Forbidden Feast

by Joelle Sterling

  “Good to know,” said Lisette, her blue eyes sparkling bright in the dark corridor. “Let’s have a talk with Elson, shall we?” She prodded Bradley forward with a sharpened fingernail that was poked in the center of his back.

  Next, he was shoved into a large conference room, and the startling scene inside reminded him of a Nazi concentration camp. There were about fifty or more people—vampire captives—that looked forlorn and hopeless as they stood in several long lines, trembling in fear as they waited to donate blood. A crew of vampires was busy at work, siphoning their blood into pint-sized plastic bags.

  Bradley recognized numerous people by name. The Stoddard family was there, but he didn’t see their high school-aged daughter, Sophia. And there was Tanya Fluegfelder, the pretty librarian with a luxurious mane of red hair. The Vasquez family also stood in line, and Chaela, the oldest daughter, looked gaunt and unkempt in a wrinkled, cheerleading uniform.

  As he glanced around the room, he winced when he met the frantic gazes of Amy Horsheck and her husband, Derek. Amy was a paralegal at his law firm, and Bradley despised being seen in such a vulnerable position by one of his employees.

  “Where’s Tessa?” Bradley asked again.

  “She’s resting and recovering.” Lisette smiled tauntingly and tightened the clutch on his arm.

  “I heard her screaming; why are you people still tormenting her?”

  “That wasn’t your daughter’s screams; you heard the pained howls of stupid rebels who resisted Elson’s policies.”

  Bradley swallowed hard. “What are his policies?”

  “You humans have been given specific days and times to come in and have your blood drawn. Those who complain or protest in any manner will suffer tremendous agony, and those who comply will enjoy the simplicity of a needle’s prick and will lose a reasonable amount of blood each week.”

  “That’s preposterous! There are laws that protect human rights. How long do you think you can get away with this lunacy before law enforcement gets involved?”

  Lisette smiled and nodded toward the doorway, and Bradley could hardly believe his eyes. Crossing the threshold was a uniformed police officer, forcibly dragging in a screaming, rebellious woman, a former client of his named Heather Campbell.

  “Please,” Heather said. “I can’t give blood; I have low blood sugar. I’ll get sick if—”

  “Keep it moving, Heather,” the policeman said in a gruff voice.

  “This is so unfair; I’m not well, and you’re treating me like I’m a criminal.”

  “Make sure you get here on time next week; if I have to pick you up again, you’re not going to like the outcome.”

  Strolling behind the cop and chatting casually were two detectives that Bradley knew pretty well: Walsh and Canelli. He knew them to be tough, hardworking cops—good guys! Why was the police force aiding vampires?

  Bradley tried to get Walsh’s attention, but the detective barely gave him a glance. Walsh was fully engaged in a conversation with a provocatively dressed young woman, an obvious vampire, with shrewd dark eyes and a wicked smile.

  Next, he tried his luck with Walsh’s partner, Canelli, giving him a beseeching look. Canelli also ignored him, his eyes excitedly sweeping the room that was crowded with terror-stricken people. Canelli glanced at Walsh and gave the ‘thumbs up’ gesture, as if the citizens of Frombleton had willingly come out in droves to support a good cause.

  The uniformed cop shoved Heather to the back of the line.

  “Please, no,” Heather pleaded, taking faltering steps toward the policeman.

  “Get back in line; I’m not going to repeat myself,” the cop said tersely. “Either stay in line and give blood of your own accord or join the siphoning party down the hall.”

  Heather’s eyes grew wide in fright. “I’ll stay in line,” she responded quickly, and then straightened her shoulders as if summoning courage.

  “Siphoning party! Good one—that’s real funny, officer.” Canelli laughed heartily.

  Bradley figured the detectives and the uniformed cop couldn’t possibly understand the grave situation the residents of Frombleton were in. “Detective Canelli, you have to do something,” he said desperately. He pointed to the vampire team that was tasked with withdrawing blood. “They aren’t medical professionals. They’re not even real people—they’re vampires!

  “They have my daughter, Tessa. She’s somewhere in this hellhole, and she’s badly injured. You have to find her,” Bradley said imploringly.

  A vampire wearing a ten-gallon hat withdrew a needle from the librarian’s delicate arm, and instead of applying a cotton ball and adhesive to the pierced skin, the vampire extended a dark tongue and licked the dots of blood that dribbled from the tiny puncture. The librarian recoiled and uttered a fearful sound.

  The cowboy vampire tipped his hat, winked at the librarian, and then gave her a fang-toothed smile. “I’ll see you same time next week, ma’am,” he said in a pronounced Southern drawl.

  Her head hung miserably, Tanya Fluegfelder clutched her jacket around her lithe body and hurried out of the conference room.

  “Next in line!” the vampire barked impatiently. A senior citizen hobbled forward, pushing up the sleeve of his sweater, eyes blinking in fear as he prepared to have his blood drawn.

  “You’re in the wrong line, old-timer,” the vampire advised with a smirk.

  Canelli chuckled when he noticed that aside from the old man, the cowboy vampire’s line was made up of mostly attractive young women. “Hey, Travis, you can’t discriminate and stick it to the hot chicks only. You have to get blood from everyone we rounded up,” Canelli teased.

  “The sixty-five-and-over crowd belong in the doom room, per Elson’s orders,” Travis informed.

  The mere mention of Elson’s name wiped the smirk off Canelli’s face. Walsh pulled his attention away from the vampire girl he was chatting with and arranged his features into a serious expression. “I’ll escort the old guy down the hall,” Walsh offered.

  Upon realizing that officers of the law were in cahoots with the vile, vampires, Bradley’s chest began to squeeze around his heart. Glancing around in desperation, he spotted the faded letters of the exit sign. He yearned to break free of Lisette’s grasp and make a run for it, but he couldn’t leave the miserable hotel without Tessa.

  “I’m on my way to the doom room,” Lisette said. “Come on, Pops; you’re going with me.”

  “Where’re we going?” the old man asked fearfully.

  Lisette’s face hardened. “No questions; do as I say!”

  The old man shuffled alongside Lisette, while Bradley tried to walk with as much dignity as a shirtless man wearing a tattered suit coat could manage.

  CHAPTER 11

  Lisette led Bradley and the old man down the molding corridor, and Bradley could hear tortured cries as he neared the notorious ‘doom room.’ Though he braced himself for the worst, he was ill-prepared for the nightmarish events that awaited him on the other side of the double doors.

  The doom room was significantly larger than the conference room where the blood drive was occurring. There were approximately twenty people inside this room—women, men, and children, and many were bleeding from punctures on their necks and wrists. The atmosphere was frantic with some families huddled together and sobbing softly, while others wept openly as they pleaded to go home. Vampires wearing illicit smiles on their blood-stained lips slipped in and out of the room in pairs and trios.

  A female vampire dressed in a body-hugging, black lace gown, began to entertain the petrified hostages with a horribly, discordant melody. Fixing her attention on a woman and her petrified little boy, the vampire inched close and then suddenly snatched the trembling child away from its mother.

  “Let go of my son,” the mother shrieked, rushing to her son’s aid. Two snarling male vampires immediately grabbed the hysterical woman, and roughly restrained her.

  The chubby little boy, a toddler, no older than two, was wear
ing a white Old Navy T-shirt, a red hoodie, and neatly-cuffed jeans. The little boy cried as he was lifted in the air and cradled in the female vampire’s arms.

  Singing a morbid lullaby in a voice that sounded rusty and terrifying, the vampire woman twirled and danced around the room. The boy thrashed and shrieked frantically, and the vampire began spinning and spinning at a speed so fast and feverish, the child became too dizzy to scream.

  Eyes filled with horror, the boy’s mother screeched, “Put him down. Please! You’re scaring him!” She fought to break the vampires’ hold, but was unable to. Hopeless, she broke down and wept.

  At the conclusion of the ghoulish song, the vampire woman bared her fangs, and then fiendishly buried her face in the child’s plump neck. Crying for his mother, the little boy kicked and twisted in the vampire’s cold grip. With her teeth embedded in the boy’s tender flesh, the vampire moaned and gurgled, making a terrible, gritty sound. She slurped and fed greedily, all the while stroking the boy’s fluffy curls with her yellowed claws. Withdrawing her fangs briefly, the vampire stared at the horrified mother of the child. “His blood is so sweet; absolutely delicious,” she taunted, lowering her eyelids almost blissfully while streams of blood trickled down her chin. Resuming her feast, the vampire switched to the opposite side of the boy’s neck.

  Shaking her head violently, the mother watched helplessly as her child’s body finally went limp. “Stop it, please—you’re killing my son!”

  But the vampire didn’t stop feeding until the child uttered a final strangled gasp, his rosy complexion now changed to a deathly blue-gray. She ruthlessly dropped the lifeless little body from her arms, and it tumbled to the floor with a sickening clunk. The male vampires released the mother, and she ran to her son, screaming piercingly. Calling his name, she shook him harshly. Unable to revive him, she pressed her lips against his and tried to breathe life back into his body. But her efforts were in vain. The child was as still as stone and before long, the mother’s screams turned into mournful sobs.

  Taking over the entertainment segment of the horror show, Chaos entered the room doing front flips, and then, as if performing to rousing music, he transitioned into a few dance moves that were followed by a series of wild somersaults, handstands, and aerial cartwheels. Instead of wowing the crowd, his frenzied jumble of acrobatics evoked startled gasps as baffled spectators scurried out of his way.

  Smiling with approval, Lisette applauded the circus-like performance. “I bet you’ve worked up quite a thirst.” She nodded toward the old man. “Feel free to drain him,” she said with a smile on her face as she callously shoved the old man toward Chaos.

  “Don’t come near me,” the old man shouted, wielding his cane like a weapon. “I don’t want to be in here; let me go back to that other room,” he shouted, gazing at Lisette pleadingly.

  Lisette shook her head. “Sorry, Pops. Elson likes fresh blood, and yours has probably gone sour.”

  “Blood is blood; age doesn’t make a difference,” the old man objected, his eyes glistening with tears.

  “Elson will know the difference. He doesn’t like blood that’s close to its expiration date,” Lisette said sharply.

  “Please. I don’t wanna die like that,” the old man whined and pointed to the blood-drained little boy who was now sprawled out on his weeping mother’s lap.

  Lisette shook her head. “Face it, Pops; your time is up.”

  The old man appealed to Bradley. “You’re a lawyer . . . You represented my great-nephew in a criminal case a few years ago. My nephew was guilty as sin, but you convinced that jury to acquit him. Can’t you reason with these vampire folks on my behalf? I’ll pay you,” he offered with a smile that was more like a grimace.

  Bradley didn’t answer. He glanced downward, fiddling with the buttons on his jacket so he didn’t have to meet the old man’s gaze. This was obviously no courtroom and he was powerless here. Chaos and two other vampires surrounded the old man and seized his arms, causing his cane to fly out of his hand and clank against the wall. The trio of vampires attached their hungry mouths to his pulse points and sank their teeth in, and the room became filled with the old man’s howls. As his life flow ebbed, the man’s screams died down to croaks and gasps, and Bradley was grateful when the man’s pitiful cries finally ended. There was a brief moment of silence, and then there was the sound of the old man’s brittle bones cracking when his body hit the floor.

  Bradley noticed several people sidling up to the vampires in the back of the room. He couldn’t hear what they were saying, but from the frantic look in their eyes, and their desperate gestures, he got the impression that they were attempting to strike deals that would allow them to get out of the execution room into the more civilized environment where the volunteer donors were having their blood drawn.

  He couldn’t blame them. The gory violence . . . the moaning and weeping inside the doom room was frightening and unbearable. And the dreadful vampire singing and bizarre acrobatics was like being forced to endure entertainment from the pit of hell.

  It was time for Bradley to strike a deal also. “Is my daughter still alive?” he asked Lisette.

  “I guess,” Lisette said with a shrug.

  “I need to speak with Elson at once.”

  “He’s busy.”

  “It’s urgent. Can you pass on the message that I’m more than ready to handle his real estate deal? Tell him that I can begin the paperwork this evening if he’d like.” Bradley offered a pained smile.

  CHAPTER 12

  Holland waved when Rebecca Pullman pulled into the mall parking lot. After easing into the passenger’s seat, Holland could see the tension etched on Rebecca’s face.

  “Are you okay, Rebecca?”

  “No, I’m not. First of all, you’re not supposed to be out at night, young lady; and secondly, I left an important meeting to bring you the book.” She twisted around and retrieved from the back seat, the worn leather book of spells that had been in Tami’s possession at Stoneham Academy. “Couldn’t this have waited until tomorrow?”

  Holland fidgeted. She couldn’t tell Rebecca that she was desperate to find a spell that would remove the curse from Jonas. Rebecca was so certain that Jonas’s condition was unalterable; she would have considered Holland’s attempts to reverse the spell as a complete waste of time.

  “I asked you to meet me here because I didn’t want Mom to know about the book.” Holland made a face. “You know how she is; she might not be able to resist snooping and trying to work a little magic. I wanted to have the book because . . . well, I realize that I need more than the tidbits of knowledge I’m discovering instinctively. You know what I mean? I need more structured training—like I was getting at Stoneham.”

  “That’s exactly what I tried to tell you, Holland. The Book of Spells has its value, but it won’t replace the knowledge that can be acquired in a structured learning environment.”

  “I know, and I’m thinking about returning to Stoneham next year, but in the meantime, I figured I’d do some independent studying at home.”

  Rebecca’s face lit up. “That’s wonderful, Holland—a wise decision. I was trained at Stoneham and you won’t get a better education anywhere in the world.” She placed a hand over Holland’s. “What you went through at Stoneham was traumatizing; I get that, but I want you to know there are measures in place to prevent practitioners of dark magic from infiltrating those hallowed halls ever again.”

  Rebecca handed Holland the book that was wrapped in purple silk. “This book contains ancient wisdom. Respect it and use it only for good.”

  “I will,” Holland said. A tingle ran up Holland’s arm when she ran her hand across the aged leather cover. “Thank you, Rebecca.”

  “You’re welcome. I have to get back to the meeting.” Anxiety furrowed her brows.

  “Is something wrong?”

  Rebecca gave a long sigh. “The vampires have a new leader. We hear he’s shrewd and ruthless, and he’s clandestinely organiz
ing all the vampires in the area. He’s also using foolish humans to lure others to the vampires’ nesting place. If we witches don’t find a way to stop them, the citizens of Frombleton could all become blood slaves.”

  “What can I do to help?”

  Rebecca shook her head. “You’re too valuable to risk putting in harm’s way. If things get out of control, we’re going to have to move you and your mother out of Frombleton and take you to a safe house at an undisclosed location.”

  Holland frowned, and shouted in her mind, I can’t leave Jonas! She said aloud, “Those bloodsuckers can’t run me out of town.”

  “You’re a rare witch, Holland, and it’s our duty to protect you.”

  “I know. It’s just that it seems so cowardly to hide out while everyone else is actively combating the vampires.”

  “We’re getting ahead of ourselves. If we find their nest, we can destroy them while they sleep during the day.”

  “I may be able to get that answer for you.”

  “How would you be able to obtain such top-secret information?”

  “There’s a girl at school who claims to party with the vamps. She says she knows them personally.”

  Rebecca shook her head, adamantly. “No, you stay away from her; she may be one of the pawns they use to lure humans.”

  “I don’t think so. She’s come to realize how cruel and violent they are, and she’s been wearing a cross around her neck—”

  Rebecca made a scoffing sound. “How very original. Sorry, but a crucifix won’t protect her.”

  “It’s silver, though . . . they hate silver, don’t they?”

  “Large amounts of silver can bind them, but a cross and a thin chain won’t be effective at all.”

  “I’ll talk to her at school tomorrow . . . find out where they nest. I won’t let her lure me anywhere and I won’t go anywhere near her at nightfall. Are you comfortable with that?”

  “Not really.”

  “I have to do something to help destroy the vamps.”