Chapter 4

"You're saying you don't have any stance on it at all?"

Nigel shrugged. "Don't get me wrong, it's not that I don't care about humans, I just don't have much of an opinion of them." I didn't see how there was much of a difference, but I didn't say anything. He continued, "I guess it's just cause I've never met any living humans is all."

"You're a pureborn?" I said as I set my empty glass down.

"Yeah, that's right. And I've been feeding from a glass since the cradle. Never bit a neck in my life. Sure I've seen them, I haven't spent my whole life underground, I just never took the time to get up close and personal with a human."

"So you don't have anything against them."

"Yeah, I just don't have any fluffy bunny feelings for them either."

I sighed. This was going nowhere. "Look, Nigel, you can't have no opinion here! This is a big deal! We're talking about the futures of everyone in this school, and possibly beyond, so you gotta have a stance on it!" I realized as I heard myself saying all that that I had never been quite so forceful before. The look on Nigel's normally happy-go-lucky face was tip-off enough anyway.

"Oh, come on, do you have to be such a drama queen?" said a voice to my left.

I made a little sound that was somewhere between a laugh and a sigh, and turned my head. "Elizabeth, can't you just say 'hi, ' like everybody else?"

She leaned closer, a wicked smile playing across her ruby-red lips. "Do you ever ask if I can't just wear lingerie? That's another thing I don't do, but you've never brought that up."

I slowly turned my eyes toward Nigel, who appeared to be sizing me up all of a sudden, while simultaneously giving me an affirming nod before going back to serving other people.

"You have no shame, do you?" I said. Elizabeth laughed.

"By the way," I added, "Have you talked to Patrick?"

Her smile faded. "Yeah," she sighed.

"How'd it go?" I asked, unable to shake the feeling that I'd just asked a really stupid question.

"I'm beginning to the think trying to teach Tanya the concept of modesty would be easier."

I raised an eyebrow at her. "And since when do you know anything about modesty?"

She paused. "Okay, you got me there," she laughed. "But anyway, maybe talking to Patrick about this isn't exactly the way to go."

"What do you mean?" I asked. "What should we be doing?"

She raised one eyebrow along with one corner of her mouth. "Exactly what you're already doing. You're going around asking everyone about their opinion of Patrick's new position."

"Don't you mean Tanya's new position?"

She scoffed. "Hey, in Tanya's case, there's nothing new about it. She's always felt this way about humans; she's only gone this far now. I mean, Patrick's our leader because he looks like one. He's big and in charge and people are naturally inclined to quiet down when he walks into a room. Doesn't mean he's not a bowl of Jell-O in the presence of Tanya's seduction."

"And you think me simply going around talking to people is going turn them against Tanya?"

"I think it's starting to work."

I stopped all motion for a moment. "What do you mean?"

"I've spoken to people down here who used to be staunch supporters of Tanya's program until they talked to you. Believe it or not, you are proving to be something of an influence amongst the SVA! You're Tanya's major political opponent! You're a leader!"

I said nothing. I was a little preoccupied with the fact that I could feel the walls and the floor falling away as she said this. Was it really possible for me to be that important? Was I capable of making that much of a difference? Not long ago, I would have considered any such notion an indication of insanity. I've always been a generally passive person, who takes things as they come and doesn't try to change much. Now I was actually influencing the decisions people made?

The world suddenly came rushing back to me as I heard, "Which would be why you find me standing here." A sick expression became fixed onto my face as I turned around and found her standing there.

Yeah, you know who.

"Hi, Tanya," I groaned.

She glared down at me, her hands resting on her hips. "Hello, Vincent," she purred. For a moment I said nothing, just stared at her in mute surprise. "What?" she said.

"I'm just a little surprised that you actually remember my name," I said.

She scoffed lightheartedly. "Please, everyone here knows who you are, Vincent. Our resident human-lover."

I gave her a nasty glare. "You make that sound derogatory."

"Vincent," Elizabeth put in, "you should know by now that any sentence Tanya says that has the word 'human' in it is going to be derogatory."

"Look Vincent," Tanya plied, "I understand you're a young blood, and that it's natural to still feel an attachment to humans when you used to be one. But the fact is you're not anymore, and it's about time you realized that."

"Oh really?" I challenged, arising from my stool. "What are you going to do?"

"Vincent, you might want to be careful," Elizabeth warned, sounding just the slightest bit panicky. And when Elizabeth gets panicky, generally speaking, not good.

"At the moment, Vincent," Tanya said, "you're what I call the enemy. I don't like that. Having enemies is not something I consider fun."

"No, you prefer having boy-toys and bitches," I sneered.

She continued, unfazed; "I want us to be friends, Vincent." I kept the impulse to wretch bottled up. "And I think I know just the way to do that."

With that she produced a small red plastic card and slapped it into my hand. I took a look at it; it didn't seem to have anything on it but a fancy little 'T' on one side, and my name on the other. "What's this?"

About this time Alicia decided to show up. "What's going on here?" she demanded, her full attention focused on Tanya. Tanya wasted no time in shoving a card into her hand too, to which she gave the same response I did.

"This," Tanya grinned, "is your personal invitation to my private party on Friday."

"Don't you mean your private orgy?" said Elizabeth.

Tanya shrugged. "Call it whatever you want?"

"Waitaminute," said Alicia, "you mean that thing you had going in the back room at the dance? There's no dance on Friday..."

"Who said anything about a dance?" said Tanya. "I have one of these every Friday. The dances are just an extra day for it, when I let in anybody who wants to. My weekly parties are exclusive guest list, and the little cards you're holding now are what puts you on it. I'm asking the three of you to be there this week."

"Um," Alicia said, "shouldn't Elizabeth..."

"Already got one." Both of us whirled our heads in Elizabeth's direction. She shrugged and said, "I've had mine for a long time now. I used to go to these things all the time before I met you, Vincent."

"Yeah, and we've missed her," Tanya shook her head.

"Don't think for a second I don't know what you're trying to do," I warned.

She raised an eyebrow with a smirk. "Oh, really?"

"You think you can seduce me into your way of thinking. That if I play your game, you'll find some way to make me 'see the light.'"

"I'm honestly just trying to be diplomatic in my own special kind of way," she shrugged. As if. "And I'm not forcing you to go to anything you don't want to. I'll leave the decision making to you from this point, and I hope you'll decide to come see the Sugarqueen this Friday." With that she went off past me as she blew me a kiss and said, "Later, stud."

"So..." Alicia managed, "we, we're not gonna, you know ... go to this thing are we?"

"Hell no," I firmly said.

"Well," said Elizabeth, "I'd kinda like to go."

Both of us turned to look at her again. "Did you really used to go to these things all the time?" Alicia asked.

"You better believe I did."

"I thought you hated Tanya as much as I do," I said to her.

"Oh, I do!" she confirmed. "She has a mugshot in the dictionary under the word 'bitch.' The point is just to not concern yourself with who's throwing the party and just have a good time. And that's what I'd like to do."

"Well if you want to go, then go," I shrugged. "You don't need our permission."

"Except I'm not interested in going without you guys," she said honestly. "Like I said, all the times I used to go was before I met you. Don't you understand why I turned you in the first place Vincent?" I said nothing.

"So you're only interested in going to this ... crazy orgy party if we go too?" Alicia said.

"That's the general idea. Look, the two of you are the most important things in my life right now, and doing this without you would be kind of on the empty side." For a moment, I could only stare at her. I'd never heard this kind of sensitivity from Elizabeth about her own feelings before. I always just knew her as a girl who liked to have fun.

"So if you're really serious about not going, then I won't go either," she continued. Finally her familiar wildness began creeping back into her voice as she said, "But I'm really kinda hoping you'll change your minds here, 'cause I'd really love to go have some fun."

Alicia and I exchanged an uncertain look. We said nothing.

"Anyway," Elizabeth added, arising from the stool she sat on, "you guys just let me know when you make up your minds. I'm going to go unwind in the tub."

As she left, Alicia and I looked at each other again. "Well," she said hesitantly, "what do you think? Should we go?"

"Uhhh..." was all I gave her.

"I think maybe we should," she quickly put in. "I know we're still not officially together yet, but that doesn't mean we can't just play. I mean, you do that with Elizabeth all the time, right?"

I shrugged. "Well that's true..."

Her look soured. "I mean, it's not like we're ever going to do anything more than just play."

"Now that's harsh."

I suppose I should fill you in at this point: You may recall Alicia saying before that she was ready to take our relationship to the next level. The fact was, I wasn't. I still had some other issues to work through. Like Michelle, or ... well, Michelle mostly. I kept trying to tell myself that Michelle and I were a thing of the past, yet that didn't change the way the atmosphere seemed to change whenever she and I were in the same room. Her eyes were always fixed on me, never on Larry. I knew she and I couldn't possibly happen again, but just having her there was enough to complicate matters. And I knew Alicia was getting tired of waiting for me.

After another moment's hesitation, I finally said, "Well, I guess I've got no more reason not to."

She smiled. "Great!" she beamed, and leaned in to give me a peck on the cheek. "I guess I'll go tell Elizabeth right now!"

As she turned to leave, I suddenly put in, "You're just going to walk in and tell her while she's getting in the bath?"

She turned to me with a sly grin. "Like that's going to bother Elizabeth, who considers clothing to be the most useless invention on Earth. I guarantee, first thing she's going to do when I walk in is ask me to join her."

"And what are you going to say?"

She narrowed her eyes, still smiling. "Would you like to come and find out?"

Getting encouragement like that from Elizabeth is irresistible enough. Getting it from Alicia ... Damn!

I followed her to her and Elizabeth's room. She put a finger to her lips as she opened the door, and I carefully tiptoed in after her as she shut it behind me. Carefully, quietly, she removed a mirror from the wall next to the bathroom door and pointed to a little peephole that had been concealed underneath. I crept up to it and peered through, obtaining a beautiful view of Elizabeth's slender naked body stepping into the bubbly water. Of course, she had been relaxing for no more than a few seconds before her hand started moving south.

She had just started to squirm a little when Alicia entered. Elizabeth didn't even open her eyes. "Mmmm, hello," she moaned. "What's the verdict?"

"I guess we're in," Alicia shrugged. "All three of us are going to this ... crazy sex party thing."

Now Elizabeth's eyes opened, and her smile nearly wrapped around the circumference of her head. "I'm SO happy to hear that," she beamed. "Now I've just got one more thing to ask you."

"Will I get in there with you now?"

"I was actually going to ask why you still have your clothes on, but you can be simple and to the point if you want."

Alicia did her happy little schoolgirl giggle and promptly crossed her arms and removed her tank. No bra, I noticed. I found that rather odd. When did Alicia start going without a bra?

Duh, when she started living with Elizabeth!

She was just as quick to ditch her shorts, her panties and shoes and mosey over to the tub and take a step in as Elizabeth slowly rose up to get her tongue within reach of Alicia's nipple. Alicia slowly knelt down into the tub and placed her hands on the back of Elizabeth's head as Elizabeth's lips engulfed her right tit. Alicia threw her head back and breathed out hard.

Elizabeth kept this up for a minute or two before sliding her mouth over to the other one. Alicia began mewling softly. After another minute or two, Elizabeth began sliding down Alicia's midsection, dragging her tongue along. Alicia responded by raising herself higher again, speeding up Elizabeth's descent, softly moaning all the way. There was a sharp intake of breath as Elizabeth reached her clit.

The hand that she didn't still have attached to Elizabeth's cranium shot out and became a support against the wall. Elizabeth reached a hand up and inserted a skilled finger into Alicia's little hole. A soft moan was replaced with a hard grunt. Her finger pumped in and out of her as her tongue moved like a flipper. Alicia's eyes squeezed shut and her teeth clenched briefly before dropping open. "Oh, yes..." she moaned, " ... don't stop!"

Elizabeth giggled wickedly, never once ceasing what she was doing. "Oh, right there!" Alicia's fingers curled, digging into Elizabeth's scalp. "Oh, yessssss!" Alicia began to squirm, still moaning and grunting like all hell. "Oh god, I'm coming," she squealed at last, nearly doubling over one moment, then suddenly stiffening up the next with a beautiful scream.

As Alicia's juices began dribbling down her legs, Elizabeth began to get it with her tongue, but her tactics quickly changed to sinking her teeth into Alicia's juice-drenched inner thigh. Alicia breathed in sharply as she did this. When Elizabeth released her leg she began dabbling a finger in the mixture of juice and blood, and as Alicia lowered herself into the tub, Elizabeth inserted her juiced finger into Alicia's mouth, which she sucked on hungrily. Then came the inevitable exchange of tongues and fondling of tits.

All at once Elizabeth stopped. "What's wrong?" Alicia said.

Elizabeth shook her head. "It's no good."

"What is?"

Elizabeth looked at Alicia a moment and held up a friendly finger. "Hold onto that thought for just a minute. I'll be right back." With that she stood up, her naked body all wet and covered in bubbles, and began walking towards ... the door.

Ulp!

As quick as I could, I ducked to the other side of the door so I could hide behind it when it opened. I knew Elizabeth was quite the exhibitionist when she wanted to be, but I wasn't sure how she'd react to being spied on. The door opened, and ... her arm snaked around, grabbed me by the collar, and pulled me into a classic Elizabeth lip-lock. "You didn't honestly think I wouldn't know you were there, did you?" was the first thing she said once her lips were free.

"Which answer is going to hurt less?"

"Whatever, you just get your yummy ass in here right now!"

I ended up having very little say in the matter as she pulled me along by my collar into the bathroom and began yanking my clothes off. Alicia was looking up at both of us wide-eyed. "I guess I'm just not content," Elizabeth said, I'm not sure to which one of us, as she pulled my shirt over my head, "to let him just stand by and watch while we have fun. I just have too much heart." As soon as she'd yanked my pants to the floor she gently pushed me along into the tub and climbed in after me.

In a flash she was all over me, her lips and tongue going wild against mine while a hand gripped tight my cock, which as you can imagine was already hard enough to break marble. "Hey," whined Alicia, "save some for me!"

"Don't worry," Elizabeth grinned as she turned around, pressing her back against me, "I'm just going for a little ride!" With that she lowered herself into my lap, carefully guiding me into her with a long sigh.

She began to bounce. Her head tilted back, her raven hair draping over me as she bounced up and down on my lap. My lower section began moving with her, as if it had a life of its own. My arms wrapped around her, kneading her tits like balls of dough. I heard her squeal with delight through clenched teeth. And as with the last time we did this in water, we were churning up ripples like crazy. Her hands clamped onto the sides of the tub, and her squeals began changing to grunts. "Oh, yeah! Oh, god yeah!"

Alicia wasn't one to be left out in the cold. She leaned in and reached down to Elizabeth's golden treasure while she clamped her lips onto Elizabeth's open mouth. Elizabeth continued moaning through their locked lips, and didn't stop when Alicia broke it off. I gave her a sly look as I thought of something else she could do, and demonstrated by biting into the base of Elizabeth's shoulder. Elizabeth gasped and went straighter, and I think that actually brought her closer to cumming. Alicia took the hint, and bit into her on the other side.

That did it. She went stiff as a statue and screamed like an animal. Her pussy convulsed hard, and mere moments later, the load I had somehow been holding onto all this time finally burst.

Elizabeth slid off and turned enough to make out with me while some of her own blood was still on my lips. Alicia leaned in on all fours and began running her tongue up the side of my face. I got the message; she wanted some attention now too. I removed my lips from Elizabeth and moved them to Alicia as Elizabeth reached down to begin pumping some life back into my weapon. I decided to stand up, and make it a little easier to do what they were trying to do now. Alicia was quick to take advantage of the situation and clamp her lips onto the thing in Elizabeth's hand. Elizabeth giggled, and ever Alicia's cheerleader began saying, "Come on, baby, yeah, get him good and hard!"

In a matter of seconds I was ready again.

Alicia smiled up at me as I pulled out of her and began lowering myself back down. Elizabeth leaned back against the end of the tub, Alicia leaned back against the firm pillow of Elizabeth's chest, and I knelt over her and slowly eased in. Her eyes fluttered shut as she moved in rhythm to my thrusts, while Elizabeth played with Alicia's tits, her luscious smile still pasted to her face. A long, low moan suddenly dragged itself out of Alicia's open mouth.

"Come on Vincent, fuck her good! Fuck her! Make her scream!"

That didn't prove too hard. I rammed her with all I had, and her head tilted back as it pressed into Elizabeth's chest. Her hand moved over her clit like a vibrator. And what had begun as a few simple low moans had quickly elevated into loud and hard cries. "OH GOD VINCENT, FUCK MEEEEE!"

Hearing Alicia become dirty-mouthed never failed to drive me wild.

No sooner had Elizabeth's hand reached down to give Alicia' clit some attention, than Alicia became completely unglued. Sandwiched between the two of us, she began to scream and thrash around like wild. Bubbly water was splashing everywhere as her arms flailed about. Her orgasm quickly came crashing down on her, and either it lasted nearly a full minute, or lasted a little less and was quickly followed by another. Of course, I ended up busting my second nut during that period.

Alicia collapsed into Elizabeth, who lay back giggling hard. I leaned back against the other end of the tub. I needed a minute or two before I was going to be able to move. "Well," I said, "that was ... extreme."

Elizabeth reached over and picked up a purple candle she'd had burning next to the tub the whole time. "Violet Passion," she purred. "Drives my girl here completely nuts!"

"You're not planning on bringing that thing to ... on Friday, are you?" Alicia inquired.

"Are you kidding?" Elizabeth laughed. "You'd never survive that!"

"So you're pretty much saying," I said, "That Friday night is going to be..."

"Pretty much about three times as extreme as this was."

There was a moment of silence. "Yikes," Alicia said at last.

"I mean, it's not how Tanya's parties were originally planned," Elizabeth went on. "They're really just officially involving drinks and music and dancing, but sooner or later they always end up turning hard-core. And I guess that would be sooner a hell of a lot more than later. Now it's pretty much what everyone expects when they go there."

"Sounds like it's gonna be one hell of a night," I grinned half-cocked.

"Um, there is just one more thing I think you should know, Vincent," Elizabeth added.

"Oh yeah? What's that?"

"I think your clothes got wet."

I'll apologize to anyone who was hoping to hear the rest of that story, because no power on this Earth is going to drag it out of me. I'll just skip ahead to Friday.

I'd never had sex planned this far in advance before, so needless to say, I was anxious when I got out of class that afternoon. You ever have one of those days when you have something planned for tonight but tonight is still hours away, and you're thinking "what the hell am I supposed to do until then?" I'm sure you have. I found that, despite my initial position on it, after more than half a week of anticipation I was actually looking forward to this thing.

I decided to take a nap. This was nothing special; heck, I'd been doing it quite frequently after class since I turned, for obvious reasons. Today it had a little meaning to it. I was like a kid on Christmas Eve, attempting to hasten Santa's arrival. It was the only thing I could really think to do to pass the time.

So I slept. I don't know for how long exactly; I don't remember what time I woke up. But I do remember waking up, because the first thing I saw was Michelle sitting on Larry's bed, looking at me. My first impulse was to bounce upright, which I did, but I staved off the second which was to get out of my bed, when I noticed that the blinds were open and light was pouring into the room. I was safe as long as I remained where I was; not something I was particularly happy about.

"Michelle!" I shouted. "Do you usually watch people sleep like that?"

"Larry left the door standing open," she shrugged. "And I saw you in here. I just ... I don't know, I just kind of wandered in and sat down."

"Very nice," I moaned. "Can you close those blinds please?"

"Is the light bothering you?"

I nodded impatiently. "Yes, it's bothering me, can you just close them please?"

She looked at me a moment, clearly put off by my bluntness, then got up to do as I asked. "You're not still mad at me, are you?"

I sighed. "No, I'm not mad at you. I'm just a bit uncomfortable with being watched like that."

"Oh, well ... sorry," she shrugged. "But honestly, there are some things about you I've been trying to piece together lately, and I'm not getting anywhere."

I looked at her warily. "What do you mean?"

"Well don't think I haven't been watching you lately..."

"Yeah, I kind of noticed you watching me—"

"No! I don't mean just now, but I mean in general. And Larry's there to fill in some of the blanks for when I can't watch you. I've seen the way you hang around all night with those people, like that weird goth chick. You've never been an all night person, but Larry says you've lately been getting back to the room even later than he does, and then you slack off in bed all day except when you have class."

I shrugged. "Yeah, well, I've made some new friends. So what?"

"Well wait, I haven't gotten to the really interesting part."

I cocked an eyebrow. "What's the really interesting part?"

"The part where just the other day I saw the soda machine in the alcove down the hall move to cover a secret door that I saw you walking through. I'm really rather curious to hear you explain that."

I went stiff. What was I supposed to do now? A human had seen the entrance to the SVA, so did that mean I had to kill her? I won't deny I did chew on the idea for just the slightest moment, and not for the first time began checking out her neck. I quickly shoved away that impulse, and simply said, "If I were you, I would never mention that to anyone ever again."

She actually smiled. "Is that some sort of secret, that if you told me you'd have to kill me, is that right?"

"Something like that. Or someone else will."

I guess I sounded more sincere that time than before, because now she was starting to look intimidated.

"Why the sudden interest in what I'm doing, anyway?" I asked.

"Whoever said it was sudden? I've been interested in you ever since I transferred to this school."

"Oh, really?" I sneered. "Is that why you're going out with my slob of a roommate?"

"Could be," she said, not sarcastically. I raised a curious eyebrow. She added, "Maybe the only reason I started going out with Larry was because I found out he had a roommate named Vincent! Did you ever think of that?"

I was on my feet by this time. I don't remember exactly at what point in the conversation I stood up, but I know I was on my feet by then because I paced lightly for a second or two before saying, "Why, to make me crazy, or jealous?"

"No, just so I could find you again."

I spread my arms. "Well here I am. You found me. So now what are you doing still hanging on to Larry?"

She shrugged, and smiled coyly. "Making you crazy and jealous."

"Well it's not working." I'm not entirely sure whether I meant that or not.

She began drawing closer, her smile still holding. "That's bullshit, and you know it."

I began to develop an extreme sense of discomfort as she came closer. "What are you doing?"

"Just trying to see how crazy I can make you."

Bang. Before I could stop her, her lips were on me. And believe me, being torn between pushing a girl away and embracing her to yourself is a weird conflict to be in. I decided quickly I needed to get away from here as quickly as possible, before I was tempted to do anything ... tempting. You know, that might elicit biting.

I decided it was time to employ a little vampire trait I hadn't ever really tried using yet, mostly because I'd never needed to before now. I don't how I knew I could do what I did in the next moment; vampire instinct, I guess. It's this thing where we can move across short distances faster than the human eye can follow; we call it flickering. I took a moment to return her passion, and accepted the kiss she was giving me; then, before she could even open her eyes, I was behind her and leapt up to the ceiling. I held on for a moment, looking down on her, waiting for her to be gone.

Immediately, of course, came the inevitable "What the hell? Vincent? Where are you?" She began whirling about, looking all around the room. I prayed hard she wouldn't think to look up. I really didn't want to have to kill her. Fortunately, she didn't. She just left, continuing to call my name as she searched. I dropped down when I was certain she was gone.

I thought I ought to be gone in case she decided to come back, so slipped on some shoes, grabbed my little pass-card and headed down to the lower levels. I decided I'd see what the other girls I knew were doing; I didn't have to hide anything from them.

I arrived at their door, however, to find a "Do Not Disturb" sign hanging from it. Now from Alicia I would expect that, but I'd never known Elizabeth to care if anybody walked in on anything she was doing. Curious, I leaned my ear against the door, expecting to hear loud grunts and breathing. Instead I heard their voices speaking full, intelligible sentences.

"Okay, let me make sure I understand," I heard Alicia say. "I put in a few drops of my blood, you put in a few drops of yours, we add this other stuff here and drink it, then we just sit here and breathe?"

"That's about the it," Elizabeth replied. "And don't underestimate this incense you're breathing. It's powerful stuff."

"Um, what exactly is this ritual supposed to do?"

"Oh, you'll see. It's a necessary step to do what we talked about for tonight." There was a moment of silence. "Look, I know the rituals of Blood Rose might seem a little freaky, but it's worth it, trust me."

Blood Rose?

"I don't know..."

"Alicia ... do you trust me?"

A pause. " ... Of course I do."