North American Vampire Council & Past Calling (Hypernaturals 12 & 13)

Reflections

Sometime later, as my thoughts still circled around why Helen did this to me with no answers to my conundrum floating up, Vera came up to me wearing only sandals and a broad-brimmed hat, a towel over her arm.

"Figured you would be here." Vera said. She spread out her towel next to me.

"Hi." I said, trying not to stare.

Vera and I were lovers when she was twenty-five in calendar years. Even though Vera, like me, is in her thirties now, as a Vampire her body is a healthy twenty-five again. Healthier than she ever was as a human. Vampire immune system. Her body reflects that. This is what she would have looked like at twenty-five if she had taken a little better care of herself. Not that I cared at the time. I was completely down with the partying, and my body was not a temple to me either. When Jessica took me from these shores to the boat, I was, relative to my body now, pudgy.

Vera is an earthy, sexy woman. Pretty or beautiful are not words I would use to describe her. Not then, and definitely not now. Those are Helen words. Helen is classically beautiful.

For Vera, Succubus is a good description though. There is a guy in New Orleans that thinks she is one. Vera exudes sex and hunger. She walks with a swivel, and she looks at a guy with an assurance that if she picks you, you are getting so very laid.

Larry's lust for Vera is not ONLY that he never was able to conquer her, but that she is the most Siren-y female Siren at the Hall, and now as a Vampire, she is more Siren-y still. Her newly upgraded self-assurance feeding her carnal attractiveness.

Vera's hunger for various things exceeded mine from the beginning. Not frequency, but intensity. She wanted MORE. Different. She did not want to snuggle; she wanted to screw and get screwed. Funny she ended up with Angel. She's a snuggle bug like me.

I am thinking all of that because Vera's Vampire produced physical twenty-five is distractingly, lustfully sexy. Not the way Jessica is. Jessica is exotic. Jessica is a goddess. Gaia.

Vera is not the goddess of love either. Not Aphrodite. Vera lives over in sex demon territory. Succubus.

Vera is the girl next door. The one in all the Penthouse letters, where the horny teenage young man peaked over the fence and saw her sunbathing nude, and it supposedly led to a wild weekend or something.

Since Vera and her wife have become my occasional lovers, I have reacquainted myself with her physicality closely. Yet for some reason, Vera seeking me out on a nude beach gave her appearance an extra mental jolt.

Must be this beach. This is where Jessica melted my brain into pudding.

Vera stretched out and then handed me a bottle. "I still don't tan worth a shit. Sunscreen please?"

I looked, saw it is a spray and not a super high SPF number. "This is not going to protect you for long." I said

"Better than nothing, and what I had in the car. Angel likes to come here too." Vera said offhandedly.

Vera used to hate nude beaches. She has changed.

As I sprayed her down and worked the misted oil into Vera's skin with my hands, front and back and head to toe, I thought about that statement. "I used to take Angel here when she lived with us, and of course later when she and I were ... Dating? Not sure what the right word for a family-approved lover is. We were lovers and came here. Is that a date? Doesn't seem like it. Been doing this as a family for too long."

"You and I are family approved now too, of which we have availed ourselves, but this is not a date. Despite the lovely massage. I just came to find you. I have known you longer than anyone and I know how you get. Anyone else would be happy. Maybe. Not you. That is not how you work. Not being asked was not cool either, so I understand why you are pissed off about that whole Council thing. Kinda funny, really: Helen spent all that time mad at me for how I treated you. Yeah. I know why she was not a big fan of mine. Now she does this to you. Irony is a bitch." Vera said.

"I deeply am pissed: you are not wrong. Only you and Morgan seem to get that, although Jessica will once Morgan lays it out for her." I agreed.

Vera being empathetic. My brain hurt.

More empathetic than Helen? Sure. Helen is a shit-for-brains. Vera is so new and different since she married Angel. She has really changed.

"Do you think the sun is going to get under my breasts?" Vera asked because I am carefully being sure the folds of the skin on the bottom where gravity pulls the lovely breasts down are getting a solid coating.

"Sure. White limestone all around here. It reflects light up. It's like sunburn under your chin in the pool from light off the water. Besides: who asked who to do this lotion job. If you don't want it done right, ask that guy over there. I am a professional." I told her primly.

Vera glanced up the path at a guy sunning himself. "No. That dude would spend more time on my tits than you are."

"Poor Vampire girl." I gave her no sympathy for people wanting to rub her down. If they tried it uninvited, that miscreant would get even less sympathy. I am invited, so I get to do a good job.

"Do you know how much shit Angel would give me if you showed up at home with burned boobs?" I asked.

"She would not be happy. That is true." Vera conceded.

Finished, I put the bottle between us, and laid back on my towel. "You'll need that again in an hour or so. That stuff is not strong enough for you."

"I know where to go to get the job done right." Vera said, laying back. "Funny. Angel is like that. I ask her to put that spray on, and she complains it's not lotion so she can rub it on me longer. It soaks in too fast for her. She makes sure I am coated from head to foot. It's like she enjoys spraying me down, as a way of exploring me. I like it."

"You have changed, Vera." I said.

"How? You just worked me over: We are lovers again. You know I'm still a fucking sexy bitch, just like before." Vera pointed at herself.

"Yeah. You are. Your Vampire body becomes you." I agreed. "You like things now you did not use to. Not only the way Angel loves to love you, which was how I used to but you being here. The Hollow. Nude beach. You used to hate coming here. Used to bitch about all the guys getting a free look."

Vera nodded. "Yeah. True. Being married has changed the fuck out of me. Hell, for one thing, my spouse is a lady. With lady parts! I mean... Fuck me."

"You get you lots of Kevin." I pointed out. "Angel makes sure of that. She knows you need your boy parts too. Angel loves the hell out of you, you know."

"Why I married her. Sort of like I was getting you back. Then I partly got you back too. Awesome shit." Vera looked around. "I did use to hate coming here. It wasn't that all the dudes were staring at my body and leering. It was not only about the free look. It made me fucking nervous. I was with you, but you weren't all powered up then. Neither was I. Back then if someone wanted to rape me, I wouldn't have gone down without a fight, but you would have been crapballs in a fight back then, you know? Now I don't need any protection from leering males. They try anything, I bust 'em. I know how to fight now, and I am a fucking Vampire."

"Yeah. Sorry. Oddly, I understand that fear of rape feeling far better now than I used to." I said. "Still, I am enjoying my free look. Also the lotion application."

"You are not going to rape me. You never could. For one thing, you have nude beach manners, meaning you would not have sex here. For another, it is not rape when I say 'hell yes, let's fuck our silly brains out now'. I am ready when you are, so you have no victim. Fuck, I'd do it here in front of everyone. Screw nude beach rules."

This was one of the things I am here to think about. Children with Angel and Vera. More kids. I love my kids, but now I have this damn Council shit. I know Victoria promised, but really. If the Vampire world is on fire, which it has been a lot lately, Victoria is going to tell me it's cool to stay home with a kid that has a runny nose? Not likely.

Helen always puts the Council first. Fuck that.