Well This Sucks

by CoraLee June

  Drew let go of me and started slowly walking toward them, her head cocked to the side in curiosity. “I think I want to join them…” she said in a whimsical tone. I let out a sigh, remembering that she was in the euphoria stage. The man plunged two fingers inside of his date. Another couple started fucking against the wall. A man I recognized dropped to his knees and started sucking a recently turned ambassador. “Yeah,” Drew added. “I really want to join them.” Jealousy spiked in my gut, but I refused to let it impair my judgment. She was enchanted by the six couples sucking, thrusting, and fucking their lives away.

  “Drew,” I called. She moved closer to them, and when she bit her bottom lip, I noticed that her fangs were growing in. We didn’t have much time. I needed to do my job, not take her against the wall and finger fuck her like I wanted. She didn’t know what she was—what she was becoming. She didn’t know that I’d have to make an example of her. She kept walking away from me. Shit.

  I stalked closer to her and grabbed her arm. “Drew. Come with me.”

  She turned to me, a dazed look on her face. I distracted her the only way I knew how: I leaned forward and captured her mouth with mine. She melted. She trembled. She moaned.

  That’s right. Come with me, Drew.

  “I have a room here. Want to go?” I purred against the shell of her ear.

  “Yes. My friend…” She started to look around for the man she was dancing with. I grabbed her chin and made her look at me, using every ounce of my power to capture her full attention. Being king came with many perks. I was the only vampire with enough power to glamour another vamp. Someone else would have trouble controlling a fledgling in the euphoria stage, but not me. They were helpless to resist. The potent pleasure from obeying me was too much.

  “He’ll be fine,” I promised.

  “He’ll be fine,” she echoed.

  I ran my hand down her neck and cupped her breast, making her gasp.

  “You want to come with me,” I pressed.

  “I want to come”—she smirked at me— “with you, I mean.”

  Yeah. I’m sure. I wanted her to come too. Come all over my fucking dick.

  I grabbed her hand and led her to the stairs, pausing only to tell my second in command, Rocky, to find the human and glamour the sorry fucker to go home and remember nothing of tonight. If he was her date for the evening, I had half a mind to compel him to forget her forever.

  I guided her upstairs.

  I opened the door to my suite.

  I led her inside.

  And I tried to figure out what the fuck I was going to do with this woman.

  Drew

  I was all about making bad choices when it came to men this week. First, I was making out with my hot but crazy waiter in an alley, and now I was following Mr. Broody McBroodface into some kind of sex dungeon on top of the nightclub. Was it really a dungeon if it was on top of the club? It was more like an attic. I was following him to his sex attic, and I didn’t even think twice about it.

  It was like I was under a spell. A spell that made me feel incredible. All my senses were going insane. The music downstairs felt like it was flowing through my veins, the bass thumping in time with my heart. I could see everything with scary precise clarity. Even though I didn’t put my contacts in, I could read the engraving on the necklace a pretty brunette was wearing from across the club. It said daddy in cursive. Yes, girl.

  But most of all, when this Diego dude touched me, intense waves of pleasure cascaded down my body. When his thumb grazed my nipple a few short moments ago, it was an exciting mixture of being right on the brink of too much to bear but also never wanting it to stop. I had never experienced anything like the sensation of Diego’s touch, and I would follow him to a dungeon, or attic, or Antarctica if that’s what he wanted. This shit was weird, but I loved it. I was high on life.

  He led me inside a large loft that was dark but impeccable. The wood floors were stained a deep ebony, and the black curtains were drawn tight, even though there was no sunlight to block out. On one side of the room, there was a black leather couch with deep gray pillows, and a black coffee table completed the ensemble. There were gold accents in the artwork and the dimly lit sconces on the walls.

  My eyes were drawn to the massive bed on the opposite side of the room, but that’s not where Diego led me. Instead, he guided me to the glass table adjacent to the kitchen and gestured for me to sit down.

  “Would you like some rosé?”

  “That’s the name I used to dance under,” I blurted out and started giggling like an idiot. Oh God, I was fucking this up and fast. My pussy was not getting licked later. He mercifully ignored my teenaged boy sense of humor.

  “How about some chocolate-covered strawberries? Maybe a little whipped cream?” he asked suggestively. Now that he mentioned food, I was feeling a little hungry. Actually, I was feeling a lot hungry, and not just for some dick.

  “Only if we can take them to the bed.”

  “Sounds messy,” he replied.

  “The whole reason I came up here was to get messy,” I quipped while batting my eyes. I once dated a man that liked to spray me with whipped cream and lick me from head to toe. I’d probably still be dating him if he didn’t insist on religiously sucking on my toes.

  “Naughty girl. I was hoping we could talk first.” Holy cats. I didn’t want to talk. What’s a girl got to do to get laid around here? “What do you do for fun, Drew?”

  “You mean aside from trying to fuck random sexy men at clubs?” Hint dropped. Now pick it up, Diego.

  “And dumbass waiters in alleyways,” he added while shrugging out of his suit jacket. Wait, what? How did he know about that? My smile dropped as I took a fresh look at Diego. Something felt off about this. The whims of the nightclub had started to fade. I eyed the door, but Diego seemed five steps ahead of me. “I have guards posted outside. You won’t be leaving, Drew. I’d like to make this as painless as possible for you.”

  Oh fuck. “What’s going on?” I asked while taking a step backward.

  “Have you been feeling off lately? Tired? Senses on overdrive? Food not tasting right? Blocks of time you can’t quite remember?”

  How in the fuck did this dude know about my crazy hangover?

  I took another step back as Diego sat down on a wingback accent chair and casually crossed his legs. He looked smug, intimidating, and bored all at once. “I’d like to leave,” I said.

  “I wish I could let you.”

  “I’ll scream,” I threatened.

  “Please don’t. No one in this club would defy me to save you.”

  I swallowed. This man was ridiculously powerful. It was like there was electricity in the air surrounding him. “Last night, Lawrence Wright let his grandmother feed from your neck. I can see the two puncture holes from here. They’ll disappear once you’ve fully transitioned. Healing is one of the perks of being a creature of the night. Because she was a newly changed and poorly trained vampire, she released a venom into your bloodstream that is completely changing everything about your DNA.”

  Mothersucker say what?! Vampires?

  A hysterical laugh burst from my mouth. Diego continued to speak. “I know it’s a shock. But any minute now, you’ll start to feel an uncontrollable hunger. It’s carnal. The euphoria has worn off…”

  As he spoke, the laugh died in my throat, and I realized that he was serious. He believed that I was bitten by a vampire and that I was changing into one. I must excrete the pheromone for attracting crazy hot, but certifiably insane, men. And now I was trapped in this room where he was probably going to kill me and drain my blood to drink or bathe in or do whatever psychotic men with a superiority complex did when they thought they were vampires.

  “I came here with someone. He’ll go to the police if he can’t find me. Let me go now, and I won’t say anything,” I said, faking confidence in my own words. Where was Ryan? He would have never left me like this. Was I really that out of it? I’d only had a coupl
e of drinks.

  “No, he won’t. At least not for a while.” Diego sounded almost bored. “I put a glamour on him. The effectiveness of the glamour depends on how strong a person’s will is, but if I had to guess, I would say that your friend probably won’t even remember who you are until tomorrow. When it will already be too late.”

  Was he some circus hypnotist? If what he’s saying is true, then Ryan was most likely at home blogging about how I forced him to try to have a good time on a Saturday night.

  Oh God, Diego was going to kill me. My picture was going to be splashed across the news and social media before it eventually ended up on some wall of unsolved crimes. At least I knew I could count on Yaz to pick out a good one for me. I could see the accompanying headline now: Drew Lane, thirty-year-old head of marketing for Hard Nights was found dead after a night of clubbing that she thought she was still cool enough for.

  My panicked thoughts were cut short by a loud, rumbling gurgle. It happened again before I recognized that the sound was coming from me. Even though this man was about to murder me, it was still kind of embarrassing that my stomach was going all king of the jungle right now. I knew I should have eaten a snack earlier.

  “Yes, there it is. The hunger. It’s setting in.” Diego leaned forward to watch me, fascination glinting in his steely eyes. “It’s been a while since I’ve watched a change. Usually I let my subjects handle that.”

  “Aren’t you going to kill me? I mean, that’s what this entire creepy monologue is leading up to, yeah? Hurry up and get on with it,” I snapped at him. It might have been the “hanger” talking, but I was getting really irritated with this whole ridiculous situation. “Do you have some sort of vampire necrophilia fetish? Oh my God, if you fuck my dead corpse, I will haunt you for all eternity, Diego.”

  “No. I’m trying to make you understand.” Diego rubbed his temples in frustration, as if murdering me were some sort of inconvenience. “This isn’t a life you want, Drew. I’m waiting for the pain to kick in. I’m waiting for those hunger pains to be so excruciating that you beg me to end your life. And then I will. I’ll snap your pretty little neck and stop you from becoming a monster.”

  I blinked. Blinked again. “Well, that’s just cruel,” I replied before a sharp, stabbing pain rocked through me. “Here I am, thinking we’re going to do the no pants dance, and you want to starve me, then snap my neck? Gross.”

  “We can still do the ‘no pants dance,’ if you’d like?” he offered with a smirk.

  “That ship sailed when you—fucking A, that hurts.” I stopped mid rant to bend over and grab my stomach. This felt like the time I tried softball and got hit in the stomach with the bat. I could barely breathe, the pain was so intense. What the fuck? “That ship sailed when you turned into a crazy mothersucker.”

  Diego fake gasped and clutched his metaphorical pearls. “I would never suck my mother.”

  Holy fucking shitballs, this hurt. “Can I sit down? Fuck, why does it hurt so badly?”

  Diego picked up the phone and spoke into it. “Reinforce the door please.”

  My eyes darted to the steel door, and I gave it an incredulous look. “You seriously think I’m going to get through that? You’re fucking insane.”

  Oh, my hell, this hurt worse than anal. It was like every vein in my body had been bled dry. Every inhale had a stabbing quality to it, like one of my lungs was punctured with a needle. My senses were on overdrive. I’d never given birth, but if it were on this level, then I was sending flowers to my mother’s gravesite the moment I figured out how to get out of this mess.

  “Feel that?” Diego asked. “That’s your body changing.”

  “I got the puberty talk when I was seven, alright?” I gritted. Diego got up from his seat and sauntered over to me. I fell to my knees and cried out. My gums were pulsing with pain. My head throbbed. What the fuck? Had I been drugged? No. No. No. I couldn’t do this. Not again. Never again.

  Crouching down, Diego looked me in the eye. “Want me to end your pain, little one?” he asked.

  “I want to kill you,” I growled, my voice sounding unfamiliar and laced with danger.

  “You can try,” he goaded.

  What happened next was like an out-of-body experience. I reached back, grabbed my heel with impeccable and unexplainable speed, then shoved it into his neck. It was like sinking a fork into a birthday cake. The heel slid effortlessly into his neck. Blood poured from the wound, and his eyes widened with shock.

  “Oh shit,” I rasped. “Ohhh shit.” My initial reaction was that I killed a man, but then a more pressing matter hit me like a ton of bricks.

  What was that divine smell?

  Diego lazily pulled the stiletto from his neck. “You got blood on my shirt. Sloppy. I fucking hate fledglings.”

  I lunged for him, tackling him to the ground. My teeth were bared, and he grabbed my hips, digging his fingers in. I should have seen fear in his eyes. Hell, he should have been dead. But instead, those heavy lids were hooded with desire. I ground against his hard cock, straddling him as I growled.

  “You smell so fucking good,” I purred.

  “Make a decision now, Drew. I can stop this if you’d like. But if you keep grinding against me and looking like that, I’ll finish this.”

  I couldn’t even think about how fucked up this was. My body was burning hot. Hunger consumed me. “I want you,” I moaned.

  “Oh fuck,” he growled. “I’m going to regret this.”

  I reached for the wound at his neck and dipped my perfectly manicured finger, polished with Barbie Dreamhouse Pink, in the spilled blood. Why did I want to taste it? Why did it look like the best fucking brunch platter I’d ever seen in my life? Better than mimosas and sex. I plopped my finger in my mouth and sucked. Hard. It was like nirvana on my tongue. Sweet. Decadent. Like the finest delicacy I’d ever had the pleasure of tasting.

  Diego thrust up, and I looked at him in horror. Wasn’t he freaked out? What was happening to me?

  “I’m so going to pay for this. Sink those pretty teeth in me, Drew.”

  I moved without thinking. There were a million rational thoughts in my mind, but I could only think of the blood pouring from the beautiful man beneath me. My impossibly sharp teeth sunk into his skin, and a burst of flavor consumed my every thought. I could feel him hard beneath me. He groaned in pleasure. My body trembled as I fed.

  I pulled and pulled. He jerked his hard body right at my core. His hands guided me. I was dry humping him like my life depended on it as he cursed.

  “Fuck yes. You feel so good,” he gritted.

  I drank deeply. I fell into an endless abyss of life itself. It was like my twenty-first birthday when Ryan got us bottle service. It was like the first time I bought a vibrator, and I made myself come so many times I got dehydrated and nearly blacked out. It was like—

  “Enough,” Diego said while grabbing my hips harder. But I wasn’t done yet.

  I continued to drink.

  “If I have to push you off of me, you won’t like it,” he promised. “Enough.”

  I wanted to moan my refusal but was too lost in the sensations of it all. How could I stop? How could I possibly stop when this was the best I’d ever felt?

  A hand wrapped around my neck, and I was yanked off Diego. I cried and snarled, my mouth dripping with blood. How fucking dare he? He slammed me to the ground, hitting the back of my head on the wood floors. My mind was buzzed. It was the best kind of drunk. I hated the loss but was also lost to my exhaustion.

  “Sleep, Drew,” Diego said.

  I grew drowsier.

  I wasn’t fond of sleeping in a puddle of blood, but I suppose I’d been doing it once a month since I got my period in seventh grade.

  “Sleep,” he said.

  I closed my eyes, with a vibrant buzz in my veins. And then, I slept.

  Drew

  When I woke up, the room was impossibly dark. There were no sources of light. No sunlight coming in through the windo
w, no night-light in the bathroom, there wasn’t even the evil red glow from my alarm clock. I lifted my hand and waved it in front of my face. Nada. I couldn’t see anything, and it was disorienting.

  The only thing I knew for sure was that I wasn’t on the floor anymore. Based on the cushiness under my ass, I had to be in the giant four poster bed I saw earlier. I ran my hands along the surface and felt soft satiny sheets below my fingers. I was definitely in the bed. I heard a low chuckle from the other side of the room. Diego.

  “What the hell is so funny?”

  “You. I forgot what it’s like to not be able to see. It’s okay though, your sight will come in,” he said nonchalantly, like it was a perfectly normal thing to say.

  “You blinded me?” I cried out. What happened the night before suddenly flooded my thoughts. The blood. My heel in Diego’s neck. The crazy shit he was talking about. Vampires, was it?

  “No,” he assured. “I didn’t blind you. But like I tried to tell you earlier, as you turn, your body will change. You will gain new abilities and must adapt to some things that will now be challenging. Your night sight will be one of the first things to come to you.”

  “Night sight? What is this, Dr. Seuss meets Buffy the Vampire Slayer?” I giggled at my own cleverness. “Was all that vampire talk some sort of kinky foreplay? I’m still alive, so I guess it’s all talk. How’d you get fake blood? That was so weird. I’ve never role played quite like that. Well done, Diego.”

  “That wasn’t role playing. Have you accepted that you’re a vampire, Drew? It’s so much easier when you accept it,” he replied in a bored tone.

  “Right, big guy. I’m a vampire,” I replied with a sarcastic roll of my eyes, though a familiar sense of panic was bubbling in my stomach. I chose to ignore the truth in his statement.

  “Denial doesn’t suit you, dear.”

  I bit my lip and soaked up his words. I knew in my gut that it was a stretch to hope that last night was an elaborate kinky experience. I drank his fucking blood. My teeth—I ran my tongue over the sharp peaks. The hunger. The need. “Can’t you let me pretend for a little longer? Last night was sucking crazy. Did I really drink your b-blood?” I asked before completely shifting gears. If I didn’t give him time to answer me, then I couldn’t freak out over what he said. “What time is it?”