Finding Fire

Chapter Three

Anna started to think that this Nicolas guy would never leave his apartment. She had gotten back to the bus stop bench around ten thirty in case he left earlier than usual, and no one had left the building in over an hour. There were only two apartments per floor. On the fourth, one was dark while one had lights on and shadows moved behind the curtains. Anna assumed if Nicolas was a vampire, his was probably the one with movement.

She hadn't seen anybody leave the apartment, so she needed to solve her problem of getting in the building. She hoped she could convince someone to let her in as they were entering.

That would raise suspicions if the tenant she recruited to help her was later notified of a break-in, but Anna wasn't planning on taking anything, so Nicolas should have no idea she'd even been there, let alone notify the police.

She was going to have to think of some other way for her to gain access to the apartment. Luckily for her, this street wasn't busy at night. Anna blended into the shadows of the building on the side of the bus stop, so the few people who did walk by didn't notice her.

As she started to think of different ways she could get into the building, the lights on the fourth story went out. Now or never, she thought.

She started across the street with a falsely confident stride. When she got to the building, she glanced through the glass of the doors at the empty staircase.

There was still no man approaching. She made a show of fiddling in her bag for the keys to her own apartment. As she heard footsteps approach, she acted as if she dropped them.

"Darn it," she said in a voice a bit louder than an honest person might have, hoping the man approaching might hear her. She reached down and picked them up.

When she straightened, a figure came down the last flight of stairs, toward her. She took the key to one of the smaller locks on the main door to her apartment and made it look as though she was about to unlock the door.

As she hoped, he opened the door before she could put the ill-fitting key into the lock. It was only when the door opened that she finally looked up at him.

Her breath left her. He was magnificent. Not model beautiful, but powerful. The sharp planes of his face, along with his massive height, would intimidate even Brad. He towered over Anna, marking his height as well over six feet.

His black hair only caused his eyes to look darker in his pale face. Anna immediately noticed his eyes were not black, but a dark brown. These were not the soulless eyes she'd seen fifteen years prior.

This assessment of him took only a fraction of a second. She immediately looked down and shuffled past him, trying to not be noticed, even though she stood right in front of him.

Apparently he wasn't that suspicious of her, because he was out the door without a word and walked down the street and away from Anna. Even though she knew she should rush upstairs, she paused to watch him go.

He didn't have the black eyes of the monster from her memory, but that didn't mean anything. Maybe they only were black while they were feeding, or the monster Anna saw could be something other than a vampire. These uncertainties were exactly why she had to question Nicolas if Mr. X was indeed right about him.

Once the man was out of sight, she let out a breath she didn't realize she was holding. She turned and continued up the stairs to apartment 4A.

When she reached the door, she confirmed her suspicions that 4A was the apartment that light had been coming from earlier. To prove it was empty, she knocked loudly a couple of times. After a few moments, no one had answered.