jeweled, and beautiful beyond compare.
Few paid me any heed, occupied as they were with one another. I passed through the first room into the chamber that lay beyond. It was larger and incredibly even more glorious. With my family I had strolled through the Sun King’s creation at Versailles, visited the magnificent Hermitage in Saint Petersburg, and marveled at the Sistine Chapel, but never had I encountered so much beauty in a single setting. So dazzled was I that some time elapsed before I realized that amongthe gloriously garbed vampires there were humans, men and women both.
I consider myself far from a prude, but their appearance was startling in the extreme. Both sexes were scantily clad, often with no more than a small triangle of cloth to preserve the illusion of modesty. Some of these humans were elaborately tattooed with intricate designs that flowed down their bare torsos and thighs, and around to their backs. They wore heavy gold bands covered with intricate carvings at their wrists and ankles. Bejeweled collars encircled their necks. Trailing behind the vampires, who drew them along on leashes, they kept their eyes lowered submissively.
As I watched with mingled shock and fascination, a female vampire of surpassing beauty beckoned her human with a crooked finger and a smile that displayed her fangs. He came eagerly. Together, they slipped onto a low couch. Her long nails, lacquered a brilliant red, trailed along his supple chest, tracing the pattern of his tattoos. Their limbs entwined. The human moaned and fell back, his throat bared. As she sank her fangs into him, his back arched in ecstasy. Watching the trickle of his blood that escaped her sucking, I felt as a voyeur would, intruding upon an act of the greatest intimacy. Yet I could not bring myself to look away. Hunger raged in me, for sustenance, for power, for pleasure. All this could be mine if only I embraced my fate.
My clothes were suddenly far too constricting. I longed to cast them off for the glorious garb of the female vampires, their silks and satins in the most vivid hues, the bright plumes in their hair, the jewels that adorned their necks and limbs. Yes, I was tempted. I wanted all that and so much more. I looked again at the pair on the couch. The female had released hergrip on the young man. With the tip of her tongue, she licked the excess of his blood from her lips and murmured a word to him. At once, he slipped from the couch and knelt before her, kissing her hands in obeisance. Watching them, I was at once fascinated and repelled.
Humans were being bled all around the room, seemingly to their delight. Others were being displayed like trophies, while here and there they were being traded. I watched as a lovely flame-haired girl was handed over from one vampire to another in return for several gems. She went eagerly and was soon stretched out on a couch with her new patron.
The scene was both shocking and confusing. A single encounter with the luminous being on the moor had been sufficient to change me utterly. Yet here it seemed that humans could be fed upon repeatedly while remaining human. I could not begin to understand why my own transformation had proceeded so swiftly unless it meant that the being I had encountered was different in some way from other vampires.
Even as I puzzled over the matter, I became aware that I was being watched. A tall, slender male in a burgundy velvet lounging suit was leaning up against a nearby column. He had a long face framed by waves of dark hair that flirted with his shoulders. His mouth was full and soft but it was his eyes that struck me most, appearing both keen and sympathetic. He reminded me of a young Oscar Wilde, the writer who had been released from prison only the month before, having served his sentence for crimes of an intimate nature that proper young ladies such as I had been were not supposed to know anything about.
“First time here?” the young man in velvet asked with an
Stacey Brutger
David Afsharirad
Ted Dekker
Scott O’Dell
Nick Brown
Caragh M. O'brien
Nancy; Springer
Dale McGowan
Rick Riordan
Kathy Giuffre