Find your way to Hollywood. Come with a dream in your heart and a few dollars in your pocket. Hit the streets, hit the clubs, be hot, be cool, be interesting enough that you get noticed. Party your way to a small door on a side street off the boulevard. Go down the stairs, take the elevator to the roof, feel the music sync to your pulse and the smell of sweet copper fill your nostrils, and step into a place of endless night.
Welcome to the Santa Sangre. If you're lucky, you'll have a time you'll never want to forget. If you're really lucky, you'll catch the eye of someone special and your whole world will change. Most likely? You're dead within an hour. Sucked dry by some leech that couldn't or wouldn't control themselves or, if not dead, then a thrall or a bloodbag, subservient to the whims of whatever "dark master" decided you were pretty enough to keep.
That's what this place offers to mortals. The pleasure of pain. Death with a smile. Slavery to something that will literally suck the life out of you. Of course everyone in town wants to get in.
Except for me.
I've never liked vampires. Pathetic little things, parasites convinced they're apex predators, gifted with power and eternal life but content with parties and politics and feeding off the great mass of humanity. If I had my way I'd never deal with a single one, but L.A. is the bloodsucker mecca, just full of the fuckers, and if I want to spend any time in the city's shadows then I have to at least pretend to play nice. That's why I'm sitting here, in the VIP section of the Santa Sangre, drinking a glass of obscenely expensive whiskey and waiting for my hosts to finally grace me with their presence.
Convince a master mage to take you under their wing. Spend ten years training in the arcane arts, another ten working as an agent of the black order. Become one of the youngest masters in that order's history, finally get a few years all to yourself. Come to Los Angeles at the recommendation of your master, thinking you can blend in and chill out, maybe make yourself your own little sanctum. Still find yourself in the same shitty club as all the clueless mortals who are about to get sucked dry.
At least up here it's calm enough that I can think. I'm on an upper level looking down on the main dance floor. The music's softer and it's got a great view of the mass of bodies below, like a hunting blind for hungry suckers. It's mostly them and their servants here, and a few other people of the shadows. Not a lot of stray humans. My guess is they're mostly in the private rooms that line the walls across the way.
Most of the vamps are focused on the buffet down below, or they're tucked away, doing as they please. From my table, I can see a vamp in a booth sucking down one of his bloodbags, a pretty young girl in a white silk dress who looks like she could barely be more than 20. He's pulled that dress up to her hips and latched onto her thigh, drinking slowly. She's slumped back, eyes hazy like she's taken a hit of something, and every few seconds a shudder of pleasure rolls through her body. I can see the signs that similar scenes are happening all around me.
Not all of the vamps are so occupied. Even without my defensive spellwork, I can feel attention on me. A dozen pinpricks of bloodlust needling at my awareness. Leeches, waiting for a chance to strike. I wonder how I look to them. The ones with skill can see I have the Power within me, but to most, I must look like a calf that's escaped the pen. Still, none of them have tried to make a move.
Except for the pretty blonde sitting in the corner of the room, placed in the perfect position to catch my attention. She's either new or stupid or both, my guess is new since she hasn't learned to hide the hunger in her eyes when she looks at me. Older bloodsuckers tend to be a bit more subtle.
For the past minute, the leech has been fixing her gaze on me, trying to drill into my mind, compel me to come to her. Her vampiric power slaps at my wards, enough to bend a normal man to her will, but nothing to me. I'd almost be insulted by her audacity, but her kind tends to have more arrogance than sense and if I'm being honest she does look inviting. Cap those fangs, put a collar round that pretty neck of hers, and she might be worth keeping.
Besides, I'm getting bored
The vamp lights up as soon as I start moving her way. Definitely new, or a very convincing actor. The look she's giving me would almost be cute if she wasn't trying to eat me. It still is if I'm being honest. She's got this innocent baby deer vibe to her like she's asking to be hunted. That and the skimpy dress she's poured herself into seem like the perfect combination to make the predator seem like prey.
The girl's locked onto me, her eyes roaming my body, not even bothering to hide it. If she were human, I'd think she was checking out my muscles or the arcane tattoos that sprawl down to my hands, but I'm pretty sure she's tracing my veins, watching the blood pump through my body like it's already hers to take. Confident little leech.
"Hi there, I'm Jake," I say, "you've been looking my way so much I figured I had to come over and say hello."
"Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to stare, you're just... interesting." This leech is a pretty thing, that's even more obvious now that I'm close. Full lips, Big blue eyes. Big tits too. They're straining against her dress like I could reach out and set them free with a twitch of my finger. She's shorter than I first thought. I'm a big man, but even standing she'd just barely reach my chest. Feels like I could pick her up and carry her around with just one hand. Maybe I'll get the chance to try.
"I'm never gonna complain that a cute girl finds me interesting." I say, "What's your name?"
"I'm Belle." She says. She's got a pretty voice to match her face, light and gentle with just a hint of a Southern accent. The kind of voice I could listen to for hours.
But I'm not here to listen.
"Well Belle, we're going to have some fun," I glide my fingers across her face, and just that little bit of contact is enough. The little vamp doesn't even have a chance to react as power flows into her, the spell I've had prepared since the moment I said hello. My will floods her body, every inch of her is subject to my desires. I send a surge of power into her and strands of pure will dance through her head, through her brain, spearing Belle's mind onto a spike of pure pleasure.
Belle squeaks in surprise. Her eyes nearly roll to the back of her head as her pathetic attempt at mesmerism drops away.
I'm just getting started. I push more power into the girl, waves of pure sensation, overwhelming pleasure. I can track their movement through her body, shudders flowing from her chest to her arms down through her legs, setting her every individual nerve on fire. She twitches and squirms in her seat. I move my hand so I can get a firm grip on Belle's chin, and tilt her head up so I can look at her. The vamp was cute before but now, completely at my mercy, she looks downright delicious.
The leech does have some fight left in her. Her mouth contorts into a series of silent shapes as she tries to hold back the sounds of her pleasure, deeply aware of the attention on us, of the humiliation that a moan will bring her. She can't be seen like this, not just powerless against a mortal man, but enjoying it. Her pride won't allow it.
But her pride is not enough against me. I want to hear that pretty voice of hers. I intensify the power flowing through the girl, each wave battering against the girl's will, the pressure building and building. I can see the struggle on her face, the desperation as her defenses begin to crack.
And then they break entirely. A strangled moan bursts from Belle's lips. It cuts through the room and brings eyes onto us as the vampires all-around take notice of our show. Belle can feel them looking at her too, watching her defeat. Her cheeks are flushed red and even under my assault I can see the panic in her eyes as she tries and fails to stop the flow of sounds coming out of her, but she's helpless now that the barrier has been broken. The panic won't last. A little longer and the leech will start to enjoy it.
I might as well help her along.
I pull my captive's face towards me, close enough to kiss. "Tell me, Belle, what exactly were you planning on doing with me?"
"I wasn't--" Belle lets out another loud gasp as I send more power through her, killing the lie on her lips before she can finish speaking it.
"Tell the truth, or I won't be so nice."
