Bride of Blood:: First Kiss (6 page)

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
About 50 years ago, he and Anton had gone to visit Lady Bernadine at her compound in Africa.
 
Alexander knew that the reason for their visit was because of him.
 
Anton didn’t have to say it, but he knew.
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
When they arrived, they were quickly separated and Alexander was led by one of the vampire queen’s handmaids to a room.
 
The room was typical of those in the compound, small with a large bed and no visible walls.
 
Instead of walls the room was surrounded by a strange veil of fog.
 
Lady Bernadine and her handmaids could pass in and out of the fog whenever they wished, without making a sound.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Alexander sat down on the bed and looked into the mist.
 
He knew that soon Lady Bernadine would send one of her mortal servants for him to feed on.
 
Surely she would.
 
She always did.
 
But she didn’t.
 
No one came into the room.
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
For what seemed like weeks to him, Alexander sat in the room and was not visited by anyone.
 
Not Anton, and not Bernadine.
 
He didn’t sense so much as one of the handmaids or the servants walking through the mist.
 
He was just alone with his thoughts and his hunger.
 
He began to get even hungrier.
 
As he did, he would try to sleep but ended up tearing at the sheets and breathing hard.
 
He felt his body growing colder, and then the deeper pain began about a week later.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
This pain wracked his body from top to bottom.
 
He shook and tried to scream for Anton, but there was no reply.
 
He was in agony and wanted nothing more than to feed.
 
For about another week he suffered.
 
He began to tear off his clothes, the sheets from the bed, and then claw at his chest.
 
The wounds which usually would heal right away, stayed like scars on a mortal.
 
Somewhere from deep inside what was left of his mortal glands, he began to sweat.
 
Real sweat, not blood like he expected.
 
His skin felt feverish one minute and then clammy the next.
 
Then came the headaches.
 
The pain in his head felt like it was being hammered.
 
He couldn’t even get up any longer.
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Finally, one day the pain stopped and the last of his strength was gone from his body.
 
He lay on the floor in a dead heap.
 
He could barely open his eyes and felt that soon the final death would come for him.
 
He welcomed it at that point.
 
He had come to the point where he was tearing out his hair before he lost his strength for the last time.
 
He felt as if he’d been totally drained of all that he was. If there’d been a mirror in the room, he wouldn’t have recognized what he saw.
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Then suddenly, when he swore that death was upon him, he felt he was being lifted.
 
Lady Bernadine picked him up from the floor.
 
He was like a ragdoll to her at that moment.
 
Not that she couldn’t have lifted him otherwise, as she had the strength of dozens of mortals.
 
Still, she knew that the fast had done what it needed to do.
 
She gave a nod and then three of her handmaids appeared and stripped the bed and replaced the linens.
 
She shooed them away and lay Alexander onto the bed.
 
She kissed his forehead and whispered into his ear.
 
He couldn’t consciously understand what she was saying, but somehow he felt better.
 
Although he couldn’t speak or move, he did feel better.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Then Bernadine took off what was left of his clothes.
 
She saw his scarred body and would have been taken back by his gaunt and gray flesh, if it weren’t what she wanted.
 
She began to kiss his body, and color began to return to him.
 
The scars were slowly starting to heal and when she made her way up to his mouth she bit into her wrist.
 
She allowed him to feed from her and like magic he was totally restored.
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
He took a deep breath and sat up.
 
He felt like himself again, but better in some way.
 
Bernadine held his face in her hands and then kissed his blood-stained lips.
 
From then on he was calmed and had become an Acolyte.
 
He was able to curb his violence, but sometimes still felt a desire to feed more than others.
 

***

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
He heard movement behind him and turned around.
 
Standing there was a big, burly biker who looked like he wanted trouble.
 
Alexander knew the type.
 
Although JR was usually able to keep the peace in the bar, there were an occasional badass who felt the need to start shit with someone smaller than them.
 
This biker was about a good foot taller than Alexander although much of his body was blubber, not muscle.
 
The biker was a person who was used to bullying people and winning most of the fights he got into.
 
Besides his large size and his overly large ego, he was very ugly with a bald head and no neck.
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
The other person came out of his stall, took one look at the biker and ran as fast as he could from the restroom.
 
The biker smiled at Alexander and said, “What do we have here?”
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
“Look,” said Alexander getting up in the biker’s face. “I don’t want any trouble.
 
I’m just here tonight to drink and meet some women.”

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
“I don’t give a shit what you’re here for!” said the biker a little taken back by Alexander’s confidence. “I’m here to drink some beer and kick some ass!
 
And I think I’ll start with you first, faggot!”

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
At the mention of the last word, Alexander suddenly flashed back to a time long ago.
 
He was seeing a blurred vision of a large man much like the biker.
 
He was coming at him and was hitting him as hard as he could.
 
Alexander couldn’t fight him off, he was simply too small and too weak.
 
His head started to throb as the memory of his mortal life became more and more painful and vivid.
 
Alexander gripped the sides of his head and backed away from the biker.
 
He closed his eyes and started to whisper, “Stop it! Go away!” over and over again.
 
The biker didn’t know what to think.
 
He was about to say something about Alexander being a crybaby or call him a faggot again, when the flashback suddenly ended.
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Alexander’s rage knew no bounds as he grabbed the biker by his leather vest and threw him back into the stall.
 
The biker’s head hit the back wall hard but not hard enough to kill him.
 
Alexander’s eyes turned a bright yellow and his fangs bared as he walked into the stall and closed the door.
 
He punched the biker a few more times in the head for good measure and then dug his fangs into the biker’s throat.
 
The biker started to scream, but Alexander held his mouth shut.
 
It only took a few moments for the man to be totally drained and dead.
 
Alexander placed the dead biker on the toilet and then opened the stall door and stepped out into the bathroom.
 
He wiped his mouth and felt The Rush take him.
 
His eyes rolled back in his head and he shivered from head to toe.
 
When it was over, he closed the stall door.
 
With a flick of his fingers, he heard the latch snap into the locked position.
 
It would be quite a while before anyone noticed that the guy was dead. Alexander stepped over to the sink and splashed his face with cold water.
 
He looked in the mirror and saw that the flesh tones had returned to his face.
 
He’d been extra pale before feeding.
 
He smiled at himself and walked out of the restroom.The two vampires led the women out of the bar.
 
They all walked and talked for several minutes.
 
They were able to convince the two women that they didn’t live too far from the bar and that it was alright for them to walk.
 
Besides being evil, they were very gullible and easily agreed to go home with them.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
There was an alley coming up.
 
Anton didn’t sense any life in it, so he nodded to Alexander.
 
Alexander nodded back to him and they grabbed the women and quickly dragged them into the alley.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Debbie was excited to be treated roughly as she felt herself being pressed against a brick wall.
 
Anton kissed her neck gently as she wrapped her arms around him.
 
He covered her mouth with his hand and bit deeply into her neck.