Blood and Lust in New York City, A Lesbian Vampire Tryst

by Taryn Rose

  “Oh, Emma,” Skarlet moaned out as she drank, finishing her. She licked up every crevice, lapping up her fresh blood and juices, as Emma wound down.

  “Did I bleed enough for you, Skarlet?” asked Emma.

  “I shouldn’t have taken a second bite. I apologize,” she said, seeming genuinely remorseful.

  She pulled the vampire up from between her legs and kissed her, passionately. The taste of her own blood in Skarlet’s mouth was metallic, like the diesel woman who held her. And she felt the fangs retreat as the kiss tapered into tenderness.

  “I liked the bikini bite,” she said and tapped Skarlet on the nose. But the room spun suddenly, and she blinked rapidly. Her head felt awfully light.

  “What is it?” Skarlet kissed her hand.

  She rubbed her temple. “I…I think I need to sleep.”

  “No, wait. Emma, repeat after me: Suscipiat verba mea cor. Convertere meo sanguine.”

  She did so, and her wounds began to visibly close up. She was healing, in seconds.

  “Are you better now?” Skarlet asked, fingering her cheek.

  “Yes.” She propped herself up and looked at the tiny dots on her neck through the mirror. “It’s magic.”

  “Black magic, actually,” she laughed and turned over. “An old witches’ spell.”

  “You healed me.”

  “But I also hurt you,” she said rubbing her strong body against Emma’s, then kissed her cheek. Emma put her hand against Skarlet’s.

  “Look how much bigger yours is,” she said, admiring their hands together.

  Skarlet smiled, and nibbled on Emma’s finger tips. “It’s almost daylight, dear Emma. My body must rest. And you need to get on a plane.”

  Emma rubbed Skarlet’s stomach. “I want to know everything about you. Tell me where you live? Don’t sleep yet. Please...”

  Skarlet sighed and sat up. “I live in the woods, upstate near the warehouse I took you to. After vampiria struck, I was trained as an agent for the Commission.”

  “Vampiria?”

  “The disease that causes one to become a vampire. I contracted it when I was sixteen.”

  “Oh, sweetie,” she said softly and kissed her cheek.

  “I stay away from humans, Emma. As much as I can. I sustain myself feeding on bulls, primarily.” She flashed her eyes at Emma, expecting some kind of reaction. But Emma wasn’t judging her. She stroked her gently and listened. “I have resisted urban centers for decades and then I get a New York City assignment out of the blue. I was not happy about it.”

  “Are you still unhappy about it?” Emma asked, rubbing her hand down to Skarlet’s wet pussy.

  “Aahh,” Skarlet moaned and allowed Emma’s fingers inside her. Emma basked in her inner warmth and stroked her steadily, kissing her breast, licking underneath it. She ran her tongue up and sucked her nipple. Skarlet cupped her head, brought it to her and kissed her. “I can see the sun coming up, precious girl. My body is going to shut down at sunrise. I don’t want you to be frightened.”

  “Nothing about you can frighten me anymore.” Emma wrapped her body around Skarlet’s and rubbed her shoulders. “Why were you ordered to take me to the warehouse?”

  “We’re running out of time here and you are in danger, Emma.”

  “Please.” Her eyes welled up. If Emma was going to flee the country, she had to know why. She felt entitled to know everything. They were in this together now.

  “Your name is on a list.”

  “What list? And how did you know I have Finnish relatives?”

  “I was assigned to you, Emma. I know your bloodline is Norse. My authorities have been looking for a mutation of a blood type that originated in the Nordic region.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  “You gave blood recently. At a blood bank near your apartment.”

  “I give blood all the time.”

  “My kind has been working undercover in human blood banks and hospitals for decades in search of...” she said, then paused.

  “In search of what?”

  “The cure, Emma.”

  Emma swallowed hard. “The cure, for what?”

  Skarlet took a deep breath and clutched Emma close to her. “Vampiria was originally considered a blood disorder, afflicting people all over the world. First it was dozens, then hundreds. Because of all the bitings and killings, they were considered to have gone mad. I mean, what kind of a person would drink the blood of another human?” She glared at Emma with pain in her eyes.

  “We were institutionalized, subjected to painful ‘treatments,’ but no one could find a cure. As we evolved, we learned to live in the shadows of society to avoid persecution. About two hundred years ago we organized ourselves, centralized a power structure, made our own government. Humans have chosen to believe that we died out, a strange mutant strain associated with a certain time in history.” She turned and looked out the window, at the first glimmer of light in the morning sky. “Please draw the curtains, dear Emma. It will buy us a few more minutes.”

  Emma obliged.

  “We accepted that we were condemned to an eternity of darkness. At least most of us did. But even vampires need hope. Shortly after the first Commission was formed, a legend was born. You see, there was a rumor about a vampire who drank the blood of a man in a small village in Sweden. As the story goes, the vampire discovered that his human qualities were returning. He began to crave cooked foods, he lost his desire for blood and his supernatural abilities waned. But most importantly, he walked in the daytime. He was the first and only known vampire to be cured of vampiria. It was a dream come true.”

  “But why do vampires aspire to be human again?” Emma asked. “Aren’t you immortal?”

  “Conditionally immortal. We can be killed. Not from disease or natural causes, of course. But make no mistake—our lives are not our own. Not like yours, Emma.” Her breathing quickened and her expression intensified. “This is not a natural existence. Our most basic and primal urges are deeply immoral and forbidden. We’d give up everything to be as we once were. To see daylight again. We all began as humans. Innocent children, with pure souls.”

  Emma wiped a red tear away and kissed Skarlet’s blood-streaked cheek. She felt deeply for her.

  “There was one vampire. A very old, evil vampire who did not rejoice over the supposed cure. He felt as you do,” she said and smiled tepidly. “He believed vampires and the immortality they enjoyed were superior to humanity. And when no one sided with him, he went into that village and he killed the man and his family, anyone who might share his mutated blood type. Some accounts say that he wiped out the entire village.”

  “Oh my God,” Emma gasped. “That’s horrible. But that means there is hope.”

  “Emma, it is just a story. There is a prominent vampire scientist, Dr. Martin Von Der Hof, who has been obsessed for centuries with the one drop of blood that remained of this human cure and he has never been able to do anything with it. He claims his sample is too small. There was a rumor of a single survivor; the man’s young daughter ran away in time. Von Der Hof believes that if we can find a descendent of that girl, we will have a cure. He finally convinced the Commission to let him try, even if only to put an end to his theories once and for all. And so the Commission trained hundreds of vampires and dispatched them to pose as humans and monitor blood banks in search of the unique Norse blood that could be our cure.”

  “You poor things, desperate to be cured when you’re not even sick. But how can the blood bank vampires stand to be around so much blood?”

  “Once the blood has been out of the body for days, it becomes repulsive to us, as a steak sitting out for days would be to you.”

  Skarlet kissed her head. “A vampire technician here in the city claims to have found a match to the sample. The blood came from your donation site. That is all we know. By the time our technicians can test it, it can no longer be tracked to an individual.”

  Emma swallowed, listening intently. />
  “Everyone you saw at the warehouse has given blood at the same location in the last six months and has been confirmed to have a Norse heritage of some sort.”

  “That’s why I recognized some of them,” she muttered under her breath. Emma got up out of bed and walked to the window, absorbing the information. She pushed away the curtains and pressed her hands and her cheek against the warm glass.

  “Emma, what are you doing?” Skarlet raised her voice.

  Emma turned back to see Skarlet squinting at the sudden sunlight. She furiously gathered the bedspread.

  “Skarlet, I’m so sorry.” She turned to close the curtains.

  “No, Emma. Wait,” Skarlet began. “I don’t feel any pain. What is happening? I should be…” Her voice trailed off.

  After a minute or so, she dropped the blanket. Her eyes widened, and she stood up. Emma backed away, hesitantly, unsure what to think as Skarlet walked toward the window holding out her forearms. “The sun beats on me and I am not burned.”

  “I don’t understand,” Emma said. She swallowed down a sour taste that had been forming in her mouth, as a wave of suspicion, then terror returned, rippling through to her arms and legs, making her quiver. “Oh my God.” Her heart thundered in her chest.

  “It’s a miracle!” Skarlet rejoiced, but quickly regrouped herself. “Emma, you need to listen to me very carefully.”

  “No.” She gathered the curtains in her hands. “How can this be?”

  Skarlet lunged to her side. “Emma…I think the stories may actually be true. I think you are the one. This is the greatest blessing!”

  “I...” She ran a hand down her face. “My blood?”

  “Yes!” She kissed her, and Emma stiffened. “A miracle.”

  Emma’s head spun. She had once been told that her great-grandparents changed their name to Jones from Jarvinen or something when they immigrated to the United States. She didn’t care much about her genealogy. But Skarlet and her kind, they did. And it was possible she was the Norse they were after. She pried herself away from Skarlet. “Is this why you saved me? Because I can cure you?”

  Skarlet’s lips pursed. “Of course not. I had no idea until a moment ago. I can’t believe it myself.”

  “Are you cured, Skarlet?” She moved in closer, her heart pounding. “Are you human now?”

  “I…I don’t know.” She walked to the mirror. Underneath her excitement, Skarlet’s face looked drawn, and her eye lids drooped.

  “How do I know your feelings for me are real and this, all this between us, is not about my blood?” Her lower lip began to tremble. “Because my feelings for you, what we did…this is very unlike me. I never felt this way before. I have never desired to do the things we did.” A chill crept up her spine, and she floundered.

  Skarlet took Emma’s hands into hers. “My feelings for you are sincere. You have to believe that.”

  “And what about my feelings? Did you implant them, like you reprogrammed Theo and Hank?” Her stomach twisted and bile rose to her throat. “I’m gonna be sick.”

  “Emma, think. If I had thought you were the cure, wouldn’t I bring you straight to the Commission?” She got up, but her body was weakening. “Emma, I love you…” She wheezed, and dropped to her knees. “Please believe me.” She crawled to her, squinting at the brightness, losing steam.

  Emma backed up and watched as Skarlet helplessly lurched toward her.

  “Emma—”

  She collapsed on the floor before reaching Emma.

  “Skarlet, no! I’m so sorry!” She held her limp body. “Please forgive me,” she cried. “I love you too.”

  Chapter Six: Skarlet

  Skarlet awoke under a sprawling comforter, her head sunk deep in the finest goose down. It was night, of course. She had lasted less than an hour in daylight. But that would change. The amount of blood she had allowed herself to drink from Emma was not enough for a long-term cure. But controlled, larger amounts would surely remedy Skarlet and her whole kind. She instinctively reached for Emma’s body but grabbed at an empty sheet, then a pillow. Then she remembered how things were left between them. And she opened her eyes.

  “You’re awake!” said Emma, sitting at her side.

  “Emma,” uttered Skarlet with a deep sigh. “Thank goodness.”

  “I’m so sorry.” Emma’s eyes watered and her trembling hand reached for Skarlet’s.

  She took it. “You don’t have to apologize.” She squeezed her hand gently. “I’m so happy you’re here.”

  “I want to go to your Commission and help. I’m prepared to give away as much blood as I can afford.” She laughed meekly.

  Skarlet kissed her head. “It’s not going to be that simple.”

  “Why not? They won’t kill me once they know I’m the cure.”

  “Let me go the Commission first. Wait for me here. I made a mistake leaving you in your apartment, but no one can track you here—you’ll be safe.”

  “I don’t understand. Why can’t we go together?”

  Skarlet sighed. “Emma.”

  “What is it my darling?” She stroked her hand and kissed up her arm, so grateful to have her back.

  She immediately rose up. “It’s Marion. I have to warn the Commission.”

  “Wait,” Emma got up and followed her as she dressed. “Slow down. Who’s Marion?”

  “When I fought the Trio in your apartment, they said Marion had sent them. Marion is the last vampire who would want to find the cure. Of all the Commission members, it doesn’t make sense that she’s overseeing this effort, unless…”

  “Unless what?” Emma asked nervously.

  “Emma,” she turned and held her face in her hand. “If Marion finds out you’re the cure, she will kill you.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  “Marion, in her heart of hearts, is a vampire supremacist. I have to warn the other Commission members about her before I bring you to them.”

  “Why are you the only one who knows this about Marion?”

  Skarlet sighed as she slipped on her other boot. “Because she and I were once lovers.”

  Emma’s heart skipped a beat.

  “I was very young, Emma. She found me just after I had turned and taught me how to exist in the wild, how to manage my hunger, my powers. I was seduced by her beauty and her experience until I matured and became wise to her. Marion is a ruthless, power hungry vampire who believes in the supremacy of our kind. She will kill you if she gets the chance.”

  Emma rubbed her chin then looked away. “Did you love her?”

  “I thought I did,” Skarlet was honest, careful to consider Emma’s feelings even though the immediacy of the task before her weighed heavily on her shoulders. “But once I understood who she was at her core, I realized I could never love her. It was infatuation. That’s all. And she has never stopped punishing me for leaving her.”

  “I’m so sorry, Skarlet.”

  “Don’t be. All my experiences have led me to you, so I regret nothing.” She picked up Emma’s chin and kissed her passionately.

  “Oh, Skarlet.”

  Skarlet savored her musk. “You need to wait here. I will go to the Commission and warn them about Marion. Then I can bring you in.” She threw her grey costume trench coat on over her leather. “Promise me one thing.”

  “Anything, my darling.” She stroked her hair.

  “If you do not hear from me—”

  “Skarlet, I don’t want to—”

  “Please, we have to consider all possible outcomes.”

  A tear rolled down her cheek and she took Skarlet’s hands. “Okay.” She kissed them.

  “If three hours pass and you do not hear from me, promise me that you will get on the first plane to one of the places that we talked about. You will need to change your name when you get there.”

  “Skarlet—”

  “In the meantime, you will stay here and wait for my call.”

  “Yes, I promise.”

  Ska
rlet kissed her again then tucked her hair under the fedora and turned the brass door handle of the hotel room. “Emma, this is truly amazing. I can’t wait to bring you into my world.”

  “I know, I’m shaking. I’m scared, but I’m also so excited. I love you.”

  “I love you too. I will take care of this.”

  Skarlet walked out of the hotel, into the artificial light of Manhattan. She took a deep breath and stared up at the crescent moon. A sense of exhilaration overwhelmed her. The love of my life is also my cure. It was magical. She walked at a steady pace on the uneven sidewalk, the coat flapping at her shins. She pulled her fedora lower, to cover more of her face. She needed to get to a secluded spot where she could take flight without drawing attention to herself. As she walked, the plethora of heartbeats on the street enticed her. She shared eye contact with more human souls than she would normally encounter over the course of a month. She licked her lips at a jogger pulsing by with an increased heart rate. She was starving. She always awoke hungry. Maybe one meal before heading upstate. The cornucopia of flesh-covered arteries, all young and healthy urbanites, disoriented her. But she kept walking. Until she felt something very hard strike the back of her head.

  “Ahhh,” she howled in pain, and fell to the ground suddenly. Something, perhaps a metal pipe, struck her skull a second time, then a third. Rough hands grabbed under her arms and dragged her against the pavement. They pulled her along, faster and faster, until they were off the ground, and she drifted out of consciousness.

  Skarlet’s eyes popped open. She lifted her head and the pounding sensation resumed with gusto. She tried to move her arms, but they were suspended above her head. Her wrists were chained up and they sizzled as she struggled to break free. The cuffs must be laced with silver, she decided, which burned her vampire skin. Her ankles were spread wide apart and fastened with chains as well. She shook the contraption with all her limbs and all her might, and cried out, her fangs jolting down in anger. Her flesh burned with each thrust. She shook her hair out of her face and her muscles stiffened from all the exertion. A single vein bulged through each bicep and her arteries lifted underneath her flesh—Skarlet’s body was yearning for sustenance.