The Nightlife: New York (The Nightlife Series) (5 page)

In the taxi, Michelle turned to him with a steady,
controlling hand on his thigh.  “I know how you feel, but listen.  What you did
to that girl was horrible.  Your bite is like heroin.  You have very strong
venom.”  She held his gaze as she flicked her fingertip at his fangs, pointing
out the obvious.

“Is very intense sexual excitement.  Too much is instant
addiction, just like heroin.  You must never feed more than two minutes or you
risk the addiction.  You held this poor girl for too long.  She had many
orgasms,
oui
?
”  He nodded, admitting the
truth of her words.

“She will be anemic for days.  You took too much.  But the
real
problème
is her
addiction for
you
.”  She poked her finger at his chest in accusation.  “It
is psychological and physical addiction.  You must
never
bite this girl
again.  You must
never
see this girl again.  We cannot return tonight.  If
given the chance, she will pursue and stalk you.  You have marked this girl
forever.  She will think of you always.  Is very important you understand.  Is
a serious
problème
. 
Très mal.
”

Michelle paused to let the import of her words sink in.  “She
is now your
bloodslave
.  She will suffer withdrawals from you for
weeks.  Her pain will be constant. Depression may drive her to suicide.  You
should be ashamed.”

He was, at this point, quite ashamed, yet still very
frustrated from the whole experience.  “Why didn’t you tell me before?  Why did
you let me do this?”  He felt like a complete asshole once he understood the
full ramifications of what he’d done to Lisa, and he wasn’t above laying the
blame on Michelle’s shoulders for her part.

Michelle cupped his face with her hands. “
Oui
, is my fault.  You were
not truly prepared, but now you know.  There will be no
excuse
next
time.  You must
never
make this mistake again.  Let this be a
lesson
.” 
She was dead serious.  He caught the flow of her emotions leaking through their
psychic bond.  She had an unwavering resolve to ensure that Aaron
never
abused another woman––a deadly resolve.

He followed this thread of thought in Michelle’s mind via
their connection.  This bloodslave thing was a real sore spot for her.  She’d
seen it happen before.  He caught a shadowy glimpse of numerous faces.  Thin,
emaciated faces.  A great heap of sadness and grief hid just under the surface
of her mind.  He almost reached into that pile of writhing snakes, but thought
better of it.  He shied away from her pain and leaned back to the other side of
the bench seat.

She held him with her calm, unnerving gaze.  He’d dug a
little too deep, traveling through unwelcome corridors of her mind.

“I will do
whatever
is necessary to be certain you
respect them.  Do not test me.”   There it was in her mind, plain as day for
Aaron to read.  She would ensure he was careful with the women they fed from,
even if it meant killing him.  This mistake was on her, a freebie.  If he
continued abusing women it would get serious.  A non-negotiable issue.  He
sensed a dark gruesome history underlay Michelle’s strong feelings.  She had
been a victim.

* * * *

CHAPTER 6

Aaron stood beside Michelle on the roof of her apartment
building, looking out over the city lights, breathing in the smells, listening
to the night sounds of passing cars and people living normal
lives.  To
his enhanced vision the night sky-line and rooftops glowed with illumination. 
He could see everything, almost as if it were daylight.  His night vision was
superb.

Standing there looking down on the world, he felt divorced
from the human race, an outsider peeking in windows but never truly entering
within.  He’d felt this way before, especially after his father’s death, but
now it was real.  He was truly disconnected from all of humanity.

The tangs of city life in all their ripe flavor drifted on
the air; remnants of meals cooked, unwashed sweaty bodies, sewer vents and auto
exhaust.  He took it all in, identifying each scent with the understanding that
he would never again be mired in such things, human things.  It was exciting,
but equally intimidating.  He had no one in the world but this strange woman he
called
Master
.  His father had been gone for years, and his mother
bailed on him shortly thereafter.  Relations with Kyle and Delia and all those
other
people
who were once a significant part of his life couldn’t
continue.  He was detached from the world and all its problems, and it felt kinda
…
good
.  He felt free, like a great weight had lifted from his shoulders,
all expectations gone.  There was no one to answer to, no one to buy beer for,
no one except Michelle.  She reminded him of this new weight of expectation as she
squeezed his hand demanding attention.

She’d brought them to the roof but hadn’t bothered to
explain why.  She turned to him, “Is a good time to learn how your new body
moves.  Is purely instinctual.  Don’t think too much.  Watch me, I go first, then
is your turn.” 

With that, she did the craziest thing he’d ever seen.  She stepped
right off the roof of her twenty story apartment building and landed gracefully
on the fire escape catwalk two stories below.  No ceremony, no warning.  She
did it like it was the thing to do when standing at the edge of a building.  Like
the chicken that crossed the road
to get to the other side
.  She touched
down as if nothing.  Virtually no impact from her landing.

Michelle continued doing the impossible by leaping across
the alleyway, flying fifty feet through the air, and gradually descending in a
graceful arc until she landed on the wall of the neighboring concrete building. 
As she hit, she crouched down into the impact and vaulted off the wall back out
into the alley for another graceful arc of descent.  She glided down at an
angle into a textbook perfect landing precisely at the fire escape catwalk
outside her apartment window.  With each of these artfully executed maneuvers
she descended lower and lower as though traveling down a switch-back trail from
a mountain top.

After all that, she had the audacity to lean out over the
catwalk railing and look up at him with an innocent smile.  “Now is your turn.”

He was stunned into silence.  He stood there with a dumb
expression, his mouth open in awe.  She was a friggin’ Jedi master, a super
hero (heroine).  Spider Woman, Cat Woman, and the Black Widow all rolled into
one.  And just how the hell was he supposed to keep up?  How could she expect
him to do that shit?

When he regained the ability to speak he protested loudly, “No.
 Fucking.  Way!”

She had that I’m-not-playing-with-you-
Imbécile
look.

He tried to reason with her, “Maybe this is another one of
those situations I’m not quite ready for yet.  I honestly don’t see how I can
do that.”

“You can do this, no
problème
. 
Your body knows how to move.  Is like breathing.  Don’t think about it!”  She
smiled again.  Wonder Woman hadn’t even broken a sweat.  She stood there with
an expectant look.

“No way José.  No can do.”  He shook his head.  A dread
sensation settled in the pit of his gut. 
She’s fucking serious
.  She
really wanted him to jump.  Her impatience with him broadcast over their
psychic bond.  He sensed what she was about to do a split second before she did
it.  That was all the warning he got.

“Jump now and follow in my steps!”  Michelle spoke in that
strange resonant timbre of command and he jumped off the side of a twenty story
building involuntarily.

“Oh shit oh shit oh
shiiiiit!
”

Much to his surprise, he made a decent landing on the catwalk
below, same as Michelle.  The thirty foot drop felt like only three feet.  Continuing
on with the
follow in my steps
command, he leapt across to the
neighboring building, descending in an arc.  He basically followed Michelle’s
path, but had underestimated his strength.  When he hit the wall of the
neighboring building feet first, the cement cracked a ten foot wide spider-web. 
He launched off the wall exactly as she had done, mimicking her movements and following
her path of descent, but a large piece of the wall dislodged behind him and
fell to the alley below.  He was far more powerful than he knew.

In his final maneuver, he miscalculated again, using way too
much force for his jump.  Instead of landing on the catwalk as she had, he
plowed straight into her.  Of course, she saw him coming and intercepted him. 
She spun and slammed him into the wall, redirecting his force and knocking the
wind out of him with a bone-crushing thud.  He thought he heard something
crack, but he wasn’t sure if it was his back or the wall.  Felt like his back,
maybe his ribs.  It took a moment to catch his breath past the sharp pains in
his back and chest.

“See, I told you!  Next time listen when I tell you something!”
she snapped with a smug grin.  “Stupid Americans.  Think they know everything!”
she spit in derision.

“
Tu me pèles le jonc
!
” 
She
let him know his behavior had gotten on her nerves in her not-so-cute-anymore
French accent.  With this she heaved Aaron over her shoulder, spinning 180
degrees.  He went flying out into the alleyway tumbling end-over-end, headed
straight for the pavement.  He had absolutely no forewarning.  She’d cleverly
concealed her intention to toss him over the railing of the catwalk like
yesterday’s newspaper.

“Oh Fuck!  Oh my god!”

Though he had no warning, he recovered quickly.  As she had attempted
to explain earlier, he instinctively knew how to manage the fall.  Like a cat
with nine lives and inhuman agility, he twisted and turned in the air to bring
his spinning momentum aligned for a feet first landing.  He dropped into a
tight little crouch with the impact, his hands touching down for balance.  He
fell four stories without injury.

Michelle shocked him further by issuing another compulsory
command, “Come to me now!”

He leaped into the air, snatched up the bottom rung of the
ladder twelve feet off the ground, and scaled the fire escape.  He pounded up
the stairways at a breakneck velocity any fireman would be proud to witness. 
He reached Michelle on the fourth story in mere seconds.  The little psychotic witch
welcomed him with a smile.

He watched her with trepidation.  She damn near killed him
twice in the span of a couple minutes.  He couldn’t decide whether he should
laugh, scream, cry, or beg.

As she opened the window to let him into her bedroom, she
mocked him.  
“
Est-ce
que tu as le démon de midi
?
” 
Having a mid-life crisis?

He followed her inside and wisely kept his mouth shut.  She
went about the apartment doing this, that, and the other thing, girly things. 
She kept her distance, letting him calm down.  How courteous and considerate of
her.

Sitting on Michelle’s bed, steeped in the scents of her
perfume and other distinctive body odors, he attempted to reconcile his new
reality.  He was now a blood-sucking vampire with amazing physical strength and
agility, and some rather interesting talents for seduction.  He had
exceptionally acute senses and could read the minds of those nearby.  He was a
slave to the will of his drop-dead gorgeous––though slightly psychotic––vampire
master whom he found difficult to trust and was fast learning to fear.  The question
was how did he feel about it?

Stuck.  Stuck on her, and stuck with her.

She seduced him effortlessly every time she spoke in that
alluring-irritating-cute-sexy-maddening French accent.  Despite all the reasons
he shouldn’t let emotion color his dealings with Michelle, it was too late.  That
war had been lost before it began.

Love at first site.

Whether she was a guardian angel or a demoness didn’t
matter.  He was smitten, infatuated, and he could hardly keep his eyes off
her.  She had him good, right where she wanted him, and there wasn’t a damn
thing he could do about it.  She owned him; body, heart, and soul, and she hadn’t
even fucked him yet.  He knew she didn’t feel the same way about him.  He was a
trainee
, a liability, not a man to love or respect.

All things considered, he decided it wise to conceal his
thoughts deep in his mental vault and try not to wear his foolish heart on his
sleeve.  He might be her slave, but that didn’t mean he was without pride.

She slipped up on him quietly, and her fingers traced a
pattern over his shoulder, sending a zing straight to his groin.  “Are you
planning to scowl for the rest of the night or are we going to have sex?”  She
gave him her
Helen of Troy
smile that could launch a thousand ships,
sending them all to their demise.

While doing a double take, he snapped, “You just shoved me
off the roof of a building.  Can I have a chance to get my head straight?”  As
her words penetrated his frustration, he began to warm to all the wonderful
possibilities that stemmed from her blatant proposition.

After a minute of silence he back tracked, “Look, I’ll admit
the roof thing was exciting and kind of fun and … I don’t even have a scratch
on me so … I guess there’s no harm, no foul.”

“Does this mean we are going to have sex now?”  She slipped
her fingers through his hair seductively, massaging his scalp in wonderful
little circles.  “I promise I will not order you around … this time …
Ça va
?
”  She gave him her most innocent
look while wrapping her arms around him to bring his head down to her breasts.

“Well, since you put it that way.” he mumbled into her
mostly uncovered cleavage.  He couldn’t say no, didn’t even want to say no.  Why
bother pretending?  For once he was getting laid and he didn’t even have to beg
for it.

They could let bygones be bygones for the moment.  She wasn’t
gonna force him, or so she said.  But then maybe that sort of force wouldn’t be
so horrible.  As the saying goes,
you can’t rape the willing
.  Michelle
took control of the situation when she lashed out to bite him on the neck.  He
reacted without thinking.  It was an instinctual thing that just happened.  He
wrapped around her and bit her right back.

He realized she’d been counting on it.  She wasn’t the least
bit surprised.  He fell into a heavenly bliss of feeding and drug-like euphoria
as the venom-induced ecstasy brought him to climax simultaneously with
Michelle.  She purred her pleasure at him, grinding her moist hot crotch all over
his leg.

“
Oh oui,
encore
!
 
It has been such a long time since I felt this way.  Only with vampires can it
be so … mmm … there is nothing quite like it … is the
sense de la vie
!
”  She licked his blood from
her lips and caressing his hard cock from the outer bulge of his pants.

His mind whirled with the overwhelming power of her presence
and touch.  He felt like a kid in a candy store.  He could scarce believe his
good fortune at being the object of this super model’s seductive attentions.

“You know I’m not really experienced.”  It slipped from his
mouth without any thought, his venom-saturated loins speaking before his brain
kicked in.  As the words tumbled out, he mentally ordered himself to shut-up.

“
Oui
. 
Is no
problème
.  I
will teach you everything in time.  You must trust me.  I know you don’t, but
you have no choice.”  She stated this matter-of-factly while unbuttoning his
pants with quick, deft movements.  The girl was an old pro.

As she undressed him, she explained, “I know how the world
sees French women.  They say we are sexually liberated. 
Oui?
”  He nodded slowly,
uncertain where she was headed with this revelation.

“The truth, we are actually quite traditional.  We like the
old-fashioned courtesies. 
Comprends?
”
 He nodded again, entranced as her hands undid buttons and zippers and slid his
shirt off his chest.

“I expect the simple courtesies like opening doors, pulling
out chairs, changing light bulbs, unplugging the nasty sink drains, answering
phones to fend off telemarketers …  sending flowers for no particular reason. 
And most important, you must give the courtesy of allowing me to orgasm
first
.”

“That’s the French way?”  He swallowed with an audible gulp
as he stepped out of his pants and underwear.  He had never been naked with a
woman with the lights on, it was kinda nerve-wracking.

“
Oui
. 
Classical European etiquette.  This one time I will make an exception, for the
purpose of our lesson.”

She gently pushed him back onto the bed and proceeded to
work him by hand.  She knew exactly what he wanted, how he wanted it, where he
wanted it.  She plucked it straight from his mind.  Within moments she worked
him to a back-arching explosive peak, robbing him of the ability to think or
speak.  This was achieved in the same impersonal manner she had adopted as his
official teacher of the fine arts of vampirism.