Midnight Squad: The Ties That Bind

by J. L. M. Visada

  “I’ll make it up to you when we get home. I’ll run you a hot bath, and give you a massage.” Niki cooed.

  “It sounds like you’re just trying to get into my pants.”

  “Hey, can you think of a better way to say I’m sorry?”

  “How is it an apology when you are going to get to have mind-blowing freaky sex with me? It seems like you are getting rewarded for bad behavior.” Danika grumbled playfully.

  “Well, if it bothers you that much then, fine, no sex tonight.” Niki teased.

  “Hush your mouth, woman! Apology accepted, and there will be sex. Much sex! A veritable avalanche of sex! An exploding volcanic orgy of lesbianism, and afterward there will be ice cream. Then more sex, and then a foot rub, and then MORE SEX! I want a hurricane of lust, an earthquake of bow-chikka-wow-wow!” Danika kissed her partner, and pinched her on the butt.

  “Please, stop. I’d like to be able to have an erection sometime in the next decade.” Grim groaned.

  “Oh, like you can say anything, Sir Fuxalot!” Danika said, and then immediately Niki cackled.

  “Sir Fuxalot?” Grim stopped and glared.

  Niki laughed, “It’s our nickname for you. You and Penny are at it so much we gave you cute little porno nicknames. You’re Sir Fuxalot, and she’s…” Niki looked embarrassed.

  “What am I?” Penny sounded almost ready for an argument.

  “I’d rather not say. Especially considering how tetchy you’ve been recently.” Niki said very carefully.

  “NIKI PETERSON YOU TELL ME WHAT YOU TWO CALL ME BEHIND MY BACK RIGHT NOW!” Penny stomped her foot, and her arm fell off again.

  We all tried not to laugh. She was glaring at us all. Blood covering her face from gnawing on a were earlier. Her pretty dress completely ruined. Even her hair was matted in blood and gore. We probably should have all been terrified, but instead we all began laughing. We wouldn’t have laughed nearly as hard, but then Sam grumbled about how weird we all were. Well, that just tipped us all over. It was infectious. I laughed so hard tears were streaming down my face, and near the end I saw even Grim was holding his ribs because he was laughing so hard. Sam just stared at us like we were a group of idiots, and Penny tried to pout about it, but for some reason it just made everything funnier.

  “I’m glad you all find this so hilarious, but would someone mind opening a vein for me so that I can please get my arm to stay in place? How about you, newbie?”

  Sam sputtered, “I don’t think so. You don’t really seem to like me, and I don’t think it’d be healthy to let you eat on me.”

  “I might like you a lot more if you let me have a nibble, and besides, as hungry as I am, I’d really miss everyone else.” Why Penny was trying to intimidate my friend was beyond me, but it was starting to get annoying. Especially since I couldn’t tell if she was really joking or not.

  “With all the blood we gave you earlier, you still need more?” Niki questioned.

  “Almost all of it went to just stopping the decomposition. I was pretty far gone. Reattaching my arm is taking a lot more energy than I really have.”

  “What about that werewolf you were gnawing on?” I asked.

  “Well, in a perfect world I’d have been able to munch him down, but he kept wiggling and so I couldn’t really get fed. It was a lot harder to get his blood into me, but maybe if I’d have had BOTH FUCKING ARMS!” Penny waved the detached arm around, and it just flopped all over. It was like a bad Halloween prop.

  “So you really do need more blood?” I asked.

  “It’s that or you all start calling me Stumpy, and from now I’ll go to every costume party as a pirate. At least until I can grab a full meal or two.”

  “Well you fed on Niki and Danika, I’m assuming it’s probably still too soon to get a full meal from Grim, Katy isn’t here, you might actually eat Sam, so that just leaves…me.” Suddenly I felt really and truly nervous.

  “Yep, you’re the winner-winner-chicken-dinner.” Penny said as she moved towards me. I tried not to think of the dried blood caked on her face, but it was already grossing me out. Penny circled around me, getting ready to take what she wanted, and if I wasn’t so close to throwing up I’d probably be pretty turned on right now.

  She was just inches away when I squeaked, “Can we go somewhere a little more private? Please?” Penny froze, and suddenly looked very embarrassed. Finally, she nodded and led me behind some bushes where the others couldn’t watch.

  “Thanks.”

  Penny grinned, and bits of werewolf were stuck between her teeth. “Don’t sweat it, and thanks for letting me do this. I owe you big time.”

  “It doesn’t really seem like I have much of an option.” Even as the words left my mouth, I was wishing I could take them back. Penny flinched almost like she’d been slapped, and I guess in a way she had. For all Penny’s faults, she really does try and respect us. She loves us, and wants what’s best for all of us. It’s just that her version of what’s best doesn’t always agree with what we would want. Her heart’s in the right place, but it’s a vampire heart. That means vampire logic, vampire cares, desires, and dreams. At least I think that’s how it works, but a lot of the time I think she’s just pretending to be the big bad vampire. For all her tough talk, she really does seem pretty sensitive about things, and now I just went and made it sound like she was forcing me to let her feed. Smooth, DD. Really smooth. “I mean, you need to eat, and right now I’m your only option. I’m just sorry you don’t have more options.”

  “Oh.”

  “Yeah, I mean. I know you’d probably prefer someone else, but…” I froze. Penny’s eyes fixed me in place. They were nervous, but kind.

  “I can’t think of anyone else I’d want to be back here with right now. Well Grim, but that’s a given. I’m happy to be back here with you, though.” She smiled again, and a big chunk of werewolf dangled out at me. I must have turned a little green. “What’s wrong?” She said.

  “You have chunks of victim in your teeth.” I said nervously.

  “Oh geez!” Penny turned around and began trying to get the meaty chunks out. “Where’s a toothpick when you need one.” She grumbled. Finally, she made that sound that you make when you suck your tongue against your teeth to get something out from between them. Then she turned around, and still looked pretty embarrassed. “Sorry.”

  “It’s okay, I didn’t want to say anything, but it was kind of….”

  “Gross.” Penny sighed sadly.

  “Well, yeah. Blood and gore really doesn’t have much appeal to me. Sorry.”

  “No! No! It’s okay. I like blood for food, but I’m not real big on gore either, and to be honest, I have a pretty weak stomach.”

  “Seriously, you’ve got little clumps of dried blood all over you, and you’re going to try and get me to believe you have a weak stomach?”

  “It’s true. Niki had some bar-b-que stuck in her teeth a while back, and I nearly got sick. It just hung out there…taunting me.”

  I laughed, “I’m pretty sure it wasn’t taunting you. I just can’t see you getting grossed out.”

  “Well technically, I don’t have a gag reflex anymore. Being undead does have some perks, one of them being that reflexes aren’t really an issue anymore. If something grosses me out, I just tell my body not to react, and poof! Like magic, nothing happens.”

  “Like magic? If it was like magic, something would happen.”

  “Okay fine Miss Smarty-Pants. Poof, like congress, nothing happens.” Penny grinned.

  “So you really get grossed out like everyone else?” I asked.

  “In a lot of ways I’m just like any of you, but in other ways I’m not. It makes things difficult sometimes. There are things I want to do, but I’m afraid because I can’t always be sure how you will respond.” Penny looked nervous.

  “Could you two hurry it up back there? We need to be out of here before someone finds us and starts asking why there’s a crazy one-armed redhead covered in blood
standing out in the woods.” Danika yelled, and immediately I got self-conscious.

  “Are you as nervous about this as I am?” I asked.

  “No.”

  “No?”

  Penny smiled, “I’m a lot more nervous. I’m scared that afterward you’ll hate me for how my bite might make you feel. I worry that you’ll think I’m just using this as an excuse to bite you, and that you won’t believe me when I tell you that I’m doing this out of necessity. I’m kind of scared that you’ll be disappointed, and expect something more than what I can do. Also, I’m sad.”

  “Sad?”

  “I just wish that we could do this under better circumstances. You deserve a lot better than a bite behind the bushes with me looking like I do right now.” It was all out there. She really was just like everyone else. For all her big tough talk, she was every bit as self-conscious and nervous as the rest of us. I realized right then that I’ve made a terrible mistake in how I’ve been dealing with her. I’ve treated her like a caged tiger that might just attack on a whim. Instead, she’s a real person, and she has all the hang-ups and emotional baggage that everyone else does.

  “It’s okay, just do me a favor.” I said nervously.

  “What?” Penny sounded a little afraid. I’m not sure what she thought I was going to ask, but I immediately realized that Penny had an overly healthy fear of rejection. Maybe that’s why she loved Grim so much. He accepted her as she was, and really only got angry when he thought she was trying to put on an act.

  “Well, I’m sorry if this sounds hurtful. The last thing I want to do is hurt your feelings.” Penny was about to say something, but I put my finger onto her lips to quiet her. I think her pride was about to step in and rear its ugly head, and probably make a bigger mess of the situation. “Can you bite me from behind? The blood all over your face is kind of creeping me out, but I think I’d be able to relax and enjoy it more if I didn’t have to stare at all that dried blood. Think of it like nibbling on Niki after she ate bar-b-que.” Penny relaxed. My explanation seemed to have put her at ease.

  She circled around behind me. Then gently wrapped her arms around my body. I could feel her chest pressing against my back. Penny leaned into my neck. I’m an inch taller than her so I had to lean back into her a bit to make things more comfortable for both of us. Her chest was like a wonderful pillow against my back. Penny kissed my neck, and shivers went through me.

  “You deserve so much better than this.” She said, sadly.

  “I don’t mind.”

  “I do.”

  I wrapped my arms up around her head and pulled her closer. “All I want is you.” I heard the words come out of my mouth, and the scary thing was that right then, I meant every word. I wanted her.

  “Oh, DD.” Penny’s voice was thick with lust. Before I had any time to really think it through, her lips gripped onto my neck, and she gave a hard suck. There were no teeth yet, but I moaned and relaxed into her. “I’m sorry, I can’t hold back.” Penny was already sounding ragged, and panting. Actually panting, and suddenly I swelled with pride that I could have that kind of effect on her.

  “Then don’t.” I moaned.

  I heard the fangs snap forward. Some part of my brain tried to shout out a warning to the rest of me, but its screams were smothered by a tidal wave of lust. At that point, anything she wanted to do was perfectly okay by me. If she wanted, I’d beg for it. Thank God that she seemed to be just as bad off as I was, if not worse. I felt her teeth break the skin, and contrary to how they portray it in movies. There is nothing pleasurable about that initial bite. It hurts. It hurts like losing your virginity to a telephone pole…times five. I felt as she forced her fangs in more deeply. The grippers that extend to hold her fangs in place when she feeds were already extended. I’ve never seen her like that. Normally, they extend after she’s bitten down. Instead, they were partially extended, and it made for more tearing as she sank them deeper. I tried not to scream, but I did whimper a little. Even still, as I felt them tearing, and ripping deeper into my neck, I kept thinking about how I was effecting her. I grabbed her head and tried to force her deeper into my neck. The sound of shock, and lust, and…release came from Penny. I know I was bleeding, but suddenly I felt something else. It was like something was squirting into the wound. It was even squirting onto my neck. I realized that her grippers were already shooting their pleasure-inducing venom. She hadn’t even gotten all the way into my neck yet.

  As soon as she started, she was already pulling away “Oh geez! This is so embarrassing.” To say I was confused is an understatement. She’d definitely bit me, but shot most of her venom before actually sinking her fangs into me deep enough for it to really work on me properly. The result was that the venom healed me right up, but that’s about it. I felt a little tingly, and my shirt was wet from where the venom ran down my neck. More than anything there was just a lot of confusion.

  “Oh, I’m so sorry.” Penny looked almost ready to cry.

  “Hey, it’s okay. This kind of stuff happens.” Wow, I suddenly felt like I was reliving most of my sex life.

  “It does not happen. Not to me.”

  “Except it just did.” The words slipped out before I had a chance to reign them in. It would have been funny if Penny didn’t look like she’d just swallowed nails. So I immediately began trying to do damage control. I might not be much of a fighter, and I might not have any special powers like the other girls, but for once I was uniquely qualified to handle this situation. Sadly, I couldn’t decide who to feel worse for. Penny for having the vampire equivalent of premature ejaculation, or me for having so much experience dealing with it that I immediately knew to go into ego damage control. “Maybe we could just try again?”

  “No.”

  “No?” I asked, and I did my very best to make it sound like there was no pressure on her to perform.

  “I…oh Lord, this is embarrassing.”

  “What?”

  Penny sighed, “I used all my venom. I’m tapped out. I can’t make more until I feed, and anyone I feed on is going to hurt pretty bad until I get healed up enough to start producing venom again.”

  “So it’s like a vampire refractory period?” Which by Penny’s reaction was clearly a wrong answer. She looked insulted.

  “Can we please not discuss this like I’m a thirteen year old boy going through puberty?”

  Niki yelled from the other side of the bushes, “Can you two hurry up? We can’t stay out here forever.”

  “We’re coming, just keep your panties on.” Penny snapped. She started holding herself, and looking both nervous, and embarrassed. “What am I going to do?”

  “It’s not that bad.” I tried to soothe her as best I could, but it really wasn’t doing much.

  “This is so embarrassing.” Penny’s voice was a sad whisper.

  Finally, seeing that there was really only one way out of it that saved Penny some face I started moaning, panting, and faking the big “O” to the best of my abilities. Sadly, I had far too much practice with this during my dating history. When I finished howling my way through it, Penny was just standing there in shock. I think I just gave a performance that would have made Meg Ryan proud. I cooed, “Oh that was so good, but Penny…your arm isn’t healing. I guess you’re hurt worse than we thought. Right”

  It took Penny a moment to catch on, “Oh yeah. It looks like I’ll have to try to feed again later.” She mouthed thank you, and she meant it. I’d just spared her dignity, and that meant a whole lot to her. Penny wrapped her good arm around me, and whispered, “Thank you. I owe you big time.”

  I sighed, and then quietly whispered, “Rain check.” I pinched her on the butt, and Penny jumped a bit, but was grinning from ear to ear.

  Chapter 15

  “Are you sure you don’t want a ride back?” Sam asked. Part of me wanted to follow him, and then maybe pick up where we’d left off, but right now we need to stay in a group. Getting split up was the absolute worst thing for
us to do, but my hoo-hoo was almost ready to lead an armed revolution. A little time with B.O.B. would take the edge off, but it was like drinking a diet soda. When you want the real thing, everything else is a poor replacement, but it’s better than getting nothing.

  “No, but thank you Sam.” I leaned in and kissed him on the cheek. “It’s probably safest if you aren’t with us.”

  Sam shrugged, “I know you’re planning on leaving, but if you are still here tomorrow, would you like to be my date?”

  “I don’t see us staying, but if we do then, yes. I’d like that a lot.” Great, I finally meet a guy that wants to go out, and people are trying to kill us. Why is karma so against me having sex? It didn’t help my mood any that as soon as I said yes, I heard Penny grumbling. The vampire wasn’t happy about it. Too bad, I still had a t-shirt that was soggy from Penny’s little happy venom whoopsie.

  Sam ignored the one armed vampire, and moved back toward his car. Almost anyone else would have run off screaming, and I think his slow departure deserves a lot of credit. How often do you see a blood covered redhead with a bloody stump were her arm should be? The rest of us walked towards wherever Grim had parked. It was a lot longer walk than I expected, but eventually we made it. Grim went to the back of the van. Then after digging around for a while, Grim popped out with duct tape.

  “What?” Penny said incredulously.

  “Everything is better with duct tape!” Grim laughed.

  “You can’t be serious.”

  Grim had a funny look in his eyes, “Come on baby, think of it as a new art project.”

  “It’s my arm!” Penny howled.

  “Really? I don’t think it got the memo. In fact if we don’t attach it soon I’m going to name it.”

  “This isn’t funny.” Penny said through clenched teeth.

  “I shall call her…Rosie!” Grim laughed maniacally.

  “Also, not funny.”

  “And she has five sisters!” Grim was cackling now.

  “Still not funny, but keep it up and I can tell you right now that Rosie won’t be saying hello to Mr. Happy anytime soon.” Penny gave an evilly determined grin.