Young Blood

Things kind of smoothed over for a while over the next few weeks. I adjusted rather quickly to a life of drinking blood and staying up late. Shortly after Alicia was turned, I introduced her to the SVA as well. As time went by, I became less and less sorry about what I had done to her; it began to feel like this was meant to happen. She and I were closer now than we ever had been. Well, in some ways at least.

She quickly grew to be friends with Elizabeth, too, which also worked well for me. In fact, it was not long before Alicia, suddenly without a roommate, accepted Elizabeth's offer to room with her down in the lower levels. For a while I was worried Alicia was going to get in trouble with the cops when Julie was missed, but as it turned out the situation blew over fairly quickly, considering Patrick has a few contacts in the police force. Let's just say some cops work the night shift because the alternative would be overly hazardous, if you know what I mean. You ever watch the show

Forever Knight

? It's kinda like that.

We started hanging out as a trio a lot, but we were far from an exclusive group; Elizabeth was already pretty popular down there, and Alicia and I were quickly making names for ourselves too. The more time went by, the more I came to feel like everything was as it should be.

Of course, if that was where the story ended, I wouldn't have even begun telling it in the first place.

Like I was saying, things began to approach a level that remotely resembled normal, with nothing really important happening, until one day I was just sitting in my dorm room cramming for a test when the door opened and Larry barged in. It was about a quarter past seven if I recall correctly. Ordinarily Larry entering the room would be nothing special, but today he had something to show me. "Hey, Vince! You want to meet her? She's here!"

I looked up at him. "Who?" I hoped Larry wasn't sharp enough to pick up my underlying subtext of "This had better be pretty goddamn important."

"My girlfriend!" he exclaimed. Oh yeah, that was right, Larry did have a girlfriend. Well I mean, at least one. He never really talked about her much; he'd never even mentioned her name. My understanding was that in Larry's eyes, a girl was a girl. As little as I could picture him actually going out with somebody, it became apparent now that he wanted me to meet her.

"Oh, sure, okay," I said, lowering my head back to my notes.

For a moment or two, I continued skimming my notes, then looked up as another person entered the room. And then I saw her. I saw this petite-looking girl with light brown hair cut short at the neck and a pair of big blue eyes. And she saw me. And neither of us were moving.

"Michelle, this is Vincent," said Larry. "Vince, this is my girlfriend Michelle."

"Yeah," I breathed, "hi."

"Hi," she said back.

Silence.

"Um, why don't I go grab some drinks or something?" suggested Larry. "I'll be back in a minute; you two just stay and get to know each other or somethin', okay?"

Larry took off, leaving just the two of us there. Michelle took a step forward and shut the door behind her. "Hi, Vincent."

"Hi, Michelle." For a moment, that was all we said.

"I..." she started to say. "I missed you." She sounded like she wasn't sure if that was the right thing to say.

"Yeah... me too. Been a long time, like three years now, isn't it?"

"Yeah... long time..." Yes, for those of you wondering, I did actually know this girl.

For a moment we said nothing more. Then all of a sudden, "What are you doing here?" burst out from me.

"What?"

"Well, I thought the fact that you were going to [college name] on the other side of the country was kind of the basis for our break-up."

She shrugged. "Well... I transferred."

I raised an eyebrow at her. "You transferred? And you didn't bother letting me know we were suddenly at the same school? And the only reason I find out at all is because you happen to be dating the slob who calls himself my roommate? Something about that seems a little off to me!"

She shrugged again, more apologetically this time. "Well, Larry's not such a bad guy..."

I glowered at her. "That's not the point, Michelle!" I paused a moment. "Well okay, on a certain level it is, but I think you're missing the big picture here."

She was about to say something else when the door opened and Larry stepped inside with three beer cans. "All right, drinks all around!" he hollered, tossing me a can.

I caught the can, and tossed it back to him saying, "Why don't you just have two, Larry. I'm really not that thirsty right now." That was a half-truth. I was beginning to get pretty thirsty, but in the other kind of way.

Larry shrugged, and ushered Michelle away. "C'mon Michelle, let's go." Michelle turned to look at me with her big, perpetually sad eyes which always spoke greater depths than words. Right now all they were saying was "bye," but in the past I'd seen her say so much more with those eyes.

As soon as they were gone I stood up, laying my notes aside, ran my hands through my hair and stepped out of the dorm room. A glass or two of blood always helped me to unwind, and right then I was in need of some unwinding. I wandered into that alcove with the soda machine, punched in the combination and headed down the stairs when the secret door opened. I made my way through the underground halls and knocked on the steel door when I came to it. The slot opened and a pair of eyes looked at me.

"The moon shines high..."

"...and the blood is sweet."

The door opened and I stepped inside. "Thomas, couldn't you just look and see it was me?" I asked the guy whose shift it was. "You know what I look like, don't you?"

He shrugged. "Procedure, Vincent. Procedure. I don't know who Patrick thinks is going to come down here wearing a Vincent mask, but that's what we're supposed to do."

I smiled and shrugged back at him, and continued into the rec room. I seated myself at the bar and whistled for Nigel. He turned and glided smoothly over to me. "Hey, Vincent. What'll it be?"

"B+. I think we can call that my usual now."

"You got it!"

As you may have guessed, different blood types have slightly different tastes. It's like A is Coke and B is Pepsi, just to pluck an example from thin air. It's a little different, but just to give you an idea. Which would make AB a combination of the two. O would be more like Red Bull. And then there's the positive/negative part; it's like A- is diet Coke and A+ is regular, you get the idea. Anyway...

Nigel poured the blood and slid the glass over to me. I lifted the glass, put the edge to my lips and threw my head back so that the bottom of the glass pointed to the ceiling. About five, or maybe ten, seconds later I brought the empty glass down onto the bar. I gently pushed the glass in Nigel's direction and said, "Hit me again, would you?"

Nigel looked at me wide-eyed. "Wow, what side of the bed did you get up on, anyway?" he asked as he poured me another glass.

"I don't know. Whichever side lead me to find out my roommate is dating my high-school sweetheart." I downed another glass. "Keep 'em coming, please."

Nigel made a face and poured me another glass. "That's gotta bite. So were you planning on sticking around for the dance?"

I looked up at him suddenly. "Dance?" I thought for a moment. "Oh yeah, now I remember." A quick look around the room and through the open door into the lobby indicated that there were quite a few more people down here than usual. I realized they were waiting for the doors to the ballroom to open and the revelry to begin. I had seen one of these already since I'd been turned; we held these dances every couple of weeks, courtesy of Tanya. I, of course, had little interest in anything that had to do with Tanya, so I hadn't planned on attending. "No, I don't think so, really."

"Aww, por que no?" a feminine voice behind me said. I turned and recognized a saucy Asian girl I knew as Vanessa. "Don't have a date? Don't worry, there's still plenty of fish in the sea." She gestured her head in the direction of the very well-built guy she had her hand looped into the arm of. "And as you can see, I've caught myself a whopper!"

A quick look at the face of the muscular guy with her told me I didn't know him. "You're new, aren't you?"

"Yeah, been in just three days. Name's Jonathan," he said, extending a hand that I accepted.

"Hi, I'm Vincent." I turned a my eyes toward Vanessa. "You bring him in?"

"No, he was just in the right place at the right time for me to fall into his lap." The way she looked at him with those raised eyebrows almost shouted "Literally."

"Well, Jonathan, all I can say is good luck, hope you can handle her." It was no secret that Vanessa was probably one of the kinkiest girls in the SVA. "By the way, just out of curiosity, who did bring you in?"

"Oh, Tanya."

I sighed with a light smile and rolled my eyes. "Of course."

Let me tell you a little bit about Tanya. It was a well known fact that the number of new young bloods Tanya brought in rivaled that of the entire rest of the SVA. Tanya was a pureborn, meaning she was born a vampire. The fact that she was never human herself could have accounted for the fact that she displayed utterly no respect for humanity. Her logic was: one more vampire; one less human; the world is a better place. She was ever proud to be born a member of the "superior" race.

"You still didn't answer her question, Vincent," said another voice to my left, one which I recognized right away.

"Hey, Alicia." A moment of awkward silence struck. Yes, we still hadn't gotten past that. We'd both been turned into creatures of the night and had made love twice, and still our relationship had yet to move out of that awkward stage. I was beginning to wonder if we were ever going to move out of it. I mean, we didn't always talk like this; we'd had plenty of open conversations over the past several weeks; just the particular subject matter brought us back to that.

"So why aren't you going to the dance anyway?" Alicia said at last.

"Yeah," said Vanessa, "if you need a date, I'd think your prime candidate is standing right in front of you..." a mischievous grin crossed her cute, cheeky features. "...unless you're waiting for Elizabeth to show up?"

Ah, yes, Elizabeth. There was no denying that she did further complicate things between me and Alicia. I wasn't really sure whether Elizabeth was interested in commitment or in just playing around. She had certainly succeeded in roping me into bed from time to time since the last chapter, which was more than Alicia and I had done.

"It's not that I don't have anyone to go with," I said. "I just don't want to go."

Vanessa made a pouting face. "You don't like to dance?"

"It's not the party I don't like, it's just who's throwing it."

Jonathan shrugged and gave a half-hearted grin. "Hey, Tanya's not that bad..." It didn't take a degree in psychology to see that he wasn't basing his opinion of her on her sparkling personality.

"She just kind of rubs me the wrong way." Before anyone could make any smart-ass responses to that, I quickly added, "And I mean that strictly metaphorically." I couldn't help but smile at Vanessa's obvious disappointment at having her witty remark halted.

"Why don't you just forget about Tanya and just try to have some fun?" Alicia smiled. "You wouldn't want me to get lonely, would you?"

I sighed and shrugged. "Well, I guess I might put in an appearance."

Alicia did a little schoolgirl giggle and threw her arms around my shoulders.

We had a little time to kill before the event started, so the four of us decided to try out a few games of pool to pass the time. It started to bore me a little after a while, considering Alicia isn't half as good at pool as Elizabeth is, so I was practically mopping the floor with her. Vanessa didn't present much challenge either, but that was mostly as a result of lack of spirit; she just wasn't that interested. Jonathan, on the other hand, was the competitor who kept the clock turning.

It wasn't long before we noticed the crowd occupying the rec room starting to thin. Following a quick glance at the clock, I took a peek outside into the lobby and where at least 90% of the SVA was gathered outside the doors of the ballroom. Yes, young vampires aren't too different from other college kids in that we also love to party. Vanessa, not surprisingly, instantly leapt to join the crowd, pulling Jonathan along with her. I wasn't in any particular hurry, but when I noticed Alicia had also vacated the rec room, as well as just about everyone else, I decided I might as well be another sheep in the flock.

I didn't bother keeping track of how long we were standing out there; I've found that having a watch to repeatedly check when you're waiting for something only makes it come that much slower. But ultimately the doors did swing open, and there she stood in her skintight blue leather dress.

"And now, ladies and I-hope-not-so-gentlemen, the moment you've all been waiting for! The doors to Sugarqueen T's celebration of existence are open, so step inside now and think of ways to thank me later!" Tanya's philosophy of life was that it was all one big party, which greatly reflected the way she talked, moved, dressed... anyway...

Well, I'd be lying if I said I didn't ultimately start to enjoy myself. I was a little slow about it at first, but Alicia kept urging me out onto the floor. The music wasn't that bad, and after a while I just let go and allowed myself to have fun.

Now here's the funny part: the whole time the heavy stuff was playing, Alicia and I were never more than three feet apart. Then the point came when the music slowed down; you know, that "grab your special someone" part of the dance. Alicia and I exchanged an awkward glance; we both knew we ought to, but we still felt a little awkward around each other on the subject. We started to turn away from each other to go to the tables and sit down, when somebody pushed me back towards her. We suddenly found ourselves in each other's arms. I saw Vanessa standing behind her and realized she had been pushed too, and when I looked behind me I saw Jonathan standing there giving me a big grin and a raised thumb.

We stood giving each other awkward little looks in our awkward little position, she cracked an awkward little smile and we began our awkward little movements. There was really nothing else we could do. I mean, sure, we could have just disengaged from each other and gone to the tables and sat down, we just didn't seem to be able to. Then something happened. We just let go. No, I don't mean we let go of each other. We just fell into each others embrace, her head came to rest on my shoulder, and we just kept moving. Everything around us disappeared. The ballroom, gone. The people, gone. The music, gone. We made our own music, and that was what we danced to.

It was moments like these that allowed me to forget we were no longer human.

A hard pat on my back suddenly pulled me out of the clouds, and it was only then that I realized the slow music had stopped. I turned and saw Jonathan standing there with a wide-eyed smirk on his face. "Are you sure the two of you aren't an item? Cause you could've fooled me!" Alicia and I looked at each other for a moment, then stepped away. The moment was over; back to reality. It was going to take more than that to get us in a comfortable place again.

"C'mon, Vincent, let's go grab a couple of drinks," Jonathan offered. I shrugged, and proceeded to follow him over to the keg of bleer. What is bleer, you ask? Bleer is made from blood and alcohol mixed with some other carbonated substances that I'm not exactly clear on; in other words, vampire booze. You'd actually be surprised and the different kinds of drinks you can make with some blood and alcohol. You can nourish your vampiric needs and get wasted at the same time! Ain't it great?

Vanessa was standing there waiting for him, along with her friend Rachel. Rachel was a tough-looking cookie with curly red hair, and from what I'd heard she and Vanessa typically shared almost everything. Including boys. Vanessa handed a cup to me and Jonathan, then extended another behind me. I turned around to see Alicia shake her head at the offer. "Thanks, I'm good," she said.

"Hey listen," said Vanessa, "we're thinking about going to the back room, you two care to come too?"

"The back room?" That was both me and Alicia saying that.

"You don't know about the back room?" Rachel said.

"Well there's only been one other dance since I've been in the SVA, and I didn't actually attend it myself," I pointed out.

"Yeah, neither did I," said Alicia.

Vanessa smiled mischievously. "Well trust me, as soon as you step behind the curtain, you'll get the idea."

"Yeah," added Jonathan, "I've only been down here a few days, but Vanessa has been gracious enough to tell me aaaaallllllll about it." He extended both elbows outward; Vanessa promptly hooked her arm onto his left side, while Rachel moved to take his right.

"Follow, if you so choose," Vanessa said in her most sultry voice. "We're going to go have a VERY good time."

As they turned and walked off, Alicia and I exchanged a glance. It certainly couldn't be denied that curiosity had the best of both of us. So of course, we proceeded to follow them, up a small set of steps along the side of the stage and past the back curtain.

Now, Vanessa had said we'd get the idea as soon as we stepped behind the curtain, but when a doorway stood before us with another curtain across it, I began to wonder which one she meant. Of course we couldn't see anything that was going on in that room from where we were at that particular moment, but the world of sound can be just as, if not more, descriptive. I heard voices. Lots of voices. There was grunting. Lots of happy grunting. And many voices, most of them female, saying things like "Oh, fuck yeah!" or "Oh my fucking God!" I noticed, before the three of them disappeared behind the curtain, that Rachel was already beginning to untie the big knot that was keeping her green silk halter-top around her. Carefully I stepped forward, pulled back the curtain, and took a peek inside.

I always thought this kind of thing only existed in porno movies.

Clothes lay strewn all about the corners of the room, while their owners were tangled in various forms of humping. There had to be at least ten or twelve people involved in this no-holds-barred orgy, to which three were now added. The room looked like it was especially made for this; the floor was like one giant blue cushion with a few short sunken circles with pillows in them here and there, and the ceiling was all one giant mirror.

In the center of the room was a short cushioned pedestal that was more than wide enough to accommodate a few people, and atop that pedestal, being serviced by three cock-ready guys, was Tanya. She sat straddling one guy, while another stood on either side of her. She held each of those two guys by the base of their shafts and alternated giving them oral service. She paused in her sucking for a moment long enough to shout, "C'mon, louder people! Sound like you're actually glad to be here!"

Now, of course, came the inevitable choice: in or out? I think I've made it pretty clear to all of you by now that I DON'T like Tanya; more importantly, were Alicia and I ready to do this again yet? I didn't think so. I turned my eyes towards Alicia; she wasn't even looking past the curtain. I guess one look had been all she needed. She was standing off to the side of the doorway with her back against the wall. She looked like her head was churning like mad. I struggled to find something to say to her, and ultimately all that came out was, "Alicia?"