Courts and Cabals 2

by G. S. D'Moore

  Aveena left the unfortunate male to burn to death, but didn’t head back to her chambers. The faster she caught Cam the better. Godric fell in beside her, but he wouldn’t be helping. He was to provide her with transport back to the mortal realm. When he created the multi-colored vortex to travel between realms, it was the charred stench of her father’s power he wielded.

  It was probably the nicest thing the Seelie noble had ever done for her. She stepped through the portal and appeared in a snow-covered field not far from St. Vincent’s. She pulled her human glamour around her hulking form and went to find the boy who’d turned her life to shit.

  ***

  “Oh no. Not again,” I thought as I tumbled back into reality. This would be my first, and last, trip through a dragon portal if I had any say in it.

  It felt a lot like when Amanda first dived into my mind. I’d been terrified of Anima mages already, but when she dug through my brain looking for information about what had changed inside me, it had been quite the mindfuck . . . and not the good type that came later.

  This was the type of mindfuck that left you puking your guts out because you’d just been on the tilt-a-whirl from hell. I stepped into the swirling vortex of fire in Upstate New York. I stepped into utter darkness, was beaten, bashed, kicked, punched, and generally put through the ringer by metaphysical forces beyond my understanding; all in the span of a second. I stepped out feeling like battered shit, and missed the six-inch drop in elevation. My stomach was already revolting from the jarring ride, so I failed to catch myself in time.

  As far as first impressions go, it was about the worst one I could think of. I fell out of the portal, projectile vomiting a stream of stomach acid and bile in front of me until I smashed face first into the ground. To add insult to injury, the ground was marble. The kinetic impact of my fall traveled up my nose and into my brain, where it merged with the migraine that had been festering since I blocked a blade in the bleeding grounds with a conjured shield. I had no idea how I did it, but it hurt like a motherfucker.

  The sudden violence that racked my brain led to another bout of nausea. Thankfully, I was able to turn my head to the side so I didn’t drown in my own sick. The only bright side in this whole fucked up episode was that I didn’t smash my nose flat on impact. It still hurt like hell, but a quick touch told me it wasn’t broken.

  Everyone else was doing much better. Dani and Xamira looked a little wobbly on their feet, and the dwarf’s face was a little green, but she kept it together. Lilith didn’t look affected at all; which was saying a lot when she was still naked and covered in blood. You could tell how beautiful someone was when they could pull off that look.

  My eyes were fixed on the taught, roundness of her ass for several seconds, and it helped get my shit together enough to realize we weren’t alone. I struggled to my feet and took in my surroundings.

  “This is fancy,” I catalogued the plush robes on racks next to a sauna door. The marble floor, which was spotless until a moment ago, had the slight condensation common in places with high humidity. There were also rubber walking mats, so people didn’t slip on the condensation. I’d managed to miss those entirely during my entrance.

  The room they’d arrived in was a waiting room of some sort. Three doors branched off this room, but all were quickly filling with the acrid stench of sick. Two were dressing rooms of some sort with the universal male and female insignias. The third led out into whatever other mysteries the building held. In front of that door stood a woman.

  Despite it being hot and humid, she wore a dress that went from her neck to her ankles. She had a matronly look like those nuns from the past who’d smack you with a ruler for misbehaving. I could see from the glint in her eye she wanted to command me to clean up after myself; but despite her aged face and gun-metal gray hair, she bowed her head to the much younger-looking Lilith.

  “We felt the portal activate and were unsure what to expect,” the woman stated as she looked over our small group with thinly veiled disapproval. Her voice was sharp, and it was clear she was used to giving commands and having them obeyed. “We did not expect you or we would have gathered a proper welcoming committee.”

  Lilith smiled back reassuringly. “We were forced to make a hasty retreat with Via’s assistance. We won’t trouble you long; especially on a night of such joy for your coven. All we require is a place to rest, a fresh set of clothes, and a car.”

  “It is the least we can do,” the woman bowed in return and gestured toward the door behind her.

  “Coven,” I caught that bit and watched the women closely.

  As a mere human, I made sure to stay up to date on all thing’s vampire. It was a smart thing to do when vamps liked to drink your blood, and had been preying on your people since the dawn of recorded history. Since there were several at my school, I was even more motivated to stay in the loop. Most of the younger vamps tended to be vegan, but I’d had one ask if they could bite me before. Makaylah helped me fill in the blanks with anything I wanted to know after that.

  There were two types of vamps: born and turned. Makaylah was one of the former. She was born to two vampires and had been infected with vampirism since she was a single-cell organism. Born vamps aged from infancy to full-grown adulthood at a normal human rate. Once they reached maturity, their development progressed far slower. When your species lived for over a thousand years, and was evolutionarily designed to blend in, that led to dramatically reduced aging. Makaylah had yet to reach maturity, but in her early twenties, she would cease to age at all for at least the next century as her vampirism held on to her peak physical condition as long as possible.

  That was not true for turned vamps. Vamps who were turned were frozen at the time of their turning for however long their vamp life lasted. They didn’t get younger, more beautiful, or grow muscles they didn’t have before. For that reason, most turned vamps got in the best shape possible before beginning the process. It was a bit ironic since the human body needed to be incredibly weakened for the vampiric virus to initiate the change. A healthy immune system was the best defense against vampirism. A single bite wouldn’t change anyone, no matter what Hollywood would like people to think; or the world would have been overrun with vamps long ago. In the modern era, turning someone was a deeply spiritual event in the vampire community.

  Vampire elders helped the process along with their magic. A lot of painstaking trial and error had helped the masters of the vampire race fine-tune the process to achieve higher success rates. Unlike most supernatural species that could wield magic, only certain vampires could tap into the chaotic energy of the universe. I don’t know why that’s the case, and I don’t really care, but those vampires attain the rank of elder. However, that doesn’t always mean they’re old.

  It didn’t take me long to figure out why we’d been dumped here. “Smart, Via,” I guessed the dragon had cloaked our arrival with the turning ceremony. It was a good idea, but it left us in the uncomfortable position of intruding on a highly personal moment.

  The question on my mind at this moment was: is this woman a vampire elder? If she was a born vampire, she’d be hundreds, maybe even a thousand years old. If she was turned, she could be as young as seventy. The way she spoke on behalf of the coven made me put my money on the former. Either way, she held the authority that only came with being a magic-wielding vamp.

  I followed Lilith out the door, with Dani and Xamira bringing up the rear. The elder took us to a set of suites down a deserted hallway. After seeing more of the layout, I was sure this was some spa resort where pampered socialites came to get their hair and nails done after having a good massage and steam. The only unanswered question was if there were happy endings involved.

  “There is fresh clothing in the closets. If you wish, you can attend the ceremony. I’m sure the participants would be honored,” the vamp dipped her head to Lilith, and left.

  “Probably to find someone to clean up my puke,” I thought, as I looked at the door
assigned to me. I couldn’t wait to take a shower, wash off the blood and sweat of the last day, and get into some clothes. I was almost getting used to walking around in my birthday suit.

  “Let’s meet out here in twenty,” Lilith ordered, before disappearing into her own room.

  “So much for getting to relax,” I sighed and opened the door.

  I froze at what I saw. It wasn’t the rich, wood paneling that reminded me of those fancy ski lodges. It wasn’t the polished-to-perfection lockers where I could store my valuables. It wasn’t even the marble-tiled shower with three different interchangeable faucets that would feel heavenly on my sore body. What stopped me in my tracks was the old guy getting his dick sucked right in front of me.

  “Oh, my gods,” the man groaned as he pushed a woman’s head down onto his cock.

  “I guess that answers my question about happy endings,” I gulped, not quite sure what to do.

  It was a little like watching a train wreck. The dude was old; as in wrinkled, flabby flesh, and those saggy balls only really old guys could pull off. He was standing with his back to me, so I got the million-dollar view of his wrinkled ass.

  In sharp contrast, the woman on her knees, eagerly pleasuring herself between his legs, couldn’t have been older than her mid-twenties. She was fit, attractive, and from the sounds the guy was making, clearly knew how to suck a dick. I couldn’t see her head moving, but the noises the guy was making told me he was one deepthroat away from a heart attack.

  “Oh no!” the man grabbed the lockers for balance, and I thought his heart was actually giving out. Instead, the woman made loud sucking sounds as she continued fondling his balls.

  “He just came, that’s all,” I reassured myself I wouldn’t have to give an old fart CPR.

  The old man’s knees shook and his chest heaved from the effort of emptying his balls. The woman removed his dick from her mouth with a satisfied pop, and stood up straight to kiss the geezer on the lips. That’s when she noticed me, standing in the doorway, sporting a half chub. The old guy might not be anything to write home about, but she was fucking hot.

  By the way she snarled and charged me, she was also a vampire. She came at me tits out, fangs bared, and ready to eat me for lunch. I screamed like a little girl and moved. I didn’t even know I’d done it until after I was in motion. She seemed to move in slow motion as I leaned away from her strike. I crouched and swept the leg just like Xamira taught me. The vamp lost her balance and went rocketing into the hallway like an out-of-control missile. She hit the opposite wall . . . hard; hard enough to destroy drywall and daze her for a quarter second. That was plenty of time for me to get back to my feet and turn to face her.

  “Caroline!” the old man yelled from behind me. His voice seemed to settle the woman, or at least restrained her from trying again.

  She removed herself from the broken wall, but didn’t back down. The commotion brought Lilith, Dani, and Xamira into the hallway; all naked and dripping with water.

  Four gorgeous, naked women all looked at me, and my dick couldn’t help but sit up and beg like a hungry dog. My friends quickly disregarded me when they saw I wasn’t injured; although, Dani’s eyes lingered before focusing on the vamp. As Lilith turned her eyes on the woman who’d attacked me, the vamp took a step back.

  “Caroline,” the old guy finally reached the hallway what felt like an hour later. “Settle down. It’s okay.”

  “It’s not okay,” Caroline the vampire snapped as she swept stray brown hairs out of her eyes. “He was peeping on us.”

  “I was not,” I replied instinctually. “Well . . .” I continued.

  Now all eyes were focused on me, but the only ones I cared about were Lilith’s. Her green orbs squinted in a suspicious manner, and the look on her face demanded an explanation.

  “I was told to go in that room,” I started my defense. “I didn’t expect to see this guy getting a hummer. Sure, I might have lingered, but it wasn’t that long. They were basically done.”

  “And we snuck down here to this room for privacy,” the old guy was the last person I expected to come to my defense. He was the only human aside from me present, and a smile from Lilith would probably give him a coronary.

  “I can’t blame a man for wanting to watch you. You’re stunning, my dear,” his words of wisdom calmed the restless vampire. I made a mental note to ask him how he did that.

  “Fine,” the vamp sighed, as the sound of hurried feet approached.

  The elder vamp and a much younger red-haired woman appeared at the end of the hall. “Caroline,” the elder’s tone told me she yelled at this particular vamp frequently.

  “It’s nothing,” Lilith stepped in to defuse the situation as seamlessly as the old man. “Just a little misunderstanding. We’ll be honored to participate in the turning ceremony.”

  That stopped the elder in her tracks. It allowed all the vamps to leave with the old man in tow, and their dignity intact. As my adrenaline subsided from the short fight, I didn’t even have time to think about how I’d moved faster than a vamp. Lilith and Xamira disappeared back into their rooms, but Dani approached me. She got in my personal space and pressed her breasts into my chest.

  “You know, if you want to . . .” she left the rest of the statement hanging.

  I wanted to. I really, really wanted to. I wanted to pound my cock into Dani’s firm ass and then blow my load all over her tits, but I knew I shouldn’t. I was in a strange place. I’d been caught kind-of-but-not-really peeping on a BJ. The face the elder vamp made whenever she looked at me told me she wasn’t a big fan. We also were down to fifteen minutes before we needed to be ready, and I really needed some alone time to get my shit together.

  Dani read all of that off my face and gave me a knowing grin. “Next time then,” she kissed me on the cheek and left me with a now-flaccid penis to take a shower in peace.

  Chapter 5

  The lobby answered a lot of my unasked questions. This was indeed a swanky joint. The sauna room and personalized suites were just the tip of the iceberg. The lobby had a commanding view of a city it was nestled next to. Most cities never slept, but blinking lights and cars buzzing in and out of the entertainment district like agitated fireflies told me that was truer here than most places.

  “Reno,” Dani stepped up next to me to look out at the city. “The biggest little city in the world,” she didn’t say it with fondness. For some reason, Dani and Reno had a complicated past.

  A lot of things clicked into place with that statement. The first was our ultimate destination. It only made sense. Where else would a cabal be located, that spent a millennium hiding from the rest of the world, and was full of supernatural creatures that tended to feed off humans in some form or another? Via had said she could get us close, but not all the way. By my calculations, we were just under five hundred miles from our final destination. A destination that promised safety from anything anyone could throw at us.

  “Vegas baby,” I grinned.

  I’d never had the pleasure. I was only eighteen and couldn’t even get in to the casinos. Something told me that was about to change. Not only was I Lilith’s First, a position of some prestige – even if I still didn’t know what the hell I was doing – but Via said Lilith’s mother had plans for me. Lilith’s mother, the woman who ran the entire fucking cabal, had plans for me? I wasn’t going to worry about the spider-web comment until I met the woman. Something in my balls told me it would be quite the experience.

  “They’re almost ready,” Lilith informed as she appeared beside me.

  Her hand found mine and gave it a comforting squeeze. The sensation sent a jolt through me, and I blushed like a kid on his first date. I wanted to say something suave, but all my mind came up with was, “blah”. I frantically looked for something to talk about.

  “I can’t believe these prices,” I croaked, and then grunted to force more saliva into my suddenly-dry throat.

  Dani scoffed, and Lilith just shrugged. I�
�d been right in my assumption that this was a fancy spa for the rich. You could tell because there was a list of services on the wall behind the check-in counter. You could tell it was for rich folk because there were no prices listed. Prices just didn’t matter to these people. I’d managed to find a list with prices in the suite I’d showered in, and my jaw dropped. Mani pedis were hundreds of dollars. Full spa treatments ran into four digits, there were coffee scrubs, mud baths – who the hell wanted to bathe in mud – and a bunch of stuff I didn’t even understand. I knew vamps were big in the health and wellness industries, but I had no idea they were this successful outside of biomedicals and pharmaceuticals.

  There was even pricing for the privilege of being bitten by a vamp. I mentioned that to Dani and she laughed.

  “You’ve clearly never been bitten,” the wistful look on her face made my dick sit up and take notice. “It’s quite the experience.”

  She was right, I knew about a vampire’s bite – known in some romantic circles as the vampire’s kiss – in theory but not in practice. Again, Makaylah had filled me in on a lot of it. The feeding process for a vamp couldn’t be painful. First off, they couldn’t have people screaming and thrashing as they drank from them. That would lead to shredded arteries, people bleeding out left and right, and a whole mess of problems. For the most part, vamps didn’t even drink from people anymore. They tapped a vein like a blood draw in a doctor’s office, filled up a cup, and drank it while it was still warm. They didn’t need much to keep up their strength, and if they got addicted to the blood, or the feeding, the elders and their kill teams dealt with any junkies.