by Ian Hall
And she left me. Wandering aimlessly in town, wondering why everything had changed. My senses were tingling, I felt weak, yet euphoric.
When I got back to the dorm, I slept for a whole day.
Then when everything had calmed down a bit, and a good sleep behind me, I got randy. I went down to the college and soon found myself a nice piece of neck to chew on. I thought I’d had it made. I just whispered sweet nothings in her ear, and she crawled all over me.
Shooting fish in a barrel.
So I did what any self-respecting guy would do, I dragged her behind the bleachers and helped her get naked. Man, I felt pumped up to do something real bad. Her neck kind of presented itself to me, and I snarled at her. Then, just as I get my brand new fangs onto her skin….
I get grabbed by the football jocks, right from in front of her, pulled to my feet, and dragged screaming across the playing field.
How the hell did I know there would be such a thing as vampire etiquette?
Not exactly a study course this semester.
Not exactly one of the evening clubs you subscribe to.
Not common knowledge at all.
New blood.
No different than New Money: undisciplined and uncultured. They came from nowhere and nothing; a bit of good luck – shake to the right hand, kiss the right ass – rags to riches type story. Their kind lacked wisdom and propriety. Decorum. Common goddamn sense.
A wildcard like this Donny Kelp running loose would prove a liability to us all, especially me. Why Amos needed him on the payroll was beyond my comprehension. But, not my place to question. Only to recruit – and then to keep them in line.
I stepped back and looked at my handiwork. Donny’s made-for-the-silver-screen face looked a bit worse for the wear. But, he would heal well before first class on Monday morning. Shame. Nothing would give me more pleasure than to see that playboy crash and burn at his own game.
“I’m assuming we’ll not be having any more trouble with you attacking humans at your discretion.”
Predictably, Donny lifted a pair of sheepish eyes. His sad attempt at disarming me, I supposed.
“What do you expect me to do, Valerie? You turned me into this...this…killing machine.”
For good measure, I re-introduced his cheek to the back of my hand. “That’s right – I did make you what you are; and I can take it all away just as quickly. Is that what you want?”
In the past, I’d found this to be the part they resorted to begging for mercy. Donny Kelp, on the other hand, took me by surprise.
“Yeah,” he said, “maybe it is.”
“I gave him my best vampire stare, then hit him with the command tone. “From now on, you feed when I say. Right?”
He just nodded.
Amos may have had some use for Donny Kelp but he’d been my conquest, my subordinate. My blood had turned him and that put him under my control. As far as I was concerned, I’d do with him as I damn well pleased. Even if that meant starving the womanizing, chauvinistic arrogance right out of him.
Amos Blanche turned out to be nothing like I’d expected. When Valerie took me up to see ‘the boss’, I expected Raymond Burr or Jimmy Cagney or something. I didn’t expect a thin, old, gnarly guy who actually looked all of the two hundred years he claimed to be.
“I picked you for a purpose, Donny.” He croaked like a two-pack-a-day guy. I knew I needed to listen, so for once in my life, I actually shut up and said nothing.
Valerie sat in the shadows, a strange, lost look on her face.
Amos motioned to one of the football jocks, and he brought this teenage girl into the room. To say she looked scared would be an understatement. She struggled, but the jock held her firmly by the upper arms. A large gag kept her from making too much noise, but she screamed in there. Terrified.
“Watch and learn.” Amos walked up to the girl, who watched him, eyes wide open, every step of the way. Man, did he get close. He carefully breathed into her face, then closer still, until his lips nearly touched her nose, breathing right under her nostrils. It happened slowly, but she did stop struggling.
“You want me,” he whispered.
The girl emphatically shook her head.
Amos breathed some more, and her eyes never left his. “Take off the gag.”
Releasing her arms, the jock undid the large knot behind her head.
She panted in his face, her breath ragged.
“Kiss me,” Amos said.
I actually shook my head, never going to happen.
But to my shock, she did. She kissed him. Nervously at first, then with so much building passion that she pulled him close, and began to rub herself over him like some cat in heat.
He pushed her away. “Take her to my room.”
The jock actually had to pull her off.
Amos turned to me. “That,” he said, pointing at the closing door, “is how it’s done!” He came real close. “That is what you’ll learn. It’s the sole purpose in your miserable life!”
Bewildered by what I’d just seen, trying to relate it to my new “purpose”, I stood utterly silent, squirming under the old man’s icy glare.
“Wait outside,” Amos said to me.
I’ve never been more grateful to leave a room.
It never came easy for me – watching the young girls presented before changing. I remembered all-too well my great tussle with Amos; weeks of long agonizing sex. So long ago.
But Amos liked to be active when young, attractive females were chosen. The king declaring Prima Notre on the virgin’s wedding night, he would be slow and methodical, but he would not be gentle. And he wouldn’t turn her until the very end – until he’d raped her nearly to death. His way; establish dominance through suffering, and enjoy the process.
It wasn’t enough that Amos sated his lust for violence through sex. He felt it imperative for all the male recruits to do the same. Socio-sexual stereotypes were harsh enough in the human world. Vampires – female vampires – lived in terror of their male superiors.
I rose through the ranks by proving to Amos my bones were no more made of glass than his. What he dished, I took and never broke – never once. At least not in front of him.
It only took four decades of enduring his brutality, but eventually the whip at my back got thrust into my hand, and I became the woman that men feared. I showed my recruits the exact measure of mercy Amos dealt his – absolutely none.
Now a small enlistment of subservient males jumped to my beck and call. Mine, should ever the day come when Amos fell.
But my latest, Donny Kelp, seemed different; Amos had a specific task for this young man.
I scanned Donny’s face as he watched Amos take control of the girl. Fear. Distaste. Anger. He didn’t like what he saw. But then they never did at first. Eventually they all grew to embrace Amos’s example, and to follow suit.
Once they had their first taste of that kind of total, elicit power, they came around.
Bastards.
Amos favored me with a rare compliment. “You’ve outdone yourself, Valerie. He’s just what we’ve been looking for.”
To have such power over another human being had been incredible to watch, and to be honest, I couldn’t take my eyes off them; Amos, the thin old man and the new girl.
Then Amos told me to leave.
I only waited outside the door a moment, when it opened again.
Amos’s voice passed over Valerie’s shoulders. “Tell him his task; I’ve got an exercise regimen to attend to.”
In my mind, I could see the sickly sweet smile.
“Yes, Amos.” She strode out into the corridor, and waited ‘til the door closed. “Donny? My bedroom. Now.”
I headed down the corridor at a fair clip, but still felt her breath on the back of my neck all the way. As I entered her boudoir and spun round, she’d already closed the door behind us.
Now, I like sex. I love girls, women, whatever. But I’ve never been used before, and it wasn’t plea
sant.
To be accurate, we didn’t have sex, we rutted. I felt merely the implement she used to rub herself against. My initial feeling of lust soon quelled, and although I contributed nothing to the affair, she still took her sweet time. By the time she collapsed on top of me, satiated and soaking with sweat, I held nothing but disgust for the woman.
Then she slapped me. “That’s what it’s like!”
SLAP. Same hand, same place.
“That’s what Amos’s lifestyle is like.”
SLAP. My brain felt like it ricocheted around inside my skull; a pinball on overdrive.
“He takes what he wants, and he feels no remorse. He deals pain and demands loyalty.”
She held my face in her palms, looking desperately into my eyes.
“He is the pinnacle of vampire power in this area, yet he rules through hate and torture.”
At last the penny dropped. I saw the moral in the tale, cottoned onto the reason for her torrid display. Although I flinched against another slap, I couldn’t help trying to prove to Valerie that I was worth saving.
“He’s doing it all wrong,” I said.
“Of course he is.” Valerie began to sob. “I’m sorry what I just did to you, Donny, but that poor girl along the hallway will be awake for hours. Her end is predictable, and he’ll demand her supplication.”
Valerie got up and sat on the side of the bed.
“The vampire hierarchy is fatally flawed, Donny. And I’m not the only one who has noticed. In the world of mortal men, men like Amos are a dying breed. Their leadership changes; survival of the fittest. But here, it is survival of the oldest, whether fit to rule or not.”
“Because we’re immortal, of course.”
We both grinned. I had learned a valuable lesson, but I felt no nearer to knowing my mission.
I took my share of him and in my own time. Giving nothing back. By the time I relented, heaving and drained, Donny’s hatred of me showed, blatantly evident in his expression. Good.
“The vampire hierarchy is fatally flawed, Donny. And I’m not the only one who has noticed. In the world of mortal men, men like Amos are a dying breed. Their leadership changes; survival of the fittest. But here, it is survival of the oldest, whether fit to rule or not.”
Donny made some smirky, smartass remark.
“I may not be able to kill Amos Blanche, but if I’m successful, his influence will die even if he lives to the end of time.”
Donny, still naked, got up from the bed, crossed the room, and lit two cigarettes. The first he offered to me. I took it eagerly, letting the smoke sweep into my lungs with a pleasing burn. Just like I’d done with Donny, I took my time to enjoy the physical sensation.
I noticed how he watched my breasts as my lungs expanded. Perhaps my new acquisition wasn’t nearly as disgusted in me as I’d first believed. Composed and almost callous, Donny didn’t bother to hide his valuation of me; though he kept any approval closely guarded. He wasn’t a whelp, whining for a bone. Donny seemed to be a man who knew how to be one.
False lust took a turn toward genuine admiration. I began to see Donny Kelp in a new light. Perhaps the first potential rival to Amos’s dominion I’d ever come across. The man I’d been looking for.
His next words proved me right, “What is it that you want from me, Valerie?”
Valerie dressed quickly. “First of all, I want you to realize that being a vampire isn’t just about sex and greed.”
I nodded.
“I need you to acknowledge that there is another way, a higher calling to our place on this earth.”
I nodded again. “I had wondered about that. I mean, where does God come into this?”
She gave me an awkward look, then shook her head. “We need to change your name.” Valerie had dressed, and I still felt kind of numb after her sex attack.
“I mean, what the hell kind of name is Donny?”
“Short for Donovan.”
“Never heard of it. Sorry, you’re going to be reinvented.”
I shook my head. “Why do you have to change my name?”
“Because you’re going away for a while.” Valerie began to pace the room.
“What about my mission; my task?”
Valerie’s expression changed. I’d glimpsed a thoughtful side to her now, a calculating side I hadn’t seen before. “You, my dear, were going to be Amos’s step up in the world. You know Tracy Kennedy? It’s my job to train you to turn her, bring her into the vampire fold. That’s your mission. You were to take your place at her father’s side. That would enable Amos’s rise into the political arena; as if he doesn’t have enough power already.”
She pulled her long boots on. “But if I have my way, he’ll never get to dip his toe into government. I have a few phone calls to make. I have a new identity to engineer, and you have to go into hiding for a few years.”
“Years? What about my family?”
“Say your goodbyes. If you stay here, under his power, Amos will tear them limb from limb just to keep you on your toes. It’s his way. Your disappearance will be their saving grace. He hand-picked you, Donny; either you leave the state, or I’ve got to organize a tragic accident for Tracy Kennedy. Amos is not getting into the fucking White House.”
“How will I live?” I asked. I sat on a full-ride scholarship to Penn State; other than that, not a dime to my name. She expected me to walk away from the life I’d been building for myself, that’s bad enough; but to do it empty-handed?
“I can arrange whatever you need; don’t worry – you’ll want for nothing. But you need to leave soon, to set this in motion.”
“Not quite that easy, Valerie. There are some things we’re going to have to discuss before I do anything.”
For a split second, I thought I’d have another encounter with Valerie’s backhand. Instead, she folded her arms and gave me an “I’m listening” glare.
Shit. It already felt cold outside, and the first sprinklings of snow drifted through Pennsylvania; nineteen-fifty-nine would be an interesting year.
Turns out my apprentice seemed nowhere near as free and easy as he’d appeared from the outside. Donny Kelp refused to assume his new identity and new life before a few conditions were met. First and foremost: his mother and younger sister needed to be made safe from Amos Blanche and his crusade.
The drive from Penn State to his squalid hometown, Oak Peak, should only have been forty minutes under optimal conditions. However, conditions were far from optimal. The first heavy snowfall of the year had gained momentum. Roads were slick, visibility next to nothing. Donny drove at a snail’s pace, still under the assumption that skidding off the road and down the embankment could end his fragile life. He hadn’t yet come to terms with immortality.
I just let him drive. I’d always hated the winter and to think I’d live through hundreds –possibly thousands – more of them made me envious of the humans’ short lifespan. Once I’d broke free of Amos Blanche’s rule, I’d move on to warmer climate; a land of perpetual summer.
Throughout our prolonged expedition cross-state, Donny illuminated me on his personal history. I guess he labored under the impression I cared.
“…after my father died, my mother had to get out and work for the first time in her life; had to get two jobs just to make ends meet. Cassie was only three and I was thirteen, so I spent pretty much every waking minute taking care of her. I was more of a dad to her than a brother. Poor kid flipped out when I went off to the university…”
I nodded my head every once in a while out of sheer politeness, though I only absorbed about half his saga.
“So, if I’m going to do this – I need your word, Valerie.”
I got shaken out of my stupor by the mention of my name. “Hmm? What’s that?”
“I need your word that they’ll be taken care of: financially and whatever else. I want my mom and sister set up good—set for life. You’ve got the resources, right?”
I’d been clutching a canvas bag fill
ed with stacks of twenties; last count it amounted to nearly a hundred-grand. Just some walking-around money. One thing about being over a hundred years old: you had something to show for it. A drop in the bucket for me, but it would do more than appease a single mother, scratching to get by.
“Your family will be well provided for,” I told him, un-cinching the drawstring to the canvas bag. Donny’s eyes became round with awe. “As long as I have your word that you’ll do exactly as I say from here on out.”
Donny pulled up a long driveway, the cement pitted from wear, to a stucco ranch-style that hadn’t seen a new coat of paint or had its gutters cleaned in far too long. The sight of that house gave me an insight to Donny Kelp that his hour-long monologue never could have; no wonder the guy fucked everything in sight and smoked like a chimney. For Donny, college had proved both his vacation, and an escape route; a four-year-long sabbatical from playing “man of the house.”
Maybe that’s why he didn’t put up too big of a fight. I’d claimed Donny Kelp as my ticket out, and maybe I was his.
Soon as we walked through the door, a young girl with brown pigtails bounced up and threw herself into Donny’s arms. His mother, looking weatherworn, rose heavily from an olive green sofa and came to greet him as well.
Before she got two feet from me, I caught a whiff of sourness vaporing off her skin – ill, very ill; some sort of cancer. By the look on Donny’s face I knew he smelled it, too. I could only hope his inexperienced senses wouldn’t identify the source of the strange odor or I’d never be able to pull him out of that house while his family still lived.
The journey north proved terrible. I hate driving, but worse than that, I hate silent passengers. The snow made for bad conditions, and I knew my tires were not good. I felt the car shift us several feet so many times, I’m sure we half-skated to Oak Peak, rather than drove.