This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of various products referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission. The publication/use of these trademarks is not authorized, associated with, or sponsored by the trademark owners.
A layer of smoke lingered above the heads of the standing occupants in the room. Viktor flicked his gaze from one face to the next as the people milled about, chattering, laughing and drinking. Most of them also had cigarettes and cigars. A few of the old-timers even wooden pipes. The smoke couldn’t bother him.
He rolled his tongue across his teeth and took a deep breath, leaning back in his booth. His finger trailed the rim on his glass of bourbon. He wished he could feel the effects of the stuff— the warm buzz that came with the exquisite taste of liquor.
It amazed him that he could even remember that feeling as it had been many years since he became a vampire. If old habits died hard, he supposed so did the memory of them.
He felt a little tingle in his chest and his sixth sense urged him to turn to his left. Joya flashed him a smile and a wink. He inclined his dark head and tipped his glass to her.
She was the reason they came to these parties. He met her when she was still on the stage, performing the classics with a crew out of France. She agreed to give up acting and let him carry her off to Belgium, but she couldn’t give up the night life.
Viktor wasn’t much for social settings. He preferred to stay home tinkering with his plants and seedlings, reading a good book, or watching movies in the theater room. But Joya’s electric grin and musical laughter reminded him why this was such a small price to pay for her happiness.
“Another drink, sir?” A young woman asked as he caught sight of her from the corner of his eye. When he looked at her fully he saw that she wasn’t just young, she was very likely underage. He shook his head and forced his eyes away.
Dressed provocatively, her pubescent breasts were squeezed to the point of overflowing in a too-tight top. Thin black leggings covered a minimal amount of skin under a very short skirt.
What the hell kind of party is this? He wondered, searching for Joya amongst the crowd.
Downing the last of his drink, he stood and elbowed his way through the crowd to find his wife. He saw her flaming red hair far across the room, the curls around her face jiggling back and forth as she danced with a short blonde gal. He raised an arm to get her attention and came into contact with someone’s head.
“Hey!” the man shouted, slapping at Viktor’s hand with scowling blue eyes. “What the hell?”
Narrowing his eyes until they were mere slits, he grabbed the fellow by the scruff of his shirt and pulled him close. “You’re about to make an unwise decision, young man.” Viktor spoke in a low and menacing voice just before pushing the guy away from him.
By the time he looked up again, Joya was letting the blond lead her by the hand down a hallway. He grumbled under his breath in frustration. He knew the look in her eyes before they left the house that evening and he shouldn’t have been surprised to see her sneaking off for an intimate encounter.
He wasn’t unaware of his wife’s extracurricular activities with other women and he didn’t disapprove. How could he when he had his own proclivities? Their relationship was one in which they accepted all aspects of each other. When the mood took him he was always welcome to join her or simply watch.
Tonight he wasn’t in the mood for either. For some reason he was itching for a fight. The kid who slapped at him earlier didn’t have a clue how lucky he was because Viktor’s skin crawled and tingled with the desire to pound someone into oblivion. It would be better for all concerned if he excused himself and went home, so he pressed on through the crowd to locate whatever room Joya and her partner had escaped to.
There were a number of closed doors to choose from. Impatient, he opened the first he came to without a knock and peeked inside. Empty. He tried the next and found it also empty. Another vacant room and another, then as he approached the next door his vampire ears picked up the sound of a female moan.
For just an inkling he thought it must be the room he was looking for, then his mind registered that the sound wasn’t made in pleasure but in fear or even pain. He kicked the door open in one bold move, ready for action.
Instead of Joya and her partner, the young waitress from earlier was there, tears streaming down her face as she struggled to pull a ripped sleeve up to cover her chest. The man with her tossed Viktor an angry look over his shoulder.
“Bugger off, old man. She ain’t here for you blood suckers. Too old for that.”
The urge to fight wouldn’t be put off now. Viktor wasn’t a saint. He had a dark side and was well aware of it, but assaulting a young girl wasn’t on his list of what was acceptable
He was across the room in a second flat, his nose just a centimeter from the other man’s face. “And what would your name be?” He inquired even as he reached back with his left hand to grab a looped leather strap attached to the inside waist of his black slacks.
“Tim. And what’s yours, bloke?”
Viktor growled as he swung his right hand to punch the fellow in the gut. His itchy left hand screamed to have a whack too, but he refused to give in. The strap at his back waist was there for a reason. Super vampire strength and speed was a huge advantage over most opponents. His pride demanded he level the playing field a bit, so he forced himself to keep his favored hand behind his back.
Even with his hand behind him, this wasn’t a fair fight. By the second punch, the kid was rolling on the floor, begging for quarter. Viktor kicked him in the ribs before grabbing him by his belt and hefting him to his feet.
“What’s the problem, Timmy? Not so much fight in you as you thought?”
Tim coughed and sputtered, then flicked his hand to shoot a bolt of magic. It didn’t harm him, but it threw Viktor off guard enough that he dropped his prey. He wouldn’t be put off though. In a few strides he was back over the little warlock, just about to grab him again when a second door into the room burst open.
“What the hell?” An eerily familiar dark figure muttered, eyes flicking from the man on the ground, to Viktor and then to the young girl cowering in the corner.
Just about the time this second fellow reached his side and unsheathed a dagger, Viktor realized he was dhampir. Fucking great, he muttered to himself.
“No, no, no!” A third man, short and older screamed, running into the room through the doorway Viktor had entered by. “Tim, what are you doing? He may be a buyer.”
Tim crawled away from Viktor’s reach, making his way behind the third fellow and clutching his stomach. “I’m getting the hell outta here, old man. You sell her to who ever you want. I’ll find another gel.”
“You’re selling this child?” Viktor demanded in a booming voice. The old guy didn’t respond, just scrambled out of the room as fast as he could.
Viktor looked back at the dhampir, a strange sensation coming over him as he stared into the younger man’s black eyes. He shook the feeling away and released his leather strap. “Who was that? What the hell is going on here?”
The guy snickered as he resheathed his dagger. “That was the broker. But judging by the dumb look on your face, I’m gonna guess you don’t have a clue what the fuck that means.”
The dhampir was right. Viktor didn’t have a clue what was going on, but he was damn sure going to try to find out. Joya, when he finally tracked her down with her lover, insisted she had no idea about the young waitstaff, nor the prospect of selling children.
Back at their chateau, she tossed her coat to Hamilton, their butler, and pecked her husband on the cheek. “I do not know, love. I only happened to be told of that party by my friend Gustov. You know how Gustov is. He adores to bang a good party.” She spoke in a strong French accent that he at
times found most endearing and other times most annoying.
He waved Hamilton away when the old servant gave him a questioning glance, then followed his wife to their bedroom suite. “Crash a party, darling. Not bang, but crash.”
Joya laughed and tossed him a smile as she placed a foot upon her dressing chair and slipped her silk stockings off one perfectly shaped leg and then switched legs to remove the other. “So you believe they were conducting a black market there? At a party? Who would be about that?”
He didn’t answer, rubbing the cleft in his jaw with a single finger as he pondered things. When he glanced at Joya he saw her gown drop into a pool of satin and lace at her feet. She released her thick red locks from the pin holding them back and let them cascade across one white shoulder.
“I interrupted you.” He whispered to her, well aware of the intent in her eyes as she gazed at him through half-closed lids.
“She was not to be such a good romp, my husband,” she shrugged, a fetching grin curling her red lips. “And I would have preferred to have you there as it is. Wouldn’t you have liked to be there?”
No, he wouldn’t have liked it. At the time he hadn’t been interested in anything of the kind. But for some reason memories of the past were inching their way to the forefront of his mind and with those memories came a lust so strong it was like a caged animal roaring inside him.
He stood just as Joya reached the spot in front of him. With a growl he grabbed her with both hands, one at the nape of her neck and the other at her waist. She made a sound, half-laugh and half-moan. He knew his wife well. She would feed on his desperation just as she had many times before when the memories overtook him.
~oOo~
There was a thick fog over his mind. His body felt like it had been twisted and stretched and then his soul sucked out. Viktor licked his lips and the residue of something he couldn’t quite place tickled his taste buds. He wanted more. He needed more. A hunger he had never known turned his stomach inside out.
“Shhh…” a melodic voice murmured against his ear. “I will care for you. I will not let you suffer.”
He didn’t open his eyes but he felt a woman straddle his hips and he instinctively placed his hands at her waist. He tightened his fingers into her skin, sliding them around to her backside and caressing the smooth warm skin there. When he lifted his eyelids he wasn’t surprised to see she was naked. Her breasts were heavy and full and directly in front of his gaze. His lips parted and he groaned.
“Yes, it is yours, my handsome. Devour me. I am yours to take.”
And as much as he wanted to make love to the gorgeous woman pressed against him, he wanted something else more. He reached up and rammed his fingers into her auburn hair, yanking her head down. Almost before he could anticipate his own actions, his incisors sank into her ivory neck so that he could consume her life’s blood. The hot liquid burst and popped in his mouth with energy. He wanted to growl over the strength and prowess he felt as he lapped at her, but he couldn’t tear his teeth from her carotid long enough. He had to have as much as she would give.
He could feel her body twisting and grinding against him. She whimpered, dug her fingernails into his shoulders, as her tears fell upon his chest. Then she placed two fingers to his temple where his jaw moved with each sucking movement of his mouth. A pressure built against his mandible until he was forced to retract his fangs and pull back from her.
His lovely supplicant sagged and sighed against him. Viktor closed his eyes and enjoyed the throbbing, pulsing feel of her blood driving through his veins.
“Heal me, my handsome. Taste away the last drops.” She whispered, out of breath as she presented the seeping wounds on her neck to him. He kissed and licked each one and they closed before his very eyes.
“What’s happened to me?” Viktor asked, his voice gruff with an overload of emotion.
“Shhhh…. I have risked much for you this night. I have given of myself to spare you pain. Now you must give of yourself in return.”
She pushed her hips against his and all thoughts of his strange circumstance vanished. His physical hunger was satiated, but his need to join with her consumed him. The fingers he still had entwined in her hair tightened and tugged until he could push her back so that he could roll on top of her.
When it was over, both of them satiated and their bodies entwined, Viktor propped himself up onto his elbow to look down at her. Her eyes were green, like jades, and the irises widened and then narrowed and glowed. She raised an eyebrow to give him a curious glance, then grinned.
“You are the first vampire for me, my handsome. I believe you will be the last. I do not believe it could be better than this and if it could be, then I would rather not know it.”
“Vampire…” He breathed the word, understanding finally that the warning bells sounding off in his head were true.
“Do not fret, my handsome. You won’t suffer. The blood lust was satiated when you took from me. You will not be forced to go through the transition so many of your kind have made. And best of all, I have freed you. Your sire will control you no more. You have won your independence by romping with this little faery.”
“Faery?” He knew he sounded dumbstruck, something that was unusual for him. He was a forty-five year old botanist. He didn’t get dumbstruck.
“You should call me Aoibhneas. Now, my handsome … Your debt is not yet paid. I want more of you. I want you now.” And she stretched out atop him and brought his mouth back to hers for a lingering kiss.
Viktor’s body surged with the power he had absorbed in her blood. With a growl he reached for her hips to lift her, plunging deep and wild. She cried into his mouth but her hands on his shoulder demanded more, tugging and kneading and urging him on as she met him thrust for thrust.
He rolled them both over so that he was on top again, then he pulled away from her long enough to turn her onto her stomach, pressing her chest into the mattress as he entered her again from behind. He didn’t notice that his fingernails had turned to claws until they tore through the skin on her back.
Aoibhneas didn’t seem to notice or care. She leveraged herself on her elbows and rocked back and forth against him. “Harder, my handsome. Hold nothing back from me.”
Viktor lifted his head and used his free hand to roll the pillow behind his head so he could sit up without disturbing Joya. Her red hair blanketed both her back and his chest, her cheek resting against his heart. She had one hand tucked between his side and his arm and the fingers of her other hand held tight to the back of his neck.
She always held him this way after this type of sex. It was as if she feared that one day she wouldn’t be able to ride the waves of desperate emotion with him and that he would get tossed out into oblivion, never to return. His sanity was frail when memories of his past resurfaced, but his darling Joya always took him as he was, never turning away from him even when he was at his fiercest.
“My love,” he murmured, brushing her flaming locks aside. There were long bleeding streaks along her back where his nails had scraped into her skin. He cringed and shook his head, swallowing down his disgust at his own behavior. He placed a finger in his mouth, bringing it away wet with saliva, then rubbed it along one of the deeper scratches. The wound healed and he repeated the process until her beautiful ivory skin looked clean and pure again.
“Rest, my Viktor.” Joya muttered, rousing just long enough to peck a kiss to his chest, then nuzzling him and going back to sleep with a long sigh.
Viktor’s mind beckoned him back to the past, teasing and taunting him with enticing words from a sultry woman’s voice. He tightened his jaw, furrowed his brow before lifting his head, and then thumping it back against the pillow a few times.
“Aoi… Aoi, will you never leave me in peace?”
~oOo~
“You are a strong vampire, my handsome. Surely you aren’t too tired.”
Viktor slipped his tongue across his blood slick teeth and grunted up at the gorgeous
woman atop him. “I’ve become a stud to a beguiling faery.”
Aoibhneas chortled with laughter as she ran her hands up his chest to his head, raking her nails through his salt and pepper hair. “You are so sophisticated with these wisps of grey at your temple. So many vampires are young boys, knowing so little of life. Their youth makes them impulsive and that allows them to give into the dark side. You were different. You will be different, my handsome.”
He rolled to his side, tossing her off his hips and forcing a rush of air from her lips. She smacked him on the top of his head, her translucent faery wings fluttering in disdain. He propped his head in his hand and looked at her with piercing eyes. “Am I some sort of guinea pig to you? Like an experiment in vampirism?”
Her green eyes widened and pulsed with an inner glow, then slowly her lower lip pressed out into an attractive pout. He studied her gaze, trying to determine is she was playing him or if her feelings were truly hurt.
“I just don’t understand what we’re about here, Aoi. I’ve been here in this room for weeks. You’ve bewitched me such that I can’t even bring myself to venture out because I can’t stand the thought that I might I miss your return. Where do you go? What am I supposed to do now that I’m a vampire? Do I live forever and does that mean I spend my eternity as your lover?”
Tears sprang up in her eyes and when one of them welled up and spilled down her cheek she wiped it away with an expression that was part confusion and part infuriation. “Oh my handsome, not an eternity. We do not have nearly an eternity.”
She sat beside him, her body still and rigid while she inhaled and exhaled in quick breaths. Viktor leaned up and placed a hand on hers, squeezing the delicate fingers, but she pulled away and shook her head.
The Bend-Bite-Shift Box Set Page 53