Alina
I woke up to my phone ringing. Groaning, I reached over to my bedside table and picked up my cell. The time read three fifteen in the afternoon.
“Hello?” I answered groggily without looking at the screen.
“Hello, sweets! I’ll be there to pick you up in two hours. You okay with that?”
Shit! Ryan!
I had completely forgotten that I had to attend a business dinner with him. I went to visit my father at the hospital this morning, and he seemed to have gotten even worse than before, so I came back home and cried myself to sleep. I haven’t been eating anything since yesterday either, surviving only on coffee.
“Yes!” I answered, remembering Ryan was still on the phone. “That’s fine by me. Thanks for giving me a heads up, Ryan. I completely forgot!” I had no need to hide the truth or feel ashamed. Ryan understood my situation.
“I thought it might happen, that’s why I called. Are you okay? You sound tired. You don’t have to come if you don’t want to, sweets. Just tell me,” Ryan said, sounding genuinely concerned.
“No, it’s ok. I’ll go. Staying at home will only get me even more depressed,” I said.
“If you say so. I’ll see you in a bit,” Ryan said and hung up.
I sighed and sat up in bed only to fall back again immediately. My vision blanked for a few seconds, and I could feel a headache coming.
Groaning, I got up once again, this time much slower. I really needed to eat, but I didn’t seem to have the appetite. I tried to eat something last night only to throw everything back out. I didn’t know what was wrong with me. Oh wait, I did know what happened to me. It was Erick Stayton.
With some difficulty, I finally got out of bed and went straight to the bathroom to have a long hot shower.
As I wrapped a towel around myself and stood in front of the bathroom mirror, I couldn’t help but wince at the image. No, it wasn’t because I was hideous or scarred; they had faded a long time ago. It was because I had bags under my eyes, big black ones that won’t go away even after tons of sleep. Then there was the puffiness from all the crying. My face seemed to reflect my inner conflict at having Erick back in my life again. I felt agitated that Erick didn’t visit me even once in the past four years. It made me miss him when all I wanted to do was hate him every waking instant of my life. My mind was a mess, and with my father’s worsening condition, I was having trouble holding myself together. Everything around me was falling apart.
****
After my shower, I felt a lot more relaxed, and my eyes weren’t as puffy as before. I looked at the clock and saw that I just had a bit more than an hour to get ready. I walked to my closet and looked through my dresses. Since it was a formal dinner, I had to wear a dress. The rules were strict. Green was my favourite colour, so most of my clothes were in green, but for tonight, I chose a simple blue sleeveless dress. I opted to wear teardrop shaped sapphire earrings and silver heels. They were not too high, though. I could never stand high heels. They made my feet hurt like hell, so why endure such torture?
Next, I decided to curl my hair in loose ringlets to give myself an elegant touch, so I took out my iron and began curling. It took a while, so by the time my hair was in loose curls hanging down my back, I only had fifteen minutes left till Ryan arrived. So I quickly applied some light pink lipstick and some eyeliner. I also put some concealer under my eyes to get rid of the dark circles temporarily. To finish off, I wore a silver band watch and some lavender perfume.
I grabbed a silver clutch and threw in some money, my card, and of course my cell phone. I went to my kitchen and grabbed a cup, pouring some water and instant coffee before putting it in the microwave to heat up. I didn’t have an appetite, so trying to eat anything at this point would mean throwing up everything, and I really didn’t feel up to it right now.
The microwave blinked twice to let me know my coffee was done, so I took it out and drank it slowly. I could feel the dizziness coming again, but I gritted my teeth and grabbed the counter for support. “It’ll be okay. I’ll be fine in a minute,” I repeated to myself. Though the dizziness did pass after a minute or two, I didn’t quite feel so well. Knowing that cancelling on Ryan right now wasn’t an option, I steadied myself. With an iron will, I was ready to face whatever came my way tonight.
I quickly finished the coffee, set the cup in the sink, and put my shoes on. I was about to sit on the couch to wait for Ryan when the doorbell rang. I looked at my watch and saw that it was still fiveseventeen in the afternoon. Ryan had a very bad habit of being punctual.
I opened the door to find the smiling face of a familiar Southeast Asian. Ryan Paul had that awesome Asian tan so coveted by our office staffs and a nice body complete with lean muscles. He had black hair and brown eyes, as well as a fairly angular face with cute dimples that made their appearance whenever he smiled. Overall, he was a handsome guy. This evening, he was wearing a black Armani suit and a red shirt underneath. He was a total charmer, and he seemed to like me, but I just didn’t feel the same way about him.
“Ready to go, sweets?” he asked smiling.
“Sure, let’s go,” I answered as I stepped out and shut the door behind me.
We went down the stairs to where his black SUV was waiting right at the entrance to my building. He helped me into the car, and we were on our way to the venue. It was about an hour and a half drive to some Italian restaurant near the beach. We arrived at aroundsixforty-five in the evening. The restaurant seemed to be doing quite well on its own, but to further widen their range of customers, they asked our help to promote their restaurant in our magazine. Ryan already had the necessary camera equipment to capture the view inside the restaurant so we could post pictures along with the document. We reached the parking space of the posh restaurant, and Ryan parked in the VIP section. The lot was nearly full, and people were walking in and out of the entrance at a steady interval.
“Let’s go. Let’s not keep the gentlemen and ladies waiting,” Ryan told me while getting out of the car.
“The restaurant owner is here?” I asked Ryan as he helped me out of his car, camera and other instruments hanging from a bag on his free arm. He then took my arm and placed it on his inner elbow. That was not much of a friendly gesture, and I knew I should probably correct him, but maybe I could permit it for one night.
****
“The owner wants us to write an article about the restaurant and her heir. She also has a big company in the textile industry, so we’re doing a joint article. It’s going to raise our TRP a lot, so the interview profits both parties,” he said.
“But I didn’t bring my recorder!” I exclaimed in alarm. In my rush, I completely forgot the digital recorder that would record their voices. It was supposed to accompany the video feed we planned on showing on a local cable channel.
“Don’t worry, sweets! You have your phone on you. Record in that. I’m sure it’ll record just fine as long as there is no background noise,” he said as we entered the restaurant. Ryan held the door for me.
“You sure we can handle it without a crew?” I asked, not so sure I could pull it off in my state.
“Don’t worry, you’ll do just fine.” Then, unexpectedly, he took my hand and kissed the back of my palm.
I was too surprised to react as a waitress approached us that instant to lead us to the manager’s office. Ryan passed on the camera to me while he took possession of the recording instruments. I felt a bit nervous all of a sudden. It was like something was about to happen, and it would be something that I wouldn’t like at all. We followed the waitress through the more private part of the restaurant where couples sat on love seats while kissing or simply enjoying their dinner. Each booth had a different colour theme and an overhanging light that illuminated the booth. I wanted to take pictures of at least one couple so I could use it in the magazine.
“Gentlemen, your guests have arrived,” the waitress announced as we entered through the tinted glass doors.
Their conversation stopped as soon as we rounded the corner, and I felt the bottom of my stomach drop. My eyes were still huge as Ryan introduced us, and I couldn’t turn my gaze from his smirking face.
There, sat in one of the chairs with a huge smirk and an evil glint in his magnificent blue eyes, was none other than the devil himself.
Erick Stayton.
AlinaHe wore a steel grey suit with a royal blue shirt underneath that made his eyes stand out. His blond hair was perfectly styled, and he looked just out of a fashion magazine kind of gorgeous. His lips were formed in a mischievous smirk, and his eyes were sparkling with excitement. He hasn’t shifted his eyes from me since the instant I walked into the room.How on Earth did he get here?“Is something wrong?” someone’s voice cut through my trance.I looked towards the person to see that it was the restaurant manager, Mr. Davis. Ryan was waiting for me to have a seat, and I didn’t even realize I was staring back at Erick from the moment I walked in. We were like two different poles of a magnet drawn to each other.“Nothing, sorry.” I apologised and sat down on the chair which just so happened to be right next to Erick.Everyone got down to business as
AlinaI slowly came to when I felt cool hands touch my forehead. My eyes fluttered open, and I woke to a dimly lit room I had never been to before.“Sorry, did I wake you up?” a familiar voice asked.I looked to my right and saw Erick sitting on a chair next to the bed I was on. I only shook my head when my throat felt too dry and scratchy. Taking in my surroundings, I sat up against the headboard with Erick’s help.I was in a large room which appeared to be painted sky blue in the dim light. The lights were out, but several candles were lit in all corners of the room that gave it a warm glow. I could sense the cold sea breeze and the sounds of waves crashing on the shore, so I assumed we were somewhere near the sea. There were two large open windows with drawn curtains to let the wind in, andthe candle lights occasionally flickered with the wind but didn’t go off. I could see that it
AlinaMy eyes were burning.That was the first thought I woke up to. The second, however, was to realize that my eyes weren’t really burning. I opened my eyes a bit, only to shut them immediately. It was under the scrutiny of the direct sunlight coming in through the huge floor-length windows on the wall opposite to the bed.The third thing that crossed my mind was, I don’t have gigantic windows in my bedroom!Oww!I jumped up in bed, looking around the unfamiliar room to search for the source of the voice I just heard. However, all I got was a room devoid of any other humans or vampires for that matter.I could’ve sworn I heard someone talk. How come no one was here?I did talk, but it’s in your mind.Then I remembered about last night, of being escorted to the restaurant by Ryan, bumping into Erick, fainting in the bathroom, and ending up at his
AlinaMrs. Stayton was, just like all the other vampires I’ve had the pleasure of seeing, utterly gorgeous.With her long blonde hair in perfect curls that reached to her lower back, neat facial structures, and an hourglass figure, she could easily give Hollywood actresses a run for their money. However, she preferred to stay out of the limelight. She wore a sky blue knee-length designer dress embroidered with real silver threads and paired it up with a silver hat. Erick didn’t have that much in common with his mother in terms of looks, except for their ice-blue eyes. She had a more delicate build and a heart-shaped face while Erick was all hard angles and sharp features.“Nice to see you again, Mrs. Stayton. How have you been?” I greeted politely. She was, after all, a very powerful vampire of over three hundred years. Unlike popular belief, vampires weren’t immortal in the true sense
Alina“What on Earth is this?” I asked while holding up the red knee-length dress in my hand that Erick had just handed over to me.“Your wedding dress, of course!” Erick answered without even looking up from his tablet.“What the hell!” I screamed, turning every customer and salesmen’s attention towards me.“Sorry,” I mouthed before turning to glare at Erick.“Alina, there you are! Oh! What a lovely dress!” Kenna passed the fabric through her hands. “This’ll be perfect for the binding ritual after the wedding! Don’t you think so, Erick?”Binding ritual? Why don’t I like the sound of that?Of course, you wouldn’t. Erick smirked and placedthe ten point one inch screen of the tablet in front of his face. I glared at him anyway. What was with giving me only half the info?“Oh, dear
Alina“Alina?”“Alina, say something.”“Alina!”“Huh?” I was startled back into reality as Erick’s face faded away and Ryan’s face appeared in front of me.“What’s wrong? You’ve been spaced out this whole morning,” Ryan asked as he sat himself down on one of the chairs in front of my desk.“Nothing. I’m just stressed, I guess,” I answered, putting my pen down on top of a bundle of papers and running my hands down my faceThe article that we worked on in the restaurant was going to go on air today, and I had to write the speech that our Editor-in-Chief will be broadcasting since I was the one who took down the notes. Ryan had, thankfully, kept all the equipment on my desk yesterday and covered for me when our boss noticed my absence. All that hard work would be for nothing if I wouldn’t be able to w
ErickI decided to wear black dress pants and a jacket with a crisp white shirt underneath. Today, we were going to the inauguration of my new blood bank in Moosonee, Ontario. The main press release already took place this afternoon. Now, it would be followed by a tasting ceremony just for vampires. This day, our subjects would see me and Alina together for the first time after the announcement of the wedding.We already had blood banks in Ontario located in Ottawa and Toronto. However, supplying blood to all vampires in the north was becoming a problem, so we opened another bank for easy supply. It reduced chances of suspicion, too. Now, we didn’t have to explain to the government why gallons of blood were being transferred across the state to specifically those two blood banks when there was no emergency.A knock sounded at my door. “Come in.”Kendrick, my chauffeur for today and the chie
Alina“You know,” Erick stated. “You could at least pretend to be happy. Your dad’s gonna think I’m slowly torturing you to death, and that won’t be healthy for him.”“You know,” I deadpanned, “you could at least pretend to shut up sometimes. It’s really healthy for you.”“Ha ha.” Erick glared. “You’re not funny.”I glared back at him.Kendrick, Erick’s chauffeur, cleared his throat to get our attention.“What?” we asked in unison and turned to resume our glaring crescendo.“Master, ma’am, we’ve reached the hospital,” Kendrick said, all cool and professional as if he hadn’t just tolerated our bickering for the past twenty minutes.That was when we noticed that we were sitting in the parking lot of the city hospital.Erick was