Blood Reign

by Harvey W. McCarthy

  Chris shook his head. In his anger, he hadn't even heard her enter the room. He panted heavily. He could barely see her as she stood next to the closed door. She giggled and flicked on the lights. Again, the bright fluorescent light burned his eyes. His anger seethed. He could smell blood. His head snapped to the scent. A large glass of blood sat next to him. His head snapped back to her. She giggled when his angered expression transformed into confusion.

  Unlike their recent encounters, she wasn't dressed in one her leather outfits. Instead, she was wearing a purple, shin length raincoat. Her hair hung about her shoulders instead of the ponytail that he was accustomed to seeing. Her make-up, as usual, was flawless but had a purple tint instead of her preferred blood red and black colors. She smiled at him mischievously. He cocked an eyebrow.

  "You appear confused," she stated sweetly.

  "Doesn't appear that you are here to torture me for information like your minions have done for the last few days," he said sarcastically.

  She giggled like a school girl. She slowly walked toward him. She purposefully put a sway in each step. She kept her eyes locked with his confused stare as she untied her raincoat. She slowly removed it and let it drop to the floor behind her. The extremely revealing purple lingerie that she had purchased in Halifax clung to her shapely frame. She smiled as she saw his eyes widen. She giggled as she sat down next to him and crossed her stocking covered legs.

  "You seem much happier to see me for some reason," she teased.

  "I wonder why," he said.

  His response startled her, but she tried to hide her surprised reaction by reaching for the glass of blood. She leaned forward so her barely covered breasts would be further exposed. "You seem hungry," she said as she picked up the glass and slowly sat upright.

  "Famished," he replied.

  She placed the glass to his lips and she allowed him to drink briefly. She pulled the glass away and he growled.

  Damn, I should have thought of this outfit a long time ago. She smiled, "Now, now," she said as calmly as possible, "You have to save some for me."

  She tilted the glass and allowed a small trickle of the dark red liquid to drip onto his chest. The scent of the blood fueled his hunger. He arched his back as the blood ran over his stressed muscles. She bit her lip as his muscles rippled as the blood trickled on his skin. He began to pant heavily from the confusion created by his anger and the excitement of the moment. She pushed him down and smiled.

  She dripped more blood onto his chest. He moaned heavily. She looked at him and he stared into her bright blue eyes. She dragged the tip of her tongue along his body. She licked and kissed the blood from his body. She licked along his neck. She looked longingly at him before their lips met. She could barely contain her excitement as he explored her mouth.

  She broke the embrace and panted. "Someone seems much more willing this…"

  "Shut up," he growled.

  She blinked several times before sitting up. "Do you…"

  "Shut up and kiss me," he ordered.

  "Oooooo," she cooed, "I think I may like this."

  She leaned forward and kissed him again but their embrace was much more passionate than before. She broke the kiss and allowed him to kiss and nibble along her neck. Her eyes closed. She leaned closer. His kisses were tender. She moaned softly. As her excitement grew, her blood flow increased. He could feel the veins in her neck bulge. He could hear her blood pumping feverishly through her undead body. His rage grew. He produced his fangs. She could feel them scraping against her skin.

  "Bite me," she said breathily.

  He pulled away. "No," he said softly.

  She opened her eyes. "BITE ME!" she ordered.

  He glared directly at her. "No," he said firmly but calmly.

  His commanding presence intrigued and tantalized her. "Oooooo," she said.

  "Enjoy the moment instead of rushing it," he said to her expected question.

  She grinned and winked. "Yes darling," she said as she reached for the strap to her outfit.

  "Leave it on," he commanded. "Mystery is good."

  "Mmmmmm hmmmmm," she said excitedly.

  She took her hand away from the strap to her outfit. He was about to speak but she placed her hand over his mouth. Playfully, he licked her palm and she giggled. She leaned forward and sucked on his ear.

  "How's this for a surprise?" she whispered.

  She continued to stare at him. She smiled as she grabbed his shackles. With one pull, the cuffs burst apart. Her eyes never wavered from him as the shackles flew across the room. His heart rate increased. His cramped and painful muscles screamed as blood returned to his fatigued limbs. He groaned as the pain shocked his body. Thousands of tiny needle pricks thrust through his skin. He winced in pain.

  She gently massaged his arms as she pinned him down. "I think you might need those soon," she whispered in his ears as she massaged the pain away, "Plus I won't let you go anywhere."

  "Who said I was going to try?" he whispered.

  For the first time in centuries, Mikhaeli Lanaova was happy.

  * * *

  Mikhaeli straightened her hair as she emerged from his cell. Her guards immediately stepped aside. They refused to look at their beautiful queen. She giggled and shrugged as she tightened the belt on her raincoat. She paused briefly to steady her stride. She heard the guards murmur as she walked away with a slight stagger to her step. She thought she heard one of them say that he was amazed that she was even alive after all of the screaming that they had just heard for the last two hours. However, due to the ringing in her ears, she wasn't exactly sure if they were talking about her at all.

  She slowly worked her way back towards her private car. Her minions ducked for cover at every opportunity. Those who couldn't get out of her way, cowered in fear. Instead of scolding them, she kissed them all softly on the cheek and giggled as she left. Each and every one of them had their fear of their queen increase tenfold. They were wary that if she was that happy, then her anger, which they had expected to return, would return with an unmatched fury. As she left their immediate presence, they still attempted to remain hidden.

  Several minutes later, she arrived at her private car. She smiled at her personal guards as she approached. They both snapped to attention and averted their eyes. She stopped in front of them and put her hands on her hips. She glared at both of them. They continued to avert their eyes. She frowned.

  "Does my appearance disgust you?" she asked.

  "N…N…No. Of course not, My Queen!" the first guard exclaimed.

  "And you?" she asked as she turned to the other guard.

  "No!" he exclaimed as well but he did not look at his queen.

  She giggled and shrugged her shoulders. She kissed each vampire on the cheek. Both men shook from the shock to their systems. They both looked at their queen with complete confusion, but they, like their fellow minions, remained wary. They each took a step towards the walls of the narrow hallway. She sighed.

  "You can stop now," she scolded playfully. "I am not going to hurt you, but I am going to send you on a mission."

  "Y…Yes, My Queen?" the first guard, who had long curly hair, asked.

  "I want you to head to the storage car and retrieve another case of my precious blood wine," she said.

  "At once, My Queen," he said.

  She grabbed his arm as he turned to leave. "And, you are both dismissed afterwards and you may each take one bottle for your trouble."

  "Who…Who shall we send to guard your doors?" the guard asked.

  She giggled. "No one silly. I think that I can handle myself," she said.

  The second guard opened her door and held it open for her.

  "Thank you," she said cheerfully as she entered her room.

  The guard said nothing. He closed the door then looked to his partner. They both shrugged and briskly departed down the hallway. Mikhaeli giggled softly as she heard them stomp away.

  She stretched. She removed her rainc
oat. She glanced at her outfit. Their passion had left her expensive lingerie tattered. She slowly removed the remaining scraps of fabric and tossed it into a waste basket. It had been extremely expensive for its one-time use but it had had its desired effect on its intended target. She stripped out of all of her clothes and she headed to the shower.

  The small restroom facilities were substandard for her liking but she shrugged away all negative thoughts. Her toes still tingled from the repeated moments of mind-boggling pleasure. She had enjoyed the famed vampire hunter in the past, but this time was even more incredible than their previous encounter. Unlike the primal moments of their time in her castle, he appeared much more interested in her. He even refused to feed which she had expected. Those thoughts caused more tingling sensations along her body. She moaned softly.

  She stepped into the shower and turned on the water. The warm water splashed over her excited, but fatigued body. She moaned again. She allowed the water to soak her long dark hair. She put her back to the showerhead and enjoyed the warm sensation of the water streaming over her body. She bathed slowly as she enjoyed the moment. Normally, her mind would be filled with thoughts of how to destroy the council, but her mood had changed. She ignored everything to allow herself a moment of peace.

  She turned off the shower and she toweled the warm droplets of water from her body. She put on a warm, terrycloth robe and she returned to her mobile sanctum. Next to her favorite massaging chair was an ice bucket. It contained two bottles of blood wine. Her favorite golden chalice gleamed in the light as it stood next to the ice bucket. She walked to her refrigerated wine rack and counted the bottles. The remaining four bottles from the case that she had requested had been placed in her wine rack. She was disappointed that they had not accepted her gift but she understood their trepidation. She was in an unusually chipper mood.

  She returned to the ice bucket and she opened one of the bottles of wine. She carefully filled her chalice. She walked to her chest and opened the ancient lock. She removed the latest addition to her collection and closed the lid. She returned to the chair and dropped her tired, but clean body into it. She set it to a light massage as she opened the tome of Lady Sangre.

  A little light reading, she thought as she massaging features of the chair worked their wonders.

  As told to me and to his most powerful minion, Lord Viktor:

  When we began this journey many centuries ago, I knew that we would be hunted by those who followed the word of God. Unlike our former human form, I discovered that we could not reproduce sexually. We could experience the human pleasures associated with intercourse, but our bodies could no longer produce life either alive or undead.

  I began meditating on how to create followers, since named minions, to our cause. I had fed on many humans wondering if our cursed bite would bring them to us. However, their dead bodies would simply rot away over time. I continued to ask our creator for guidance on how to raise more soldiers for our war.

  I fed on a surprising powerful warrior, but I did not completely drain him of his life. During one of my many moments of meditation and requests for guidance, it was revealed to me to place his body within the earth. I placed his body within the earth and I waited. To my surprise, he rose from the earth, but alas, he did not survive. He was too weak. The earth, from which humans had been created, preserved his undead body, but it did not sustain it. But this did give me a basis to continue my quest.

  I fed on one of the many people who worked on my land. She was a beautiful young woman who I had thought of taking as my queen. After enjoying her blood and her body for several days, I drained her to near death. I placed her in the ground, but unlike before, I bathed the soil in blood. When the blood had completely soaked into the ground and infused her undead body with nourishment, she rose. But alas, she was merely a mindless creature whose only desire was to feed. She was devoid of any form of, forgive me, humanity. I reluctantly had to kill the creature before she could escape and kill all of my peasant workers.

  I moved forward. I wanted that lovely creature to be my bride, but I had to continue onward. I found more willing subjects and continued my tests. I learned that two days of soaking the soil made a stronger vampire. However, its mental capacity was that of a young child. Three days produced a vampire both physically and mentally strong. Any longer, four days, five days and so forth produced a vampire that was superior to any human in every way, but their powers could not grow. Thusly the magical three days produced vampires that were incredibly capable warriors but could be molded into more superior vampires. That is how I raised Viktor. I knew that he would be a worthy member of our order.— Blackraven

  I doubted Blackraven's speech as nothing more than his pompous posturing. However, I tried his methods on several of who are now my most powerful followers.

  Lady Sangre

  Mikhaeli sipped her wine. She barely noticed the effects of the alcohol or the massages from the chair. Her joyous mood had left as she became almost entranced by the ancient words. This tome had her complete attention. Robotically, she turned the page and continued to read:

  Another conversation with Lord Blackraven told me why I have this personal diary: He had deemed it so. I initially understood the idea behind noting our lives as one of the undead. Who else would record our history? It was up to us to educate future generations of vampires on how to become more powerful and to assure our survival. However, I always wondered how future generations would know of our secret thoughts. We wouldn't leave detailed trails on how to find these precious daily thoughts because it could lead them into the hands of our enemies. Alas, despite his pompousness, Blackraven did indeed have a plan.

  I know that another of the blessed would be reading this tome. So you are one of the blessed because according to Lord Blackraven, only those who have been truly touched by our calling can understand these words. During his meditations as he called them, he called on the dark forces that created our kind to bless (The council would say curse) our teaching so that future vampires would search out these daily thoughts. However, only those who have the true blessing of our 'Dark Prince' would be able to locate these words and understand their meaning.

  As your read this text, you can feel me and hear my voice. These words are blessed to make you powerful. Even as I write them, I don't know their meaning but I know their purpose: You are chosen to continue the Order. Lord Blackraven asked for the blessing because he believed that all twelve of us would most certainly perish, but the Order needed to survive through our offspring. Because you have this book, it means that not only are you sustaining the Order, you are the Order.

  Lady Sangre

  She did not pause as she turned the page.

  Three days ago…

  I had only recently been reunited with my love when they came. We thought that they were prepared but we were wrong. Our minions, who we had been raising to protect us, were too few in number. Their search must have been tireless. They found my castle and they attacked.

  They tricked our minions by requesting entry into the castle. Our minions believed that it was an easy feed because they were very young women. Those women were the bait. When the drawbridge lowered, their warriors, under a moonless night, charged across the bridge and into our midst. The ensuing battle was horrific.

  My young minions, who had barely learned how to protect themselves from a warrior, let alone an attacking, barbaric horde, screamed as stakes penetrated their hearts or as holy water ate their skin. The fortunate were decapitated by their holy swords. They fought valiantly to protect their masters, but they couldn't stop them all.

  The warriors were led by some of their most skilled leaders. Lord Blackraven urged us to seek refuge below the castle walls in our passages. Alas, in their attempt to protect us, our children revealed the location to our sanctum and the warriors poured into the caves like rushing water. Viktor, Blackraven, and myself fled deep within the caves, but soon we were surrounded by a group of powerful warriors. />
  Lord Blackraven's power was truly astonishing. He quickly disposed of a warrior while drinking the blood of another. He moved at a speed that even I could not follow. His child, as he called him, Viktor moved with equal grace and power. I was awed by their skill. I was so awed that I neglected the skills of those who attacked me.

  The last thing that I remember from the battle was hearing the words "To hell demon" as I felt the stake plunge through my back. The wood slipped into my skin and stopped my heart. Darkness fi lled my vision and it remained that way until I tasted the earth in my mouth.

  I climbed through the blood soaked earth of our sanctum. Lord Blackraven and Viktor stood watch over me as my naked soiled body appeared above ground. As my eyes found Viktor, he was writing in his own tome. I spat the bloody earth from my mouth as I attempted to stand. Lord Blackraven applauded. I was about to curse him but he detailed what had happened after I had perished.