The more I watched them, the angrier I became. They stopped just before 5th Avenue to stare into each other’s eyes. The tall man placed his hands on the woman’s face, paused, and then kissed her tenderly. I could almost taste the revulsion in my mouth.
With one word and a flick of my wrist, I exploded the tire of an approaching delivery van. It swerved and veered off the road and into the park. The driver’s eyes were wide as he gripped the steering wheel tightly, seemingly to try and gain control of the direction of his vehicle. But I wouldn’t let him.
The van hit the kissing couple head on. The woman flew up and over the car, while the man went under it. They didn’t scream. I didn’t give them time.
For a few minutes, I watched as others attended to the man and woman. Everyone was so concerned. Even a teenage girl, surely a complete stranger to the couple, was crying.
Ridiculous.
The injured woman’s leg moved, and she moaned. She would live. I wasn’t convinced the man would, though. A person was sitting over him, pressing their palms into his chest.
Because I felt nothing, I left.
Back at my park bench, I had barely sat down when a voice asked, “What are you doing?”
Startled, I turned around. In a clump of trees behind me, the dark silhouette of a man stood tall.
“Excuse me?”
“You heard me,” he said. His voice was deep and smooth.
“I was minding my own business, which you should do too.”
“You’re going to stop hurting people, starting now. Do you understand?” His figure shifted a fraction of an inch.
“Why don’t you come over here so I can see you?” I dared him, wanting to know who or what would talk to me like this.
“You will stop,” he said.
If he wouldn’t come to me, then I would go to him. I stood up and rounded the bench. “Says who?”
“You will leave this city tonight.”
I was almost to him, but his face remained hidden in the shadows. He stood erect, with legs spaced evenly apart and lined directly beneath a thick trunk. From where I first saw him, he appeared massive, but after moving closer, I realized his size was a trick of the light. He looked to be only slightly taller than Boaz.
He stepped from the shadows to meet me, and the light from the full moon shimmered in his incandescent blue eyes. I sucked in a breath. Not because I recognized him as a vampire immediately, but because of a sudden and foreign emotion that washed over me. It felt like joy, but I couldn’t be sure.
Was it possible that I knew him?
The vampire had a square jaw line, a sharp crooked nose that looked like it had been broken a few times, full lips, and hooded, wolf-like eyes. It was his eyes that captivated me the most. They were filled with sorrow. What trauma could’ve filled him with so much pain that his eyes could do nothing else but bleed the strong emotion?
“I meant what I said. You will leave this city tonight,” he said.
“Now why would I do that?”
“You’re hurting innocent people.”
“They were hardly innocent. Did you see what they were doing?”
The vampire’s eyes looked in their direction. Lights from distant emergency vehicles turned the color of the trees red and blue.
“They looked happy,” he said, his voice no louder than the quiet breeze ruffling my hair.
“It was disgusting.”
His gaze turned on my sharply. “I want you gone.”
“I have a better idea. What do you say you and I go have some fun tonight? You look like you could use some loosening up.” I reached for his hand, but when my fingers brushed his, a jolt of what felt like light surged through my body. And, for a brief moment, I had a perfect vision of the innocent girl I used to be. I even heard my younger voice vowing never to become like them.
He stepped back. “I want nothing to do with your dark magic, Witch.”
I ignored the strange, electric moment that only I seemed to notice. “You know nothing about me. I’m the most powerful witch in the country, probably in the world.”
“Don’t forget most humble.”
“Don’t insult me. You have no idea who I am.”
In a calm, yet frightening voice, he said, “And if you knew who I was, you’d run away screaming.”
I looked him up and down. “I can see who you are. You’re a weak, confused, newbie vampire who—”
Before I could utter another word, his strong hand gripped my neck, and after moving himself and me at lightning speed, he smashed my back into a tree far away from the spot where we’d just been.
I pried at his fingers, trying desperately to get him to release his hold, but he was incredibly strong. I glanced at the limb above me and imagined it smashing down on his head. The limb snapped and fell, but he caught it with his free hand before it even came close to making contact. He was simply too fast.
With fangs barred, he growled, “This is your final warning. Leave now.”
I quickly nodded, awash in an emotion I hadn’t felt in a very long time. Fear. He released his grip, and I tumbled to the ground, sucking in air.