The foggy morning light drifted through Juliet’s curtains and brought her into a state of consciousness. She batted her eyelashes and brought the room into focus. Her room was empty because there was no long-limbed gentleman asleep at her desk or dark-haired rogue in bed with her.
Seth was gone.
Juliet sighed.
She couldn’t remember a thing after their second kiss and that had been somewhere between four and five in the morning. Had he left right after that? From what she could tell, he hadn’t done a thing to her, but merely covered her with a blanket and walked out. Well, there was something else she wanted to check. She felt the contours of her throat, but the skin was unbroken.
She flopped back down on her bed.
What should she do now? After their conversation the night before, Juliet was left to choose what to believe: either that Seth was an ordinary guy who was pretending to be some dark, demonic thing just to please her, or that he actually was some dark, demonic thing.
When Juliet thought of the first theory, Rylan’s red eyes popped into her head. She could guess how he would answer her dilemma. “I’m an everyday guy and I’m wearing red contacts. Remember? The simplest solution is usually the correct one. And Seth? Yeah, he’s a normal guy, too. Don’t be so dumb that you believe the ridiculous stories he tells you.”
Since when had Rylan become the voice in her head? Was he supposed to be the devil or the angel sitting on her shoulder?
Juliet considered the second theory, that Seth was really something dark—cursed. There were three pieces of evidence that supported this theory: the three bite marks in a neat line down the vein in his throat, his fangs, and the fact that he said himself that he scared off vampires because he was scarier than they were.
If she’d had enough of these games, she needed to crack down on what Seth really was. Reminding herself that it was completely okay if he was an ordinary guy, she picked up her cell phone and gave the Occult’s Addict president a call.
“Hello,” Fiona answered her phone briskly.
“Hi Fiona, this is Juliet.”
“Hey, how’s it going? Lucky you called after ten, if you’d called ten minutes earlier, I wouldn’t have answered. What can I do for you this morning?”
“I was just wondering what information our club has gathered on Seth. Could you share it with me?”
Fiona yawned. “Sure, babe, but I think you’re in a much better position to share information with us, since you’re so close to him and everything.”
Juliet hesitated. “I already told Rylan a bunch of stuff. Didn’t he pass it on?”
“That little puke,” Fiona fumed. “No, he didn’t. Stop telling him things. He’s been so despicably jealous since that night you left the greenhouse with Seth. I can hardly stand to be around him anymore. Just come to Halo or me when you have something interesting to spill. It’ll be more fun to tell us anyway.”
Juliet suddenly remembered her conversation with Elise from down the hall about Seth. That girl didn’t want to hear about it, but these people did. Juliet’s heart sang.
“You bet,” she said cheerfully, and she explained how she had blacked out when he kissed her.
“You are so lucky,” Fiona said when she was finished. “Seth’s piping hot, but it’s not just his face. The man looks totally tortured while somehow managing to look sophisticated and... I don’t know... he seems like he’s got a layer of impatience simmering under the surface.” She sighed. “I hope you have a good time with him. I wish I’d studied him a little more closely myself, because I had no idea he had such a honey-dappled way of talking, or such a razor-sharp wit.”
“Yeah, he’s a little vicious, huh?”
“Gorgeous, but vicious,” she agreed. “It’s a good thing Rylan didn’t try to spar with him. There would have been bloodshed.”
Juliet smiled. At least someone understood her fascination. “So, what do you know about him?” she asked.
“We weren’t that far into our investigation when you showed up, and I just thought you’d take it over. So, I have his address and Rylan’s pictures of him and that’s all.”
“His address? That’s more than I have. I haven’t been over to his place yet.”
“All right, here it is.”
Juliet wrote it down. “Wow, I’m glad you had it so handy,” Juliet commented. “Do you usually keep this kind of information so handy?”
“Ah,” Fiona said, sounding nonchalant. “No. I have a folder next to my bed and that’s where I keep all my occult stuff. I gotta go, but please tell me how it goes. If he sucks your blood, I want to be the first to know. Later.”
With that, Fiona hung up. Juliet didn’t even get a chance to say good-bye before the line went dead.
“That was a little weird,” Juliet muttered as she dropped her phone on her duvet. It wasn’t that Fiona’s friendliness was completely unexpected, but Juliet found her end of the conversation awkward. She expected to have to wait for Fiona to give her Seth’s address. Why in the world did she have it at her fingertips?
Juliet shrugged. She should just be happy with the result, which meant she could spend her entire Saturday hunting Seth down and figuring him out.
She looked at his address more carefully. His apartment complex wasn’t in her part of the city; rather, it was across the river in an area she had never been. However, the numbers made it seem like it wasn’t that far away. Too far to walk, she decided as she shoved herself to her feet. She needed to take her time getting ready, just in case she ‘accidentally’ ran into the object of her pursuit.
***
Juliet sat in the front of a city bus, watching the scenery closely. She had never crossed the river before. The water was blue as the wan sunlight flickered across its stirring surface. The poplars and willows had long lost their leaves and only the spruce and pine kept their green needles. The sky was overcast and the wind bore down on the pedestrians. In a moment, she would be one of them.
As the bus climbed the valley road, she kept her eyes fixed on the street signs. She knew her stop was coming as they approached the top of the ravine. She pushed the button and the bus came to an immediate and bumpy halt.
She smiled apologetically to the bus driver as she stepped out the front doors. “Thanks,” she muttered.
Once on the sidewalk, she examined the piece of paper with Seth’s address scrawled across it. His place was over three blocks and then two more blocks into the river valley. Luckily, she didn’t think she would freeze to death before she found it.
She walked leisurely, looking at the houses and apartment buildings, wondering idly what Seth’s building would be like. Some of the designs were very old, absolutely nothing like what she was used to back in her hometown. They were fascinating to her.
After she had covered a little over a block of her journey, she became aware that someone was walking behind her. At first, she wasn’t alarmed. There were lots of people out on the streets. Weren’t there? Juliet’s eyes flickered around the streets, searching. It was just a person walking. There was nothing to be suspicious of. But when she finally made her turn to enter the deeper parts of the valley, she realized that it was a man and he had caught up to her so that she was only three steps ahead of him. She hadn’t even heard his footfalls behind her.
She jumped. It felt like he was practically breathing down her neck.
“Sorry,” he said deftly, his voice deep and slightly echoing through the cold. “I didn’t mean to scare you.”
Juliet stared at him. It was unintentional, but she couldn’t help it. Besides Seth, she had never seen anyone who appeared so utterly unreal. His hair was the color of salt, and his eyes were the color of lilacs; however, it wasn’t just the coloring that made the person in front of her seem amazing. It was something else, something much more complicated that Juliet couldn’t exactly analyze.
He stepped in front of her with a flirty smile and strode ahead of her with a silence and a speed in his long legs that seemed to wake Juliet up, like his very existence had flung her from her world into an extraordinary one. She forced herself to walk faster just to keep up with him. She had to unravel the mystery before he disappeared.
Suddenly, he stopped in front of a small cluster of outdoor mailboxes and Juliet had to proceed ahead of him. It was no use. She had no excuse to loiter because she was standing outside Seth’s building.
It was a completely ordinary building. It was built of brick. There were no balconies, making it look ancient. Juliet wondered which one of the windows belonged to Seth.
Bravely, she walked up to the buzzer panel. She had planned to find out his apartment number from the chart. There had to be a list of names like there was at every other building, but when she looked at the list of occupants, she saw that it was completely blank. There was only one button that had anything written beside it. It said ‘manager’ on it, but there was nothing else.
Juliet sighed.
“Can I help you with something?” a deep voice said.
Juliet spun around to see the fascinating stranger standing in front of her. His keys were between his fingers. He probably lived there.
She smiled sheepishly and said, “My boyfriend lives here, so I was just looking for his apartment. That’s all.”
“Oh really?” the stranger said, clearly amused. “Who’s your boyfriend? I’m the manager here, so I know everyone.”
“Seth Halkias,” she answered, unable to meet the stranger’s gaze and dropping her eyes to the pavement. She was even blushing with glee at being able to call Seth her boyfriend. She already knew that if this guy was the manager, then he had to be Seth’s older brother.
“Ah, Seth,” the man said speculatively, his tongue rooting around in his cheek. “Yeah. Did he invite you here?”
Juliet flushed even deeper. “Not exactly.”
“Didn’t think so,” he said, his voice gaining a satisfied quality to it. “I’ve sent him out on a little errand. You can come in and wait for him if you’d like.” Then he extended his hand. “I’m Chas.”
Juliet shook hands with him. His hand felt warm and welcoming, and all the unease she had felt evaporated.
Chas took her handshake as assent and after putting his key in the lock, opened the door for her. The inside was everything Juliet had expected. Buildings built in that style usually opened into a staircase; one flight going up and the other flight going down with a door capping each hallway of suites.
“Come on,” Chas said, heading up the stairs.
She nodded and followed after him.
When he got to the top floor, he took out his keys again and unlocked the door that Juliet assumed led into the hallway. When he opened the door, there was no hall, instead, the entire floor had been gutted and made into a single private apartment. It led into an overly large, but extremely tidy living space. A stainless steel kitchen separated the living area from the dining area. As Juliet proceeded further into the apartment she saw that the whole back wall by the dining room table was glass, overlooking the river valley. The view was incredible. Her mind couldn’t even calculate the value of the place.
“This is Seth’s place?” Juliet gawked.
“No,” Chas said pleasantly, tossing his coat on the back of a leather armchair and dropping himself into it. “This is my place. That is Seth’s room,” he said, pointing his chin toward one of the doors. “What exactly did Seth tell you about his living arrangements?”
Juliet gulped. She was being quizzed. “He didn’t say much. He said his brother owned an apartment building and he lived there.”
Chas nodded. “Yeah, that’s how he talks. So,” he said stretching his legs out and putting his hands behind his head. “What should we do now?”
Juliet’s skin turned cold.
“How about a tour?” she said, trying to keep her voice steady. She couldn’t let him know she was shaken.
“A tour?” he mocked. “You don’t want a tour of this place, little girl who says she’s Seth’s girlfriend.”
“I am his girlfriend. I am. Didn’t he mention me?”
“Well, what’s your name, little un-introduced girl?”
“Juliet.”
“He didn’t mention you,” Chas said negatively. “But don’t let that bother you. I have no problem inviting strangers up to my private rooms for a little fun.” He scrutinized her with careful eyes, all the while cold sweat pooled at the base of Juliet’s neck. “Seth didn’t say anything about you, but my daughter did. There are two things you should know about Seth and I should tell them to you before he gets back,” he got up from the chair and stepped toward her. Standing too close to her he said directly, “If you’re looking for a fairy-tale ending, you will never get it with him. If you back off now, it will hurt less.” He paused for a moment and took a deep breath. “The other thing you should realize is that if you’re here for fan service (and I sincerely hope you know what I mean when I say that) you won’t do well getting it from Seth. He’s... sort of hopeless in that department and extremely inconsistent. You’d be better off with me.”
Juliet had no idea what he meant when he said ‘fan service,’ but made a note of it and decided to ask Seth about it when he got back.
“Thanks,” Juliet said peacefully. “I’ll remember your warning.”
She was about to ask him who his daughter was, but just as she opened her mouth to ask, the apartment buzzer rang and Chas excused himself to pick up the phone.
Juliet pretended not to listen to his conversation by turning her back to him, when actually she was listening carefully.
Chas' deep voice was practically a whisper, but Juliet still caught most of it. “Right now?” he asked. “I have a guest. No, not that kind of guest. Hmm... how could I refuse such an invitation? All right. I’ll get rid of her. I’ll buzz you up in two minutes. Don’t move.”
He put down the receiver and came over to where Juliet was admiring the painting over the mantelpiece.
“What do you think of it?” he asked serenely, as though he had all the time in the world and wasn’t looking for an excuse to toss her out on her ear.
Juliet, suddenly in no rush to leave, took her time letting her eyes explore the canvas.
The painting was a portrait of an extremely beautiful woman. Juliet had never seen a face like hers before. She had waves of blonde/black hair (if such a thing were possible) that fell around her face like the mane of a lion. Her eyes seemed colorless, or rather the exact shade of her skin, and held the pitiless quality of a woman who cared for no one but herself. Her lips were like plums and the dark lilies painted around her made her seem utterly exotic. One of her hands curled up by her cheek, making her look slightly thoughtful. No, not exactly thoughtful, it was more like the wheels that turned in her head always came to a devious and terrible conclusion. Yet, even having observed all that, the woman was, without reservation, the most exquisitely gorgeous creature Juliet had ever seen.
“The artist had quite the imagination,” she remarked.
“I’m afraid that if you had seen the original, you would find this pathetic scratching lacking. I painted it. I love beautiful women, but no one is ever as beautiful as Raidne, and every time I see her she’s even more so.”
“You painted this?” Juliet asked, searching the corner of the canvas to find a date written. The markings said it was painted in nineteen seventy-four. She had no clue how old Chas was. Maybe he was in his early thirties, but if he was, then he would have been a child when it was painted. But for him to have been a teenager when it was painted meant he was at least fifteen years older than she had suspected. “How old are you?”
“Old enough to be your father,” he said grimly before moving away from the picture.
“Wait! If this was a real person, where is she? Was she your wife?”
“Oh no,” Chas said slowly. “She could never be anyone’s wife. Look carefully at her eyes, child. What kind of person do you think has eyes like those?”
Juliet looked thoughtfully and the only answer she came up with was particularly bleak. “A murderer,” she answered quietly.
“It’s even more cruel than I will explain. Now, come along with me. You wanted a tour and I’m suddenly inclined to give you one.”
“Thank you,” she said as she followed him, forgetting the painting behind her. Maybe a tour was his way of showing her to the door.
Chas led her to one of the doors. “This,” he said as he put his hand to the door knob, “is Seth’s room.”
The door swung open noiselessly. The curtains were drawn and the room was flooded in darkness, except for the sunlight that poured in through the door Chas was holding open. Juliet couldn’t see anything except a patch of tiled flooring.
Chas motioned for her to enter.
She hesitated.
“During the renovation, I had a lot of opportunities for improvement. For example, this room,” he said, by way of making conversation, “is completely soundproof. No one can hear what happens in this room, and no one inside can hear what happens out here.”
“Does Seth listen to loud music?” Juliet asked, feeling the wall for the light switch. She couldn’t find it. The wall felt empty.
“It’s up here,” Chas said, placing his fingers over hers and guiding them along the wall till they reached the switch. It was about level with Chas' neck, which made it higher than Juliet’s head. She moved to turn it on, but his grip tightened and her fingers were locked in his. Struggling, she tried to free herself, but she couldn’t get away.
“Let go,” she hissed, glaring at him.
“I have this problem,” he said gently. “I have someone coming I have to see.” The way he said ‘have to’ made him sound like a man dying of thirst on the Sahara, desperate and weak. “It has nothing to do with you, but it’s too late for you to leave. I’m very sorry, but I have no choice except to lock you in here until either Seth comes to rescue you, or my guest leaves.”
“You wouldn’t,” Juliet gasped.
“I have to,” he said, and then he pushed her into the room and slammed the door shut.
Juliet landed on her palms and knees. She heard Chas secure the lock before she was able to get up off the floor. Rushing to the door, she tried the doorknob, but it was completely immovable. She banged on the door with her fist, but nothing happened. The room was soundproof. No one would hear her. There wasn’t any point in fighting. Besides, she got to see Seth’s bedroom. Wasn’t that what she wanted?
She reached for the light switch, but when the room filled with scattered light, Juliet was more puzzled than she had been before. Seth’s room was not normal.