Exsanguination Read online

  “I think I need to sit back down.”

  They returned to the drawing room and sat down together on the loveseat. She took his hand. It felt cold to him.

  “So,” she asked softly, “would you still wish to stay the week?”

  Phillip felt tormented. On one hand was his fear and, on the other, his fascination. If he said no, it would be back to the hotel room for a week and then a flight to New York. He would never know what might have been if he’d stayed.

  He nodded and responded softly. “Very much so.”

  She smiled widely, once again displaying her canines. “I’m so glad.”

  Phillip frowned. “If I ask you how old you are, are you going to tell me something that will make me crap my pants?”

  She gave a short laugh. “I certainly hope that won’t be your reaction,” she patted his chest. “Sit back and relax.”

  He leaned against the back of the loveseat.

  “This may be very difficult for you to comprehend – to wrap your mind around. I would suggest another drink. Possibly something stronger.”

  “Alright, if it’s that bad.”

  Vanessa stood and poured him a large glass of whiskey. Sitting back down, she handed it to him.

  “I’m old, Phillip. Very old,” she sighed. “I wasn’t born in England.”

  “Well,” he shrugged with a grin, “neither was I.”

  “I was born in Memphis.”

  “Tennessee? You’re American then?”

  She laughed softly and shook her head a bit. “Memphis, Egypt. My name, at birth, was Neithhotep,” she could hear his heartbeat speeding up again.

  “Uh . . . that sounds . . .”

  “Yes, very old.”

  Phillip felt as if he’d been hit in the head. He was stunned.

  “What, in God’s name, could you possibly want with someone like me?”

  “As I said before – companionship. I find your innocence charming. That and you have the feel of an old soul.”

  Phillip was reasonably sure that he’d be dead before the day was out.

  “Were you born a . . .”

  “A vampire? No, I was turned when I was about thirty-five years old.”

  “You’re really not going to kill me?”

  She shook her head. “No, of course not.”

  “And you’re not going to make me a vampire?”

  “Once again, no.”

  He felt himself relax a bit and took a deep breath. “So, exactly how old are you?”

  She smiled. “Didn’t anyone ever tell you that it’s quite impolite to ask a woman her age?

  “Meaning you’re not going to tell me?”

  “No, I am not. At least not at this time,” she held up a finger. “I do want to compliment you though. You’re quite brave. Most people would have been out the door by now.”

  “Well, you kill people, right?”

  She smiled softly and shook her head. “I don’t kill people anymore, Phillip and haven’t for many years. I just snack.”

  “Snack?”

  “Mmm hmm,” she nodded. “Just a couple ounces at a clip,” she cocked her head and decided to shift the subject. “In seventeen eighty-five, I charmed the socks off the Earl of Ashburn and we were married. I became the Countess Vanessa Cecily Leyland-Smythe.”

  “Did you turn him? Your husband?” Phillip was becoming fascinated but still bordering on shocked disbelief.

  “God, no!” she seemed aghast. “He was an incredibly boring man,” Vanessa shook her head. “I don’t go about the country turning people but I did snack on him nightly.”

  “Thomas Paine? Did you?”

  “Snack on him?”

  Phillip nodded.

  “Yes and, when I did, I found he was much more agreeable in our conversations. It’s incredibly pleasurable, you see – being snacked upon.”

  “And you want to snack on me?”

  “I want your friendship and companionship . . . and maybe just the tiniest bit of blood.”

  “Aha!” his eyes went wide.

  “Two miniscule ounces, Phillip! That’s about the same amount as two blood tests in a hospital!” she held up a hand. “It's entirely up to you.”

  “And how would you know that? Do you get regular blood tests?”

  She thrust out her lower lip in a playful pout. “I helped out as a phlebotomist during the Great War.”

  “You . . ?” he was suddenly struck by the ironic hilarity of that and started laughing. She quickly joined him.

  “I know. Insane times?”

  His laughing slowed. “So you want to draw off two ounces of my blood for a late night snack?”

  She nodded, her expression soft. “It would mean so much to me.”

  “That’s going to hurt like hell!”

  “It hurts for a split second and then you’ll begin to experience the most intense pleasure you could possibly imagine. It will suffuse your entire body – you can’t even begin to conceive of it,” looking intensely at his face, she could see that he was considering it, so she pressed on.

  “It doesn’t turn you – nothing like that. There are no nasty side effects at all,” she frowned slightly, “unless you consider the fact that the experience is so pleasurable that it can be addicting in the extreme.”

  Phillip bit his lower lip and looked worried. His heart was racing. “What should I do?”

  The joy of the moment showed in her face and she smiled as she gently pushed him into a more reclined position and straddled him.

  “Put your arms around me,” she whispered in his ear. Very tenderly, using his hair, Vanessa drew his head to one side and kissed the side of his throat.

  “Are you afraid?” she asked softly.

  He trembled slightly and she could hear his heart almost pounding out of his chest. A bit like a captured rabbit, she thought as she let out a low growl.

  For an instant, Phillip felt a slight scrape on his neck as two razor-sharp fangs touched him and he whimpered. Then there was a jolt of pain as they pushed into his throat down to his carotid artery. Before he could react and cry out, the pain was gone – replaced by pleasure. It quickly swelled into something that he would come to describe as an orgasmic rapture. He was hardly aware of her gentle sucking and yet that was all that he was aware of. She worked slowly, savouring each glistening, red droplet and, in turn, drawing out his pleasure. True to her word, she stopped barely over two ounces although it took most of her willpower to do so. She licked the side of his throat, she drew her head back and looked at him with a dreamy expression and purred. “Oh God, Phillip, you are unbelievably delicious!”

  His eyes flickered open. “No! No! Don’t stop!” he moaned in protest at her withdrawal. The ten minutes of unimaginable bliss slowly ebbed.

  “Was it horrible?” she asked softly with a gentle smile.

  Phillip groaned. “The right side of my neck is jealous.”

  “Oh, no,” she wagged a finger. “That’s all for tonight.”

  “I knew I was right. Vampires are evil creatures.”

  She gave him a crooked smile. “Don’t think for a minute that I can’t be evil. You’ve no idea of what wickedness I’m capable of,” she delicately wiped a trace of blood from the corner of her mouth with her right pinky.

  “I was joking.”

  Vanessa shrugged. “Glad to know it but I wasn’t. Some men really like evil women. So, I take it you’re not one of them?”

  He shook his head. “Definitely not.”

  She leaned forward against him again and slowly kissed his face here and there. After a while, he took a deep breath.

  “There’s something I don’t understand though.”

  “Hmm?”

  “Why me? Why not some guy in a pub or anyone else?”

  “You know the difference between a fast food hamburger patty and the best caviar?” she asked in a husky voice.

  “I’ve only had one of the two but I can imagine.”

  “There are million
s of hamburger patties out there but you, my dear, are caviar of the highest possible quality.”

  “I still don’t get it.”

  “You’re young, strong, handsome, and in your twenties. You’re sweet, kind, and, above all, you are a virgin.”

  “What? What makes you think I’m a virgin?” he protested, sitting up.

  “Shortly after meeting you, I gave you a good sniff. We can sniff out virgins. It’s a talent that never fails us.”

  “So you just want me for my blood?”

  “Don’t say that, Phillip,” she gave him a wounded look. “I really like you and I’m enjoying your company. So . . . both!” she announced with a grin.

  She looked at his neck. “Good. The bleeding has stopped.”

  “Can I see your fangs again?” he asked with a goofy smile.

  She opened her mouth to an almost unnatural degree and her two glistening canines extended in length and then retracted. She closed her mouth.

  “That’s amazing! They just do that?”

  “When I will it.”

  “So you hit my jugular vein?”

  Vanessa shook her head. “The internal carotid artery. It’s rather deeper than the jugular, and, while it requires a tighter bite, it affords the best flavour.”

  Phillip sat up and swayed for a moment. “That light-headedness? Is that from the blood loss?”

  “Not in the least,” she smiled and rested her hand on his arm. “You’re feeling the aftermath of the pleasure you experienced. I could snack on you every day, indefinitely without you having any ill effects from blood loss. A couple of ounces is nothing,” she glanced at his crotch with a smile. “That insistence you feel is another symptom.”

  He blushed heavily and spoke quickly, changing the subject.

  “I have what may seem like an absurd question but I have a ton of them whirling around in my brain.”

  “What’s that?”

  “How can you put on makeup without seeing yourself in a mirror?”

  “I can’t but I have the most marvellously talented tattoo artist.”

  Phillip laughed.

  Vanessa poured more wine, handed him a glass, and sat back down next to him in front of the hearth. She leaned into him, resting her head on his shoulder.

  “I know what the conversation will involve now and it promises to be quite the adventure for me as I’ve never revealed my history to anyone in my entire life. Feel free to ask me anything you’d like.”

  “Are there others?”

  “Vampires? Oh yes,” she nodded, seriously. “In the greater London area, there are a thousand or more.”

  “Wow,” he whispered. “Is there like some kind of club or something?”

  She laughed. “Not really. Most of us are solitary which is a bit of a shame. There are a several clubs we tend to frequent but that’s about the extent of it.”

  “And, like you, they just snack?”

  Vanessa nodded. “Occasionally someone will lose control and it will result in a death but that’s not happened in many years.”

  His brow turned into a frown. “Have you ever killed anyone?”

  “I have. Early on, it was the way things were done. That, combined with my being a very angry young woman to begin with didn’t bode well for the humans around me.”

  “And you never got caught?”

  “It was well known that I was what we now call a vampire, but my position protected me.”

  “Your position?”

  Vanessa nodded. “I’d rather not go into it. Let’s just say I was privileged and leave it at that.”

  “If you were born in Egypt, shouldn’t I expect some sort of accent?”

  “I left Egypt a very long time ago, moving to Greece. Their culture was ascendant at that time. After a while, I moved to Rome and spent quite some time there. Once the empire started to go into a state of collapse, I began to wander about, finally settling in Britain.”

  “Wait a minute. You moved to Greece when their culture was ascendant? That was . . .”

  “Thousands of years ago. Yes,” she nodded.

  Phillip was slowly shaking his head in awe. So, you were in Egypt during the whole Ramses thing and such? I wish I knew more about that timeline.”

  She smiled slightly. “I was there but Ramses was after my time.”

  The worry showed in his face. “Please tell me. I need to have it out there.”

  “I am Neithhotep, Foremost Among Women, first Queen of Egypt in the first dynasty. Hundreds of years after my birth, I watched the first stone of the first pyramid being laid.”

  Several seconds later, Phillip realized that he wasn’t breathing. He made a sharp intake of air and stared at her.

  “You did say you wanted it out there,” she said with a smile.

  Looking pained, he shook his head. “I’m getting confused. If you were a queen, shouldn’t you be buried in a pyramid or something?”

  She sighed. “No pyramids had been built yet. People were just buried in the ground. That said, I did demand that I should be buried in a gold sarcophagus. It was to be placed in a mastaba – a burial place used before the pyramids. Highly irregular at the time but no one seemed to be in the mood to argue.”

  “So, you were mummified/”

  She laughed. “Oh, heavens no! Imagine my brains being scrambled and pulled out through my nose. Thank you very much, but no thank you,” she shook her head. “Someone was buried in my place. I didn’t stick around once my death had been announced.”

  “So who wound up being buried?”

  “I’ve no idea. A slave, most likely,” she shrugged.

  “So, your tomb was discovered? How come no one has heard of you?”

  “Oh, Egyptologists know of me from hieroglyphics at Naqada. The general population is in ignorance as virtually everything was gone from my tomb by the time Egyptologists found it. Ultimately it has become completely eroded from exposure to the elements,” her eyes narrowed. “Hearing about the looting in general, I decided to take steps and retrieve what I could. Fortunately, my burial site had not been violated yet. I managed to retrieve virtually everything. It’s all in a room upstairs if you’d like to see it.”

  “See what?”

  “The sarcophagus that was made for me and other things,” she cocked her head.

  Dazed, he just nodded and moments later, he was following her up the stairs.

  She opened a bedroom door and he went inside. There, standing against a wall was a beautiful golden sarcophagus. Phillip gasped and quickly approached it. He looked at it and then at Vanessa and back again.

  She smiled. “A decent likeness I think.”

  Phillip stared at the face. It was framed by a golden, feathered headdress and the detailing overall was incredible. The makeup, earrings, and eyes were exquisitely done.

  He finally turned to her. “How old are you?”

  His knees trembled a bit when she responded.

  “A bit over five thousand years,” she said with a nod of her head and then approached him. “We should go downstairs,” she put her arm around his shoulders. “You can look at the remainder of the artefacts any time. I suspect I may have overloaded you.”

  “I think so,” he felt a sense of giddiness.

  “By the way, the Queen thing? I added that. We didn’t really have the title as part of our lexicon at the time,” she stated as she guided him back to the loveseat in the drawing room. “Forgive me my vanity?” she grinned as she sat next to him.

  He looked at her, staring into her eyes. “You could never have vanity as a fault.”

  Her eyes fairly sparkled. “You’re sweet, Phillip.” Holding up a finger, she frowned. “I need to ask you for your word on something.”

  “What’s that?”

  “Now that you know how old I am, I want your solemn promise that you won’t ask me how many humans I’ve killed or attempt to calculate it out. I think it would have a very negative effect on how you view me.”

  Phillip
sighed. “I’ll try. I have to assume that, after thousands of years, you’ve taken quite a few lives.”

  She nodded with a smile and rested her hand on his cheek. “I’m sure there are other things you might like to know, though.”

  The only thing Egyptian Phillip could think of was the movie, The Mummy.

  “Are you any relation to Imhotep?”

  “What a peculiar question,” she frowned, “but, no, he was an architect and priest who lived centuries after I was born and there were others with the same name later on after him.”

  “Ah, well he was a badass in a movie I saw.”

  “He seemed like a fairly normal individual if memory serves me.”

  “Mmm . . ,” Phillip felt like he was regaining his senses. “I think I’d like to see Egypt,” he said, gazing into the distance.

  Vanessa gave a short laugh. “It’s a far cry from what it was. Memphis was the most glorious city on earth. Now, Egypt is the total shits.”

  “Wow!” Phillip chuckled. “You sound bitter.”

  “Of course, I am,” she refilled his glass, a sad expression on her face. “Something I once loved has been completely destroyed.”

  He looked once more, into her eyes. “I’m sorry.”

  Vanessa rested her hand on his chest and smiled. “You have a good heart.”

  He was beginning to feel at ease with her, the only thing occasionally interfering with that being the memory of her sarcophagus.

  “So, if you’d like to know, I was named for Neith – the goddess of war and the hunt. Hotep means ‘is satisfied’.”

  “Amazing,” he shook his head. “Does anyone else know your story?”

  “Vampires know my age but only a few know my specific origins,” her face took on a thoughtful expression. “I do believe you’re the first human that I’ve shared it with.”

  Phillip frowned. “What happened? I assume you faked your own death or something like that.”

  She nodded. “I killed my husband through excessive blood draining over a period of weeks. At the time, my son was still an infant and I ruled in his stead as regent. You must realize that things were very different then. I was a vampire for about ten years prior to giving the rule to Horus Aha. People, of course, were very primitive and superstitious,” she gave a short chuckle, “more so than today. For that time period, I was worshipped as the Goddess Neith. Once my son was in charge, I moved into his shadow, fading slowly away into obscurity.”