"Did she send you?" he asked, leaning his shoulders against the wall behind him.
"Uh, yes," she replied. This was more than awkward for her - how was she supposed to ask this guy why he was hanging around outside the bar?
"I thought so, you don't seem the type to just approach a perfect stranger. At night. Near an alley. By yourself."
She shivered, and tugged her pea-coat around herself more tightly. Paranoia clawed up Lucia's back and made her take a reflexive step away from the weird man, only to have him catch her elbow, smirking. An elongated canine tooth slipped out from under the left side of his lip, and Lucia gasped, but couldn't bring herself to budge any part of her body. Even her eyes remained fixated on his. Had she been tricked?
"You're actually quite quick on the update," he mentioned, pulling her back toward him. "Most people swoon at the first touch, even something so light as the elbow."
"You're a vampyre," she stammered as her mouth came back under her control.
"Yes."
"You have me under a spell."
"Yes and no, your fear and shyness are doing more work than I am."
"Are you going to bite me?"
"Perhaps, do you want me to bite you?"
"No."
The vampyre blinked once, surprise etching itself into the set of his mouth. Collecting himself, he smiled more openly as he flicked his bangs out of his eyes with a shake of his head. His grip on her elbow loosened and he slid his arm around her waist, squeezing at the small of her back. Lucia's breath caught in her throat and she snapped her elbows to her side, clasping her hands over her chest. She couldn't help but notice a soothing smell of burning wood.
"You're very interesting," he said, tilting his head forward to look her in the face. "What is your name?"
"I-I'm Lucia," she mumbled. He was going to bite her anyway, so what else was she supposed to do other than not piss him off?
"It suites you, call me Hektor."
"Lucia!" Arianne's voice shot through the air, startling Lucia out of her daze. "Where are you?" In that moment, Hektor had vanished with only a cold wind to accompany the departure.
Arianne turned the corner and caught sight of Lucia and the frantic expression on her face melted to relief. Her heels were silent as she hurried over bits of trash and newspaper to Lucia, who stood alone, obviously shaken.
"I knew I shouldn't have asked you to confront him," Arianne said, guilt filling her soft eyes. "What did he do? Are you okay?"
"He was..." Lucia's voice faded away as she tried to put an adjective to the vampyre. She couldn't just come out and say what he was, Arianne would think her completely insane. The word fell from her lips before it had fully formed in her mind, "...gentlemanly."
"Really?" her friend asked. Her shoulders slumped, tension leaking out of her entire posture quickly. "I'm so glad. Angelos came back and asked where you had gone and he really gave me an earful when I told him. He was right too, it wasn't something I should've asked you to do."
"I'm fine!" Lucia insisted, waving her hands wildly in front of her chest. "Honest."
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