by Al K. Line
It was a letdown. It was probably the ones I fought outside prison. "Nothing about getting me locked up in the first place?"
"Sorry, no."
"Okay. Oh, how about..." I turned to Kate, and said, "No point carrying on, he's fast asleep. At his age he does it a lot. You can be mid-conversation and then he's dead to the world, sometimes for weeks."
"Maybe we can enjoy dessert in peace now." She smiled, didn't even tell me off for letting a gargoyle interrupt our meal.
"Great idea, I'll call the waiter."
We enjoyed the rest of our meal, both eating way too much cake, but I could have carried on for days. Not because of the cake, although it was great, but because of the company—now sans mouthy gargoyle.
All good things must come to an end, however, and over coffee I turned the conversation serious.
"Kate, you need to feed, don't you?"
She avoided my gaze for a moment but then looked me right in the eye and said, "Yes. I can wait, we have other things to worry about."
I took her hand and said, "I'm not going to tell you when to do it or anything like that, it's your choice and you feed when you know the time is right. But if you want me to come with you then I will. You have to take care of yourself." Such an odd conversation to have, like telling someone to get their five a day, not go kill another human being so they can dose up on blood magic and remain a quasi-immortal ex-human being.
"Are you sure?" I could see the relief. I'd said nothing but she was looking drained—sorry, bad choice of word. She was slightly listless and not quite full of her usual energy. I'd put it down to what was going on, neglecting to note she had her own pressing concerns.
"Of course. We'll go once we finish here, promise. I'm here to support you, you know that. As long as we stick to the list and you do it right then it's fine."
"I wouldn't dream of doing it any other way," she said, utterly serious. "It's hard enough anyway, but I always do it quick and without cruelty."
"I know."
We were silent while we finished our drinks, both knowing the seriousness of the matter. It's a fine line this vampire business.
Kate knew it, I knew it, and we both intended to make sure she remained exactly how she was.
Feeding Time
Meet Robert Travis. Thirty-five, good looking, and successful self-made millionaire from playing the stock market from his home office. Connoisseur of fine wines, wearer of expensive shirts, even more expensive suits, and handmade leather shoes. And rapist. He got arrested, charged, tried, and subsequently found not guilty because his accuser failed to hold it together enough to give evidence even by remote camera feed.
His lawyer pulled every trick in the book—and some new ones—to discredit the statement the woman had given, bringing up past lovers, the fact she liked to party with her friends on the weekend, and that she had willingly gone back to Robert's home one Saturday night.
What she hadn't agreed to was being forced to have sex with a man that turned rather nasty once they were alone, and after getting out the house while he slept—seemingly unconcerned about her accusing him—she went straight to the police station in her torn clothes, stinking of booze and his imported aftershave, and wished to god she hadn't bothered.
Robert was on the list.
Most vampires will feed on the weak and the lonely, those not missed. They have to keep it discreet or risk running afoul of the Councils. People disappear, they don't get found with bite marks, but most vampires don't care if the person they kill is good, has family or loved ones or is happy with life—if they are hungry they feed.
Kate and I made an agreement. She couldn't face killing innocents, would rather die herself than do that, so we found a way around it. I hear a lot about injustice in the Regular world so I drew up a list for Kate and while I was away she kept it updated through some of my contacts. This man, this Robert, was next on the list.
Prone to finishing work early on Friday to have a nap and get ready for a big night out, and probably a spot more raping, he could be found at home as usual. So we went to pay him a visit.
Outside his expensive house, down a private lane in an exclusive part of the city right next to open countryside, I got out the car. I walked over to where Kate pulled up behind me and got in. We nodded to each other, no need for words, neither of us really sure what to say. Such moments are never easy so we sat for a moment, the mood subdued as we both knew what had to happen.
"You okay?" I asked. Kate looked nervous, which was good, and as I studied her I couldn't help wonder how long it would be before she was hardened to the killing. Hopefully never.
"Just feeling a little strange. I've been doing this without your support, Faz, sometimes alone, sometimes with one of the nicer vampires, but it wasn't the same. Thanks for coming with me. It makes it seem more real, you know? Like it's an actual human being, not just food so I can stay strong. I wish I'd never done it and I don't know how long I can keep on doing this." Kate held my gaze as she cried soft tears, a world of hurt behind her beautiful eyes.
"I wish I could say something to make it all better, but I can't. We both know this isn't nice, but you have to look at it as doing the world a favor. What if he goes out tonight and attacks another poor woman? What's worse, you doing what you need to to stay alive, or him raping someone?" There was nothing I could say to hide the fact she was taking a life, that was something she had to deal with herself. It's the life she chose and there are dues to be paid, terrible dues.
"You're right, I'm just being silly."
"Shall I come with you? Just in case?"
"No, but thanks. The one thing I've learned is that these men fall over themselves to let a stranger into their home. It's ridiculous, like they think they are better than everyone else. They don't even stop to think someone that looks like me could ever get the better of them. Ugh, foul to the core. Why is there so much hurt in the world?"
"There's more good than bad, much more. You have to think about all the millions of people that are good, that care, not the few that are hateful and ruin it for everyone else."
"Thanks." Kate wiped her eyes, checked herself in the visor mirror, then gave me a kiss and was gone.
I watched her change as she walked up the gravel drive to the expensive modernist house.
Her hips swayed, she put her hand through her hair, and I could tell she was looking hot as hell, the vampire in her exuding sexiness and making her irresistible to anyone she set her sights on. She could glamor him with a moment of eye contact or she could use just enough blood magic to make herself so utterly desirable he would think nothing of letting her in, relaxed in her company, and then it would be over. Food for the vampire. Dead.
While Kate was inside I fished out what I could only think of as the clean-up bag, containing clothes and wipes so Kate could freshen up and not look like something out of a horror movie if things got messy. She'd seemingly learned and now took it with her wherever she went so it would never be forgotten in an emergency. Some emergency, right? Oops, I was really hungry so now I need to change as I have blood on my blouse.
Anyway, by now she should be an expert, with little but a red smear on her mouth after feeding, but it's better safe than sorry.
I rummaged around getting things ready, mainly just to occupy my hands so I didn't have to think about what I'd learned about my own problems. I felt like I was in the middle of somebody's games and was being used for reasons I couldn't fathom, unable to grasp the underlying meaning.
Now wasn't the time to think about it, I had to stay focused for Kate. Ensure nobody came and be there for the inevitable comedown after she fed. I'd worry about my problems later, when I was alone and could think straight without distraction.
I glanced up at the house, the modern building all steel and huge expanses of glass, revealing a large open plan interior with expensive furniture that showed little taste, just that the guy had money.
Something was going on. Kate and her vict
im were running around the room, knocking into tables, clambering over furniture. What the hell?
Things get Messy
I opened the door to be confronted with the screams of a man and the hiss of a vampire.
Running into the living room was like entering an abattoir. Kate had gone nuts. She had given in. The vampire virus had taken her over completely, blood lust and the need for the high finally overwhelming. Taken her to the dark side where nothing mattered but feeding and domination of others.
She'd let it in, there was no other way it could happen.
Kate had gone rogue.
This was downright cruel. Barbaric and sick. My world came crashing down around me. How could she do this? I thought she had more control, more compassion.
The man was screaming, wild-eyed and manic. Blood poured from a wound at his neck, flesh ripped away, but it wouldn't kill him. His white shirt was soaked through and blood pooled on the white leather sofa and splattered the floor and walls.
Kate was a nightmare vision of death.
She'd promised me, promised herself, and I got the sickening feeling that this wasn't the first time. Was this why she was so loathe to feed? Or was this why she'd been so keen to talk about the vampire draw we'd discussed? Was she sending out feelers, seeing how I'd react if I knew the true extent of the beast she had become?
Where was the woman I loved? Where was Kate? This was a monster.
She vibrated fast, buzzing and jittery like she had a full-body tick. Her mouth and chin were smeared with the man's blood, her forearm red where she'd wiped at it. But it was her eyes that told me all I needed to know. They were black and pitiless, an animal focused on prey.
Every time Robert ran she did the strange vampire shudder, movements too fast for the eye to register, darting at him and taking a bite. Sucking down more blood, draining him slowly. Weakening him a little and increasing the fear.
She laughed as she did it. She cackled and she taunted him. Prodding Robert to keep him as freaked out as possible.
This was what she had promised to never do—tease her victims and prolong their death. Something many vampires did if they really needed the blood they swallowed to be as potent as possible. Fear increased the magic they took inside of themselves, the vampire virus feeding off extremes of emotion, terror almost as powerful as lust.
There was that, too. Her chest heaved and she moaned each time she ingested the man. Her tongue darted out to lick at his wound, pink, sensual and intimate. She soiled her blouse as she touched her swollen lips then caressed herself, head back and utterly lost in rapture.
I screamed at her to stop but she sneered at me and shook her head. She sucked on a finger then poked it into Robert's wound.
Again, he ran, and then he saw me and screamed, "Help me," a moment before Kate arrived by his side and snapped at him, fangs long and sharp, dripping venom as they sank into the other side of his neck, breaking fresh skin and giving him a moment of utter bliss as the venom entered his bloodstream and made him a willing victim. But then she withdrew and the realization of his impending death came and he tried to run, to get to the door and away.
Kate was on him in an instant. She tripped him up and then stripped his leg bare, biting into his calf muscle and pulling off a chunk like a starving dog. She lapped at the oozing blood, caressing up his thigh as he kicked and screamed.
I grabbed Kate and pulled her away but she was too strong and pushed me back, sending me flying. Robert was on his feet, hobbling away as Kate watched with amusement, ready to strike again.
There was nothing else I could do. I grabbed him by the shirt collar as he moved past me. I was too numb inside to think to do anything else.
As he rebounded against my grip, he slipped on his own blood and crashed down hard to the floor, head making an awful cracking sound, but he was up and crawling away from me, from Kate, as she stood over him, smiling and taunting him, asking him where he thought he was going and didn't he want to stay for the main course?
I was lost, my world one of horror and despair, immobile as the woman I loved taunted, terrorized, and humiliated another human being for no other reason than because it was fun.
Who was this woman? This wasn't Kate. She was gone, forever tainted in my mind. I felt nothing but disgust, for her and for myself as I stood rooted to the spot, not even thinking to call magic and put a swift end to it all. It was as though my body was disconnected from my sight as I watched Kate straddle him and lift his chin to stare into his eyes. He was crying, begging for mercy now, and I noted that his skull was broken, blood oozing out thick and the flow getting faster.
Kate bent and whispered, "You taste so good," and nipped at his neck repeatedly like a Terrier at the flanks of a paralyzed rabbit. Again and again she took little bites, her skin flushing scarlet as she fed. Her moans got louder and she oozed sexuality, making my mind confused, almost overwhelmed with lust beyond the emotions humans can normally experience.
Robert was past screaming now—I think he was in shock—batting ineffectively as life slowly left, still enough awareness remaining for him to know what was happening, not wanting to accept the inevitable.
Something clicked in my head and I snapped to action. Picking up a metal sculpture from the floor, I pushed Kate off him with my foot and as she stared at me from her position on all fours I swung down hard and fast on Robert. His skull split wide open, brains spilling over the hardwood floor.
Kate snarled at me and crawled to him, face latched on to his neck as she drank as deeply as she could before the essence of life was totally gone. The sound was sickening, like a kid trying to get the last of their milkshake out with a straw.
Finally, it was over. Kate sank back on her haunches after she fed and I watched as the pain enveloped her, the all-encompassing cost of taking blood magic, the vampire's penance for the incubation and maturing of the virus within.
This was worse than the penalty for taking magic from the Empty, and Kate had taken so much this time. Her body convulsed and she fell to her side, crying out for mercy she'd denied her victim. Her body spasmed and she foamed at the mouth as her eyes rolled back in her head. I watched beads of sweat pop to the surface over her exposed skin.
The agony would be like nothing I had ever experienced. She deserved it, and worse.
This was a bad man, but nobody deserves to be treated in such a manner. Kate had stepped over the line and had become something else that day.
Kate was true vampire and I hated her.
Lost in Hell
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I couldn't stop it. Faz, please, don't look at me like that. Please."
Kate crawled to me on all fours, blood and venom dripping from her mouth. She looked truly sorry, back to being herself, but then something changed and she began wiggling her backside, sexy in a way I'd never seen before. She was pure lust, high on blood magic and out the other side of pain, ramped up, senses super attuned, lust utterly primal.
"Get away from me." I took a step back but she kept on coming, smiling an alien smile. Then she sat, unbuttoning her blouse slowly, eyes locked on mine, inviting and urging me to come to her. I almost succumbed. She was trying to glamor me and in my confused and distraught state I nearly caved. Then the mental barrier in my mind slammed down as hard as my disgust and I saw her for what she was. A repulsive and awful human being who enjoyed the suffering of others.
"I love you, you love me. We will be together always. Come, feel my power, feel my body."
"Stop! What the hell are you doing? This isn't you, this is someone else." It had to be. This couldn't be Kate, not my Kate. No, no, no.
I glanced at the dead body of a rapist, gray matter beside his broken head like leftover porridge, the mess at his neck and the chaos of the room testament to her cruelty.
I felt sick to my stomach. Everything was gone, everything was lost. What was the point? Why bother going on now Kate had turned from me, from us all, become what she hated, what she promised she would n
ever let happen, what I had promised to help her to fight?
"You fed well, my dear," said a voice that sounded like somebody had figured out how to perfect evil and bag it. "Such a beautiful sight, such a delight to behold my children in their true state."
For some reason I wasn't in the least surprised. I turned, casually, to look at the man behind me. This would be the new Vampire Head, Taavi's replacement, and one thing was for sure, he wouldn't be good news. Chances were, he'd kill me, or try, right there and then, just to ensure we never crossed paths in battle in the future.
Me? I just slumped into a chair and let events unfold.
I was too fucking empty inside to do anything else.
A New Head
Why did it always come back to the damn vampires? I couldn't take any more of it, of them. Of anything. Every time something major comes along it's always linked to them. Was this my everlasting punishment for dabbling in the Empty? They'd taken my parents, more friends than I could count, and now Kate.
"The cleaners will be along shortly, my dear," said the person I assumed was Oskari Thorstad, Head Vampire. One look at him and I knew he would make Taavi seem like a puppy.
This was another one from the old country. A Finnish vampire from way back, someone who had remained high in the ranks for millennia, older than most vamps and more powerful than them too. He had crazy nice hair, pale and as beautiful as his face. Normally the old dudes are all wrinkles and skin as thin as rice paper, but Oskari was different. He practically shone.
He looked late twenties, and apparently his eyes were almost white the blue was so faded, but he wore wraparound glasses as black as his soul, rimmed with gold I was sure was real. Oskari moved with grace and an elegance that matched his personal style, wore an immaculate suit tailored to perfection, and he emanated cold. I half expected someone to switch on a smoke machine so it drifted around his ankles and made it suitably spooky.