sanguineangels (44 page)

“We should get a move on if we want to catch up with the others,” he said after letting go of me.

I nodded and followed him, not concerned about the ghostly sighting from before. Outside, the rain had stopped as suddenly as it had started. It took a moment to find the group, but we did, and kept with it as the tour guide led us through the French Quarter, recounting sadistic murders and gruesome hauntings. The English guide knew New Orleans was a place where anything could happen. I had already found that out as the city helped reshape my life once again. The thought of losing Cain to an airplane and obligations in Boston was excruciating. I didn’t want to let him go any more than I wanted to let Veronica go. I had both, and I was content.

The rest of the tour passed uneventfully. The woman who’d spotted the ghost had sworn she wasn’t drunk. No one discounted her, but the crowd’s disbelief of her tale sunk into my psyche. I smirked, wondering if she, along with Cain, had seen anything. He declined to answer when the crowd turned to him. The tour guide looked at Cain and shrugged, letting him know it was his prerogative to say what had happened or not.

The tour ended where it had begun in front of St. Louis Cathedral in Jackson Square. The tour guide hawked a book that had been written about the hauntings of New Orleans. I chuckled. Everyone in the city was out for a buck, but I had to give him credit because he made a living doing something he liked. The crowd dissipated, going off to an endless night of drinking and partying. I craved something to cool my insides, but nothing alcoholic. I wanted to spend the night keeping myself busy with my boy. Yes, I wanted him, right on the street if that were possible. Just his presence made me hot and wet. My body hardened, readying itself for him, just from gazing into his bottomless eyes. If anyone tried challenging my authority over him, I’d rip out their throats because he was mine and mine alone.

“Are you all right?” he asked me.

“Yes.” I couldn’t believe I’d thought of tearing someone open. To be jealous was one thing, but to kill? I didn’t think so.

“You want to get going?”

I nodded. We moved away from the last of the lingering tour group. I scanned them, wondering what their lives were like back home. If they had families, or thought of their futures, something normal. With Cain beside me, I had a chance of that dream, but then I spotted Veronica. She leaned against an iron fence, one hand on the top of the main spike that formed the gate. I waved to her, but the look on her face stopped my hand in mid-motion. Pure malice and hatred adorned her expression. I’d never seen a being so full of anger. My voice caught in my throat as she stepped across the Square, but before I blinked she had disappeared, reappearing in front of both of us.

“Veronica, what’re you doing here?” I asked, trying to even my voice, but it wobbled in and out because of the seething anger radiating off of her. It filled my head like molten lava, red and runny. It encompassed her aura in a crimson glow and seeped into mine. My insides churned as they boiled. Sweat beaded on my forehead. I tried backing away, hoping the distance would help diminish the intensity of her energy.

“What are you doing?” she hissed.

I looked at her in shock. “We’re on a date,” I stated.

Veronica kept her eyes locked with Cain’s. He seemed amused with her as she challenged him. I understood she was jealous, but my being with him didn’t mean I was neglecting her.

“Veronica, it would be better if you left. We’ll discuss this later; I’m busy at the moment.”

Again she ignored me.

“I think you should do as the lady says. After all, we are on a date and she’s asked you to leave,” Cain spoke up, keeping his voice calm, though I caught the hint of amusement.

I wondered what he thought was so funny about the standoff.

“Damn it, I told you to stay away. You have no right,” Veronica chided.

I glanced down at her fists and noticed how clenched they were. I spotted the blood clinging to them, running down her tightened fingers. I became fascinated with it. I heard blood as it dripped down the palms of her hands, splashing on the cobblestones. As Veronica’s anger mingled with my aura, my own frustration rose to match hers, pushing out thoughts of blood.

“Look, Veronica, it’s not my problem you’re jealous. What I do is my business. Now leave us alone.”

“Yeah, Ronnie, why don’t you butt out? Can’t you see me and Brenna are having a wonderful time?” Cain cooed, enflaming her even more.

“Don’t provoke her, okay? You have no idea what she can do,” I said to my date.
How does she know him? This can’t be happening.

“Oh, I’m sure she wouldn’t hurt little old me. Besides, I’d like to see her try.” Veronica didn’t answer. Both of them stared at each other, having a silent confrontation. Cain loved every minute of it. I stood watching, unable to do anything. Her rage built in me along with my own, and if I didn’t find a way to release it, I feared I might just burst into flames.

“Fine,” I yelled. “You two want to play? Have fun!”

I turned, walking away, not believing the woman I’d been so close to just a few hours ago would turn on me, or the boy I found myself so enamored with could abandon me to play such childish games. If both of them were like that, then they were made for each other.

I realized Veronica only projected the things I saw in her. She was truly a beast that toyed with people’s lives, and I was her new plaything. She allowed me to fall in love with her, screwing up my perfect life. She made me think she was human and convinced me I had to help her.

It wasn’t over as I walked back to my apartment. I’d see her again. My vampire would apologize and say it was all a mistake. By then, it’d be too late. I’d have shut myself off from her and turned back to what I knew. I’d go back to being the mysterious vampire, gluing my mask and persona back together, reinstating myself back into the lifestyle I thought I had left behind.

I strolled into the night and stopped after a few blocks and extended my senses, trying to let the darkness cool my temper. Taking a deep breath, I tried pushing the confrontation between the vampire and my date out of my mind, but even as I did, faint shadowy figures of ghosts pressed against my consciousness. Their presence was nothing more than background noise, but if I focused on them, their voices would float into my mind as wispy echoes, reminding me of windblown screeches. I didn’t need to hear them or even want to see their transparent forms hovering on the streets. Nor did I want their cold fingers pressing on my body to get my attention. No, I wanted her. It was in these times my abilities were nothing more than a burden, when I wanted to throw them away and somehow be normal.

Maybe then I’d never have met Veronica, never known about the other side of reality I was keyed into. As much as I wanted to dismiss my powers, I’d be lost without them. I’d never be able to glimpse the emotions of others or get the exciting thrill of knowing there was a cold, terrifying watcher following me in the darkened night.

Something powerful slammed into my psychic mind, dampening the whining voices of the spirits. Its power drew me to it as ghosts were drawn to me, like bugs to a flame. Following my mind, I decided to discover what threw me off balance. Veronica.

I yearned for her. I would dream of her hands on my body, of her fangs buried inside my throat, but that could never be because I knew what I saw was true. She was a demon preying on those she saw fit, and I was the one her eye had fallen on.

My name is Veronica.

I didn’t hear what Brenna said, but she stormed into the night and left the two of us alone. Devon changed then, becoming the lovable vampire I knew him to be.

His eyes darkened, the pupils growing like thunderclouds to cover the whites in his eyes. His shoulder blades cracked, rearranging themselves, stretching to make room for his wings. Nails grew long on slender fingers, and his hands stretched to accommodate the weight of his dagger-like claws. His face elongated slightly. I watched the bones in his chin rearranging until they settled into a small knob.

“That hurt, bitch.”

I stepped forward, strengthening my shields. I wanted to be ready for a psychic attack if it came to that. Both of us had disappeared from human view; we had become invisible.

“Good. It makes up for some of the years you fucked with me,” I growled.

He laughed, more a hiss, as a black, forked tongue darted out between his lips.

“You have no idea what I’m going to do to you when I get you back. First I’m going to start with the sweet thing that just left—and my, is she tasty, like sugar and cinnamon. Her blood melted on my tongue. I had her the first time I fucked her, but you wouldn’t know what she’s like. All you care about is baring your soul, trying to be like them. Now she hates you, and she’s all mine. All mine!”

I felt myself turning, my beast taking over. My arms lengthened as my shoulder blades rearranged. My shirt split as leathery wings unfolded from my skin, thick with mucus and runny from the change. Fingers and nails hardened into bone, my face elongated. My nose flattened, and my knees buckled to support the weight of my wings. My ears grew hair on the tips, as well as becoming four inches long and pointed. Toe talons ripped through my shoes as I lost the rest of my clothing. All this happened in a movement of the second hand. Devon didn’t expect I’d give in to my urges. He assumed I’d whimper before him as I used to. No more.

I swiped at him, running deep furrows over his eye, down his cheek, and into his jugular vein. Foul-smelling blood exploded from the wound. His hand came up to catch his dislodged eye, which hung from the socket by the nerve endings. He snarled at me, holding his injured face, all the teeth in his mouth pointed. I had wounded him, caught him off guard, and he didn’t have the strength to fight back. Devon growled, his tongue visible through the hole in his face. He turned from me and ran into the crowd. He would be back. It would take him a few days to heal, but when he returned, he would be out for blood. I had what I needed—time—and I had to use it.

I lingered in the square, wondering what to do next. I had to get Brenna, but the scent of Devon’s blood and my recent transformation called to my lust. I had to feed. I looked at Devon’s life drying on the ground, remembering a time I begged to suckle at his neck, to drink in his wonderful nectar. I shook my head, trying to rid myself of the thoughts of my other half. The walls I had erected suddenly fell away and my beast smiled. I tried to lock it down, but it surged forward, drawing on the strength of the hunger coursing through our body. I was a fool. I tried to remain in control, but it took over, driven by its lust for blood.

Please. You can’t
, I pleaded with it.

Oh, but I can. I’m hungry. And there’s nothing you can do about it. So many people. Let’s see…where do I start?
The beast laughed. Then with a quick shove, it moved me into the prison where it normally stayed.

My name is Ronnie.

I stood in the shadows completely naked, still invisible to the human eye. The temperature had dropped after the sudden rainstorm, making the Quarter muggy, and the moisture clinging to my skin, chilling me. Every so often, I shivered as a slight gust tickled my exposed body. I didn’t mind the weather, but with the hunger stirring in my veins, the combination of the cold breeze and the flames inside me made for an interesting mix. It had been so long since I had been the dominant personality in this body; I wanted to enjoy it. Poor Veronica, she was so pathetic. If she had only accepted her destiny when I had been born then we would never have to fight. It wasn’t my fault she couldn’t see humanity as the meat they were.

From the square, I worked my way back to Bourbon Street, walking among the tourists, who started drinking earlier than usual. I darted in and out of the human cattle that were getting drunk, narrowly avoiding colliding with a girl with a daiquiri in her hand. She brushed up against me, looking confused, wondering what she’d bumped into when there was nothing to be seen, at least no physical object she could perceive. If she remembered the encounter, she’d write it off as something from a drunken haze. I didn’t care.

I wanted to get away from the hordes of people. I had to find a place where I could settle down and gather my thoughts. It had been a decade since I had mingled within the sea of humanity. The sweat of the humans enticed me. I tasted the alcohol from so many bars on the wind. The noise from the bands came in spurts, overwhelming my heightened senses. Mortals’ thoughts pressed against my head like a vise. I had to get off the main drag before I lost it and let them see the beast I really was. If that happened, everyone would have a tale to tell their grandchildren about the time they encountered a demon in New Orleans.

Glancing around, I knew I couldn’t go into one of the restaurants or shops. I needed a human who was not going to be missed, and the tourists in these places were all visible. No, I required a darkened room or an alley, away from everything. Then I noticed the strip clubs.

I smiled.

Pulling my shields in as tight as I could, I strolled past the bouncer. I walked into multicolored flashing strobe lights and blaring new wave music. The place looked like something from a bad seventies porno. The scent of cum and sweat overpowered my nostrils, but I pushed it away immediately, focusing on the heartbeats in the room. The place wasn’t packed yet, but what was in here would suit my needs.

I scanned the minds of the men lingering at the bar as they watched the girls dancing on the tables, all in various stages of undress. Each man at the bar was married, or had a girlfriend. They would be missed. As I patrolled the place, one of the girls caught my attention.

Silver pasties in the shape of stars covered her nipples. Around her waist were a thong and a gun belt. She gyrated against a pole, bucking her hips into it, moving her hands over her tits, and then down to her pussy, a finger lingering over her clit, before moving again into the beat of the dance. I realized her attentions were on a weak looking man. I scanned him and found nothing interesting, except the fact that he was alone; he was my kind of target, but when the girl’s gaze locked to mine, I knew what she was.

She was young, not more than forty years old, but she was a vampire and saw through my shields, or at least knew I was there. Her warning in the back of my brain pushed me away. The man she fawned over was hers. I nodded, acknowledging she could have him. With that her vampire persona retreated and she melted back into her dance as the song ended. Still I watched the way she moved.

Her body was taut, every muscle defined. I stared into her eyes, detecting the darkness about them. Her hunger stayed on the surface. As she danced, her shoulder blades kept rearranging themselves like a liquid puzzle. She was insane, struggling to pass in a human world. Her insanity made her strong. Even though I wandered into her territory, something in her sensed my age; she wouldn’t challenge me. However, if I had not been in such a need for blood, I would have taken it upon myself to put her out of her misery. She was an abomination to our kind. Now was not the time for me to deal with her. My gaze shifted from her, and I noticed a man sitting in the corner nursing a beer with two empty ones already on the table. He sat sprawled in a booth, looking on the show with a passive expression. He hadn’t had sex in a while and nothing in the club really interested him.

I put on a big smile and worked my way to his table, snaking my thoughts into his mind, allowing him to see me standing before him, naked. When I appeared out of nowhere he gasped, spitting out his beer, covering the table in saliva and warm alcohol.

I smiled and slid into the booth. The leather cooled my bare skin as the wool of his shirt tickled my nipples. They hardened against his suit jacket. I pressed myself into him, running my hand over his thigh before caressing his crotch. Rubbing my hand over him, I breathed heavily into his ear, feeling him harden underneath me. My hand worked over his dick as my tongue flicked over his jugular. His breathing became labored. He was getting ready to come. His hips started to buck forward, but I grabbed hold of his mind and stopped him in mid-thrust. Veronica stirred in her mental cage, begging for me to stop torturing him. I ignored her.

My prey moaned under my touch as I still massaged his cock through his pants. He wanted more, yearning for release. I held him there, licking at his neck, tasting the alcohol through his pores. The more I nipped, the more the fear rose in his brain, but he had no way to express it. He wanted to expel the tension growing in his body, but I wouldn’t let him. I liked indulging my whims.

“Speak if you wish,” I whispered heavily into his ear.

“What are you?” he whimpered.

“Everything you ever wanted,” I purred.

The terror in his mind had me drunk as I played with him. This was what it was all about, what my kind did with the meat. Still I couldn’t take him in this place. There were too many people, too many prying eyes. I sighed and eased his erection down, but I kept the pleasure centers in his brain titillated so he experienced nothing of the fear he had before, just intrigue and longing. I slithered out of the booth. The leather made a sucking sound as my bare ass slipped from the seat. I walked a few paces and didn’t feel him behind me. I tugged on his mental leash as I would a dog and had him amble behind me.

We moved out of the club, and I was still invisible to all but him. To others walking by, he looked as if he were moving in a drunken stupor, which made it easier for me. I walked a few blocks, traveling further away from the crowded main streets into a more quiet area where tourists only straggled by. I surveyed my surroundings and noticed the New Orleans Historic Voodoo Museum.

I smiled. This was a good place to play.

The door was locked, but that didn’t matter. I shoved it with my shoulder and it opened quickly. I went inside, waiting for my new toy to follow. I shut the glass door behind me and caught a glimpse of various types of voodoo dolls and tarot cards for sale. I smirked at the thought of the dolls. Whoever heard of such nonsense, putting pins in a doll to hurt people? I certainly didn’t believe the technique worked. But who knew? If one believed hard enough, maybe it did.

I moved to my right through a curtain and found myself in a cramped hallway filled with pictures of past Voodoo High Priestesses. As I passed along the hallway, I noticed all the different implements used in rituals. I had no idea what most of them were for, but some of them looked interesting. Thoughts of using them on my prey flickered through my mind. The torture I could inflict…but I was not in the mood to play that much. We walked into the backroom where I noticed a huge, glass tank. Peering in, I was surprised by a big albino python that hissed at me. I jumped back a little, and then giggled at being scared by a snake. My fangs grew and I hissed back at her. She stared at me, realizing I was something not to mess with, and then she went on with the rest of her night. In the back of the room there was a door, which gave instructions to follow red arrows through a courtyard and into another part of the museum.

I stood, beckoning my prey. My fangs gleamed from the soft light of the snake terrarium. He came shuffling toward me, fighting the hold I had on his mind, but it was no use. I was the strong one. This fact angered him because he was used to being the dominant one. I caught glimpses of him slapping around a few of his girlfriends. He would be the perfect victim for me.

We followed the arrows outside into a small courtyard covered with flagstones. There was a small white table with chairs in the left-hand corner, and a few potted plants that secluded the table from the rest, creating a mini-paradise in the middle of the bustling city. The night had grown cooler as the hours progressed. The stars sang something only night creatures could hear. I was happy, my belly rumbling with hunger from the thought of fresh blood exploding onto my tongue.

“Come here,” I whispered. The sound bounced off the brick walls of the courtyard.

He came to me without hesitation as I reeled him in, all the while making him believe he wanted to come to me. I implanted images of me slapping his face. Of me straddling him, riding him until he begged me to stop like so many had done with him. I made him want to feel the pain of my fists colliding with his nose, the blood dribbling down his chin, him crying for me to stop when really he wanted more. The thought that he wanted to be dominated baffled him. I licked my lips in anticipation. His blood sang underneath his skin.

Stripping off his jacket, he surrendered himself to my waiting arms.

I smirked. He could wonder what made him want to be conquered like he had done to others before, but I wasn’t going to linger and let him figure out he hadn’t willingly given up his power. I ran my hands over his chest, feeling the hardness of his muscles underneath the shirt. My nails grazed over it, tearing furrows in the skin beneath. When the first explosion of blood hit my nose, I could no longer hold back. My plans to fuck him to death, to drink him in as he came, flew out of my mind. I wanted the elixir that would give strength back to my body.

Again Veronica rattled her cage. I gave her a quick mental slap that sent her reeling. I didn’t need her guilt infecting me. My mouth became a maw of sharpened teeth as I smiled. It was then that I pulled all of my power from his mind and he saw me for what I truly was. Fear exploded in him. I licked my lips. His eyes grew wide and he backed away. He only got a few steps.

My smile widened as he tripped and landed on his ass. Even when he crawled away from me, I caught him. Like I had shown him, I straddled him. I had no intentions of riding him all night. He looked into my burning eyes and knew what I was. He tried to scuttle away, but my legs held him in place. He whimpered as I ran a hand over his neck and down to his exposed chest. I stopped at the wound on his chest, dabbing my pinkie into the blood. I tasted a drop. It was as sweet as ever. My realigning shoulder blades signaled the coming of my wings. They burst out of my back, dripping wet. The liquid crystallized, making them ready for flight. He screamed then, but I was beyond caring. My fingers stroked his jugular vein, feeling the heart beating underneath. I brought my teeth down, savagely tearing out a hunk of flesh. I swallowed it without thinking, becoming lost to the warm ecstatic sensations coursing through my body.

I sucked in everything he was. In that beautiful moment, I wondered how Veronica saw humans as things of beauty. I’d never been like them. I was a unique creature born into this world from blood. As I drank, the fount I sucked on grew weaker. To get more, I pressed against my victim’s chest, but the flesh gave way and my talons encompassed the warm organ. I yanked it out and brought the blood-rich muscle to my lips. Yes, this was the way I was supposed to be. I was all-powerful. I could do whatever I wanted. I was immortal.

I drained the heart, smashing it against the points of my teeth, just like juicing an orange. When there was nothing left but a dry husk, I threw it aside. It landed somewhere in one of the potted plants. I laughed at the thought of one of the employees finding it tomorrow and wondering what it could be.

I extended my wings, missing the glory of moving through the night air. I could move with the birds and rise above them. God be damned, I was a fallen angel, and I would not be denied my wings. I spread them, enjoying the slight creaking sounds they made after their long confinement. My muscles tensed, ready to take off, when I heard something. It was faint, the screeching of an already opened door. I smiled as I caught the hint of another human coming to investigate the break-in. I moved into the shadows, my toe talons scraping along the flagstones. I hid in the corner behind the potted plants next to the door. This was a good night. I’d get a two for one special.

The door in front of me squeaked open, sounding like a screeching mouse. A head with long hair peered through the door, and then the body followed. After a few steps the human was in the courtyard. I smelled a hint of vanilla on her skin. I licked my lips, allowing my teeth to return to normal, except my canines. This one I was going to savor.

No, no more. Let her go. You played with your last victim. We don’t need this one,
Veronica whimpered. She banged on the confines of her cage, and I realized she might break out if I wasn’t careful.

I moved out from behind the plants, cloaked by the night. When the mortal heard the noise, she looked in my direction and took a step forward. That was when her foot found the remnants of my last meal. A scream welled up in her, but before she released it, I wrapped my hand around her throat and put my face close to her ear.