My eyes flew over the pages of the book. As an immortal, one's speed-reading was also affected. I consumed books voraciously. My leather armchair hugged me warmly, and the fireplace danced light over the pages of the book. I touched the rough grain of the paper as I read, giving in to the pleasure. Paper was fucking sexy. And these humans were so tender! They had developed such a nuanced language with a turn of phrase for everything. Whoever said there was nothing new under the sun --
hiss
-- had clearly never read lesbian fantasy novels. These were lovely. I was on my fourth book in two weeks. This one was about a girl knight that falls in love with the princess she's protecting. I truly hoped the princess would rise up to the challenge of loving her, despite the obstacles.
"Darling? Would you like a drink?" Suzie asked softly as she strode into the parlor.
"Yes, please." I held my palm up absentmindedly, then she slipped a wine glass between my fingers. I took a sip as I turned the page with my thumb. I made a face as I tasted it. "Eugh! This is disgusting!"
She took a sip, too, across from me in her armchair. "Ugh! You're right!"
"When did we get this batch?"
"Uh... two years ago? What year is it again?"
"I don't know!" I speeded up to our bedroom then back down with my phone in my hand in two seconds. "2024."
"Oh! Then three years then!"
"Disgusting! And I'm thirsty!"
"Me too." She set her glass down, disappointed.
I thought for a moment, pursing my lips. I hated drinking animals, it would sustain us but we vomited the blood up for the first day, then had an ongoing queasiness for as long as we drank it. Raiding a hospital in the area was always unwise, though, especially if we wanted to stay unnoticed for the next few decades... "Want to go clubbing?" I asked her finally.
She raised a delicate eyebrow in response. "Really?"
"Well, yeah! At least to tide us over until we can go relieve a blood bank of their stores." I scratched at the nape of my neck. "I'm
really
thirsty..."
She ran her pink tongue over a slowly growing fang, then pierced her own tongue. I was on her in a nanosecond, digging in my tongue to lick at the blood. I moaned at the taste, and she grew both fangs to bite into my neck, twisting around me to latch on like the strike of a cobra. She drained me a bit until I pushed her off, painfully aroused.
"Stop! I'm already thirsty as it is!"
"Sorry."
She didn't look sorry as she scooped up the blood around her mouth, and licked her fingers.
"Hm. Let's go. We'll hit up a few clubs with semi-drains then go stock up this weekend."
"Yay! We haven't gone dancing in forever!" She clapped.
"I wanna take the Ferrari." I said excitedly.
"Mor, that's too flashy! We'll end up on the news."
"Ugh, fine. The Honda then..." I said sadly. "But promise we'll go out one of these days so I can speed."
"Sure, darling. If you want."
"Excellent!"
----
The first club we found was something called Plush. It was as odious as the name suggested. The booths were a sticky, rigid sort of vinyl, the booze was low shelf (not that we drank), the people were dressed poorly with ill-fitting polyester clothes. We danced together as drunken strangers bounced into us, slurring their apologies.
Despite the setting, I relished the feel of her body against mine. The rustle of her dress as it grazed her skin thundered in my ears and made my groin throb.
We spoke quietly, able to hear each other perfectly over the din of the lousy speakers.
"I almost wish we still had one of those malodorous playhouses at this point. At least the gendarmes didn't care about a few murders here and there." I said after a while.
She hummed in assent as her back brushed against my front, up and down. I held the bend of her hips warmly as I followed her movements.
"But everyone had an STD or consumption back then. It made the blood taste funny," she replied.
"True."
"Oh! Did you hear that?" She turned around to grip my wrists and cocked an ear.
I strained to hear what she was hearing. There it was, a sobbing cry.
"Oh, yeah." We speeded out to the alley, and sure enough there was a man pushing a woman against the dirty cement wall. She was struggling to get out of his grip and her top was already dragging low over her chest with his meaty paws.
Suzie was a blur as she ran to grip him by the back of his neck and pull him back.
"What the fuck?" he shouted in confusion.
I neared the woman cautiously. "Who is this man?"
"I -- don't know!" She looked at me then back to the man struggling against Suzie's grip with wide eyes. "He found me out here while I was smoking and tried to --"
Her face screwed up.
"It's all right. You're all right now. Do you need a ride home?"
"No, my friends are inside."
"Okay, go get your friends. Tell them what happened, and go home." My ringing voice intoned with our predatory tool of hypnosis to compel her.
She fought against the compulsion, probably wanting to ask more questions, but after swaying back and forth, she eventually moved towards the door as in a daze. I sighed as I saw her go through the door, knowing what she'd have gone through if we weren't there.
I gritted my teeth against the impulse I had to play savior, all the time.
The man shouted obscenities at us until Suzie commanded him to shut up. His brain was soft and mushy, easily accepting the hypnosis.
I kept an ear on the woman while Suzie manhandled the evil specimen we'd caught, easily evading his swinging arms and wild kicks. We could both feel the putridness ooze off his soul, like honey that was contaminated by bacteria and had a film of white fungus right on the top. It was disgusting to be around. The decay of him couldn't help but contaminate one's own soul, seeping into you.
"They're in the car now." I told her, finally, when I heard their doors slam shut.
"Okay. Let's go." She dragged him to our car, and stuffed him in the trunk, zip-tying him so he wouldn't damage anything.
We buckled ourselves in so we wouldn't get pulled over for a stupid reason.
"Looks like we chose our first club well." I said darkly as I eased our unremarkable sedan out into the dimly-lit street.
She tutted in response.
Countless years of murder that were fueled by thirst rushed through my mind's eye. It was a primal drive for both Suzie and I for our continued survival -- but also, as a sentient being, there had to be another cause you clung to; some principled drive that you turned over in your mind to assuage your conscience.
It didn't matter. It was murder. It was yet another black mark on your mind.
We drained the man, like one would do to a pig, then refrigerated his blood, tossing the empty shell in the incinerator.
We hated drinking the blood of someone when we knew where it came from -- the tones were of evil thoughts that were in every dark corner of the night were unsettling. I'd started my evening praising humans for their capacity to love, and now I was drinking the blood of the dregs of humanity.
"I hate this." I whispered as I sipped.
"I know, darling. We'll put a reminder this time to stock up every year."
I hummed in agreement. Though we could potentially do this every few nights, it tore at my soul. We'd learned centuries ago that meddling in human affairs made things worse.
We'd kill the bad men and women, then everyone's conduct would become more blatantly unsafe, putting them in even more vulnerable situations. Better to allow these humans to sharpen their own conscience. It produced more favorable results than babysitting them.
Still though, that woman's face was imprinted behind my eyelids. I prayed to the god that didn't listen to us that she would be more safe from now on.
"Come on, Mor." Suzie pulled me by the hand to our bedroom. The heavy night fluttered off my tense shoulders with the firm grip of her hand and her smile.
I spun her around in our grand master bedroom, making her giggle. I waltzed with her over the hard wood of our bedroom, then pressed my foot into thin air to produce an imaginary incline as I went until we were waltzing in the air. The music started on the speakers at my quick command. I was a sucker for Beethoven's Sixth's Symphony. I'd begged Suzie to come with me to Vienna to see it live. Honestly, the only thing that made it better was to see Ludwig and his passion. Otherwise, the Vienna Philharmonic made the symphony so much better when they recorded it years later. We'd sat there in the gloom, watching history be made, yet again, as tears ran down my face.
But it was always so hopeful -- a bittersweet wish for the day to go well. For me in particular, a depressing reminder I could not enjoy the sun.
All the animals I loved hated me, and only frolicked in the safety of the warm sunlight.
Back then, I'd sat in rapture as Ludwig explained to me what sun was since I hadn't basked in it for hundreds of years.
Even now, it still held the love of sunlight warmly in its old age, just as I did. Suzie danced with me. Instead of acknowledging the bitter feelings of coveting the day, or even mourning Ludwig's death, she instead grinned at my initiative to dance.
It was our balm. What broke up infinity to spit in its face, and say we latched on to the ephemeral and were damn proud of it. The symphony was a little over an hour, and the first movement about nine minutes. From when I first started to hum, to when our excellent surround system quieted, it jeered at infinity in its simplicity. Joy cut through the eternity of our lives to break it up into beautiful pieces.
I nipped at her neck playfully as we danced, and she pushed me away sharply every time, grinning as she did so. Her hand gripped my shoulder as we glided with practiced ease.
