Congregation Of Darkness (Full Moon Series Book 2) Read online

  Their lovemaking took on an intense quality, as if they were newly bitten vampires with new and intense cravings and love was blood. Minutes passed into hours until the sun began to set, colors of lemon yellow, deep plum and lapis blue streaking and blending on the skyline amid the gold of the suns last disappearing rays Together the couple silently watched the sunset symphony. Finally Fress spoke.

  “I love you Charley.”

  Charley opened his eyes halfway and shifted to look down at his cinnamon vanilla darling nestled in the crook of his arm.

  “I love you Fress.” He chuckled quietly.”Lux will be surprised to see me at the cottage tonight I’m sure.”

  Fress pulled herself up until she was on his chest looking him in the face, the weight of her soft breasts feeling familiar and wonderful against his skin.

  “Charley, he won’t be surprised at all. I told him you would probably be by to get your things today. To move back to Mitzi’s.”

  Shocked, Charley sat straight up in bed.

  “Fress! What the hell are you talking about? You want me to move out after…after all this?”

  Fress slid out of the bed and began dressing hurriedly.

  “Charley what happened today was because we still love each other and need each other. But Cass and Lux were right. We need some time apart. And we-especially YOU, need to see other people. You’ve arrested your natural development by imprinting on me, I didn’t understand that but I do now. Unless we take a break it will never be right between us-don’t you see that?”

  Charley was beside himself, so full of unexpressed conflicting emotions that he was mute. In spite of them he remembered his promise to Cass. His head was full of snarky comments he wanted to make but he knew he wouldn’t make any of them. What he did say was the first thing that came from his heart. And it came out wrenchingly.

  “Fress. Please. Don’t do this.”

  Fress looked at him with compassion.

  “Charley this HAS to be. I kissed someone else. I didn’t initiate it, but I didn’t stop it either. That is the truth, and that means I have to figure out what I want too.”

  Charley wordlessly jerked his clothing on at accelerated vampire speed. After Fress’s confession the tide-in his mind-had turned, and his predominant emotion was now anger.

  “What’s his name Fress?”he asked bluntly.”Is it someone I know?”He knew he was perilously close to breaking his promise to Cass, so he was making his communications as short and succinct as possible.

  “It’s Daniel.”Fress answered, grabbing her purse and turning to leave without looking at him.

  Charley felt sick to his stomach as he mutely followed her down the stairway and out to her parked car. His mind was racing-why Daniel? His childhood acquaintance with all the piercings? How could this be? What kind of potency had his kiss offered that could result in a separation between Fress and himself?

  And lastly-did Daniel have a death wish? Because Charley definitely wanted to murder him for kissing Fress. Or at least tear him apart for sport, slowly and obscenely. It wouldn’t be a fair fight because Daniel only had the strength and abilities of a once-bitten, but Charley was past the point of caring.

  The ride back to Charley’s parked car was silent. And he was exhausted from falling from the heights of coital bliss to the depths of feeling like a twice jilted lover. When Fress pulled up to his van he jumped out before the car had come to a complete stop, even though Fress had started to speak.

  He was an iceman now. He felt emotionally frozen. He had to get away.

  Afterward he didn’t remember the drive back to Mitzi’s house, his former domicile that had turned back into his current domicile. Letting himself in the front door he could hear Mitzi and Cass talking in the kitchen, an easy conversation, with his mom laughing at Cass’s humorous comments at intervals, some teasing, and some pauses that he assumed were kissing breaks .Charley wasn’t sure he could endure being around two lovebirds ,and was about to go straight up to his room when Cass switched on the foyer light.

  “Hey Charley, glad you’re home. Your mom made beef bourguinon, come have some dude.”

  Suddenly he was famished, for the beef and also human blood. He followed Cass to the kitchen.

  “Hi mom”, he said, kissing her briefly. “Where’s Buttercup?”

  His mother looked at him with fondness, but Charley also detected pity in her eyes.

  “She’s taking a nap, but I have to wake her up for dinner. Did you need to feed?”

  Charley nodded.

  “Well you can wake her up and ask if she is up to providing refreshment. If she isn’t there is always stored blood in the fridge, though I’m sure you prefer fresh as we all do.”

  “Be back.” Charley darted up the steps to the second floor feeling inappropriately excited for some reason he couldn’t fathom. He was the only one in his family unit that hadn’t yet fed on Buttercup so it would be a novel experience. Maybe that was it. He knocked politely on Buttercups door.

  He heard Buttercup say, ”Come in”. and stepped into the wetnurse’s dimly lit room . He saw Buttercup, in a sort of smocked dressing gown, sitting up on the edge of her bed. Her flaxen hair was not in its usual prim bun, but flowing over her shoulders, and she smiled at him pleasantly.

  “Oh master Charley! So nice to see you. You’re the only one I haven’t fed yet. Would you like some refreshment right now?” Buttercup patted the space next to her on the bed.

  “Yes please, Buttercup.” Charley said, sitting next to her as she loosened the ties on her clothing. A dark urge overcame him just then, swirling through his consciousness and overwhelming his senses with a strange craving.

  “Buttercup,” he said, clearing his throat .”Does everyone suck through the skin or do you tolerate being bitten also? I don’t know because I’ve never done this.”

  Buttercup looked thoughtful. “Well, since I came to your mother’s house she told everyone to use pressure suction and not break the skin when feeding from me, but really I am used to both. The pressure method is more polite and not messy at all, but …” she reached over and smoothed Charley’s hair back from his forehead.” with biting you get full faster. I heal very quickly, so if you bite me in a discreet spot your mom doesn’t have to know.”

  Charley felt his own blood pounding in his temples, releasing a biological imperative that he hadn’t suspected resided within him. Quickly he said with a nonchalance that he didn’t feel”Your thigh then, Buttercup please.”

  Buttercup discreetly parted a section of her dressing gown so that the top of one of her thighs was exposed. Her skin was flawless and very pale.

  Plunging his fangs into the alabaster plumpness of her thigh, Charley felt for the first time since his transition like an actual vampire. The heady sensation of blood rushing into his mouth, with its heady subtle aromas and bouquets, made drinking blood out of a glass or a donation bag seem a very poor substitute. As he drank deeply and deftly, determined not to waste a drop, Buttercup made the same soothing noises that a new mother breastfeeding her infant would make, stroking his hair as he drank. For those few minutes they were connected as intimately as a mother and child.

  When he was finished, Charley looked up at Buttercup with pupils so dilated that his eyes were completely black.

  “Are you okay?.he asked her, still reeling from the sensuality of blood rushing over his teeth and tongue and pouring down his throat. Suddenly he understood why Fress had used her fangs when she made him a twice-bitten, permanent vampire. It was a heady experience. He felt much better-wonderful in fact. Like a super human.

  It was almost better than sex. At least a very close second, in his judgement.

  Buttercup was bustling around and practically pushed him out of her room.

  “Of course I’m fine, Charley. You did that very well, and that bitemark will be gone in three or four hours. Don’t you worry, this will be our little secret.”

  His mood much improved, Charley went downstairs. Duri
ng the very pleasant dinner that followed he found that he was surprisingly enjoying himself-his dark thoughts of the situation with Fress were a dull ache way in the background. And he also felt that he had gone through a rite of passage, using the frowned upon primitive fanging method to feed. And he was feeling both his manhood and his immortality now in a way he hadn’t previously.

  Throughout the mealtime he made pleasant conversation, complimented his mother on her excellent cooking, discussed politics and muscle cars with Cass, and assisted everyone else in making Buttercup feel like part of the family. But on another level he was formulating a plan that excited him and gave him a new direction, one far away from his miserable breakup with Fress.

  Charley wanted to drink the blood of a human, and do it the old fashioned way. He was a vampire, after all. He had an urge and a taste for it. And his college campus was the perfect hunting ground.

  In Milton, Carey spent the majority of the next week trying to convince any of the backwater, highly suspicious business owners to hire him. Finally the owner of the Tip-top Minimart and Service Station agreed to give him a try. Carey’s duties would include waiting on customers, selling lottery tickets, helping unload delivery trucks and pumping gas for any elderly patrons that still preferred full service-and in this town there were quite a few. In spite of the sporadic traffic at the gas station Carey was kept busy performing his multiple tasks.

  There were perks of course. He could eat the prefab sandwiches and hotdogs that were sold there and consume as many fountain drinks as he wanted to, which worked out well financially because in spite of trying to conserve his savings he had gone through $200 courting Kimber and purchasing one of her paintings for $70. The painting was a fantastical portrayal of a boy and girl in a magically lush setting holding hands as they stared at a enormously full moon. The heavens around the couple were ablaze with stars, some of them shooting stars with beautiful sparkling multicolored tails.

  Carey thought that it was the most beautiful piece of artwork he’d ever seen, and pointed out to Kimber the uncanny resemblance between himself and Kimber and the couple pictured in the painting.

  “Maybe I knew somehow that you were coming,” she said , a smile playing about her lips and her eyes demurely downcast.”Maybe I was waiting for you.”

  “I hope so”, he answered, moving in for a taste of her tantalizingly pink lips. Aunt Ida was taking a nap and they were alone in the living room. Loki had been there but when Carey and Kimbra had started making out Carey had frowned at him and motioned for him to leave the room-which he did, although he kept looking back at Carey balefully as he trotted out of the room.

  Carey continued to kiss Kimbra, his long hands moving up and down her body as she relaxed against him. Of course he wanted to bite her-her human blood scent was as intoxicating as her sexuality. But that part (since he had strategically tanked up on raw beef liver before she came over ,chasing his snack with 3 Altoids) was not a problem. The problem was that he wanted to have sex with her, right there, on Aunt Ida’s overstuffed couch, possibly in several imaginative positions.

  As they continued to kiss hungrily, Carey could feel the heat of her sexual arousal, see the blush rising from her bosom and hear the rapid thudding of her heart against his chest. When he placed her hand on his sex she didn’t pull away but seemed intent to explore the length and breadth of him with her hand. Most girls would have had their eyes closed, but she was looking into his eyes the entire time.

  His own hand found the waistband of her panties and, flattening his hand so that it slid seamlessly inside her clothing, caressed her with his gently exploring fingers.

  Carey felt as though he would burst.

  “Please Kimbra.” He whispered,” You know how I feel about you.”

  But just as she had the last three times they’d had an opportunity to be completely alone, she abruptly pulled her meltingly hot wetness away from him and sat up, rearranging her clothing as she did so.”I’m sorry.” She said ”I just can’t .I don’t mean to tease you Carey-you must know by now I want…what you want. But I just can’t now. It has nothing to do with you. It’s a promise I made to myself.”

  “What promise?” Carey asked, still breathing heavily.”That if you ever met a guy named Carey you’d put him on a sexual deprivation regimen?”

  “No silly. I promised myself that I wouldn’t have sex until the time was right-after all the proverbial “first time’ can only happen once.”

  “I’m pretty sure you’d like it though.” Carey responded ,his voice smooth and low, moving in for a consolation kiss. He didn’t want to feel like something wonderful had just been cruelly snatched away from him at the last minute.

  But Kimbra captured his face in both hands and gave him a sound peck on his right cheek instead.

  “We’d better cool down.” She said, an apologetic look on her lovely face.

  Carey flopped back on the cushions, staring at the ceiling. He was thinking he’d be very lucky not to get ‘blue balls’. That is if he still belonged to a phylum of creature that could.

  It was Wednesday of the next week and Cass and Mitzi were waiting anxiously, holding hands, in the office of Dr. Remy Caligare -a first rate physician who had overseen the medical needs of the vampire community for many decades. Having first practiced as a human, Dr. Caligare had been turned in his tenth year of practice by his vampire mistress and was a much needed and valued specialist in the community. Mitzi had continued to have bouts of nausea and dizziness off and on; Cass ,Lux. and Fress had insisted that she see the doctor. Cass’s secret fear ,one that he was unwilling to share with anyone, was that Adrastos had done something to Mitzi when she was at Fauquier Hall to make her ill. His paranoid fantasies ran the gamut from being afraid Adrastos had given Mitzi a slow acting poison, to fearing that Adrastos had put a magick spell on her so that she’d become ill if she left the castle. Cass’s suspicions made him almost frantic with worry.

  Both Cass and Mitzi jumped a little as the door suddenly opened. Dr. Caligare took a seat in the studded leather chair behind his desk and said bluntly, ”Mitzi, you’re pregnant.”

  Mitzi had long drawn a heavy curtain over what had happened to her at Fauquier Hall. She was good at recovering from catastrophic events. She had proven that by somehow carrying on after the sudden death of her husband Sam. But the doctor’s pronouncement reawakened something within her.

  Her body was quick to remember what her mind had forgotten. And she began to shake. Even though an equally shocked Cass immediately wrapped her in his warm, reassuring, muscular arms, still she trembled involuntarily.

  Looking across the desk at Dr. Caligare, her forehead beginning to bead with cold sweat, she asked in a near whisper,

  “How many months of gestation Doctor? How many months do vampires carry?”

  Dr. Caligare smiled reassuringly.”It varies slightly, but usually 10 months my dear. You will be pregnant for awhile.”

  Cass found his voice.

  “Doctor, how far along are we?”

  It was not lost on Mitzi that Cass had said “we” when asking the doctor that question. That simple, affirmative, inclusive choice of the word ”we” caused her to love him more than ever.

  Dr. Caligare frowned slightly.

  “I can’t tell precisely ,but…perhaps four months? As the fetus grows it will be easier to ascertain.”

  Cass and Fress stared at each other ,each hurriedly running calculations in their minds. Dr Caligare’s guestimate put the date of conception in the vicinity of Mitzi’s rescue.

  Cass was thinking of their homecoming tryst at the motel. He knew that twice-bitten males were notoriously sterile, but he was hoping against hope. He knew the two century mark was the cutoff point between virility and sterility-and he hadn’t been turned for quite that long. He didn’t want to think of Mitzi with Adrastos. His mind stubbornly refused to go there.

  Mitzi ,shuddering, was remembering the final rape by Adrastos on the stone floor of his cham
ber in Fauquier Hall, the one she had endured by turning her head and counting how many times Buttercup’s chest rose and fell with her regular breathing as she lay passed out nearly 10 feet away. She remembered how deeply grateful she had been that her wetnurse was still alive.

  Belatedly, Mitzi thought of Charley. She wasn’t sure that Charley had enough information on the reproductive lives of vampires to figure out that Adrastos may have gifted him with a sibling.

  It was ,using the Southern technical term for all convoluted human or nonhuman situations, ”a mess.”

  She became aware that Cass was rubbing her arm.

  “Hey you! We’re going to be parents! “ he said in a gentle but upbeat voice The fact that she seemed stunned wasn’t lost on him. Helping her up he said to Dr. Caligare, ”So-prenatal visits? Any special instructions?”

  Dr. Caligare looked stern.”Well we‘ll be sending her home with prenatal vitamins, we’ll schedule another appointment in 3 weeks, she needs to make sure she gets enough blood ,enough rest…”

  “And of course it is recommended that you refrain from having relations until the child is born.”

  Dr. Caligare took a few seconds to enjoy the shocked look on Cass’s face before he added.

  “Got you Cass! I couldn’t resist-the last part isn’t true but the looks on the faces of the fathers to be is so priceless that I can never help myself!”he added, showing a mouthful of white teeth and looking like the vampire he was.”Congratulations ,both of you. Not many of us reproduce, most are ‘made’ so to speak. I shall look forward to following Mitzi’s gestation.”

  Cass guided Mitzi away from the office as though she was made of Dresden china, helped her into the car, even buckling her in her seatbelt. She was still mute.

  As he got in the driver’s side, he reached for her hand.