The Blood of Angels: Divine Vampires (2 page)

I sit perched on the edge of the tub, watching the woman bathe. We don’t do that, either, we fairies. We can swim, if we have to, but we’re like cats in the water for the most part. It’s because our wings take forever to dry and while they still work while wet, it takes a lot more effort. Still, she makes it look pleasurable. Look at the steam rising from the water’s surface, where little bubbles pop over her pale skin as she shifts and sighs in the water! Almost makes me want to wade in...

“Maya?” A knock on the door makes me jump and fly high enough to nearly hit the shower curtain rod. “I’m home.”

“I’ll be out in a minute!” The woman smiles, eyes still closed.

Her fingers trail over her breasts and then she cups them, feeling their weight. I’m curious about the human body so I can’t help but watch. I notice she has several scars on her flesh, some small and round with raised edges, others long and thick, faded silver. An accident, I think, maybe car or a bad fall. Humans are so fragile.

I perch on the edge of the tub again, careful to find a dry spot, watching one of her hands move down between her legs, parting the flesh there. That feeling in my belly begins again as she sighs and lets her knees fall open, giving me a full view of her sex. The hair there is dark and curly and opens to reveal a deep pink blush inside.

“Mmmmm yes...” Maya’s fingers move in fast circles at the top of her cleft, rubbing there. I want a closer look and fly in, hovering over her mound. I’ve never seen one so close up, and although the water obscures my view somewhat, I can see the fleshy pink folds opening up to reveal the dark space at the bottom of her slit.
That’s where he puts it
. It’s a startling discovery.

“Oh yes, yes!” Maya whimpers, her fingers confirming my suspicions as she slips them deep inside. Her other hand is rubbing the little bud at the top.
The clitoris.
What must it feel like? I wonder, hovering ever closer, thankful she’s lifting her hips, giving me a fuller view. She’s rocking and panting, as if this is all some great effort, rubbing herself like this.

“Oh now!”

The woman’s hips shoot straight up as she arches, her whole body quivering, knocking me back into the tile wall. Dizzy and unable to catch myself, I slide down the slippery surface like it’s a slide, straight into the water below! I’m drowning!

“Maya?” There’s another knock. Panicked, I come up sputtering, dragging myself over the side, clawing my way across the bath mat on the floor.

“I’m coming!” The woman gasps.

Ha. I guess so!

Damn, she’s getting out, and my wings are soaked! I crawl out of her way, reaching behind me to wring my wings out as best I can. Great. Just great! It’s going to take all day for these to completely dry! Good thing we can still fly with wet wings. We can’t fly
well
, but we can still fly.

“Rick?” Maya is pulling on a robe. “Is Zeph here?”

I follow as best I can, rubbing myself against her discarded towel like some wet dog as she gets dressed.

“Maya, Zeph is here!” It’s her husband, Rick, calling up the stairs.

That’s my cue. How in the heck am I going to manage all of this without full use of my wings, I’d like to know? I flop down the stairs after her, catching one of my wet and drooping wings underfoot and toppling down to the bottom with a thud.

Ow!

“Zeph!”

“Hey, you ready?” a male voice asks. Must be Zeph.

I yelp as a shoe comes down on my right wing, pressing me to the floor. I don’t have any feeling in them, really—they’re kind of like hair or fingernails for you humans—but I’m now trapped under someone’s foot and am pretty sure I’m going to get trampled any minute now!

“This is the best Christmas present ever! Let’s go!”

Ahh, there we go, I’m free! I move my wings, spreading them, attempting take-off. Ha! Not only are my wings still too wet, now I’m tangled in the laces of this enormous shoe!

“Oh hang on, Zeph. Your shoe’s untied.”

Huge hands come down toward me, fingers rolling me from side to side as I struggle in the laces. Finally, I topple backwards, free again. I brush myself off with a sigh, looking up, and find myself staring into the face of the most beautiful human I’ve ever seen in my life.

He can see me!

The panic is a hot, bright streak through me as I struggle to stand. He’s looking right at me, eyes a little wide, mouth curled into a small, curious smile. I’m sure of it.
He can see me!
I try to fly, but my wings won’t work well enough. Still too wet.

“You ready?” Maya opens the front door.

“You guys have fun!” her husband calls from somewhere in the house.

I can’t take my eyes off the man who can see me. His has big, dark eyes that pin me to the floor.

“Yeah, sure,” Zeph says, standing.
He’s still looking right at me!
“Let’s go.”

Maya goes out the door and before I know it, there’s a huge hand lifting me into the air and sliding me into the soft, silky lining of a pocket!

“So is this guy as good as you?” Maya starts the car.

I’m afraid of being crushed, but the man seems very careful, even avoiding me when he fastens his seatbelt.

“No one is as good as me.” Oh, his voice! It’s so deep and bright at the same time. A finger slips into the pocket, searching, finding my head. He pets me...

He’s petting me! What am I, now, a dog?

Is he going to take me home and put me in a mayonnaise jar with holes in the lid?

Furious, I sink my teeth into his finger and taste blood, coppery and thick.

“Damnit!”

“Everything all right?”

“Fine!” The injured finger withdraws. “Just caught myself on something in my pocket. Staple or tack or... something.”

“I’m scared, Zeph.” The woman’s voice trembles slightly, and I remember suddenly why I’m here. I have a job to do! And wet wings or not, I need to get it done. “Do you think he can really tell me where she is?”

“Don’t be scared.” He reassures her and I’m peeking out of his pocket, trying to see how close we are. “And I don’t know... I hope so.”

“I’ve never been to a psychic... I mean, besides you...”

“I don’t count.” His laugh! Startled, I glance up, straining to see his face. That smile! “I’m like family.”

“True.” Maya smiles and reaches over to squeeze his hand.

“Turn left up here.” He squeezes her hand back.

Almost there. I give her a little “push,” and the car turns right, heading down a side street.

“Uh, Maya?”

“I know, I just... need to stop to pick up a prescription.”

That was me.

“Now!?”

“I’ll be right back.” The car door closes behind her.

“Well, little one...we’re alone at last...” The fingers dig into the pocket again, pinching my wings gently and pulling me out into the light.

No doubt about it, now. If he’s talking to me, he can obviously see me.

“You need to let me go.” I cross my arms and glare at him in what I hope is a sufficiently menacing way.

“I won’t keep you.” He holds me up in his palm and I shake my wings, making another attempt to fly. Still too wet! “What are you doing here?”

“Maya.” I nod toward where she’d disappeared into the drug store. “She’s about to find her birth mother.”

His eyes widen, and then he smiles.

That smile!

It sends a wave of heat rushing through me. I’ve never reacted this way in the presence of a human before. But, then again, I’ve never had a human see me before.

I need to get out of here.

I wave my wings, willing them to dry faster.

“Thank you, little one...” he says softly. He has such a strange, knowing look in his eyes. It’s unsettling.

“My name is Sam.” I shake the water off my wings and am satisfied to see it spray his face. He laughs, wiping it off. “And it’s just my job.”

“I know.” He cocks his head back and forth, like he’s studying me with those dark, captivating eyes. “I know what you do.”

“Most humans don’t know... can’t see us.” Frowning, I stand up on his palm, pulling the edges of my wings up high.

“I’m a little different than most… humans.” Zeph nods, his eyes smiling at me.

Now I’m the one cocking my head, studying him. Who is this strange man? Maya said something about him being psychic—maybe that’s why he’s so perceptive? The way he looks at me, it’s like he knows me. And not just who I am and what I do, but like he knows what I’m thinking.

And considering what I’m thinking, which isn’t at all G-Rated, that’s not good.

“Who are you?” I demand.

“My name is Zeph.” He looks amused at my posturing. I suppose it is a little ridiculous, considering how tiny I am compared to him.

“I know that,” I snap.

“You know a lot, Sam.” He smiles. “But you don’t know everything.”

“What does that mean?” I huff.

“Nothing.” He’s laughing at me. It makes me even madder.

“Why did you put me in your pocket?”

“I wanted you,” he said simply. Oh that look in his eyes. It’s dark and hungry and it makes me feel like he’s going to just swallow me up.

And part of me wants him to.

“Who are you really?” I gulp.

“You shouldn’t ask questions if you don’t really want to know the answers.” His finger brushes my wings and they quiver at the sensation. I’ve never had a human touch me before. It’s disconcerting. And kind of exciting.

“But I do want to know,” I tell him. Alex always says I’m too curious, and it’s true. I’m always asking questions, even if I can’t know the answers. “I want to know who you are. How you know who… what… I am…? Is it because you’re psychic? Are you reading my mind?”

“I’m psychic because I’m who I am,” he says cryptically.

“Talking to you makes me dizzy.”

“I bet you were like that before we started talking.” He laughed. “And no, I can’t read your mind. Only humans are so… transparent.”

“Can you see all of the fey?”

“No, actually.”

“Just me?” I blink at him, incredulous.

“So far.” He nods.

“Then how do you know who… what… I am?”

“You’re fey. You just told me.” He nods out the window. “Your next assignment is coming back.”

“I need to go.” My wings buzz slightly, and I can feel them, almost ready. A few more minutes and I’ll be able to fly away.

“Will I see you again, Sam?” The tip of his finger brushes my wings and I shiver. There’s a longing in his voice that makes me want to stay.

“If fate allows,” I tell him. 

“I don’t have a fate.” Zeph rolls down the window. Maya is practically running toward the car.

“Everyone has a fate.”

“Even the fey?”

I open my mouth and realize I don’t have an answer.

“Oh my God, Zeph!” Maya skids into the side of the car and hangs onto the lip of the open window, waving a piece of paper in his face. “You’re not going to believe this!”

She goes on, telling him about the woman she met inside, the conversation about birth mothers, the unbelievable coincidence... but he’s looking at me, still standing in his palm, that same bemused smile on his face.

“I believe you.” He laughs at her enthusiasm. “Get in the car before you freeze!”

“What are you doing?” she asks suddenly, noticing his palm out, and of course, she can’t see me standing in it.

I strain hard, getting my wings to work, and hover above Zeph’s hand. He drops it to his lap, looking at me with those interested eyes.

“So who is she?” he asks as his friend slides into the driver’s side.

“Her name is Gloria McCormick,” Maya’s voice is hoarse and coming in gasps. “She lives in town, Zeph! Right here in town!”

The startled look on my face must be obvious.
The Maker
has instructed me to bring her here, but I had no idea her birth mother was the same woman whose husband I’d saved from the factory fire the day before. Zeph cocks his head at me, and we look at each other for a moment longer. I feel like I could drown in those eyes.

“Roll up that window, it’s freezing!” Maya shivers.

“Thank you,” he mouths, giving me an imperceptible nod.

“You’re welcome.” I flit out the window and into the night.

“Alex, have you ever had a human see you?”

“I sure hope this one can’t!” This time it’s the woman, Karen, the one who’d been discovered with her lover in the men’s room. She’s loading up the counter at Neiman Marcus. We can watch her from our perch up on the candy cane.

“Have you?” I press. It’s been a slow day.
The Maker
has been oddly quiet for me since the other night when I was ‘discovered’ by the man.
Zeph
. Okay, I admit it. I can’t stop thinking about him. I think it’s just that I’ve never really been seen by a human before, like that. Kids, sure, dogs, cats sometimes… but never like that.

“There are people who can see us.” Alex shrugs. “I haven’t run into any myself, but I know they exist. They’re just really rare. Most of them are either what the humans call crazy or… just plain weird. Why do you ask?”

The woman at the counter is handing over her credit card to pay for the boatload of stuff she’s buying. How’s she going to get all of that back to her car?

“What do you mean, crazy or weird?”

“You know… crazy, cuckoo, loony, the ones they lock up in little padded rooms…” Alex gives me a look. “Or the weird ones, like people who can see the future, psychics, that sort… and only the real ones, not the fakes.”

Now it makes sense!

Maya mentioned him being a psychic. Zeph must be one of the real ones.

“Why do you ask?” Alex nudges me, and I glance down at the woman who is pulling a different card out of her wallet and handing it to the cashier.

“Someone saw me.” I bite my lip at the memory. I can still feel the kind of heated tingle that went through me in that moment. I’ve watched humans throughout my whole existence…what makes this one so different? I can only imagine it’s the fact he can see me. “A man… he seemed to know what I was, what we do.”

“Ha, serves you right!” Alex puts chin in hand and leans an elbow on a knee.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” I glower.

“Not you…” Alex points to the woman at the counter. “Her.”

Watching, I see her hand over yet another little plastic card to the cashier. Her face is flushed, eyes wide, confused, even a little scared.

“Karma, baby.” Alex grins, head shaking. “Ain’t it a bitch?”

“That’s not possible! I have ten thousand dollars on this card!” The woman’s voice grows louder, panicked.

“Did you do that?” I watch as the woman slings her purse over her shoulder and walks stiffly out of the store.

“Nope, that wasn’t me.” Alex flies off and I follow. We’re going after her. She’s got a cell phone in her hand now, and she’s talking frantically to someone. “So what about this guy who saw you? Did he do anything? Say anything?”

“He… put me in his pocket.” I shrug but I feel the heat of the moment again with the memory.

“Was he going to try to keep you?” Alex’s eyes widen.

“I don’t know.” We’re almost to the woman’s car now. It’s snowing pretty hard and I have to keep my wings moving to keep them from getting wet. “But he didn’t. I guess he just wanted to talk to me?”

“He talked to you?” Alex makes a beeline for the BMW as soon as the woman opens her door. I follow, sitting on the dash.

“He thanked me…”

I can still see Zeph’s face, the way he cocked his head and smiled when he looked at me. How it made me feel. Fairies have feelings, but they’re not as extreme as human feelings. At least, from what I’ve seen of human reactions, that’s my guess. But the way Zeph looked at me, it gave me that same feeling I got while watching humans copulate. But why should that be? What was so special about him?

I mean, aside from the fact he’s the first human I’ve ever met who could
see
me.

Is that it? Is it being
seen
that has me so flustered and riled? Or is it something else? I’d been surprised by him, but it’s more than that. It’s more than just having my usual invisibility stripped away. It’s something about him. Maybe it was the way he’d said, “I wanted you,” when I asked him why he put me in his pocket.

“James! It’s me!” The woman is crying, and it’s the first time I really notice. She’s got the phone crooked as she starts the car. “He’s cancelled my credit cards, and I just called the bank—there’s nothing in my account! Nothing! Call me. Please. As soon as you get this message.”

“Did you do that?” I ask Alex, grabbing on to the edge of the dash as the woman backs quickly out of the parking space.

“Wasn’t me.” Alex shrugs. “So what did this guy thank you for?”

I explain what happened the other night, my assignment and its impact on Zeph and his friend, Maya. Alex listens, nodding, and then grins at me.

“You’ve got a crush.”

“Shut up.” I snort, rolling my eyes. “I do not.”

“Hang on.” Alex closes his eyes. The woman has stopped her car at the side of the road and she’s got her head resting on her steering wheel, her eyes closed, too. Suddenly, her head comes up, and she pulls out into traffic in a hurry. “Now,
that
was me.”

“Where are we going?”

“Doesn’t matter. Listen, I’ve got an idea.” Alex leans in toward me, eyes bright, almost mischievous—Alex’s ideas are never a good thing. The last one got us both in big trouble with
The Maker
, and I spent two months aligning the fate of earthworms.

“Never mind!” I grip the dashboard again as the woman makes a sharp right, the tires squealing on the wet pavement. “Pretend I didn’t say anything.”

“Christmas is next week,” Alex reminds me. “You get one request.”

I frown, crossing my arms and looking out the window. Every year, on what humans call Christmas Eve, we’re allowed to ask one thing of
The Maker
for ourselves. Fairies don’t need much. We usually ask for some time off, since we don’t get any breaks the rest of the year, aside from the revival. I’ve never really asked for anything personal before.

“What are you suggesting?”

The woman pulls her car up to an enormous gate and rolls down her window to punch in some numbers on a keypad. The gate swings slowly open and she noses the BMW’s hood forward until the car is clear and she can speed up again along the asphalt drive.

“You know you want to.” Alex grins. “I’ve seen the way you watch them. Think about it. One night as a human. You said you wanted to be a girl… so you’re a girl, he’s a guy…”

Jaw dropped, I feel a slow, heated tingle at the thought—I can’t say it hasn’t occurred to me, that I haven’t thought about it, even fantasized a little. Meeting Zeph has upended my whole world. I’ve even considered putting in a requisition to speak with
The Maker
directly—our communication is normally one-way—so I can ask about this strange phenomenon of humans being able to see the fey.

And I want to know more about Zeph. About his life, about his fate. But I haven’t been given any assignments related to him, aside from Maya, and I haven’t had a chance to go back and find him. If I do what Alex suggests, if I ask to be human for a day, I can look him up. I can visit him, in human form. We can…

No.
I shake my head, as if to dispel the thought entirely. It’s a silly notion. I can’t ask
The Maker
for something so… so…

Anyway, that sort of request is hardly ever granted. Only under special circumstances. There are forms to fill out in triplicate. Approvals are long and arduous. It’s a hassle—and a longshot. It’ll never happen.

The woman gets out of the car, and Alex follows. I barely make it out before she swings the door shut. The house… yikes! This isn’t a house, it’s a palace! Who lives here? I wonder. Is this her house? Must be—she’s taking out a key to open the door.

“James?” The woman’s voice trembles slightly as she glances around the foyer. The ceiling is high, an enormous chandelier hanging there. Alex flies up and perches on one of the arms, watching. It’s a good vantage point, I think, as I settle in to watch, too.

“Karen!” Ah, here he is, the guy from the men’s room the other day—her lover, not her husband. “What are you doing here?”

She’s crying, reaching for him, clinging to his shirt. He frowns over her head, patting her back as she sobs. “I left you a message… he’s taken everything… he’s going to divorce me…”

“You play, you pay.” Alex sighs, swinging his legs and leaning forward.

Not always
, I think, frowning. Fate is often cruel and seems to make no sense at all. Even when we fairies get a bigger picture, it usually isn’t big enough. Someone always seems to be on the bottom, when someone else is on top, like some big wheel of fortune that just keeps spinning.

Speaking of top and bottom, the woman kisses him, her hand rubbing between his legs. He says something, but I can’t hear him. I think he’s trying to tell her ‘no,’ but she isn’t listening. Instead, she sinks to the floor, unzipping his pants and taking out his cock. It’s only half the size it was the other day, I notice, but when she puts it into her mouth, it grows.

She puts her hand up under her skirt, and I know she’s rubbing herself. It makes me remember watching the woman in the tub, and then being seen by her friend…

Zeph
.

Why am I so fascinated by this part of being human?
I wonder. Alex is as bored as ever, waiting for it to be over, but me, I’m on the edge of my seat, feeling warm and flushed as I watch them fumble their way over to the huge spiral staircase.

“Karen, please… We—” The man can’t speak because she kisses him, pushing him back onto the stairs, kneeling between his legs again to take him into her mouth. The look on his face is pure bliss, and I can tell he’s given in. His hands work on her blouse, pulling it out of her skirt so he can unhook her bra and free her breasts.

She moans around his cock as he fingers her nipples, sucking him faster, making wet, sloppy noises. The harder she sucks him, the more he kneads her flesh in his hands, and this makes her even more eager. It’s like some upward spiral and watching makes me dizzy.

“Lick me,” she purrs, pulling her skirt up and putting a high heel on either side of him on the stairs.

He’s rubbing her pussy through her panties and then he pulls them aside, burying his face between her legs. I feel a deep ache in my belly, low and throbbing, like I want something, but I don’t know what it is, and the image that keeps coming back to me is that man’s eyes, the way he looked at me. I got that same tingly kind of feeling then, too…

She’s holding onto the railing, her head going back, her hips rocking as he works his tongue and fingers into her flesh. Her other hand is cupping her breast, tugging at her nipple, and she puts one of her legs up over his shoulder and I can’t even see his face anymore. But I can hear him, the soft noises of her wetness and his tongue.

“Look at you,” Alex whispers, like they can hear us. “You want it so bad you’re trembling all over…”

It’s true, but I refuse to look at him.

Besides, I want to watch…

She’s coming, her face caught in that twisted look, something between pleasure and pain, and then she slides down his body, jerking his cock in her hand before easing him into her pussy. I can’t decide which I like better—the look on a man’s face when he first slides into that tight, hot tunnel… or the look on his face when he comes.

I still can’t decide, as they rock together on the stairs, his hands gripping her ass where her black panties ride up the crack. She hasn’t taken them off, just pulled them aside. He’s thrusting up hard, grunting, and she grabs onto the railing for balance with one hand, lifting her blouse with the other so he can suck one of her nipples into his mouth.

They don’t speak to each other, but it feels like they are—the whole room feels charged with whatever language it is they’re communicating with—the wet slap of their bodies, the groans and grunts and sighs, they say it all. Faster and harder, more and more, the spiral just keeps spinning up toward some impossible peak.

“All you have to do is ask,” Alex whispers, close, tempting me. “You know you want to…”

“Shhh…” I wave at him, watching as the man shoves himself up inside of her with one great, tremendous thrust, his body stiff and quivering like an arrow just shot from a bow. There’s that look on his face, the one that makes me feel weak just to see it. She collapses onto him, panting, and their bodies begin the slow unfolding which seems to happen after sex.

“Sir, you have a call on your cell—” The voice precedes the figure walking into the room by a moment, and the uniformed man stops in the doorway, eyes wide. “Oh… I’m… so sorry…”

“It’s okay, Joe!” The man pushes the woman off his lap. She fumbles with her clothes, tugging her skirt down, pulling her blouse together to cover herself. “I’ll take it.”

The uniformed man hands the phone over, and James puts it to his ear. “Yes?”

“Hey!” I nudge Alex, pointing. “That’s Joe! I was assigned to him just the other day! He saved a little kid on his way to a job interview…”

James is still zipping up his pants, the phone crooked against his ear. Karen turns her back, hooks her bra, and begins tucking her blouse into her skirt.