Sweet Blood of Mine (20 page)

pleasant if you're realy thirsty, but not as tasty or satisfying.

My mind sucked greedily on it anyway. The gnawing hunger started to diminish. Their laughter faded as they did their business and left.

I glared at myself in the mirror. My eyes were hazel again instead of the piercing ice blue. My skin regained some color. I had just fed upon another person's joy. I realy was a monster.

A river of icy fear ran through my body. Elyssa was right. I was a soul-sucking creature of nightmares and I would never know love. I would never again feel her arms around me or her soft lips against mine. I would never know the joy of making real love to her, or any other woman for that matter. My make-out session with Victoria had been as fake and unreal as a blowup dol. I could seduce any woman but never win her love. Even worse, I apparently had to leech emotions from other people to feed my soul.

I didn't want this life. I wanted my old life back. I wanted Elyssa back. Tears fought their way back into my eyes. I clenched my teeth and gripped the porcelain sink with both hands.

"Stop crying you stupid freak." The sink cracked and shattered in my hands. I backed away then fled the empty bathroom before someone came in and reported me for vandalism.

"Aw looky, someone's been crying," said a familiar voice. Nathan's leering face came into focus through the haze of anger, fear, and loathing I felt.

I clenched my fists so tight my knuckles crackled like fireworks. I thought my hands would bleed. It took every ounce of wilpower not to beat Nathan into a bloody porridge of skin and crushed bones that instant. Something in the back of my head screamed,
Do it! You're a monster
anyway. They never accepted you as a human. What
makes you think you'll ever be accepted by any of them
as a monster?

I didn't care if Nathan or his crowd ever accepted me. I only cared about three people ever accepting me and I knew one of them was done with me. Other students chimed in, ridiculing me as I walked through the locker-lined halway. Somehow I'd managed to wander into the senior locker halway.

Something hard smacked against the top of my head. I saw stars for a brief instant and heard raucous laughter break out. I turned and saw Steve guffawing and pointing at his class ring which he'd cleverly turned palm-down to smack me on the head. I envisioned turning this halway into a bloodbath. I could so easily destroy everyone here. But no, that would be too easy, I realized.

Physical pain was too good for these people. I had to cause them emotional pain. Even the smack on the head from Steve's ring didn't hurt half as much as the pain in my heart.

Much to the amusement of the clowns, I turned and walked away.

After school, I went home and sulked for a while. I wasn't sure what to do with myself but eventualy realized I was miserable at home with my father vanishing without a word as he apparently tried to track down Mom.

Screw everything.
I didn't give a crap anymore.

I grabbed some of the cash I'd stolen from my parent's rainy day shoebox and went to a strip club named The Gold Cheetah as dusk settled over the city. The bouncer stared at me then held out his hand for my ID. I handed it to him.

He laughed. "Come back in a few years, kid."

"But I'm eighteen."

"Gotta be twenty-one here."

I puled out a fifty and handed it to him. He tossed it back at me.

"Not gonna happen, kid. Now beat it."

I grumbled and turned away. I hopped back into my car and noticed two large bouncers dragging a man out the back of the strip club. They chucked him into the grass behind the back parking lot, brushed off their hands, and behind the back parking lot, brushed off their hands, and went back inside. I skirted around the darkness at the edge of the lot until I found the guy stil lying on the ground in a rumpled business suit. He mumbled drunkenly about strippers getting al touchy about where his hands went. I looked at him. From what I could tel, he looked nothing like me. He was a little taler and had a goatee. I spotted the bulge in his front pants pocket and reached for his walet.

He grabbed my wrist and gave me an angry glare.

"What the hel do you think you're doing?"

I punched him in the face. He went limp and silent.

I hoped I hadn't just kiled him. His snores a few seconds later assured me he was stil among the living. I breathed a sigh of relief and puled his walet al the way out. I ignored everything but his driver's license and examined it. The resemblance wasn't even close, plus the guy had twelve years on me. I put his walet back and shoved the license into my pocket. It was worth a try.

About fifteen minutes later, I arrived at another strip club, The Purple Pony. I wondered what it was with colors, animals, and strip club names. This one was a bit nicer on the outside, although having never been to one, I realy didn't know what constituted "nice" at a place like this. The bouncer glanced at the bogus license, then handed it back and took ten dolars for a cover charge. Music boomed on the inside and a lonely but fuly clothed stripper on a four-foot tal stage danced on a pole for a sparse crowd. I sat at the bar and watched the creepy-looking guys feed her dolar bils.

Most of them stared at her jiggly bits with blank expressions. One older guy who was wearing large circa 1980's eyeglasses and, I kid you not, a detective cap like the one Sherlock Holmes wore, stared at her unblinkingly and occasionaly licked his dry gray lips. He had serial kiler written al over him.

"Want a private dance, hon?" asked a smooth voice in my left ear. "I'm Raven."

I turned to see a very attractive dark-haired girl in a translucent negligee standing there, her hands resting on my shoulder. She had chocolate brown eyes, tanned skin, and a unicorn tattoo over her pierced bely button. Long fake lashes, fishnet stockings, and knee-high leather boots reminded me of a warrior princess.

"How private?" I asked, trying to keep the quaver out of my voice.

She gave me a sugar-coated smile. "Don't be nervous, sweetie," she said, rubbing my arm affectionately.

She seemed to realy like me.
Of course she seems
to, dummy. That's her job,
said brain number one.

"How much?"

"Wel, a lap dance here would be ten, a dance in the private lounge is thirty, and a dance in a private VIP room is fifty."

I puled out the fifty the bouncer from the other place had rejected and held it out for her. She laughed and gently pressed my hand to a garter on her leg. I directed my shaky hand to slip the money under the elastic as a hot embarrassed flush raced from my face down my body. I felt like a total idiot.

She took my chin and made me look her in the eyes. "You are adorable. Don't worry sweetie, I'l take good care of you." She took my hand and puled me through some halways and into a smal room with a vinyl curtain covering the doorway. A faux leather couch squatted against the back wal and a foldout chair sat in the middle.

"I'l wait until this song ends so you'l get a ful dance, okay?"

I nodded and sat in the folding chair since speaking seemed very difficult.

"First time?"

"First time?"

I nodded again.

She sat on my lap and smiled. She was very pretty. Her huge breasts pressed against the sheer fabric of the nightgown she wore. Her teeth were white and perfectly straight. "Let's go over the simple rules since you're new, okay?"

"Okay," I said, voice cracking.

"I do al the touching. You," she said putting my hands to the sides of the chair, "have to keep your hands to yourself. Otherwise, I'l have to get the bouncer to come and take you away. And you're too cute for me to want to do that to you." She smiled and tapped my nose with her finger.

I nodded and white-knuckle-gripped the sides of the chair. She laughed.

"If you're realy good, I might give you a feel."

Apparently I had no clue about the way lap dances worked. For some reason, I thought they involved sex at some point. I felt disgusted at myself for coming here now that my anger at the injustices of the world had faded, but it was kind of late to change my mind.

The song ended and a new one began. Raven—if that was her real name—twisted her body in a slow rhythm.

She bent over, displaying her panties then straightened in a slow languorous motion. She slid the negligee from her shoulders with wel-practiced flourishes. I wondered how many hundreds of times she'd done this same exact dance for other men. In the back of my mind, I could hear, feel, smel, and almost taste the white-hot hum of sexual energy.

Hers seemed to be on the other side of a thin mental wal but other emotions sparkled around it. I guessed a stripper had to barricade some of her feelings to bare everything else for strangers.

This wasn't right. I shouldn't be here, doing this.

My stomach growled but I knew it wasn't food I craved.

The ethereal vapors of my mind reached for the smoky essence surrounding her. I reined them in. Agonizing hunger stabbed into my abdomen and my control slipped.

My mind latched onto hers.

She gasped. Her eyes narrowed. Her mouth opened and her tongue ran a sensual circuit around her lips.

She moaned and sat on my lap.

"Kiss me," she said.

I realy didn't want to, but my own hunger had me in its thral. I was as much a prisoner as she was. We locked lips. In my mind's eye, I could see her essence writhing and seeking escape. I felt the way it tried to squirm from my grasp like a mouse under a cat's paw. The aroma of primal fear filed my nostrils. But she couldn't escape me, and part of her liked what I was doing. Every spike of pleasure and every attempt to get away energized me and weakened her resolve.

She nibbled my neck. Energy poured into me until I felt like an overpowered bomb, ready to burst. The lights in the room dimmed. One of them popped and fizzled out.

Raven got off my lap and went for my belt buckle.

No. Not this. Not with her.

Panic weled in me but I couldn't move. A lustful force locked my muscles into place. I was helpless.

Elyssa's tear-filed eyes flashed into my mind. My body responded to my desperate pleas. I jerked back. The chair I was in flipped over backwards. Raven shrieked and stumbled backwards onto her butt. She jumped up, a lustful gleam in her eyes.

"Where do you think you're going?" she said in her deep sensual voice. "I'm not done with you yet."

A huge guy ripped through the curtain, fury burning in his face. "What the hel is going on in here?"

It was then that I noticed a glint in the upper corner of the room. An infrared camera hung there.

Raven's eyes widened. "Nothing happened, Bil."

Raven's eyes widened. "Nothing happened, Bil."

"Just having a friendly conversation," I said.

Bil reached down and grabbed me. Threw me face-first against the wood-paneled wal. "Shut up, smart ass." He punched me in the kidney.

It didn't even hurt. I puzzled over that for a split second before dodging his fist as it impacted the wal where my head had been. Bil swung again. It al seemed like slow motion. I dodged and ducked. Punched him in the stomach. He flew across the room. His body splintered the cheap wooden paneling. Bounced off the wal, roled over the couch, and onto the floor.

Raven's eyes grew huge.

"Oh my God!" she said. She grabbed my arm and took me down the hal to a back door. "Get out of here before he goes for his gun. Bil's crazy."

"Does he have a crush on you or something?"

"He owns this place, dummy." She opened the door and stared at me for a moment. "What happened back there, anyway? I've never felt anything like it." She glanced down at herself. "I've never had so much fun with my clothes on."

I smiled. "It was pure magic."

She flung her arms around my neck and kissed me.

"It
was
magical. Who are you?"

"That," I said before leaving, "is the milion dolar question."

I went home, buzzing with energy. I felt invincible on the one hand and absolutely filthy and terrified on the other. I had made out with a stripper. God only knew what kinds of venereal diseases I'd probably contracted just from kissing her. Then again, I healed super-fast from injuries, so maybe STDs couldn't touch me.

Elyssa had once again saved me from myself whether she knew it or not. I was surprised considering al that remained of our relationship was an ache in my heart. I stil loved her. I had hoped against hope she would be The One. Fate obviously had other plans.

On the way home, I passed by Katie's neighborhood. Yet another example of love lost. Then again, had I realy loved Katie? I was so tempted to use my charms on her and leave my virginity behind. Maybe then I'd stop hurting so much inside and simply deal with the cards God or some other cruel entity had dealt me.

I parked at the curb in front of her house. It would be an easy thing to walk up the drive. Knock on the door.

Seduce my former crush and ravish her. I got out of the car and took a few hesitant steps toward Katie's house. A familiar heat blossomed between my shoulder blades.

"I warned you and you didn't listen, did you, my love?" said Stacey.