like it did me ever since she went all vegetarian on me. She knew I was weakest when I hadn’t fed and that I would make careless mistakes if I was near all that blood, so she’d used her boy as bait. She always was clever in that extremely annoying way.
The edge of the roof was near, so I launched myself off of the ledge and
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