by Sophie Stern
“Parties,” he said with a sly smile. He took her hand and held it, giving her a little squeeze. He seemed to enjoy touching her all the time. Even when they weren’t making love, even when she wasn’t feeding him, they were always touching.
“When am I going to get to see one of these infamous parties?” Celia wondered. She was curious about what vampires did when they were drinking, when they were having fun. When they weren’t just eating or brooding, what did they do? Did they act like normal people?
“They’re very sexual parties,” Samuel said. He turned the corner and they stopped in front of his office. He placed his palm on a panel beside the door, unlocking it.
“More sexual than the sitting room?”
“Much more sexual than that.” He stepped inside the office and she followed. Samuel closed and locked the door behind them, then went to his desk. He sat at the large chair and Celia walked over to the large bookshelves.
“Mind if I read something today?”
“You can read anything you like.”
Samuel had quite the collection. There were first editions and signed editions and leather bound books and hardcovers. There were things she’d never heard of and books she’d never imagined.
After a few minutes, Celia selected a copy of a romance novel and brought it over to Samuel. He motioned for her to sit at his feet, so she did. There was a large, round cushion there just for her. She sat down, leaned her head against his knee, and began to read.
The words flew off the page and into her imagination. As she read, Samuel played with her hair, made phone calls, and reviewed business transactions. Although he had been a doctor long ago, he had his own online company now. It allowed him to be independently wealthy, yet maintain his privacy.
She had learned quickly that privacy, to a vampire, was one of the most important things in the universe. Yes, the world knew about vampires, but the world only had a small glimpse. Even Celia, living with them, believed she only knew what they wanted her to know.
After awhile, she began to feel drowsy, and she felt the book slip from her fingers.
“Careful,” Samuel said, taking it from her. He placed the book on his desk, then continued to play with her hair. “Are you sleepy, kitten?”
“A bit.”
“Go lie on the couch.”
Her feet moved of their own accord and she made her way to the sofa. It was in front of the fireplace and Celia thought it was one of the coziest places in the room. She curled up and closed her eyes, trying not to think too hard about her new life, trying not to think too much about the way things had turned for her.
She was no longer just an admin at her stepfather’s business. She was no longer worried about her mother. She was no longer just a plain, ordinary girl. Now, she was different. Now, things had changed.
Celia didn’t want to think about how quickly her life had turned around or how addicted she was to Samuel. It hadn’t been long. It had only been days or weeks. She didn’t even know. All she knew was that for the first time in her life, Celia wasn’t worried about how she would eat, or how she would protect herself, or how she would stay away from Raymond.
For the first time in a very long time, Celia felt safe.
At home.
Protected.
And as she curled up in the middle of Samuel’s office, she closed her eyes, and she fell asleep.
***
He shouldn’t be thinking about keeping her. He knew that much. Samuel was smarter than that. He shouldn’t be thinking about keeping a woman, about asking one to marry him. He shouldn’t be thinking about turning her, about living forever with her. He shouldn’t.
If he had learned anything from Harper’s death, it was that nothing was forever. You might think it was, you might want it to be, but it wasn’t.
He had loved her.
Wanted her.
Cared for her.
He had protected her, but he had failed her. There was a reason there weren’t many female vampires and it had nothing to do with a vamp’s inability to commit to a woman. No, that wasn’t it at all.
The reason there were so few vamps had nothing to do with love and everything to do with the fact that females almost always died during the transition. Giving up your humanity wasn’t easy. Even men often died instead of coming back to life as something more, something else. Something darker.
Samuel still remembered his life as a human. Many of the vamps in the house didn’t. A lot of them, once they shifted, forgot what they were before. A lot of them forgot what it meant to be human. A lot of them forgot the little things.
The touch of grass beneath his feet, or the smell of a flower, or the way a child laughed: these were all things that made him feel human, real. Samuel remembered.
But when you became a vampire, something changed deep inside of you. Those little moments became few and far between. You didn’t want them, crave them anymore. You wanted something else instead. You wanted something carnal, something darker.
You wanted the sultry, the sexual. You needed it. You didn’t have time to smell the roses because you were too busy fucking them. It was a craving so intense Samuel wasn’t sure how he handled it.
That was where the dolls came in.
He wasn’t interested in hunting. Some vamps got off on that. They liked to find people to feed from, to feast upon. They liked to kill and maim. They liked to scare. He didn’t. He wasn’t about that. Maybe he was lazy or maybe he was just more human still than he wanted to admit.
It wouldn’t do for him, a big bad vamp, to admit he still cared. It wouldn’t be good for his image for him to admit he still had things he thought were important. That wasn’t the way to get respect. That wasn’t the way to prove how in control of himself and his men he was.
The truth was that Samuel had to be in control. He couldn’t afford to let his mask slip. Where would he be without it? He’d lived in this vampire world for nearly a century and only once had he loved someone so deeply he almost staked himself.
Harper.
He had spent the last fifty years dreaming of her, thinking of her, missing her. He had spent half a century brooding over her. He had told Gordon again and again that he’d never find anyone like her, and he had been right.
Only now, as Samuel sat as his desk watching Celia sleep, he knew he didn’t need to find someone like Harper. He had found someone different, someone better. He had found someone who completed him in a different way, a better way. He found someone who made him feel different things, interesting things, things he didn’t think he was capable of feeling.
Celia made him feel curious and passionate and hungry for something other than just sex. Oh, she hadn’t staked his hunger. That would never be satisfied, but she’d given him something else to look forward to than just sex.
She’d given him a little bit of her heart, and he loved that.
It frightened the fuck out of him, but he loved it.
He loved her.
He loved Celia.
She wasn’t just a doll to him.
He loved her.
Fourteen
“There’s a party tonight,” Jade told Celia. They were in the bath together. They’d stopped bathing separately after they’d slept together for the first time. After that experience, there had been no secrets between them. They’d grown close, and the vampires in the mansion hadn’t seem to mind that two of the dolls enjoyed playing together when they weren’t feeding anyone.
“Am I going?” Celia squeaked. She splashed the water in excitement and a few of the bubbles went over the side of the tub.
“Of course,” Jade laughed. “But stop the messing. Seriously, someone is going to have to clean up this mess, and it’s not going to be me.”
“Yes,” Ariana said from her spot in one of the other tubs. “You’re being a bit ridiculous, sweetie. It’s only a party.”
They all burst into laughter and finished bathing. Celia tried not to ask too many questions, but she
couldn’t help herself. There had been a few parties since she’d come to the house, but nothing like tonight. Nothing that involved the use of the theme rooms.
She’d seen most of them, but always when they were empty. She wondered what the rooms would look like when they were in use, when humans and vamps alike were dressed up, sprawled out, fucking hard. She wondered what it would be like to see the sex, the kissing, and the biting that would happen that night.
She wondered what would happen with her, to her.
With Samuel.
“It’s a masquerade,” Ariana said. She helped Celia dry off with one of the big, fluffy towels, and Celia did the same. As she moved the towel down Ariana’s body, she admired her friend’s soft body. Ariana was a little bigger than Celia: a little taller, a little curvier.
She was a little more experienced.
A little more dangerous.
A little more exciting.
“I’ve never been to one,” Celia said. She had wanted to, once. In college, a friend had invited her to a sorority party. It was a masquerade and all the men from the frat house next door were going to come over.
She hadn’t gone. She’d been too scared, too nervous. She’d slept with people in college, but the idea of going to a party seemed risky, dangerous. She was still scared and jaded from what had happened with her stepfather. She couldn’t handle the idea of another man taking advantage of her.
Now things were different.
She might sleep with someone at the party tonight, maybe even several someones. Samuel would be there, though, and he wouldn’t let anything bad happen to her. He gave her the safety net to be herself, to explore her sexuality. She could go crazy at the party, let her guard down, and have a good time. She could do anything and he would be there.
He was her protector.
“It’s going to be fun,” Ariana said. Celia looked up. She realized she had knelt in front of Ariana, but hadn’t moved. Ariana raised an eyebrow, then stepped outward, opening her legs. Celia smiled at the offer and planted a kiss between Ariana’s legs. The woman’s soft pussy was bare. She kept her body shaved the same way Celia did, the way all the dolls did.
“Mmm,” Ariana moaned, and Celia began to lick her in long, slow strokes. She reached around and gripped Ariana’s bottom, pulling her closer to her own face. Then she licked and kissed. Ariana murmured to her, whispering sweet nothings.
Ariana tasted sweet, sugary. She almost tasted like candy. The woman was everything Celia wanted in a doll, in a woman. If she was a vampire, Ariana was exactly the type of girl she’d want to feed from
Jade was sweet, too, in her own way. Even Tasha was perfect in Celia’s eyes.
One of Celia’s favorite things about living in the mansion was being able to explore her sexuality with different women. She’d never been with women before coming to the mansion and somehow, she felt like she had missed out. For years, she had thought she should only be with men. Now, though, she felt like it didn’t make sense.
It didn’t make sense that you should only be with one person. It didn’t make sense that this person should have to be a male. It didn’t make sense that if you wanted something else, if you needed something else, that you were branded as a wanton, that you were branded as a bad girl.
Celia licked Ariana’s pussy until she was breathing quickly, until she was tensing her muscles. Just as she was about to come, Celia slid her fingers into Ariana’s soft, dripping pussy and thrust them in and out.
Ariana came with a cry, holding Celia’s hair, gripping her head for support and balance as pleasure washed over her. Celia looked up as her friend orgasmed, watched her face. She had never seen anything quite as serene as a woman in the midst of orgasm, and she thought it was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen.
“Come here, you,” Ariana whispered. She tugged Celia to her feet and wrapped her arms around her. They hugged for a moment, breast-to-breast, body-to-body. Then Ariana gave Celia a soft, passionate kiss. Their tongues circled one another and Celia’s pussy clenched with arousal at the feeling.
She wanted more, needed more.
“You’ll get more,” Ariana whispered, and Celia wondered if she had spoken aloud or if her friend had just known what she was thinking. “The party will be wonderful, Celia. It will be everything you want and more. It will be everything you need.”
She let go of Celia and turned to get ready. Celia realized she needed to finish dressing and styling her own hair, and she wondered if Ariana was right.
Would the masquerade be everything she wanted? Would it be a culmination of her weeks at the mansion? Would it be exactly what she had hoped for?
For Celia, being taken into the mansion had been a trip down a rabbit hole she had never known about, but now that she did, she was beginning to think she never wanted to leave.
She had moved from being a scared little girl who was afraid of everything to something else, something darker. She wasn’t a child anymore. She was very much an adult, very sure and certain of herself. She had grown in ways she never would have thought possible, and certainly not in such a short amount of time.
Maybe this was what she’d been waiting for.
Maybe life among the humans had always seemed so forced because she wasn’t meant to live among them. Maybe she wasn’t even supposed to be one.
She had started craving more shortly after she arrived. Samuel had opened her eyes to a whole new world and Celia was drawn to the power as much as the sex. The Vampire Lord of Willowcroft Mansion was a beast, a predator. She wanted him even more for it, because of it.
More than that, Celia wanted the same things Samuel had.
When she was alone, which wasn’t often, she imagined she was the princess of Willocroft, the vampire mistress. She thought about what she would be like as a vampire, what dolls she would take. She thought about the ways she would feed.
She thought about what desires she might have if she were one of the undead, if she were one of the creatures of the night.
“It’s time,” Jade’s voice sounded through Celia’s thoughts and she turned. “It’s time,” Jade repeated, and motioned for Celia to come sit at one of the vanities. Celia quietly lowered her body onto the soft cushion. Ariana’s flavor still covered her tongue, and when Jade kissed Celia, she smiled.
“You’ve been having some fun,” Jade whispered.
“Only a little.”
“It’s about to get more fun.”
“How much more fun?”
“You don’t want to know,” Jade began to curl Celia’s hair.
“I might want to know.”
“Fun you didn’t even know existed.”
“They’re like a drug,” Celia said.
“I know.”
“I’m addicted.”
“I know.”
“Am I still going to exist after tonight?” Celia wondered. She hadn’t meant to ask it aloud, yet she did. The question was valid enough. Would she still be her?
The girl her mother had raised was gone. There was no question about it. She had disappeared, vanished into the day. Celia lived in the darkness now. She lived amongst the dead, amongst the ones who had no concern for the living other than what they could offer: food, sex, companionship.
The vampires didn’t love. At least, not in the way humans knew love. Celia scoffed as she thought of her upbringing, of the idea that a monogamous relationship was the epitome of true love. She didn’t even know what she believed anymore. All she knew was that the idea that a simple life no longer meant anything to her.
She had been raised to believe she was supposed to go to college, find a man, fall in love, and get married. That was the dream. That was the goal, the ideal.
So what happened?
Samuel had happened.
He was nothing like she expected, but everything she had ever needed.
Jade gripped Celia’s shoulders and met her gaze in the mirror.
“Look at me,” she said. “Just look
at me. Do I look weak to you?”
“No.”
“Do I look like I don’t exist?”
“No.”
“I’ve been here a fuck of a lot longer than you, Celia,” Jade said. “So don’t you even think for one second that wanting to stay, or liking what happened to you makes you a bad person. It doesn’t make you weird. It doesn’t make you wrong. You are not a broken toy to be fixed. Do you understand?”
“I am a toy to them.”
“We’re all toys to everyone. The whole fucking world is a game. People use each other all the time. The vampires are just more honest about it than humans.”
“It’s simpler here.”
“That’s because vampires don’t need to lie to get what they want. They just take it.”
“I like knowing where I stand.”
“We all do. It’s security we’ve never felt before. Look at fucking Ariana. Look at Tasha. Look at me. Before they took me, do you think I ever would have had the balls to wear something like this?” She motioned at her outfit: a black leather corset with matching booty shorts. “Fuck, no. I’m a preacher’s daughter. I’m not the whore. At least, that’s what I was raised to believe.”
“You don’t believe that anymore,” Celia kept Jade’s gaze in the mirror. She wanted to know what she would say. How did she justify the things she felt? How did she make it seem like everything was going to be fine?
“I think that unless you’re turned, you only live once, so you’d better live for yourself and not for your fucking parents, or your pastor, or your friends. I think you have one shot, Celia, so you’d better make it count.”
Fifteen
When she walked into the ballroom, Samuel was waiting. He’d been waiting all night for her and he’d keep waiting. He’d wait forever if it meant getting to see the look on Celia’s face when she walked into the room, if it meant getting to see the way her eyes glowed when she looked around the party he’d prepared just for her.
She didn’t know what he wanted from her, for her. She didn’t know he wanted more than just a human darling to play with. She didn’t know Samuel had been thinking of turning her, hoping for it, considering it.