Darby could still hear Thomas's soft whimpering as she closed the door to his room. She licked the blood from her fangs and lips and smiled, satisfied. Thomas had proven to be an invaluable dinner companion for the past two weeks and was strangely resilient to being fed from every day. Darby wondered how long till his friends gave up looking for him and assumed he had been in some terrible accident.
As she walked down the hall she could hear the soft sounds of classical music drifting from the parlor. Stephen was always listening to one composer or another as he read from his tall stack of old dusty books. Darby didn't understand how he could spend hour after hour in this dank musty house and never go out to experience the thrill of a hunt or the cool embrace of night air.
"I know you were only forty when you turned, Stephen but I swear the man inside you was no less than eighty. Have you even left that chair in the last three days?" Darby asked, referring to the plush plum colored chair that Stephen sat in, his legs crossed, nose buried in a book.
"You go out and bring me back money and blood. Why would I ever need to leave?" he asked her, not bothering to look up.
"Well I guess you are lucky to have me then. Maybe I should get a raise." This got Stephen's attention and he gave her a stern look with a raised eyebrow.
"You should be happy I'm not reaming you out over this Bailey nonsense. She is a complete waste of time and we both know that."
Darby shook her head.
"Usually I trust your judgment seeing as your two hundred years my senior. But you're wrong about this one, Stephen. She needs me and I can fix her."
"She's not broken," Stephen insisted, slamming the book down on his lap and causing a cloud of dust to rise up into his face.
"Bailey is just another pathetic weak little human girl with no backbone and no desire to assert herself in the adult world."
"Yes and I am the complete opposite of that. Minus the human part. If I turn her and teach her everything I know we could bring you even more blood and more money. And she won't have to work for that appalling woman anymore," Darby said, wrinkling her nose in disgust at the memory of Bailey's boss.
Stephen shook his head and picked up his old book.
"Do whatever you want, Darby," he relented. "But I'm warning you, it's a waste of your time."
"Thank you, Stephen," Darby said with a smile. She turned to leave and in an instant Stephen appeared in front of her, his eyes wide, his large pale hand on her throat.
"Make sure it's only your time you're wasting and not mine. You still work for me."
"Of course, Stephen," Darby choked. "I won't let you down."
Bailey ran from her bedroom into the kitchen trying to hold up the towel wrapped around her chest. Smoke was filling the kitchen and she knew the alarm would go off any second. Grasping the knob she turned off the heat to the oven and opened its door. All that remained of the pizza was a charred circle of dough and round black chunks that she imagined had once been pepperoni. Bailey coughed as the smoke billowed up into her face and as she had anticipated, the smoke alarm began to loudly beep.
Rushing across the kitchen she threw open the small window next to the fridge and began waving smoke out furiously with a kitchen towel. After a few minutes of this the alarm went silent and Bailey collapsed on the floor covered in sweat and smelling of smoke and burned pizza.
"I guess I'll have to shower again," she sighed, hanging the kitchen towel back on its hook and adjusting the blue fluffy one that she wore. She tossed the pizza int the trash and put the tray in the sink.
"Delivery it is."
Bailey trudged back through her living room toward the bedroom but stopped short when there was a knock on the door. No doubt a neighbor who'd been annoyed by the alarm and come to yell at her. She rolled her eyes and sighed again as she reached for the doorknob.
"I know, I know the smoke alarm went off and it was loud but everything is ok now and I-" Bailey let her sentence trail off as she stared in shock and confusion at the figure standing before her. It was the crazy girl who had followed her into work this morning and chewed out her boss and demanded she be given an office plant. How had she found her?
"How did you find me?" Bailey asked, suddenly feeling very self conscious in a bath towel with wet dripping hair.
"I have my ways," Darby shrugged. "What's with all the noise?"
"I burned a pizza," Bailey said absentmindedly. "Why are you here?"
"Well that is going to take some explaining," Darby admitted. "Do you have a few minutes?"
"Uh. Sure," Bailey said, opening the door wider and taking a step back. Darby didn't move.
"Why aren't you coming in?"
"You didn't invite me," Darby said simply. Bailey frowned.
"I opened the door. That's the universal sign for "Come in"," she insisted. Darby stared at her.
"Do...do you need an engraved invitation?" Bailey asked, feeling more confused. This girl had been very assertive at the office this morning but now she stood in the hallway afraid to enter Bailey's apartment without explicit permission.
"Something like that, yes," Darby told her. "If you could just invite me to come in that'd be great."
"Won't you please come in?" Bailey invited with a flourish, gesturing to the couch in her living room. Darby felt a change of pressure in the air and smiled.
"I would love to," she said, and took a step into the room.
"Wait a minute," Bailey snapped suddenly, putting a hand against Darby's chest. She looked down at the hand and up at Bailey's face which had become a mixture of confidence and concern.
"You're not going to pull those weird mind tricks with me like you did with my boss, are you?"
Darby smiled.
"Only if you want me to."
"I don't."
"Then you have nothing to fear. Honestly, Bailey, I just want to talk."
Bailey looked her up and down and nodded.
"Ok then," she said, shutting the door behind Darby. "Sit down and I will order us some pizza."
Darby sat down on the turquoise couch, put a pillow on her lap and smiled.
"Yeah. About that..."
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