This Is Where I Want To Be

8. Stupid Girl

Juliet

Going into the building and leaving Louis in the alley was a gutsy idea. What did I know about spying on anyone? I laughed lightly, thinking about Chris and how long I had followed him, but he wasn’t a stranger I needed to find in a maze of a building. There was no point wandering around or waiting for doors to open so I could maybe see Mr. Tailored and the bag. “The bag!” I had to listen for the cub. It would eventually yelp or whimper again. Hurriedly, I continued; there were a lot of floors to cover, and my parents were waiting. They would get worried and come looking soon.

As I walked through the narrow hall of the first floor, it wasn’t hard to hear everything going on in every room; the walls were that thin. I heard things I shouldn’t have or wanted to. The door to the stairs was right in front of me, and I took them quickly to the second story. The carpet was worn in places. The walls were an ugly maroon color, peeling in places. I slowed at every door because all I could do was listen. Eventually, two more floors up, I heard a faint little cry from the pup down the hall. As I got closer, the sounds got louder and louder; each cry was weak but desperate. I reappeared and pressed my ear to the door, hearing the footsteps of two people coming closer. I vanished. Mr. Tailored opened the door with his back to me. He leaned down and kissed the woman one last time. “Weird.” I peeked around his shoulder at the naked lady, sending him off… She was pretty and not your typical meth head. His eyes lingered on her for a moment. The cub whimpered, and he let out a frustrated growl as he turned to leave. I followed him down the hall.

My gift was strange. I could hold on to things and make them invisible as well. When I went back and forth, everything just went with me. Being able to disappear but not be allowed to touch the outside world was frustrating; I couldn’t even impersonate a ghost. I stared at the bag. I could easily save the baby if I could only get my hands on it. The guy’s fingers clutched the handle tightly. What would Chris say if he knew he’d been invisible for a few seconds that morning… when I had held his hand… I laughed lightly, remembering him fumbling around like that. Chris was cute, caring… and… I didn’t have anything else yet. Comparing him to Louis was like soft grass swaying in the wind to a cold rock.

Mr. Tailored opened the door to the stairs and walked through it. I could luckily sneak in and follow him as he went along. Most of the doors were self-closing, making a lot of creaking sounds. That place was probably an old hotel that had seen better days. We entered a service elevator, and he pressed the basement button to take us down. The doors slid open, revealing a very dark parking lot. I hesitated. It was damp and filthy; overhead was broken lights flickering as he moved quickly over the lot. He bent down at a parked car, feeling around the front wheel. I guessed for a key. My breath quickened as he stretched out a hand, and the car’s lights blinked twice. I had one chance to get in. If I didn’t, the man would drive off with the pup. No! He kidnapped someone’s child. A baby. Werewolf babies couldn’t control their manifestations. It was in pup form at that moment, but it would eventually change back to human.

He opened the driver-side door and leaned in to put the cub on the passenger seat. Then he strapped him into the safety. “S-.” I thought about Louis and my parents, but it was life or death and had nothing to do with responsibility. The guy opened the passenger door in the back and shrugged off his jacket. “What now?” Louis had chosen to help me and left the cub with the guy in the motel. He hadn’t told me why or if he knew what was going on. So, I had to draw my own conclusions and made a split decision—I got in the car. I would worry about the consequences later.

We drove for about half an hour. I carefully took note of what roads we were on and what direction we were going. It seemed further out of the city but not toward home. Consequences quickly came a-knocking when we left the main road to take a small dirt one. It was dark, and he made a few turns. I lost all sense of direction and wrung my hands nervously as I thought about what was to come. I would have to steal the car. How would I get us out of there after?

Eventually, he took a driveway that led onto an estate towards a beautiful red-bricked building. Painted shutters framed the windows. Lots of garden lights surrounded the grassy area to our left. He only killed the ignition when the garage door behind us shut with a “clang.” I was baffled about who the guy and the pup were.

Opening the driver’s side door, he got out, shutting it again. For that split second, I went in behind the seat and dropped my phone on the floorboards. When he opened the back door, reaching over me to pick up his jacket, I was invisible again. I climbed out quickly and ran for the door to the house. I needed to go through it first when he opened it.

Mr. Tailored put the bag on the kitchen counter and pressed a button on a remote. Clattering noises abruptly surrounded us. With bated breath, my gaze darted to every exit; white steel shutters rolled down, covering the windows and doors. The guy was utterly hidden away there, and so was I. No one would be able to get in or out. It complicated things, “Stupid, stupid, Juliet.” No point

My eyes were heavy. What the heck. Where am I? What happened. I wouldn’t have been able to see anything, even if they were open. My head was spinning, bile stuck in my throat. It felt like I had done a lot of drugs and got wasted all in one. I tried to move my arm—nothing wanted to work. The floor under me was cold. I heard it again… An earnest cry from a cub being hurt. The yelp was piercing now. My heart constricted at the sound. I remembered: I had followed Mr. Tailored downstairs into the basement. Yet another door closed behind us. Another secret room with an automated lock on the door.

At that point, I was so far down the rabbit hole I had no choice but to weigh my options. My nerves were taught, waiting for him to be away far enough so that I could grab the cub. That was my plan. All my hope drifted off to sea when he tied the little guy down. I felt terrible for the boy. I should’ve done something earlier. The rest of the room was dark. Only one bright light shone onto the cub. Mr. Tailored had hooked an I’v on him. A yukky, yellow substance dripped down the plastic tube. It took a minute, and he had lit a joint behind my back. Before I could decide what I wanted to do, I was out.

The cries continued for some time before I could speak, “Stop! Please,” I croaked out. Glass shattered next to me. Metal objects fell on the floor. Mr. Tailored swore a string of cuss words. He didn’t know I was there.

“What the f-… Who are you? Where did you come from?”

I couldn’t answer. I drifted in and out of consciousness. I felt his hands under my armpits, picking me up like I was a feather. My head drooped, and my lips sagged.

“You are a pretty thing.” I could smell his breath. He sniffed me, pressing his nose into my hair and the crook of my neck. For the first time, I was terrified. It seemed like I wouldn’t be that night’s hero after all. Out of breath, I tried to speak, “Please… stop… hurting him.” I drifted away again. He held me up with one hand and slapped me softly on the cheek with the other. It startled me, and I could focus on his face. My vision was slowly coming back.

Another yelp of pain from behind his shoulder drew my attention away from him. I was scared that the little guy wasn’t going to make it. Shiny objects caught my attention. Surgical blades were drenched in a jellied liquid on the floor. The pup was still alive, breathing and moving slightly. He put me down. I slumped flat on the floor. My eyes met the roof and traveled over the room. I moaned when I saw all the jars lining his walls. Stacked on shelves filled with baby body parts. Disgusted and sickened, tears fell down my temples. A big steel refrigerator door covered the middle of the back wall. I knew what my fate was. A freezer. The little guy—a bottle.

I looked up at the table above my head only to see Mr. Tailored cleaning the floor. He didn’t care at all, “Why?”

The guy came to crouch in front of me, resting his elbows on his knees, staring at me. His eyes went from me to the table, and he frowned, “I have been doing this for so long… The smells and the cries don’t affect me anymore. Anesthetics leaves a trail, you know.”

Another tear rolled down the side of my face, “Can you please use it this time?”

He got up, regarded me for a while, shrugged, and walked over to a cupboard. He paused, hands on the handles, “You know I thought about indulging you, but you will soon have to go through everything he is… And the thing is, I only have one vial left.” Fear wanted to take hold. I would suffer. All the same, the baby on the slab consumed my mind and had to come first. “I will let you choose. You can go through a painless experiment or… I can give it to him… But let me tell you! He will die either way. You might live… You’re a bit stronger.”

Louis’s face flashed in my mind, his manifested features. The dominance he had over me. I wondered if he would find me or only parts of me. My voice croaked, “Give it to him.”

“As you wish… I will have to hurry up before you disappear again. You born vampires are weak. Being infected like me is much better. Stupid girl, you should have known I was smoking weed.” I did know. There was just nothing I could do about it.

***

Louis In the Motel

The prostitute closed the door behind me. I had no smell of Juliet in her vanished state. I wouldn’t even know if she was in there with us. She could be staring at me right at that moment… I didn’t like the idea and tossed the girl a shirt, “Put it on!” She didn’t and seductively moved closer. I could smell the guy I was following earlier. He had been in there just moments ago. The room was small, with no windows, and the weird lighting made the place look yellow and pink. “When did your client leave?” I asked, clipped. I pushed her off me, and she landed on the bed.

She looked up at me. Resigned, she pulled the top over her head, “Just now, you just missed him.”

“Where did he go? He didn’t go down the stairs or out the front door. I would’ve seen him.”

“I don’t know. He comes,” she smirked, “He pays and leaves. He’s a regular once a week… Why are you so interested in this guy?”

“What’s in the bag?”

She flinched. Her eyes fell guiltily to the ground, “Asked once, never asked again about the bag.” She pouted her lips, thinking... “He’s a little weird.”

“What do you mean?” She stood, walked over to her purse, lit a cigarette, and held out the packet to me. Irritated, I hit her hand away, “Get to the point.

“He’s not like other guys. He has a short fuse. No talking. Five minutes tops… Unless he stays for a second round, like today… Small quirks.”

“What else?”

“The pimps leave him alone. He can come and go as he pleases. Did nothing when he slapped me around. They laughed at me and said I deserved it.”

“A bag every week?” She shook her head and took a drag of the cigarette. She was jittery, checking the time every now and again.

Someone knocked at the door, “Lucile! Your next guy is here. Two rooms down.”

“I got to go, don’t let him catch you here. He will think I’m cashing in on the side.”

Stupid woman, what else were you doing when you dragged me in there? “One more question. What is that smell?”

She looked confused, “Oh, that. He likes to smoke weed. A lot!” I cussed and nervously checked the room. It confused her, “What’s the problem with him smoking?”

“Vampires are allergic to weed. One sniff knocks one out for hours.” At first, she tried to figure out if I was serious. Her laughter was a sure sign she didn’t think I was. The man kept knocking. I walked across the room while Lucile took the last drag of her cigarette. I opened the door roughly. The pimp on the other side almost fell into the room. He was big and worked out. I picked him up with one hand and shoved him against the wall, “Lucile here knows nothing of her previous client. I thought you might know more.”

“Jacko,” Lucile helped, squashing her bud in a cheap ashtray.

Jacko panicked and tried his luck several times to show me who was in charge. He quickly stopped when he got the wind knocked out of him the second time. I wanted to hurt him, but not enough so he couldn’t spill. “Above my pay grade,” he tried saying, wheezing out the words. I cussed a few times. Ones I hadn’t said out loud in a while. Immediately reminded of Samuel telling me to watch my tongue. Thinking that Juliet could be there made me shut up, pressing my lips together. I was going to have to try harder. This was going to change me. Juliet would be a challenge.

“Who?”

“Higher up. My boss,” Jacko, was reluctant to continue. I kicked his knee from the side. The ‘crunch’ sound made Lucile scream. She ran out the door. At that point, I couldn’t keep killing people. I couldn’t keep wasting time. I let her go and threw Jacko onto the bed, writhing in pain.

“Get some help. I have a meeting.”

“You’ll never get past the army outside waiting on the boss.” I shook my head and walked out. Humans didn’t seem to know anything.

I left the room determined to find Juliet. My phone rang for the millionth time. It was Liam—the father. I paused for a second, staring at the screen. I didn’t know what to say to them. They had to be out of their minds. They knew the pickup had happened. So technically, we should just get in the car and go. They had trusted me with their daughter. She had disappeared on me and was gone.

For the first time in hundreds of years, I had someone to take care of. After my parents died, I vowed no connections. Juliet had changed that. I had to be a man. I had to find her. My emotions were getting the better of me. I was scared and, in a moment of weakness, thought something terribly might be wrong. That I would be too late. I was hoping she was being a brat. These people had expectations of me. They had to be met, or I would lose out on the best opportunity I would ever have. I didn’t know them. They didn’t know me. Juliet’s face flashed before me, staring at me in the car, our eyes boring into each other. After she had mustered up enough courage. The tension and the attraction were there, but sex was not going to get me what I wanted—not this time.

***

A Few Months Ago

I had driven north and entered an estate via a long, winding road lined with trees. It was fall. The place was always beautiful but breathtaking with the orange-colored trees. Being the oldest living vampire had its advantages. Driving up to the massive stone house was one of the trip’s highlights, but every time I came, Samuel had some or other scheme to pitch to me. I knew he did it to check-in. So, I didn’t mind indulging the guy. He was the closest thing I had to family.

I had never considered a mate or settling down because I didn’t want one. No one held any appeal for me, human or vampire. In my two hundred and twenty years—there had been no one. Samuel always had someone to put down as a suggestion. I never lived on the compound… My parents and I lived in France until they died. After that, I never left.

Samuel ushered for me to sit. He sat on a chair across from me, asking me all the polite questions he was supposed to. When those were done, he got down to why he really asked me to come. I snickered… He really was predictable, “There is a family… The Farrows. They live in some small, obscure little town down south.” I didn’t know where his story was going, but all I had was time, so I listened with interest, just glad that he hadn’t taken out a photo of his next idea of a mate for me. “The daughter… Juliet… Her parents contacted me about the registry. They are searching for possible mates for her.”

I rolled my eyes and sighed, “No!” I blurted out. I had enough respect for him not to get up and walk out the door.

Samuel didn’t immediately bombard me with a lecture or try to convince me in the conventional way an elder would… Older people had a point where they thought it prudent to lecture one on their marriageless state… The “It’s time to get married speech.” Instead, he stared at me for a good while, regarding me… He was changing tactics, and I was curious about what he would come up with. How was he going to convince me to go on a blind date? “Do you know about hybrids?”

That caught me off guard. Totally off-topic! I was glad he had dropped the matchmaking. Intrigued, I nodded. “I have, but isn’t it a myth?”

He chuckled, “So they say, but I’m almost sure there is one among us. I heard via my moles from the few remaining werewolf tribes left that they are looking for him.” Stunned, I kept listening, sipping my whiskey. “The werewolves planted a mate with it to see if a union with a hybrid could bring about a cub.”

I put my empty glass down on a coaster, “What has the hybrid got to do with this, Juliet? Or the Farrows?”

“The thing is Louis,” he said, standing up, walking over to a decanter, filling my glass. “Her parents have detected a werewolf. A teacher in the girl’s school. Married… to a human.”

I paused, frowning, “The hybrid?”

He nodded, “That’s the word around town, yes.” Samuel handed me my second glass.

“What about the infected vampires? They’re also searching for this guy?”

Samuel sighed and nodded, “That is a problem for another day.”

“So, what do you want from me?”

Samuel took his seat and then a deep breath, “The parents had hoped to introduce the girl to more vampires to see if she could not find a husband, and soon. They fear that the girl’s human relationships will somehow create a problem… later in her life. Soon, that werewolf will realize she is not the only creature in that small town—if she hasn’t already. Afraid for their child with so many obstacles… Can you understand that?”

“Yes, but they could move. You could plant a sleeper cell there. Why go this route. Dragging me here?”

He sat staring at me again, “It’s… my brothers’ child.” I choked on the strong liquor. Samuel handed me a napkin. I put the glass down and wiped my mouth. “I don’t know a lot of guys who are good enough for my niece. And, of course, no one knows who she is… That must stay that way! She would be targeted and get taken.” He shook his head. “I cannot even think about that.”

Frustrated, I scratched my scalp with the points of my finger, “So, because the groom pool is low, you’re asking me?”

“It’s not low, Louis. It’s you… I don’t want to wait another hundred years to see if one man in the compound could be brought around... To give her the life she deserves… When things went wrong there, I quickly pulled them out.”

I could see he was avoiding something, but I didn’t want to pry. I knew he had no ‘pull’ on the compound. “I heard about something big happening a few years back... Care to share what really went down?”

“That is also a story for another day,” he said hurriedly, trying to stay on topic. “So, Louis! I am asking you as a friend. Go and meet this guy. Check out which werewolves are so conveniently situated close to my niece and—”

“And in the meantime, see if I do not want to bed her?”

The glass in his hand shattered, cutting Samuel and messing the liquid all over the floor. I jumped to help him… “Too long out of the company of people… Let alone women, Samuel… I apologize. That was uncalled for… You know I don’t have anyone to keep me in line… I might not be the right guy for what you’re planning.”

He had a bout of laughter. I was confused… “You have not met Juliet!” He kept laughing. Was this girl crazy? “All you need is a….” he chuckled, “A good woman… to restore your faith… It’s not just her. I don’t want to see you so unhappy. When your parents died—”

I spun away from him, “You’ve told me a million times before! Not again, please!”

Resigned, he said, “Okay… Not again… In the meantime, really consider my niece as your... wife,” he stared me down until I conceded. I sighed and shook his hand. “My brother has already set up a cover story for you… and a house ready next to theirs. We took the liberty of getting you a job at the school. Report the day before so you can get settled.” Shocked, I cussed and turned on my heels; I didn’t like people managing my life. “Come now, Louis! You can’t use that kind of language in front of my family! And…”

I turned to face him, “And?”

“If you are not a hundred percent convinced you will never leave her side again… Don’t touch her!”

“You’re putting a lot of faith in our two-hundred-year-old relationship, Samuel.”

He chuckled and headed to get another drink, “Like I said. You haven’t met my Juliet yet.”

***

But I had touched her. Tried to kiss her the first day we met. Guiltily, I answered the phone, “Liam. Juliet is gone… She disappeared on me. I’m looking for her. She came into the motel. I have been running around, but she’s not showing herself.”

The other side of the line was quiet.