Vampires In Vegas

by Samantha Snow

  “Hey!” she barked, yelling the word so loudly that the server jumped about a foot off the ground. “We’re going to need another round here. Like, yesterday.”

  The boy nodded and scurried off towards the bar, clearly happy to be out of the line of fire. Ella looked at Jen reproachfully, having always hated it when Jen was rude to the people who served her. There was a time when she had seen it as a quirky little behavioral thing, but now she was starting to see it as just one piece of a larger character flaw.

  “Jen, honestly, there’s no reason to talk to him like that. It’s me you’re mad at, not that boy.”

  “Who the fuck cares about him? He doesn’t even matter.”

  “Of course he matters,” Ella mumbled, still struggling with the newness of standing up to her head strong friend, “he’s a person, right?”

  “Don’t try to change the subject. You can’t be serious. I mean, you aren’t actually serious, are you? Because if you are, you’ve gone full on delusional. Is that what it is?”

  “Why do you have to be so nasty about everything, Jen? Why can’t you just be happy for me?”

  “Happy for you? Happy for you about what? There’s nothing to be happy for. This is a bunch of BULLSHIT.”

  She slammed her empty glass down on the table right as the server arrived with the second round. Ella could see that the guy was thinking about just turning around and going back where he had come from, and she knew that if he did that, Jen would absolutely kill him. She gave the poor guy an apologetic look, stood, and took the two drinks off of his hands.

  “I’m really sorry about her,” she said quietly, “but if it makes any difference, it’s not about you. Here, keep it, OK?”

  “T-t-thanks, lady. Really.”

  She had taken both drinks in one hand and slipped the boy a fifty with the other. She then slid gracefully back into her seat, taking a sip of her cocktail before ever looking back at her incredulous friend.

  “Oh, real nice,” Jen hissed, her face starting to turn such an alarming shade of red it was almost purple now, “you’re nicer to the hired help than you are to me.”

  “He didn’t do anything wrong, Jen. He doesn’t deserve your shit. Like I told you.”

  “Fine. Whatever. So then this is for real? You’re just going to throw your life away on some Vegas douchebag just because he’s the first one who actually wants to have sex with you?”

  Ella heard the nastiness coming out of her friend’s mouth and waited for the inevitable feelings to wash over her. She fully expected to feel grief, anger, the most extreme kind of embarrassment. Those were the kinds of things you were supposed to feel when you were told that you were basically a man repellent, a pity fuck for a guy who was feeling particularly desperate.

  Ella sat very still, knowing that at any minute the shock would wear off and the brutality of Jen’s words would hit her. Nothing happened. There was no sudden wave of feeling, no sting of tears unshed forming in her eyes. After a moment, she realized that she wasn’t stunned, after all.

  Shock wasn’t the thing keeping her from going off the deep end and escalating her fight with Jen to World War Three. Instead, it turned out she just didn’t care. She didn’t care anymore what Jen thought of her, whether she got angry at her, none of it. It didn’t matter anymore.

  “So you’re APOLOGIZING for me now?”

  “I guess I did. And now I’m leaving.”

  “You’re what?!”

  “Leaving. I’m leaving. I love you, Jen, but I don’t love this. I don’t love the way things have gotten between us. I don’t want to do this anymore.”

  With nothing left to do, nothing left to say, Ella stood. For a minute, she didn’t know what to do. She had made her big stand and now she felt sort of...well, sort of useless. She glanced down at Jen, as if that would offer some kind relief, but that wouldn’t work anymore.

  The tie that had bound them together so that Jen was always the one to take charge had been severed. Whether she wanted to be or not, Ella was free. Without waiting for another word, she walked out of the restaurant and left Jen sitting there on her own.

  ***

  “Are you sure about this? Because I’m not. I’m not even a little bit sure of it. In fact, I think this might be a bad idea. Like a really, really bad idea. Let’s just go back to my room, OK? That would be fun too, right? Definitely more fun than this.”

  “Scared again, are we?” Reagan chuckled, the look of humor on his face completely maddening, “When are you going to realize you don’t have to be afraid when I’m around?”

  “It’s got nothing to do with you,” Ella said through gritted teeth, “and a lot more to do with how high up you’re trying to get me to go.”

  “But you managed the dam just fine.”

  “Not exactly true, although that’s sweet of you to say. I don’t think I managed it well at all. And this is worse!”

  “Worse?! How could this possibly be worse? It’s not nearly as high.”

  “But it feels just as high. It feels higher, if you want to know the truth.”

  “Well, then how about we strike a bargain.”

  “OK,” she answered uncertainly, not entirely sure bargaining was something she was in the mood for, “I might be open to that. What kind of bargain did you have in mind?”

  “You do this for me, and afterwards you get to pick.”

  “I get to pick?”

  “Yes,” he smiled seductively, a smile that made all of her insides turn to mush, “you get to pick. It’ll be your turn to choose what we do. I won’t argue, won’t put up a fight. Whatever you want to do, that’s what we’ll be doing.”

  “Done. Deal.”

  “Ha! Don’t you want to think about it, Ella? You should always weigh your options before entering into a bargain. Hasn’t anyone ever told you that?”

  “I don’t know. Probably. I don’t care. It’s a deal. Now let’s just get this over with, OK? I think we probably should, before I totally chicken out and back out.”

  “OK then, as long as you’re sure. Come on. It’s almost our turn.”

  Ella allowed Reagan to lead her forward, trusting him to keep her from running into anything. She had a tendency to get clutzy when her mind was on something else, and at the moment it most definitely was. It was all she could do not to totally lose her shit while looking up at the massive Ferris wheel that was looming ahead of her.

  Here she was in her twenties, and she had managed to avoid ever getting on any kind of a roller coaster or Ferris wheel at all. She had actually believed that she was past that particular threat, the thrill of the terrifying contraptions seeming to have died off some after she and her friends had moved out of their teens and into their twenties.

  And yet here she was, allowing Reagan to lead her onto the platform and towards the man who would usher them into one of those little metal boxes that looked exactly like death traps to her. She had to be out of her mind to do this, at least that was what a little voice in the back of her mind kept insisting.

  But then she looked at Reagan, at his heartbreakingly beautiful face, and she knew she would follow him anywhere he saw fit to lead her. With that thought planted firmly in her mind, she allowed herself to be fastened into the Ferris wheel.

  “So, tell me again why we’re doing this?”

  “Because, it’s the best possible way for you to see the city of Las Vegas. The view from the top is second to none, and I thought you might want to see it. It’s actually quite lovely, with all of the lights. It’s almost like stepping into another world entirely.”

  “I didn’t even know Vegas had a Ferris wheel. But then I guess it has pretty much everything, doesn’t it?”

  “I guess it does. OK, hold on now. Here we go.”

  Ella did her best not to close her eyes. She knew the whole point of this, at least according to Reagan, was for her to see. She thought back to earlier, after she had returned to her room still seething from the worst argument of her life. The
first thing she had done was call Reagan, thrilled to hear that he would meet her just after dark. When he had asked her to meet him on the Linq Promenade, however, it hadn’t occurred to her that they would be doing something like this.

  She hadn’t even known about the monstrosity she was now being locked into. As soon as the latch of the compartment shut, she felt her panic begin to grow and was gripped by a sudden urge to just vault herself out of the death trap and back onto the platform. She might have done it, too, if it weren’t for the fact that Reagan chose that exact moment to take her hand into his.

  With him beside her for comfort, she wasn’t going anywhere. The massive wheel began to turn and, before she knew it, they were at the very top. It was a feeling unlike any she could remember having before.

  “It’s like we’re literally at the top of the world! It’s like we’re flying, Reagan. It’s like we’re actually flying!”

  “So you aren’t too terribly unhappy to be up here?”

  “No, not unhappy. I won’t say that it doesn’t still scare me, but I’m not unhappy. I’m glad you brought me up here. It’s really beautiful. I think it’s one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen.”

  “Good. That’s what I was hoping you would say. That’s all I wanted, Ella, just to show you a world full of beauty.”

  For a moment, both of them were silent. Ella kept expecting the massive wheel to begin moving again, and was surprised to find that she didn’t want it to. Being up there in the middle of the sky with Reagan, it made her feel like she could do anything she wanted to. She didn’t want to lose that feeling. It made her emboldened, which was exactly what she needed in order to tell him what she wanted to say.

  “Reagan. I have to tell you something. Or rather, I want to tell you something. Something I hope you’ll be OK with.”

  “Of course,” he responded with a mild tone of concern in his voice, “you can tell me anything. What’s on your mind?”

  “OK. I hope you don’t think I’m crazy for this, but if you do, so be it I guess. I just wanted to tell you that I’m staying.”

  “Staying?”

  “Yes. Staying. I’m not going home to Austin tomorrow. I’m just not ready to leave yet.”

  “I see.”

  “Is that bad? Do you think I’m crazy? You do, don’t you? You think I’m totally nuts. Never mind. Forget I said anything, please. I should never have come to a decision like that without talking to you first. You didn’t give me any indication that you might want me to stick around. It was just me, inside of my head. I know that. I’m sorry.”

  “Are you done?”

  “Um, yes?”

  “Alright. Good. I wanted to make sure before I gave you my answer to what you had to say.”

  “OK…”

  “I don’t want you to leave. If it were up to me, you wouldn’t ever leave. I can’t begin to tell you how much I’ve been dreading the prospect of your departure. I want you here, Ella. I want you by my side always.”

  Ella felt her eyes well up with tears, but for once, they were tears of joy. It was exactly what Reagan would say in her dreams, but how often did dreams actually come true in real life? She was pretty sure the answer to that was almost never, and yet here it was. Reagan was looking at her with full, loving eyes, and telling her exactly what she wanted to hear. She was over the moon ecstatic, to the point where a massive feeling of unreality washed over her.

  She bent forward then, heedless of the great height from which she was hanging, and kissed him. It was a long, slow kiss, the kind that delivered a message. When she finally moved back to her own place, she saw that they had begun to move again. Regan smiled his devilish smile at her, keeping his fingers tightly intertwined with hers. Once they reached the bottom and made their way out of the little cart that had held them, she turned to face him, looking up at him with a beaming face and mischievous expression.

  “Hey, Reagan?”

  “Hm?”

  “I decided.”

  “Decided what, love?”

  “Decided on what I want to do now. Come on. We’re headed back to my hotel.”

  Ella felt her entire body trembling as she attempted to get her key into the slot of her hotel room door. No matter how quickly she got the two of them into her room, it wouldn’t be fast enough. Never in her life had she been as physically drawn to a man as she was to Reagan in that moment.

  It was so intense that if she didn’t get her stupid key to work pretty much immediately, she might just rip his clothes off right there in the hallway. Luckily for her, and any of the poor unsuspecting souls that would have had the shock of seeing the things she wanted to do with Reagan, that was the moment the door decided to accept the key.

  Ella practically tumbled into the room, Reagan’s arms sliding around her waist from behind the only thing that kept her from falling on her face. But oh, those arms! The strength she felt seeping into her through him was out of this world. She felt electric, like herself but another version of herself; a better, stronger version of herself. She spun in his grasp, angling her body so that her face was tilted up towards his, mouth slightly open and waiting for him.

  “So, darling, what is it you wanted to do?”

  “Isn’t it obvious?”

  “Perhaps. Perhaps it is, and then again perhaps it isn’t. Maybe I just want to hear you say it. So tell me. Tell me, Ella, what is it you want to do?”

  “It’s not what I want to do, so much as what I want you to do.”

  “And what is it you want me to do?”

  “Simple,” she could feel herself blushing now, but chose to ignore it and forge ahead, “me.”

  “That is definitely something I can handle. I’ve been wanting to get my hands on you since the moment I laid eyes on you.”

  “Good. Take off your shirt.”

  “Someone’s gotten bossy.”

  “Do it, Reagan. The waiting is driving me crazy!”

  Reagan laughed his rich, melodic laugh and gave a little nod. He removed his arms from where they rested around her waist and took a small step back. It was only a very small step, but Ella still felt her body cry out in displeasure at the separation. Apparently, her skin didn’t care that it was her that had asked him to do the thing that was moving him away from her in the first place.

  She stared at him, her flesh burning with desire and her knees so weak she was almost sure she would melt into a puddle on the floor. As she watched him, he slowly unbuttoned one button after the other of his crisp black shirt, his eyes never leaving hers. She actually started to salivate at the sight of his bare chest and rippling muscles. His body was hard and lean, like that of a wild animal primed for the kill. Even looking at him made her feel more animalistic and she found that she was able to contain herself for almost no time at all. She practically flew into his arms, her hands sliding up his muscular chest, then down the length of his biceps.

  She nuzzled her face into the crook of his neck, nibbled along the line of his collarbone before moving to his ear lobe. He let out a low groan that only fueled the fire inside of her, and her hands continued to roam across the length of of his body, moving down, down, down to the place where his trousers hugged his hips.

  “Oh no, love, not before I get a look at you. Hands up over your head.”

  She did as he said dutifully enough, but her extreme impatience was making her breath come fast and hard. Her chest was heaving, her thighs quivering with her want for this man, her extraordinary lover. He reached down, took the hem of her dress into his strong hands and pulled it up over her head so roughly that she heard it rip. She liked the dress, but she couldn’t have cared less. She would have had him rip it clean in half if it would have gotten him inside of her faster.

  “Is this what you want?” He growled, his hands running from her hips up to her breasts, which were blissfully bare. Her nipples ached with the pleasure of his touch and she let out a soft, needy moan. Her body was pressing up against his, her hands groping
for him, trying to feel all of him at the same time.

  “Yes,” she answered breathlessly, “oh god, yes. It’s all I want. The only thing I want. Please, Reagan. Please!”

  But instead of answering, he took both of her wrists into one of his hands and held them up over her head. With his other hand, he pushed her gently up against the wall, turning her so that her back was to him and her ass was right in the place where his massive, throbbing erection was. Her inner thighs were quivering and wet with anticipation. She arched her back, teasing him with her backside.

  She wanted to make herself irresistible to him, just the way that he was to her. It seemed to work, because she could hear the sound of his zipper being pulled hastily down before feeling his cock against her back.