Free Moonlight Becomes You: a short story by Linda Winstead Jones Page A

gone . The people who'd disappeared would not exactly be missed, but she couldn't allow that detail to cloud her judgment.
    Add the insignificant detail that Claire had been reading quite a few vampire novels, and it all made perfect sense.
    The common belief was that vampires didn't really exist, but Claire knew to the pit of her soul that there was more to the world than most people realized. Granny Eileen—her father's eccentric mother—had spoken often of ghosts and were-beasts, of vampires and curses. There had been a time, a span of several years in fact, when Claire had chosen not to believe the tales her grandmother had spun so effortlessly, but in the past few years it seemed that her eyes and ears had been opened. Legends had to be based in fact, and it wasn't her fault that people had to deny that fact in order to survive from one day to the next.
    It was obvious that something was going on with her neighbor, and like it or not vampire made sense. The dirt, the howl, Fluffy, the missing people... yes, it all made perfect sense. Sadly, no one would believe her if she didn't collect proof.
    Claire walked down the hallway on quick tiptoes, barefoot in order to be as silent as possible, hoping that when she glanced around the next corner she'd catch a glimpse of her neighbor as he made his way to the stairwell. The elevator was out of order again—no surprise there—and to reach the stairs she and everyone else on her end of the floor had to walk two and a half short hallways. Down the hallway, right, and then right again before reaching the stairs.
    She wouldn't follow her subject outside, she hadn't entirely lost her mind, but she had decided to keep detailed records of his comings and goings as best she could. One never knew what small detail might turn out to be helpful.
    When she reached the corner she flattened her back to the wall as she had before, and she listened. She curled her toes in excitement and maybe a little fear. She heard nothing, but then her neighbor did have an easy step, even in those heavy black boots he usually wore. Another vampire trait, she supposed. The easy step, not the boots. Maybe he was floating an inch or so above the floor, since he didn't know anyone was watching. She leaned slowly forward to take a glimpse down the hallway...
    And found herself nose to chest with her vampire neighbor.
    Claire caught and held her breath, as her heart threatened to break free of her chest. There was no way she could outrun him, whether he was a vampire or not. That meant she'd have to wing it. First, she had to regain the ability to breathe. That sounded easy enough, but she couldn't quite pull it off.
    "Are you stalking me?" he asked, a touch of humor in his deep voice.
    There it was. A breath of much needed air. "I... you... of course not." Claire managed a tight smile. "I lost an earring. I thought maybe it fell out earlier this evening, when I was on my way in from work."
    "Too bad. I was rather hoping I had a pretty stalker."
    Yes, there was something unnaturally hypnotic about his eyes, which were such a dark brown they looked almost black. She could feel herself being sucked in by those eyes. That had to be a vampire trick.
    He thought she was pretty?
    The man, who looked taller up close than he had from a distance, offered his hand. "Simon Darrow. I live next door to you."
    After a moment of paralyzing fear, she put her hand in his and shook. "Claire Murphy. I know." His hand was oddly warm, for someone who was possibly undead.
    He released her hand and leaned casually against the wall, literally inches away. "So, what does this earring look like?"
    "What earring?"
    "The one you lost," he said, that hint of good humor remaining in his hypnotic voice.
    "Oh, yes." This was the perfect opportunity for her first real test. Since arriving at her suspicions about her neighbor she'd been wearing a small gold cross at all times. She slept in it, showered with it around her neck, wore it when she