Exsanguination

by DeDanaan, Sean

  “It was amazing. He actually lasted a week from the time he was skewered!”

  “Wow, imagine suffering like that for a week.”

  Ollie slid off the stool onto the floor, shaking like he was afflicted with some sort of nervous disorder as tears rolled down his cheeks and he sobbed.

  “Oh God! Please! No! I’ll do anything!” his speech was barely coherent.

  Azar held up a finger. “If I remember accurately, there was an alternative to the execution, wasn’t there?”

  Nikki had no idea where to take this one-act play. “I think so.”

  “Yes,” Azar said slowly. “If the individual in question can convince the person who is to carry out the sentence to accept the condemned as property, the executioner can suspend the execution,” she looked down at the young man who immediately reacted.

  He threw himself forward at her feet, wrapping his arms around her calves. “Yes! Please take me! I will do anything you wish!”

  “Oh,” she sighed and shook her head, “I don’t know.”

  His arms tightened. “Oh please! Please!” he sobbed loudly.

  “Very well, I accept you and I will call you Toady. You have no other name, is that clear?”

  “Yes! Yes! Toady!”

  “Get up. Stand.”

  As he regained his feet, Azar tapped the bridge of her nose. “Look me in the eyes, Toady.”

  Nikki listened as she gave him instructions and the three left the room with Toady following at a respectful distance of three feet.

  Returning upstairs, Azar set the pitcher down on the dining room table next to the glasses she’d requested earlier. Going to the morning room, she got everyone’s attention.

  “There is a special treat in the dining room, everyone!”

  Minutes later, Phillip watched as his sister poured blood into the wine glasses. She held one aloft.

  “This feast comes to you courtesy of The Church of the Divine Stigmata!” she turned to Toady. “Would you like to say grace, Toady?”

  His stomach churned in horror as he shook his head quickly. Azar raised her glass and everyone joined in, including the twelve security guards. Everyone except Phillip, who refused to partake.

  Azar moved up next to Nikki and put her arm around her shoulder. She spoke loudly. “I didn’t get this information alone. Nikki was a great help and I believe I have found a kindred soul in this woman.”

  Phillip watched Nikki grin widely as she put her arm around Azar’s waist. He couldn’t believe it! How could his sister engage in torture? Then he remembered how she’d treated Joe before he was turned.

  “If we run out, there’s another pitcher where that came from. It’s being kept warm at a steady ninety-eight point six!” Laughter filled the dining room.

  “I’ll be right back,” Azar kissed Nikki on her cheek and Phillip let out a sigh of hopelessness. He had lost his sister to this monster.

  Vanessa glanced at Toady and then turned to Azar. “What’s this about?”

  Azar smiled. “A virgin. I’m keeping him. Nothing to worry about. He’s completely under compulsion. A mere suggestion from me is a command to him. I’m quite sure it’s ripping him apart inside.”

  “I protest this!” Phillip had been driven to the edge.

  “Protest?” Azar laughed softly in response.

  “This is no different than slavery!”

  Everyone was staring at him, some blankly but others with disapproval.

  “Tell me,” Azar smiled, “if you have a dog and it obeys your instructions, is that slavery?”

  “That’s different!”

  She shook her head. “Not really,” she gestured to the man behind her. “He’s human . . . he’s food . . . nothing more,” she said in a matter of fact tone with a shrug.

  “Phillip,” Vanessa rested her hand on his shoulder, “a word, please?”

  With a final glare at Azar, he followed Vanessa to the drawing room.

  Toady had started to wheeze and Azar eyed him with irritation.

  “What is your problem?”

  He patted his chest. “Asthma.”

  “Oh, Christ in a hot air balloon,” Azar sighed. “Do you have an inhaler?”

  “I used the last of it when we climbed the wall,” his expression was pleading.

  She shook her head in annoyance. “What chemist do you use?”

  He told her and, as his breathing became a bit more laboured, she took him by the arm. Moments later, they were speeding out of the garage in Azar’s 1965 Lotus Elan.

  Toady’s prescription, as it turned out, had expired. Azar pointed out the chemist’s error with a little compulsion and they left with a bag of five inhalers.

  While Azar and Toady were on their errand, in the drawing room, Vanessa looked at Phillip and gestured to the love seat. “Sit down a moment while we talk.” Bringing him a glass of wine, she sat next to him. “I know you have very strong opinions on the matter, Phillip, and I respect that. It’s when, where, and how you voice those opinions that I find disturbing. Virtually everyone in that room disagrees with you quite strongly. Do you really think you can convince them that you’re right with such vehement expressions?”

  “Probably not,” he sighed.

  “I’ll tell you what I believe. I believe you have less of a problem with Azar having a human as a pet than you do with Nikki’s behaviour with Azar.”

  He stared at her. “I don’t want to see my sister turn into that kind of monster. She was downstairs, torturing those men!”

  Vanessa nodded. “And, in some quiet moment alone, she may feel regret over that but you can’t cause that regret with an inflammatory speech. Nikki is who she is and there’s nothing you can do to change that. Her path is her own to follow. My instinct is that she’s not going to turn into another Azar. This is all part of a change in viewpoint. She’s beginning to see humans as food. It’s something we’ve all gone through. It’s a kind of psychological evolution.”

  “I’ll never see them that way,” he said flatly.

  “That’s as may be but you shouldn’t disrespect others for how they feel.”

  His shoulders slumped as he slowly shook his head. Then he looked at her.

  “How can you pull people – humans - out of bomb rubble and still see them as little more than cattle?”

  “The mind works in mysterious ways, darling,” she smiled. “As a species, we are often ruled by contradictory emotions, demonstrating themselves at the oddest of times.”

  She patted his knee. “C’mon, let’s return.”

  Back in the dining room, everyone was still sipping the now cooling blood and chatting. Half an hour later Azar returned and Vanessa gave her an inquiring look.

  “Where were you off to?”

  “It seems that Toady has asthma. I was picking up some medicine for him,” she dangled the bag in front of him. “My room, in the bedside table.”

  As Toady headed up the stairs, Phillip frowned at her and she approached him.

  “I know you don’t like me; in fact, you may well despise me but there are things that you don’t know.”

  “Like what?” he looked at her coldly.

  “I don’t think you’ve accessed Vanessa’s blood memories yet.”

  “Blood memories?” he eyed her warily.

  She nodded. “After you were turned, have you ever fed from her?”

  “No, of course not.”

  “That’s why you have no understanding,” she gestured to Vanessa to join them.

  “You haven’t let him feed on you?”

  Vanessa shook her head.

  “If you don’t want him privy to your ancestral memories, let him have access to mine. I offer myself.”

  Vanessa took a deep breath.

  “What’s this all about?” Phillip’s brow furrowed.

  Azar looked at him. “If you were to feed on Vanessa, you would see all of the major life event memories in her mind, memories from the man who turned her and so on, going back many
thousands of years. If Vanessa hasn’t offered this, it may be due to her not wanting you to have access to all of her memories. You are partnered – engaged as it were and you might find what you see to be disturbing. If she has no objection,” Azar tilted her head, exposing her neck, “the three of us could find some private place,” she straightened.

  Phillip shook his head and Azar sighed.

  “None are so blind . . .”

  “Alright,” he responded sharply, gritting his teeth.

  “Our room,” Vanessa said.

  As Azar reclined on a fainting couch, her head tilted to the side, she spoke. “You will find this overwhelming. The memories through the blood will come so quickly that you won’t be able to understand many of them. It’s after the fact that you’ll be able to recall them.”

  Phillip sank his fangs into Azar’s neck and began to sip. Images began running through his mind at an incredible rate of speed. It was as if he was watching the output of some sort of film projector run amok. After a few minutes, he pulled back, standing unsteadily. Vanessa guided him to a stuffed chair.

  “Now,” she said, “think as far back as you can. Remember that our powers have evolved. We were once as vulnerable as humans - susceptible to sunlight and a variety of other things. You will see things through my eyes and the eyes of my ancestors.”

  Vanessa watched him close his eyes and then she bit her lower lip as his face became contorted with horror.

  Phillip saw a young woman being restrained by two men. It was a very primitive setting, almost set in pre-history. She was staked, spread-eagled, screaming and begging, in the middle of some town square. As the sun slowly rose in the east, the rays began to fall on her. She shrieked in agony as her skin began to blister and smoke. Phillip tried to block the memory but found he couldn’t. The woman was burning alive. When she died, the eyes he was looking through – Azar’s -turned away.

  Phillip opened his eyes with a gasp and sat up straight.

  “Burning! Burning!” he whispered.

  Azar nodded. “Yes, that is one that comes to me often. That woman was like a younger sister to me. It is a memory that drives me.”

  He closed his eyes again, hoping for something less horrid. He saw a man – a vampire – being walled up, sentenced to never die but to starve forever. Other images arose – vampires restrained and having teeth ripped from their heads and worse. Finally, he waved his hands and blocked the thoughts from his mind.

  “Oh, my God!” he said softly, tears welling up in his eyes. “Can you make these go away?”

  Azar shook her head. “They are now your memories just as the ones of this lifetime are. They become less painful over time but they never leave,” she smiled slightly. “We are, all of us, no more than the sum of our memories and those of our ancestors. Some of us react more intensely to them than others. Your love, Vanessa, has managed to temper her feelings. I have no desire to do so. Whether you find you can tolerate humans as she does or come to loathe them, as I do, is up to you, but now you may come to an understanding of who I am and why. The man I killed downstairs was no different than one of those who staked that young woman out to burn to death.”

  As they went downstairs, Phillip had occasional flickers of memories. Some were happy – a vampire looking into the eyes of his beloved, others were horrific, causing his brow to twist and his throat to choke up. When they entered the dining room, he walked to the table and picked up a glass, downing the blood quickly.

  That night and for nights afterwards, Vanessa had to comfort Phillip through nightmares.

  XXXIV

  The following afternoon, in the dining room, Phillip watched as Azar filled her plate from the breakfast buffet.

  She glanced at Toady who stood to the side.

  “Hungry, my little Toady?”

  “Yes, my Lady,” he nodded quickly.

  “Azar grabbed a second plate and piled some scrambled eggs on it. She carried both back and set one plate on the table and the other on the floor next to her chair. As she sat down, she looked at him.

  “Well? Eat!”

  He made to reach out for the plate and Azar spoke sharply. “Hands behind your back, Toady.”

  What a sadistic bitch, Phillip thought as he watched the man eating off the plate like a dog or cat. His revulsion for her behaviour was not as intense now as it was in the past.

  “There you go! That’s a good boy! Eat up!”

  Later that night, Nikki and Azar with Toady following, made their way down to where the remaining man was chained. The pitcher was put next to him and Azar picked up the needle from the previous evening. Nikki held out her hand and Azar shook her head.

  “No, not you,” turning to Toady, she smiled. “You, my darling Toady, will do the honours.”

  Nikki could see the agony on the man’s face as he took the hypodermic and walked to the man who had been his cohort. “I’m sorry, he choked out as he drove the needle in and missed. As he continued to search for the artery, his silenced subject grunted and squealed through his nose. Finally, blood began to flow into the pitcher.

  “Good work, Toady!” Azar tousled his dirty blonde hair as the bleeding man glared at his previous companion.

  Minutes later, in the drawing room, the fresh, warm blood was served all the way around. Azar sat in a plush chair, barefooted, as Toady massaged her feet. She laughed and looked at Nikki. “I truly can’t imagine the emotional horror he must be experiencing doing this.” He looked up as she spoke and she could see the tears welling up in his eyes.

  Memories had been flitting through Phillip’s mind – some summoned and some not. His attitudes were changing and he knew it. “Hopefully, his horror and humiliation are acute.”

  Nikki gave him a surprised and yet approving look. “So, what to do about this Pastor Franks? If we do nothing, I’m sure we haven’t heard the last of him.”

  “Isn’t tomorrow Sunday?” Phillip asked. “We might go attend his service and see what sort of hate he’s spewing.”

  “That might be fun, ”Vanessa responded, “but we’ll have to go in disguise as I’m sure that, of the four of us, only Azar wouldn’t be recognizable.”

  “Wigs . . . demure clothing . . . phoney eyeglasses? I’m sure we can pull it off,” Azar laughed and then lightly slapped Toady on the side of his head. “Stop slacking,” she said sharply.

  The man whimpered. He hated himself, having answered, the previous evening, every question Azar had put to him. He had betrayed his pastor and his congregation. Now he faced the horror of obeying every vocalized wish from this hellish creature.

  “So, sometime tomorrow night, does the pastor just disappear? Another feast?” Phillip asked.

  “Or we could make an example of him,” Nikki suggested.

  Azar nodded slowly as a smile grew on her face. “Tomorrow we listen and then next Sunday we make an example of him for his congregation to see.”

  “By the way,” Nikki interjected. “What do we do about the bodies? Dump them in the river?”

  Vanessa shook her head. “There’s more than enough room in the graveyard behind the house. If a couple of human bodies, drained of their blood were found floating in the Thames, the Police Commissioner would get his knickers in a twist and he’d be looking directly at us.”

  “Good point. Got a shovel?”

  “In the gardening shed,” Vanessa nodded and then turned to Azar. “Put your Toady to good use. Have him dig the graves.”

  The following morning, the four filtered into the Church of the Divine Stigmata, staying separate in the hopes of reducing the chances of being detected. They sat in the back rows and listened as, after his service, the pastor launched into this sermon.

  “I’m going to talk to you about the spawn of Satan – those inhuman, dead creatures in our midst. They are the epitome of all that is evil. We must seek them out and destroy them when we can! God created man but Beelzebub created vampires and other such monstrous abominations.” There was grumbling a
pproval for his words throughout the congregation with a lot of calls of ‘praise Jesus’ and ‘halleluiah’.

  It went on and on for about fifteen minutes and, when it finished, the four blended with the crowd as they left the church. Soon they were cruising down the street in the Escalade.

  “Wow,” Phillip said, “now that was some big pile of hate!”

  “Different from mine – his is unjustified,” Azar returned.

  Nikki whispered to Azar as they sat, side by side, in the back seat. “Want to hear my idea for making an example of him?”

  “I’m on tenterhooks, my dear. Do tell.”

  Phillip looked around at them from the front passenger seat and Nikki gave him a sour face.

  “Back at the house when no one can hear,” Nikki said softly.

  When Phillip got wind of Nikki’s proposal, he offered a caution.

  “If you’re going to do this, everyone must wear gloves, paper shoes, and hairnets. No trace of any kind must be left behind.”

  A week after the following Monday, the headline of The Times was ‘Pastor Crucified At Altar’. That afternoon, there was a knock at the door. Jack was shown in.

  “Jack, darling! How wonderful to see you again!” Vanessa exclaimed.

  The man nodded, obviously not happy. “I’m here on business, I’m afraid.”

  “Oh really? What sort?”

  He shot her a sceptical look. “The murder of a pastor. You know anything about that?”

  “Oh, I saw that in the paper. Railroad spikes in the wrists and feet? How awful!”

  He sighed. “It seems that the good reverend had been preaching fire and brimstone against vampires and the commissioner has demanded I look into it.”

  “Well, we certainly don’t know anything about it. We were all here in our beds on Sunday morning.”

  “Based on the method of the killing, he was abducted from his home and dragged to the church, at which point, he was nailed up. Then the cross was tied off to the rafter above the altar. The coroner guesses that it took him a few hours to die and he’d been dead a couple of hours before he was discovered. Thus, the whole thing probably started shortly after midnight.”