Sorry for the delay in posting this chapter; the last couple of weeks have been busy ones. This chapter is a short, but necessary one.
Once again thanks to all of you that have read my story and taken time to review. As an author that is our payoff.
Dark Desire – Chapter 20
Earlier that evening, Tiffany Coulter stood in the fangbanger parlor doorway as Gaetano Califano, Dante Capelli and two other vampires walked through the elegant marble entry and were escorted down the long hall to the throne room. As he passed, Tiffany called out to her recent lover, but Dante just turned his head slightly and glared at her with a sneer on his face. That made Tiffany furious: not only had she alerted the male vamp to Katy Dumont's whereabouts, earlier that week, she had called again to inform him that King Eric Northman was going to marry the bitch.
"Yum! Whose the good looking vamp? He looks like he knows you well, Tiff. He doesn't like you much either, does he? Seems nobody does." A snarky laugh sounded behind her. Tiffany could see the reflection of the gorgeous brunette in an ornate eighteenth century French Provincial mirror on the wall directly across from the parlor door. Evie Zalman, the newest fangbanger was standing there along with ten other girls and one guy. She had arrived at the palace while Tiffany was in California, but in the short time that she was there, she had become the de-facto leader of the group.
With her lush figure, creamy skin and light blue eyes, Evie was the new favorite of many of the vamp guards; it was a position that Tiffany once held, and she hated the newcomer for that. The two women had started off on the wrong foot the first night that Tiffany returned from California. They had fought over one of the vamp guards; two other vamps had to pull them apart. The women hated each other ever since, and Evie seemed determined to drive the beautiful blonde away, but what Tiffany hated most was the fact that the other fangbangers actually seemed to like Evie; they had never liked her.
"What's the matter; you don't like the competition?" she had snarled at Evie one night after a particularly vicious quarrel.
"Competition, my ass. Why don't you just leave? No one wants you here any more, you pathetic liar. Most of the guards can's stand you. Don't you know that?" The brunette laughed in her face.
It was true: since she returned, Tiffany was usually the last choice when the vamps needed servicing and often not selected at all unless by a vamp visitor. She was convinced that Evie and the others had told Daniel about her boasts about being Eric's favorite, or were spreading malicious rumors about her, but Tiffany had no intention of leaving. She was determined to get Eric Northman's attention one way or the other. She considered the tall blonde he was sleeping with now as as a temporary set back, at least until she heard about their engagement.
Tiffany had learned about about Eric and Katy's engagement and wedding plans along with the other fangbangers the night Eric announced it to his staff. The news spread through the palace like a wildfire; it was all the vamps could talk about when they called the women in to their lounge that night. There were several vamp visitors that night and Tiffany had been kept very busy, but they were not the one she wanted to be with. She wanted to be with golden blonde viking; she wanted to be the woman in his bedroom, not Katy Dumont.
The fangbangers looked down their noses at their perceived imperfections of the tall, thin doctor who had captured their vamp king's heart. All of the fangbangers at the palace were selected for their physical perfection; average people never made the grade at court. Like most fangbangers; they were all weak, shallow, empty vessels addicted to V and vamp sex. Amoral, conceited and egotistical, they believed he should have chosen one of them. They could not understand why his eyes glowed with love whenever he looked at Katy; they would never understand the attraction.
Ever since they learned of the engagement, all of the fangbangers, even the males, were consumed with jealousy and envy of Katy Dumont. They hated her even more when they found out she was trying to convince the king to kick them out of the palace because she didn't want them in her home. "Who does she think she is?" they snarled and griped when they found out.
Their puny emotions did not compare to the black cloud of hatred and rage that filled Tiffany Coulter. Her hatred for Katy Dumont was a living breathing thing. She felt that Katy had stolen what was hers, and she was determined to get him back.
Tiffany hated Evie Zalman almost as much as she hated Katy Dumont, and Evie Zalman felt the same way; there was no love lost between them. When she first came, Evie had tried to catch the king's attention on many occasions, but she failed. The king was always preoccupied; he never seemed to chose any woman vampire or human. After a few days, she heard from the vamps that Eric was looking for some woman named Katy Dumont. She wondered what the missing woman had that was so special. She redoubled her efforts, but Eric never looked at her once.
By the end of the first week, Evie had most of the other fangbangers eating out of her had. When the others talked the blonde, Tiffany Coulter, who often bragged about being the king's favorite, she hated the beautiful blonde sight unseen. When Tiffany arrived back from California after a month, Evie focused that hatred like a laser beam, getting the others to mock and razz Tiffany mercilessly. Since Tiffany had always acted like she was better than the rest, the others readily jumped on the bandwagon.
Tonight, Evie and the others had been on her case and riding her hard from the first moment she walked into the parlor. Tiffany was ready to explode, but she dare not do it. She had several arguments with the other fangbangers, and Daniel Brady had forcefully warned her that one more fight would result in her being banned from the palace for good. He said he wouldn't tolerate someone who caused so much disruption; she was on thin ice and everyone knew it.
Daniel had chewed her out in front of the others and that embarrassed her; she stayed away for two nights then Daniel had her summoned for some visiting vamps who had asked specifically for her. Knowing that Evie had seen Dante Capelli snub her tonight was painful. Choking her rage back, she threw a fiery look at the brunette; it was so hot, it could have melted steel. "Piss off Evie!" she hissed over her shoulder.
Holding her head up straight, she walked down the hall to the bathroom used by the fangbangers. She could hear Evie laughing, and she wanted to strangle her. As she sat down on the stool, her shoulders slumped; she felt deflated like a hot air balloon. She felt like the fat high school girl who had been taunted by her classmates, and she hated the helpless feeling it gave her.
Leaving the bathroom, she noted that the other fangbangers seemed occupied watching television. Taking advantage of the situation, she crept down the hall toward the throne room. The door had been left slightly ajar, so she she stood quietly to the side and listened. The occupants were not trying to mute their voices, so she heard everything. She was not worried about being discovered since every eye and ear inside the room was focused on what was happening up front between King Eric and Califano, Nan Flanagan and the Magister.
She was surprised to find out how important the two other vamps with Califano and Capelli were. Her heart sunk at the charges made against Eric; she knew enough about vamps to know that killing another vamp was a capital offense. She also knew that if the two vamps had any proof, Eric could be dead before they walked out the door. She loved Eric; she didn't want anything to happen to him.
She heard Katy talk about her inheritance and how she planned to give half of it to Eric as a dowry after they wed. Tiffany came from money, so that didn't bother her much. It was Katy's comment that she had asked Eric to turn her after their wedding that stunned her. It was Eric's willingness to turn Katy that destroyed any hope she had of winning him back; she knew that meant Katy and Eric would be together forever.
Tiffany prayed to God that Nan Flanagan and the Magister would not agree and insist that Eric turn Katy over to Califano. She knew what Califano planned for Katy and wanted her to die a horrible death at his hands. When Nan Flanagan and the Magister signaled their agreement, Tiffany wanted to die herself. As Califano and other vamps swept by her in the hallway when the meeting was over, Tiffany realized she both she and Califano had failed: there was no getting rid of the tall, thin blonde now.
Stifling her fury, Tiffany dragged herself out of the palace and drove to a human bar nearby; she didn't want to see another vampire tonight. Entering the bar, she spotted Ralph Thompson sitting alone in a booth. She didn't much like the human male, but she didn't want to be alone tonight. She found herself sitting down beside him. "Remember me?" she asked Ralph.
"Oh, yeah. We have some unfinished business, you and I," he leered suggestively as he ordered her a drink. While they waited, Ralph began to paw at her. To stop him, she began to talk about Eric Northman and Katy's engagement. Ralph's face flushed a furious red when she mentioned the blonde's name. He had heard of the engagement; it seemed almost everyone in New Orleans knew about it now.
From the reaction on Ralph's face, Tiffany knew she found a kindred spirit: someone who hated Katy Dumont as much as she did. She wanted to talk to him more about that, but not in the bar where they may possibly be overheard by someone.
"Let's go to my place," she told him. After Ralph scored some V from a human in the bathroom, the two left together and Ralph followed her to her apartment. They were both sitting on the living room sofa drinking scotch and doing a line of cocaine when Ralph told her again how Katy and Eric humiliated him. "I hate that vamp loving bitch. Someday she will get what she has coming to her," he roared.
"You're not the only one who hates her. She deserves to die," Tiffany roared right back at him. Thirty minutes later, she crushed an aspirin in a ceramic bowl and dropped a large bead of V on it. Mashing it up good with a pestle, she put it on her tongue and kissed Ralph. Suddenly, it was if they were both flying high over the palace. They could see inside the walls; they could see Eric and Katy making love in their bedroom Tiffany and Ralph shared a common hallucination about Katy Dumont's death. The hallucination aroused them both mightily.
The V made them both feel powerful and invincible. It made them feel lust like they never had before. Their clothing was in tatters as the two had sex on the living room floor. Tiffany told Ralph it was the best sex she'd ever had. She was lying to him, but she needed him; he gave her ideas.
For a week, Ralph stayed at her apartment. They lived in a drug and sex induced high. They consumed quantities of booze, cocaine, crystal meth and more V. When they were capable, they fucked each other stupid. They rarely ate; they rarely bathed; they swam in their filth for days, but they plotted and planned.
On the eight night, Tiffany showered, ate a good meal, dressed up, put her make up on and went back to the palace. She would be a good girl from now on; she had a purpose now: find a way to kill Katy Dumont before she married Eric Northman.