The doorbell rang again, followed by three sharp knocks. Ruby could hear her blood pounding in her ears. She eyed the small arsenal they’d gathered on the table, but she didn’t have the nerve to grab anything. If she picked up a weapon, it would make this whole thing real.
“Maybe they can’t get in. It said online vampires can’t enter a house without an invitation. If we just ignore them, they’ll have to go away,” Ethan whispered.
“If that’s even true. The one at the hospital had no trouble getting in,” Jay countered.
“That was public property,” said Ruby.
“This can’t be the same guy from the hospital. He told us to go to that address. Why would he come here?” said Jay.
Ruby shrugged. “Maybe he’s trying to mess with our heads or something. I don’t know.”
Whoever it was knocked again, this time loud enough to make the front door shake in its frame.
“They’ve got Tyler. We can’t ignore them,” said Jay. He picked up one of the wooden stakes and made his way to the door. Ruby and Ethan grabbed a stake each and followed him. As Ruby tightened her grip on the wooden stake, she tried to ignore Ethan’s trembling legs. He was the fearless one, and if he was scared, they were in big trouble.
The three friends stood by the door in tense silence, their hearts pounding in their chests as they prepared to confront whatever stood on the other side. Ethan gripped the wooden stake tightly, his knuckles turning white, and raised it above his head, ready to strike. Ruby’s hands shook as she looked at Jay, their eyes meeting in a silent exchange of fear. She could see her own terror mirrored in his hazel eyes, and her heart raced even faster.
Three more thuds pounded on the door, and Ruby jumped, her heart almost exploding out of her chest. The knocks were like a drum heralding oncoming death. The door trembled at the force of the knocks as if it, too, was frightened.
“I can hear you lurking on the other side of the door!” a male voice shouted with a slight mid-western accent. Ruby and Jay shared another glance, this one of recognition.
“Scott?” she said.
“Yes. Open the door!” the vampire shouted.
Ethan’s arm fell in slow motion like a dead leaf falling from a tree. He turned to his friends, his face ashen white and his eyes small and fearful. Ruby and Jay knew Scott as the lesser evil when compared to the vampire at the hospital, but Ethan knew him only as the vampire who had put him in the hospital. Learning that his attacker was on the other side of a panel of wood had only increased his terror.
“What do you want?” Ruby called through the door. She stepped past Ethan and Jay.
“I want to talk to you. Please open the door. I mean you no harm.”
Ruby looked back at Ethan and said, “I’m just going to open the door so we can see him. I’m not letting him in.”
She waited for him to agree with a jerky nod, and then she turned the knob and pulled open the front door. A gust of cold wind rushed in, carrying with it the frosty smell of winter. Scott stood on the doorstep, his eyes widened in surprise at the sight of three of them brandishing wooden stakes.
“What are you doing back here?” Jay demanded. He raised the stake a fraction higher.
“Lower the weapon. You don’t stand a chance,” Scott told him, his eyes daring Jay to try to use the stake on him.
“What are you doing here?” Ruby said, stepping closer to her boyfriend.
“What are you doing here? I told you to run.”
“It’s too late for that,” said Jay. “We’ve been visited by the master of bats already.”
Scott’s face, already pale from years spent hiding from the sun, became ghostly as he took a stunned step back. “Bats? You saw bats?”
“Yeah, a whole damn flock of them,” Jay spat.
A drawn-out sigh of despair drifted through Scott’s faded lips. “The Medju. They’ve sent Conrad Sinclair.”
“What does that mean?” asked Ruby, trying to stop Scott’s reaction from sending her into a panic.
Scott shook his head silently, trying to gather his thoughts. “I’m not sure. His name is well-known by vampires all over America. Maybe even beyond. He’s said to be surgical in his efficiency. Running won’t help now. But you said you’ve already seen him?”
“Yes. He found us at the hospital,” Ruby said.
“He didn’t kill you on sight. That’s… I need to know everything that’s happened. Invite me in, please.”
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
Ethan’s nostrils flared as he narrowed his gaze at the vampire, his eyes simmering with pure hatred. His fear was nowhere to be seen. Ruby had known Ethan for over a year, and in all that time, she’d never once seen him stare at anybody with such loathing. She couldn’t even think of a time she’d seen him angry.
“You nearly killed me,” he growled.
Scott’s gaze fell on Ethan, and Ethan’s eyes flicked down, his cheeks turning pink with what looked like shame. His feet shuffled on the carpet as he shifted back. Scott took in the bandages wrapped around his neck, and contrition stole over his features. “I am sincerely sorry. I wasn’t myself. I wasn’t in control. I’d been starving for so long. I assure you, you are in no danger from me now.”
Ethan’s lip curled back, exposing his teeth as he raised the stake higher. “Am I supposed to believe that?”
“Conrad Sinclair is as much a danger to me as he is to you. We are on the same side. Please, let me in so we can figure out what to do.”
Ruby took a step toward Ethan, a strand of her blonde hair falling in front of her face as she reached out and gently placed her hand on his trembling forearm. “Hey,” she whispered, trying to reassure him with her touch. “What you’re feeling is completely valid, and nobody is saying it’s not. But I think Scott is telling the truth. He doesn’t mean us any harm. And it might be useful to have a vampire on our side.”
Jay was watching Ruby hawkishly, no doubt hating that she was touching another man, but she couldn’t worry about that right now. Ethan was her focus. Scott could do more for them than all of the items that were piled on Jay’s coffee table, but not if Ethan couldn’t put aside his feelings, at least temporarily.
Ethan’s hand lowered a fraction, and he looked at Ruby, his eyes filled with a longing to believe her. “Why do you trust him? What’s he done to convince you?”
“Look at him,” Ruby said. Ethan’s eyes moved from her face to look at Scott. “He’s as scared as we are.”
Ethan’s nostrils flared as he glared at Scott. His breathing was heavy and labored, causing the tendons in his neck to bulge against his skin. With a final sigh, Ethan let his arm fall to his side. “Don’t you come near me,” he warned the vampire before he turned and retreated into the living room.
“What are you doing here? You said you were leaving town,” Ruby asked, still wondering if his presence was some kind of trick. Maybe the other vampire had sent him for some reason.
“I did leave town. I was in Monroe County when I saw the article about Halloween night on the Mistwood News website. The same article that your boyfriend…” he turned his flat gaze on Jay. “…provided a statement for. I came back because apparently our previous conversation had not fully sunken in.”
“And what exactly did you plan on doing?” Jay demanded.
“I planned to speak with you again. Impress upon you the severity of the situation. However, I can see you understand well enough now that it’s too late. Will you invite me in?”
“You really think we should?” Jay asked Ruby dubiously.
“If he wanted to kill us, he’s had plenty of opportunities. And let’s face it, we need him more than he needs us,” she said quietly, even though she was fairly sure Scott could hear her no matter how much she lowered her voice. Pretty much every website she’d visited said vampires had enhanced hearing.
“Come in. And wipe your feet,” Jay said, adding the last in a petty attempt to retain some power in the situation.
“Thank you,” Scott said as he entered the house and wiped his feet on the mat, staring pointedly at Jay as he did so.
Scott followed them into the living room, but when they sat, he remained standing. His gaze was fixed on the collection of weapons gathered on the coffee table. “You’re not seriously thinking about fighting him, are you? He’s an ancient vampire. You don’t stand a chance.”
“We’re not just going to let this Connor guy kill us,” said Ethan. He was standing at the other end of the sofa as far away from Scott as possible and still had the stake clutched in his fist.
“His name is Conrad, and if he wanted to kill you, this,” Scott picked up the bulky wooden cross from Jay’s parents’ bedroom. “Would not stop him.”
The three of them watched as Scott tossed the impotent cross onto the floor, eliminating it as a potential source of protection. Ruby fingered the cross around her neck, knowing now that it was as insubstantial as it felt. Scott noticed the movement, and his eyes fell on the necklace. “Is that silver?”
Ruby nodded. “Yes.”
“Silver burns. Although, a tiny necklace isn’t going to do you much good. How about you tell me exactly what has happened, and I’ll tell you the best way for us to survive this.”
“Can we survive this? Have you met Conrad before?” she asked. A small shred of hope bloomed inside her.
Scott shook his head. “No. But I have heard of him; his reputation is legendary. And I would really like to avoid becoming one of those legends. So, please tell me everything.”
Ruby took a deep breath to try and steady herself and then she did as Scott asked and told him what had happened. Scott listened intently as Ruby recounted the horrifying events at the hospital. His eyes darkened with each detail told, and a deep frown etched across his face.
When Ruby finished speaking, there was a heavy silence that hung in the room. The gravitas of their situation pressed down on them, suffocating any hope. Scott broke the silence, his voice low and grave.
“What he did at the hospital was to scare you. If he wants you scared, then he doesn’t want you dead. That doesn’t mean he won’t kill you—us. I’m going to come to the meeting with you. I was in the video, so he’ll be looking for me too. Our best chance is if we cooperate and offer to do whatever it takes to put this right.”
Ruby exchanged skeptical glances with her friends.
“You want us to hand ourselves over to him and do whatever he wants?” said Jay.
“Yes,” Scott said, nodding. “It is the only hope. If we turn up looking for a fight, he will kill us all.” He lifted up one of the stakes. “This all has to stay here.”
“No chance,” Ethan said. “I’m not walking into a vampire’s lair without some form of protection.”
“That protection will get you killed,” Scott insisted. “None of us stands a chance against the Medju.”
“I’m with Ethan,” said Jay. “If you don’t like it, don’t come. It’s not like you were invited anyway.”
Scott looked pleadingly at Ruby in one last-ditch attempt to make his case. Ruby saw the logic in what Scott had said, but like her friends, she’d feel a lot less anxious with a wooden stake and silver knife at her side. Even if she did have zero chance of being able to use them. She gave Scott an awkward shrug, letting him know she was with Jay and Ethan.
Scott squeezed his eyes shut and let out a small exhale. “Fine. Fine. However, we must try diplomacy first. Keep the weapons hidden unless you have no choice but to use them. And let me speak with him. He’s more likely to listen to another vampire than he is to listen to a human.”
“Fine by me,” said Jay. Ruby and Ethan nodded their agreement. Ruby would be happy enough never having to speak to Conrad at all. She wanted this whole hideous situation put behind her as quickly and painlessly as possible.
“And leave the garlic behind. Unless you’re planning to season yourselves before inviting him to take a bite.”
Which character do you like more?
