To Search in the Shadows

She did. With everything inside her she screamed his name and screamed her desire that he pierce her throat even as his iron-hard penis was piercing her spasming vagina. She screamed that she wanted to die and be reborn in his arms. She screamed for his kiss and for him to wallow in her blood.

Ruth felt him stab deep into her belly, and felt his fangs rip into her soft throat. She knew the sweet pain of his penetration, and the flashing, burning heat as he pumped his sticky seed into her and the frigid icy loss as her blood gushed into his demanding, thirsting mouth. She knew Nirvana as her body ignited in an orgasm that went beyond physical, beyond mental, even beyond spiritual. She knew she was still screaming in joy, in pain, in expectation, in fear, and in triumph as velvet blackness enclosed her again.

- Chapter 5 -

The struggle to open her eyes was the hardest thing Ruth had ever done. Her body was ice cold, and when she tried to move she thought at first she'd been frozen solid because her limbs would not respond. So weak . . . so terribly weak. At the periphery of her vision she could see Russell's face. His eyes were glazed and glassy, the pupils like tiny black pinholes in the irises. He was lying beside her, propped up on one elbow and staring down at her. She tried to speak to him but her voice was completely gone. She didn't have the strength to make her vocal cords work.

"Shhhh, Ruth," he murmured. "Don't try to speak. It's too late for that. It's over now. Just relax and let it happen. Death isn't so bad, really. I've been there; I know." Gently, he brushed the damp hair back from her sweaty forehead. "If it matters, you've given me the most wonderful experience of my undead life. Your blood was so pure and sweet . . . God, I'm high. I don't think I'll come down for a month! Thank you, sweet Ruth." He kissed her gently on the mouth.

She managed a smile. Her pale lips trembled. She could feel a deeper cold, a chill paralysis like nothing she'd ever known before, settling in her arms and body. Already her legs were completely numb.

"I know you have questions, Ruth," Russell said. His voice was soft, gentle -- almost sad. "You want to know how long it will be until we're together again . . . until you rise Undead. Your human body has to lie dead for about 72 hours while the changes occur. You'll be here in the hotel room until then, safe in the darkness. Then you'll be one of us. I'll come to you then and we'll go hunting together, you and I. You got your wish, Ruth-who-searches-in-the-shadows. Welcome to the club, sweet Ruth." But she did not hear the last few words. By then Ruth was dead.

Russell placed his hand on her face, and gently closed her eyes with his fingers. Then he dressed and prepared to leave. He went through her purse and took her car keys. As he stood at the door, hand on the knob, he looked back at the cooling, naked woman lying on the bed. A single tear ran down his cheek. "I'm sorry, Ruth," he whispered. "I hated to lie to you. But I wanted to repay you for giving me the sweetest wine . . . the blood of one who wants, more than anything, to give it to me. So I wanted you to have peace as you died. But Hollywood didn't get it all right, Ruth. It wasn't the bite of a Vampyre that made me undead. It doesn't really work that way. Remember what I told you about birds? It was the buzzards, Ruth, circling over my corpse for hours on end." Then he turned and opened the door, hung the "DO NOT DISTURB" sign on the outside knob, looked back at the bed one last time, and walked away, closing the door behind him.

END

Stephen Thorn

June 4, 2003

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