"Where have you been?" Stephen demanded, appearing out of the shadows. Michelle shut the door behind her and pulled her hood back revealing her long beautiful hair.
"I was hunting with...friends," Michelle said tactfully. She slid across the floor to her coffin and opened the lid.
"You mean with Lee," Stephen corrected, the name hanging in the air between them.
"So what if I did?" Michelle asked. "He is a friend."
"He is your friend," Stephen corrected. "Not mine."
Michelle leaned her backside against the coffin and ran her delicately painted fingernail back and forth on the rim of it. Her lips curled into an evil smile.
"Is someone jealous?" she teased. Stephen glared at her.
"I'm not jealous I'm worried. You've totally changed since you started spending time with him."
Michelle rolled her eyes and dropped her teasing persona.
"This again? Before you said I was too soft, now I've changed and that is also wrong. What are you looking for, Stephen? The perfect vampire woman?"
"Maybe I am," Stephen shot back, running a finger through his hair in exasperation. "Would that be so wrong? Wanting to spend eternity with the perfect person?"
"And you think you are the perfect man, is that it?" Michelle demanded. Taking a step toward Stephen folding her arms across her chest.
"You think you are perfect so you hole yourself up inside this dim dingy castle because you cant condescend to grace other lesser vampires with your presence."
"Yes I am. I am better than them and better than any other vampire that has ever lived."
"There's no way Stephen said that," Bailey cut in. "I haven't known him for very long but that's just too unbelievable."
Lee sat back against the couch cushion and smiled coyly.
"I'm just telling you the story how I remember it," he said shrugging. George rolled his eyes rising from the chair he was sitting in and stretching his arms over his head.
"Isn't it about time we all went to sleep?" he asked. "Darby's already been asleep for like two hours."
"You can go to bed if you'd like. I want to hear more of Lee's story," Bailey said to George.
George walked over where his coffin leaned against the wall and pulled the lid open.
"Suit yourself but just remember, every story has two sides and the truth," he advised, stepping into the coffin and resting his body against the plush velvet insides.
"Oh George, you are ever so wise," Lee mused. George rolled his eyes and pulled the lid closed before Lee could taunt him anymore.
Bailey shifted nervously on the chair where she sat. She had meant what she said about wanting to hear more of Lee's story but now that she was alone with him face to face, she felt intimidated. The way his eyes looked at her made it feel as if he could see into her soul.
"So um...Stephen doesn't like you because you stole Michelle from him?"
"You can't steal something that comes with you willingly," Lee quipped.
"But she chose you over him," Bailey submitted.
"Wouldn't you?" the handsome vampire asked, pushing himself up from the couch and taking a step toward Bailey. She felt her muscles tense and she scooted back as far into her chair as she could. Lee continued to move forward, his lips curled up in a friendly smile, his arm muscles bulging against the sleeves of his shirt.
Bailey opened her mouth to reply to him or kiss him, she wasn't sure which, but before she could decide, Darby had shot across the room from her coffin and stood firmly in between them. Lee's face stayed frozen in the same smile but he took a small step back.
"She would never choose you," Darby spat. "Especially if she knew the whole story."
"You mean the story that Stephen tells," Lee argued.
"It's ok," Bailey cut in. "I already know Lee stole Michelle from Stephen."
Darby kept her back turned to Bailey but audibly scoffed.
"Is that what you think? He didn't steal her he-"
Lee held up a hand in front of Darby's face and his eyes went from kind to full of anger.
"Don't you dare say it," he warned. Darby considered him for a moment and decided to hold her tongue.
"Bailey, go to bed," Darby ordered, staring straight at Lee with a look just as stern as his.
"Aw don't send her off now," Lee protested. "We were about to have such a good time together."
In the blink of an eye, Lee maneuvered around Darby to Bailey's chair and stood behind her with one hand clamped firmly around her throat.
Bailey flinched and looked at Darby in fear. Just as quickly, Darby rushed at Lee pushing him across the room and slamming him hard against the wall with a resounding thud.
"Lay a single finger on her again and I will let him out of the dungeon and tell him exactly where you are," Darby threatened.
Bailey had no idea to whom she was referring but it was enough to erase the smile from Lee's face fear creep into his eyes.
"He's still in there?"
Darby nodded, knowing she had won this one. Sure enough Lee nodded humbly and agreed to her terms.
"I won't touch the girl. I was just teasing anyway," he said, looking over at Bailey who stood quivering next to her chair.
"Get out," Darby told him, releasing her grip. "Take my cloak and go to our place. I'll meet you there later tonight."
Lee looked at Darby, back at Bailey and then without another word, took a black cloak from a hanger by the door, pulled it over him and disappeared out the door.
Darby exhaled as if she'd been holding her breath the whole time. She looked Bailey up and down.
"Did he hurt you?"
Bailey shook her head remembering the feeling of his hand against her throat. Had it been exciting or terrifying, she wondered. Maybe both.
"You should get some sleep. Lee is gone for now but he will be back. Don't worry though, he won't touch you again."
Bailey couldn't tell if that made her happy or sad.
"You said if he did you would get 'him' from the dungeon. Who did you mean?"
Darby shook her head as she walked across the room to her coffin.
"That is a story for another day," she said. "Get some sleep."
The lid to her coffin closed and Bailey was alone. Her mind was abuzz with questions. Why did Michelle choose Lee over Stephen? Who was the person Lee was so afraid of in the dungeon? And where was the place Darby referred to?
Bailey knew the only way to answer the last question: she would have to follow Darby. Laying down on the couch, she threw a blanket over herself in lie of a coffin lid and tried to quiet her mind till she could fall asleep.
