Chapter 36: Revelations
I froze and turned around. No, it couldn't be her, but I couldn't mistake that nasal voice that have been grating on my nerves for the past 4 years, continually, when I went to work.
'Gati?' I asked, stunned. What was she doing here? Please, don't tell me that she was in cahoots with Guy and I looked at him. But he seemed to be slumped on the ground and wasn't paying any attention to us.
She took one step forward, out of the darkness and that was when her outfit registered on my mind. A low cut leather catsuit covered her voluptuous body, highlighting each curve of her body. She had adorned her lips with a vivid red lipstick and was harboring her usual pout. Her long claw-like nails were painted the same colour. Even the boots that she was wearing had heels. Only someone who was obsessed with her appearance would wear such apparel to a forest.
'What are you doing here, Gati?' I asked her putting my hands on my wrist. The night was turning out to be more eventful than I had taken it to be. The blood loss and the run were starting to take its toll on me, as well as the emotional turmoil of learning that Guy could be my uncle. I flicked my hair back in the Gati style and I pressed on my bluetooth earphone twice in order for it to call the last dialled number. The dial tone I heard told me that I was successful.
'I had heard that things were going down tonight, so I had to be part of it,' she said with a big smile. 'I reached just in time to hear this old man,' grimacing at the word old, 'had discovered that you were her niece.' She also put her hands on her hips, thrusting her chest forward. This was probably to put on a show for Dave who had come to stand behind me protectively.
'So where is it?' she asked drawling out the last syllables and fluttering her lashes at Dave. It was as if I was invisible. That served my purpose as I could take that time to observe our surroundings. I sniffed the air like I had seen Dave doing on some occasions, but apart from Gati's cloying perfume, there were no new smells. She was alone.
'What are you looking for Gati?' Dave asked with a slow smile, running his eyes up and down her body in appraisal. I could see that Gati was enjoying the attention in the way her dimples were flashing and the slow way she kept moving her hips. I rolled my eyes at her, but of course no one noticed. That was such an anti-climax after the night's events. But I kept wondering at Gati's presence. Was she a vampire or a werewolf? I couldn't catch any of the doggy smells, I had come to associate with werewolves, from her.
'She's not a vampire, yet,' my little voice said, but then I remembered that I was, in fact, reading Dave's mind. It felt odddly intimate the way we were able to penetrate each other's mind, going places where others had not been. What did he mean by 'yet', though?
'You know, the door, which leads to the world where everyone stays young forever,' Gati replied, putting her feet hip-width apart and this time thrusting her round bum to the side. Why did she not get naked and jiggle all her assets if it was attention that she required, I thought peskily. But then the thought of her being nked in front of Dave tore at me and I swallowed back my jealousy.
In the meanwhile, I heard Claudia's voice on the line. I couldn't talk directly to her so as not to antagonise Gati, as I still didn't know what she was planning. She kept saying 'Hello' until she heard Gati's voice in the far background and stayed quiet to listen.
'What door are you talking about?' Dave asked in a honey-sweet voice. I glared at him from beneath my lashes. It's true that he needed to make her comfortable but he didn't have to go overboard with it.
'My vampire friend told me about it. He wanted my help to find it.' My ears stood up in alert at the mention of vampire friend. Who was she talking about? 'He told me about her,' she said looking at me disparagingly. 'That she was a vampire. I told him that he must be wrong as she doesn't look like one. I said that I would be a better vampire and he agreed,' she said with a superior air, lowering her front zipper so that she could move the neckline away to show the two fresh bite marks on her fair neck. It hadn't been necessary as that part of her neck was already exposed, but she apparently wanted to show a peek of her lacy black bra which were straining to cup her breasts. Gati had chosen to be turned into a vampire just to be able to compete with me. I didn't know whether to feel insulted ot to take it as an indirect compliment.
'And who's your friend?' Dave asked putting his hands casually in his pockets. He looked to be calm from the outside, but I could feel the nervous energy radiating from him. There was another vampire in town and he was not aware of it. He didn't like not knowing who it was.
'Oh, no one important,' she replied with a brush of her hand. 'He told me that she knows how to open it and to give him the information when I get it from her. So when I was on my way to meet him near the Academy, I found you people walking in the forest. I followed you,' she said without any guilt. In fact, she seemed rather proud of her achievement. She took one additional step towards Dave, who stared at her, unwavering. I either had to step side or stay there to have my face squished by her breasts. I chose to move away as it would give me the opportunity to check if she had concealed any weapon in a back pocket. From the way her catsuit left nothing to the imagination, it was clear that she had no weapons in front. Even behind, there was no way she could have concealed anything, except for her butt implants, of course.
'From vampire to vampire,' she said, trailing her manicured hand down Dave's shirt. 'We can share this. Then we'll both be young forever.' I couldn't believe her nerve and the extent to which she was vain. She was doing all this simply to preserve her youth and beauty.
'Oh man, she's crazy,' I heard Claudia's voice say in the earphone, mirroring my thoughts.
'I knew there was a Vetala around, I smelled it,' said a voice by my right and I turned to find that Guy was standing. He seemed to have been able to stop the blood flow and was standing more confidently. We had all been so taken up with Gti's act that we had stopped paying attention to him. Before either Dave or I could do anything, he pushed past us and escaped into the forest, shouting ,'We'll meet again.'
It would serve no purpose running after him as he was already far ahead and Dave still had to get all his strength back.
When I turned around, it was to see Gati lying down in Dave's arms, unconscious.
'She fainted,' was his reply at my inquisitive gaze. He could have let her fall down, why hold her? My jealous self reared its head back up but I quieted it down. This was what I liked about Dave, his compassion, even if it sometimes got in the way, like right then.
We had a would-be vampire, a wounded werewolf and a Vetala on our tracks now.
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