Within a few moments they arrived at the destination. They stopped about two blocks from the bar that Anton and Alexander were going to visit. They got out of the van and Anton gave some instructions to Rick. Chelsea smiled at Alexander and waved to him from the car window as she had done several hundred times since she was a toddler. Alexander waved back to her. A tinge of sadness overcame him as he thought of what it must mean to love someone you could never have. The van pulled away as they started to walk towards the bar. The streets around the bar were filled with cars trying to find a spot to park on the street or in the small parking lot beside it. A large sign over the door and the frosted-over window read “JR’s Place.” The front door had a sign on it that read “21 or over only.” “We reserve the right to refuse service to anyone.” Anton looked at Alexander with a smile as they opened the door and went inside.
The bar was decorated in the typical way that anyone would expect the bar to be decorated in a small town: lots of neon beer signs and posters of half-naked women. There was a crowd that was made up of people of all ages, but mostly young, college aged. The floor was concrete and appeared as if it had once been painted red, but most of the color had been scratched out of it. There were several bar stools that were permanently fastened to the ground to keep patrons from stealing them. The bar was stocked with the usual bottles of every kind of liquor known to man, and several beers were on tap. A large mirror was behind the bar that was actually a two-way mirror to keep patrons from trying to get themselves free drinks.
After leaving the bar area there were several tables and booths. There were also about 4 pool tables, a hallway to the restroom, a small stage, a jukebox, a video game that never worked and an electronic dartboard. Nearly every seat in the place was taken.
Anton and Alexander made their way in from the cold and walked up to the bar and sat down. JR, as usual was tending. He looked like a tired, old rock star: he had long blonde hair and always wore t-shirts advertising 80’s hair bands. What made most people remember him was his colorful bandanas and his large nose. He was always humming songs from the bands that he loved no matter what was playing on the jukebox or what type of band was performing on the small stage in the corner. He absolutely hated any music that came after the early 90’s and would bash Kurt Cobain and alternative music every chance he got.
Anton smiled at JR and nodded towards the security camera on the wall. JR nodded back and pressing a button under the bar, in effect shutting off all the bar’s security cameras.
‘’What will you have, gentlemen?” JR asked as he wiped off the bar with a wet rag. He knew the answer already but always asked. It was a sort of inside joke between the friends.
Anton stared at him for a few moments. He couldn’t figure out JR. He couldn’t read the man’s thoughts no matter how hard he tried. There was a strange immortal sense about him, as if he weren’t quite human. He wasn’t a vampire; that had been established as Anton had seen him eat and drink several times. But nevertheless, there was something unworldly about him. Maybe he was like Dr. Who or something. Anton let the thought leave his mind for the moment.
Anton grabbed the two bottles of beer that JR had placed on the bar. Anton replaced them with two hundreds, keeping up with his side of the deal. JR smiled, winked at him and took a drink of his soda. Right next to where the beer had been was an ashtray. It was as clean as a whistle and loaded with matchbooks. He handed the beers to Alexander and picked up a matchbook. On the cover was a neon motel sign that read “Old Rose Motel.” JR noticed and quickly stashed the ashtray under the bar.
“Don’t want to encourage people since the bar is smoke-free now…bastards!” said JR. He pulled an electronic cigarette from his pocket and took a deep drag. A little green light illuminated from the end and then a small cloud of vapor came out of JR’s mouth when he exhaled. “Not as good as the real thing, but what can you do?” Anton shrugged his shoulders and he and Alexander walked away.
It didn’t take too long for them to meet someone. Although the ladies that they met were very beautiful, their thoughts revealed that they were keeping a very dark secret. The girl Anton had paired up with was named Debbie, and she had arranged for her husband to be killed in order to get his life insurance money. Her friend, Angie had helped arrange the hit and they had split the money. Both of them were sure they got away with their crimes. But they didn’t realize that their thoughts had just betrayed them and this would be their last night in the land of the living. Both of them had dark hair, although Debbie appeared the sleazier of the two, having several tattoos that were visible and wearing a tight black shirt and a very short skirt. Angie was dressed much more conservatively than her friend, although she was wearing a tank top to show off her bosoms, in hopes of snagging a new man.
Alexander got up and excused himself. He was feeling a little dizzy and lightheaded from lack of blood. All he needed to do was splash some cold water on his face and he would be alright until he fed.
The restroom was nicer than most barrooms had. There were about three stalls and three urinals. It was surprisingly clean, too. JR was obviously very meticulous about how the bathrooms looked. Alexander only felt the presence of two other people in the room and they were both in stalls. He walked up to the sink and quickly splashed some cold water on his face. It woke him up rather quickly, but his appetite was starting to get the better of him. His body was almost begging for him to feed. It was not uncommon for a vampire to go a few days even a week without feeding and be fine. He was young, though not a fledgling, so he wasn’t able to go for as long as someone like Anton. He somehow felt like a fledgling, sometimes, as he was technically an Acolyte and would be considered a Vampire in about 5 years. From the time he was made, he sometimes had trouble controlling his hunger and his urge to kill. An extreme hatred would overcome him when he chose someone to kill. It was not at all uncommon for him to mutilate the bodies of his prey. Lady Bernadine had been able to help him control his murderous urgings in the past.
About 50 years ago, he and Anton had gone to visit Lady Bernadine at her compound in Africa. Alexander knew that the reason for their visit was because of him. Anton didn’t have to say it, but he knew.
When they arrived, they were quickly separated and Alexander was led by one of the vampire queen’s handmaids to a room. The room was typical of those in the compound, small with a large bed and no visible walls. Instead of walls the room was surrounded by a strange veil of fog. Lady Bernadine and her handmaids could pass in and out of the fog whenever they wished, without making a sound.
Alexander sat down on the bed and looked into the mist. He knew that soon Lady Bernadine would send one of her mortal servants for him to feed on. Surely she would. She always did. But she didn’t. No one came into the room.
For what seemed like weeks to him, Alexander sat in the room and was not visited by anyone. Not Anton, and not Bernadine. He didn’t sense so much as one of the handmaids or the servants walking through the mist. He was just alone with his thoughts and his hunger. He began to get even hungrier. As he did, he would try to sleep but ended up tearing at the sheets and breathing hard. He felt his body growing colder, and then the deeper pain began about a week later.
This pain wracked his body from top to bottom. He shook and tried to scream for Anton, but there was no reply. He was in agony and wanted nothing more than to feed. For about another week he suffered. He began to tear off his clothes, the sheets from the bed, and then claw at his chest. The wounds which usually would heal right away, stayed like scars on a mortal. Somewhere from deep inside what was left of his mortal glands, he began to sweat. Real sweat, not blood like he expected. His skin felt feverish one minute and then clammy the next. Then came the headaches. The pain in his head felt like it was being hammered. He couldn’t even get up any longer.
Finally, one day the pain stopped and the last of his strength was gone from his body. He lay on the floor in a dead heap. He could barely open his eyes and felt that soon
the final death would come for him. He welcomed it at that point. He had come to the point where he was tearing out his hair before he lost his strength for the last time. He felt as if he’d been totally drained of all that he was. If there’d been a mirror in the room, he wouldn’t have recognized what he saw.
Then suddenly, when he swore that death was upon him, he felt he was being lifted. Lady Bernadine picked him up from the floor. He was like a ragdoll to her at that moment. Not that she couldn’t have lifted him otherwise, as she had the strength of dozens of mortals. Still, she knew that the fast had done what it needed to do. She gave a nod and then three of her handmaids appeared and stripped the bed and replaced the linens. She shooed them away and lay Alexander onto the bed. She kissed his forehead and whispered into his ear. He couldn’t consciously understand what she was saying, but somehow he felt better. Although he couldn’t speak or move, he did feel better.
Then Bernadine took off what was left of his clothes. She saw his scarred body and would have been taken back by his gaunt and gray flesh, if it weren’t what she wanted. She began to kiss his body, and color began to return to him. The scars were slowly starting to heal and when she made her way up to his mouth she bit into her wrist. She allowed him to feed from her and like magic he was totally restored.
He took a deep breath and sat up. He felt like himself again, but better in some way. Bernadine held his face in her hands and then kissed his blood-stained lips. From then on he was calmed and had become an Acolyte. He was able to curb his violence, but sometimes still felt a desire to feed more than others.
***
He heard movement behind him and turned around. Standing there was a big, burly biker who looked like he wanted trouble. Alexander knew the type. Although JR was usually able to keep the peace in the bar, there were an occasional badass who felt the need to start shit with someone smaller than them. This biker was about a good foot taller than Alexander although much of his body was blubber, not muscle. The biker was a person who was used to bullying people and winning most of the fights he got into. Besides his large size and his overly large ego, he was very ugly with a bald head and no neck.
The other person came out of his stall, took one look at the biker and ran as fast as he could from the restroom. The biker smiled at Alexander and said, “What do we have here?”
“Look,” said Alexander getting up in the biker’s face. “I don’t want any trouble. I’m just here tonight to drink and meet some women.”
“I don’t give a shit what you’re here for!” said the biker a little taken back by Alexander’s confidence. “I’m here to drink some beer and kick some ass! And I think I’ll start with you first, faggot!”
At the mention of the last word, Alexander suddenly flashed back to a time long ago. He was seeing a blurred vision of a large man much like the biker. He was coming at him and was hitting him as hard as he could. Alexander couldn’t fight him off, he was simply too small and too weak. His head started to throb as the memory of his mortal life became more and more painful and vivid. Alexander gripped the sides of his head and backed away from the biker. He closed his eyes and started to whisper, “Stop it! Go away!” over and over again. The biker didn’t know what to think. He was about to say something about Alexander being a crybaby or call him a faggot again, when the flashback suddenly ended.
Alexander’s rage knew no bounds as he grabbed the biker by his leather vest and threw him back into the stall. The biker’s head hit the back wall hard but not hard enough to kill him. Alexander’s eyes turned a bright yellow and his fangs bared as he walked into the stall and closed the door. He punched the biker a few more times in the head for good measure and then dug his fangs into the biker’s throat. The biker started to scream, but Alexander held his mouth shut. It only took a few moments for the man to be totally drained and dead. Alexander placed the dead biker on the toilet and then opened the stall door and stepped out into the bathroom. He wiped his mouth and felt The Rush take him. His eyes rolled back in his head and he shivered from head to toe. When it was over, he closed the stall door. With a flick of his fingers, he heard the latch snap into the locked position. It would be quite a while before anyone noticed that the guy was dead. Alexander stepped over to the sink and splashed his face with cold water. He looked in the mirror and saw that the flesh tones had returned to his face. He’d been extra pale before feeding. He smiled at himself and walked out of the restroom.The two vampires led the women out of the bar. They all walked and talked for several minutes. They were able to convince the two women that they didn’t live too far from the bar and that it was alright for them to walk. Besides being evil, they were very gullible and easily agreed to go home with them.
There was an alley coming up. Anton didn’t sense any life in it, so he nodded to Alexander. Alexander nodded back to him and they grabbed the women and quickly dragged them into the alley.
Debbie was excited to be treated roughly as she felt herself being pressed against a brick wall. Anton kissed her neck gently as she wrapped her arms around him. He covered her mouth with his hand and bit deeply into her neck.
Angie didn’t like being treated roughly, so she tried to struggle as Alexander pinned her to the wall. He held both her wrists so tightly she wanted to scream. Before she could get the scream out Alexander looked into her eyes. His eyes were yellow and he smiled at her, showing his large fangs. Alexander buried his head in her neck and bit. She struggled a bit more and tried to scream again, but her voice was stifled. Her eyes bugged and her body wriggled but it was no use. As she felt herself slipping away, she thought of the terrible thing she had done with Debbie and closed her eyes. She shuddered and then went limp.
The women’s bodies were on the ground just where the vampires had laid them. They sat down next to the corpses and let the Rush overcome them. Of course Alexander’s was very brief, since he’d fed already. Anton noticed and looked at him.
“When did you feed?” he asked.
“In the restroom at the bar,” Alexander explained.
“How did you dispose of the body?”
“I didn’t. I left the bastard in the stall so that it appeared that he was taking a shit. I locked stall door so no one could open it from the outside.”
“Damn!” Anton shouted, as he got up. “What were you thinking?”
“I’m sorry, Anton,” Alexander said quietly, “I wasn’t thinking. It won’t happen again.”
Anton looked at him and sighed, “You had another episode didn’t you?”
Alexander nodded.
Anton sat down next to him and put his arm around him, “When these happen you have to try to keep your head. I know it’s hard, but you have to try.”
“I have been for how long?” Alexander asked in an exasperated voice. “I don’t even know what they mean or why I have them.”
“I know,” Anton said, getting up and helping him up, too. “When we get a chance we have to go and see Lady Bernadine. She will be able to get to the bottom of this.” Alexander nodded. Anton pulled out his phone and dialed the number for The Cleaners. He explained the situation and they promised to take care of the problem as quickly and quietly as possible.
Anton’s anger quickly faded. He wasn’t as mad at Alexander as he was about the agreement he had with JR: no bodies on the property. The intrusion of The Cleaners wasn’t going to be a deal breaker, but he was sure JR wouldn’t tolerate it again.
They looked down at the lifeless bodies of the women. Anton picked up Debbie’s body and Alexander lifted Angie’s. They took them to a dumpster at the back of the alley and tossed them in.
“In about four hours this dumpster will be emptied,” Anton explained as he closed the lid. “This is the first load of the day for this driver. Important information to know.” He winked at Alexander.
“Show-off,” said Alexander, but he knew that he would take it to heart. It might come in handy someday.
A little later they arrived home and retook their posit
ions on the roof. Alexander’s hair slowly began to grow back to its original length. They didn’t speak for several moments, they just looked up at the sky and seemed to be lost in their own thoughts.
Suddenly, Alexander stood up, yawned and said, “I’m going to sleep. See you in a few hours.” He walked towards the edge of the roof and simply dropped off. Anton could hear his friend softly touch down on the ground below. It had once taken Alexander quite a while to learn how to do that trick without injuring himself. Once he actually broke his leg, of course it healed very quickly, but it was the embarrassment that really injured his pride.
Alexander entered the house and down the stairs to the basement. When he got to the coffin room, he was surprised to see Rachael sitting on the lid of his coffin.
She looked tired, but still beautiful. Her ebony eyes seemed to dance in the dark when she saw him. Alexander waved his left hand and several candelabras in the room lit up. Although it was totally unnecessary, he simply liked to look at her in the light.
Rachael was an African-American vampire. Her brown skin seemed to glow in the faint light and was reflected in her short black hair. She wore a simple yellow dress that accented her delicate figure. She was a small woman, but was beautiful in an elvish sort of way. She was not too much older in vampire years than he, but appeared to be in her late 20’s. She jumped off the coffin and ran over to Alexander.
She kissed him softly on the lips, and wrapped her arms around him. He stiffened a little bit, but welcomed her embrace with one of his own. Her natural fragrance stung his nostrils and her warm skin was welcoming. She must have recently fed, he told himself. She pulled away from him, but held on to his hand. She smiled and stared up at him. The look in her eyes was such that anyone else would have loved to receive, but Alexander still found himself unable to totally accept Rachael for what she wanted.
Bride of Blood:: First Kiss Page 3
