Once Betrayed Never Forgotten

Chapter 78: City of Angels

“Come on, Aleksandr, it’ll be fin!” I insist an hour later, shortly after Anya has finished laying into her blood son, my voice eching off the pristine white marble walls of the grand entrance hall in his cliff top mansion. Aleksandr gives me a sharp and weary look, one that says he finds the ide appealing as a day spent in purgatory.

“Define fun,” he says, each word laced with a scepticism that could freeze the sun. Beside me, Seraphina is practically vibrating with excitement.

“C’mon, it’s Los Angeles, you old grump! The City of Angels! I want to see the stars, the lights, the…the everything!” She cries. Her enthusiasm is infections, but it doesn’t seem to be rubbing off on Aleksandr. I guess he’s immune to lun. He just sits there glumly, sipping on the straw jutting from the plastic bag of type All negative blood sourced from the closest blood bank.

Anya has disappeared, off on some important business she said, carrying her little plastic pouch of blood along with her out the door like a takeaway.

It’s slightly unnerving watching Aleksandr sipping on the plastic straw, watching the crimson liquid flowing up towards his lips, trying to convince myself that it’s red wine or tomato soup but knowing full well what it really is…

“It’s so unfair, I never get to do anything fun!” Seraphina says, looking up at me with the cutest, most pleading poppy dog eyes she can manage.

Seraphina’s so desperate to see some of the modern world, and I really want to make that happen for her – but there’s no way Aleksandr would let us go wandering the nighttime streets of Los Angeles without an escort.

“Please, Aleksansir?” I ask hopefully, trying to flutter my lashes prettily at him.

“I’d rather attend a werewolf’s flea bath,” he says sarcastically.

“Speaking of werewolves, perhaps if you won’t chaperone us on our city adventures, we should ask Laka instead.” Seraphina says thoughtfully, a mischievous glint in her eye. “It would only take me a moment to fetch him through the sky portal and I’m sure he’d he more than willing, obviously he’ll be delighted to see Arianna again, in fact-”

“No need!” Aleksandr snaps, his face stiff with irritation. “I’ve changed my mind, I will escort you ladies into the city, but for ONE HOUR ONLY. Understood? You have one hour to have your fin in that mortal cesspit, and then we’re returning here.”

“Very well, we can get a lot done in an hour,” Seraphina says, her eyes gleaming with the possibilities. “First stop the King of America.”

Half an hour later, the cool LA night breathes life into our trio as we weave through the vibrant neon–lit streets. Aleksandr, towering and imposing event among the nocturnal revelers, guides us with an air of resigned grumpiness and world–weariness while Seraphina skips ahead oohing and ahhing at all of the sights. Our destination? None other than the esteemed establishment of culinary finesse, a Burger King opposite a Walmart.

The aroma of fried food hits us before we even cross the threshold–a mélange of grease, salt, and something vaguely meaty–like that makes Aleksandr’s nose crinkle in distaste.

*I can’t believe I’m setting foot in a… Burger King, Aleksandr mutters under his breath, his tone dripping with disdain.

Seraphina, however, is undeterred. Her eyes are wide with wonder, taking in the posters of outrageously stacked burgers and the colorful, albeit slightly (actually, very) sticky, plastic tables.

“Oh, Arianna! It’s everything I wanted it to be! It’s so… real… so… alive!” she exclaims. It’s a million worlds away from the cold, austere majesty of the Castle of Endless Night, with its ancient halls and shadowy candlelit corridors. I can see why a plastic fever dream like Burger King seems like a magicall wonderland for her.

“Well, that’s it Seraphina, you’ve seen the magical realm of the Burger King,” Aleksandr says abruptly, turning on his heel as he tries to herd us back out the way we came in. “Mission accomplished. Let’s head out now.”

“Not until we cat!” Seraphina says with determination,

“Just wait… you can cat human food?” Lask her, to which Seraphina just nods,

“Of course we can,” Aleksandr replies, his voice dropping to a whisper in case the other restaurant patrons overhear our conversation. “We can eat it. taste it, enjoy it even – but it doesn’t nourish us, not the way blood does. We must consume blood in order to survive.”

“Hold up – when you say it doesn’t nourish you, that means you don’t get any nutrients from normal food?” I ask, an amazing thought forming in a

mind. “Like, no fat or sugar? You can eat anything you want, as much as you want, and never gain any weight?”

“Pretty much,” Aleksandr says.

“Wow,” I mutter.

Becoming a vampire is starting to look more and more attractive. Screwy immortality, super strength and eternal beauty – all I want is to be able to binge on donuts and fried chicken whenever I want and still fit into my skinny jeans.

“Let’s get this over and done with,” Aleksandr says, gesturing for me to take the lead. “I think it goes without saying. I won’t be eating.”

Approaching the counter, I look up at the bright neon sign menu.

“Hi, could we get two Whoppers, one chicken fries, and… um, maybe a black coffee?” I ask, a bit sheepishly, casting a sidelong glance at Aleksandr, whose expression is one of pure exasperation as he shakes his head

“I’d rather drink battery acid,” he grumbles next to me, hopefully not loud enough for the guy behind the counter to hear.

“Actually, forget about the coffee,” I say sheepishly.

The teenager behind the counter, whose name tag reads “Tyler, blinks twice, glancing from Aleksandr to me. “Uh, we have Diet Coke? Or water?”

“Make it two Diet Cokes and a water, then,” I say quickly.

As Tyler punches in our order, Seraphina’s gaze lands on a standee of the Burger King mascot, peeking out from the corner in all his cardboard cut out glory.

Before long. Tyler hands us our tray, loaded with the quintessence of American fast food. We find a table that’s relatively clean, and Seraphina excitedly. inspects her meal, as if trying to decipher an ancient text.

Aleksandr eyes the Whopper as though it’s an alien specimen, poking it with a disdain that could only be mustered by someone who’s dined on kings and queens.

“It’s astounding what passes for food in this era,” he mutters.

Seraphina, on the other hand, is thoroughly enjoying the novelty. She gleefully dips her chicken fries into ketchup.

“Isn’t this fun, Aleksandr? I tease, trying to lighten his mood.

“He responds with a look that could curdle milk. Absolutely thrilling, he deadpans, but I catch a glimpse of a smile tugging at the corners

s of his mouth.

“After what they did to my mother… what they did to me, I hated people, all people, for a very long time,” Seraphina says abruptly, her expression never changing as her eyes darken with the memory of the villagers burning her at the stake. “I’ve been afraid of mortals for centuries now. But they’re not so scary, after all. The human world’s ok.”

Aleksandr’s mask of bored indifference slips for a moment and I see him staring tenderly at Seraphina, sadly, as if he wants to wrap the broken child up In his arms. But then his expression hardens again, and he says, “are we done here? I have important things to do.”

“Fine, let’s go,” Seraphina sighs, looking over again longingly at the cardboard cut out of the Burger King mascnt as Aleksandr sighs in relief and heads

for the door.

1

never got to meet him in person… the king, I mean,” I say, wondering if she still actually believes this ridiculous character is a real

rry you ne

“I’m sorry

person.

“Hah, I don’t care about that,” she says with a mischievous smile. “That’s not the reason I wanted to come here. It wasn’t to see the Burger King, or even to taste the greasy human food.”

*Then, uh, why?” I ask, dumfounded.

“I just wanted to come here because I knew it would royally piss Aleksandr off,” she says with a wink, and she merrily skips towards the door.

Torturing Mr Grumpypants is my favourite pastime. Thanks, Arianna.”

“Pleasure, I guess,” I answer, but she’s already far ahead of me, out the door.

I step out into the night air, and can immediately tell that something’s wrong. Seraphina is frozen in place on the sidewalk, her pale white skin lit eerily red by a neon sign overhead. Aleksandr has his back to me, his stance protective, ready to fight, to defend. And standing just a few feet from us, under the street lamp, is someone I’d hoped to never see again.

Her beautiful face is smiling, but her eyes flash with venomous scom.

Tatiana.

Chapter Comments

EJ

ugh… Go away you damn slutty leach. Hey that was a good one.

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