The Truth Behind Those Eyes

Chapter Five

The hotel was a cheap, no frills, run of the mill place sitting on a quiet side street just a few minutes drive from the beach. They drove in companionable silence, the tension that had oozed from them earlier now gone. Nikki had decided to trust Josh and she was happy with her decision. 

He pulled in to the almost empty car park and killed the engine in a bay close to the door."Better cover up," he joked, reaching in to the back seat and producing a beat up, black leather jacket. He slipped it on and zipped it, covering the blood splatters that would certainly raise suspicions. Grabbing a small holdall from behind Nikki's seat he gestured for her to join him as he exited the car. 

It didn't take them long to book in and get their room key, even though a sign above the tired reception desk announced that check-in wasn't until after eleven. Nikki assumed the large wad of cash Josh passed to the ageing man behind the desk, had something to do with it. 

Inside their room, it was clean, basic and antiquated. A generic print of a garden scene hung above the bed, attempting to inject a little personality in to the space but it just looked out of place against the old, peeling wallpaper. 

Nikki sat in the middle of the double bed with a glass of foul whisky Josh had sourced from the mini bar. 

"This," she waved the glass at Josh, "is repulsive, offensive and just bloody awful." 

"It will help you sleep." Josh leaned back in to the over stuffed armchair. 

"Not before it strips the lining from my stomach. It's like drinking paint thinners," she complained, setting the glass down on one of the matching bedside cabinets, refusing to finish the liquid. "No more, I'm done." 

The curtains were all but drawn but a sharp sliver of sunlight found its way through the gap where the material didn't quite meet; it sliced the bed in two. Josh ran his fingers through his hair and nodded. "Tell me about your life," he asked, making himself comfortable. 

"No, tell me more about yours. Tell me about being a vampire or whatever it is you call yourself." 

Josh smiled a warm, open lopsided smile. "I am not a vampire I just happen to survive on borrowed blood." 

"Borrowed?" Nikki snorted. "Do you intend on giving it back?" 

Again her companion grinned. "No, no I don't." His demeanour changed slightly as he shifted his weight and slowly eyed her up and down. It was obvious to Nikki, even in her exhausted state, that he was weighing something up. "Fine, you're going to find out eventually," he sighed. "That thing in your apartment, well both things in there, they come from the other places I told you about and they're not the only creatures that live there. There are two whole worlds full of beings that are deadly, repulsive and merciless. For want of a better word, we call them demons because essentially, that's what they are. They're animalistic and driven by their basic instincts or needs most of the time but there is a hierarchy and they follow their own world's rules. They are what sustain me. I kill and," Josh paused and met Nikki's eye. 

"You drink their blood," she finished, more curious than repulsed. 

"Yes." 

Nikki's thought's wandered to the images of vampires she'd seen on film. "But you don't have fangs and sunlight, garlic and holy water don't hurt you." 

The smile that was now becoming familiar to Nikki, found its way back to Josh's lips. "You've got to get away from the word, vampire, Nikki. I'm nothing like what you've read about or seen in films. I don't lust for blood any more than you crave water. I drink the blood because that's what I survive on, end of story. I have a few extra abilities that come with being powered by their blood but other than that the similarities end. It's like I was trying to explain on the beach, Chinese whispers. Over centuries of telling, the stories become distorted and manipulated until they hardly resemble anything like the truth. Call me a vampire if you must but then you've got to shift your pre-conceived notions of what a vampire is."