Free Siren Nights (Series Part 1) (The Lure) by Jennifer Lewis Page B

playing the part too well.”
    “Um... guys? I think we should move on.” A
nervous brown-haired scrawny young man wearing thick glasses and a black
headset poked his head up from below the balcony. “This room almost certainly
belonged to our spook and there may be more of them lurking around here. And
they won’t go down nearly so easy without the element of surprise.”
    “Good catch, Brett,” said Tony, moving to
sweep me into his arms. He ignored my startled squawk and uncomfortable squirm.
“Let’s move out, people.” He moved to the balcony and jumped out the window,
landing easily on a landing two stories below. Tara followed. “Watch the skirt,
jailbait,” she called to me as she jumped and I hastily covered my knees.
    Behind them, the pile of ash on the floor
blew away in the night breeze. The others didn’t seem to notice.
    ***

Chapter 2: Friends and Allies
    The door to my apartment was jammed again.
I yanked it fiercely and with a shower of splinters, it finally opened. I
staggered into the living room. Elena, one of my roommates, snored in an
armchair in front of a desktop computer. “That’ll kill your back,” I muttered,
before grabbing the ratty blanket from the couch to cover her.
    Moving to the bathroom, I flipped open the
light and shooed a silverfish away from the sink. The mirror’s prognosis was
not good; I was a total mess. My mascara was smeared and so was my red
lipstick. Half my hair had escaped from its arrangement and stuck out
everywhere. I switched on the faucet and splashed myself a few times before
burying my face in the remover cloth. After, I loosed my hair and attacked the
knots with a brush.
    When I was done, my face was bright pink
and raw and I no longer looked like an abused hooker - just plain old, ordinary
Anna.
    Why vampires were attracted to me was a
mystery. I wasn’t super model pretty, though I cleaned up well enough. My body
was just a shade too curvy. Evan, one of my exes, told me that I should be on a
diet until I was less “squishy.” But even after I’d cut my calorie intake to a
sliver and worked out every day for four months, I had only lost five pounds
and was as “squishy” as ever.
    Unbound, my nut-brown hair fell to the
midpoint of my back, framing two cloudy grey eyes. I pursed my lips, still pink
from the scrubbing even after the lipstick had worn off. Round and full, they
were undoubtedly my best feature. One man had even called them “tantalizingly
kissable.”
    Without my makeup on, I looked and felt
ordinary. So why had I been stalked and attacked by three vampires in less than
a month? I was too tired to think of an answer.
    After briefly checking to make sure there
was nothing lurking in my room, I swept a pile of dirty clothes aside and
flopped into my bed.
    My alarm clock read one thirty four am.
Well, that wasn’t so bad, I thought drowsily. If I didn’t have a seven am
double shift tomorrow, it’d be perfect. I faded out without so much as flipping
off the lights.
    ***
    The diner was so crowded at lunch I could
barely hear myself think. But I wasn’t paid to think.
    I set a tray with drinks down on the table.
“Diet Coke, iced tea, and a bottle of Sam Adams. Are you ready to order?”
    After the diners gave their answers, I
straightened and returned to the kitchen to put the orders in. On my way back
out to the floor, I paused. Was it just me, or were there fewer regulars here
than usual? Its seemed like everyone was a stranger.
    Maybe one of them was a vampire, I thought
with a shiver. Like “Darian,” if that had even been his real name. It was only
yesterday that he had sat at the back table by the window and professed his
admiration of me. The seat was empty now; recently vacated as it still had to
be cleared before someone else could move in.
    I quickly made my rounds, and the first
chance I got, ducked out into the back of the kitchen into the narrow hallway
between the kitchen, staff room, and bathroom. There I gathered