Lesbian Vampire: That Which Haunts You

Kivan was stuck. The port might be shut down for hours. Days even. Rhea felt like she was going to explode and opted opted for a walk to get coffee. When the burrito heated through she wrapped it in a paper towel and slipped out the apartment. Heat hit her like a wall. It was still morning but the sidewalk radiated through the soles of her boots. Trash overflowed from a nearby can and the smell of sun-baked alcohol and urine hit her nose. She followed her phone's map to a nearby coffee shop in a shaded plaza. She bought a coffee and sat near a fountain to eat.

A refrain of worry played on. Would Lara try to flee or fight? And what did she do with Janice's body? They still didn't know how strong she was, or how to break the spell. She remembered Lara's smug grin as she grew closer, and Rhea felt rage. Then the memory of driving the blade into Braga's chest. Her lips stretched into a slow smile. Without realizing it, she caught the glimpse of a tall, dark-skinned man pushing a stroller. And, judging by his worried look, assumed the memory contorted her face into a disturbing expression. Rhea looked away as he hurried across the street.

Rhea longed to be back in the bed with Lucy. She could drown in the vampire, pulled so deep beneath the surface the rays of the sun would not reach her.

Her phone buzzed with another text from Kivan: I don't want to stress you out, but I'm still worried about the extent to which your magick is entangled with Lara's. Her hex was in you for a long time and her magick is unstable. If she is impaired, there might be a ripple effect.

She typed into her phoneJust get here as fast as you can..

From Kivan- : (

Rhea frowned as gut acids roiled within her belly. She had survived Lara by luck the first time. And because Rhea failed to finish her, she was putting Kivan at risk. They had to reach Lara before she healed, ripple effects be damned. She hated feeling this way. As much as she wanted Kivan here, he seemed just as helpless as her. She checked her phone again, and felt a peculiar relief. He hadn't warned her to wait. Probably because he didn't think he'd need to.

She was always careful.

She walked back out to the street, half-drunk coffee in hand and wandered a bit like a stuck fool. Life bustled around her. People in business wear strode by, eyes glued to their screens. Storefronts were flung open. She passed a few liquor stores, a cheap cell phone outlet, and a wholesale party supply. She let her eyes drift over the bright colors of the piñatas that hung from the ceilings.

A peculiar shadow caught her eye and she paused-- she noticed the glass display of the shop next door, where a DVD box proudly stood. The cover featured a nude woman in a blonde wig and sheer white lingerie posed on all fours. She wore bright blue eyeshadow and her red lips formed an "o" of exaggerated shock. A man stood behind her wearing a synthetic black cape and plastic vampire teeth. His head dropped back in a Bela Legosi snarl.

Rhea snapped a picture and texted it to Lucy.

Lucy responded: If you try to wear a cape like that it's over

A small seed surfaced in her mind, she tried to brush it away. Everything that mattered was at risk. And here she was, failing to convince herself not to go inside a sex shop. She should go back to that apartment, call whoever would speak to her back on the island for magick she could use, whatever they knew. Rhea could work relentlessly and she could start now. Anything else was reckless.

She walked into the store. She could not wait.

A bell rang when she pushed the door open through a beaded curtain peppered with tiny seashells. A burly man behind the counter with a salt-and-pepper beard wearing a leather harness did not look up from his phone. She meandered through the aisles, the small seed in her mind now splitting open. She passed shelves loaded with colorful mock members, devices that promised enough power to vibrate themselves off the shelf, and a variety of lubes. She paused at a rack of vinyl lingerie and fishnet stockings. Whips and floggers hung on the wall. She scanned with soft eyes and followed her feet until they stopped.

"Do you need any help?" the leather man called to Rhea still not looking up. "No," she said as she pulled a box from the overcrowded shelf. "I found it."

Rhea stepped out onto the street, half expecting an explosion of jeers at the hot pink bag emblazoned with the store's name in black block letters ('The Temptation Constellation!'). But the world around her carried on as it had before. She wove through groups of tourists that inched down the street. The sun burned hotter as it climbed into the sky; it shot into her eyes when she passed between gaps in buildings. When Rhea returned, Lucy was sitting up in the bed hunched over the phone.

"You're not sleeping?" asked Rhea.

"Can't," answered Lucy.

"Good."

Lucy looked up and her eyes widened in recognition at the bag. "What's all this then?" A smile played on the corners of her lips. Rhea pulled the box from the bag and showed Lucy, who reached her hand out.

Rhea pulled it closer towards her, possessive.

"I got itfor you. At least at first," said Rhea.

Lucy flicked a brow and went back to her phone, "Well, I suppose then I'll just wait for you here."

Rhea slipped into the bathroom. She ripped the box open like a bear and pulled out a dildo the color of a red rose. She washed it with hot water and soap and rested it upwards on the counter, balanced solidly on its wide, flat base. She then took the harness from the box and examined it. The tangled cluster of straps were rosy-pink in color. But she quickly got them sorted and stripped off her clothes. Soon the harness clung snugly at her hips and around her thighs. She buckled the cock into place and gazed at herself, bare-breasted, in the mirror. She took the last item from the box: a small pink bottle of lube, rose-scented.

She turned and stepped out into the room. Lucy's brows raised nearly to her hairline. "I might set this aside until we're ready, but I wanted to show you," said Rhea. She felt strange as Lucy watched her, though not self-conscious. Desire, its careful compartment long unlatched, propelled her and she felt like she was floating.

The vampire sat on the edge of the bed; Rhea stepped to her and Lucy's hands found her hips.

Lucy licked the head of the rose-cock and a small gasp escaped the witch. Lucy wrapped fingers around its base. Rhea watched as Lucy's lips parted as she took the cock into her mouth. There was no sensation, of course, save for Lucy's fingers gripped tight to her backside. But Rhea's clit throbbed as she watched Lucy work its length. She reached out and pushed Lucy's crimson curls aside and imagined her with the lipstick she sometimes wore, a deep red, and how obscene it would look against the pink tones of the cock.

Lucy pulled away and turned Rhea around. The witch looked over her shoulder at the vampire who stared at Rhea's ass. The straps of the harness were pulled so tight they'd cleaved a valley into the generous flesh of each buttock. The vampire gripped the haunch then licked it. She then pressed her parted lips against the wet trail her tongue had left and exhaled tensely. Rhea wondered if she was fighting the urge to bite and turned back around.

She pulled Lucy's shirt over her head. She grabbed Lucy's face and held it, one hand on either side. She stared into the vampire's eyes and when they softened, Rhea leaned down and kissed her. Lucy pulled the witch onto the bed. Their thighs intertwined thrilled Rhea and Lucy's lips explored her neck. The false organ pressed between their bodies and strained the straps of the harness even tighter around Rhea. As gracefully as she could, Rhea straddled the vampire. Her thighs, naturally weighty and thick, framed Lucy's torso. She ran her hands over Lucy's breasts and the vampire's long body jolted with desire. The cock bobbed with the motion.

Rhea kissed Lucy's lips then worked down to her breast. Rhea flicked the peak of Lucy's nipple with her tongue. She sat back on her knees. Lucy's legs splayed open, a span of pale skin marked by coiled ginger hair. Though her face and chest were flushed with blood, her body seemed stark against the dark all around them. As if it were something she wore, draped around her shoulders like a long, fine coat while the rest of the world was subsumed. Whatever magick that made her what she was now swelled. Rhea could sense it, delighting in blood. Rhea ran her fingers along the wet slit of Lucy's pussy then slid half the length of her finger inside.

"You're already so wet," whispered Rhea.

Lucy smiled. "As soon as I saw that bag, darling,"

Rhea sank her teeth into Lucy's thigh. The vampire hummed at the sensation. Rhea wondered what Lucy's blood would taste like, and if her teeth could even break the skin. She pressed her face against Lucy's warm and wet cunt and dragged her tongue along the tender skin and then inside her, searching for the sweetest places. Lucy tasted sharp and her musk strangely human. "Yes," groaned Lucy, over and over again. Soon, thought Rhea, she would have Lucy's body memorized; now she was a labyrinth of glistening folds and secret places. Yes-yes- and then Lucy came, legs squeezing firm around Rhea's ears, too firm for comfort.

When Rhea pulled away, she looked into Lucy's eyes-- they burned, and her face was flushed. She shot up and pulled Rhea by the neck into a deep kiss. "Fuck me now, darling," she whispered, the heady perfume of her pleasure between them. "Please." She lay back and bent her legs towards her chest. Rhea grabbed a pillow. "I'm ready," begged Lucy as she shifted to help work it under her lower back. Rhea grabbed the bottle of lube and ran her hand soothingly over the vampire's leg. It had been long, so long, since Rhea had allowed these parts of her to rove untethered. She rubbed the head of the cock on her clit then guided it inside Lucy. Rhea fucked into her with careful pulses and the vampire made soft sounds of pleasure she'd deny later. "You take cock so beautifully," whispered Rhea. She arched over Lucy and her chest trembled, her body tight with tension like a cat about to strike. Lucy wrapped her legs around Rhea, who rolled her hips with a smooth rhythm.

"Yes" Lucy said again, over and over. She reached hand between them and rubbed her clit. Rhea gripped her hips to maintain her steady pace, driving towards that flinty, textured spot deep inside the vampire.

"Next time I'm gonna fuck you from behind," Rhea said, "and pull your hair." The vampire's face contorted in the shadow, Rhea knew it was not long.

Lucy peaked with a long, low groan. Rhea thought she could taste the sound.

Then her vision went black.

Rhea opened her eyes. She was no longer in the bedroom with Lucy. She now sat on a hard wooden bench. Her back rested on a cool cement wall. She was in a room with no windows, no doors and with no clue on how she got there. She was trapped in a box and the white walls seemed to be closing inward.

On the wall opposite her, she saw a vivid red stain. It was a vague circle, about 3 feet in diameter. The color seemed to bleed through the wall. "Rhea," whispered a voice into the witch's ear. Tears swelled in Rhea's eyes and poured down her face. They tasted cold and sweet.

"I thought I'd never feel you again," she said. Sweetwater was a loving wash of pink mist and early morning stars. Rhea knew there wasn't much time-- she could feel her guide would soon slip away.

"The corruption of the covenant lives in the heart," whispered Sweetwater. "She can't die if the body lives." The red stain bled on. A long, thick vein throbbed downward; fine arterial threads of red feathered away and across the creamy white of the wall.

"Please," begged Rhea, but Sweetwater was already fading. The blood stain would soon swallow the room.

"The heart," echoed as their link dissolved.

Lucy tapped Rhea's face gently as she blinked herself awake. Something tight bit around her waist and thighs and she looked down. She was still wearing the strap-on; it glistened from being inside Lucy, who watched in fear. "Fuck, Rhea." she said in frustration. "We have to figure out a system with these visions. The morgue was one thing, but this time you were on top of me."

"Sweetwater," Rhea managed. "They came to me. Like before. Like before Lara's spell, before any of this."

Lucy paused. "What does that mean?"

Rhea sat up. "It means we were right; when I slashed Lara's neck, it didn't kill her but it weakened her. And if she's weak, so is her magick. It can't sustain itself on its own." But, given how quickly Sweetwater was pulled away, Janice would be back full strength soon.

Lucy nodded in deliberation. "Ok. So we were right. How's about a clue as to where she might be hiding?" Frustration edged her voice, but her eyes softened in an apology. Rhea didn't need it; they were both tired of waiting. And tired of feeling this way. But spirit couldn't communicate like the embodied. The full meaning of their message needed time to ferment.

But they didn't have time.

"We'll find her," said Rhea. "We're so close." She slid towards the edge of the bed and kicked the harness and its tangle of straps off her body. Lucy scooted beside her and rubbed Rhea's bare back with her palm.

Rhea shook her head. She felt like she was hanging mid-air by a fraying rope, waiting to collide with the inevitable. "I just want this to be over." The words escaped Rhea's mouth and charged the space between them. Lucy put an arm around Rhea and pulled her inward in spite of the new tension: neither had spoken about what came next. After all of this somehow ended.

Not wanting to entertain the thought further, Rhea arched upward and kissed Lucy. Her touch eclipsed Rhea's thoughts. The haze came quickly now, like a wave of galaxial color and starlight. Hunger insatiable drove the afternoon towards night, interspersed with long periods where they lay quiet, limbs intertwined.

When Rhea checked her phone next, she saw the sun would set soon. Kivan hadn't texted since his last update hours ago, still stuck on the island. Then Lucy's phone buzzed, across the room on the dresser. "If I never hear that wretched thing again," she muttered as she stood and walked over. Her face dropped as soon as she looked at it.

"Kyle knows about Braga," said Lucy. Rhea inhaled sharply. She hadn't yet thought about what would happen when word spread of Braga's death. Rhea nearly asked who told him, but the question felt silly. It could only have been Lara. So instead Rhea asked "So you think this means Kyle was involved after all?"

Lucy placed a hand on her hip. "Maybe. But he warned us they were coming."

Rhea swallowed. "So what do you think will happen?"

"It seems like he wants to talk, which is a good sign." said Lucy. "I'm sure he's considering vengeance; he has to be. But if his mind was made up, he wouldn't have texted. So we need to hope Braga is worth more dead than alive. And me, vice versa." Fear roiled in Rhea's belly as if it might burst through the walls of its fleshly prison. And she was growing sick of the diversions, Kyle's erratic wrath or not. "Tell him to meet us there." she said. "At your apartment. The sun is almost down."

"Darling," said Lucy but paused when Rhea looked at her. "I'm tired, Lucy," Rhea said as she moved to gather her clothes. "We've weakened her, but our window is closing. But if I can make Kyle see that Braga lied about the magick and that it killed a vampire, he might help us." She scraped her thumbnail against her index finger nervously.

"We still don't know ..." Lucy paused again, her busy mind sifting. Her hands looked paler in the dark.

"I killed a vampire, Lucy," said Rhea. "A confrontation is inevitable. The only question is: now or later?" said Rhea. Lucy looked at her for a long time. Rhea thought of Kivan's warning. The ripple effects of Lara's magick, combusting outwards. Lucy tapped the glass screen of her phone and brought it to her ear.

"Kyle," she said. "Hi."

Rhea felt calm on the drive over. She focused on the smell of the leather seats and how they warmed against her skin. Her shoulder was sore from fucking Lucy with her arm wedged at unwise angle.

"It'll be ok," said Lucy. She was worried about Rhea, and mistook the silence for dread.

"I know," said Rhea. She did not let herself consider if she really meant it.

The same fluorescent lights burned overhead in the car park. Though the sun had set, the cement was still hot from the day. The building was quiet and, when they reached Lucy's apartment, the web of tape over the door was still in place. Lucy unlocked the door rather than disturb it, which Rhea thought was wise. She hadn't a clue what Lucy would tell the landlord.

"I guess we at least got here before Kyle," said the vampire as Rhea followed her inside. Lucy strode over to the remains of Braga. Bones, dust, and the garnet rings he wore were all that was left. The cloth over the shattered window flapped with the dry breeze. Rhea approached Lucy with caution, as if not to startle her. The vampire stared at the pile of dust at her feet. Her face was a constellation of pain and excitement and mortal terror.

"I--," Rhea faltered. She hadn't a clue what to say. She doubted Lucy was sad to see him gone.

"I can't believe it," said Lucy, her voice ringing clear into the room. "I ripped his head off myself and I watched his body rot. But my mind suspects a farce; that he survived and is still out there, somehow."

"That sounds very human," Rhea offered. Lucy did not look up. "Maybe we can clean up and hide the ashes and pretend it didn't happen," she mused. Then Lucy tensed. Her head snapped towards the door.

"Footsteps." she said.

Rhea couldn't hear them but watched the door like Lucy. The atmosphere of the room seemed to swell. She felt tense constriction of her rib cage as it rose and fell with each breath. Then she heard voices-- a quiet back and forth from the hallway that grew louder and angrier with each exchange. She recognized Kyle's voice when she then heard him yell "Just fucking go!"

Someone crashed through the web of duct tape, shoved from the other side. The force of him ripped most of the tape from the door frame and tangled a flailing vampire in a sticky silver mess. Kyle's fine leather shoe stepped through the exposed hole in the door. Its tassel bobbed gently as he strode past the other vampire on the floor who yelled for help as he tried to kick himself free.

"He's worried the duct tape has some sort of witch magick on it that'll turn him flaccid," Kyle said, affable and determined.

Rhea called over "The spell won't hurt vampires."

The mess of silver tape stopped flailing. Two more stepped through after Kyle. One was a very dark-skinned black woman in a short green dress that hugged her soft, round body, neckline draped off her shoulders. She wore her natural hair curled into thick waves. The other had a barrel chest and soft middle with rounded limbs and an androgynous beauty. Their skin was olive-toned and they wore a fitted pale cream suit with a shirt that was a swirl of brilliant colors. Rather than walk, they seemed to glide and Rhea couldn't help but watch in fascination. ("Slippery," Rhea's mind volunteered). She realized white-suited creature wasn't a vampire at all. When the being smiled Rhea knew she had seen them before-- at the table with Lucy and Patrick, that first night in the club. Rhea looked to Lucy, whose face betrayed no sign of recognition. Instead, she focused squarely on Kyle.

Kyle opened his arms, as if to give flourish to his opening lines. "A dead vampire. You've really got me in a pickle here, guys."

"I did it," Rhea interjected. "I killed him. Alone."