by M. Garnet
He was behind the bar, leaning over it with his elbows. There was a sandwich on a plate on her side. She walked over to it, slid up on a stool looking at the open bottle of water. She took a long drink, using it as an excuse to regard him. He had removed his glasses and she glanced away, not sure about staring at those unusual eyes.
“Not hungry?” She had to ask, since he had made only one sandwich.
“Not for that.”
“Sure. Will you answer some questions?” She did look up at him now, to see if he was going to respond to her query.
“Yes, but you might not like the answers.” There was that little crooked smile on his face.
“Let’s start with your name. I assume you know mine.”
“My name is Radames—most call me Rad.”
She looked at him for a moment, thinking, yep, he was not going to make this easy. “Is that your first or last?”
“Both.”
“Sure, okay, who do you work for—CIA, FBI, one of those?”
That little crooked smile was growing as he answered her. “No, in fact I am not a citizen of the US.”
She had started to take a bite from the sandwich, but now she just looked at the dark bread with a nice slice of cheese and beef. He had said she would not like the answers. Oh shit, terrorists. “You’re El Qaeda?” She watched him close.
Now the smile was spreading. “Hardly. Think darker.” His voice was still deep velvet. How could she like that tone when she was so uncomfortable with his presence in her kitchen?
She looked at him as she decided she was having some kind of a trick or stunt pulled on her. She did not have enough to be robbed. She had checked out her designs for the last six months and nothing was there. She thought about her friend Terrie. What had she said? You know, I really don’t remember. And the first guy had acted as if she should do as he wanted just by looking at her. What were these guys? The guy turned to dust. She knew he did, she saw it. What did the guys in the chat room say? No, there was no such thing as Vampires and this guy could go out in broad daylight.
“You are close to figuring it out.” He was watching her face as he spoke.
The doorbell rang. She jumped off the stool but he was around the bar and at the door before she had made a step. He looked back at her holding up his hand, one finger at his lips. He opened the door and the usual salesman type was there. “Hello, sir, we have a great deal on books today. I wonder if I could come in and tell you all about it.”
Rad looked at the man and the man quit talking. “No, and you will tell everyone that this is a house not to be bothered anymore. It is a good house but terrible things will happen to anyone who disturbs it in the future. Don’t you agree?”
“Yes, of course, I will leave right now and spread the word. Thank you so much.” He practically ran down the sidewalk. She slowly sat back down on the stool as she watched the whole scene play out. The big man closed the door by leaning back against it.
“Do you know what I did to that man?” He asked the question as if he expected an answer.
She cleared her throat before she could speak. “You did some sort of hypnotism or mind control. You did it to my friend Terrie, didn’t you?” He nodded his head. She was afraid to ask but had to. “Have you done it to me?”
He looked at her from the distance of the room as he continued to lean against the door. “It is one of the reasons why I am here to protect you. My kind can do it to most humans in some degree or another, that is, most humans except you. Now don’t get in a panic. We aren’t going to have a contest to see if anyone can influence you. I just find it interesting that I can’t.”
She sat back on the stool. She realized that she still had half a sandwich in her hand, but she had not taken a bite. She didn’t know what to do with the sandwich, but she didn’t want it. She didn’t want to be in this room. She didn’t want to think about this problem. Very quietly she finally said. “You are trying to tell me that there are really Vampires?”
“Yes.” He watched her very closely. “You aren’t going to get hysterical on me are you?”
She took a deep breath. “And you are supposed to be one? Are you going to kill me by drinking my blood? Isn’t that what, oh damn, whatever you are, isn’t that what you do to people?”
“Look, I think you are going to need some more proof. I can feel some real hesitation from you.” He stood up and took a step towards her, but she pushed back against the stool. The sandwich fell to the floor.
She felt her brain began to work. She had let a psycho into her house. She had invited him in. She had let him make her a sandwich. She looked around but couldn’t remember where she had put her cell. She saw a movement from him and her eyes returned to him as he brought something from his pocket. He held it up, and it was her cell.
“We are going for a little ride.”
She just sat and looked at him as if he was out of his mind. Which was exactly what she had decided he was. He walked across the room in several large steps and grabbed her arm. Again she felt his strong cold grip. Effortlessly he pulled her up and they were moving out of the house towards the low silver car.
“Oh God, wait.” She tried to pull back. It had no effect. She looked around in panic but saw no one in the immediate area. “I don’t have shoes on. Please, let me go.” Her temper got away from her as he pulled the car door open. “Dammit, no!” This came out as a yell as he turned her and tucked her into the seat. He slammed the door going around the car. She tried the door but it would not open. She banged her shoulder against the door to no avail.
By this time he was in the car and within seconds he had started the sleek vehicle moving out. She watched out the tinted window, trying to remember where they were going as she hooked the seat belt with shaking hands. She might need to know in case she could get away from this maniac. They rode in silence but she realized that she had no idea where they were located. The buildings began to look like abandoned large old warehouses. Finally he pulled in under a huge overhanging broken bridge into a tumbled unused warehouse. It was so dark inside the warehouse it was impossible for her eyes to see. The automatic lights of the car came on but he immediately shut them off. He stopped, turned off the car and sat for a moment.
“I don’t want you to worry. I will protect you. But we must get out of the car for me to show you the proof you need.” As he opened his door she heard the lock click on her door.
She sat still. She had no shoes on and it was so dark she was not sure what she would be stepping on, but he had her door open. She was surprised that the interior car light did not come on but her eyes were adjusting to the dim light in the building.
“I don’t have shoes on.” She unhooked the seat belt and swung her legs out but just waited. It seemed important for her to hang onto the irrelevant fact of being barefoot.
“Hmmm, I know, kind of sexy. Don’t worry, I will guide you and keep you from stepping on anything.” He just reached down and he had his hand around her upper arm. She was upright against him and they were moving. They moved deeper into the building but there seemed to be a slight glow and they were heading towards it. The glow turned out to be a small lantern set on a rough box. There were several chairs and a couple of couches. As they got close she could see two big, great looking men and three women. She pulled back and he actually let her stop.
“I am not into group sex or watching.” Her voice was low and strained as she tried to pull away, but again she became aware of the strength of this man. She felt with one hand he was capable of holding her totally immovable. She had heard that guys on PCP could become unbelievably strong.
“Misty, look at what he is doing. Look.” He pulled her closer.
She pulled her eyes away from her jailor to look at the scene before her. She felt her knees go weak. There was a man with a woman. He raised his head and she saw several things at once. He had fangs, and they were slippery with blood. There were two small holes on the woman’s thigh that blood was see
ping from, and more shocking, she could hear the woman pleading with him not to stop. The woman had a look of intense pleasure on her face. The man leaned back down and licked the two spots with his tongue and the bleeding stopped. When he raised his head again it looked like his fangs were disappearing. He was using one hand to pleasure her, sliding fingers into and out of her womanhood, his thumb rolling her nub and she moaned and spread her legs further apart.
Misty was stunned when the man drew his wet fingers out and inserted one into the woman’s anus. The woman raised her hips and whimpered. It was obvious she had a climax as the muscles of her thighs and stomach spasmed one after the other and she clutched at her tormentor, saying over and over, “Yes, Yes.” The woman lay quivering with a smile and begged. “Please, bite me again, please.”
She knew that Rad had shifted his hold so that he had her in front with hands on both her upper arms to hold her up. She was not sure she could stand on her own as both men looked over at them.
The one who had been pleasuring the woman smiled and spoke. “Join us?”
“No, thank you.” Rad’s voice was deep and she felt it vibrate behind her. “Just a little education.” He was speaking to her. “You see Misty, these women know the men are Vamps. They haven’t been influenced in any way. They enjoy sharing their blood voluntarily.”
Suddenly the other man stepped forward, his mouth opened and she saw his fangs. “I think you should share. That is a most enticing smell.”
Rad spoke in a very slow quiet voice. “You don’t want to challenge me. This one is not for you. We are leaving.” He started backing up. He held her to him and her feet were off the ground. He swung around and suddenly they moved so fast she had no idea what happened. She actually felt motion sickness hit her and she gulped air through her mouth. They were at the car and the door was open, he was sitting her down into the seat. He pulled the seat belt across her and closed the door. It seemed like he was instantly in the driver’s seat, backing up like a stunt driver in a movie. He swung the car around and they turned into the sun and heading out to one of the main streets.
* * * *
He gripped the wheel tightly. He couldn’t look at the female. Her scent was all over him and now it filled the small space of the car. He was fighting to control his reaction to her. He allowed his cynical smile to pull on one side as he laughed at himself. He had meant to take her to where there were other Vampires who were relatively safe. He felt that if she saw others that were not killing mortals, it would help her knowledge and understanding of what he was and why in time they wanted her.
But somewhere in that short time span of sex and communion, he had felt her blood and her heat. When the other males wanted her he had this need to claim her that had nothing to do with acting as the enforcer for the Council. Fuck, he just did not need this type of involvement in his life. He had a quick vision of Vasa with a wicked smile as Vasa turned in the Council room.
Chapter Five
She found a handgrip above her head by the door, and even though he had slowed down to move with the traffic she hung onto it with a death grip until they pulled into her driveway. He walked around, opened the door and unbuckled her seatbelt. He lifted her and carried her into the house. He set her on her feet in the middle of the room, went back and locked the front door, then leaned against it as he had done earlier. “Questions?” he asked in the velvet deep voice.
She turned and ran to the bathroom, barely making it as the first spasms hit and what little was in her stomach came up, followed by dry heaves. She went down on her knees, hanging onto the cold rim of the toilet and felt the pain in her stomach of the clinching again. She felt a cool damp towel on her neck with another one wiping her forehead. Finally, he picked her up and carried her into her bedroom. He placed her on her bed, drew up a cover over her and sat on the side of the bed just waiting.
“So there really are Vampires.” This was the only thing she could think of to say and he didn’t say anything. “Do you, you know, drink blood?” She hugged a pillow as she looked over at him.
“Yes. Look, I am sorry, that didn’t go as I had expected.”
Shit, she did not want that to be the answer. “But those men, do they kill the women when they are done?” She shuddered.
“No, the women enjoy their company. It is possible for a Vampire to feed and stop before a person is drained. Those women enjoy the experience. They were not even influenced. It is like having a fan for a music star. Or sometimes a mortal falls in love with a Vamp. There are a lot of reasons a mortal chooses to share. There are a lot of reasons a Vamp doesn’t drain. For the women you saw, it is also erotic.”
His voice was so low, so reasonable. How could any of this be reasonable? She thought maybe she was the one going out of her mind.
“Why me?” She still hugged the pillow, but she slowly moved to the side of the bed away from him.
“Good question. I don’t have an answer to that. Every once in a while there is someone who comes along that has blood that just tastes better, smells better, is better. No one knows why, but it’s rare. You are one of those people. But we cannot allow anyone to get carried away and drain you. So I am here to see that you only share if it’s your wish.”
Now she was at the other side of the bed. She sat up, still holding the pillow. “Let me get this straight. You are a Vampire, right?”
“Yes.” He dragged the word out to a point that left her uncomfortable.
“And you live by sucking blood from people, right?”
“Yes.” Now she watched the little crooked smile on his lips. Was she entertaining him?
“My blood is special and you really, really would like a taste of it?”
Now he was smiling. She was amusing him. “Oh, yes.”
“There is more?” She watched his face. She couldn’t read anything except the crooked smile but she sensed he had other plans.
“I would like to fuck you.”
She gasped. “Shit, that was rather crude. No foreplay, no flowers, no nice sweet words?” She was squeezing the pillow so hard that her arms hurt. Finally, since he did not move, she stood up and had to back up against the wall to help support her. She still had her pillow. “Is there more?” This came out almost as a whisper.
“Well, I don’t know what kind of details you want?” He had the nerve to raise an eyebrow.
“How long are you staying, who sent you, why do I need you to protect me, why are you in my house, how did you find me, what if I don’t want to—what did you call it, share—oh, and especially what if I don’t want to have sex with you or anybody else that sucks blood from people? Shit, this can’t be real.” She slowly sank down the wall and finally let go of the pillow and instead hugged her knees.
He left the room and returned back to her side of the bed, knelt down and held out a Gatorade. “You need to replace some vital elements. You haven’t eaten, and your bout in the bathroom left you depleted.”
She saw him take the pillow and toss it on the bed as she finally took the bottle. He was right. She could feel the light head you got from lack of potassium and sugar. She tipped the bottle, swallowed and waited to see if it was going to stay down. The cold liquid actually felt good. She slowly stood up and drank some more. She watched him out of the corner of her eye as he also rose up. O M G, he was huge. She moved around him, grateful that he didn’t touch her, and went into the main room. This time she walked around behind the lunch bar, hoping to keep it between them.
He was right there. She had not heard him move, but she felt him following her and when she turned, he was standing by the bar. She took another drink and tried her voice. “Do I get any answers?”
“Sure. I am staying for as long as you need protection, I was sent here by the Council, which is sort of our governing body. You need me because you are mortal and any Vampire, even a new one, can overpower you when it comes to strength. I am in your house because you invited me, which is important—a Vampire can’t enter a mor
tal’s nest unless invited by that person. There has been a rule placed on you by the Council. No one can take your blood without your permission and they can’t fuck you without your permission. Again, it is my job to enforce that rule, because some Vamps are not strong enough to resist, and some will just not care. Actually, the act of sharing blood and having sex at the same time is very pleasurable to both the mortal and the Vamp.”
She shook her head and pushed her hair back behind her shoulders. She had lost all track of time. She looked at the big old clock above the stove but it finally had failed her. It had stopped at 11:15. She did not know if that was morning or night or when the clock had stopped. She looked towards the window and thought that it must be late afternoon.
“You went out in sunshine. I thought Vampires slept in caskets and burst into flames in sunlight.” She looked at him, right in those unusual eyes.
“Almost every book of fiction about Vampires has a lot of misconceptions in them. Where is your furniture?” He looked around for a place to sit and pulled out a stool to straddle it.
“Can I kick you out and refuse you entry?”
“No, once in, I get entry whenever I want. Sorry, well no, I’m not really sorry.” He finally gave her a full one hundred percent smile. It was really the type of smile that if she had been out with the girls and it was in a bar, they would have been climbing over each other to get to him. That was before she knew he wanted her blood. She took a deep breath and looked away.
“How do I get rid of you?” She sounded petulant even to her own ears.
“You can’t.”
“How do I get my life back?”
“You don’t.”
