Blood Rose Ch 03

Six years ago...

It was almost midnight. Brad and Ritchie had already retreated to their tents; Anthony was alone. Aside from the chirping of crickets and the crackle of his campfire, it was quiet. The pale light of the moon danced eerily on the ripples of the lake. He sat calmly in front of the fire, gazing out around the darkness of the woods.

She was out there.

He was certain he'd seen her once already. Last night when they got back from their hike he was certain for a split second he'd seen her face. Before he could get close she disappeared. She definitely knew they were there.

If only Brad and Ritchie knew... They had no idea why Anthony had really come on this trip. He'd heard the stories of vampire sightings in these woods around this time of year. If they were true, he might actually find what he'd been looking for all along. And now he knew...

Wait, he didn't know, not for sure. He was still certain he'd seen that mysterious redhead, but he couldn't know for sure that she really was a vampire. The only way to really find out would be to see her again, for longer this time. Of course, he had no idea how to find her—which meant he'd have to bring her to him.

He took a moment to chew on what he was considering, then made up his mind to do it. He decided the benefits greatly outweighed the risks. He dug into his backpack and found his survival knife. He stood up and moved to the edge of the lake. He held out a hand, and brought the knife up to it, and wincing sharply made a quick cut across his palm. He squeezed his hand, letting the blood drip on the rocks. If she was a vampire, she'd smell this and come running.

He stood there, letting his blood drip down. He waited. And waited.

And waited.

Nothing. Nothing but a bloody hand.

Anthony sighed, disappointed, and went back to his backpack for his roll of bandages. Maybe this is all just more campfire talk,

he thought as he wrapped his hand—

"Why do I get the impression that you're actually trying to get my attention?" He turned at sound of her silky voice, rich with her English accent, and by the light of the fire saw her standing where he had just been over his blood on the rocks. Even in the darkness, her violet eyes seemed to glow like the stars, and the light of the moon shined on her blood-red hair. His mouth curled into a smile.

"Looks like it worked, didn't it?"

"Yes, it did," she nodded, and then began striding gracefully, yet ominously, towards him. "Which, if you do know who and what I am, begs the question, are you tremendously courageous, or just grotesquely stupid?"

"I know what you are," Anthony said, not intimidated. "I wasn't aware I needed to know who you are. I was merely looking for one of your kind."

"Hmm," she grinned, raising her eyebrows. "What an interesting twist of fate you just happened to find me."

"And what makes you so special?"

Her head tilted, and she gazed at him studiously. "You're really not afraid of me, are you? Even though you claim to know what I am."

"Which is a vampire, right?"

"That's correct."

"Then yes, I'm not afraid of you." He began unwrapping his cut hand. "I'll even offer you a little something." He held out his bloody hand before her. "Care for a taste?"

She studied him a moment more. She didn't seem the type to surprise easily, but she looked like he was constantly surprising her. She looked down at his hand, then took hold of it and proceeded to lick the blood from the wound.

Suddenly her head snapped up, and she stared at him wide-eyed. "Great Bones of Valek!" she declared. "You're the one!"

Anthony furrowed his brow curiously. "The one what? Who are you?"

She smiled as though she'd found a beloved trinket she'd been missing for years. "My name is Electra Rose. And believe me when I say I've been searching for you for far longer than you've been searching for me. What is your name?"

"Anthony."

"Anthony... am I correct in assuming the reason you sought audience with me was because you wish to become what I am?"

Anthony grinned. Success. "Yes."

"Then come with me. We should go about this where we don't have a pair of morons in the general vicinity." She said that last part with a nod toward the tents. Anthony silently agreed. He wrapped his hand in the bandage again and poured the bucket of water over the last of his dying fire. Then she took him by the hand and led him along.

He was particularly grateful he had her guiding him with a held hand. Without a vampire's night vision, he could easily lose her in the dark, and evidently she knew it. Not to mention the little squeeze she was giving him was quite enough to get him excited.

She brought him to a cabin by a cliff overlooking the lake and brought him inside. "Do you live out here?" he asked.

"Hardly," she grinned, lighting an oil lamp. "This is just a little piece of property I own that I like to vacation in during the summer. I like nature. It's clean and quiet and beautiful, and loaded with wildlife to snack on."

Anthony stepped forward, tilting his head to the side to expose his neck. "So, shall we just do this and have it done, or—"

She grabbed his head suddenly and vigorously brought her mouth not to his neck but to his lips. To say the least, he was caught off guard.

"What was that for?"

"If we're going to do this, I say we enjoy it. Now take your clothes off."

If he hadn't been sure of it before, he came to the quick decision now that he liked her. "Direct, aren't you?" he said as he pulled off his shirt.

"Yes I am." Evidently he wasn't going fast enough for her, because she had started unfastening his pants for him. She managed to strip him down faster than he knew was possible, then grabbed him by the shoulders and threw him down on her bed. She knelt over him and took hold of the shaft he had pointing to the ceiling. Her mouth dropped open, and she let out a long, slow breath, drawing a long, slow stroke with her tongue along that shaft. Her tongue moved into a slow, graceful dance, circling around the head and coming down into another long, slow upward stroke four more times before she bent her head down and sucked him into her mouth.

Anthony groaned and rolled his head back as she kept his cock in the warm, wet vacuum of her mouth. She was good at this, bobbing her head up and down at a slow, diligent pace. He could feel the head teasing the back of her throat. She was so good in fact, that she seemed to know exactly the right moment to stop. He was right on the verge of pumping her mouth full of his seed when the wet vacuum suddenly disappeared.

He was about to look down to see what she was doing now, but he never got the chance before she shoved her crotch into his face. "That was a little bit of what I can do," she said, straddling his face. "Now show me a little of what you can do."

Needing no further encouragement, Andy took hold of her thighs and proceeded licking away at the juicy slit hovering over him. He heard her low moan of approval, and felt her body start to writhe above him. He suddenly realized she'd already undressed herself; when she'd had time to do that was what particularly baffled him.

Even as she moaned and squirmed as he continued to pleasure her, he began to realize that no matter what happened here tonight, she was the one in control. She threw him down on the bed and given him oral service first, and even now when he was returning the favor, she still had him pinned down. She was that girl who liked to be on top, and no matter what he did, she was going to stay that way.

All at once, apparently when she was satisfied with his oral service, she back vaulted onto his lap and proceeded to mount herself upon him. "I already know you're special, and you're going to be important. Right now I just want to see how good you really are." With that she lowered herself, taking his length inside her.

She was experienced. That much became evident as she rode him. She'd done this dance many times before, with many different guys. For all he knew, she could've been doing this for centuries. Don't assume anything, just enjoy this.

The light was dim, but there was enough for him to see and fixate on her glistening curves, and her face, which was fixed in an expression of carnal pleasure. Her hips pumped his lap like a piston. She was going about this hard and fast. And she was good at going about it hard and fast. She leaned back, supporting her weight on her hands behind her, pointing her tits to the ceiling. Her face disappeared from view, but she was still doing plenty to be heard. Her screams were those of a savage animal.

And she almost scared the living hell out of him when she brought her screaming face down to him, rocked by her own orgasm, and in that single motion he felt her teeth lock onto his throat. It was a shocking release that drove him to finally explode inside of her.

The moment passed. Her head lifted up, and in the dim light of the oil lamp, he could see his blood on her lips. She'd done what he wanted her to do; he wouldn't be keeping his humanity much longer.

"Thank you."

"You'll have plenty of time for that. Trust me."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Kaeli and Andy finally piled into the van and they were ready to go. Dorian didn't have to guess what they were doing while the rest of the team was getting ready, based on the slight ruffle of Kaeli's clothes and hair. So young, those two. So in love. Dorian remembered what that was like, when he and Melissa—

Don't think of Melissa. We've got work to do.

Chances were one of them was going to end up like him someday. They tried to hide their relationship from him, but there was very little about them that wasn't written all over them. If it were all up to him he'd keep them apart and spare them the inevitable heartbreak, but who was he to tell two people they couldn't be in love?

Andy pulled the door shut, and Dorian commanded, "All right, let's roll." Ethan turned the key and the engine rumbled to life. As the van pulled out, part of Dorian was feeling numb. It was just so hard to believe... he'd actually found her. After all these years, it just didn't seem real. It was too good to be true. The one vampire he'd been searching for ever since...

...ever since what happened with Melissa.

There it was again. It seemed there was nothing he could do that wouldn't bring her to mind again. He'd reopened an old wound, and it didn't want to close. But if this worked, if they could find Electra at this club and finally bring her down...

...then she can finally rest.

After driving for about ten minutes, they came upon the neon-lighted entrance to The Deadly Rose, and circled around to a nearby alley to park the van. As Ethan turned off the engine, Jade whooped and hollered, bounding up from her seat. "All right! C'mon, Dorian, let's go kick some fuckin' vampire ass!" Her enthusiasm even startled Shadow.

"I'm not going in with you guys."

Every head in the van turned in his direction. "What do you mean you're not going in?" Kaeli demanded.

"Yeah, I thought you'd be first in line to want that bitch's head on a stake!" Andy added. "It's freakin' Electra Rose we're talking about here!"

"I know who we're looking for!" Dorian snarled, hardly able to believe himself that he was saying what he was saying. "But I think having me in there would make this job a bit more... challenging."

Kaeli tilted her head. "How so?"

Dorian just looked at her, not knowing what he could say. He wanted desperately to charge through the front door, tear the place apart, find Electra and blow her fucking head off with a shotgun, but he couldn't.

If she saw me... if she found out I was there... it's too risky.

"Fuck it," Jade sneered, "he doesn't want to party, guess we can't force him. He's the boss."

"I arranged for Kaeli, Andy and Jade to be on the guest list. You'll be going inside and conducting reconnaissance. Keith, Ethan and I will watch the back door with Shadow. Keep in touch at all times. You spot any vampires, report it right away, but do not engage, understood?"

Jade rolled her eyes and groaned.

"UNDERSTOOD?" Dorian glared.

"Yes, I get it," Jade moaned.

"We got it," said Kaeli.

The three of them stepped out of the van and moved off for the entrance. Dorian silently wished them luck, and then wished much harder, desperately, that he could go in with them. If only.

Dorian grabbed his shotgun and hopped out of the van himself. "Let's move," he said. Ethan and Keith both emerged from the front seats. "C'mon Shadow," Ethan commanded, and his loyal German Shepard obeyed.

Dorian was decked out with his 12-guage autoloader, a handheld bowgun concealed under his brown leather jacket, a Desert Eagle at his hip, and a dagger stashed in his right boot; his usual arsenal. Guns were more useful for hunting vampires than some people gave them credit for. You couldn't usually kill them with a gun unless you got a shot straight to the head or heart with a really powerful gun at really close range, but they could certainly hurt them like hell and thereby slow them down long enough for you to get in close and use something more lethal.

Ethan was much less consistent with his arsenal, so Dorian never knew what he was going to bring with him on a hunt. Tonight he was packing an Uzi and his custom-made repeating crossbow, along with a belt-full of metal stakes. Keith, never being much of a front-line person, at least not when hunting vampires, didn't carry much more than his revolver, which certainly packed a nice wallop, but had limited uses in this line of work.

They'd made their way to the alley behind the club when Kaeli's voice spoke through the transmitter in Dorian's ear, accompanied by some loud thudding music. "We're in."

"Anybody giving off a vampire vibe?"

"Oh yeah," she said. "The bouncer, for starters. In a very big way. And I stress the word 'big.'"

"Seriously," he heard Andy agree. "The guy looks like Shaq on steroids!"

Ethan made an impressed smile with a breath that was halfway to being a laugh. Keith just looked unnerved. "Keep scanning the area," Dorian commanded. "Look for anything that might point in Electra's direction."

"Yes sir," Kaeli replied.

Kaeli's transmission ended. Dorian looked at the building they stood behind, and his blood burned at the knowledge that only a few concrete walls stood between him and the creature that destroyed everything he ever cared about. If only he could take a crane with a wrecking ball and break those walls down... And while he was wishing, he might as well ask to have Melissa back. None of it was going to happen.

Shadow went off barking madly, just a split second before the back doors of the club opened and a skanky-looking guy carrying two trash bags to the dumpster emerged, his attention instantly turning to the roused dog. Shadow was trained to give them this kind of alert when he smelled vampire, and even the most experienced hunter couldn't spot a vampire as fast as a dog could. One of Electra's low-rent employees had just wandered into their crosshairs. "Oh, shit," he said.

BOOM!

Dorian let a blast out from his shotgun, leaving the vamp on the ground with a huge, bloody wound in his chest, screaming his vampiric scream of agony. He only screamed for a moment though, before Ethan stepped up and shut him up permanently with one of his stakes.

"And here I was thinking we'd be getting the quieter part of this op," Keith quipped as Dorian reached into his pocket for his cigarettes.

"You know what they say," Dorian said through his lips that were holding a cigarette as he went for his lighter. "Expect the unexpected."

***

Anthony sat at the bar alone, carefully scanning the crowd. The light patterns were erratic and the music was deafening, but that didn't bother him. He was used to it. There were plenty of succulent young girls here tonight, and all he had to do was pick one.

The first one he saw that caught his attention was a buxom blonde in a rainbow-striped halter-top and a denim miniskirt joking around with her friends. She'd probably do just as fine as any other girl, so he focused his attention on her. Focus... He reached out with the power in his eyes for her...

Come on, look this way...

Look at me.

The girl obeyed the voiceless mental command and looked in Anthony's direction. And then she froze, her eyes becoming locked to his from across the room. He wouldn't have been surprised then if she'd just blithely dropped her beer without even noticing. He had her.

Come here.

To the utter confusion of her assembled friends, the girl began walking in Anthony's direction. With every step she drew closer, and Anthony was better able to see into her through her eyes. And as she came closer, and he was able to see deeper into her mind, he began to realize how fortuitous he had been in his choice. This one was naïve and impressionable. Easily controlled. She might even make a good addition to his little harem.

"Hi, I'm Caitlyn," she smiled.

"Caitlyn," he said, taking her hand and bringing it up to his lips. "Lovely." He gave her hand a quick, light kiss, his eyes never leaving hers.

"Wow," she breathed, her eyes wide and her breath heavy. "Thank you Sir Galahad!"

"So tell me, Caitlyn, what are you looking for tonight?"

"Oh, just a... just a good time... you know."

"And have you found that? Are you having a good time here?"

You are now.

"I am now."

Anthony grinned. She was almost too easy. Almost. "That's wonderful." He concentrated his gaze on her eyes, boring into her delicate psyche. "Would you like me to kiss you?"

"Yes I would," she said without a second's hesitation.

"Because I'm not going to." She gave whimper of disappointment, but then Anthony added, "At least not yet. Right now I have other things in mind." He gently reached a hand up and brushed her hair away from her neck. "Don't be afraid."

"I'm not afraid." The look in her eyes was one of absolute truth. She was not afraid at all. She was just putty in his hands.

Slowly he leaned in towards her and brought his lips to her neck, and gently bit into the soft, tender flesh of her neck, tasting the sweet nectar of her blood. He concentrated on holding back the meta-toxin in his fangs; he wanted to be able to taste her again. Having every victim a vampire fed off of either change or die was such a shortsighted development on the part of evolution; it made so much more sense for victims to be reusable. It had taken a lot of practice, but Anthony had finally reached a point where those he drank from would only turn if he wanted them to.

When he had drunk to his satisfaction, he released her to find her in a bit of a trance, with her beer cup blithely dropped on the floor. And then Anthony noticed the other girl that was ogling him. About 25, brown hair reaching just past her shoulders, big brown eyes, green tube-top, shiny black shorts, and looking at him like she knew what she was. She began reaching a finger up to her ear. Anthony didn't know what she was up to, but he had a feeling it wouldn't be good.

He fixed his gaze on her eyes and her motions stopped. She stood trapped under his gaze, trying her darnedest to move. She was strong; much stronger than Caitlyn, at any rate. She was doing all she could to fight him. And she really did seem to know what he was. And as he dug deeper—which was much more difficult with this girl than with most of the girls he encountered—and began sensing hostile intent towards him, he began to realize what she had to be.

A hunter.

Won't Electra love that.

As much as this constituted a threat, Anthony figured the last thing he should do right now would be to make a scene with the hunter. He had best finish his business with the simpleton, then bring this to Electra's attention. He broke contact the hunter's eyes and looked back into Caitlyn's. He definitely wanted to have more fun with her; she was too easy a plaything to pass up.