Midnight Thirsts: Erotic Tales of the Vampire

by Michael Thomas Ford

  “So you know him pretty well.”

  “Yeah, I suppose.”

  “Good. Because something tells me we’re gonna need to know a little more about Victor and his acquaintances.”

  “Why?” Eric asked cautiously as he slowed down and let Balthazar get a few steps ahead of him.

  Balthazar opened the bedroom door without knocking and fumbled around the wall to find the light switch. When he located it, he flipped it on and stood inside the door frame so that Eric could see inside.

  The room filled with light, and Eric thrust his hands against his mouth so that he would not scream. His eyes grew wide, and huge tears began to form in them as he surveyed the room.

  Victor was tied to the four-poster bed, spread-eagled, lying on his back. He was naked, and his cock had been cleanly sliced from the groin area and stuffed in his mouth. His eyes were closed, and except for the grotesquely disconnected cock in his mouth, he looked peaceful. The sheets and comforter on the bed were disheveled and soaked with blood. There were also streams of dark red blood splashed across the walls and the floor.

  Balthazar looked over at Eric and saw that he was about to scream despite the hands that were turning white as the knuckles pressed against his mouth.

  “Don’t you fucking dare scream, you little sissy,” he hissed at Eric.

  Eric looked at him with wide, questioning eyes.

  “I don’t know,” Balthazar yelled. “I don’t know what happened. But I swear to God, if you scream I’m gonna make sure you join your friend here. Is that clear?”

  Eric nodded and swallowed deeply but kept his hands pressed firmly against his mouth.

  “Do you have any idea who might have done this?” Balthazar asked.

  Eric shook his head slowly as giant tears fell down his cheeks.

  “Move your fucking hands away from your mouth and talk to me, you sissy.”

  Eric moved his hands slowly from his mouth and took a deep breath as he attempted to speak. Instead, he leaned over and vomited on the floor next to Balthazar.

  “Oh, Christ,” Balthazar said as he jumped backward to miss the stream of bile that spewed from Eric’s mouth. He waited until the kid was finished vomiting, then asked again. “Any ideas?”

  “No,” Eric said weakly as he looked back over to the bed and what remained of his roommate.

  Balthazar walked over to Victor. As he got closer to the body, he noticed something written in blood across the chest of the once handsome young man. He leaned closer to read it.

  CM

  Balthazar stood up and clenched his teeth until his jaws ground and stood out on his face. His eyes grew red, and his breathing became rapid and labored.

  “What is it?” Eric asked.

  Balthazar snapped his head to the side quickly so that he glared at the frightened kid.

  “Who did this?” he asked as he felt his fangs begin to protrude.

  “I told you, I have no idea.”

  “Don’t lie to me.”

  “I’m not lying,” Eric’s voice cracked as he whispered.

  “You were there with him at the club tonight. Who did he leave with?”

  “I don’t know, I swear. Tonight was my first night at the club. I don’t know anyone there.”

  “You obviously know someone there, because someone knew enough about you to direct me to you when I inquired about Victor.”

  “Look, mister, I promise, I don’t know who he left with. I saw him talking with two hot guys, and the next thing I know, he was gone. It’s not like he hasn’t done it a million times before.”

  “What did they look like?”

  “They were both kinda tall. Really good-looking. One of them had black hair and really pretty eyes. Looked to be late twenties or early thirties, maybe. The other dude had blue hair and really white skin. And the most kissable lips I’ve ever seen.”

  “Fuck me,” Balthazar said quietly.

  “What?”

  Balthazar stared at Eric for a moment. The more he saw the kid look around himself nervously and wipe at his nose, the more he hated him. He glared at Eric and then smiled.

  “Hey,” Eric squealed. “What’s happening?”

  “What’s the matter, Eric? What do you feel?”

  “My balls! My fucking balls! What are you doing to me?”

  “What do you mean, Eric? I’m all the way over here, and you’re all the way over there. How can I be doing anything to your balls?”

  “I don’t know, but you are. Ouch! There it is again,” Eric whined as he reached down and cupped his balls in his hands. “Stop it, that hurts.”

  Balthazar laughed and then watched as Eric was lifted off his feet and slid up the wall behind him. The kid’s feet dangled and kicked through the air as he was lifted higher and higher from the floor.

  “Stop it, man. Put me down. That’s not funny.”

  Balthazar lifted his arms and waved them around the air, causing Eric to be moved from the wall and spun around the room several feet above the floor.

  “I didn’t do it, man, I swear. I told you everything I know. You gotta believe me. Let me go. Please.”

  “Oh, I don’t think so,” Balthazar said, and slid his lips back to show his canine teeth.

  “Oh, fuck,” Eric cried as he spun around in circles and caught sight of the fangs every time he was facing Balthazar. “Fuck me.”

  “No thanks,” Balthazar said.

  Eric was sobbing openly now, and his head started to dangle as he got dizzy. “Please don’t kill me,” he whimpered.

  “Well, I can’t just let you go.”

  “Yes you can. I won’t tell anyone. I swear.”

  “Of course you won’t.”

  “Really, I….”

  Balthazar wiggled his fingers in the air, and Eric flew toward him. When he was in grasping range, Balthazar grabbed him and pulled him down to his own level.

  “Please…,” Eric moaned.

  Balthazar opened his mouth wide and clamped his lips onto the skinny, cold neck of the kid. He bit deep and hard into the flesh and growled as the first drops of blood met his tongue and lips. He sucked some of it into his mouth and swallowed several mouthfuls.

  “Fuck!” he screamed as he flung Eric across the room and against the far wall. “It’s sour. How much fucking heroin do you have in your veins?”

  Eric moaned and looked up at Balthazar with a dazed look in his eyes.

  Balthazar walked over to him and reached down to grab his neck.

  “I can’t drink this shit.”

  “I’m sorry,” Eric moaned as he struggled to keep his eyes open.

  Balthazar twisted the kid’s neck with one swift yank of his hand and relished in the sound of the bones popping. Eric went limp immediately and slumped out of his grasp to the floor.

  “Fucking waste,” Balthazar said as he stepped over the dead young man and to the bed where Victor lay.

  “You messed up, old buddy,” he whispered into Victor’s ear as he lay down next to his dead friend. “You were supposed to go home with me. Why didn’t you stick with the plan? None of this would have happened if you’d just stuck with the plan. He’s not that cute, you know. Certainly not worth getting killed over.”

  He looked at Victor as if he expected a response.

  “Bad news, this Christiano Montez. Fucking bad news. And it looks like he’s got a coconspirator. I wouldn’t have expected something like this from Shane. Most unfortunate.”

  Balthazar plucked the flaccid penis from Victor’s mouth and rolled it between his fingers.

  “A pity, really. Such a beautiful cock. It’s no good anymore, now, is it?”

  Balthazar kissed the penis and laid it on the bed between Victor’s legs.

  “What are we going to do with our Mr. Montez, Victor? We can take care of Shane easily enough. But Christiano will be another matter. We’ll have to take it a little more carefully with that one. But I’ll tell you one thing: if he wants a war, he’s got one. He has no id
ea what he’s getting into when he fucks with Balthazar.”

  He looked over at Victor again and leaned over to kiss him on the cheek.

  “Don’t you worry, Victor. I’ll get him. I’ll get him for you.”

  Balthazar stood up from the bed and walked to the door. He looked back at Victor, lying on the bed, and then over to Eric, who was slumped against the far wall.

  “Tsk tsk,” he whispered as he walked out of the bedroom and shut the door behind him.

  A few steps down the hallway he turned and smiled as he heard a whoosh behind the bedroom door and noticed a bright red and orange flicker from the crack between the bottom of the bedroom door and the floor. A second later he saw a thin trail of black smoke seep from the door and drift toward the ceiling.

  He smiled as he walked out the front door and out of the building.

  It was a couple of evenings later before Balthazar was able to convene his council. They were a group of ten men and two women who had been hand chosen by Balthazar to help rule the vampire community in Denver. He’d chosen the twelve very deliberately, and called them his disciples. Behind his back there were a few snickers about his thinking so highly of himself as to compare himself to Jesus. But no one ever said anything out loud or to his face. Ever. Everyone knew it was Balthazar who was in charge, who had the ultimate word in everything that happened in the community. But one had to get through the council first before anything was even presented to Balthazar for consideration. They relished their position of authority and abused it widely, as did most councils to lead vampires in the United States. They took elaborate bribes, they forced sexual favors from lesser-positioned vampires, and they were excessively violent and merciless.

  Balthazar knew of their abuse of power, and it didn’t bother him at all. Allowing it to continue helped guarantee their loyalty and their assistance when he needed it. And he needed it now.

  “So, what’s going on, Balthazar?” Devin asked. He was leaning back in his chair, with his legs spread out in front of him. Some young woman Balthazar had never seen before was on her knees in front of Devin, working diligently at licking and sucking his swollen cock.

  “Get her the fuck out of here,” Balthazar hissed.

  “What? You’ve never complained before when we brought a…guest to these meetings.”

  “This is different,” Balthazar said, and glared at Devin. “This is very important, and it’s a closed meeting. I don’t know this girl. I’ve never even seen her before.”

  “I’m Teresa,” the pretty girl said as she let Devin’s cock slip from between her lips and smiled at Balthazar.

  “Teresa, you have exactly ten seconds to pull your cute little skirt up to cover that pickled twat of yours and get the fuck out of this room. After that I will personally rip your flesh from your body in massive strips and use them to mop up your blood from the floor. Is that clear?”

  Teresa stumbled to her feet and clumsily pulled her skirt up around her waist as she tripped over her own feet running out the door.

  “What the fuck was that all about?” Devin asked as he pulled up his jeans and buckled them.

  “We have a situation,” Balthazar said as he sat down at the head of the table and looked around at each of his disciples.

  “Well, we figured that much,” Devin grumbled. “You don’t just call us all together so hastily unless there is a situation. So what is it this time? Somebody make goo-goo eyes at your latest boyfriend again without your permission? You want us to scare them up a little? Have a little come-to-Jesus talk with them?”

  There were a few snickers from the table.

  Balthazar waited until they died down before responding. “You know, Devin, you are a very short step away from suffering the same fate as I just described to your slutty little friend Teresa.”

  “You can’t kill me like that,” Devin said boldly. “I’m not human.”

  “That’s very true,” Balthazar said as he locked eyes with the feisty vampire. “But I can make you wish you were, and I can make you beg for a fate as kind as that which I mentioned to your whore. You know that much is true. Now, shall we continue this little debate, or shall we get on with the business at hand?”

  Devin was only able to hold Balthazar’s gaze for a couple of seconds; then he resituated himself in his chair and moved his eyes to stare down at the table in front of him.

  “Good,” Balthazar said, and stood up to address the council seated in front of him. “It seems our newcomer friend is up to his old tricks again. Christiano Montez is making quite a nuisance of himself here in our quaint little city. I want him gone.”

  “What?” asked one of the female members of the council. “We can’t just force him to leave town if he doesn’t want to go.”

  “I know that,” Balthazar said.

  “And besides, what has he done that is so bad? So he’s killed a few people, and maybe he’s gotten a little careless with one or two of them. But we’ve all done that. Hell, most of us still get a little careless every now and then. It’s nothing to freak out about.”

  “I think he wants to challenge me for lead vampire.”

  The group was quiet and looked at Balthazar intently. They each enjoyed being part of the elite council, and all the special privileges that came with the position. But they also knew that Balthazar was a weak leader. He had an ego the size of Los Angeles, and a temper that he couldn’t control. But he was young and sometimes foolish and often made irrational decisions based on emotions and personal circumstances rather than on wisdom or for the cause of advancing the vampire movement in Denver. For a long time they’d longed for a stronger leader. But they all knew that none of them—and no one else in the community, either—was any more capable of leading them than was Balthazar. So they’d kept quiet.

  But now Christiano was here, and everything was changed.

  “That’s ridiculous,” said Michael, one of the youngest members of the council. “Why would he want to challenge you for leader? From what I know of him, he doesn’t even plan on staying in Denver for any period of time.”

  “I know that, and I don’t know why he feels the stupid little need to challenge me. But he does, and I need to know that I can count on you, my friends, for support and for allegiance in this little war Mr. Montez has waged.”

  “What makes you think Christiano wants to oust you?” Devin asked, leaning forward in his chair now and paying closer attention to the conversation.

  “After my little chat with him last week, Mr. Montez seduced our good friend Victor and convinced Victor to invite him to his apartment for a little…rendezvous.”

  “So, all of this really is just a little lovers’ quarrel, then. Christiano fucked your cute little boyfriend, and you are not happy with the competition.”

  Balthazar took a slow, deep breath and glared at Devin for a long moment without saying anything.

  “How many of you have slept with Victor?” he asked.

  Ten of the twelve council members, including both women, raised their hands.

  “And how many of you have fed on Victor?”

  All twelve hands were raised.

  “Victor was a very special person to our entire community. He understood us and supported our existence here. He loved all of us, and he allowed us to love him as well. And he offered his blood to us freely and willingly and often. We all know how rare that devotion and understanding is among humans. Victor was a very special young man.”

  “Why are you using the past tense?” Devin asked as he scooted his chair closer to the table and leaned forward on his elbows.

  “Because Christiano Montez killed Victor.”

  There was an audible gasp from the council, and they all began to fidget nervously. Most of them turned their shocked eyes to the ground, unable to look at Balthazar or to fully accept that Victor was dead.

  “He ripped him into little pieces, cut his cock off and stuffed it into his mouth, and left him to lie in a blood-soaked bed.”


  “What? That’s ridiculous,” Michael said.

  “It’s true. With total disregard for the sacredness of blood, he ripped through Victor’s flesh at all of the most vulnerable spots and then allowed the blood to spill out onto the bed and drain uselessly from Victor’s body and stain the bed and the floor. There were gallons of it everywhere.”

  The council moaned and shifted in their seats again. Wasting valuable blood in this way was forbidden. It was generally considered a sign of betrayal, and often used as a visible declaration of war between individuals or groups of vampires.

  “Any more doubts about whether or not our fucking little friend is trying to take my fucking position from me?” Balthazar screamed as spit flew from his mouth. His face was red and his breathing shallow.

  No one said a word.

  “I won’t stand for this,” Balthazar said as he took deep breaths and composed himself. “I need to know that you are all with me. Christiano is not stupid, and he is not weak. But he will not come in here and spread his sickly infection and destroy our community. We are a family here, and we need to stick together. I can defeat Christiano Montez, I promise you that. But I can’t do it without your help. Can I count on you?”

  “We can’t just run him out of town. He won’t go willingly, and I don’t see that he is the kind to get intimidated by us,” the more vocal of the two women said.

  “No, you’re right. We can’t intimidate him, and we can’t just run him out of town.”

  “Then what do you suggest?” Devin asked.

  Balthazar didn’t say a word but just took a moment to gaze into the eyes of every vampire seated at the table.

  “You’ve got to be fucking kidding me,” Devin said as he held Balthazar’s gaze and leaned back in his chair.

  “Have you ever known me to kid about something like this?”

  “No, but we’ve never discussed anything like this before, either. You’ve got to be out of your fucking mind, Balthazar. We can’t do this. It’s forbidden, and you know that. The elders in our region are the most conservative in the entire nation. They’re almost as fucking conservative as the humans. You’ve had enough contact with them to know that. They will not support this.”