The Dark Sire Issue 2 (Winter 2019) | Page 85

I could only stare at him in disbelief - for he had appeared a proper gentleman, regardless of my initial reaction toward him. I have come to learn that looks can be quite deceiving. I pushed myself off the wall, my speech becoming stern, almost austere. “Sir! I demand that you halt this nonsense at once.” I turned to leave. “Go and find the pub you so wantingly desired.” He barely allowed me a step before grabbing my shoulder and pushing me back against the rough uneven stones of the wall; one of which cut sharply into my shoulder blade. “What I desire,” he said in a voice as smooth as satin and as husky as a wet jungle night, “has never been served in the pubs of this city.” He grabbed my left wrist and pinned it to the wall, leaning toward me to whisper in my ear. “But you have precisely what I desire.” I looked directly into his taunting face as anger blazed in my eyes. “There is a house of ill repute just down the road; surely they can entertain such twisted cravings as you might have.” My irritation at this man was becoming more pronounced as the realization came that this fiendish bastard meant to trifle with me. Refusing to go along with his ruse any longer, I clenched my right fist and hit him with all the strength I could muster. His head barely moved from the blow, but as he centered his eyes on me again, he was smiling. It was an evil and chilling grin, but it wasn’t the smile itself that caught my attention, it was his teeth which jagged at my mind. They were perfect: straight, white, even; a phenomenon unusual to such a time and place. What was most unbelievable though were the long, pointed canines that seemed to have appeared from nowhere. I had seen no such fangs in his grin before that moment, so I stared at them in disbelief. I was utterly unable to pull my eyes from a sight so strange and so clearly out of place. 83