“Trouble with you, Eisheth, is that you kill them too fast,” Agrat Bat said in a smug voice.
It was that tone that had driven Eisheth away in the first place. But she kept her irritation to herself. She needed her sisters.
Agrat Bat continued. “Keep one around, Cull him until he can’t move, find another, use him up, go back to the first one, and so on. But always have more than one in play, and keep them alive for as long as possible.”
“Personally, I prefer finding one nice guy and keeping him going,” Naamah said.
“Oh, and how do you get enough life force that way?” Agrat Bat said with an arched eyebrow.
Naamah looked uneasy and turned away. “That’s for me to know…”
“You aren’t giving them your Blood, are you?” Agrat Bat said. “I thought we agreed to never do that.”
She was taking on her big sister persona, and both Eisheth and Naamah sat up straight.
“Well…I don’t see the harm,” Naamah said.
“It gives men a taste.” Eisheth spoke up, surprising herself with her vehemence. “They must never know, never trap us again. Kill them, fuck them, play with them, but never give men the idea that they can use us!”
“Dear Eisheth is right for once,” Agrat Bat said. “It’s a bad idea. Please don’t do it again, sister.”
“Or what?” Naamah asked.
Agrat Bat towered over them. She was a blonde Goddess, several inches taller than her sisters, curvier, and physically stronger. Eisheth felt something pass between her sisters. The languid sexiness of the atmosphere turned suddenly cold and gritty, as if they were back in the cave of their imprisonment. Naamah cried out, clutching her head, then fell to the carpeted floor and writhed, hands between her legs.
Agrat Bat turned away, giving Eisheth a glance that said, I could do this to you, too, anytime I wish.
“As for you, Eisheth, as I said, you kill far too often, drawing attention to yourself.” She gave a low chuckle. “Besides, it’s so much sweeter when you have them in your thrall for a long time. Believe me, it’s all worth it.” She eyed Eisheth disapprovingly. Eisheth had stuck to her hippie look but updated her wardrobe with the help of Agrat Bat’s credit card. “If you insist on looking like the girl next door, you’re never going to keep them long enough to enjoy them. They’ll get bored, and you’ll lose them to a Madonna or a whore.” A smug smile curled over her face. “Naamah and I never have that problem.”
“Two-hour workouts three days a week, plus two hours in the spa every week…no thanks,” Eisheth said. Find ’em, fuck ’em, and leave ’em dead is so much easier. Minimal upkeep.
Naamah nodded agreement. Of course, all she had to do was let her naturally slutty, lustful nature take over. To Eisheth, that was almost as exhausting as Agrat Bat’s routine. No, Eisheth was sure she had arrived at the best method for herself, despite the occasional setbacks. Take only as long as it took for her victim to fall in love, then use him up and toss him away like a used condom.
Agrat Bat held up a finger, and the sisters stopped bickering. They all sensed it at the same moment. Armed men were coming for them. They were driving down the road in front of the B & B, then stopping, then piling out of their SUVs.
“This ought to be fun,” Naamah said.
Chapter 37
As the Guardians drew nearer to Bend, they could feel the latent sexual tension rising higher and higher. As Harrison nervously peered out the window of the SUV, everything began to remind him of sex. Trees wrapped around each other, rocks resembled women, and clouds combined and twirled as if embracing each other. It was like a mad Freudian dream.
The men in the SUVs were gripping their rifles tightly. They weren’t looking at each other, weren’t talking. Every once in a while, one of them would adjust his position to make room for a growing erection. No one commented, and no one teased anyone else, for they were all feeling it. The steady hum of the engines, the bumps in the road; all of it took on a rhythm that was strangely stirring.
Even Harrison was feeling it, and he’d lost interest in sex long ago, after his daughter Abigail was born and his wife left him. Most of the rest of the crew were young men, who had joined the Guardians because they liked the secretive nature of the organization, the cool guns, and the military-style training and camps, but most of all because Harrison was generous with his money.
Three black SUVs each held five men, the best and the most committed Guardians he had.
He’d weeded out the weakest, the most venal over the years, but he wasn’t sure the survivors understood the seriousness of the enterprise. Most of them probably didn’t believe the Succubae even existed. They probably thought Harrison had some weird sexual kink that was making him want to kidnap three women.
One thing was for sure: he ask them to do the Cutting. Even he couldn’t face that.
Heinrich Gerhard is the true Guardian, he thought with a sudden moment of clarity. We’re all play-actors compared to him and his level of commitment.
He thought about Gerhard’s warning. Could he be right? Were they walking into a trap?
The rifle in his hands and the pistol at his hip reassured him. They were well armed and trained. The Guardians who had tried to confront the Daughters of Lilith in the past had had knives and swords. Modern weaponry ought to level the playing field. The backs of the vehicles were filled with every manner of nonlethal weapon: canisters of sleeping gas (and gas masks, of course), pepper spray, tranquilizer guns with enough juice to down a lion, nets, stun guns, and rubber bullets.
“Remember,” Harrison said to his men, even though he’d told them the same thing a hundred times before, “don’t shoot unless you have to. Even then, fire to incapacitate, if possible. We need to take at least one of the Succubae alive at all costs.”
Maybe they heard me this time, he thought. By now, they are all feeling it.
Even he was taking it more seriously, now that the moment had come. Gerhard’s warning had gotten through to him. Despite what he’d said to his men, if worse came to worst, he’d shoot the monsters in the head himself, Blood or no Blood.
It was their last chance to accomplish their goal. The money Harrison’s father had made was almost gone. The younger men were losing interest in the quest, even those who were the sons of other Guardians.
Harrison was the last of the true believers. It was only his willpower and the power of his money that kept the Guardians going.
He checked his cellphone again. Frank should have called back by now. The last message had been that he’d tracked the Eisheth-Succubus to a bed and breakfast. “The sisters have arrived,” the voicemail had said, and then it had been cut off, and there had been nothing since.
It was a rare occurrence for the Daughters of Lilith to all be in one place, something that seemed to happen only once a generation. It was fortunate that the Guardians been tracking Serena Carlton, or they might not have located the Succubae in time. Ever since the Guardians had realized she and Heinrich Gerhard were in communication, they’d been constantly monitoring them.
The SUVs reached the outskirts of town, and Harrison glanced out the window again. There was a shopping mall packed with cars, but there was no one in sight. Except…he lowered his eyes to sidewalk level and saw undulating movements, as if there were people on the ground twisting about.
Then it struck him what they were doing.
“God, I’m horny,” one of the men in the backseat said.
“Shut up,” Harrison snapped. “It’s them. Don’t let the Succubae get to you.”
“Hell, I thought it would be like, you know, a really good porno movie or something,” the man continued. “I mean, I’ve managed not to beat off to that. I’ve held off…but my God.”
“You heard the boss, Jerry. Shut up,” another man said. “I’m already having enough trouble without you talking about it.”
“Focus,” Harrison said. “You knew what you were in for.”
No one answered, but he knew what they were
thinking. None of them had known what they were in for.
They pulled up in front of the B & B.
It looked so harmless: an old Victorian, with a rose garden and a deep green lawn. And yet the wave of sexual energy emanating from the building was enough to make some of the men reach down unconsciously and begin to stroke themselves.
“Out of the car,” Harrison commanded. “Remember your training. Concentrate on what you’re doing. Whatever you do, don’t give in to them, or it will be the last thing you do!”
They stumbled out of the vehicles and went through the motions they’d been trained in. Harrison could barely concentrate himself. If not for the constant practice, he doubted anything would have been accomplished at all.
The three teams of five men were supposed to select one of the Succubae each. Two men in each team were armed with stun guns and tranquilizer darts, two others were to handle the nets, and one man—the best shot—was to cover the others with an automatic rifle. All had pistols on their belts, but were to use them only in a life-or-death situation.
“Let’s go!” Harrison shouted. “Once you have them in the nets, you should be safe.” Once you have them in the nets, you can beat off all you want, he thought but didn’t say.
They trotted up the sidewalk and into the B & B. Harrison directed one team upstairs and another down the hallway, and pointed his own team toward a giant sitting room just off the entrance.
He heard the soft thud of tranquilizer guns being fired, saw the sparking of the stun guns. A single shot rang out. He turned into the sitting room.
Two of his men were on the floor, their heads nearly detached. The men with the nets were standing there, nets hanging uselessly in their hands. A single Succubus stood in the center of the room, a blonde Goddess, the image of every sexual fantasy Harrison had ever had. She was naked, and her voluptuous body was beckoning, ready for him, ready to fulfill any desire.
“Stay back!” he managed to shout to his surviving men, but they weren’t listening. Instead, they were listening to the same siren song he was hearing.
He lifted the rifle and took aim.
Pull the trigger. God…pull the trigger.
He dropped the gun to the floor and stepped forward. One of his men had already stripped, and the Goddess had mounted him standing up. He stood there grunting as she swayed up and down on him until he cried out, his legs buckling. He was not the strong young man he’d been when he entered the room, but looked as though he was a hundred years old, wrinkled, with scrawny limbs and mottled skin.
The victim fell backward, landing with a soft plop, as if he weighed nothing. A second man had his pants down, and the Goddess pushed him to the floor and mounted him. She took him twice while Harrison watched helplessly. The man kept crying out, and it sounded like both “yes” and “no” at the same time. Then there were just helpless sounds as the last of his life drained out of him.
Despite all this, if anything, the Goddess’s sexual allure only grew.
Harrison couldn’t move, except to move his hand down to his cock and start stroking it. After the Succubus finished with the second man, she stood and walked toward him, her hips swaying seductively. She wasn’t bothering to hide her real features now, the sharp nose and chin, the pointed ears, and the long, sharp fangs.
It didn’t matter. Her body held him hypnotized. She clutched him in what seemed a gentle manner and pulled him down on top of her as she landed on the couch. He began pushing into her, and it was the sweetest sensation he’d ever felt, sweeter than his first time with Virginia when he thought that he could die then and be happy.
I’m going to die now, Harrison thought. And the fear almost made him stop for a second, but the Goddess hissed, and he felt desire completely blank his mind.
His last thought was of the nets.
I thought we could catch them with nets, he thought. How messed up is that?
And then he thought no more.
Chapter 38
“So you’re staying here?” Naamah asked that night, sounding disappointed.
They’d left the bodies of the Guardians lying on the floor, no more consequential than the furniture. Eisheth had gotten a good workout, but she still didn’t feel quite back to normal. She had felt the shock of the stun gun one of the men had managed to fire, whereas she knew her sisters probably hadn’t felt a thing.
“I’m not ready,” Eisheth answered. If she’d been alone, she probably would have gone out, but she didn’t want her sisters judging her.
“We don’t need her,” Agrat Bat said to Naamah. “Let’s see if there is anyone else in this town worth taking to bed.”
“Who needs a bed?” Naamah smirked, following her out the door.
Her sisters were as good as their word. Later that night, they brought two handsome specimens back to Eisheth. Both men fell in love with her instantly.
She drained them of their life force in ten minutes flat.
Eisheth felt her body mending at last. She dropped the second man to the floor, turned to her sisters, and raised her arms in triumph.
“We are together at last!” Naamah cried out, delighted.
Agrat Bat said, “Yes, the Daughters of Lilith are as one. Let no man escape our wiles!”
“We’ll take them all,” Naamah said. “We’ll Cull every man in this godforsaken town.”
“Sure.” Agrat Bat’s nose wrinkled in distaste. “As soon as we dispose of the bodies.”
“Why bother?” Eisheth said. “We’ll be out of here before anyone finds them. Besides, we’re going to do worse.”
Agrat Bat lightened up for once. “You’re right. This town needs a good screwing.”
They left the B & B and started walking, and it seemed like everywhere they went, men were waiting. But after several hours of prowling the streets, Eisheth realized her heart wasn’t in it.
“I don’t want these men,” she complained to Naamah, dropping a man into the gutter after she’d drained him. A few days before, it would have been life restoring; now it was little more than an appetizer. “I want the Culls who escaped. I want them.”
“Escaped?” Agrat Bat cried in mock horror. “You let men escape, little sister?”
Eisheth winced. She had thought her older sister was busy, Culling two men at the same time in the alley around the corner, or she wouldn’t have said anything.
“How did you manage to fall so far, so fast, little sister?” Agrat Bat said pityingly.
“How many escaped?” Naamah asked, her eyes wide with curiosity.
“Four,” Eisheth muttered.
“Speak up, sister!” Agrat Bat said, but Naamah had heard her.
“Four?” Naamah breathed. “How is that possible?”
Eisheth was embarrassed, but she was also revived enough to be indignant at being questioned. “The fates conspired,” Eisheth said. “A wild animal attacked me and killed my first Cull before I was finished. I was wounded, badly.”
“And the second one?” Naamah asked.
“I was unaware that he’d just fallen in love,” Eisheth said in a low voice, as if hoping they wouldn’t hear her. It was something they would tease her about for a thousand years. Letting a virile male get away was rare. It had happened only a few times to any of them.
“And the third?” Agrat Bat was aghast.
“There wasn’t enough privacy,” Eisheth said defensively. “His girlfriend found us.”
“And you let her live?”
“I was weakened by the first two Culls,” Eisheth mumbled.
“Who was the fourth?” Naamah asked, sounding slightly more sympathetic than her older sister.
“We were interrupted…” She stopped, trying to explain to herself as well to her sisters what had happened. “A woman attacked me…she bit me while we fought and took my Blood.”
“She took your Blood?” Naamah repeated. “How did she know to do that?”
Eisheth tried to shrug it off. “She’s the mother of a Cull I took a wh
ile back. She’s been tracking me, but I didn’t think she could actually find me. She must have been talking to the Guardian.”
“You’ve been sloppy, Eisheth,” Agrat Bat said angrily. “You know the rules. Any man who finds out who we are can’t be allowed to live.”
“Yes, but you’re the one who wanted to keep the Guardian alive,” Eisheth said. “That was a mistake.”
Naamah didn’t speak, but it was clear she agreed.
“Besides, it wasn’t a man who stopped me,” Eisheth said. “It was a woman.”
Agrat Bat looked angry enough to spit. “Any human; it goes without saying.”
Eisheth flushed. Her big sister’s superior tone was unendurable. Screw this. I’ve had enough. She felt well enough to move on, though not completely recovered. She decided then and there that as soon as this night was over, she was getting out of town. Let her two interfering sisters deal with the wreckage.
“But I think you’re right about one thing, dear sister,” Agrat Bat said after a few moments. “No man can be allowed to live to tell the tale.”
Naamah nodded her agreement. “Or woman?”
“Or woman,” Agrat Bat nodded decisively. “Where do we find them?”
Chapter 39
Serena awoke in darkness. Someone was pounding at the door. She groaned and stumbled out of bed. Cary was beside her but didn’t stir.
Bobbie Jo was standing in the hallway, looking distraught. “I can’t wake Adam up!” she said.
“What do you mean?” Serena looked back over her shoulder at Cary. She was suddenly certain something was wrong. Cary hadn’t budged despite the loud noise.
She went over and shook him gently. She leaned down and whispered in his ear, “Wake up, Cary, my dear.”
She shook harder: no response. Then something compelled her to pinch his arm, so hard he should have leapt out of bed cursing. Nothing. His cock was rampant however; it seemed to be twitching. She put out her hand to touch it, then withdrew. Something was happening here that she didn’t understand.
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