Exsanguination Read online

Nikki took a deep breath. “That would be me, Joe,” she gave Vanessa a look that asked if this fellow was actually aware of what was going on. Vanessa shrugged and then spoke to Joe.

  “Let’s get you set up for this, Joe. A strong, young man such as yourself can’t really be expected to show any restraint. You’ll need help in doing that.”

  “Whatever you say!” he laughed.

  Fortunately, a brain wasn’t required for the experiment, Vanessa mused. She looked at Phillip. “Please guard the door and let no one in.”

  “Your trusty hound is on duty,” Phillip gave her a mock salute.

  Moments later, Joe had received his hypnotic instructions and Vanessa was satisfied that they had taken hold.

  As Phillip stood in front of the door, a man walked up. He tried to affect the slang and a low-class accent to warn him off.

  “Give us a minute, mate. There’s some serious business going on inside there,” he realized it had come out more Australian than English.

  He looked at Phillip as if he was slightly deranged. Happily, the door swung open.

  “Mission accomplished,” Nikki said and gave Joe a smoky look. “You ready for my teeth, baby?”

  Joe nodded quickly as Nikki drew him into a room at the back end of the club.

  Vanessa patted Phillip’s cheek. “I’m going to make sure that Nikki doesn’t accidentally kill the poor boy. Can you stay entertained for fifteen minutes or so?”

  “I’ll bet I can if I take off this nice sigil I’m wearing.”

  Her hand shot up and she rested a finger on his lips. “Don’t you even think about it,” she said, her face serious. “Without that, you become prey,” she smiled and winked at him.

  After an instant of pain, Joe’s eyelids began to droop slightly and he let out with a long, slow moan. As his brain reacted, his crotch did as well which was par for the course. A few minutes in, Vanessa sunk her teeth into the other side of his neck to sample his blood. She sucked for a few seconds and then withdrew. She pushed Nikki’s head away from the man.

  “Learn restraint, Nikki, or you’re going to unwittingly take a life.

  “Mmm,” she smiled dreamily, “and what does that feel like?”

  “It doesn’t feel like anything, really; it just causes problems with the authorities.”

  Leading Joe, who, by this time, was quite loopy and disoriented, they approached Phillip.

  “Having fun, darling?”

  “If you call fun being avoided like the plague, then I’m having a ball,” his eyebrows went up as he looked at Joe. “Early night?”

  “Pretty much,” Vanessa responded.

  By the time they arrived at home, Joe was regaining some of his faculties. As they walked through the door, he hesitated.

  “No, this is wrong. I had no idea.”

  “What do you mean?” Nikki asked.

  “I was supposed to get a story. I thought it was all a crock with people playing out fantasies.”

  “A story?” Vanessa asked as she poured wine for Phillip, Nikki, and herself. “Oh,” she looked at Joe with raised eyebrows, “would you like some wine?”

  He shook his head quickly. “No, thank you. I’d just like to leave. You people are a little too real for me.”

  “So you’re not nearly so dim as you let on?” Nikki asked.

  “I’m not dim but I thought pretending to be might appeal.”

  “Well, I’ll tell you, it didn’t count in your favour, Joe . . . if that is your name,” Vanessa sat down and took a sip of wine.

  Joe’s hand went down into his pants.

  “Jesus! Really?” Phillip exclaimed.

  Joe was looking totally confused – as if he had no idea why he was doing what he was doing but seemed to be unable to stop.

  “What’s going on?” he cried out.

  “Don’t worry about it, Joe, you’ll stop before long,” Vanessa reassured him.

  He started going faster and faster and then suddenly pulled his hand away. He groaned as he tried to resume the activity but found himself unable to do so.

  “I want to leave! What in the hell have you people done to me?”

  “As to what I’ve done, I’ve planted a very strong hypnotic suggestion that you’ll find you’re quite unable to overcome it. It’s called compulsion. Four or five times a day, you’ll find yourself unable to resist the urge to play with your wobbly bits. That said, you’ll also go to any lengths to prevent your completing the act, whether with someone else or just yourself. As far as leaving is concerned, you really don’t want to leave,” Vanessa smiled at him as she locked her eyes with his.

  “No, no I don’t,” Joe responded, vapidly.

  “On the other hand, your actions seem to offend my Phillip so we’re going to have to take a more subtle course of action. In any case, you’ll spend the next ninety days here, assisting with our experiment and writing your story for . . . who is it you work for?”

  “The Mail,” he said, deflated.

  Vanessa nodded and her lip curled. “Somehow I didn’t think it would be The Times.”

  He looked cowed. “Can I call my editor?”

  “Of course,” Vanessa gestured to the landline phone on the side table about ten feet away.

  “So, what are you going to do? Keep him here against his will?” Phillip asked Vanessa.

  Vanessa shrugged. “At the moment, he has no will.”

  Joe, which was, in fact, his real name looked quite downtrodden as he hung up the phone.

  Nikki tilted her head. “What happened, Joe? The editor didn’t like your idea?”

  “If I’m not back at my desk on Monday, I’ll be sacked.”

  “Tough break, that,” Nikki faked a sympathetic face.

  He looked at Vanessa with raised eyebrows. “Is that offer of wine still open?”

  She chuckled and poured him a glass. He sipped a bit and then looked at her. “So, what do I need to do to get this ordeal over with?”

  Vanessa smiled. “You need to cooperate. I’ll give you some background for the experiment. To creatures such as Nikki and myself, extracting blood from a human being is necessary for our ongoing survival. We don’t require much – often little more than a couple of ounces a day. Drinking it has an effect on us that is not dissimilar to what you experienced when Nikki snacked on you but, for us, it’s not as intense. It’s satisfying but not truly exquisite. The exception is virgin blood. It will send one of our kind into transports of extreme pleasure.”

  Joe frowned, confused. “But I’m not a virgin by any definition of the word. You didn’t know that?” he laughed. “Well, I guess this is the end of the experiment!”

  “Not at all. The purpose of the experiment is to determine if your status can be returned to that of ‘virgin’, at least for blood purposes, if not actually.”

  “How the hell are you going to do that?”

  “A man, your age, has one thing on his mind almost constantly, and that one thing is relief from sexual tension. Three or four times a day, Nikki will bring you to the edge of orgasm and then stop or she’ll have you do it and then stop,” she smiled. “I know what you’re thinking. You won’t let on that you’re close and then over the top you go. Your compulsion won’t allow for that. When you get that close, you’ll simply stop doing what you’re doing or push Nikki’s hand away.”

  “Jesus! I’ll go crazy with that!”

  Vanessa shook her head. “Not at all,” she smiled. “Think of what you get out of it. Nikki will be feeding off you night after night. Remember how pleasurable that was?”

  “And am I going to turn into a vampire?” Joe’s expression was terrified.

  “No, but you’ll likely become quite addicted to the experience with Nikki.”

  “This is insane! What am I supposed to do? Just wander around wanking?”

  A smile flickered over Vanessa’s lips. “Oh, I’m sure that Nikki will find some enjoyable uses for you,” she glanced at Nikki. “Consider putting him under the covers wh
en you go to sleep. It can get cold and he’d probably make a good foot warmer.”

  Joe frowned. “I’m not gonna do that!”

  “Of course you will, you just don’t know it yet,” she turned to Nikki. “Do you remember, when you were younger, how the hormones in your body were running rampant? You were a jumble of uncontrollable emotions, right?”

  Nikki nodded. “I do.”

  “Well, you’re going to kind of revisit that experience. Happiness, sadness, rage. You’re going to be a bit whacko for a little while. I’ll help you through it as best I can. It’s part and parcel to being newly turned.”

  “Oh, joy,” she grumbled.

  “Know what we need to do?” Phillip spoke up and everyone’s head turned.

  “We need to order pizza.”

  “Great idea, darling!” Vanessa clapped her hands together.

  Thirty minutes later the pizza arrived.

  As the sound of the knocker echoed through the house, Phillip’s eyebrows went up.

  “Damn! How can it get here so fast?”

  Vanessa shrugged. “The drivers at that store know that there’s a twenty quid tip in it if they get it here quickly.”

  Nikki smiled. “Smart lady!”

  Moments later, the four were digging into pizza, washing it down with wine.

  Vanessa smiled and leaned into Phillip. “You know what?”

  “Uh uh,” he cocked his head. “What?”

  “You’re getting sex tonight,” she whispered.

  Phillip almost jumped out of his seat and Vanessa rested a hand on his arm, laughing.

  “Won’t that ruin my blood?”

  “That would depend on the kind of sex we engage in. Anything but regular coitus is fine. Don’t ask me why but that seems to be the way it works.”

  “What? And you’ve been keeping this information from me? Why?” Phillip protested, the pizza slice hovering in front of his mouth. “I could have been having Bill Clinton sex all this time?”

  She smiled at him. “I don’t know what that is but I’ve got an enormous amount of experience with men. Will you give me that?”

  He nodded. “At your age, I would imagine.”

  She ignored the attempted jab. “One of the many things I’ve learned over the years is that a hungry man is an attentive man.”

  “You mean a starving man, don’t you?” he huffed.

  “Oh, come on, it hasn’t been that bad, has it?”

  “Trying to go to sleep at night, curled up behind you? Pressing against you? Let’s just say it’s mixed.”

  “Well, tonight you get everything you want short of the one thing that could ruin it all. A bit like the apple in the garden.”

  “Don’t try to tell me you were around for that.”

  Vanessa laughed. “To my knowledge, such an event never occurred. Makes for a good mythology though.”

  Two hours before sunrise, Vanessa treated Phillip and herself to a veritable buffet of oral delights, finishing with her feeding ever so leisurely, savouring each red droplet.

  Laying on his side, staring at her, he whispered. “Was it okay? Did I do alright?”

  “You were wonderful, darling,” she smiled at him. For his level of expertise, he’d done quite well, she thought.

  VIII

  Vanessa discarded the idea of being up during the daytime and sleeping at night due to Nikki’s current extreme photosensitivity. Tolerance would come with time. The girl seemed to demonstrate her frustration at the limitation by becoming abusive toward Joe. It started a couple of days after he moved in. She began to berate him in the drawing room one evening for some perceived fault. Vanessa had no real problem in abusing a human but the situation was complex. If Nikki turned it into a habit, it would affect Phillip and, if it affected him, Vanessa saw how it could impact her.

  “Nikki! Stop it!” Vanessa said sharply.

  “What?”

  “You heard me. I said stop it! He’s done nothing to deserve such ill-treatment.

  “He’s mine. I’ll do what I want with him,” she stood up, defiantly.

  Vanessa sprang to her feet, eyes glowing red, and got right up in Nikki’s face. Everyone in the room saw a demonstration of power that stunned them. Vanessa’s jaws flew open incredibly wide and teeth slid in place from both top and bottom. These were not the relatively slender fangs that she used for feeding. These were thicker, heavier, and longer – more than two inches in length - but equally sharp. Four from the top and four from the bottom. These were not designed for snacking but, rather, for ripping out entire throats. Vanessa thrust her head forward, and less than an inch separated the two women. All of this occurred in the span of a few milliseconds. She roared at Nikki who could feel Vanessa’s breath on her face. Saliva dripped from her fangs.

  Both men leapt from their chairs and quickly moved away.

  Vanessa’s demonstration of dominance had the desired effect. Nikki immediately cringed and whimpered. At that moment, she realized she was the ‘beta’ of the two. She sat back down and meekly stared at the floor, refusing to meet Vanessa’s gaze. Vanessa’s fangs slowly retracted but she continued to eye Nikki menacingly.

  “Do not forget your place again, little one. Everywhere in the world, there is a hierarchy. Now you understand the one in this house,” Vanessa hissed.

  “I’m sorry,” Nikki responded in a very tiny voice, shaking. “It won’t happen again.”

  Vanessa nodded and gently tousled the young girl’s hair. “Good.”

  Almost ten feet away, Phillip was staring at her. He had watched as the woman he loved returned to normal, the final change being her fingernails. They transformed back from razor sharp, three inch long talons to finely manicured nails. What in the name of God had he just seen? It was a transmogrification that occurred so rapidly, it almost couldn’t be perceived. In an instant, Vanessa had changed from the woman Phillip adored to something only vaguely human looking. Something monstrous! He found himself in a state of shock.

  Vanessa picked up her wineglass as she sat back down, patting the red velvet next to her on the love seat as she looked at Phillip. He sat down nervously, still staring.

  “You want to tell me what the hell just happened?”

  Vanessa shrugged. “It was an automatic response to having my authority challenged. When you’re turned, the animal in you moves closer to the surface. When the animal is confronted, what you saw can result,” she flashed him a smile. “Nikki was never in any danger. It was pure posturing.”

  “Well, it was terrifying!”

  “It can be prompted by feelings of being threatened, anger, usually something emotionally negative.”

  “Scared the shit out of me. Is Nikki going to be alright?” he frowned.

  Vanessa nodded. “She’ll be fine. It’s partly my fault. I should have warned her about the possibility of her needing to assert herself. It happens occasionally during early stages. I’ll have a bit of a chat with her,” Vanessa patted Phillip’s knee and headed off in the direction of his sister.

  Phillip looked at Joe who was about as far away from Vanessa as he could possibly get. The man was obviously scared out of his mind.

  “If you want, I’ll see what kind of weight I can pull to get you out of here. That possibility interest you?”

  Joe nodded quickly. “This place and everyone in it scares the living shit out of me!”

  “No doubt,” Phillip smirked and nodded. “Vanessa may demand to wipe your memory so you don’t go leading anyone back here with stories of blood and gore.”

  “Anything! I just want out of here.”

  “I’ll do what I can for you,” he glanced in the direction of Vanessa and Nikki. They seemed to be at ease now – there was no tension to be seen. Phillip jammed his hands in his pants pockets and walked over to them slowly. They looked up.

  “I’ve got a favour to ask the two of you,” his look was serious.

  Vanessa’s eyebrows went up. “What’s that, darling?”


  “Cut him loose – Joe.”

  “What?” Nikki responded and Vanessa held up her hand without looking at her. She nodded to Phillip and smiled. “I think you’re wise beyond your years, darling.”

  He gave her a wan smile. “Thanks, Vanessa.”

  As she walked toward Joe, Nikki protested. “Hey, don’t I get a say?”

  Vanessa looked over her shoulder at Nikki and shook her head. “Sweetie, we’ll find someone who’s more suited to your current disposition, ok? I think I know what you need.”

  Nikki sighed and shrugged.

  Vanessa looked Joe in the eye. “You may leave and go back to your life if that is what you really wish,” she turned away from him. Phillip moved next to Joe and whispered. “Get out now. Out the door and call a cab before anyone changes their mind!” he rested his hand on Joe’s shoulder. “A word of warning. Any of this gets out, she’ll come for you and it won’t be pretty,” he tilted his head in Vanessa’s direction.

  “I owe ya, man,” were the last words from Joe as he bolted through the foyer and out the front door.

  Phillip returned to Vanessa and Nikki. He squeezed down between them on the loveseat and put an arm around each of them.

  “Are my two darling women at peace?”

  “Of course we are, my love,” Vanessa smiled. “It never was really serious.

  “I’ll try to remember that when I’m experiencing night terrors over the next few weeks. Do you have any idea what that looks like? No, of course not. It’s not as if you stand in front of a mirror and check to see if you’re a bad ass since you can’t even see yourself in a mirror!” his agitation was evident as he continued non-stop.

  “Well,” she pouted with a grin, interrupting him, “I’ve been told I look pretty awesome.”

  “Awesome? Try petrifying!”

  She gave him a playful frown as she tilted her head. “Does this mean you want to have separate beds?”

  “Haha. Very funny. Just keep yourself under control.”

  “Tomorrow I’m going to trade in the Porsche for a big SUV or something like that. I suspect our little community is going to grow a bit in the immediate future.”

  “You mean I’m never going to drive it? The Porsche?” Phillip moaned loudly.