Sasha Swift
Chapter 5 The Vampire Bar

Sasha

I never thought I would have a vampire in my car. Maybe a dead one locked in the trunk but nope an actual vampire is sitting beside me changing the stations of my radio. I quickly swat his hands away as a good song comes on.

"No more touchy!" I growl out. Zane leans back with a smirk on his face. I hate it. He's too handsome to be a vampire. He doesn't even smell like one.

He smells musky and alluring. Every time the wind blows his scent in my direction I clench my thighs together. The closer he is to me the harder it is to keep it together. I'm disgusted with myself for my crazy attraction to him. His kind killed my parents, he's the enemy. It would never work.

Zane sits back comfortably one arm stretched out. "Sorry, love wasn't quite sure what your music taste was."

"I like all music but usually no one messes with my radio stations."

Zane shrugs. "Do you normally have lots of people in your car?"

"Not really. I'm kind of a loner. What about you?"

"Same. It's just easier you know. Nobody to boss you around or ask questions about your job."

"Yeah nobody has to get hurt," I whisper then speak up. "So Zane what is your occupation annoying vampire?" I smirk and he chuckles.

"Sorry to add to your disappointments love but I'm an entrepreneur. I go wherever I want and do whatever I want."

"So you don't have a job?" I raise an eyebrow at him. I want to know the truth. I don't care if he has a job or not but I'm curious. I have the urge to know anything and everything about him.

He looks towards the road refusing to make eye contact with me. "I used to have a job, a great one actually. But they asked me to do something I didn't agree with and when I refused they got rid of me. Tossed me aside like the rubbish I am."

I'm not sure what comes over me but I reach over and grab his hand. Zane looks surprised by my action. "I'm not sure what you refused to do but it's always a noble thing to stand up for your beliefs. I'm proud of you Zane." I pull my hand away. "Maybe I won't kill you after all." I wink.

He laughs and I laugh. The tension in the air is gone and we keep driving down the road. The town we are going to is still far away so we're going to have to stop at a motel for the night.

It's almost midnight when I pull into a cheap motel in the middle of nowhere. They only had one room available and I'm not excited to share a room with a vampire. What will happen once I close my eyes? Will he try to suck my blood? Or worse try to kill me? I never let my guard down and I'm not going to start now.

I grab my black duffel bag out of my trunk and unlock the door to our room. It's a plain room with ugly yellow wallpaper, two queen-sized beds, and an older flat-screen TV on the wall. I pick the bed closest to the wall. Throwing my bag on the bed I fumble through it until I replace pajamas.

"I'm going to shower. Maybe you can order a pizza or something for dinner."

Zane sits on his bed bouncing up and down. He looks at me unamused. "Sounds good. You like meat lovers?"

I wink. "Ohh I love meat. Now make sure you tip the delivery boy." I walk past Zane and go into the small bathroom locking the door behind me.

After a thirty-minute shower, I brush my hair and teeth and put on a black sports bra with matching spandex shorts. I open the door to see Zane sitting on his bed with two pizzas and a case of beer.

"Where did the beer come from? Never mind I don't want to know." I sit on the other side of Zane grab a slice of pizza and take a huge bite. It's delicious I can't help but let out a little moan.

"You keep moaning like that love someone might think something else is going on in here," Zane smirks and I sit my pizza down crack open a beer, and take a drink.

"You wish vampire," I reply. He takes a bite of his pizza. His plump lips look very kissable and I quickly glance elsewhere before I'm caught checking him out.

After eating we settle on a movie after arguing for ten minutes. Like always I win and we end up watching Pretty Woman. The movie ends quickly and I fall asleep. I sleep as well as anyone could with a wooden stake in one hand and their back turned.

When morning comes we grab breakfast and coffee and get back on the road. Surprisingly Zane isn't a big coffee drinker. But I can't survive without it. Every morning I need at least one cup to start my day out right. I drink it all throughout the day also doesn't matter the time.

After three games of Eye Spy, five hours of fighting over the radio, Zane napping, and me drawing on his face we finally make it to our destination. Sadly the vampire club doesn't open until dark. Vampires are weakened by the sun. But the older a vampire is the more immune to the sun he is. Eventually, it doesn't bother them at all.

This makes tracking vampires even harder. An inexperienced hunter would only hunt them at night but during the day they're easier to spot. They always wear sunglasses because their eyes don't adjust to the sun they stay red and they wear clothes completely covering their skin.

Zane however has none of these issues. Which I replace odd. He blends in perfectly with humans. I asked about his maker because he would have to be very old and powerful to make him so strong and human-like but he refused to answer. Apparently, it's a sore subject for him.

I walk out of the bathroom of the motel room and see Zane buttoning up his black shirt. It's hard not to stare at his washboard abs. He has on dark jeans and black shoes and I wonder if I'm overdressed.

I have on a rainbow sequin dress. My back is exposed and where my chest is I have a large v-cut opening. I paired it with some silver heels. I bite my lip nervously."Umm, am I overdressed?"

Zane turns to look at me and his jaw drops. "Bloody hell. You look amazing Swift." He starts coughing nervously. "I mean it's fine, let's go."

I blush as I walk past Zane and grab my black purse. Inside are my ID and money. The rest of my weapons are in my car. I even left my favorite gun in my car. Sadly I can't take any of my weapons into the vampire bar.

We drive silently to the nightclub. Outside is a line of people waiting to get in. We park and walk straight toward the front door. A large security guard smiles at me and lets us in. I'm happy we didn't have to wait. This plan has to go perfectly.

Inside the music is blaring and bright yellow and purple strobe lights shine on us. Zane places his hand on my back. I feel his cool breath on my ear. "Wouldn't want you to get lost love, let's replace a seat." He whispers and we continue through the club until we replace a two-person table.

Lots of women pass us and check out Zane. He doesn't seem to pay attention to them but I do. I have a permanent scowl on my face now. Do women not care he has a date? I mean he's single and can do whatever he wants. I don't care. I'm not jealous.

Zane looks at me concerned. "Dance with me." He says and I shake my head. I want to dance with him but it's a bad idea. I'm supposed to hate him. But why do I want him to wrap his arms around me?

"No thanks, I'll just drink." I wave down a server and she quickly brings me a bourbon. Zane gets the same drink. I learned we both have the same favorite drink. Another reason to hate him.

After finishing his drink Zane stands up. He holds out a hand for me to grab. "Dance with me, Swift. Please." He begs. I want to say no but my mouth betrays me.

"Let's go," I answer. Zane holds my hand as we walk to the dance floor. Tingles shoot up my arm with the contact and I wonder if he feels it too. What's going on between us? Why do I feel this weird instant connection between us?

A new song starts up distracting me from my thoughts and I start swinging my hips to the beat. Zane's behind me his hands gripping my waist as he presses closer to me. We move together and it feels so right.

Three songs later and our bodies are so close together I'm not sure where he ends and I begin. Zane bends down and his lips gently graze my shoulder. I reach my arm up and pull him closer to me.

The alcohol and the atmosphere must be getting to us because Zane starts to kiss my neck and I don't stop him. His arm around my waist tightens and I let out a little moan. "Mhm, Zane." I close my eyes to relax as his kisses trail up my neck.

"Swift. You taste so good." He whispers and I open my eyes. I start to answer him when my eyes fall on a woman across the room from us. I stop moving and drop my arm. "What's wrong Swift? I'm sorry I kissed you I just got caught up in the moment." Zane keeps rambling but I can't understand him.

My eyes must be playing tricks on me because sitting at a table with a group of vampires is the red-haired lady from my nightmares. The one who killed my parents. The first vampire I've ever seen.

I can hardly breathe as I take a step away from Zane but I don't make it far. He grabs me and turns me around to face him. My lip is trembling and I'm not sure I can speak. Seeing her brings back the horrible memories of that night. I feel like a scared ten-year-old girl again.

Glancing down at the ground I feel Zane cup my chin. Looking into his eyes I see how worried he is. He thinks I'm mad at him. But this has nothing to do with him. "Swift, what's wrong? Talk to me. Yell at me! Try to kill me or something. Just let me know what you're feeling."

"I'm not sure how I feel," I answer honestly. "I thought replaceing her would give me peace, make me angry, something. But all I want to do is run away." I turn to look back at the red-haired vampire and Zane looks from her to me. He squeezes my shoulders.

"Is that her? The one you told me killed your parents?" I nod and Zane's fangs come out. He's pissed. "She's the one we came here for tonight. She and her friends are the ones who work for Aquarius."

When Zane says that I know I have to get my head back in the game. I can't let my feelings get in the way. This is a job and they are just vampires. I will kill them like I killed all the others. They will regret the day they killed my parents.

We hang around the club drinking and talking until we see the vampires start to leave. We never danced again or brought up our moment on the dance floor. The whole thing was weird. Our species are enemies. We're enemies. We shouldn't be attracted to each other.

Finally when it's almost closing the three vampires get into an old beat-up brown rusty truck that we follow out of town. When they turn down a dirt road with a house at the end we stop and park. Stepping out of my car I go to my trunk and start grabbing weapons. Zane comes up beside me.

"You ready for this?" He asks and I grab my waistband of weapons and snap it on.

"I'm ready. The girl is mine." I say and Zane growls. He's as ready for this as much as I am.

"Remember question first then we kill her." He says and I agree so we begin our walk down the road to the house.

Standing in the treeline closest to the cabin we see one vampire asleep in a wooden rocking chair. I assume he's the lookout but he's terrible at his job.

We slowly walk up to the cabin. Zane is behind me as I grab a stake and plunge it through the vampire's chest. He turns to ashes before he even gets the chance to wake up.

As I reach the front door my hand tightly grips the doorknob. My hand is sweaty and shaking. This is it, the moment I've been waiting for. On the other side of this door are the monsters who killed my parents. I take a deep breath and open the door.

Zane runs past me and rips the heart out of a vampire in a flash. Another vampire appears at my right and I dodge his hit and spin around and drive my stake through his heart.

A scream gets mine and Zane's attention. It's the red-haired vampire and she's pissed. She growls and charges toward me. I reach into my waistband ready to do what I came here to do.

I reach into the small brown pouch in my hand and throw the powder into the vamp's face. She looks stunned. She was expecting a different weapon. But it's not time for that yet.

Her eyes flutter and then close as she falls over unconscious. Greta created a sleeping potion that I always take with me. It will knock out any supernatural creature for a short period. I look down at the vampire and smile.

"Gotcha vampire!" I look over at Zane who looks surprised. I didn't tell him about the potion. He probably thought I was going to kill her.

"What the hell was that Swift?"

I laugh and put the potion back into my waistband. "Just some magic herbs I use for emergencies. I have another one that heals wounds."

Zane runs his hand through his hair. "Wow. So what's the plan now?"

I point to the front door. "Go to my car and get the chains out of my trunk. Let's make sure she can't run off before we can finish talking to her." Zane nods and runs off using his vamp speed.

When he returns we start tying up the vampire to a chair. Zane smiles at me as we finish. "You're amazing, you know that. And your trunk, you have a whole armory in there." He states.

I start to laugh. "Thank you, Zane. I go to lots of gun shows and order most off the internet. No one has ever called me amazing though."

"No one has ever seen you fight before and live to talk about it." Zane stands up and places a hand on my shoulder. "You're a goddamn warrior Swift."

I start to blush and I'm unsure how to answer. I open my mouth to say something when the red-haired devil wakes up and starts trying to shake herself free.

"Give up vampire. These chains are magic, practically indestructible." I roll my eyes and the vampire glares at me then at Zane.

"You're helping her! What kind of traitor are you working with a human? Let me go and we can feed off her together."

Zane places his hand on her shoulder and she tries to bite him. "Sorry, I don't follow vampire rules anymore. I make my own."

The vampire spits and I punch her in the nose. "You're not leaving here alive so just tell us what we want to know. Where is Aquarius?" I ask and the vampire girl laughs and Zane backhands her making her lip bleed.

"I won't give up my boss. Unlike some I'm loyal." She glares at Zane who backhands her again.

"We can do this all night. Now tell us about Aquarius. How does he contact you to give you the jobs?" The girl looks shocked at Zane. Maybe she didn't expect him to know about Aquarius and how he works.

She scowls while she looks from Zane to me. "We have a burner phone he emails us on. But it's untraceable so good luck."

I look at Zane and he looks pissed. He walks in front of the vampire and growls as he shoves his hand into her chest grabbing her heart. "Tell me where to replace him! Does he have any meetings or functions coming up? Answer me before I rip out your heart ending it now!" His shouts echo through the empty cabin and send chills down my spine.

An angry Zane is a scary Zane.

The vampire is trembling now. She closes her eyes and takes a deep breath. "He has a party coming up. At his Bellview grand estate in two weeks. It's a black-tie event. But they won't let you in."

Zane grunts. "Oh, they don't have to invite me in. I'll kick down the door." He smirks and rips out her heart in one quick motion. Her body turns to ashes and my chains fall to the floor.

I'm speechless. Zane looks at me and wipes the blood on his shirt then unbuttons it and throws it off revealing his toned chest. "I know where that estate is. I'll have Dougie get the latest blueprints of the house so we can make a plan. I guess we part ways until then."

I'm still in shock. I'm frozen and staring at the chains on the ground. The vampires who killed my parents are dead. The red-haired devil can't haunt my dreams anymore, I'm free.

Zane waves his hand in front of my face and I realize he's been talking to me and I haven't answered him. I look at him puzzled. "Sorry, what did you say?"

He sighs. "I said we should get a hotel for the night and some drinks. I think we both could use one after tonight."

"Sure. What's the worst that can happen?"