Dark Whispers 06

Vampires, Sex, Lies and Video

Harry and I were frozen for a moment with the realization that both sets of our favorite vampire-taming weapons were missing.

My wrists were pretty small, and Harry had nearly as thin wrists as me, so the flex release sheaths we designed for our weapons were uniquely tailored to the width of our hands and tapering of our fingers. He designed his in brown leather and mine in black -- that way, at a glance, we could tell which was mine and which was his. This was important, as his weapon vials were loaded with my blood and holy water while mine were with his blood and holy water. Years ago, we knew that at some point we would have to defend ourselves from others in our little set of vampires. Between the two of us we could fend off most of our clans and get to a safe place. Now both sets of silver crossbows loaded with the mixtures were gone. From the scene on the tape we just started to watch, we knew where his had gone. The empty cavern in the leather book I held proved mine were still just somewhere out there.

I slapped shut the now not-so-complete works of William Shakespeare, keeping the flippant thank you note out for more analysis later. Nicely worded, thanking me and saying that my weapons would be put to good use. That alone made my teeth drop down and me want to tear out someone's throat.

"Okay, not like we can do anything with this now. Let's finish seeing what my new admirer has sent on the rest of that video." I shoved the book back on the shelf and joined Harry on the couch.

Harry looked over at me and said, "Cassandra, we really should take a second to dump these clothes in a sink of bleach or something."

We had been so transfixed by the tape and its subject matter we had forgotten our earlier evening entertainment; we were both still wearing our blood-splattered clothing. In my spare guest room I gathered up a set of sweats for Harry to use while we cleaned his clothes. A few minutes later I had both his and my clothing in the washer, and Harry and I were ready to finish viewing the tape. I had tugged on sweats also and wondered at how we were so blasé we never noticed our clothing in our rush to watch the video. I bit back a smile, knowing it was just another sign of how much I really needed to get out more.

The television still had the paused frame of both Greg and Elisa outside his van being speared in the throats with the silver barbed crosses. Harry looked over at me, "Are you sure you want to see this?"

"Excuse me? I was going to be doing the honors of killing these two up until this mystery vampire killed them for us."

I was pretty upset about that. I was nearly looking forward to watching how their van got so splattered with blood and gore.

Harry looked at me. "Cassandra, we don't know for sure it is a vampire doing this."

Voice of fucking reason. I really hated when he went serious on me.

"It better be another vampire. Otherwise we have even more troubles than I thought."

The idea of a human finding our weaknesses was beyond comprehension. And so far all the visitors we had detected near my home had been human. That was unsettling. Add in the rest and I was disturbed. Mentally I counted off the past day's events. First, there was the fact my cousin and his consort were missing, leaving a bloody van. Second, there was the allegedly Homeland Security dude, a human named Kirk Grady, out there looking for who Greg was associated with, and bugging me to spill the beans on who might want Greg dead. Third, and hopefully the last little bit of fun, there was this unsolicited videotape. My year was not going the way I wanted no matter how I twisted my thoughts to make sense of the past two days. But then I looked over at Harry and had to correct that -- I was happy about meeting back up with my partner in crime. He caught the thought and nodded to the frozen shocked faces still paused on the television.

"You don't have to watch this, you know. I can analyze it back at my office and bring you a written synopsis of the tape."

His voice was soft and almost gentle. Most of his minions and office drones would never have recognized him. I appreciated his concern, but knew what was on that video was a direct message to me. I caught Harry's hand up and tugged it to my face. Planting a quick kiss on his palm, I reached over and pushed the play button on the remote he had loosely clasped in his other hand. He tilted my face up and planted a quick kiss on my forehead saying, "Ok, but this is not a good movie. I know many better films we could be watching." I cherished him for wanting to protect me but knew this was important.

The frames advanced slowly. For a moment I thought I had hit the wrong key and was doing a frame by frame advance on the tape but no, it seemed it was real time since I heard the female say, "Oops, I guess they really aren't all-knowing creatures." The soft voice from earlier in the tape was now had a bit more of a bite to it. She really did not like vampires. This did not bode well for my cousin. But since Greg's black panel van had already been found soaked in blood, I pretty much had figured that out. They crumpled slowly and face first into the blacktop of the parking lot.

The camera followed their slow slumping next to the van with a very steady hand. The silver crosses were still stuck in both of their throats, and they had been so shocked their eyes were open and glazed with the combination of blood and holy water. We really had picked a good weapon. Up until now neither of us was positive how it would work on one of close blood lines like Greg but it sure looked successful, so to speak.

"Sorry, Cassandra," the lady filming spoke off camera directly to me while the camera was still running. We watched her getting closer to the two collapsed on the ground as she continued with, "I can't film and get the show on the road so get a bag of popcorn or a quart of blood, whatever, and I will be back in a flash with part two."

The tape went to black.

Harry hit the pause button again.

"Cassandra, I am not happy with how this is going."

Funny that, I was very glad with how this was going. Okay, I needed to find out why someone was doing my killing for me, but it wasn't anything too gross yet. I knew it would end poorly for dear cousin and his babe, but he deserved it.

Looking over to Harry I said, "Don't sweat it, hon, this is fine." He patted my hand and hit the play button.

The scene was now inside the van. The camera was out of the purse or bag that had been hiding it and I could see it was focused from the seat behind the driver. Greg was such a sleaze his van had been completely tricked out for seduction and with plush sex and bondage in mind. The decades since he had been turned by Kenyon had not changed him other than giving him new killing grounds.

The woman had taken time to use some of Greg's ropes and handcuffs. Both Greg and Elisa were shown unconscious and strung up on the bed in the back of the van with various toys I knew to be Greg's. But now the lady was in the frame. She turned to the camera and said, "Evening, Miss Cassandra. As you can see they are still out cold. But then Harry's little blood infusion was probably the best blood they have ever had. The little holy water mix has them frozen. They can hear but not react. I like this type of weapon."

Here she stopped and showed the camera her wrists. She had the black leather sheaths encasing my little toys on her arms now. She was showing us that she was the human with the power. My teeth dropped down and Harry growled softly.

"You know who she is?" I looked at him.

"Yes," he bit out.

"Who?" I was bristling with anger and hunger.

"One of the Goth kids that said they saw Lani," he said slowly.

At that point, the girl reached over and picked up the camera, swung around and showed a person sitting in the driver's seat.

Harry said, "Fuck, that's Lani. It was a set up. They were trying to find Greg when they talked to me."

Wow, someone fooled Harry. This Lani was not running but learning. And from what I was seeing, she was not stupid.

Lani sketched a wave to the Goth gal and said, "Elisa is already dead to me. So let's make it final."

The camera was put back on the seat and the girl reached over and smacked Greg hard on the face. Her fingers were painted the obligatory jet black with a reverse French tip design, ends silver. Adorning her fingers were ornate silver rings running up and down the length her slender digits. My black leather wrist guards looked like part of her full regalia, as she had the prerequisite chalk white face with black lined eyes, and various tattoo designs running around her neck and chest. And that chest was visible. I could see what initially had caught Greg's attention. Her breasts were pushed up with a merry widow arrangement of lace and leather, studded here and there with silver studs.

Greg slowly lifted his eyelids. Ever the slime bucket, his eyes went right to the Goth gal's chest. He was rewarded with a sharper slap and his pretty brown hair was yanked up roughly. I caught the look in Greg's eyes of both hunger and desire. The camera recorded Greg's unsuccessful attempt to pull free of his own restraints, but they had taken the time to use all the binding material available. Greg still was unfocused enough to not get how serious this little party was for him.

Elisa's eyes snapped open and she hissed, "Lani." She was instantly aware of the danger they both were in, while Greg was whispering invitingly to the Goth.

I could hear his words clearly. "Hey, honey, we don't need to play this rough. I have plenty of what you want. Why don't you come a little closer?"

His attempt at seduction was met with a laugh.

The laughter didn't come from the Goth girl, but the lady identified as Lani. It was not a nice lighthearted chuckle, but a dark sound guaranteeing someone was going to be hurt soon. A flash of a fist from Lani and Elisa was knocked back from where she had started to lean towards the Goth kid to bite. Her teeth were fully descended even though her eyes were still spinning from the effects of the holy water. Elisa's teeth snapped shut over her lip and caught some of her own flesh. She gasped, and instant wakefulness flitted through her eyes as the pain swept over her.

Both Harry and I softly groaned. New vampires forever tore their own flesh adjusting to the teeth but Elisa, being such a newly turned vampire, didn't know enough to lick. The blood flowed freely. Her earlier celebration with Greg at Kenyon's club had left her overly full and that added to the grogginess from being knocked out. As the blood continued to flow Lani said, "Seneca, get back." The Goth chick jumped back, clarifying her name.

Greg's eyes turned to Elisa. I watched his face change as the blood called him. Elisa did the absolute worst possible thing, she panicked. As Greg's teeth lengthened and his eyes began to sharpen on her bleeding mouth, Elisa started to struggle and say, "No, Greg, it's me! Stop!" The hysteria was rising and scenting the air in the small space between the lovers.

Harry and I turned to each other and he beat me to it, "Lani let them tear each other to bits."