“Really?”
Raymond cleared his throat. “We all do.”
Alex lowered her voice. “You know, I was really worried about you.”
Raymond could hear the concern in her voice. He looked down at his blood soaked clothes. “I’m fine.”
“… So are you alone?”
“No. William is here. We’re held up in the Cave at the White House checking out surveillance cams and reviewing the footage. Why do you ask?”
Alex giggled. “I was just going to ask you what you were wearing.”
Raymond wondered if her question had to do with the bloodstains on his clothes, but she couldn’t have known about them. “My clothes have some blood on them, but none of it is mine. All the blood belonged to Verna.”
“That’s not exactly what I meant. Just skip it. Since you’re working I’ll let you go.”
“OK. I’ll talk with you at the next check–in time. Bye.” Raymond hung up the phone still wondering about the clothes. “William, please text the team the latest checkpoint was cleared.”
“Got it.” William looked over at Raymond. “What’s wrong?”
“It's just odd. She couldn’t have known about my stained clothing, and yet she asked me what I was wearing.”
William smiled in disbelief. “Dude! She asked what you were wearing?”
“Yes. Why?”
“Duuuude!” William said, lengthening the vowel. “You know you’re older than dirt, right? Ay’ight, this is what I’ve been talking about. You and the boys, your sister included, just don’t keep up. You can text and shit, but you don’t know the lingo. I beg y’all to just get online and surf a little, or hell, watch a little TV or something to keep up. You’re so out of touch you didn’t even see this fly lady wanting your ass and askin’ for phone sex.”
Raymond took a seat next to William. “She wanted to have sex with me over the phone?”
“Sounds like it to me. “
Raymond gazed down at his phone, and he shook his head. “Sounds a bit impersonal. Plus, we have work to do,” Raymond said as he put his phone away. He wondered if phone sex was what the phone option *69 meant.
CHAPTER THIRTY–NINE
The plates clinked against one another as Alex set the heavy tray outside her hotel room. She winced at the sight of leftover food. Leaving the French fries didn’t bother her since she hadn’t eaten the grease–ridden things in years, but the leftover extra large sandwich proved too much for her to eat. She noticed the security guards placed up and down the hallway like live tin soldiers, but these were dressed in black suits and wired com units – with guns holstered under their jackets. Feeling a bit self–conscious, she placed the tin cover over her dinner plate to hide the waste. She had asked for a small salad instead of the fries, but, after waiting over an hour for room service, she decided not to complain and ate the club sandwich, which wasn’t that tasty.
She walked back into the posh hotel room, making sure the door securely locked behind her. The small room was extravagant with the details. A beveled mirror hung in the bathroom just above the two large basins and what she guessed were marble sinks. The double beds had beautiful bedspreads on them which looked freshly laundered, at least to the point where Alex didn’t feel germy after she sat down on one. Even the drapes and furniture appeared spic–and–span, clean and neat in every way.
She entered the bathroom and washed her hands, drying them on the plush white hand towel. Reaching into her pocket, she checked her handheld monitor to read the latest Secret Service announcement. “P.O.T.U.S. Lock Down.” She knew the President was secured in his hotel suite, leaving her with nothing to do tonight since she had already eaten dinner and had showered. As she lay down on the bed, her thoughts instantly overflowed with images of Raymond, the sound of his voice, and the feel of him. Perhaps Micki was right. What held her back? All these years she sat on that same damn couch, spilling her guts. Micki always told her that she was holding herself back in the romance department. Alex always sought out safe passages through the valley of love, and here was the proof.
Alex suspected she was falling in love with Raymond. He shared the story of his dead wife with her, and that touched her more than anything any man had ever done to her in the past. She fluffed the pillow under her head. Why hadn’t Raymond picked up on the phone sex idea? She had gathered her courage all day just to suggest it, and the idea fell flat. God, she wanted to be with him so much. She wondered what his touch would be like, how soft his kisses would be. Her thoughts were interrupted when Sulie entered their room.
“I prefer presidential flyovers to personal visits and hotel stays,” Sulie said as she let out an exhausted sigh. Sulie placed her room key on the wooden dresser that sat across from the two beds. “My shift is finally over. Looks like we’re both in for the night, with a very early start tomorrow.” She sipped from a water bottle as she sat on her bed.
“Let me guess. Not water, right?” Alex pointed at the metal container Sulie carried. The metal of the bottle hid the liquid inside.
A smile crossed Sulie’s face, revealing her fangs. “You guessed it. Nothing is better tasting than human blood.”
Alex blushed, and her hand went instinctively towards her neck. “Good to know.”
Sulie raised her hand toward Alex and shook her head. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you like that.”
Alex swallowed hard and removed the hand from her neck, steeling herself. She took a deep breath and pushed her shoulders back. “I’m not scared.”
“Grossed out?”
“No. I’m fine.” she laughed feeling more at ease. “I’m glad you can be yourself around me.” She watched as Sulie took another sip. “What does the blood taste like?”
Sulie made a dramatic smacking sound with her lips. “Hmmm, thick and syrupy. Sometimes the blood tastes sweet, sometimes it doesn’t. I think it mostly depends on how the human lives. Mostly though, it's all delicious. It tastes like watered down vampire blood. Our blood is more concentrated and it’s always sweet.”
There had been no mention of them drinking vampire blood in the documentation Alex had read. She hated how incomplete the files had been. “Do vampires drink vampire blood?” OK, it sounded like a silly question, but she wanted to know, plus she wanted to document the answer for the next director.
“Oh, we don’t feed off each other. We taste the blood more than anything else. Lovers bite one other like humans would kiss. So, it's more like a taste than actually eating.”
Alex smiled back at the vampire. “You told me you weren’t married. Were you before?”
Sulie shook her head. “No. I know what vampire blood tastes like because our tongue can seal wounds on our skin. Our saliva stops the bleeding almost immediately. It’s why our fangs are so sharp” She sat up on the bed. “If you’re curious, I could bite my arm and show you?”
She quickly shook her head. “I’m good. Actually, I experienced that ability with Raymond when I had cut my finger and he sealed the wound for me.” She inspected her finger. “See? It didn’t leave a scar.”
Sulie barely glanced at the offered finger. “Never does. Coagulants in our saliva do the trick. As the Colony doctor, I treat all the team members. Every once in a while one will be wounded. Blood will heal them, but a deep wound needs a lot of human blood to heal. Licking the wound to seal it first is usually best.”
“Outside of healing, how much blood do you need to drink each day?”
Sulie shrugged. “The amount depends on how young we want to appear, or if we’ve been recently hurt in any physical way, and on how much blood is around. We crave the stuff.”
There was a moment of silence, and Alex realized just how much she enjoyed talking with Sulie. She looked younger than 22. She could pass for a teenager almost. She suspected Sulie would answer any question she may have about vampires, and more importantly about her brother. Alex had several questions about Raymond. Alex cleared her throat. “I saw Raymond’s blood the
other day. He explained that vampire blood turns purple over time, but his wasn’t purple. His blood looked mostly red.”
Sulie’s eyes narrowed as she quickly sat up on the bed. “Why was my brother bleeding?”
Alex held her hands up in a calming manner as she shook her head. “It was an accident. I think I may have broken his nose, but he healed quickly.”
“Oh.” Sulie relaxed on the bed. “Well, if you’re with us long enough you’re bound to see everything. This business does come with its dangers. You’ll get used to it all. The blood deliveries, the keeping of our secret, the extracurricular feedings …”
“What extracurricular feedings?”
“Oh, if one of us is injured in the line of duty and dying we can drink from a human. It’s considered extracurricular on the books. It basically means a lot of clean up to make sure the human’s mind is properly erased. Any feeding that isn’t government sanctioned, or part of a personal mating, is supposed to be reported to you. You then confirm that the necessary precautions have been done to protect us. It's what happened with Ben recently and his superior.”
“I see.” Everything fascinated Alex. She pondered over what Sulie had shared, and finally asked. “What kind of feedings are government sanctioned?”
“There are none anymore, but they were the feedings from our Offering Parties decades ago. The government stopped the practice a while back.”
Alex had seen files mentioning “Offering Parties” when she reviewed the Colony paperwork a few days ago. Mostly the information she saw just referred to them but gave no detail. Almost as if the government wanted to erase them from existence, like they never happened. She wondered what could have been so controversial at those parties that the government would try to erase them from the records.
Sulie offered an explanation as she prepared for bed. “The Offering Parties fed us before bagged blood came along. God, I hated those parties because I felt trapped in my body. You see, back then we were all older looking. We only fed every two to three months. I hated looking that old.” Sulie took another sip from her water bottle as she glanced at her blurred reflection in a mirror. “The government would allow us to have these parties and they would maintain a guest list, which consisted mostly of whores who worked the streets. They were never told the true nature of the parties and were paid more than money for their services.”
“The government paid for their blood?”
“The fellas would drink their blood and have sex with them,” Sulie said reaching for her nightgown.
Alex’s face turned white. “The government used to pay for hookers for the Colony and then allow them to feed off their blood? What about the OIG?”
Sulie shook her head. “The Colony isn’t subjected to the Office of the Inspector General. We have our own office of professional responsibility, and the person in that role is now you.”
Alex stared in disbelief. “But prostitutes …”
“I know. The idea sounds horrific, especially when you say it like that.” She brushed out her hair. “But what are you going to do? Allow all these vampires to eat free range over the population? The parties allowed the government to control our feedings. The prostitutes were recorded so the government knew exactly how many times and on what dates they were invited to the parties. You can’t have one attend them too many times in a row since it’s hard to compel and erase memories if it becomes a habit. So the prostitutes would be brought to Fang Manor for a two–day stay and my job was to check for diseases and whether the women were fertile.”
She remembered a medical detection ability from Sulie’s file. “Your gift. You have the ability to see medically what might be going on with a human or a vampire’s body.”
“That’s right.” Sulie undressed and slipped on her nightgown. “I would medically survey them and take note of any medical needs they had. The government would see to their needs with medicines, antibiotics, whatever they needed. Personally we can’t pick up any human diseases, but it was still nice to leave the women in better health than when they came to the party.”
“Very charitable of you,” Alex said curtly.
“Hey, it was a way of life. We would give medicines to the fertile ones too, even though they would be rejected and not gain access to the party.” She sipped her bottle and continued. “The government didn’t want us procreating with the women since they were being lied to about the party.”
Recognition appeared on Alex’s face. “I see. You can detect if a woman is ovulating.”
“Actually, I can tell when she ovulated and if she’s currently fertile.” She eyed Alex. “You, for example, ovulated seven days ago. You stopped being fertile just before you came to our home.”
Alex thought about that for a moment. It was another missed chance at having a child; of course she had no husband either – so moot point. You can’t miss out on something when it just won’t ever happen. She focused back to the party information, “And everyone had sex with the prostitutes?”
“The blood drives us crazy. You have no idea. Going months without blood and finally being able to feed again makes you insane for sex. And we would feed until we would appear to be in our twenties again. The parties turned into blood and sex orgies.”
Alex had to ask. “Even your brother would …”
Sulie’s eyes widened. “Oh, I’m so sorry. Look, it wasn’t like that. The first few parties he struggled and could resist, but over time he did give into the temptation. Honestly, blood lust is just a part of our makeup. That’s all. The sex he had with them meant nothing to him, and he agonized over it in since he felt like a filthy user of those women. When he finally did give in to the temptation, he must have showered a dozen times after the party. Afterward, he was surly towards everyone for at least a week. But don’t worry. We have bagged blood now. No need for those parties anymore.”
Alex sat deep in thought and her face paled as she felt a twinge of a headache. She wanted to phrase her next question just right. “Sulie, the other night, did you call Raymond for an emergency when he drove me home?”
Sulie thought for a moment. “No. I don’t know what you’re talking about. Maybe the call came from one of the guys.”
Right. Alex didn’t remember hearing a phone ring that night. So Raymond could sleep with a ton of prostitutes but for some reason had to lie to get out of sleeping with her, even with the effects of new blood in his system. She didn’t know what it felt like to be compelled, but she had read enough examples of the process in the Colony documentation to see the signs. A lag in memory and perhaps disorientation were at the top of the list. For memory erasing, a headache usually followed. She didn’t have a headache after Raymond left, but she really didn’t remember a phone ringing. He had shared with her a very intimate part of himself when he told her the story of Wilma’s death while they were in Florida. She had felt special to him when he shared the story. So was he repulsed by her body maybe? Why were men so confusing?
“I shouldn’t have said anything. Especially knowing how he feels about you.”
Alex’s eyes widened and she turned quickly towards Sulie. “He’s told you how he feels?”
“I can read his thoughts at times. Lately he’s been pretty open with them. Ben has told me that Raymond’s aura contains bright red in it, which usually means he’s in an amorous mood. He’s been in one about 24/7 lately when you’ve been around. Your aura had red in it the last few days as well.”
Alex blushed. “I didn’t think my attraction to him was that obvious.” She looked up at Sulie and wondered if Raymond would man up and tell her himself about those awful parties.
CHAPTER FORTY
Raymond dressed casually in a white polo shirt and khaki pants. He glanced quickly at his watch and realized he ran late. No time to shave, but he was only meeting Dixon for another early morning breakfast meeting where he would watch his best friend eat.
He started down the stairs and noticed Sterling on his way up, who reeked of bloo
d, alcohol and sex. Sterling had obviously not spent the night at Fang Manor, and he appeared well–fed from his nocturnal activities. Raymond tried to hold his tongue, but the slight pause was enough to give Sterling concern.
“What?” Sterling huffed. He stopped walking up the stairs and barely looked at his father.
Raymond stopped mid–step and stared at his son. His eyes narrowed and his nose wrinkled. “You smell like human females.”
Sterling didn’t even blink. “I’m half human, thanks to you having cavorted with one.”
Raymond’s cheeks grew red. His hand tightened on the hand railing. “Sterling!”
Sterling allowed the reprimand to go unnoticed. He now looked his father squarely in the eyes. “What offends you more? That I was with humans? Or that I was with women?”
Raymond leaned against the banister. He had not expected the question. He replied honestly, “Both.”
“Since vampire women ignore me, and I detest human men … I guess you’re shit out of luck.”
Raymond didn’t have the time to get into this again with his son, but he still began a protest. “Sterling,” he said softly, “It's not just the company you keep.” He took a deep breath. “If you could find yourself a wife …”
“A wife? Right. I’ll ask the Vampire Council to arrange that when they have a moment. Oh, wait, we already tried several times. They don’t want me. Nobody does.”
“The Council serves a purpose.”
Sterling closed the distance between the two of them. He got up into his father’s face. “Fuck the Council. I don’t need their services, or their blood bank to keep me in check.”
Raymond’s face tightened as he prepared for the shouting match, but his son finished their conversation by filling in the words for both of them.
“Why don’t we skip to the end, Dad? You tell me the merits of finding that special vampire someone; I blow you off because, being a half–breed, I’m a genetic reject. You then launch into how a human woman of quality and worth could be turned into a vampire. I tell you that there’s no way in hell I’d want any of the human women I’ve been with turned. They'd just be raging bitches as vamps tormenting me for eternity, or even reject me because they’re full vampires and I’m only half. Of course, the conversation can’t end there. I then have to lie and promise to take your words under consideration. You would pretend to believe me. And then the two of us would go on about our lives until the next time you feel the need to nag me.” He looked at his father, “That sound about right?”
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