Here Be Sexist Vampires (20 page)

“Reuben!”

Ooh, good ole Reub was nervous. I would be too if I knew that David’s power would be heading for me shortly. God that bloke was fast: vampire speed had him at David in under a second. He touched his shoulder briefly before returning to his spot.

“David!”

Reuben stood still as a statue – there was no way to dodge David’s psionic blast. Reuben could only hope that he had weakened the power enough for it to only feel a split-second pain to the effect of a hammer hitting your head.

David, stood tall and determined, exhaled heavily and then splayed his fingers; the blast streamed from his fingertips and rushed toward Reuben. Every one of us watched intently – if Reuben hadn’t weakened the power well enough, he’d end up unconscious. If Reuben had accidentally strengthened David’s blast...he would die.

I think all of us released a brief sigh of relief when Reuben simply flinched and brought his hand to his head. I didn’t give them time to celebrate though.

“Stuart!”

This was the big test for Stuart. I watched as he stiffened and then, like before, exploded. I continued to watch as the molecules rushed toward the vampire opposite him. Max jerked backwards as Stuart, in under a second, reassembled in front of him. “Hi there,” he said to Max, winking. He had every reason to be chuffed with himself though.

“Denny!”

I wondered if Denny might use his anal musk on Harvey. It wasn’t that he didn’t like him, but Harvey picked on David a lot – who happened to be Denny’s best friend. Instead, Denny flexed his hands, making them appear more like claws, and then sprayed yellowy-green ooze from his thumbs and smallest fingers – the times when he attacked were the only moments that his baby face looked in any way threatening. The ooze was sturdy and stringy, wrapping around Harvey like a web in spite of his telekinetic efforts to divert it – there was just too much of it. Denny’s dimply smile surfaced instantly.

“Butch!”

Knowing what I wanted him to do, Butch placed his hands in front of his chest, palms out, in the same way that he had before. This time, instead of leaving them there he forcefully extended his arms in front of him and then spread them to the side, pushing his invisible shield outwards and all around him.

“Chico, David, Salem – get him now!”

Thorns, a psionic blast, and a psychic punch came at Butch from different directions...but all of it hit the shield.

Last but not least...

“Damien!”

I was very surprised when he didn’t hesitate or lick his lips nervously; this was the first time I had seen him sure of himself. So sure of himself that his dark skin wasn’t shimmering with sweat. He blinked hard and then, suddenly, his astral self was lounging on the floor in front of Chico, giggling in exhilaration.

With that, the eyes of every recruit concentrated on me, all of them keen to jump for joy but desperately wanting my approval first. I made them sweat by keeping silent a few seconds. “
Now
you can do a sing and a dance,” I said with a smile.

They practically did. Butts wiggled and arms shot up toward the sky, and I heard plenty of whoops and an ‘Oh yeah baby!’ and an ‘Al
right
!’ as they revelled in their own accomplishment.

Then they were all heading toward me.

“Oh no you don’t,” I warned them, one finger pointing at them. They appeared to be ignoring it as they were still coming at me. “Don’t you dare!” Too late. I was scooped up by Reuben and hung over his shoulder while he bounced. “This is a bit dramatic!”

I ended up with some of Denny’s ooze that had been dripping from Harvey now
in my hair. Not so happy about that.

I heard cheering and clapping from the spectators’ box. I looked up. Evan was smiling and nodding, impressed as he called out ‘whoo’ and clapped. He was also alone.

“I don’t know what to say,” Evan said as he reached me and we began a slow walk out of the arena en-route to the apartment block. The recruits were still celebrating their glory further on ahead of us, heading to their own apartment block by the looks of things.

“You could say something flattering,” I suggested light-heartedly.

“I just...I never expected them to be in such control. It took my squad a long time before they reached that point. Don’t take that the wrong way, I’m not saying that I didn’t think you were capable -”

I interrupted before he tripped over his words. “It’s alright, I know what you were trying to say.”

“I’ve got to ask: you’ve been around my squad, right? Did you pick up any excess energy around them?”

I bit my bottom lip. “Yeah,” I finally admitted. “And there’s a little around you, too, if I’m honest.”

“Really?” He looked mortified though he was smiling. “I guess you’ll have to give me and my squad a lesson some time. You know, you’re a good coach. I take it you had a good coach to pick that up from.”

My smile faded. “Not exactly.” Before he could ask for me to elaborate I quickly asked, “So did Jared decide not to stay and watch?”

“He stayed to the end but then scarpered pretty quickly. Said he had somewhere to be.” His tone suggested he hadn’t believed that excuse. “Have you two had a falling out or something?”

I giggled. “Jared and I have never had a friendship to fall out of. Even our business relationship is beyond strained. Antonio employing me hurt his ego. You must know how your brother cherishes that ego.”

There was silence for a moment. “I don’t think it’s just that.”

“You mean the fact that I ‘wouldn’t let him screw me’, as you so aptly put it during your telepathic conversation with him.”

His cheeks reddened. “I can’t believe you heard that. Jared said absorbing some of his energy must have made you tune into it. He wouldn’t say much about the absorbing his energy part.” His tone was probing.

“There’s nothing to tell. I was in a bad way after killing Victor, and Jared let me absorb some of his energy.” I shrugged as if to emphasise the simplicity of it all.

“Well that confirms my suspicions.”

“Suspicions?”

“Jared doesn’t give anyone anything, let alone his energy. Like I said before, I don’t think his problem is just a wounded ego. I think he likes you, a lot actually.”

I gave him a doubtful look. “I fail to see how you could make that conclusion when he barely speaks or looks at me. He asked me to join his consort collection, yeah, but that’s just about sex. He’s been sulking ever since I said no.”

Evan pointed a finger at me. “But, see, that’s the thing with Jared. He’s never really liked a woman in more than a physical sense. So he doesn’t know how to handle it. He just knows that he wants you and probably thinks that if he screws you it’ll all make sense.”

“So you’re attuned to him, are you,” I mocked playfully.

“It’s a twin thing. Actually, when we were human we were really close. There wasn’t a part of his life that I didn’t know about, and vice versa. We did almost everything together.”

“What changed?”

“Jared.” He didn’t say it with bitterness or even disappointment, but understanding. “As soon as he was made Heir he totally changed. His ego was more inflated than ever before. He loved the attention and the respect and the rewards and the power that came with it all.”

“So he forgot about you, kind of left you behind?”

“Oh no, nothing like that. He wanted me to live the high life with him. He had the power to give it to me, he had the girls to share...but I wasn’t interested. He never took it personally, he respected that – even though he didn’t understand why – I didn’t want that kind of life.”

“You
are
a bit of an enigma.”

“I am?” He sounded amused.

“I get that power and attention isn’t what you feel you need in life. But everybody feels that they need something; little or big. And yet you just plod along, but always smiling. Even though you’ve never been short of offers from women you’ve turned them down, though I’m told that in the very beginning you were almost as bad as Jared. I’ve never once seen you even harmlessly flirt with anyone. Should I assume that there was a woman from your human life who you can’t forget?”

He smiled and then scrutinised my face. I got the idea that he was wondering how much or how little to say on the subject, whether or not he could trust me. I tried to assure him with my smile that he could.

Finally he made a puffing sound and sat down on the lawn outside the rear of the Mansion. “You know Luther has visions, right?” he asked. I nodded and I sat beside him. “Has Antonio ever asked you if you wanted to have one via Luther?”

“Yeah. I didn’t understand it, though.”

“In mine, I was in the rainforest somewhere, and I was waiting really anxiously for someone, worried they were in danger. Then Jared and two women appeared, and I almost collapsed in relief. One of them had blazing red hair and pale blue eyes and the most amazing smile you’ve ever seen. My emotions in the vision weren’t very clear, but I could feel that she was mine. Since then, I couldn’t bring myself to be with another woman, it would have felt like I was being unfaithful. That might sound weird.”

“No, no it doesn’t at all. You’re waiting for her. It’s really sweet.”

“After time just kept dragging on and she never showed, I was starting to think that maybe she was never going to. That maybe I’d made some sort of decision somewhere along the line that had changed the future. But then you came, and you can’t imagine how much optimism flowed through me.”

“What do you mean?”

“You were the other woman in my vision. You and Jared brought her to me.”

My eyebrows jumped up. “Oh.”

He laughed. “Yeah,
oh
.”

Well I really didn’t know how I felt about that.

“Spooked?” he asked, amused.

“Sort of. You’ve never told Jared about her,” I realised.

“He wouldn’t understand. He’s always loved himself too much for anyone else to have a chance,” he added jokingly. It truly wasn’t an insult, more of a playful comment. He was so close to Jared and yet so far apart. It made me sad. “I knew that if I told him he’d laugh about it and say she must be a really good screw for me to feel that. I didn’t want to hear that, I didn’t want him to taint it.”

“Don’t worry, I’m not going to tell him or anyone else.”

“I know.” It was said with utter confidence and trust. “You know that Jared’s a little unhappy about how much we talk and stuff, don’t you?”

“My guess is he’s worried you’ll manage to get in my pants when he couldn’t. That would be a huge blow to his ego.”

Evan laughed. “Yeah, it certainly would.”

“But I’ve never once felt like you were coming onto me.”

“In my vision, I could feel that I was relieved you were okay. That I cared about you just like a sister, the sister I never had. And I do, already.”

“And I think of you as a brother.”

His expression was so cheery. I guessed that hearing me say I felt that way was making everything click into place for him, giving him even more optimism that this girl would soon be in his life.

“You didn’t say the brother you
never
had. So you had a brother? Any sisters?”

“Nope. My mum and dad were workaholics, totally obsessed with the business they ran that didn’t even make any money, and they barely had time for me, let alone any other kids. I was a big disappointment to them because I wasn’t driven to follow in their footsteps and join the crappy family business. I have to say though it seems like an appealing future now, but no sense in dwelling.”

“Hey, you’ve done okay for yourself in your new life. So far you’ve got the big job, the flashy apartment, the hefty salary. All that’s missing is the husband. Anyone wanting to be your husband would either have to be incredibly turned on by being challenged, or quite content to be submissive in every way.”

“The latter wouldn’t be interesting.”

“Well I know of one person who fits the first.”

“Say your brother’s name and I’ll whip you senseless.”

“I was going to say Max,” he giggled. “I’m not going to root for Jared when I know what he wants is for you to be a consort, you’re better than that.”

“That’s what
I
said.” I was nice to hear someone tell me that there had been reason and rhyme to my choice. After the way Jared had overreacted I had occasionally wondered if I was being fussy or stupid because whether I was his consort or just a casual shag, the result was still the same; sex and nothing else.

Of course Fletcher had supported my position but he also believed that I needed a good one-off shag to burn off all the aggression and horniness so he wasn’t all that bothered who that shag was, even if it was Jared. If Jared’s own brother thought he was being idiotic, then maybe I wasn’t being as harsh as Jared thought.

Chapter Nine

(Sam)

The hammering at my apartment door switched my posture to confrontational. I could only think of one person who would be so pissed off with me that he would knock like the rent man. But when I swung the door open, my face a mask of aggravation, I was met with a scene that I would never have guessed at.

“Coach!” crooned Denny.

“Hey,” greeted Stuart.

“I was kind of hoping we’d have got you at a bad time – like a
naked
time.” Typical Harvey. Max dug an elbow into Harvey’s ribs.

“What’re you all doing here?” I asked.

“Coming to get you,” said Max as if it was obvious. “All ten of us are going down to the Barcelona bar, and you’re coming with us.”

“Isn’t the Barcelona a men only bar?”

“Tonight was a big achievement for us, and we couldn’t have done it without all your training. We’re going out to celebrate, you’re our Coach, so you’re coming with us.” Max had said it like it was a mathematical equation.

“I’m not sure whether I should be offended that you see me as one of the boys...?”

“Don’t tell us you don’t want to get out of that apartment for one night,” said Denny.

“We could always carry you there...” Max let the idea taunt me.