by Billy Lyon
“A vampire after my own heart. Let’s do it.” They reached for the bottles of sterile saline and other paraphernalia the acolytes had placed on each table. Then they added the water to the powder and mixed the two substances together without looking at or talking to each other. Their obsessive silence reflected the fact that preparing a fix is an extremely personal event to each and every junkie, almost to the point where it takes on a religious significance.
When they were finally finished mixing, they tied off their arms. Thick, bulging veins quickly popped up on the surface of their skin. Steven looked at Teresa.
“Ready?”
Teresa grinned. “Ready.” They inserted the needles into their blood vessels and pulled back the plungers. A tiny crimson splash flowed back into the syringes, the most beautiful sight in the world to any IV drug addict. It meant the needle was in the vein and the shot could proceed.
“Got blood?” Steven asked.
“Oh yeah.”
“Then do it,” Steven said, and they simultaneously pushed the dope into their bodies as fast as they could.
For the longest time Steven couldn’t think, breathe, or speak, so massive was the pleasure that possessed him. If all the fixes he had ever done were added up, multiplied by a hundred, and raised to infinity it wouldn’t even begin to equal the rush he had just experienced. An earthquake, hurricane, tornado, or any combination of the three could have struck the mansion full force and he wouldn’t have noticed, or cared.
“Is it good?” Anna Marie had stepped between Steven and Teresa. Steven couldn’t say a word, but Teresa somehow managed, if only barely. “Yessss…” she groaned. Anna Marie bent and kissed Teresa deeply. Teresa moaned as Anna Marie’s lips moved from her mouth to her throat, where she made small playful bites that drew tiny drops of blood to the surface of Teresa’s neck. Steven watched them in a stupor, so stoned by this point that he would have been hard pressed to even remember his name. He briefly wondered if this was all just a dope dream and whether he would eventually wake up disappointed in a downtown alley somewhere, still very much a human being.
Anna Marie lifted her lips from Teresa and turned them toward Steven. The second he tasted Teresa’s blood his body shuddered. He closed his eyes and let go. His cock became a repeating rifle, firing so hard that he had to grab both sides of his chair to keep from falling off onto the floor. His spasms repeated over and over until his pants were full, and he lay back gasping for air, fully spent.
“I’m glad you like the dope,” Anna Marie said, and walked away in search of other pleasures.
Steven followed Anna Marie with his eyes, watching her go from table to table, stopping here and there to join in. The acolytes paid no attention to the goings-on around them and continued to move through the crowd. Two or three stopped at each table and placed small briefcases onto the tabletops and opening them.
Out of each briefcase the acolytes removed large-bore IV needles and clear plastic tubing. Wordlessly and efficiently they inserted the needles into the major veins along the prostitutes’ necks, arms, legs, hands, and feet. Once this had been accomplished, they attached the tubing to the needles and capped it off with plastic stopcocks that looked like the black nozzles on the front of a fast-food iced tea canister. Steven surveyed the scene incredulously. “It’s like a kegger, but with humans as the kegs!” he said to Teresa.
Teresa laughed. “We do this at all of our formal gatherings. We try and have one a few times each year, for things like anniversaries and such.”
“Anniversaries?” Steven asked, confused.
“I meant the anniversaries of when a vampire joined the clan. But don’t be fooled by the clinical appearance. It’s about to get messy.”
Once the acolytes finished they tested their setups by depressing the nozzles. Dark red blood flowed freely out of the humans. The acolytes hurried from the room and another group entered, carrying trays of crystal goblets, which they placed on the tables and left. The process of draining a human’s life force had been made as simple as dispensing a Pepsi from a convenience store fountain.
Anna Marie made her way back to the head table, took a goblet, and filled it with blood. She lifted it to the crowd. “Now let us take our pleasure.”
Almost immediately the pungent odor of blood filled the great hall. Steven took a sip, and felt the blood initiate the physical transformation into what he now called his ‘vampire body.’ He could barely hear himself think. All around him were the sounds of bones cracking and connective tissue stretching. Steven watched as a short, fat, male vampire grew six inches taller. His belly disappeared, and a nicely-sculpted six pack took its place. His remaining fat melted away, also to be replaced with rock hard muscle. In a matter of seconds, the vampire changed from Danny DeVito to Vin Diesel. All around the room similar changes were taking place, as the friendly smiles that had welcomed Steven quickly turned into devil grins filled with row after row of deadly fangs.
Nothing out of the way happened at first. The vampires behaved as politely as humans at a cocktail party. They sipped their drinks and chatted amongst themselves, discussing everything from the weather to human politics. Now that he was a vampire, Steven’s hearing was hundreds of times more acute than when he was human. He listened unashamedly to the conversations around him.
“Isn’t this a lovely feast? We really should have them more often.”
“What do you think of Steven? He seems really nice, doesn’t he?”
“This blood is good, but it’s so sweet! I’m not complaining, mind you. I’ve always liked sweet blood.”
“I wish I could have gone to Afghanistan with Hasi and Teresa. I’ve never been to the Middle East.”
“Penny for your thoughts,” Teresa said, interrupting Steven’s eavesdropping. “You got quiet all of a sudden. Is everything okay?”
“Yeah, I’m just trying to take all this in. It’s one hell of a crazy sight.”
“Well, things are about to get a lot crazier, so relax while you can.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, it’s impossible for this many vampires to be sitting together with dying humans all around them without some good old-fashioned blood lust breaking out.”
Steven thought of a group of sharks fighting over a piece of chum, and couldn’t imagine any of the respectable-looking vampires surrounding him ever behaving in such a way. He mentioned this to Teresa, who simply smiled. “Just wait,” she said.
Nothing much happened for the next five minutes or so. Steven was about to tell Teresa she was full of shit when he heard a loud snarl. Somewhere towards the middle of the room an elderly female vampire had begun to fight with a much younger male over a goblet of blood. Both of them had reached for it at the same time, and each one jerked the goblet towards them, like two dogs fighting over a bone. Finally, the older vampire snatched the goblet roughly out of the younger one’s hand.
She raised the goblet high over her head in triumph before drinking the blood inside in one gulp. This enraged the male, who leapt on top of the table and tore off the arm of the naked hooker who had donated the blood that caused so much trouble. He quickly drained what blood remained inside the dead whore’s arm and then used it as a makeshift club to knock the older vampire off her feet. Once she was on the ground he jumped on top of her and throttled her over and over again.
The other vampires at their table leapt onto what was left of the human and tore her to shreds. When there was nothing left of her they turned on each other. Steven watched as one vampire’s head was ripped off and drop-kicked across the hall. Not far away, a female was choking the vampire that sat beside her with her own entrails. As the melee grew, the violence spread to every corner of the room, each scene more vicious than the last. Torsos, heads, and organs flew wildly into the air until the scene looked like a thousand imps having a food fight in Hell.
Not every vampire was fighting, however; for some the term lust had taken on a more traditional meaning and they indu
lged in every sexual act imaginable. Anna Marie figured largely in one of them. Two females had their face buried deep in her crotch, which gave her so much pleasure that she momentarily had to stop sucking cock to scream. She saw Steven looking and motioned for him to join her in the writhing pile of naked flesh that surrounded her. Before Steven could react, however, Teresa buried her fangs to the hilt in the side of his neck. This act of aggression removed all civility from Steven, and he became an uninhibited killing machine.
Steven let loose a guttural howl and ripped Teresa’s tiny body off his neck and hurled it high into the air with all his considerable strength. As she disappeared from sight Steven looked to his left in search of another fight. Beside him, Eric was locked in a death grip with Samantha. Seeing this, Steven’s rage became even greater, and he launched himself forward in a flying tackle that knocked Eric flat on his ass. Now totally possessed by the bloodlust, Steven pounced without thinking and sank his teeth into Eric’s abdomen, devouring the intestines and other internal organs that lay inside.
The widespread sex and violence continued for quite some time, but gradually normalcy returned to the banquet hall. Deadly wounds closed, amputated limbs regenerated, and vampires that were dead came back to life. Grudgingly, Steven reached down helped Eric to his feet before remembering what he had done to Teresa. “Teresa!” he shouted. “Where are you? Are you okay?”
“Relax! These things are never permanent.” Relieved, Steven bent down and picked Teresa off the floor, happily spinning her around in his arms. “I’m so sorry, Teresa. I thought I’d really hurt you.”
“Not a chance,” Teresa said. “But damn, you have one hell of an arm. You must have played quarterback in your human days.”
“I was too busy using my arms for other things,” Steven said sarcastically. He looked around at the carnage. Arms, legs, and dead hooker hands were everywhere. Lying on the table in front of him was what looked like part of someone’s large intestine. He picked it up by an edge and tossed it into the floor. “So who cleans this mess up?”
“The acolytes. Sucks to be them…”
“I’ll say. So what happens next?”
“Probably everyone will break up into their own little parties until it’s time to go to bed. I’d love to hang around, but here comes Anna Marie, and I get the idea that she wants to spend some quality time alone with you.” She stood on her tiptoes and planted a quick kiss on Steven’s cheek. “I’ll see you later, Handsome. Have fun….”
As Teresa left in search of new adventures Anna Marie approached Steven from behind and placed her hand around his waist. “Are you having fun?”
“At first I thought someone dosed my blood with some bad acid, but yeah, I guess I did have fun, once I got used to it.” He picked a finger up off the tabletop and shook it at Anna Marie. “You vampires sure throw one hell of a party.”
“Us vampires, you mean. I’m glad you’re enjoying yourself, but listen. How would you like to trip off somewhere for the rest of the night, just the two of us?”
“I can’t think of anything I’d like more.”
“Then take my hand. It’s time for a little magick. We need to disappear before Eric finds us. He’s been hinting all night that he wants a threesome. He’s very bisexual, you know.”
“Hell yeah,” Steven said, quickly looking left and right to make sure Eric was nowhere near. “Let’s get the fuck out of Dodge. Quick.”
Steven grabbed Anna Marie’s hand, and in less than a second, they were in another room.
“Voila,” Anna Marie said. “Just like Harry Potter.”
“I’m so glad you’re a Harry Potter fan. This would have never worked if you weren’t.”
“What do you mean by this?” Anna Marie asked coyly.
“This,” Steven said, and took her into his arms. The kiss was different in every way from the raw, unbridled sex Steven had seen inside the banquet hall. What he felt now was more fulfilling on all levels. He was in love for the first time in his life, and knew that for better or worse, nothing would ever be the same.
Slowly and reluctantly they broke their kiss. “Why didn’t you fuck me back there?” Anna Marie asked. “Didn’t you see my invitation?”
“Yeah, I saw it, but there were two reasons why I didn’t respond. The first is that I couldn’t. As soon as I saw you, Teresa attacked me and I got caught up in the whole blood lust thing, but even if she hadn’t I still wouldn’t have gone over to you.”
Anna Marie looked down at her feet, petulant. Her lower lip stuck out like a spoiled teenager denied her way. “Why not? Didn’t you want me?”
Steven couldn’t help but laugh. “As smart as you are, Anna Marie, you say the dumbest things sometimes. Of course I wanted you. I’ve wanted you from the moment we met. You’re beautiful, sensual, and intelligent beyond all belief, but to answer your question, the reason I didn’t want to fuck you is because I don’t see you in that way.”
“So are we just going to be friends, then?” Anna Marie asked, still pouting.
“You still don’t get it. I didn’t want to fuck you because I wanted to make love to you instead. I love you, Anna Marie.”
Anna Marie lifted her head and stared at Steven with tearful, unbelieving eyes. “You love me?”
“I love you,” Steven repeated. “I always have.”
“I love you too, Steven. For thousands of years I’ve waited for you, and now you’ve finally come.” They kissed again, and Steven lifted Anna Marie into his arms and carried her to bed. As he undressed her, their eyes locked, and when they were both naked Steven gently lowered her. As carefully as if he were handling the rarest gem in the world, he entered her.
“Tell me again,” Anna Marie pleaded breathlessly.
“I love you.”
“Again.”
“I love you.”
“Don’t stop saying it.”
Steven obeyed, and timed the three words to match his thrusts. They moved together slowly, building to their first climax. He cried “I love you,” again and again, pulling Anna Marie to him in a primal attempt to claim her as his own. As their orgasm reached its peak, he turned Anna Marie’s head to the side and sunk his teeth into her neck. He drank wantonly, and then shared the blood with her in a succession of deep, soulful kisses.
Afterwards Anna Marie lay cradled safely in the crook of Steven’s arms. A satisfied silence took hold, as they enjoyed the simple pleasure of being alone together. Steven could have easily remained inside the contented calm forever, but wanted to learn everything possible about Anna Marie before the sun rose. “Teresa told me that something happened to you a long time ago that affected you in a really big way. What happened in Egypt, Anna Marie?”
11
For the longest time, Anna Marie said nothing. I shouldn’t have raised the subject so soon, Steven thought. He opened his mouth to apologize, but just then Anna Marie began her story.
“I have such fond memories of much of my human life. My name then was Amirah, and I was the daughter of the Pharaoh. My mother died while giving birth to me, and losing her made the relationship between Father and me even more special.
One night, Father asked me to meet him in his chambers after the evening meal.
“As I’m sure you know,” he said as he motioned for me to sit, “many years ago I sent a small detachment of our citizens on a diplomatic mission to the Far East. They will soon be returning home. One of those who went was a young man named Khaled, who has from all accounts become a splendid young man. I would like the two of you to become acquainted when they return.”
Even as a young woman I was not one to mince words. “Father, is it your wish that I should marry this man?”
He shook his head. “I would never try and control your personal life, but I’m no longer a young man, and before too much longer it will be time for my journey to the Land of the Dead. When that time comes I would like to know you will not be alone.”
In the days leading up to the rendezvo
us with Khaled my girlfriends proclaimed me to be the luckiest woman in the Kingdom. They talked endlessly of his good looks and his many exploits while living amongst the foreigners. Their chatter added greatly to the mystery that already surrounded him in my mind.
When the appointed time arrived, I met Khaled with a flutter in my breast. The rumors of his rugged good looks had not been understated. His height, greater than that of most men his age, was enhanced by a lean, muscular physique. His icy blue eyes stood out against his caramel skin, and seemed to also possess a mysterious darkness, as if they had seen many things, not all of them pleasant. I was instantly attracted to his combination of good looks and worldliness.
Khaled crossed the room confidently and knelt in front of me.
“Please rise.” He did so, and took my hand.
“In my travels I have been many places and seen many things, yet I can truly say I have never seen such a beautiful woman. If you would allow it, I have brought a gift.”
My cheeks became hot. “You’re very kind. I can see that everything I have heard about you is true.”
“I certainly hope not.”
We shared a laugh, and my anxiety disappeared. At his command, a manservant entered carrying a Mau, one of the small cats venerated by our people.
I squealed. “How did you know I’ve wanted one so badly?”
“Your love of animals is widely known.”
Following that initial meeting our relationship blossomed, and we were never apart for very long.
When Khaled and I announced our plans to marry, Father burst into tears. He embraced my fiancé and said “I now have not only a daughter, but a son to call my own.” How lucky I am to be blessed with two such wonderful men in my life, I thought at the time.
Shortly after my twenty-second birthday I became Khaled’s bride.
We settled easily into domestic life. As a young wife I wanted to bear as many children as possible, but after a few failed attempts the Royal Physician informed me I was barren. My grief was bitter and long-lived. Khaled showered me with attention and said we could take as many children as we wanted from the Hebrew slaves. I resisted the idea of stealing a child from its natural mother at first, but soon rationalized that Khaled and I would be able to provide it with many more advantages than its real parents ever could. The events that unfolded made it unnecessary for me to make a final decision on the subject.