by Raine Miller
I must’ve slept for a good thirteen hours from sunrise to sunset, snuggled between them both. I felt so safe and secure – loved. I don’t know if I was loved but it sure felt like it.
Somebody smacked me awake at sunset.
“Ow! What the hell!” I didn’t want to wake up.
When I finally did get up I thought I was dying of thirst. I had a horrible taste in my mouth, nauseous, bone dry with thirst. “Get me some water.” I croaked.
I tried to stand up to get a drink, but my head exploded with sharp stabbing knives of pain. I hit the floor with vertigo, and I couldn’t get back up. My stomach lurched, the room spun. I broke into a cold sweat.
“Hope, wake up, Hope, what’s wrong?” Enrique shook me.
I felt dead tired. All I wanted to do was curl back up into his embrace and sleep. Every time I opened my eyes the room spun, my stomach flopped. He finally let me be, let me sleep.
“Get me an IV now!” he yelled at somebody.
I awoke later in bed with the now familiar IV tier standing nearby, a clear bag and a red bag. Enrique and Lia sat beside the bed fully dressed. They had their little silent conversation going.
{{She’s not going to last very long.}}
Enrique came back at her. {{She will be fine if we take better care of her!}} I could actually hear the furious growl in his mental voice.
{{Why prolong the inevitable?}}
{{Because I like her. I want her to live a long happy life with us.}}
{{You finally admit it?}}
{{Yes, the secret’s out. There’s something about her I like, something unique.}}
{{She does give one hell of a blow job.}}
{{Don’t be rude, she’s listening. You have to respect her as a person.}}
{{That was a compliment.}}
Enrique followed his own advice. He granted me the courtesy of speaking to me instead of about me. “You gave us quite a scare. How are you feeling?”
The ‘us’ part wasn’t really true. Lia had been quite entertained watching me fall on my face. Enrique was the only one who gave a shit about me.
“I’m starving. And I could really use a quick bite. What time is it?” I hadn’t been bitten in way too long – withdrawals started to kick in. The clock showed a little after ten, I must’ve been out for three hours. I never waited this late in the evening for my first shot of venom, way overdue.
“Of course.” Enrique accommodated me with a light loving nip, always careful when it mattered. After meeting my immediate needs, the gravity of the situation hit me hard.
“So, you guys trying to kill me?”
Enrique shook his head, embarrassed. “You know that’s not our intention. But we did get a little carried away last night. I think you’ll be fine with a pint and half of blood and a few hours recovery.”
Lia simply stared at me unfazed. She couldn’t care less.
“But you almost killed me. Is that correct?”
“I think that’s a bit extreme. You were severely anemic, but you recovered rapidly. Remember I told you one of the benefits of living with us is an ability to heal faster? Remember how quickly you recovered from the incident at the Metropolis? Your shoulder barely has a mark on it. Repeated exposure to our bite has toughened you up quite nicely.”
“That’s why you could hardly wake me up, and I couldn’t even get to my feet?”
“Querida, you were a pint and a half shy. A normal person would have been on their deathbed. You’re well-adjusted to this life. There’s nothing to worry about. We need to exercise a little more caution in our sex life, that’s all.”
“You mean she needs to exercise more caution.” I pointed my finger of accusation at Lia, who simply raised her eyebrows as if to say – who me?
“Yes … her and I both need to be more careful with you.” Enrique tried to play down Lia’s role in my near death experience. So uncool.
“Don’t treat me like I’m stupid! I know who did the majority of the biting.”
Enrique looked to Lia then back at me. “She knows she made a mistake, and she apologizes.”
I looked at Lia, poised, quiet, and believe it or not, contrite. She spoke to me with one hundred percent sincerity, “I’m sorry Hope. Will you forgive me?”
I searched her mind. The only thing there was a desire to make amends. I was so pissed. How could she do this and get away with it? Nothing more than I’m sorry?
“So that’s it? She sucks me dry and gets off with an apology? I’m all better now – no harm – no foul – no big deal?”
“Would you prefer to have her punished?”
“Are you serious?” A dumb question.
I saw clearly through Lia’s mind, the two of them had discussed this. Enrique had mentioned the possibility she should be punished. She imagined it, naked, bent over, Enrique lashing at her back and ass with a leather blackjack. The idea made her wet. Both afraid and turned on by the prospect of it. Her eyes gleamed with excitement, anticipation, and fear.
I shuddered. “No way am I getting into that freaky shit! No! You’re not going to beat her on my behalf.”
“Fine … you accept our sincere apologies?” He watched me quietly. Either pass judgment and draw blood, or let it be.
“I guess that’s as good as it gets.” I sighed. It felt so unfair. She gets to suck the life out of me and get away with it.
They both moved up on me at the same time. Enrique hugged me first. He kissed me on the forehead, then Lia.
She whispered in my ear as we embraced. “I’ll let you hurt me if you want. I’ll make it up to you.” She flicked her tongue in my ear playfully. The chick was a total freak.
“No thanks. I don’t really care for S&M.” I’d done the whole leather whips thing before, just playing around. Lia wanted it for real. She wanted me to hit her, draw blood, cause real pain, not just a slap on the butt.
She sat down next to me on the bed, her head filled with S&M fantasies.
Enrique grabbed my attention as he pet my hair. “I think we should do a little test to demonstrate something. You don’t believe me. So I’m going to prove it to you. Lia, please get me a thirty pound dumbbell.”
She returned to the room a moment later. She hefted a big ‘ole thirty pounder, a solid dumbbell with two big hexagonal weights on each side of the handle. A one-handed dumbbell. I spent a little time in the gym, took cardio kickboxing for a month. I didn’t stick with it. The instructor gave the girls one or two pounders for each hand, the guys got fives or tens. I’ve never even attempted to pick up a thirty pounder. Lia set it on the bed in front of me, expecting me to actually grab it and do something.
“I can’t curl that!”
Enrique smiled. “One minute.” He unhooked the IVs which had mostly emptied and then gestured to the dumbbell. “Just try it a couple times.”
I sat there for a moment as they both stared at me silently, waiting, watching, not blinking. I finally sighed in resignation and gave in. I grabbed the thing, rolled my eyes at the both of them, and grunted as I tried to lift it. It was heavy, no doubt about that, but I could lift it off the bed one-handed. And then I started to curl it.
Much to my surprise, I had this tight little ball of muscle popping out of my bicep with each of the 15 curls I did. By the time I finished it had swollen up even larger. “Que loco!” I backslid into Spanish in my excitement.
“I told you so. You’re much stronger now. If I had to gauge it, I’d say you’re about as strong as a professional female athlete. It’s only been two months. Give it a little more time and you’ll be as strong as a man. Haven’t you noticed how healthy your appetite is lately? Muscle burns a lot of calories.”
I realized he was right, I’d been eating everything in sight since I moved into the penthouse. “Oh God, I must be getting fat!”
I dropped the dumbbell and opened up the front of my silk bathrobe to check out my usually trim belly. Still fit and trim, same as it was last time I saw myself in the mirror. But now I noticed something else.
I had begun to catch a six pack of ab muscles. He was right!
“Bet I could really kick ass on the elliptical trainer!”
Enrique seized onto my positive attitude and ran with it. “See, there’s nothing to worry about. You’re much healthier now, much stronger. You’ve already recovered from last night’s excitement. As you put it so eloquently, no harm, no foul.”
Oh he was so damn smooth. He used my own words to flip it around on me. Sneaky little bastard wasn’t playing fair. But what could I do? Nothing.
Truth is, I wanted them to do it again. I hoped to repeat the adventure. If I wasn’t a sex addict before, I most certainly was now. I don’t think there’s anything that could top last night’s ménage apart from doing it again. I was hooked.
Enrique remained in caution mode. “Here, eat as much as you can. Drink both of these.”
He handed me a huge bowl of chicken noodle soup and two cans of Ensure. I did as commanded. The whole time I ate, I kept thinking. What I really wanted was for him and Lia to fuck and bite me all night long. I understood what Enrique meant when he tried explaining how there are risks involved in being a bloodslave. The main risk was my own desire to be used and abused – in a good way. In the span of a few minutes I’d gone from accusing them of trying to kill me to wishing they’d try it again. That’s a hard-core addiction if I ever heard of one. But I had no denial. I knew I was fucked up.
***
CHAPTER 15
Strangely enough things seemed to normalize between the three of us. My nights were a routine of business meetings, dinner functions, and mad, passionate sexscapades. A perpetual sandwich, with me as the juicy meat in the middle everyone wants to take a bite out of.
My vampires were true to their promise, they were cautious. They treated me as their delicate little bloodslave–sex toy, and I was pretty happy with it. A happy little addict living in a world where I had everything I wanted. Well … almost everything.
Lia’s reentry into my life took away that sense of privacy with Enrique. Our little circle of trust had expanded from two to three. Lia was there in everything we did, every business meeting. Every time Enrique consulted me about his associate’s thoughts – he consulted Lia’s opinion as well. Felt like us girls were being carefully balanced on a scale of Enrique’s time, attention, and affection. He never seemed to give her or me any preferential treatment. This equality was in everything we did. If he took us shopping to Canal Street, he’d spend ridiculous amounts of money on both of us, whatever we wanted. No perfume, dress, underwear, or jewelry was off-limits. Everything I could want.
Everything except for the one thing I wanted most – love. Perhaps it was too much to ask that these creatures could ever love, at least not the way humans define it. Enrique never used the word. I can’t really say that they didn’t love me. They let me sleep in Enrique’s master bedroom suite with them. His windows were blocked against the daylight, completely blocked. Not one ray of daylight could enter that room. I guess they were pretty nervous about daylight. It spoke to their trust and confidence that they allowed me to sleep with them while at their most vulnerable. Being in their bed naked and intimately entwined together made me feel loved, but it’s not quite the same thing. It just wasn’t the same as that one-on-one intimacy I had shared with Enrique while Lia was in Spain.
I guess I understood why. He had to maintain balance, avoid Lia’s jealousy, or so he had said. I had to accept the fact Lia had been there all along, in the background. Enrique had never really been without her while she was away. The two of them were connected deeply. My privacy with Enrique had been an illusion.
I think we need some illusions in our life. Allows us to function without acknowledging certain cold, hard facts. I needed my illusion, but I couldn’t get it back.
But I was happy. I had plenty of reason to be happy. I’d enrolled at NYU with online classes. Enrique’s New York attorney worked on renewing my Visa. Things couldn’t be better.
My birthday, July 24, I received several very cool gifts from my new family.
“Open mine first.” Lia beamed as she handed me four wrapped gifts, a definite surprise. Although we got along well, we had no real sentiment between us, just sex. Lots and lots of sex.
“How cute!” Three pairs of edible underwear.
“This one next!” She shoved another in my hands.
“Will it fit him?” I held up the vibrating cock ring to the light to gauge its size.
“We’ll test it out tonight.” Enrique smiled a flash of fang. He might enjoy my gift more than I.
“Now this one.” Lia impatiently handed me her third gift, a golden see-through Versace top.
“That’s so beautiful. Thank you.” As I hugged her I began to wonder if maybe she did care for me in her own twisted way.
“Here, I know you’re gonna like this one.”
She handed me her last gift, an eight inch-long gourmet chocolate penis. They both insisted on watching me bite the head off.
“It’s not much, but I think you’ll like it.” He put two small packages in my hands.
The first gift, a twenty-four carat gold bracelet with the word Hope engraved in the center.
“Oh, that’s so beautiful, thank you. I love you.”
I didn’t ask what it cost. If I had to guess I’d say probably ten thousand or more. The other gift he gave me was priceless and brought tears to my eyes. A single piece of paper from the US office of immigration, a notice stating I had been granted a temporary Visa until my card would be issued within thirty days. That little piece of paper said I was now lawfully visiting the US of A. Not quite a real Visa, but still the best gift I’ve ever been given. How he arranged it to be issued on my twenty-third birthday, I’ll never know.
I could hardly stop crying as I hugged him fiercely. I loved him so much. He’d given me the life I dreamed of, mostly.
“No more tears, querida. We’re taking the night off together to celebrate. No business. Be sure to wear your new top, I want to see you in it. Smiling. No tears.”
“These are happy tears.” He had cleared his schedule for my birthday.
I felt so damn good; strong, healthy, and ready to rock ‘n roll. We hit Club Tobago over on Liberty Avenue in Jamaica. I downed several shots of tequila in the limo on the way there. I was half toasted by the time we arrived. Their DJ mixed up a hip blend of reggaeton and R&B, which just happened to be my own personal preference in music.
The place had it all, and a VIP section packed with awesome people. Lia and I danced, all over each other. We had a blast making out in front of everyone. I had on my new golden sheer top, no bra, nipples rock hard for everyone’s enjoyment, and tiny black boy shorts. The outfit matched perfectly with my golden skin, platinum bleach blond hair and eleven hundred dollar YSL heels. I looked like a damn rock star, and I certainly felt like one.
Nothing could bring me down, not even my jealousy at watching them feed from other girls on the dance floor. It usually bothered me to watch some girl getting what I wanted, but not that night. I tried my best to ignore my jealousy and waited my turn to be bitten. The problem was, girls get all hot and horny as the vamps suck on their necks. Things often got frisky. They put their hands all over my vampires.
That’s how I’d come to view them, as my vampires. I was theirs of course. They owned me. But I liked to think of them as being exclusively mine. At the end of the night, no matter how many others they fed from, I’m the one in their bed at home in the penthouse. No one else was included in our ménage. No one else entered our circle of trust. I don’t like sharing them, but it’s a necessary evil.
We made it home about four in the morning. By then I was so smashed they had to carry me into the penthouse. We had a short, sweet threesome and crashed for the day. All in all it had been the best birthday of my life.
One night flowed into another, the three of us inseparable, day and night. I attended all of Enrique’s business meetings, read everyone’s minds, tattled on
them in our private after-the-meeting meeting. At the end of each night and often the beginning, my vampires screwed my brains out. I began to adapt to these little sexual marathons. I learned to perform like a porn star, my stamina and endurance had tripled.
It was the best. The best career I ever imagined. The best food and designer clothing. The best restaurants and nightclubs. The best sex ever. And I loved Enrique with all my heart. I can’t say the same about Lia. We got along. Occasionally I caught her irritation at some small thing. Usually some issue related to me. She was still an impatient, psycho, catty bitch, but she accepted me and I accepted her. The awesome sex went a long way to making up for our personality clashes.
About a month after Lia returned from Spain I found out Enrique had a business meeting scheduled with my former cartel boss Faustino a.k.a. El Tiburon – The Shark. I was required to be there to provide the service of psionic eavesdropping.
The beginning of the end of my perfect life.
***
CHAPTER 16
Faustino Vasquez did not impress anyone with his physical presence. At five foot eight, a hundred sixty-five pounds, he’s easily underestimated. He’s deceptively calm and jovial, smiles often. Those who don’t know him personally would never suspect he had such an intimidating nickname. I knew exactly why they called him the shark. I’d witnessed him cut a man to pieces with a machete. A very traumatic experience, one I never cared to repeat. The information I’d help to extract had led to the man’s mutilation. The idiot lied about three kilos of missing cocaine. Knowing the man was too much of a fool to survive in the cartels didn’t make it any easier to watch him die in such a gruesome manner. Cartel Darwinism. Only the most vicious and intelligent men survived for any length of time.
Faustino used the incident to teach me a lesson. I learned that lesson well. I would never cross Faustino. He was a very possessive man, especially of me. At first I thought he wouldn’t put me to work in Spanish Harlem. I learned his kind of possession required me at his beck and call, continually paying on a debt I had long since paid.
