Blood Bath & Beyond

by Michelle Rowen

  Victoria looked at Thierry. “You’re a master vampire—one who works for the Ring.”

  “Yes.”

  “And you’re engaged to this fledgling?”

  “I am.”

  “I find that difficult to understand. She seems dumb as a rock to me. Why would you bother with someone like her?”

  I pressed my lips together. I wasn’t sure how pointing out the obvious about her potential acting career made me dumber than anyone else. “Well, forgive me for trying to be helpful.”

  “Why would I bother with someone like her?” Thierry repeated, without an ounce of friendliness in his tone directed at the girl. “I’ll have you know that Sarah is the most genuine woman I’ve ever met in my entire existence—and trust me when I say that’s a very long time. She is warm, funny, caring; beautiful both inside and out. That you don’t see this as clearly as I do is entirely your loss.” He was silent for a moment as his words settled over everyone present. “I think we’re done here for now. If I have more questions, I’ll contact you. Please leave.”

  Victoria placed her hands on her hips and pouted. “I want to compete tonight. One last show. That’s it.”

  “That’s not a good idea.”

  “I’m not asking your permission, sourpuss. I’m doing it. It will be my swan song. If you feel like you need to call in an enforcer because of that, you can feel free to do so. You can also feel free to kiss my sequined butt. Come on, Charles. We’re out of here.”

  She stalked to the door with her assistant right behind her. Charles looked over his shoulder. “Sorry for stabbing you earlier, Thierry. It’s been a pleasure meeting you both.”

  They left.

  Thierry finally looked at me to see I was staring at him.

  “Warm, funny, caring, and beautiful?” My heart had swelled with every compliment he paid me in front of the nasty little vampire.

  He nodded. “Did I forget anything?”

  “Nothing comes to mind.” I smiled as I drew closer to him on the sofa. “You know, if you hadn’t just barely escaped death, I would be crawling onto your lap right now.”

  “Promises, promises,” he whispered against my lips just before I kissed him. The kiss deepened quickly, but I was careful not to jostle him too much. I knew the wound would still hurt him for another hour or two as it healed. After a moment, he groaned. “Sarah…there’s a problem….”

  As I pulled back from him, I drew in a sharp breath when I saw that his eyes had darkened from gray to black. Black eyes signified that a vampire was hungry to the point of losing reason. Thierry was injured and his body instinctively wanted blood to help speed along his recovery.

  At this moment, his body wanted my blood.

  As a master vampire, Thierry didn’t need to drink blood regularly to survive. In fact, he really shouldn’t drink blood at all anymore if he could help it, since he was a bit of an alcoholic when it came to the red stuff. When he got started, it was very difficult for him to stop. It was like a darkness descended over him and changed him into somebody else: somebody scary as hell. I’d experienced this up close and personal a couple of times when he’d drunk my blood and nearly lost his mind completely.

  He’d worked very hard on his control since I’d first met him, but it was still shaky. Better for me to be safe than sorry. Or dead. Death-by-fiancé would be a very bad way to go.

  “What should I do?” I asked tentatively.

  He swept my hair back and traced his fingertips along my jugular before sliding the strap of my dress off my shoulder to bare it, his gaze locked on the pulse at my throat. “I suggest you leave. Now. Before I can’t control myself any longer.”

  My breath caught. “Will you be all right?”

  “I will. But I won’t be all right if you stay here for much longer. My head feels cloudy and…you smell so good, Sarah.” His eyes moved to mine and I could see the dark hunger there. “I’ll need at least an hour to recover before you can return…before you’re safe this close to me again.”

  A shiver went through me. It was a strange dichotomy when Thierry got hungry. While I knew that it was dangerous and I was putting myself at risk the longer I stayed near him, the way he looked at me was just so…exciting. So primal. Like he wanted to devour me. Which, really, wasn’t far from the truth.

  It was a moth-and-flame thing. Thierry was the fire and I was the hapless insect that wanted to feel a little heat. I just didn’t want to get completely incinerated in the process.

  He slid his hand over my bare shoulder and curled his other hand around to the small of my back and pulled me closer to him so his lips could brush against my throat and up to my ear.

  “Why are you still here?” he asked, his voice raspy. “Go while you still can. I’ll be better soon, I promise.”

  “Okay.” I stroked the dark hair off his forehead, desire and concern teeter-tottering inside me the longer I stayed on this particular playground.

  Then I struggled to escape from his tightening grip. It was a halfhearted struggle at best. Hungry Thierry was extremely appealing to me, despite what I already knew he was capable of in this state.

  “I’ll be back soon.” I forced myself not to look over my shoulder at him. I grabbed my purse and went to the door, let myself out, and moved down the hallway. I leaned against the wall as I waited for the elevator to arrive and tried to breathe normally.

  The moth had escaped the flame once again. But she’d be back after a quick bite.

  Chapter 4

  Blood Bath & Beyond was a vampire-lover’s paradise. The three-level store was laid out like a wax museum with Madame Tussauds–like statues of every famous vampire and vampire hunter you could think of, from Dracula to Edward Cullen; Lestat to the Count from Sesame Street; Buffy to Van Helsing. They were set up so customers could have their pictures taken with them as they browsed the ten thousand square feet of retail space.

  There were T-shirts of all sizes and colors sporting various vampire movie-poster or book-cover images; DVDs of past movies and TV shows; Goth jewelry; joke jewelry with huge silver crosses; blatantly fake fangs and legitimate-looking porcelain ones that could be cemented onto normal teeth if someone was so inclined.

  The carpet throughout the store was red and black. The red part looked like spilled blood. The walls were red and plastered with huge movie posters. Realistic-looking bats hung from the ceiling, some automated so they swooped overhead, low enough to make me want to duck when they catapulted toward my head. The scary swell of organ music filled my ears as I browsed the shop, feeling equal parts stunned and amused by everything I saw.

  However, there was no indication that this was anything but a tourist trap. There was even a flank of six vampire-themed slot machines at the front of the store near the cash registers. I slid a quarter into the first one I passed and pulled the handle. Two bats and a wooden stake came up. No jackpot for me today.

  I ventured farther into the store. Charles had said this was the go-to place for a little vampiric sustenance, but now that I was here, I wasn’t sure who to talk to about that. The three employees I’d seen so far—one dressed as Elvira with enough cleavage to merit an R rating, and the other two generic Draculas—were busy with other customers.

  Finally, I spotted someone who might be helpful. He had a feather duster in hand and was cleaning a wax statue of David from The Lost Boys. Quite honestly, Kiefer had never looked so good as when he’d done that movie. The platinum blond mullet totally suited him.

  “Excuse me,” I said.

  His shoulders tensed and he glanced at me. He had red hair, freckles, and a college-guy air about him. I’d guess his age at about twenty-four. “Hi there.”

  “Hi. Can you help me?”

  He turned to face me and I saw that he was wearing a T-shirt that read: “I Bite on the First Date.”

  “Of course. Are you looking for something specific?”

  “Yes.” I smiled at him enough to show my sharper-than-normal teeth.

&nb
sp; He cocked his head a little. “Are those our new porcelain fangs?”

  “No.”

  “They’re real?”

  I hesitated only a moment before I answered. “They are.”

  “They look good. Very petite. I’m sure you fit in just fine out in the real world, don’t you?”

  “I try my best. So I’m asking again…can you help me?” I refrained from giving him an obvious “get my meaning?” wink.

  “Come with me.” He walked away without another word. I followed him, feeling wary, but my hunger pressed me onward. It was getting worse with every passing minute and giving me a headache and stomach cramps that made it hard to think straight.

  “What’s your name?” I asked as I followed him.

  “Vladimir.” He grinned over his shoulder at me and I noticed that he had very natural-looking fangs, too, which helped ease my mind a little. “Vladimir Nosferatu.”

  I stared at him. “You have got to be kidding me.”

  “That’s just my stage name. I have a magic show at a little club four blocks from here called Club Noir. Real name’s Josh Sanders. And you are?”

  “Sarah Dearly.”

  “Nice to meet you, Sarah. Glad you found Blood Bath and Beyond. We’re here to serve.”

  We’d reached the very back of the store on the main level and passed through a red beaded curtain into a small circular room. I eyed the unusual merchandise back here, all upright and leaning against the wall.

  “You sell coffins?” I asked with surprise.

  “Yup.” He glanced around. “Five thousand dollars for this one.” He touched a mahogany coffin with a rose carved into the lid. He opened it up to show me the padded red satin lining. “It’s very comfortable if you’re not too claustrophobic. This one has a lock on the inside, an MP3 stereo system built into the lid, and a recharge jack for your cell phone.”

  “Fancy.”

  “It is. But this is the one I think you’re looking for.” He stood in front of a very large coffin, shiny black, with a cross set into the lid that looked like it was made from mother-of-pearl. Crosses didn’t actually bother vampires at all. Since we weren’t necessarily evil or fearful of the Great Almighty, or, for that matter, possessed by a demon, that myth-buster was just common sense.

  “Maybe you didn’t understand me properly.” I tried to find some patience, but my tank was nearly empty. “I’m not looking for anything like this—cool though it is. Maybe I’m in the wrong place. Somebody told me I should come here, that you might be able to help me.” I eyed him, trying to judge whether I was making a mistake. It wouldn’t be the first time. “Maybe I should leave.”

  “Trust me, Sarah. You want this. I know you do.”

  I opened my mouth to argue, but then turned to look at the coffin again. He slid his hand around the side of it and flicked a switch, then gestured for me to open the lid. I finally reached forward and grasped the side of it. I noticed a sign taped to the coffin that read NOT FOR SALE.

  I opened it up to find that it wasn’t a coffin after all. It was a door.

  “After you,” Josh said with a wave of his hand. “For new customers, the first drink is on the house.”

  Charles had been absolutely right. Blood Bath & Beyond was a very large and impressive front for a small Vegas blood bank—kind of a speakeasy for fanged citizens. I’d been in my share of vampire nightclubs before, most of which had innocent fronts to throw off any curious hunters, like a used bookstore or a tanning salon. This one wasn’t a nightclub, though; it was more like a café. Brightly lit, small, maybe six hundred square feet in total, and with a counter rather than a bar. Padded stools. Tables with brightly colored tablecloths. A mural painted on the far wall of the Vegas skyline on a bright and sunny day.

  In a nightclub you could get alcoholic beverages along with your blood. Here you could get coffee. There was a familiar logo on the sign behind the counter.

  Along with being a blood bank, this was a Starbucks franchise.

  I honestly couldn’t think of anything better than that.

  There were a half dozen other vampires in here, reading newspapers and magazines as they casually sipped on their drinks. A couple of them also had cookies or muffins, marking them as solid-food eaters. I glared at them with envy. Sometimes I just missed the act of chewing. I’d done a liquid protein diet in my teens and felt the same thing then. But that had only been for a week. This was forever.

  “Are you in Vegas for a vacation?” Josh asked.

  “Business trip with my fiancé.”

  “Where you staying?”

  “The Bellagio. We arrived yesterday.” My gaze swept the area. “Have you owned this place long?”

  He raised an eyebrow. “How did you know I’m the owner?”

  I grinned. “I didn’t, but you just told me.”

  “Tricky girl.” He snorted. “Yeah, I’ve been in business a little over a year. It’s going pretty well. There’s a lot of competition here on the Strip. My money mostly comes from the store out front, of course, but I’ve always tried to have a safe place for vamps to come to. Just doing my part to keep humans safe from us.”

  I must have looked at him funny because he continued.

  “If there weren’t places like this in every city, then where would you go for your blood?” He shrugged.

  My stomach grumbled. It was a good question and one I’d never really given much thought to. If there was nowhere to go where we could humanely get our blood…and the hunger swept over us little by little, removing our self-control a fraction at a time…

  I guess it would be like an animal lover who was stranded on a deserted island. It wouldn’t take too many days of starving before he or she started whittling a sharp spear and wandered farther inland to go hunting. Survival instincts are a powerful thing.

  “Give Sarah whatever she likes, on the house,” Josh said to the barista who stood waiting for my order before he returned his attention to me. “Hopefully you’ll come back again while you’re in town and spread the word, confidentially, to anyone else you know who might like to stop by.”

  “Thank you,” I said, feeling a swell of gratitude toward him.

  “Anytime.” He gave me a nod, then walked away.

  “So what’ll it be?” the girl asked. She was a short, gum-chewing blonde wearing a Starbucks smock over her street clothes.

  I felt utterly gleeful all of a sudden. Coffee and blood. In the same place. This was so awesome. “I’ll take a…an espresso and…a double shot of B-positive, please.”

  It was my favorite blood type for obvious reasons. I liked to think it helped me to be more positive. It rarely worked, but it wasn’t for lack of trying.

  She nodded. “Coming right up.”

  I moved to the far end of the counter to pick up my order. I didn’t bother to get a seat first before I tipped back the small plastic cup of blood right where I stood and swallowed it down.

  Sounds gross, I know. But it really wasn’t.

  For a vampire, drinking blood when you were extraordinarily hungry was sort of like drinking a cold bottle of water after wandering through the Sahara desert in the heat of high noon. It was the best thing in the world. It didn’t even taste like what you might think, coppery and thick and warm. Because…yuck.

  No, blood to a vampire’s palate was mouthwateringly delicious, essential, energy giving, quenching, hunger abating, and a full and total relief.

  Blood was necessary for me to keep on living now that I was different from human. Fighting that fact never led directly to a happy ending.

  I immediately felt my hunger cramps subside, my headache ease. We didn’t really need that much of it to make a difference. The human body held five quarts of blood. That would be impossible to drink all at once, so total exsanguination was never caused by a solo vampire in one fell swoop. Most humans who were unfortunate enough to become the victims of a vampire, like those of the serial killer here in Vegas, might die after they’d been fed upon—t
wo gaping fang wounds in their neck didn’t just heal up automatically, which meant they’d continue to bleed out.

  It was possible for an older vampire to enchant his or her prey during the feeding to make it more pleasant or to make them forget the act, but if they didn’t or couldn’t, the humans might be so afraid that they’d have a heart attack. But a true draining like in horror movies was very rare. It would be like drinking a keg of beer all at once. Like a boa constrictor trying to swallow a small goat. Not pretty.

  Which made me wonder about the local vampire attacks. I didn’t know if the bodies had been drained or if they were just dead bodies that happened to have fang marks on their necks. I had to admit, I was curious.

  Humans didn’t have to be fully drained to die from blood loss. Losing more than forty or fifty percent of their total blood supply could do the trick if they weren’t very strong. Still a lot to consume, but not quite as impossible.

  Yes, I’d been doing my homework lately. I found the best way to deal with what I’d become was to find out absolutely everything I could about it. Thierry was helpful in filling in some of the blanks, but there was still a lot for me to learn.

  I glanced around at the other people in the blood bank with me as if they were a lineup of suspects. Any one of them could have done it. However, a vampire who wanted to go directly to the human source for a meal likely wouldn’t bother coming to a place like this. Wouldn’t want to spoil his or her appetite.

  A moment later, the coffin-shaped door swung open again and a familiar person walked though. It was Bernard. He scanned the café, his gaze coming to rest on me, and then his eyes widened a little as if he was surprised to see me here.

  A smile stretched his cheeks as he approached me. “Sarah, it’s good to see you again.”

  “You too.” I felt a little awkward after witnessing the bitter end of his argument last night with Thierry, but that was no reason for me not to be polite.

  “I’m glad you found this place. I was going to send word to you today that this was a reputable location.”

  “I got the tip from someone an hour ago.” I sipped my espresso, which was rapidly cooling off.