Aldo

 

The new song played on, and all I could think is how much I wished I wasn't here.

Its a slow song, thrumming through the ballroom like a steady heartbeat. In the dim rosy lighting, I could see the other couples dancing, masked faces leaning in close. It should've been romantic, all a girl could have wished for, but I couldn't enjoy it.

Not while he stood there, offering out his hand.

Tall and with unassuming features that could never be called handsome, yet somehow manages to be alluring all the same. Dark eyes watched mine in patient expectation from behind his masquerade mask, which had golden accents that streaked from the sun resting against his forehead like rays of light.

His hand was still unshaking as the moment stretched beyond what could be considered polite without me voicing an answer to his question.

"Well?" He offered another smile, teeth perfectly normal, perhaps unusally perfect. "Shall we dance?"

My friend Trisha nudged me with her closed butterfly fan, the matching monarch wing mask hiding part of her smile. "Of course she'll dance with you! That's what this party is all about, right?"

The man's smile remained in place as he leaned closer in, and Trisha gave me a harder nudge that made me stumble.

The man's hand caught mine in a cold grip, not too tight, but alarming in its chill.

I looked back at Trisha as he drew my hand to the crook of his arm, as if to escort me to the dance floor. Trisha opened her fan and fluttered it with a giggle. "Go on, before the song ends!"

We reached the dance floor, and the man took my hand again as his other hand settled on my waist. I reluctantly moved my free hand to his right upper arm, since his height made his shoulder the less comfortable option of the two.

Without a word, he led me into a waltz, his steps flowing smoothly across the floor. My own were able to keep up wih his cues thanks to the dance lessons I'd had one summer in my teens.

He led me across the dance floor, turning and weaving through the other dancers as if they were standing still. The whole time, his dark eyes never left my face, contemplative behind his mask.

"What shall I call you?" He asked, voice low and blending well with the instrumental music.

"Why should you need to call me anything, when the song is nearly over?" I asked instead. "Besides, you haven't even offered me your name yet."

The man smiled and tilted his head. "Quite rude of me. You may call me Aldo."

He still seemed to be waiting for my name. "Call me Sunny." I said, glancing at the sun on his mask. Aldo gave a soft laugh.

"Yet your mask has the moon hung upon its brow."

"It is merely a reflection of my own light." I replied, defending my name choice. I doubted he'd given me his real name, and I wasn't about to tell him mine. Not when a huge part of me still wanted to be as far from him as possible.

"With how beautiful the reflection appears, the full glory of your light would surely turn any who gazed upon it to dust." Aldo said, voice warm with a hint of humor. The song finally ended, and I dropped my hand from his arm and took a step back.

"I'll return to my friend now." I said as I attempted to free my other hand from his. He took a step towards me and shifted his grip so my hand was again on the crook of his arm.

"Allow me to escort you." He said, and proceeded to lead me back off the dance floor before I could protest that it wasn't necessary.

We returned to where Trisha had been, and I thankfully found her chatting with some guy in a bat mask. "There she is." I said, and Aldo moved us through the crowd to her

I turned to Aldo and forced a smile. "You're a smooth dancer."

He shifted my hand in his, tilting his head down to kiss it as he met my gaze. "Your light is radiant, Sunny. May we have the pleasure of meeting again."

I pulled my hand away with that forced smile still fixed on my face, and he let it go.

Without another word,  I turned away and rejoined my friend.

"You're back! How was your dance?" Trisha grinned and fluttered her fan, glancing behind to where I'd left Aldo.

"He was a good dancer, but not really my type." I answered, before tilting my head to the guy in the bat mask. "Want to introduce me to your friend?

---

The dance ended well after midnight, in those wee hours of quiet between the night life and the dawn.

I drove Trisha home, before finally reaching my own apartment. Climbing up the stairs, I let myself in and flipped on the light.

Nothing.

I flipped the switch on and off a few times, then gave a growl and twisted on the little keychain flashlight on my keyring. "Have to talk to the landlord about that busted breaker again."

I moved down the entryway to my little bedroom, setting my purse down on the bed. Digging through it, I groaned when I realized I'd forgotten my phone in the car.

I'd leave it for the morning, but my brother's wife was due to go into labor any day now, and I'd promised to keep my phone with me in case their babysitter wasn't available when it happened.

Grateful I hadn't changed yet, I grabbed my keys and a better flashlight and headed back outside.

"Too many stairs," I grumbled as I headed down the stairs and back where I'd parked. Someone had taken the spot right outside where I usually parked, so my car was actually a ways down.

Unlocking the car, I got in and fished about until I found my phone underneath the passenger seat.

No missed messages, thankfully.

Getting out of the car, I locked it and turned to head back to my apartment when I heard something behind me.

Twisting about, I let out a laugh as a familiar tabby rushed away. "Mr. Nibbles, out for your nightly hunt?"

A cold hand slipped over my mouth, the other pinning my arms to a tall form. "He isn't the only one looking for a bite, Sunny."

I struggled, but he was strong. He leaned over my left shoulder so I could see his face.

It was Aldo, still wearing the sun mask. He smiled, but this time it wasn't perfect.

His canines were too large. Too long.

"I won't drain you." Aldo said, nostrils flaring as he took a deep breath. "You really are radiant, you know. I wonder if that radiance would survive the turning?"

He leaned back, and I couldn't turn my head to follow his movement. In fact, his hand keeping my mouth closed moved, forcefully tilting my head back and to the right.

I felt lips press against the left side of my neck, cool and perversely gentle.

Then a sharp pain. Something stabbing through the skin, digging down through the flesh to meet the pulse beating frantically beneath.

Contact, then the icy heat of blood flowing the wrong way, drawn out of the body.

---

Woozy. Spots of light obscuring my vision. Am I standing? Falling? My neck hurts. Is it hurt? Is Mr. Nibbles okay? He was here, wasn't he?

"Sunny, drink."

Who? My mouth's like cotton. Is that why my neck hurts?

"Come, Sunny, drink."

Something's against my lips. A drink? Doesn't feel like a cup.

"Sunny. Drink."

The voice feels dangerous. It can't be talking to me, but I am thirsty.

"Drink."

My lips part, because they don't hurt. Something wet, warm, and coppery flows onto my tongue. Bleh! But whatever was against my lips won't move away, so I can't spit out whatever's in my mouth.

Swallowing hurts, but the liquid keeps flowing into my mouth, so it has to go somewhere.

I'm shivering. Am I cold?

The liquid is hot in my stomach, which is churning like it doesn't want any more.

The flow into my mouth stops. After the last bit of coppery liquid is swallowed, the thing against my lips moves.

My teeth chatter, and something touches my check.

"Good, Sunny. Now sleep."

The voice still seems dangerous, but some part of me wants to trust it.

I sleep.

---

When I wake up, I know something is wrong. Besides the fact that I don't recognize the pale cream walls or the yellow quilt I'm tucked beneath.

What happened? I got home from the party, and forgot my phone in the car. Then Mr. Nibbles...

My hand shot up to my neck, and I winced at the tender flesh my fingers found. Tender, kind of achy, but not ripped open. not even a scab.

A door opened, and my head jerked towards it, despite the protest of my neck.

A tall man with dark eyes stood there, dressed casually in jeans and a faded tee.

Even without the mask, I knew him.

"Aldo," I said, his name coming out in an actual hiss unlike any I'd ever made.

"Sunny, I'm pleased to see you've survived the turning." Aldo said, striding into the room. He claimed a chair beside the bed, and I gripped the quilt tightly.

"You attacked me." I said, glaring as I sat up.

"You were radiant. I couldn't help but be drawn to your light." Aldo said, offering a smile that did not hide his strange canines. "I'm pleased to see you retained that radiance."

"What are you talking about?" I asked shortly, glaring at him. My stomach growled, and I glared harder.

"You're hungry." Aldo held out a smoothie cup. "I thought you might be."

I didn't take it, though my stomach grumbled again at the sight. "What did you do to me?"

He shook his head and tapped the cup with a finger. "No answers until you start eating."

"What, so you can drug me?" I was not going to eat anything he offered.

"Take it." There was something different about his voice, and I found the smoothie cup in my hands before I even realized I'd moved. There was a smell coming from the cup, something familiar but strange all at once. My mouth was watering, which was not the usual reaction I had to smoothies.

"Drink." That same tone, and a coppery taste filling my mouth. Blood.

I jerked my mouth away from the straw, but my instinctive reaction after that was not to spit it out, but swallow.

After swallowing, I belatedly tried to spit out the blood. "What kind of trick was that?" I shouted at him, wanting to throw the cup in his face, but finding that my hand refused to let it go.

"No trick." Aldo said, amusement clear in his voice. "A fledgling such as yourself is still too new to hunt for themselves, so as your sire it is my duty to ensure you are well fed."

"You're not my dad." I hissed.

"Sire is the term used for the vampire who turns another into a vampire." Aldo said patiently. "And I am yours."

"Vampires aren't real. And they're supposed to be dead, which I am not." I said, wishing my hand would just let go of the blood smoothie.

"They are, and so are you. Or have you not yet noticed your lack of a pulse?"

With my free hand, I checked my pulse, just to prove him wrong. Then I frowned, and checked it again.

And again.

And again.

Finally, I pressed my hand to my chest, willing my heart to pound against my ribs in a frightful drumming.

Nothing.

Aldo held out his hand, palm up.

Shaking, hating the unease he'd built with such an unbelievable story, I pressed my fingers against the pulse point at his wrist.

Nothing.

He smiled, and I ran my tongue against my teeth.

My canines were wrong. They felt bigger.

Was he really a vampire?

Was I?

If I was, then it proves that vanpires could faint.