2011

The area is cold, wet and dreary. Pretty much the perfect place for vampires, well, these ones anyway. The bus trip was bumpy and I am tired. I don't know why I agreed to such a dangerous thing. But it was Dawn who asked me, so here I am. She pokes my side.
"Mal, dear, do you think you could smile a bit more? After all we're going to make sooo much money."
Her smile is as fake as that reason we're here. Dawn figured Malice was a little too inconspicuous.
So much to my horror it had to be shortened to Mal.
The castle looks great though.
"I still don't see why you think it's a good idea to go with me," I say. Dawn curls a long tan arm around my torso.
"Not so loud, honey. You were the only one who I knew who didn't say no."
She has such a feminine manipulative spirit wrapped up in a magnitude of power, she doesn't need to ask. Her body is soft and smooth but unmovable.
The bus finally grinds to a halt, giving us all one last bumpy jerk goodbye. On the seven hour ride we weren't permitted many breaks so every one practically scrambles off to stretch their legs.
I am also very hungry as the only snacks Dawn brought were meat and fungus...not my favourite combination. I step down from the bus and take in the colour bleached crappiness of the vast surrounding countryside.
"You don't suppose they have cherries lying around, do you?" Dawn glides down effortlessly from the bus.
"Hm, I think forget fresh ones, but might strike gold with preserved."
I sigh, "Yeah, that would be fine. I got used to them that way in Vietnam."
Cherries are the only really nice substitute in place of Gemmra's energy. That is because is he is kind of, technically, my Master. But we both have always seen it as more of a partnership or symbiotic relationship.
He can't be very happy himself seeing as he will miss out on my blood for however long Dawn has me.
At least he has freaking cherries.
The Master of the estate comes out to greet us.
He's a tightly controlled man which must be difficult for such a piece of slime.
"Welcome. You'll find your rooms inside and-"
"Do you have any cherries!?" I interrupt.
He fights to stay composed after my outburst. "No mister..." He looks over at his secretaries clipboard, "Mister Mal Darling, I don't believe we do."
I throw myself to the ground crying, "WHY!? WHY!? I want to go home I can't take it anymore! AHHH!"
Dawn picks me up and elbows me in the side damn near breaking my ribs but I'm too distraught to care.
"Please don't mind my husband he's...uh vitamin deficient and it makes him a little crazy sometimes. In we go, my love!" Dawn carries me inside away from staring eyes.

THREE DAYS LATER

My energy levels are at an all time low. I stay in my room most of the time and my "WIFE" has somehow convinced the others I'm too fragile for medicals. She's also gotten around them by conveniently caring for me whenever it's time for a check up.
I'm lying on the cheap mattress when Dawn returns from dinner.
"I thought things would be progressing faster, like last time," I say when She shuts the door. She sits on the end of the bed.
"I wasn't sure about the time frame. It seems to happen quicker if the party members are really stupid or really smart. We're in the middle ground so it might take longer."
I groan, "I can't take much more of this."
Dawn glances over at me amused. I entertain her, which may be one of the reasons she chose me. "I need you to be sick"
"Yes, but you don't need me dead."
Seriousness hardens Her eyes. "I I would never allow that to happen, malice."
I roll my eyes. "Yeah, Gemmra would never forgive you, right?"
She stands up, walks over to me and clasps my clammy hand,
"I have lost enough people in my life, particularly men, Malice. I will not lose another."
This strangely tender moment is interrupted by screaming and cries for help.
"It begins." Dawn's eyes flash crimson behind the brown contacts.
"Great! Can I stop being sick now?"
"No," Dawn answers sweetly.
"How did they let you come with a sick husband anyway? I thought they did a background check on whether you're healthy and tasty?"
"I made sure of the tasty part. They won't mind a bit of vitamin deficiency with a rare blood type up for grabs."
Dawn smiles, squeezes my hand then lets go and leaves. Well, that's just brilliant. I am stuck in here again. Hell to that, I'm getting up. Fortunately I pack dried cherries just in case.
After slipping the precious bounty into my mouth I feel my strength returning.
When next I see my lovely spouse all of the other participants are standing in the kitchen trying to comfort a woman who got locked in supplies room.
Dawn's face belies nothing of what she is feeling. I am infact rather pissed off on behalf of the other couples.
"All this weird shit started yesterday," quivered Jeff, husband to Jenny, two yuppys who had fallen on hard times when their parents cut them off and among the youngest in the group.
Dawn and I both appear young. But we aren't. I'm inching my way up to seventy and I have no idea what Dawn's true age is she claims to be thirty years my junior, so actually we're the oldest here.
It can't be helped that we look like we are in our early twenties.
I'm able to get away with it because I've always been young at heart and severely immature, much to Gemmra's dismay.
And Dawn is a very good actress.
Danika, the poor soul who was locked in the supplies room, starts to cry again and everyone bickers about who's fault that is. I go over to comfort Danika.
I take some of the negative energy from her aura and she manages to give me a watery smile.
This seems to snap everybody out of their infighting.
"What about you Mal?" Asks Manny, Danika's boyfriend "I know you've been sick but have you seen anything strange?"
"Well...um..."
Dawn finally steps in, draping a protective arm around my shoulders
"My husband has indeed been unwell. Perhaps this is a side affect of the drugs? They are experimental afterall, which is why we're to be paid so much."
"I could not agree more!" Dawn's grip around my shoulders and neck tightened as the Master of the estate walked into the kitchen with his secretary.
Her prey.
The secretary was as ugly as sin, but I don't mean physically. Almost every other man stood to attention when they saw her. But if they could see what I see, underneath, they would deflate pretty quick.
"This," he continued "must be just a reaction to the drugs, nothing to be concerned about."
Mitchell and his partner Adam stood up from the dining table in frustration.
"That's all well and good, but what about the small matter of who the fuck locked Danika in the closet!?" Mitch spat.
The last couple Cecilia and Jeanne-Paul, French expats in England, also started to yell in heavily-accented english about their missing luggage. Soon just about everyone was up and at 'em.
The Masters patience was running thin and his true face was coming through when Dawn's laughter cuts through the arguing.
My skin prickles with the energy in the room. I can definitely see why she would pick this group. They were like an angry swarm of fire ants, tearing down the Masters defences as one.
Even if we hadn't tagged along they probably would have given these experienced blood suckers a run for their money through sheer annoyance.
Then again maybe not. They had been running this scam for quite a while now.
The jig was up. Dawn let her knowledge and sea of experience that extended well beyond her chronological years shine through.
The near immediate silence is deafening. Fear is almost a taste in the air.
Dawn starts to clap and sits down in a chair."A very good show. But this is your last performance." She turns to the other four couples, wide eyed with awe and. .. primal instinctual fear.
"Jeff, Jenny, Danika, Manny, Mitchell, Adam, Cecilia and Jean-Paul, I want you all to return to your rooms and stay there until I say so," Dawn commands, pointing to each person in turn, "Understood?"
They all fly out and up the stairs to their respective rooms.
"And now," Dawn's eyes have lost the brown contacts. They burn with a light, the stars and many galaxies contained within. "With intermission over we may begin the final act. But really it was over when you sullied all those lives with your corrupted fingers!"
The Master vampire and his harem and thralls cower before such raw power, no hint of feminine manipulation left anywhere.
"Oh, but don't worry I won't let you suffer like you made them suffer." By now the whole 'family' and their servants are gathered in the kitchen (the start of Dawn's wards descent into madness, a fitting place) like moths to a flame. They all relax slightly.
"I will make sure to make our time together much better..." The "family" shifts, hopeful. Dawn's smile breaks and with it their hope, "For vengeance. You have no idea the agony you are about to greet. But let your imagination take flight, I will shoot it down and rip off it's wings. After all easy is the descent..."

UNMEASURABLE AMOUNT OF TIME LATER

She told me to turn away and not bear witness to it.
I am back on the bus being driven by one of the former passengers.
The original driver is...well, I'm not sure I want to know, I turned away after all. There are good people here but I'm not so naive as to believe they will not suffer some time in life, I know at least they have all gained wisdom enough to endure it kindly.
Dawn didn't join us, she flew back. Not on a plane but on her own two wings.

SEVEN HOURS LATER IN LONDON

Once again it is cold, wet, grey and crappy where a shit ton if vamps hang out (or fang out, get it? Hahaha! Ok. No. That was corny). Dawn has returned to her usual laid back self.
"Let's get you home shall we?"
I nod, relieved. She embraces me and we're in the courtyard of Dawn's home, gardens looking beautiful as to be expected when it's Tristen who tends to them. Gemmra sits unmoving on a large feature stone in the middle of the court, conserving his energy.
I saunter cockily over to him. I reach out and twirl a piece of his dark long hair around my finger, "My, my, my, what do we have here? A grey hair! what happens to lasting two hundred years without blood and now you can't go without five days with it?"
Gemmra snaps his eyes open and he pulls me down hard against him.
"It is you I can't last without Private-Pain-In-The-Ass!" He locks his lips to mine and I blush but Dawn has disappeared and no one else is around, so I lean into the kiss.
Gemmra bites down and takes my blood before I can taste it. In turn I absorb his negative energy. We finish and I sit beside him. Dawn is suddenly infront of us.
"Feeling better?" She asks.
"Much, thanks. I just don't know how I end up on such escapades, is all," I smirk.
Dawn leans down and touches my cheek tenderly, but the touch is fleeting.
"You're welcome to be my stand in husband anytime Malice," She whispers and my cheeks are aflame with embarrassment. Gemmra coughs, suspiciously sounding like he is muffling laughter. I shoot daggers at him. "You have my gratitude also, Gemmra."
He inclines his head respectfully at Dawn and says, "We best be going now, back to our jungle."
My eyes tear up and I mumble desperately, "Not another bus, I beg of you."
Gemmra clasps my hand,
"Of course not. I AM an ancient master vampire, despite your complete lack of respect for me." I poke out my tongue at him and he rolls his eyes.
We are, acting like this, usually reserved but in front of Dawn we feel comfortable. She waves us goodbye as we are carried off on thousands of bats.
"This is a bit novel for you, Gemmra."
"I wanted to try something a bit different this time, Malice."
"I like it."
But mostly I like going home with the man I love.

End for now...