![\"bloodsucker\"](\"http:\/\/stupefyingstoriesshowcase.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/hungergamesmanship.jpg\")
<\/a>I<\/span> answered the door myself, as I always did when the shelter had visitors after dark. The gaunt man on the doorstep swept aside his cloak with one hand.<\/p>\n\u201cI am Nikolai,\u201d he said. \u201cI haff come to take Lucy home.\u201d<\/p>\n
More than his emaciated physique, the power of his stare gave him away. I sighed. This happened less and less as word spread, but there were still some stubborn types in the nosferatu community. They\u2019d come out of the coffin, but hadn\u2019t adopted the Internet.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m Doctor Maria Van Helsing,\u201d I said. \u201cAnd you are not welcome here.\u201d<\/p>\n
I didn\u2019t want to look at his eyes, so I focused on his nose, which I decided was overlarge. Undeath might give him pale, unblemished skin, but it couldn\u2019t make me take him seriously with a nose like that.<\/p>\n
I didn\u2019t actually want to face an angry bloodsucker alone, so I was glad to see Margaret appear in the hall behind me, tying up her terry-cloth robe. It was Margaret\u2019s devotion to her Catholic faith, as much as her nurse\u2019s experience, that had given us the idea we needed to keep our charges safe. Our latest ward was difficult. Lucy volunteered little in group sessions, and I feared she was still deeply under the nosferatu\u2019s influence.<\/p>\n
Speaking of difficulty, I heard movement on the stairs behind me. Lucy. \u201cIs it Nikolai?\u201d she asked.<\/p>\n
Margaret started up the stairs to block Lucy\u2019s way while I dealt with Nikolai.<\/p>\n
\u201cLet me in. I demand it,\u201d Nikolai said. I flipped the porch light on, purely to see how the halogen floodlights pained him. He covered his eyes with his cloak and stood without flinching.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe came for me just like he said he would,\u201d Lucy said.<\/p>\n
Margaret frowned. \u201cHe got hungry, more like,\u201d she said, and made the sign of the cross. \u201cRemember what we talked about in group. He\u2019s only interested in you for what\u2019s inside.\u201d<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Nikolai glared at me. I remembered eyes like those staring at me with the same impossible devotion. But Nikolai was looking past me at Lucy, who was struggling with Margaret.<\/p>\n
My friends had had to tie me down.<\/p>\n
Nikolai\u2019s eyes darted now from Lucy, to me, to the threshold in front of him.<\/p>\n
\u201cI require an invitation,\u201d he said, biting back each word as if it was torn from him.<\/p>\n
Lucy leapt on the idea. \u201cOh, Nikolai, come in, come in,\u201d she said. Now we\u2019d see<\/em>, I thought. My heartbeat quickened. Nikolai folded a cloaked arm in front of him like a shield, stepped over the threshold… and banged that prominent nose of his hard against an invisible wall.<\/p>\n He bounced backwards with a ladylike wail, blood dripping lazily from his face. Vampires did not, as a rule, have the best circulation. I was pleased to see that the effect was even stronger than I\u2019d hoped. My research was already paying dividends. \u201cThis is my<\/em> home,\u201d I said. \u201cNo one can invite you in but me.\u201d<\/p>\n He wiped his face on his cloak. The nose was already starting to heal, returning his features to their near-perfection. I\u2019d hoped to show Lucy what he was really like, the ugliness I knew he hid inside, but it didn\u2019t look like that was going to happen. I grabbed the doorknob, preparing to slam it in his face. But he had something else in mind.<\/p>\n \u201cLucy, my love,\u201d he called. \u201cLucy, dearest, come to me now.\u201d We all three of us ladies stopped when he spoke. There was something to his speech that I couldn\u2019t explain. Perhaps the audio analyzer I\u2019d installed above the door would be able to make something of it later. In the meantime, my mouth felt like it was full of cotton and I could hardly move.<\/p>\n The hardest part of opening the shelter had been admitting to myself that there were things about the nosferatu that science couldn\u2019t explain. But I was a practical woman. If there was magic to them, there were rules as well.<\/p>\n I touched the crucifix I always wore, and my tongue loosened, my mind cleared. \u201cLucy, when you came to us, you were half-drained. We had to keep you on an IV for days, honey. You almost died. If he could control himself, he would have done so already.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cDear one,\u201d Nikolai said, \u201cI never wanted to hurt you. I can resist my hunger if it means we can be together. Don\u2019t you want us to be together, Lucy?\u201d<\/p>\n I could hear Lucy slapping away Margaret\u2019s hands. \u201cI\u2019m coming, Nikolai!\u201d she called. But Margaret planted herself in Lucy\u2019s way.<\/p>\n \u201cIs this a prison, then, lady?\u201d<\/p>\n I started to speak, stopped myself, took a deep breath, and started again. \u201cNo. Lucy may do as she likes.\u201d<\/p>\n I nodded to Margaret and she stepped aside. Lucy flowed down the stairs in her nightgown. She raced out the door and Nikolai took her in his arms.<\/p>\n I remembered what that was like. Those strong arms. That perfect face, pressed against mine.<\/p>\n He lifted her off her feet and they kissed. Then he set her down, and, with his eyes on me, he turned her head to expose her neck, extending his fangs as he bent down\u2026and stopped.<\/p>\n He sniffed, and wrinkled his nose. \u201cWhat is this?\u201d<\/p>\n No microscope could find a difference between the saline we used and that of a hospital. It had been a hard lesson, and I\u2019d been glad, in the end, that Margaret\u2019s faith was stronger than my own, though it must be said that hers had not been tested as mine had; she had not been spurned by a perfect lover.<\/p>\n But it was Margaret\u2019s idea to have Father Cartwright bless our IVs.<\/p>\n Nikolai shrieked and pushed Lucy away. She stumbled back toward me and it was all I could do to catch her before she fell.<\/p>\n You can\u2019t have everything,<\/em> I thought, as I wrapped my arms around Lucy. If the vamp had been so headstrong as to go ahead and bite her on my doorstep, Lucy might have had the chance to see his perfect skin peel back, his shrieks turn to howls, his eyes\u2019 welcoming depths casting her out as they took on the blankness of pain and fury.<\/p>\n I watched Nikolai\u2019s face. Lucy, too, was watching, an imploring look in her eyes.<\/p>\n He hissed at us, his jaw distended like a snake\u2019s. I looked at Lucy. She covered her face and shrank into my arms. Then Nikolai was gone.<\/p>\n I guided Lucy back inside. She\u2019d have time now to heal properly. She might still go looking for him, when the saintliness left her blood.<\/p>\n But I knew that by then, Nikolai would already have moved on.
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