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I stare at myself in my mother's old full-length mirror. I feel ridiculous.

It's about fifteen minutes till eight o'clock and I still can't believe Joanna managed to talk me into this smoke and mirrors circus.

Here I am, Colin Myers, dressed up like some amateur thief in a movie. Joanna said to dress in all black but I only have so many clothes in that color. I have managed to find a pair of black jeans that are a bit frayed at the ends, a charcoal grey t-shirt, and a black zip-up hoodie. My shoes are converse but only the canvas part of the shoe is black. Joanna is just going to have to deal with what I have.

I glance at the clock again on my nightstand and sigh. I better head over to Jo's now. She wanted me to come before Felix left, though how would she know when he comes and goes? My only hope is that he'll decide to stay in tonight. I mean it's only Tuesday, who goes out on the town on Tuesdays? There is also the chance that Felix will lead us to some seedy part of town and the pair of us might get mugged, assaulted, killed or even worse, all three. My stomach is definitely in knots about this but that doesn't stop me from going out the door ready to go to Jo's apartment.

I'm half way to the front door when my mother's voice reaches my ears. "Where you off to dressed for a funeral?" I turn to see her at the kitchen table eating a pb & j and flipping through a fashion magazine. She smiles over at me, running her brown eyes over my outfit. "Or maybe emo band audition?"

"Oh, uh, I'm just going over to Joanna's," I supply, hoping that is sufficient enough and she won't question me further on my odd choice of clothing tonight. I don't normally wear so much black.

My mother opens her mouth to say something in return, her eyes suddenly suspicious, but the little cheap cell phone on the table buzzes with a text message and she gets distracted looking at what it says. I take that as a blessing and scurry my skinny butt out of the apartment as fast as I can with only an, "Okay, love you, bye!" I sigh for the millionth time today but this one is more of relief and I make my way down the hall to the elevator. I press the up arrow and fidget while I wait for the lift. Once the doors open I'm in and up before I know it and making my way down the hall towards Joanna's apartment. However, I keep my eyes on Felix's door, just waiting for the moment it'll open and I'll be caught and possibly exsanguinated. I swallow and knock on her door.

Jo opens her door and drags me inside, shutting and locking the door quickly. I watch her peer out the peephole before turning to me and grinning like a maniac.

The girl is dressed all in black, of course. She has on a beanie, a quarter-sleeved scoop neck, and tight leather pants tucked into combat boots. As I look her outfit over, she looks at mine and makes the comment, "Well, I suppose that will have to do."

I look down at myself a little self-consciously and tug at the sleeves of my hoodie. "This was all I had, Jo...You look like a spy or something," I joke a little as I wander further into her apartment. I stop to stare at the painting she is very close to finishing of Felix. The likeness is very striking and gives me a bit of a shiver.

"Thanks!" Jo says way too cheerfully, as if we weren't about to go stalk a possible vampire and/or a serial killer with a vampire shtick on the streets at night. "I think he'll leave soon." She goes to her kitchen and pulls out a bottle of water from the fridge, taking a mighty swig from it.

I turn away from the painting and take a seat at the breakfast bar. "Are you absolutely sure this is a good idea, Joanna?" I scratch at my head and chew on my bottom lip a little. The knots have gotten worse. I'm not sure how well I'll handle this but Jo seems so confident. She looks at me with sad, slightly pitying eyes that I immediately dislike and walks over to me. She wraps her arms around my shoulders and gives me a squeeze.

"Don't worry, Collie, I'll protect you," she says warmly. "Besides, probably nothing will come of it and we'll come back and eat ice-cream and watch movies, yeah?"

I chuckle a little and nod. "Yeah, okay, but if I get killed I'm haunting your ass."

Joanna pulls back with surprise and then laughs, ruffling up my hair a bit. We chat for a while about this and that and nothing in particular until we hear a door in the hall swinging open. Jo runs to the peephole and peeks out. I nearly hold my breath while I stare at her, waiting. She abruptly turns around with a sinister grin on her face and motions for me to come towards her. "The Count has flown the cave, the game is a foot, Watson!"

It takes me a second to understand anything she is saying as I meet her at the door. "The Count? Really? And why am I Watson?"

"We got to have code names, this is an important mission. Don't complain," she says as if it is so obvious and opens the door peeking down the hall. "The coast is definitely clear, lets go so we can keep up with him."

Felix takes the elevator to the lobby and so as to not provide suspicion, we take the stairs nearly two at a time to keep pace. We manage to make it to the bottom before him, huffing a bit. It's a good thing I have remembered to bring my inhaler this time and pull it out for a quick inhale. Just in case. We pause around the corner and watch as Felix leaves the elevator and makes his way to the entrance to the apartments. His dark hair is free from a tie and framing his face. He wears a burgundy button up shirt, black leather jacket, and black jeans. However, what is really surprising to me as I watch him step outside is that he's wearing shoes and slip-on vans at that, but all black of course. I am still in utter amazement at this when Jo starts dragging me after our "target".

At first we think we lost him, but I spy him a few blocks down and point it out to Joanna. She begins to make her way after him but keeps our pace between him and us about ten or more feet. I'm trailing a little behind but I'm keeping up.

Following Felix through the streets of the city is a little strange. It gives me a lot of time to observe the man. He moves like a panther, fluid with a powerful stride. He weaves through people effortlessly and it almost makes it hard to keep up with him. He paints a nice alluring picture even from behind and I note a few girls double take as he passes by. I even hear Joanna whisper something about his ass and I can't help but make a face at that. Still, I can admit, to myself at least, that he is rather attractive even for possibly an undead creature. Ugh, better not tell Joanna, she would have a field day with that.

We had been wandering after him for almost half an hour, hiding behind things whenever we thought he might have caught or sensed us, before Felix finally makes any kind of definite choice of destination. He suddenly takes an immediate left down a one-way and we have to pick up speed so we don't lose him. By the time we round the corner, I'm already wheezing a bit and pull out my inhaler. We are definitely in a part of town I haven't been to.

"Damn it, where did he go?" Joanna grumbles out loud, shifting her gaze this way and that. We've lost him.

He's certainly fast. I shake my inhaler a few times before I start to bring it up to my lips. Joanna is actually asking random strangers who are passing by if they saw a hot Goth guy who came this way. I'm inhaling my medicine and nearly choke on it when someone clears their throat behind us and I spin around quickly to face the devil himself.

Okay, not really, it is just Felix, but my heart is pounding so hard that I might as well be facing death. We are definitely in major trouble as I hear Joanna gasp behind me.

"Hello," comes that velvety smooth voice. "What, may I ask, do you think you two are doing?"

Shit.