Vampyre: Desire Immortal

Chapter 24

Cat and Mouse

Innocent, you sleep the night away,

Knowing not that you are soon my prey!

*****

"Where is my husband?"

"I do not know," said Gilia.

It is easy to act ignorant. Oh, if you only knew, my faithful servant. The powers that have been granted me allow me to know the thoughts of all around. Including the scoundrel who calls himself my husband.

"Bring me Galleron," I say.

"At once," Gilia said, as she exited the room.

Galleron will lie to me, too. Tell me some stupid story. Wolfstan goes a'whoring. He ruts among the mire and wallows in their filth with great abandon.

My wicked husband thinks he is having fun! I play with him each night like the cat with a mouse! Tonight, I will show him just how much fun it can be to lick the harlot's festering sores and prostrate your soul before Sin's altar!

The sound of my laughter is frightening. Once began, it is uncontrollable, like the sound of the maniacs chained in the castle dungeons.

"Oh, what pleasures, what torture I have in store for you, my wayward husband!"

*****

The horse's hooves speedily took his charge straight to the brothel's door. Upon his knock, a whore threw the door open wide and laughed with gusto.

"I knew you would return," she said. "Just like the hungry dog comes back to lap what he has spewed upon the ground."

"You missed me. Don't deny it," said Wolfstan.

"The days in Barie are dull, My Lord, since you rode into the sunset," she said. "And what have you done with Galleron? Killed him off, have you?"

"No," said Wolfstan. "But that is not a bad idea."

Wolfstan was taking off his tunic before the raging fire.

Zamiot's breath caught in her throat.

"The stars above," she whispered. "I do not believe my eyes!"

She moved closer, feeling his chest.

"What miracle, what spell has done this? The Dancing Silver Bead? What wizard have you seen? What witch? Oh, Wolfstan, tell me! You must!"

She bit him playfully on the nipple.

"Come," he said. "The fires in my loins threaten to consume me whole."

She threw him down on the dirt near the roaring fire. They made love, brutally and quickly. Zamiot's face was tilted toward the dancing flames. Wolfstan lay beside her, spent and sleeping.

Suddenly, the fire went out. Zamiot blinked, trying to focus in the darkness.

The coals sparked, only this time, they gave of an eerie greenish glow and a thick, heavy cloud of olive smoke hung over them.The whore did not have time to say one word. She opened her mouth to scream, but before the breath escaped her lungs, a dragon appeared from the roiling cloud.

Zamiot saw big teal eyes, crying tears of blood. The monster opened its mouth. Huge fangs, mossy with foul corruption, bore down on her. A flaming forked tongue snapped from dragon's mouth and ripped her neck open down to her spine. Her head rolled down at a grotesquely abnormal angle against her shoulder. The film of death clouded Zamiot's opened eyes.

Wolfstan snored, oblivious to all around him.

The dragon skittered over the dead woman's corpse, slicing down her chest to the dark triangle between her legs. It gorged on the still-warm viscera, its face a mask of blackened blood and gore.

Sated, the dragon flew to a dark corner. A flash of light, and Ava sat, calmly looking out, licking her lips, and waiting for her husband to awaken from sleep.