B007XKEWAE EBOK (33 page)

"I'll let you back in."

Fulton was already on his way down the stairs and didn't acknowledge the vampire's words. He stepped out into the
crowd putting what he had just done and his reasons for fleeing the upstairs area out of his mind so that he wouldn't have to deal with them.

"You can't really think it's that easy?"

Fulton looked himself in the face and shook his head, "I got rid of you already, get lost."

The imagined Fulton, dressed much more sombrely than when Fulton had seen him before, gave a smile as a human woman danced right through his image. "That's so cool."

He regarded Fulton again, "You did get rid of me for a time. You finally stopped trying to be something you weren't, once you listened to me and behaved like you're supposed to I had no need to manifest and explain to you like this. But now you're doing it again. To
keep me away you  need to be true to yourself."

"And how do I do that?"

If anyone in the club noticed he was talking to himself they didn't give any sign and carried on with what they were doing regardless.

"Stop trying to be something you aren't. Before you were stopping yourself, denying your nature. When you started to embrace it you were doing good but now you've let yourself go to far the other way. What you did to that girl wasn't right and it wasn't you. And this other thing, this infatuation with Gabriella, it isn't healthy. You need to make a choice, mate. Either do something about it or give it up but this inaction and jealousy is getting you nowhere."

"So what should I do? Am I meant to take Gabriella away from Francesca, she won't let her go without a fight, or should I keep my feelings to myself and try to move on?"

"You know what to do," the pseudo-Fulton answered fading away.

Fulton aimed a punch at the fading image of himself, he knew it was futile but he simply couldn't help himself. The image was gone before he connected, but instead of hitting empty air his fist connected with another vampire close by. Before he knew it he was caught up in a brawl with a growing crowd of vampires and club staff.

He extricated himself briefly from the fight and hurried upstairs.

Inside the upstairs area Fulton made his way immediately to the cubicle where
he had heard Francesca and Gabriella. Throwing aside the curtain his eyes took in their naked flesh. Gabriella pulled a sheet from a bed Fulton was surprised to see was almost as grotty the one he had used to cover herself, Francesca simply stared at him.

"We need to leave. I think I caused a bit of trouble."

Fulton offered a brief explanation, leaving out the insane part, and pointed to the window at the end of the room. "We need to head out through there."

There was a growing commotion coming closer from downstairs. Whoever Fulton had pissed off he had pissed them off good.

On their way to the window they passed the cubicle where Fulton had left the girl he had turned. Deciding that if
anything could take his mind off Gabriella she could, he took a moment to turn aside and carry her out. She was still mostly out of it but was slowly coming around.

"What is that?" Francesca asked.

"I liked her so I turned her."

"We don't have time for this," Gabriella put in, "Just leave it behind."

"I'll carry her."

Gabriella was the first of them out. She just dived through the window almost without a second thought.

Francesca went next. Fulton looked out and saw her land. Gabriella helped her up and then Francesca started walking calmly away. Not that would make her any less conspicuous, nobody could fail to notice someone naked walking down the streets, especially
when they looked like that. Gabriella remained for a moment looking up at Fulton.

"Catch." He leaned out and dropped the girl.

Gabriella turned away to follow Francesca leaving the girl to slam into the concrete floor. Fulton threw himself out and landed in a crouch at the girl’s side. She was still alive which he assumed meant the change was working, she would recover quickly from any injuries she sustained in the fall. He still wasn't happy that Gabriella had let it happen though and he let her know it.

"It's your responsibility," Gabriella said when he confronted her. "If you want a new toy to play with
you
can look after it."

"Stop bickering and come along," Francesca called back over her shoulder. Fulton saw her eyes flick up from where he and Gabriella were making their way towards her up to the window they had jumped out of.

"Why don't you put it-," Francesca cut herself off, "What's her name?" she asked indicating the girl Fulton carried.

Fulton shrugged, "It never came up."

"You made it one of us and you don't even know it's name," Gabriella said incredulous.

"Will you stop calling her it?"

They had crossed the open ground which separated the converted warehouse from the derelict buildings surrounding it. Soon they would reach populated areas where someone would
notice them. They needed to steal themselves some transport.

"Yes," Francesca said surprising Fulton by backing him up. He had expected her to be jealous of his decision to turn the girl and bring her with him.

Francesca slowed to shorten the gap between them as they rounded the corner of an old factory building. The whole of the front of the building was covered in pale green netting, Fulton figured it was there to stop the building collapsing, or possibly to catch any falling rubble before it could hit a passer by and land the buildings owner with a lawsuit.

She stroked a hand over the girl’s cheek brushing her hair away from her face. The girl moaned softly. Francesca let her hand trail down over the girl’s
neck, through the blood congealing from Fulton's bite trailing it down her body.

"She's definitely an attractive female," Francesca said. "In fact she looks a little like you, Gabriella."

Fulton took a step away, breaking the contact between Francesca and the girl before her touch could reach anywhere intimate.

"I look nothing like that," Gabriella spat, literally looking down her nose at the girl.

"It has been a long time since you last saw how you look to us now." Francesca trailed her fingers over Gabriella's face emphasising how it was different in human form.

"Not so long that I would mistake myself for that." At a look from Fulton and Francesca she smiled insincerely. "Sorry,
for
her
. Can we get away from here now?"

The blood he had taken from the girl had sated Fulton's need to feed but Francesca and Gabriella had not been so satisfied. They needed to make a kill and Francesca told Fulton that when the girl came around she would recover more quickly from the change if she could feed as well. As it turned out the opportunity to
feed had presented itself at the same time as their means of transport.

When they first heard the sounds of an engine coming up from behind them Francesca had called out for them to seek shelter in the shadows thrown by a vandalised bus-shelter, which had had the glass broken and never replaced. There was no glass on the ground around the shelter so either the company that maintained the shelters hadn't had time to replace the glass yet, or the vandalism had happened so often they had realised the futility of trying to keep it in good repair. The three alert vampires, and the half-turned girl Fulton carried, crouched behind the shelter waiting to see the source of the noise they had heard.

A set of headlights illuminated the shelter, deepening the shadows where the vampires waited, as the vehicle rounded a corner and started up the road parallel to them. A dull repetitive
thud-thud-thud
grew louder in proportion to the engine sounds as the vehicle closed right up to them. All of a sudden Francesca got to her feet and stepped away from the bus-shelter.

"What are you-"

"Quiet!" Francesca hissed cutting Gabriella off, "And stay down all of you."

She calmly walked to the edge of the pavement displaying her nude body to whoever was around in all its glory.

Judging by the engine noise the vehicle was about to pass them by when the sounds changed as it came to a stop a couple of metres further along the road.

"Dude, did you see that?" A voice said inside the car loud enough to be heard over the thumping bass-line of their music.

"She's still there, man," a second voice said, "Backup and see if she's looking for a bitta fun."

The music shut off.

"She's looking for something out here like that," a third voice put in, "Maybe she's some sort of   mentalist."

"I don't care what kind of a bitch she is as long as she's a good ride," the first voice retorted. "And she's got to be up for some lovin' mentalist or not."

The engine noise changed again as the vehicle, probably a small car Fulton guessed, reversed to put it alongside Francesca.

"You lookin' for a good time, sexy mama?" the first voice asked.

"Why? Do you boys think you're up to giving me one?"

Fulton imagined the boys in the car trading glances.

"Between the three of us I'm sure we could well and truly satisfy you."

"I wouldn't be so sure," Francesca shot back.

"Dude enough of this," the second voice said. "You comin' with us or not, bitch?"

"I suppose that will depend on whether you boys are as good as you obviously think you are."

It took them a moment to get it, and Fulton never knew if all three did because as soon as the first started laughing the other two followed suit.

There was the sound of a click which Fulton couldn't place until the third voice said, "Come on in an' we can get started." When he realised that it must have been the sound of one of the car's doors being opened.

"Yes we can."

Fulton then heard more sounds he couldn't identify mingled with many he could. There were the usual sounds of human terror, screaming and shouting, even desperate sobs. There were numerous snaps and cracks and several long tearing sounds. By the time Fulton got to his feet it was all over and the only sounds coming from inside the car were quiet gurgles of the boys slowly choking to death on their own blood.

Francesca backed out of the car and held the door open for them. Her smooth,
pale body was adorned with running splatters of blood that followed her curves then dripped onto the ground.

"Your chariot awaits," Francesca said waving Gabriella forwards. "Transport and food taken care of," she added to Fulton.

"Just like a drive-through," Fulton said as he tossed the driver's convulsing body into the back-seat next to where he had left the girl. Gabriella was apparently too preoccupied with feeding to complain about her proximity.

"This is the second car I've stolen in as many nights. If we run into money problems again I should take it up professionally."

They had made it back to within walking distance of the house without incident. About halfway there the girl had
come to, no doubt roused by the scent of blood and death that hung redolent in the confined space of the car. She had immediately transformed her face into her newly acquired vampiric countenance and fed in a frenzy.

When they arrived back at the house Fulton had taken her upstairs to his room and she proved that feeding wasn't the only activity she did in a frenzy. After a long and loud session that should go some way to paying Francesca and Gabriella back for all the times he had had to endure listening to them at it, Fulton rolled onto his side and regarded the girl. He absentmindedly stroked his hand up and down her side.

"You know I don't even know your name?" he said.

The girl looked at him with wide eyes then broke eye contact by watching his hand. "What I was called doesn't matter anymore," she said, "I've spent a lot of time thinking about this and I've chosen a new name for the new person I am."

She trailed off but brought her eyes back up to his.

"Go on," he instructed her. "Tell me."

"I want to be called Persephone."

"It's a pretty name," Fulton said not really sure what made any one name prettier than others, it just seemed like the polite thing to say.

"She was the Greek Goddess of the underworld."

"Appropriate as well then."

"That's what I thought," Persephone said, "But there is one problem with it,"
the girl screwed up her face and hesitated for a second before she continued.  "She was also the Goddess of corn."

Fulton laughed and Persephone drew away from him.

"I'm not laughing at you," he soothed her hooking his arm over her body to draw her back in. "But if anyone asks we can ignore the corn link."  He laughed again, "Those Greeks had a deity for everything."

For a time Francesca and Gabriella had attempted to rival Fulton and his little whore with how much noise they could make when they were making love. Despite hundreds of years of practice they eventually had to give up and admit
defeat as the younger vampires' lust outstripped them.