by Drew D'Amato
“Not dinner?”
“No, unless she suggests it, then do it cause you don’t want to look cheap.”
“You want us to wait for her to text you back?” Jericho asked.
“Why, where are you guys going? The usual, sex and death?”
“What else is there?” Malachi laughed and then continued. “Michael knows these girls that are in town. They said they want to party and have some fun.”
“Then?”
“Hit up South Central for some food.”
The vampires had no sympathy for gangbangers. They were able to tolerate some mobsters during the prohibition glory days, but they never felt it was good for a society to tolerate a group of people who participated in drive-by shootings—the kind of shootings that usually resulted in young girls being killed by stray bullets.
The idea of the girls did not attract Vlad’s attention. He did not hunger for flesh, but he did hunger for blood. He hadn’t been out in days. He needed the blood, but not the booze. Vlad did not often hit the town to put a few back.
Drugs don’t really affect vampires. Coke and heroin straight, sniffed, or shot up could give a slight high feeling to them. Smaller forms of actual cocaine or heroin like ecstasy or pills like codeine and OC-80’s have almost no affect. Cigarettes produce no feeling but are addictive enough to hook the undead. Alcohol appeared to have the strongest affect on vampires out of everything. For everything holy, there is something unholy. If blood can become wine, then wine can become blood. It takes an excessive amount of alchohol, but it can produce a weak sensation almost like the high of blood to a vampire.
For a vampire to describe the feeling of drinking blood to a human one must first think of the calmness that occurs after an orgasm, yet the alertness and utopia felt of a yard stick length of cocaine downed in one sniff, all the while being shot up with adrenaline. Yet only while the mouth actually bit into the neck and new blood was first being tasted did this feeling exist. Then a sudden quick type of hangover came when the mouth stopped drinking from the human. Within seconds the vampire feels a great body high and a confident feeling in himself. The best physical feeling for a vampire occurred during orgasm while sucking fresh blood. Virgin blood of course is the best vintage.
Vlad wanted this high again. Just the blood, to drink while having sex ends a life or curses one. He did not want the feeling of doing that to an innocent woman. He would be happy with just the blood.
“So you want to come?” Malachi asked. “There should be six of them, meaning two for you.”
“And who gets the other four?” Vlad asked.
“Shit, I’m getting the other four.”
Vlad cracked a smile. Jericho stood back and waited for Malachi’s pleas to be rejected. Vlad did not do clubs. He did not even like to hunt with anyone. Jericho knew his master liked to be alone.
Vlad felt guilty for making them vampires. This kept him from getting too close to them. He started to feel bad for them, and felt worse for himself. None of the vampires blamed Vlad for making them a vampire, in fact some of them were happy with their situation, but that didn’t stop Vlad from feeling guilty. This was why he liked to be alone; it kept his mind off that fact. Jericho knew Vlad would not say yes, yet he still hoped he might.
“All right, I’ll pass on the club and the whores, but call me when you are ready to hunt, I’ll be around.”
Malachi cracked a slight smile. “All right, we’ll call you.”
The two of them walked to the elevator. As the door closed behind them, Vlad’s phone got a text.
Jasmine: NM u
2
Jericho, Michael, and Malachi arrived at the club at an early time for them—eleven thirty at night. They had told the girls to meet them in the VIP room around midnight. As they walked through the dance floor Michael did not see any of them. Malachi and Jericho had no idea what these girls looked like. They just trusted the good word of Michael. He told them that they were good-looking girls that were ready to party.
That was the best a vampire could hope for—party girls, drug whores, club girls. Girls who liked to get everything on their looks, work hard on their backs, and have nothing close to a normal house life. Vampires have to have it like this. They cannot meet a good girl who has a good family. How could Jericho meet a girl’s parents? What would he say to them, I’m four-hundred years dead, and for fun I eat bums and drug dealers. Vampires needed the kind of woman who just wanted to have fun, the kind of girls that liked their drugs for sex. Girls that liked rich, attractive men and liked a lot of them. Vampires and party girls have a parasite-host relationship, with the line being blurred as to who was the parasite. The girls get their drugs, or good time, whatever they’re after, and the vampires get what they want, sex with no strings attached.
Vampires still hungered for sex, but not as much as humans crave for it. There was too much attention directed toward seeking blood. They still wanted it though, and they still had a normal ejaculation. Not everything dies when you are dead. But vampires could go to hookers without any risk of negative repercussions. They did not acquire or give out STDs, nor could they get a girl pregnant. Their ejaculation is purely for their pleasure, with no reproductive consequences.
The three of them sat down at their reserved seats in the VIP section. This was their hometown, so they did not get any trouble from the bouncers like they had in London. The bouncer Dave knew them. He was cool with them, and they did not even need a reservation. When they come to the club, Dave just got a table ready, or if he had to, kicked someone out who was not that popular. Jericho and Michael have had nights where they have sat next to movie stars. These famous people had no idea that they sat that close to the undead.
The VIP room rested in the back of the club. A glass wall kept the noise out from the dance floor. A glass door was in the middle of the glass wall. Inside the room there were full-circle tables with half-circle couches. The couches could seat six, maybe a few more. A large TV hung from the back of the room. Images from the dance floor played on it, showing all the action happening. On the right side of the room the bar popped with boozers who did not have a table. You could be in this VIP room without a table and just stand up and drink, but there was really no point to be up there without a table. Important people or ones wanting to give the impression of being important people hung back here.
A different country, but the place still had the same mood as London. House music played, girls wore as little as they could get away with, guys got drunk, and lights flashed around the place. The vampires had been going to dance clubs since speakeasies during prohibition. They had gotten immune to all of these distractions. Now they only focused on booze and girls, and any prospects for blood.
The waitress Kelly, who was friendly with these guys, walked up to their table. She had on a tight skirt and Malachi who set his eyes on her for the first time could tell that she did not wearing any underwear. Her skirt was a hot pink color that went with her hot pink tight top. Her cleavage was not visible in the collared shirt but her D-cup breasts busted right out of her tight shirt. Her black straight hair hung right down to her shoulders. She looked at Malachi.
“Hi guys, is this a friend of yours?” she said while pointing to him.
“Yes,” Jericho said as he gestured. “Malachi this is Kelly, our favorite waitress. Kelly this is an old friend of ours Malachi.”
Malachi took her right hand and kissed it. It could look like a corny move to pull on a girl, but if you did it as confidently and as cool as Malachi did it, it actually worked.
“Nice to meet you,” he said after he kissed her hand.
Kelly smiled and pulled her hand back casually. “He’s sweet. Malachi. You guys always have the coolest names. I think when I have a kid I’m going to name him Jericho, maybe after his father.”
She winked and Jericho smiled, then she got back to her job. She surveyed the group. She knew what the two regulars where thirsting for. “Okay, a Jack and water, and a J
ohnny Blue with water,” she turned to Malachi. “And what would you like?”
“A Bloody Mary, extra bloody.”
“So does that mean you want it strong or weak?”
“Strong, less tomato juice, and use Grey Goose my dear.”
“All right, I’ll be right back,” she said with a smile.
She walked away toward the bar. Malachi cracked a smile and leaned over to Jericho.
“So what was that all about, daddy?” Malachi asked smiling at Jericho.
“She has a crush on me, obviously. She thinks I’m a writer or something like that. She’s actually a really good girl. She’s in school, that’s why she works in a place like this.”
“So why don’t you do anything about it?”
“What am I going to do, have a girlfriend? She’s a good girl and I don’t want to just fuck her, leave her and hurt her. I’d rather keep it like it is. She’ll give us free shots later in the night, watch. She’s really cool to us. If I was human I would, but I’m not, so I’ll stay sleeping with these sluts and having fun. There’s nothing I can do.”
“Well, since you put it like that, I understand.”
Six blondes entered the VIP room through the glass door. The one leading the group spotted Michael sitting at the table. She walked over to him and the other girls followed.
“Hi,” she said as she sat to the left of Michael. “I saw you guys when you first arrived and then you disappeared.”
“We looked for you, but didn’t see you. Meredith, these are my friends Jericho and Malachi.”
They went through the introductions for the other five girls. None of the vampires paid a lot of attention to their names and pretty soon they will forget them anyway. Names would not matter tonight. The girls smelled like a mixture of body lotion and perfume. The smell was potent. It smelled as if a bottle of Gap perfume got spilled into a cup of peach yogurt. Kelly came back to the table with their drinks. She placed them and gave Jericho a little look like she was jealous. Being jealous, however, was as close as she could ever really get to Jericho. After she placed the drinks down, she took the order for the girls. Michael told her to put the drinks on their tab. This upset Kelly a little more as she walked away. Jericho just kept thinking to himself, A vampire can’t be with a good girl. It can’t happen. It’s just not the way.
3
While the boys were entertaining the girls at the club Vlad had his first text conversation with Jasmine. He understood what nm stood for—nothing much, but it dawned on him there might be a lot more info he had no idea about. Oh well, he was just going to have to wing it. Besides, he was a prince right? Why give a shit about the texting lingo?
Vlad: Just relaxing u.
Jasmine: Working on some homework, I’m sorry is this Vlad?
Vlad: Yes it is.
Little beads of sweat began to perculate on his brow. He had forgotten that he could even sweat. Trapped in an auditorium with pieces of fire falling down at him, and enemies outside, did not make him more nervous as realizing she cared as much to respond to him just now as she would to a complete stranger. This would be the time where she says something nice and then gets on with her life.
Jasmine: So what are you doing up so late?
Vlad: I guess you can say I’m a night owl.
Jasmine: So am I, I do my best work then.
Vlad: Yeah, I guess you can say the same about me.
Jasmine: I’m working on this paper for college.
Vlad: Oh, what are you getting your degree in?
Jasmine: History.
Shit, Vlad thought. It might not be such a good idea to say I’m royalty from an Eastern European nation. If she doesn’t see through it, I’m sure she can look it up and find out if she wanted to.
Jasmine: So what do you do?
Son of a bitch. He still liked the idea of telling her he was a prince. But now he thought about it, and that would be a hard lie to continue. No family portraits or pride in the family, decorated around his house. She would ask questions, she would investigate. What legendary family would he use, that she couldn’t find information about and see through the lie? Still, saying I’m a prince, sounds so much better. Then he thought fuck it, I am a prince.
Vlad: Nothing, I’m a prince.
There was a pause before her next text. Damn, she doesn’t believe it.
Jasmine: Don’t hear that all the time, what country are you a prince of?
Vlad: The country no longer exists. It was Wallachia, I am a descendant from nobility.
Jasmine: R u related at all to that Vlad the Impaler? The guy Dracula was based off of. He was horrible. Omg were u named after him?
Don’t argue with her. What are you going to tell her, your side of the story? The history books are not very complimentary toward you and how else would she have heard about your past.
Vlad: No my name is Vladimir not Vladislov. I am the descendant of one of that Vlad’s enemies. My family’s last name was Danesti
Vlad cringed when he typed the name of that family.
Jasmine: I never heard of them.
Vlad: Well the family was defeated. The title means nothing now.
Jasmine: So do you tell every girl that you meet that ur a prince?
Vlad fumbled to type back. Panic was seeping in. She didn’t believe him. He probably seemed so weird to her to begin with, and this prince line wasn’t helping. What could he say next?
Fuck texting.
He called her. It might have been a risk, but this was not going good, and why do anything that was not going good. She answered the phone curious that he called.
“Vlad?”
“Hi, it seemed a little ridiculous not to just call.”
“Yeah, I guess so.” She paused for a bit. She liked this move. “So you’re really a prince?”
“Look when I meet women, they often ask what I do for a living. I do nothing, but I have ample money. With no explanation your mind may wonder and think anything. So why not just tell you the truth?”
“I thought you said you were Irish, though?” she asked.
“My family lived in that country before we came over here. Married into some Irish and the name got lost, but the money never did.
“With the money they invested wisely for six hundred years. They still had land, had gold, and in later years turned that over to capital. When capitalism started they got in a little ahead of the game.”
“So did you think I would be wooed just because you have money?”
“I didn’t say it to woo you, I said it to answer your question. So you would know the real me.”
Jasmine let down her defenses and the two of them just started to talk.
For a mortal with a short life she was interesting to talk to. She had a unique perspective on things she couldn’t have really experienced yet. Yet she seemed to know about certain subjects and have some form of insight. Like maybe she might have lived the experience in a life before.
They talked for about forty-five minutes. His voice sounded so familiar to her, like she had heard it before in her dreams. He didn’t want to risk the conversation getting stale, and it was also getting late, for her. He decided it was a good time to close up shop.
“Well Jasmine would you like to get together sometime?”
“I would love to but...”
She paused for a second. Vlad’s mind went crazy. There was something wrong.
“Well, I’m free tomorrow for lunch,” she came back and sounded surprised herself for agreeing to it. Vlad didn’t use any tricks, it was not possible over the phone.
“Sounds fine.”
“K, I’ll text you in the morning.”
“Okay,” Vlad was starting to breathe quickly, like a dog getting ready to fetch something. He had pulled it off.
“Good night…Vlad.”
“Good night.”
She hung up. She had taken a little pause to say his uncommon name. Vlad cracked a smile. He was so happy right now. He had th
e excitement in him that made him want to run. He had to get out of the house. He had to celebrate.
He flipped through the names on his cell phone. He found Jericho’s number and called him.
“Vlad,” Jericho said.
“What are you guys doing? I’m in a good mood and I’m hungry. When are you guys going to the South Central?”
“I guess things went well. Well here’s the deal, we are going back to the girls’ place. We’re in the Escalade right now. There are six of them; five of them are in their car in front of us, and one of them is riding with us.” Jericho drove, Malachi rode shotgun and Michael was in the back seat groping the girl Meredith. “They live near Echo Park. We didn’t figure you would call. We were just going to go out afterward, but why don’t you come to their place? The girl Meredith is in the car with us. She can give you the directions, hold on.”
Jericho while driving gave the phone to Meredith in the back seat.
“Hello, Vlad?” she said as she got the phone. Vlad answered back and she gave him the correct directions to their place and then Vlad hung up. She gave the phone back to Jericho with a slight bit of confusion.
“He just hung up.”
“That’s his way.”
“Okay whatever. He’s not weird is he?”
“Well not anymore than the next guy,” Michael said.
Meredith looked at Michael a bit tense, the tension held and then they both laughed.
“Well whatever, I know who I like tonight.”
