Averting his eyes, Atan had not been able to look at the crucifix. Christ, he had believed, had forsaken him. Keeping his head bowed, Atan had grabbed a candle to penetrate the gloom. Supporting himself by leaning on the pews, he had slowly stumbled forward until he reached the back of the church. Here, he had found a narrow door that led to a windowless storeroom. In the room, there had been over a dozen wine casks. Closing the door behind him, Atan had discovered several upright casks lined side by side along the rear wall. He had inspected the casks and found one that was empty. Prying open the cover, Atan, with his last remaining strength, had climbed into the vintage damp barrel. With the chill of death expelling the warmth of life, Atan had pulled the lid shut, entombing himself in that cold, sunless cavity.
“I hid unnoticed for two days. That cask became my grave. For there, I slept and I died and I was reborn. On the second night, I rose from the cask. I left the room and walked down the aisle with my back to God and to Man. I emerged from the church a new vampire, frightened and hungry and…” Realizing he might say too much, Atan abruptly ended his account. “Well, that’s enough of that.”
Fascinated, Reid persisted. “What about your family?”
“I never returned to my family. How could I? I hid by day and prowled by night. To my family and friends, I had vanished without a trace. Then, in 1821, when Spain sold Florida to the U.S., the Spanish left and so did my family. But I, of course, remained.” Once again, he flashed that dangerously charming smile and quipped, “And here I am today. Talking to you.”
“Wow, that’s quite a story.”
“Yes, it is, isn’t it? Atan continued playfully. “It turns you on, doesn’t it?”
“What!” cried Reid, taken aback. “You mean sex?”
“Yes. Even vampires have their needs.”
“Yeah, sucking blood!”
“Not to kill. It’s like a drug. Sucking blood during sex heightens the pleasure for both.”
“Really. Pleasure? But aren’t you, you know…dead?”
“Can the dead do this?” Atan ran his hand firmly along Reid’s inner thigh. When Reid stiffened in apparent discomfort, Atan laughed provocatively.
Reid stopped Atan’s hand from pressing further but did not remove it.
“So, you’re telling me you can still have sex?” exclaimed Reid, incredulous.
“Sure. It feels good, too.” Looking down at himself, he bragged, “And believe me. You wouldn’t be disappointed.”
At that, Reid rolled his eyes.
“Of course,” he explained. “I can’t get off in the human sense.”
“Oh, you’re human all right,” retorted Reid as he pushed Atan’s hand away.
“No, I’m not.”
“You’re pretty sure of yourself, aren’t you?” countered Reid.
Atan shrugged with a conceited snicker.
“You laugh, don’t you? And you sure as hell get horny. And I bet you cry, too. And get mad. And jealous. Hate…And love. That’s what makes you human. Not whether you’re dead, undead, immortal or whatever you are.”
“Touché,” conceded Atan. He leaned seductively closer to Reid and whispered, “So, do you want to sleep with a vampire?”
Once again, Reid was lured into those dark, hypnotic eyes. Drawn ever closer, he leaned forward, teetering on the edge of the bleacher as Atan’s cool lips brushed his. Feeling that chill, breathless mouth, Reid started with a gasp, sat upright, and threw up his hands.
“No, I…I don’t think so!” Reid stuttered. “I really should be going.”
With that, Reid jumped up and headed for the door. Looking back, he caught Atan’s spellbinding eyes and bewitching smile. Atanasio called to him.
“Perhaps, next time, when the moon is full.” He grinned.
Reid rushed through the door, pushing and bumping his way through the crowd. As quickly as he could, he left the bar. Practically running to his car, he kept looking back over his shoulder, half expecting Atan to be following. But there was no one. Heart racing, he got into his car and in near panic inspected the backseat. It was empty. He locked the doors, started the car, turned on the headlights and sped home.
At home, Reid tossed and turned in his unlit bedroom. In the dark, he was haunted by the specter of Atan’s supernatural smile and stirred by the virility of his touch. The spot where the evocative vampire had groped him tingled as if his hand had never been withdrawn. Placing his own hand over the spot, Reid drifted into a fitful sleep and dreamed.
In his dream, he was still in his own bed. Beside the bed rested a black wooden coffin. Leaning over the edge of the bed, he surveyed the casket and ran his hand along the lid. As he did, the lid was suddenly flung wide. From the open coffin, two muscular glowing arms reached out, clutching him with strong masculine hands. Caught in their powerful grip, Reid was pulled into the coffin. Within the confines of that burial box, he was held tightly. Crushed against a brawny chest, he once again faced those hypnotic eyes and that mesmerizing grin. As the grin grew wider, sharp fangs sprang from upper incisors and lustful laughter burst forth, reverberating against the sides of the narrow enclosure. The wanton laughter echoed louder and louder as the pointed incisors came closer and closer. With those fangs almost upon him, the lid of the casket snapped shut.
The closing slam of the dream coffin woke Reid with a start. Heart pounding, he hastily scanned the brightening room. Streams of early-morning sunlight revealed he was alone. Assured he was safe, he sat up in the middle of the bed still shaking. Amid the tangled sheets, he trembled panting and sweating and, to his astonishment, aroused. Unsettled by this, he got up, walked into the bathroom, and splashed water on his face.
“Maybe the whole night was a dream,” he said aloud. “It couldn’t have been a vampire!”
Making a concerted effort to push the very chance of a vampire from his thoughts, Reid followed his usual Sunday ritual of household chores and preparation for those tedious Monday-morning-back-to-work blues. Still, whenever there was a lull in his routine, the haunting face of Atanasio flashed in his mind’s eye and the imprint of his hand tickled his inner thigh. Beset by these tantalizing images, he passed the sunlit hours into the moonlit night.
That night, Reid once more dreamed of Atan. This time, in his dream, Reid’s entire bedroom was a tomb. In the center of the tomb, surrounded by tall blood-red candles, lay Atan on a black satin shroud, naked and expectant, waiting with fangs exposed. Reid fell onto that sensuous sable cloth. At once, Atanasio rolled on top of him engulfing him like a cool consuming wave. As Atan covered Reid with the shroud and his body, the incessant harangue of the alarm clock stirred Reid. Once again, he woke trembling and aroused. Still inflamed, Reid readied for work.
Throughout the afternoon, the look and touch of Atan continued to excite him, playing in and out of his daydreams like a flickering erotic film, making it difficult to concentrate on his job. After work, Reid joined his usual Monday-night league for a few games of bowling. But even the light glinting on the white bowling pins reminded him of the pale flesh of Atan. Leaving the bowling alley, Reid returned to the bar.
The bar, with only a couple of dozen patrons circling like vultures, seemed dismal and deserted. Empty as it was, Reid met no delay buying a beer and finding a seat on the bleachers in the back patio. Sitting in his customary spot, he gulped his beer. Because he’d already had several bottles at the bowling alley, the brew buzzed his brain and blurred his vision. Through bleary eyes, he looked up at the moon. The moon was full. Still squinting at that bright hypnotic orb, Reid didn’t notice Atan approach.
“Hello again.”
Reid flinched, a little startled by the appearance of the sultry bloodsucker.
“Sorry.” He laughed. “I didn’t mean to scare you.”
“No. That’s all right,” Reid spluttered. “How’ve you been?”
“Waiting for you,” enticed Atan with a wildly disarming smile.
Both tense and titillated, Reid gaped mutely into Atan’s enigmatic eyes. In pace with his racing pulse, Reid’s breathing quickened as Atan moved closer.
Leaning into Reid, Atan enfolded him snugly in his solid arms. Held helplessly in Atan’s forceful grip, Reid did not struggle. Nor did he resist when Atan pressed his cool lips over Reid’s warm mouth. Atan kissed Reid long and passionately. Overwhelmed, Reid rested limply against Atan’s athletic chest. Brushing his lips along Reid’s skin, Atan drew his mouth near to Reid’s ear.
“The moon is full tonight,” he whispered seductively. “Will you come home with me?”
Kindled by that torrid combination of danger and desire, Reid could not refuse. “Yes,” he agreed weakly. “Yes.”
Spurred by his acquiescence, Atan pulled Reid firmly to his feet. Intoxicated with alcohol and hunger, Reid let the vampire usher him from the bar and into Reid’s car. Once in the car, the aggressive sanguinarian caressed Reid’s inner thigh while directing him to his house.
The one-story house stood inconspicuously at the end of a dead-end street. With its peach-painted stucco walls, lime Bahama shutters, and roof of cinnamon clay tiles, the secluded dwelling abided almost completely hidden by lush foliage. The branches of two twenty-five foot gumbo limbo trees formed a canopy over the gray slate walkway that led to the front door. The yard on both sides of the path teemed with leather fern, hibiscus, wild coffee, and arrowroot spreading rampant and wild.
Shrubs were beginning to violate the driveway where Reid parked the car by the side of the shadowy property. The murky premises were illuminated only by the warily watchful glare of the full moon. In that gloom, Reid was hardly able to see. To guide him, Atan vigorously grasped Reid’s shoulders and hastened him along the walkway. Passing beneath the arch of branches that sheltered the path, Reid felt a sense of foreboding as though he was entering an ominous netherworld from which he might never return. Ignoring the dread, he allowed himself to be pushed inside the house and hustled through an unlit hallway into the back bedroom.
The bedroom, to Reid’s astonishment, mirrored his dream. Like the chamber in his vision, several crimson candles seductively lighted the room. Their quivering flames created an eerie yet erotic ambience. In that seamy light, Reid observed that the windows had been blocked, transforming the room into a sealed vault. In the center of the tomb-like room, a king-sized mattress lay covered with black satiny sheets.
Easily lifting Reid with powerful arms, Atan dropped him roughly onto the bed. Caught in the surge of Atan’s supernatural passion, Reid sprawled helpless, scarcely able to breathe. Like a relentless satyr, the ardent aggressor swiftly removed all of Reid’s clothing. Lying naked on the luxurious cloth, Reid swelled with anxious anticipation as Atan quickly tore off his own garments. Standing nude, Atan’s sinewy, toned physique glistened in the candlelight.
With shadows from the flickering flames dancing on his bare back, Atan kissed Reid’s foot, then grazed his lips and the tip of his tongue along Reid’s leg and inner thigh. The middle-aged mortal shuddered. As the handsome hedonist continued upward, skimming his mouth across Reid’s abdomen and chest, his buff body glided over Reid like the smooth underbelly of a stingray. Reid convulsed involuntarily when Atan’s mouth fully covered his and the vampire’s firm figure completely covered his compliant flesh.
Panting beneath that strapping frame, Reid let out a low moan when Atan mounted him. The bloodsucker bared his fangs and bit. Reid gasped as the incisors sank deep into the tender tissue of his throat. As Atan swallowed, Reid felt his blood coursing through every artery of his body. His pulse raced beyond the human norm and his eyes glazed. All of his senses seemed to elevate, floating in that delirious realm between the physical reality of fabric and flesh and the spiritual boundaries of Heaven and Hell. It was as if every facet of his being was simultaneously climaxing in its own orgasmic ecstasy.
Exhilarated and exhausted, Reid rested completely spent beside Atan who, propped on one elbow, regarded him with a self-satisfied smirk.
“Well?” posed Atan smugly.
Before replying, Reid fingered the two tiny holes where the fangs had pierced his skin. The minute wounds were ever so slightly sore but virtually painless.
“That was the best sex I’ve ever had!”
Atan brushed back his hair with his free hand in a gesture of boastful vanity.
Reid paused to exhale a contented sigh.
“I guess,” he continued. “I should give you my number. Maybe we can get together a—”
“No!” Atan interrupted emphatically. “I never see anyone twice.”
“Why not?” demanded Reid disappointedly.
“We vampires are a solitary, territorial lot. And we live forever. I don’t get involved with humans.”
“It must get pretty lonely?” Reid implored.
Atan turned away.
“Nah,” he remarked with wary disregard. “There’s so many of you, it doesn’t matter.”
Reid quietly studied the now sullen vampire.
Breaking the uncomfortable silence, Atan insisted, “You’d better go now.”
Reid soundlessly dressed. As he finished tying his shoes, he looked up to see Atan, still naked, standing by the door, waiting. Ogling that shimmering and inviting physique, Reid was instantly overcome with uncontrolled desire. On impulse, he strode over to Atan and wrapped his arms tightly around the vampire’s irresistible torso.