I Hunt by Night

Chapter 1It happened faster than it takes to tell. One second I was sprawled, quite naked, on Justin’s bed, legs spread, hands grasping the corners of the iron headboard, as he’d asked. I waited for what came next, expecting at the very least that he’d go down on me before the penultimate act. The next second, he was kneeling over me. He grabbed one of my wrists and shackled it to the upright I’d been holding onto. Then he restrained my other wrist the same way. Before I could react with more than a gasp of surprise, my ankles were manacled to the footboard. “What the hell? I’m not into the whole b**m scene, man. Let me loose.” “That’s not what this is, Lucas.” Straddling me again, he gripped my chin with one hand, forcing my head back. I watched in horror as his eyeteeth elongated into fangs. He bent to bite deeply into my throat—and drank. I felt myself weakening and still he continued. That was the last thing I remembered until I came to, I don’t know how much later, my body wracked in pain. He stood over me, a bag held in one hand. Forcing my mouth open, he bit into the bag and then held it to my lips, stroking my throat to make me swallow. When I gagged at the taste of blood, he covered my mouth with his hand, murmuring, “Drink or you’ll die.” With a low laugh he added, “Well, you’ll die again.” As I swallowed the pain abated somewhat. Enough so that I was able to think and comprehend in pure terror exactly what this…this creature was—and what I knew I was becoming if some of the stories I’d heard were even close to the truth. “The pain will end when you’re fully turned.” He caressed my face. “Until then…” He shrugged although there was a glimmer of compassion in his eyes. “Believe me; I know full well what you’re going through.” “Why me, Justin?” I barely got out before another spasm of pain wracked me and I tore at my bonds in a vain attempt to free myself. “You’re young, you’re healthy, and in your own way quite handsome,” he replied when I collapsed in defeat. “Not that handsome matters in the grand scheme of things. I’m lonely. I want a companion for the next year, before I have to release you.” “Are you f*****g crazy?” I screamed. He smiled. “Some would call me that, and worse.” “This isn’t happening. You drugged me. I’m hallucinating.” “Is the pain a hallucination? Is the hunger for this—” he held another bag in front of me, “—a hallucination?” I gazed at it, need for the blood it contained overwhelming me. “I thought…I thought it had to be your blood. At least according to the stories.” “Oh, you had that, yesterday, moments after I drank from you. I had to replace some of what I’d taken.” He licked his lips. “It was quite tasty, but that could have been the Kahlúa from the white Russians you were drinking. You have very interesting tastes in alcohol.” Another wave of agony had me trying to curl up. I couldn’t of course, any more than I could break free of my shackles. He looked from the bag to me in question and I instantly opened my mouth and drank thirstily when he held it to my lips. Once it was empty, he stroked my forehead, murmuring, “Sleep.” I did. For the next two days I vacillated between pain and hunger for the blood which eased it. By the end of the second day my fangs appeared. They felt…weird is the only description I can think of. At least until I got used to them and was able to drop them and retract them at will. By the end of the second day, well third I suppose, as I was out of it for the first one, he deemed me ready to be released from my bonds. I rubbed my wrists when he had, realizing as I did that there were no abrasions despite how hard I’d fought to be free of the restraints. “You’ll find you heal very quickly, now,” he said. Then he wrinkled his nose. “You are in definite need of a bath.” One sniff and I knew he was right. When I got unsteadily to my feet, he put his arm around my waist, and took me into the large bathroom off the bedroom. “Sit,” he said, more of an order than a request, so I sat on the stool beside the tub. He turned the water on and soon the tub was full. With his help, I got in and then obeyed his request to wash off the dried sweat which was rank smelling. As I did a question occurred to me. “I thought…All right, I know I’m remembering some story I read, but it said that…” I hesitated. I knew what I was now, what he was, but I was loath to say the word. “Vampires?” He chuckled softly. “That’s what we are, Lucas. Avoiding the word won’t change the fact.” I nodded. “I thought vampires didn’t sweat.” “No, but humans do and it took a while before you were completely turned. The amount of energy you expended until that happened, well, you get the picture.” I shuddered, because I did. The agony my turning inflicted was ten times the pain I’d endured when I’d been in the auto accident which almost took my life. I looked down at my body, searching for the scars that had been a constant reminder of what had happened. Unbelievably, they were gone. “How?” I asked, and then had to explain to Justin what I meant. “One of the, shall we say perks of becoming a vampire. Physically, you’re perfect now. Well…” He smiled. “You still look like you. There’s no changing that. But any damage that was done to your body has been eradicated.” That, and what it meant—that I truly was a vampire—terrified and excited me at the same time. “You might want to get out of the tub before you turn into a prune,” he suggested, and then grinned when I looked at myself. “I was teasing. It can’t happen anymore.” “You’re a barrel of laughs,” I muttered as I got out, taking the towel he handed me to dry off. “What else won’t or will happen, now?” “As you’ve already found out, you heal rapidly. You don’t breathe, you don’t have a pulse, you won’t need food although you can eat and will probably want to for a time until you get out of the habit of thinking you have to.” “I can eat?” I asked in surprise. “Oh, yes. It does nothing for you, other than satisfying an emotional need to do so. The same with drinking, although you’ll find you’ve lost your taste for alcohol, other than a nice red wine. Clichéd, I know, but the truth none the less. Not that it or any alcohol will get you drunk. That’s not possible.” I snorted. “I think I can live without the hangovers. Well, not live…” It hit home again what I’d become and I shuddered. At the same time I also realized I was hungry for more blood, and said so. “Come with me,” Justin replied. I did, wrapping the towel around my waist, first. That made me wonder where my clothes were, so I asked. “There,” he told me when we entered the bedroom, pointing a neat pile on the dresser. “If you don’t mind…” I’d barely started toward the dresser when my need for blood made every nerve tingle with pain. “I’ll dress later.” He nodded knowingly and we left the bedroom, entering a long hallway with several doors, as well as a flight of stairs across from us. Moments later we were on the ground floor, walking down another hallway to the kitchen. He opened the refrigerator, took out a bag of blood, and handed it to me. It didn’t take long for me to empty it. When I had, he opened a cabinet under the counter. “Put it there. The trash container is for biohazardous materials.” I grimaced, and did as he said, asking, “What if you have guests? Won’t the wonder about this and about the blood bags your storing?” “I never have human guests. Well, none that I allow in here.” “Meaning you do,” I pointed out. “I have a few acquaintances.” “Men you pick up at the local bars.” I frowned, beginning to pace as I asked, “Have you turned them, too?” “No,” He leaned against the counter, arms crossed. “Well, none recently. There was one three years ago. He’s gone, now, by necessity. For a time I was quite happy to have my life return to normal.” He chuckled. “He was a demanding housemate, wanting all of my attention. It’s taken me a while to decide I missed having someone around to talk to and do things with.” “What about other vampires?” He shrugged. “I rarely consort with our kind. I find most of them a stuffy lot, to say the least. Probably because of their age.” I studied him. He appeared to be only a couple of years older than my twenty-five, but I knew appearances can be…well, are deceiving when it comes to vampires. “How old are you, or rather how long have you been around.” “Almost three hundred years. I suspect what you know about us comes, as you’ve said, from stories you’ve read and perhaps from having taken one of the rather awful vampire tours that are rife in the city. Just so you’re aware of designations, I’m considered Middle-Aged. You, on the other hand, are a Fledgling.” “Who gets tossed out of the nest in a year you said.” “An apt description,” he replied. “How many Children do you have? That’s the right word, isn’t it?” He nodded. “A few, although unlike human parents, I haven’t kept in touch with any of them, so I can’t introduce you to your siblings.” “Well, damn. Here I thought I might have a family of my own, now.” Something I hadn’t had the last few years that I was alive, I suppose you could say. The car accident I was in had killed my parents and my younger brother. Not my doing, thankfully. I was fifteen at the time and we were on the way to the funeral for the last of my grandparents when a man running from the police careened through the stoplight, hitting us broadside. When I was eventually released from the hospital I went to live with my elderly aunt and uncle, now deceased as well. “Sorry to disappoint,” Justin said in reply to my words. “You might not remember, but you told me that you’re an orphan when I asked that night at the club.” “Another reason you chose me?” I said dryly. “It did factor in,” he admitted. He seemed puzzled. I found out why when he said, “You seem to be taking all this rather calmly.” I wasn’t, of course, despite outward appearances. If I could have gone back in time I would have rethought going to that club. And for sure I wouldn’t have let him pick me up, or vice versa, I suppose. I was still terrified about what I’d become and what my future would be like. On the other hand…“I’m a pragmatist,” I told him. “I can’t change things, as much as I might want to, so I have to accept what I am and learn to deal with it.” He smiled in acknowledgement. “It’s going to take time. You have a lot to learn, starting with the fact that in a few minutes you’re going to fall asleep, no matter how hard you try not to. So, let’s get you to bed.” When I lifted an eyebrow, he shook his head. “In your own room. I make it a point of honor not to sleep with any of my Children. That could be considered taking advantage of the situation.” I eyed him with a trace of dismay. I hadn’t come home with him for tea and crumpets, after all. He was a good-looking, rather sexy man and I’d intended on taking advantage of that before everything went decidedly sideways. Pushing off the counter, he led the way back upstairs and to a room two down from his. “This will be yours for the next year.” It was large and well-appointed, as the saying goes. There was a queen-sized bed, an antique dresser, and a small sofa under the heavily curtained window along the wall opposite the doorway. “My clothes?” “I’ll get them. You, get into bed.” Again there was a trace of an order in his words which made me wonder if he was…I think the word is ‘compelling’ me. I did as he said, watching as he left the room. One minute I was wide awake, and then I wasn’t. * * * * I awoke, I don’t know how much later, ravaged by hunger for blood. I crawled out of bed, not caring that I was naked, heading for the door. I knew where Justin stored the bags of blood and I was desperate to get my fangs into one or more of them. I’d barely stepped into the hallway when I heard Justin say with a trace of annoyance, “Out of common courtesy you might want to put on your jeans. You won’t starve in the time it takes to do that.” From the way I felt, I might. “I’ll get right on it,” I snapped, as I went back into my room to get them from the small pile of my clothes sitting on the dresser. “Feeling a mite testy?” he asked when I reappeared. “What do you think?” I retorted before I started to the ground floor. “Being angry is understandable,” Justin replied as he followed me down and into the kitchen. Gesturing to the refrigerator he said, “Feel free to take as many as you want. I’m expecting a delivery in an hour.” It hadn’t occurred to me that was how he got the blood. After emptying two bags, which marginally helped improve my mood, I said, “What blood bank is willing to sell to you?” “One owned by a vampire. Did you think those came from a regular one?” “To be honest, I hadn’t thought about it one way or the other. But then, I’m new at this whole ‘how do we survive’ thing, in case you hadn’t noticed.” “I’m well aware of that, Lucas. There’s a lot you don’t know right now. You’ll learn in time, I promise. For now, would you like a tour of my house and grounds?” “Grounds? That makes it seem like this is a mansion.” “No. A small plantation at best, well outside the city.” He smiled. “One that’s rumored to be haunted by the ghosts of dead slaves and their owners.” “f**k, are you kidding?” I thought about that and then said, “I suppose that would keep even the most intrepid kids, and adults I guess, from exploring.” “Indeed. If anyone tries, I manage to make their nightmares quite interesting once they’ve fled for their lives.” “Oh boy.” I chuckled. “That could be fun.” Grinning, he replied, “It has its moments. Come, I’ll show you around.”