Even with a knife point digging into his side Xavier wouldn't relent, he shook his head. His eyes turned towards Jacques, who was still keeping most of his attention on Fulton, his most immediate threat, while obviously wanting to make some move to aid Xavier. Obviously Xavier was attempting to signal his ally, it was really none too subtle.
"Time's up," Francesca said.
"Indeed," Xavier retorted.
Gabriella watched as Jacques feinted towards Fulton and then moved to strike out at Francesca. Her concern for her Mistress made Gabriella hesitate. Xavier started to twist himself out of her grip, bringing his weapon arm about in a position so that he could strike at her. The arm that he had put about her when he thought she was on his side had tightened to keep her in position for his attack.
With a hate-fuelled snarl Gabriella remembered she was hardly helpless here. Xavier had got into a position where her knife point was no longer digging into him. Gabriella forced her arm forwards and got the knife back into position. This time she didn't stop when she felt the first pressure of resistance. She plunged the blade deep into Xavier's side. Sticky wetness seeped from the wound and over her hand.
Her attack elicited a cry of pain from the one-time lieutenant. On instinct Xavier struck out. She screamed when the cold steal bit into her shoulder. Xavier tensed his left arm throwing Gabriella backwards with the hand that had been holding her close.
She landed painfully in the ruined remains of the weapons cabinet she herself had thrown aside earlier on. She heard Francesca calling her name as if from a great distance. The knife had remained in her back on her flight across the room and when she hit it was forced even deeper into her body. The knowledge that she would recover from any wound that didn't penetrate her heart didn't make this hurt any less.
Blinking past tears, Gabriella fought to get back into a position she could defend from. She dimly saw Fulton slamming a blade into Jacques' chest with Francesca holding him in position. She saw Xavier realise that he was suddenly very outmatched. The vampire pulled her knife out of his side and glanced about with wide eyes, torn between a desire to exact revenge and to save his own skin. In the end, as Fulton twisted the blade in his comrade’s chest slicing into the heart, Xavier's sense of self-preservation won out. Before either Fulton or Francesca could respond he vanished out of the door.
Gabriella coughed, the familiar taste of blood coming into her mouth unfamiliar at the same time because it was her own blood coming up from her own lung. And then Francesca was kneeling down with her.
"Get him," Francesca instructed Fulton.
The other vampire stared at Francesca for a long moment.
"Now," Francesca's voice had become a snarl.
Fulton finally obeyed his Mistress's direction and ran out of the room after Xavier. Francesca watched him go and then regarded Gabriella with concern in her eyes.
Gabriella winced and pulled the blade out of her back so that she could start to heal. She gasped with the effort.
"Easy," Francesca said softly cradling her head and stroking her fingers through her hair.
They stayed there for some time. Gabriella not really bothered about keeping track of the passage of time now that things were getting back to how they should be.
"Everything is all right now," Francesca said eventually.
"Not quite."
Gabriella opened her eyes and looked towards the doorway where Fulton stood. He was framed by smoke that started creeping through the now open doorway.
"Xavier got away, but he left us a leaving present. We need to get out of here before this whole place goes up."
Gabriella could only think that it was the smell and taste of her own blood filling her own lungs and throat that had kept her from identifying the scent of smoke and flame. With Francesca's help she got to her feet.
"What about all this?" she said indicating all of their fine belongings.
Francesca shook her head. "What about them? None of this matters as long as we have each other."
Chapter Twenty-three
Gabriella shook her legs in a futile attempt at letting some of the night air in to cool them but the skin-tight material resisted her efforts. She smoothed her hands down her legs from where the trousers clung to her hips all the way to where they met her black extremely high-heeled shoes. When she straightened back up she adjusted her matching leather crop top pushing herself up for greater emphasis. This garment was as tight fitting as the trousers but was small enough, leaving ample amounts of flesh exposed to the air, that it was infinitely more comfortable. The wound Xavier had inflicted during his ill-conceived revolt was fully healed as if it had never existed.
Just as she had finished adjusting her outfit, Gabriella heard the lock of the door behind her click and the faint grinding as the old metal of the hinges moved against itself. She turned around and watched Francesca step out of the doorway. Her lover was silhouetted in the wash of light coming from behind her. Gabriella could only identify the outline of her body until she stepped far enough out to be caught by the glow of nearby street lamps.
The light of the lamps reflected from her leather dress. The full length garment was slit high on both sides to expose Francesca's legs in their entirety. It was cut so low at the back as to almost meet the slits up the side. A diamond shape cut in the middle of the front, both low and high, exposed her eternally smooth abdomen. Francesca would be having no problems keeping cool.
Francesca let the door swing closed behind her. Gabriella slunk up beside her and capered around her before Francesca scooped her up in a tight embrace that was infinitely more comfortable than that provided by her trousers. Francesca squeezed the flesh under the back of those trousers and Gabriella could just feel her manicured nails through the material. She didn't mind the heat she now felt trapped underneath her clothes.
This was how it used to be. For the majority of the time before Francesca set up the nest it had just been the two of them. It was almost perfect.
The lock clicked and the hinges ground against each other again as the door opened again behind her. This time she didn't bother to turn to see who it was, this was the almost who spoiled the perfection. She did feel Francesca adjust her position to look at the newcomer but she did not loosen her hold on Gabriella.
Fulton stepped out of the house they had taken over since they had been made, all three of them, homeless. By Xavier's pyromaniac activities. Fulton flicked off the hall light and stepped outside. Francesca held Gabriella in an embrace halfway down the path. His sire twisted to regard him as he walked towards the pair. The younger looking of the two vampires, who was indeed younger than Francesca despite being over two hundred and fifty years old, paid him no attention.
Leather trousers creaked as he walked as did the leather vest he wore underneath a dark-blue denim jacket. He had told Francesca he felt ridiculous in this getup but she said he needed to match her and Gabriella. She also told him he looked good in the outfit. Whatever she said Fulton still felt like an Eighties rocker. And the trousers were very binding making his lower half all hot and sweaty, he had to imagine Gabriella felt the same in her own pair, although she had less to bind than he did. A few cases of clothes were pretty much all they had saved from the nest.
Fulton took a position on one side of Francesca with Gabriella on the other. In the middle Francesca took them each by a hand as she led them to her chosen hunting ground. It was only a short walk from their new home to the club Francesca had chosen. They had to hunt close until they got themselves some new transportation. The fire which had gutted the converted steelworks had taken Francesca's assembled fleet of cars and vans with it. Francesca led them up to the head of the queue bypassing numerous humans all dressed almost entirely in leather, a fair number of them wore studded dog collars or wrist bands. Francesca stepped boldly up to the burly doorman who wore a tight black T-shirt to show off bulging biceps. Muscular as he was even the petite Gabriella could have taken him apart without breaking a sweat
. But there was no need for a confrontation, Francesca slipped him a word and a pair of notes and the trio was admitted.
Once they stepped through the curtained doorway into a short anteroom before the main area of the club Francesca released her two companions.
"Time to play."
The three vampires split up and entered the mass of human bodies. It was an all you could eat buffet.
Fulton watched the two women as they disappeared into the crowd deciding who they would take tonight. Fulton mingled in with the humans himself.
Raucous music blasted out destroying any chance of striking up a conversation. But that wasn't what places like this were intended for. Here body language and touch were the main means of communication.
Fulton let his eyes scan the crowd in search of a likely candidate. He ignored those who were obviously couples, he wasn't as open to experimentation in that way as Francesca was and knew he would fail miserably if he tried to fake it. Besides he had no need for two victims.
His gaze came to rest on a young woman whose eyes were also scanning the crowd. Her look wasn't that of someone searching for recognition, it was more akin to Fulton's own, that of a predator on the prowl. Their eyes locked across the crowded room but it wasn't one of those romantic love-at-first-sight moments. They stared at each other and each recognised they had found what they sought. Fulton pushed through the crowd towards his victim.
Gabriella knew from long experience that there was no need for her to take an active part in hunts like this. All she had to do was wait and eventually her meals would come and seek her out.
It took only a couple of minutes after she entered for the first candidate to approach her. He was quite old compared to the age Gabriella appeared to be, though she was actually a great many years his senior, he looked to be in his early forties. Gabriella generally preferred them to be somewhat younger but clubs had restrictions that prevented some of her favourite foods being able to enter. The only reason she had been allowed in herself, in spite of her youthful appearance, was because of the sum of money Francesca had passed off to the doorman.
The man who approached her wore his long, slightly faded hair pulled back in a ponytail. He wore tight black jeans with studs running up the sides of the legs, a dark T-shirt and a leather jacket with more studs. He eyed Gabriella unashamedly, anyone who dressed as she did was asking to be checked out.
He took his time bringing his eyes back up to her face but when he did he offered her a smile. Gabriella half closed her own eyes and averted her gaze just slightly giving him a shy smile in return that didn't quite correspond to the personality her outfit advertised.
The music was too loud to allow for any proper exchange of words between them but when he asked her to dance with him his intention was plain enough. She displayed her acquiescence by sidling close to him.
She danced in front of him with her back to him, she looked back and up at him over her shoulder as she ground her behind against him. He reached around her and let his large hands explore.
Fulton let the young woman's body fall to the street. Whatever she had expected when she agreed to come out around the side of the club he doubted it had been that. He casually wiped her blood away from his face onto the inside of his jacket before it could start to dry and become sticky. He kicked her body closer to the wall beside some old crates and left her there.
That old remorse he used to feel, that what he did was somehow wrong, had faded into the background since he realised that there was nothing wrong in what he did. It was natural behaviour for his kind and he couldn't keep his mind set that of the human he had been. He had to revaluate his belief system in response to the change in his circumstances. But the feeling hadn't left him completely. A certain amount of regret at having to take an innocent life remained with him like an afterimage of what he had once felt.
Fulton was nearing the end of the alley by the side of the club when he heard breathless voices. In a heartbeat he had hidden himself in the shadows.
A single sniff of the scents carried to him on the air told him there was no need to remain hidden. Gabriella led her victim a short distance down the alley. They stopped a few meters from where Fulton remained watching, just far enough inside the alley that Gabriella could conduct her business in private.
The young-looking vampire, who must have been a few years younger when she was turned than Fulton himself had been when Francesca turned him, let the much older looking man she had brought with her push her up against the outside wall of the club. The human sandwiched Gabriella between himself and the brickwork and his body blocked the vampire from Fulton's sight.
Leather creaked and groaned. Fulton heard the distinctive rip-like sound of zips being undone. The breathing grew heavier. The human hoisted Gabriella up and Fulton could see her head above the human's shoulder. He didn't particularly want to keep watching but he could not look away.
The human lifted her up into a more accessible position for him and got on with what he had come out here for. Gabriella let him get on with it she had some residual tension to relieve and while this wasn't how she preferred to do it, it would do.
The human was breathing heavily and Gabriella played along as though she was enjoying it as much as he was. That was when she caught the smell of fresh blood that permeated the alley. It took only a moment's concentration to identify the scent of the vampire who had spilled the blood.
And he was still close by.
Gabriella had had her eyes closed as though in pleasure, now she opened them to slits. Her vampire eyes had no trouble locating Fulton where he lurked in the shadows. Watching her.
If he wanted a show she would give him one. She clung to her victim with her bare legs wrapped around his waist and used her arms to undo her small leather top. She cast the garment down to her other clothes. The human immediately bent his head down and forwards to have his own fun.
She placed her hands on his exposed neck that showed above his jacket. She slid her hands down his shoulders and onto his arms, pushing the jacket down along with them. The human hefted her first with one arm and then the other as he let her push it off him. She trailed her hands back up the length of his wiry arms. Goose-pimples erupted under her fingertips.
The human's movements grew increasingly urgent and his breath came in ragged gasps. She clamped her legs more tightly around him and squeezed the air out of his lungs. The human struggled to get a breath and looked at her with his face going pale. Gabriella maintained her hold until she saw unconsciousness sweeping into his eyes.
The man lay gasping on the cold concrete of the alley floor, gulping for air like a fish out of water. She paid her victim no attention as she adjusted her clothes. Like all vampires she had urges it was better to indulge whether she cared for the act or not. Personally Gabriella much preferred to let Francesca take care of those details but since that bastard Fulton had taken up with them Francesca had been splitting her time between the two of them. It wasn't like it was when Xavier had been with them. Gabriella wasn't so naive as to believe that Francesca had never had Xavier when she wasn't with her, and she had taken part enough times when he was there but this was different. This time Francesca was spending almost as much time being intimate with Fulton as she was with Gabriella. Gabriella didn't mind that Francesca kept Fulton out of the way whenever the two women were together but it worked both ways and Gabriella was excluded whenever Francesca chose to be with Fulton.
Why couldn't he just have pissed off? Then things could have gone back to how they were before. Before the nest, before Xavier, back to when it was just the two of them and that was enough for both of them.
The human coughed as his breath came back to him. Gabriella remembered that she was supposed to be putting on a show to tease Francesca's new plaything. With a final tug to put her clothes in place she turned back to look down on her victim. He had managed to pull himself up into a sitting position with his back propped up against the wall of the club. His clo
thes were still in disarray and he was still exposed, although everything appeared to be feeling the effects of the cold air.
She took carefully measured steps towards him as he struggled to fully recover. Oh that it were Fulton there instead.
She had closed right up to him before the human even noticed she was still there. He craned his neck to turn his face to look up at her. He sucked in a breath as though to have air in order to speak but Gabriella raised a finger to her lips.
"You'll need that to scream."
Gabriella raised her foot to take another step and she brought it down hard on the most delicate of his exposed parts. As she had predicted he did scream.
Fulton had crawled a short way out of his hiding place to get a better look at what Gabriella was doing. The young vampire, Fulton couldn't help thinking of her that way even though other than Francesca she was the oldest being he had ever met, had moved back towards her victim. Fulton heard her say something about screaming and then she stomped her foot down on his nether regions. There was a squelch and her victim screamed so loud it could surely be heard even over the din inside the club. Fulton ached in sympathy for the poor man and felt happy for him when the pain forced him into unconsciousness.
He watched Gabriella hoist the man up by his hair leaving a pink stain of blood and pulped flesh on the concrete. Blood continued to flow out through the mangled mess, the smell of it was intoxicating but the sympathetic thoughts he felt for the human's pain kept the change from coming over him.
Gabriella held her victim up in one hand and used her other to turn him around so she could feed from his neck.
Watching the warm fluid spill from her lips and run down her body, the smell of it so strong he could almost taste it himself, Fulton felt all sympathy leave him. His jaw shifted to accommodate the new length of his teeth, his nose was pulled back and his brow angled to meet it. The slight pain of the change only made him more eager for another kill of his own.
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