Nectar (Nectar 1)

This can’t be really happening to me.

He drank her in for a moment with those insanely bright blue eyes and she felt vulnerable, almost naked under his inspection. His eyes scanned her face and then fixed on her heaving chest. Her face flushed. She closed her eyes tight.

He took her under her arms and effortlessly hauled her into a sitting position, leaving her no choice but to face him.

“Kyla,” he said, with way too much familiarity.

“Please don’t kill me.” Her chin was trembling.

“Where did you come from?” he asked, incredulous.

“Huh?”

His eyes searched hers. He was shaking his head.

“What do you mean? Someone grabbed me. I was just minding my own business. I…” she stopped, perplexed by his question. He didn’t look scary right now. His fangs weren’t showing. He was studying her face, looking puzzled. She swallowed hard and for a moment they were both silent. He continued to do what she could only describe as searching her face for something. She was beyond uncomfortable at being scrutinized so closely, like a lab specimen.

He was beautiful. Kyla would rarely or maybe even never say that about a man. She’d probably only thought it about a handful of famous men in her life and never anyone she’d laid eyes on in person, really, but he was. Handsome, sexy, cute? Alright. But beautiful? He was. He wasn’t pale or sickly looking like you’d expect a vampire to look. Oh no, he was 21st century movie star vampire beautiful. Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt, that kind of vampire beautiful.

But of course he was. She was a voracious reader and had read many vampire books. She had dozens of them on her Kindle and her Goodreads shelf. She’d seen just about every popular vampire movie, too, so knew all about the beauty of a male vamp book boyfriend.

Louis and Lestat in the Interview with a Vampire movie adaptation: they were beautiful so that they could seduce women, drink their blood, and then toss them aside. This guy was beautiful like that. She felt a pang of regret at words she and her friends had spoken during a girls’ movie night back before she moved to this city. They’d waxed lyrical about being willing to be an all-you-can-drink-and-fuck buffet for either Brad Pitt or Tom Cruise (Pre-Katie Holmes Tom Cruise because everyone knew that he’d turned in his heartthrob card around the time of Oprah’s yellow sofa). Either one. Preferably both. At the same time? Sure! Who knew when she’d said that, that vampires were actually real?

There was a quick rap on the door, breaking what felt like a spell as they stared one another down. His teeth scraped his lower lip for a beat then he said, “Be right back.” He whispered this and it sounded threatening but seductive at the same time.

He walked out via the door she’d hurled the decanter at. The door clicked shut and she heard the thud of a lock. She sat completely still but her mind raced at warp speed. She knew she was locked in and even if she wasn’t, she wondered if she’d have the nerve to try to run after having seen that he had fangs and the ability to become very scary-looking. And who else was out there, ready to stop her from leaving?

She gaped and shuddered and was about to get up and look for something to use as a weapon but then the door opened again and he carried a tall glass of clear liquid to her. She didn’t move, just stayed still with her hands covering her mouth, staring up at him.

“Drink,” he passed the glass to her. She accepted it, fingers trembling. Suddenly, she was parched. Her mouth was almost like it was filled with cotton balls. She sniffed the liquid. It didn’t smell like anything. She held it for a minute, looking at him cautiously.

“Just water,” he said.

She drank it. It seemed to be just plain water. She hoped that’s all it was.

Please don’t let this be a date rape drug. Heck, he was a vampire; wasn’t he a date rape drug?

“Thanks. So, this is obviously some sort of misunderstanding so if I could just go…” There was another quick rap on the door. She tensed.

The vampire had been regarding her with his head slightly tilted, like she was a rare specimen on display at a zoo. He took the glass from her and then opened the door an inch and spoke through it. Kyla didn’t see who he spoke to and couldn’t hear what they were saying. Her ears felt like they were echoing in a long noisy hallway and she was a little lightheaded. She wrapped her arms around herself and started to shiver. She was freaking right out.

She could see by his back and shoulders that he wasn’t just tall, but strong, too. She hadn’t taken that into consideration when she’d tried to fight her way out of the room. Looking now she knew it’d likely be impossible to get away from him if she had to battle him physically. She’d have to escape when he wasn’t looking. If there was that opportunity. She silently prayed there would be.