by Angela Foxxe
As the sun dipped into the Puget Sound, Reign and Cara were stepping out of a cab in front of ‘21’, a popular club downtown that had an upper level for over 21, and a lower level for 16-21. Reign had always thought it was an insane idea, theoretically the two crowds didn’t mix, but Reign knew of several girls she went to school with who got picked up outside the club by older men, and it usually didn’t end well for them.
Reign couldn’t help but admire her friend. Reign didn’t consider herself amazing, but she knew she was pretty, a little round perhaps, but pretty none the less, with moderate breasts, and a nice round rump that she considered her best feature.
But Cara… Cara is what women who had plastic surgery try to look like. Six feet tall without heels, long, soft brown hair, fine features, bright blue eyes, a rack that defied gravity, and legs that seemed to be drawn, not made. She wore a plain white dress that curved with her and stopped just above her knees, and it flowed so there was the illusion that any second you could see her form. Under the dress, she wore a wicked red thong, and no bra, letting her nipples show through the thin fabric in the cold air.
Right, this was the plan, wasn’t it? Draw in flies with honey, but damn I feel a little jealous, how did Richard ever chose me over her?
No one even gave Reign a first look as they walked into the club arm in arm, even though Reign was dressed much more conservatively. She had a green dress with an empire waist, and it ended just after her knees. Her hair was closer to blond now, and she had it braided so it looked even shorter. What they needed now was to blend in and look for her target.
“I didn’t think to ask,” said Cara, “how will we know who’s a vamp?”
Reign smiled. “The same way I know you’re a werewolf, your aura.”
Reign let her vision slip and soon she was seeing through the Fade, the auras in the room were a kaleidoscope of colors and emotions. In the Fade, she could sense more than just the person, she could see what they were feeling, if they were sick, and apparently if they were drinking or were on mind altering drugs, as several of the people had a hazy cloud where there heads would normally be.
“This is incredible, it’s so beautiful,” she said to her friend.
* * *
Pearson wandered the top room of 21 in a foul mood. It was strong enough that most people left him alone. The waitress came to him with his usual drink, which sat untouched on his table for the last half hour. He should never had listened to that human, sending the gunmen after the mage had been a mistake. But how was he supposed to know she was guarded by a werewolf pack? Mages never took up with the fleabags, the stupid wolves tried so hard to conceal their existence they ended up living miserable lives alone in the wilderness.
Pearson finally took a drink of his Bloody-Mary, made with Dulci’s private stock, which unbeknownst to the mixer, was actual blood. It sustained him, but despite popular media, blood was not what they craved.
The essence of a person, who they were, who they would be, that is what satiated their ever-growing thirst. The food they kept in the kennel of the mansion wasn’t as satisfying as the prey they caught themselves.
The rabbits in the world still believed in their dreams, in their futures, and that was an attraction all its own.
While they could live off caught prey, each day they were captive made the meal less and less satisfying.
Perhaps if he were allowed to feed on the wolf, with his strong will and body, that would be satisfying, but Dulci kept him all to herself. He scoffed inwardly at her plan; he took another drink and motioned for the waitress to refill his glass. Turning werewolves into thralls had never worked, it couldn’t work, they were too stubborn, but she had faith in her magic chain the retched mage crafted for her.
Magic, he hated they had to deal with humans as equals. They were all prey, magic or not. The waitress, a young pretty ginger with luscious lips, put the glass on his table on a napkin with her number on it. Pearson was tempted, the girl had a hunger about her that would taste divine, not to mention how it would feel to plunder her body of all its virtue.
But the staff were off limits, this was hunting grounds, no killing, no feeding on the same person twice in a row, no making a nuisance of themselves. Wolves and vampires were not the only thing that hunted in the night, and Pearson shuddered at the thought of what might be out looking for him as a meal.
He waved his ill thoughts away and decided it was time to hunt. He knocked the rest of his drink back and went down the short steps to the dance floor. He opened his senses to the crowd, letting him smell and hear everything. His own aura darkened and interacted with those around him. He smiled as he felt the effects, he couldn’t see auras after all, but he could feel them. Like a black hole, his aura would attract bright ones around him, the brighter the aura, the stronger the attraction. He knew how this would manifest physically, even if he couldn’t see it.
He made his way back and forth through the crowded room. There were many girls tonight, but he was only looking for one, one special one. As he passed girls on the dance floors their nipples hardened, their body temperature rose, their pupils dilated, and their arousal became instant. The stronger their aura, the greater his effect on them. It was an unseen lure and it was designed to capture the brightest stars.
He stopped, he’d found her. She was young, he couldn’t imagine she was twenty-one, but the club looked the other way when the girls came upstairs to party. She had long blond hair that fell on her shoulders in ringlets. Her body, while shapely and pleasing to his eye, still had the fat of youth on it, no, she was eighteen at most. She was there with a man, of course, Pearson chuckled at the thought, she would soon learn his sway.
He glided to her, letting the full effect of his power encompass her before he even met her. He could see her cheeks suddenly brighten, her eyelids closed somewhat, her hand started moving at her sides, and she squirmed just a little bit. The halfwit at her side pawing at her ass, assumed she was into him and reached for her breast. She started to protest but the man just kissed her on the mouth. Perfect, thought Pearson.
He was there at her side, her knight come to rescue her. With one hand, he grabbed the man by the scruff and pulled him off her.
“What the fuck, bro?” the man said to him.
Pearson looked him hard in the eye, letting his will slide over the man’s until his gaze bore down on the human like a semi truck.
“Go for a long walk, then go home, forget about tonight,” he said in a stern voice.
The man nodded and walked away. The girl’s eyes were glossed over, her body was aching for something and Pearson knew just what to do. He took her hand in his and kissed the back of it. The girl gasped, pleasure he was sure she’d never felt before. He took her arm and wordlessly led her toward the private booths. They were mostly for the occasional celebrity, but Dulci’s people could use them if they were empty, and they were.
They called them booths, but they were more rooms than anything else, thick curtains cordoned off a small area, with a booth in the back.
“What’s your name?” he said in a smooth voice as he turned her around to admire her body. She was shorter than him, which he liked, tall women were hard to manage.
“Anya, it’s Anya,” she said in a somewhat dreamy voice. He smiled, it was rare to meet a girl so susceptible to his power, usually the closer she got to feeding, the more she resisted, as their hind brain recognized the uncanny valley before them and told them to run, even if they didn’t know why.
Anya, however, seemed completely under his power; he decided to enjoy it and take his time, even though his hunger was strong.
“Dance for me, Anya,” he said as he sat in the booth. She began to sway to music only she could hear, her hips moving back and forth; she ran her hands up her body cupping her large breasts along the way, her other hand traveled between her legs, she let out a little moan and shivered.
His penis stirred and hardened under her erotic play, perhaps he would kee
p her. They were occasionally allowed personal thralls, and if he did, she would just be another missing girl in a city of over a million people.
“Strip,” he commanded.
She hesitated a little, but he bore his will down on her and her mind collapsed. She slid the dress over her shoulders an inch at a time. Her hips still swaying as she pulled her top down over her bra, then to her waist, and finally she stepped out of it. Clad in just a bra and panties she offered a tantalizing treat to him, young and full of possibilities, he would enjoy taking all of that from her, one day at a time. He licked his lips and he motioned for her to continue. He unzipped his own pants freeing his rock hard member.
She unclipped her bra, releasing her young tits to him, round and full with tiny nipples that were barely darker than her skin, then she pushed her panties down to her feet and stepped out of those as well. Pearson sighed, it was his lucky night. He motioned her toward him, he would enjoy taking his time with her, he pushed her down to her knees and guided her warm mouth to his dick. He leaned back as he let nature take its course.
* * *
“Dammit,” Reign swore, “I lost him.”
She and Cara followed one to a secondary room; it was a smaller dance hall where the DJ for the second floor was. It fit about fifty people and it was also the only way down to the first floor. Two large men in black shirts labeled ‘security’ stood at the stairs, no one was getting up or down that way.
There were some bathrooms at the other end, and she motioned to Cara, who went to check them. Reign looked about with her enhanced vision, and while she could see everyone there, she realized the walls were stopping her.
“Damn, damn.” She snapped her normal eyes back and looked around. There was a bar, some booths, the bathrooms, and a small row of VIP rooms. She ran to the bar, she didn’t think she had much time, Cara was sure the vamp was hunting and she didn’t want someone else dying because she wasn’t fast enough. By the time Cara returned from checking the hall and bathrooms all that was left were the three VIP booths.
“Can you smell or hear anything?” Reign asked.
Cara gave her a sideways look. “In here? I may be a good tracker but there’s just no way,” she said with a frown.
“Okay, lets go over by the booths, maybe we can get lucky, but I don’t want to get thrown out before we find him.” The VIP rooms were really just very thick theatrical curtains hung from the ceiling and acted as the fourth wall to three rooms that had been constructed around the booths in the corner.
She motioned for Cara to listen to the first room. Cara held her head close to the curtain for a moment. Reign looked to security who was looking back and talking into his radio.
“We’re almost out of time, anything?” she asked. Cara shook her head, they moved to the next one. Cara’s eyebrows furrowed and she moved a little closer.
She looked to Reign and motioned. “I hear some slurping, could be the one, or it could be a guy getting a blow job,” Cara said. Reign nodded they would have to take the chance. She let her vision slip back into the Fade and she put her hand on Cara’s shoulder; it was dark in here and the walls were hard to see in the Fade. She squeezed and Cara went in.
At first Reign was puzzled, she could see the bright pink aura of a girl, she knelt before a man, obviously giving him head, but the man’s aura… it was black, like a giant hole in the Fade. She suddenly felt dizzy and she could feel Cara stiffen next to her.
“This must be my lucky night girls, there’s plenty of me to go around,” he said in a very smooth, soft voice. Cara took a step, but couldn’t stop herself from going and kneeling next to the man, suddenly Reign saw her friend share a kiss with the young girl who was there and then they were both sucking the man’s dick.
Anger burned the dizzy out of Reign. She could see tendrils of black wrapping around Cara and reaching out for her, pulling her aura to his. The poor girl who was already there was practically choking on the tendrils and didn’t even know it.
Suddenly Reign understood. They couldn’t be killed, not because they weren’t alive, but because they weren’t actually here. The black hole that was the vampire’s aura was just that, it was not in the shape of a man, but simply all there was.
It must project a physical form into her world, as if she projected hers into the Fade. She needed another moment to study his form, so she slowly walked forward, mimicking Cara’s stumbling. Cara was pushing the girl's head down on to the man’s dick and holding it there, a look of joy and glee on her face.
Reign had enough. She held out her hand and a blade of white light shot out, severing all the tentacles between the man and the girls. The girl sputtered and screamed as she pulled her head up. Cara looked confused, as did the vampire.
“What, what did you do?” he said, shock apparent on his face.
“Cara, help the girl, me and this fellow are going to have a little chat.”
“Reign, what’s going on, I…”
“It’s okay, I’ll explain later, but first, get her dressed and in a cab, she needs to go home.”
Cara obeyed; quickly she helped the now sobbing, near hysterical girl get dressed. It only took a minute and they were gone. Reign stayed in the Fade the entire time; in her hand, she grasped the sword of light she used to sever the vampire’s tendrils, and while she didn’t think he even knew what he was, she could see his reaction as she waved the blade near his aura.
“What’s your name, vampire?” she said. He looked up to her, his eyes narrowing.
“Who are you? What have you done, how do you know what I am?” he questioned, with an undercurrent of fear in his voice.
“Let’s not pretend you have any power here.” She waved the sword near his aura and it shrank away from the light. In the physical world, he cringed and grasped his side.
“How?” he said through clenched teeth.
“I’ll ask the questions, answer me or the next time you will feel my sting.” She tried to muster as much menace as she could in her voice. To her she sounded a little bit ridiculous. But then again, she was wielding a sword made of light, threatening a vampire.
You would think I would be afraid.
“Pearson,” he finally said.
“Good. How old are you?” she asked, more out of curiosity than need.
“Two hundred, not counting my time as a human.”
Not nearly as old as Richard, but then again she got the feeling few were.
Time to get down to business.
“Where’s Richard?”
“Who?”
She stabbed the blob of darkness with the sword. The man screamed a guttural howl that she was sure would bring security. Tears welled up in his eyes and sprung forth and he sobbed.
“I don’t know who that is, please believe me,” he sobbed, holding his leg as if she had stabbed him.
“The werewolf, the one your men took, with the bitch who looks like she belongs in a bondage video --- tell me where he is or I swear to god I will erase you from the universe.”
From the look Pearson gave her, she knew he believed her.
“I didn’t know his name, I’m sorry, I swear,” he whimpered. “We are holding him in the basement of the mansion. Please let me go, I promise I’ll leave.”
Somehow, Reign had expected it to be much harder than this. The curtain opened and Cara came in. Pearson jumped up and vanished in a puff of smoke.
But Reign saw what actually happened, he opened a door to the Fade and went through it. She grabbed Cara’s hand, opened the same door, and followed.
*
Cara gasped and shuddered as they moved through the Fade. The vampire shot through the Fade like an arrow, but he did not go far. Reign figured that he could go maybe a little more than a mile. They appeared in an alley just moments behind him. Cara dropped to her knees and vomited everything she ate that day.
Still holding her hand, Reign stayed focused, another door was there.
“Sorry, honey,” she said, opening
the door and dragging Cara through it.
“Fuck no,” Cara screamed before her voice was lost in the rush of the Fade. Reign followed the vampire’s trail, a thick blackness left by his passing. The Fade rushed by as Reign moved them through.
She felt a disturbance this time, almost a turbulence, dragging at her. She looked to Cara. Cara was there with her, but so was her wolf, together mixed as one, both surprised by their presence in the same place at the same time.
The door opened and she and Cara were back in the real world. Cara jerked her hand from Reign’s fiercely before vomiting again.
Reign looked around, she saw no more doors. It took her a moment to recognize where they were. Lake Union. To the east was the lake and the Ship Canal Bridge, a giant span that stretched more than five hundred feet up and over the lake. They stood on the cliffs overlooking the lake. Reign turned around and she knew they found the right place. One of half a dozen mansions overlooked the Lake; the closest one had to be it.