For reasons I couldn’t explain, knowing his name brought a smile to my lips. It was somehow very him.
That evening, Eli left the house again. There was a lanyard slung around his neck with a badge at the end. I couldn’t be certain—I only saw it for an instant—but I thought I glimpsed the logo for a nearby hospital on the badge. Was Eli a medical professional?
I was tempted to follow him to his place of employment, but it was important to first know more about him before I staged an encounter. I’d been caught off guard by him once before. I couldn’t let it happen again.
The sister left the house an hour later, on foot.
She walked a touch too slowly—too carefully—like she was fully focused on not stumbling. A sign of intoxication. When she turned the corner of the sidewalk, I decided her destination was the corner store a few blocks away.
Assuming she was only purchasing one or two items, that gave me roughly fifteen minutes—maybe twenty—to search their home and get back out before I was discovered. Not ideal, but it would have to do. It was clear from my surveillance she didn’t leave often. I wasn’t sure I could stomach another two days watching the excessively dull neighborhood from a window.
I made it down the stairs and across the street in record time.
I broke the lock on the back door. It was sloppy of me, but I didn’t have time to pick it cleanly. Then I let myself in.
Contrary to myth, vampires don’t need an invitation to enter a home.
The interior of the house was humble but tidy. A circular wooden dining table, heavily scuffed and stained from years of use, sat with matching high-back chairs. No dishes in the sink. Hideous yellow laminate countertops with not even a single crumb on them.
The living room was similar. A comfortable couch with a mismatched armchair. The television was on but paused. The sister had been watching a movie. There was an empty wine bottle on a cheap-looking black coffee table made of particle board. Beside it, a stemless glass resting on a coaster, a small ring of crimson in the bottom that looked delightfully like blood.
I headed down the short hallway. A single bathroom. Three bedrooms. One smelled strongly of stale alcohol—likely not Eli’s. Another was an office that looked rarely used. The last bedroom was clean and smelled of church incense.
Eli’s scent.
I slipped into the room and rummaged through his dresser drawers. Merely clothing. Though I did note that Eli’s underwear selection—silk thongs and various decorative jockstraps—was verging on scandalous.
I found myself smiling in approval. The young man might seem ordinary at first glance, but there was clearly a certain flair to his personality that refused to be denied.
My search turned up nothing except a tiny stuffed black cat missing an eye, which might have been a trophy he had taken from a kill. However, it smelled of him and no one else. A token from childhood, then.
There were a few photos on the wall of him and the woman he lived with. One showed them at a theme park, both younger.A massive bright-green roller coaster in the background. They held ice-cream cones and beamed at the camera like they didn’t have a care in the world.
Yes, they were siblings.
I couldn’t help but notice Eli had a nice smile.
A narrow bookcase below the window. Nearly every book ever written by Agatha Christie. Eli was a fan of mystery, then. I smiled at that.
A framed diploma on the wall: University of San Francisco School of Medicine. Elijah De La Cruz. Doctor. Dutiful brother. Friendly neighbor. Lover of antique mystery novels. Wearer of scandalous underwear.
My time was nearly up, and I had learned nothing of note. Certainly nothing to suggest a well-hidden dark side, nor how he knew my true name.
There should have been something.
Where would a normal person hide their secrets?
I frowned at the bed. Then I lifted the mattress and found a wad of cash—likely for emergencies—and the real prize: a thin black notebook.
Perhaps a journal. Or, if I was an exceptionally lucky vampire, a ledger of his victims.
Either way, it was mine.
I snatched it, allowing myself a triumphant grin.
The very moment I had it in my hands, I heard the front door open.
I froze.
