Rebirth of the Seer

by Peter W. Dawes

  “I am still not pleased with you,” he said, changing the subject. “I have no idea why I let you drag me into this.”

  “Because you need a thrill, admit it.” I drew deeply from the cigarette, exhaling smoke as I talked. “Your immortal life has become too mundane for words and you wished to have some fun. You best thank The Fates you have me as a brother. Otherwise heaven only knows what would become of you.”

  Robin muttered underneath his breath and I laughed, opting for silence to fill the space between us until we arrived at one of the city’s budding Gothic nightclubs, something of a recent concept as the macabre found itself a niche amongst the mortal world. As we entered, a room filled with pulses and the heavy stench of blood and sweat wrapped around us, while Depeche Mode invited all to join a ‘black celebration’. Hardly one to refuse such an offer, I stepped through the crowd with Robin in tow.

  We cut through a pack of faux vampires and their victims, dripping with fake blood. Men in white makeup with black eye shadow danced with women revealing more skin than actually remained hidden beneath their risqué attire. Some wore tight leather and others were clad in gowns with dipping necklines. I fought the urge to salivate over the potential victims in favor of fetching a drink first.

  Arriving at the bar, I placed my hands on the counter and leaned close to the bartender, shouting over the music. “Excuse me, good fellow,” I said, pausing only a moment to regard the black makeup he wore as well. It served to be an odd contrast against the multiple piercings and spiked, black hair. Wondering if the dog collar indicated he was somebody’s pet, I continued. “A scotch for me, if you will.”

  The man nodded, then glanced at Robin as he walked up beside me. “And you?”

  Robin raised an eyebrow at our eccentric company. “I don’t imagine you keep a fresh supply of blood on hand, do you?”

  I snorted. The man stared at Robin, but refused to answer, which prompted my brother to wave his hand dismissively. “Give me whatever he’s having,” he said. The bartender nodded and turned to fill our drink order.

  I produced my wallet and raised an eyebrow at Robin. “A room full of mortals and you ask for a fresh supply of blood?” I asked.

  “I was being sarcastic,” Robin said. “Not my fault the freak of nature does not know how to take a joke.”

  Producing money from my billfold, I placed it onto the counter, before slipping my wallet back into my pocket. “You really must lighten up,” I said as I lit another cigarette and turned to face the crowd. I blew a billow of smoke toward the masses and watched them dance. “Now, tell me what looks good to you.”

  Robin nodded at the bartender as he placed our drinks before us and snatched the money. My brother took his glass in hand and swirled the contents around while turning to face the dance floor as well. “What exactly do you have in mind, dare I ask?

  I smirked, raising my cigarette to my mouth again. “A drink and a dance. Perhaps even a kiss. Enough of something to poison their minds until we strike.”

  “No, I meant what is so important about a hunt on Halloween? Do you seriously intent to flaunt what we are to these unsuspecting fools?”

  “It shall be sporting.” I nudged Robin once with my elbow. Pivoting, I fetched my drink and tipped it back into my throat, imbibing the contents in full. As I placed the glass back onto the bar, I cocked my head toward the crowd. “Now, since you seem bent to make me do all of the work myself, do you see those girls right over there?”

  Robin followed my line of sight to a duo conversing amongst themselves – a redheaded girl and a brunette both adorned with tight, lowcut gowns and pale makeup on their faces. Slowly, his glass touched his mouth and a little of the amber-colored liquid slid past his lips and into his throat. He shook his head. “Too easy,” he said. “They are purporting to be vampires. They’d play into our hands within seconds.”

  I perked an eyebrow and drew from my cigarette. “You wish a challenge, then?”

  Robin shrugged. “Might as well make it worth our while.” A finger from the hand holding the glass extended in the direction of another group. “The two nurses over there. They are more tempting, in my opinion. Besides, you were a doctor as a mortal. This should be familiar territory for you.”

  Sneering, I muttered, “Yes, and we both know what a sainted physician I am now.” I rolled my eyes and looked at Robin as he grinned and polished off his drink. I shook my head in response while extinguishing my cigarette. “Well, come, then. You chose the victims, now you are bound to follow through.” He set down his glass. I took hold of his shoulder, pushing him forward, my hand remaining in place while we marched away from the bar.

  Dressed in white parodies of nurse apparel –too revealing to be real, something I hardly complained about – the duo Robin had chosen were not the type to harbor a vampire fetish. Being inside the confines of a Gothic nightclub, though, ensured seducing them would still be a simple endeavor. I let go of Robin once we reached their vicinity and caught their eyes. “I beg your pardon,” I said, taking the lead. “But I could not help but notice two pretty nurses from across the room. You make me wistful for my mortal days.”

  Though both looked uncannily similar, they were not twins. One stood a few inches taller than her friend and was the first to speak, an eyebrow raised at me. “Your mortal days?” she asked.

  I nodded, smiling wider than I normally dared to smile, revealing the daggers which slumbered in my mouth. “Yes, prior to becoming... this... I was a doctor.”

  “Holy shit,” her friend said, speaking up. “Those are sharp-looking. Where did you get them?”

  “They were a gift. Along with the pale skin and absence of a pulse.” I winked.

  She laughed and nudged her friend. “Do you believe it? We caught the attention of a vampire.”

  “Ut-ut...” I waggled my finger at them, as though to tsk. “Not one, my dear, but two.” Stepping to the side, I grabbed Robin by the arm and forced him front and center. He jerked his arm from my grip and brushed off his jacket, but I kept my hand hovering mere inches away. “This is my older brother, Robin. Not merely a vampire, but a vampire elder.”

  Robin shot me a look of annoyance, but then allowed his gaze to drift toward the ladies. A much more amiable tenor developed from there. “Good evening,” he said, bowing. He took one lady’s hand and offered it a gentlemanly kiss, then did the same with her friend. “A pleasure to make your acquaintance.”

  The taller of the two laughed. “Oh you both are just too rich,” she said. “Usually the ‘vampires’ in this place are crude assholes.”

  “A blemish on our kind, then,” Robin said. I only grinned, beholding further proof that you can take the hunter away from the hunt, but cannot remove the hunt from the hunter. My older brother demonstrated this when he held onto the taller woman’s hand and pulled her away. “Allow me to atone for them and show you what dashing gentlemen we can truly be.”

  She chuckled, looking at her friend with lips pursed in an expression of delighted intrigue. “He’s going to show me what a dashing gentleman he is,” she said, speaking to her friend.

  Her friend giggled. “Hopefully he’s not the only one,” she said, stealing a glance at me.

  I pressed my hand against my chest and bowed. “My dear, I assure you that not only am I a gentleman, I am the more exciting devil.” My grin turned cunning, a wicked glint developing in my eyes even if she could not see this behind my dark spectacles. The corner of her mouth curled upward in a grin. I extended my hand to her as well. “Might I buy you a drink?”

  She chuckled, eyebrow perked as the skeptical gaze she offered failed to mask her amusement. “Alright,” she said. “But only because I find you extremely attractive.”

  “All the better for me, then.” I winked and closed my hand around hers when her fingers touched mine. Glancing back at Robin, I waved my other hand at him, grinning while he shook his head at me and turned to engage his would-be victim. The old boy was already loosening up.
I knew he would thank me for it later.

  Turning back to my own pursuit, I let go of her hand in favor of offering her my arm to take hold of. “Now,” I said once her fingers touched the fine linen of my suit. “Tell me what lured you away from the hospital tonight. There are undoubtedly going to be some disappointed patients.”

  “What makes you think they’ll be disappointed?” she asked.

  “Well, all I can say is... If the nurses were as attractive as you when I was a doctor, I might not have been lured into immortality.” I smirked. “You certainly would be enough to inspire the infirmed into a speedy recovery.”

  She giggled. My grin turned that much more devilish. Robin was wrong; this would be like shooting fish in a barrel. There was no way under bloody heaven that the vampire fetish femmes were any easier than this. “Oh really?” she asked as she approached the bar. The bartender looked up in our direction and nodded toward us as she continued. “Well, Dr. …”

  “No Doctor any longer, Pet.” I slipped my hand in my pocket for my wallet again. “Call me Flynn.”

  “Flynn? That’s an unusual name.”

  I produced another bill and put away my wallet, my eyes never leaving hers. “The first and last you shall ever meet, I can promise you that much.”

  “Ooh, frightening.” She laughed, pausing our conversation long enough for us to order drinks and send the bartender on his merry way. I lit another cigarette and placed it on an empty ashtray as she looked at me. “I’m really not a nurse.”

  “Of course you are.” I grinned. “Does a tempting creature such as you have a name, though?”

  “Madeline.” Her blue eyes shimmered a bit as she spoke. She was telling me the truth. Trusting fool. “And I’m not. I just dressed this way for Halloween. I’m really an accountant with a firm in Center City.”

  She could have told me she was the Queen of Persia and I would not have cared either way. “Well, I hate to sound curt, but I really am a vampire.”

  “Is this the line you feed everyone you try to get in bed?”

  I drew from my cigarette, leaning an elbow on the bar. “You do not believe me?”

  Placing one hand on her hip, she pivoted and shot me a look of disbelief. I laughed. “I shall grant you one better, Pet,” I continued, “I was indeed a doctor.”

  “Oh yeah?” The bartender returned with our drinks. She took hers in hand. “Prove it.”

  “Very well.” I placed my cigarette on the ashtray again. Capturing one of her hands – the one not holding her glass – I raised her wrist to my lips. “Did you know one does not necessarily have to puncture the neck to start the outward flow of blood?” I kissed her soft skin. “You have two succulent arteries in this beautiful arm of yours called the radial and ulnar with two corresponding veins of the same name. Personally, I prefer the arteries. The blood is purer, in my opinion.”

  Madeline watched as I ran my nose along her arm. I felt her suppress a shiver. The sweet scent of blood pounding through the aforementioned circulatory conduits drifted past my nostrils, becoming the most tempting perfume I ever imbibed. I lowered her arm, but one hand continued holding onto her wrist as I pulled her against me – back touching chest. She tensed a little. Fear rose to intermingle with the smell of desire, but only a trifle. Not nearly enough for my taste. I touched her chin and turned her head to the side. “Do you know which artery I prefer?” I asked.

  She swallowed as a reflex. “Which one?”

  “The carotid.” I kissed her neck, above the sweetest spot. Its pulse became a siren’s call; its scent an aphrodisiac. My eyes rolled back and I suppressed a groan while my lids drifted shut. “The blood vessel supplying the brain with oxygen. Did you know –” My fangs begged to extend. “– That as the body loses blood and becomes hypovolemic, the oxygen deprivation will cause you to start feeling cold... thirsty. They call that shock, love. You die long before I could extract every pint of blood, so in truth I only drain half before you go into cardiac arrest.”

  My lips raised and found their way to her ear, brushing against it as I whispered, “Do you believe me now, Madeline?”

  I meant the statement both ways. She meant her response only one. “Yes, I do.”

  “Good.” Releasing her, I spun her around and lifted her wrist again. Only this time I kissed her hand and let it go. Her heart pounded in her chest. Madeline smiled in a hesitant manner, still knee-deep in denial. She raised her glass to her mouth and finally took a sip of her drink. “So,” she said. “If you’re not a doctor any longer, then what are you?”

  I plucked my cigarette from the ashtray. “An assassin.”

  She ceased drinking at once. “An assassin?”

  “Yes, I kill people. Ironic, is it not?”

  I smiled as winsomely as possible, smoke drifting from my nostrils as I exhaled. We stared at each other for a moment until Madeline burst into a fit of laughter. She began into a cacophonous and rambling monologue, discussing what a card I was and how much fun I must be to have such an overactive imagination. As she spoke, I glanced across the room at Robin, seeing him dance with his prey and lean close to her, his eyes rising from the neck he kissed to look up at me. Murder danced across his cold, blue eyes, his own dalliance with temptation under way.

  “Say, dear,” I said, cutting off Madeline as I looked back at her. “I apologize for intruding, but might we indulge in a dance?” I extinguished my cigarette and picked up my second glass of scotch. “Your friend and my brother seem to be having all the fun.”

  “Oh, really?” She looked in their direction as I polished off my drink. Madeline finished hers as well, her eyes returning to mine as she and I set our empty glasses beside each other on the bar. She grabbed my hand and pulled me away. “Janey’s going to rub it in if we don’t dance, too. Come on, let’s show them how to have a good time.”

  “Oh, if only you knew, dear Madeline,” I said, muttering underneath my breath. The music picked up, becoming loud and blotting out the devilish discourse I indulged with myself. The closer we came to the deejay, the harder conversation became which suited me just fine. Now was the time to begin the seduction. Now was the time to join the black celebration.

  Madeline stopped at the edge of the dance floor, but I freed myself from her clutches, causing her some alarm as I placed a hand on her shoulder. My fingertips drifted from shoulder to shoulder as I casually walked behind her, a shiver throttling up her spine until she tensed from the chill. I wrapped my arms around her, pressing her against my chest again, and she settled into my embrace, one of her arms snaking around my neck. I bent low to kiss her neck as our bodies began swaying to the melody.

  “Death is everywhere. There are flies on the windscreen, for a start.

  Reminding us we could be torn apart. Tonight.

  “Death is everywhere. There are lambs for the slaughter, waiting to die. And I can sense the hours slipping by. Tonight.”

  I looked up in time to see her eyelids flutter closed, her breaths becoming heavier as her body melted into mine. One of my hands rose toward her head, fingers intertwining with locks of hair, while my other hand pressed against her stomach and caressed her body. Madeline’s lips parted, forming the word, ‘Yes,’ while the song continued drowning her out. A crowd of people gathered around us, everyone engaged the same as we were, with the faux vampires nibbling on each other using false fangs. This was too rich.

  My gaze shifted over to Robin, my fangs slipping out. A playful smile surfaced on my face. Robin looked at me, flashing a quick glance around us, his eyes becoming wide. “What the devil are you doing?” he mouthed.

  I did not answer. Still staring at Robin, I drove my teeth into her neck, causing her to jump before the hand nested in her hair quickly situated itself over her mouth. She whimpered and struggled against the firm hold I had on her, but nothing would be parting our bodies as rivulets of warm blood trickled into my mouth. This time, my lids were the ones fluttering closed. I groaned against her skin and sucked and sip
honed, increasing the flow the more I forced through the puncture wounds.

  She attempted a scream, but the music ensured nobody but me heard. My lips hid the evidence of my actions, making it appear as though I was lost in the throes of passion, and as the blood loss became substantial, she relaxed and moaned as though being pleasured. I took my time and pulled away with Madeline still clinging to the barest threads of life. Nibbling at her ear lobe, I whispered a question, asking if she believed me now. “Yes,” she said, in the weakest whisper such a little doe was capable of and I smiled the devil’s smile in response.

  I looked at Robin and cocked my head toward him.

  Robin had been watching the entire time. His eyes remained set on me feeding, his hands pressing hard against his own dance partner as his immortal instincts clamored within him. My wicked grin resurfaced. I licked Madeline’s neck, fangs still exposed. “Your turn, brother,” I mouthed.

  My brother’s eyes shifted to the woman in his arms while his fangs descended. He bent at the waist enough to press his nose against her neck, and when I saw him take a deep breath, I watched him lose himself in the moment. Playing the voyeur, I saw the dark dance play out, Robin’s teeth plunging into his victim, causing her to jump the same way Madeline had when I bit her. He held her friend tight, however, and somehow managed to continue swaying with her as though something more sensual than macabre was transpiring.

  He drew from her in lusty gulps and Madeline moaned in my arms, coaxing me back to my own feed. Biting into her once more, I filled my mouth with the warm, rich taste of her blood and this time I did not cease until her pulse became a dying ember. Madeline fell limp in my arms. I looked up to see Robin’s victim do the same. He raised his head from her neck, eyes still closed, the corner of his mouth curled upward as his crimson-stained fangs slid back into his jaw. He and I made eye contact. A look of sheer bliss sharpened the blue of his irises.