“I’m sorry, I don’t do this much. Uh, blind dates that is.” Faith apologized, reaching for her glass of wine and taking a huge swallow. Much was an understatement. Try never. Except when ambushed by busy-body friends with too much time on their hands.
The man chuckled. A soft sound, not unfriendly. He was handsome at least. With dark blond hair long enough to curl behind his ears. Bright blue eyes, baby smooth skin and an angled jaw. His whole frame looked like those thin wiry magazine models. Men that looked eighteen years old for their entire lives. Even the way he tapped his perfectly manicured fingers on the table was fluid and smooth.
“Nothing to be embarrassed over. I have learned to take life’s surprises with grace.” he grinned, flashing a pearly white smile. “Tell me, Faith, were your friends truthful? Are you a virtuoso of vampires?”
Faith choked on her water, setting down the glass quickly to pick up a napkin. “Vampires…?” Those jerks. They didn’t.
“Yes. Vampires. Your charming friends mentioned that you write books. Stories about vampire love affairs? They explained they chose my profile specifically because I asked for a woman interested in vampires.” His eyebrow raised in a curious gesture.
They did. God damnit! She hated her friends! “Uh, yeah. I have a series that’s gotten pretty popular lately.” Her momentary embarrassment shifted as she cast him a dubious expression. “Did you seriously add that to your dating profile?”
He shrugged his shoulders, casting a wry grin. “What can I say? I like a woman who shares my interests. Do you like vampires, Faith?” He leaned forward on the table, resting his elbows as he clasped his hands together. The look he gave her reminded her of a few exboyfriends. Where they’d try to give that deep, mysterious stare that usually came off creepy and disturbing. He kind of looked like he wanted to eat her.
Here it comes. That moment when a date turns totally awkward. Lucky for her, she knew when to bail! “Wow, look at the time. I can’t believe it’s almost midnight. I better call myself a cab.”
Her date chuckled, dropping his gaze to lift a hand and summon for the check. “Let me drive you home, it’s the least I can do for taking advantage of this ambush.”
“Really? Thanks.” Faith grinned appreciatively. Grateful it wasn’t going to turn in to one of those ‘Why don’t you like me?!’ scenes.
A few minutes later they were outside, walking down the ramps in the parking garage, looking for his car. They got down to the bottom level and turned a corner. The entire place seemed to be empty.
“Do you even remember where you parked?” Faith asked, turning to face her date. With a glance at his face she jumped, stumbling back a few feet as she raised a hand to point a finger at him. His eyes were… they had changed color! Instead of the bright blue, now they were dark red, almost black.
“I’m afraid I fibbed a little. I don’t have a car.” He smile was unnerving. Now he had glinting white fangs. Vampire fangs.
That was just the last straw. Faith’s moment of being startled was gone, replaced by the still slightly disturbed, but much more manageable annoyance. Her date was clearly a wacko and slipped himself some contacts and teeth in while she wasn’t looking. “Okay, I gt it. You’re one of those roleplaying freaks. That’s cool, but if you try to bite me, I’m going to kill the hell out of you, okay?” Faith’s hand slipped in to her coat pocket and curled around a handy spray bottle of mace she kept on her keychain.
He laughed out loud! Apparently her words were hilarious. In a blink of an eye he jumped in the air, practically flying before he landed right in front of her. His fangs grew longer as he grabbed on to her shoulders. Instincts prevailing, Faith whipped out the mace and sprayed him in the eyes! While snarling in pain, she shoved him back and took off running. Vampire. Real vampire! One that was recovering quick as she could hear him growling her name and darting closer!
A stumble over something on the ground had nearly took her off her feet, but she snatched up the object – some discarded piece of metal – last minute. Just she turned, the vampire was there and she thrust it forward in to his chest! He looked surprised as blood slowly oozed from the wound. His head tilted slightly to the side as his lips turned up in to a smirk.
“You missed.” His fingers curled around the metal piece, jerking it out of his chest in a swift motion.
“…oh shit.” His arm swung, striking her with enough force to send her flying backwards. Crashing in to a wall and crumbling on the ground in an unceremonious heap of pain. As he approached, Faith scooted backwards until her back caught the wall. Looked like she was going to be a vampire’s dinner. A fangirl’s dream come true!
“AHEM.”
The sudden voice had both the vampire and Faith’s attention. The vampire’s body jerked as something hit him in the chest. Right through his heart, a solid wooden stake. His body dropped and with a final twitch he was dead.
The source of the voice was now folding up and putting away a crossbow somewhere unseen, as he stepped forward to lean over the body of the dead vampire. It took Faith a second to realize what had happened.
“You killed him!”
“That’s typically what you do with vampires, rather than dating them like a twit.”
Faith moved to her feet, dusting herself off as she frowned at the man. “I wasn’t dating him. So he’s really a vampire? A real one?”
“Aye, a real one. Now would you get out of the way, I’m working here.” His working seemed to be checking over the corpse for items. A few things disappeared in to his pockets before he glanced up at her with a scowl. “Are you going to be standing there staring all night? Go find a real boyfriend, woman.”
“He’s not my boyfriend! I don’t go around dating vampires!” Faith shouted back at him.
“Right, right. Dinner isn’t dating these days.” he snorted as he rose. Turning away from the body and walking away.
Faith scowled for a minute before trailing behind him. “You don’t know me or what I was doing.” And what about the all obligatory telling the Dame of who he his, his mission, and answering her million of questions. She had a lot of questions.
“Oh, aye, I know you. That writer of vampire love stores. Making slayers out to be the heartless villains, killing your poor glittering night stalkers. You’re exactly what’s wrong with females today.”
“I write books about things that weren’t supposed to exist! …Could you at least give me a ride home since you killed my date.” she sarcastically called after him.
His only reply was to lift a hand and flick her the finger before he disappeared around a corner.
Great. What a way to start the year.