Elise was not the least bit amused by her dinner guests, but to be honest she was rarely amused by anyone.
It was smack in the middle of February in Shreveport, the only time one would need a coat or the possibility to turn on a heater. She had been in the city for over a week and in the company of two brothers for three of those days. She spent her time befriending them and discussing the benefits awaiting them if they leased their family owned land to her company. In those three days she had concluded they were disgusting and terribly boring people, but she would never let them know how she felt.
She had a job to do.
To cover her annoyance over her present company, she drank slowly to calm her desire to berate them. She swirled her tongue over the last bit of whiskey that she had ordered “neat”, impressing the men before her.
“We would like to secure the lease agreement before I return to Las Vegas; my boss has intentions on drilling come spring.” She said, waiving for the nearest waitress to refill her empty glass. She sat with her shoulders square against the chair and puffed her chest out. She was ready to deliver a rebuttal to any refusal the identical brothers who sat at her dinner table could conjure up.
“Now Ms. Elise, we would love to sign that agreement but we really need to discuss this privately with our family.” Tim Malveaux said, before brushing his hand over his receding hairline.
“Tim, we want your family to be comfortable, but again I must reiterate what a great opportunity this is for your family and the land will still be yours, we will only be leasing it from you to drill for natural gas. The land will still be in your family’s name for years and years to come, you can still pass it along to your future grandchildren.” She said taking a sip from her refreshed glass.
“Miss Elise, you have to understand our attachment, this is our Mother’s land and because she was so intent on not letting you all have it, you can understand our hesitance.” Tim said, looking over at his brother, Macon, who hadn’t said much the entire evening.
Then men were drab beings seated next to her. They both wanted to make an impression on her and donned their “best” for dinner that was being paid for by her company along with the twin’s trip to Shreveport. The twins simultaneously shifted in their chairs to rest their arms onto the white linen showing off their starched khaki shirts. They both had once been handsome men but life had not been so kind to them and their high school, football star bodies were now rotund shapes.
She bit the bottom of her pillow lips, “How is your mother?” She asked, trying to feign concern when she really didn’t care.
Macon frowned, “She’s not getting any better. She hardly remembers us at all.” She slowly placed her hand over Macon’s hand and noticed a single thread loose from her blazer’s cuff.
“I’m terribly sorry to hear that.” She said pulling back to deftly yank the thread from her black broadcloth suit that was tailored impeccably to fit her petite size. She kept the slim blazer buttoned even while having after dinner cocktails. She was not one to let loose until the job was done, and because the Malveaux boys had not signed over the land lease to her, she felt like she should stay on point.
Her jet black hair was pulled back severely into a chignon and not a strand dared to come undone to frame her angular face. She possessed sharp green eyes that were only softened by her thick long eyelashes. She knew she was striking, and she wielded her looks to gain what she wanted. At the moment what she wanted was for the men who dined with her to sign over their sick mother’s land.
She had only been at Zenith Oil and Gas for two years. She started as the President’s assistant and quickly climbed her way to the rank of Assistant Director. When the President first laid eyes on her he thought she was a diamond in the rough as she sat across from him in his office, smelling of a brand new suit, and detailing to him how she could be beneficial to his company. He always smiled remembering the hunger in her eyes, thinking that hunger was based from wanting an opportunity. She was twenty-one and barely out of college, and he gave her a shot as his assistant and under his wing. Elise did not disappoint him; she was always the first to show up to the office and the last to leave. She constantly polished herself to fit into the company’s culture, borrowing books from his shelves and tagging along to his lunches. One evening he was scheduled to meet with a disgruntled client to smooth things over but he was also scheduled to take his wife to the opera. He knew the client was a lost cause even if he did show up so he sent Elise in his place. The next morning Elise poured his coffee and explained how the client was willing to give Zenith another try and she wanted to be the one to handle the account.
That day he promoted her to a Junior Executive position.
The rumors started to fly at the company that she had slept her way to that position, she hadn’t, but she wasn’t one to rule out that option if it would move her up faster. She pressed for more opportunities to secure business for the company and each time the President let her have a chance she always came back with a signed contract. She was proving to be a viable asset to the small company. The President honored her with the nickname, “The Closer”. She was bringing in more business than his overpaid directors so he fired two and left one, and promoted her to Assistant Director. When clients were difficult or reluctant, the company would send her in to schmooze and ultimately coerce the clients to sign over their land. Zenith had tried to secure the twin’s mother, Kristin Malveaux’s land for over two years and she had always refused them. Kristin’s health was now deteriorating and her family had her locked up in a nursing home. Elise’s boss thought this was the perfect time to strike again and suggested that they work a different angle, so Elise was sent to close the deal with her sons.
Her boss knew that Elise would not leave Shreveport unless she had that signed contract in her hand. “Miss Elise, my brother and I are simple men, how do we know this agreement isn’t the best offer we can get.” Tim Malveaux slurred over his brandy.
The Malveaux twins were anything but simple; they just wanted a bigger cut for themselves and for the money to go directly to them and not in the care of their mother.
Elise smiled, “Zenith wants you to be happy, we are a company that cares about our clients and is ready to make an offer that I know you will be happy with.”
“Let’s be frank here Elise, this fifteen percent crap isn’t gonna cut it, we may be from a little ole town in Louisiana but my brother and I know that we should get more than what‘s in this here agreement”. He was intent on not letting some slick girl cheat him out of the money he felt was due to him and his brother.
“What number would make you happy, Tim?” She purred, but the purr was tinged with malice.
Tim Malveaux felt the chill in her words and straightened his self up to match the young woman.
“I think 20 percent would be fair.”
She knew this game.
“That number is a little higher than what we expect to pay Tim, I would have to speak to my boss and see if it would be profitable for us to engage any further in trying to lease your land.” She lied.
Tim Malveaux smiled back thinking he had knocked her off her high horse. He delighted in the prospect of her being reprimanded by her boss for not getting them at 15 percent. He pictured her boss angry but ultimately telling her to give him and his brother the percent they asked for.
Macon Malveaux broke the uneasiness, ““Miss Elise, my brother and I would just like to think on it a bit more and enjoy this last evening in Shreveport, we come from a small parish and rarely get to come out here to the city. I’m sure after this evening we will have a decision for you.”
Elise flashed a smile at him that caused his loins to stir.
Macon thought to himself that she would be so pretty if she let her hair down and wondered what that hair would look like spread over his hotel bed.
The Malveaux twins were playing good cop, bad cop and this was finally beginning to be fun for her. She had originally thought the men would be an easy kill, but now she was excited that there would take some skill from her to secure the land.
She liked a challenge.
She raised one perfectly arched eyebrow at Macon, and her cat eyes narrowed in on him, “I await your answer to my offer Macon and I agree that we all should enjoy our last stay in Shreveport. I have been eager to see the vampire bar here called Fangtasia, but I’m afraid to go alone, would you men mind accompanying me? We can continue to discuss Zenith’s offer and enjoy the local color.”
She knew the men would be enticed to go. She knew their kind; they were men who fell quickly from a bat of an eyelash or the flash of a nipple. She had to stay in their earshot so she could continue her pitch but she had to keep them enticed without taking off her own clothes.
“Now, Ms. Elise, our wives would kill us if they knew we were going to some vampire bar.” Mason said, moving uneasily in his chair, he was clearly aroused by the notion of going to the bar.
“Why do they have to know?” Elise smiled, before waving her hand again to pay the dinner check.
*************************
On the chauffeured ride over to Fangtasia, Elise had opted to sit up front next to the driver.
She just couldn’t bear the thought of sitting sandwiched between the brothers, not even for a fifteen minute ride.
The men were an animated ball of excitement now that they were finally on their way to the vampire bar. The three of them had waited outside the hotel for their scheduled car, but once the taxi station wagon pulled up, Elise quickly told the driver to continue on with his route. They listened to a frustrated Elise call the taxi company and request a newer model for their trip.
“I refuse to let us ride in something that ancient.” She expressed to the men as they were forced to wait for a new Lincoln town car to arrive.
“Have you ever been to a vampire bar, Miss Elise?” Macon asked with glee from the back seat.
“Yes, they have a lot of them in Vegas. It’s an experience that I am sure you will have for the rest of your lives.” Elise didn’t visit any of the vamp clubs in Vegas; it was not because she was scared, it was just that there wasn’t anything of interest for her to go. Her entire life revolved around work.
The driver had the heater on full blast and the smell of the old heater was nauseating to her. She cracked the front window and the cold air swirled inside the car and into her.
She loved the smell of winter.
It was a smell that was always welcome to her and at first inhale a scent that was startling because it was completely foreign to her having grown up in Las Vegas.
“Fangtasia.” The driver muttered, as he stopped the car in front of the bar’s parking lot. She paid the cab driver and offered him a tip that made the driver cast a genuine smile at her.
She didn’t acknowledge it. She didn’t tip well because she was an altruist; she tipped well so that others would know she could afford it. There was a longer than normal line backed up in front of Fangtasia; the line was backed up all the way to the asphalt of the main street.
“Some interesting lookin’ people here.” Tim said, eyeing the motley group of people waiting to get inside the bar.
Elise looked at the restless line of faces that did not contain one vampire, and thought maybe this place wouldn’t be the distraction she had intended for the Malveaux twins.
Among the restless were Goths with their caked on white powder and pouting black painted mouths, and leggy girls with flimsy dresses that barely covered their asses. Gay men stood in shirtless huddles laughing; showing off bodies that can only be attained by the possibility of having sex at the gym. Tourists clasped tightly to their belongings, nervously whispering to one another about how far they traveled from whatever backwater town to visit Shreveport. One middle aged lady with her spiral permed hair snapped anxiously with her camera around her neck, waiting to snap a shot of a real live dead vampire.
Elise and the Malveaux twins took their place at the end of the ragtag line.
She shifted her weight impatiently trying not to scuff her black Prada heels on the gravel parking lot. She looked up at the fresh faced college aged jocks who stood in front of her, as one of them elbowed the other and said, “Dude, do you think we’ll get to fuck one of em’?”
Elise shook her head in disgust, “This is Bullshit, wait right here and I’ll get us in.” She walked off before the Malveauxs’ could answer. There was no way she was going to wait in the line behind some wannabe fangbangers.
She strode past the long line of waiting people who hissed and hurled insults at her for daring to cut to the front.
When she finally reached the front of the line, she encountered a statuesque Blonde vampire regulating entry into the bar.
“I am sorry darling, but tonight is for regulars.” The vampire said underwhelmed by Elise’s initial attempt to get entry.
“Attractive regulars.” The vamp hissed at the guy waiting next in line whose hopes of getting in were now dashed.
Elise smiled up at the vampire who she thought must have been what Greek statues were modeled after. Except this statue’s breast were crushed against her tightly bound red bustier, and her legs were completely exposed up to there. The vampires blonde hair was the color of white sandy beaches and was brushed back to show off her chiseled features.
“I have come all the way from Vegas to check out this bar and my friends are from a little small town here in your home state. We won’t be any trouble; we just want to spend money at your business.”
The vampire smiled down at Elise and ran her red tongue over her fangs. “Honey, I wouldn’t mind you coming in but I saw your friends.” Elise slipped her hand into her purse to retrieve her pocketbook.
“I promise to keep them hidden in the back.” She said handing three hundred dollar bills to the blonde.
“You have a Deal, darling.”
Elise waived her hand to the brothers to come inside.
They walked proudly passed the waiting crowd, feeling for once in their lives like V.I.P’s.
“Let’s sit at that corner booth” She pointed to a booth towards the back wall of the club.
Elise slid onto the black vinyl cushion and faced the door watching eager faces come inside to the unimpressive bar. The décor held the pretense of being dangerous but it really was just peeling red painted walls, cracked cemented floor, and kitschy pictures of vampires. Smoke machines blew clouds inside the bar to give some allure and tea lights cast shadows at each table and along the bar.
Fangtasia reminded her of the ratty strip club she cocktail waitressed in while attending college. It was there she discovered she had a penchant for negotiating. She was eighteen, and hadn’t been around many men, but she soon realized that they paid attention to her because of her face.
She quickly formed friendships with the top strippers and soon formed a racket where she would tend to the high rollers in the club and would up sell them on paying for a private room. She would get the high roller nestled into a private room and then would have her friends bid for a chance to dance for the drunk and rich man. Elise knew that the girls who danced in those private rooms always came out much richer women and she intended to be paid for setting it up.
Some nights, only some nights she actually made more than the strippers from her private room bids.
The Fangtasia dancers swayed on top of pillars at a pace that a human eye could not detect, they were just traces and swirls. They would slow down their limbs gracefully for a tune and speed up to show off their supernatural state.
She smiled at Macon, “Is this all that you hoped it would be?”
“Yes!”
She laughed seductively, she was glad that they were so overwhelmed.
“I’m sure you two would love a drink, I’m going to go to the bar, what will you have?” She said pointing at Macon first.
She took their orders and made her way to the bar.
She leaned up against the bar and waited for the vampire bartender to take her order. She quickly spouted off her drink orders, and glanced down the bar at a dazzling fanged smile.
She smiled back automatically, thinking to herself that men behaved the same in bars whether they were vampires or human.
She was extending her hand to pay for the drinks when the Fanged smile stopped her.
“Please, let me buy your drinks.” He said, handing over cash to the waiting bartender.
Elise exhaled with impatience. Even though the vampire had been kind in paying for the drinks, she didn’t have the time to talk to him.
“Thank you, but you didn’t have to do that.”
“A beautiful woman should never have to pay for her drinks, even if she has to drink three.” He said, nodding to the three filled glasses in front of her.
She snickered with the dark haired vamp.
“Only one is for me, the others are for my clients.” She pointed over to the Malveaux twins whose eyes were a big as saucers staring at the vampire dancers who towered above them.
“Ah, so you are not a lush?” He said, forming a charming grin across his bronze face.
“Not until my work is done.” She said, trying to form a grin like the vamp’s. He inched in closer to inhale her scent.
“My name is Felipe; may I ask what is yours?”
“Elise. Elise Scott.” She said, shaking his hand.
The music blaring from the speakers changed from an upbeat House beat to a somber alternative remake.
“I like this song.”
“I like the Velvet Underground’s version better.” He said leaning his back onto the bar so he could face the dance floor. He wanted to distract himself from staring at her.
”Where are you from?” He asked.
“Las Vegas.”
He turned his head and smiled wide, “You will not believe this, but I am from Las Vegas too, I am actually a new sheriff there.”
“Sheriff?”
“A whole government exists for vampires; we have our own hierarchy. I was just promoted to the prestige of Sheriff tonight by the King of Nevada. We had a meeting of the royalties tonight here in Shreveport.”
This made Elise laugh; she didn’t think there was anything prestigious about being a Sheriff or having Royalty meet in Shreveport.
“Of all the places to pick, Shreveport was the winner?”
“I feel the same way as you. “ He chuckled. “You seem pretty comfortable here, I take this is not your first time to a vamp establishment.”
“This is my first time to a vamp bar, but it’s hard not to run into a vampire when you are on the strip, but I’m sure you know that.”
“Yes, Las Vegas is our city. I know that human history says that it was created by mobsters but it was really backed by vampires, yes, mobsters were the face, but the money came from us and our desire to have a city that only came alive at night.”
She nodded in agreement, thinking of how to end the conversation. Felipe moved in closer to her, and allowed his self to become aroused by her intoxicating, undeniably human scent. He could hear the swell and release of her heart, and it made his mouth water.
“Well, congratulations on your new position and good luck on what that job might entail.” She said, taking slices of lime to squeeze into her drink.
“Would you like me to tell you what it entails?” Felipe said, staring into Elise’s eyes.
Felipe was very proud and excited about being promoted to Sheriff. He felt like he should celebrate and he thought that Elise would be a lovely treat for him.
Felipe was a fan of glamouring for sex. He was charming and handsome enough to entice a woman to bed with him, but he enjoyed forcing his energy on a human. The power of control is what he was after, the human being compelled to do as he said.
“Um, I would like to, but I’m sure my clients will need this liquid courage to speak to any vampire here.” She laughed, picking up the drinks.
“Do you want me to help you carry those?” He said, staring deep into her eyes.
She stared back at him thinking he was awkward. “I got it, thanks.” She said, taking her drinks from the bar to go back to her booth.
He did not offer a ‘goodbye’ or a ‘talk to you soon’ as human men do when they are defeated by a beautiful woman instead he remained quiet and watched her as she traveled away from him.
Something had gone terribly wrong with his plan.
Felipe’s interest was piqued.
............................
Elise skillfully carried the drinks back to the table without spilling a drop onto her suit.
“I’m sorry I kept you both waiting.”
The men barely acknowledged her as they stared at the beguiling alabaster dancers .
Elise smiled; this was going how she had planned.
She cleared her throat, “I’ve been thinking and I really want you both to sign with Zenith so I am going to speak with my boss and inform him of your counter offer and see if an agreement can be made before I leave.”
The Malveaux Twins broke their attention away from the supernatural creatures and onto Elise.
“That would be awesome, Miss Elise.” Macon said, smiling.
“Err, before you go, also ask if it is possible to have the checks sent to my brother and I and not my mother’s estate, with her mental health, its best that we get them and see to her care.”
“Of course.”
Elise maneuvered around the many bodies on the dance floor to the back hall way entrance. Guarding the back door was a tattooed vamp that looked of the biker sort. He raised his brooding eyes to acknowledge Elise, “Knock when you want to come back in.” He moved aside from the open door to let her pass.
Stepping outside, she felt the cold air whip against her cheeks and inhaled the winter scent again but this time it was tinged with the smell of the dumpster that was nearby. It was relatively quiet except from the muffled sound of music reverberating through the back wall.
She pressed the button on her cell phone to see the blue light illuminate her screen. She had four missed calls, she knew who the calls were from but she couldn’t return that call just yet.
She slipped the phone back into her purse and searched the bottom for her pack of emergency cigarettes.
She had no intention on calling her boss.
Before she left Vegas her boss had set the agreement for the Malveaux twins to receive 30 percent of the profit. But, once Elise landed in Shreveport she contacted their attorney and had him draw up an alternative contract for the Malveauxs to receive 15 percent.
She lit up a cigarette and inhaled slowly.
Getting them at 20 percent was a coup for her. She smiled to herself, relishing the future look on her boss’s face once she handed the signed contract over to him at a lower rate than he had offered. Of course, she would request the 10 percent difference he was going to offer the Malveauxs as an ongoing commission to herself for sealing this long awaited deal. Her boss would comply since the loss would still be at that 30 percent he had anticipated paying.
She sucked harder on the cigarette and the red flame grew.
She was elated at her scheme. She leaned her back against the brick wall and exhaled deeply, thinking of how long she should wait outside to convince the twins she was actually speaking with her boss.
She was about to light another cigarette, holding the silver lighter up to the end, when she laid her eyes on an object that was able to bring a genuine smile across her face.
A Corvette.
An immaculate, shiny, Candy Apple painted Corvette.
“Hello lover.” She said with the cigarette dangling from her lip. She quickly lit it and took a drag before going over to the flawless convertible.
She ran her manicured hand from the trunk, along the sides of the body and down the top of the polished hood, which was still warm. She was infatuated with the powerful sleek body of the car and the way the moonlight reflected off the shimmering paint. Even the wheels amazed her; they looked as if they were just driven off a car lot, not a speck of dirt or grime was visible.
It was only in a car of this stature she could drive and feel she had made it. She felt a stitch of jealousy towards this unknown driver. She wrinkled her brow wondering who in that bar could possibly own something this beautiful.
The smell of the leather was intoxicating to her, and she leaned over the car door to rub her hand along the seat, but before she could place her hand on the hide, a being snatched the cigarette from her mouth quicker than the blink of her eye.
It was the vampire who guarded the back door. He snarled and growled showing off his fangs, “What the fuck do you think you are doing, human?”
“I was just admiring it.” She said slowly, she didn’t want to show fear around the animal even if he could smell it.
“Step away from my master’s car.” He hissed.
She had not anticipated a faithful minion ready and willing to tear her limb from limb for dropping a single ash from her cigarette on to his master’s car.
“I apologize; I wasn’t going to do anything to it.”
The vampire observed the inside of his master’s car to make sure everything was still in its immaculate place.
She backed away from the inspecting vampire, calmly straightened her suit coat, and swiftly made her way to the flung open back door.
She parted the sea of flesh in the bar to make her way back to the booth where The Malveaux brothers were now seated with two lovely vampires.
She cast aside her still present fear, before she approached the booth.
“Hey Elise, we were starting to get worried.” Tim slurred, downing a beer.
She forced a smile, “Well guys, you won. I spoke to my boss and I told him that you wouldn’t settle for anything less than 20 percent, and after must deliberation, he has agreed to your terms.”
The men gave each other a triumphant glance at each other before yelping with delight.
“Miss Elise, thank you so much for going back to your boss, I know it might have pained you but we are now ready to sign your lease agreement.” Tim smiled up at her, with his arm around the Goth dressed vampire.
Elise saw the glint in Tim’s eyes when mentioning her being pained by having to speak to her boss. She realized she would have an even greater satisfaction now once the brothers signed the lease over to her.
“Good, I will have the attorney send over a new contract to you both in the morning. I will meet you for lunch to pick up the signed contract before I catch my flight.”
“It’s a done deal, Elise.” Macon grinned.
“We knew we liked you.” Both men raised their beers up in salute to the standing Elise.
A tourist with a Polaroid camera bumped into her and Elise thought swiftly on how she would secure the men’s promised signatures.
“I’m so sorry.” The older man said, staring up into Elise’s green eyes.
“No problem.” She purred, “But would you mind taking a picture of us, we are celebrating and I would love to have a picture of this night.”
“Sure, lady.” The man smiled, and motioned for the group at the table to huddle together.
The Malveauxs grabbed their vampires in close and Elise sat at the edge of the booth and smiled wide as the photo dispensed from the instant camera.
“Thank you.” She held her hand out for the picture and fanned it slowly to dry the film.
This single picture would be her insurance if the men decided to cancel on her contract tomorrow. If they chose not to cooperate and waste her time, she would remind them of this single photograph and inform them if they didn’t sign with her, she would promptly send the picture by certified mail to their horrified wives.
The drunken men did not reflect for a moment on what had just transpired; they thought only of the distractingly exquisite vampire women in their grasps.
“Let’s dance to celebrate” Tim yelled across the table to Elise.
“You two go, I’m going to sit here and have another drink. “ She said, putting the Polaroid into the zippered pocket of her purse.
“We’ll let you sit for now, but you’ll have to join us for at least one song now.” Macon said, sliding out of the booth to join the dancing group.
Elise smiled at Macon and finally unbuttoned her suit coat.
...................................................................................
Felipe had been observing Elise from across the smoke filled bar and found the perfect moment to hone in on her. The fat humans had just risen to dance with their possible future killers and she sat completely alone. He watched her as she stared intently at the dancing humans and sipped slowly from her half empty glass.
Felipe slid into the empty booth before she could utter a rebuff to his joining her.
She curled up her lip, “What can I do for you, Sherriff?”
He pretended to be shocked at her curt tone, affecting his face as if he had been slapped. He was not going to let this human get away from him again. He grinned wide at her unsmiling face, “Can you pardon a man for taking any chance he can get to speak with you?”
“A man, maybe. A vampire, not so much.”
She laid her suit coat on top of her purse and her toned shoulders were exposed, showing off dewy olive skin. Her gleaming white top was buttoned down the front, and tied into a neat bow behind her neck and left her back and shoulder blades open. Felipe had wished he was behind her at the moment to see how her shoulders and back muscles moved with each of her movements. He wanted to untie that neatly tied bow and suck on the back of her neck while stroking her silky skin.
He sat across from her enjoying the tiny tea light on the table illuminating her face.
“Indulge me. I overheard your discourse with your clients and it seems you closed the deal with everyone happy.”
“I didn’t realize you were stalking me, Sheriff.” She contrived a smile for the vamp, which she thought was trying desperately to get her attention, and because of this she had to ask herself, why?
Her history with men had not been one that she would boast about, and her few relationships –very few- consisted of a fumbling high school boy who deflowered her because she was tired of the label of a virgin, and a professor who was so infatuated with her that he cried when she laughed at him when he considered leaving his wife. She had no misty memories of these lovers; she didn’t even consider them past lovers, just benchmarks to her goals. Men were stupefied by her, they could not understand what exactly it was that she wanted, until the game was over, and they realized it was never really them she was after.
Felipe settled his back into the cushioned booth even though he could feel he was not welcome.
“Well? Is everyone happy?” He asked.
“On the surface it would seem that way.”
“What is it that you do, Elise?”
“I’m a sales executive for Zenith Oil and Gas. I’m responsible for securing land leases from pesky clients.” She exhaled, succumbing to the fact that he was not going to leave her anytime soon. “Not nearly as interesting as being a Sheriff.” She said tilting her voice as one would do to entertain a small child.
“Thank you.” He said not detecting her sarcasm. “It was an honor to be made into one, especially since I’m so young compared to the other sheriffs.”
“What is considered young for vampires?”
“Well, I’m only sixty five years old, so I still have a connection to this century, unlike most of my counterparts.” He smirked.
“You look all of nineteen, Sheriff.”
“It comes with the package.”
“These counterparts of yours, how old are they?”
“Their ages differ, for instance, the Sheriff who owns this very bar is over 1,000 years old.”
“A thousand years old? Really? That’s impressive.”
Felipe did not like that that piece of information amused her, he wanted her full attention and now it was diverted onto an ancient vampire who was not present.
“There are some older, but the older ones usually get the high positions, it was consequential that I received the promotion of Sheriff, since I am so young. It was unheard of, but my King is gracious and bestowed me the honor.”
“Who is your King and why did he move a kid up so far up the chain of command?”
“I could ask the same about you.”
“Touché’.” She grinned, raising her empty glass to the vampire.
“Michael is the one who made me and being under his tutelage, I’ve developed an aspiration to rule, so after much consideration with the other Royalty he was able to grant me a start as sheriff.”
Elise’s eyes sparkled as she smiled because in that moment felt she had reached some camaraderie with the vamp across from her. She knew what it felt like to aspire to be something more, but for her the word aspire was a pale comparison to the deep-seated obsession of success that resided inside of her.
She leaned in closer and rested her arms on the black lacquered table, encircling her hands around her cocktail glass, “I sincerely wish you the best, then.”
Felipe observed how her face softened in that instant and thought it was because of him. He watched how her eyelashes melted away the cold emerald of her eyes, and they became a smoldering green fire.
Felipe stirred ever so slightly, that her human eyes could not detect. He licked his lips and stared into her irises, and commenced to try to pull her thoughts from her, to glamour her.
“Is there something wrong?” She asked, wrinkling her brow, faintly amused by Felipe’s trance like stare.
He cleared his throat, startled from her reaction, “You are very attractive.”
Elise did not buy into her beauty; she considered it just another piece of her weaponry. Unlike most women who preen in front of a mirror or fall into their own abyss by their own reflection; Elise did none of these things. She groomed herself and maintained a polished put together appearance because she had to, not because it was something that gave her pleasure. She was intrigued that people were attracted to her looks, and happy they were misguided by them which allowed her to do her own bidding. She felt that it was their fault for not truly seeing what lied beneath her mask.
“Do you always state the obvious?”She said, gently circling her finger around the rim of her cocktail glass.
Her disinterest in him was maddening. How was she able to resist his glamour?
Felipe laughed, “You are an attractive woman, but all humans are beautiful to us, it is your living blood that we are attracted to.”
He reached out slowly for her hand, pulling it from the glass, and wrapped his hand around her wrist. He softly thumped her pulse point with his thumb, “This is it for us; this is what compels us to drink, this is what makes us want you.”
He felt her pulse quicken under his thumb, and he became aroused. He was finally reaching her so he thought.
She was about to pull her hand from Felipe’s grasp, and explain to him that even though she thought he was interesting to talk to, she had no intention of going home with him.
“Feli…” She stopped short of saying the bronze vampire’s name.
At the corner of her eye, she caught the image of what she could only describe to be a Gladiator.
The stench of blood arrested her nostrils and forced her to turn her full attention to the striking creature inches away from her.
The golden haired vampire, towering over six feet tall, dressed completely in black had walked from the back hallway and stopped abruptly, scanned the room slowly, observing, and mentally checking what did not belong, and settled his icy gaze briefly on Elise and Felipe.
Her breath was caught in her throat as she wondered who or what he had just fed on.
Elise stared up into the cerulean light of his eyes that gave no warmth; unwavering from his stare for that brief moment. His face showed no expression, no delight or disgust, he stared at her, quickly filing her away in his mental vault.
He moved his gaze over to Felipe who bowed his head slightly to the vamp; the vampire raised a dispassionate eyebrow at Felipe, making his way past their booth.
Elise exhaled slowly, casting a lingering gaze on the taunt muscles of his arms and back that were on display for all to view through his t shirt.
Felipe, who was still pressing her pulse, felt it quicken and had a fuming desire to rip the veins from her pulsating wrist.
“Who is that?” She asked turning her attention back to Felipe briefly.
“That is Eric. “
“Why is everyone bowing to him? Even you did it.” She exclaimed, looking around the room at bowing vampire heads as the fair haired vamp walked through the bar.
Humans stood stalk still in confusion and fear trying to register who this vamp was as well; watching vampires pay tribute to the Golden killer as he passed each one of them.
Felipe annoyed with her observing his slight bow to the vamp answered, “He is ancient vamp, the one over a thousand years, and he is loved by his subjects here and a dear friend to his Queen, kind of like how I am to my King.” He added. “He also owns this dump.”
Elise grinned wide; she was completely engrossed by the fair haired fiend’s swagger. What kind of power did this vamp possess that other vamps should bow to him?
The room became abuzz and she felt the small hairs on her neck stand, she sucked in her breath.
“Yeah, but you are a Sheriff too; why did you bow your head?”
Felipe’s face darkened, “I am supposed to pay tribute to my elders and he is a sheriff that is loved as I mentioned. I am a guest in his state.”
Elise knew she hit a soft spot for the new sheriff, and pressed down her craving to poke at it. Even though she was thoroughly impressed by the spectacle the golden killer caused with his entrance, she knew if she were a vampire she would have never bowed.
She would have chosen to die then to bow, and from the commanding presence the golden vamp possessed she didn’t think he was the type to bow either.
Elise watched the vampire stride self-assuredly through the bar he owned, acknowledging his vampire subjects who paid tribute each evening and the many humans who yearned to be in his deathly embrace.
She desired to know what that power felt like.
The room stood still while the startling vampire made his way up the stage.
He sat at his lofty throne and crossed one long leg over the other.
He was home.
Elise noticed there were two seats next to him that were empty.
“See that blonde vamp there; that is his child, Pam.” Felipe pointed to the gorgeous door woman who Elise had paid for entry, she was making her way towards the stage, pushing through the chaos of humans who crowded around the dais.
“His child?”
“He is her maker.” Felipe moved in closer to Elise, moving his arm up on the booth, so they both were staring at the center stage show.
Elise watched Pam walk gracefully up the steps to her maker, and stopped short of a step to kiss his knee and run her hand seductively up his leg, caressing him every so lightly, running her hand up his thigh, stomach and resting her hand on his shoulder.
“Are they lovers?”
“Maybe, that is usually how the relationship of child and maker start.”
Elise turned her face to Felipe’s, “Is that how your relationship started?”
Felipe didn’t answer her; he was staring at the golden killer who had scanned them twice. He heard Pam whisper in Eric’s ear, “She is the one with Felipe.”
Eric turned his cold stare to Felipe, and he knew he was being beckoned.
“Elise, would you like to meet Eric?” Felipe asked.
Elise raised her eyebrow and smiled, “I’m dying to.”
**************************************
Eric peered down at the new Sheriff treading forward to the stage reluctantly, with the female human a step behind him, holding her hand tightly in his.
Pam stood at the side of Eric’s throne, resting her weight on the gilded chair; she dug her cold fingers into her master’s cold shoulder, “Här kommer din vän.”
Eric‘s raised his upper lip in aversion. Felipe was no friend of his.
He thought the young vamp to be an amateurish manipulator and painfully sloppy in cloaking his real intentions.
Eric could have found an inkling of respect for the young Felipe if he had shown he was capable of executing a real plan without being detected, but he remained an open book to Eric. Felipe’s ineptness at deception made Eric loathe him.
Eric, a master of the craft, was a devotee to a Machiavellian approach to handling situations; he made sure he did not insult any players in the game intelligence by openly showing them what he was after, for he never knew when he may need them again. But Felipe reeked of brown nose ladder climbing and it made Eric’s head reel to sit and listen to the bullshit that spewed from the vamp’s mouth, mainly because the truth was always written across Felipe’s face.
Felipe had no spine and therefore was as low as a human to Eric.
Before Eric left the Royal meeting, the Queen found a moment alone with him. She searched for assurance in his eyes that he would not contest her again. She spoke softly to the hulking vamp, “He loves him Eric, and wants to see Felipe as Sheriff. Michael is my friend and ally and I desire to see him happy.”
He wanted to challenge her yet again, but Eric had pledged allegiance to the Queen Sophie-Anne Leclerq so he submitted to that loyalty. She was his queen and he would respect her wishes, but he thought Michael, the King of Nevada, to be a love struck fool, and that his blind devotion to his weasel of a child would lead to his demise.
Eric had no concern in protecting the maudlin King of Nevada, if he fell from his throne it was by his own fool hand, but Eric had an obligation to reject Felipe’s promotion in order to protect the regime of the other Vampire districts, especially Queen Sophie Anne‘s territory.
“Eric.” Felipe exclaimed as if he had just seen an old friend. He smiled wide, bowing until his head and back was completely bent over, still holding on to Elise’s hand.
“You do not have to bow to me, Felipe. You are a Sheriff just as I am.” Eric stated icily.
Felipe rose slowly from his gracious bow, smiling from ear to ear, “That is right, we are equals now.”
“Hardly.” Eric retorted.
Felipe’s smile faded.
“We would like to meet your friend, Felipe.” Pam said, breaking the two vamp’s power struggle.
“I am sorry, may I present to you my new friend. Elise.” Felipe tugged at Elise’s steady hand, presenting her to the center stage.
Elise quickly looked back at Felipe’s antagonized face, and pondered what strife lied between the two vampires.
“You may sit.” Eric informed the standing Elise and Felipe, he did not take his eyes away from Felipe until the vampire was seated uncomfortably next to him.
Eric had only intended to call the human woman to the stage, but she was in the company of Felipe, so he felt he should include him on a taste of what it meant to be a Sheriff.
Elise sat posture perfect on a lesser throne across from Eric. She crossed her legs, thigh over thigh, and gripped her hands over the thrones armrests.
She was enjoying her lofty seat.
Eric paid no attention to the human woman; he continued to scan his bar, assessing what he would have to deal with after her.
“Elise, Pam has informed me that she allowed you entry into my bar with your promise that you would not be any trouble this evening, but still you have brought attention to yourself.”
Eric expected what he always expected from humans who had stepped out of boundary in his bar. They would balk and grovel, and lie that it was not them even before he informed them of the charge, or they broke down and admitted out of utter terror of what might he do next.
“Oh, and what trouble have I caused you, Eric?” She asked, smiling seductively.
He did not expect a human to question him back.
Eric turned his head to face the human dead on.
When he first walked into the bar from his office, he noticed her seated with Felipe. She stared up at him not masking her sheer excitement. His initial thought was that she was one of the more attractive humans, but he was accustomed to attractive humans, they threw themselves at him nightly.
He wasn’t exactly bored with beauty, it was just that he had spent many lifetimes on this earth satisfying his palate on different races, creeds, hair preference, to switching from either gender, if he wanted a blue eyed red head with long legs that what he got, he took whatever kind of human pleased him for the moment. At first glance of Elise, she did not move him like she did Felipe or the human men in the bar, mainly because he had become somewhat desensitized by superficial beauty.
It took more than a pretty exterior to make Eric pause and scrutinize a human, so it was not her face that made him do just that.
It was the eyes.
Not their emerald color, nor the striking black lashes, not even how they formed come-hither feline slits on her olive face.
It was what ferociously beamed behind the irises that intrigued him.
In her eyes she possessed a vehement will.
He could smell her permeating fear; and watched as her hands gripped deeper onto the armrest. Her body responded to being in the presence of a displeased vampire, as any human’s body would respond, but her will; her will was unbreakable, and he saw the unyielding determination in those green eyes that she would not allow her mind to succumb to the fear.
Her eyes created a small crack into his calculating thoughts, and he found himself curious of the young woman.
“Felipe, did you invite this human?” Eric asked, not turning away from Elise’s stare.
“No, I had the remarkable chance of meeting her here this evening.”
“I came on my own accord.” Elise spoke for herself.
Eric considered Felipe’s reply and concluded that he could not see this human being swayed by Felipe.
Pam ran her hand from her master’s right shoulder to his left, showing off her fanged smile at Elise, “Med de där ögonen påminner hon mig om en katt.” She said to her master.
“Mer som en tiger.” Eric stated, turning away from Elise to face the many fangbangers who stared at him longingly from the dance floor.
Elise observed Eric’s unhurried mannerisms and how he exuded the unadulterated embodiment of Power.
Elise had met many men who held powerful positions but these men were just caricatures next to Eric.
These men, unlike Eric, emitted a practiced confidence, or an unmerited arrogance, they did not possess the cool collected assurance that emanated from Eric who was doing the remarkable act of just sitting.
Elise thought that if even if these men had lived a thousand years on this Earth to evolve, they still would pale in comparison to the commanding aura of this vampire.
Elise respected power.
She was drawn to it. She adhered to the religion that one must strive to attain power because power brought protection, a personal directed future, financial security, and a comfort in knowing that nothing could harm you. All these things she meditated on daily, strategizing on how to achieve it for herself.
She promised to practice imitating his mannerisms when she was alone.
She was in awe of Eric, even though her heart beat faster with trepidation.
“Why were you so interested in my vehicle?” Eric asked, keeping his face directed at the fangbangers.
Eric trusted no one, not even his loyal child who worshipped him. So when his minion told him of a human pawing his car, he questioned the minion; closely examining how he recalled the human’s actions to see if the minion was in cohorts with what he claimed to have seen. If a human was touching his car, Eric was alerted to analyze all the reasons why. Was she admiring it? Did she long to drive it? Or, was she trying to plant something that could potentially harm him once he turned the ignition.
“It’s a beautiful vehicle, I just couldn’t resist touching it.” Aha! She thought, of course that Corvette belonged to him.
“Why are you here? Eric questioned slowly.
“In Shreveport or at your bar?”
“Begin with Shreveport.”
“I have business here; I lease land to see if it has potential for drilling for oil and gas, Louisiana has plentiful of both.
Eric’s interested eyebrow raised.
“I chose to come to Fangtasia because my clients and I wanted to celebrate our new venture together.”
Eric mulled over whether she was telling the truth. Was she really in Shreveport on business? Why did she and her clients choose to celebrate at a vamp bar? He could not rule out that there could be some ulterior motive for her presence tonight. He decided to glamour her to get the truth. He cocked his head slightly to Elise and bore into those green orbs and felt a forceful mental push back that he had never experienced from a human before.
Eric was not pleased by Elise’s capability.
“That’s another thing darling; that is hardly what I would call the back of the bar.” Pam said, pointing to the dancing Malveauxs. The middle aged men were in the middle of the dance floor, drunkenly bumping into vamps and guests, completely unaware that she was at a mini tribunal for their unattractiveness.
Elise exhaled impatiently, “They must really love the music here.” She smirked, “I thought this would be a good place to entertain them.”
“You find us entertaining?” Eric narrowed his eyes on Elise.
“Very.” She purred.
“This establishment of mine is a place for my subjects to be themselves, to use a human expression “be comfortable in their skin". I welcome humans and enjoy the money they bring to my pocket, and we respect them by a no biting on premise rule. But, I am no babysitter. Do you see those two vampires over there?”
Elise swiftly looked at where Eric’s head was motioning, her eyes were lead to the two vampires who were with the twins.
“They are trying to lure your clients from this establishment, where I am sure it will become less entertaining for them.”
Elise understood.
“If you are in care of these men, then I suggest you tend to them.” Eric said as a matter of fact.
Felipe stood, and held his hand out for Elise.
Eric did not want Felipe in the company of this peculiar human any longer if he could help it; she was able to block her mind from glamouring which rose suspicion for vampires. He suspected that if Felipe knew this, then he would try to find a way to use it to his benefit. Eric did not want to give Felipe any armor, especially since he had not figured out how to use Elise’s ability for himself.
Until Eric developed a plan on how to utilize her, he would do something completely foreign to him.
He would protect the human from whatever Felipe might have intended for her this evening.
“Felipe, I would like you to stay and speak with me. Pam, arrange for a car to take Elise and her clients wherever they choose.” Pam immediately followed his command, walking down the steps and arranging for a car to be brought to the front of the bar. “And for you, Elise; I recommend that in the future you will choose a more suitable place to entertain.” Eric stated, dismissing Elise from his interrogation.
Elise stood leisurely, tucking her strapless purse under her arm. She caught the eyes of the Malveauxs and nodded, relaying to them that it was time for their departure.
She began to descend the steps of the stage; already feeling the mounting void inside of her from not being near Eric. For the first time in her adult life she had met someone who captivated her; she hadn’t experienced that since she was a child and she suddenly felt a repressed pain in remembering that past loss.
Eric understood her when he stared into her eyes; she was sure of it, and now she was being cast away to a world of people who were befuddled by her.
She forced what she was feeling down into the pit of her.
Suck it up, Elise. She thought.
Felipe and Eric watched her saunter away from them. Elise’s backless blouse was a perfect frame for her flawless back. Eric stared down at the delicious curve at the small of her back, and felt a dull gnaw of lust.
He curled up his amused lip.
Before reaching the stage’s last step, Elise stopped abruptly and looked back over her shoulder, smiling brightly up at Eric, and exclaimed in pure admiration, “It was a pleasure to meet you Eric; maybe our paths will one day cross again.”
Eric saw the child-like adulation in Elise’s eyes, and wondered exactly what inside of him had moved her.
He was familiar with humans being infatuated with vampires; humans were drawn to them like moths to a flame. They thought vampires were beguilingly beautiful, and the romanticized notion of immortality and living off the blood of others to be fascinating.
But, Eric was conscious that Elise’s admiration for him stemmed from more than him being a vampire.
He didn’t acknowledge her goodbye, but he followed her with his eyes, watching her gather her clients and eventually making her way to the exit to an awaiting Pam to escort them to a chauffeured car.
Once she was gone from the premises, Eric evoked the force of Elise’s earlier mental block against him and he was intrigued. Why did she block him with so much tenacity?
Eric had no doubts that their paths would cross again; he would see to that.
Translations
"Here comes your friend" - "Här kommer din vän"
"With those eyes she reminds me of a cat" -"Med de där ögonen påminner hon mig om en katt"
"More like a tiger" - "Mer som en tiger"
................................................
Elise impatiently looked down at her watch, twisting the jewelry restlessly around her wrist, waiting for her suitcase to come around the airport’s baggage claim carousel.
Her head throbbed from a whiskey hangover that she denied having, and she was sleep deprived just enough to fall flat on her face.
After she was politely kicked out of the vampire club, the twins insisted on stopping at a pit-stop so they could scarf down a greasy spoon breakfast. When she finally said goodnight to the twins back at the hotel, she still had to look over, and rewrite the contract to fax to the attorney, so he could approve and resend to her for the twins to sign around lunch time.
Elise’s eyes didn’t close for sleep until dawn.
She woke up feeling like a truck had run over her, and the least bit of light hurt her eyes.
She thanked whatever god that listened to her that the lunch meeting with the twins was cut –and-dry, because her brain and body were on auto pilot.
After their signatures, she bid them farewell, and hastily made her way to the airport to catch her flight back to Las Vegas.
“Fuck.” She whispered to herself, not seeing her lone suitcase come around the carousel.
She reached her hand into her purse, retrieving her cell phone. She realized she had yet to return those four missed calls from last night.
“It’s about time!” The female voice yelled over the phone.
Elise immediately wanted to disconnect the call, “Hello Karen.”
“Why do you refuse to answer the phone when I call?”
Elise spotted her suitcase on the conveyer belt, traveling at a snail’s pace to her, “I don’t, I was busy...what did the mechanic say about your car?”
“He said it will be ready tomorrow, so you will have to drop Melly and I off before you go to work”
“You have to get her up in time Karen…I can’t be late for work tomorrow.”
The woman on the other line exhaled in to the receiver, “You forgot to call and wish Melanie, Happy Birthday.”
“Shit...I forgot, well, did you let her know who paid for most of the presents?” Elise asked, rolling her suitcase behind her as she walked hurriedly towards the exit, maneuvering around the crowds of people.
“I did, but I told her you would call and she stayed up waiting, which is why I was blowing up your phone.”
“Where is she now?”
“She is playing with the little girl next door.”
“Okay, I’ma see her in a bit to wish her happy birthday; is there any cake left?
“Yes, I saved you a slice and put it in the fridge.”
“Butter cream icing or that nasty whipped shit?”
“Melanie likes the nasty whipped shit.”
“Ughhh.”
“When it’s your birthday we will get you the butter cream, when are you coming home? You know even though my car is in the shop, we coulda’ picked you up, we have your car.”
“I know, but I wasn’t sure when I was getting in. “She lied.
“Hey, I just got my luggage at this god-for-saken terminal.. I’m heading there now, Karen.”
“Elise Anne Scott, how many times do I have to tell you not to refer to me as Karen?” The female voice yelled again.
“I’m on my way, Mom. Is that better?”
“Yes, see ya’ in a bit.”
Her mother hung up the phone.
Leaving the Las Vegas airport always left Elise exasperated when she didn’t have her own car to drive. The airport was constantly teeming with thousands of tourists and visitors; so cabs were scarce if you didn’t pre-arrange them the day before. So, if you expected to hail a cab last minute, and it actually pulled up to retrieve you, then you felt like you had just won the lotto.
Only, Elise didn’t feel like a winner about the cab that pulled up to the curb to pick her up.
The cab was the same model station wagon she had refused to ride in last night in Shreveport.
She would have told the cab driver to find his next customer, but she was tired and knew she had been lucky enough to have found this cab available. She sucked in her breath, and handed her suitcase to the plump Indian man to place in the trunk.
She sat on the tattered leather seats and closed her eyes, trying to zone out, but as usual whenever she got into a station wagon the memory of living in one came to the forefront.
Some days she could treat the memory as an old scar; she would rationalize how far she has come from having to live in a car and kept moving. But sometimes, like at that moment, she felt as the scar was sliced open all over again.
She sat close to the door, staring blankly out the window, recalling how her mother and she drove to her aunt’s house for a place to live. Her father had left them again, and her mother could not make the rent alone. Her mother struggled and believed he would come back, but he never did, and soon they were evicted from their little apartment.
“Please Vickie, we just need a place to stay for a few nights, don’t close this door. “ “I’m your sister for chrissakes!” Her mother pleaded, trying to stop her aunt from slamming the door on them with her foot.
Her mother beat on the door hysterically and cried, “We have nowhere to go!” Elise who was a precocious child tugged at her mother’s shirt and said “I’ll take care of us mama.”
Elise and her mother with no place to go were forced to live out of their car for two months.
Every day that Elise came home from school, and had to ride around in that old station wagon with her mother, searching for a safe place to park and sleep, she would vow to never be powerless. She promised to do whatever it took so that no one would ever slam the door on her and her mama again.
That same vow still burned inside of her now.
The cab pulled into a new development of townhomes gated entrance.
He stopped the cab at the designated address Elise gave him. She looked with satisfaction out the front windshield from the backseat onto the new house. The two-story townhouse had a familiar stucco facade and a red Spanish tiled roof, the entryway was a mission style door, and the front yard was a very small patch of white rocks to decorate over the non-existent grass. The house had the same Las Vegas desert cookie-cutter design as the other houses on the block, but it was new, and spacious enough for Elise’s needs even though it wasn’t her dream home.
Elise paid the driver, and rolled her suitcase around the leaving cab to greet her Mother and her younger half-sister. The duo was smiling and swinging leisurely on an old green glider on the tiny front porch.
Elise distorted her face in distaste at the rusted green glider, “Where did you find that?”
“Melly and I went thrift store shopping, and I found it for twenty bucks, can you believe it?” Her mother exclaimed in disbelief that she found such a treasure.
“Yes I can.” Elise stated, standing in front of her small family.
Melanie was curled up next to their mom, resting her head under the nook of her mother’s arm and chest, sucking contentedly on two of her fingers. Her little red shoe wearing feet dangled off the edge of the glider, and the knee area of her jeans were caked in dirt from playing outside.
“Hi Melly.’ Elise smiled down at her younger sibling.
The four year-old looked up at her with her clear pale grey eyes, “Hi, Lise” she said, with her fingers still in her mouth.
“Aren’t you gonna give me a hug?” Elise asked, hurting that the child barely acknowledged her.
Melanie considered her older sibling, looking up at her with those sad doe eyes.
Karen stood and pulled her youngest daughter’s arm, “Get up, and hug your sister.”
The small child slid off the glider and wrapped her arms around Elise’s legs.
“Happy Birthday Melly, I’m so sorry I missed it.” Elise said, caressing the child’s blonde head.
The trio walked into the house that reeked of fresh paint; their footsteps echoing loudly in the unfurnished home. Elise had recently purchased the home and moved her small family from their two bedroom apartment, but she hadn’t been able to afford to furnish the home like she wanted yet.
They congregated in the open-spaced kitchen that was designed so guests could interact with you from the living room. The dark marble countertops were clean, and her mother’s old appliances glared at Elise in contrast to the new modern appliances of the kitchen.
Elise opened the stainless steel fridge searching for a diet coke.
She was disappointed to see there was none, “Damn it, Mom, why can’t you at least buy some of things I request to have in the fridge. There is no Diet coke in here.”
“OOoo your sister requests to have diet coke in the fridge, Melly, did you hear her?” Karen smiled, tickling Melanie.
Melly giggled with delight.
Elise closed the fridge door and looked at her sister and mother, engrossed in each other lovingly. Melanie was sitting on the counter, swinging her little legs back and forth, while her mother made funny faces to amuse the fair haired child.
“Lise, wanna see my toys?” Melly said, her eyes shining bright at her sister.
Elise leaned over the countertop, resting her head on the cold marble, staring up at her mom and Melly.
“Later Melly, I’m tired.” She said, with her hands lying listlessly at her side.
Melly cast her eyes downward at her big sister, “Okay.”
Karen ran her hand over Elise’s hair, smoothing back loose tendrils. “You look exhausted, sweetie.”
“I am.” Elise stated.
Karen smiled down at her daughter, and her face glossed over, she became lost in memories of a similar face.
Elise face darkened, recognizing that her mother was thinking about him, something she tended to do whenever she looked upon her daughter’s face.
Elise turned her head to the other side, away from her mother and onto the blank wall.
“Mel and I ordered pizza for dinner.” Karen said, coming back to reality.
Elise straightened herself up from the counter top, “I’ll pass, I’m gonna go and hit the sack, I have a big day tomorrow.”
“Pizza!!!” Melanie yelled, smiling with excitement and anticipation for the delivery.
“Okay, sweetheart.” Her mother said absently, giving her full attention to her youngest.
Elise was irritated at their happiness, she didn’t want to be, but she couldn’t help it. She was annoyed that everything was so carefree for them and that she was responsible for what needed to happen next for their future as a family.
She always felt alone and apart from them in having to be the provider.
She climbed the carpeted stairs and opened the stark white door to her austere bedroom, and felt the cold chill from an air conditioned room that had not been lived in for all the days she was absent.
The bedroom walls were bare, except for her framed diplomas for high school and college that were hung precisely above her bed. The room was a blur of beige, nondescript, just beige; from the carpet to the walls even the bedding. She furnished the room out of necessity, picking reasonable furnishings and including her passed-down furniture to style the room. Her bedroom was not the refuge she had dreamed it would be, Elise had no refuge, it was just a place for her to sleep and house her personal belongings.
She dreamed constantly of all she would do to the room to make it into her haven, but she kept putting it off, finding different needs for any money she had. Melanie needs new school clothes, my mom needs her car fixed, and the house needs furniture; she would go over a mental list of what she had to provide for first, before indulging in a bedroom.
She lugged the heavy suitcase onto her bed and began to unpack her neatly folded belongings, extracting the dirty clothes from the clean.
She was exhausted and her head still pounded from the lingering hang over.
She went into her adjoining restroom, peeled off her work shirt, unzipped her slacks, and laid both neatly onto the counter.
She pushed back the shower curtain and twisted the knob completely to the level of Hot.
She stood still in her restroom, in her black lace bra and panties, staring at herself in the mirror. She squinted and opened her eyes wide, detaching herself from her own reflection.
She despised that she looked like him.
When she was a child, she thought he was the most handsome man that could ever exist. He would sit her on his lap, and compliment her on how much their faces were alike and her small heart would fill with so much pride.
Nothing about her resembled her mother, her mother reminded her of a perky cheerleader with her bouncy sandy blonde hair, grey eyes that always betrayed her, and cute doll-like features.
Elise was the spitting image of him, and when he was around she couldn’t have cared less to look like anyone else.
She leaned over the basin to inspect her face further, running her hand over the smooth planes of her cheeks, remembering how he always left in a fluster and came back with new promises. When he would pack up his duffle bag, Elise would go into her room and sob until she couldn’t form words, she never wanted to see him walk out the door. After he was gone, all she could do was wait for his return, always waiting, playing with her toys by the front door, waiting for him to open that door and vanquish her fear of him never coming back.
When he left them for the very last time, she didn’t cry, she knew he wasn’t coming back. Her mother cried, and tried to convince her that he would come back, but Elise knew, she knew that was his last time.
Elise opened up a small jar of Noxzema and began to spread the white cream with her fingertips on to her face.
Steam slowly formed and billowed out over the shower curtain from the temperature of the water.
Her face was completely covered in the tingling cold cream and her eyes were the only thing visible. She looked away from the mirror; she no longer wanted to see him in her face.
She removed her undergarments and twisted the shower knob to a cooler level before stepping into the warm stream of water. She let the pressure of the jet stream beat onto the muscles of her back. She relaxed her shoulders and exhaled thinking she had more pressing matters to take care of than thinking of the man who abandoned her as a child.
She forced herself to dwell on how she was going to handle asking for the Malveaux’s remaining ten percent as commission for herself tomorrow.
She would use it to buy much needed furniture and other furnishings for the house. She also wanted to put Melanie in some after -school classes, the child had showed a proclivity for music, and Elise thought Melanie would excel if she had piano lessons, which would call for her to purchase her a piano, and she would only purchase the best piano there was.
She turned the front of her body towards the stream of the water, and washed the cream off her face.
Anxiety overcame her; what if her boss challenged her on her request? What if the president denied her request for the commission?
She scrubbed her limbs and washed her hair, and grabbed the terry towel that hung on a nearby rack to cover her.
She unzipped her cosmetics travel bag and took out items to replace on the countertop. She arranged the items intently, placing the bottles and tubes in order according to height. It comforted her to do something at that moment according to an order.
She was not going to back down in asking for that ten percent commission.
Elise swept her heavy wet hair up and into a tightly wound pony tail and used miniscule barrettes to clip back the escaping tendrils. She went into the bedroom and retrieved a pair of old boxers and a Clorox white, racer-back from her dresser, and pulled them over her naked body.
She had to stand up for herself to her boss, she should have been moved up to the director’s position anyway she fumed. The president did her a disservice by putting her underneath him; if she were allowed to scout for the land then their revenue would be higher.
She sat down on the edge of her made up bed, and thought about the vampire.
Elise hadn’t allowed the thought of him come to surface during her day; she kept suppressing the image and feelings she had around him from her conscious. But, thinking of him now made her heart beat faster, and she wished she could borrow some of his assurance.
She thought he was the one thing she could imitate to face her fear.
She knew that he would go after whatever he wanted relentlessly, and she felt she should too.
She lay under the covers of her bed, pulling them tightly under her neck.
If her boss denied her she would crush him, she concluded.
She turned off her nightstand lamp, and just as easy as she extinguished her bedside light, her anxiety was gone.
**************************************
Eric sat alone in his bleak gray office with the door closed; laboring over details to be done for his business. He made small separate stacks of paper on his metal desk, invoices to be paid in one stack and receipts into another. He realized looking at the excel spreadsheet on his open laptop that the quarterly budget needed tweaking from Long Shadow’s blunder of ordering more True Blood then what was actually being consumed. Eric scribbled a note to himself that he also wanted to reevaluate his staff and see how their performance had been at the bar; it might be time to let some vampires go. He also didn’t think the gift shop was doing their best at selling the tourists’ items and he made another scribble that he would write out a sales script for them to practice and memorize to market the new merchandise he had purchased.
He worked methodically, going through a checklist in his brain and systematically forming solutions. But in the reserve of his brain, at the very dark back there was a meddlesome problem that he was still forming a solution for, a problem that was named Felipe.
Last evening, it was clear to Eric that he would have to handle Felipe.
It was obvious that the Vegas Sheriff was plotting a future for himself, and using his relationship with his King as leverage, but it was what kind of future the sheriff desired that troubled Eric. The vampire hunched over in his worn leather swivel chair, staring down at the computer screen. The excel spreadsheet of numbers became one jumbled mess; his mind was preoccupied by what measures were needed to keep tabs on Felipe. He wanted knowledge of Felipe’s objective, a concrete admission from the young vamp that he could bring back to his queen, and if she didn’t use it to their advantage then he would utilize it by demolishing the new Sheriff.
Eric wouldn’t have given the human another thought, but he noticed Felipe’s infatuation with her, and he later recognized how she would be of use to him. Eric believed women were inherent masters at deception, and Felipe being a fledgling vampire, could still be deceived by a human woman.
He considered sending a female vampire and chuckled softly, imagining Pam trying to simulate a semblance of love toward Felipe. He realized a female vampire would scare the callow vamp and that would defeat the entire purpose. No, it would have to be the human, he thought leaning back into his chair, pressing his hands together and tucking them under his chin. But, Eric considered it imperative to his plan to know the human before making use of her. She would have to walk a dangerous fine line to be a perfect ruse, and Eric planned to examine the green eyed woman and make certain she was capable.
The human had a dangerous and intriguing gift.
She had the will power to block her mind from a vampire’s glamour.
Her resistance made fanged ones either suspicious of her or desire her even more, which is how any being would feel if they could not coax another into doing what they want.
Eric was certain that Felipe’s position on the human was of the latter.
Eric pondered what other gifts did the human have along with resisting a vampire’s glamour?
The door to his office opened wide, and Pam stood at the threshold waving a manila folder in her free hand. “I finally have it.”
Eric acknowledged his child, and pushed back from his desk and propped his hands behind his head.
Pam looked at her master relaxing now that she had found what he had asked for.
Pam sashayed into the office, dressed in a form-fitting cream houndstooth suit, and smelling of one of her many perfumes of fruit and dead flowers.
Eric ran his eyes over her, “You look lovely.” He said, casting her a devious grin. Every time he looked upon Pam’s face he was proud of having picked such a gorgeous woman to be his child. She was a lot like him in her demeanor and humor, she had lustrous blonde locks that rivaled only his, and she was full of joie de vive that obsessed him before he decided to turn her.
Over their years, she went from his lover to his right hand, now she was a part of him just as much as his need for blood. She was his doting snarky sidekick, but it took two hundred years for them to get to their unspoken comfort.
His love for her which was once a passionate spark was now a soothing fire, their bond although no longer of a romantic nature was unbreakable and solidified by their true friendship.
Pam smirked down at her master at his admission of her beauty, “There are over three hundred Elise’s in the Las Vegas area and there are over two thousand oil, or exploration companies. But alas, I found the human you are searching for.” She said, placing the manila folder in front of him. She opened up the folder, and with one red lacquered nail pointed to a phone number on a printout page of a company named Zenith.
“She is listed as Assistant Director on their website.” Eric held the single piece of paper between his hands, looking over the company page and the corporate photo of Elise Scott.
Pam scanned the dismal little office; she yearned to get her hands on it. She eyed the gray metal cabinet, and the rusting shelving along the wall that was overflowing with bar supplies. Cups, alcohol bottles, straws, everything humans needed to consume a drink. She scrunched up her face in disgust looking down at the floor; it was in desperate need of a good cleaning. “Eric, you should really let me purchase new furniture for this office.” She asked, leaning up against the old metal desk, she preferred to see furniture as more than a utility.
Eric only grunted in reply, which meant there would be no new furniture.
Pam didn’t understand him when it came to his office, his sleeping quarters and car were spotless but here where he spent most of his time was a cluttered mess.
She walked behind Eric, and stood looking down at the paper she had just printed for him. “What are your plans for the cat?” She asked, referring to the human woman who was looking up at her from the page.
Even though she couldn’t see it she could hear him smiling.
“I want her to come play.”He stated.
Pam gently ran her hand over his head, a gesture that was only welcome by her. By the way he answered; Pam understood that Eric did not desire this woman for himself even though he held a fixated stare at the woman’s small photo. She was curious to know what he had in store for the human.
She walked around his desk to take her regular seat on the shabby leather couch.
“Sonja was delightful wasn’t she? I enjoyed watching you and her even though I didn’t join in.” Pam crossed her long legs, and Eric couldn’t help but turn to look at his child.
His eyes crinkled at the side with his charming grin, and Pam smiled back remembering how many lifetimes that grin would make her weak and yearn to have him inside of her.
She loved him dearly but she was at a point in her walk on this earth, where she only wanted women. It had been nearly eighty years since she had been with Eric but she still delighted in seeing him with other women, it drove her mad to see the aroused women in the throes of passion with him, because she knew exactly how it felt to be with him.
He was beautiful, and women and men each night desired to be picked by him either for fucking or feeding, they didn’t care as long as they were chosen to be near him.
She couldn’t blame them, she would too if she didn’t have him already.
“I don’t think she appreciated the audience.” He chuckled, turning away to look at the print out again.
Pam smiled, sliding her long slender legs onto the couch. She laid there on her side, watching her master study the page, “If you don’t want her Eric, why do you want her to come play?” She asked, speaking of Elise.
Eric only responded to his child with a smile, and with a flip of his thumb opened his cell phone.
The human’s voicemail prompted him to leave a message; he listened to the woman’s assertive tone, and thought about those willful irises that challenged him the evening before.
“Ms. Scott, this is Eric Northman, the owner of Fangtasia, I have something that maybe of interest to you..............."
***********************************************
Elise heels made a deafening clack on the marble floor as she exited the elevator, making her way to the glass double doors of her company’s entry.
“Good morning, Elise. “ The usually mousy receptionist exclaimed from behind her desk.
“Good Morning, Amber.” Elise said without affection, wondering what had excited the receptionist’s attention today.
The receptionist giggled, and quickly moved her hands to her mouth to mask it. “I can’t hold it; you have a surprise in your office.” She blurted, standing to face Elise, smiling wide.
“Thank you for telling me.” Elise didn’t return the smile to the receptionist; she walked swiftly past her to her office.
Elise opened her door and looked at the surprise that sat in the middle of her oak desk.
A crystal vase filled with two dozen long stem, red roses at perfect bloom.
The receptionist ran up behind her, “Who are they from? I was soo tempted to read the card.” She said, trailing behind Elise.
Elise swiftly retrieved the small white card from the bouquet.
I couldn’t let you slip away that easily – Felipe. Felipe had attached his contact card to the bouquet as well.
She read the script on the card to herself even though Amber waited impatiently for her to tell her what man had sent her these flowers.
“Amber, please take these to your desk.” Elise commanded, setting her laptop bag and purse on the desk.
“Whaa?” Amber’s mouth fell open.
Elise forced a smile, “I can see you really like them, please take them, I don’t want my boss to see them in here.”
The disbelieving receptionist picked the roses up slowly into her hands and looked at Elise slightly stunned.
“Okay, you can leave now.” Elise said, settling in at her desk. “Oh, and I would appreciate if anyone asks that you say the flowers came for you.” She stated, smiling as far as she could stretch her face.
“Sure.” Amber said somberly, walking out of Elise’s office holding her second hand flowers.
Elise didn’t want people in the office to know anything remotely personal about her, especially her bosses. For her, it was best that they just thought of her as an unfeeling suit. She liked that her office was devoid of any personal touches; she displayed no pictures of a loving family or a vacation trip with girlfriends, she frowned realizing she didn’t even have any girlfriends to go on a vacation with.
Elise pulled out her laptop from her bag and connected it to the server.
She needed coffee and a cigarette.
She nervously tapped her shoe on the carpeted floor, waiting for the server to upload her emails. She scanned her spotless grand cherry oak desk. In the middle of the desk was a green leather placement with gold bulleting that matched her chair and at the far right of the desk was a green banker’s lamp with a small gold chain. Her office which she inherited from the previous assistant director made her feel like she should be smoking cigars, and sipping on cognac, and belonged to the elite Old Boy’s club; a club where one smoked and drank all day while conducting business.
She smiled thinking that maybe she would purchase a small bar set up for her office, only after she confirmed this commission deal that is.
She grabbed the bouquet card and fingered the engraved impression Felipe’s handwriting made on the card. She snickered, thinking about the charming vampire. She could not deny that she was flattered by the roses but she didn’t see what could come from contacting him, she was sure he was looking for some fangbanging fun, and although that did entice her a smidgen, she didn’t even have the time to properly fantasize about fun, let alone actually going out and having it.
She was startled from her daydream by a knock.
“Hey Elise, I know you have some good news for me, you always do.” Her boss smiled at her, standing in her doorway, holding his paper.
Elise smiled back at him, standing up behind her desk, “Of course I do Jim, but I would like to speak with you about the contract.”
“Oh, well I have some time now” He stated looking down at his watch, “Why don’t you step into my office.”
Elise exhaled and smiled, “I’ll be right there.” She was annoyed that he couldn’t have met with her in her office.
She collected her paperwork neatly into a file and walked into Jim’s office, which was positioned next to her office, she thought to herself, they shared a damn wall but the man could not sit in her office so she could debrief him.
She smiled down at the waiting Jim whose desk was hidden somewhere under all his paperwork and notes.
“Here you go, boss.” She said, handing him the file and taking a seat in front of his desk.
“Elise, before you sit, do you mind grabbing me some coffee?” He asked, motioning his head to the small brewing pot in his office.
His office was slightly more spacious than hers and had a very small kitchenette built into its back wall.
Elise raised a perplexed eyebrow at Jim before agreeing.
She rose from her seat, and walked over to the back wall, feeling Jim’s eyes on her as she grabbed the coffee pot, a coffee pot that was only a few steps from his own damn desk. She picked up a clean cup from the sink and poured the dark liquid, if he hadn’t been staring at her she would have quickly spat into the warm cup.
“Cream and Sugar?” She asked, her back still turned to Jim.
“Huh?... Oh yes, please.”
She opened up the cabinets to search for the powdered cream and sugar.
She stepped onto the ball of her feet, stretching her arms to feel around for the bottles.
Jim stared at Elise in her snug black pencil skirt, her taunt calf muscles, and the supple back of her heels peeking seductively from her shoes.
He felt himself harden, and was glad he was hidden and seated behind his desk.
He yearned to quickly unzip his pants and run his hand over his shaft while watching her ass twitch in her skirt.
He thought that maybe he could get away with it, but was distracted by the picture of him and his family on his desk.
He squared his shoulders, gaining composure thinking that he was a good Christian man and would not let this woman tempt him; she knew what she was doing he thought, bringing his attention back to the contracts before him.
“Here.” She said icily, placing the cup on his desk.
She walked over to the floor length windows, windows that were not in her office. She stared out over the strip, and at the people and cars that looked like ants from their floor. She curled up her lip at the ants, and moved her eyes pass the strip, passed the growing suburbs, and settled them on the desert.
The unwelcoming and harsh desert. She smiled, eyeing the terrain devoid of the mass of human ants that populated the strip below her.
“You’ve done it again, Elise.” Jim exclaimed, delighted at the signed contract.
She nodded, “Thank you.” She walked over closer to Jim, and stood with her arms crossed, “Did you also see that I signed them at a lesser amount then you had originally offered?”
“I did! You are remarkable, I had thought Bob was crazy to move you up but you have really proven yourself.”
“I’m glad you feel that way, I know that this was a very important and long ordeal for the company, and I feel that I deserve the remaining ten percent that you had offered to the client, as commission for closing the lease.” She said with an iron tongue.
Jim eyed the young woman, “You are not positioned in the company to receive commission.”
“You do.”
“I’m the Director, you are the assistant.” He stated, feeling the youth had outgrown her britches.
“I closed a deal that no one here could do, that commission should be offered to me just on that alone. I am requesting as a partner not as a subordinate. “She said, unyielding to the older man.
Jim looked at Elise as if she had just told him she was from Mars. Jim never wanted Elise to move to her position and told Bob, the president that she would be more of a hassle than a benefit, so what if she could close a couple of deals, she probably had sex with most of them to do it he thought.
Jim calmed himself again by thinking that he was a good man, “Elise, even if I wanted to give you this percentage as commission, I can’t without Bob’s approval.”
“Then get it.” She stated, coming in closer, shifting her weight with her hand on her hip.
Jim affected a fake smile at Elise; he despised her even more now. She was the same age as his eldest daughter and he couldn’t picture his sweet daughter displaying this kind of behavior. She was a real lady not some whore who did unscrupulous things to climb the corporate ladder, she would never defy her boss in this manner, and she would just prove her worth and wait until her good hard work was rewarded.
“You know just as well as I do that Bob’s time is valuable, and its hard for us to even peek our heads in to get a question answered. I will have to get some time scheduled on his calendar to handle this and I must say Elise, he is not going to be particularly thrilled about this. “He warned, picking up the phone to call Amber.
Elise’s hand quickly pressed down the buttons of the receiver.
“No.” She said, looking down at Jim as he held the phone with his mouth slightly open. “Let’s ask him now.” She commanded.
Elise couldn’t believe she had just hung up her boss’s call, but she had to. He was unwilling to reason.
Jim rose from his seat and said calmly, “You are right, there is no better time than the present.” He gathered the papers into the file and walked away from her, determined to put this girl in her place.
She followed slowly behind Jim; not wanting to explode into the president’s office like Jim was going to do.
She wasn’t nervous or scared anymore about the situation as she turned down another hallway that would lead her to Bob’s corner office. She was pissed off.
She could hear Jim’s voice bellowing out of Bob’s office. “I’ve given you over twenty years of service, but this is craziness. She is your pet project, you deal with her Bob.” She heard the man and smiled with satisfaction that she was able to affect the man in such a manner.
She finally laid her eyes at the scene playing out in the president’s office. Bob was seated and calm behind his desk, and Jim paced nervously, flinging his arms and cursing the young woman.
“Just stop Jim, she is not going anywhere. Come in Elise, stop standing there and take a seat.” Bob said, standing, scratching the back of this neck thinking of what to say to quiet his long time director.
Elise walked pass the ruffled Jim and took a seat in front of her real boss.
Bob gave Elise a look that said, ‘you just had to do it, didn’t you.”
“You both are grown ups and should know how to handle this without needing a mediator.” Bob said, looking at them both.
“He’s the one who is upset; I was plain and simple in my request.” She stated as a matter of fact.
“You are out of line, maybe in a few more years you will receive them but you can’t tell us to give them to you. “ Jim blurted from behind her.
“Why not? You don’t even close half of what I do and you receive commission. “She said unaffected by Jim, she didn’t even bother to turn to face him as her words poked at his pride.
Jim let out a grating laugh and said, “You are a little bitch.”
“JIM! Out, now buddy, you need to take a walk around the block and when you come back I expect you to apologize to Elise for being such a prick today.” Bob ordered. Jim stormed out of the office, slamming the door behind him.
Elise didn’t make any movements, she sat stoically with her legs crossed, her back straight and ready to request for the commission again. She knew the battle wasn’t over; she still had to get Bob to sign off on the contract.
Bob loosened his tie and sat back down at his desk. Bob offered a weak smile to Elise, whose face remained unchanged. “What are you doing, kid?”
“I don’t think what I am asking for is so out of line, you would have done the same thing.”
Bob really liked Elise; he admired her gumption even though it had just given his director a conniption.
“I deserve his job, Bob. I am your star player….closing more than anyone in this company, working hours that only you know of and I’m still being treated like a receptionist. Do you know he had me make him coffee?” She stated, now letting her anger out over having done what she felt was a subordinate act.
Bob smiled at Elise, understanding how young she really was.
Bob was not a salesman, he was very cut and dry, he helped a person when he could and let them know up front when he couldn’t. He did not play games with people; he was of a very rare breed of human being honest and good.
Bob cleared his throat and stated, “You can’t have it kid. I’m sorry.”
Elise eye’s burned into Bob, “My whole life is devoted to this company and its success, you know this Bob.”
“I do, Elise. I’m not done, yet… You cannot have the commission on this lease, but I will offer you the freedom to scout for your own land leases, you no longer have to wait for Jim to find them… “ Bob stood, and began to pace slowly behind his desk. “And…if you find a lease worth our while and we can produce from it then I will move your position to Partner Director, you will answer directly to me instead of Jim and I will allow you receive commissions from then on.”
Elise genuinely smiled up at Bob, “You won’t be disappointed.” She said rising from her seat.
Bob stood still and narrowed his eyes on Elise, “I am giving you this opportunity because you are so sure of yourself, and you are forcing us all to pay attention, I would be a fool to pass up on your growth which could add value to my company. But let me state this, Elise…. if any of your personally scouted land leases come out to be dry, then you can kiss your position here goodbye.” He said, without any malice, for him it was pure business.
Elise squared her shoulders and reached out her hand to shake the older man’s.
“You’ll be retiring soon, won’t you?” She smiled, implying that now her eyes were on his job.
On her way back to her own office she walked with confidence, she had a lot of work to do. The first thing she would do is have Amber pull all the land purchases that were northern Louisiana.
When she reached her office she remembered she had yet to check her voicemails, she use to have Amber check them for her but the receptionist had a bad habit of forgetting pertinent information from the messages.
She dialed in her pass code, held the phone in the crook of her neck, and moved the mouse around to wake her sleeping computer.
She was excited about Bob’s offer, and thought maybe she would give Felipe a call.
She waited for her first voicemail to play.
“Ms. Scott, this is Eric Northman, the owner of Fangtasia, I have something that maybe of interest to you. I have been put in charge of leasing a considerable amount of land in Shreveport, we have been contacted by several exploration companies but I wanted to give your company a chance to make a bid. I would advise for you to come to inspect the land, we are looking to close very soon. “
It was the vampire.
Elise immediately cleared the line, and dialed Amber, “I need you to book me a flight; I need to leave early this afternoon.”
“To where?”
“Shreveport.”
.....................................
Eric’s eyes opened abruptly, instinctively timed to the setting Louisiana sun. He lay still in his vast bed, naked and uncovered.
He turned his head to the right side, eyeing with precision through the pitch black, settling his stare on the untouched pillow and unruffled bed; a side of the bed that was once occupied by Pam.
Pam recently chose to have her own home, and had moved to a renovated plantation on the outskirts of Shreveport.
Time passing was not a consequential marker to him.
The five years of Pam residing in her own home, apart from him, he felt afresh every evening he arose; for he still had not come accustomed to sleeping without her.
With the pull of the hunger and the flutter of his eyes, he expected to see her blonde head beside him, and to not have it there now, seemed out of place, but only briefly. He could feel she was near him, even though not as near as being in his bed.
She had slept beside him for two hundred years, only breaking during a very harsh and brief separation.
Their separation had been defining.
They were one hundred and twelve years into their affair when Pam became restless. She was not blatantly defiant at first; she was well aware of how strong her attachment was to him, and was scared to be away from him. He observed her; correcting her when she was wrong, chastising her when she was deliberate, until she became more confident in her need to be on her own. From that point on she was openly disobedient, and tested her limits with Eric.
Eric knew every child grew to want to live a separate and full life alone, he was conscious of her need, he had left his own maker as well, and he was still parted form his maker now. But, he thought Pam was too young to leave, that she really didn’t want to be alone, she just wanted to rule over him.
After months of strife, he commanded her to go away from him. “You are insolent, and I would push you into the sun myself if I could go unscathed.” He said to her, changing their relationship forever.
She granted him his wish.
During that time he never knew if she were coming back, or if he should go after her. He would turn the outcomes in a mental circle until he reasoned that time was needed between them.
For eight years they stayed apart, until Pam gave in.
She no longer wanted to live without Eric, and she knew he wouldn’t succumb, and for his affection she felt it was worth succumbing to him instead.
He welcomed his child back, and they spent eighty years in friendship, worshipping each other, until she decided she wanted to move out.
“I want to have my own home… I want to form my own nest.” Pam said to him one evening after making love to the same woman. The human laid in glamoured bliss, creating a breathing barrier between him and his child.
He laughed, lying flat on his back, propping his hands behind his neck, “I hope you make a child as hardworking as yourself.” He said sarcastically, staring up at the ceiling.
“I found a dilapidated plantation not too far from here…you can easily fly there, Eric. “ She said as a matter of fact, annoyed at him calling her lazy.
“It is incredibly flattering to hear my child suggest she wants to live in debris rather than my 2.3 million dollar home.”
Pam did not offer any consoling words to assure her maker that she would visit often. That mawkish emotion was for humans.
They both understood she wasn’t separating from him, she was simply moving out.
She was free to leave on her own; she had been free to do what she wanted with her existence even years before their separation.
Eric rose slowly, and walked to his lavish modern bathroom. He flicked on fluorescent lights that cast an iridescent glow on the silver marble floor. He grabbed the remote on the floating cubed counter, and turned on the flat screen nestled in the wall.
He welcomed the noise of the television over the silence.
He brushed his teeth with an electric toothbrush, lathered and shaved his face even though both acts were futile. Vampires didn’t need to brush their teeth and any hair shorn would surely grow back by the next waking evening. Eric did not do these acts out of necessity; he did them for his own vanity.
He also didn’t need a shower room, for he didn’t perspire, but he loved to leisure in the charcoal slate shower room, enclosed by a floor to ceiling movable door of glass, built to cleanse a party of five.
Eric was a vampire of taste, and an indulger in all things pleasurable.
He stood firm in his shower room, while multiple shower jets shot pulsating streams over his body. He palmed a bar of soap and briskly slid it over his chest, and neck. The blare of the tv bounced off the bathroom walls, and the shower jets melded with the white noise creating a simple harmony.
But all Eric could hear was silence.
He bent his head under the pressure of the water, pressing his weight onto the wall.
He did not miss Pam. There was no reason to miss her. She worked for him at his establishment and he saw her face practically every evening. He had a great affection for his only child, but their relationship, although comfortable and profound, left him with no surprises, no hidden amusement. She was known to him like the lines in his own hand.
Their familiarity left him fairly bored, so her moving out at least afforded him some mystery to what she did with her evenings not in his presence.
It was just this particular evening; the waking up alone stirred a sleeping emotion inside of him.
Eric’s rest was his refuge, a retreat from his calculating existence.
He long ago reasoned that his bed was his only discernible need for companionship.
When Pam left him to be have her own home, he began to fill her empty space with humans.
Eric found that sleeping with a human was a great pleasure for him. He relished in feeling their beating heart, hearing the blood coursing through their living veins. He listened to the surrounding air clamor into their nostrils, filling their lungs and traveling back to their pulsating heart. All of these peculiar and divine happenings caused him to have a ravenous hunger for the resting human during his coma-like slumber.
It also helped with his other hunger below the belt to wake up to a body nearby.
But, this evening he woke up alone.
He decided the evening before to not bring a human back to his home. The practice was beginning to be a chore because he did not want the human to know where he lived. Each evening after sleeping with him, he had to glamour them before taking them home. This annoyed him, because he wanted the human to remember the pleasure that they had with him. What was the purpose of doing anything if it wasn’t going to be remembered?
Eric walked out of his shower room, dripping wet, his golden hair darkened by the water.
He passed up the towels under the vanity; he would air dry tonight.
He thought maybe he was just bored in general, that that was the emotion he was feeling.
He had a hard time deciphering emotions that resembled anything remotely human; he was slightly amused that he could still feel any emotion at all. He believed he existed only on his hunger and his aptitude for survival.
He stood stark naked in front of his walk in closet, picking out clothing for the evening. It was a blur of black and dark blue, from suits to jeans; he quickly grabbed a pair of jeans and a black t shirt. The temperature of the cold weather outside would have no affect on him. He dressed leisurely, taking his time preparing himself for the evening.
He glared at the untouched side of the bed again.
He would shake off this foreign emotion with a fangbanger this evening he thought.
He walked through his unused kitchen to the garage, clicked the garage opener, and walked over to the side of his corvette door.
Before he slid into his car, he caught a whiff of the night air, and it held the tinge of an unwelcome scent.
It was the scent of a vampire, a vampire that was not his.
It was a new born vampire stalking their unknown Sheriff. Eric’s jaw tightened and he raised his head toward the cold night, he knew his scent would deter many from coming any further to his place of rest, but there were some who wanted to test the older vampire.
The scent quickly faded, the fledgling vampire smelled the elder vampire’s blood lust and fled.
Eric smirked, relaxed his jaw and settled into his car.
The cold leather melded to his cold skin, and he chose a c.d. to listen to while he sped expertly out of the wooded area where his home was hidden, to the main street. He turned on the headlights, something he always had to remind himself to do as a courtesy to human drivers. He could see the road and passing cars perfectly, but their useless eyes could not do the same.
The music playing reminded him of a time long gone, of humans that existed for a fleeting moment. Memories blurred his attention to the road; he smiled remembering a face that belonged to a particular young woman around the 15th century.
They crept upon him like that; the memories. He never chose to remember, they arrested him in single moments, and they were never complete, just a muddled appearance of a face, or a feeling. He could recall them all if he wanted to, but that was not something of any interest for him.
He pulled his car into Fangtasias’ lot, drove his car over the gravel towards the back of the bar, and parked. He decided to leave the top on the corvette this evening, making it less enticing for humans to inspect, thinking of the human woman’s appreciation for his car.
His heavy boots crunched the gravel underneath him as he walked to the back door; he unlocked the door and let it slam shut behind him. He stopped short of walking any further, and stood in the dark shadows of the back hallway, staring at the woman who stood feet away from him.
“When do you expect him?” The woman asked his human waitress passing by.
“He comes in when he comes in.” The waitress snapped, jealous of another woman vying for her boss’s attention.
He could hear an exasperated sigh escape the human’s lips, her back still turned to him.
She was dressed in a black business suit, a fitted knee length skirt and stiletto heels.
A devious grin formed across his face.
The human felt his stare, and instinctively turned her head slightly, and then her body followed, until she faced the approaching vampire.
“You do not waste any time on an opportunity, Elise. I appreciate that in a human.” Eric said, now standing over the petite woman.
She smiled brightly, and Eric felt the warmth from it.
“I have to say I was surprised by your call, Mr. Northman, but I’m glad you chose to do business with my company.” She said, staring up at Eric, trying to read his impassive face.
He looked down at her, considering her words.
She was nervous.
“I hope you don’t mind me coming unannounced, you’re right about me jumping on an opportunity. When I got the call, I thought it best to come right away, so I apologize if you have something else planned for the evening. “She still could not read his face, “I can stay for another evening if you have business to attend to this evening.”
Eric was not surprised by her visit. The amount of time it took for her to come to him after that call was his first test of her, and she had passed. He labeled her an opportunist and that trait would benefit his plan.
“That will not be necessary, I do not put off business that can be done tonight for another evening. “
“Me either.” She agreed.
She was not as poised as the night he had met her. Her practiced smile was too genuine and shaky, she spoke a little too fast, and her hand movements were jerky.
Elise was nervous; but, she had numerous reasons to be. She was standing in front of Eric again; a being that had intrigued her from the first moment she laid eyes on him, and she was here in his presence for an opportunity that could land her a big commission and a promotion.
She didn’t want to do anything to fuck it up.
“Have you eaten?” Eric asked, even though he could sense she hadn’t, he reasoned she was probably jerky from being low blood sugar.
“I haven’t.” She answered, wondering if this vampire was really about to ask her to dinner. She had seen vampires at restaurants of course, drinking their true bloods across from humans devouring flesh and vegetables. She just couldn’t see this vampire being in the mist of that, and she wondered if he even drank true blood.
Eric heard the questioning in her response. “We can talk while you eat. I only ask that you please do not order anything with garlic or your breath will greatly offend me.
“He smirked. Elise laughed, “No garlic… got it.”
“I must handle a few things before we leave, decide on where you would like to go, and order anything you like at the bar. I will be back in ten minutes.” He stated, motioning his hand for her to take a seat to the bar. He caught the eyes of this vampire bartender, and the bartender understood that Elise was to be watched.
Eric left Elise waiting on a barstool, to inform Pam that she would be in charge of the bar until he returned.
He opened his office door to see Pam bare chest, rubbing her body across a human woman. Her fangs were down, and ready to bite into the supple human flesh.
“What did I tell you about using my office?” Eric asked, chuckling.
Pam quickly looked up at Eric, and the human woman pulled a piece of discarded clothing from the floor to cover herself.
“It is so rare when you are not here using it yourself.” She responded, sitting up, still bare chest.
The human quickly dressed, while the vampires paid no attention to her.
Eric walked behind his desk, and unlocked the top drawer. He pulled out a file and locked the drawer again.
“I am not going to be here for a portion of the evening… you are to run the bar until I get back. That means you need to be out there and not in here.” He ordered.
Pam stood abruptly and Eric glimpsed her teardrop shaped breast and hardened pink nipples. It was not a scene he hadn’t seen before, hundreds of times over and over.
The human tried to flee to the open door, “Where are you going?” Pam commanded, grabbing her human and pushing the human back down to the couch. The human whimpered, and cast her face down away from Pam. Pam turned to face Eric, “Why are you leaving?” She asked, standing in front of the human, just in case she tried to flee again.
He grinned down at Pam, “The cat has come to play.” He responded, before walking out the office.
Pam laughed wickedly, and sank her teeth into her frightened human. *************************************************************************************
Eric and Elise were locked together in an electric charged hush as he drove to the nearest dive.
Eric studied her, amused by how her earlier anxiety had now fallen away to reveal the collected woman he had met before. He momentarily glanced at the now confident Elise, who had finished off two glasses of red wine before they departed from the bar. He thought she was like most humans, quelling unwanted emotions with alcohol and this familiar human act from her bored him.
She sat mere inches from him, her face flushed with warm blood, her seat partially leaned back, and her legs extended and crossed at the ankle. “I see wine gives you courage.” Eric said, breaking the quiet.
She turned her head lazily against the leather headrest to face Eric, “Was I that noticeable?” She smiled.
At that moment, Eric’s perception of her as the common, weak spirited human shattered. Elise had formed the same smile across her face that had affected him the evening he had met her. Eric thought that in her smile, glamouring was not necessary because she revealed so much in her toothy wide grin. But, the revelations that Eric received from her smile were a tumult of emotions not ordinary in humans, well at least not any humans in his presence. She beamed at him as if he were a beatific being instead of a bloodthirsty killer; her eyes sparkled as if she were recognizing him as her most intimate companion, and the single dimple on her left cheek appeared making the undertone of lust playful and sincere.
“It is gone now.” He said, getting his interest caught on her again, as he examined the luscious curve of her lips that were tinted from the red wine, for a brief moment, Eric believed the dark tint had come from blood.
Eric decided he would test glamouring her after she consumed a few more glasses of alcohol, maybe her block would not be as strong if intoxicated.
“ I’m flattered that you chose me and my company for this endeavor, Eric, from the way you interrogated me when we initially met, I didn’t think you had a very high opinion of me. “
He didn’t turn to face her again; he kept his eyes on the road.
“You are right, I didn’t, but the new sheriff spoke very well of you after your departure, he considered you a human worthwhile; I took that into consideration.” He lied, shifting gears with ease with one hand and steering the wheel with the other.
“I will have to thank Felipe for the rave review.”
She used his name, Eric noted.
“You should, he is in your city as you must know. I would not have thought about using you for this project if it were not for his compliments.”
Eric pondered what attributes Felipe found desirable in Elise, other than the obvious. Did the chase of having to secure a human who could not be glamoured excite him? Would that attribute intrigue Felipe long enough to form a relationship and divulge information to her?
Eric eyed the petite young woman next to him, her face was turned to the passenger window, staring absently at the darkness whizzing by.
In the closed in space of his vehicle, Eric was accosted by her mouth-watering scent and he thought that maybe he should have fed before meeting with her.
He could smell her faded heady perfume, probably sprayed on after her morning shower, there was a residual of the crisp soap she used emanating from the back of her neck and across her smooth stomach, the scent was also tinged with apricot notes from shampoo used most likely during an evening bath because it wasn’t as prominent as the top notes of her scent. The under notes of her scent, the intoxicating human notes were the salt of her living skin and the dried perspiration under her arms mixed in with her deodorant. The most delicious note; a single note that only human women possessed was the faint seashell musk between her legs which made him consciously fight his instinctive desire to bite into the flesh between her thighs.
Elise was not for him to feed upon, at least not yet, he thought staring at the defined curves of her thighs under the snug cloth of her skirt, and the taunt stretch of the cloth over the mound of her pubis bone.
They had arrived to the diner, and before Elise opened her passenger door, Eric’s icy hand caught her wrist, “This establishment is not use to having Vampires, so do not be startled if we are asked to leave.”
Elise barely heard him, she could only feel the icy coolness firmly wrapped around her wrist. “I understand.” She whispered.
They entered the dive resembling a log cabin and Elise assumed a charm so sticky sweet, that the host fully aware of the hulking vampire next to her politely seated them at a spacious booth hidden in the very back of the restaurant.
“That was amusing to watch” Eric said, curling up his lip into a partial smile.
“There are some establishments not so accepting of me as well; I learned to be an actress when needed.” She replied, taking folders from her work bag.
Human conversation invaded Eric’s ears. First dates fumbling through awkward questions, pained conversations of long married couples and idle chatter of politics. He exhaled air he didn’t breathe with disdain. Why would anyone want to be human if this was all there was, just mundane babble in a backwoods diner.
“Should we order you a True Blood?” She asked, inspecting the plastic covered menu.
Eric cocked one eyebrow, and said “I will satisfy my hunger later.”
She looked up from her menu, placing it gently down in front of her, a wave of curiosity and lust overcame her. She had seen a vampire feed once, on accident of course, it was at the strip club, and she had walked into one of the private rooms and found the stripper straddling a vampire, her neck bent to the side and the vampire’s eyes were closed; his fangs were locked into the girl’s neck. She thought it was the most passionate embrace she had ever seen. She wondered if it was like that every time Eric fed.
Eric wondered what overcame her, her face was impassive and he wanted to glamour her again but paced himself to wait until she had at least had another glass of wine.
The waitress arrived, and blushed at the gorgeous vampire, “What will you have sir?”
Eric smiled at the waitress, “I will not be having anything on this menu.” He flirted, thinking the waitress would be a delectable morsel to satiate both of his cravings.
Elise cleared her throat, calling the attention of the waitress, “I will have the steak medium rare, and a glass of the best red wine you have.”
The waitress took the order, while staring at Eric, who always enjoyed the affect he had on humans, especially women.
“I’ll be right back with your wine, Ma’m.” The waitress said, taking the menu from Elise’s hand and heading to the bar, but looking over her shoulder at Eric.
“Let’s get down to business.” Elise said, handing Eric a thick glossy folder embossed with her company’s name filled with informative documents and forms.
Eric scanned the contents of the folder, absorbing and comprehending each word while Elise explained each page.
Elise spouted her rehearsed sales pitch; she explicitly explained the benefits of using Zenith, how land was inspected, the purpose of a test drill and the initial drilling itself. She spoke with animated gusto, and her hands orchestrated her passion as they danced through the air and expertly pointed to sentences needed to back up her pitch.
He concentrated on the words flowing from Elise’s mouth.
Her lips salivated from talk of numbers and percentages.
Elise’s glass of wine arrived; her slender fingers caressed the bulb of the stemmed glass, and brought the smooth rim to her full lips.
She took a long sip, letting the velvety tart liquid swirl over her tongue before swallowing.
Eric was distracted as he fixated on the veins in her neck as she swallowed, narrowing his eyes on her jutting collarbone, watching her undulating chest set to the pattern of her breathing.
Eric examined the starved sharp contours of her face, the powder disguised darkness under the determined eyes, and the down turn of her wide mouth. She was obviously young, but Eric could see clearly that she was a young woman who carried a weight that was beyond her years.
“How old are you?”
Elise scrunched her face, “23.” She responded wondering why he wanted to know her age.
“Are you married?”
She shook her head slowly, her mouth slightly agape, intrigued by his forward questioning.
“Lover?” He asked slowly, eyeing the veins in her neck once more.
She exhaled deeply, “I do not have one of those either, Mr. Northman.”
Eric wanted her to be single; it made it easier for her to form a relationship with Felipe.
“Call me, Eric. You should be more relaxed, Elise, since we intend to work with each other.”
She took another sip of her wine.
“How do your colleagues feel about your position?”
“They hate it.” She said honestly.
She had never expressed how she felt about her job or what she went through to anyone, but for some reason she wanted, no, she needed to tell Eric.
“Of course, from what I know of your field it is predominately male run; human men are not as evolved as vampires.” Eric content with his accurate analyzation stretched his legs out from under the booth and out to the aisle, so that when the waitress returned again, she would have to step over him.
“We all don’t have hundreds of years to reach a vampire’s height of reason.”
“But you all wish you did.” He grinned seductively.
“Tell me more.” He commanded.
“About them hating me?”
“No, I understand why they hate you; I want to know how does a twenty three year old woman become assistant director to an exploration company where her colleagues are against her?”
“By being relentless.” She said with pride, her eyes glinting.
Eric measured her words, rubbing his finger against his lips.“Someone there must see that you have potential.”
“Yes, the president of the company sees that I have potential, but my position was not given to me, I earned it, and right now I am vying for another promotion.”
“What is your promotion contingent upon?
“Scouting and securing a profitable land lease.”
Eric perked, understanding why she came so quickly.
“The plot that is being considered for lease is not owned by me, but her majesty, Queen Sophie Anne LeClerq. “ He said without affection, or reverie. “She refuses to work with humans on any level, so she has put me in charge of leasing the land for profit. “
Elise wrote notes on her blank pad, “And what about you, are you disgraced by having to work with a human?”
“I run a bar for tourists, the lowest ilk of humans, so .. no, I can tolerate working with humans and I definitely do not feel disgraced by the profit I receive from them each evening.
“She must really trust you to put you in charge of such a task.”
“Trust is not in the equation; I am the most capable. I can also see that you are fit to follow what I have planned for this lease.” Eric stated as a matter of fact.
The waitress returned, and as expected, asked Eric if she could get by to set Elise’s steak and new glass of wine on the table. “Anything for you.” Eric responded to the smitten waitress.
Elise was irritated, there was no possible way that this vampire would be interested in this giggling dolt for longer than an evening.
Elise did not see the radiating sunny disposition of the young waitress that was attracting Eric; she thought the flirtatious laughter from the woman was a sign of unintelligence and not a woman who was just affected by the devious charm of Eric. For all her perceptiveness, Elise had a hard time deciphering between real happiness in someone from foolishness.
Eric was conscious of Elise irritation; it was an irritation that he wanted to flame by openly flirting with their waitress. Elise had to be conditioned that their relationship would only be a working one until he had what he wanted on Felipe. After he had Felipe where he wanted, he would have her as well, he smirked, aroused by Elise’s jealousy.
“We can start development within the month, I will have our geologist and head engineer come with me next week to inspect and do the preliminary drilling. Has the land been inspected before? I believe you mentioned over the phone that several companies had shown an interest on your plot?
“The land has been inspected and has shown it will yield the natural resources you are requiring.”
Elise raised her eyebrow, “Eric again I’m excited that you are giving Zenith this opportunity, but if it was inspected and the resources were found, why didn’t you sign?
“I want a larger percentage then what they were offering.”
“What makes you think Zenith will be more accommodating?”
“I do not expect Zenith to be more accommodating; I expect you to be.”
“Excuse me?”
“I was gracious in protecting your clients from a possible death, or at least a debacle that I am sure would have been blamed on you, since you were the one who brought them to a vampire establishment.”
Elise perked, understanding the real reason why he chose her.
“What percentage are you expecting?”
“50.”
“So you figured me worthwhile along with me owing you this favor of sparing my client’s lives.”
“Nothing gets by you, does it?” He said sarcastically.
That percentage was not unheard of, but Elise only gave that percentage when sharing a lease with another exploration company, or an owner of a considerable plot of land, and giving a lease at 50 percent left her completely out of receiving commission.
“The size of the plot.”
“I will show you.”
“Now?”
“I can only show you in moonlight.”
“I’m done with this meal, we can leave now.” Elise stated, putting folders and other items back in to her bag.
Elise paid the bill, even thought Eric offered. She was in business mode now that she was aware of Eric’s plan to get a lease at 50 percent. Her brain was in overdrive thinking of how to sign him at a lesser amount.
Eric walked Elise to the corvette; she settled in and fastened the seat belt across her chest. “I am going to lock you in, I will be right back.” He said, slamming his open door on her, and remotely locking her in. Elise watched as Eric walked back into the restaurant and made his way to the back of the dive to the waitress who was clearing off their table.
If Elise had been like any other woman she would have would have been heartbroken to see a being she was so intrigued by not in the least bit amused by her, but being the woman she was, she reasoned it to business. She wondered if this Queen really did have a disdain for humans or if Eric was creating a slice of the revenue for himself by putting himself as the negotiator for the lease.
Eric returned to the vehicle, and they were again traveling down a dark road through never ending woods. Eric let down his window; he had barely escaped tasting her the last time they were in the car, at least with the night air he would inhale other scents even if they were not as wanted as hers.
“Are you cold?” Eric asked, noticing the small hairs on Elise’s arm.
“I will survive.” Eric pulled the car off the road and parked. “I have a leather jacket in my trunk, I do not need …. it is yours to borrow while we are here.”
“Sure, why not.” She stated, exiting the car. Eric retrieved the black leather jacket from his trunk and placed it over Elise’s shoulders. “Follow me” he commanded, walking in front of her into the thick woods.
Elise followed the vampire, uncaring of where he took her. She was riveted by fear and anticipation of what he was going to show her. She walked briskly behind him as he navigated around trees and fallen branches. They walked for what seemed like forever to Elise, “Eric was it really necessary to have me walk the entire plot of land, a number would have sufficed.”
“This is not even a portion of the land.”
“Really?”
“The entire road from the diner to here is only half of the land.”
Elise stopped abruptly, stunned and excited. “Wow.”
“Keep walking.” He commanded, not stopping for a moment for her to catch up.
With a plot of that size it would certainly produce copious amounts of oil; she was elated, and already starting planning how she would celebrate her assured promotion. She no longer thought of how far they were traveling into the darkness, and followed gleefully and with a fixed smile across her face.
Eric looked back over his shoulder at Elise, who was stepping over debris in her way, catching leaves on the heels of her shoes.
“You should smile more often.” He said, continuing on his path.
She smiled brighter and Eric felt it on the back of his neck.
“Here.” He stopped, and Elise walked around him, and only saw more wooded area.
“What is here?” He grabbed her hand, pulling her in, “Turn your head to the right, and look there.” He pointed to a home nestled through the forest, a home of modern architecture that looked completely out of place in the Louisiana backwoods.
“Someone is living on the land?” She asked quickly, hoping they would not interfere with the lease.
Eric snorted at her use of ‘living’. “That home is not to be disturbed, ever.”
“Will they be upset by the drilling?”
“No.”
“What if we need them to depart the land because of the fumes?”
“The fumes will not bother the resident.”
Elise glared at the lighted home, the floor to ceiling windows as walls, the flat ceiling and contemporary design. “Who would build a home like that, here?” She asked out loud but really thinking to herself.
Eric looked down at the top of Elise’s head as she stared at the house. “We will most likely need them to move Eric if we intend to drill here, and it would be best to get them to move now before they try to get a percentage from the lease as well.”
“You think you could get them to move, Elise?” He asked, biting his lower lip, enticed by her forceful speak.
“I can get anyone to do what I want.” She said brazenly.
Her brazenness entertained him, she was just a human, a fragile being of no apparent power or supe strength, but she stood with her chin up and declared that she could coerce another into doing her bidding.
She turned her face up to Eric’s and he emptied out his own thoughts and forcefully glamoured her. He even clenched his own hands around her shoulders, as he bore into her mind.
“Is that so?” He questioned, and he could see her face becoming dreamy and lost, he smiled considering he would be able to taste her after all; if she was able to be glamoured she would no longer be useful as his spy.
“I will pull up the resident’s county records tomorrow to make sure they have no counterclaim to this land and if not, I will have them evicted by Monday.” She smiled, breaking Eric’s glamour attempt. He brushed his hands away from her shoulders.
He backed away from her in anger at his failed attempt, “No need, that home is mine, and I am showing you it so that you will not disturb it during the day or otherwise.” He said, walking back to the car, disturbed by her resistance to his influence.
“Do you wish to go back to the bar?”
“I’ve had a long day, do you mind driving me back to my hotel?”
Elise chatted in the car about the land lease and the procedures that would be executed next week, while Eric stared at her wondering if she could be something other than human.
He drove the car up to the empty valet section of the Hotel and parked briefly. His blonde brows were furrowed and his mind perplexed to Elise was, he felt that he needed to try to glamour her one more time, it seemed unreal for her to have that ability and be human.
“You are very strong woman, Elise.” He said, confusing Elise.
She held the door handle in her hand “Whatever doesn’t kill me just makes me stronger.” She leaned close into Eric, smiled her smile reserved only for him, “Thank you.” She mouthed, her full lips close enough for him to taste with his own; she hastily peeled off his leather jacket, and slammed the door behind her.
He lifted the collar of the jacket and inhaled deeply; he was aroused.
Eric waited for Elise to be safe behind the hotel doors, her scent surrounded him in his car, and his fangs bore down unceremoniously. He said out loud to his self, before speeding to the waiting waitress, “No… some things can kill you.”
.............................
“I hope you don’t mind us tagging along with you. ..this is our first time to Vegas, and my Dad said we just had to look you up and have you show us around here.” Emily Duncan said with her arm entwined with her new husband.
“I rarely go out, but this club is supposed to be the spot for a Friday night.” Elise said, looking around the swanky night club, self conscious about what she was wearing compared to the outfits of the women piling into the night club, she still had on work pants and a tailored collared shirt, but in her defense, she rationalized she had only fifteen minutes to get ready and meet the Duncan’s.
Elise had completely forgotten that she promised one of her paramount clients that she would show his daughter and son in law around for the weekend. Elise had been burning the midnight oil ever since she arrived to Vegas from Shreveport. She had the deal of her career on the table from Eric, and that required her to obsess over putting together a perfect budget and plan for the drilling. She was in her office on a Friday night, looking over plans, when she received the call from Emily Duncan asking if she was still going to meet with her and her husband.
“I can see why; it’s beautiful.” Emily gushed with delight. Emily Duncan’s father was an oil rich Texan and one of the few – very few- clients that Elise actually liked. Emily was obviously the apple of her father’s eye and she had the character of a spoiled Daddy’s girl, but tolerable by being sincerely sweet as pecan pie. Emily Duncan was the essence of a Dallas women, her chestnut brown hair was big, her breast were big, and Emily was pretty sure she probably called her father “Big Daddy.” Emily had recently married her Dallas Ken doll, Jack, and they sat smiling across from Elise, tanned together.
The young trio was perched on plush ottomans, centered on the open air grand balcony of the night club. Elise leaned back on her hands, looking up at the night sky, wishing she could see some actual stars.
“When do the Pussycat Dolls come on?” Jack grinned, and Emily playfully slapped him on his back.
Elise reached for her glass on the frosted glass table in between them, that was speckled with empty drinks, and a sweating silver ice bucket cooling a very expensive bottle of vodka.
“I don’t really know, but probably not until the club gets jumping.” Elise answered, refilling her cocktail glass with straight vodka. Elise was having her thirty-second drink of alcohol this week. She smiled to herself thinking she was officially a lush, but if she was to be responsible for entertaining mind-numbing clients and now even their children, then she should be exempted from AA meetings.
“I’m just kiddin’ darling.” Jack Duncan purred, putting his arm around his wife and hugging her close to his chest.
“How was the honeymoon?” Elise asked.
“It was lovely, we stayed at a resort in Hawaii and Jack tried to teach me how to surf” Emily giggled, and ran her own hand over her husband’s thigh; he took her hand in his and brought them up to his lips.
“She was great, most people don’t take to the board, but she got it on her first try.” He said, staring into his wife’s eyes.
“Aww hunny.” Emily said, quickly smooching her husband.
Elise looked at them smugly; she eyed the young couple, disbelieving the affection between them. Their display made her uneasy. Elise had never seen a man and woman this adoring of each other, her parents were more of the prototype for declaring war, and her mother’s trail of boyfriends after was all selfish losers. Elise was befuddled by their admiration and loving glances at each other, she could only reason that it must be fake.
“Elise do you have a special someone?” Jack asked, pouring more vodka into his drink.
“Jack?!” Emily playfully slapped her husband’s leg
“You have to excuse him Elise.” Elise who had finished her vodka, shook the empty glass in his face to pour some more vodka into hers.
“Nope, I am a single gal.” That was the second time that week someone had asked about her love life.
“Really? You’re so pretty; I have a hard time believing that men aren’t following you around.” Emily exclaimed.
“My career is a very fulfilling relationship.” She responded.
“I know it must be, my dad speaks of you glowingly.” Emily smiled, anxious to change the subject, thinking she had upset Elise.
“That is good to hear, your father’s approval of how I am handling his account his very important to me” Elise said in all honesty. Elise was a tad envious that Emily had such a great man for her father. “But let’s not talk about work tonight, let’s have some fun. So what are the plans for tomorrow for you both?” Elise asked.
The newlyweds began to excitedly tell her of all their plans, but Elise just idly smiled and nodded barely paying attention to their words, but fully aware of their body language and unconscious petting of each other.
Maybe they really were in love, whatever that meant, she thought. She placed her hand on the empty ottoman next her, she ran her hand over it gently not turning her smiling face from the Duncan’s. At that moment, she wished someone was sitting on the ottoman next to her and she could whisper her musings of the couple and only have his audible ears hear. She wanted to run her hand up his leg like Emily did Jack’s and she wanted him to look at her the way Jack did Emily.
She was absent mindedly staring at the Duncan’s while they chatted away, when they all became aware of a standing figure in front of them. The Duncan’s and she slowly turned their attention to the grinning figure.
“You must hate roses.” Felipe said, grinning, with his arms folded.
Felipe reminded her of a young, Latin, Cary Grant
The dark haired vampire was dressed to the hilt, clad in a dark suit, crisp white shirt with the top collar unbuttoned, showing a small slice of brown skin. His raven hair was slicked back, with a preppy side part. He oozed the charm of Old Hollywood.
Elise smiled wide, happy for the amusement of Felipe over the lovesick newlyweds. She leaned back, taking in the sight of him from toe to head. “Red roses are so cliché.” She said, biting her bottom lip, her eyes boring into the black orbs of the vampire.
Felipe smiled back, and extended his hands to the Duncan’s. “I am terribly sorry for interrupting your party; I am Felipe de Castro, a friend of Elise’s.”
Jack stood reluctantly and shook Felipe’s hand, and Emily smiled uncomfortably. Emily brushed her hair behind her ear nervously, “Elise, I thought you said you didn’t have men chasing after you.”
“I don’t, but apparently I have a vampire that does.” Elise said. Confirming that Felipe was a vampire stunned the previously unsure Duncan’s.
“Do you mind if he sits with us?” Elise asked the Duncan’s, happily aware of their uneasiness.
“Emily and I were thinking of calling it an early night, you know how newlyweds are.” He sputtered, rising and taking the hand of his wife.
“I do feel a little tired from traveling, but I will call you tomorrow Elise.” Emily said, rising.
Felipe moved aside to let the Duncan’s pass him. He laughed as they walked away swiftly, “Could they have got away from me any faster?”
“Thank god you showed up, I couldn’t stand them any longer.” Elise stood, leaning in close to Felipe’s ear, even though he could have heard her words from across the crowded club.
“I never heard anyone thank god for my company.”
“There is a first for everything.” She smiled, “What are you doing here? Are you really following me?” She laughed.
“Maybe.” He grinned.
Elise returned his grin, and considered his handsome face. She remembered that he was responsible for enlightening Eric about her and her company, if it weren’t for Felipe; she probably wouldn’t have the opportunity to move up as quickly as she was going to now.
She softened, “The flowers were lovely, Felipe, how can I thank you?”
Felipe came in closer to Elise, “Spend the evening with me.”
“Do many women sleep with you over you sending them roses?” She teased.
He laughed, “Women sleep with me even if I don’t say a word to them,” He purred, thinking of how she resisted his glamour, “I am here with my family and friends, we are about to head up to the penthouse for a private party, you should accompany me.” He said, taking Elise’s unresponsive hand into his.
“Family, you are still close to your human family?”
Felipe looked down into her eyes, exhaling air he didn’t breathe, and focused on her words. He spoke so softly that she could barely hear him, “No, the family you will meet are my vampire children.”
“Oh” She responded, still very unknowledgeable of vampire relations.
Felipe tugged at her arm gently, “Come on, you will have fun, and I want my family to meet you, I’ve been talking about you incessantly. They will be surprised to know you really exist.” He laughed, bringing her knuckles up to his lips.
Elise thought of the Duncan’s from that caress.
“What the hell, let’s go” She gave in, grabbing her clutch from the table and following Felipe to the V.I.P. area of the huge club. They wavered between the thick crowd, stepping sideways and shouldering their way to V.I.P. lounge where Felipe’s family was waiting. Felipe guided her, holding her hand in his.
The V.I.P. section was on a separate dais, with massive wrapped stairs. An eight foot champagne glass was centered in the dais, and inside of it were two women splashing around in gallons of champagne, wearing white crystal bikinis. A burly bouncer, recognizing Felipe, unhooked the velvet rope allowing her and him to enter. Elise looked down at the steps as they illuminated blue light as her foot dropped on each step. “This reminds me of the ‘Billie Jean’ video.” She yelled over the music and Felipe laughed. The dais was crowded ass to elbow with famous actors, playboys and budding Vegas socialites. She could hardly breathe, as they still had to maneuver through the standing, drunken crowd. Elise wished she was taller than her petite frame, even with her 4 inch heels she still couldn’t exactly see where Felipe was leading her.
She walked a step from his heels, until he stopped abruptly, and stepped aside to introduce her to what reminded her of the scene of the Last Supper, but only with vampires and drunken humans, and in a posh club in Vegas.
“This is Elise.” He said, standing aside from her, eyeing her along with the seated V.I.P’s.
The long glossy white table was raised one step above her; three obvious vampires acknowledged her, the humans at the table were puzzled as to why this woman was so special for them to be interrupted from partying.
“Move.” A red haired Mohawk wearing vamp said, and two human women quickly got up and exited, as Felipe and Elise took their now empty spots.
“Elise, this is my child Lourdes.”
Lourdes looked like she could have been Felipe’s gorgeous twin sister; she possessed his same dark straight hair, dark eyes and brown skin. She looked up from kissing her human man and flashed a fanged smile. Her face was Cherubic; a stark contrast to her present fangs and the belly button plunging dress she was wearing.
“A pleasure.” She said dispassionately, her doe eyes glossed over. She extended a diamond laden hand to Elise, and Elise shook her heavy hand carefully. Lourdes, unimpressed with Elise went back to kissing her human with abandon.
“This is my child Oliver.” Felipe said, motioning his head to the brown haired vampire who stood and bowed to Elise.
Felipe laughed, “Wow…bowing?” “I will honor any human that is with you.”
Oliver yelped, and convulsed with a hyena like laugh. He pushed the shades that were nestled in his curls over his eyes, and grinned wide.
Oliver was dressed in a bright yellow t-shirt with the words “Happiness is a Positive Cash Flow” lettered across the chest and dark skinny jeans. His brown hair was a soft curling mass, and reached the tip ofhis t shirt collar. He sat in the very middle of the table, a human woman and man on each side of him. He drank True Blood from a martini glass that was repeatedly placed on a glowing gas burner built into the table. The heated glass did not scold Oliver as he brought the synthetic blood filled martini glass to his mouth.
“And last but certainly not least, Rancid.” Felipe said pointing to the red haired vampire who had kicked the human women out for Felipe and Elise to sit.
“Huh?”
She was not certain if she heard Felipe correctly.
“The name is Rancid.” The mohawked vampire yelled from across the long table.
“Rancid is not my child, but he is family.” Felipe said, pulling Elise’s hand into his lap.
Rancid had his spike studded combat boots relaxed on the edge of the table, and his face was almost hidden to Elise as he was laid back leisurely against the padded leather backing on the wall. She could tell by his length that he was very tall. His jeans were shredded and held in some places with large safety pins and the same with his t-shirt. His skin was devoid of any color, his face was chalk wide, and his 3 inch high fluorescent red Mohawk reminded Elise of a beautiful fanned peacock when he would turn his head sideways.
“This place blows, I’m fucking hungry and being surrounded by these blood bags is not helping” Rancid bellowed, standing up to his full seven feet.
“Let’s go to the penthouse.” Felipe agreed, standing and offering is hand again to Elise.
Elise immediately disliked Felipe’s family and knew they felt the same way of her. She had already thanked Felipe for the flowers and she didn’t see why she should compromise the rest of her evening to be in his company.
“I think I should go.” Elise said, walking down the stairs.
“The night has just begun, just come up for one drink.” He pleaded with his eyes, “Come on just one more drink.”
She reluctantly conceded, telling herself she could at least stay for one drink.
The party of seven that descended from the dais turned into a party of twenty when they finally reached the elevators inside the hotel lobby. The elevator opened and the first round of partiers filled the elevator.
“See ya in a bit bitches!” Oliver said to the left behind partiers as the elevator doors closed, taking them to the penthouse.
Rancid let out a loud howl, and girls drunkenly giggled and he grabbed one and licked the side of her face.
“Is he always like that?” She mouthed, looking up into Felipe’s face.
Felipe smiled, “Worst.” The elevator opened, and the group spilled out into the hallway, clamorous and mirthful. Elise even stumbled over her own intoxicated feet and laughed wholeheartedly as Felipe helped her up from the floor.
“Come on Felipe, open the door.” Rancid said.
Felipe moved to the front, moving Rancid aside, and slipped in his card key, opening the double doors to the extravagant penthouse suite. Elise heard the elevator ding behind them, and the bawl of the second round of partiers heading their way to the penthouse.
A scantily clad blonde lifted herself up onto the coffee table and began to strip away the very few clothes she had on.
Elise had never experienced this type of party in her life. She had missed the prepubescent boy girl parties at un-chaperoned houses, she never went to the after parties of high school football games and she wouldn’t have went to the frat parties of college even if she had been asked to go.
“Rancid get her down.” Felipe commanded.
Rancid responsively went to the table, snapped his fingers and the girl flung herself over Rancid’s shoulder. He flung the woman on to the couch and his fangs bore down and bit savagely into the woman’s exposed breast. The woman let out a blood curdling gasp, and her eyes rolled back.
Elise’s breath was caught in her throat and her chest tightened with fear.
Felipe laughed, and in the blink of her eye was now standing on the coffee table.
“My family, my friends, welcome to our home, for the evening that is.” He laughed, and the party crowd cheered and shouted with him. Felipe nodded his head, excited over the raucous, “Please welcome my guest, Elise, and be very kind to her for she is mine.”
Dozens of eyeballs settled on Elise, and she clinched her jaw suspecting that one of them would try to give her trouble.
Elise was paralyzed with apprehension and her mouth was dry from being open with disbelief. She stood stalk still, expeditiously devising an exit plan.
“He won’t kill her.” Felipe whispered in her ear, admiring her neck.
Elise flinched nervously; she didn’t see Felipe leave the coffee table. She gulped, “How do you know that?”
“He will heal her once he is done feasting.” He said, bringing his fingertip up to Elise’s hanging lip.
“Why don’t you take a seat, I will bring you a glass of champagne.”
“I don’t want to stay here, Felipe.” She said, gaining her strength.
“Nothing will happen to you here, I promise.”
“She cannot leave Felipe; we have not had a chance to properly meet her or her us.” Oliver said, seated feet away from them on a couch with his male and female human.
“One drink.” Felipe said, pointing again to the couch.
Elise walked past the couch that Rancid and the girl were on, and true to Felipe’s words, the wounds on the woman’s breast were now closed, and she was now kissing Rancid as if he were her long lost lover. Elise felt daft for having worried for the stupid girl; she walked around the coffee table and stood in front of Oliver and his humans. “Do you mind me sitting with you?”
“Nope, take a seat pretty lady.” Oliver said, not looking up at her, he was too busy searching for something in his jean pocket.
He found what he was searching for, a cellophane bag filled with glistening white cocaine.
“Do you want some?” He looked up at Elise briefly, not waiting for her reply, “Humans fucking love this drug….you all should let Elise have the first bump” He suggested, looking at his human friends, he moved from the couch to sit Indian style on the carpeted floor, dumping the contents of the bag and meticulously cutting it into fine lines.
“I don’t do drugs.” Elise exclaimed. It was like she was in a bad after school special. She had avoided all these pitfalls growing up only to be thrown into them as an adult, and by a vampire who had no intention on partaking of the drug he so keenly presented to humans.
“You don’t party much do you?” Oliver laughed, and causing frenzy in the humans beside him, “I mean you come dressed in your corporate work clothes, you get scared over a lil fangbanging love and then you turn down my party favors.” He said shaking his disgusted head. “You gotta loosen up, lady.” He laughed, and his friends joined in.
Felipe appeared, and extended a glass of champagne to her. “Leave her alone, Oliver.”
“I never thought I would be laughed at for not wanting to try coke.” She said, accepting the glass from Felipe.
Felipe slid next to Elise, putting his arm around Elise, smiling down at his child. “Oliver is my youngest, he is only three years old, he is one of the greatest deejays, you should come listen to him spin one evening…..Oliver, why you don’t move this to the kitchen area with your humans.” Felipe suggested.
Oliver nodded his head and slid the coke onto his cupped hand and led waiting humans away from the living area.
Felipe crossed his leg over his knee and leaned in close to her ear, “Thank you for staying.”
Elise exhaled with a laugh, “I am only here until this glass is empty.” Felipe frowned, and tucked a loosened tendril behind her ear.
“You are no longer scared, I can feel it, so why are you in such a hurry to leave.”
Elise turned her head by her left shoulder, inches away from Felipe’s face, “Which child is your favorite, it can’t be Oliver.”
“I love all my children, and even the newborns to come.” He grinned dreamily, rubbing his thumb tenderly against Elise’s cheek.
She didn’t know why exactly she allowed Felipe to caress her, but she was enjoying it. After being rejected by Eric, it felt good to have someone who wasn’t completely awful, genuinely affected by her.
“Bullshit… Lourdes?” Elise said, sipping her champagne.
Felipe stared at his girl child, entertaining her own circle of humans, “Lourdes holds a special place, but they all do.”
A sudden crash startled Elise and she heard the drunken giggles follow, and then Oliver screaming, “You are supposed to inhale not exhale.”
“Why are you so tolerant of humans?” She asked, thinking of how Eric expressed the Queen’s aversion to humans. Even Eric’s own strained tolerance of humans was a contrast to Felipe’s acceptance and apparent delight in being in the company of them.
“I’ve been told repeatedly it is because I am young and still have a connection to my humanity. I was turned somewhat against my will.” Felipe admitted, turning away from Elise’s now probing gaze. He continued, “The only vampires I can bear are young ones, I turned Lourdes, who was at one time my human lover thirty years ago, and Oliver is practically still human with his young age. Rancid is forty years old and was made on accident, his maker thought he was dead, but Rancid survived, buried among trash in a closed dumpster, he rose the following evening. He escaped a certain death from Elders for a year until he found me, Elders do not like unattached newborns so his existence was constantly in danger until I accepted him as my family.”
“What about your maker?”
“What about him?”
“Why isn’t he here?” Felipe darkened, “He prefers the company of other elder vamps, and as you can see, I prefer beautiful humans.”
Elise’s mouth formed an unexpected smile, “How old were you when you were turned?”
“20” Felipe answered, reaching for the opened champagne bottle on the coffee table and refilling Elise’s glass.
“What happened to your human family?”
“I never knew them; I was an orphan.”
“When did you meet Michael?”
Felipe eyed her, “That is a very long story, but one day I will share it with you.”
“Were you lovers, like you and Lourdes?”
“I was never in love with Michael, we had an arrangement and to answer your next question; I had a heroin problem; I shot up a hot shot and was dying when Michael found me, and instead of letting me die he turned me.” Felipe said, removing his hand from around Elise.
“You don’t seem thrilled by his turning you.”
“I am thrilled by you being near me now.” Felipe said passionately, bringing his face to hers.
She leaned back from him, settling into the cushion, her limbs were all tingly and her head was lightheaded from all the events of the evening. She bit her lip, and propped her legs onto the coffee table.
“I am actually having a pleasant time now that I know that no one is being killed.” SheShe smiled.
Felipe laughed loudly, “My children and I are the future, Elise. The elders are in for a big surprise by us.” Felipe loomed.
Else did not understand the depth of what he said, she gulped down her champagne and met his mouth with hers, sensually tugging on his lower lip with her teeth. Felipe grabbed the back of her head with his hand, and a guttural moan escaped from him in between their kissing. Her lips smacked as she parted from his mouth and smiled, “I guess I will stay for another drink.”
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