The Den (13 page)

Sure, Steve had granted the request for a short vacation when Alex approached him with it, but no one had thought Alex would stay away.

This was ridiculous to Mara.  No one could stay away from the den for long.  Its energy and its calling were a draw not worth fighting against.  It was a magnet holding them to this earth.  It felt awful to be away for any length of time.  Atleast that is what Steve always told her. 

Even if Alex decided to fight Steve’s wishes, it wouldn’t matter.  He wouldn’t win.  It didn’t make sense that Alex would risk everything for this simple girl.  Mara had so much more to offer.  She could make Alex truly happy.  They would be unstoppable—a power couple.  They were bred for it.  One thing was for sure: If Steve wasn’t obliged to get rid of Skyla, then Mara would. 

Mara wouldn’t drink Skyla’s blood or anything like that.  She despised the thought of having Skyla as a part of her being.  However, there were plenty of hungry gators around these parts.  An alligator was less picky than a self-respecting member of this den. 

A couple of regulars wandered in and interrupted her reverie.  The two guys ordered some beer for lunch and sat at the bar.   They were among the many men who were glad that Mara had finally turned 18.  Life was sure funny that way.  She put the beer down in front of them and stared into their lonely eyes.  One guy took his hat off and averted his eyes.  The other one scratched his beard and examined his glass.  This one was missing a tooth. 

Boring!
 

Mara held her breath and tried to hear Lucy’s thoughts.  Lucy always tried to include her when she was left behind.  She could sense Lucy straining her voice, trying to keep Mara with them in thought.  Mara could not make out the words.  They faded fast.  James, Peter, and Lucy were too far away now.  She could just make out their laughter as they walked farther away from Steve’s Place.

August was slow—not many tourists.  Mara was too young to remember the good old days.  The days before Katrina had destroyed the lifestyle that James, Lucy, Alex, and Peter remembered well.  These days James, Peter, and Lucy had to wander well beyond the French Quarter at night. 

Things were starting to pick up again, but August was always too quiet.  It was risky to party locally until the end of September, but James insisted they try Frenchmen Street tonight.  The off-season tourist loved to think of himself as a music lover, traveling to New Orleans for the true jazz experience.  It shouldn’t be too difficult to get a few stragglers leaving a bar, walking down an opportune street.  It would be nice to find a couple.  They could bring the guy home for Mara.  Couples disappeared easily.  Often, people just assumed they had run off together.  Lucy volunteered to make friends in the bar.  She was getting so good at it.  Certainly, she was better at it than James and Peter.  Peter was not such a smooth talker.  James lacked the patience for cajoling couples. 

Men of various shapes and sizes sat on stools outside the strip of bars, trying to entice passersby into entering and enjoying the music.  One couldn’t really tell if these were hired employees or patrons who owed a bill.  It was common to see men with missing teeth and dingy clothing adorning the entryways.  

Lucy sauntered by the men on stools, and they grew silent.  She smiled to herself and chose the most populated place.  She did a quick scan and spotted the two sitting at the far end of the bar.  Lucy chose a seat a few paces away from the lovely couple.  She caught the guy looking at her out of the corner of his eye.  He sat up a little straighter.  His body knew, even though his mind didn’t, that he was in imminent danger. 

-Sixteen-

Flesh

The guy at the bar gave Lucy a smile when he thought his girlfriend wasn’t looking.  The bartender, wanting no part, suddenly had to clean the opposite side of the bar.  Lucy was familiar to him. 

“Hard to get a beer around here,” Lucy said specifically to the woman. 

“Oh.  Let me try for you,” the girlfriend suggested.  She was happy to feel pretty and superior.  She had to call out to the bartender a few times.  He was still very busy.  The girlfriend ordered Lucy a draft of Bud and nodded to the boyfriend to pay the bill.  Lucy managed to position herself between the two.  The boyfriend, Mark, became noticeably excited.  An image of a certain kind of night danced around in his head.  The girlfriend, Jill, was surprised at how friendly people were down South.  They chatted about their hometown in Michigan and drank beer for about an hour until Jill started to feel “funny.”  Mark wouldn’t admit it but his eyes were growing heavy. 

“Let me walk you out and point you in the right direction,” Lucy suggested.

“We should take a cab,” said Jill. 

Mark argued.  He felt like walking.  He needed the fresh air.  Lucy blew encouraging whispers into his ear.  The long walk through the French Quarter was what he wanted.  It was such a nice night to take a stroll.  Lucy offered to walk them part of the way, with a wink in Mark’s direction.  Mark tried to wake himself up.  This was his dream come true.  Jill fidgeted with her skirt.  She re-twisted her ponytail.  They turned off Frenchmen Street, drifting onto a dark side street.  Mark put his arm around Lucy and became heady from her rose-petal perfume.  He leaned in very close to Lucy, and Jill thought this might be a mistake.  This would be a regret, but she figured she might as well go along with it to please Mark.  It was vacation in New Orleans, after all.  It would probably turn out to be the only time a woman ever picked them up.   The ground began to tilt upward toward her. 

“I just need to sit for a moment,” Jill said.  She sat on the curb and placed her head in her hands.  Mark tried to face Lucy, but he needed a parked car for support.  It was strange how tired he felt.  He figured it was the tap beer.  A thought tried to rise in his mind at the same time that James and Peter stepped out of the shadows:  There had been something about his beer glass and how Lucy had kept encouraging him to drink up.  Had she been trying to get him drunk?  The two men advanced toward him.  He knew he should run, but his legs gave out.  He fell to the curb next to Jill.  Lucy, James, and Peter stood, hands on hips, over the couple. 

“Have fun?” asked Peter. 

“Party is just starting,” Lucy answered.  

The street was very private.  No reason to move anywhere.  They could get started right here and now.  That was the best part.  Lucy felt so free and powerful.  She loved being in the open air.  Peter and James caught her excitement and bent over the woman.  Peter thought that Mara would like Mark.  He insisted they save him.  Peter wanted to make her happy.  He was still remembering Mara’s sweet gift from the night before.  Mara would definitely share the man anyway.  She couldn’t possibly finish him by herself, and the three would have the woman now to hold them over.  They were very thirsty tonight.  The foreplay was almost too much to stand.  James laid the woman flat on the sidewalk and knelt at her feet, gently grasping an ankle with each hand.  Peter knelt and rested Jill’s head in his lap.  Peter tilted her head back, exposing the long lean neck.  Jill was pretty.  Lucy hadn’t really noticed before.  She had been so focused on the goal that she hadn’t enjoyed the moment.  She would enjoy it now.  She straddled Jill and looked her in the face.  Her eyes were rolling back into her head.  Lucy knew Jill was semiconscious, because she moaned and feebly resisted by placing her hands on Lucy’s chest.  The gesture was meant to keep Lucy back, but it was unsuccessful.  Lucy leaned in against the weak arms and pressed her lips to Jill’s neck. 

“Shhhh,” Lucy whispered against the quivering neck.  “This is a very nice way to go.  Trust me.” 

For some reason, Jill did.  She relaxed, and Lucy slowly sank her fangs in.  Peter took one of the slack arms from underneath Lucy.  He held the inside of the elbow up to his face.  He smelled the faint fragrance of a flowery perfume and tasted the trace of hotel soap.  He drank from there.  James watched the others eagerly.  He leaned under where Lucy was straddled and bit into Jill’s femoral artery.  

Mark watched in shock.  It was as if he were in a nightmare.  He prayed that he was.  His body shook uncontrollably, and his bladder released.  He started to whimper and caught Lucy’s attention.  She peered over her shoulder at him with Jill’s blood dripping from her lips.  She turned back to the neck, licked the blood that had dripped out of the wound, and jumped off the woman.  She walked over to Mark and knelt down to look him in the eye.  Maybe she should drink a little just to weaken him.  Only, she was afraid that would cause him to go into cardiac arrest.  He was trembling so violently now.  She leaned in and kissed him gently on the lips.  His body stiffened, but when he realized she wasn’t going to bite him he started to calm down.  He even kissed her back, tasting the blood that was left on her tongue.

“Everything is all right, Mark.  You are going to come home with me, and believe me you will enjoy it.  You will meet Mara and fall in love,” Lucy promised with a gentle breath and a soothing touch that swept his hair out of his eyes.  

Mark was able to stand now.  He found the strength to walk all the way back to Steve’s.  A few people on the street noticed the couple.  The locals told themselves that the man was drunk, and they refused to look into Lucy’s eyes.  They turned in to their apartments and locked the doors behind them.

James would take care of the woman’s body.  He told the others to go ahead.  Peter trailed Lucy from a distance in case she needed a hand.  Lucy was awfully capable, though.  She didn’t need any help at all.

Mara’s face lighted up when she saw Lucy walk in with the man.  He followed Lucy behind the bar and down the staircase.  Mara’s stomach did a little flip, and she could hardly control herself.  Drinking from a live body was still very new to her.  On her eighteenth birthday, Steve had taken her out in town to find her own blood.  Steve was patient and gentle.  He let her experiment with different techniques all night.  He was so proud of her and it was the most wonderful night of her life—the life she could remember anyway.  She didn’t remember much from the time before she’d come to live in the den. 

Mara had drunk blood before she turned 18, but it was the stale-tasting bottled blood that had been kept for training.  She had been given drinks only when she was practicing mind reading or doing her energy work.  This was the first time a body had been brought home for her, and he was nicely built.  She was secretly thrilled that it was a man.  She didn’t have much experience with that either.  In fact, she didn’t have any experience with that.  No one in these parts would dare touch her.  She had been saved until her eighteenth birthday—saved for Alex, who didn’t even want to have her.  She would see if she could get this man to sleep with her before she drank him.  She had read Lucy’s mind once while she was having sex with a victim.  Later, Lucy had told Mara that it was the ultimate rush to drink the blood at the same time, but it seemed so complicated to Mara.  She would have to take it one step at a time.  Peter walked in and sat at the bar, smiling from ear to ear.  He leaned over and helped himself to a bottle of beer. 

“I think we should close up a bit early tonight.  Time to meet Mark,” Peter said. 

Mara nearly jumped out of her skin.  She grabbed the keys from inside the register and ran to the door.  If Peter hadn’t cleared his throat and pointed to a couple sitting near the stage, she would have locked them in.  She sashayed over to the high bar table and escorted the inebriated pair out the door and locked it behind them. 

“Go ahead,” Peter said.  “I will clean up and wait for James to get back.”

Mara opened the heavy door in the floor and climbed down the stairs, carefully.  She had to remind herself to take one step at a time.  She saw Lucy across the room holding the man.  He was sitting on Mara’s bed, the red wall behind him making him glow with a pinkish tint.

Lucy looked up and said, “I have cleaned him up, and I’m keeping him calm for you.  I gave him an extra tab of the drug to confuse his mind more.  Come on over and I’ll show you what he likes.  I promise it will be pleasant for the both of you.”

Mara listened to all Lucy had to say.  She followed the directions as Lucy explained to her how to undress the man.  Mara tried to stay focused as her fingers fumbled with the shirt buttons.  Undoing the stubborn button on his jeans was an even tougher feat.  Mark’s eyes fought to focus.  When he did seem to grasp consciousness, he did not seem unhappy.  Lucy held his hand, granting him continual kisses on the cheek, as Mara examined his now-naked body from neck to toe—she was deciding on her strategy.  Then Mara shimmied out of her cutoff shorts, nodded, and smiled. Lucy laid the man down on the bed.

Mara marveled at how willing this man was to be with her.  She’d imagined he would fight, but his body was responding to her touch. His breathing became heavy as she ran her fingers over his chest and stomach.  She held her body to him, and his flesh was hot against hers.

Mark moaned as Mara mounted him.  Mara, alarmed, looked over at Lucy.  Lucy smiled encouragingly.  She walked behind Mara and placed her hands on Mara’s shoulders. 

“Now look into his eyes and take a deep breath,” Lucy instructed.

Mara breathed in deeply and held it.  Lucy pressed down on Mara’s shoulders, and Mara pushed down onto Mark.  A pain jolted through Mara’s body.  Mara cried out, and Mark let out a deep guttural groan.  They were connected now.  Lucy pushed Mara’s head forward to find Mark’s neck.  Lucy brushed Mara’s hair to the side and rubbed her back encouragingly.  Lucy whispered, “Have fun,” and left the den.

Mara and Mark continued rocking back and forth, and Mara could feel his heart pounding against hers.  She licked his neck and let her fangs slip into his flesh.  She tried to focus on his body, his thoughts, and his blood at the same time.  Lucy told her it was possible.  She knew that he was beyond words, but she felt his thoughts.  There was fear somewhere, but he let it slip in and out of his mind.  She let his body finish with her, and then she drank her fill of his blood.