The grin was infectious and Mina couldn't help smiling back - until Anna stood and held out a hand in invitation. And despite all her misgivings, all her suspicions, Mina's hesitation was brief. She allowed herself to be brought to her feet, a small part of her mind registering a startling coldness in the fingers that entwined with her own; but perhaps it was Mina herself who was on fire, because there was electricity in that touch, the kind that ignites a fierce desire within.
Her eyes were drawn, as often, to the constellations of freckles. They marred the perfection of Anna's skin but highlighted the simple beauty of the underlying features. This distraction was brief also, Anna's cool lips pressing against Mina's, and she melted into the kiss.
And what a kiss. Anna's lips were soft yet firm, playful and explorative, neither too wet nor too dry. Mina half feared to encounter fangs with her tongue, and was oddly disappointed not to.
"Wow," she breathed after, her heart hammering, and shook with a sudden laughter of happiness. Mina hadn't come to Anna's crazy lair in hope or expectation of being seduced like this. Almost of their own will, her fingers traced the outline of the ugly creature inked just below Anna's left shoulder. "Why," she started to ask, why disfigure yourself like this, then kicked herself into silence.
Anna smiled in recognition of the question, but did not answer. "Come," she said instead and retreated into the interior through a web of cables to a cot scarcely big enough for one person to sleep in; and stripped out of her vest with a sinuous ease, despite the cramped and awkward space, to reveal further macabre designs in flight across her bare skin.
"Is there space?" Mina asked, her hesitation less out of concern for space, more a last desperate questioning of the sense in taking this step. Sleeping with a woman she hardly knew in the back of a van in the middle of nowhere. A woman who seemed to worship bats, of all things. A woman who could, in the perverse corners of Mina's imagination, yet be a real life vampire.
"I'm not a vampire," Anna said, as if reading Mina's mind. "In ancient Greece, they believed people with red hair were vampires. It's understandable, I guess. We have pale skin and burn easily in the sun. We're often left-handed too. When you're visibly different to ninety-nine percent of the population, people do tend to fear you."
Mina felt the heat of embarrassment in her cheeks, but since Anna did not look in the least offended she chose to laugh it off. "Ninety-nine point nine in your case."
Anna grinned. "You might need a few more nines on that."
Mina reached a decision and dared to step forward, through the web and into the lair. "Nine," she said with each careful step. "Nine, nine, nine."
And then perhaps it was too late as she was caught in her vampire seductress's embrace, surrendering willingly to demanding lips that kissed her with possessive hunger as Mina's hands caressed tattooed skin and soft, perfect breasts.
She cried out softly as Anna's demanding lips kissed her ear, kissed her neck; then more loudly, "Ah!" as she felt teeth and sharp pain. "No biting!"
Mina pushed her away in sudden fear, touching her fingertips to her neck in a sudden certainty that there would be blood - but there was no blood, only laughter from Anna as she bent to unlace her army boots.
No blood, but Mina had no doubt there would be a love bite visible for Lucy and the others to see. She scowled at Anna, but her irritation gave way to astonishment. As Anna slid her trousers and underwear down her toned, muscular thighs, a cock sprang out, semi swollen and already impressive in length.
"You're trans?" Mina asked, as if the answer wasn't right there in front of her.
Anna shrugged. "If you want to put a label on it. That a problem for you?"
Mina shook her head slowly, unable to tear her gaze away from the jutting member. "No," she said. "Just... unexpected." Putting it mildly.
"Well, then," Anna murmured, stepping close to Mina and kissing her, soft and romantic this time, no teeth. "Let's get these clothes off."
And Mina was only too happy to help.
*
There was a video feed on Adamir's phone. The resolution was bad and the image kept freezing, but it looked like the lobby of the Danica. "What's that?" demanded Lucy.
Adamir explained about the security cameras he'd installed in the hotel. "Not in all of the rooms," he hastened to add. Not in the room Lucy shared with Mina. Not in the suite reserved for Mircalla. "I'm not that much of a pervert." There
was
a camera in Wolf's room, but the room was dimly lit and little could be seen in the grainy image on Adamir's phone.
They swapped phones. "Watch the cameras," he instructed her. "I'm going to go to Wolf's room.
Lucy, meanwhile, had hurriedly dressed herself. She grabbed his arm. "Best case scenario, this is all a strange coincidence. Worst case is you hired a serial killer who may have killed your friend to get the job. Maybe you shouldn't go looking or let him know you're onto him?"
"I'm the director," Adamir said, his tone reassuring. "I have reason to go to his room and it's not unusual for me to do so." Lucy was reminded of the night of the car crash. It had been Adamir who reacted instantly, striding out of the hotel into the darkness to see if aid was needed. "Besides," he added with a smile, "I'm not going to confront him, I still have some scenes I need to film..."
Lucy was far from convinced by this performance. Adamir was someone who thrived on being in control - a born director - but the script for this story was not his to write. Wolf could be anywhere, and Anna was yet to reply to Adamir's text. And what of Mina? Adamir had said that Mina was with Mircalla, but Lucy thought that unlikely.
"Between you and me," Mircalla had whispered to Lucy earlier, "I'm shattered. I'm going to have a long, hot bath and crawl into bed - and God help anyone who tries to stop me." There was something quite bewitching about the Hungarian. Neither Mircalla nor Lucy were lesbians, and yet they had shared a profound and passionate intimacy beyond anything Lucy had ever before experienced.
Lucy stumbled in the dark as she followed Adamir down the hill from the castle. The sky was clear and the stars were bright. The Moon, low in the sky, was almost full, but still the path was shadowy and treacherous - and slippery with patches of ice. The air was bitterly cold and soon set her teeth to chattering.
In the far-off distance a lone wolf howled... but no answer came.
*
Ignoring the muffled sounds of normal daytime in the world outside the dark seclusion of the van, Mina and Anna lay together on the cot that had proved robust, though at times precariously narrow. Anna was big spoon, her arm coiled protectively about Mina, her well used cock nudging against Mina's thighs.
"What did you learn about Anna Darvolja?"
The question startled Mina to full alertness. Such questions did not sit well in the zone of contentedness that her mind had been adrift in. "Bathory's torturer," she said quietly. "The Croatian devil. Died the year before Bathory's arrest."
"Yes, but not a devil, and not Croatian either. Like me, she was a Serb. Red hair too, red like the rivers of the town she came from. When the Turks settled nearby, they named their village Djake, which means blood, because of the rivers of ฤavolja Varoลก. Not Anna Darvolja, but Anna from ฤavolja, Devil's Town."
Mina shivered as her imagination conjured up an image of the woman who had just made love to her, whose arm still held her tight, wielding a bloody whip against a legion of young servant girls. "That can't be real," she insisted.
"Oh it is. Popular tourist destination these days. It's said the Devil persuaded a brother and sister there to become lovers, even to get married. When none of the wedding guests objected to the union, the fairies of Devil's Town were enraged and turned all gathered there to stone. They stand there still now, weathered by centuries of rain, and to this day their screams can be heard in the wind."