The Building 25

"You coming?" Now Tricia was getting nervous standing by the door of her car. Her fingertips trembled slightly as she pushed back at a strand of hair that had fallen into her face. He was a foot further on the sidewalk out of touch range from her nimble, naughty fingers. He hated her touching him so casually and he wished that he had a fledgling to educate her, but alas those nights were past. Jerry mentally shook his head while smiling slightly. Little did she realize she had every right to be shaky and nervous. Her mistaken idea was that her fears and nervousness were because she was meeting one of her idols. Okay, maybe not hers, but she certainly was under the impression that Celina was her idol; he'd literally shoved that idea into her brain.

"Dear, you don't need me right this moment. I would distract you from meeting Celina live for the first time. Do you really need to fanaticize about me when you are making your acquaintance with such a remarkable woman?" Jerry Cooper could be charming. Okay, not the original Jerry Cooper, but his vampiric offshoot of that miserable homeless man he'd killed in Michigan years ago. The current incarnation of Jerry Cooper was loaded for vampire and setting Tricia Sanborn out as the tasty, tarty bait for his trap. Once he had Celina Holston under his control he'd be well on his way to returning to his former glory.

He didn't think he would head to Michigan after the death of all the Vampire Council's enforcers who'd tortured him and killed his kin and minion. Since the Council in Michigan had ruined him, losing all of his property and vampires, he'd fled to Florida to heal and plot. The time for that was past and now he was well on his way to finally extracting retribution. How he loved being on the 'giving' side of such things.

Tricia gave a tug on her short skirt in the front, just causing the back to lift a bit higher nearly flashing her ass hanging out of her thong. The sight held absolutely no interest to Jerry. He didn't like playing with his food and found Tricia positively repulsive. Her foul mouth and overt sexuality wasn't exciting and in the least attractive to him. Mentally he dressed her in a 1950's style pressed dress with stockings, tasteful leather shoes and a small pillbox hat. The image wouldn't stick as she ran a finger over the top of her thigh-high stockings in an agitated manner. He had been ready to toss her to the curb when he'd decided he'd use the meat to attract Celina. Celina had hidden her dark side and bad behavior from the Vampire Council for decades. He knew about her because he'd tasted her blood. She was a delightful set of contradictions and Southern gentille misbehavior. It was going to bring him joy taking her apart. Bit by bit. He rubbed the embossed icon on the underside of his forearm without thought. Tricia noticed.

"Cool! I didn't realize I'd picture you branded!" She made a light squealing noise as she saw the image of St. Blaise burned into his left arm. Saint Blaise was the Catholic patron saint of blessed throats -- which was a bit of irony not appreciated by Jerry then or now. He hadn't made a conscious choice to hide the scar from her before, but apparently she hadn't noticed until just then. That she called it branding was ironic because in a way it was a brand. One of the many scars and burns from the religious icons burned into his body over the months he'd been tortured and held captive by the Council's henchmen. The silver and prayers branded deeply into his body and while some of the lighter of the marks on his body had healed with blood and time, not all had. It would take a long time for them to be completely erased from his skin and lots of blood. But never would they be erased from his mind and heart -- they were constant reminders to stay on his guard and to be cautious.

"Why don't you run on ahead and meet Celina?" He redirected her with his command voice. He was going to have to move vampiricly fast. He'd already implanted some ideas into her mind. She had resisted much of his tampering in her brain for a change, but what he'd woven into her had appealed to something naughty and nasty inside. The combination coupled with her lack of sleep, food and a pint or so of blood had made a perfect nest in her mind for what he'd directed her to do.

Grinning, she made a smooching motion with her lips and swung her handbag from her fist as she swung her ass right to left down the somewhat uneven sidewalk -- the root systems of trees had buckled the cement in spots and fissures were created, filled with dirt and weeds. Jerry wasted no time finding the shadows and fading into the dark. And it was dark since most of the abandoned homes weren't lit and half the streetlights had been shot out or broken with rocks. The thick bushes made it easy for him to travel quickly and not worry about being seen. Not that there were any human eyes focused on the street. From his read of the area there weren't more than four or five living bodies on the block.

Also, none of the bodies breathing were focused on anything other than the blaring television in front of them or their lovers under them, not necessarily mutually exclusive or separate.

Jerry found the vampire's house, and there was a lovely side door that led out to the garage. He touched the knob while he focused on sending more naughty thoughts over into Tricia's mind just as she knocked on the door on the opposite side of the house. He felt Celina's presence inside the home and knew the moment she smelt Tricia's vampire-tainted blood and human thoughts. A rush of red flowed through Celina's mind as she dashed furiously through her home to reach the front door intent upon finding who dared to send a vampire-scented victim to her. As she yanked open the front door to find a smiling saucy Tricia on the other side of the home, Jerry physically snapped the doorknob and pushed open the door in one fluid movement.

With vampiric speed, he launched himself through the surprisingly well-furnished house just as Celina pulled Tricia inside, shutting the front door with her own flowing style. Tricia had begun to move robotically herself when she saw Celina's fangs out. Celina wasn't dampening the sight in any manner -- if anything, she was pushing it up a notch and savoring the fears. That was part of what Jerry had been counting on knowing Celina's past conquests. She wasn't all that different than he was. She just wrapped herself in the blanket of being one of the Vampire Council's chosen pets. That was about to change.

"What?" Tricia sounded dumbfounded finding her 'favorite' make-up artist sporting real fangs. Jerry knew part of her mind was finally processing what was in front of her literally, while another part was busy shutting down and trying to hide. That all too animalistic instinct of flight versus fight tended to kick into overdrive when humans were faced with the supernatural.

Then Tricia snapped into her fantasy mode and sidled up closer to Celina -- right smack dab nose to nose, inside her arms nearly -- and smiled, saying, "You are as delicious in person as you look on television." She then kissed Celina on both cheeks, very Old World style, and said, "I am here for you. A gift to be created."

Celina's anger at being interrupted fell away seeing the sex kitten look Tricia was giving her, while she was standing before her scented like vampire. Celina's dirty little vamp secret was that she had been creating rogues in her spare time and grooming them to give her a power base once she decided she was tired of being the Council's pawn. She preferred women and girls because she liked the control she had over them, and in turn the control her vampires had over others. She trained them all in the art of subterfuge and deceit. She wanted and planned on becoming the Master Vampire of a city. She half thought of staying in Florida, but wasn't sure if it would be wise since Ben's territory was the South Eastern United States. Ben Richland wasn't a Master of the City vampire, but rather like a Vampire Council regional enforcer. Jerry knew that Celina had put up some serious mind blocks to keep Ben out of that little corner of her diabolical plots and plans in her brain. She hadn't counted on Jerry's slamming through her thoughts so violently back in Michigan.

The brief time that Jerry had been free, before the misguided humans had rescued him, when he'd caused her to pass out he'd scraped as much of her mind into his to use against her if need be. The unseen vampire who'd smashed him to the floor and nearly cut him in half prevented him from using any of the information -- at the time. But over the years, Jerry culled bits and pieces from what he'd seen in her thoughts and what he discovered out in the world. Celina Holston had some plans that didn't in any way fall in with the Vampire Council's rulebook.

Celina ran a long French tipped fingernail over Tricia's jaw line, dropping her finger down the human's jugular like one did with a fine piece of china or a lush rich piece of fabric. A light shiver went down Tricia's spine and she shivered while goose bumps were raised over her skin. There was no emotion on Celina's face, only a vampiric analysis of the right place to strike. What the vamp hadn't counted on or even realized what how Tricia was wired. The sex kitten glance should have been a bit clue if the outfit wasn't.

Jerry was still lingering out of sight behind the two females, within striking distance. Tricia's eyes were shutting as she shuddered and her nipples pushed out obviously in arousal to the finger stroke that made the human think naughty sexual thoughts. Celina's eyes naturally noticed as well as the all-too-familiar scent of Tricia's musk flowed into the room. Tricia licked her lips and said, "Damn, you are what he promised."

Something in how she said the words triggered a self-preservation reaction in Celina, and she wheeled around, hissing, forgetting Tricia was still entwined erotically in her arms.

It was what Jerry'd been counting on. He picked up the large bronze bust of Julius Caesar conveniently sitting on a side table in the living room and slammed Celina with all of his pent up rage. Both women were launched a good five feet into the center of the room. Not before Tricia noticed Jerry and squealed, "Wow, this is so unreal."

Jerry's fangs were out, and he was on top of Celina, while Tricia was trapped beneath them both, wiggling and giggling unaware of what was actually happening. Celina had the human at her back, tugging on her clothes and moving around in a determined manner that Jerry recognized quite easily from earlier when the hacker had been rubbing on him like a cat in heat. There was a definite reaction from Celina -- which was the other part that Jerry'd been counting on, along with Tricia being the perfect fang bait. Celina liked the feeling of Tricia's intense sensual nature and it was clouding her already addled mind. Jerry wasted no time in brutally gnashing open the vampire's neck and drinking down her blood. He wasn't delicate and careful but vicious and hard. A spray of red mist was coating Tricia beneath the flailing vampire. Tricia was beginning to struggle as she finally figured out that her imagination didn't include blood raining down on her. She began to scream when Jerry unfanged from the vampire's neck and flipped her over, whereupon Celina did what any dying vampire would do given a perfect victim -- she struck the woman's throat and began sucking. It was a beautiful thing to watch but he went back to the job at hand. Jerry bit the back of Celina's neck along the spine and continued to drink. The two women were merging in death while Jerry rode the rush of confusion.