Chapter 2

Vampire Lestat here. I must say, I was rather pleased with the feedback my young friend Aaron forwarded my way. It appears you all enjoyed reading about mine and Gabrielle's more intimate adventures after all.

Well, I expected nothing less. Who wouldn't want to read about me in any shape or form?

So now you want to hear about "the Girl," do you? And what if I said that nothing happened with the girl? Perhaps having fed off ourselves and being starved, Gabrielle and I simply took the foolish thing for what she really was. Food for the immortals. We listened to her scream as we toyed with her and she ran deeper into the forest, lost amongst those ancient towering trees until we caught her and snatched her up for a little deathly feast!

Ah, but that would not be a story worth telling then, would it? Very well then, I shall tell you now of the mortal in the woods. But not only that, I shall tell you of other mortals that sampled the flesh of Gabrielle and her pale skinned son, Lestat.

The girl was sitting on the straw filled bed, lost in her thoughts by the time we'd dried ourselves and made it to the shack. The night was warm and so the cloak she had worn was not really necessary at all. A curious thing that mortals feel that they can hide behind something so thin as a cloak for protection. Like a child under the bedcovers from an imagined monster.

Well, we were real monsters and a cloak would do no good.

Gabriel smiled, revealing her sharpened teeth and motioned for me to approach the entrance while she jumped onto the roof with ease. The girl heard the sound and I could feel her apprehension as all her thoughts quieted inside the small room. There was no door, just a large wooden sheet that could be pushed in front of the opening to ward off the wind and keep large animals from getting in. But the girl had not elected to put even that useless thing in place.

I waited in the darkness, still without clothes, just as she had seen me the first time. Waited for her to approach the opening and peer outside. Her lips formed the words, but nothing came out. The poor thing was frightened out of her wits. And rightly so. Only an idiot would come out into those woods at night completely alone. And with the knowledge that preternatural beings were out there as well? Not a smart thing to do.

She said the words again, her voice choking with her fear. "Hello? Is it... you?"

"And who is 'You, ' might I ask?" I said from the dark.

She spun to the side with a gasp and saw my pale form emerging from the shadows to her left. Her eyes went wide and she gathered her cloak in her fists as she stared at me in wonder. She did not even seem to notice that I wore no clothes at all. How disappointing.

"I thought I was... dreaming all this time," she whispered.

"Not a dream, little one," Gabriel said from above her. My mother was as naked as I, and was lying on her side flicking leaves from the roof as she looked at the girl. "A nightmare perhaps; but not a dream."

The girl had screamed almost silently and fallen to the ground at the sight of Gabriel just inches above her. And now she backed away on the ground toward the darkness, rather than the safety of the cabin. A curious thing to do.

There was definitely fear in her eyes, until my mother softened her face and smiled at the girl. The smile she had used on me as a boy to get me to listen when no one else could.

"No, not a nightmare," the girl said. And I saw the blood rush to her cheeks and knew she was blushing at some memory of that night. "It was too... good to be a nightmare."

I looked up at my mother and shared her smile. She was intrigued with this mortal, and so was I.

"And what was so good about it that you would risk danger to find it again?" I asked. I pushed the blond hair away from my forehead and saw the girl watching me intently. Only then did she realize my nakedness. But she did not turn away. She merely looked at me there as much as anyplace else. And then the trace of a smile.

"I don't truly remember... it was just a feeling. I thought I must be crazy, for the memory I do have is cloudy but... enchanting, all the same."

I stepped closer and the girl looked indecisive for a moment as to where to go, until I held out my hand to help her to her feet. She took it hesitantly and then stepped far enough away to look at both me and Gabriel at the same time.

"What are you?" the girl asked, oblivious to the rudeness of such an inquiry.

"Is it not enough that we are here?" my mother asked.

"If it was so 'good' then does it matter what we are? You have found us; now the question is what will you do now?" I asked this while walking slowly around her, watching as she turned along with me, never allowing me to get behind her.

The girl was not frightened now. The feelings coming from her were that of amusement, awe even, but not so much fear any more.

"Are you wood nymphs?" she asked, ignoring our inquiries completely. Maddening!

"Do we look like wood nymphs, Child?" Gabriel said, sitting upright and jumping down to the ground without a sound. Yet, a pair of morning doves flew away from a low tree nearby.

"I believe so. Although, how can I know?"

"Then we are wood nymphs then," I exclaimed with a laugh. I looked at Gabrielle and she grinned, keeping her lips tight so as not to reveal our true nature.

"But what I should like to know," my mother asked, circling the girl in the opposite direction and causing her to look at us quickly by turning her body and head repeatedly. "Is whether your gentlemen friends also believe we are wood nymphs?"

The girl shook her head and took a deep breath. An unpleasant memory of them striking her in some darkened alley.

"They don't believe anything. They think it was something I did to them. Why they can't remember. Why they felt so ill afterwards."

"And did you not feel ill too?" I asked with a look of sympathy. I made a mental note that if I met them again, they would be toyed with before they died, like none other.

The girl shook her head once more. "Not really. It was the wine, I know that. But the memory of seeing... you... and what it felt like. That was enough for me."

She said this thing, but she was being deceptive as well. The marks had concerned her for a time. I could sense this and she was fighting the urge to reach for her throat and breast all at once as she watched us slowly walking around her.

"Then tell us... why is it you have returned?" Gabrielle said, halting in front of her. I continued pacing until I stood behind my mother and placed my chin on her shoulder to look at the girl with a most seductive smile. She blushed.

"Just to know if it was true. To see if I really had lost my mind."

"But if we had not been here, would you still have believed you'd lost your mind?" I asked. I reached around and started circling Gabrielle's nipples with my fingers. The girl watched and her breathing became erratic.

"Yes... no... I don't know."

"Well, you have not lost your mind," my mother said, reaching over her shoulder and running her fingers through my long blond hair. "And now having seen us with your own eyes, your being here serves no purpose then. Does it, Child?"

The girl looked uncertain. She rocked forward almost taking a step, but then steadied herself. She clearly wanted to say something or do something, I could tell. But then I could almost read her mind as well. And the images were all ones of passion and some of the last moments before she lost consciousness. The two of us feeding from her and causing her to explode into a pleasure unknown to her before.

"You must say what you want," Gabrielle said. "We have no time to play games with silly mortals." My mother started to turn, breaking away from me and taking a step back towards whence we had come.

"Wait!" the girl said, stepping forward, one hand emerging from her cloak in Gabrielle's direction.

My mother stopped and looked back over her shoulder. She turned her head around almost too far, causing the girl to look at her in awe. A wood nymph for sure.

"I want... I want to feel that again. I want to feel lost and happy and ecstatic again. Like that night." I could see the moisture glistening in her eyes. A very troubled soul she was.

But oh, how I remembered precisely what she was referring to. That night that Magnus had first captured me and fed on my blood until I was nearly dead. The feeling of rapture of floating, of sheer bliss without a care in the world. I had wanted that feeling again as well.

I was silent as Gabrielle smiled and walked back to the girl, who did not back away from her this time. My mother pressed her lips to the mortal's ear and whispered.

"You should be careful what you wish for, my child." And then she kissed her gently.

Gabrielle then walked behind the girl and proceeded into the cabin, pausing at the entrance and beckoning her with some unspoken thoughts to follow. The girl looked at me and blushed again. And then quickly followed her female wood nymph inside.

The lantern was not a good one and so the light it gave off was not enough to bother our eyes. Nor was it quite good enough to reveal the inhuman skin of our forms. But then again, we were wood nymphs now. Perhaps that is what those fairy tale creatures looked like as well.

It would have been best if the girl had brought wine again, as before. She would have been able to relax somewhat before we made our move. But, since this was a rather unplanned sequence of events, Gabrielle and I would have to revert back to the way of mortals. Of foreplay, in order to get this done.

I was still unclear of what my mother intended, not able to read her thoughts at all since performing the Dark Trick on her. If we were to feed from the girl outright, then she would be unconscious or dead in a matter of seconds. So, how to make love to a mortal? And one that is in expectation of the very piercing of her flesh at that. Perhaps Gabrielle was not planning something so elaborate after all. Simply trick the foolish thing into giving herself up freely to two hungry immortals and be done with it. I would not have put it past my mother, who was surely as conniving as me.

Gabrielle stepped around the girl; the room being very cramped, with the bed against one wall and refuse of all sorts lying about on the floor. This place served one purpose and so nobody ever touched the place simply to tidy it up. Although there were stacks of fresher straw at the far wall; free of lice and the dozen other accoutrements of the mortal flesh.

My mother's hands silently reached around the girl from behind, startling her at first, but relaxing when she felt the fingers tugging at the cord on her cloak.

"What is your name, Child?" she asked her. The cloak loosened and Gabrielle pulled it off her shoulders from behind, revealing an old dress, thin and worn. The look of a servant of some sort. Strung up tight as it was, it certainly served its purpose though, by slimming her waist and pushing her bosom up to my gaze invitingly as she stood just an arm's length away.

"Collette," she whispered in response. Her eyes were staring into mine, noticing their almost clear, luminescent appearance. I winked and smiled at her again and she instantly turned her face away.

"You are much too bashful, little Collette," I said. I moved forward and reached for the strings of her dress as my mother held her shoulders firm, massaging her neck and kneading the tension away. "You certainly were not this bashful the last time we saw you."

Collette licked her lips and forced herself to look up into my eyes again. She felt Gabrielle move the long chestnut hair away from her neck and kiss her there, and the girl's lids widened in surprise. I do believe she thought Gabrielle was about to take her right at that moment.

For my part, it was taking all of my former theatrical skills to play the part of the seductive wood nymph instead of the fairy tale monster; to not just sink my teeth into her delicate flesh and feed the hunger that was growing with every second. The veins on her chest and neck pulsed, calling to me with every beat of her fragile, mortal heart. I saw not even the slightest sign of the two puncture wounds on her neck, all completely healed now after three weeks. That creamy flesh, the freckles that dotted her chest, the scent of her that close — it made me want to sink into her in more places than one to be sure.

The sweet scent of her breasts as the gown fell away and Gabrielle and I worked it down the girl's wide hips was intoxicating. The sweat was not much unlike the scent of blood. The same salty air to it that made my nostrils flare and my mouth water.

The three of us were completely nude now — one mortal and two immortals. A girl and her nymphs of the wood. Gabrielle looked at me from over the Collette's shoulder and smiled a sly little grin.

And so, my mother climbed onto the bed and held out her hand for the girl, who with a rather bashful look joined her where she lay. I watched them staring into each other's eyes for a few moments, Gabrielle seeming to speak to her in that silent way. They smiled for a moment. A very beautiful sight, I might add. The mortal and the immortal female, lying side by side.

The two of them turned and looked at me standing a few feet away and to my amusement, Collette held out her hand and I, being the gentleman that I was, accepted it wholeheartedly.

I mentally projected the image to our young mortal of that night three weeks ago; of the rapture she had felt. But also I gave her the sense of her beauty, like no mortal could have ever suggested. Collette sighed and looked back at Gabrielle.

Over the next few minutes, I followed my mother's lead, allowing her to suggest what must be done first and next and last. Collette moaned as she felt us kissing her face and then neck on either side. And then she gasped as the two of us flicked our tongues across her distended nipples in unison. She lifted her head to look at us working our mouths at her breasts.

"I am ready now... Please!" she pleaded.

Gabrielle lifted her face and smiled at the girl. "Patience, Child. You will receive what you desire... in time."

Collette moaned in desperation and flung her head back onto the bed as my mother went back to teasing her nipple with teeth and tongue just as I was on her other side. The girl pushed her breasts into our mouths by arching her back, and came perilously close to puncturing her tight skin at the edge of our sharpened teeth. Both Gabrielle and I paused to make certain that did not happen.

I smelled the most delicious scent at my nose and opened my eyes to see my mother's fingers right there. She had been playing with Collette between her legs and the smell was as exhilarating as the sweaty sheen that surrounded the underside of the girl's ample bosom.

Without being told what to do, I moved down between the girl's legs and kissed her there instead; teasing and nipping, licking and sucking. More than a few times as she thrust her hips toward my mouth I was tempted to end her waiting once and for all. To sink my teeth into that swollen sensitive flesh, or the thick pulsing veins that ran along her inner thighs.

Gabrielle was kissing her full on the mouth now. A shock to me; having never seen two women kiss before. But then, she was no longer a woman, was she? She was something else, and that sort of thing had no hold on her anymore.

I saw my mother's hand in front of my face again, then pulling at my hair. I could not read her thoughts, but I understood as she exposed her wrist to me and offered herself freely.

She was as hungry as I now, and so I had to be very careful. I lifted my face from between the legs of our sweet mortal Collette, and while massaging her with my fingers I sank my teeth into Gabrielle's flesh. I heard both of them moan. I drew the life out of my mother just long enough to feel the blood filling my organ below, and then with a groan I released her and positioned myself between the girl's legs.

Could this be done, I wondered. Was it possible to love a mortal in this fashion? I soon found out.

I slipped myself inside her, sinking into her depths even as I watched the blood streaking down my mother's arm. Collette pushed her away so that she could watch her fairy tale come to life. Watch the pale skinned creature — the wood nymph — have his way with her.

Gabrielle kneeled beside me and kissed me full on the mouth, much to the delight of our little mortal friend. She groaned out and closed her eyes as she worked her hips back and forth against me, taking her pleasure. The look on my mother's face was becoming frantic. She needed to feed. She turned and licked the blood trailing down her arm and then looked back at the girl who was gasping and moaning in front of me.

Wait, Mother... wait until that moment is upon her! I pleaded silently.

Gabrielle did not look at me though. She moved half over Collette and started stroking her hair and face; the way a mother might, or a lover might — so experienced she was at playing both of those mortal roles. I watched in fascination, even as the pleasure grew in my own flesh, as Gabrielle moved her mouth down to the girl's breast again.

Without hesitation, I leaned forward and captured her other breast in my mouth, listening to the breathing coming from her lips, smelling the hot blood coursing through her young flesh. Collette cried out and pressed both of our heads toward her ample bosom.

And we gave her what she had so innocently sought from us.

I felt her tighten and moisten around my shaft, heard her gasp in surprise as she felt both Gabrielle and I pierce the skin over her plump breasts. The delicious fire flowed into my mouth, my mother's too. And both of us hissed our relief at finally tasting this mortal girl again. That sweet sensation of tasting a mortal in the throes of passion was beyond anything I had tasted before her. That was why it had been so delightful the last time with this girl. She enjoyed it. Desired us feeding from her flesh.

"Yes... yes..." she whimpered, her eyelids fluttering, grasping at our long blond hair. A weak smile at those plump little lips.

Her climax pushed the blood through her veins and into our waiting mouths at a frightening pace. But not only that, it was mixed with the very taste of her orgasm.

I heard the beating of her heart loud through the throbbing in her breast. We were joined as one at that moment — my mother, Collette the mortal and I.

It took every ounce of strength not to finish it right then. Not to take this sweet girl's life after she had offered it so freely. I yanked my head away, even as I felt her thighs relaxing from their fierce grip around my waist. And then seeing Gabrielle still lost in the act of feeding, I pulled her away as well.

My mother turned on me with a terrifying face; the red glistening on her lips and teeth, her eyes wide and narrow all at once. The girl was fighting to remain conscious, but the loss of life was simply too much for her. She moaned and rocked beneath me, her small hands gripping loosely at the thin blanket on the bed.

I pulled my mother away and forced her down on the bed beside Collette. And then I slid myself inside her before she could react. She let out a shrill cry that caused the girl to whimper in response and then my mother saw the blood on my lips.

Gabrielle pulled me hard on top of her, wrapping her legs around my waist and grinding into me. She kissed me, tasting the blood of the mortal girl sleeping restlessly beside us. And then I finished with her, what I had started with the girl. It was fast, it was hard, and it was beautiful.

My mother and I completed the act of our passion, still tasting the saltiness of our little mortal friend upon our lips. We reached that peak together in a frightening display of growling and gasping and pulling at each other's limbs, trying to get that last bit of pleasure from the other's immortal flesh while in that very mortal act.

And when it was all done, once that mortal surge within us had been depleted entirely, we watched our sleeping mortal. Stroked her hair and soft delicate limbs. Like two angels looking upon their charge.

We debated on taking her back to town, but decided that she would be more confused of her wood nymphs traveling there, then simply waking alone out in the woods just as before. We did go back and leave her some items of worth — a few gold coins; certainly more than she would see in a year. I suppose that means the Damned do have some compassion in them after all.

Perhaps.

18^th Century Paris.

The ladies in their pretty panniers; their delicate breasts buoying so prominently you could almost taste them. The gents with their elaborate canes and luxurious white stockings with their gaudy buckled shoes; hiding all their taut flesh that seemed to just beckon me. And every one of them intent on living life for the moment. For themselves. Without a care for God or morality. This was the time for science and independence.

This was the time for an immortal to feast.

Gabrielle and I had enjoyed our taste of Collette. The indescribable pleasure of combining our mortal and immortal passions at the very same time. But she had been nothing. A peasant. A servant girl who had sought us out. And I had a taste for the elite.

Each night for the following week after our girl in the forest, my mother and I had fed upon mortals as was our nature. But sometimes we shared our passion with them as well. It was a new experience, teasing them with tongues and fingers, prolonging the deathly kiss that they longed for without even knowing it. We would then drink from them and taste the rich flavor of their pleasure as it coursed through their veins and into ours.