Chapter 3

Chapter 3

>Marcus´s Penthouse. Night<

Marcus leads me into his dimly-lit penthouse. Before I know it, he´s kissing me on the lips with unrivalled hunger. Just as suddenly, he pulls away to look me in the eyes.

“God, you´re so beautiful.”

I gaze back into his eyes, becoming awestruck with how beautiful they are. His eyes are blue, reminiscent of the sea. They look so kind and yet sad simultaneously, as if they´ve witnessed a terrible tragedy. For a moment, I am lost in them. I feel guilty because of my real intentions. And just like that, my resolve to simply even harm him crumbles away. I can´t bring myself to kill him.

Suddenly, he looks away. I follow the direction of his gaze, and he´s looking towards a corner that is cast in shadows. Marcus lets me go and he steps forward. Someone´s there. I can sense it now.

“You know there´s a reason why I don´t have bodyguards. It´s because I can easily disable a threat by myself.”

I can detect movements in the impenetrable shadows. Then I hear a male voice speak.

“I´ve been attempting to track down this vampire for years. Instead, I find you.”

“Well, you´re about to regret tracking me down.” With supernatural speed, Marcus charges into the shadows. “What the--”

I hear punches being thrown, followed by a stabbing sound. One of them screams out in pain. Then Marcus comes hurtling from the darkness, landing before me. An old, bejeweled dagger is sticking out of his back. I detect movement from within the shadows, and begin to discern the silhouette of a man. My instincts tell me to fight, so I charge at him. For a moment, I lose control of my own strength to the extent that I end up tackling the man through the floor-to-ceiling glass windows of the penthouse. The next thing I know, we are both falling through the air.

>Balcony. Night<

We land on the floor of a balcony, a single storey below the penthouse. I land on my feet. The man lands on his back, although quickly recovers and is instantly on his feet. The light of the moon illuminates his face, allowing me a good look at his features. The man has long white hair, silver against the moonlight. He´s the man from one of my visions!

“Laura, it´s me.”

“Who are you? How do you know my name?”

Before the man can respond, Marcus shouts from above the landing of the penthouse.

“Laura!”

I turn to look at the stranger standing before me, and whisper at him sharply. “Get outta

here!”

The stranger escapes, jumping on to another balcony below. To my surprise Marcus leaps onto the floor where I am. Yet he collapses the moment he lands on his feet. He´s blatantly weakened. I rush to his side to support him, then he gazes at me.

“Who are you?”

“I´ve been asking myself the same thing.” Who am I?

>Balcony. Night<

 Marcus slumps to the ground as his strength begins to wane. I hastily remove the dagger embedded in his back. “Thank you.”

“What is this thing?”

“It´s my bane. Whoever that vampire hunter is, he has some serious mystical connection.”

Whoever that man is, he probably has answers about who I really am.

Marcus turns his back to me, scanning the city below us, searching for a trace of his attacker. I surreptitiously pocket the dagger. I might be able to use this to track the mysterious man. I take a shard of glass from the floor and throw it over the balcony.

“The dagger!” Marcus turns to me angrily. “Why would you do that?”

“You said it´s your bane. I don´t want that thing near you.”

“Well, it doesn´t work that way. The dagger only dampens my abilities when I am impaled by it.”

“Well, it sure didn´t dampen your abilities to jump from two storeys

high.”

“Believe me, I´m a lot stronger than I appear.”

“Obviously. So, you´re an ancient vampire?”

Marcus smiles. “How did you figure that out?”

“Ancient vampires are harder to kill than your modern-day descendants. That´s why that hunter required mystical implements in order to kill you.”

“I´m impressed by your knowledge of these things. Now you realize what kind of monster I am, how about you tell me what kind of monster you are?”

“The kind who saves vampire live apparently.”

Marcus chuckles. “What makes you think that I needed saving?”

I roll my eyes at him. It´s beginning to dawn on me how conceited he can be.

“You know, I have abilities that I can employ to discover what you really are. However, I´m not going to use them on you. It doesn´t feel right.”

“I´m not sure I want to find out either. But in any case, that´s very considerate. For a vampire like you.”

“Not all vampires are evil, Laura.”

The vision comes again. This time it´s more vivid than previously.

>Vision of Lucas´s house. Guest room. Night<

“Don´t do this, Liam. This is not you.”

The rave-haired man stands before me, his eyes red, fangs protruding from his mouth. He´s a vampire.

“Is it? How can you tell, Laura? How can you tell this is not the real me?”

“Because I know that you´re a good person, Liam. You´ve made me see that time and again.”

“I´m a killer. I could kill you right now if I wanted to.”

“But you won´t.”

The vampire lunges for me. And everything turns black.

>Now<

I stagger back, momentarily disoriented by the vision. Was that a vision? Or was it a memory?

“Are you all right?”

I attempt to shake off the image of the raven-haired man. But I can´t. Marcus moves to place a hand on my shoulder.

“Please, don´t touch me.”

Marcus takes a step back, holding his arm up in apology. “I apologize.”

“Look, I need to go.”

“Wait. Laura.” Marcus grabs my arm.

“You´re a very trusting vampire, Marcus. You don´t even know who I am. How do you know that I mean you no harm?”

“You just helped me to fight that hunter. Besides, if you were an enemy, I am quite certain that you wouldn´t be able to inflict that much harm on me.”

I look at him darkly. “You want to put that to the test?”

Marcus lets go of my arm. “Perhaps some other time.”

Without another word, I leap onto the landing beneath us, making it all the way to the street below. I run as swiftly as my feet can carry me, questions racing inside my head. Who is Liam? And who was that vampire hunter?

However, most bothersome of all, Marcus keeps intruding inside my head. I can´t help but see a picture of him within my mind.

>Solstice Manor. Library. Night<

I return to Solstice Manor that night. Now I have to deal with Eisendrath and my failed mission. All I know is that I can´t reveal to him that I´m having these visions. Nevertheless, one thing is certain; Eisendrath deliberately withheld information about Marcus. I just need to know why. I storm into the library, and see Eisendrath sitting behind his desk as usual.

“You sent me to kill an ancient vampire?! Seriously?”

Eisendrath looks up at me with sudden interest, almost surprised. “Was it a success?”

“What part of ancient did you not hear? Those vampires are difficult to kill.”

“I should´ve known you weren´t ready.”

“What´s that supposed to mean?”

Eisendrath heaves out a sigh of resignation. “It was a test, Laura Rose.”

I can´t believe what I´m hearing. “Are you fucking kidding me? I could´ve died out there. If it weren´t--”

“If it weren´t for what?”

“Never mind.” I can´t tell him about the silver-haired man. Eisendrath gazes at me suspicious. And I try my utmost not to appear as if I´m being less than truthful.

“So, how did you figure out that he´s an ancient vampire?”

“He could tell I´m supernatural. I guess it´s one of his abilities.”

Eisendrath´s eyes narrow on me, and I´m unable to determine whether he knows that I´m not telling the truth. “And was he able to tell what you are?”

“No. It´s just that he couldn´t detect magic in me or something. I then told him a bogus story and he bought it.” Eisendrath remains silent for a long moment, contemplating what I just told him.

“Do you think you can get close to him?”

The question catches me off-guard, and I reply without even thinking. “Yeah. I guess so.”

“We must adjust our plans then. Now you´re role is to insinuate yourself into his life. Identify his weakness, then you can eliminate him.”

“About Mar—Mr. Walker. I don´t think--”

“No, Laura Rose, you don´t think. You simply do what I tell you to do. Remember that Barry´s life is at stake here.”

All I can do is give Eisendrath a look of contempt. I long for the day when he will no longer be able to use Barry´s life as leverage, and we´ll both be free of his control. I turn around and head for the door.

“Remember your task, Laura Rose.  Slither your way into Mr. Walker´s life, and discover his weakness.”

I close the library´s double-door behind me.

I pull out the bejeweled dagger from my pocket and stare at it. It´s Marcus´s weakness. It´s also the key to finding that vampire hunter. For the first time in a very long time, I see a glimmer of hope for discovering some answers.