"The Dark Stranger"
© VeGirl 2014

With Eddie's consent, I end up staying with my parents for another week and I start to feel more at ease, despite the weird vampire-attack, which by the way I haven't told anybody. Thanksgiving is coming up and my aunt and uncles and all the cousins are gathering at my uncle's house. Father is driving us while Nick and I do our best to discretely roll our eyes as our parents talk about last Thanksgiving which both Nick and I unfortunately missed. We are grateful.

A friend is somebody you choose to spend time with, but family is something you either have or you don't. Granted; in the best of worlds, they are always there for you for better and for worse, but to get some of the family-days off is not a bad idea.

Uncle Jarrett and Aunt Kate welcome us in the doorway. "Oh, it is so good to see that Nick and Sam are with you this year. Come in!" They usher our family through the door and into the crazy circus that can be family holidays. Their house is absolutely filled with people; aunts and uncles that can't pinch Nick's or my cheeks enough and children who run around with the only goal to make as much noise as possible, it seems.

"If one more crazy person pinch my cheek I'm gonna throw fists around," Nick hiss in my ear as we proceed further and I have to bite my cheek not to laugh out loud.

We are pulled and ushered into their livingroom and end up clamped together in a couch with two elder people who don't really recognize us and keep mixing everything up. I am careful not to meet his eyes, because that will definitely push me over the edge into a crazy gigglefit.

"I think I'm gonna need a bathroom break," I hiss to Nick.

"No! Don't leave me here!" he grabs hold of my arm and does his best to keep me there.

"Let me go or I will sit down in your lap and I really need a bathroom break," I tease him as only brother and sisters do.

"Traitor," he mutters while I walk out on him with a gloating expression.

In the bathroom I stand by the mirror for a good while, trying to put foundation on the tiny bitemark. Thoughts of Nick's teasing remark by the breakfast table flutter to mind. "If you're trying to hide a hickey under that, I must say you're doing it wrong." He smirked, and by then the course of event was lost on me. Quickly I raised a hand to the band-aid with wide eyes and rushed to the bathroom, accompanied by his chuckling. As I now inspect the mark I am pleased by the result to hide it and am grateful for the scarf that I packed down.

I try my best to dodge the running children, and take a detour through the kitchen where I accidentally bump into somebody. "Oh, I'm so sorry."

"Sam? It's been since... forever!" I am encaged in a warm hug.

"Layla?"

"Yeah, who else silly?" My cousin grins at me. "Wow, how is life treating you?"

"Recently broken up," I say in a clipped tone even if I could remember that I was the one who broke up with Peter.

"Yeah me too, isn't life great?" she claims enthusiastic and we laugh together. "Wait till Aunt Edna try to set you up with any of the cousins," she snickers.

"That's okay, I just found out that I'm adopted, so..." I did my best to make it into a joke, but Layla gasp.

"You're not my real cousin?"

"Sure I am, just not biological." I snicker, not too bothered by that. "So I can date Uncle Steve." I wiggle my brows before we both frown, since uncle Steve is the kind of slightly perverted relative that Bridget Jones talk about.

Aunt Kate flutters around the kitchen and volunteer us to help serve the dinner. What feels like hundreds of pots and pans that are carried into the huge dinner table where we all sit down to indulge in the gluttony of thanksgiving, while everybody speaks of what they are grateful of.

I personally keep thinking that there is something missing in my life.

After dinner, Layla and I try to find a moment of peace out on the front patio, hiding from the sugar-high children racing around inside the house and the backyard.

"Puh, I can't stand one more minute with the little pests." I mutter, referring to the hyped children who now are fighting over some toys.

"Yeah, it feels like they are fifteen and not just five of them," Layla sighs and we snicker. "I have a party to go to tomorrow, can't you come? Pretty please?" Layla begs.

I feel slightly off since the incident at my last outing, and ponder if I ought to catch a few episodes of Buffy the vampire-slayer to get the general idea of how to defend myself if the creepy hot guy shows up again. "Sure," I say with a tired exhale.

"We'll hold the enthusiasm will you?" she mutters and I laugh.

"I'm sorry; I mean I'd love to!" I try once again with feeling.

* * *

Next evening a cab stops outside mom and dad's house and I hurry out to meet Layla. "Thank you so much for coming."

"Sure, what could go wrong with a party?" I ask casually, feeling stupid as I think of the other night, while my hand involuntarily touches the mark.

I've been marked!

The cab takes us to a public dance place downtown and I am grateful, for this is a place I have been too many times during my teens. Suddenly I feel a need to figuring out a retreat-way from the start. I have never had the need before, but on the other hand; I have never met a vampire before.

Why, you ask? Because they don't exist!

I must have been drunk as a skunk and this was just a figment of my imagination. Yes, that is the logical explanation! But what about the puncture wounds?

"Hello?"

I flinch and look at Layla who is observing me with an expectant face.

"Where did you go? Come on, let's hit the bar!" She smiles and I exhale a heavy sigh.

"Yeah, if we want a heavy hangover tomorrow; that's the right place to go." Luckily, my cousin is totally ignorant to my heavy sarcasm.

What the hell, I sigh again. Perhaps I can forget Mister Pointy Teeth and relax.

Layla line up a row of shots and we start off this race. After three straight ones, we head for the dancefloor. With our hands high in the air and bodies swaying in rhythm with everybody else on the dancefloor, we hit off the evening with a serve, and the balls just keep coming.

A couple join us and Layla is ecstatic to see them. There is no need to explain that this girl is her best friend, and if the guy's hand on her ass is any indication, that is the friend's boyfriend.

"Hey Sam, this is Tina and Luke!" Layla shouts and the couple offers their hands for me to shake. "Come, this craves more shots!" Layla takes Tina's hand as well as mine and hold them high as she dances her way back to the bar.

Another line of candy-shots is offered for consumption and I simply smile and down them. Way back in my conscience, something is trying to pull me back again, but I simply frown after the last shot and laugh it off.

It couldn't be anything important.

Eventually, our little group that constantly moves between the dancefloor and the bar is increasing in number as more friends of Luke's join us. A few of said friends is casting appreciative looks at me, but for some reason I'm not especially attracted to their dark brown or hazel eyes. I can't seem to find it remotely charming when they rake a hand through a brown or blond hair, even if it falls into an unruly mess on their forehead.

Sorry - nothing!

I take a tour on my own on the dancefloor, oblivious to the guy following me with hope in his eyes. As I eventually become aware of his efforts, it is time to head to the little girls room, to powder the little nose.

The guy have given up when I head out again, and with a discrete glance to the table we have managed to hog in the corner, I head to the bar for a bottle of water. I will not admit it, but I am more than slightly tipsy and I need to hydrate.

In the far corner of the bar, I take a breather while I gulp down the cool water. Contend, I pull further away from the bar and lean against the wall, watching people around me.

My blood runs cold as I spot a familiar looking darkhaired guy with sharp teeth, and I immediately look around to spot Layla. I am determined to protect her.

"Hi gorgeous, how about a dance?"

Bewildered, I turn towards a blond guy, looking sweet and in comparison to shark-teeth, he looks like the toothfairy. With another panic-look around, I smile at him. "Sure."

Let's get away.

His face brightens and he offer an arm for me to take and that is when I realize that it is a really slow song. I feel a little too preoccupied to slow-dance, but am committed to have fun... and to avoid any sharp teeth in the same time. As we stop on the dancefloor I have pinpointed Layla and relax when this guy put his arms around me.

"Are you from this town?" he asks friendly.

"I grew up here, but I'm only visiting right now." I give him a friendly smile.

"Lucky me..." He smiles and suddenly my alarm is on red alert.

That was exactly what the other guy said.

"I had decided to go out last weekend, but had to cancel. I'm glad I did or I wouldn't have met you." He smiles friendly and I have to calm down. No need for red alert.

This is confusing; vampires don't exist!

After a few dances, in which I constantly look around to dodge a certain kind of person, my dance-partner gives up. "Thank you." He smiles a little embarrassed. "Can I walk you to your table?"

"No!" I can hear how harsh that sounds and he simply thank for the dance again and excuses himself. Which my eyes carefully scanning the facility, I back up against the wall again. I don't want to be cornered, but I don't want anybody to creep up from the behind either, so I pick a spot where I have a good over-look.

"This is a little inconvenient, I must say."

I flinch at the words exhaled onto my neck, flinch away from the man I know produce them and turn to stare wide-eyed at the guy.

"Stay away from me!"

"Yeah, that's exactly what I mean!" He puts an arm up on the wall beside me, blocking my exit. "You are not supposed to know who... or what I am." A smile tilts the corner of his lips and he wiggles his eyebrows in an attempt to flirt.

"Sorry to disappoint you." That statement is so cold that icicles should be dropping around him.

A dark chuckle rumble inside him and if I weren't so scared, I would have liked him. "On the contrary, I am intrigued." He watches me appreciatively and I glance around to see if anybody notice us. "Oh your friend just went to the little girl's room."

I turn my wide eyes in his cool blue ones.

"Don't worry, my friend is keeping an eye on her." Tenderly he pulls my hair over one of my shoulders and I am sure that it looks affectionate to anybody who might be playing attention. "You smell mouth-watering." He leans closer and inhales.

"Stop that!" I swat his arm. "I am not some free sample that is handed out!" My most fierce look only makes him snicker.

"I would hope so, sugar. You'd be run dry within minutes." He chuckles. "To bad you lost that protective guy that used to follow you around."

As if I only had one drink, I sober up instantly and a cold chill runs up and down my spine. I know I have to regain some ground here. "Look... What's your name?"

"Damian," he smiles.

"Okay, Damian." I feign up a smile. "Who says I have lost my protector?"

He snickers. "I say! I wouldn't be allowed ten feet near you if Vin' was here."

There is that name again; Vincent.

"And who says I can't defend myself then?"

With a smile, he lifts his hand and softly let one finger glide along my neck, right over the bitemark. "I do, love."

I glare at him. "My brother thought it was a hickey."

He laughs a pearly soft laugh. "It was just a love-bite."

I must give him credit for the humor; it is clearly his most redeeming quality, if not his only. That... and he is quite the looker.

My eyes are suddenly glued to my friend walking drowsily from the bathroom with a dark streak from her neck. I gasp as I realize what must have happened and rush to meet her. "Are you okay?" It is easy to detect the angst in my voice, but Layla only smile wide at me.

"Hey girl!"

I can't believe how sober I am instantly, that should have been impossible. My eyes seek out the dark crimson liquid trickling down along her neck.

"You should have seen what a hunk I found," she brags even if her consonants are a little diffuse. "Yeah!" She fakes one of her fists to the roof and hook her other arm under mine. "My God, what a kisser her was!" She is swooning over some guy, which I know she should have been looking out for.

Not boyfriend material, springs to mind.

Suddenly she sways and I am glad to have a good grip on her. "We're going home," I state decisively and turn to steer her to the exit.

"Do you want some help?" A glib smile meets me as Damian grab hold of Layla's other arm and helps me.

"You better stay away, or I'll..."

"Tsk, tsk, tsk..." He clicks his tongue disapprovingly. "You're not threatening are you?" he mocks me as we reaches the door.

I clench my teeth together and spot a taxi just outside. While ignoring the prick by Layla's side, I determent steer to the cab, anxious to get away.

"She looks a little pale, and she doesn't smell half as good as you do," Damian provokes.

I manage to get the cab-door open and almost push my cousin in and step closer to the guy. "I've seen Buffy; Poof!" I gesture my hands into something that more resemble an exploding bomb.

With that witty remark I slide into the cab and slam the door in his face.

We got away!

.