Justine looked in the same direction that the dog was looking but sensed nothing other than the knowledge that someone was coming. Whoever it was hadn't gotten to the city yet and it was much too close to morning to go out again. As she calmed down the dog did too, his hackles relaxing as he lay at her feet. Justine absently scratched behind the dog's ears suddenly grateful for the company.
Thinking about the morning made her wonder about the whole daylight issue, could she go out? She opened a container that held the livers in it and drank the blood that had accumulated at the bottom then she gave the meat to the dog who to her surprise wasn't begging but patiently waiting.
"Here you go." she said as she fed several pieces of meat to the dog. "Who do you belong to and what are you doing wandering the streets?" she asked the dog who tilted his head to the side and gave her a quizzical look as if to say, "you are aware you're talking to a dog aren't you?"
Justine drained the blood from the other container but saved the meat to give to the dog later. Still hungry but not famished, she took out a steak, ate it and gave the bone to the dog who accepted it gratefully.
"You're like me aren't you?" she asked the dog, "out here all alone.... I'll tell you what, why don't you stick with me?" Justine asked the dog who had stopped eating and was watching her, "unless you have someplace else to be." she added.
The dog laid the bone down, walked over to Justine and licked her face and for the first time since she had become a vampire, Justine laughed.
"You have to have a name." she said pushing the dog away. "How about Rover?" she asked. She could have sworn that the dog raised its eyebrows at her.
"No? Willard? Oscar? Come on buddy! Give me a..... Buddy? You like that name? Then Buddy it is!" Justine exclaimed not at all concerned that she was carrying on a conversation with a dog. The dog's tail wagged rapidly as he started licking her face again.
"Ok, Ok!" Justine said still laughing, "Your name is Buddy!"
Buddy went back to his bone leaving Justine alone to plan her next move. The question about the daylight continued to nag at her, "for once it would be nice to know what I can do before I have to find out the hard way." she thought as she looked toward the one window toward the front of the basement.
She could see the signs that the sun was going to rise soon and made a decision, she was going to see if she could stand the sunlight. Buddy watched her as she approached the basement window and then abandoned the steak bone, trotted over to her and stood by her side.
Nervously Justine placed her hand on Buddy's head and waited. She looked out of the window and watched as the sun slowly rose. Finally the first rays of the sun shone through the window beckoning her to move closer. Slowly Justine stretched her arm out prepared to pull it back if there was pain.
She held her breath as the sun touched her skin for the first time in two days. The warmth of the sun felt.... Neither good nor bad, it really didn't feel like anything. It wasn't long before her hand was bathed in sunlight to her pleasure and surprise it tingled but didn't hurt or burn.
Taking courage from her experiment, Justine stepped further into the sunlight letting it hit her face. It was several minutes before her skin began to itch and burn which told her what she needed to know, she could stand to be in the sunlight about forty-five minutes. It wasn't a huge amount or time but it as time enough to get to a place of safety if she should have to leave wherever she was before it got dark. She wondered it she could condition herself to withstand the sunlight for a longer amount of time and added that to her list of things to find out.
********
Quinn was up early in spite of the fact that he really hadn't slept. Every time he closed his eyes he saw the image of the beautiful black woman who had been so inadequately dressed for the cold weather. His mouth went dry every time he thought about her and he wondered how he could find her.
Tired of lying in bed Quinn got up and headed toward the shower. On his way he looked at his reflection in the mirror. "Quinn O'Dell you need a haircut." he told himself as he ran his hand through his thick auburn hair whose length was barely collar length. His green eyes which he considered to be his best feature felt grainy and dry from the lack of sleep from thinking about the woman. "What is it about you?" he murmured as he stripped out of the lounge pants and tee shirt that served as his pajamas.
As the hot water ran over his body Quinn thought about the unnamed woman and hardened. The erection both shocked and pleased him. Pleased because the thought of a woman could still rouse him and it had been a long time since a woman had done that for him, shocked because the woman was a stranger.
That she was black was neither here nor there although he had never thought about being with a black woman. As far as he was concerned a woman was a woman and one thing that one never did or tried not to do was piss them off. From what he could tell, the reaction of a pissed woman was the same no matter the race, age or nationality. He stopped himself from traveling down the mental road of a relationship with this woman. He didn't even know her name much less where she lived. He had screwed up finding out her name by approaching her on the street instead of in the store around other people.
He finished his shower, dried his six feet four inch frame and dressed for the day. It was a cold but sunny day and he decided to go out walking. He had a meeting but he didn't have to be there until after lunch, fortunately this was an inside job so he wouldn't freeze his ass off. The employer a rich old woman wanted him to design an indoor garden but the plants had to be real and the room had to have the illusion of being outdoors. So he in conjunction with an interior decorator and an artist were working together on the project.
The job was paying big bucks further cushioning his savings giving him even more of a comfort zone for when he decided to move. As with all of his jobs he took before and after pictures for his portfolio but this one he was taking pictures throughout the process. He loved this job and it wasn't all about the money, he loved having his creativity challenged and loved working with other people except for this time.
The artist was Leila Calhoun who was quite beautiful and in some ways reminded him physically of Amanda but that was where the resemblance ended. Leila was loud, crass, domineering and she wanted in his pants, a fact that she made clear from the first time that they met.
He already knew how the conversation would go when the meeting was over, she would offer him a ride home because it was so cold out and then she would throw hints that she wanted to come in and when he didn't offer she would blatantly tell him that she wanted to fuck him.
Once he became fully aware of her agenda, he stopped meeting her outside of the woman's home to talk about the project and never accepted a ride home from her.
"I'll be there fifteen minutes early." Quinn told her when she called the day before.
"Come on Quinn!" she wheedled. "I promise that it'll be all business."
"I'll see you tomorrow at 11:45." Quinn told her and then hung up.
Quinn wondered how he could have gone from not wanting to be involved with someone to thinking about the woman that he saw last night almost non stop. Once again he wondered how he could find her, Philadelphia was a big place and she could be almost anywhere. Then he had a thought, she was walking so that meant she couldn't be that far away from Chinatown and given the way that she was dressed.... He was going back with the hope that he saw her again.
********
Mikhail arrived at the Philadelphia penthouse just before sunrise; his body felt like it weighed a ton as he dropped his bags and stumbled to the king size bed. He barely got his shoes off and got laid down before he was dead to the world.
When he rose, he called Jeremiah to let him know that he had arrived.
"I'm here, any clues on where your girl is?"
"No Damn it!" Jeremiah replied, "It's like she just dropped off of the face of the earth."
"Are you sure that no one is helping her?" Mikhail asked.
"We've talked to every vampire that we can find." Jeremiah said exasperated, "and no one has seen her."
