Kiss of the Vampyre Ch. 02

Their rubber-damped footsteps brought them to a narrow lane behind Green Park, the same lane where they had made their landing from their flight from the Netherworld, where oily tarmac was coated with gravel, dirt and a few hapless weeds that had taken root amongst the grime and were creeping up the stone side of the bridge, which walled off one side of the lane.

The opposite side of the lane was walled by an ugly flat building that housed a rank of workshops. Wide sliding doors hid the entrances to various small units, their business betrayed by old and faded signboards: a supplier to the electrician's trade; a classic car restorer; an industrial welder; a small garage and MOT test centre. At the far end of the lane were two units, one door unnamed, the other tagged with a black billboard on which were airbrushed words in red flame: Demon Motorcycles. Light played under heavy brown sliding doors, and tinny rock music filtered out from inside.

Elly knocked three times on the doors, waited, and Becca listened as the music stopped, a lock was drawn, and the door slid partially open, bringing the smell of old oil and petrol fumes and grinding swarf and the heady scent of sweat out into the cold night air. A big man's face appeared, hairless and shiny in the bright light from overhead halogen lamps in the workshop behind him.

He nodded wordlessly at Elly, widened the gap in the sliding door, beckoned them to enter with a huge hand. Becca followed Elly into the workshop, hands in her pockets and eyes on the floor as she expected to have to pick her way through patches of oil. It was surprisingly clean, the concrete so grey and pristine that it almost reflected the light from overhead, and the workshop glowed with uniform cleanliness.

Tools were racked neatly around the walls, pillar drills and lathes stood like faceless robots near one corner, and clean engine parts were arranged around the rubber-matted work surface that ran around two walls of the shop. Two motorcycle lifts occupied the centre of the workshop, one empty, one proudly holding aloft a black motorcycle with flames along its tank and an empty space where its engine should be.

"Wasn't expecting you tonight." The big man said, picking up some tools from the stand and placing them on their appropriate hooks on the rack. He dipped his hands into a pot of cleansing jelly, worked it into his skin with a sound that reminded Becca of a rather messy porno that she'd watched with disinterest at a friend's party, leant against the work surface and spoke with a heavy and powerful voice turned so low that it was barely more than a grunt. "To what do I owe the pleasure?"

"I want you to meet someone." Elly said. "Euwan, this is Becca. Becca, meet Euwan."

Euwan nodded casually towards Becca, didn't offer his jellied hand to be shaken. Big, powerful arms bulged from an oily white sleeveless t-shirt that was stretched tight over his chest, and leather biker trousers hid his legs and the tops of his steel-capped boots from view. He picked up an off-white rag from the bench and scraped the jelly from his hands, taking most of the oily residue with it. "Human?" He asked.

"Turning." Elly said. Becca held Euwan's big, round face, his rugged cheeks and deep-set brown eyes in her gaze as Elly spoke, and she noticed how his eyes narrowed and lips pursed as she said that one word. He pierced Elly with a stare, thrust his chin forward just a fraction, but said nothing.

"Becca, Euwan is a good friend of mine." Elly continued, reaching into Becca's pocket to extract her hand and hold it. Becca turned to stare into Elly's green eyes, but couldn't hold her gaze there for longer than a few rapid heartbeats before it was dragged back to the imposing bulk of Euwan. "You can trust him with anything. Can't she, Euwan?"

Euwan looked from Elly to Becca and back, before finally settling his eyes on Becca's and cracking a smile in his gravely cheeks. "Me and Elyssia go a long way back." He said. "Anything you need, come to old Euwan."

"He's like us." Elly said. "Not a vampyre: a demon, born in the Netherworld, but lives here in the human world like me."

"That's right." Euwan said. "A nightwalker, just like you will be."

"Is anyone else in?" Elly asked quietly, turning to Euwan. Becca let her eyes wander around the workshop, but kept her ears on the conversation. "We need to talk."

"Gekko is in the kitchen." Euwan replied. "Otherwise, the place is empty."

"Good. Becca, come with me a moment." Elly said, leading her by the hand through an open doorway into a narrow passage at the back of the unit that led to a large kitchen that was as untidy as the workshop was clean. An old microwave festered in faded yellow on one corner of a damp-distorted worktop in which a stainless steel sink had been loosely placed, held up only by PVC pipework and what looked like cut-down scaffold poles wedged into place. A battered fridge buzzed noisily under a pile of magazines, and some wall cabinets hung doorless or twisted on the walls, containing stacks of tinned soup, spaghetti hoops and baked beans. Dirty, mismatching mugs were piled in the sink, and the room smelt of stale caffeine.

A small kitchen table stood in the nearest corner, around which two plastic chairs had been roughly placed, and against the far wall lay an ancient sofa trimmed in tasteless orange and draped with a green rug. A young man, early twenties, with spiky dark hair and a pinched face reclined on the sofa. Headphones covered his ears which blared out a fast-paced jungle rhythm while his thumbs worked furiously at a portable video game that he held in front of his intense eyes. Colourful tattoos of flames and dragons twisted down both bare arms as far as his wrists and onto the backs of his hands.

"Gekko." Elly said. The young man didn't move. "Gekko!" Still he didn't respond. Finally Elly let go of Becca's hand, stalked across the room, pulled off the young man's headphones and shouted into his ear: "Gekko!"

The music paused with a joyous twinkle, and Gekko looked slowly from his screen, into Elly's eyes, only two inches from his own. "What?" He said softly, after a pause.

"This is Becca." Elly said, straightening, holding her hand palm-outwards to Becca. "Come here, Becca, meet Gekko." She said. She turned back to the young man. "Look after her for me, I have to talk to Euwan. Make her a drink. Becca, sweetie, just give me a few moments, I'll be right back. You'll be alright with Gekko, he's one of us too."

Elly turned and walked briskly back to the workshop before Becca could say anything. She looked away from her retreating back, looked to Gekko, who shrugged his shoulders wordlessly with a raised-browed, down-lipped expression of disinterested dismissal, replaced his headphones, and resumed his game.

Tinny music filled the kitchen again. Becca watched Gekko for a while, her feet tingling as she sought for the courage to move, before she was finally able to turn away and walk back to the entrance to the kitchen. She leant her back to the wall, ostensibly looking around at the garish posters of motorcycles and half-naked women that adorned the walls, but surreptitiously straining her ears to hear what was going on in the workshop.

She overheard Elly say something that she didn't catch, and then pause. "Can you arrange that?" Her voice said.

There was a sound of air being sucked through teeth. "That's short notice." Euwan said. "You're not due for another few days. Takara will have some packs in the chiller, I can get Gekko to go..."

"No, we'll need a live donor. This is important." There was a long pause. She heard Euwan breathe in sharply through his nose, breaking the silence that was punctuated only by the music from Gekko's game.

"Her first time?" Euwan asked. There was no reply, or at least none that Becca heard -- just another long pause. "Then you'll want a good quiet bleeder. I'll get Gekko on the case in the morning. One of our regulars is almost ready again. If she's free tomorrow, and if she passes the medical, she'll be good for a pint, maybe two."

There was another pause. "That'll be enough." Elly said at last.

The silence in the kitchen became tangible as the taste of tin in the air. Becca refocused her eyes, realised she had been staring into space as she listened intently. She lowered her vacant stare from a poster on the wall, saw Gekko staring at her through dark eyes, headphones hanging around his neck and video game switched off.

"Are you supposed to be listening?" He asked, his voice flat and free of tension, as if he didn't really care what Becca's answer would be and was perhaps only asking to scare her into thinking he would tell Elly. She shrugged, looked down at the creased lino floor, kicked her heels idly. She realised a minute too late that she could have retorted: "Are you supposed to be making me a drink?" -- but she hadn't thought of it in time, and to say it late would sound lame. She wondered how long he'd been watching her over the top of his screen before he switched off the sound to attract her attention.

Footsteps sounded in the corridor and Becca pushed herself from the wall, walked towards the old table, stopped to turn just in time for Elly's shadow to creep around the doorway.

"All done." She said. "Come with me, let's go for a walk."

Becca said nothing as she was led back into the lane, kept her eyes to the ground as Euwan said a surprisingly cheery goodbye and hugged Elly in his huge arms. The heavy door slid shut behind them and they walked under the road bridge, followed the footpath along the river in the direction of Bristol. She waited until they were some way away before she spoke. "Does Euwan always work past midnight?"

"We're night creatures." Elly explained. "Demons don't sleep. He works at night, meets customers during the day. Demons call themselves nightwalkers, but actually they're not as susceptible to sunlight as us. Strong summer sunlight would make his skin crack after thirty minutes, but he regularly goes out this time of year. An English winter is no problem."

"Oh." Becca replied. "It was all about me, wasn't it?"

"What was?"

"Your conversation. You're getting someone for me to drink blood from."

Elly was silent for a moment. "Yes." She said eventually, her voice flat and precise.

"I don't want to drink blood."

Elly reached out with a slender hand, took her shoulder and hugged her tightly as they walked onto a damp grassy park in front of a crescent of Georgian houses. "Try not to think about it. It's a normal part of life, and you'll get used to it in time. You'll come to enjoy it. There's nothing to be afraid of."

"You're going to hurt someone."

"With their permission." Elly stated. "We don't abduct people like we used to."

"You abducted me." Becca said. She braced herself for Elly's response, wondering if she would be offended, wondering if she had a right to be.

"That was different." Elly's voice was suddenly flat, emotionless.

"Why?" Becca spat in reply. She was brought up short as Elly stopped, forcefully turned under her slender arms and held fast before her green eyes, all of a sudden cold and icy.

An arm locked around her waist, preventing her escape, and a hand brushed delicately into her purple hair, its thumb caressing her cheek. Becca put her hand onto Elly's shoulder, braced weakly against it, fearing that she might have to struggle to escape if Elly attacked. Was she going to attack?

"Because..." Elly began, her voice as cold as her eyes. "Because..." She said again, her voice a little softer. Finally she looked away, at the floor. When she looked back the ice in her eyes had melted and turned to water. "Because you're the most beautiful thing I've ever seen."

Becca said nothing. There was no reply to such a statement that she could think of, stunned as she was and trapped in Elly's intense, dreamy gaze.

"From the moment I saw you, I knew I had to have you. What I did was wrong, I knew then and I know now, but I'd do it all over again, and for that reason I'm not sorry for what I did. I'll only be sorry if you decide you don't want to stay with me. But that will be your choice, eventually. If I'd never turned you, I'd never know."

Becca was rigid in Elly's arms, unable to pull her eyes from her stare and unable to free herself from her delicately-caressing hands. "I don't know what I want." She said.

"I know, and I understand. You don't have to make any decision right now. You'll make it when you're ready. Until then, I'm here to help you. Nothing more."

Finally Becca managed to look away, focussed her eyes on the Georgian crescent and its distant junction with a bigger road, where some traffic still moved despite the late hour. When she looked back Elly was looking elsewhere, her eyes lost somewhere in the trees, glassy and unfocussed.

"Elly?" She said, her voice no more than a whisper and wavering slightly, with cold or nervousness she wasn't sure. Elly looked back and they locked eyes once more, but she said nothing. Becca swallowed, licked her lips. "Kiss me." She whispered.

For a moment Elly was still, and then she moved inwards, relaxed her arms, cradled Becca's head as their lips met and parted. Becca's tongue entangled and danced around Elly's, and as she probed she felt it drag across her needle-sharp teeth.

"I'm going to have to be careful, kissing you." Becca whispered as she broke free and wiped her lips with her finger to check for blood from her tongue.

"I won't bite you." Elly whispered back. "Just be careful."

Becca returned her lips to Elly's, the heat of the kiss warming her from inside and thawing her frozen arms, softening them, making them flow up Elly's back under her light leathery wings where her fingers crawled, stroking her through her cotton top.

A bright beam of light passed over them and Elly turned quickly, a wing extending with a snap as quick as a whip to wrap around Becca's body so that only her eyes peered over its thin-boned ridge. She felt immediately cosseted behind the wing, a little shocked, but sheltered from the cold air and in a place of great safety. She wondered if Elly's lightning response had been instinctive, or if her reactions really were that fast -- either way, it belied Elly's protective nature in a way that Becca hadn't so far seen, and she couldn't help a smile wash across her face. Nobody had ever been protective of her before.

With her exposed eyes she saw a battered old saloon car roll slowly along the crescent. Cars were parked down both sides and the end of the road met raised pavement and iron railings at the riverbank, but the old sedan neither parked nor turned; it stopped in the middle of the road, engine off and hazard lights on. A young man in a bright blue pizza shop jacket jumped out carrying large flat bag, ran for a door in the terrace, pressed a buzzer and disappeared inside moments later.

Becca remained locked under Elly's wing until the pizza boy had returned and reversed his car out of the narrow street. Elly only relaxed once he had gone. "Are you cold?" She asked quietly. "You're shivering."

Becca nodded. Elly's wing, still extended around her, curved delicately to embrace her shoulder, providing some protection from the cold air. She took her hand from her pocket, found Elly's and gripped it gently. "Come on." Elly continued. "Let's get back inside and get you warmed up."

They began to walk back along the river in the direction of Green Park.

"Hey, can we get pizza?" Becca asked, as they passed out of the shadow of the trees and onto the footpath.

"You're hungry again?" Elly giggled.

"I like pizza."

"Sure. No meat."

Becca smiled.

"And then bed for you afterwards, I think." Elly continued. "We've got a big day tomorrow, we'll need to be up before it gets dark, and I can see you're very tired."

* * *

Becca woke up lazily, stretching under a soft cotton-covered duvet. She smelt of sweat, both hers and Elly's. She lifted her head, gazed around the bedroom. Elly was stretched out next to her, wings half-unfurled across the bed, pale and beautiful in the morning light that filtered through the heavy curtains.

She supposed it was going to feel weird for a little while, getting used to being awake at night and asleep during the day. Her body clock wasn't used to it, and it told her that she should be getting up to go about her daily business. Elly was snoring lightly, faint breaths blowing through her nose, and would probably sleep all day if she wasn't woken up, Becca thought, for her internal clock would tell her that it was time for her to sleep. For Becca, it wasn't. They'd stayed up a while after eating a vegetarian pizza and listened to CDs turned down quiet on Elly's stereo, and when she finally couldn't keep her eyes open any more Elly had put her to bed alone before she continued with her regular night, doing whatever it was vampyres did in the dark hours of an English November morning.

Tired though Becca was, she knew that sleep would prove elusive if she didn't get up for a while. Perhaps a drink would help. She slipped carefully out of the bed so as not to disturb Elly, closed the bedroom door with as much care as she could manage, and crept across the lobby to the kitchen. There was a bottle of fresh milk in the fridge to which she helped herself, using a glass from the cupboard. She found a tub of biscuits, which were only partially stale, and ate a couple, dropping crumbs onto the lino as she stepped over to the window, drew back a heavy curtain, wiped away a layer of condensation with the back of her hand and looked out onto a pale autumn morning under white overcast sky.

The window overlooked the row of units behind the terrace; there, at the end, was Demon Motorcycles. The lights were on in an upstairs office, and a couple of old white vans were parked outside. She listened carefully, could hear the sounds of a tinny radio playing and a spanner chiming as it landed on a concrete floor, but that could have come from any of the units.

She stepped back hurriedly when she remembered what Elly had said -- that even an overcast sun could burn her skin, but perhaps she hadn't changed enough yet, for she didn't seem to be harmed. Her belly was perhaps a little pinker than normal, but it didn't sting. She lowered the curtain anyway, moved away from the window, finished her milk, brushed some crumbs from her naked belly into a pedal bin, feeling a mild sting like sand-rash -- perhaps she had burnt, just a little, in those few minutes that she'd spent at the window. She'd have to be more careful.

Her skin felt sticky, her face greasy, and her body smelt of stale sweat. She itched between her legs, and she could imagine the fangs of a hundred microscopic creatures biting her there. She hadn't showered since the night of the party, when Elly had taken her. Would Elly mind if she used her shower?

The water hissed loudly from the showerhead in the bathroom, and for a moment she stilled herself, afraid that it might wake Elly from her late-morning slumber. She pulled shut the door, hung a towel on the hook there and pressed another against the gap at its bottom to muffle as much sound as possible, then climbed into the old enamel bath.

The water was bracingly cold, but warmed as the shower elements came up to temperature, lancing down on her dirty skin and dissolving days worth of sweat and grease. She lathered herself with gel from a half-empty bottle, squeezed it into her hair and worked it into her scalp, revelling in the sensation of clean bubbles after so long unwashed. As the dirt fell from her body so her spirits began to soar, and an elation rose in her chest that she wasn't quite prepared for.

She sung quietly to herself, her mind suddenly back in the bedroom in the old castle, playing with Elly's body and urging her to orgasm. She'd never done that to another person before, man or woman, and it was so different to what she expected. At the time she'd been nervous, terrified even, but she'd done what felt like the right thing to do, and it had worked. Elly had enjoyed it. A few pointers along the way had been enough; instinct had done the rest.