Beckoning the Blood Moon

      The first time I saw Nicky, I was out celebrating with my friend Craig on an early Friday night. We headed over to a new Italian restaurant and there she was waitressing in her white collared shirt, and black slacks with the matching tie.

      My first impressions of her was a sensory overload. I had never seen anyone so physically alluring.

      It was like an aura of ecstasy just radiating around her. She smiled and handed me the menu first while I locked my gaze with her beautiful shade of emerald green eyes. In hindsight, I probably looked creepier than I envisioned, but I didn't care.

      She brushed her silky raven hair behind her ears and her voice cracked a little.

      "Wel- Scuse me. Welcome guys, how's your night starting out?"  

      "Fine." My friend Craig said nonchalantly while he leaned in to snatch the drink menu from the center of the table.

      I really loved her voice. She seemed so shy and I found it cute.

      She stood by glancing at Craig for a moment who studied the cocktail selection.  

      "Our nights going pretty good so far...." I glanced at her nametag. "Nicky."

      "I'm glad it's going well, what can I get started for you two?"

      I was a little intoxicated by her scent. It was a flowery perfume, and something else, like a strange bit of her natural fragrance. It was the kind of smell you get when you rub your skin on metallic surfaces and the molecules stick to you slightly. She had probably been helping around in the kitchen handling utensils.

      "Well, we're celebrating my Buddy Craig's Birthday who had a little too much to drink already. It's our first time eating here so we'd love to know what you'd recommend."

      Her eyes almost lit up like no one ever asked her. She gazed down at my chest for a moment while her mind wandered

.     "Well, first of all... Happy Birthday!"

      Craig nodded still focused on the beverages. "Yep. Thanks."

      I smirked and stared at Nicky. It was almost as if she had forgotten the question.

      "Sorry, it's just so busy tonight" she laughed. "I zoned out. Hah. Anyways, my favorite thing on the menu is this really good Japanese Wagyu steak, it comes with mashed Potatoes and creamy spinach." She closed her eyes for a second like she was envisioning the dish. "It's... so good." she said biting her lip just enough to drive me crazy.

      "Hey, you're not just recommending the most expensive thing on the menu?"

      She stammered. "Oh... no. Definitely not."

      "I'm just teasing you."

      She had gotten a little embarrassed.

      "Meh. I hate steak. I'll take the Risotto with mushrooms." Craig interrupted.

      "Oh, good choice too. It's reaaallly good." she said before facing me.

      "So how do you like your steak, Nicky?"

      "Oh me?"

      "Yeah."

      She paused and started giggling to herself. "I'm so weird but I like it just...super rare. Like It's actually pretty nasty my friends tell me all the time. They say the cows still alive." She giggled again enough to stimulate a cute little snort.

      I laughed at her and smiled again. It's like time just stopped there for a while.

      "Ha ha...Oh no."  

      "Ok, but really you could tell a lot about somebody by the way they order their steak.

      "So what does it say about me?"

      "You're a perfectionist," I said nodding and analyzing her face. "You know exactly what you like. You don't mess with the mediocre shit either."

      "Oh, yeah?" she gave me a little Mona Lisa smile before composing herself into semi-serious waitress-mode. "Okay, so you wanted the Wagyu then?"

      "Yes please."

      "And how would you like your steak?"

      "Uhm, let's try rare."

      She smiled a little bigger. "Home fries or mashed potatoes?"

      "Whatever you prefer," I said.

      "Got it," she said tucking the menu under her arm. "Well, I'll be back with some water and take your drink orders in a second."

      I took long glances as I watched her walk back into the kitchen and just marveled at the way her perfect firm body moved back and forth.

      It had made the butterflies flutter inside.  

      Craig sighed. "Can you believe this dumb bitch didn't take our drinks first?"

      " Come on," I said. "I think everyone in the restaurant heard you."

      "Seriously it has to be her first week on the job."

      "Bro you shouldn't even be thinking about more drinks right now, trust me."

      ***** 

      After we finished eating, and after a few more drinks, I mustered the confidence to walk over and try to get Nicky's attention.

      "Hey," I said tapping her on the shoulder.

      "Hey." she turned over. Her smile was like a beacon of moonlight in a dark sky.

      "You need to help me embarrass that fool sitting over there, Nicky."

      "Oh, is that right?"

      "C'mon, you can't call it a Birthday unless you're forced to put on an embarrassing pointy paper hat and eat a baby portion of a cheap sundae ice cream."

      "Good point." Nicky said. "How about we bring all the waiters and bartenders to sing the restaurant's birthday jingle?"  

      I raised my hand up for a high-five. She had made me proud.

      She pressed her soft hand against mine and returned to the kitchen with a cute little cunning pep in her step.

      After we tortured Craig with our surprise, she brought us both two little Sundaes. Despite his disapproval, Craig devoured the frozen tastiness from the sherbet dish glass and enjoyed another IPA. I spent the rest of the night flirting back and forth with Nicky.

      I eventually called Craig a ride amongst the first signs of dozing off and kept Nicky company the rest of the night as she suggested. She had told me how badly she wanted to visit the new Tiki Bar across the street.  

      So we went.

      When we left the restaurant, the moon was huge and orange. It was as beautiful as the girl with the porcelain skin I was miraculously bold enough to hold by the hand. We agreed to walk down the pier instead to listen to the waves at night. There was a secluded area there we went to where I planned to kiss her. The moment felt like it was perfectly destined. There were some teens a few feet away smoking pot and one practicing his melodies on his soothing ukulele.

      I looked down to Nicky whose arms had been tightly clasped around my waist.

      "Can I kiss you?" I said with conviction.

      "Yes." she responded in a whisper looking up at me submissively, yet so in control.

      I lowered my mouth down to align with hers and placed a peck on her lips. Everything around my vicinity was a blur again.

      My heartbeat had been beating so rapidly for a moment before it calmed, like adapting to a warm infection of hers. I felt so at ease, even when her teeth nibbling on my lower lip felt a little painful. I let them turn into French kisses.

      I rubbed her waist a under her shirt and it was like the receptors on my hair follicles just pricked out of me, growing out of my pores like my body went into a little flight or fight. We leaned against the pillars of the abandoned lifeguard hut and enjoyed the moment.

      "You're so beautiful." I said. I seemed to have said it over and over between the making-out pauses but I don't think either of us even noticed.

      After a while of doing the same rhythm caressing, kissing, and watching out for anybody passing towards that section of the beach, I turned over to the ocean.

      I wondered if I could gather the courage to ask her to spend the night. "It's getting late," I said. "Do you want to... uhm... try to catch the last call on that other bar you recommended?" I chickened out.

      "How about we..." her voice cracked again but then she sounded so confident. "Why don't we have some drinks at my place instead?"

      My world sort of crashed right there. The realization took a while to reach my dim-witted head. But, I tried to keep it cool. "Yeah, I'm up for that. We could try some of those cocktails-in-a-can you were telling me about."

     We held hands walking to the main street a block away and we waited for our rideshare to take us back to her place. After ten minutes, we stood over a large black security-coded gate and into a very gothic-looking apartment complex.

      She first guided me into the living room, I noticed all of the windows had been blotted out by very extravagant velvet curtains. They were almost a blood-red maroon.     She had lit candles on her mahogany dining table and put a Rom-Com on.

      She caressed my chest before heading to the kitchen.

      "What do you want Chardonnay or Sweet Red, Mr. Hairy-boy."

      "I'll take Sweet...Heey."

      She laughed. "Oh shut up. I like it. But you're unusually very hairy. Like 70's Dad or Porn-star Hairy. Like they need to call Van Helsing to get your ass."

      "Wow. Very offensive."

      She laughed even harder while holding two wine cups with a supple amount of wine filled to the brim. "I'm drunk." She giggled. "You love how I tease you!"

      "You are the meanest girl I've ever met."

      She raised an eyebrow and darted at me in her own silly way.

      "And of course, the cutest," I added.

      "That's more like it. But, be glad you don't look like a ghost." she laughed. "Look at my arm" She raised it close to my face to show me her complexion. "I'm like transparent! I'm pasty!" she said. "Oh, I'd give anything to have your tan. There's life into your skin, Mr. Hairy. Look at my veins almost illuminating."

      Nicky rested the back of her head on my chest while we watched the movie snuggling on the couch. We made it halfway through it and barely one-fourth into the wine before she turned over to me and began kissing me again.

      The rest was instinctive.

      She ripped my clothes off first and I struggled to unhook her bra.

      "Owch." she flinched. "You need to trim those things." She gestured at my nails.

      She guided me over to her bedroom and the coldness of her clean linen sheets felt nice on my skin. I could feel her body tense up and her pheromones exploded like dandelions in the wind. Her scent was stronger and more poignant during lovemaking. Her odor was that same metallic bitter smell from earlier, sort of the way strong blood can smell. It was enticing. She turned around and our bodies had been aligned again, despite her arousal, her skin always felt cold.

      When we finished, she started kissing my neck again, slowly until the kisses turned a little rougher, but I enjoyed every second up until I didn't. I couldn't believe someone so shy had been so confident in her more intimate form.

      She pushed my neck sideways and started taking nibbles.

      "Too rough," I said playfully but then it started to hurt a little more.

      "Sorry, she said." was it too much?

      "No, it's fine. I like it." I reassured her.

     Then she continued, but then after a while, it didn't feel like two teeth, but two nails jabbing at my neck in short pokes. I pulled away.

      "MmmMmm. You sexy man," she moaned. "What's wrong?"

      I ran my fingers through the hickey she left and felt something wet.

      I looked down at my fingers. She had kissed me so hard, that she had drawn blood.

      "I'm sorry. I got carried away," she said.

      I watched her cheeks turn a tomato red. Her beautiful forehead glistened in her sweat, the taste of it lingered in my mouth. I stared at her and her mouth looked weird.

      Why did it look so weird?

      Her teeth could barely fit in her closed mouth.

      I placed my hand around her jaw gently and pushed the skin up away from the corner of her mouth.

      "What are you doing?" she pulled away.

      I noticed her canine teeth had grown exponentially.

      "What the hell? Fangs?"

      It all made sense, but I missed the obvious clues given. The odor of her skin, it was the smell of blood I took earlier at the bar. It all started spiraling in my head and there were so many signs, I had foolishly missed while intoxicated by whisky. It was everything, the pasty fucking skin, the night shift and the stupid Renaissance-era curtains and candles I thought endearingbat first. Now that I think about it, her family in the photos on her kitchen magnets all dressed like they were extras on a British drama set.

      She was a fucking blood-sucking vampire.

      I wanted to jump out of that house, burst out of the window, but something in me told me to try and be civil.

      "What?" she said looking confused at the random daggers I'd been giving her.

      "Listen. I need to tell you something."

      "Sweet Countess Carmilla. Guys usually wait 2 days before saying that line."

      "No. Look. This was a mistake. Let me explain."

      "Get the fuck out of my bed." she snapped.

      Listen I know what you are. I see your fangs.

      "So you're a racist?"

      "No. It's... Well, I have some quarrels about your kind, but I don't want to get into politics right now. I don't usually have room in my heart for hate, but I-"

      I think I started making less sense the more I spoke.

      "You're joking right now, right? So you hate anyone that looks like me?"

      I raised my arm to show her I could contort them the way my DNA mutation allowed them to. I showed her how long my nails could extend if I tried hard enough and then retract back into the fingertips. I watched the look on her face, she looked disgusted and offended to her core.

      "My dad would fucking flip!" she said pushing me away with the soles of her cold bare white feet. "You're a fucking WOLFMAN? Ugh!" She started gagging. "You're a dirty snout-having werewolf? From like up North? I'm going to throw up!"

      "Listen. Let's keep the slurs to a minimum for a second."

      "Do you realize the horrors your people have done to ours throughout the years? The Genocide? The terrorism?" She cried out. "Ugh, I can't believe we just-"

      "Okay." I get it!"

      While she ran into the bathroom shouting obscenities and ranting about the historical Anti-Vampire revolts of the 1800s and went on telling me her side of what went wrong in the Battle of Sandefjord. I desperately struggled to find the most essential part of my outfit in the darkness. The God-forsaken pants. I managed to punch my arms through the holes of my inside-out shirt while listening to a long complicated timeline of conflicts between our two cultures. I had my facts to share but kept them to myself. Even my natural keen night vision wasn't helping me out that night.

      "You better not still be here!" she yelled from the shower. "I gotta get this stench out of my skin!"

      I could hear the splashes of water.

      "Nicky...?"

      "Oh God, why are you still here?! Are you going to maul me or something?"

      "Shut up! I can't find my pants."

      "She came out wrapped in a white towel that stood out even brighter amongst her slightly overly scrubbed rosy-red skin. Even when I hated her, and what she stood for, I found her more than a little attractive. Her beauty was undeniable. But, I could never allow myself to sink so low, after finding out what she was.

      Her people had been bleeding us out and oppressing our species for centuries.

      She leaned on the door frame of her bathroom and appeared calm watching me.  

      "So why aren't you like... Big-Foot hairy?"

      "I just shaved," I said. "For my friend's Birthday, I didn't want the attention."

      "Like yesterday?"

      "Yeah, but it doesn't get as thick as you'd think. Not during the Summer."

      "Oh, it's like...seasonal?"

      "Yeah. Nature knows when we need the hair more. Our skin is more sensitive than yours or other humans. During Winter it gets thicker and more coarse."

      "Interesting," she said. She pointed down to the corner of the bed. "I think your jeans are over there."

      "Thanks."

      I went to fetch them and speedily put them on.

      She watched me struggle for a moment trying to put the socks on whilst standing.

      "Just sit on the couch," she said. "It's okay. You don't have to run out."

      I sighed and removed my shirt again trying to slow down my breathing to a normal pace.  

      "I'm sorry," she said. "For all the offensive shit I said. Even though I believe some of it. You were nice to me. And for what it's worth, you're not ugly."

      "I'm not happy to be here either. And, I was stupid for not catching your scent."

      She curved an eyebrow. "Yeah, I was gonna say. Aren't you guys supposed to be good at smelling and everything? I mean my blood sort of gives off a totally different odor than regular humans."      

      "Yeah, I probably had a little too much to drink."

      She smirked at me and we said our Goodbyes.

      While riding in the car heading back home, I kept rewinding the last few hours over and over again. I thought I had finally found someone, but I guess it's one of those moments life throws at you that make you develop an extra layer of defense. Life has a stupid way of throwing you a curveball like that. You try to convince yourself it's a pivotal character development moment but it just feels unfair. I opened the window of the car to distract myself from the knot lingering in my stomach and for twenty minutes the familiar smell of the night air provided a nice distraction.