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The 12-hour shift had turned into a 14-hour shift. If you know anyone who works in health care, as them how the last full moon was. They’ll know what I’m talking about. A car accident, strep throat, an infected Prince Albert, and some less notable situations later, I was finally leaving the hospital. My ‘weekend’ started tomorrow and I couldn’t be happy to sleep and remain in the comfort of my couch. As exhausted as I was, I wouldn’t change a thing. I love my job.
This time of night/morning at the bus stop is always sketchy. Even the sky can’t make up its mind if it's night or day.
It happened when I looked down at my phone to check the bus tracker. It was fast too, though maybe my exhaustion slowed me down too. I’m not sure I ever fully lost consciousness but I had no idea what was happening.
Panic began to set in as my consciousness was coming around. Looking around I saw a typical unfished basement; washer, drying, various tools, nothing out of the ordinary. Very suburban. I moved my arms to orient myself but froze when I realized my wrists were handcuffed around a post behind me. I was sitting slumped on the floor, the cuffs and post keeping me upright. Soreness in my neck began to set in as my head tiled forward for who knows how many hours. A few futile tugs on the cuffs and I knew they weren’t going to budge. The anxiety began to bubble in my throat. In no way was this a situation I would survive. A sob left my chest as I tried to regulate my breathing.
“You shouldn’t be awake yet”
I lifted my head to the side to try and see where the voice came from, seeing someone on the unfinished wooden stairs. Slowly the man made his way to me. Any attempts I made to move away from him were useless. Once he had made his way around the post to me and crouched down. Even at my height, he still felt intimidating. I lifted my still groggy head to look at him. The man was dressed as normal as any guy in a Starbucks. But his complexion was pale and patchy. His eyes were bloodshot.
He held my chin to lift my face to his. I flinched weakly, but his grip on my chin was steady enough that I’m not sure he even noticed. Lulling my head to the side, he leaned in until I could feel breath on my neck.
“Be still now…” he said softly.
All I managed to say was, “...you…don’t want to do this”.
It must have been a pitiful sight. Exhausted from a 14-hour shift, drugged, handcuffed, and now having my blood drained by a suburban vampire in a basement. Pathetic. It’s not that I hadn’t heard of vampires, of course I had, but I guess I never thought I’d meet one.
I could feel exactly where his fangs pierced my neck. The pain was horrendous, though it didn’t last long. It was only a few seconds before he was coughing and sputtering my blood on himself.
He pushed himself back from me, trying to stand but finding his legs too weak, “What did you do?”
My head was rocking from the pain. He must have made his way back toward me. This time he grabbed my chin with force this time, drawing my eyes to his chin, dripping with my blood.
“I…tried…told you not to”.
His grip slid from my face, leaving bloody smears on my cheeks and chin. The smell of blood isn’t too bad, I’m a nurse after all. But smelling your own blood is different. Fighting my nausea, I watch him slump to his side. His eyes lost focus as he slid into unconsciousness. I couldn’t recall if vampires actually sleep or not. But I did, and with my adrenaline fading, I led back and closed my eyes, hoping this was all a sleep deprivation-induced nightmare.
He wouldn’t be out too long, but he would feel a pretty nasty hangover when he woke.
I spent the next day in and out of consciousness. When I finally came to it was night again, and the bite had stopped bleeding. The man had pulled himself upright, resting all his weight on the brick wall behind him. He groaned, rubbing the palms of his hands on his temples, “What the hell was that?”
“I warned you…”, I hesitated, as I had never admitted this to anyone, and my family had sworn me to secrecy. But since it seems the cat was out of the bag that fictional creatures existed, evidenced by the vampire in front of me, I admitted, “...my father is fae”.
His tired eyes grew large, “Fae?”
“Yeah, I guess my mother and he had a midsummer fling”
The story didn’t sound true, I knew that. I could tell he didn’t believe me by the skepticism on his face.
Grabbing a tool off the bench within his reach, he examined it for a moment before leaning toward me. I could smell it before it touched my neck, iron. He held the iron to an open spot on my chest for a moment before I whimpered and he quickly pulled it away. A bright pink spot in the shape of the tool showed clearly where it had touched me. Iron took a long time to hurt me, this would go away in a few hours.
He dropped the tool, “And your mother?”
“Human”
“Good. Otherwise, your blood could have killed me”, he said while continuing to nurse his headache.
My throat had gone dry, and my arms and neck were sore. All I wanted was to go home. On cue, my stomach let out a loud rumble, in a poor attempt at humor I said “I guess we’re both hungry” and twisted my wrists in the cuffs.
He let out a low chuckle, “I guess so”. He moved behind me and I felt the cuffs release. A sigh of relief washed over me. Stretching my shoulders I asked, “So, what’s your name?”
Another low laugh, “Ah, I know fae tricks. I won’t be gotten so easily. You can call me Loki”.
I rolled my eyes “Don’t worry, I don’t know any fae traps. I’m Callista”.
Loki offered me a hand, “Callista, pleased to meet you. Though perhaps under…different circumstances”.
My legs had fallen asleep long ago, so standing felt herculean at this point. Loki was finally getting a good look at me and judging by his face, I didn’t look great.
“Let’s get you cleaned up”
With that, we moved up to the main level of the home. It was perfectly suburban. One would never know a vampire lived there.
Loki and I continued on to the bathroom where he instructed me to sit on the edge of the tub as he pulled out a first aid kit.
I could help myself, “What kind of vampire keeps a first aid kit?”
Unbothered, he continued cleaning my face and neck, and bandaging the wound on my neck “One who wants to blend in, now hold still”.
When he was done he began to put the kit away, “There’s food in the kitchen. Help yourself”.
“What about you?”
“What about me?”
I crossed my arms, “Aren’t you hungry too?”
Stowing the kit, he walked from the room “Don’t worry about me. I’ve been doing this for 200 years”
I followed him to the kitchen and began digging through the fridge and cabinets, “Wow, you don’t look a day over 150”.
Loki was making himself a cup of tea “I’m beginning to regret not bringing that wrench up here”.
“You drink tea?”
“Do you not?”
I snorted a laugh, “I do but I’m also not a vampire”.
“You just steal sheep”
I held a hand up to stop him “Ok, ok, fair enough”.
He laughed. It was a genuine laugh. I wasn’t sure I’d ever heard such a wonderful sound. We smiled at one another for a moment, breaking our eye contact when I bit into the peanut butter and jelly sandwich I had slapped together during our chat.
I broke the silence, “Hey, Loki. Am I free to go?”
He set down his tea, “I guess that depends. Are you going to tell anyone about me?”
“Only if you tell someone about me”
“Mutually assured destruction, I like it. You have a deal”
We shook hands, I giggled “You just made a deal with a fairy”
His eyes went wide “Dammit”. This time my laugh was loud and genuine “I’m kidding, I don’t know how to do any of that stuff. I’ve never even met another fairy, or anyone magical I guess”.
After finishing my sandwich Loki gave me a shirt to change into since my scrub top was no longer in an acceptable state.
Ever the gentleman, Loki asked if I would like a ride home. Since I didn’t feel like getting lost in the dark, I accepted. I figured he would have killed me already if he had wanted to.
We pulled into the parking lot of my apartment complex back in the city. Before I hopped out I stopped “Listen Loki, I know this was a really, really weird way to meet but I’ve never met anyone like me…magical I mean…would you like to hang out properly sometime?”
I could tell this was the first time anyone had asked Loki to hang out, possibly ever. Through his confusion, he nodded “Sure, Callista”.
“Perfect”, I took his phone and put my contact number into it, “It’s a date”.
“Hold on, no one said anything about dates”
I slipped out of the car and said “Yeah but we were both thinking it”. Shutting the door with a wink, I turned and walked into my building. My neighbor would always bring his dog down around this time in the morning, and today was no different, “Long night?” he asked.
“You have no idea”.