Later, I wake from six hours of deep restorative sleep. It's a Sunday morning, so no classes to worry about. Though I'm still in my crummy dorm room, I'm now hopeful that I'll soon be upgrading to a fine bedroom at the Phi-Delta House.
I shower quickly, make myself look my best, and arrive at Philately just in time for a fabulous, fully-catered brunch -- a P-D Sunday tradition.
Afterwards, as instructed, I check in with DeeDee and Anais, the Vice President for Social Affairs. All the elected sorority positions come with nickname-titles that are only used by sisters and pledges. As Pledge Mistress, DeeDee is, of course,
Mistress
' and Anais isRevels.' She's a curvy African American with beautiful mahogany-brown skin, sparkling eyes, and thin braided locks gathered in a ponytail that flows down her back.
"So, you okay?" probes Mistress DeeDee.
Was I ever! Nat had given me the most thrilling and satisfying sexual experience of my life. And I was proud, too, that I'd gone through the whole thing -- mysterious fog, sudden encounter, graveyard, crypt, the whole nine yards -- without panicking, wailing, or weeping.
We chat back and forth for awhile, while Mistress and Revels comes to their final decision. My heart races with anticipation, it's all I can do to appear cool, calm, and collected.
With a big grin, Revels says, "Welcome to Phi-Delta, sister Selene."
Finally! Oh. My. God! I'm In!
Once again they go over all the rules and customs. I sign a bunch of documents and forms, they give me my key fob, and we figure out when I'll move into my fifth floor room. As soon as possible, I tell them firmly. Today and tomorrow, I'll cut a class if I have to.
After awhile, we're just chatting, and I ask about dhampirs, my mind glowing at the thought of meeting Nat again.
I know that pledge mistresses are supposed to be tough and hard, but I really like DeeDee. Her smiles are so eloquent. But the face she shows me now tells me I'm not going to like what she's about to say.
"You be careful, Selene. When a dhampir exhales his pheromones directly into your face and you inhale, your will is gone. Gone, gone, gone! And when he wants to, he can cause you to temporarily lose consciousness. None of us can resist a dhamp. He could have tortured you, he could have killed you. And even if you managed to try resisting, you'd have been as weak as a kitten in the jaws of a wolf."
DeeDee and Revels explain further. Dhampirs crave, in fact need, some kind of female sexual energy that they get from sex with human women.
Yet their power puts them in danger if they don't control themselves. In ages past, when they left behind dead girls drained of life force they were eventually hunted down and slain by mobs or bounty hunters. Hence all the fantasy legends about blood-sucking
vampires
.'
The energy dhampirs drain from us grants them long lives with long youth, and they only need to feed that way a few times a month. Phi-Delt provides a safe, controlled way for them to do so. Safe for them. Safe -- and pleasurable -- for us.
"We welcome them here," DeeDee tells me. "But only so long as they obey Rule 4B. No Bruises, No Blood, No Broken Bones. And no draining any of us to anywhere near a danger point."
I start to ask more questions, but Anais stops me. "You'll have plenty of time to learn more about Dhamps. Ask Laila, she's our expert. But right now, we need to talk to you about Tuesday's fund-raiser. You've seen the sign on the stairs, right?"
Of course I had, it was way too big to miss.
[No Boys Allowed
Above the Second Floor!
No Exceptions!]
"I guess it means I won't be inviting any men up to my room," I reply. "Which seems a real waste of that big double bed."
DeeDee laughs, she has such a great laugh.
Anais shakes her head. "Oh Selene, for someone who might go into law, you're not reading that very well. It says,
No boys
.' It doesn't say,
No men
.' No students, not even grad-students ever go up those stairs. Students are the worst gossips in the universe.
"But men, and some women too, people with money, authority, power -- and spouses, and positions they don't want to risk by boasting and blabbing -- that's a different story. And, of course, dhampirs," she adds with a smile.
What? Does she mean...? "So... is that how you all get such good grades?"
"No!" Revels snaps, obviously annoyed. "We work for our grades -- hard! No P-D sister entertains any prof she's taking a class from. Not ever. And if she previously entertained him, he works and grades her harder than everyone else. He has to -- for his own protection.
"We do the course work. "We have the test scores. We write our own papers. We have the knowledge and skills to justify our grades. We earn our places on the Deans List. We earn our honors. And we earn our careers after graduation."
"Well, there is one connection to our grades though," adds DeeDee with grin. "To maintain a healthy mind and body, we girls need regular doses of Vitamin-F.
"Getting your Vitamin-F through the dating-game is frustrating, time-consuming, and emotionally distracting. Unless you're seeking some kind of deep meaningful relationship -- or maybe just a husband -- our revels save a lot of time and energy that we can use for study."
I silently fill in the rest. Entertaining important and useful people with whom there is no direct teacher-student or employer-employee relationship can be very helpful down the career road. But, still...
Anais responds as if she were reading my face, "Look, males use every advantage they have to get ahead -- inherited wealth and position, physical strength, bullying, charisma, back-stabbing, whatever works. And society lauds them for it. But if a women does the same, she's a
bitch
,' a
shrew
,' a
harpy
,' scorned and condemned.
"Well, fuck that hypocrisy. If we can use our sexuality to our advantage, more power to us. So long as it's by our choice on our terms. If they don't like it -- tough."
Which brings her to the Fall Fund-raiser. Twice a year, fall and spring, Phi-Delta holds a very special, invitation-only fund-raiser. In the fall, it's a
virgin sacrifice
,' attended by a dozen or so academic big shots, wealthy businessmen, and the like.
The new girls, the
babies
-- like me -- are auctioned off to the highest bidders to whom we sacrifice our virginity.
All sorts of thoughts and responses flash though my mind -- astonishment, repugnance, intrigue -- but what I actually reply is, "Virgins? They think we're virgins?"
I'd lost my virginity to a high school halfback when I was 15. Well, not so much
lost