Acacia-'Thorny'

Acacia--'Thorny', Chapter Thirteen


Chapter Thirteen

Bonding

Randal pulled the satin draperies closed. The interior of the booth became even dimmer. A tiny wall sconce, with a tear shaped bulb screened by a milky glass globe etched with lilies, cast a flickering glow as weak as a candle. "Let me see your teeth."

She leaned toward him, her face ghostly in the dark. Amused, Randal opened his mouth. When she took his chin in her hand, her touch was startlingly cold. She peered into his mouth with the studied concentration of a trader estimating the age on a horse she was thinking of buying. He was startled when she ran one slender finger over the edge of his teeth. She shook her head. "Just as I thought. Hopelessly dull, even the eyeteeth. Not a proper ripper in the lot, let alone anything to puncture with. I'll have to do the honors. Roll back your sleeve and give me your hand."

"I have a pocket knife."

"Don't be ridiculous. Knives are very unsanitary. I promise you, despite what your health classes have taught you, you're much less likely to get an infection from my bite. At least the kind of infection they're talking about."

Randal unbuttoned his cuff and rolled the sleeve up over his elbow, then held out his hand. Again he was startled by the coldness er ter touch when she grasped his writst. She turned his palm up, and examined the inside of his forearm. "Mmm, look at that." She traced her finger along a faint blue line that ran under his skin, up toward his elbow. He shivered at the light, tickling touch, and felt a stir of desire. He never would have thought of that area as an erogenous zone.

"Good veins, close to the surface. You'd have had an easy time as a junkie, Randal. This is going to sting."

"I know. I've done this before."

"Not like this, you haven't." Her grip on his wrist tightened, and she bent her head down. Dark painted lips pa, an, and he saw a momentary glint of teeth. There was a sharp pain in the fleshy heel of his palm. He flinched instinctively, but she held tight, and he couldn't withdraw his hand from her mouth. Then he didn't want to.

Her lips pressed over the painful place, and he felt the drawing sensation as she began to suck. He couldn't tell if the damp, slightly greasy feel was from her saliva, her lipstick, or his own blood. He began to get an erection. He reached out to touch her hair. Her mouth never lost contact, but her free hand flashed up and caught him, pushing his hand back. She tilted her head slightly so that he could see her eyes, and there was dark warning in them. He settled back, and watched the smooth white column of her throat pulse as she swallowed.

After a moment she sat back. There were a few paper cocktail napkins on the table, left by earlier patrons, and she took one of these and pressed it against the seeping wound in his palm. "Hold that for a minute or two. It won't take long to stop." She took another napkin and carefully blotted her mouth, using delicate dabs that removed the red droplets gathered at the corners, but didn't smear her lipstick. It was a very practiced motion.
She ran her tongue over her teeth and said, "Nice. You've been taking iron, haven't you?"

His forehead puckered. "I was anaemic when I was little, so I do it as a precautionary measure."

"It gives a nice body. Has it stoppededineding yet?"

Randal removed he napkin and was surprised by what he saw. The inch long slit in his skin was already clotted. He dropped the blood spotted napkin on the table, and Naresha took it and slipped it into her pocket, along with the one she had used. "Now you," he demanded. He was half hard already.

"Patience. Give me a moment more for your blood to get into my system. You'll enjoy it much more, I promise you." She reached over and began to roll his sleeve back down slowly, inch by inch. Randal had never thought that having a woman dress him would be sexy, but it was. She buttoned his cuff, and lightly stroked the cut. He fought the impulse to close his hand around hers. "You can put something on that when you get home if it will make you feel more secure, but you don't need to."

It might have been his imagination, but her touch felt a bit warmer. "Tell me what it is you want. I'm assuming that you want me to steal records." Randal kne sho should have asked this question a long time ago. Naresha had that effect on people, muffling their good sense.

"Nothing involving any current cases. You won't have to worry about it endangering any prosecutions. In fact, it's been marked as solved."

"Then why are you interested?"
hat'hat's not part of the deal. The less detail you know, the better off you are. I think it's time now." She rolled up her own sleeve with deft precision. The flesh she bared was as pale as moonlight against the dull black of her shirt. She turned her palm up, and ran her fingers along her own arm, just as she had done his. He imagined what it would feel like if he had done it, how smooth the skin would have been. He knew that was why she did it, to fire his imagination, stir his desire. It worked.

She bent her dark head again, and set her teeth against the heel of her palm. He saw the white skin dimple, then she made a small motion, and bright blood welled up. She drew back, licking her lips, and curving her hand so that the blood oozed down into the shallow cup she made. It began to collect in a small puddle.

She looked up at him. His gaze was fastened on her wound, his face flushed. His breathing had speeded up. Men, she thought, with a mixture of fondness and contempt. "Be sure, Randal. Be very, very sure."

He was hoarse. "I am."

She offered her cupped hand. "Then drink."

He dipped his head, and sipped. He'd n kno known a man named Slick, but the taste of blood filled his mouth just as it had the other man's before he died. But to Randal it was not the harbinger of death. It was a powerful, life afferming erotic thrill.

Randal lapped the small palm clean. His tongue followed the trickle of blood back to the seeping wound, and he fastened his lips over it and began to suck. He was too aroused to notice the thick consistency. Naresha hadn't taken enough blood from him to fully uncongeal her own. It would have weakened him enough for him to notice, and perhaps become alarmed.

Naresha knew he was becoming more excited. His scent was almost strong enough for a mortal to recognize. She let him have a few more swallows, then said. "Enough."

He didn't want to stop. Randal grabbed her wrist and held her firmly, determined to have more. He was shocked when her free hand lashed out and smacked his face with stinging authority. "I said enough."

He looked up, and she gazed back with calm assurance. Even though he was aching and unfulfilled, close to the edge, he found himself releasing his hold. She used the last napkin to blot her wound, and no more blood oozed out after she did. Then the soiled napkin joined the other in her pocket.

"I need copies of all the files on an apparent murder-suicide that occured about twenty years ago. The Oliphants, Greg and Rowan."

"If it was a murder-suicide, what's your interest in it?"

"Put them on a disk or CD. I'll meet you here tomorrow night, or send my ."

"Look, if I'm going to risk my job and possibly my freedom, I want to know why."

"Because you made a deal."

"I'm not so sure I want to go through with it."

He expected her to get pissed, but she just gave him a pitying smile. "If I can't make it, one of my sisters will get in contact with you." She smoothed her sleeve back down and opened the draperies, then slid out of the booth.

"In fact, I'm sure I don't want to go through with it." Her assurance angered him, and he wanted to unsettle or anger her. He wanted her to insist, so he might be able to bargain for another session. But she just walked away, going back to the group they'd left. She'd wait a long time for that information, he decided.

They made room for her once again on the loveseat, and one of the men lit a cigarette for her. She jetted the fragrant smoke through her nostrils, and it swirled up before her face. "My god, what are those?" asked Vanessa in a slurred voice. Naresha noticed that there were two glasses on the low table before her.

"My own blend. I have them made up in a little tobacconist shop down. wn. I ran across a wonderful blend in Morocco five or six years ago, and fiddled wit a l a little." She took another drag. "Horribly bad for you, I'm afraid. Absolutely loaded with nicotine and tar and other abominable substances."

"Aren't you afraid of getting cancer?"

Naresha smiled benignly at Vanessa. "No. That's one of many things I don't worry about." She tapped a dark red nail against the side of one of the glasses. "Did drindrink both of those all by yourself?"

"Yep." She swilled down the last half ounce or so in the second glass, and began to crunch ice. "You were right, the second one did go down smoother."

"Amazing how our intolerance of the taste of alcohol fades in direct proportion to the amount of alcohol consumed."

Her eyes were blank. "Uh, yeah."

"Don't tease her, Naresha." scolded a plump redhead with a pierced tongue. "It's your fault she's drunk."

"Me?" She spread her fingers against her chest in a gesture of astonished innocense. "I wasn't even here."

"You know very well that you teased her into drinking those. She took it as a dare."

"Then it's her fault. All I did was have a drink."

"I wanna 'nuther one." Vanessa announced .

"No damn way, " said the redhead. "You'll pass out. Either that, or you'll throw up on the way home, and I'll have puke stink in my car forever."

"You can' tell me what to do!" Vanessa's defiance might have been more impressive if her expression wasn't so blurred and unfocused. "I'm grown up, dammit. I can get drunk if I wanna."

"Well, then, you can find some other way to get home. If you have another of those, I'm not driving you."

Vanessa leaned on Lambert's arm, and gazed up at him with moonish seduction in her eyes. "Gimme a drink, an' I'll let you take me home."

He pulled away. "et tet that. You live across town from my place."

Hurt, she stood up, swaying slightly. "Well, then fuck you! Swell bunch of friends I've got. I'll get it myself." She started for the bar, listing a little to the side.

Naresha's eyes, glittering with speculation, followed her to the bar,re sre she began to wheedle and cajole Luca, who shook his head steadily. She finished her cigarette and stood, saying, "I'm going to go rescue Luca before he has his ears chewed off."

At the bar, Vanessa had an unattractive whine in her voice. "But I'm over twenty-one, see?" She waved a laminated card at Luca, who ignored it.

His voice was still patient. "And I told you it doesn't matter how old you are. That's not why I'm refusing you service."

"It's not after hours, I know that. Look." She thrust her hand out, indicating a watch on a blackbon bon band.

"That's not why, either. For the last time, I can't serve you because you're already drunk. If you go out and get yourself pasted by a truck, your survivors could have this whole place in their pockets and my ass behind bars."

"What's wrong, Vanessa?" Naresha leaned on the bar beside her, offering an interested look.

"This prick won't gimme another drink. I'm an adult, damn it! I can get drunk if I want."

"Of course you can. Why, that's the whole point of attaining your majority, isn't it? The right to fuck up your body and life if you want to. Luca, doll, give her another."

"Naresha, look at her."

"Don't worry, daddy. I'll shepherd her home and make sure she doesn't end up in a ditch or an alley."

"Are you sure? I don't want her to get alcohol poisoning off my shift."

"Nonsense, it would take at least five of the Snows to accomplish that for someone her size. You be a good girl, and let Auntie Naresha give you a ride home, and the nice man will fix you another drink, okay Vanessa?"

Vanessa was having trouble focusing on her. "A ride? Don't you have a Lexus?"

"Yes. A comfy Lexus with leather seats that go all the way back, so you can have a nice nap on the way home."

"Sure!" She slapped the bar. "Load me up, Luca."

"Yes, load her up. Then I'LL load her up."

Shaking his head, Luca mixed the drink, finishing it with a cherry garnish, then served it with an ironic flourish. Vanessa sucked the potent cocktail down like it was lemonade. *My, my,* Naresha thought. *Such a head you'll have in the morning, little girl. It would be a charity if I removed some of that from your system.*
"Wasteful child." With two dark nails Naresha tweezed the stem of the cherry and lifted it out of the glass. She shook it in mock sterness at Vanessa. "Don't you know there are poor drunks in China who'd give their back teeth for a nice, alcohol soaked Maraschino?"

She opened her mouth and let the bright red little ball rest on the tip of her tongue for a moment. Luca was watching her with an appreciative smile, Vanessa with fascination. Naresha set the cherry between her teeth, and plucked it neatly from the stem. She held it there, then closed her lips and chewed slowly, with great relish, her blue eyes burning into Vanessa's own.

Luca's eyebrows climbed. "I didn't know you liked cherries, Naresha."

She didn't look at him, keeping her gaze on Vanessa. "Filthy minded man." she said casually. "Remind me to chastise you some time in the future."

"It would be my pleasure."

"Yes, it would." Naresha took Vanessa's arm. "Come along, Vanessa. Let's get you home... and to bed."

While Boris fetched the Lexus, Naresha kept Vanessa from either collapsing or wandering into the street, much to the amusement of Cerebus. Naresha didn't mind. She enjoyed watching mortals when they were inebriated. *Mortals behaving badly. Gotta love them.* Such loss of control was also so convenient.

Boris helped her bundle Vanessa into the passenger seat, and strap her in. "You sure you don't need any help getting her home?"

She stroked his cheek. "No, precious. I can handle her quite nicely tonight." Her nails touched his skin, scratching lightly and suggestively as she smiled. "But perhaps you can help me with her some other night, hmm?"

Boris watched her as she sauntered to the driver's side and got in. He wondered if Vanessa had any idea what sas gas getting in to. Probably not. As the Lexus pulled away from the curb, he shrugged. If you can't run with the big dogs, stay under the porch. He went back to his post, and spent the rest of his shift contemplating the interesting situation Naresha had hinted at.

Naresha had gotten the address from Vanessa at the first light. "Here, Vanessa. Let me make you more comfortable." She touched a control on the dash, and the passenger seat slowly tilted back till it was nearly horizontal, with Vanessa giggling like a little girl on a carnival ride.

Vanessa spotted the moonroof and said, "Hey, why don't you open that? Some fresh air might wake me up."

"It might at that." Naresha turned on the heater instead. "But you don't need to wake up. You're planning on going straight to bed, aren't you? Just relax."

The car grew warm as she drove through the near deserted streets. As they passed under street lamps, she'd glance across at her passenger. Vanessa had fallen into a sleep that was almost a stupor, due to the alcohol and warmth. Her face, slack and innocent in sleep, looked very young.

They reached the right block, and Naresha parked in a shadowy stretch halfway down from the proper address. There were still dim lights in the upstairs windows of the townhouse. Mommy or Daddy was still up. That meant that any business or pleasure would have to be limited to the car. But that was alright. As she'd told Vanessa, the Lexus was quite comfy.

Naresha cut the engine, knowing that Vanessa would not awaken. As deep in the alcohol haze as she was, she'd have to be purposefully awakened. Naresha made herself comfortable, pulling down the console that turned the front into a bench instead of individual seats. She lit another cigarette and sorted through her CDs, considering. At last she chose one and inserted it, lowering the volume to a whisper. She listened to the first track as she smoked and wathced Vanessa sleep. It was an instrumental, slow and subtle. The crooning of the saxophone was especially effective. Very sexy, the saxophone.

When the second track was ready to cue up, she ground out her cigarette and opened the moonroof. A light, cool breeze drifted in. Naresha leaned over Vanessa, and pushed her hair back from her forehead, as gently as a mother with a sleeping child. "Vanessa? Vanessa, wake up."

Vanessa stirred sluggishly. Eyes still closed, she mumbled, "Are we home?"

"No, we're not quite home yet." It was just as well Vanessa didn't see Naresha's smile just then. "Open your eyes and see how beautiful the sky is. "

Vanessa opened her eyes and stared up. Her eyes widened. Naresha knew how it would look to her, the beauty somehow magnified by her alcoholic haze. It would be like jewels scattered on dark velvet. The singer's voice was like dark velvet, too. A rich, smooth alto. The song was called "Seducer."

"No one rstarstands you, baby, do they now?
No one tries to see the you that's real, that's deep inside."

"Listen to the music. Beautiful, isn't it?"

"Uh huh."

Oh, this was going to be too easy. There was hardly any need to exert an effort to move her into a hypnotic state, as drunk as she was. There wasn't even any need to be subtle. Naresha could have just fallen on her and taken a good meal, perhaps had a bit of sex into the bargain, and all Vanessa would remember in the morning would be a confused hodgepodge of images and sensations, and she wout bet be sure if any of it was real or imagined.

But Vanessa hadn't done anything to anger her, and Naresha tried to limit her cruelty to those who actually deserved it. Occasionally Naresha found herself wondering if there was such a think as a semi-sociopath. If there was, then she had to be the poster child.

Naresha sang softly with the music. "You could have the love you need so easily, if you'd just give up your foolish pride and let me in. Because I know you..."

Naa rea reclined her own seat as the chorus played, and the singer's warm voice pulsed.

"I know your pain.
I know your hopes and your dreams.
I know the deep and the dark of your soul.
I know you're not what you seem
and I want you..."

She turned on her side, facing Vanessa, watching and assessing. "The sky is so deep," she whispered. "You can get lost in it, Vanessa. You can fall up into it, and just keep falling, falling, lost in the stars."

"People gonna tell you
what you want is wrong,
try to make and mold you into
what they think they need."
"So much emptiness. So much beauty, drawing you in. Spiraling, swirling. It makes you dizzy, doesn't it? Maybe you should close your eyes." Vanessa closed her eyes obediently. "Don't look, just feel it. Feel it as it spins you so slow. Floating away. Perfectly at peace, but all of your senses alive, more alive than you've ever known. Feeling everything."

"Cut you with their scorn
if you dare to break away.
Beat you with their guilt till
your soul is bruised and bleeding, but..."

Naresha stroked Vanessa's bare arm, enjoying the smoothness of her skin as much as she had enjoyed the rougher texture of Randal's skin earlier. "Feel everything." Her voice was ghostly, but it drifted through Vanessa's consciousness, persuasive. "And everything feels good."

Naresha moved till she was above the girl's supine body, supported on her hands and knees. From a distance, the car would have looked empty. Naresha leaned down to her, putting her lips against the pale shell of her ear and whispering with the song. "I know your pain. I know your hopes and desires, their like mine. Walk with me now through the fire to a place where love can be free. Let go the world and give in to me...You know you want to
give in to me..."

Her hands moved through the windings of the sheet with unhasty dexterity, till she encountered warm flesh. Vanessa groaned at the touch, eyes still closed.

Naresha let her tongue trace the curve of Vanessa's ear, savoring the taste that was so familiar, yet always different, the taste of human skin. Vanessa began to shake, and Naresha couldn't help a low, murmuring laugh. *Oh, Vanessa,* she tht. ht. *You're so transparent, bless you. You're going to be some lucky woman's faithful little bitch some day, once you decide what you really are. Maybe this will help you along.*

Naresha wedged one knee between Vanessa's thighs, pressing firmly against her pubic mound. The dark, rough texture of the jeans stood out starkly against the soft whiteness of the shroud. She cupped her hands over the small mounds of the girl's breasts, and felt the prod of nipples, already engorged and stiff. Hmm, a fast starter, this girl. She must have been feeling a bit of sexual build up even during the ride.

The music continued, the chorus replaying. Naresha pressed her knee forward, and squeezed. Vanessa groaned again, her head lolling. Her hands lifted, as if unconsciously, but they settled on Naresha's thighs. Naresha laughed again. She began to rock slowly, her knee shifting and grinding into the tender fork of Vanessa's crotch. Vanessa's hips began to move. Her legs lifted, and her thighs embraced Naresha.

Naresha grinned down at the writhing girl, who never opened her eyes. *Tomorrow you're going to tell yourself, "Oh, I was so drunk last night.* Naresha thought. *"What did I do? I'd have never done that if I were sober." And you'll be looking for me the next time you go to Crowely's. Maybe Boris and I will take you home, and further your education.*
Naresha jerked her knee roughly, thrusting against Vanessa as hard as any man would, obliging the unspoken but blatant invitation to ravish. Vanessa's breath was coming in hitches. Her slender fingers groplindlindly, pushing between Naresha's legs, pressing upward. Naresha allowed it, even feeling an answering tingle. But there wasn't time for a full course experience, either in sex or feeding. The parents might look out the window at any time, and notice the Lexus.

Vanessa's blood was running high now, pounding in her veins with the heat of arousal, and Naresha couldn't wait any longer. She gripped Vanessa's breasts tightly and rammed against her as she lowered her head to the girl's neck, and let her teeth slice into the soft flesh.

Vanessa wailed softly, shuddering convulsively as the pain mingled with the first orgasm she'd ever had. But the pain faded quickly--the warm pulse of the orgasm continued.

Naresha fed, gulping down great moutfuls of rich, hot blood. It was spiced with the liquor the girl had consumed, and heady with the sexual hormones that were pouring into it. Oh, this was good! Better than she had hoped. And it would be very easy to just go ahead and drain the girl, here and now. In fact, she'd die happy.

But Naresha pulled back. She wasn't going to do that, she wasn't going to let herself do that. Vanessa didn't deserve it, and Naresha wasn't going to give in to the impulse and become a monster. She took a last, long sup, then gave the wound she'd made a cleansing lick, beginning the rapid healing process. By dawn, Vanessa would just feel embarassed by a particularly livid and sore hickey.

Sighing in satisfaction, she gave each breast a delicate thank you kiss, then covered them again. She moved a little, and repd hed her knee with her hand, pressing and massaging, feeling a seepage of warm liquid through the cloth. Vanessa quivered again, and moaned. "Care for some dessert, darling? " Naresha murmured, giving a forceful probe. Vanessa wailed quietly and spasmed again.

A few moments later Naresha helped a wobbly legged Vanessa out of the Lexus and supported her up the walk. Vanessa fumbled with her key till Naresha took it away and unlocked the door, cooly amused at the parody of old world gentilty: opening the door for your date. Vanessa took a step into the dim hallway, and turned back to Naresha, starting to speak. Her eyes were soft, her mouth loose and moist.

The overhead light snapped on. Naresha hissed quietly at a sudden stab of pain as her sensitive eyes adjusted to the flash. A middle aged man, wrapped in a bathrobe, was at the foot of a staircase. A woman, similarly garbed, peered down from the landing.

"Vanessa?" he said. "We were worried. Are you alright?" Vanessa could only gulp. Although she'd lost over a pint of blood moments ago, she managed a creditable blush. The man looked past his daughter to Naresha, and Naresha saw herself through his eyes. Dark and pale in edgy harmony, expensive clothes, and her nipples making tiny points against the black silk front of her shirt. She gave him a slow, cat like smile. "Who are you?"

Naresha's smile broadened. "Sappho." Then she turned and walkded back to the Lexus without a backward glance.