Chapter 3: Ghosted and Found

Lavinia sent messages to Casey daily. Just small things to keep her interested and on the hook. Normally Casey responded almost immediately, but that didn’t seem to happen the day after their meeting.

Lavinia began to worry that Casey was ignoring her. That didn’t stop her from sending the messages.

Eventually, the day of their date arrived. Lavinia dressed in more modern clothes, a dress that displayed her chest. Casey was not the first person Lavinia had seduced.

Most of them, men, women, and everything else she had met were largely the same when it came to revealing clothing.

Lavinia sat at a booth near the back of the restaurant she had chosen for the date. An hour passed and Casey hadn’t appeared.

‘Maybe she’s late,’ but even as she thought it, she knew that wasn’t the case.

She ended up waiting close to three hours, and when Casey didn’t show up, Lavinia left sulking.

‘Am I so out of practice?’, she thought she would slide back into her tested methods.

When she was done sulking, Lavinia grew mad. She had put in effort, not as much as she used to, but effort nonetheless. Casey had seemed so nice and malleable but this was a very cold move.

That line of thinking led her to walk into the grocery store three nights later. Seeming to glide, she crossed from the automatic doors straight to the little customer service kiosk that sold cigars and high-end tobacco.

“I would like to talk to Casey.” Lavinia didn’t even allow the man sitting at the desk to look up at her before speaking.

“Casey…” he seemed tired, waving his hand as if it would draw something out of her. “What is her last name?”

“I…” Lavinia wanted to kick herself. “I don’t know,” she begrudgingly admitted. “But she is employed here.”

The man nodded, his eyes half-lidded. “I’m sorry ma’am”, he sighed, “she hasn’t been at work for a while.”

“How long is a while?” Lavinia said it too quickly, too desperately.

“Around a week, ma’am. I’m sorry for the inconvenience.” He looked down at something out of her view. He had already forgotten her.

“Then where does she live?” Lavinia rolled her eyes.

“Ma’am, respectfully, I don’t know and if I did I wouldn’t tell you seeing as you don’t even know her last name.” The man never looked up.

If she were a younger woman, she would have killed and eaten him, but she showed restraint and stormed off instead.

Sitting in her car, Lavinia began to formulate what to do. She had always hunted a person incessantly, no matter the obstacle.

She could always give up and choose someone else as her servant. That would mean devoting even more time to finding another suitable candidate. Time she might not have.

The final option lurked in the back of her mind. She could always buy one.

It was shameful. Dishonorable. A thing dirty, desperate vampires did. People that were not vampiric nobility. It wasn’t someone you hunted and bent to your will, it was lazy and the person was already fairly scared.

Lavinia realized what she would have to do. She put her head on the wheel. Tomorrow night she would attend the Night Market.

***

The Night Market sometimes moved. Not always, but sometimes.

Currently, it resided in a decommissioned tunnel that was connected to the subway. The decommissioned rat tunnels that comprised the Night Market were linked to numerous entrances and buildings.

The entrance Lavinia used was a stock trading building on Wall Street. She had to descend the stairwell to the bottom and pass through intersecting hallways until she came to a thick steel door. Behind it, the Night Market sprawled.

Booths, stalls, blankets, and side rooms comprised the bazaar that was the market. Anything could be bought here, regardless of legality, morality, or political affiliation.

Lavinia had come in a disguise, tying her hair back and wearing a black skirt and jacket. Both were ripped and worn. She couldn’t be seen doing this and she couldn’t let Ardashir know that he had won.

People shoved her aside or bumped into her as she wove through the crowd. She passed merchants selling strange artifacts from the collections of wealthy vampires, or so they claimed.

She passed a booth of witches selling charms, potions, curses, fortunes, and everything else that magic could do. They all seemed female but whatever they practiced changed people, so it was impossible to discern their gender. One beckoned her over.

Lavinia shivered and quickened her pace. She feared witches an immense amount. Most smart people did. She passed all manners of things until she finally found what she was looking for.

It was a side room, perhaps once containing useful equipment. A hand-painted sign hung over the door that read ‘Bloode and Servants’.

It wasn’t a business name, more a declaration of the wares purveyed. Lavinia stepped inside, pulling aside a red curtain that acted as a door.

The interior was furnished well, with low light casting the rows of well-upholstered seats in shadow. A bright light shone on a spot of ground in front of the seats.

A man just an inch shy of Lavinia stepped up to her. His hair was greasy and his facial hair was shaved only on the chin. He wore a nice suit a hundred years out of fashion.

“Greetin’s miss.” He took his hat off and bowed. “Would a youngin like yerself be in the market fer a fresh taste?” Lavinia had heard this talk before, seeing as she looked very young.

“That would be divine.” she smiled. “May I?” She indicated one of the upholstered chairs.

“I all but insist, miss.” He smiled and she could see his fangs, yellow, almost green.

Shaking herself from her disgust, she sat in a chair and waited. The man waved and a line of people in hoods that obscured their vision were brought into the light.

They all wore loose, black dresses that looked incredibly uncomfortable. Lavinia had heard the color was to hide stains and she would be inclined to agree.

One by one, the man walked down the line, taking the hoods off the people. It was around the middle when he reached a shorter candidate and pulled their hood off, that Lavinia’s eyes widened and she stood.

“Casey…” Lavinia put a hand to her mouth. Casey was covered in bruises and had a black eye. There was crusted blood on her face where it had flowed from her nose.

She had been looking at the floor but at the sound of her name, she looked up and made eye contact with Lavinia.

All that was in her eyes was fear and confusion.