Like Blood for Coffee Pt. 02

They found Tim the intern dead the week after Fulbright shipped. Noth's assistant woke her hours before sunset with the news, rapping it out on the panels of her hidden coffin. Bite marks, died from blood loss.

Noth texted from inside: Westwood poncho. Wraparound glasses. James in car.

The blackout shades were drawn and heavy bottomed jar of suncream waited on her bedside table when she emerged. The bed was unmade; Eiri slept there, leaving for work a few hours after Noth had turned in that morning. The blindfold and silk ribbon were neatly put away in her bedside cabinet, and she took another moment to appreciate his meticulous attention to detail.

They fucked furiously in the days following the launch party, sometimes as many as four times in a night. Noth hadn't told him yet when her wedding would occur, in no hurry to terminate their arrangement. She didn't want petty human feelings like jealousy or separation anxiety to spoil whatever time they had left.

Briefly, she checked her wrists - the coffin slumber healed all wounds, but sometimes she could still see silvery traces of their rough play on her skin. She saw a thin line over the base of her palm where the silk ribbon, stiff stiff with her cum from the boutique, gouged into it. She pressed her lips to the mark, lovingly.

"Director?" Her assistant waited downstairs by the door, shifting from foot to foot, making the antique floorboards creak. Anxious.

"Coming." She swiped on the cream, donned the sun-blocking clothes laid out for her and tucked the Starbuck employee badge into a pocket of the poncho before descending into daylight. In the car, she drank from James, one of the human slaves reserved for feeds and employed by Starbucks as administrative assistants. When she finished, he rested his head in her lap to recover, and she read the executive summary on her phone on the drive in, stroking his hair, wishing it were Eiri with her instead.

Multiple bite marks on the neck, chest, groin, she read. The intern was found naked, but it wasn't clear if he'd died that way. Definitely looks bad for us. She sent a calendar invite to the other three Ipomoea family members, flagged high priority. The first thing they'd see when they woke at sundown.

Her fiance waited for her in the south conference room, surrounded by lawyers. Eldunord du Air, the eldest son of the family, was an old elf - his whorled skin long since gnarled and flaked with bark. His face, rendered nearly immobile by the hardening of the skin, showed little expression. But his hair, all leaves and twigs tangled with silvered gossamer strands, stood on edge, rustling. Betraying his agitation.

He's angry with me, Noth realized. The shades were drawn against the late afternoon sun for her sake, but she spied narrow cracks of light along the wall where the blinds weren't fastened properly. For the elves, always so meticulous, this was a deliberate slight against her, not an oversight. She kept to the far side of the room, leaning on the sideboard laid with coffee service.

"Dearest," he greeted her, "I hope you slept well."

"Of course, darling," Noth replied without even a trace of irony. Elves were not big on sarcasm; and she doubted he would even care that she had a lover stay the night. For all she knew, he dallied ten nymphs a night while they dwelled apart as an unmarried couple. "What happened to that poor boy?"

"Apparently attacked somewhere onsite. Security believes he was dragged outside from West Campus," Eldunord was watching her closely. She could not read his mind, but she intuited he suspected her.

"While still alive?" Noth asked, trying to sound shocked instead of morbidly curious. She needed to appear as cooperative as possible in the early stages of an investigation. "How horrible!"

"We do not know." Her husband gestured to one of the lawyers - a human male who looked to be in his sixties - and explained, "Fontaine believes it could be espionage, related to the lunchroom incident eight weeks ago."

Noth felt a little flutter in her belly, thinking of that night, of Eiri stretched over her, his cock buried deep inside her. It felt like so long ago. Each time he took her felt like another lifetime together.

"We'd like to speak with all vampires on staff," the lawyer Fontaine said. "And... perhaps it would be possible to collect impressions of your teeth...?"

Noth stiffened. "The bites were consistent with fangs...? I didn't read that in the summary."

Under her icy gaze, the lawyer paled and glanced at her fiance. Eldunord soothed him with a subtle gesture and the hypocrisy of the elves struck Noth anew. They say they don't keep slaves, but, my, how they love to keep pets...

"No one has accused you," the man who would become her husband said. "But a human dies of blood loss where there are vampires about. Is it really so unreasonable to rule out yourselves out as suspects at the outset? You have nothing to fear."

Don't I? She eyed the lawyer. We both know I'm not the only bloodsucker, here.

...

In her office, she prepared for the fallout. Whenever lawyers got involved, deadlines had a way of slipping. The work equivalent of cock-blocked.

She sent a note to her VP, warning him of a possible delay in the global rollout. Then, she rescheduled the marketing and analytics syncs, moving as many of the meetings up as she could. She canceled what couldn't be moved.

Her kin met for their daily standup half an hour after sundown, three young vampire cousins of the Ipomoea family under her mentorship. Noth informed them of the situation, had the autopsy report ready for them to review.

"Thoughts?" she asked, aloud. It would have been faster to speak in minds, but her office was likely now under surveillance. To ward off as much as suspicion as possible, the vampires had to be as exaggerated as they could in communication. Lawyers did so love their sordid discovery phase.

No vampire did this, Chuka, the eldest, declared, meeting her eyes. Aloud, she said, "Look at the pattern - it's almost a perfect oval. More than twenty marks per bite."

No vampires uses all their teeth, though Antonious, the youngest. These racist assholes don't know shit about us! He said nothing aloud, apparently too agitated to come up with something banal. Noth would have to correct his lapse later.

"And look at the punctures from the incisors - too small," said Philomena, the middle child by age. Why should they suspect us? We've been here half a year already and I know I haven't killed anyone...

"His blood was sucked out of those wounds," Noth said. We may not be the only thing that feeds on blood, but we are the obvious suspects. "Legal wants to take impressions of our teeth."

Now Antonious piped up, "That's ridiculous. I won't do it!"

"It's standard crime investigation procedure. They'll probably do it to the humans, too." Noth fixed her gaze on him, pressing. Get it together, or go home. "Refusal to cooperate is tantamount to guilt. Due processes means nothing to elves."

And you're going to marry one of them? Chuka thought at her. What a nightmare...

Noth bared her fangs, ran her tongue over the tips of them, a silent gesture of dominion. Chuka paled at the sight and gestured a mute apology.

The Director faced her reports, probing hard at each of them with her mind. They were tired, annoyed, and hungry from not feeding as frequently as they liked given their workload. But none of them had done it.

"I'll have a neutral third party take the impressions," she said. "Look for a calendar invite later in the week." We're not going to risk evidence tampering from some racist elf-pig. "Also - I expect some kind of corporate governance to go into effect. A murdered intern is probably grounds for a sexual harassment seminar, at least."

All three vampires groaned aloud.

...

Everything happened just as she predicted: Legal haggled with her over which authorized third party could take impressions of vampire teeth; her follow-up meetings for Fulbright started slipping; calendar invites for management training began to fill her inbox, completely blocking out the following week.

Far more alarming, her husband spent less time with her in the morning and the evening when their work schedules overlapped. He didn't even meet her for their usual walk under the stars at the full moon. Clan Air were freezing her out, either to cast suspicion on her further, or because they really believed her guilt.

With the discipline born of centuries in work experience, Noth rode it out. She had the verified data she needed from marketing to prove that her work met all the key performance indicators agreed upon by House Air and Ipomoea. She had the operations reports to prove she came in under budget, despite the delays. She had her own lawyers. All she needed to do was wait for the dead intern investigation to clear to move forward with the marriage her father wanted. And then she'd make her bonus for the century and relax a bit while her husband still worked. Silly elves still operated on fiscal quarters.

It helped that she had a distraction. She invited Eiri over nearly every night - and he had yet to turn her down. She savored his company, drawing out their encounters until she exhausted him - panting, sweating, sprawled out beside her wherever they fucked. He gave as good as he got, learning new and more meticulous ways to please her; leaving her stretched, sore, and satisfied when she climbed into her coffin at dawn.

Tonight when she ducked out of work early to meet him at her apartment, he greeted her by commanding her to strip right as she got in the door. He bound her hands behind her with the satin ribbon from her expensive dress and led her upstairs, positioning her against one of the four posts of her bed.

He took the belt she'd discarded at the door and wound her belt around both her neck and the post of the bed. Noth writhed under his hands, shaking with anticipation for what he'd invent this time, fighting to hold still. Eiri's movements were careful, deliberate. So maddeningly slow. It was one of the things she loved best about him, and she took a special joy in knowing she'd chosen well.

He's so well made, she thought, watching his forearms flex as he tightened the belt around her neck. His skin was smooth and clear, the supple bands of his tendons rippling below the dusky surface. She wanted to press her face to his arm, to bit down hard until she tasted him. The belt tightened, binding her neck to the hard metal bedpost, strangling her wanton moan into a desperate squeak.

"Quiet," he said, slapping her face.

"Yes, Master." Blood rushed to her cheeks and her knees wobbled. She fought to stay upright, to keep herself in parallel with the strap around her neck. It was a wide, thick brushed leather belt with brass studs and semiprecious stones around the buckle - the kind of thing the elves hated, and one of Noth's favorite pieces to wear when she wanted to flout them. It was why she gave it to Eiri to use on her.

"Punish me," she said. "Please..."

He liked it when she begged. At first, Noth avoided speaking during their play - it minimized the chances of him seeing her fangs, which troubled him so. But after their time together in the dress boutique, he warmed to the sight of her mouth, commanding her to open it while he touched himself. He'd stare at her, kneeling between his legs while he sat on the edge of her bed or in the backseat of the car, and spend onto her face, splashing her tongue. He didn't try put it in her mouth again.

Noth wondered why, but didn't try to read his mind to find out. She didn't want to know. Can't let it get too far...

Any day now, she would be married. Eldunord was indulgent in many ways, but he wouldn't tolerate her to continue working. Noth had no pretext under which to bring Eiri with her when she left. And she knew he would not want to go.

She watched him undress, stripping off his cotton tunic, unlacing the ridiculous man-tights elves loved to see stretched over human legs. His body, hard and masculine, emerged from the cocoon of androgynous shapelessness and Noth drank in the sight. Long, lean thighs. Deep chasms between his hip bones and abdomen. The gentle swell of muscle rippling below the skin. And the most extraordinary hair between his legs, fine and straight, lining the magnificent sweep of his veiny cock.

Naked, now, he stood before her, his shaft taunting her as it flushed dark, filling with blood. Reached out his hands to cup her breasts, thumbs grazing over her nipples. "Tell me what you want me to do to you, Director."

She glanced up at his face, smiled. In her mind, pictures began to form, the disjointed fantasies she nursed alone at night with no one to share them. All the humiliating, degrading, and shamefully exquisite things she'd dreamed of for years. Do it all to me...

He raised a hand, wagged his finger in her face. "Ah, ah. Say it. You have to say it. Or I'll leave you tied up there all night for your assistant to find in the morning. Would you like that?"

"No..." Noth's cheeks stung from blushing so hard, imagining her embarrassment if he did as he threatened. He cupped her chin in his hand, turned her face toward him.

"I... I want you to... Tease me," she stammered.

"Tease you how?" He smiled back, raising one eyebrow, quirking the corner of her beautiful mouth. His black eyes sparkled with mischief. It made her shame burn hotter, like a flame inside her body.

"M-my... my breasts..." She tilted her head down and strained to thrust her chest out, the leather around her neck holding her in place. Through half-lidded eyes she watched her tits rise and fall with her ragged breath, the pink rings of flesh puckering at the peak.

Eiri reached out and took one nipple between his fingers, lightly pinching. "Like this?"

"Yes..." she moaned.

He gave it a sharp twist. "And this?"

The dull pain sent a thrill of excitement down her belly. "Yes!"

He let go of the nipple and gave the breast a little slap, jiggling the plump globe under the blow. He backhanded her other tit and Noth squirmed, trying to twist herself into the stinging slap. The bedpost creaked and she bit her lip, trying to restrain herself. She never slept in that bed, but it cost a fortune and she didn't want to break it.

"Hm..." Eiri was running his hands down her ribs, over her hips, his gaze fixed on her sex. He slid one hand between her legs and Noth reflexively closed her thighs around it, squirming. The hand lodged there between her legs began to twist, a probing fingers slipping up between her folds to find her wet. "You don't want to open for me?"

Noth kept her legs closed, defying him. It was no fun if she did everything he said. She rocked against the trapped hand, trying to rub her clit against his palm. Eiri pulled his hand back and slapped her face, leaving a slight dampness on her cheek from where she'd wetted him with her juices.

"I'll make you open there," he said and Noth shivered with anticipation.

Eiri walked to one side, out of sight. Noth tried to turn her head to follow him with her eyes, but the belt dug into her throat, preventing her. She heard him rustling at the paneled door to her closet, the sound of it sliding open. After a moment, he returned, with an armful of her belts in so many colors - sashes of silk and embroidered cloth, a few in beaded leather, and at least one of her hard synthetic bands used for cinching her waist in. He dumped them at her feet.

"Let's see..." One by one, he drew each belt out between his hands, pressed it to her skin, wrapping it around the post he'd lashed her to, tightening it. Two around the shoulders, criss-crossing over the space between her breasts. The waist cincher beneath, foisting them up.

He pulled each belt tight with one hand, and slapped her with the other - across the face, across her breasts, hard stinging slaps to the sides of her ass and tops of her thighs. She squirmed, her prison closing in around her, constricting her. The more belts he bound her with, the more she wiggled against them. The belt around her neck choked her as she struggled and soon she was dizzy, weak in the knees.

Did he take every belt in my closet...? Noth wondered, dazedly watching him pick up the last one in the pile - a long, thin leather strap.

"Where do you want me to put this one?" he asked. He folded it in half and pushed the loop of it in her face. "Here?"

Noth turned her head away as far as the choking strap would allow. He ran it down over her bound breasts, circling a nipple with the edge. "Here?"

She squirmed frantically, trying to urge him on without admitting what she wanted. Fighting to hang on to pride while bound naked to her own property.

When she didn't respond, he flicked her tit with the folded belt. "No? Not here?"

"No," she gasped. He struck her opposite breast, harder. "Oh, no, n-not there..."

He ran the loop down. Over her ribs, down her belly. Tracing the outside of her thigh. "Here?"

He struck, whipping the top of one thigh in a short, sharp crack of the belt. She gave a strangled yelp, jerking against her bonds. He struck the other thigh even harder, raising a red welt.

"Oh! Ah!" He liked it when she made those little cries, she learned. Encouraged, he beat her across the pelvis, raising bright lines of pain from hip to hip.

Noth swayed from side to side, fighting to keep her legs closed and her windpipe from being crushed by the belt at her neck. When she held out long enough, he let the loop go and whipped her with the tip of the belt, cracking the leather across her breasts, her belly. The stinging blows sent little pings of heat to the tight bead of flesh tucked into the folds of her sex. She found herself weakening, her knees spreading, the sweat and the arousal dripping down her opening labia.

He beat her there, between the legs, flicking the belt upward into the shadowy triangle of red brown curls and she cried out. Her legs were splayed now, as far as she could bear to go without the belt on her neck choking her. She felt the sharp sting of the leather on her spreading folds, arcing up under her to snap against the fleshiest part of her buttocks hanging down against the metal post. One well-aimed blow landed on her clit, swollen and hanging down with excitement. The explosion of pain sent her mind blank.

The foggy gray silence was what Noth craved most. No other feeling - not feeding, not fighting, not fucking, not running a business - ever gave her as much peace and satisfaction as the quiet gray space. She was almost angry when Eiri shook her out of it, caressing her face, holding her upright with his arms while he called her name.

"It's fine," she told him, her voice hoarse from choking on the belt. "Keep going."

"You sure?" he asked. She was surprised to hear real anxiety in his voice. Sometimes, she told herself he didn't care - that he was just a dumb human getting his rocks off on fucking the boss. But when he worried for her, when he held her, she knew it was more than that.

"It's fine," she said again, more firmly. She made herself smile at him, hiding her fangs behind her lips, keeping the fierceness out of her eyes. It took all her willpower not to compel him, to push him to do worse and worse to her, until she lost herself completely.

He smiled down at her, the fullness of his lips perfectly proportioned. He pressed them to hers, enveloping her in a kiss. She felt his cock stir against her waist, the hard length pressing into the flesh that spilled over the belts. She strained against it.

"More," she moaned under his mouth. "More, please..."

He went on kissing her. Down her neck, over her reddened breasts, across the stripes on her stomach. He knelt between her legs, still spread, her sex throbbing between them. She strained against the belt on her neck to look down over the mounds of her breasts. He was looking up at her, his mouth so close to her mons, the hair there swayed with his every breath. Please, please...