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Chapter 30:
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For three days and three nights Bella and I were out hunting and we were still yet to find any prey that suited our requirements. My darling wasn't quite as patient as I could be but I was enjoying myself immensely and I was in no rush. The longer the hunt, the sharper the appetite, and the time alone with Bella pleased me very much. We hunted mostly at gay bars or clubs and every outing was like a date. The two of us sitting at the bar or at a table, dressed nicely, chatting while she sipped her drink and scanned the other patrons. We looked for rings on women's fingers or special smiles between couples. Every night we'd follow a certain pair home in our red sportscar, keeping a discreet distance, but often times one girlfriend would simply drop the other off at her apartment before continuing on to her own. We did find a couple that lived alone together but neither of them were physically up to our standards and after some discussion we simply made a note of the address and decided to keep looking.
In all this time Tanya had kept much to herself, working all day and meeting with clients or colleagues at night. She wasn't outright avoiding Bella and I but I could tell she needed more time to reconcile herself to her decision. I tried to keep her updated on how much progress we were making on the hunt but she only smiled and said she trusted us to make all the necessary arrangements before excusing herself politely.
Carmen had been informed of the coven's intentions and as Kate had predicted she had quite adamantly refused to take part. Not only that but she became even more colder than ever toward Bella and I. She didn't speak to us. She avoided us as much as she could. She muttered Spanish insults under her breath. Apparently I was a puta. Bella too but she took it much like a compliment. She had become increasingly fascinated with the fiery Latina and bolder too. Sometimes she'd even talk back. And smirk. I myself was as pleasant to my nemesis as ever but I knew it was only a matter of time before these combustible elements exploded. One way or another. All it would take was the right moment. The right wise crack. An argument that escalated. I only hoped the blast would do no damage to my dear friends' coven. The blast, ideally, ought to come in the form of orgasm that shatters the proud woman's self-righteous sensibilities.
Irena had slowly been developing a certain soft spot for Bella and it was quite touching to watch. Bella had won her over with smiles and cuteness and by now the tall blonde treated her with an almost aunt-like affection—aside from when she bent the girl over and fucked her with a strapon. One would rarely do that to one's niece. But it was sweet all the same. Bella too had developed a sort of hero worship for the tall blonde dominatrix and she was more than eager to offer her holes for the other woman's entertainment.
Kate had been in contact with Leah every day since their trip to the movies, either texting or chatting, and they'd had two more dates since then. Kate really seemed to like her, if her goofy smiles whenever her phone buzzed were any indication. They were wondering when the four of us could arrange a double date and since Bella and I were going out that night I suggested maybe they should join us. The club we were going to was another potential hunting ground but Bella and I didn't mind mixing a bit of business and pleasure. Kate thought it was a great idea and Leah did too after she talked with her. Bella was excited as well since she hadn't seen or spoken to Leah in quite a while. She asked Tanya if Tanya wanted to come but Tanya only smiled and shook her head and told us to have a good time. Bella mentioned that maybe we'd find some nice victims while we were out, perhaps to test how Tanya still felt about it, and Tanya again only smiled and wished us luck.
The club was called Paradise and it was a gay club. Mixed, to be precise. Leah had never been to one before and she thought it was quite awesome. The interior was dark and blue and the music was pulsatingly loud and everywhere you could see men dancing with other men and women dancing with other women and sometimes even men dancing with women. Leah and Bella were the only two true young people of our quartet and Kate and I allowed them to get drunk and have their fun. Bella knew I was generally much too sophisticated for club dancing so instead she danced with Leah while Kate and I watched from one of the tables that ringed the dancefloor.
The table was white and florescent, like a giant phosphorous toadstool in that bluish otherworld. The stools themselves were stalk-like as well and Kate and I sat with our legs crossed and our martini's untouched on the tabletop. Her dress was candypink and mine was a more elegant red. Deep red, almost scarlet. Leah was wearing a black leather miniskirt and black leather jacket over a sparkly blue halter and Bella was wearing a black skin tight cocktail dress with slits in the sides that revealed pale swathes of her hip and waist. They were moving to the techno and flinging their hair from side to side and smiling and laughing and grinding against each other's bodies on the dancefloor with utterly no shame in that heaving horde of homosexuality.
Kate smiled at them and stirred her martini with an olive on a toothpick. I still wasn't quite sure on the parameters they had set for their relationship—open or otherwise—and I was curious.
"So how's things going with Leah?" I asked her, keeping my voice loud over the music.
Kate turned back to me with the same smile "Well, I'm kind of jealous of how Bella is grinding up against her, so I guess that means I like her."
I nodded in agreement. "Possessiveness is always the strongest sign of romantic attraction."
Kate giggled at that and nodded. I watched her closely and just under the happiness I thought I could detect a hint of wistfulness, as if she thought maybe it wouldn't last much longer.
"Seriously, though, she's great," she went on. "We've had a lot of fun together. Only problem is…"
She trailed off and sighed. I smiled and raised my eyebrows to prompt her to continue.
"I'm running out of excuses about why I can't get something to eat with her," she said. "Yesterday we almost had a fight when she tried to surprise me for lunch. I think she thought I was trying to blow her off or something. I made it up to her later that night, but…"
I nodded and thought about it for a moment. Problems like that were to be expected, of course. Humans and vampires were fundamentally incompatible and the pretence could only last so long. It might've lasted a little longer if Kate and Leah didn't like each other quite so much but Leah certainly seemed eager to see as much of Kate as possible.
I could only think of one solution and I thought there was no harm suggesting it.
"Have you considered telling her the truth?" I asked over the music.
Kate didn't know what I meant. "About what?"
"About what you are."
She burst out laughing. As if I had made a joke. I lifted a brow and watched her calmly as her laughter trailed off. She looked at me oddly and chuckled again.
"What, you're serious?"
"Deadly," I said.
"That's crazy," she said with a snort. "Not every girl is like Bella, you know."
I smiled and looked at the dancefloor. Leah had one of her hands on Bella's breast and Bella was holding it to her dress there while they continued to grin and dance and kiss each other a little. I turned back to Kate.
"I know," I said. "Bella is one of a kind. But Leah is special too. Stronger than most girls. Tougher. Bolder. I'm certain she would be able to handle it. Especially considering your diet of animals rather than humans."
She snorted again at that and the snort held just an edge of bitterness. "Yeah, well, the vegetarian thing isn't going to be lasting much longer, is it?"
There was a slight accusation in her words but I didn't let it bother me. Kate had been acting a little strangely since Tanya had made the decision to join us for a hunt. I suspected perhaps her morality and goodness had meant more to her than she realized and now she wasn't all that eager to redeem them in darkness in exchange for the unholy pleasures of blood and death—no matter how much deep down she wanted to.
The music continued to throb in the background and I wondered if I ought to talk about this with her.
"Second thoughts?" I asked her.
"Nah," she said, brushing it off casually enough. "It's just a pretty big change, you know?"
"I know. But worry not. Bella and I are taking every care to select only the finest of victims. I'm sure you'll be quite delighted with them—once we actually find them, of course."
She chuckled at that and looked about the club. As if two victims might present themselves right now. I looked across the bluish dimness as well and heaved a sigh. I didn't think we'd have much luck here. Half the patrons were men and the other half were far too young.
"As much as I mock you ladies for feeding from animals I do admire the convenience of it," I mentioned loudly over the music.
Kate nodded and grinned. "Back in the old days we'd just find a guy, fuck him silly, and rip his throat out. Irena believes it was us who first inspired the myth of the succubus."
"How the mighty have fallen," I said with a chuckle. "From sultry sex demons to silly vegetarians."
Kate smiled and ignored my little jab. "Point is, it was much easier back then. Before there were so many laws."
I nodded and continued looking out over the dancefloor. "Yes," I said. "Hence we have to be careful. And select our victims wisely. But to be honest, I enjoy the extra complications of modern laws. It urges so much more consideration of the victims that we would otherwise take for granted. The best meals are the ones prepared with patience and loving care."
Bella and Leah noticed me watching and gave me a wave with wiggles of their fingers. I smiled at them and they giggled and turned away and started walking toward the bar with their hands clasped. Kate smiled at me as I watched them.
"You really like hunting, don't you?" she asked me.
"It's what I live for," I said brightly. "Aside from Bella, of course."
She nodded, watching me, studying my expression. There was no judgement in her yellow eyes and she seemed like she was only trying to understand how I could embody such evil with such grace and pleasantness. I smiled at her.
"And you?" I asked her. "Did you used to enjoy it?"
She thought about it for a moment and then shrugged. "Yeah. I did. Not enough that I couldn't stop, though."
"Perhaps male victims just weren't quite fulfilling enough," I suggested playfully.
Kate giggled but she was a bi-girl at heart and she couldn't resist defending her opposite sex. "You make fun of guys, but dick is good too," she said. "Sometimes it's just the thing a girl needs."
"Well," I said, giving her a skeptical glance. "There's no accounting for taste, I suppose."
Kate rolled her eyes elaborately and by now Bella and Leah were returning to the table. Leah had two beer bottles in her hands and she placed one of them in front of Kate before leaning to give Kate a big kiss on the mouth.
"I got you a beer," she said, pulling back from her lips with a grin. "You like beer, right?"
Kate seemed thrilled by the kiss but not so much from the beer. But she took it in her hands and acted very grateful. "Oh," she said. "Thanks, babe."
Leah gave her a wink and went to sit down and while she was turned away Kate emptied a bit of the beer out onto the floor discreetly and put the bottle to her mouth as if she had drank it just in time for Leah to see.
Smooth. Very smooth.
"This is a pretty cool place," Leah was saying excitedly. "I could get used to the life of a swinging bi-chick."
Bella had already taken the stool beside me but she knew well enough not to bring me a drink. Instead she took my own martini and gulped it and laughed at Leah. "Swinging lezzy's better," she said. "That way you don't have to sleep with dudes."
Leah grinned and rolled her eyes toward Kate. "These little girls don't know what they're missing out on, do they?"
"Victoria does," Kate said with a grin.
Leah turned to me with new interest. Obviously she hadn't been aware. "You've been with guys before? I thought you were gay?"
"She is," Bella blurted defensively. "She just didn't realize it right away, that's all."
I chuckled softly to myself. Technically that was true although five hundred years was indeed quite a long time. But I did greatly admire my mate's newfound orientation pride. Back in my day all these labels hadn't even been invented yet. No wonder my sexuality had lacked definition all those centuries.
Leah had a beer of her own and now she took a long drink, bobbing her head to the music at the same time. She was looking across the dancefloor and she saw something that made her grin.
"Hey, look," she said. "Those guys are making out."
She pointed with the neck of the beer bottle and we all looked. Sure enough there were two men with their tongues in each other's mouths. There was nothing wrong with Leah's eyesight at least.
I, personally, found the sight relatively unmoving but Kate and Leah giggled and went all sparkly eyed and squirmed in their sexy clothes as if their stools were suddenly vibrating. The two men were rather handsome, as far as men go, and they were dressed in silk shirts and sharing their moment by a large stone column that supported the upper balcony.
Bella glared at them, jealous perhaps of how Kate and Leah were reacting, and scoffed loudly. Leah turned to her with a grin.
"Oh, come on," she said. "That doesn't turn you on just a little?"
Bella screwed up her face distastefully. "Fuck no," she said. "It's like watching dogs hump. You wanna see hot, I'll show you hot."
She then turned to me and grabbed me and pulled me into a kiss.
Her tongue came barging into my mouth and I had to laugh. I returned it a little bit but desperation was rarely a beautiful thing. My poor jealous mate. Bella moaned and tongued me lewdly, trying her hardest to make it look sexy, and then broke it off suddenly and looked at Leah and Kate.
"See?" she sneered at them.
Leah and Kate shared a glance. Neither were impressed, although in fairness to me and my mate they had already seen us make out many times before and with no clothes on as well. This latest exhibit couldn't really compare.
Kate rose from her stool and glanced toward the gay couple and smoothed her dress against her body sensuously. "Come on, Leah," she said. "Let's leave these lesbians alone with their sense of superiority and go see if we can't coerce those hunky little boys into a fourway."
Leah rose and grinned but she seemed unsure. "I think they're probably gay, Kate."
A smile curved over Kate's mouth as her eyes raked over the two men making out across the club and then she turned and gave Leah a wink.
"We'll see about that," she said.
Then she took her girlfriend's hand and together they moved toward their prey at a prowl.
Bella watched them go and scoffed loudly.
"Disgusting," she said.
I laughed and shook my head. I suppose she had officially entered her baby-dyke phase. Poor girl. She was still watching Kate and Leah and she shook her head as they broke apart the two men making out by simply speaking to them boldly. At first the men seemed irritated at the interruption but then Kate said something and Leah said something too and the two men shared a glance and smiled and turned back to these two ladies who'd approached them.
Bella scoffed again. Even louder.
"It still confuses me that some women actually like men," she said, turning away from the attempted seduction and looking at me instead. "I really don't get it."
"You must have a short memory then," I said. "You were attracted to them yourself not so long ago."
Bella was offended at that. "No, I wasn't," she objected. "I only ever dated one guy and even then it was only because I thought I was supposed to. I never liked boys at all now that I think about it. All they ever did was piss me off. And sexually? Ugh. I picture a dude naked and I'm just—ugh."
She cringed in disgust and made a shooing motion with her hand. I smiled and shook my head a little.
"I'm a similar way myself," I said. "But still. One oughtn't be judgemental of others. Kate and Leah are perfectly entitled to their preferences—however coarse and lowbrow they may be."
Bella grinned at that and nodded. I had been trying to be mature but even I couldn't help that little jab at the end. I mean, really. Any woman—or man—who is attracted to men would have to be lacking good taste at the very least.
Bella finished off my martini with a huge swallow, winced at the burn of alcohol, and set the glass down.
"Well, I'm telling you right now," she went on. "If they hook up those with two dudes, there's no way in hell I'm gonna fuck either of them afterward. Not even if they shower."
I nodded and glanced over to see what was occurring with our friends. It seemed Kate and Leah had successfully flirted with their targets and had now engaged them on the dancefloor. Leah was grinning and grinding at whichever dude she had selected for herself and Kate was rubbing the backside of her candypink dress against the front of the other man's pants. If the poor boy was indeed gay he was certainly being put to the test.
I smiled and turned back to Bella.
"Perhaps it's for the best they've become distracted," I said. "After all, we're here to hunt, not only have a good time."
"Oh yeah. Have you seen anyone yet?"
"Actually, perhaps I have," I said, looking toward the bar.
Bella followed my gaze. There was a woman there with dark hair, not quite black, and purple streaks in it. She seemed a little older than most people in the club and she was dressed very simply in skinny jeans—which were quite tight around her broad womanly hips—and tall black boots with silver studs up the side. She fit the age of what we were looking for at least.
"Her?" Bella asked, looking right at her.
I smiled and rose from my stool. "She's worth checking out, at least," I said. "Come, let's get you another drink."
Bella hopped up eagerly but then spun back to the table and grabbed Kate's beer. "Kate's not going to drink this, right?"
Without waiting for answer she chugged the whole thing down, hiccupped with a wince, and put the empty bottle back on the table.
"Oh man," she said. "I'm so drunk."
I smiled and took her hand.
The woman was still at the bar by the time we got there and now I could see she was with friends. Her friends were all female and all of them were roughly the same age as her and all dressed sort of casually in jeans and jackets and the like and one of them in beige sweater like a soccer mom. They looked like they had come here on a whim or simply walked in off the street and they were laughing and clinking their shot glasses together. Celebrating something.
I sidled in beside their group and ordered a champagne cocktail for Bella. Bella stood beside me discreetly and snuck glances. I tried to listen to what they were talking about but I couldn't make sense of it over the music. I turned and looked at the woman again. She was obviously the center of their little group. The center of the toasts and celebration. A birthday perhaps. She had a shot glass to her lips and she tipped it back and swallowed and laughed and that's when she saw me.
She did a double take at my eyes and there were the tell-tale flashes of attraction in her own. I gave her a smile, as if just to be polite, and turned back to the bar. Bella had noticed but she didn't say anything. She just watched and remained silent like a student. I gave her a smile and when I turned back to the woman I noticed she had been checking me out, her eyes darting over my dark red dress and rampant red hair. I wasn't sure if that was a good sign—since we were looking for a committed couple—but it was flattering all the same.
She didn't seem to have a girlfriend among the other women with her and soon they drifted off with their drinks. All aside from the woman with purple streaks in her black hair. She had turned back to the bar for one more drink before she caught up with her group. The bar was polished black glass and I could see in the reflective surface that she was checking me out again. I smiled at her and our eyes caught. She smiled back awkwardly and looked away quickly. One of the waitresses poured her drink for her and she was fiddling in her purse for some cash. But I had already taken some money out of mine and I placed the bill on the bartop and slid it forward.
"Allow me," I said.
She seemed surprised and didn't answer. The bartender smiled at the exchange—a young woman with a blonde ponytail—before taking the money and moving away again.
The woman had been taken off guard and she gave me a tentative smile.
"Thanks," she said. "But I'm here with friends. They're throwing me a bit of an engagement party."
The corner of my mouth rose in a smirk.
Engagement party? Well, well.
"I guess that means you're not single," I said, pretending to be disappointed but actually quite thrilled.
She shook her head but didn't move to catch up with her friends. "Nope."
I nodded and gave her a chance to leave. She didn't. Engaged or not she seem quite fascinated with me. Up close she was actually a bit older than her body suggested. Somewhere near forty years old. But youthful in the eyes and smile with nice skin and minimal wrinkles. The streaks in her hair also implied a youthful spirit despite her age.
I let my eyes rake over her boldly, revealing all my intentions aside from the ones that included her rape and murder, and smiled at her.
"Too bad," I said.
She smiled and opened her purse again. "Here, I can't let you pay for the drink."
But I smiled and shook my head. "It's fine, it's fine. Consider it a congratulations on your engagement. How long have you been engaged?"
She hesitated a moment but then she slowly closed her purse. "Actually, only two days. But we've been together over a year."
"Guy or girl?"
"Girl," she said, blushing slightly as if she wasn't quite used to admitting it even in a club like this. "We've been together a long time. Ever since I first came out. She was my first ever girlfriend."
"And now your last too, hm?"
The murderous subtext was lost on her and she chuckled.
"Yeah, I guess so," she said.
I nodded and looked at her and allowed myself to smile. It seemed we had stumbled upon a very promising prospect. Bella had been at my side all this time, sipping her drink and listening discreetly and swaying her hips to the dance music. I glanced at her and I could tell she was getting the same vibes as I was. I smiled at her and turned back to the woman with purple streaks.
"Do you and your fiancé live together?" I asked her.
She had been preparing to leave with her drink and now she gave me an odd look. I smiled and went on.
"Sorry to pry, I'm just curious," I said. "For instance, if you met a beautiful redhead at a bar…would you be able to bring her home to an empty house?"
She smirked at that and took a moment to decide if she ought to flirt. Her eyes flickered over my face and over the swell of tits in the neckline of my dress and back to my face again.
"Yes, me and my fiancé live together," she said. Then she added: "And no, I'd never cheat on her."
I nodded slowly as if I was impressed with her fidelity. And I was, really, but more than that I was intrigued that her and her fiancé lived together. She was beginning to seem more and more promising.
"I better get back to my friends," she said, turning to go.
"Of course," I said. "Although I do hope they're helping you celebrate properly. Do they have a stripper lined up?"
She laughed and turned back to me for a moment. "Of course not."
I grinned and acted surprised. "But how can you have an engagement party without any strippers? I'd be pleased to offer my services. Free of charge, naturally."
She smirked and blushed and shook her head. "I think we can manage without any strippers."
"Are you sure?"
"Pretty sure."
I tilted my head and smirked at her. Then I took a step toward her. Just one step. She was standing there with her purse in one hand and her drink in the other and she didn't move back. Her top was a plain black tanktop and her breasts underneath were large and womanly and I smirked at her and lifted a hand and brushed the backs of my knuckles along one of those warm heavy mounds.
Her mouth parted slightly. I smiled at her.
"No?" I questioned. "I'd be happy to give you a private lapdance in my car to audition."
She swallowed a sudden lump in her throat, chuckled awkwardly, and stepped back. "I think we'll be alright," she said. "Thanks for the drink, though."
I smiled and let my hand fall and decided to back off. She really was rather loyal to her fiancé and I didn't want to spoil that even if her whole body did seem close to caving in on its knees.
"Don't mention it," I said. "See you around."
She nodded at that, blushing, and turned and moved away into the bluish smokiness.
I watched her go, my eyes lingering on her jean clad butt. She went to a table at a booth in the back where all her friends where and at once fell into laughter and conversation. Yet it was less than a minute before she looked back toward the bar and saw me watching her with my red dress, red hair, red eyes. I must've looked quite predatory but she had no idea just how predatory. She was clearly attracted to me but I admired her faithfulness at not even flirting. Worthy prey.
Bella had been standing beside me and now she giggled and leaned to my ear.
"You got rejected," she teased. "Ha."
I turned to her, chuckling, and leaned on the bar. "I wasn't actually trying to seduce her, you silly thing. All we need is information right now."
"It's okay, Vicky, we all strike out sometimes," she said playfully. Then she smirked and added: "Well, I don't. I can even seduce the thousand year old vampires who originated the succubus myth. I guess I'm just much sexier than you."
She then sipped her cocktail daintily, arrogant as fuck. It turned me on and made me want to rape her skinny ass on the spot but that would only prove she really was irresistible and get us thrown out as well. So instead I took the cocktail away from her mouth and set it on the bar.
"Hey," she whined.
"I think you've had enough alcohol for tonight, baby," I told her with my own smirk. "Drinking and hunting aren't a great combination. We need to keep your wits sharp—especially now that we actually have a target."
That sobered her up a little and she looked passed me toward the little engagement party going on in the booth back there. They were having another round of toasts. Bella smiled and turned back to me.
"So what are we gonna do?" she asked in a quiet voice under the music.
I smiled and leaned on the bar and gave a sultry shrug. "Just watch, for now. We know that she has a partner and that they live together and that they're not quite married yet so they probably don't have any kids. I think it sounds quite promising, don't you?"
"Totally," Bella said, still staring across the club. "Let's just hope her fiancé is as hot as she is, huh?"
I smiled and watched her. Bella, not our prey. She was so beautiful in her sexy black dress. It covered nothing of her legs and her legs were long and white with black stilettoes on her feet. She was swaying slightly to the music, a smirk hovering over her lips as she thought about all the things she'd like to do to this woman she was staring at. I knew exactly how she felt. I felt the same for her. As much as I'd come to treasure her safety there were some moments—like this one—where I wanted to just rip her white legs off and lick them like icecreams.
"Stop staring, baby," I whispered to her with a smile.
She shook out of it and giggled guiltily. "Sorry," she said. "I keep forgetting. I suck at hunting, huh?"
I cupped face and gazed at her adoringly while the music throbbed and the club heaved and shifted all around us. Everything was fading away until all I could see was her and her dark, beautiful, heartstopping eyes.
"You'll learn," I said, and then I leaned and kissed her.
Bella moaned softly and returned the kiss there at the bar, slipping her alcohol-spiced tongue into my mouth. I loved her tongue. So warm and wet. We really ought to have been keeping an eye on our prey but I just loved her so much and it was still a date.
We made out for a long time, not moving from the bar, until we were interrupted by Leah. She came rushing over excitedly and began slapping at our shoulders to separate us. Her coppercolored face was tinged blue from the club lights and she was grinning widely.
"Oh my god," she was saying, "you guys aren't going to believe this: they're into it."
Bella glanced at me. I had no idea what Leah was talking about either.
"Who?" Bella asked.
"Those guys we've been chatting up! One of them has never been with a woman in his life but Kate is just so fucking sexy. She's making out with him now. I guess even gay men are still just men, huh?"
I wasn't particularly impressed but I gave her a polite smile. "Good for you."
Leah squealed excitedly and glanced back through the club before turning back to us. "So, um, is it cool if we ditch you? I mean, I don't know what you guys had planned, or…?"
Bella and I shared a smirk. We planned to stalk the woman we found and being ditched actually work quite well in our favor. Bella turned back to Leah and snorted.
"Sure, go ahead," she said. "I'm not gonna kiss you after you've been slobbering over some guy anyway."
Leah grinned and then suddenly launched a surprise kiss on Bella.
Bella meeped and slapped at her feebly, terrified of whatever boy-germs might be lingering on Leah's mouth. I watched and shook my head in pity. So immature. Leah had a firm grip on Bella's face and finally she broke away with a grin.
"Don't worry, babe," Leah said to her cockily. "No men can compare to you two."
She then winked and turned and sauntered away in her leather miniskirt and high heels.
Bella was wiping her mouth and for a girl who had a fetish for literal rape she seemed quite violated. She gave me an outraged look, as if she expected some sympathy and she expected it right now, but I only chuckled and gave her drink back to her. She took it and gulped and rinsed her mouth with it and winced and cringed and drank again. I shook my head at her antics and turned and looked across the club where our prey with purple streaks was laughing with her friends. I really did have a nice feeling about her.
Leah and Kate had left the club soon after and soon after that they texted Bella a photo of a certain male body part that almost made Bella drop her phone. I told her to turn it off and stay focused. This was one of the most promising victims we'd found in days and I didn't want to lose track of her. Bella agreed and deleted the picture viciously before stuffing the phone back into her purse. I had ordered her a glass of ice water to try and flush a bit of the alcohol out of her system. It made her go to the bathroom but little else. She spent the entire stalk grinning and giggling and trying to flirt. I took her onto the dancefloor and let her grind against me drunkenly while I kept watch on our prey discreetly over her shoulder. It was getting late but they were still drinking and having a good time. I wondered when the wedding was scheduled. Till death do us part, eh? Perhaps it would come to that after all.
It was about 2AM by the time they left. We followed them outside into the cool night air. There were six of them, all roughly the same age, and several of them piled into separate cabs while one of them was picked up by a man who might've been her husband. The woman with purple streaks was the last to get into a cab and I quickly hustled Bella into the parking lot to follow in our red sportscar. This was one of the few downfalls in hunting with a human. If she were a vampire we would be able to follow on foot through the shadows which was generally more effective. As a human—and a rather drunk one at that—we were forced to take the car. Soon, however, she would be a vampire just like me and together we'd move through in the night in perfect cohesion as we closed in on our prey. Till then I told her to buckle her seatbelt.
We followed the cab all the way uptown and my heart actually began to throb as we entered the suburbs. It was a quaint neighbourhood and every house under darkness was exactly the same and perfect to our purposes. The cab continued on and finally pulled up outside one of the houses. A modest one story stucco dwelling with a tiled roof. I continued driving past in standard practice as she was getting out the cab and I continued to make a circuit around the block. Bella was sitting up in her seat and grinning and she knew exactly how promising all this was as well.
By the time I came back to the house the cab was gone and the woman was presumably inside. I pulled over across the street and turned off the engine. The silence was sudden. The neighbourhood was empty. The house had a low brick fence around a front lawn and several well-tended flowerbeds that sat quietly in the darkness. There was a car in the driveway that perhaps belonged to the other partner, a navy blue BMW, and from all indications they seemed to be quite a financially secure couple. The house would likely have some kind of alarm system but that wouldn't be too much of an issue.
After a while I realized I could hear Bella's breathing in the quiet of the car. She was staring out the window toward the house and her chest was visibly rising and falling from the building excitement. There was a smile on her face and the smile grew into a grin when she turned and looked at me
"Nice house," she said.
"Yes, it is," I agreed. "It's perfect."
Bella grinned again and turned back to the window. "So what do we do now?"
"Let's just watch for a while."
She nodded and continued gazing out the window. "This reminds me of when we were stalking Jess. Do you remember?"
"How could I forget? Our first hunt together."
"It feels like ages ago. So much has happened since then. Everything changed after we came home and found the Denali's waiting for us."
"True."
"Tanya hasn't mentioned Edward in a while. You think she still feels guilty about not telling him?"
I laughed softly and tried to be modest. "I bet she feels guilty about quite a few things," I said. "And after our hunt together she'll be feeling guilty about a lot more."
"Yeah," Bella agreed with a chuckle. "I thought it was them who turned our life upside down but maybe it was us who turned theirs upside down."
"Maybe."
"Edward's a jackass, anyway. We're better friends than he'd ever be. All he'd do is judge them. We'd never judge them, right?"
"Only for sleeping with men and feeding from animals, I suppose."
"Well, yeah. But those things are gross, so…"
I laughed again and shook my head. The poor girl's principles were in such a state of fluctuation. It was going to take a long time before she was able to define herself according to her own feelings, not mine, not Edward's, not the Denali's. She had already come so far and she really was such an amazing young woman.
"God, I have to pee so badly," she said, squeezing her legs together. "Would anyone see if I just…?"
I raised a brow and thankfully she stopped herself before she could suggest anything that might cause me to question what an amazing young woman I thought she was. I smiled and shook my head.
"You should've went back at the club," I told her.
"I did."
"Then you'll just have to wait."
"God, I can't wait till I become a vampire. Hunting would be so much easier."
She sat back in her seat and stared out the window. I looked at the clock in the dashboard. It had been quite a few minutes since the woman had entered the house. Likely she was settled down by now, perhaps in bed. I wanted to take a closer look at the house. It would've been advisable to wait a little more but I was too excited.
I opened the car door quietly.
"Come on," I said. "Let's take a closer look."
Bella grinned and started fumbling with her seatbelt.
I was out of the car first and I looked up and down the street. Nothing but darkness and streetlamps. No lights in the windows of any of the houses. Bella got out of the car as well and I cautioned her to be quiet when closing the door. She closed it very carefully and then I went around and took her hand and led her across the street. She tripped on the curb with her high heels and stumbled and burst out giggling. I steadied her and looked down the street wildly to see if anyone had noticed this drunk slut and her vampire girlfriend prowling around their intended victim's house.
Bella was taking her shoes off and I told her to leave them there for a minute. I left mine on since I was an expert at moving silently in them and my balance was impeccable. Style was important too, of course. All women ought to stalk in high heels, it's just sexier. Bella finally had her shoes off and now I took her hand again and led her up the driveway. We steered clear of the front of the house and instead went up the side. The walls were nice clean bricks and there was a vibrant green vine that crawled across them. We passed a window that had closed blinds and then we passed another window that looked into a bedroom. There was a lamp on beside the bed but the room itself was empty.
We continued until we came to a tall iron gate that blocked entry to the backyard. It was padlocked but it would be easily breakable if we returned. The backyard held a lawn and a wooden picnic table under a veranda and a row of fruit trees along the back fence. No tricycles or children's toys. No dog kennels. All of it looked very promising and very accessible.
I smiled and led Bella by the hand back to the bedroom window, the two of us crouched low in our cocktail dresses and creeping along like sexy burglars. Bella gasped softly. There was someone in the room. It wasn't the woman with purple streaks. It must be her partner. She was naked and my heart skipped a tiny beat. She was a stud. Short blonde hair in a masculine style, tall, no makeup. Her muscles were well-defined, as if she spent a lot of time working out, but her breasts were nicely medium sized which kept the overall look from being too manly. She was taking off a wristwatch and putting it on the nightstand when a door opened behind her. It was a door to an ensuite bathroom and now the woman with purple streaks appeared. She had been for a shower and she was drying her hair with a towel. Her body was completely naked. Her fiancé turned around and the woman with purple streaks smiled at her brightly, her eyes sparkling with a bit of tipsiness from her engagement party, and then she put her arms around her hunky fiancé's neck and pulled her into a kiss.
They were preparing to make love. How sweet.
Bella and I was crouched down and peeping through the corner of the window. She was grinning and she chuckled as she watched the two women make out.
"Fiancé's kind of butch," she whispered aside to me.
I smiled and kept my eyes on the soon to be married couple. The butch woman had quite a toned and lovely ass and the woman with purple streaks had taken a handful of it to give it a grope. They then broke their kiss and grinned and climbed into the bed together.
"Looks sexy to me," I replied to Bella.
"You like that kind of look?"
"Sometimes."
"You think I'd look nice with short hair?"
"No," I told her and kissed her cheek. "You're perfect as you are."
She smiled at me and turned back to the window. The two women were half concealed under the covers now but we could see flashes of boobs as they kissed and rubbed against each other. Their tongues mingled freely and they kept smiling at each other whenever their eyes met. The love between them was very visible—which only made them all the more the desirable. The thought of killing them in front of each other, of tying them up and raping them while the other watched before severing that beautiful bond between them forever—it made me shiver.
"What do you think, my love?" I whispered to Bella. "Are they attractive enough to present for dinner?"
Bella nodded, watching them. "I think so."
"I do as well. I think they're going to be very delicious."
"When are we going to do it?"
"Soon. We'll have to keep watching for a few days."
"I wonder when their wedding is?"
"I don't know," I whispered, watching as the woman with purple streaks flung away the covers from her and her partner. "But I have a feeling they're in for a rough honeymoon."
Bella smiled and didn't answer. The two women in the bed were completely exposed now and the woman with purple streaks was rubbing the area between her partner's thighs. The scene was so intimate and romantic that I could feel a response between my own legs.
Bella moaned softly to herself and that scene in the low lamplight of that dim bedroom seemed to hold her transfixed. I looked at her face and she was so beautiful that for a moment I even forgot about our prey. I'd been waiting for a moment like this. The moment when she'd discover the true joy of the hunt. The stalk. The power of watching from the shadows. Intruding on another person's most intimate moments without that person ever realizing. Watching them. Hungering for them.
She even licked her lips. By now the woman with purple streaks was going down on her fiancé, laying facefirst between those well-toned thighs and licking at her slit. The butch woman was moaning behind the glass, soundlessly, and she looked quite feminine with her breasts exposed and her nipples hard and her spine softly writhing as her partner licked and licked.
"Wow," Bella whispered, watching. "This is turning me on so much. I can just imagine all the things I'm going to do to them. Since you guys are the ones who feed from them, it should be me who gets to kill them. Right?"
I smiled and moved around behind her quietly and put my arms around her and whispered into her ear. "If that's what you want."
"I can't wait," she whispered, staring through the window. "I'm going to cut that vagina open with a knife."
I hiked up her dress.
She gasped softly but she didn't move or say anything. She was kneeling on the concrete just below this window and I was kneeling behind her, nuzzling her neck, stroking the front of her black lace panties.
"You're such a vicious little thing," I whispered to her. "Want me to fuck you, baby? Hm? Want me to fuck you?"
I had my hand in her panties and she gasped again as I began rubbing her clit. It was already hard. I took her earlobe between my lips and sucked on it and continued to rub at her while she watched these two women through the mirror. My own eyes were closed but I didn't need to see. I had stalked hundreds of women in my lifetime, thousands. It used to be the only thing I lived for but now it was Bella that I lived for.
"Come for me, baby," I hissed at her and rubbed at her even harder. "Come for me. Now. But be quiet. Be very quiet and come for me now."
I growled the last words into her ear and she shuddered and climaxed with a soft cry.
Behind the window the woman with purple streaks was still calmly going down on her fiancé but Bella wasn't watching anymore. She was bent over and breathing raggedly with her hair hanging. Her whole body was heaving from the force of the orgasm and she was struggling to keep her breath quiet.
"Oh god," she wheezed. "Oh god, that was amazing."
"Shh," I whispered and kissed her cheek. "We have to go."
She nodded and I fixed her dress for her, tugging it back down over her buttocks. She helped me out and smoothed it down and then she turned and wrapped her arms around me and gave me a kiss there in the darkness under the window.
The kiss took me a little by surprise and I smiled as she pulled away and gazed at me longingly.
"Thank you for teaching me all this, Victoria," she said. "I love you."
My heart swelled and I cupped her face and returned her gaze. In truth it was me who should be thanking her. She was everything to me. This was my life now. Every moment just for her. I smiled and leaned and placed one more kiss on her lips and then I took her hand.
"Let's go," I whispered. "We have our targets. Tomorrow we can stalk them some more."
Bella grinned and nodded and glanced one more time through the bedroom window at the wives-to-be making love there in that same bed they would soon be raped and murdered in and then we slank back through the bushes and back around to the front of the house. Bella fetched up her shoes from where she'd left them on the sidewalk and giggled and tiptoed the rest of the way across the road. I opened the car door for her and closed it after she got in and looked up and down the street. High in the blackness of the sky there was a tiny sliver of moon half hiding behind a dark swathe of cloud and I smiled at it for a moment before I went around and got into the car behind the wheel.
—
AN: I think this one turned out pretty well. A double date and a bit of hunting. Bella and Victoria found their victims and now it's only a matter of waiting to strike. Not sure how serious Kate and Leah are going to become. They really like each other, but they're keeping it open. I wanted to hint that it's possible Leah might become a vampire at some point. It depends how readers feel about it and how the story progresses. Right now the focus is on the hunt and turning Bella into a vampire.
Okay, new chapter soon. Remember to let me know what you thought, good or bad. :)