Vampiric: Chapter One, Part 4

We walked to a classy club with live entertainment, dimmed down lights, and tables tucked into various nooks and crannies. It gave off cozy, romantic vibes. I let those fill me and replace what was left of my nerves.

“You have been extremely diligent in your studies,” Drei said loud enough to be heard over the music. “I think it is time you learn something different.”

“Like what?” I asked, opening my water bottle and taking a drink.

“Classical dance;” he said it with a straight face, which, unfortunately, I wasn’t able to muster myself.

“My mother made me take ballet as a kid.” I grimaced at the memory of my first recital. “It wasn’t pretty.” Pretty really wasn’t the word for it. It had been more like disastrous. Ballet had definitely not been my forte, and I doubted much had changed since then.

“Not ballet;” he smiled, no doubt imagining me in one of those ridiculous tutus falling center stage. “Nor anything of that sort. I meant ballroom, mostly.”

“Like the quickstep and waltz?” I had always wanted to learn ballroom, but the only time my mother condoned it was for debutante balls, and that was mostly the waltz.

“Exactly.”

“Can we start now?” The house band sank into a ballad.

Without waiting for a reply, I stood and pulled Drei along after me. He seemed shocked, and if I stopped to think about it, I probably would have been, too. On the hardwood dance floor, we struck the typical waltz position—it had been so long since I had danced a waltz, he had to correct my posture. At least he was nice about it, smiling bemusedly. It was fortunate the man leads since the variation Drei led me through was different from the ones I had learned.

“Do not look down,” Drei instructed the few times I peeked to make sure I really was following him. He would smile when my eyes returned to his. In those moments, we seemed to be in a separate world, only the music able to slip through. It was enough to make me grateful I had agreed to join him.

When the song ended, Drei smiled approvingly, as though he thought teaching me dancing would be an interesting endeavor. He also seemed to want to kiss me, and tell me I was beautiful or brilliant or some other compliment. I wanted to kiss him too, but not here.

A few couples gawked at us, as though dancing something less vulgar than “the grind” was new to them. Drei either didn’t care or didn’t notice, so I decided not to mention it. It was paranoid of me to think they were taking a special interest in us for other reasons. I realized Drei was right in thinking I needed to go out more. Especially since that was the first thing that came to mind when people looked at me.

On the street, we walked close to each other. I wished it were safer for us to be together and he could put his arm around my shoulders or hold my hand or something. But he couldn’t, and I had to be okay with that.

“You folks having a good night?” a man asked, approaching us slowly.

Drei didn’t stop, completely ignoring the man. As we passed, something about him seemed strange. He was decked out in black cargo pants and a turtleneck, with a black stocking cap pulled partially over his ears in a poor attempt to hide the brilliant red hair beneath. He smiled at me, winking as though I had guessed right and won a prize. I wasn’t sure I wanted to know what the prize was.

However, I laid a hand on Drei's forearm, stopping him. His amethyst eyes held mine for a moment, and he understood what I was beginning to. The man was our contact. Whether that was a good thing or not, he was the rabbit we were supposed to follow.

“C wanted me to pick you two up together; didn’t say it would be so difficult,” he said, a slight Irish accent coming through in his speech. “I’ve seen you plenty enough times,” he explained, nodding at Drei. “But you, love, are a hard one to pin down.”

“Where are we going?” I asked, anxious from his rambling.

“Into the car,” he replied, jerking his head in the direction of the nondescript vehicle behind him. He added, in response to my next question, “You’ll see when we get there.”

Drei squeezed my hand briefly in assurance this guy couldn’t do anything to us. It seemed to say we just had to jump through whatever hoops Caroline sat before us. If we could do that, we were in.

“Are you ready?” he whispered, regarding me carefully.

“I trust you,” I said, just as softly. It was the only true answer I had. I wasn’t sure I was ready, or that this was the right thing to do, but I trusted him. Had for years. That was all of which I could be sure.

Sitting in the back seat of the car, watching the nightlife fly by, I realized this was what Drei wanted. He wanted us in on everything, because you can only learn so much from history. I wouldn’t find the answers I needed in old books about past times. If I was going to succeed, I would need firsthand experience with someone working toward change.

I would need Caroline.