by Craig
For the 10,000th time in 150 years Jules looked up at the imaginary battlements, sighed and said the line:
"I `gin to be a-weary of the sun,
and wish the estate o' the world were now undone."
As always, he paused to allow the ironic chuckling throughout the house to subside before continuing. A good actor does not allow the audience to step on his lines. Normally, he too would have reflected, albeit briefly, on the pregnant irony that line held for him. He did not share this with either the house or his fellow performers at Th‚atre des Vampires.
He loved Macbeth, as did most vampires. But unlike the patrons who viewed Shakespeare's most bloody play as afitting evening's entertainment before heading out for a bite of dinner, he literally got to wade through the play.
"I am in blood step'd so far that ere I wade no more t'weres tedious as go `or," never failed to bring an appreciative laugh.
In truth though, these days even the play was loosing its appeal. He cringed inwardly during the last act now....tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow indeed...if only. But such release was not to be.
Tonight though, he did not have the wit to reflect. All his training and energy were focused on his concentration. He was going to get through the play properly, regardless of how distracting she was.
He'd seen her in the second act. How he hadn't noticed her before was a mystery. She was in one of the private boxes, hidden from the house but clearly visible from the stage. She was with the writer. Her life shining down on him from above through the torches used to light the stage. Normal stage lights were irritating, sometimes even painful. The torches were soothing and again, like so many things in the theatre, more than a little ironic.
"A reminder of the good old days, "Remy would say then laugh. "Je me souviens, mon ami," Jules would reply , no he would never forget. Normally such thoughts were permitted to float around the edges of his consciousness as he worked. He was good enough, especially with Macbeth, that only a few scenes required his full concentration. These were chiefly the scenes where they used real blood, lapses of concentration in a hall full of Vampires while you're are covered with blood were not a good idea.
Tonight though, Mon Deu, she was incredible! he could feel her life glowing from the box. She was a beacon shining at him, the glare almost painful. Before the third act he had decided he would follow her tonight, consequences be damned. That she was with the writer was a complicating factor. Since returning from San Francisco and consolidating the clans, Louis had declared the writer off limits.
Many objected, but the price to pay was too steep and all agreed the current peace and system Louis had wrought was working well for their kind. Jules was of no strong opinion. Louis could do what he wanted, if he wanted to read about himself, then fine, c'ne fait rien, it didn't matter. Jules found the chronicles amusing and in truth it made it easier to move around in public as people now just assumed you were part of the local ambiance. Lately he had taken to shaving his skull, in the style of the Nosferatu. He hardly drew a second look, especially in the French quarter.
Merde! he thought. This one was worth the risk, unlike many, he was now willing, almost at the stage of wanting, to pay the price. He just could not muster the will to actively defy the Pledge. This one though, she made him forget he was losing the will to not live.
The play ended, none to soon for him, and with inhuman speed he was up in the reception casting about for her. If she were there, she would be a magnet to every one in the house. Having her in the box with the writer had been a wise move if that's what it was. He was simultaneously relieved and disappointed that she was not there, nor was the writer. The writer! Of course! he cursed himself for a fool. She left by a special side entrance, usually spirited in and out by either Louis himself or one of his staff.
With a growing sense of anticipation he had not felt in decades, Jules headed for the roof.
".....was so glad to finally get a chance to meet you in person, Anne. I couldn't believe it when you invited me down here. I flew down at once, before you had a chance to change your mind."
The conversation drifted up to him. Staying in the shadows, he followed them along the flat rooftops, as they strolled slowly through the damp, salty streets. A couple of times he allowed himself to get a look at her. The writer looked the same, short dark hair, simple but attractively tight black dress, now covered with a wrap and, he noted wryly, a scarf around her neck. The woman with her was so physically impressive that she would have eclipsed the writer even if you weren't looking at her life-force through the eyes of a vampire. Blond, tall, strikingly beautiful. She carried her self with the supreme control and confidence of a world class athlete, a lone panther striding through streets full of alley cats.
Jules, forced himself to stay in the shadows. He took some delight in torturing himself this way. Besides a good "stalk" had an appeal all its own. Initially the vampire's voyeuristic abilities and urges had shocked and repelled him. but as Remy had said, it added spice to the hunt.
"....nonsense! I've actually been a fan yours for some time. I love your site. The art's a little overdone, and those enhancements, really! teenage male fantasy stuff, but your stories touch me. You are writing about women with power and the strength of will to use that power. There's not enough of that out there." Jules could almost feel the heat from the blush he detected from the back of the blond goddess's exposed left ear.
"Thank you. You flatter me, but really, I don't see myself as much of a role model."
"No Sharon," the writer was saying, "anyone who refuses to be less than they can be is an inspiration. After sensing that in your stuff, I just had to meet you."
The conversation continued along this line until the two women stopped in front of the Hotel Saint-Gabriel. "You really shouldn't have, there are so many nicer places," the writer was saying. "I couldn't resist," the other woman replied.
Jules poured all his senses and concentration into trying to follow the woman through the hotel. He could always get her room number from the desk clerk, his clan actually owned the hotel now, but this was more of a challenge. He was cursing himself for suddenly loosing her when he heard a faint rustle of fabric behind him.
He whirled, being careful not to use his vampire's speed, to see her floating in the air a foot above the roof. He was almost overwhelmed by her presence. Her heart was a base drum in his head. Amazingly slow and incredibly strong. He could hear the blood surging through her veins.
Her eyes seemed to glow as she spoke. Her voice a musical contralto with no trace of fear or even annoyance. If anything she seemed curious.
"I have two questions for you my green-eyed friend. Why are you following me and why is it that you don't seem to have a heartbeat?"
Coolly he arched an eyebrow and studied the woman. From this distance she was even more overwhelming than before. Physically she was stunning, perfect in fact, her beauty enhanced by the incredible life force which raged within her. Along with the hunger he felt, for the first time in decades, desire. Years on the stage combined with the supreme calm natural to his condition to mask any trace of this. He was, as always, a mask of control.
For more than a minute they regarded each other, both confident, both content to let the other make the first move. Jules, who could afford to be patient only within the frame of the night's darkness, spoke first.
"You are not a writer."
"And you are not an actor," she replied.
"You wound me Cher," he chuckled. "I am indeed an actor and have been one for 150 years. I like to think that, in that time I have brought some art to my craft . Did you not enjoy the performance?"
"I did," she replied honestly. "You were brilliant." Jules inclined his head in a bow of acknowledgement. "I repeat," she continued, "how is it that you do not have a heart."
"I do have a heart," Jules replied. "It's just that I no longer have need of it, either physically or philosophically I'm afraid."
She seemed momentarily bemused. "Then you are...."
"...a vampire," he finished the sentence for her. He bowed from the waist formally and she reflected that this encounter was starting to feel like a diplomatic function. "Then Anne's books aren't fiction?"
"That would depend on how you look a tit," Jules grinned, baring just a hint of his incisors. "The concepts she writes about are real, we do exist as she says we do. But the events,™D3" he laughed, " the exploits of Louis and Lestat....therein lies your fiction. Louis has no more soul or remorse than the rest of us. It just amuses him to have your "Anne" spread this fiction."
"So," he said regarding her evenly. "Can you explain to me why you seem to have the life a hundred shining from your body?"
"Not a hundred," she smiled engagingly as she floated down to the flat tar roof, "thousands. I am from another world. Living here gives me...unique abilities... would you like to see?"
Again the vampire simply inclined his head in invitation. After surveying the area she settled on a cast iron ventilation pipe which seemed to have impaled itself in the roof.
"You have seen that I can fly, I am also far stronger than a human woman, far stronger than you, in fact."
Smiling she bent down and grasped the base of the pipe between the thumb and middle finger of her right hand. Jules could not help but notice the slight flex of her magnificent thighs as the simple white dress she wore rode up over them. He was briefly aware of feeling in his groin, a sensation he'd almost forgotten about.
His attention returned to the women who began to pinch the four-inch thick pipe. Amazingly the metal began to groan and then give way under the pressure she was exerting on it. Her forearm was bulging with inhuman muscularity but the rest of her body portrayed no sense that this was any kind of strain for her at all. She smiled absently at him as she crushed the pipe between her fingers. Once her thumb and finger were virtually touching she closed the rest of her hand around it and squeezed it shut. The metal screamed in protest and then shrieked as, with a simple twist of her wrist she ripped it from the roof.
Had he saliva, his mouth would have been dry. Such power! Such life! What will happen to me when I take her, he wondered. That he might not be able to take her was something that simply didn't occur to him. None of this showed however.
"Very impressive, Cher, you are indeed formidable." The admiration in his voice was genuine, this woman and her obvious power was having an effect on him he'd not expected.
"That, my friend, or rather Mon ami ,was nothing. I only tore the pipe out so I could show you this." She took the three foot length of pipe and held it in her palms before her chest. Slowly, seductively, she began to squeeze the ends of the pipe together. As she did so Jules noticed a gradual swelling of musculature in her arms, shoulders and chest. She seemed to grow before his eyes as tendons like cables began to emerge from her arms. The pipe, amazingly began to compact. By rights, he knew, with enough pressure it should bend. She'd already demonstrated the power to do that with her fingers, so this should not be the strain for her it seemed to be. Her chest was now swelling to the point the integrity of her dress was in jeopardy. A deep crevice of muscle had formed between her thrusting breasts. Her arms and shoulders were now bulging with muscles the size of which he had never seen, even on the largest slaves of his now all-but-forgotten plantation.
Still the bar did not bend. Suddenly he realized what she was doing and the enormity of it hit him like a physical blow. The pipe was not bending because she was not allowing it to. Her hands were coming together and it was getting shorter! She was crushing the pipe down its length! Looking into her eyes, he could tell she was enjoying this. The strength to do what she was doing was incalculable, but she didn't appear to be straining as much as she appeared to be getting aroused.
Her look was one of challenge and invitation. Massive muscles now erupted from her upper body as with a sudden push she brought her hands together. The tortured metal whined and hummed as it heated up from being compacted in this manner. She was wadding it into a ball when they both heard a ripping sound. The front of her dress had succumbed to the expansion of the incredible breasts and muscles beneath it and split down the middle.
Jules felt a wave of sexual desire wash over him. Her large, tanned glistening breasts beckoned him as her throat normally would. She was not the least bit embarrassed, only slightly annoyed as she surveyed the damage to her outfit, holding the still glowing wad of near-molten iron in her right hand like a softball. Her body now relaxed back to its normal proportions, gloriously naked from the waist up.
"Damn!" She said. "I really liked that one. Well, that's what I get for showing off."
Turning to the vampire she was a vision of raw power, sensuality and confidence.
"So, my toothy friend. Are you still planning on biting me in the neck?" She punctuated the challenge by raising her right arm and flexing it. Playfully she turned her fist backwards and forwards causing the enormous bicep which had suddenly sprung from her arm to dance. Jules, again was struck by asexual, rather than vampiric desire.
"Now so more than ever, Cher." He smiled, fully baring his teeth, and for the first time since she'd heard him on the rooftop Sharon's confidence in her ability to handle any threat this city might pose wavered. She was surprized to find an instinctive wave of fear run down her spine as the Vampire regarded her. He had the look, she thought, of a snake she'd seen in a zoo once. Reflecting further she'd seen the snake just before it ate a rat. Despite her confidence that her alien abilities would be more than a match for him, the cold breath of uncertainty touched the hair on the back of her neck.
Deciding to take something of the offensive she once again began to deform the metal in her hands. "I think you'll find," she said stroking the ball into a crude cylinder, "that you may have bitten off more than you can chew."
With that she held up the metal which she had just finished pinching into the shape of a rough cross.
"I think, you'll find, Cher, "the vampire said, suddenly appearing right in front of the startled alien beauty, "that only works if you believe."
His eyes met hers and he seemed to be suddenly larger. "Give me that please," he said softly and to her sudden horror she found herself unable to resist. Jules took the cross she offered him and tossing it over his shoulder with little apparent effort threw it across the street and over the building on the other side.
"Now that we have that settled," he smiled with a predatory look, "you must tell me more about yourself."
"My real name is Kara," she began, unable to stop herself. "I am an alien sent to this world to be a Protector. I use the name Sharon Best to give myself some peace, and keep a low profile. I actually am a writer, but I also use my powers to defend the planet against other aliens who are not as friendly as I am. "
Jules, who found himself actually interested in this, sought to determine how she saw her role in the world. "Is it just aliens? Do you not prevent natural disasters, human threats like terrorism, the drug trade, and now perhaps vampires?"
"No," Kara explained, marvelling at the conversational tone of the exchange - did the snake make small talk with the rat? "I don't prevent anything that would have happened naturally, unless I'm directly involved, or I see a situation where people are going to be hurt and I can prevent it."
"But," Jules prodded. "You play God then, n'est pas? You decide to save the bank guard from the robber because you are in the bank. Two hours later you ignore the same situation only miles away because you have decided not to look for it."
"It's not like that," Kara protested. "I can't be everywhere, save everyone, I can't allow myself to think that way." As she said this she realized he'd ripped open the scar again. No she couldn't be everywhere, save everyone, but she could be in more places and save more people than she did. All she had to do was forego sleep, which she didn't really need and companionship and love, which she did. No damn it! she thought to herself: I do what I can, I do more than anyone else can, I deserve a life, I deserve love, I deserve what I fight the Arions to make sure the rest of the planet has. I will not give that up!
"You might not have a choice in the matter any longer, Cher. " the vampire was saying to her. She realized with a start that she had been talking out loud.
"What about you?" she turned on him, surprized that she was able to. "What do you offer the world? You are a parasite, a leach on the body of humanity."
"In the truest sense of the word, Cher" the vampire agreed. "I offer what the wolf offers the deer. I prey on the weak, the sick, the slow. I keep the race strong by killing those who would dilute it. Such is our way...we must cull those who would not be missed, non?"
He saw the look in her eyes and cut her off. "Cher, Cher, Cher....you cannot argue morals with a vampire. We are beyond them. People are food to us. Do you concern yourself with cattle, poultry with fish? Or do you simply consume them? I live outside what even you see as right and wrong...I kill to exist...given a choice....well to be honest... this would not be the existence I would have picked. But my nature compels me to continue to exist, and so I do."
"You are interesting, though my powerful young friend, you chose to abide by the morals of this world. Why is that?"
"I don't see it as a choice," Kara replied. "I am a protector, it is my nature to protect. I have been bred to do that."
"You miss the point Cher," the vampire continued, "it is you who determine the nature of that protection. Could you not save the world more efficiently if you and a few other of your kind simply took it over? you would have the power to do that, non?"
Kara could not believe she was engaged in this debate but found herself compelled to continue it.
"You can not save something by enslaving it, then we would be no better than those we seek protect the world against." She paused. "I'm sorry, but can Iat least know your name?" Did the rat ask the snake its name? Did the snake answer?
"Certainment. How rude of me. I am Jules," the vampire bowed theatrically.
"Jew?" she asked. "Non," he chuckled. "It is spelt J-U-L-E-S, but pronounced `jou'."
"Surely Jules," she impressed him by pronouncing his name correctly, a rare event in this country, "you of all beings must appreciate how one's nature governs one's actions."
"Touch‚, Cher, touch‚. So while you are obviously more than human, you are very human in some ways, non?"
"Exactly, and I prize and value my humanity even more than my powers. Being human, is one of the things that makes this planet worth defending."
The vampire looked at her with a wry grin. "Being human, unfortunately is no longer an option for some of us Cher."
Kara saw in an instant the futility of debating this point with him. His charm and demeanour notwithstanding, she recognized that this wasa predator, his view of the world and his own condition reflected that fact.
"You are perceptive Cher. For a second I thought you were going to try to `save' me, and perhaps in doing so save yourself." Kara looked at him evenly and the vampire reflected that here was a woman of great intelligence as well as great power.
"I would not insult you by attempting that," Kara said. Jules smiled in acknowledgement.
"Excellent, you are a remarkable young woman. Let me assure you, we are having this conversation because I have a great interest in you, not because I...how shall I put it? not because I like to play with my food."
Once again there was a certainty in his manner which made Kara shudder inwardly. That he seemed to be able to control her was unnerving enough, although strangely arousing, that he might actually be able to take her life...was a possibility she was beginning to consider.
"Cher, I have been a terrible host," the vampire was saying. ™D2"This is my city and here I have you half-naked standing on a roof. Let us retire to your hotel room so we can continue this in more civilized surroundings."
Before she could think to protest she found herself scooping up the vampire and flying to roof of the hotel across the street. She was ripping the fire escape door from it's hinges before it occurred to her he hadn't told her to do that.
Jules, for his part, noted she had moved with a speed he not only had not expected, but could not equal. As he watched her effortlessly deform the door, he reflected he must be very careful with this one. Maintain eye contact as much as possible, Remy had warned, never assume you have control, make sure you have it.
As they drifted down the stairs the shadow of an idea drifted across the edge of his mind. She, he thought briefly, she could be the way.
They sat facing each other in the small sitting room of her suite. Kara was still half naked and Jules had removed what had first appeared to be a cape, but was in fact an expensive Australian riding coat. As he regarded her, Kara felt a sudden intense surge of desire for this pale-skinned man with piercing green eyes. Not, man, she corrected herself, monster. A monster that even now was controlling her in some strange way. Did the rat want to screw the snake?
To Jules it was as if her aura had increased. This was familiar in one sense, to be a vampire was to be attractive to women, it was part of the package, Jules reflected wryly. The other part was 150 years of what humans called one-night-stands, although ironically there wasn't much standing involved. The depth of her arousal was, however unusual, he suddenly realized he could smell her musk. And to his amazement his body began to respond.
"Under the circumstances, this might seem silly, Cher," the vampire was all but transfixed by Kara's huge, hardening nipples, "But you may put something on, if you wish."
She smiled an alluring smile, but her voice had a rasp which betrayed the effect he was having on her.
"No thank you Jules," she said clearing her throat. "I'm comfortable this way, it's quite warm in here." In a receding part of her mind she noted that she was, in fact beginning to sweat. A body that could withstand napalm was beginning to glisten in the glare of the 80 watt bulbs of this old hotel room.
Turning to him she was suddenly sure that despite his outward control the vampire was also feeling aroused. A quick check with her vision confirmed this.
"Forgive me for staring Jules," she smiled. "I don't remember Anne writing about enormous vampire erections."
His control almost broke. "That is because they are extremely rare. It has to do with blood flow you realize." He wanted her. He wanted to take her, take her as a man, not a beast, take her wonderfully as the man he'd once been and not the beast he'd become.
He was on his feet. "Come here," he said and she did, as she must. Still she looked at his groin, the pressure there increasing as his cock seemly trying to make up for 100 years of inactivity swelled to monstrous size. The tent in the front of his pants seemed to amuse her. "Are you telling me Jules' that I have raised the undead?" she smiled.
Despite himself the vampire laughed. "It might be possible Cher, for you to survive this night. Are you prepared to fuck for your life?"
Kara, while still unsure if this was really a concern, didn't care.
"I'm prepared to give you the fuck of your life," Jules. She met his stare and without looking down tore his pants from his body. He gasped as she grabbed the front of his shirt and simply ripped it from him. He stood naked, his erection towering from him awash with emotion not felt in almost a century. Still meeting his gaze she pulled the remains of her dress from her body.
He barely had time to consider the magnificence of her naked form. He gasped as she grabbed his cock with both hands and then slipped her mouth over the still exposed head. A flood of long dormant sensation washed over him. This was what he'd been deprived of when that bastard Louis took his life all those years ago. Sensation, feeling...damn it this was exquisite! His head swam as she slowly , strongly took more of him into her mouth.
He let her pleasure him for what seemed like hours, she was incredible, skilled, patient and instinctive. He shuddered as she nibbled, licked and sucked. Finally he could stand it no more. Reaching down he grabbed her under the arms. With a strength that surprized her he lifted her from
her knees. His eyes blazing, he looked into her beautiful face and said in a choking voice. "Kiss me."
Kara took his head in her hands and with a significant amount of her star-born strength brought him to her mouth. She hesitated only slightly as her tongue ran across his eye teeth on its way into his mouth. She was surprized at the sweat taste of him. She realized the effect he had on her must be like the effect she had on normal men. He must be emitting pheronomes at a phenomenal rate, she thought. She wondered briefly if her alien physiology made her more or less vulnerable to this aspect of the vampire's power.
With an effort, his strength again catching her off guard, she pulled way.
"Jules?" she said. "Oui, Cher?" he whispered. "Call me Kara?"
"I cannot," he sighed, licking across her cheek to her earlobe. Did the snake lick the rat? He fixed her eyes with his.
"Do not ask this of me Cher, do what you will, I will not harm you now, but do not ask this of me."
She nodded, not fully understanding. Did the snake lie to the rat? Or was the snake simply being a snake?
It was his turn to kneel. Without speaking Kara knew a threshold had been crossed. Jules proceeded to worship her body with his incredible tongue and vampire strength. Sensing he could use his full strength on her and that this would excite her even more, Jules proceeded to drive Kara into sexual oblivion. His powerful hands on her diamond hard ass, his mouth buried in her sex, she writhed and squirmed allowing herself far more abandon than she usually did. When his teeth came down upon her engorged nipple with full force she destroyed the chair she had been leaning on.
Her breath coming in ragged gasps as Jules works his way up across her chest to her neck, Kara begged him to enter her.
"Jules, now," she begged. "I have to have you now."
His eyes were wild, glowing, suddenly cat-like as if a membrane had been flipped away. His fangs bared in their full-terrifying glory as he stared riveted at her neck. He seethed, seemingly locked in internal conflict.
"Now, Jules, fuck me now!"
His eyes snapped back into human focus. "Yessssss," he said, but in the form of a hiss that was anything but human.
Floating into the air Kara used her flying power to impale herself on his monstrous cock.
"Oh God," she cried, stunned at the sensation. She raised and lowered herself on him as he threw his head back in unearthly ecstasy. Ecstasy that was returned.
"Oh....my....God...." Kara sputtered. Through clenched teeth Jules managed to spit out "would...you....mind....not...using....that....particular....phrase!"
At last they came together. Kara gasping at the strength of his embrace, actually having to flex to loosen it. The effort, using her awesome strength this way aroused her even more. The milk pale vampire and the blonde-bronze goddess formed the strangest and most sensual of unions. He pumping with unnatural strength, she writhing with unearthly power. His hands a blur, hers as well. Their mouths grasping, straining, seeking, teeth, tongues probing. They kissed without breathing for ten minutes. realized what they'd done and did it again. Though it all Kara, subtly keeping Jules' mouth away from her throat as much as she could. The snake was still a snake, even if the rat could fuck its brains out. For the hell of it she bit him on the neck. He roared with pleasure and twisted her swollen clitoris in his supernatural grip, causing in the ensuing orgasm, the destruction of the sofa.
At last they came, together, in a glorious rush of alien and unearthly passion. They came again, and again, and Kara found she had reached that rare state where she could continue to orgasm. And for two unearthly hours the alien and the vampire took each other to a realm of passion and sensation where time, sense and thought had no meaning.
Kara, lying on the shattered remains of the bed, was amazed that she was actually exhausted.
"You wore me out Jules," she smiled. "I didn't think that was possible."
"Everything about me is impossible Cher," he grinned.
Propping her head up with one sculptured arm, she traced rings on the marble smooth chest of the vampire. "Why won't you call me by my name?"
The vampire looked at his watch and made a quick mental calculation before answering. "As long as I don't use your name I can still think of you as food."
He defused her rapidly building outrage with a raised finger. "Cher, if I don't think of you as food, that means I have to make one with us."
"You mean, make me a vampire?" He nodded. "Oui Cher."
Flexing her arm again playfully , she looked at him with a smile. "You still sure you can take me?"
His eyes blazed for a second before he sighed. "Oui, Cher, in a heartbeat. But I could not turn such a vampire as you would become on the world."
He looked wistfully at the window as traces of a rosy glow appeared on the neighbouring roof top.
"What you called me earlier was the truth. I am a parasite. I offer the world nothing. You offer the world hope, you give the world a chance to be the place it was meant to be. There is much evil in this world, as I well know. But there is much good and much hope. You were sent here to nurture that hope, I do not have the right to prevent that."
She nodded. Impressed at the.....nobility the vampire was suddenly showing.
"Cher, `I `gin to be a-weary of the night, and wish the estate o' my world were now undone. I have one final request of you, and you are the only being in the world who can grant it."
She looked at him with sudden recognition and shock. Before she could protest he cut her off. "I'm already dead," he said simply.
The rays of the sun were already on the creepers over the French doors with opened on to the balcony when she had finished. Jules was already instinctively beginning to struggle, but the makeshift manacles she had formed out of the arms and legs of the wrought iron chair held him fast.
She looked at the sun gradually rising and knew what she had to do. Taking his head firmly in her hands she straddled him in the chair, once again impaling herself on his cock. This time however she brought the full power of her alien vaginal muscles to bear holding him fast. His eyes pleaded with her. But she held his head still, the muscles of her arms and back expanding as his struggles increased.
"Non, mon ami," she said. "I'm willing to risk it, this is the only way."
The sun was on her forehead now. His struggles wild, her embrace strong and firm. He writhed and screamed as the sun hit the back of his head. With a sudden ferocious effort he grabbed her head and crushed her against his cheek. he came suddenly, violently inside her triggering her own sudden and equally violent orgasm. In that moment he broke free of her grasp and she saw to her horror the full, true vampire. His eyes blazed, she was paralysed. He lunged at her neck but at the last second veered to the side. She felt a sharp pain in her earlobe before gripping the thrashing vampire with all her strength. As the full heat of the morning sun hit him he began to smoke, then burn.
Oblivious to the flames which were now engulfing both of them Kara held Jules fast. The flames subsided suddenly. And Kara looked into the face of a 20-year-old man, with long lark hair and brilliant blue eyes.
"Thank you Cher, merci Beaucoup... Kara."
Just as suddenly he crumbled into dust and she was left there, alone, naked on the balcony. The rising sun reflected in the lone tear running down her cheek.
Epilogue:
Apparently it had been a bitch of a flight into Denver and the trip back home through driving rain to Boulder was promising to rival it. Deb reflected that in the three years she'd known Sharon (as she liked to think of her) she'd never see her so distracted. Normally bubbly about her trips Sharon was unusually quiet, especially considering how much she'd been looking forward to meeting this other writer.
Deb resigned herself to the knowledge that whatever it was, Sharon wasn't likely to keep it bottled up for long. She knew enough not to probe for details that would almost certainly come out eventually. So while she was curious, she didn't ask about the urn Sharon put unceremoniously in the picture window. When Sharon was in the shower, Deb looked in it. Ashes! ? Sharon had no relatives, at least not on this planet. Whose could they be? She wondered.
There was no sex that night only a firm, reassuring embrace. Deb wondered at what could have possibly put this most powerful and wonderful of woman in such a state.
At three in the morning Deb awoke to find the bed empty. Stretching, she uncoiled her magnificent frame and padded noiselessly into the living room. She found Sharon, standing naked on the deck.
Sensing what was needed she approached her lover from behind and encircled her in a gentle, but powerful embrace. The subtle backwards pressure of Sharon's head signalled her appreciation. Deb nuzzled at her lover's ear and tasted the band aid she earlier assumed was part of some role-playing Sharon was engaged in.
Gently peeling it off Deb gasped quickly at what lay exposed.
"You've got a hole in your earlobe!" She exclaimed softly. "I didn't think that was possible."
"He bit me," Sharon said simply.
"He...bit you." Deb echoed.
"He could have done it, Deb. He could have done it all along and in the end he chose not to. He could have killed me. But he let me live."
"Who?"
"Just hold me Okay? Just hold me and don't let go."
They were still standing there, Sharon in Deb's embrace, when the sun came up.
Fini.