Living For The Night - Chapter 6

“Matt! I’m going to ask you one more time. What was her secret?”1

Matt stared at the detective with disgust. “I told you! She didn’t tell me! Why do you think I’m down here telling you that I don’t know?!”2

Detective Marc Andrews was growing impatient. He was tired of playing games with the boyfriend. Flame was gone, to who knows where, and the boyfriend still wouldn’t give up where he hid the body. Detective Andrews was constantly criticized for his behavior with Matt. Andrews was the only detective who still thought that Matt was behind the crime. Everyone else assumed he was innocent, unless evidence appeared to convince them otherwise. Nonetheless, Andrews was not going to stop pursuing his only suspect.3

“Matt! Do you realize how much trouble you could be in for not telling me the truth?”4

Matt threw his hands in the air. “Yes! You’ve told me about a hundred times! And I’ve told you! I don’t know what her secret is!”5

Andrews rounded on Matt. “Oh! So you’re referring to her as if she still has a secret, meaning she’s alive. How would you know if she’s still alive unless you knew where she was?”6

Matt was close to tears. “Because I love her! And I know if she would’ve died, than a part of me would’ve died, I would’ve felt it. But I haven’t, and all I still feel is hope. I know in my heart that she is out there fighting, fighting to come back to me.”7

Detective Andrews started to laugh. “Okay kid, how long did it take you to come up with that one? Seriously, I’d like to know. Then you can give other criminals lessons on how to be an effective, but cheesy, liar.”8

“Detective Andrews!”9

Andrews spun around, only to come face to face with his partner, Detective Greta Khiel. “Greta. Hi. I’m kind of in the middle of something right now, so if you could come back later that would be wonderful.”10

Detective Khiel crossed her arms and glanced at Matt. “You can go home Matt.”11

With a look of relief on his face, Matt quickly walked out of the room. 12

Detective Andrews was not happy. “What are you doing? I was trying to get the boy to confess! Now you’ve let him go home?”13

Greta Khiel had yet to break her somber expression. “What the hell do you think YOU are doing? You had direct orders to leave Matt alone. He came to us out of trust today. We already knew that Flame had a secret. Matt told one of his teachers, and she came to us. Today he came and told us so we could help him. Of course, now he’s going to be scared to come back because of you.”14

“He won’t be scared to come back because of me; he’ll be scared to come back because he knows he’s guilty!” Andrews picked up his #2 pencil and broke it in half. “Why does everyone want to make me out to be the bad guy here? I’m trying to figure out why a young girl disappeared. How does that make me the one getting in trouble?”15

Greta’s expression softened. “Marc. We all know that this case is personal for you. But history doesn’t always repeat itself.”16

Andrews stiffened, at least as much as he could. He was pushing fifty, and he could feel it in every part of his body. He also felt his age every single time he looked in the mirror. His best feature was his eyes, a light green that was in complete contrast to his thinning, dark hair. In his prime, women had fallen all over him, just to get a chance to look into those beautiful eyes. But now, with his only daughter dead and his ex-wife living in Australia with some young surfer, the glimmer of his eyes didn’t seem to have any effect anymore. He sent a cold stare in Greta’s direction. “How dare you bring up my daughter.” He pushed past her and exited the room, slamming the door behind him.17

Greta sighed and sat down, her brown eyes filled with tears. She immediately regretted bringing up Andrew’s daughter. She knew that his daughter had been his life, and the three year anniversary of her death was rapidly approaching. And yet she also felt a little annoyed with the fact that he seemed to think that punishing Matt would somehow avenge his daughter’s death. Personally, Greta had some doubts about Matt’s innocence. But, professionally, she knew that he was innocent until proven guilty, and that’s the way she was going to play the game. For now.18

*~*~*19

“How could I have let this happen under my own roof?” Lilith threw her favorite black cloak across her bed. She wasn’t exactly sure how talking to herself was going to help, but she didn’t care. “That lying, whiny, excuse for a man…”20

Lilith’s thoughts were interrupted by Tariq’s voice. “Lilith?”21

She spun around and he was standing in her doorway. “What do you want?” She snapped. 22

Unaffected by her harsh tone, Tariq stepped into the room and closed the door. “Look, I know you’re mad about Nightstalker. Believe me, I am too. But I’m concerned with your self-negligence the last few days.”23

Lilith was stunned. “Excuse me? What did you just say to me? Self-negligence?”24

Tariq shook his head. “Not like that. I mean, you’ve barely been out to feed, you haven’t even conversed with anyone else in the house, and frankly, I think you’re forgetting about your other needs too.”25

Lilith tilted her head, clearly confused by what he was saying. “Other needs? Tariq, I think you just need to go back to whatever you were doing and leave me alone…”26

She couldn’t finish her sentence, as Tariq had just taken off his long black trench coat, to reveal nothing underneath. Lilith stared at the rippling muscles that seemed to envelope his body. “Tariq…”27

He stepped forward and put a finger to her lips. As he slipped an arm around her, he pulled her to him and replaced his finger with his lips. Pulling away, he slowly began to unlace her tight, black top.28

Lilith bit her lip, her fangs gleaming in the dim moonlight of her room. She was on fire. Even with Luke, she had never felt this alive. She hadn’t felt this alive in probably fifty years. She wanted Tariq. All of him.29

Tariq could feel the desire building in Lilith, and he loved it. For years, he had wanted to feel her body next to his, and now he was going to. Better yet, sleeping with Lilith gave him almost ultimate power, as he knew that one night would not be enough for her. He would have immunity from her wrath long enough to exact his revenge on Nightstalker and Flame. Things were going his way.30

“Luke! Luke!” Flame shook Luke’s shoulders. “Wake up!”31

Luke murmured, and rolled over. “What? What’s wrong?”32

“I just saw Tariq walk into Lilith’s room!”33

“So?”34

“So, he shut the door. And there was little talking before the moaning began!”35

Luke sat straight up in bed. “What?”36

Flame sat down beside him. “Yeah.”37

He groaned. “Great. Just what we need, the enemy sleeping with the enemy.” As he spoke, his door flew open. Luke hissed in surprise. “Tariq? That was fast. Are you only a five minute man?”38

Luke had barely spoken the words before Tariq’s fist smashed the bones in Luke’s nose. As blood poured down his face, Luke howled in pain. “What the hell is your problem?”39

Tariq narrowed his eyes at Luke with a grin Flame had never seen before. Evil, she decided, would be an understatement.40

“You didn’t take me seriously, Nightstalker.” Tariq began to pace the floor in front of Luke’s bed. “When I said you’d regret it, I meant it.” He reached over and punched Luke in the stomach.41

Flame began to worry. “Tariq, please. Leave us alone.”42

Tariq laughed and turned on Flame. “Excuse me? What did I tell you about talking back to me? I do believe you’ve already learned your lesson. I can however, teach you again if you’d like.”43

Flame scowled. “You’re not going to touch me.”44

Tariq laughed harder and reached for her arm. But instead of grabbing her, his body was propelled backward by the force of her foot.45

Flame stepped in front of Luke in a protective stance. “You’re a monster. Stay away from me, and stay away from Luke.”46

“What are you going to do about it if I don’t?” Tariq growled.47

Luke sat up on the bed. “I’ll kill you.”48

Tariq began to laugh once again, and walked out of the room. 49

Relieved that he was gone, Flame let out a deep sigh, and turned to Luke. “Are you okay?”50

Luke winced as he tried to move. “I’m fine.”51

Flame shot him a disapproving look. “No, you’re not. You should just stay in bed.”52

Luke shook his head. “No, I need to feed. I need to gain some strength back.” As he tried to stand up, he collapsed back against the bed. “I didn’t know he could hit that hard more than once.”53

Flame forced him back down onto the pillow. “Just stay put.” She rolled up the sleeve of her shirt, and bit into her wrist. As the blood began to pool on her skin, she pressed her wrist to his lips.54

He shook his head. “I’m not going to take it.”55

Flame rolled her eyes. “Look, I don’t care about your ego. It doesn’t make you any weaker of a vampire for taking my blood. It just makes you stupid not to.”56

Reluctantly, Luke took her wrist and sunk his fangs into her soft skin, sucking at the dark red liquid that continued to flow from her veins. Immediately he could feel his strength returning to his body.57

Flame, however, was beginning to feel very weak. She knew that once you started drinking blood, it was very hard to stop; and she knew if she tried to pull her wrist away from Luke, there would be no use. And she was proven right, as when she tried to yank her wrist away from her grasp, he held it tight. As her energy quickly drained; she began to panic. “Luke! Luke, let go of my wrist! Please!” As she begged him to stop, her world began to swim in colors of black and white. She vaguely heard someone saying her name, and then everything went dark.