The Red Guard: Vampire Hunters of Vatican City

Chapter Fourteen - Love Knows No Bounds

They stared at each other through all of people but it felt to Chloe like they weren't even there. She suddenly felt like all of the possibilities she had worked so hard to let go of and forget about were back in the forefront. She felt like her life had meaning beyond revenge again, and she recognized the feeling as hope. Her grin slowly spread across her face as she stood there with bodies gyrating around her.

But then she noticed that his expression was not one of joy and hope, but rather one of anger and confusion. Her joy quickly turned into concern for the man she had loved and still loved. She started to walk towards him and she noticed that he looked at her with a strange intensity. She saw his nose twitch as he sniffed towards her. "Derek?" she said his name and it felt so good to say it. He heard her voice and his eyes seemed to clear and he finally looked at her like he actually recognized her. She saw the love fill his eyes and her heart could have burst with happiness.

"Chloe? Is that you? I've been looking all over for you. I thought maybe you had gone home without me. I'm so happy to see you," he said with an air of desperation.

"I'm so happy to see you, too!" She breathed with feeling. She continued to approach him, but realized that she needed to keep her distance so that she wouldn't raise suspicion with the other members of the Red Guard. She stopped in her place and looked slightly away from him. "A lot has happened since we last saw each other, and I really want to talk to you about it all. But we need to meet in secret. Nobody can know we are talking. Can you meet tomorrow night at our old hotel? In the basement, where we used to share breakfast."

She didn't look at him, but she could tell he had also looked away from her. She could only hope that nobody had noticed their original interaction. "Yes, I will be there," came his voice like music to her ears. "I cannot wait to speak with you, Chloe. I've been missing you so much."

"I've been missing you, too. I thought you were dead. I didn't know you survived," she said. She didn't yell over the music, knowing that his ears would still hear her.

"I heard that you were attacked. I didn't hear much else. I didn't know what became of you, so I've been looking for your face everywhere I go. Every day. Every night.

"Derek," she whispered. She felt emotion starting to take over, "See you tomorrow night, Derek," she said softly. She thought back to the night they were separated and how obsessed she had been about whether or not he had been looking for her. And here he had been searching for her relentlessly day in and day out. It melted her heart.

"I can't wait," he replied.

Chloe swallowed hard. There were so many feelings building up inside of her and she was starting to fear an emotional outburst that she might not recover from. She quickly walked to the washroom as she bit her lip hard enough to draw blood. She felt strength from her pain and it kept the flood of emotion that was about to pour out of her at bay. The pain kept her sane.

She slammed the bathroom stall door and sat on the toilet with her head in her hands. She took some deep breaths and thought through her plan. Did she even have a plan? Enough of one to at the very least see Derek tomorrow night. He was the link she needed to figure out what was happening with the vampires.

Her life suddenly had so many possibilities, she could hardly keep up with them as they rushed through her brain. She trusted Derek with everything that she was. At least she had. And when she thought of it, she trusted him with her eternity. They could work together to even the playing field for the rich and poor, this at least as a start. Perhaps they could even have some sort of future together after everything settled down.

Chloe got up from the toilet and took a deep breath. She flushed the toilet as she opened the door and studied her face in the mirror. She could do all these things in her mind and more. She concentrated hard to calm her eyes and reduce the flush in her face.