“I think so. I didn’t get really close to him, but I will do better tonight. I will make sure to mark him when I find him.”
“Good. Good. This one is going to drive me crazy with her valley girl talk, but she does have a sweet smell to her. I don’t think she’s ever been with a man.”
“Oh, a virgin. Our favorite.”
“Yeah. Her name is Ruby Vincent. She said she was from California, but from what I gathered, she wasn’t much of anyone. Seems like she is desperate for someone to like her. It will be an easy lure with her.”
“What does she look like in real life?” I wasn’t sure I really wanted to picture her with him, but I would see her sooner or later. The pain never lessened, and I knew he never slept with them. Still, he did have to make it believable and that meant kissing and touching them. I did the same, so I really had nothing to complain about, but it still got to me.
“Like her picture. She put her real self online. She has red hair, green eyes, and a mole on her cheek. She’s a little shorter than I thought, and she isn’t as thin as most models I have seen. She says she’s a writer and that she went to the workshop of Lee Mathews a few years ago. That man can write. I’ve read all of his books and would have loved to have met him. I heard he went crazy at the end.”
“Sounds interesting. You guys talked a lot last night, huh?”
“It’s all part of the game, my love. Don’t let it get to you.”
CHAPTER EIGHT
Regan was right, I could track him since I had found him the night before. It wasn’t even that hard. I went to the bar he was at the other night and waited. It only took an hour and he showed up.
There was a blonde hanging on his arm. Flinging her hair over her shoulder and laughing excessively at whatever he was saying, she was making me nauseous. Why women thought they had to act like that to get a man’s attention, I never understood. Maybe it was because I never had to date that it was lost on me. Regan found me when I was younger, and the times back then were so different then the way they were today. You courted a woman with the intention of marrying her. It wasn’t a way to get into her pants. That came much later. They had lost all of the values I used to know; it was another reason I had no problem killing them off. They were ruining all the things I used to know and making the world so ugly.
The part that killed me was, they called us monsters. We weren’t as evil as they could be. We only hunted to survive. Yeah, we made games of it, but you live forever and see if you don’t get bored doing the same thing all the time. It also made us closer as a couple to do things like that for each other. Romance wasn’t dead with us. Not like it was with them. They put all their things before people and let the humans fade to the side. It was a messed-up way to live. If I had to be around for that era, I was thankful Regan was the one by my side.
I wasn’t going to go into the bar. Too many people would have seen me with him if I had. I waited outside for him to come back out and I prayed the bimbo wasn’t with him when he did. Hours went by and I was about to give up and go home when the doors swung open. Music and laughter flooded out and spilled into the dirt parking lot. I saw him with the same group of men he had been with the night before. The blonde was hanging on the arm of one of them when they came out.
I smiled.
Maybe he wasn’t like the rest of the human race. He seemed to have a little respect for himself and could see through her ridiculous lies of how she lived her life. He waved to his group of friends before helping another get the overly drunk blonde into a pickup truck. It was entertaining to see them try and lift her into the lifted cab and then watch as she swung her arms around, laughed, and almost fell out.
“I don’t feel good,” she said. The words barely left her mouth before she turned her head and hurled into the cab of the truck.
“Damn it, Vanessa” the one man who was taking her home said. “I just got the smell out from the last time you did that.”
“Still want to take her with you?” My mystery man laughed.
“Now, Dylan, you know I do. She might puke, but she gives the best head when she’s drunk like this.”
Dylan. His name was Dylan. It was the first time I had heard it and the sound of it was music to my ears.
“You’re a pig,” Dylan fired back. He waved his hands up and backed away as the other man pushed the blonde inside.
“Gross,” she yelled as she landed in her vomit.
“Shut up, Van. You won’t even remember what you did in the morning. See ya, man,” the one guy said and waved at Dylan.
“See ya.”
He was finally alone, and it was my turn to say hi.
I came out of where I had been hiding and slowly walked closer to him. I caught the whiff of his cologne and closed my eyes to take in a deeper breath. Sandalwood and cypress filled my lungs. It was a scent I had been familiar with for years. It was an older mix than what they called cologne in that generation and I was happy to see he was a little nostalgic.
I was almost to him when he spun around and about knocked into me.
“Sorry,” I said before thinking.
“No, I’m sorry. I didn’t see you there. Are you alright?”
I took a good look at him and melted a little more. His jet-black hair and deep brown eyes had me mesmerized. He was so well built too, and I could easily see his muscles on his arms as he moved them to his sides.
“Yes. My car broke down a little bit down the road. My phone,” I said and held up the phone I had turned off before he came out, “isn’t working either. Is there someplace around here that I could use a phone or get a tow?”
“Tow places won’t be open this late at night, and the only place that might have a phone is miles in the other direction.”
“Oh.” I hung my head and slumped my shoulders.
“I could take you to your car and look at it for you if you want,” he offered.
“No, but thank you. I just need a phone. I could call my brother, who’s a mechanic, and he could come get me.”
“Well, here. You can use my phone.” He took his out of his back pocket and held it out for me.
“Thank you.”
I turned to face away from him, dialed my own number, and pretended to have a conversation with Jesse, my brother. I made sure to talk loud enough for him to hear the frustration in my voice. It was one thing I had learned men couldn’t handle: a woman upset. I had used it to my advantage so many times over the years, I had become a pro at it. Going in the opposite direction of the ditzy blonde, I fed on their need to protect, even when they didn’t know me.
I hung up the phone and turned back to him.
“Thank you. He will be on his way soon. He was out with friends and is in the next town over. He said it would be about an hour. I can wait here until he gets here, but thank you for letting me make the call.”
“You are not staying out here by yourself. Here is my address,” he said and typed it into his phone. “Call him back and tell him to pick you up there.”
“I couldn’t. Besides, I don’t know you. What if you are the one I should be staying away from?”
“I know you don’t know me, but I’m harmless. I promise.”