Under A Velvet Cloak (13 page)

“You’re such a decent man. It was a great loss to womankind when you were made differently.”

He laughed. It was evidently true: he liked the camaraderie, and he even liked her increasing dependence on him. He simply had no interest in ever having sex with her, and love was out of the question. He was a good man, in most of the ways that counted.

At last, as they neared the cold northern coast, the signal grew strong.

“We are almost there,” she announced.

Gordon looked around at the empty countryside. “Few people here. Just sheep.”

“I’ll be satisfied to find just one person.”

They came to a rocky slope. A cave penetrated it. The cloak led them to the cave. They would not have found it without guidance; the entry was hidden behind a jagged outcropping of rock, masked by bushes. The opening was small, barely sufficient for a human body to wriggle through.

“Bad things can be in caves,” Gordon said.

“I don’t want to put you at unnecessary risk. If I don’t emerge within a day,
go
home; all that remains in the money pouch is yours.”

“Rena, I can’t do that! That would be deserting you.”

“You have delivered me where I was going. That is enough.”

“Not until you find your man. This is only a cave.”

“The cloak will protect me. You will be vulnerable in the confined darkness. That isn’t fair to you.”

“Even so, I’d rather see you to your man. You don’t know what you will find in this cave. He could be a prisoner, or badly injured, near death. Or he may object to your baby, which isn’t his. You need to know, before I leave you.”

He was making sense. “Very well. Stay with me. I hope things are readily resolved, so you can
go
home.”

They made torches and entered the cave. It slanted deep into the mountain before leveling. There were no stalactites, and the floor was level, once they got past the twisting tunnel of the opening. Now there was room for them to walk upright, abreast.

“This is one weird cave,” Gordon said.

“It must be artificial,” Kerena said. “It was drilled, or maybe a natural cave was cleared of all irregularities. It’s certainly not natural now.”

They came to an intersection. Passages went left and right as well as forward. “Where now?” Gordon asked nervously.

Kerena pondered briefly. “This has to be the work of man, and Morely is here. He’s down the main hall. But maybe it will be faster to call him.”

“And attract attention we may not want.”

She nodded. “And our torches will soon gutter out. We’d better go back out. Then I will return here and call.”

He shook his head. “If you’re going to do it, do it now, while I’m here.”

“Morely!” she called. “Kerena is here.”

There was a stir. A slender nude woman appeared, shielding her eyes. “Who is Kerena?”

“Morely’s beloved, come to reclaim him.”

“Impossible,
I
am his beloved.”

Kerena took stock. She realized that it was warm down here, so that a person could go without clothing; in fact she herself was becoming uncomfortably hot. She remembered that Morely had said he would tell a girl he loved her, if that was the expedient thing to
do.
It was a standard way for a man to obtain sex or whatever else he wanted from a woman. Mainly it confirmed that he was here, and evidently not a prisoner.

It was time to set things aright. “Bring him here to choose.”

The girl retreated down the passage. Her posterior view was as shapely as her forward view; she certainly had the figure that Kerena now lacked.

“Were I normal,” Gordon murmured appreciatively.

“She would certainly do for incidental passion,” Kerena agreed sourly.

Morely appeared, naked, shading his eyes as the girl had done. He looked healthy. “Kerena! I feared Vanja was mistaken.”

Her pain poured out. “Why did you leave me?”

“That is a difficult story. Please, put out the torches; they pain me.”

“We need them to see our way out.”

“Then
go
out now; I will follow, and talk to you at length outside.”

That seemed best. She followed Gordon back up the passage, and, in due course, to the surface. It was just as well, for the torches were guttering dangerously. They put them out.

It was dusk. Morely emerged, now clothed in a cloak. He swept Kerena into his embrace, kissing her avidly. “Oh my love, how I have longed for you! But I couldn’t come to you.”

She was thrilled to be in his embrace again, but now her anguish at being deserted asserted itself. “You seem healthy and well served.”

Gordon chuckled. That reminded her. “This is Gordon, who guarded me on my long trek here.”

Morely eyed the soldier. “The usual coin?”

“No. Gold. He has no use for women.”

“So?” he asked, glancing again at Gordon.

Gordon nodded. “I’m for boys. It seems you aren’t.”

“Oh, you mean Vanja. That’s part of my story.”

“So it would seem,” Kerena said coldly.

Morely smiled somewhat sadly. “Know this: I do love you and use her. But that is only a scratch on my situation. I doubt that you will like what I have to say.”

“Acute observation.”

“It was to spare you pain I left you. It grieves me to hurt you now with the news. Kerena, I believe you would be happier departing now, with no further information, and never seeing me again. I urge you to
do
that.”

“And you know I will not.”

“I do know, you wonderful creature. I will always love you for your resolve as well as your ability. I wish I could make love to you right now.”

“That would be awkward.”

“With Vanja watching, yes.”

That made Kerena realize two things: the sultry girl had joined them, and Morely did not yet realize Kerena was five months pregnant. “So tell me why you left me.”

“I will tell you and show you. Focus so you can see my illusion.” A patch of light appeared before them, against the background of the closing darkness. It showed a cloaked figure. “That is me, on that fateful afternoon when you were in town shopping. But then you returned, and I went out gladly to meet you.” A second figure appeared: a lovely young woman.

She had not returned at that time, but she already knew it had seemed she had. Her Seeing had shown her that much.

Then his words seemed to merge with the illusion, and the scene replayed itself.

Morely hurried to the Kerena figure, who met him with open arms. They embraced and kissed. “I want you, I need you,” she said. “Now!”

He obliged by spreading out his cloak on the ground and doffing his clothing. She got naked with him, and they lay on the cloak, embracing closely. Then he lifted above her, and she brought him into her with arms and legs. In a moment it was done, and he rolled to the side, breathing heavily.

“I love you so much,” she said. “I wish I could enter you as you enter me.”

“That is not the way of it,” he said tolerantly.

“Let me try. Open your mouth.”

He did so. She brought her mouth close, then stuck out her tongue. It reached far out, beyond the ability of a human tongue, a long extension. She thrust it into his mouth. He was evidently surprised by the extent of this penetration, but held still for it. She drew it back slightly, then thrust it in again, deeper.

Kerena, watching the illusion, was both amazed and impressed. That was indeed much like a man plunging into a woman, working up to his climax.

After several oscillations, the woman thrust so deeply that their mouths were jammed together. Then she lifted her upper hand, and jammed the heel of it hard against his jaw. That forced him to bite down on her tongue.

He struggled, then, but she clung, keeping her mouth plastered to his. It was only with difficulty that he finally got his face away from hers. Then blood flowed; her tongue had been badly bitten. It had to be extremely painful.

“I’m so sorry!” he said, swallowing and wiping his blood-soaked lips. “Somehow my jaw got knocked, and I bit you. I never meant to do that.”

“It will heal,” she said complacently. “I do not feel much pain.”

“Come into the house,” he urged her. “I have balm. I am mortified to have done such a thing.”

“No need. Plumb me again; I like it better after a bleeding.” She tried to draw him back onto her body.

Now at last he caught on. “I have been blind! You’re not Kerena! You’re a succubus, a seductive nocturnal spirit.”

“Not exactly. I am Vanja, a vampire.” Her appearance changed, becoming her own: an extremely shapely strange woman.

“A vampire! But you did not try to suck my blood.”

“True. I do not wish to deplete my future husband.”

“Husband! I’ll not marry you, vamp!” He was scrambling back into his clothes.

“Let me explain,” Vanja said patiently. “Meanwhile you might as well plumb me, for we can provide each other much incidental pleasure. Unlike mortal women, we enjoy it as much as the men do, though we cannot make babies.”

“Never!”

“It is too late to protest. You have been blooded. You will crave my body increasingly as you become like me. Fighting it will only make you suffer.”

He brandished a knife. “If you try to bite me, I will cut your head off!”

“You really should have researched vampires better. Popular superstition is wrong; it is not our bite that converts mortals to our kind. If that were the case, the whole world would soon be vampire. It is the other way around: it is when mortals taste
o
ur blood that they are transformed. That keeps it under control. We convert only those we choose. You have tasted my blood; now you are mine.”

“I am doomed” he said, reluctantly accepting it. “I feel the changes occurring in my body. I do desire you, though I just had you, and now know you are poison.”

“Actually there are considerable benefits,” she said. “We live virtually eternally, as long as we have regular sips of mortal blood. We suffer little pain, and heal rapidly. We can see well in darkness.”

“And can’t face the light!” he retorted. “Direct sunlight will kill you.”

“Not immediately, but it would blind us and cause our skin to blister. So we prefer to go about by night, which is more convenient for feeding anyway. Now come into me again, before we go home.” She reached for him once more.

His reluctance was manifest, but he seemed unable to resist her hold. She drew him down again on the cloak, and in a moment they were having ardent sex, his clothing no hindrance. It was true: her passion equaled his.

“But what of Kerena?” he asked as their mutual joy faded. “The real

Kerena? She does not deserve this betrayal.”

“Then we must go before she arrives. She would not care to know about the manner you have changed.”

“Damn you vixen, it’s true. She must not know.”

“Come with me. We have a long way to travel.” She drew him along, and he remained unable to resist her. They walked away, leaving the cloak on the ground, forgotten.

Now Kerena knew exactly how it had happened. “So you are now a vampire.”

“I am.”

“Yet if conversion is only by the choice of the vampire, you could have remained with me without converting me.”

“I was sorely tempted. But it would have been horribly unfair to you. You would not have liked living with a vampire, and if anyone had learned of it, both of us would have been burned at the stake. I could not stand to put you to that risk.”

“And there was Vanja,” she said shrewdly.

“Yes. What she said is true. The taste of her blood not only made me a vampire, it attracted me to her personally. I must have sex with her often, or suffer. I love you, but I think you would not long have tolerated my having such a mistress in addition. So it was kinder to end it at the outset.”

It was some trap the vampiress had sprung on him. By the time he knew he was not making love to Kerena, he was locked into the new order. He had indeed tried to be kind.

“Why did she want you? She could have done the same to any other man with less difficulty, if not satisfied fornicating with her own kind.”

Now Vanja answered. “We are few in number, deliberately, and our society is hierarchical. I was a lowly member, converted at a young age by a man I thought would marry me. He did not; all he wanted was an esthetic mistress. He is Vichard, the current chief of our clan, already married. I seethed when I learned, but I could neither stop being a vampire nor resist his sexual interest, for my desire for him was as strong as his for me. The blooding does it to both. His wife despises me, of course, but she too is locked in.”

“So you decided to wrong another innocent person the same way you had been wronged?” Kerena asked acidly.

“Yes. It is the only way out. But I also craved vengeance. So I searched long and hard for a natural leader-one who could displace Vichard as chief. I found Morely, a skilled Seer and magician with excellent qualities of character. I took him. Now he is Vorely.”

“The initial letter of a person’s name is changed to a V, for vampire,” Morely explained. “It is a convenient convention.”

Kerena appreciated the situation. In fact, she was compelled to admire Vanja’s nerve and strategy. The girl had spunk.

Still, that did not mean Kerena had to accept the situation completely. She still loved Morely, and meant to win him back.

“I have had my own history in the interim,” she said carefully. “Bereft of you, but determined to find you, I became a lady of the night, then the mistress of wealthy traders and notable knights. This had a consequence. Put your hand on my belly.”

Morely did so. “You are gravid!”

“A love child, yes, but I can not marry the father.” she glanced at Vanja, unable to see her now in the darkness, but knowing the woman could see her, Kerena. “Similar in respects to your situation, vampiress. I need to marry, and Morely is the man I want. I did not make the arduous journey only to be lightly balked. I will take Morely back”

“I will kill you!” Vanja said. There was the sound of her motion.

But Gordon, forgotten for the moment, intercepted her. “Let her be, or we shall discover whether vampires can die of conventional causes,” he said.