Twisted

Chapter Twenty-Three : Quenched

Slade sat on the deck, overlooking the ocean view.   The early evening breeze lifted his hair from his eyes.  He felt stronger since the Vampire had given him her blood, and he was getting anxious to find Sariah.    He waited on Brianna both impatiently and with some trepidation, knowing full well she planned to sink her fangs into him.   But, a deal was a deal, and if it could save the life of his partner, so be it.   

Brianna rose from her sleep, very well aware that the raging thirst she'd been putting off was coming close to gaining the upper hand.   Soon she would need to feed, and the man would have to be ready to provide her with her drink.    She knotted her long platinum hair atop her head, sharp eyes scanning around her as she moved towards where she knew the human to be.

He was alerted by the clacking of her stilettos on the smooth stone patio.  Slade rose from the chair he'd been lounging in and met her cold blue eyes with his own.   He still could not stop the involuntary shiver that traced up his spine whenever she approached.  Her savagely beautiful looks, the way she bore through you with a look when she turned those eyes on you.   Unsettling to the extreme, and he was highly aware that she was a relatively young Vampire.   In his experience the younger the vampire, the more prone to unpredictability and loss of control they were. 

Brianna smiled, the man's thoughts amused her.    "Fear not my friend, " she said in a smooth voice, " I have no designs to kill you.  It wouldn't suit my purposes, and it would leave me without an excellent plan to deal with the problem that is Gareth" 

Slade nodded, unsettled further as he realized she'd read his mind.   "I am pretty much good to go now." he said reluctantly.  "I feel about back to normal." 

Brianna smiled, just enough so her fangs sparkled.    "Yes" she said, eyes on his, "You have my blood in you now, I know instinctively when you are sound enough for my purpose.  It will not hurt Slade, and while I understand you don't trust me, I won't kill you. "  

The monster beckoned him to step towards her with a flick of her blue painted fingernails.    Swallowing nervously, he complied, walking up to the leggy blonde.    Brianna, took hold of his bicep, pulling her against her curvy body.   Slade tensed, but allowed her to draw him into her body.    Suddenly her sharp fangs were in his neck, a quick painful pinch, then sudden numbness.  His mind went blank, and he felt as if he'd been sedated, his body languid and heavy.   Brianna drank voraciously, as it had been so long since she'd had any blood.  His was delicious, so much more so than the thrall she'd left behind.    She drank lustily, swallow after swallow of the hot lifeblood.    

Forcing herself to slow, she paid attention to the hammering of his pulse, the beating of his heart.  If that began to weaken she was taking too much, and couldn't risk his death.  At least, she thought, taking a final sip and stepping back from him, not yet.    Licking her lips delicately she felt her energy returning with the filling meal.    Slade stood before her, dazed by her innate ability to calm her victims and lull them into a dreamlike state.   Smiling she snapped her fingers sharply before him, and he jerked back into full awareness.  

Slade jumped as if struck, slapping a hand over his neck where two circular bites still oozed crimson.   He felt weak as if he'd run a marathon and sought to steady his pounding heart.   Brianna looked at him coldly and said, "There is orange juice in the refrigerator.  It is best you drink something with sugar in it, to revive you."  She then continued, "While my thirst is slaked for now you will need to continue to provide me with nourishment, so you will need to keep your strength up." 

Slade shuddered involuntarily,but obeyed her command.  He managed to fumble a glass out of a cabinet and pour himself the sweet nectar.  Gulping the contents rapidly he lowered himself onto a kitchen stool, eyes on the vampire.   It hadn't hurt at all, he mused, other than her initial bite.  He could see how people had been easy victims of these monsters.  Everything about them, whether male or female was meant to attract humans.    He shook his head and then said in a clear voice to her, " I will not object to you using me as a meal, so long as I can get to Sariah.  And you allow the both of us to go free when you get to Gareth." 

Brianna looked at him, her pale blue eyes glittering in the night.   "Of course, Slade, you have my word."  

Moving out into the night air she looked around, reached out and felt for Gareth.  And stiffened immediately.   It was already too late to stop the inevitable, she sighed, and knew that anything she promised Slade was a mere cat's paw to get to her end goal.   Gareth, and his new lover, would both have to be destroyed, it was clear to her now as she saw in her mind's eye that the master vampire's goal had been obtained.     

Turning back to look at Slade, she said, "We leave tommorrow night, there is not much time to waste."  

Far away Gareth's black eyes snapped open, his mouth curved in a vicious grin.  "Oh no, Brianna, I won't have that....." he sent to her as his mouth bent again to Sariah....