RYKER

 

As Ryker exited Aliza’s apartment complex, he passed right by his car and headed down the sidewalk. He couldn’t drive. His hands were shaking, and he didn’t know why.

She was just a girl. A young, naive girl. Nothing special. He had fed off herds of them in his day. He had a few waiting for him back at the Blood Board’s mountain chalet. Girls who were aware of the vampire culture and accepted him, flaws and all. Shared a home with him even.

But this girl, Aliza. There was something different about her. Something not quite right.

She couldn’t be hypnotized.

She smelled oddly metallic, not like any human or vampire.

Ryker had told dozens of people about vampires in his three hundred years. And of them, not one grew angry—shock, confusion, and disbelief, perhaps, but not anger.

He took another corner and another. The more distance he put between them, the better he felt.

Don’t fool yourself.  You don’t feel better.

The scent of death stopped him. Not a rotten odor, but the start of decay. He closed his eyes and slowly pulled the scents into his nose, feeling a breeze across his face.

The wind was coming from the west, and he headed that way. The scent was human, without a doubt. He followed his nose to an alley that ran behind buildings lined with snow-covered bushes. Tucked away from the building between a few shrubs was a large dumpster.

Maybe it was just rotten food.

He sniffed again.

The scent was unmistakably of human death. He had smelled that odor a thousand times.

Ryker lifted the dumpster cover and the smell of old food had him dropping the lid and coughing. The odor of death was not from inside. With one arm, he pulled the dumpster away from the shrubs, revealing a human leg sticking out from between the bushes.

Ryker pulled the dumpster away further, uncovering a familiar face.

Brutus, or whatever his name was. The man that had been in Aliza’s apartment. The man who had argued with her was now dead.

Dead, for not even a day yet.

Maybe it wasn’t her.

He spun in a slow circle, taking in his surroundings. Off a wooden board above the shop’s back entrance hung a sign that read, Coffee Buzz.

His stomach churned. He had been too late.

Aliza had said she had gotten coffee while he had slept yesterday. That she had been so thirsty and was now feeling better.

It couldn’t be. She hadn’t completely changed yet.

But she wasn’t quite typical, in many ways.

A pebble skid across the pavement behind him. Ryker spun to see a redheaded woman jingle her keys. A boy stepped beside her, eyes growing wide as he caught sight of the dead body. The boy screamed, followed quickly by the woman.

Ryker let out his vampire, bringing the red glow to his eyes. The words sprung quickly from his lips as he gave the woman an order. “Turn around. Go home. You didn’t see a thing.” He turned to the boy. “You don’t see anything either and won’t remember this interaction.”

Both humans spun around, giving Ryker a few moments to pull the body from the bushes and examine his neck. Two slits, the hallmark sign of a vampire feeding.

He leaned down and inhaled.

That familiar metallic odor he smelled on Aliza.

His fangs elongated, unable to hide his vampire side.

Maybe there was more to Aliza than he thought. When his phone vibrated, he answered.

“Ryker here.” His old human emotions were kicking in. His heart was beating and his breaths more rapid than needed to scent the air.

“It’s almost daylight. What’s your update?” Zahra’s words were demanding.

“She’s changed.” He looked down at the dead body. “My rules no longer apply.”

“I’ll put Frank on a plane first thing tonight.”

“I won’t need him.” Ryker tightened the grip on his phone while his other hand formed a fist.

“I’m sending him, anyway. Too much time has already passed.”

“Fine,” Ryker growled and took off running toward Aliza’s apartment.

 

ALIZA

 

Aliza had taken a cab and finally picked up her car from her old neighborhood. Now, she paced in front of Mark Cooper’s home. As Chief of Police, he had come up with the idea and obtained approval to tear down four homes in her old neighborhood to put in a park. Not just any park, but a simple green space with a few benches. A park only a block or two from a larger, more popular one. An unneeded park that’s only purpose was to raise the property values of the nearby homes. Homes that Police Chief Mark Cooper owned and rented out. With this scheme came the end to her memories. The end to an era.

Her hands shook when she finally stepped up to the door. She tried twice to push the doorbell before she succeeded.

The chief was not in uniform. He wore simple jogging pants and an old, blue t-shirt. His mustache wiggled as he scratched his head. “Aliza Adams, correct?”

She nodded.

“I’ve been trying to return your calls, but I’ve been busy.” He didn’t give her eye contact, and lifted his phone, swiping the screen over and over.

That was it. There was a fury of something unfamiliar inside her that pulled at her soul. All the anger she’d suppressed, her fear of being alone, her sadness that her mom left…and then her dad, that her ex didn’t care about anything but himself…and football, and that Ryker took off without an argument created a swirl of emotions that consumed her.

Her fingertips tingled and her mouth salivated. She fisted her hands, only to feel her nails dig into her palms, causing blood to trickle off her fingers. “No, you didn’t return my calls. You didn’t get to hear why the house on Robin Street shouldn’t be torn down.”

“Well, I’m listening now, not that it’ll do much good.” He chuckled.

“It is too late now, isn’t it?” Her arm pulled back, and her feet grew antsy. She shuffled back and forth, filled with an energy she’d never had before. Energy that needed to escape.

The man didn’t look up, continued to swipe at his phone. “I guess there’s nothing either one of us can do—”

That was when Aliza lost it. Red overcame her vision, and she attacked, nails…or rather claws out first. She swiped at his neck, his arms, his chest. Her elbow clunked him in the head, hard. She was stronger, much stronger than she ever thought she could be. She detached her actions from her body and kept pushing forward. One scratch after another.

It wasn’t until he dropped to the ground, unmoving and unresponsive, that she stopped.

She was shaking again.

What had she done?

She looked at her hands. Blood soaked her fingers, causing saliva to pool in her mouth. Without thinking, she brought her index finger to her mouth and licked it off…

Like Ryker had done after he bit her lip.

This was his fault. It had to be.

Who was he?

She pulled her shaking finger out of her mouth, relishing in the sudden clarity in her head.

Wiping her hands on her t-shirt, she ran from the chief’s home.

She needed to find Ryker.

Find that man who’d been around since everything started to go wrong.