Katherine jogged into the bedroom, running late as usual. Her hair fluttered across her peripheral vision distracting her, almost enough to cause her to turn and look for an intruder.
Dammit! Gotta get used to that.
As she stopped in front of the full-length mirror, she decided she needed to get used to the whole look. She could barely believe the woman staring back at her was real.
At five foot seven, she had always know she had great legs, but the slits running up the sides of the very tight, forest green, dress displayed every curve exotically. The effect was only enhanced by the two inch, black, stiletto heels. The dress hugged her hips, chest, and waist, defining an hourglass figure she had always thought had a little too much in the middle. Despite her best attempts to believe otherwise, the dress proved the illusion false. She was forced to accept that having a slight gut wasn't necessarily the end of the world.
In addition to the dress, her hair was pulled back and styled. Now, red ringlets spilled artfully out of select locations of her tightly controlled hairdo. It had been one of those ringlets which had distracted her. She was used to her hair being black, so the flash of such a bright color was unnerving. Her hair and dress weren't the only oddities, however. Tonight she wore rouge, eyeliner, mascara, bright red, matte, lipstick and even a tasteful, if subtle, green eyeshadow.
This was certainly not the Katherine Montana everyone else knew. Her friends and coworkers would see her in far more comfortable clothes. If anyone had been asked to guess her favorite color none would have suspected the deep green she now wore. Based on her outfits, the answer would have been a unanimous 'black.' She had to shop around to find the perfect dress for tonight, especially on Halloween when she would normally look like just another 'Goth.' She hated the comparison. Just because she was most comfortable wearing black and baggy did not mean she associated with the lifestyle.
Of course, the reason for all of the fuss would be another strike against her. She was fascinated by vampires, not the maudlin, Anne Rice, crap that's all the rage in the media, but rather the myths and truths behind real vampires. Not only had she confirmed that vampires were real but had studied them enough to know that tonight was 'Gifting Night,' the one night, about every two decades, when tradition allowed them to pass their 'Gift' along to another generation. She needed to be noticed tonight if she was to become one of them.
When she rushed out the door, she found the cab waiting for her. She could have driven herself, she wasn't planning on drinking too much, but she would rather not have to worry about parking, or what to do with her car if she was chosen.
When, not if, I get chosen.
She constantly had to remind herself that confidence was the key to success. While that was good advice under any circumstances it was especially true when dealing with a species as empathic as vampires. She had even considered renting a limo but figured that to be dishonest ~not to mention pretentious~ and besides, it shared many of the same problems as driving herself.
She gave the driver the name of the first club on her list, then sat back to review what she knew about her elusive prey. First and foremost, vampires did not drink blood. It was true that they fed off of people, and other animals. They could even kill by feeding too much or too frequently. Rather than drinking a person's blood, however, they siphoned off their life force. Some occult scientists had theorized it was the bio-electric field surrounding living beings but they had yet to find a method of testing this. Because the life force was connected to a person's aura it granted the vampires a fair degree of insight into their nature, not only of a person's emotions but of his or her very personality.
"Dhase," they called themselves. If the driver heard her he didn't react. Did that mean he knew what it meant, or was he simply used to people muttering indecipherable phrases in his back seat? It was a name given to them by a people long dead from the memory of mankind. Katherine liked the sound of it.
Dhase, dah-say, dhase. Almost sounds french, even if it is spelled all wrong.
Katherine knew she was looking for a couple. The Dhase maintained a symbiotic relationship between the young and old. While only the elders were capable of passing along the gift, they lacked the requisite nearness to humanity. As they age, it is said, they slowly lose the capacity for true emotion as they learn to feed less and less. They turn to the newly made for such understanding and to teach them of the modern world, keep them from becoming anachronistic.
The cab stopped at the corner. She paid the driver, complete with a decent tip. She passed the various people, escaping the press of bodies for fresh air, on her way to the door. The doorman's eyebrows raised slightly as he waved her past, a reaction she was familiar with only from afar. He wondered what someone like her was doing there and if he had a shot at her. He had no idea who she was, the very same regular he chatted with as she escaped the press of bodies. She laughed lightly, her confidence gaining with such a small blessing. Uncomfortable or not, the new look certainly attracted attention she
could
be comfortable with.
Katherine had been right, almost everyone else at the club was in costume. She stood out like a blazing star amid a cloudy sky. She wandered through the crowd to the bar.
What should I look for?
She expected they would either be dressed normally, as if the night were unimportant, or else they would play ironic this Halloween, dressing the very media image of a vampire. Once that would have been Lugosi and Schreck, these days it was Cruise and Boreanaz. She simply didn't know what to look for, then again it didn't matter. They would choose her, for who she was, or she would lose her chance. The next Gifting Night wasn't for another nineteen years, the next blue-moon Halloween.
She kept to her schedule, moving from club to club. She ordered one drink, the minimum at some of the establishments, and cruised the floor. At some she would dance, at others she felt more comfortable in a side room. She was spending a fortune, letting herself be seen, but it was worth it. She realized, even if no Dhase saw her all night at least she'd enjoyed herself. Men of all ages and descriptions came up to her; offering their best pick-up lines, to buy her a drink, or simply for conversation. Occasionally men approached her, when she went out, but never with this level of determination.
She was laughing and carrying on with a small group of strangers when two young men appeared at the edge of the group. Katherine had felt something different about the club from the moment she walked in, as if eyes were following her constantly, even where none could possibly follow (like the bathroom). Within a minute of their approach, the group she had been with seemed to amicably dissolve, as if the men's desire for solitude took precedence over the group dynamic.
"We could not help but notice you." They wore simple business suits, one in black the other in a deep gray. Both had a white shirt and tie to match the suits and were well built, but without being overly muscular. Likely they worked out at a gym. The speaker had on a black suit and had dark, short-cut hair and brown eyes. The other had green eyes and wavy, blond, hair slightly past his shoulder. Both men had scruff breads that looked as if they hadn't shaved in a couple of days, giving them a roguish, almost cliched, look. There seemed to be nothing special about either man, but the sensation of being watched increased dramatically.
"Thank you. If that was intended as a compliment, I mean."
"Oh, it most certainly was!" The lighter of the two seemed slightly amused at the possibility that there could be anything but compliment to their attention. "You're very beautiful, and have quite a way with crowds."
She cocked her head slightly and raised her eyebrows. It was a practiced expression rather than a natural one, but the men didn't seem to notice, or if they did they didn't care. "Oh?"
"What my friend means is that you seem very comfortable meeting new people. I'm Bill and this, here, is Nathan." He offered his hand and Nathan quickly followed.
She took their hands lightly, in a manner more reminiscent of medieval times. Bill smiled, shifting his hand, so as not to touch her palm, and lifted it to within inches of his mouth before bringing it down once more and releasing it. "I'm Katherine." Nathan took her hand more casually and kissed her knuckles. Bill knew the proper method. If Nathan did, he had intentionally treated her with a great deal of discourtesy. More likely he simply didn't know the proper manner, an assumption confirmed as Bill rolled his eyes at Nathan. "It's a pleasure to meet you both."
Bill continued speaking for the both of them. She sensed he was the elder of the two, he certainly seemed the wiser and better spoken. "We were about to go have dinner and wondered if you would care to join us?"
