by A. C. James
“Thy vile countenance consumes all truth and reason. Leave my sight and never return to it.”
With a gleeful laugh, I spun in a circle. I stopped spinning and crossed the room to stand in front of Arie.
“I barely restrain the compulsion to grab my sword from the foyer and have you meet its length,” he said with eyes maddened by my petulance. “There are so many casualties, so much wasted life. I see now you hold no love, no remorse, and no comprehension. There is not even a fleeting glimpse of the woman I knew in life before I turned you.”
“I grow weary of this place with its paltry amusement. It holds no charm and I grow sick of your theatre. I want to dance. Won’t you dance with me, Arie?”
I grabbed both his hands in an attempt to force him. Arie pulled his hands from my grasp and stepped backwards. I pouted and walked through the blood scattered with flower petals. Then I turned to meet his cool gray eyes, which were filled with resolve. I waited for him to hit her. Maybe if he struck her I would go flying out of her body, jolted from my vision.
Arie regarded me unflinchingly. “Regretfully, I must decline, and you may stay with me no longer.”
“You can’t be serious.”
“I am deadly serious, my dear. You no longer play with a full deck.” Arie said—his blunt remark without ceremony.
“Where shall I go?”
“I care not where you go… So long as it’s far away from here.”
Tears of blood rimmed my eyes. A red drop fell to disappear in the pool of blood at my feet. After more than a century there was nothing more that could be said. No amount of explaining or pleading could ever change the inevitable.
“You can’t mean it.”
“The mental sickness that marked your human existence has escalated to a psychosis. I’ve seen it claim many vampires of weaker mind who tire of eternity. You were my world, my consort, and I mean it with every fiber of my being.”
And with that his eyes softened. His gaze lowered to focus on the fallen petals. When he looked up, he stood alone amongst the rotting corpses. From outside the house I looked back through the window. He walked to the fortepiano, placing his fingers on the blood-stained keys. A melody filled with love, loneliness, and sadness honored the departed that were his audience.
CHAPTER 14
Like a ghost I floated out of Katarina and could see her face streaked with bloody tears from where I hovered above. With a jolt I pulled back into my own body where I sat in the back seat of the BMW. I knew why he left her and I could feel the weight of his pain threaten to suffocate me. Victoria sat in the passenger seat next to Arie and looked back at me strangely.
But she didn’t look at me like others did—like I exuded weirdness on multiple levels. Her look seemed to resemble satisfaction at finding a mythical sameness reflected in another. It felt like she knew exactly what had happened. I knew that when the Sight came it looked like I stared into nothing, like a blank slate. At least that’s what one of my foster parents said at the time—that something must be wrong with me because I’d go blank and wouldn’t answer them. The bitter notes of the piano drifted through my memory as I reoriented myself with my surroundings. It didn’t seem like more than an instant passed, although my vision felt like it had lasted forever.
Arie parked alongside the street a few blocks down from the Coffee Grind. We moved along the sidewalk dusted in white until we stood across the street from the café. Victoria looked both ways down the street before she leapt like a cat onto the rooftop of the apartment building behind us. A man exited a shop a few doors down. Arie waited until he got in his car and pulled away, and then wrapped an arm around me. Moments later we landed on top the roof next to Victoria.
He crouched on the flat rooftop across the street from the Coffee Grind and pulled me down to crouch next to him. Fine flakes of snow coated the street and the sidewalk below. Victoria followed suit and crouched beside him while snow speckled her cropped blonde hair. It looked pale, wild, and spikey, like her.
But she exuded calm and wasn’t very verbose, which seemed to suit Arie just fine. Neither of them spouted words for the sake of filling the silence with meaningless commentary. They were the opposite of me in every way. I tended to babble when nervous. And I had a habit of being blunt, much to Arie’s chagrin.
Victoria closed her eyes. It seemed like she was trying to hone in on something. “There. I can feel it. A dim presence filled with malice and madness; the black aura is trying to consume me. The presence is filled with grief and so much past hurt,” Victoria said as her breath caught. “The aura flickers in the distance. Wait. It threw up a shield. I can no longer sense the entity it projects from. I’ve never felt such an overwhelming sense of sadness as that which underlines all that hate.”
Victoria opened her eyes. Arie regarded her with affection. Rising from her crouched position on the roof, she shivered. Arie smiled at her breathtaking and otherworldly figure and we waited for her to collect her thoughts.
“What was she doing?” I asked.
“Although I am older and more powerful, she is the most gifted vampire I’ve ever met when it comes to scanning auras. Auras leave a trace behind and the last time I sensed Katarina’s presence it was outside the Coffee Grind. Since it’s been several weeks and we still haven’t found her, I sought help from Victoria to scan the area,” Arie said as he inclined his head toward me. He rose to stand next to her and I did the same, rubbing my hands together to keep warm.
I’m sorry, Arie,” Victoria said. “I could almost focus in on her location, but she knows that she’s being hunted. She put up a shield and then I couldn’t sense her presence.”
“I have to find her.”
The wind whipped around us, blowing snow off the roof. It kicked white dust into the air in the momentary pause of silence.
“And Arie…?”
He met Victoria’s eerie but exquisite hyacinthine eyes in quiet regard.
“There is no light. All I see is darkness and sadness.”
“That’s why I have to find her. I should be the one who ends it. I cannot leave her to withstand the Legacy’s punishment, which may not end quickly. It would break her already unhinged mind.”
Icy wind blew fine snow onto Victoria’s dove-white cheekbones. Frost began to form on her chapped pink lips. Again, she reminded me of an angel, all white and windswept. She reached out a hand to touch his arm in consolation. “It’s not your fault.”
“I know. We need to find her before she hurts anyone else. We need to find her before she hurts Holly.”
For a fraction of a second he looked vulnerable, scared, and I knew he couldn’t bear the thought of losing me. He hadn’t let anyone in for so long, and now he needed me. I had to believe he’d come to see it too. My heart ached for him. After everything Katarina put him through, I understood why he walled himself off behind his pain.
“She’s not like her… She may see things, and she has the same dark hair, but she is not Katarina. I think you’ll find she’s stronger than that, and as long as she’s with us—we can keep her safe,” Victoria said as she nodded toward me.
“I want to make sure she doesn’t get hurt. I know now that I am the reason Katarina has come here and until it’s over Holly needs me.”
“If you think that’s the only reason you protect Holly then you’re lying to yourself.”
Arie sighed, staring off into the distance, and gritted his teeth through his clenched jaw. It kind of felt embarrassing standing there with them talking about me like I wasn’t. I had never seen anyone speak their mind to Arie without receiving a condescending rebuttal.
“What do we do now?” I asked.
“Let’s go back to the club,” Victoria said. Without waiting for a response Victoria leaped into the air, flipping backwards off the other side of the building and disappeared into the snow.
Arie put his hands on each side of my waist. The dead feeling of winter reflected in his eyes had a longing burning beneath i
t. Bringing his face so close to mine that I could have kissed him, my hands went to his shoulders, my fingers resting at his throat. I leaned up and the first kiss seemed too short, careful and chaste, but the second was not. He cupped the back of my head and bent me back, kissing me like he wanted to break me in half. His fangs lengthened and broke the skin on my lip. When he drew back from my bleeding lip, his eyes darkened with desire.
I tried not to think about how much I wanted him. And I couldn’t think about how I wanted him to want me back. I licked the blood from my lip and he tightened his grip. We dropped twenty stories to the sidewalk below, landing in the alley next to Victoria. I knew now why he tried to stay away. To say that things ended badly with Katarina put it mildly. I also knew how I would break his fierce determination to push me away, if I could get Tessa to help me.
***
The bar downstairs where I sat with Victoria filled with figures draped in black while I sipped a club soda. Arie had disappeared, stalking in the direction of the elevator, I presumed to get a more fitting beverage at the bar upstairs. The downstairs catered to the Goth clubbers and didn’t serve Puncture, let alone Crimson Dusk. Our drive over had been a quiet one after our rooftop kiss. But after my latest vision I understood his hesitation and distance. Heavy industrial music vibrated through the lower level. A man wearing a trench coat with black fingernail polish and long raven hair walked across the club in my direction.
He stood in front of me and smiled, revealing fake resin fangs. “Hey, can I buy you a drink?”
Before I could respond Victoria showed her fangs. “Move along. She belongs to my maker.”
“Oh. Right. Sorry,” the man said, shaking his head as he walked away.
I laughed. “He has no idea just how serious you are.”
“Fang-fakers. Only a handful of them are unassuming and sincere. Most are pretentious and border on delusional. He thought I was another one of the role players that frequent here. None of them know—only the humans upstairs that we feed on know the truth.”
“You don’t like them.”
“I always find blatant imitators with their primal sexuality amusing. They are primitive and act like apes. I took to celibacy a century ago.” She scoffed.
My eyes widened and I found this fascinating considering where she worked and the sex club upstairs. I couldn’t imagine being able to ward off temptation in a place like this. “But why?”
“The absolute freedom from sexual thoughts and desires increases control over all the senses. My capacity for empathy and scanning auras surpasses vampires even older than I am because of my abstinence. It surpasses even my maker. That’s why he had me come with you tonight.”
In our society sex sold, and modern civilization supported an ocean of impure thoughts, lustful desires, and sensual pleasures. I could see how it caused one to become weak and feeble without accounting for supernatural forces. Society deteriorated to a place of racial degeneration where children beget children and people led artificial lives without a real ethical culture.
“Isn’t it hard for you to resist?” I asked.
“Not anymore. I need very little blood to survive as a result.”
My lips and teeth parted as my jaw dropped. “How is that even possible?”
“I feed on psi, draining life energy without feeding on the basic life force of blood. I have not tasted blood in fifty years.”
“Then why don’t all of you feed on psi?”
Victoria smiled. “Because blood is addictive, and not all of us are strong enough to resist it. Others don’t want to resist it. It’s like questioning why some humans are vegetarian while others eat meat. Sure, it’s healthier to be a vegetarian, but who doesn’t like a good steak?”
I didn’t care for her carnivorous comparison. “If it makes you stronger, I still don’t understand.”
“It’s a matter of taste.”
“You move fast like Arie, but there’s a different quality to your movement. You’re not blurry. I don’t even see you move. You’re just there and then you’re not.”
“I can bend the flow of time, which makes our movements appear to humans so fast that we move in a blink of an eye, exceeding others my age and older. One of the many perks of my sexual celibacy. And I can walk into the subconscious dream world to manipulate or observe the fantasies of those around me with ease. Was that what you were doing to Arie? I saw you.”
I shook my head. “I didn’t mean to do anything. It was a vision, but it wasn’t like I was watching it happen. It was like I’d taken over someone else. That’s never happened before, but I’ve never been able to control the Sight no matter how it comes. It just sort of happens. Can you teach me?”
Victoria laughed. “I’ll help you when you stop being frustrated by the limitations of the reality that binds us all.”
I had no idea what she was talking about. “So do you live in one of the apartments upstairs?”
“It would be convenient, but no. I have a townhouse in West DePaul, far away from HFC, where I can keep my life separate from the club.”
The volume of the pumping music lowered before ceasing entirely. Tessa appeared on a stage next to the sound table and the DJ flashed red lighting onto the platform where she stood. Immediate applause broke out in acknowledgement of her arrival. With both hands she patted the air as if to silence them, and a hush came over the crowd.
“As most of you know, our Kindred Spirits of Darkness Gala is just around the corner. I’d like to thank Victoria, who has been instrumental in planning our annual events. She has booked some innovative entertainment for this year’s theme—Dark Romance. Details can be found on our website. If you haven’t purchased tickets already please do so, on the website. Proceeds from ticket sales are divided between two fantastic charities that we’ve chosen to sponsor this year. We look forward to having you all for an evening of dancing and draining.”
Victoria sighed.
The crowd went wild and Tessa left the stage, walking in our direction. She perched on a barstool beside me and looked over at Victoria, who toyed with an olive in the dirty martini sitting in front of her.
“Victoria, did you take care of inventory?”
“Of course. I already placed an order.”
“Excellent.” She turned toward me with an amused smirk. “Hello, pet.”
I summoned the courage to put my plan into action. “Tessa, could I talk to you in private?”
“Of course dear. We’ll take this in my office.”
Victoria narrowed her eyes at me as we left the bar. I followed Tessa onto the elevator. She didn’t wait until we reached her office to question me. “What do you want to discuss with me? I have a meeting in an hour, so cut to the chase.”
“I know about Katarina. He never got over her, did he?”
“No. And I doubt he ever will. So if you have any romantic inclinations I wouldn’t get your panties in a twist.”
“He wants me. I know he does, but he fights it. I want you to teach me how to be a submissive. I’m not sure that’s what he wants, but I’ve never been able to…” It was embarrassing talking to her about my sexual problems in an elevator. I really didn’t want to share that the only time anyone had been able to make me come was after a spanking and screwing on top of her remodeling efforts.
Tessa stepped forward. Only inches separated us within the cramped confines of the elevator. “Are you sure that’s what you want? Either way I think you’re wasting your time.”
“I’m not. I know I’m not. It has to work.”
A twisted smile curved her mouth. “If nothing else it will be an amusing diversion.”
The elevator stopped on the third floor. When we passed both Tessa’s office and her interrogation room I choked back my uncertainty. “Where are we going?”
Tessa smirked at me over her shoulder. “Don’t ask questions. That’s your first lesson in submission, my pet. This is not your conventional BDSM club where the inexperienced are initiated into
scenes. And I have a meeting. I don’t have time to figure out your threshold for pain and certainly won’t have time after. You get an intro at best and then you’re on your own.”
I gulped.
“Are we clear?”
“Crystal.”
CHAPTER 15
Tessa stopped in the hallway in front of a red door. We entered a room unlike any I had ever imagined, but I’d seen it before in my vision. This is where Arie and Tessa were feeding on Isla. Sounds of opera music filled the space with a beautiful melody. I only wished I knew the language that drifted from the speakers overhead.
The walls were brick like Arie’s loft apartment, except these walls were painted black. Its floors were a contrasting white marble that my boots squeaked across. The soft yellow lighting lent a romantic ambiance despite the starkness of a room that spoke of desires that had nothing to do with sappy sentiment.
A saltire cross with cuff restraints on each steel cross-arm was bolted to the far wall, while a mahogany table covered in a white lace tablecloth stood next to the cross. Its surface had all manner of equipment including riding crops, floggers with leather strands, a cat o’ nine tails, and a feather duster with red and black feathers. The smell of leather assaulted my senses, and I gulped at the sight of the exotic spread.
Against the wall to the left stood a large armoire occupied with unseen delights. Next to it hung a large wooden paddle just like the one that hung over my elementary school principal’s desk. Although it had been out of use for some time when I’d entered kindergarten it still held the power to scare the shit out of students.
Along a wall to the right I saw a large bed. It had an oval mirror inlayed in the center of a complex steel headboard with twisting black rungs. A maroon fitted sheet covered its expanse, and it was enclosed by sheer black canopy netting.
