The weekend went by without any trouble, I had gotten an appointment with Diamond Wednesday morning, and was taking my time working on the composition I wanted to make there.

Marie had been out visiting her mother, but I wasn’t lonely, as Stan had invited me for lunch both Sunday and Saturday.

Normalcy was found once again, until Tuesday night.

Both Marie and I knew it was coming, but the knowledge didn’t help with the anxiety gripping both of us.

She was living it better than I did, as I was completely engulfed in my art to flee the thoughts of the future.

Still, the violent knock on the door at nine pm surprised both of us.

We were snuggling while watching a movie, and I hadn’t heard or smelled anything out of the ordinary until the knocking began.

Marie was startled and almost hit my chin, but I dodged it in time.

“Is it…?” Marie asked.

I could smell the thing that was in front of our flat now. Body spray for men, faint traces of Chamomile, and the distinct odor of blood.

VAMPIRE.

Thanks for that information, I think it’s the first time you’ve ever been helpful like that.

IT didn’t react to my sarcasm.

THE TIME IS NOT RIPE.

I felt the Beast recede inside.

Well, great.

“Gray?”

“Yeah. It is.”

“You’re sure you didn’t just order sushi and forget about it?”

“Nope.”

“Fu…I’m going to go get dressed, I’ll stay in my room and listen.” She whispered.

I acquiesced and went for the front door with false bravado.

I would go and meet him as Igris, as I was clothed in panties and T-shirt, and I didn’t want to make the vampire wait.

“Yes?” I said innocently as I opened the door. As I did that, I realized you needed to get buzzed in to get inside the building, so opening the door to someone who didn’t even announce himself was really unnatural.

A gigantic tower of muscle and flesh stood in front of me. The man, if you could call him that as he looked more like a bear, was dressed in a perfect tuxedo, of dark blue color.

It had to have been tailored just for him, as I don’t believe they made clothes that big in stores.

I was very tall for a woman; he was still two heads taller.

“You are Marie’s girlfriend?” He spoke with a deep voice but had no distinguishable accent.

“Yes.”

“You are not in the census.”

All of the sudden, the air cooled down considerably.

“I am.”

“You lie.”

“I am not.”

He watched me carefully. His eyes darted towards the window on his right, Marie’s room.

I was ready to defend myself, but he only threatened: “I should just kill you.”

I smiled amicably.

“You can’t.” I guessed.

I saw all of his body tense up.

“I’ll break you with two fingers…”

“You misunderstand. Killing me is not what was asked of you, that’s what I meant.”

He stared at me with disgust and annoyance. “If you know so much, then you waste my time. You should know what this means without me.” He held me a card, golden and ruby, with words in color of ebony. It read ‘You are summoned.”

“Forty-eight hours, as of midnight, tonight. You understand.” He almost spat the information at my face.

“Erm no, actually, I don’t.”

I saw at his strained face that my comment did not make him happy.

“Where am I asked to go? Only me?” I continued, nonetheless.

“No, of course not you cattle brain. The address is on the back, and both of you have to come.”

I turned the card around, and yes, the address was written there. Oops, made him angry for nothing.

“Sorry about that. Have a nice evening.” I wanted him gone as fast as possible, as his eyes were now showing hatred and lust. He was ogling at my legs.

“I hope you’ll flee. I hope you won’t come.” He had a very sinister grin as he said that. He then turned around, and jumped, not minding the deadly fall from the fourth floor.

I moved to the guardrail, but he was already on the ground, moving fast, a blur in the street below. Humans would think it was just a giant black spot in their vision.

THE OTHER VAMPIRE WAS STRONGER.

The Beast seemed bored. He was intervening more and more these recent days. It didn’t bode well for our meeting with the elder in two days.

“Is he gone?” I heard Marie approach me.

“Yes. You heard?”

“Yeah, I even saw him through the blinders. He didn’t like that though, looked straight at me. How did you know he was just a messenger?”

If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

“It was pretty obvious, wasn’t it?”

“Well, sure. He had the letter in his hands. Still pretty risky no? You could have tried not to provoke him.”

“He wasn’t that scary. Jeanne was more dangerous.”

“Seriously?”

“Yes. He’s too young.” I only knew that because of instincts, most likely not my own in the first place.

“Well, where do we need to go?”

I gave her the card; she knew the city better than I did.

“Ring a bell?” I asked

She smirked.

“Funny you say that, it’s the city’s church.”

“The vampire Elder wants to meet in a church?”

“Probably to show off.”

I laughed at the analysis. “Maybe. Why though? We’re just supposed to be normal cattle to him.”

“Dunno. Still, it’s nice.”

“Erm. What is?”

“Oh, not the situation. The church. You’ve never seen it right?”

“Too close to the center.”

“It is the center. The whole city center was built in a European style, everything is quite beautiful.”

“Great, so we should do some sightseeing before meeting with the big evil vampire? Is that what you’re saying?”

She shrugged. “Why not?”

I sighed.

“Come on in, come on in.” Diamond seemed in a hurry and brought me into the living room while talking non-stop about another meeting he was supposed to be at thirty minutes ago. He, or King, had moved some of the furniture to let me have a nice spot to paint, right in front of the view.

“It’s really nice of you to…”

“Don’t worry about it. I have to go. Don’t go inside our bedroom, I trust you with that. King should be home at four PM, if you haven’t finished then. I looked up some of your stuff online, I can’t wait.” And he left without even closing his front door.

Well, he was a trusting individual to say the least. I went and closed it behind him.

Then, I put up the frame and paper and dragged a stool from the kitchen.

It would do.

I was bothered by the next meeting in my agenda, most likely way less pleasant, but I wasn’t going to let it stop me.

I took my pencil and stared outside. The view was beautiful here, but it wasn’t interesting to me right now. I moved my painting to face the kitchen.

Was Marie putting up a front? Saying we would be fine, considering the situation, was probably delusional at best.

No, no, concentrate.

Five minutes later, I angrily put my pencil down.

Damn vampires, ruining my vibes.

I decided to explore the silent apartment, focusing more on the smells than anything else. I didn’t get close to the red door, which was closed this time.

I opened the balcony and removed my shoes to dip them in the pool. It was freezing, but it didn’t matter much to me. Snow had melted those last few days, and I regretted the crunching sound it made under my step.

I could hear the city life downstairs, like in a faraway dream.

It reminded me of an older life.

The temple I lived in was on top of a small hill, giving a perfect view of the city on the plains below. You wouldn’t call it a city nowadays, rather a large village, but at the time, Nīnwē was the center of the world. I wasn’t allowed to go outside very often, but whenever I did, the view gave me the same feeling. So beautiful yet so distant. Like two worlds that would never reach.

I shivered, my imperviousness to cold not perfect, the cold water getting to me.

As I got back up and tried to get my feet back in my shoes, I realized I had changed forms without realizing it.

Probably because I was thinking about this body’s past. It was getting unsettling easy to switch from one form to another, I needed to be careful not to do it in front of others by accident.

I felt no desire to change back though, I just picked up my shoes and walked back inside, barefoot. The water on my feet created small puddles where I stepped.

I went back to my frame, unconcerned. I had the presence of mind to put an alarm on my phone before 4 PM before looking back at the blank sheet in front of me.

Beauty and luxury. Happiness and fame. Those were the things that apparently reigned in this place.

I knew otherwise.

I remembered how Diamond looked at King. How she was scared of it.

The age-old battle of desire and fear.

Even with the flourishes and the splendor, the questions remained the same.

The clothes were too baggy. I dropped some of them on the floor and picked up the pencil made for female me.

I began drawing. One line.

The composition was centered around people this time. Eyes, specifically. Looking at each other, while at the same time looking away.

It wouldn’t be a portrait though, more abstract, the colors would be exaggerated. I wanted to describe truth, not reality.

I needed colors, I realized.

I foraged inside my large bag of art goodies and got out my painting equipment.

The main color would be dark red, passion, fear and anguish. Avoiding anger, as it was only incidental.

I changed forms multiple times, mostly drawing one character as Igris and the other as Ray, even though I felt the need to switch it up from time to time.

I was staring at it now. It felt done, but I wanted to put in some more. No, it would be too much. I gnawed on the tip of my pencil, dripping a mix of dark and red all over my leg.

My phone rang.

I jumped on the ceiling, which was an almost too literal depiction of what should only be a metaphor.

I had twenty minutes to clean up the mess I had created in this room that wasn’t mine.

I was already in Ray’s body, at least.

Colors all over the floor. Check.

Water in front of the balcony window, which was still partly opened by the way. Check.

Clothes all over the place. Check.

I stopped looking at my work and tried my best to eliminate all evidence of my madness.

The first one was harder to handle than the other two, and unfortunately, King arrived ten minutes earlier than announced, and I was still scrubbing the floor.

“Hi, Ray?” She asked, raising an eyebrow, still clothed in police uniform.

“Hello. Sorry about your floor, I forget all my manners when I paint.” Or dance, I remembered the gay club scene vividly.

“No worries. It’s not my flat. Didn’t know we hired another maid though.”

“Erm. Yeah. Tell Diamond I’m sorry, then.”

“He’s not here?”

“No, he had an appointment, and he didn’t tell me when he would be back.”

“Oh, dang. I wanted to ask him something, I’ve got an unexpected night shift.”

“Phone?”

“Still in my locker.”

“Oh. I can send him a message if you want.”

“That would be nice of you, thank you. Can I see?” She didn’t wait for my answer to get closer to the painting. I had created it by looking at the apartment, so it was facing away from the entrance, and she had to move around me to get to it.

“You should wait for Diamond.” I asked.

“What? You need to take it back, though.” She stopped in her tracks.

I didn’t answer immediately, and just got back on my feet, almost the same size as her now.

“It’s yours.” I said.

“What? That’s way too expensive a gift, Ray, you’re aware at how much your paintings sell right now, yes?”

I grimaced. “It’s yours.” I repeated, not managing to hide the annoyance in my voice.

“Fine. If you insist.” It didn’t seem to bother her that much. “I can’t wait though.” She passed next to me and went to stand in front of the frame.

I didn’t try to stop her, but still winced at her reaction.

She seemed…puzzled. “Wow. It’s…erm good. What does it have to do with this place, though? It’s about lovers, isn’t it?”

“It is.” I admitted.

“I don’t get it.”

“You should ask Diamond.”

“What? You painted it!”

“I’m sorry, I don’t want to talk about it. It’s still too fresh.”

She was looking confused and angry. “Fine.”

“I’ll be going now.”

“Sure.”

“…Don’t destroy it, please.”

“What? Of course I won’t!”

She was still staring at it, conflicted feelings visible on her face. I felt the need to divert her attention from it.

“We were invited by an Elder, by the way.”

She finally ripped her eyes away from my canvas and stepped away. “Yes. We know. Don’t worry about it, he just wants to talk to Marie and her girlfriend. I still don’t understand what’s the story about that, by the way. I was certain you were together. Then I’m informed she’s a lesbian. Makes no sense.”

“Yeah, I’m still not going to answer that.”

She had a displeased look. “Fine. You’re lucky about Diamond and his rules when I’m in the flat.”

“I still worry about Marie…and her girlfriend.” Technically not a lie?

“Yes. Understandable. But we were promised they would be untouched. The girlfriend is a mystery though, can’t you tell me more about her? Igris, isn’t it?” As I didn’t answer, and just fidgeted my fingers around, she continued. “We’re aware of her, and that she’s part of the census, somehow, but that’s about it.”

I couldn’t hide my surprise. “How…?”

“We’ve seen her come and go from your flat. No info on her, whatsoever. Hunter contacts got her name and we know she’s registered through other means.”

“How did they…?”

“Secrets.”

“Dang.”

“Not funny when it’s the other way around, is it.”

“I’m fine with it.” I smiled back at her.

“Cheeky brat.”

“I’ll be going now.” I said for the second time.

“Sure, be careful on your way out. And don’t worry about the Elder, he’s one of the old ones, he follows the rules, and never breaks his word.”

“That’s good.” I felt slightly relieved.

“Not when he swears to murder you and your entire race.”

I wasn’t relieved at all anymore.

“He only did that twice, don’t worry too much.” Her eyes darted back on my painting. Her eyes frowned once again.

“I’m really going, now. I’ll send the message to Diamond, he’ll know you won’t be there.” I said.

“Thanks, have a safe return.”

“And you. Be careful.”

I came back to the flat with a taxi, using the long road to write a thank you message to Diamond, and telling him about his girlfriend working the night. But anxiety was twisting my insides as I thought about King’s words.

It would be fine, wouldn’t it?