Sacred Circle

by Claire Thompson

“Margo!” Robert cried, as he spurted into her. “Oh, Margo. That was heaven on earth. I think I’m in love.”

  “Silly boy,” she chided softly, smoothing back his ruffled hair.

  Dropping her hand to the nightstand, she felt for the little priceless trinket. She had what she wanted.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Margo stood at the door to their suite for several moments before daring to knock. The concierge, familiar with her frequent visits during the prior weeks, had smiled and waved her to the elevator—aware she was the guest of the very wealthy and freely tipping Monsieur Gaston.

  For the hundredth time she touched the little box in her pocket. She’d wrapped the ancient treasure in it to present to Julian as a gift. A peace offering. A way back into their lives, she fervently hoped.

  She heard sounds within, some kind of scuffling. Her knuckles rapped lightly at the door. No response, though she could hear that someone was inside. On a lark, she twisted the doorknob, a large, brass, old-fashioned affair. To her surprise, it turned. Slowly she pushed it open, calling out timidly, “Hello? Julian? Grace? Are you here?”

  No answer but now she heard muffled sounds coming from the large master bedroom. Feeling trepidation, but too eager to see them to resist, she entered the suite and called out again. “Hi. It’s me, Margo. I have something for you.”

  She walked to the bedroom door and stopped in shock, taking in the scene before her. The young lovers were naked, kneeling up together on the bed, their arms locked around each other, their mouths on each other’s necks. Their bodies were splendid, like perfect alabaster statues, marred only by thin lines of blood trickling where their fangs met flesh.

  The world seemed to take on a dreamlike quality as Margo realized what she was witnessing. They were sharing the sacred blood. She heard Julian’s voice in her head, as she recalled his stories of such sharing between vampires. The potent exchange apparently strengthened and invigorated the participants, if it didn’t kill them in the process.

  They looked beautiful molded together in their dark kiss, touching at the mouth, their bodies angled away from each other so that they formed a little pyramid. Still lost in the dream of the moment, Margo began shedding her clothing. Without a thought to her weight or her age, or the tolls of gravity, she pulled the sarong top over her head and slipped out of her black silk pantaloons.

  Off came her matching satin panties and bra. Margo felt herself pulled toward them as if she had been hypnotized and had no thought or choice in the matter. Slowly, gracefully, she moved toward the lovers and slid beneath them on the bed, offering herself, though she knew not precisely how or why.

  They drew apart, their mouths rich with bright red blood. Grace’s high perfect breasts were tipped with rigid nipples and Julian’s thick, large cock still touched her belly though they had pulled away from each other.

  Margo closed her eyes, wondering if this were the moment of her death. To disturb such an intimate act must surely be paid for with her life. And yet, Margo felt a curious peace descend over her. If this was her time, she was ready. Perhaps Roger was waiting for her somewhere, though she’d never really believed in heaven.

  She lay still, feeling a warmth emanating out from her breasts and her sex. She felt good, she felt beautiful. She felt ready to die. When strong arms lifted her up between them, she didn’t struggle or even open her eyes.

  When sharp little teeth bit down on the soft sweetbread of her throat, she did little more than utter a soft cry. It didn’t hurt exactly. It was more like a sting but along with it came a curious arousal. Was this what it was like for her little Mark? Surely not. That was playacting.

  She, Margo, was being bitten by a vampire. A vampire in the throes of lust who would probably suck her blood until he took every drop. She felt something on her face, on her lips. Open your eyes. She heard the words resonate in her head. Slowly she obeyed only to see Julian in front of her. He leaned toward her, kissing her lips with his, soft and warm.

  Eagerly she parted her lips, welcoming his velvet tongue as he kissed her. Then he wasn’t biting her throat! And yet, even still she felt the sweet sting. Grace! Twisting her head back, Margo saw the young woman’s pretty auburn hair spreading now over her bare shoulder and breast as she suckled at her neck.

  Again, Julian’s mouth was on hers as his hands found and kneaded her large breasts. She was sandwiched between the two vampires, held up by their strong, beautiful naked bodies. Letting her head fall, she closed her eyes as dizziness overtook her. Yes, she was going to die, but what a perfect way for her to go. As inky blackness softly lowered its curtain, she smiled and whispered, “Roger.”

  * * * * *

  “Oh look, she’s waking up.” Grace hovered over Margo, who still lay sleeping peacefully between the fine linen sheets. Margo opened one eye and saw the two of them standing over her, both fully clothed.

  Julian grinned at her and said, “Sorry, looks like you’ll be sticking around for a while longer, Margo.”

  “What?” she murmured groggily.

  “Your little fantasies about your romantic death did not come to pass, I’m afraid.”

  Margo turned her head on the pillow, obviously embarrassed. Even in his lustful and trance-like state, Julian had felt Margo’s melodramatic musings drifting in her mind, though he hadn’t processed the words until later.

  What a risk she had taken! Her fears of death were in fact well founded. To interrupt vampire lovers in their passion was a dangerous move indeed. Only because she had arrived at the tail end of their sacred revelry did she survive. Hours of impassioned lovemaking and sharing of the blood had left the lovers elated but exhausted. Together over the weeks, they had learned to walk the delicate balance of sharing blood without taking so much that life became too fragile.

  They made love during the days and prowled the seedy, darker parts of the Big Easy by night. Grace continued to hone her skills as a hunter. Julian had watched with pride and growing love as Grace grew stronger, learning the subtle art of taking human blood without killing her prey.

  When Margo had intruded, they were so deeply involved in the sensual sacred ritual that she would have had to set off a bomb to deter them. Instead of striking out at her, as might have happened earlier in the sharing, they took her into it as a part of the whole.

  Grace took her blood, yes, biting because it was offered, not because she was hungry for it. Indeed, they had been gorging themselves a little too freely in this southern town. It was beginning to make the news that so many homeless people and addicts were being found unconscious and weakened and occasionally dead, their very blood seeming to have seeped away without a trace.

  Up until now, Julian had always been very careful when seeking his human victims. New love and the desire to strengthen Grace after her years of self-imposed starvation had made him reckless. They would have to be very careful going forward. Julian sensed that the time was nearing to depart this city and this continent. He felt the travel lust coming upon him and this time he had a mission.

  Margo opened both eyes and smiled weakly at the two vampires stilling leaning over her. “Am I alive?” she whispered.

  “Oh, Margo, of course you are.” Grace sat next to the older woman. Grace’s smile faded as she added, “Lucky for you I wasn’t too thirsty.”

  “Have you ever heard of knocking?” Julian added, sitting on the other side of her. Margo struggled to sit up. As the sheets slipped down, revealing her bare breasts she blushed and grabbed at the covers, pulling them up to her chin.

  Julian glanced into her mind and realized she had no memory of what happened after Grace’s teeth found their mark. She didn’t remember the three of them falling together, Grace’s lips locked in their vampire kiss as Margo fell back against her naked body. Margo laid half-atop Grace as Julian leaned over both of them. How natural it had felt to press his penis into Margo’s wet, hot pussy.

  As he slid it into her, he leaned over her to find Grace’s face. As he pumm
eled and fucked the human, he kissed his lover’s eyes, her cheekbones, the top of her head. Margo was nothing more than an object at that moment. Some lovely hot flesh to be used as they pleased. An extension of their lovemaking.

  Though a powerful vampire, his stamina was flagging from the hours of heated sex with his lover. It felt good to move inside the woman beneath him, feeling the velvet clutch of her vaginal muscles, but he was too spent to orgasm.

  Instead, he watched Grace sucking at her neck, her own body half-covered by Margo’s larger one. They were both beautiful women, though so different. Grace, with her fair coloring and reddish-gold hair, with her high, pale breasts and long, slender body. Contrasted against her was Margo, curvy and voluptuous, with heavy breasts capped by large dark nipples, her skin a smooth olive-tan.

  As Grace sucked, Julian peered at Margo’s face, which was beginning to pale. Her eyelids fluttered partially open, revealing only the whites as they rolled back in her skull. He felt her thoughts still and her heart slow. Grace showed no signs of stopping her lethal kiss. Slipping his cock from its sweet embrace, Julian inserted two fingers at the corners of Grace’s mouth, gently forcing her to release her death grip.

  When Grace let go, Julian saw her fangs, red with blood, slowly retract as her head lolled back in a swoon. He felt himself overcome with fatigue. With his last remaining strength, he pulled Margo off the younger woman and rolled her gently to one side of the large, king bed. Slipping between the two women, he fell into a deep sleep.

  “I feel very odd,” Margo was saying, drawing Julian back to the moment. “I can’t quite say how I came to be in your bed naked and asleep! I can only say I hope it was fun!” she grinned sheepishly.

  “You don’t remember, do you?” Grace said. As Margo shook her head, Grace added, “Maybe it’s just as well. Some things aren’t meant for humans to be involved in, or witness to.”

  “Oh, listen to you,” Margo laughed. “You’ve only known you were a vampire for a month and now you’re going all high and mighty on me. You sound like Robert Dalton, for heavens’ sake.” Then she remembered. The amphora.

  “Oh, my God. My clothes. Where are my clothes?”

  “Still in the heap where you dropped them, you slut,” Julian laughed.

  Margo clutched at the sheet again, looking thoroughly mortified. Julian took pity and said, “Oh, don’t looked so worried, Margo. You probably did the best thing you could have done. I don’t know if I would have let you return any other way. You really shook me with your sudden threats to reveal our secrets to the world. I could have killed you. I considered it seriously.

  “But coming to us as you did, naked and vulnerable, offering yourself so sweetly between us. Well, all I can say is all is forgiven. Provided—” his voice took on a sterner tone, “—that you never breathe a word about our true natures or what we do to any other human. Is that understood, woman?”

  “Yes, sir,” Margo said meekly. “I’ve spent the last miserable week repenting. You have no idea the agony I suffered at the thought that I would never see either of you again. I couldn’t work—I couldn’t sleep—I couldn’t even eat. Me, not eat! Unheard of!” She laughed a little but continued, “I didn’t think you would ever permit me in your presence again. Or if I did dare to show up, I knew you might kill me outright, to protect your secrets. Not that I blame you! But, Julian, oh, Julian, I have something that I hope will make it right between us. Or at least better. A peace offering, that’s how I think of it. A gift from me to you.”

  Julian smiled at her. “What could you possibly have of value that I could want? Forgive me if I seem boastful, but I can buy whatever I want whenever I want.”

  “You can if it isn’t already owned by someone else, you mean.”

  “What are you saying?”

  “Let me show you. Where are my clothes?” Grace went to fetch her things. Margo took them gratefully from her, feeling inside the pants pocket for the little box. She looked at the two of them and said, “Uh, excuse me, do you think I could have a little privacy to get dressed?”

  Now Julian roared, throwing back his head in laughter. Grace laughed, too. “Really, Margo. You threw yourself naked at us while we were making love, and now you’re feeling modest?”

  “Oh, my, what did I do? I really can’t recall.” Margo looked thoroughly confused. Julian had observed that it was a unique and rather useful property of the act of taking the blood that the donor was usually struck with a loss of memory of the events just prior to and during the actual act. This explained why so many victims had no recollection of what happened to them and would deny it even in the face of witnesses.

  Bluntly he said, “You entered our hotel suite uninvited and unannounced. You stripped off your clothes and climbed in between us. You let Grace suck your blood while I fucked you as you lay atop my lover.” Margo was scarlet now.

  “I don’t know what to say,” she whispered.

  “You don’t have to say anything, dear,” Grace soothed, touching Margo’s hot cheek. “Julian and I are so certain in our love that we have room for others. It was fun to have you with us. Next time I want to try it without sucking your blood, as that is quite a distraction.”

  “A distraction! You almost killed her, Grace,” Julian admonished, but he was laughing. The hilarity of the odd situation suddenly seemed to strike them all and they laughed with raucous joy until tears rolled down their cheeks and they could laugh no more.

  In the comfortable silence that followed, Margo eventually said, “I guess it’s silly to be so modest when we’re already so, uh, well acquainted.” She stood up, revealing her lush naked form. Gracefully, she slipped on her underclothing while Julian and Grace watched her. Donning her loose-fitting silk pants and tying the top in place across her breasts, she sat back down on the bed and said, “There. That’s better. I don’t like to be the only one naked.”

  She touched the pocket of her pants and slipped her fingers into it, withdrawing a little box the color of a robin’s egg. “For you, sir,” she said in a low voice.

  Julian accepted the gift with a slight inclination of his head, holding it a moment before he opened it. Slowly he slipped off the dark blue ribbon that adorned the box and lifted the lid. He stared at its content for a long moment, his expression inscrutable.

  Lifting it carefully from its cotton nest, Julian held the little vial cradled in his palms. “Thank you,” he said simply, though the gratitude was clear behind the two little words. He turned to Grace, who watched him with large eyes, her thoughts concealed from Margo but not from her lover.

  “My little fool,” he whispered, smiling gently. “She is but a memory. You needn’t fear a dream, my love. You are my present and my reality. This thing—” he held the little amphora by its golden chain so that it sparkled in the light for a moment, “—is just a symbol. A beautiful piece of ancient glass.” He stood and walked around the other side of the bed to Grace, who looked up at him and nodded slowly, obeying his silent command.

  Lifting her heavy mane of hair from her long, slender neck she bent forward slightly so that he could attach the chain around her neck. “A gift from Robert to Margo to me to you. And it suits you, Grace. Its fragile beauty belies its strength, its power to cut and take the blood. Just like you.” Grace smiled, and touched the little vial, her eyes still on Julian.

  Turning to Margo, he said, “I won’t even ask how you got this, Margo.”

  As blood suffused her cheeks again, she shook her head in exasperation and said, “My God, I haven’t blushed this much since high school! All I will say is, I never kiss and tell.”

  “Well, that’s good to know,” Grace said. They all stared at each other for a moment before the second wave of hilarity broke over them, leaving them weak with it.

  Chapter Fifteen

  The tickets were purchased and time was running out. Julian had made it clear that he and Grace were leaving by the end of the week. As he explained to Margo, he felt the danger creeping u
p. New Orleans was no longer a safe haven for the likes of them. He had learned years ago never to disregard his intuition in these matters. When Margo had asked if she could go with them, at first he had been surprised. Humans didn’t usually drop everything and take off the way vampires did. They didn’t have that luxury, as a rule.

  Margo had pleaded, saying that she sensed this was the time in her life she had been waiting for. It was almost as if she had been suspended, waiting to begin to live again, since Roger had died. Connecting with Grace and Julian, she said, had somehow turned her back on to life. She didn’t want to let the opportunity pass her by.

  Gently Julian had refused her. “I’m so glad you feel able to begin living again, Margo. We feel honored to have been a part of the renewal of your spirit. But you are not of our kind. We are going where you cannot follow. We will seek the Elders. We are beginning a new journey together.” He turned toward Grace, his eyes shining with love.

  Despite her ardent desire to share the adventure, Margo understood that these new lovers needed time to themselves. She knew she was shockingly selfish to try and insinuate herself into their little circle of two. And yet, the longing persisted. And the secret and continuing desire to be “turned”, to become one of them.

  As the last days slipped by, Margo found herself always in their penthouse suite. Though they did not make love again with her, she found it exciting and at the same time, comforting just to be near them. On some level she felt more kindred to these vampires than to her own kind. Yet, Julian remained steadfast that she could not accompany them on their trip to Europe.

  “We will come back, or call for you when the time is right, Margo. We have something special between us three. We won’t forget you.” Grace promised, giving Margo something, however slender, to cling to.

  * * * * *

  “Where have you been these past weeks, Margo? We barely see you!” Robert’s voice was peevish, his expression petulant.