Nevena

By the time we landed on top of one of the new constructions in downtown Austin, I was convinced I was having a nightmare. I have never seen my city from this height (at least not in real life – I’ve looked up pictures on the Internet) and it looked beautiful – or it would’ve looked beautiful if I wasn’t terrified.

Suddenly, the guy who grabbed me and flew away with me, let go of my waist and I fell on the ground, around debris of constructional residue from the day, but I didn’t care. My legs were shaking and if this wasn’t a nightmare, then Rachel had definitely drugged me without telling me.

My stomach was in knots, and I knew that if I had a normal day and I actually managed to eat some food, it wasn’t going to stay inside me for much longer, but with shaky palm I wiped off the cold sweat from my forehead and I turned around to face my kidnapper.

I gasped.

He was the most beautiful boy I’ve ever seen in my life and he didn’t look a day older than seventeen or eighteen. His hair was ruffled and unruly and it looked brown against the dark sky. His features were angular and sharp, as if I reached out for him, the edges of his silhouette would cut me. His eyes were dark and gleaming at the same time (yup, definitely a nightmare) and his lips were red like blood to contrast the extreme paleness of his skin.

He was wearing some kind of uniform it seemed – blue pants, white button shirt and a red blazer that just made his mouth look redder. He looked at me with anger and confusion – and that pissed me off.

I was supposed to look at him that way, not the other way around.

“Hey, you asshole,” I said, my voice cracking, but my attitude unyielding. “Why did you bring me here? I demand you return me to my friend right away!”

He cocked his head to one side, and looked at me with bigger interest than before.

“Are you deaf?” I screamed, getting my voice back under control. “I said take me back down on the ground right now!”

But the strange boy didn’t seem to be hearing me, which just made me even angrier. I closed my eyes and I pinched my arm, hoping I would wake up.

I opened my eyes again. He was still looking at me like I was some kind of animal in the zoo and now my underarm hurt.

“Hey!” I screamed. “I’m talking to you!”

In my frustration, I ran towards him threateningly, but I blinked and he was gone. Confused and more terrified than ever I turned around, to find him standing at the place where I was looking at him from just seconds ago. Chills went down my spine. How did he get there so fast?

You’re having a nightmare, Nevena, I told myself. That’s how.

I shook my head. I really wanted to wake up.

“Šta si ti?”

When his words came out of his mouth (in Serbian, nevertheless) they were cold and cut the cool night air like razors – but that wasn’t what made me gasp and take three steps backwards. It was the two sharp white fangs that were hidden behind his lips. I wanted to scream, but my voice caught in my throat and I couldn’t make a peep.

And then he was next to me and looking me directly in my eyes, his nose and his lips only inches from my own.

Now, see, I’ve never had a boyfriend because my mom would freak out – big time. So, I’ve never even had my first kiss and I most definitely have never been this close to a boy this handsome. So, I didn’t know what to do and I just stood there while he gawked at me.

“Do you not understand Serbian?” he asked in English, and I could feel his cool breath on my own face. I shook my head, because I didn’t trust myself to speak again. I could understand everything, of course, but I wasn’t going to let him know that. What if he said something not knowing I understood that later on would save my life?

“You are very beautiful, more beautiful than I thought you would be,” said the vampire (yeah, by now I was convinced I was having a nightmare about a very handsome vampire that I had no interest in because, of course, it would just be my luck for him to be Serbian).

And of course, he must’ve injured his head pretty badly if he thought I was beautiful. Jessica – yes, one hundred percent. Me – yeah, I don’t think so.

“I’ve been dreaming about you for months,” said the vampire. “You’ve been driving me insane…”

“So, you came all the way to Austin from wherever to make sure I was legit, huh?” I couldn’t help myself.

The vampire smirked, his dark eyes poking holes through my soul. “I’m Ivan,” he said. “And you’re Nevena.”

I finally snapped out of it and stepped back from him.

“How do you know my name?” I insisted.

“I told you,” said the vampire Ivan, his voice slow and steady and… seductive? “I’ve been dreaming about you for months. I need your help.”

“You need my help with what?”

“I don’t know,” said Ivan and smirked his annoying grin. God, I hated this guy so much!

“You need to work on your pick-up line, bro,” I said to him with more bravado than I actually felt. “It’s not very good.”

Ivan came to me and pushed me against one of the beams they were building to hold the construction because I was sure that they had at least twenty more floors to build on top.

“Why have you been plaguing my dreams?” he asked, but I wasn’t sure that he was asking me specifically; it seemed like he was mostly talking to himself. “What are you?”

I wanted to tell him that I was a very pissed off teenage girl, but I couldn’t because his head came close to my neck and fear gripped my thundering heart and yet there was another, a feeling unknown to me that woke up in the depth of my being and suddenly I gasped loudly, expecting his fangs to break my skin and for him to drain me dead.

“Hey, who’s there?”

My head turned around so fast towards the sound of the voice that my neck almost snapped, but Ivan was nowhere to be found.

A nightguard was coming towards me, his flashlight in my face instantly blinding me.

“What are you doing here? I will call the police!”

“Please, help me!” I said, hoping that he was not going to call the police on me for something that I didn’t even do on purpose.

But then an ice-cold hand hard as a stone pushed me backwards, and suddenly I was falling down off the building.

The last thing I remembered was forcing my mouth to open and letting out a scream like I’ve never produced before in my life, and then everything went dark.