CHAPTER 10

He also has the face of an avenging angel. The highest of cheekbones, a strong square jaw, perfect white teeth that set off deep dimples when he smiles. He looks like a Nordic God turned MMA fighter, pure muscle and power, a warrior through and through, and not at all like what I had imagined a vampire to be. I don't even think I've seen his canines turn to fangs (granted, I've never actually been around Luke when he's feeding, which is odd considering feeding vampires is part of my job description here at the Dark Eyes nightclub).

"And how would you expect me to look? Like Dracula?" he asks, eyes narrowing slightly. It's enough to create a chilled breeze in the air. Vampires have some pretty unique traits and this is one of Luke's. When he's annoyed, I can physically feel it.

I shrug. "You know I mean the fictional depiction of Dracula."

You see, Dracula exists in real life. Apparently he's nothing like the one that Bram Stoker wrote about (even though he was the inspiration), but even so, Luke hates his guts. Something about how Dracula stole his girlfriend two hundred years ago or something. Yeah, Dracula is supposed to be a total asshole.

"That would just feed into his ego," Luke mumbles, turning back around. "Every Halloween, the bastard's head must inflate to the size of Jupiter."

"I take it he's not coming to the party tonight?" I ask, watching as he bristles. Another icy breeze directed my way.

"I'd probably kill him if he did," he says, so matter-of-factly that I don't doubt him for a moment. Even though Luke is an easy-going, quick-to-quip, relatively open guy, there's a side of him I don't know too much about.

The side of him that kills people.

Now, I know the Luke of this century doesn't kill people if he doesn't have to—it's why Eric operates Dark Eyes, so that vampires in the city can have a safe place to feed without sacrificing human life—but I have no idea about the Luke of the past. The Luke before Dark Eyes came into existence.

Luke and I have a good friendship. Sometimes I think of him as my best friend. But it's not because I know him all that well in a literal sense. We've always connected in some deep way that's never needed any analysis. I guess with him I just felt like I knew him and understood him from the moment I laid eyes on him. More than that, I felt he understood me. That's something I've searched for my whole life, to find someone who saw me for me, past all the shit my life has thrown at me, and I feel like I've found that in him. Whether he realizes it or not.

Anyway, it's not like I've got a lot of friends anyway to compare Luke to. I'm extremely close to my mother, no surprise there since we've been joined at the hip in survival ever since my father left us, and I have a friend, Shannon, who has been in my life since high school (she actually introduced me to the vampire world) but she now lives in Iowa, married with two kids. She doesn't ask about the vampires anymore. Like that part of her life never happened, and in that sense, it's like I'm not part of her life either.