I raised an eyebrow and stared at him across the roof of the car. “Do I have a choice? You just locked me out of the car.” His smile disappeared. “Besides, isn’t a bar a common place to bump into other vamps?” I only noticed that my hand was stubbornly placed on my hip once I had finished my sentence.

“This bar isn’t very popular with my kind. In fact, I shouldn’t really call it a bar…it’s a lot smaller than that word leads you to believe.” He began walking away from the car. Apparently my hand on my hip had meant nothing to him.

He looked over his shoulder at me, “Are you coming?”

I stared at him blankly and slowly caught up to him.

“Alright, you didn’t have a choice. I just want to see some old faces while we’re in town.”

I barely caught a glimpse of his arm moving through the air before he placed it in the small of my back. Instinctively, I shied away.

“You had no problem with me touching you when we first met,” he said as he removed his arm from my body.

I started, “It’s a bit different now-”

“That you actually know me; now that it might actually mean something other than sex?” Aiden finished.

“Who said anything like that?” I shouted. That was one of the buttons April knew never to press too hard. “Maybe the fact that you’re not just a normal human being has an effect on whether I want you breathing down my neck and feeling me up?”

He glanced down a dark alley we were walking past. “It doesn’t matter to me. I’m not trying to force you. It just might keep the creeps from eyeballing you if we seemed more like a couple, though.”

I stopped walking. “What kind of place are you taking me, and what kind of creeps are you referring to?” My voice was raised just a little above angry, but calmer than I had been when he first insulted me.

He stopped but kept his back to me. “It’s more like the basement of a house with a maximum of maybe two or three people, plus the bartender. And in all seriousness, it would probably be less traumatic for you if you appeared to be my girl for the night.”

“Traumatic?” I repeated.

He held his left hand out at his side with the palm up. “Are you coming?”

The night seemed more anxious with his arm around my waist. I was stiff, almost rigid with his hand resting on the curve of my waist, but I didn’t dare remove it. If it was one thing I could go with out it was a bunch of shady guys hitting on me all night with their pick-up lines and smooth-talking.

Aiden slowed his walk as we approached a recessed shadowy staircase with a lamppost out front. There was no sign for a bar or any type of establishment resembling a bar. It looked like the basement entrance to an apartment complex.

“I can’t even imagine why you’re bringing me with you,” I mumbled as I glanced at the stained glass window above the stairwell.

“I can’t very well leave you in the hotel room alone now can I? We already tried the once today. You’re safer here with me. And the people here may be strange and a bit rough, but I assure you no one is going to try to harm us.” He led me down the dark stairs.

“I can’t see,” I whispered and I felt him pull me closer to his side. I could feel the air change from being dry and crisp, to being damp and still. “I’ve got a bad feeling about this…”

He squeezed me tighter. “You’re safe.” At that moment dim candle light appeared in a thick beveled glass window. Aiden lifted his right hand towards his mouth and pressed his index finger into his incisor. I recognized this from the night we arrived at his cottage. This time around I noticed the pinprick sized dot of blood and spit on the tip of his finger as he pressed it into the wood. The door unlocked and hung open an inch or two.

“Do all vampires have magical doors like this?” I asked sarcastically.

“Only the clever ones.” He smirked. “And I see you’ve regained a bit of your usual sarcasm. Does that mean you feel safe with me now?” He pushed the door open with the hand he had used to unlock it. I didn’t bother answering him. The answer I would’ve given him wasn’t what he wanted to hear.

The room wasn’t as small as I had anticipated. There was a short bar counter, long enough to sport four stools, and a booth table in the corner. The air was warm and smelled like spices and cigar smoke. I wasn’t sure where the spice came from, but the cigar smoke was collecting above the booth where two men sat.

Aiden led me to a bar stool and I sat down on the very end seat. “I’m going to go greet them. Sit here for a minute. You want a drink?” His eyes were gentle and his tone was even more inviting than ever before. I’m sure this was his way of putting on the act that we were together. It annoyed me a bit, but I’d let it slide and go along with it for now. I had to admit it felt nice to have someone, even pretending, to be my exclusive boyfriend.

“But there’s no bartender,” I stated.

He smirked and slammed his fist down on the bar top. “Bartender!”

A man walked out of a door about as wide as a closet hidden along the wall behind the bar. I hadn’t noticed it before, it looked as if that was the entire purpose of the door, to blend in and look as if the wall were solid.

The man was thin, and old. His skin was sagging on his face, making him look about sixty or seventy years old, but who knew how old he really was considering these were Aiden’s friends. The bartender wiped his hands on the rag protruding from his back pocket. “What’ll it be?” He looked up at Aiden. The old man’s face brightened into a wide grin revealing long, sharp, dog-like teeth. “Well shit, Aiden! You nearly gave me a heart attack! It’s been years!”

“And I see you haven’t changed a bit either, Lazel,” Aiden spoke with an earnest smile. Lazel braced one hand on the bar top and swung himself over the foot-wide wooden bar. He landed with more grace than a cat beside Aiden. “And you still show off like you always did.”

He bowed humorously and with a deep laugh caught Aiden in a bear hug. “Some of us need to resort to other measures than good looks to impress the ladies, kiddo.” He released Aiden and turned to face me, extending a hand to shake.

I met his hand with mine and was surprised when he took it to place a kiss on top rather than shake. “And who is this tasty young thing?” I swore I saw his eyes dilate and turn red, but it was only for a split second.

“Come now, Lazel. Do you honestly think after all these years I would just show up at your door with dinner?” Aiden laughed, but I didn’t find the humor in it. In fact, I couldn’t help my eyes from widening at the comedy they found in calling me ‘dinner’.

“Well, it wouldn’t have been a bad idea. We haven’t seen as many tourists as we used to; the town just hasn’t been the same. Do you know what it’s like to live off deer meat for a month?” Lazel leaned against the bar beside me, his eyes burning into my back.

“No, I’m sorry to say I don’t.” Aiden threw an arm over my shoulder. “And she’s with me.”

Lazel let out a hearty laugh and slapped a hand on the bar. “Of course she is! You think I’ve honestly gone senile? I remember the scent of love.”

The spit that had been collecting in the back of my throat caused me to choke as I let out a laugh.

Both Lazel and Aiden turned to face me with blank stares.

“Sorry,” I mumbled, still holding back more laughter.

“Well, I came by to see some old faces and catch up. I was hoping you could entertain Cali while I talk.”

Lazel’s eyes definitely dilated this time and red swirled around his irises. “Of course, all drinks tonight are on the house!” With the same ease he had demonstrated before, he hopped over the bar and began pouring three drinks.

This was not the welcome I had anticipated for this place. I half expected to be guarding my neck and any other exposed skin from a bunch of hungry vamps, but here, I actually felt comfortable. This old man was very friendly. Even though he joked about making me his next meal, I knew, just as Aiden had promised, that no one here was going to harm me. I smiled to myself.

Aiden leaned his back against the bar, and turned his head towards me.

“You’re staring…” I said as I traced a finger along the wood grain of the bar.

He smirked and leaned on his elbow so that his face was only inches away from mine. “Am I now?”

I laughed and leaned away. “It’s embarrassing.”

His face changed from playful to serious. “On the contrary, I know for a fact you find it absolutely invigorating to have people unable to take their eyes off you. And now you’ve got a whole room full of them.”

“I hardly would call this a room full.” I frowned at him. “And even so, they’re not bumping noses with me at the moment, so they’re easily ignored.”

Lazel scooted two caramel colored drinks in our direction. “Two Whiskey Sours, the only drink I can make even when I’m shit faced,” he laughed and took a gulp of his own mug.

“Cheers to that,” I said and raised my glass to Lazel.

After Lazel resurfaced he spoke again. “Ya know Aiden, I like this one.”

Aiden smirked at me and picked up his drink. “Well, I’ll be back in a few. Try not to eat her while I’m gone.”

He slyly brushed his lips against my ear as he turned to walk away and whispered, “By the way, bumping noses is so dog-like; that’s not my style.”

The glass mug I was holding suddenly felt like jell-o in my hands and my foot slipped off the rail running along the bottom of the bar. I turned around to give him some sort of snappy remark but he was gone. I saw the cigar smoke above the booth swirl with the rush of air he carried as he sat down. I hadn’t analyzed the men in the corner yet, something kept me from staring at them. All I could focus on was their pale faces contrasting against the shadowy back of the booth and the cigar angled out of one of their mouths. Perhaps, I was afraid that if I stared at them for too long I might piss someone off. That was a feeling I could relate to.

Lazel set his drink down with a thunk of wood and heavy bottomed glass. “So you’re Cali; Aiden’s mysterious girlfriend.”

I gulped down a mouthful of my drink. The whiskey burned my throat. He made the drink a bit stronger than I was used to. “Uh yeah, that’s me. You’ve heard of me?”

“No, but you’re an improvement on the last girlfriend I saw him with. Granted that was in the 70’s but a woman’s beauty has nothing to do with the era.”

I gulped down so more of my drink. Being called someone’s girlfriend was making me feel awkward despite whether it showed or not. “Was she human?”

Lazel smirked and began cleaning a stack of mugs collecting in the sink. “She was human alright. Human from the moment she met Aiden till the moment she tried to drive a steak through his heart.”

“You mean that figuratively of course,” I said.

“No. She tried to kill him in his sleep one night. God only knows why. Vampires aren’t my type and neither are humans. It’s unnatural to in-breed or even attempt anything across the different races. That’s why I live by the saying, ‘keep your friends close but your enemies closer’.”

He noticed the expression of confusion on my face.

“I’m werewolf,” he said matter-of-factly. “I don’t mess with the likes of humans and vampires outside of my job. But, I do know a great deal about the two races.”

I stared at him for a moment. “A werewolf?” I repeated.

“You’ve never had the pleasure of our company?” He laughed. My blank expression was answer enough. “Ah, that’s a shame. We’re much more fun in bed than the undead.”

I laughed, feeling the whiskey ease my muscles that had been rigid. “Well, I haven’t experienced either in bed. So I’ll take your word for it.”

Lazel laughed and turned off the water faucet. “I may not look it, but I’m just about the same age as yours truly over there.” He pointed a finger in the direction of the smoky corner where Aiden now sat. “We wolves are the closest to human you can get without actually being human. We age slowly, but at least we age. In a hundred years when you’re rotting in the cemetery, Aiden will still be the young bachelor he is now.” Lazel gulped down the last of his drink. “Try thinking about that the next time you get all hot and bothered!” he laughed drunkenly.

I frowned. “Well, as a matter of fact I plan on becoming a vampire. So, there’s no need to worry about that.” I chugged down the rest of my drink, gagging a little on the last bit that was nearly straight whiskey.

The room was suddenly deathly quiet. I felt the eyes of the men sitting across the room burning holes into the back of my head. Surely they had heard what I said; I should’ve known they would overhear anything I said. I swore under my breath.

“I mean, I haven’t decided. It was just one of the options I had considered. I haven’t even told Aiden about it, so it’s not set in stone,” I quickly corrected, but the damage was surely already done.

“Well, who am I to tell you what’s right and what’s not, anyway. Don’t listen to me, I may be a wolf, but I’m obviously not the best to take advice from. I’m almost 90 years old and I’m still working in a bar. What does that tell you?” He laughed.

I forced out a laugh to hide the embarrassment I felt blushing my face.

“It seems they’re done talking. Would you like another?” Lazel asked taking my glass.

“I’ll take a shot instead,” I said hoping it would burn away the memory of what I had just said that silenced the whole room.

“Getting drunk without me, I see.” Aiden’s voice chimed from behind me. “How un-lady like of you.”

I turned to face him as he sat on the bar stool next to me.

‘We should leave soon. Our company is no longer welcome.’ His voice was whispering in my head again like it had the night at his house.

“One for the lady…” Lazel set a shot glass half full in front of me, “and a double for an old friend.” Aiden scooped up the taller shot glass set in front of him.

“To old friends,” Aiden toasted as he tossed the drink back and set down the empty glass.

He shook his head as if trying to shake away the alcohol. “Ah, that was some of your old personal stock wasn’t it Lazel?” he said excitedly. “Two more and then I’ll be ready to leave.”

I swallowed my shot, not tasting it, only feeling the burn and watched as Aiden consumed two more of the shots of clear liquid. I’m sure he had heard what I’d said so carelessly about becoming a vampire, but maybe he wasn’t going to try and raise the question right now.

“Has the lady ever gotten to glimpse you drunk first hand?” Lazel mused.

Aiden frowned. “I’m not drunk. But one more and I would be, so I’ll call it quits before-”

“Why not?” I laughed.

Lazel let out a roaring laugh that doubled him over. “I know I said it before Aiden but, I really like this one!”

Aiden turned to me, his eyes narrowing at me with a smile slowly curling on his lips. “One more and then we’re off.”

“One more!” Lazel cheered and poured a round of shots for us all.

We all set down our empty glasses with a resounding thud of glass and wood. I made a mental note to cross off ‘getting drunk with other-worldly creatures’ on my Things To Do Before I Die list.

“I promise to stay in touch more than I have in the past, Lazel.” They leaned across the bar and hugged. “But now I have more important things to attend to…” He turned his gaze towards me with eyes that burned into my skin making me feel warm all over.

“’Till next time,” Lazel called from the bar as we exited in to the cool night air. I hadn’t realized how warm it was in there until we stepped outside. Immediately I crossed my arms and rubbed them together.

The walk back to the hotel wasn’t quite as long as it had seemed before. The street was speckled with a few patrons wobbling from bar to bar, but that was the only other movement besides Aiden and me.

“So what did you talk to them about?” I finally said after we had approached the gravel parking lot of the motel.

“Just a few things about the ones we’re going to meet in Oregon; asking some questions about anything they’ve heard from the hunters; nothing really interesting.” He stopped in front of me to keep me from walking; burning me with the same eyes he had in the bar.

I stared up at him, an awkward smile forcing itself upon my face. “What?”

He smiled back gently and lifted his hand up towards my cheek. “If I weren’t so afraid of you I’d kiss you.”

My face burned red hot against his touch and his words. “Don’t be ridiculous! You’ve got no reason to be afraid of me.”

He trailed his fingers along my cheekbone towards my chin. “Haven’t I?”

He was calculating my reaction as to how far he could go before I’d snap at him. If only he knew that at the moment, I would do anything but snap at him.

I smirked. “Well, I left my pepper spray in the car. I’m helpless.”

His eyes brightened wildly a shade of yellow-gold. “No, I carried all your belongings to the room already. Maybe we should go retrieve them so you’re not so helpless?”

“Perhaps,” I said, as if the curl at the corner of my lips wasn’t answer enough.

The room door seemed to open in slow motion as Aiden unlocked it.

I was so lost in the haze of lust and alcohol that I had already forgotten we had a honeymoon suite. I fell to my knees, doubling over with laughter.

“Forgot already, had you?” Aiden said as he kicked his foot at the heart shaped bed.

“Yes, actually it slipped my mind somehow.” I recovered from my laughing spell and sat on the edge of the bed. It wasn’t that uncomfortable despite its cheesy appearance. I stripped of my jacket which was now too warm to be wearing in doors and tossed it on a chair in the corner of the room.

Aiden sat in the chair and rooted through the pockets of my jacket.

“Anything in particular you’re looking for?” I asked leaning back on the bed and propping myself up by my elbow.

He pulled out my pack of cigarettes and lit one in such a blur of motion I thought I was much drunker than I was. He pressed the Marlboro between his lips and set his jacket on the back of the chair where mine had landed. He exhaled smoke and began making smoke rings.

“I’m seventy-eight years old,” he said abruptly.

I sat up and looked over at him. “And you don’t look it one bit.” Of course my mind was only on one thing at this point.

“And you’re how old?” he questioned, exhaling another long smoky breath.

“I’m twenty-one.”

He stood up and walked over to the bathroom where he tossed the cigarette into the toilet.

“Did I say something wrong?” I said from the bed.

He ran a hand through his hair and sighed. “No. I’m just going to take a shower. You should probably get some rest.”

‘There he goes, ordering me around again,’ I thought. I rolled over on my side and stripped off the unnecessary layers of clothing and found myself passed out in a matter of minutes. The whine of the shower kicked on just before I completely fell asleep.

When I woke the ringing in my ears seemed like the onset of a hangover but as I became more coherent I realized the telephone beside the bed was ringing. I wasn’t sure exactly how many times it had rang already, but I was about ready to toss it through the window, had there been a window in the dingy hotel room.

“Aiden…are you going to answer that?” I mumbled as I pressed a pillow tightly over my head in a futile attempt to block the noise.

I laid there for a few seconds in the silence the telephone’s ringing had occupied. I was already awake, there was no point in trying to go back to sleep now. I sat up slowly knowing a rush of blood to my head was the last thing I needed to complete the creeping hangover.

I glanced around the room; everything was in the same place it had been last night. My jacket was tossed on the chair. My cigarettes and lighter were loosely hanging out of the front pocket where Aiden had returned them. The one thing missing was Aiden. I checked the clock, a rising ominous feeling clenching my stomach. It was eight-twenty in the morning, though it was possible it was the evening, I doubted that I had slept that long.

There was a light flashing on the answering machine of the phone so I decided to check that before I started panicking. I held the receiver a few inches away from my face, not wanting to transfer Ebola to myself. The message, however, was no help. It was just a reminder from the front desk that check out time was at ten.

I jumped up from the bed letting the receiver crash down on the phone carafe. As I rounded through the bathroom doorway I saw Aiden lying in the bathtub fully clothed with a pillow pressed between his head and the fiberglass of the back of the tub. I wondered how he had cramped himself into such a small space given his height, but more importantly I wanted to know why he had slept in a bathtub when there was a perfectly comfortable bed, even if it was heart-shaped. I crouched down beside the tub and leaned my elbows on the bathtub rim.

“So instead of coffins you sleep in bathtubs?”

He attempted to roll over which, as I figured had happened many times while he slept, he clipped his shin on the faucet. His eyes sprung open. Our faces were so close I saw his pupils dilate in the sudden light.

“Bathtubs are the alternative for claustrophobic vampires.” He made a slight attempt at a smirk but his lips quickly returned to their straight line of no expression.

“May I ask why you decided to nap in the bathtub after your shower?” I stood up gently so as not to make myself dizzy.

Aiden sat up in the tub and then stood up as well, taking the pillow with him. His hair was flat on one side.

“I couldn’t exactly make it from the bathroom to the bed last night if you understand what I mean.” He shook his head from side to side to make the messiness of his hair even.

I raised my eyebrows. “That drunk were you?” I questioned. He pursed his lips, as good a response as anything. “Well so long as you’re alright now. I woke up thinking you’d left and it would be just like that morning in the other hotel all over again.” I bit my lip at the slightly clingy tone I was adopting in my voice.

Aiden shook his head. “No, I promised not to do that again.”

I smiled slightly and left to go get dressed. “It’s eight-thirty, so I don’t know if you still planned on heading out this morning, but if we aren’t then check-out is-”

“No, we are. Hurry up and get your stuff together.”

I stayed awake for, at the most, three hours of the car ride before passing out in boredom. Aiden may have started to grow on me. He may have even been nice to look at now that I could pull my head out of my ass long enough to notice him, but he still wasn’t very interesting.

After waking up from my second nap I tried to at least find an interesting radio station but being that we were in the middle of nowhere all I could find was a bunch of bigoted bible thumpers preaching their opinions and beliefs on the AM frequencies. In desperation, I turned down the radio and prayed I could strike up some conversation.

“How do you feel about religion and God?” I said while looking out the window.

Aiden cleared his throat. “I don’t have an opinion. If there is a God, he has already struck me from heaven and no amount of loyalty to God holds the power to sway him from sending me to hell.”

“Well that’s a very straightforward opinion.” I rolled my eyes. “How about before you were damned, or whatever you want to call it?”

He paused. “I… was raised believing in a god, but I thought the practice of religion was unnecessary and exaggerated. I read the bible a few times through, and what I gathered from it was completely different than the religions that existed at the time. Of course, over the years I’ve learned about many different religions such as Buddhism, which, in my opinion, comes the closest to my beliefs.” He paused. “But, like I said, it doesn’t matter at this point. I’m going to a hell if it exists or not.”

I sighed. “Is there anything you care to talk about so that I’m not bored to death this particular car ride?” I replied rather snappily.

Aiden smirked. “I think some one has a hangover, and should get some more rest.”

I rolled my eyes. The headache that had slowly crept on me since waking up had passed its apex of throbbing, and had subsided. “You couldn’t be more wrong.”

I stared blankly at the scrolling scenery out my window. I had always wanted to take a road trip with April. Though the lack of a male presence in the car might have been a bit of a withdrawal for her, I think we both would’ve enjoyed it a lot. It had been several days since my phone went dead, and with the monthly bill deadline passed I’m sure it was already disconnected. I ran my fingers over the rubber numbered buttons, remembering all the nights I had drunk dialed April. I smiled at the memories. I suppose that was a good sign, if I could still smile about her without tears welling up.

Aiden’s voice broke my nostalgic silence.

“We’re 60 miles from Salem. You should probably eat before we make it there. I’m not sure how accommodating our hosts will be.” He turned off at the next exit which had a sign for some Mom and Pop restaurant.

“Accommodating?” I repeated.

“Vampires who spend most of their time around other vamps tend to forget about the routine needs humans have; eating, sleeping,” he spoke nonchalantly.

“Do they expect me to just not eat or something?” my voice almost squeaked at the end of my sentence.