Josh gas carefully sweeps the broken glass from the Finders break-in. The security footage showed it all. The break in the dissociative staring off into nothing. The abuse of his merchandise.
He sighs, “5,000 dollars for a piece of glass is ridiculous,” he says as he dumps a dustpan filled with glass into a garbage can. The new pane of glass is already ordered and out for delivery.
But Josh doesn’t really care.
The news of the missing child is hanging over everyone’s head. He dumps the last of the glass into the trash can. He looks up at the sun, then down at a black convertible with tinted windows.
Trish climbs out of her car, her short heels clicking on the asphalt as she walks over to Josh. She can smell him; it’s all she has been able to smell after she tasted his blood. The closer she gets to him, the more she wants him. She fights with keeping the lust under control. She comes close and pushes him against the broken door and kisses him, tasting him. She pulls herself away from him. “Have you seen the Door?” she asks.
“Not today. It was here last night before I went to see Jack Harrington, and then this morning the window was broken and the door was gone,” he shakes his head. “I should have just stayed here.”
In the distance He hears the sound of a motorcycle with the timing off by 4 degrees coming down the road. He looks to confirm it, but he already knows it by the sound. The distinctive sound of the engine modification that Jack Harrington had insisted he do. The rider pulls into the gas station wearing full motorcycle gear.
“Where is it?” Jack Harrington roars as he gets off the motorcycle. “Where is the Door? It stole the baby from the delivery room, and I demand it give it back.”
“What? Why would it steal the baby?” Josh hugs his broom to his body. ‘The Door wouldn’t do that, would he?’
“I don’t know. No one knows the why of the door. Did you know it’s notorious for stealing things?” Jack says as he takes his helmet off.
“I had no idea,” Josh says as Trish moves close to him. She can’t help but want to protect Josh; he is so mortal and breakable. She shakes her head quietly, ‘Focus on the moment.’
“Did you know it is implicated in the disappearance of the Library of Alexandria and the first constitution of the United States? One of Da Vinci’s notebooks? A nuclear football? As well as several people throughout history? For example, Amelia Earhart, the temporary disappearance of Agatha Christie: There is more…” The usually in-control and cool Jack Harrington is now not cool and not in control. He slams his helmet against the outside ice chest.
Josh steps away from the imposing man. “I had no idea.” Inside, he refuses to believe it. He feels the pressure from Trisha’s hand against the small of his back, not letting him back down further.
“If you see the door, you call me, right? You understand how important this is, don’t you?” Jack says, his eyebrows rising as he tilts his head forward. He stands there looking at Josh for a long moment before putting on his helmet and driving back toward the ranch.
The door squeaks at the sound of the helmet hitting the refrigerator as he is hidden behind it. “I don’t steal babies,” he thinks about the baby dragging its bassinet across the room to throw itselfat him. “It attacked me,” the door says, feeling overwhelmed and tired. It moves.
The finder watches the ranch, his amulet growing warm to the touch. He throws the door to the van open and rushes outside. The destination billboard proclaiming The Ranch Motel 2 miles ahead looms over the top of the van. He looks around for the door. Rushing to the other side of the van closer to the billboard. The amulet gets hotter. He walks to the other side of the sign, and the door sees him, and he sees the door. Faster than he can reach in his pocket, the Door is gone.
He goes back into the van. “Twice now I have been within a stone’s throw.” He slams the van door behind him.
Josh finds himself pressed against the wall of the gas station. A light sweat on his forehead as the vampire has one arm against the wall and the rest of her pressed against him. “You have no idea how badly I want you, Josh.” She grins, showing her glistening fangs.
Josh attempts to play it cool, his pulse racing. “I have some idea,” he responds, his cock twitching.
She can smell his anxiety, his fear, and his arousal. “We really shouldn’t do this,” she whispers into his ear. Grinding on his erection through his jumpsuit.
Josh gently puts an arm around her and pulls her tight. “Does that mean you don’t want to?” he asks, rubbing his nose against hers. The cute gesture is so out of place he can see it throw her for a loop.
“Oh, I want to, but I am afraid I am too hungry to do it safely,” she smiles, opening her mouth, her fangs long and sharp.
He kisses her neck, and she melts a little inside. “Damn you, Josh, I am trying to save your life,” she grumbles as he kisses up her neck to the spot on her jaw that makes her hair tingle, the goosebumps ripple down her spine to her nipples, then down to her belly and beyond.
She pushes him away. “We really shouldn’t,” she says, but Josh comes forward and wraps his arms around her again.
“But we could,” he says as he touches her breast, firm and perky with no sign of a bra under the dress.
She looks at his neck; she can see the way the blood is flowing through him; she can taste what he will taste like; she can picture what he will look like after. She pulls herself from his arms and moves to her car. “Not today.” She says with a wave, she starts her car and drives away.
Josh sighs, his erection tenting his boxers. He rolls the garbage can filled with glass back into the store and gets back to work.
