Deny Me If You Can (7 page)

Megan looked up at the ceiling. She had to go up. There were sev
eral floors above them. This building was huge, meaning a lot of places to hide in. She assumed that the floors above were apartments along with other rooms for different activities. This place reminded her of a hotel.

Megan ran up
the stairs, she passed the room with Jaromir inside and went to the elevator. She tried not to pay much attention to his feelings, but she felt them as clearly as her own. He was still angry and determined. Something was going on inside that room, but Megan didn't want to know what. She had to hide to save her sister.

Megan remained moving. Hiding in one spot had prove
n to be a bad idea, and somehow she managed to keep away from Jaromir. It turned out that the building had twelve floors. She moved up and down between them, only staying one each for about ten minutes before she moved either up or down. Megan was careful in every corner. She peeked around every one before she stepped out. She didn't want to bump into Jaromir by accident, but so far he was nowhere around.

The vampires she encountered stared at her with huge eyes.
She assumed that they wondered what she was doing here, but no one approached her. That made Megan remember what Jillian had said. Jillian had smelled the exchange of blood, and Jillian hadn't even been inside the room when she and Jaromir had been at it. Maybe that was what the other vampires picked up too.

Megan sniffed at her arm, but she didn't
smell any weird scent. She took a closer look at the vampires who were heading her way. Several of them sniffed the air while they passed her by with shocking expressions. The next couple of vampires reacted the same way. When the third group of vampires came into view Megan had gotten tired of all the sniffing and stepped in their way. Somehow, she knew that they wouldn't hurt her.

The vampires were two blonde women and one attractive man with a tattoo of a snake on his throat.
Their surprised facial expressions told her everything. Being stopped by a human was something they had never experienced before.

“Do I smell f
unny to you guys?” Megan asked.

They all took a sniff and gasped before they exchanged
gazes. One of the women came closer and took another sniff. She looked older than the other woman. She was also taller and had a more mature expression. “How can this be?” the woman said more to herself before she met Megan's gaze. “Our King would never bond himself to a human.”

Megan felt insulted. “And yet he has.”

The woman's eyes narrowed. “Relax, little human. I'm only trying to understand what is going on here. His scent is all over you, which means you must have been intimate with him.”

Megan blushed and looked at the other woman and the man. They remained silent with puzzled
looks on their faces. “Well ...”

“You must mean a lot to him.”

Megan shrugged. “I doubt it. I'm only here to fulfill our deal, and after that I'm gone.”

“What deal?” the man asked.

“That's between me and Jaromir.”

“I doubt th
at you will be gone once your deal with Jaromir is over. A vampire doesn't bond with someone just like that. It's rare. He considers you as his now, and you won't get rid of him that easily,” the man went on.

Megan stared at
him. She didn't know what to answer. What did that mean? Was she Jaromir's pet from now on? A slave? Megan didn't like the sound of that.

The woman took another sniff, this time a
deeper one. “The bond isn't set.”

Megan swallowed and tried to stay calm. “Is that a good thing?”

“Depends,” the woman answered.

“Depends on what?”

The second woman took a step closer. Her eyes were red, but calm. She looked young and innocent. “It depends if he wants a permanent bond with you or not.” The women looked her over and Megan took a step back. “Don't worry. I won't touch you. Jaromir would know immediately if someone touched what is his, and I like having my hands and legs just where they are.”

“So that is why no one bothers me.”

“If you have met other vampires and they have allowed you to stay here, then yes. I just wish I knew what is going on.”

Megan snorted. “Well, if he wants a pet or a slave than he can look somewhere else. I will never agree to a thing like that.”

They all laughed gently.

“No, girl,” the first woman said.
“Jaromir doesn't want you for a pet or a slave. He wants you for his mate, his wife and lover for life.”

Megan thought her heart would stop. The shook from hearing the words “mate”, “wife” and “lover” sounded unbelievable. They had just met for heaven's
sake! And he wanted her already? Just like that?

Why?

“That is the only reason why a vampire bonds himself to someone,” the woman went on. “The bond might be temporary, but I have never met a vampire more stubborn than Jaromir. If he wants you, then he will get you.”

Megan wanted to protest, to say that she wasn't that kind of girl who just gave in easily, but when she thought about Jaromir
, she knew that it was exactly what she wanted to do. He made her knees weak and her heart race with just one look. She wanted him too, and she knew it had nothing to do with his powers. He wasn't here now and was unable to affect her, but she still felt drawn to him, still wanted to be in his arms and rest her head against his chest. His embrace had felt warm, and safe, but also strong and protective. She had felt as if she was home.

It had to be because of the bond, she assumed. If it wasn't his powers then it had to be the bond.
At least, it was a good excuse to why she felt the way she did.

The woman closest to her
said: “Well, I'm sure Jaromir can explain all this to you. Why don't you go and talk with him?”

Megan winced
. That was the last thing she could do right now. She looked behind her shoulder and felt a sudden urge to run.

“I'm sorry, I have to go,” she said and looked behind her shoulder again. Jaromir could show up any minute. Stress filled her
... followed by an adrenaline kick. Was it from excitement? No, it couldn't be. The idea of her enjoying this was absurd. Right?

The woman
frowned. “Aren't you going to talk with him?”

“
I can't, but thank you for all your help.”

Megan
fled before they got the chance to ask her more questions.

Megan took the stairs to the next floor and ended up in a nice looking cafeteria with bright walls, crystal lamps and expensively dressed vampires. The
re were too many vampires here, and Jaromir's scent on her drew their attention to her. Megan didn't like that. She backed out and kept running up the stairs. She needed to find a place away from people. Who knew how the other vampires would react. Just because she hadn't encountered any mean ones yet didn't mean that one of them wouldn't mind an early morning snack. Maybe some of them wouldn't respect that Jaromir had marked her as his.

When she reached the final floor
, she was out of breath. Her cheeks felt hot and her legs were shaky from the fast run. She looked around and saw that she had reached the last floor. Two doors were in front of her. The one with the glass window led to another hallway from what she could see. The other door was made of metal, and it could only lead to one place.

The attic.

Deciding which door to choose wasn't hard. She went for the attic. Luckily, the door was open. There would be a lot more places to hide on in there, she hoped, and maybe it would be more difficult for Jaromir to find her. A vampire's sense of smell was a lot stronger than a human's, and attics where filled with plenty of odd and old scents. If she was lucky, it would confuse him long enough for her to gain time. Well, at least it sounded like a nice theory, but she had no idea if it was true.

Megan looke
d at her watch. Three hours to go.

She felt tired and wanted nothing more than to lie down and rest. She was not used to being up this late, and worrying about her sister made her lack in sleep.
Stacey didn't have much time left. Everything came down to these final hours.

“You can do this,” she told herself and opened the door to the attic.

The first thing Megan saw when she opened the door was a narrow corridor followed by stairs that went upward. It was dark inside, and that worried her. Who knew what was hiding up there. Maybe it was some kind of vampire nest where they performed rituals on humans.

Megan shook her head and knew she was unfair. So far she hadn't seen anything of that sort.
The vampires had turned out to be different from what the media had made her believe, and she wasn't surprised. The media was good at reporting only the bad things about the vampires, but at the same time all the news was created by humans who had no clue about the world of vampires.

Megan realized where this was heading. Here she wa
s, among the vampires, still unharmed and alive. Although being hunted, there was no real danger in it. The only vampire that had shown an unkind side was Jillian, but she had her reasons for it. Megan couldn't blame her for being angry. Jillian wanted Jaromir for herself, and one thing Megan had noticed about the vampires was that they were possessive.

Megan knew
she would be one of the few humans who would actually talk kindly about the vampires once she got out of here. That was the least she could do if Jaromir gave her his blood.

Megan stare
d at the stairs in front of her. She would miss him when this night was over. Nothing would ever be the same. She felt it in her entire being. Jaromir would remain a memory of something thrilling and wonderful, but that was all it would ever be. He maybe wanted her now. The hunt had him all worked up, and that was the only reason as to why he wanted to keep her, she told herself. When all this was over, his feelings would go away and she doubted he would even remember her after a few days.

That thought actually hurt.

Megan sighed and tried to focus on here and now. She took a deep breath and went inside. The door closed slowly behind her, and the loud sound from the door shutting made her heart jump. The light was poor and there was no light switch, but when she went up the ten steps it became brighter.

Megan looked around with big eyes.

“Wow,” she said to herself when she saw that the attic was one huge room with leaned roof. Windows were placed here and there on the roof and through them entered the light, creating a dim atmosphere. There were boxes, clothing racks, chandeliers and other things that were no longer used all over the place. In one corner stood an old grandfather clock with broken glass. In another corner were pieces from an old horse wagon piled up, and close to her stood a worn out table with a computer from the eighties.

It felt like she had stepped inside several different epochs at the same time. Everything wa
s dusty, old and used, but it mesmerized Megan. She didn't know who this belonged to, but when she looked closer she figured it belonged to several people. In one of the boxes lay beautiful dresses from the twenties. Next to it was a huge wooden chest. It was open and Megan gently touched the fabric of what looked like hippy clothing from the sixties.

“Someone has had a very interesting life,” she said to herself and smiled.

For a moment, she forgot why she had come up here. Every piece had a history to tell, even the old and worn out teddy bear that was dressed in a yellow skirt. It looked like it had once belonged to a little girl and because it was so worn out Megan could only assume that the girl had loved her teddy bear.

She swallowed h
ard and couldn't help but wonder which piece belonged to which vampire. Vampires lived for a very long time so the owners of these things were probably still alive.

She went further
in and found more wooden chests packed with everything from clothes to porcelain and even uneaten candy bars. The further in she went the older the things seemed. Some things were behind dusty glass showcases, for instance a thick book with handwritten text and handmade images that belonged in a time that no longer existed. The book seemed to be from the medieval times, and probably sensitive to touch.

Megan wiped
the dust off from the showcase and took a closer look. At first it was difficult to understand what was written on it, but after a while the letters became clearer. She didn't have a clue what was written though or in which language the book was written in, but when her eyes read one word that she recognized, she gasped.

“Jaromir,” she read and laid
her hand against the showcase.

Jaromir
was old, very old.

“Fascinating, isn't it,” Megan heard a woman's voice say behind her. She flinched and turned around with a
pounding heart. The pounding didn't ease when she saw that the voice belonged to Jillian. “Can you imagine that Jaromir once wrote that book?”