Chapter 3: The Turning

To say that I felt confused by what I'd seen and heard would be an understatement. A big one. I felt like Alice falling into the rabbit hole and if I'd believed in a world beneath our own, if I'd been looking for a doorway into something beyond the realms of reason, I'd found it. Julia had been appointed my keeper, although she was soon joined by Sylvia, Christine, and Wendy. Valentine too remained close by as I sat there on the sofa, trying to understand what my new friends were trying to tell me.

The others had disappeared, leaving the room quietly, and I wasn't sure if they'd left for the night, or merely retired to some other part of that great old church. I sat with Julia, the others sitting near us, having drawn near chairs of their own. Only Valentine remained standing, walking occasionally around the room, sometimes moving to stand closer to one of the other women. There was an intimacy between them that I could almost feel, between these particular people among the twelve, and I had the impression of circles within the circle.

"You are like us," Julia began, very much like she was teaching me. "And we are not like anyone else. Do you know what a succubus is?"

I licked my lips and nodded. "A demoness, one who comes in the night. Um..." I shrugged my shoulders. "They seduce men, I think? Drink their blood, like vampires or something?"

"Or something," Valentine laughed and Julia gave him an annoyed look.

"I'm a succubus," Julia told me, pausing for my reaction, but I just sat there. "As are Wendy and Christine."

"Uh, okay," I glanced at the other two women, sitting patiently and to my eyes looking nothing like demons at all.

"I'm the vampire," Valentine said, unable to contain himself. "Succubi are a dime a dozen."

"Val..." Julia rolled her eyes and smiled at me.

"We're much more rare..." the man continued, ignoring the interruption, " ... you and I, Jenna."

"Me?" I laughed, I couldn't help it. "I'm not a vampire!"

"Physically," Julia said, "you're not, but it's in you, Jenna. You've felt it, haven't you? That you're not like other people?"

"Well..." I just looked at her, thinking to myself that everyone feels that way at one time or another. It doesn't mean it's true.

"Do you believe in souls?" Wendy asked me.

"Sure, yeah," I shrugged.

"Your soul is far older than you know. It wasn't born with you, Jen, it was born in the fires of creation. It's been waiting to take shape, to assume form. Souls are that part of us which is divine and like everything in the universe they have a purpose."

"My soul isn't my own?" I asked and the woman smiled at that.

"Of course it's yours, dear. I just want you to understand that how we appear outside does not always reflect what's inside. Your soul has been waking over the past few months, even years. It's been waking slowly and affecting how you see the world." Wendy leaned forward, her eyes shining into mine. "Very soon, perhaps even tonight, it will embrace you finally and you'll understand what you've only suspected."

"So ... I'm a vampire on the inside," I said slowly. "But I won't ever really look like one or drink blood or anything, right?"

"Oh, you'll drink, my love." Valentine was there, as if he'd just teleported himself across the room somehow and now stood there in front of me, his mouth open to reveal long, pointed fangs. His eyes were red, as lit if by the fires of hell itself, and his handsome face grew dark and malevolent.

My breath seemed frozen in my breast and I felt transfixed, paralyzed and unable to move. He could have had me then. Valentine's mouth closed over my throat and my head tilted towards the shadows above as if of its own accord, presenting myself to him. I felt and heard my heart rushing, the blood surging through my veins. I sat powerless and terrified and yet yearning to feel the cold clamping of his jaws to my flesh.

"Enough, Valentine," Julia whispered and her voice seemed far away, and then he was gone. Like moonlight behind a passing cloud, the room was empty of his presence and I looked around, breathing hard and shivering. The entire affair had lasted only a few brief seconds, I knew, but it had seemed an eternity.

"He's eager," Christine observed.

"He'll be the one to free you," Julia told me, stroking my arm with her hand. "He'll turn you, when it's time."

"Bite me, you mean," I said softly and there was no question there.

"It's who you are," Sylvia spoke for the first time. "What you are."

"A vampire." I swallowed hard, trying to accept that somehow. "And you're really a ... Succubus?" I looked at Julia.

"Yes." She rose gracefully, knowing that I'd asked because I needed something more than words from her. I needed evidence, beyond that given to me by Valentine.

Julia removed her clothes; the emerald blouse she wore, unbuttoning it and letting it fall off her shoulders. She undid her bra, letting her beautiful breasts loose as we watched. She undid her skirt, a long one fashioned from some black material like crepe, and then her panties. She undressed for me completely and there followed the briefest pause, a heartbeat as the Asian woman closed her eyes with a tiny smile passing her pale lips, and then she changed.

As if by magic her form changed, but only slightly. She was still beautiful, but her skin darkened, taking on a warm glow. And wings, like great black shadows of supple leather seemed to grow from her back, spreading wide and tipped with gleaming claws. Horns curled from her temples, long and slender, black and red and wonderful. Julia's eyes took on a golden hue, the pupils themselves, and they grew until there was no white to be seen. She appeared lovely and terrible to behold and I felt myself filled with lust suddenly, desperate that this woman, this demoness, should possess me.

I felt none of the terrified exhilaration that Valentine had filled me with. This was a very different and subtle seduction, but no less dangerous for it. I sat mesmerized and I felt my body growing languid and heavy with desire. I wanted to lay there on that sofa, open and inviting for her. Julia could have me any way she pleased and I'd offer no resistance.

"If you were anyone else..." Julia's voice was like the sound of tinkling glass, sweet and melodic and it made me writhe beneath her. "When you turn, Jenna, when you become a vampire, you'll have some resistance." She kissed me on my cheek and it burned delightfully. "And it will grow with time, over the passing years..." I felt her hand on my breast and I moaned, arching my body against her, " ... and you'll remember this moment and lament our lost kiss."

She let me go then, stepping back, her wings giving a soft flap to catch the air so that she actually seemed to float away from me. I felt consumed by an emptiness suddenly, and a longing, and I blinked, shaking my head and struggling to sit back up. Julia looked as she had before, except she was naked. Her wings were gone, her horns and golden eyes as well. She appeared normal in every way, but I could still feel what lay beneath that disguise and I realized that I'd sensed it previously, even surrendered to it the night before.

"All of you are like that?" I asked somewhat breathlessly, glancing at the other women as Julia dressed herself slowly, unmindful of our attentions. It was impossible not to watch her and I wasn't alone in that regard. We all watched her.

"No," Sylvia smiled. "I'm what you would call a witch, I suppose."

"Can you do spells?" I wondered, ready to believe anything now. Vampires, Succubi, so why not a witch?

"Some," she smiled at me, "but I'm no sorceress. Not like Samantha."

"She's a sorceress?" I raised my eyebrows, picturing the woman in my head. Samantha had red hair and brown skin, and lovely aquiline features. A strong, straight nose and piercing green eyes above a thin sensual mouth. She'd been remote and distant from me and I knew very little about her at all.

"Oh yes," Sylvia nodded. "She's the one who protects us."

"Some of us," Julia corrected her gently, finally dressed and sitting down beside me.

"So what do you do? I heard Thomas call you a Seer or something..."

"I am the Seer," Sylvia smiled. "I'm the Oracle, except I don't have to speak in riddles, thank God. I read the stars, the planets. Astrology, Numerology, Palmistry. I even read old bones and tea leaves..."

"She speaks with the dead too," Julia whispered in my ear.

"I predict the future and the past..."

"You predict the past?" I gave a small giggle at that.

"Oh yes," Sylvia nodded, laughing with me. "There are many things forgotten, long buried in the sands of time. Some knowledge must be remembered, even though it's lost."

"See?" Christine grinned at me. "And she says she doesn't speak in riddles."

"Well..." Sylvia shrugged apologetically. "Anyway, I can do many things, like knowing you were going to read that poem tonight, The Second Coming."

"But how could you know that?" I asked. "And what difference did that make anyway?" That part had really confused me.

"Magic," Sylvia laughed. "But the important thing isn't that I knew you were going to do it, the important thing was that you did it at all, see?"

"No," I shook my head sadly. I didn't see any of it.

"You'll have to trust me then," Sylvia said. "And you'll have to believe me when I tell you that I've watched you for a long, long time."

"How long?" I narrowed my eyes slightly.

"Since before you were born," Sylvia grinned at me and I just smiled, not really believing that, but wondering if I'd dare to doubt it.

"Is she ready?" Valentine's voice startled me and I turned my head quickly to see him standing behind us.

"Hardly," Julia told him. "We've barely started..."

"I'm ready," I said, swallowing hard. I knew what he was asking, I felt it inside me.

I thought someone, Julia probably, would have disagreed with me, said something to change my mind, but apparently it really was my decision. I had a lot to learn, so many questions in my head unanswered. My life had become full of mysteries, and even a mystery unto itself, but I knew what Valentine wanted and looking into his handsome face, into his eyes once again dark with humor, I knew I wanted it as well.

He gave Julia a small look of triumph, perhaps, or maybe just satisfaction.

"Come with me," Valentine moved around the sofa, reaching out to take my hand. "There's a place where we can be alone," his voice sounded soft, hypnotic as it caressed me way down deep in my soul. "I'll teach you everything," he promised. "All you need to know about life..." he kissed me softly on the lips as I stood, letting his strong arms envelope me, " ... and death."

And we were flying, or so it seemed. Before I had the chance to say goodbye to our friends, Valentine had swept me off my feet and he moved so quickly, not running exactly, but gliding on the air. I had a dream and in it I clutched him, feeling nothing of the chill night air around us. I pressed my cheek to his breast as he cradled me. We moved swiftly, so that the trees and buildings and lights seemed to flash by us in a blur. There was no sound except that of the wind as it rushed around us, but I felt it not at all. It seemed as if the man pierced the night itself, moving at will and unimpeded by nature. He existed beyond that, beyond the physical bonds of our mortal selves.

When at last we stopped, Valentine lowered me gently onto a bed. It was soft and thick with wool and cotton comforters. The pillows were plump and adorned with tassels and around us I could dimly make out a room which wouldn't have been out of place in an English castle. The walls were rough hewn stone of some kind, with deep cracks and shadows. Tapestries hung across them, faded scenes of past glory, battles and dragons and knights of old. Candles stood near the bed, thick and round, the color of blood, and their flames were long and steady. It was a room tailored to gothic romance, to vampires and ghosts, and I smiled contentedly, catching my breath as I lay there.

"Do you like it?" Valentine asked me, sitting on the bed and his hand touched my tummy, bare where my t-shirt had ridden up.

"It looks like something from a Dracula movie," I breathed and then giggled at the look on his face.

"I prepared it for you," he told me, looking a little offended. "For us. I wanted to set the mood."

"You have," I reassured him. "It's perfect. I was teasing you."

It struck me then that for all of his good looks, not to mention being a real vampire, Valentine was a little uncertain of himself. He reminded me in so many ways of the guys I knew in school, the sixteen and seventeen year olds who thought they owned the world, and acted it when with their friends. But to see them alone, or in an unfamiliar situation, and they were just children like everyone else. Valentine seemed very much the same way and I wanted to know why. I wanted to know everything.

"You're the most beautiful woman I've ever seen," Valentine told me. He stroked my stomach with his left hand, half lying on the bed with his head propped up with the right.

"Julia's more beautiful then me," I replied seriously. "And Sylvia, and Wendy, and a hundred girls at my school..." I sighed.

"No," Valentine assured me, his voice tender and sincere. "They're not." He kissed me on the lips and whatever spell had kept us in check fractured and broke.

I embraced him eagerly, my arms around the man's neck, drawing him to my body. My mouth opened for his and I felt his tongue probing gently, teasing across my teeth and finding my own tongue finally. My eyes were open and I watched his close. Valentine kissed me hard and his body moved so that he was fully atop me. I felt him pressed against me, the odd shaped knot of his trapped penis finding my crotch as I spread my legs around him. We kissed and moved our bodies together, fully clothed and only mimicking the physical act of love. I grew warm and then hot, my body becoming damp and my breath grew humid in Valentine's mouth.

"I do love you," I told him at one point, clutching the man to me so I could whisper the words in his ear. "You asked before ... I do. I do love you."

And we kissed more, while Valentine worked to undress us. I just lay there, pulling at him, working my body against his gentle weight. I'd never been with anyone before, not like this. I wanted him so badly and I couldn't bear the thought of waiting one second longer than I had to. I became fearful that something would happen to spoil it. The clock would strike midnight and he'd have to leave, that was my fear. I'd never had anything in my life, nothing that I'd really, really wanted, but now I had this. I had Valentine and I wanted to keep him. I wanted to be with him, exactly like this forever.