Cassian Legacy: The Vampire Prince
Chapter 6

By four in the afternoon, I hadaccomplished what I needed to, giving me two extra hours forbrowsingmerchandise. It took a bit longer than I thought for me to open up anew bank account. I had no credit history and no family to back me up, sotherefore I had to go through an assortment of extra paperwork. But once I toldthem where I was staying, they shredded the paperwork and handed me an accountwithout another word on how I acquired the cash. Sylvia’s name was like aparental permission slip to them.

I made sure I got a checking cardbefore I left, as I still had shopping to do. I gathered up my toiletries andgroceries next. I had everything I needed and paid for it in about fortyminutes. When I mentioned Sylvia’s name at the counter, they boxed up my itemsand had it shipped to my address so I wouldn’t have to walk down the streetwith several big bundles in my hands. Something interesting that I noticedabout Sylvia’s name was that the employees stopped looking at me like I was justa kid off the street. Apparently my clothes were dirty and in tatters, but Ihadn’t noticed something like that, when they had. I was definitely out ofplace here.

But there was also somethingstrange about these little boutique stores on Avenue K, they didn’t have a highamount of noise compared with the rest of the city. I didn’t have to focus onthe pitter patter of feet trudging around on the cement sidewalks so I wouldn’tget a migraine. It was oddly and breathtakingly quiet; a nice change for my exquisitehearing.

I hopped into the next store, andtold the sales lady who sent me. She had looked like she wasn’t about to giveme her business, but she perked up at once from the woman’s name and startedbusying herself with new clothing outfits. I soon realized they were for me. Ina matter of minutes she had guessed my size and color, and packed me up into adressing room with an array of clothing.

Having no other choice before me, Iset about trying on the clothes. I never needed to before knowing my size andbuying them first, but these were tailored differently. They all arranged froma six to a ten, depending on the designer. I was averagely built, not skinnylike super models, but I maintained my weight and height since…well ever Icould remember.

I found several items I reallyliked and set them aside for purchase. The sales girl handed me a beautifulblue top and a long flowing black skirt. I wasn’t as intrigued by the skirt asI should’ve been, but it looked good on me. I asked her if I could wear one ofthe sets of clothes out of the store, instead of the ratty shirt and jeans Iwore. She happily exclaimed I could do that, and I grabbed the blue shirt andthe black jeans.

Once I was done with the clothes,she packed them all up into boxes and bags, and set them aside. We got to workon shoes next. I still wore my worn out tennis shoes, but she picked up a fewsandals and heels for me to wear. I didn’t like the heels too much, but paidfor them anyway. I outfitted myself in some sandals for the evening. Once Ipaid her, everything I bought was actually cheaper than I originally thought itwould be. I carried my bags out to the boardwalk.

There were couples and peoplesurrounding me this evening. Apparently this part of town was quiet during theday and crowded at night. Already the increased noise gave me a headache. Ihurried on over to the bus station and waited. As soon as it came and starteddepositing people onto the sidewalks, I reached for the door. But Nate andKrista appeared just as my foot hit the first step.

I hoped they wouldn’t spot me amongthe throng, but her eyes found me instantly, like she was searching for my facein the crowd. She jumped up and down as she ran over to me. “Abel!” shescreamed. “We missed you today!”

I was forced to step off the busand turn my attention towards her.

Nate eyed me from head to toe,staring at me like I was something extraordinary. Of course I stared over athim wondering what caused him to look at me like that. He whistled once. “Wow,you’re hot.”

Krista elbowed him in the gut.“Like you’ve never seen a girl dressed up before.”

I switched my eyes from him to her.“How’s Seth?”

She looked unperturbed by my newoutfit. “He had some sort of fever, but he’ll be back at school tomorrow. Willyou be there?”

I nodded. “Yes I will. I had a coldtoo. I needed some time to get over it,” I lied smoothly.

She slightly smiled, but didn’t sayanything more on the subject. “So what are you doing down here?”

“Shopping.” I held up a bag to makemy point.

Nate leaned in to me. “We’re goingto a club.”

“The Red Curtain,” Kristawhispered. “It’s just around the corner. You should come. Mallory will bethere.”

I wasn’t much of a partier, or adrinker. Plus, I didn’t think I’d fit in right away with the partying crowd -usually they were the exclusive types. I shook my head. “I should be returningback to my apartment.”

Krista’s face fell. “Oh, well.Maybe later. We’ll see you at school.”

Nate winked as they left.

During that time, the bus had left.I waited for it to return, and it did, eventually. Once I got back to theapartment, I found a stack of boxes outside my door from the drug store. Ipulled all my packages into the small space of the kitchen and unpacked them.But while I busied myself with mundane tasks, I wondered why my friends were ata club on a school night.

The idea seemed odd to me, butintriguing all at the same time. I had never been to a club before, and I hadall my homework done which left me a night devoid of work. I stuffed the smallplastic card with the microchip into my jeans and went back the way I’d come. Itook the bus back to Avenue K, and listened for others discussing the club andits whereabouts. When I tried searching for The Red Curtain on my phone, theaddress was missing just like the apartments when I tried searching for them.

I was about to give up after a fewhours listening to mundane gossip when I caught snippets of the topic from acouple. The left from the nearby theater, headed for the street. Theirdiscussion yielded a lot of vital clues that I had missed earlier, but it wasenough information for me and I discovered its location quickly. The club layon a side street where I discovered the familiar letters curling through a neonblue sign over two magnificent heavy red drapes. They doors looked like stagedrapes from the theatre, where I guessed it took its namesake.

I walked up to the curtains, wherea heavily muscled guy barred the entrance. He stood there alone with no visibleweapons on his person. My experience in dealing with bouncers and othersecurity personnel, which mostly included the portrayal of them in TV seriesand movies, led me to believe they were armed in case things got out of hand.Apparently this wasn’t the case. But while I stood there sizing up the man, Ineglected to notice that there was a line outside the door, slinking its wayalong the building’s wall and around the corner. Several people threw mehateful glares out of the corner of my right eye as though I had just cut infront of them. I paid them no attention because they weren’t that much of athreat.

“My friends are inside,” I statedto the guy, wondering if the simple statement was enough to allow me passage.

He smiled at me and gestured to thecurtains. “Don’t get lost, sweetheart.”

I resisted the urge of a retort. Iwas never lost, and I didn’t get lost no matter how bad thecircumstances were. My brain had this uncanny ability to know where I was goingand what part of the country I’d be in even if I were locked in a coffin andshipped across the states - it was like imprinted GPS. But once inside theclub, I could see why he made that comment. The place was a huge jungle of redvelvet curtains and staircases. It was like a painting by M.C. Escher, but withcolor. People milled around tables and bars, gathering drinks and straws. Ithought the noise in the cafeteria was deafening, but this space combined withthe metallic floor coverings amplified the noise by extreme levels. A DJ mixedmusic on a raised stage in the middle of my line of sight. Bright blue lightsflooded the floor from above, casting shadows and highlighting the dancers.

I focused in on the bass,desperately trying to drown out the sound of everything else. No wonder I hadavoided these places. The chatter was louder than I thought possible in here.People nearly yelled at each other in order to make simple conversation. Therewere a lot of boys and girls in this establishment, both high school andcollege age. It was definitely a young person’s clubhouse.

I stood at the beginning of theplace and searched for Krista and Nate with my eyes, while focusing my hearingon the bass so I wouldn’t go completely nuts. Someone walked up behind me,distracting my thoughts instantly from the invasion of my personal space, andplaced their hand right on my bottom, giving it a little squeeze. I whirledaround as the guy leaned into my ear.

“Looking for me sweetheart?” hesmiled.

Rather than inflict punishment onhim for his inept rudeness, I stalked away from him, not wishing to acknowledgehis behavior with words or actions. By my calculations, I could throw him intothe wall and kill him instantly for what he did. Instead of leaving me alonethough, he followed behind, clearly not understanding the message I no doubtsent.

He tried approaching me again, justas I spotted Mallory in the crowd. I rushed over to her, pushing my way throughthe mass of people on the dance floor. She danced as well, but the moment shespotted me she stopped performing her chaotic moves and started jumping up anddown.

“You came! I can’t believe you’reactually here! Krista said you were tired when she ran into you earlier.”

I nodded and glanced back at theguy behind me, giving him a set of my dagger eyes. I hoped that he’d leave mealone, but my expression didn’t make him stop. He walked right up to the two ofus and glanced over at Mallory. “Why Mallory, it’s a pleasure to see you again.Tell me, who is your friend?” His eyes trained back to me, and he swept them upand down my body like I was someone he wanted to know but not in a talkativeway.

I glanced at her, hoping shewouldn’t introduce me.

But Mallory surprised me byblushing, sporting a huge grin aimed directly at the harasser. “I didn’t thinkyou’d remember me, Jaden.”

He paused in his ogling of me andfixed his gaze back on her. “I’d always remember a pretty red-head like you,”he slyly whispered in her ear. He had leant in to kiss her cheek, a greeting ofsome sort. He wrapped his thick black arm around her shoulders. “Tell me, who is your friend. I’ve never seen her before.”

His words dripped like honey. Theywere spoken with care and power, chosen so that she would make a decision inher mind to answer him regardless of my wishes or hers. I knew that power - thewant and the need behind the suggestion. He wasn’t just using speech he wasusing a form of compulsion. My eyes fell upon him again, though I now saw himas something else, something different. I didn’t know there were others this far uptown.

I grabbed Mallory’s arm, breakingher from his spell. She blinked her eyes and looked up at him. “What were wetalking about?” she laughed aloud.

Jaden eyed her with his dark greeneyes. “Nothing.” He looked back at me, though, clearly distressed by my abilityto break his compulsion so easily. “Who are you?”

His tone had shifted. He no longersounded friendly and flirty, but commanding and defensive. He wanted my nameotherwise something bad might happen next if I failed to give it. I wasn’t in amood to be trifled with. Besides, he was a fly to the likes of me. He hadcompulsed my friend into liking him, and thatI had problems with.

“This looks like a party,” someother guy mused from nearby. His voice sounded like honey too.

Mallory smiled at the new guybehind me. “Hi Tyson,” she greeted while twirling a lock of red hair with herright index finger.

I turned and found a blond headedboy with tanned skin gazing down at my figure. He ogled me like Jaden had. Iresisted the urge to poke out their eyes and glanced back at Mallory right asshe leaned her head to one side and exposed her neck in a way that made me sickat my stomach instantly. It was like she expected it from them.

My stomach flipped in severaldifferent directions as I wrapped my mind around what took place here. Iunderstood at once what this club was for and I knew what had happened to makeher perform these kinds of actions. There were two kinds of drug houses in thisworld. There were those that were rundown and in a bad part of town, where thepeople used lucrative passwords and simple bills, and then there were placeslike this where the others made more than just a simple profit from covercharges and drinks. They called these upscale businesses legitimate ventures,but in reality they were just the same as the crack houses. Mallory, Krista,and Nate had all been coming to this club for a long time just by the way Iheard them talking about it that one day they sat at my table. Their presencehere on many occasions was long enough for them to make a lot of acquaintances andhave compulsion used on them more than once which resulted in theirforgetfulness so they wouldn’t remember the blood sharing experience. Thisthoughtless act sincerely angered me to my core. Already I felt saliva pouringinto my mouth, readying my body for a fight.

Tyson moved in on my figure. “Youlook good,” he practically drooled on me.

But as suddenly as he took a stepand closed the distance between us with his words dripping like honey so thathe could munch on my neck without restraint, he moved away quickly and wentstill. Even Jaden dropped his arm from Mallory’s shoulders and straightened hisback. The tension that was once here vanished.

“What’s going on here?”

I turned my head and spotted him directly behind me, standing next toTyson. He was here, at the Red Curtain. His supposed pair of friends fromschool flanked him on either side, but they quickly took one another’s handsand rushed away, mixing with the other couples on the dance floor.

Tyson retreated, and Jaden turnedto Mallory. “I was about to ask her for a dance,” he stated to my friend in anormal voice.

Mallory blushed and went with him.I grabbed her arm quickly before she could run away from me and held her gaze.“Don’t go anywhere alone with him,” I commanded. She could obey that much atleast. She nodded and turned away, smiling, completely unaware of the danger.

I whirled on the guy. He had somesort of power in here.

“I told you we needed to talk,” herestated.

I shook my head. “Not here,” I saidthrough clenched teeth. I exerted an extreme amount of control so I wouldn’tlet anyone see I had fangs. They wanted so much to extend in this environment,and it was teeming with fresh blood. Plus I was already agitated from the mostrecent situation.

He stayed where he was, staring atme with his dark blue eyes. He held no soda bottle this time, but a single wineglass filled with a rich red. His white shirt was buttoned up but not at thecollar, and left half tucked in and half hanging out of his blue jeans. Thecrowd parted around us, giving a wide berth. No one really quite knew we bothstood here, yet they knew someone was taking up this space. I glanced around atthe other dancers, searching their faces. The young students were half happyand half dazed by their relaxed facial expressions. They were either happyabout having a night long party or thinking they were happy about theirsituation. Maybe this was what Sylvia meant about the underhanded comment shegave me earlier in regards to this environment. They were all unaware of thedanger in front of them, even the three who thought they were my friend.

“Would you like a glass?” He drewmy attention back to him by offering me his drink.

I shook my head. “I don’t drink.” Ihadn’t had wine in a long time and it wasn’t because of the alcohol content.

He smiled, regardless of my answer,and took a sip of his red.

Suddenly the DJ’s music shiftedfrom a soft bump into a loud bass. I had trouble concentrating on the rhythmonce the tempo changed. I shook my head quickly, dislodging the dizziness thatfollowed a shift in rythym like this. But the pounding grew louder and louderand a migraine started forming above my left eye.

“Excuse me,” I apologized andhurried away. I ran back onto the dance floor and grabbed Mallory by the arm.

I knew she wouldn’t want to returnwith me, but Jaden let her go and didn’t bother using his compulsion on her. Ifound Nate and Krista talking by the door, and led them all outside. They werehappier to see me than the other kids they talked to.

We burst out into the cool nightair and I took a deep breath in. The bouncer eyed me suspiciously before he letin four more students, who were thrilled at being offered a chance to enter theprestigious nightclub.

I followed Krista and Nate back tothe bus stop, pulling a tired and unhappy Mallory with me. When we stopped, shetried turning around and heading back, but I pulled her face to mine and mether gaze. “You’re going home.” This was the second time tonight I had to use mygift.

She nodded. “Home.”

Krista glanced back at us, just asI broke the connection. “She sounds so tired. She arrived there before us.”

I reached down and felt her pulsealong her right wrist. It was a little faint and her skin appeared sallow nowthat we were away from the diminished lighting. I brushed back her hair on theleft side of the neck; the side she hadn’t exposed and found two healing scarsright where I thought they would be. Some young one had fed off her. As though right on cue, she collapsed onto me.

Krista nearly screamed. “Is shealright?”

I shook my head. “She’s a littlefaint, probably from the heat.”

It was possible the two had no ideawhat occurred at the club and were compulsed like the other people in there.There was only one option left for me and that’s why I lied.

Krista bent down after I loweredMallory to the ground gently. “Too much to drink. She passed out like this oncebefore in the summer. I ended up taking her home with me but only because myparents were gone.”

Nate reached down and picked herup. “She can’t go home with me.”

I read the responses in their eyesand body language. Neither wanted to take her home, because then they wouldhave to explain what caused her sudden fatigue. I sighed. “I’ll take her.”

The bus arrived on schedule and weall got her into a seat. But once it halted at my stop, I picked up Mallorysupporting her weight from my one arm wrapped around her waist. Nate protested,offering to take her up to my pad, but I shook my head vehemently. The housematron would not like that. Even though she hadn’t explicitly expressed the “noboy’s allowed” rule, I understood it was implied with the drinking comment.

Before the bus left, I managed toget Krista’s phone number as I promise I’d text her in the morning before thetwo of us headed for school. Krista would retrieve Mallory’s school uniformfrom her house and hand it to her on the bus.

I let Mallory sleep on the couchdownstairs, afraid that she might vomit in the middle of the night. I had noidea what she drank if she consumed any alcohol at all, but it was clear to methat a vampire got a hold of her. The marks left over from the white porcelainfangs were painstakingly clear against her ivory complexion.

I left a bucket on the floor incase she awoke and got sick, before I headed upstairs for my sleep clothes.