The Vampire's Crimson Kiss (Editing)

Chapter 20/Tears for the girl in the crowd

I was sitting at a cafe table in the night market with Lady Valencia, a vampire called Abachz, and another called Scheherazade. When we met, I felt like a spy with them. They were the true face of vampires, stunningly beautiful, breathtakingly confident, without any hint of shame, remorse or unfettered by the slightest moral qualm, and typically as horny as a the antlers of a 90 foot stag. When they got together there was so much estrogen flying around it would condense on the cold champagne glasses they constantly guzzled. Today everyone was excited by the up coming hunting trip. We had been shopping for riding boots for the hunt. Valencia had insisted getting one's with enormous stiletto heels on the basis that the last thing you would be doing in riding boots was walking.

"Only a vampire would wear stiletto heels on a hunt" I said.

I was now used to coven pumps, you couldn't walk on soft ground in them but as I was learning the only soft ground in a coven were familiar's backs. Hunting well. I had hunted, with a cross bow on horse back for food mostly deer. Vampires wouldn't let the living use one and didn't trust each other enough either so they hunted with dogs.

"Only a human would not think about wear stiletto heels on a hunt," said Valencia "when else are your shoes so clearly in the eye line?".

She would make fun of my human-ness, others felt awquard about mentioning it. She called me the polite human not jurgrath or any of the hundred other words the vampires had for their lunch. In turn I didn't call them big fleas, the two legged mosquitoes, or the white leaches, well not to their faces.

I looked at her "What are we going to do ? Jump down and stamp them to death?"

Lady Valencia shrugged "That would be pleasant."

"Well that's not going to happen" I said "[...... ]

"No don't spoil it, I have a nice image in my mind. .... no it's gone" said Lady Valencia sipping from a tiny glass of blood. Her oval eyes looking at me. 

Over the following weeks my world had changed. I had found my self sleeping in the Sadismann's chambers more regularly and more importantly openly. He still would not 'touch me' but we would sit or lay in each others arms, talk. I began to Iive for these moments, I was so in love. Sometimes we would talk all night. Together alone, I would called him Lucius and he call me Victoria. In public I would catch him secretly looking at me, a look on his face like he wanted to be with me, whispering in my ear.

I looked around and in the distance through the think crowd of bodies at the cafe Isaw a vampire woman who was new. I had got to know many of the coven by sight but this one looked familiar for some reason.

My public position with him meant I attracted vampire friends 'like flies round eurdu' as Mary said. The principle of these were Lady Velencia, a gorgeous round faced blonde who's idea of a perfect day was shopping in the night market after two blinks of venom. It was she who had introduced me to another imported coven poison they called coffee. Like most coven pleasures it was bitter but with an heavy aroma which seduced you with every sniff.

Valencia sat back while I sipped at my expresso.

"Would you like a drop of venom with that? It's the only thing in this place which keeps me sane" said Abachz.

"For me it's sex" added Scheherazade her curled hair sprung perfectly around her flawless vampire features.

"No thanks" I said "I'm drying out" I took venom 'socially' to not appear rude, but avoided it when I could. I kept having repeated visions of someone being thrown off a rearing horse. I couldn't see who it was they were surrounded by what the vampires called 'kulak' or fisher folk.