In a split second, Ela thrust her knee up into the man’s groin. Her movement was so quick, the only evidence of what she had done was the man clutching his crotch while he collapsed to the ground. A high pitched squeal came from his mouth, rising above the noises of the street.
The other two men began backing away, the one being drug backwards by his friend. Ela knelt next to the fat man as he rocked back and forth in the fetal position. She grabbed his chin, forcing him to make eye contact with her while she answered his question from moments before.
“Now, no one will want that.” She glanced at the man’s hands that were cupping his rapidly swelling testicles, and then back toward the man who had indicated he spoke English. “Make sure you tell him what I said.” The terrified man nodded.
Ana leaned her head out of the car window. “Are you done? Can you move them along? They’re still technically blocking our way.”
"Ungrateful," Ela muttered as she grabbed the still writhing man by the right ankle and drug him to the side of the car.
Ana stuck her head back out of the window. “Sorry, what was that?”
Ela shook her head. “Nothing.”
Ana grinned. “That’s what I thought.”
Ela got back in the car, pushing strands of her blonde hair off her forehead. “See? All better, and no scene.”
Albert laughed. “Are you blind? Look.”
For the first time since exiting the car, Ela looked down the street. Where once the humans had been walking briskly back and forth, they now stood along the sidewalk in stunned silence, staring at the occupants of the small car. Ela shrugged. “You can’t make an omelet without breaking a few eggs, Albert.”
As Ana began driving the car down the street, Albert sat back in his seat and chuckled. “Well, you sure did scramble his eggs.”
A block away from the altercation, the foot traffic began to pick up again. Ana was barely able to keep the car moving forward as people walked back and forth in front of them. “This is awful. Why have a car at all?” Albert asked, annoyed.
Ana honked at a group of women who had congregated in the middle of the street to move, waving at them to move. “These people are getting ready for the procession of the Círio of Nazaré.”
Ela laid her head back against the seat’s head rest. “What’s that?”
A small gap in the wall of people opened, and Ana maneuvered the car forward. “The tradition started when a farmer found an image of a saint carved in wood near a creek. He tried to take the image home, but it would disappear and reappear at the creek.”
Ana looked at Ela, who sat next to her with her eyes closed, motionless. “Evidently a practical man, he decided to build a chapel at the creek, and people came from all over the region to see the miracle.” Ana gestured to the people in the street. “These people are making a pilgrimage of sorts.”
Albert looked out the back window as people filed in behind the car. “There are stories like that where I’m from.”
Ana looked at the rearview mirror. “Where’s that, Albert?”
“San Antonio, Texas, ma’am.” Albert smiled.
Ela interrupted. “What? She doesn’t get the standard 'y’all'?”
Ana furrowed her brow. “What’s a 'y’all'?”
Before Ela could continue her mocking, Albert interjected. “'Y’all' means you all.”
Ana shook her head. “Then why don’t you just say 'you all'?”
“Well, I – I don’t – I don’t know.” Albert slouched in the backseat.
“How long do these cattle herd like this?” Ela asked. Her eyes still closed.
“Fifteen days, give or take.” Ana had brought the car to a full stop as a line of people crossed the street.
“It could take that long to get where we’re going.” Ela opened her eyes. “This is maddening!”
Ana laughed. “You have an eternity and you’re still in a rush.” Before Ela’s anger could manifest, Ana put the car in park. “Besides, we’re here.”
Ela glared at Ana as the three of them got out of the car. Albert and Ela gathered their bags as Ana disappeared down a narrow alley between two stucco and rock buildings. Albert and Ela followed. Thirty feet from the crowded street, the alley widened into a small courtyard with blue wooden doors on either side. Ana opened the door on the farthest end of the courtyard and, without looking back, disappeared into the darkness.
Ela was the first to move forward, though Albert was close behind. Stepping through the doorway and finally out of direct exposure to the afternoon sun, Ela felt the tingling on the back of her neck stop as the comfort of the dark washed over her.
“Follow me.” Ana stood in another narrower doorway just inside the main entrance. The three vampires walked down a short hallway and into an outdoor garden and seating area.
Trees grew out of a patio floor made of broken brick and moss. The walls of the courtyard were tan , and decorated with more of the ornate blue and white tiles Ela had seen during their drive through the city. “Just through here.” Ana walked across the garden area and through a wooden archway.
As they entered a large foyer it was clear to Ela that they had arrived in the main house. The ceilings were low with wooden beams running the length of the room. The floor was covered in red stone tile and accented with thin red and brown woven rugs. Paintings adorned the walls and the overall feeling of the space reminded Ela of Mateo’s home in Spain.
Ana turned to face Albert and Ela for the first time since entering the compound. “Albert, your quarters are down the hall to your left, first door on the right.” Albert smiled and disappeared down the specified hall.
“Ela, you’re in the south wing.” Ana smirked and looked out the top of her eyes at Ela. “Just down the hall from my room.” She stepped toward Ela. “In case you get scared in the middle of the night.”
Ela lifted her brow. “I’m usually the one doing the scaring in the middle of the night, but I appreciate your attempt at flirting.”
Ana shook her head and scowled. “You arrogant bi –”
Ela closed the space between them in a single step and stood face to face with Ana. “Somehow I don’t think you mean that as an insult.” Before Ana could respond, Ela wrapped her arms around the woman and took a deep breath, enjoying the clean, floral scent of Ana. Ela felt a tightening in her abdomen as a flush of heat and desire surged through her.
“Do you want to do this here?” Ana’s iridescent blue eyes didn’t leave Ela’s full lips as she spoke.
Ela turned and pulled Ana down the hall in the direction of her room. The door had barely closed behind them when Ana quickly unbuttoned her shirt and took her trousers off. Ela followed suit and the two women stood admiring each other for several seconds.
“You really are beautiful,” Ana said as her incisors extended and fine blue veins pushed to the surface of her pale skin. Ela gasped when Ana lunged toward her, the full length her body coming into contact with Ela’s. Their mouths met in desperate and hungry kisses as they nipped and bit at one another.
Ana pushed Ela to the floor and straddled her. She took Ela’s hand and guided two of her fingers inside her. Ana moaned as Ela entered her and began rocking her hips back and forth. Ela thrust her hand in unison with Ana’s movements, enjoying the growing tightness. Ana hissed and threw her head back as the intensity of her orgasm pushed through her in a sharp jolt.
Ela stood up, effortlessly lifting them both off the floor. Ana wrapped her legs around Ela’s waist as she walked toward the bed at the center of the room. Turning around, Ela sat on the end of the bed so Ana was in her lap, her lips and tongue moving slowly up and down Ana’s neck.
Pushing Ela back on the bed, her legs dangling over the edge, Ana eagerly licked her breasts and down the length of her stomach. Kneeling next to the bed, Ana spread Ela’s legs and, lowering her head, ran her tongue up and down Ela’s clit before entering her with two fingers. Thrusting her fingers in rhythm with her tongue, Ana felt Ela tighten as
she came. Ela clutched at the back of Ana’s head, pulling her closer as she cried out.
Ana crawled up the length of Ela’s naked body, letting her hand roam along the gentle swell of Ela’s hip bones and along the flat plain of her stomach. Lying next to her, Ana licked Ela’s ear. “Welcome to Brazil.”
***
Ela stood on the roof of the compound. She cast her gaze across the skyline of Belem and out to the mouth of the Amazon River accented by a port crowded with ships of all sizes. The full moon, to Ela’s eyes, lit the city up as if it were high noon.
Over the past fifteen years, Ela had come to appreciate the city’s architecture which was as eclectic as its inhabitants. Portions of the city were clearly remnants of the Portuguese who had been some of the first European settlers in the northeast regions of Brazil. Speckled among the older colonial buildings were modern high rises, complete with spiraling antennas and flashing lights.
Scanning the tops of the high rises, Ela’s eyes caught and followed the movement of a thin, lanky man sprinting across the low, ceramic tiled roof tops of residential buildings. As he leapt from building to building with ease, Ela disapprovingly shook her head.
“There are more and more of them.” A low male voice with a thick Brazilian accent came from a few feet behind Ela. Eduardo had been made by Albert over five years ago and, in spite of Ela’s annoyance with his maker, she enjoyed Eduardo’s lust for all sorts of debauchery. They frequently hunted together and, though he was many decades her junior, she found his viciousness inspiring.
“Yes. I don’t know why we allow then to hunt the same grounds as us.” Ela focused her eyes on the lycan as he crouched in the corner of a rooftop. “Wait, he’s about to –”
Before Ela could finish her sentence, the man’s arms stretched out in front of him and he convulsed. Seconds later a large black wolf exploded from inside the man’s skin. Without hesitating, the wolf sprinted along the roof and disappeared behind an adjacent building.
“They’re quick and strong,” Eduardo stated matter-of-factly. “They’re formidable and Mateo doesn’t want a war as he pushes his influence across the continent.” Eduardo sighed. “Besides, they’ve been here longer and they outnumber us two to one.”
“They’re slower than we are. And dumb. They're nothing more than animals.” Ela turned to face Eduardo.
Eduardo smiled. “When I was a child my elders would tell me stories of large, demon-like dogs that roamed the forest killing people and snatching babies in the middle of the night.” He looked past Ela and up at the full moon.
“They also spoke of cold, soulless ghosts with eyes that glowed in the dark and teeth so sharp they could shred a person in seconds.”
“What’s your point?” Ela loathed any sort of reminiscing.
Eduardo contemplated Ela for several seconds before responding. “The point is they – we – have been here for a very long time, and you don’t have that kind of longevity being slow and dumb.”
He placed his hand on Ela’s shoulder and squeezed gently. “Don’t underestimate them.”
Ela glanced at Eduardo’s hand on her shoulder and then back at his reddish brown eyes. “You’re relatively new and Albert is still teaching you, so let me give you a little lesson.”
She reached up and took Eduardo by the wrist shrugging his hand off her shoulder. “We are the top of the proverbial food chain. There is nothing stronger, faster, or smarter than vampire.” She walked past Eduardo and toward the roof hatch. Without looking back, she spoke.
“And certainly an overgrown dog that runs around baying at the moon is not anything I need to reckon with.”
Ela dropped through the roof hatch and landed on the floor fifteen feet below without a sound. She had first seen a lycan during her eighth year in Brazil. While hunting north of the city, she had caught the smell of wet leaves, rotted wood, and blood. Following the scent, she had watched as a large wolf attacked and ate three members of a fishing crew near the banks of the Amazon.
The animal had crept up on the three men and had ripped them apart within a minute, devouring most of their bone and tissue. Ela had been fascinated by the fierceness of the wolf’s attack, and the casual manner in which it left the body strewn scene.
She had relayed what she witnessed to Ana and was shocked to discover not only did Albert and Ana both know of the lycans, but that they worked to form bonds with several of the local lycan pack leaders. Ela wasn’t interested in making friends or allies with a lesser species.
After one of their hunts and subsequent sexual trysts, Ela had challenged Ana on the lycan partnership. The two women lay naked in an overgrown field adjacent to the ranch house they had just decimated. Ela, staring at the sky, said, “I don’t see the point of making them our allies instead of our servants.”
“You wouldn’t understand since you have no political ambitions and take whatever you want by force.” Ana’s tone had hints of annoyance.
“That’s exactly my point. Why make friends when we can take whatever we want?” Ela turned on her side to face Ana.
Shaking her head, Ana looked at Ela. “Because there is safety in numbers and the more allies we have, the stronger we are.” Ana sat up and reached for her shirt. “No man - or vampire, for that matter - is an island.”
Ela sprung to her feet and quickly pulled her pants on. She reached down and, taking Ana’s hand, pulled her to her feet. “There’s something you’re not telling me about lycans.”
Standing only a few inches from Ela, Ana furrowed her brow. “I don’t know what you mean.”
Ela stepped back and pulled her shirt on. “Don’t play naive with me. It demeans us both.”
Ana smirked. “Fine. Lycans outnumber us significantly. Even if we are stronger and faster, we’re no match for a pack of them.” Ana bit her lower lip. “But we have something they want.”
The two women began walking toward the tree line. Ela glanced at Ana, her impatience with the cryptic nature of the conversation growing. “Well?”
“Forever. We can give them forever.” Ana walked into the forest. “Lycans aren’t immortal. They age slowly - like their shifter cousins - but they eventually age and die.”
Ela narrowed her eyes. She had missed the shifter Kesora’s blood over the years, and the possibility of replacing it with lycan blood excited her. “And is their blood as intoxicating for us as the shifter’s blood?”
Ana chuckled. “It always comes down to what you want.”
Ela didn’t hesitate. “I’m selfish, and a long time ago I grew weary of pretending life is made more noble or meaningful if I subjugate my wants and desires to someone else.”
Ana stopped, and looked intently at Ela as she stood several feet from her. Ela shrugged. “Plus, I get bored.”
Ana smiled. “For all your rhetoric, I suspected as much.” She turned and continued walking through the thick vegetation of the forest. “And to answer your question, no. Their blood does nothing for us. In fact, it’s reminiscent of watered down human blood.”
Ela tisked. “Even more reason not to take up with those animals.”
“Don’t be short sighted. You’re smarter than that, Ela.” Ana and Ela stopped at the edge of a sheer cliff. Over a hundred feet below was an offshoot of the Amazon River that ran down into the city via a lock system.
“Once they get a taste for our blood, the lycan will do almost anything to keep getting it. That can be a very powerful tool for persuasion.”
Ana turned and dove off the cliff. Ela stepped toward the ledge and watched Ana’s perfectly straight body cut through the surface of the water with only a faint splash and ripple.
Ela had embraced the self-absorption Ana judged her for. As a human it had suffocated her empathy; as a vampire it had killed her compassion. As a result, the world had shrunk to encompass nothing more than Ela’s problems and wants. Diving from the cliff, Ela found comfort knowing her energies were exponentially vaster having no consideration for others.
> ***
The compound had been unusually quiet for the past week. Albert had gone on the hunt for another human to turn, and Ana had been gone with Eduardo on hunts as far north as Venezuela.
Ela was feeling restless, and decided to go into the center of the city for house to house hunting. She preferred this to hunting on ranches and farms. The increased chance of being discovered, and having a second meal drop into her lap as a result, heightened the experience. Ela was planning her route of attack as she casually walked through the bustling streets of Belem. The anticipation and excitement triggered a prickling of heat at the base of her neck.
Just as she reached her destination, a three story stucco and brick apartment building, Ela caught the scent of a lycan. Scaling the wall of the building, perched on the roof’s edge, she came to rest on her haunches. Lifting her head up, she took a deep breath in through her nose.
She instantly registered the smell wasn’t a single lycan, but at least ten lycans. Before she could pivot and drop from the roof, a massive weight slammed into her backside. Ela fell to the alley below, managing to land on her feet.
A loud rumbling came from behind her. Ela turned and was struck by a wall of course hair and hardened muscle and bone. A second later she landed on her back and in spite of her efforts to get up, she was unable to move because of the oppressive weight on her chest, arms, and legs.
Long, sharp teeth bit at her shoulders, wrists, and calves. The toughness of her skin resisted most of the bites, but the pressure snapped her bones and left her arms and legs useless.
Ela turned her head and, craning her neck as far to the left as she could, took hold of the lycan’s flank and sunk her teeth in. The animal yelped as Ela tossed her head to the right, flinging the animal several feet where it landed with a thud. Gnashing and ripping with her teeth at anything she could get ahold of, Ela thrashed and pulled against her attackers.
Her struggles were rendered moot when a silver cord was wrapped around her throat, and a second cord roped around her wrists. The last thing Ela saw before a black hood was pulled over her head was the glow of iridescent blue eyes.
Ela: Forever (Waking Forever) Page 15
