Strictly Business (29 page)
For Lucifer’s own vanity and greed, God made the child more
beautiful than its father and made it lustful, as well. Soulless and unliving,
the only blood that would flow within it was the blood of those it fed upon.
His lifetime spent, Lucifer passed from this realm to the
next to inhabit hell for all eternity, to be held by chains and tortured by
flame. His son, the first to ever be called a vampire, was cursed to walk the
world in darkness for all eternity, alone.
It was centuries before the child discovered he could create
more like himself out of those tortured souls in purgatory. Among mankind they
were considered weak of mind, often diagnosed with mental illness. So it was
that he began to seek those who were shunned by society, and by heaven, to
create for himself those who would share his fate.
“Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil
prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.”
1 Peter 5:8
A fresh blast of synthetic fog filled the giant chamber as
lasers in a multitude of colors sliced the air into thousands of smaller
pieces. A deep thrumming sound began to grow louder and louder from the relative
darkness as an eerie calm fell over the room. A single note from a deeply
tuned bass drum reverberated off the crowd, the walls, and following it, a
flash from hundreds of strobe lights.
The feeling was surreal in that moment, as over a thousand
sweat covered bodies were instantly etched into everyone’s memories. A single
flash. A single image. Yet to decipher what it contained was impossible. A
roar was building within the crowd and again came the deep resounding reply
from the center stage. Again the strobes flashed and another image replaced
the first. Derek wondered how much the walls of the old industrial building
could take.
Standing in the darkness, he could feel the energy in the
room around him like an electric charge, building to the point of explosion.
The bass drum began to lay out a steady rhythm that echoed across the vast
chamber. Strobes began to flash opposite the drumbeats, illuminating thousands
of raised hands as most in the room bounced upon their toes, their palms lifted
to the heavens and heads thrown back in benevolent bliss. A bass guitar lent
itself to the beat and the crowd began to scream in expectation as the center
stage was finally illuminated and upon it, the main act of the night stood in
all of their glory.
From head to toe the entire band was dressed in professional
zombie makeup and looked more like a movie production than a musical group.
Here in the run down industrial section of Detroit, however, the heavy metal
zombie band called Desolate Perversion had brought life to an otherwise
lifeless portion of the city. Nothing lived here but addicts and bums.
As the lead guitar disrupted the almost intoxicating
thrumming from its deeper counterparts, the band’s lead singer split the air
with a hair-raising scream that sent the crowd into a frenzy. Bodies began to
bounce off one another like a flipbook, their movements broken between the
flashing of the strobe lights. Screams arose and fell and the scent of many
freshly lit joints lent themselves to the banana-scented fog the stage crew was
using.
Between the flashes, he watched as a girl not ten feet away
stripped off her shirt, twirling it above her head as she danced slowly,
unnaturally, her movements disjointed, like a horror flick, between the bursts
of light. He grinned.
In a surging sea of drug and alcohol fueled bodies, where
ears rang from the music, and conversations were lost in mere inches, Derek was
an island of isolation. Not in the sense that he was alone, but in the sense
that he did not move as one with the tide surging around him. Truth was, he was
not here for the music. He was here for the inspiration.
Over a thousand glistening bodies inhabited the floor of the
underground concert that had only been announced an hour before, and more
poured in by the second. Derek was lost to the commotion around him. He did
not listen to the music though it reverberated through his very bones. He did
not watch the ever-growing crowd, nor hear their screams. Hell, He hadn’t even
made the walk here entirely for himself; it was for her, for she was the key.
Petite fingers arose before Derek’s face as a crooked grin
parted his lips. She had gotten his attention, at least for a moment. The
tips of her fingers touched his forehead lightly as she nuzzled her face into
his chest a moment before leaning back to trail her hand down his face. Derek
reveled in the sensation. Here he was an island and she his mesmerizing
mermaid. Here she was free to move, and dance, and lose herself to the
electricity that invaded everything in the building.
The strobes flashed and Derek saw her face, milky white with
a tiny smattering of freckles across her nose. Framing her imperfect
perfection, long, heavy brown hair cascaded around her face to tumble over her
shoulders in earthy tones of red and gold. Her emerald eyes flashed and then
were gone as she twirled slowly, removing her hand from his chest. Between the
flashes, Derek watched as she reached behind her, grasped his hands and pulled
them to her waist.
While everyone else in the room screamed, jumped, and
frantically smashed into one another, she slowly, mercilessly rocked and shook
her hips, pressing her firm ass into his lap. Derek grinned again as she tilted
her head back upon his shoulder to look up at him. Then, again, Derek was lost
to the room, to the crowd, even to her.
Here she could let go of whatever troubled her, and when she
was free, in that very moment, her energy unlocked something within him.
Sometimes it was a smile that set him off, others it was her touch, but it was
always when she let go of the world around her. Now amidst a sea of raging
metal heads, she worked to grind her lithe body against his, while his mind
opened up for a moment, her magic setting his brain into overdrive.
These were the only moments of late when Derek could find
that which he desperately needed.
In those moments, when she made the world go away, he could
see clearly. Stories unfolded before him and characters paraded where moments
ago only a dark abyss had been. He watched them within his mind as they
interacted and spoke amongst themselves. He learned their mannerisms, the way
they spoke, and even their accents. In those moments of mental liberation he could
see an entire world play out before him, before once again it would vanish and
nothing but empty anguish would remain. When it was all lost he raced to
mentally catalog that which he had learned. Sometimes these moments lasted for
mere seconds, other times it could last for an hour or more. Tonight three
such moments had come and gone already, and he knew that this would be the
last.
He pulled hard upon her hips, driving his now rigid cock
firmly into her, yet still she continued swaying her hips, listening to a beat
no one else in the giant chamber could hear. She knew all too well what she
was doing, and Derek knew she enjoyed arousing him in public. Hell, he enjoyed
it more; only he would never admit it to her. Oh how he loved it when she played
dirty.
* * * * *
Jade felt his eyes on her and knew that, for the moment at
least, his attention was hers. Realizing that it could last hours or mere
moments, she decided to take advantage of it while she had it. Glancing back
over her shoulder, she watched his eyes glaze over again, lost unto himself.
Some would find it peculiar, his ability to simply fade in
and out of reality; even now he was lost in his own world once more. It was a
world that only he could see. A world he created. Though most people lived in
reality, Derek lived between this world and a fantasy world of his own making.
And she had the blessing and the curse of being his inspiration. His muse.
Smiling to herself, she settled in to enjoy the music. Derek
was here with her, at least physically, but only because she had wanted to
come. This was her world, her scene, and she thrived in the chaos.
The press of bodies, the music so loud it actually
ricocheted off your ear drums. You never heard music like this; you felt it
through every cell of your body.
A quick glance around the room told Jade all she needed to
know. Everyone here was hiding from something. Some were too young to know what
they were hiding from, and others were too old to change their ways. You never
came to a place like this unless you were running from something. This was raw,
pure... real. Unlike so many places, the kind of places where the shiny
platinum exterior hid the decaying, rotting core, this was just pure grit.
And she loved it.
When she felt his attention return to her, she grinned over
her shoulder, before tilting her head back to rest on his chest.
She felt his erection pressing into her ass and added a
little extra twist to her hips.
The crowd parted, giving her a tiny window of opportunity.
She took a small step away from him, swaying to the beat of the music. She
rolled forward at the waist, offering a teasing glimpse of her ass in the tight
leather skirt. His hand landed, hot and heavy, against one cheek, bringing a
full laugh bubbling up. Biting her cheek to stifle the laugh, she straightened
back up.
Spinning quickly, she turned to face him, gently wagging one
finger in front of his face as she shook her head. When his eyes squinted, his
mouth forming into a firm line, she threw her head back and let the laughter
come.
Derek pulled her close, pressing her body full length
against his. The added height from her four-inch heels brought them almost to
eye level.
She allowed the kiss she knew was coming, let him show her
with his mouth what his body craved. When he pulled back to suck in air, she
nibbled his chin, nipping his neck with her teeth. The little bit of pain gave
her a chance to extricate herself from his embrace.
She turned on her heel and headed to the makeshift bar in
the back corner, leaving him to follow her or not. His choice.
She knew he'd follow.
A couple of teasing, tormenting hours later, and Jade could
see Derek losing his patience. If she'd done her job right, she had kept him in
a constant state of arousal, heavily sprinkled with a little denial, for the
last few hours.
Her frustrated, tortured artist had just about reached his
limit. Figuring it was time to offer him reprieve, Jade grabbed his hand and
pulled him toward the exit.
As they tumbled out the side door, the pounding bass seemed
to follow them, pouring into the alley like a tidal wave of sound. The heavy
steel door slowly closed behind them, the sudden silence almost deafening in
its intensity.
Her eardrums ringing within her head, Jade turned to look at
Derek, grinning stupidly as his face screwed up in a scowl.
"Tell me why we do this, again?" he asked, his
mock displeasure more than evident in his tone.
She laughed, the sound echoing off the brick buildings
around her. "Me, because I love it. You... 'cuz you're hoping to get
laid."
His eyes squinted shut a little more before a wry grin
settled across his lips, easing the fierce look he previously wore. "Oh.
Yeah."
A little shiver ran through her. Derek was nothing if not
intense.
Tugging his hand once again, she pulled him out of the alley
and onto the street, heading toward home.
Even at four in the morning, the city wasn't silent. The
last of the late night crowd, reveling in their debauched behaviors, were
heading home, looking a little worse for wear. At the same time, the early
morning workers were just starting to grace the streets, either driving in to
work or walking to the subway. There weren't many people, but enough to break
up the silence; enough that you were never truly alone.
Jade glanced around her, taking note of her surroundings in
an ingrained attempt at self-preservation. Downtown Detroit in the middle of
the night was not what one might call a safe neighborhood, and it was best to
be on guard.
She looked at all the buildings, fading from run down
industrial to run down apartments, a never-ending sea of concrete. It should be
depressing, creepy even, especially in the pervasive darkness that was predawn.
But she loved every crack in every building; signs of the life these walls had
seen.
Her eyes rolled over a tall blonde man, leaning casually
against one of those very walls, a raven-haired woman leaning into him,
obviously striving for his attention. He ignored her advances, his eyes
following Jade, instead.
A niggling sense of foreboding rolled through her, the
feeling finally making it to the front of her mind, giving her the will to look
away. Shaking off the little shiver of nerves, she turned again to smile at the
man next to her.
Derek squeezed her hand, giving a little tug until his lips
met hers. After a brief brush, she felt him whisper against her mouth,
"Hurry up. I want to get you home."
Jade wasn't entirely sure what little imp made her do it,
then again, she never was. But turning quickly, she raised her shirt, flashing
the blonde that had been watching her.
She had no idea whether he noticed or not, didn't really
care one way or another, because Derek noticed. She heard his growl just before
she took off running down the street.
His laugh echoed hers, bouncing off the concrete as she
raced toward home with Derek hot on her heels.
If she were lucky, he'd catch her.
Continue Reading
Beyond The Mask
WEP Erotic Romance
I am a wife of fifteen years to a Navy Chief. I am the
mother of two wonderful children, a boy and a girl. Generally that is about as
far as I get before everyone assumes they have me summed up. However, I am so
much more. While those two things have and continue to be the most important
things in my life, they are not the sum total of who I am. I am stubborn,
mildly OCD, sarcastic, stubborn, feisty, independent, a fighter, oh and did I
mention stubborn?