Dark Whispers 07

Roses Are Red and All Are Bled

The video continued to play, and Harry and I watched as Greg and Elisa descended into a vampiric hell on earth. Lani took the time to have Seneca pan very slowly for us to fully appreciate how well my cousin and his mate had been placed in his personal playground. The van had all the tricks for a major adult recreational area with slings, chains and leathers. During the time in which they had subdued Greg and Elisa all of the restraints had been used to place them on the bed with full access to each other but not Lani or Seneca.

The failsafe options usually found in such romper rooms were not available to the bound vampire couple. I could see padlocks strung through devices that would have released them if the 'normal' sex play had been too rough. Even with the vampire strength it didn't matter as Elisa was panicking and bleeding out so quickly.

Vampires do feed on other vampires. However, it is not widely practiced, as we have access to such lovely scared morsels in the humans that surround us constantly. Fear is nearly as addicting as blood. To some, like Greg, more so -- he loved fear with his meals. Sex can start out as lust and supposedly love, but with the right turn of the screw or fanged-in partner that becomes deliciously temptingly exotic fear. Vampires have few fears to exploit. Smart vampires have learned what to allow and not allow. Elisa was still too new to know that had she initially simply licked her fang-punctured lip the tear would have begun to clot and heal. Instead her ranting and struggling sprayed a fine mist of blood over Greg's lips and his partially drugged state made him fang out and begin to see Elisa as just fresh, fearful meat.

I could tell that Lani had not been running during her missing time. That brought a question to my brain. I hit the pause button and asked Harry, "You said your weapons have been missing for six months. Why didn't you tell me? And how long exactly has Lani been running free?"

He answered slowly, "She has been running for about five months. I thought Kirk Grady had stolen my weapons while he had visited last summer. I was going to tell you as soon as I found them. I really didn't think they had gone anywhere this bad."

"Has to be Seneca's crowd that stole them, doesn't it?"

He nodded and looked appalled. I think the idea of Goth kids getting past his elaborate security was not making him happy. That they got through my system was not that remarkable as they probably did it when I was out of town or on a hunt. My system was basic and many of the security system companies hired ex-convicts and kids that had been thieves. That was why I had my personal back ups. Granted, one of them was now gracing Seneca's tattooed body, but I planned on retrieving them sooner rather than later.

"Anything else you need to share?" I said sharply. I was less than thrilled with how this was going.

Harry said, "Nothing I can think of right now."

That was nice and noncommittal. I took it in stride and hit the play button again. The video resumed. The slow pan shot of the soon-to-be splattered van and vampires ended with Lani seated in the swivel chair facing the bed. Knowing Greg as well as I unfortunately did, I realized he had sat there many a time and played director to whomever he tempted into his van. That Lani was seated looking directly into the camera lens was a twist. I don't think women ever sat in that chair for long. Greg was -- had been -- a controlling ass to say the least. Even by vampiric standards.

Seneca focused in so the frame was filled with Lani looking directly at us from the video tape.

Her dark hair was past her shoulders free flowing. I couldn't see any gray but that could have been a good dye job. I could tell she was in her mid-forties because vampires know how to judge the age of the meat. Her face was pleasant and her eyes direct. They flickered in shades of blue and green. Her fair skin gave rise to my thinking she was of Irish decent. I really liked the Irish. They tasted the best when I was hungry. Complicated bouquet with heavy layers of guilt and remorse, a very tasty meal, I thought.

"Hello Cassandra. Sorry to have to introduce myself to you in such a manner but I don't think you are one to have too many close human friends. Hi to Harry if he made it in time. If not, please take the time to pass on my thanks to him for the use of his weapons. Yours I will be using shortly."

Here Seneca held up her left arm showing she was wearing my wrist weapons. I could hear in the background of the tape both Greg and Elisa talking. They were talking over each other at such a rapid pace I could only make out the fear laced tones of Elisa and the hunger of Greg.

In spite of ourselves, I could feel both Harry and I responding to the dread in Elisa's voice. My fangs slid down into my mouth ever so slightly, and Harry was holding his lips in such a manner I knew he too was having issues. I continued to watch and tried to ignore the outbursts. Lani was there taunting me on tape for a reason.

"I don't know if anyone has bothered to share with you a few minor items of recent history." Lani continued, her eyes now clearly green and pissed off. "Up until a few months ago Elisa Wynn, that newly turned vampire back there fending for her death, was my best friend. She made the mistake of wandering into Kenyon's little house of horrors and meeting up with your pond scum of a cousin, Greg. I had the misfortune of meeting up with Greg in the fall. Contrary to his plans I did not decide to become part of his little harem."

At this Elisa growled out, "Greg never even looked at you!" I guess she was paying attention to Lani while fending off Greg and his teeth and nails. Seneca took a moment to pan back and show that both Greg and Elisa had taken nips out of each other. Elisa was looking a bit ragged on the edges and Greg was no longer so slick. I could see his right earlobe had been ripped out from his head. A good look for him, I decided.

Lani's laughter was loud and freely given. A bit of an edge of anger laced it and Seneca promptly returned the camera to catch the woman. Leaning towards Elisa and still talking to the camera she shared.

"Elisa, get real. You were upstairs dressing to drag me out to the club, and he was downstairs wanting to play with me. I rebuffed him and he found it amusing. Once we got to the club it was all about getting me to join your vampire games.

"I escaped and later found Seneca and her crowd. Unlike most Goth wannabees her little gang had been donating to the vampires willingly, and some not so willingly. Her brother, Colin, was left for dead a year or so ago by Greg and his pack. Seneca was supposed to have met up with Greg that night, but her brother said he didn't trust Greg with pretty girls. Instead he told her he would introduce them the next time they partied. Colin is still in a coma and showing no signs of fanging out any day soon. He is a shell of himself and punctured like an addict. The cops figured him for some punk nut ball and never bothered to find out who did it to him. Seneca and her friends pulled away from the Dark Whispers scene after Colin was nearly drained dead. They then began to follow the various boys and girls that played in Kenyon's back room, and the ones that were vampires were put on a watch list."

Here Lani stopped and had Seneca hand over the camera so we could listen to Seneca and watch Greg and Elisa become overwhelmed with blood lust.

The longer you walk the earth as a vampire, the easier you can tell when a vampire is starting to roll into a full blown vamp. We learn to hide it from humans but it is extremely apparent to us. The air is scented with desire, fear and fresh blood. Maybe if Elisa had not been so overly fed, Greg would have been able to curb his appetite. But being strung up and having Elisa begin to struggle again as Greg's blood was leaking out of the cuts and bites she had administered to him as well as all the bleeding she was doing with her own rips and tears, not to mention her whining again, was pushing all of Greg's hot buttons. The only kind of restraint Greg ever had was currently what was binding him to his bed with his mate.

"Hey, hey, Mistress Cassandra, you having any fun yet?" The camera was focused mid range on Seneca who was sitting on her haunches in front of the pair who were beginning to fang out completely. Bites and nips were no longer slow but speeding up. Seneca flipped her tongue out exposing her incongruently pink bar bell threaded through her tongue piercing. The little pink ball was mildly distracting.

She turned to Greg and said, "Got Blood?"

He turned to her and growled deeply. The blood dripping from his lips was Elisa's borrowed supper and she was growing pale as Greg wrenched and tore at her lips and throat. I saw a bit of flesh fly off in his frenzied twisting and pulling. She had begun to fight back finally with some gusto. I watched her talons raking down his face and sides. She didn't play very nice either. Lani was laughing and said, "Continue, Seneca. Why don't you share with Cassandra what we will be doing later with these two?"

Seneca clapped her hands softly clinking silver to silver rings while avoiding smashing the weapons together. I always wondered how they would react on humans. She must have known better since they never clanked together in her slow mocking applause.

"Well, Lani, since you asked ... They have a future in farming." The sounds of pain and torturing of vampires was building behind Seneca and I could see a fine spray of blood had sprung out from both of them in various spots arcing upwards and over the walls of the interior. They had reverted to guttural grunts and sounds. As I watched Elisa fang deeply into Greg's throat, it was apparent that he wouldn't be making much more than grunts or groans any more without a serious influx of blood to repair the damage. And neither Seneca nor Lani seemed to be the type to donate.

"Explain the farming reference for our audience." Lani called out in a game show announcer-styled voice to Seneca who was busy wiping a bit of blood off her cheek.

She continued with, "Of course, Lani. Well, when my old high school wanted to make us "bad" kids into some nice upstanding citizens, we were lucky enough to be part of the 4-H club. In building us up to be those fine upstanding people my brothers and I were part of the pig-farming program. And what you probably already know is that a pig can demolish a lot of meat in very little time." She stopped talking and put her hand out for the camera.

Lani came back in focus and she concluded, "Yes, Cassandra, your reward will be knowing that this tape has arrived after we disposed of the two behind Seneca. I have no quarrel with you. But consider this a warning. I know your plans for the year but you don't know mine." Then she turned the lens back to let me watch the slaughtering.