Seduction

Humans are such silly creatures. They are obsessed with time, measuring it, scheduling it, wasting it. I think it is because they have so little of it. Their lives are like fireworks. They burn bright beautiful but far too quickly. There are those of us that have a more extended view on time. When you have seen a few millennia pass, somehow a week ceases to matter. Seasons become annoying blips across my vision.

I usually pay no more attention to individual humans than it takes to seduce one long enough to take a few sips. I don’t take enough to compromise their health in any way, just a little blood to sustain me. That was until I came across her. She was the first human I seriously considered attempting to turn. Her eyes were golden. Her hair was a rich burgundy. Her complexion, well at first glance I thought she was another of my kind. Her skin was pale and had an almost translucent glow about it. When we met, I was the one entranced.

“Oh, excuse me,” I bounced off of her in the crowded club.

She flashed a magical smile on her ruby red lips. It looked like she wasn’t even wearing lipstick. “I don’t mind.” Her voice was musical. I was in real trouble.

“Can I buy you a drink?”

“Sure, but nothing alcoholic. It really doesn’t agree with me.”

I went to the bar and bought her a virgin sex on the beach. When I returned she was still standing in the same spot. She waited for me, even without a proper seduction. “Virgin sex on the beach,” I handed it to her.

She sipped. Her eyes went to a faraway place and she sighed. “It is very good.”

“I actually ran into you on purpose,” I tripped over myself, usually I wasn’t so direct, “I watched you come into the club. You have quite a glide to your step. I haven’t seen a human move with such casual grace since…”

“Human? Interesting way to phrase it. I actually came into the club because I heard you might be here.”

I blinked at that, “Me? Why me?”

“I’ve heard things, from people who have encountered you. I was curious.”

“Pleased to meet you curious, but what exactly have you heard?”

“That you are gentle and considerate, taking only what you need.”

Alarm bells went off, this human was implying she knew something resembling the truth about me. “I don’t know what you are talking about.”

Her musical chuckle drew me in close. She whispered one word in the chaotic noise of the club. One she knew only I could possibly hear, “Vampire.”

I knew I should whisk her from the club and drown myself in her blood. A human even suspecting the truth was far too dangerous to let pass. “I’m sorry, I missed that.”
“Then perhaps we should go somewhere a little more private.”

No, I thought. I knew what I would have to do if we were to go somewhere “private.” “I don’t think that is the best idea.”

She began to look desperate, her eyes pleaded with me. Then she swooned. I caught her, feeling the warmth and life within her. She began to convulse gently in my arms. I think the people around us thought we were dancing. After a few moments, she came back into herself. “Please,” She whispered.

I couldn’t stop myself, with a protective arm around her I led her from the club. Outside she led me to a car parked in a handicapped spot. I eyed the placard hanging from her rearview mirror as she got in. She took it down and tucked it between the seats. I got in the passenger seat. “Where are we going?”

“To my place, it isn’t far,” She started the engine and pulled out of the parking place. She didn’t lie, after only a few blocks she pulled into a garage beneath some upscale condos. She parked in a reserved space near the elevator and got out of the car, wobbling just a bit. I left the car and was at her side in moments. My arms wrapped around her and she leaned into my embrace, nuzzling my chin from beneath. Then she pulled away and walked to the elevator. She held her key fob to a panel near the button. The elevator doors opened. She motioned me inside.

We rode up in the elevator, standing on opposite sides. I stared, drinking in her petite perfection. She eyed me coyly, innocently. The elevator went all the way to the top floor and opened into the penthouse apartment. She appeared to have done well for herself. She led me to a comfortable couch and we sat near enough to touch, yet not touching.

“Michel, I want you to turn me.”

I blinked, no one had ever been so direct with me. I had been approached before, but turning someone was not a thing to be done lightly. When you turn someone, you exchange parts of yourselves. You are signing on to being with them for eternity, or until eternity became too long and you chose to see one last sunrise. “Do you really know what you are asking?”

“I do, we would become a part of one another. I want that.”

“You don’t even know me.”

“I have been searching for you for six months. I know exactly who and what you are. Please I don’t have much time.”

“What do you mean?” I felt the sullen assurity that I knew exactly what she meant. She was facing a death before her time and fighting it with everything she had. The light feeling of being wanted in my chest did a flip. She was just desperate.

“I was given five months to live, six months ago. I have a rare and inoperable cancer growing on my brainstem. I was resigned to die painfully losing pieces of who I am. But then I heard a rumor from a friend of a friend, a myth made real. At first, I was just desperate to survive. But as time passed and I came closer to finding you, something changed. I have been watching you for weeks. From the shadows. I have seen you feed. You don’t treat your victims as mere meals. You are kind, gentle respectful, even reverent in the way you handle them. I watched you and I love you.”

I stared at her. One of the things gifted to me with my immortality was the ability to sense the truth. It took a supernatural kind of something to slip a lie past me. She was telling the truth. She loved me. “I have never tried to turn anyone. I understand how to do it, but I have never tried. It might not work.”

“If it doesn’t work, I am no worse off. In fact, you would be sparing me an ignoble death,” She leaned in closer. The smell of her perfume and her intense female aroma triggered a hunger I had never felt before.

“I,” This was no time for words. I leaned forward and tilted her head to the side. I nuzzled and licked her neck kissing my way up to her ear, blowing softly. A shiver passed through her. She was ready. I took my own wrist. Opening up a vein I bid her drink. She pressed her ruby red lips against my skin and sucked deeply. She drew my blood, my essence into herself.

After a few moments my wounds healed and she reluctantly withdrew her lips. It was my turn to taste her. I went for her neck again. My lips found the beating of her pulse. I sunk my teeth into her neck and drank with abandon, my lips monitoring the slowing of her pulse. Just before it stopped, I withdrew. She had gone limp. I held her to me and counted the seconds. I cared about seconds. A full minute passed and she started to move. Now was the test. She sat up and stared at me with glazed eyes. I could see her mortal essence warring with the immortality I had infused her with. Either death would truly win or she would be by my side forever.

She began to convulse, violently. She vomited blood all over me. Then she fell coldly, terminally, still. Her mortality had won out. I didn’t even know her name. Now I sit on her lovely penthouse balcony, sipping champagne, waiting for the dawn.

approximately 1424 words for

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Paranormal Romance Contest  (18+) Now, Open Exclusively to HSP students & members - a 2016 & 2020 Quill Award winner #2089860 by Jim Hall

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