by P. Mattern
“Of course not!” Byron quickly responded. ”Feet and ankles only. I actually checked with an esthetician and they gave me a few tips!”
That part was true. Byron failed to relate that the female esthetician had kept grabbing his crotch during the entire tutorial, hoping to score a different type of massage from Byron. Normally Byron would have been happy to acquiesce… but he knew if he had Lexi might pick up on it and cancel their date.
Inwardly he sighed, remembering. He was amazed at the sacrifices he was making for Lexi.
After the couple patrolled the townhome they decided that Lexi would be most comfortable in the lounge chair in the living room. She gave Byron an ottoman to sit on and spread a small tarp down to catch any moisture. Byron started by filling and plugging in an electric footbath for Lexi to soak her feet in.
For a small woman Lexi had fairly good sized feet. They were long, well formed, and slender like her artistic hands.
Byron welcomed an opportunity to explore any part of Lexi’s body more thoroughly.
He began by taking Lexi’s left foot from the footbath and drying it slightly in a towel. Applying some massage lotion he began to massage it into the skin on her foot using his thumbs and a circular motion. Byron’s hands were strong, and he could feel her relaxing as he worked in the lotion, which smelled of eucalyptus and mint. He worked his strong thumbs up the bottom of the length of her long foot also, eliciting an occasional moan of pleasure from his subject.
After the massage he returned both of her feet to the vibrating footbath for a few minutes. Lexi quietly looked at him, her eyes at half-mast.
I’ll have a kiss at this point,” she offered, ”Maybe two.”
Byron was glad to acquiesce. The two kisses were both long and languid. Again Byron found himself lost in her embrace. But when the two kisses were over he withdrew, having learned that she was a woman of her word.
Her toenails didn’t need trimming, but he filed them evenly as they talked quietly about places they had lived. Lexi had moved around much as a child and had lived in Paris, Prague and had gone to boarding school in Switzerland at various points in her life. Byron found that he loved holding her feet in his hand. It seemed an unexpectedly intimate gesture, and she seemed more vulnerable beneath his touch.
He retrieved a set of sponge spacers meant to separate her toes so that he could paint them. Alexiandra seemed much more relaxed than he ever remembered. He also brought out a collection of colored polishes for her perusal.
“What is milady’s pleasure?” He asked, suggesting, ”Choose a color to suit your mood.”
Lexi sat up a little and eyed the array of fingernail polishes with a speculative eye.
“I can’t decide between pink or red.” she said smiling and stretching. “Pink is my favorite color. But red is so hot. What do you think Byron?”
Byron met her gaze and smiled. ”I think you want red, Lexi my sweet. Am I right?”
Lexi looked into his eyes for a moment and then nodded her head slowly.
“I always want red,” she agreed.” But there is a time and a place for everything, am I right?” She answered teasingly.
Byron didn’t answer, but uncapped the red lacquer and began applying polish to her nails, keeping a acetone swap nearby for application errors. There were quite a few but he was quick to make corrections and when he was finished Lexi had a pleased expression as she gazed upon Byron’s handiwork. Her pedicure looked quite professional.
Byron saw that there was a blush of pleasure in her cheeks as she said,
“Thank you Byron. You surprise me! I’ve never had any male energy do that for me-or anything remotely like that, It’s a first.”
He was instantly next to her again.
“I was never much one for watching paint dry,” he said glancing down at her perfectly groomed toes. ”But please give them time to dry. I think I did a pretty nice job for an amateur. And this IS a unique service, just for my girl.”
Her eyes as they returned his gaze were dreamy, the pupils enlarged.
“Is that what I am, Byron? Your girl?” She asked.
“I would like you to be, yes.” Byron replied without skipping a beat, although his heartbeat quickened. ”You are one in MORE than a million Alexiandra. I’d love to make it ‘official ‘that we’re a couple. I’d like to be able to refer to you as my girlfriend… but of course it’s up to you.”
Alexiandra was quiet, seemingly digesting what Byron had said. Suddenly she turned to him.
“Very well Byron Chance. You can be my boyfriend. And now that you are officially my ‘boyfriend’ you will be allowed to play in my world.
Come with me!” she said, jumping up from the lounger by doing a kempup, her toes still separated ducklike by the sponge separators. Byron bent to pluck them away from her toes just as she threw a scarf around his neck and proceeded to lead him toward the back of the townhome using it as a silken leash.
Charley Rabbit was confused. He had always felt that he was likely the LEAST prescient of the vampires and secretly sulked that his former ’disabilities’ had somehow managed to manifest in this one area in spite of his Turning.
But here he was in front of the Cottage now because of a sense of urgency he had gotten, and a fuzzy vision of Fressenda in some kind of peril.
Looking at the different cars parked in the driveway and in the street surrounding the Cottage his heart began to pound. Lux was here, and probably Pierre with him since they were virtually inseparable. Charley could also see Cass’s motorcycle parked in the driveway.
Fress’s car was nowhere to be seen.
His heart beating rapidly he ran up to the front door which opened right before he was able to knock. The faces that greeted him looked grave. Cass who had opened the door to admit him said, ”We’re all picking up on Fress, man. Any idea where she is?”
Charley shook his head as he entered. The atmosphere inside the foyer was so thick with tension that it was palpable.
Lux spoke up, ”Wait ! I’m feeling her now,” just as a barely perceptible tapping sound could be heard at the front door. Charley turned to open the door behind him as Fressenda stared up at him wordlessly, a look of pure anguish on her face. Her normally creamy complexion was a ghastly grayish color and she was holding her right wrist in her left hand.
As Charley looked down at her his mind recoiled in horror at what he saw. In the fatty part of her hand between the thumb and forefinger was a large bruise. And beneath it, just under her skin shone the pulsing red light of an RFID device.
Fress had been chipped.
Without speaking a word she fell forward into his arms. Charley’s eyes were fixed on her face as her eyes closed. Around him he was barely cognizant of Cass and Lux shouting and tugging him out the door toward Lux’s black SUV while Pierre made frantic calls on his smartphone.
As the vamps loaded Fress gently into the back seat Pierre said, ”Dr. Caligare will meet us at the farm. Mitzi is making sure the Infirmary is open and set up for him.
Charley realized his face was wet with tears. He still held Fress against him. Being a vampire he could hear her heartbeats by virtue of his acute hearing - they were strong but developing irregular flutters that sounded like double beats.
Bending down he brushed his lips against her cheek and began murmuring in her ear. He told her that she was strong, stronger and fiercer than any energy male or female that he had ever encountered. He told her that she was going to be fine. He told her that she was the most beautiful person inside and out that he had ever known or could know. He thanked her for Turning him and giving him a life full of rich experiences that he would never otherwise have had.
He told Fress that he had never loved anyone as much as he had loved her during their time together and that he still loved her and adored her in the same way he had from the very beginning.
And realizing that what he said had been a naked and raw truth that he had been hiding from himself, he began weeping quietly agai
n.
Once they’d arrived at the Farm Lux and Cass took Fressenda from his arms and flew with her body vamp speed into the underground manse. Charley was right behind them with Pierre. Mitzi, her face grim with concern followed them into the Infirmary where Dr. Caligare was already gowned up. An array of surgical tools had been laid out carefully and quickly tearing all the dress material away from Fress’s arms he allowed the now gowned Pierre to paint the implantation site with a special mixture of venom and surgical antibacterial solution.
“How long? Do we know?” Dr. Caligare asked the group around him.
“No idea.” Cass answered. ”But all of us were picking up on her distress signals about ten minutes before she arrived at the Cottage - and I went 90 miles an hour traveling here - so maybe 25 minutes.”
Dr Caligare frowned. He had opened the area in Fress’s arm and the implanted RFID could be seen clearly, pulsing, it’s dull red glow looking hideous and sinister from inside of Fress’s flesh.
“Okay,” he said, breathing deeply. “I need all of you to stand back, because as soon as the device is removed it will explode. I will do it as quickly as possible but if I don’t removed it and throw it over to the utility sink within 3 nanoseconds it will blow both her and I apart, do you understand?”
The vamps moved with vamp speed away from the operating table. Lux had to yank Pierre with him.
In the next instant a black and silvery device was seen flying across the room. It exploded as soon as it hit the utility sink, cracking the thick stainless steel of the fixture and causing impact fissures in the wall behind it.
As soon as the device was away from Fress’s body her hand began to heal and her color returned at the same time her eyes opened.
She sat up automatically and Dr. Caligare, his eyes wide with relief, embraced her first.
The rest of the tribe gathered around, also, silent and grateful for what Dr. Caligare had been able to do. Strangely the good vampire doctor began crying.
Several of the guys patted him on the shoulder or embraced him. Charley gave him a heartfelt bear hug and thanked him profusely.
Finally the doctor spoke.
“What I didn’t tell any of you was that this is not the first RFID that I have attempted to remove. A male vampire was rushed to me last week that had also been ‘chipped’ or implanted.
I couldn’t get the device out quickly enough. It exploded. He lost his immortal life and nearly took me with him!”
The entire group gravely considered what Dr. Caligare had said. Fress buried her head in his chest, tearfully thanking him for his skill, and for saving her immortal life.
Her face as she drew back looked as creamy and beautiful as it always had.
As the vampires moved toward the entrance to the infirmary, Charley slipped his arms around Fress’s
Shoulders. She immediately relaxed against him, saying in a low voice that only he could hear, ”Charley would you be embarrassed if I told you that I heard everything that you said to me in the back of Lux’s SUV? Because I did.”
They were in the hallway then, and Charley turned so that he was standing in front of her. One of his hands was still around her waist. The look on his face was both playful and serious at the same time.
“Saying what is true never embarrasses me, Fress. Moments of crisis tend to clarify and crystallize our innermost feelings… sometimes feelings that we don’t have the cojones to admit to ourselves. I know that I am now fully aware of my feelings for you.
All of them.” he finished, taking her chin in one hand and tilting her head back to kiss her. As the couple stood in the hallway kissing they were aware of the other members of their vampire tribe passing by them. Charley glanced to the side and saw Lux smirking at him. Cass patted him on the back as he passed, with Charley’s mom Mitzi in tow. Everyone seemed to be congregating in the kitchen, and the sound of corks popping and Mitzi giggling and saying ”I love pink champagne!” floated back to the couple in the hallway.
As time hung suspended, the two reunited lovers continued kissing.
Several days had passed. Cass, Lux, Pierre and Charley were spending every spare hour in the Farm outbuildings near the horse barn tinkering with alternative forms of energy. Cass had gotten hold of some solar powered drones, originally invented by grad students at MIT University. Cass was especially determined to be as prepared as possible for as many different scenarios as possible given the paradigm shift taking place.
Though both the national and the local media were silent on the subject, the Citizens Protection Corps continued their sweeps of neighborhoods in each American city in a effort to ‘assure protection‘ to the citizenry by chipping them. Reactions were polarized. Many American citizens resisted and even filed suit against the state and federal government claiming that their Constitutional rights were being violated. Just as many citizens felt that the newest security measures were necessary and needful in times that were becoming more turbulent worldwide. Quite a few appreciated the new simplicity of identification that the implanted RFID devices provided. Those that were chipped never had to worry about keeping track of paper documentation again including birth certificates, social security cards, drivers licenses, diplomas, credit cards, bank account numbers and passports-all that information was already uploaded and encoded within the RFID devices. Scanners that could read RFID information were everywhere. There was no need for RFID implanted citizens to carry cash because purchases could be debited from bank accounts automatically by waving the implant over a digital scanner.
And there were those who thought of the Book of Revelation in the Bible, and 666 and 1984, and there were meetings of Concerned Citizens groups. At least in the beginning. There were lawsuits and Hearings before Congress. For awhile.
And then the silence. The silence was a layered silence, born of the mute voices of those who had been apprehended and rounded up and now were entombed alive in detention facilities without due process of Law by the same officials and laws that they had supported in order to protect themselves from potential threats of terrorism. It was also a silence born of the desperation of those who did not agree with the chipping but suffered it in silence out of fear.
Most of all it was a silence born out of ultimate betrayal of trust.
Castor Noble was putting the finishing touches on a steam powered motorbike when Lux strolled into the workshop carrying the classified section of the morning paper. Exchanges between the brothers had been terse lately. It seems that there was much to do and a dearth of time to do it in.
“Brother!” Lux said as he rounded the corner of a large metallic object to view Cass as Cass, shirtless and covered with streaks of dust and grease, stood up from his crouched position by a strange looking three wheeled motorbike.
“Hey yourself!” Cass retorted amicably. ”Well if it isn’t the Tooth Fairy come to life! What a beautiful creature you are! I would fain swoon… only then you’d probably fang me!” Cass finished his teasing with a mischievous grin.
“HAH!” Lux replied.” I see that you are disarmed and mesmerized by my classic features and long blonde mane! But alas I have given my heart to another… someone that can grow a better mustache and beard than you!”
“Hi Lux”, Cass said stepping forward to give Lux a guy hug, heedless of the white tee-shirt Lux had stretched over his taut and muscular body and getting grease on it in the process.
“Missed you lately.” Lux admitted to his brother, hugging him back in spite of the grime. ”How are you doing? The only time I’ve seen you lately is in group meetings when you’re on your soapbox-not that you ever get OFF of your soapbox. How’s the family life?”
“Great,” Cass replied without hesitation. ”Cory and Ab are quite the young men now-getting secretive, probably thinking about girls and whacking off a lot. Mitzi and I have organized a few get together with other home schooled vamps their age around the area… fortunately they’re all females. One is ‘frozen’ at the age she was turned like
Jaxon, but she was about 16 when she was Turned so she isn’t taking growth enhancement treatments like Jaxon, she doesn’t have to. And Jaxon is looking good btw-he has the appearance of a 16 year old now himself so he is invited to the ‘young people assemblies’ as Mitzi insists on calling them. I get the impression that the twins are rather pissed at the competition. Jaxon is a great looking young dude! Fress tells me he has a sort of girlfriend now from the group-the one that was Turned at 16.”
“What’s her name?” Lux wanted to know, reaching in to a mini fridge to grab a sanguo.
“Rosie. Cute huh?” Cass answered chuckling. “She has a flower name, and she isn’t even a half-fay!”
“No no no,” Lux demurred, ”Female Fays have flower LAST names, not surnames. Guys have nature based names – like ‘wood’.”
“What about Michiella?” Cass wanted to know. ”And what’s Brick’s last name anyway?”
“Amazing.” Lux answered. ”Amazing - and also sad - that I know more about your household staff than you do! Both Mick and Brick are HALF fay, so the normal rules don’t necessarily apply. However,” he continued, ”Mick told me her real first name is Aster and she goes by her middle name, and Brick’s last name IS Wood, FYI.”
Cass frowned at the information, and had to concede that his brother had a point. With all the strange upheavals going on, it was an incredible oversight on his part not to have checked the background of his household staff. They had gotten Maia from Looz’s family so he was confident that SHE was okay… but there were some quasi -disturbing things he had noticed about Mick and Brick at times. Not to mention that when they consulted with each other they invariably talked in Fay tongue, which no one in the immediate family spoke well aside from Fressenda. Cass himself only knew about 20 words of the strange language.
Recently, entering the hydroponic greenhouse he thought he had heard them drop Charley’s name in one of their animated clicking and chirping conversations. They had stopped speaking abruptly as soon as he entered the greenhouse, but he had though it odd at the time that Charley had been mentioned at all, since although he often stayed at the farm he was rarely there except for sleeping and had the least contact with the couple out of them all.