CHAPTER SIX

Sing For Me

The tiny flame from his lighter illuminated the darkness. Liquid shadows drifted on his face along with the movement of the flame. It gave an eerie aura to an already monstrous individual. He brought it up to his well sculpted lips and lit the self rolled cigarette that was clenched there. He drew in deep and puffed the excess smoke back out into the open and let go of the lever on the lighter. While his right hand went up to retrieve the cigarette, his left slid the silver lighter back into the pocket of his tailored and pressed black slacks. Now all that was left was the burning embers of that cigarette. He leaned back in his chair and felt the soft friction of the suede. He leaned his head back and ran his fingers through his curly brown hair. Just as he had allowed his eyes to roll back and his lids to close, a knock on his door broke the silence. He sighed and slowly padded to the door. After crushing his smoke out on in an ashtray near the door, he pulled it open.

Jerome stood there with his hands behind his back. His blonde hair was pulled back into a pony tail and his eyes were serious.

"It's time Leo." He said simply. Leo stepped out into the lighted hallway and lead Jerome down stairs. Being who they were meant that a low profile was necessary. This also meant that they could not live in the normal luxury they were accustomed to. Although Leo had filled his room with beautiful and opulent things, the manor itself was derelict and infested with various pests. It was located on the outskirts of Walnut Grove in the farm district. This area was remote and prime reality for the wealthy populous of the area. The land was riddled with large hills and valleys and was lush and green. Leo had spotted this place a couple of months ago when it was deemed condemned by the county due to severe wood rot, termite and ultimately neglect by the owners whom had inherited the place. Apparently they were displeased with the inheritance and never stepped foot onto the property. For now it belonged to Leo and his cohorts.

Leo and Jerome made their way down the rickety stairs and passed the great room into the kitchen. Jerome set his candle on the dilapidated counter and a rat scurried away from the light. He mumbled something about filthy vermin and proceeded to the door to his right. Leo glance around the room and sighed. The rusted porcelain sink, the abandoned 1950's style refrigerator with its doors hanging from its broken hinges. He looked down at his feet and noted the peeling linoleum that presented the rotting wooden frame beneath it. He spoke aloud to Jerome.

"This place is not worthy of me. Not this house, not this town, not this country! I should be back in Europe, my home, but that damn slayer and her little club have infected it! I have been reduced to living in filth. In the very armpit of the United States, IL figlio di una Femmina! He keeps saying wait wait! It is not time yet! I have waited for months! I have been away from la mia casa for over a year! This all better be worth my patience! He better prove all of this to me stasera!" Jerome had become used to this. Leo's spontaneous ranting monologues of his displeasure. For the most part, Leo was one cool individual. He had displayed a certain amount of patience. But, being vampires, their patience is limited, and Leonardo De Luca was not used to being the one taking orders instead of giving them. As most vampires do have distaste for authority, Leo was no exception. Jerome on the other hand was much younger than Leo and had realized early on that if one were to survive the life of the non-living, one must choose their allies and learn to take orders form older ones like Leo. Being his virtual butt monkey would teach him all he needed to know about circumventing unpleasant situations such as an encounter with a Slayer, and then also teaching him what he needed to know when it came to killing a Slayer. Jerome was grateful for this, but, he too had his moments of doubt and mistrust. Mostly in the Master though. Never in Leo. Sometimes he thought that maybe Leo should start his own order. HE was old enough, wise enough, and was certainly a very skilled killer. But, Leo was too much against anything organized. He only went along with this because he thought he had a chance to wipe out these Slayer bitches and go back home!

It was two years ago that Leonardo was forced from his home. The Slayers came and basically cleaned house. He had seen the General herself one late night in his beloved city of Rome. He watched her from afar as she took five brethren Forsaken in one fight by herself! Soon after that The Army started stalking the night stalkers setting a new order of the night. Like a pestilence they swarmed through Italy sending the message that the presence of Forsaken would not be tolerated. Leo had slain a couple of Slayers in his day, but he knew even he was no match for an army of them. So, he and Jerome fled. It didn't take them long to realize that the General and her Captains had over looked a small area of mid western United States while traveling the globe adding newly born Slayers into their collective. It seemed only logical that this meant some how this place was not on their radar and they wouldn't be bothered here.

It was on their trip from New York to St. Louis that they were approached by one of Naberius' monks and propositioned. With the promise of ridding the world of the Army and returning home again, they agreed.

At least Leo knew that Italy was in fact his home. He wasn't sure of much else. His name for instance. Was that really his name? I guess if speak of something frequently it makes it more difficult to forget. So maybe it really was his name. But Leo couldn't remember ever being human. He doesn't know how he was brought into the fold of the Forsaken. It's not that he had gaps in his memory it was that the further he went back, the fuzzier things got until there was no recollection of anything at all. But, above all things he KNEW Italy was home. It was something that burned in his chest with fiery passion when he spoke of it. It was the cultural for the arts and refinery for the entire world wasn't it? When Leo found Jerome in New Jersey in the early nineteen seventies, he felt pity for him as brethren or more poignantly a brother would and took him back with him to Italy where he taught him about the world and the life he now had.

Leo himself didn't have to struggle for his nightly feeding hardly at all. His smoldering good looks, suave nature and aristocratic presence seemed to do all of the work for him. He was debonair and quiet giving him an air of mystery. Even though he sought his prey mainly at local hot spots and clubs, he had no taste for discourse and was usually able to make his conquest with out nary a word spoken. His steely eyes spoke volumes and that was all that was needed. In most cases it was easy enough for him to feed to the point of his victim's death with none the wiser. To observers, it was simply two lovers necking in a corner booth, against a wall, near the restrooms, or near the stage. All that was left behind was what seemed to be a young girl who drank too much and passed out. It wouldn't be until her friends decided to leave or last call before anyone would discover she was dead.

For him it was the hunt! The stalking and then their quiet surrender under his well played charms. For Jerome it was all about the theatrics and he enjoyed the art of the kill. The thrill of defiling a sweet flower of youth before ripping her to shreds was point of all of this to him.

Jerome, him self, was quit the accomplished psychopath when he was alive. He enjoyed stalking young girls home from the grocery store he worked at as a janitor. He made their deaths into art. In a way that is how he saw him self, an artist of torture and death. Fitting that he would meet his end in a dark alley while stalking his latest prey. He had seen her in her pretty pink mini skirt in the produce isle squeezing tomatoes. He imagined what he would enjoy doing to her later. He had followed her that night from the store and down an alley she had turned into. He went to reach for her when someone beat him to it. The dark figure emerged from behind a dumpster and in her shock she dropped her paper bag and those tomatoes she had been inspecting so carefully, rolled forgotten on the broken pavement. She took a step back and squished on of them with her right foot and found herself stumbling backwards into Jerome. She looked up at him somewhat relieved. But it was short lived. He grabbed her by the back of her hair and yanked her to his face. He smoothed her wisps of hair away from the right side of her face and licked it from her chin to her forehead. Then he whispered into her ear.

"I'll make you sing for me!" Jerome leaned back to gaze at her psychotically. But, when he did, he realized that he wasn't the only killer in this embrace. He was taken back when he saw her face. It had been transformed into its hideous vampiric form. Her yellow eyes seemed to glow. When she grinned, her elongated eye teeth shown through. Jerome came to know that HE had been lured into a trap not the girl. She reached forward with her left hand and grasped his throat tight.

"But I was so hoping to hear you sing! Come on you know the words!" With that she tilted her head to the left and bit down hard on the right side of his neck. He screamed in pain. She relented at looked up at him. "There you go lover! That's my favorite song!"

The figure that had come out from behind the dumpster approached and spoke.

"Quit messing around! I'm hungry too!" He was a large somewhat dim individual. He looked very put out by all of this.

"Come on, kill me. Don't stop now! Your almost there!" Jerome gurgled and grinned. The vampiresse looked at him thoughtfully.

"You serial killers are always so much fun! Normally your kind squirms and pleads for their lives when confronted with their own torture. They claim to relish torture and worship death, but when it comes time for their turn, they do their best to run from it like scared children. You on the other hand, I smell potential. You don't fear me, do you?" She leaned in and sniffed his neck up to his chin and licked his lips. She grinned slyly. She felt down with her hand and found his erect manhood and grasped tightly. He moaned against the engaging pressure. "And I can tell that you all but fear me."

"Come on! Quit fucking around and lets go! Finish him off and toss him in the dumpster so I can get something to eat before dawn! I'm dying here!" She rolled her eyes and let go of Jerome's crotch to retrieve a pencil in his jacket pocket.

"Here let me help with that." And without looking behind her, she flung the pencil over her shoulder and it lodged right into the other's chest penetrating his heart. He looked up in total shock; amazed that she had just done this to him. "There now your dead. I know how impatient you are." With that, he exploded into dust. "Now that that little annoyance is out of the way, where were we?" She pulled him closer and sunk her teeth in once again. He gritted his teeth and moaned as she gulped great draughts from his artery. He put both hands on her hips and pressed his body tightly against hers. She relented and threw he head back in ecstasy. She licked her lips and finally let go of his neck. She then kissed him on his mouth hungrily. When she pulled away she gazed at him and gave him her proposition.

"I could give you what you need to perfect your craft. You could stay young and vicious forever." He tilted her hips towards his and looked down ravenously at her skirt. The soft pink linen tortured his senses. All he could think about was ripping it from her thighs and conquering the soft, wet pink that lye between them. She sensed his desire and thrust his hand under her skirt and to the object of his desire. He gripped his fingers tightly inside her to cause her pain, she grimaced then laughed as she enjoyed the violent play. "Think of it! You could torture beautiful young girls for all time! Take them, make them yours, and make their bodies your playground! Then rip their hearts out and feed off of their very own souls! Every night you can feed your endless hunger as the god you are!"

He looked up at her and removed his hand from the tender and raw flesh of her genitalia and pressed his hand against her face, feeling all of her vampiric ridges and ultimately, her sharpened eye teeth. He pressed his thumb into her left fang and pierced it until it drew large droplets of blood. He shoved his thumb far into her mouth forcing her to suck the blood from it.

"And what if I say no?" He asked with out expression.

"Then you die."

He removed his thumb and wrapped his hand around her throat, turned, and shoved her against a brick wall. Her head bounced off of the dense surface and she laughed maniacally. He grabbed the hair from the top of her head and slammed it against the wall a few more times. She continued to laugh. Blood ran down her neck and he leant forward to lap it up. He reached down to his tattered, dark blue work pants and undid them to liberate his carnal muscle. Her legs wrapped around his waist and as he pulled down towards him he thrust upwards as hard as he could. The vampiresse let loose a deep guttural sound and smiled largely. Jerome repeated his thrusting slamming her again and again into the wall he had her against. She grabbed his head and pulled it close to her face and licked his cheek down to his neck where she bit down once again pulling into her mouth, the hot, thick, rich and salty nectar from his now weakened fount. Her feeding from his neck elevated his excitement. As his life's blood ebbed from him, his gratification became complete and he slowly let loose of her and began to slump. She followed him down to the ground until she had taken all she could from him. As he lay in her arms and drifted in dizziness, she reached over and picked up a piece of glass broken from a discarded liquor bottle. She then brought it to the right side of her neck and sliced it deeply. She lifted Jerome to the wound and bade him to nurse from it. He started slowly but then when the shock of the highly charged liquid hit his throat, he latched on like a starved leech. He growled spitefully as he fed. It became too much for her and she tried desperately to free herself. She pulled at his hair at the back of her head, she pushed at his shoulders. Finally, he fell backwards and allowed his head to swim. The vampiresse, her self, had fell back against the brick wall and swooned.

"I underestimated your hunger." She gasped.

As Jerome lay on the crumbling pavement, he felt a piercing lump under his hip. He slid his left hand under and produced a piece from a broken wooden palate. He gripped it firmly and slowly sat up, concealing it next to his thigh. To his right his sire scooted over to just as his head began to wobble.

"Easy lover. In about ten seconds you are going to pass out and won't wake up until tomorrow evening." She brushed his greasy blonde hair from his face and kissed his forehead. As she was doing so, Jerome brought the stake from his side and drove it into the left side of her back. She immediately shot up with her eyes wide and her mouth agape. She slowly turned her eyes to meet his in total astonishment.

"Did I do it right?" He asked sarcastically. She fell to dust.

That first night Jerome barely made it to a near by dumpster to shelter him self from the coming dawn. But, when he awoke the next night, he learned that a whole new world had opened up to him. With his new found vampiric strength, it was easy to reach into a young things chest and explode their heart like a piece of rotten fruit.

But now days, it had become more and more dangerous to be one the Forsaken, as Leo had called all Vampires. With the hundreds of Slayers running around, more and more are being dusted everyday. That was until they met with the Order. Apparently, due to the overage of Dudley Do-rights, The Master of this Order found his way to tear back into this dimension. And brought with him a wicked plan! It was hideously terrific! He had discovered a way to tip the scales into their favor, and all he needed was their help. A few more Forsaken for their cause and a couple mortal sacrifices, bada bing, bada boom, you got yourself one hell of a tipped scale! Super-Evil! The only problem was Leo was insanely impatient and neither of them cared for taking orders from anyone, especially some wigged out self proclaimed "Demon King" slash Vampire Master who got himself zapped into another dimension by some Slayer over a thousand years ago. But here they were. Standing in the middle of the run down house's run down kitchen about to make their way down some rotting stairs to finally begin the ritual that will bring forth the "Inanna", "She Who Is the Arm of the Damned".

As Leo began to wrap up his little tantrum, a vampiric priest swung open the scrappy basement door and stood before them. His face was twisted in the demonic form and wore a long red and black robe and adorned with large talismans and what looked like the atef crown that was worn by the pharaohs or ancient Egypt during religious ceremonies. He carried with him a black staff with a decorative silver spear at the head.

"The Chosen is prepared. It is time to awaken the Inanna. Master Naberius awaits you." The priest instructed with a gravely voice. He bowed, took a step back and gestured for the two to go along down the stairs. They looked at each other and, with hands in their suit pockets; they made their way down the rickety stairs to the dank, dim basement.

As they turned the corner, they saw a multitude of vampires encircling a stone table. It seemed that this basement went on forever. You could see where the original basement stopped and where they had tunneled out further. There were at least fifty vampires standing around this table and chanting lowly in monotone. Several of them wore the same black and red robe, but, only the one with the staff wore the head dress. The Priest made his way to the center of the circle just above a very nude and dead Nica Todd, the girl who had gone missing two night ago, who lay on the stone table. Leo and Jerome took their places among the chanters.

"Gube uzu avec mud. Sudu ama tud adda musal lirum Inanna."

"What took you so long?" A deep husky voice demanded. Leo looked up and over his shoulder to the towering dark figure from whence the question came.

"Is it not bad enough that it took you almost a year to find the girl who could contain the great Inanna, but now you have been dragging your feet to bring here forth from the pits of Nibiru?"

"Naberius, we are here we are chanting with the all mighty chanty ones, The Inanna will be brought and I will be allowed to go home! Na di will never have to listen to your annoying sermons again!" Leo spat.

"Whatever brings you to the Blood Goddess." Naberius stood next to Leo and began to chant.