Michelle most definitely fit the description of a fuckin’ knock out. She was dressed in a tight-fitted pink top with dark blue jeans that molded to every delicious curve of her body. Painted on.
Aaron had to check himself. He almost answered questions Kyle hadn’t spoken aloud.
He caught himself at the last second. “This is my ... friend ... Michelle. Michelle, this is my roommate Kyle.” He hadn’t known what word to use to describe her. Friend was the only thing that came to mind that would make any sense to Kyle. Referring to her as his Vampire Master probably wouldn’t work out so well.
As he spoke, Aaron looked at Michelle several times. Her demeanor had magically transformed into the sexy-girl-next-door. She clung to his arm as if they’d known each other all their lives. Nothing short of miraculous. She could be quite the actress when she needed to. She held his eyes for a moment. He caught a mischievous twinkle in her eye. The real Michelle was still lurking in there, waiting to pounce.
“Bonjour, everyone, is nice to meet you. And you too, Kyle. Aaron has told me so much about you. I feel as though I already know you.” Aaron followed Kyle’s mind as he spun off in speculation of what Aaron might have said about him.
He had to placate Kyle’s unanswered questions quietly before the rest of the room got involved in the conversation. Delia and crew stared in their direction.
“Listen man, I’ve been staying with Michelle the past week. I’m really sorry I didn’t call you.” Aaron leaned into Kyle, speaking quietly in a conspiracy of two men appreciating the obvious good fortune of spending a week in Michelle’s bed.
“Really, I’m sorry. I lost my cell phone, and then I met Michelle, and it’s been totally crazy. But it’s all good, you know.” Reading his mind, Kyle tried to envision Aaron on a bender, partying it up with Michelle. Didn’t make sense to Kyle, Aaron’s personality didn’t allow for such behavior.
Delia and company closed in from across the room. He tried to be fast and discrete. “Seriously, Michelle is so awesome. She has this fantastic apartment and I got a new job that pays way better than Bemichis. I’m moving in with Michelle.”
Kyle popped at this last statement. Aaron realized from the course of Kyle’s thoughts that he’d neglected to address the primary concern, the rent.
Kyle started in on him. “Hey, man, you’re moving pretty fast here. I mean we have rent coming due in a couple of days and ... um ... you two barely met!” Kyle had begun to panic. He could see from his thoughts that Kyle actually didn’t have enough to pay the rent on his own.
Delia and gang surrounded Aaron. They had gathered the basic concept that he was moving out of Kyle’s apartment and in with the blonde goddess caressing his arm. Aaron glanced at Delia briefly. She looked different now. He didn’t see all those adorable little details that had once fascinated him, holding him in a constant state of frustrated arousal. Delia’s shoulder-length, dirty blonde hair didn’t shine like it used to. Her cute, little sassy look now appeared spiteful and catty. Seeing her now was like looking at an old photograph, remembering something long forgotten. Delia seemed diminished, less than. She couldn’t begin to measure up to Michelle.
As Delia and her two friends moved into flanking positions, blocking off avenues of retreat, Michelle intervened. She addressed Kyle as though he’d been speaking to her with his protests. “Oui, is true, we just met a few days ago. But what can I say? Is très magnifique! We are together all the time. Is like I don’t want to let him escape!”
He snickered. If only they knew how very true those words are.
With this, Michelle reached around and squeezed his ass, planting a loud smooch on his cheek. He was now marked territory with a big sign hanging from his rear that said, Property of Michelle––NO TRESPASSING.
Delia looked both Aaron and Michelle up and down with a scowl painted on her face. He read how Delia puzzled over what qualities he had that could attract Michelle and keep her occupied for an entire week. Delia wondered if she’d missed out on something. Maybe she should’ve let Aaron have his way with her. Was he really all that in bed? She thought perhaps he was like that guy from the movie Fight Club––an unremarkable, scrawny weasel who suddenly transforms into a badass alter-ego, a screw-your-brains-out-all-night-long Brad Pitt.
Aaron became overwhelmed at the girls’ thoughts in response to Michelle’s boldness. All three girls and Kyle hit his mind in a tumbled mess of irritated confusion. “What is she saying? Are they sleeping together? Is he living with her now? God, I wish I had her hair. What a slut! I bet she has him totally pussy-whipped. That’s so typical of Aaron to fall in love with the first girl who grabs his ass. Look at her eyes. That color is freakish, that’s gotta be contacts. Those are nine hundred dollar Gucci shoes! I bet he paid her to do this. She can’t be for real. What could she possibly see in him? Delia must be dying with jealousy by now!”
Dazed and confused, Michelle tugged on his arm, bringing him out of his internal mess.
“Is only fair to Kyle we pay this month’s rent. Is so sudden.” Michelle had entranced Kyle. He was putty in her hands as she maintained her wicked soul-snatching eye contact. The woman could charm the skin off a king cobra. Her distraction provided Aaron the stimulus he needed to hastily erect a mental block to ward off the tangled assault of thoughts aimed in his direction.
After enjoying a couple seconds of mental silence, he got with the program. “Yeah, um ... I guess you’re right.” He turned to Kyle and offered a wad of bills that Michelle had given him the night before. “Here’s six hundred. That should cover you through the next month.”
Kyle nodded in agreement with a dreamy, idiotic expression. He barely managed a one word answer, “Okay.”
As Kyle shoved the cash into his pants pocket in a crumpled ball, Michelle finalized the transaction with one of her adorable French asides. “Viola!”
This foreign sound from Michelle elicited frowns from all three girls. Kyle remained bewitched with his idiot smile pasted on. Amber, the girl to the right of Delia, leaned in, looking back and forth at Aaron and Michelle. “Wow, that’s really cool. So like ... you guys are moving in together?”
As she spoke, Amber nudged Delia with her elbow. Delia barely noticed. She stared unwaveringly at Aaron.
He made the mistake of staring back, catching Delia directly in the eyes with the full force of his gaze. He forgot how powerful his eye contact could be. He broke away from her stare after a few seconds, but the damage was done. He followed her thoughts as Delia picked up on the subtle but distinct differences in her ex-boyfriend. She felt a near irresistible attraction to him, far stronger than ever before. She wanted to run her hands all over him, under his shirt, down his pants. There was something disturbing about him, something strange, almost unnatural. She regretted having dumped him two weeks ago. This situation wasn’t right at all. Aaron had always been hers, wrapped around her little finger.
Delia began to realize she might have been wrong. Aaron was a real catch after all. What had she been thinking when she broke up with him? Aaron wasn’t supposed to go off dating European models. He was supposed to be jealous, begging her to take him back.
He frowned as he recalled doing just that. She had him groveling, calling her several times a day, leaving syrupy voicemails and text messages on her cell for an entire week. Right up to the moment he met Michelle.
Listening to Delia’s thoughts gave him inspiration. “Michelle, this is Delia. She’s a friend of mine. Delia, meet my girlfriend, Michelle.” Delia flinched as though physically stung by the intensity of Michelle’s scrutiny as she looked her up and down.
Michelle gave him the opening he needed. “Why don’t you get your things while I gossip about you with your friends?”
What goes around comes around, Delia. Off the hook, he headed for his bedroom mumbling, “Good idea.”
* * * *
Delia moved toward Aaron to follow him. She was halted in her tracks by Michelle’s firm grasp on her arm. She t
urned to Michelle with a blatant sneer, and was immediately captured by those vivid green eyes in an intense staring contest.
“I know you were with him before, but I hope we can be friends. These things can sometimes be a problème, non?” She still had an iron grip on Delia’s arm, staring directly into her eyes without blinking.
The spell finally broke. Delia shook her head and stammered, “No ... um ... I mean ... no problem. I ... we broke it off weeks ago. It’s cool. He’s ... we’re just friends now. Are you guys, like ... dating?”
Delia hadn’t fooled anyone. Her tension was obvious despite her attempts to appear calm. She displayed her nervous tick, pulling a stray hair behind her ear, avoiding further eye contact with Michelle. Delia looked to her friends for support. Amber jumped to her aid.
“Oh yeah, it’s alright. They broke up, like, two weeks ago. It’s all good.”
Delia bobbed her head. Amber joined in, both nodding emphatically, a united front declaring Aaron to be a free man. They wouldn’t dare think of laying their hands on him. Michelle could have him all to herself, no problem at all. No one who knew Delia was fooled, and neither was Michelle.
Kyle had enough of this drama. He addressed Michelle. “So, you live here in New York? How long have you been here?” Their conversation delved into the safe platonic zones of weather, traffic, and the rudeness of New York taxi drivers.
* * * *
Aaron made sure to stay busy in his room, away from all the stares and pointed thoughts. As he assessed his possessions and stuffed them into a couple trash bags he realized just how much his world had changed in the span of one week. He no longer felt any attachment to this place, these people, or his stuff. His meager clothing appeared drab and unsuited to his new personality and life style. His books and music no longer interested him. His friends in the other room, ensorcelled by his vampire master, no longer held any emotional significance for him. By comparison to the radiant Michelle, Delia was a self-absorbed, frumpy, awkward little girl, who was now uninteresting and frankly irritating. He couldn’t remember what it was about her that had appealed to him in the first place.
He recalled his life in this bedroom as it had revolved around Delia and Kyle. The memory in his mind’s eye seemed like a lifetime ago. A life lived by a different Aaron. He recalled passing his days between work, partying with Kyle, and the foolish pursuit of Delia’s paltry affections. His life had reached a significant fork in the road. The instant he aligned paths with Michelle there was no turning back. Every night traveled down this new path took him that much farther away from humanity.
He quickly finished gathering his junk and prepared to leave. He overheard Michelle dropping the “E” bomb as he walked out of his room.
“Aaron is working with me now in the Escort Service. Here is my card with my cellular. Aaron’s cards will be ready in a few days, you can reach him at my cell.”
Thoughts exploded left and right, front, side, and back. The mental shrapnel hit Aaron every which way. He took deep, calming breaths as he scrunched up his eyes in concentration to block out the pummeling assault focused on him: “She’s an Escort! She’s a prostitute! She’s pimping Aaron out! They must be junkies! She’s got him strung out on crack! He’s lost his mind! I knew she wasn’t with him for real. It’s a business transaction! God, I wonder how much she charges per hour? Could I afford a half-hour, catch a friendly discount? Maybe just a blow job?”
He did his best to get a grip, slowly and methodically shielding the waspish buzz of thoughts directed at him. Michelle grabbed his hand, lending him her calming influence and strength.
She setup a fast exit. “Ah ... you are ready? Sorry to run, but we have things to do and people to see. Very nice to meet you all. Adieu!”
He took full advantage of the moment. “Bye guys. Talk to you later. I’ll see you around. Take care.” They were all staring, jaws agape from shock. None of them dared to say what they were thinking. Kyle couldn’t stop imagining what it would be like to get a half-hour freebie from Michelle. He kept picturing her going down on him, her blonde hair bobbing back and forth as she sucked him off.
Aaron jetted for the door. There was nothing to be gained by spending another second in the presence of these humans.
As he turned his back on his former life, Michelle couldn’t resist one last jab. “Your friends were so nice to me. I’m glad we met.” She snatched a handful of his ass and nailed all four of them with the silent message in a backward glance over her shoulder.
They closed the door behind them with Kyle yelling, “Don’t be a stranger.” But Aaron knew things would never be the same again, because he was already a stranger.
On the taxi ride back to Michelle’s apartment he pondered if Michelle’s show of possessiveness was simply an attempt to help navigate the situation with Kyle and Delia, or if there might be the slightest hint of real affection.
CHAPTER 10
Aaron’s spirits soared, he had made his escape from Kyle and Delia relatively unscathed. He’d been nervous about the situation, but was pleasantly surprised at how easily Michelle handled the gang. She was quite charming, a nice change from her aggressive control freak persona.
After dropping off Aaron’s trash bags full of stuff at Michelle’s apartment they headed out again to another nightclub where Michelle knew the doorman personally. Her connection ushered them through the door immediately. They made a bee line for the dance floor and located a group of girls huddled together in a tightly-packed formation. Picking through the brains of the nearby girls, digging for those who were attracted to him, he found they all had one thing in common. Though each girl was different, each mind having its own particular flavor, a mutual desire was prevalent throughout the crowd. All these women really wanted was to meet a man––not just any man––a man who might be the one.
He thought it funny how these women went out with their friends hoping to be romanced off their feet as they dance the night away with that special man. The reality more often than not was ridiculous. The ladies stayed securely locked away in their safe zone with their girlfriends, brushing away the majority of the men who would chance to meet them. These girls discouraged and actively worked against the very thing they desired most, a meaningful romantic encounter. They wouldn’t find what they were looking for with Aaron, but they never stopped hoping. The women who noticed Aaron viewed him as a target for acquisition––a good candidate––never once seeing past the charming boyish exterior to the underlying truth. He was there to feed upon the cattle. Damn lucky a little nip was all he planned on taking. It would be too easy to take anything he wanted.
The vampires slid through the crush of swaying bodies like snakes in the tall grass. Their prey couldn’t see them coming until it was too late. The girls were no match for the animal magnetism radiated by the hunting vampires. As they selected targets one at a time, the unsuspecting girls thought themselves the chosen elite, excited to be singled out from the crowd by one of these sublimely beautiful creatures. Instead of fearing their proximity to a predator, they felt privileged to receive the attentions of either Aaron or Michelle.
He had begun to discern a pattern. It was always this way with the cattle. They were completely unaware of the danger. Was it his benign intentions putting them at ease? What excuse might there be for Michelle? She could never be categorized as benign. This was definitely a rapacious pursuit on her part. The only rationale that seemed to fit was ignorance. They honestly did not perceive the threat in their midst. The vampires were able to feed upon the women one at a time without a single member of the herd ever realizing they’d been singled out for attack. They didn’t know what was happening right before their eyes on the dance floor.
Each girl they encountered was enthralled, bitten, thoroughly dowsed with sexual ecstasy and then discarded as the vampires moved on to the next target. It seemed as though they lined up for it, eagerly awaiting their turn like children with the ice-cream man. The attraction they exuded wa
s the ice-cream truck music, signaling to come and get it, one and all. Enough to go around. He felt like he could do this all night long, feeding from one woman after another. His thirst was insatiable. The thirty-second nips they snagged here and there only took the edge off.
By the time Michelle finished, he had hit full swing, having fed from six different girls and ready to take on another dozen. She tried to reason with him.
“That is more than enough for now. We must go before we attract the attention of security. They are beginning to notice.” She gave him a mental nudge in the direction of a massive bald black guy with a black t-shirt that said SECURITY. She was right; the man eyed them suspiciously. When Aaron focused on the security guard’s thoughts, he realized the guy suspected they might be pickpockets from the way they worked the room.
Despite the obvious threat from security, Aaron’s bloodlust was kickin’. He wanted to feed more. Now. He didn’t give a shit what the big scary man thought of him. Three girls nearby had eyes for him, wishing he’d come talk to them. He had every intention of doing so. The new and improved Aaron Pilan was not easily intimidated by humans, even if they weighed three hundred plus pounds.
Michelle glared at him issuing a none-too-subtle command, “We go now!”
And that was that.
He followed Michelle out the exit, his movements jerky and mechanical like a marionette. Her marching orders went against every instinct in his body. What he really desired more than anything was to feed. He didn’t want to leave. He wanted to set up camp in that nightclub, hang out all night long––till sunrise––tasting every single woman who walked in the door.
Maybe another nightclub? He opened his mouth to make the suggestion. She stopped him with her fingers on his lips and “the look.” The I-already-know-what-you’re-going-say-and-the-answer-is-NO, look.
Voracious Vixens, 13 Novels of Sexy Horror and Hot Paranormal Romance Page 8