Darkened Days (8 page)

“Yes, wife,” he said in compliance and submission. 
God, she was lovely when she was forceful.
  Yeah, he was happily whipped.

He knocked sharply, once, on the door to the adjacent bedroom.  A singsongy voice called out, “
Come in,” and he turned the knob.

Tamesine was on the floor playing with t
wo golden retriever puppies they had sent for from her home in New Zealand.  One of them raced forward and he scooped it up into his arms.

“Daniel,” Tamesine squealed.  “Hi!  Are you here to play with the pups?”

“No,
” he said, scratching the one he held behind the ear.  He really did like the dogs. He had never in his life had a pet and he could see now why people loved them.

“Eillia needs to speak with you.”  He didn’t ha
ve to tell her where she was.  Tamesine knew.  Her connection with his son included psycho tracking…she always knew where the baby was.  Right now, that included Eillia too.

“Okay.”  She got up and smoothed down her dress.  It was too tight, and too dressy for sitting on the floor and playing with puppies.  But Tamesine rarely did anything according to social convention.  He wasn’t sure she was capable.  Still, he found it disconcerting that she wielded the strongest powers of any first blood, and could barely brush her own teeth.  It was like giving a nuclear bomb to a child.   All sorts of things could go wrong.

Just outside Paris, Starla and Henri sat
in an all- night diner, the first step in their journey away from everything they’d known since becoming vampire.  With enough food on the table to feed ten humans, they “buffeted” their way through half the entire menu of the place.  Crunching on American style potatoes, Starla swiped her mouth and killed an entire glass of diet coke.  Lifelong habit, she certainly didn’t need “diet” anything anymore, but she still ordered it.

“Where would you like to start, Henri?”

“Africa,” he said, without hesitation.  “I’ve always been fascinated with the dark continent.  Is that okay with you?”

“I love it!  Let’s do it.  Let’s go.  Have you traveled since you were changed?”

“Very little.  Not on a plane.  I think we just have to be careful crossing into daylight.”

“Umm,” Starla acknowledged, mouth too full for words.

“So, I guess we just get to the airport and go from there.  I’m excited.  Do you want to pick up some clothes and luggage here?  Or wait until we arrive?”

“I don’t care.  Maybe basics here.  Then, let’s just get on the plane.  No delay, okay?”

After this past week, Starla wanted this place behind her as quickly as possible.  She wanted to forget Eillia and Jacob ever existed.  Killing the remaining tall glass of vanilla ice cream, she grabbed Henri’s hand and they left quickly, having already compelled the waitress to believe they had paid their bill in full.

With eight hours of darkness ahead, they shopped for five, found shelter for the day, and awakened the next night with grins as they took a taxi to Charles de Gaulle Airport for the seven hour flight to Cairo.

As they waited to board the plane, Starla pulled something out of her satchel, looked at it for several long moments, then pushed it into a trash bin.  Jacob’s shirt fell twisted onto a pile of discarded food containers.

“What was that?”  Henri asked.

“Nothing.  Just…” She paused.  “Reminder of a fairytale.”

“Huh,” Henri said absentmindedly.

But as they boarded, Starla looked back at the bin.

Henri danced down the aisle as they stowed their
few items and took their seats.

While their plane circled above the airport to adjust its trajectory, Starla watched the lights fade as they left Paris behind and wondered if Jacob would remember her at all.

CHAPTER SIX

Cairo at night was an incredible sight.  Especially for a young girl who had lived her entire life in a small fishing village where she knew everyone by name and had about two options for entertainment. 

Excitement welled up from the pit of her stomach as she embarked on this journey with Henri.  The
Pyramids, the Sphinx, the diversity of cultures, new food, new music, new landscapes.  She wondered if the blood would taste different.  After all, food affects blood chemistry, so would an Egyptian’s blood
taste
different than an American’s blood?  She smiled at the notion of finding out.  Although she occupied the widow seat, Henri was practically in her lap as he tried to see the cityscape before they landed.

“
Magnifique!”
  he cried.  “You know they call Cairo Paris of the Mideast.”

“I know.  This was a perfect place to start our new lives.  Thank you, Henri, for letting me come with you.”

“I cannot imagine this trip without you.  I did not feel at home in the vam…”  He looked around at the largely empty plane, but there was a young man too near.  He lowered his voice.  “I did not feel like it was home with
them
until you came.  And I understand we are not a couple.  Do not worry.  But do not be jealous when I find myself a Nubian goddess.”

Starla smiled, her eyes bright.  “I will help you with that.”

“Ah, a threesome, you mean?”

“No.  I meant it.  I’m celibate.”  She lowered her voice, her eyes going to the passenger two rows behind them.  “I’m a celibate vampire.”

Henri dropped back into his seat and rolled his eyes.

“Not for long, you aren’t.  Sex is almost an imperative.  Like blood.”

“We need blood to live.  We do not need sex to live.”

Henri tore open a bag of nuts and began to pitch them into his mouth.

“You will see,” was all he said and turned to ask the stewardess for four bottles of each type of alcohol.  She complied as he knew she would to his command.

“Time to begin the party,” he murmured and pulled his tray out to accommodate all the little bottles of alcohol she brought to him in a small box.

“Agreed,” Starla said, and reached for the vodka.

He felt it was nearly dusk.  He hadn’t seen outside of this cell since he got here. 
A week ago?  And although he knew it was night, he still felt exhausted.

She hadn’t given him his clothes back.  He’d adapted the threadbare blanket into a wrap that covered his lower region, not out of modesty, but for comfort.  And because he knew she got off by seeing him naked and vulnerable.  She hadn’t climbed on him again, though, since that first night.  He had no illusion that it wouldn’t happen.  He didn’t know what she was waiting for, but he knew that he was nothing but a sex toy to her now. 

He’d made the mistake of asking about Starla.  And the bitch was using her now to gain his compliance.

She’d made it crystal clear that first week.

“You have an interest in the little brunette vampire?  She is lovely.  So quiet.  Still quite an innocent.  If you want her to remain that way, you give me no trouble.  Otherwise, I can arrange for some of my less, uh, gentle, soldiers to visit her in her cell. 
Comprendre?”  
Crystal made sure she was safe on the other side of the bars when she told him.

He wasn’t sure he’d ever been that homicidal.  Just at the thought of her threatening to have brutal men hurt Starla.  He held his ground, rigid, furious, helpless.

Through clenched teeth, he spoke.  He gave her a small tight nod.

“I will do what you want me to do.  Don’t hurt her. 
If I find out you do, nothing on this earth would save you.  You can fuck me or beat me.  But don’t touch her. Don’t let anyone else touch her. 
Comprendre
?”

Crystal stretched her arms high above her head lingeringly.  “I do.  I agree to your terms.  And I would have hated to have hurt her.  You’re right.  She’s sweet and innocent. But she’s angry.  Did you notice?  She was made vampire against her will.  Did you have something to do with that?  I wouldn’t be surprised.  You seem like a man who does what he wants to do. That one
is
special.  You have good taste at least.  Well, thanks for giving me power to show you that I, too, do what I want to do.”

She disappeared and he did not see her again for another three days.  He was bored and tired to
death of stale bagged blood.  Jacob began to toy with the idea of telepathy. If the first blood vampires could connect that way, and if “made” vampires like him were given the gifts of health, long life, and vitality from their blood, then, like Crystal, would it be possible he might have some abilities?  He’d thought about it a few times since the first bloods were revealed to him and his friends last year.

With nothing else to lose, Jacob dropped back down to the hard floor and tugged the blanket loose from where it was knotted at his hips, then laid it over his lap.  With closed eyes, he cleared his mind.  He tried to picture the villa.  He and Bas had lived there for the past year
.  Bas had only recently moved into a new villa just finished for him and his wife Park, six minutes down the road from Koen’s villa.  It was a little larger than Koen’s place, which was four stories, and a hidden underground tier that held panic rooms and escape routes in case of attack.  Bas had been able to have a baby with his first blood wife.  He’d teased Park, his hands curled around her taut belly, flat again after childbirth due mostly to vampire genes.

“I’m going to plant one of these little guys in there ever
y other year.  We’ll have a soccer team before you know it.”

Park had
grabbed him and pulled him to her.

“That better be a promis
e you deliver on, mister,” she said.  Nothing would make them happier.  First blood children were so rare that it had been a long time since there was a breeding couple who might be able to repeatedly become pregnant.  Bas and Park were determined to prove it could be done.  So, for that reason, Bas had the villa built with numerous additional chambers for progeny he determined they
would
have.

Alright, Jacob would try this.

He imagined a white space like he’d heard Eillia tell Park once.  Empty mind, open to the universe.  Heard himself snort in derision and his eyes opened. 

Idiot
, he chided himself. 
Take this seriously. Otherwise that bitch is going to be back for a piece of you.  And you still have to make good on your promise to protect Starla.  Get it together man.

So, Jacob took a deep breath, closed his eyes again, and emptied his mind.  Again.  It worked this time.  Relaxed and focused, he felt a sense of euphoria.  Was he connecting to someone?  He tried to reach Eillia, who sent him on this quest.  If anyone would receive him, it would be her.  She was very powerful.   Finding out she was a first blood vampire had not been a surprise.  Finding out they existed at all, had been. 

How would you send a distress signal? 
He didn’t know.  So he just stayed still, kept the position and emptiness. 
Come to Xavier’s home in Paris and rescue
me,
he thought over and over.  And over.

Nothing happened.  Lying back completely flat against the floor, he moaned.  What made him think this was possible at all?  He didn’t know any vampire that had first blood abilities.  He sat up suddenly.

No.  That wasn’t entirely true. Dez.  She used telepathy all the time.  And she was a “made” vampire like him.  She was an old, old friend who resided in South America.  And she could read and send thoughts. 

So he tried again until he was exhausted.  Tried both Eillia and Dez.  He was desperate.  And starving.  It had been twenty four hours since someone had brought
food.  His jailer was sorely lacking in providing adequate caloric intake for a vampire.  She would know better.

Why would she starve him
?  The answer struck as soon as he thought the question.

To keep him weak.  To keep control.  So he would never get free. 

Not gonna work
, he thought. 
I will get free of this
place and there will be hell to pay.

Henri was holding Starla up.  Or…was she holding him up?  Hard to say at this moment.  Neither one of them was even close to sober.  He let his hand slip past her shoulder to rest on a breast.  Ah, he missed this.

Why
didn’t she want him?  He was a big ass sexy vampire.  She should want him!

They’d
emptied all the little bottles of alcohol on the plane and continued all the way downtown in celebration of arriving in Cairo.  Time to seek daylight shelter, though, before they could explore the city.  The taxi driver had been helpful with a good lead for a quality hotel.  They would be in bed shortly to sleep until darkness arrived again.

Henri looked at Starla who was watching everything out the taxi window.  He loved her.  He’d known from the first she didn’t return the feelings.  It had been okay then.

Now, he sensed such sadness in her.  Well, always.  She’d never been like the others.  Never a happy vampire.  The sadness had always been there. Like she’d lost something. 

But lately, the sadness seemed deeper.  Waiting for the plane in Paris, he’d watched her closely.  There was something
else.  A
new
sadness.  What was it?  That older vampire at the Incognito, he wondered who he was.  But that was behind them now.  He would make her smile again.

They got a room with two full size beds and fell asleep exhilarated and exhausted as soon as their heads hit the plush pillows.

An extraordinarily busy city, Cairo was filled with energy, people from everywhere going everyplace doing everything.  It was a constant cacophony of sounds and movement.  The two young vampires turned international travelers embraced the history and beauty of this ancient land.

The first week was a whirlwind of visiting classic tourist s
pots like the Pyramids of Giza and the Sphinx, rising up from the desert, eerily lit at night, monoliths surrounded by brilliant stars and an encroaching metropolis.

And they partied.  Nightclubs, restaurants, all the things a young vampire would do in such a vibrant city. 

Watching Henri on the dance floor one night, Starla thought about her life now.

The blood.  She was okay with it.  She’d adapted to its necessity and even enjoyed it sometimes.  It ignited a sexual need
, though, but the timing was always shit.  Because the creeps she chose for her blood meals weren’t ever her type.  She felt better taking blood from people she thought deserved it.

Starla killed a second bottle of vodka, finally feeling the buzz.  She
liked
the buzz.

The sex.  She leaned over and pulled the loose strap up on her high heeled sandals.  They were very, very sexy.  Her shirt gaped and let everyone looking that direction have a nice view of her breasts.  It was really hot, even this late at night, so she’d left her bra in her room.  She looked up to see several sets of eyes land exactly there and knew the effect she had on them.  Smiling, she sat back up and scanned the dance floor.

Henri was right.  Vampire sex was intense and frequent.  Usually fast and furious.  No foreplay, no romance, no kissing.  Just the act that culminated in orgasm, and then a quick push back from your partner to probably do the same thing the next night with someone different.  Henri had been her only repeat partner.

The choice to remain celibate would be hard.  Was it cheating to pleasure yourself? 

A thought of Jacob brought a warm moist rush down there.  The memory of how she felt in Jacob’s arms when he got pissed and touched her like she’d never been touched.  His promise to do things to her that no one else could do.  The thought.  His tongue working that hypersensitive slit.  She believed him when he said she would scream in ecstasy.  But the coward was gone.   She would have nothing else to do with that betrayer.

She rolled her eyes. 
What a hypocrite!

“You’d go down on him in a New York minute, you poser,” she said out loud to herself.  It was true.  She still wanted him badly.  She couldn’t justify it to herself.  He was just an asshole sent too late to save her from her vampire fate.  He’d left her in trouble to save his own vampire ass.

“How can such a big man be such a pussy?”

She said this out loud too, as Henri came back to the table with a lovely local girl on each arm.

“Pussy?  Who’s a pussy?”

Starla shook her head and pushed his bottle of beer toward him.  “Nothing, Henri.  Just an asshole I knew.”