Children of the Night
By: Veronica Leigh Marquette
CHAPTER 8
Bobby picked up the collar that he had gotten in the mail two months ago.
He still couldn't believe that Alex had left him. That everything he had been
telling him over the years that they had been together was a lie. It had been
almost six months since the phone call, and he still couldn't believe it. Not
even when he got the package in the mail, and held the collar that he had given
him back when he first submitted to him. It still was like a bad dream. The
words still echoed in his mind, he didn't love him, hadn't loved him for a long
time. That he had found another, one that could and would give him what he
needed. That hurt the most. That he had failed to give him what he needed.
Failed as a Dom.
* * *
Tracy lay on the couch, curled up next to Mitch as they waited for Kris and
Jessy to come 'alive' this evening. He had spent the day sleeping with her,
because Danny had finally taken it in his head to deal with Jake. Mitch just
hadn't wanted to be there. It was one thing to actively love a man, quite
another when that man was like Jake was right now. She hadn't minded. Jake had
been Sally's, poor girl, Patty had always been wedged firmly between her master
and Randy. And Danny, he was a sweet enough guy and all, but he just really
didn't do anything for her. "You're awful quiet tonight Mitch." She brushed a
stray lock of hair from his brow.
"Sorry, but, I just don't feel good tonight. Must be something I ate." He
muttered. "Chinese sometimes messes with me."
She sat up, looking at him closely. "Don't feel good, how?"
He shrugged, "I'm not sure how to describe it. I hurt, but not really, I
almost want to say I'm hungry, but that isn't right either, I don't think I
could eat right now if my life depended on it." He shrugged. "Like I said,
must have been something I ate."
Tracy shook her head, she had waited only twice when she had first become
part of this house to accept her masters offer of blood. And she had felt
pretty much like he was right now, hungry, but not hungry, sore all over, but
not really hurting. "Nah, it's what you haven't eaten. You didn't share blood
with him last couple of nights, have you?"
He shook his head. "No, I was with Krissy and Danny the last few nights,
why?"
"Our master, he has told us all several times, that they aren't quite sure
what kind of long-term effect living with vampires will have on a mortal, but I
felt exactly like you just described both times, I skipped a 'meal' from him.
It'll be fine, just let him or mistress know when the finally get up, that you
need another 'fix' as it were. That should take care of the problem."
He looked at her, a little stunned. "Are you trying to tell me that their
blood, it's like a drug? You either keep taking it, or it makes you sick?"
"Why else do you think Jake is still here? If our master could have just
got rid of him, he would have already. But because Jake is bound to him, by
blood, he doesn't dare. No one is exactly sure what will happen if one of us
has to stop drinking from him all together, and he doesn't want to find out by
letting one of us get hurt. But don't look like that, the longer you are here,
the less you will have to take from him. Randy has been here the longest,
Patty, right behind him, and there are entire months that they only have to
drink from him one or maybe two times tops. It builds up in you. Our master
has been known to joke that Randy is as close to being a vampire as a mortal can
get without dying and growing fangs."
Mitch was about to comment that knowing Randy, and his habits, he could well
believe that, but suddenly he could barely breathe, the almost pain in his body,
became a knife in his gut. He doubled over, a low cry slipping past his lips.
"Mitch?" Tracy grabbed him. "Mitch, what's wrong?" But all, he, seem to
be able to do was, lay, there curled in a ball and twitch with pain.
The door to the basement where Jessy and Kris slept was thrown open with
such force that the door almost was knocked from its hinges. "Master," Tracy
stumbled back as Jessy pushed her aside and grabbed Mitch, forcing a bleeding
wrist against the suffering mortal's mouth.
With the first swallow, the pain stopped. Mitch held Jessy's wrist, mouth
pressed against the flesh, even after the wound had healed. 'It's a drug'; he
kept telling himself over and over. He had been in aspiring to be a lawyer, not
a doctor, but his father was a neurologist, he had grown up learning about
medicinal drugs and their good and bad side effects all his life. The blood
from a vampire was like a drug. It obviously increased the life span, and
strength. All around him the others, Randy, Patty, Jake, Sally, Tracy, they all
had been with Jessy for years, and none of them looked so much as a day older
than when they were first brought here. But it had a major draw back, unless
more blood was introduced, every so often, then the staying power of the blood
began to turn. Causing the agony he had just suffered through.
"Is he all right?" Kris hovered just to one side. Tracy had went to her
the moment Jessy had pushed her away to tend to Mitch. They both looked
worried. Kris had no idea what was going on, and Tracy had never seen anything
like what had just happened to Mitch before.
"That is it. From this point on, I don't care if I have to feed every
night. You will take from me before I go to my sleep. Have you any idea what
it's like to be yanked up from a sound sleep to the feeling of a knife twisting
in your gut?
Mitch just snorted. "Yeah, Jessy, I know that feeling real well. I just
lived through it."
"Well, never again. I am obviously connected to you, even more than I
thought. I don't mind it so much when my boys suffer, they like it, so what I
get from them is a different sort of pain, but this one is not one I like."
He'd end up having to talk another of his relatives into moving in with him for
a while if he weren't careful. Either that or take more mortals. Kris was
still too young to spare any blood for them, and if he had to feed as often as
he knew he would to keep up with, not, only Danny but Mitch and Alex as well as
keeping an eye on the others. Between what he would need and Kris's constant
hunger, he'd end up bleeding his lot dry.
"What happened?" Kris pulled Mitch from Jessy. Eyes searching his face, "I
have never seen Jessy like that, and you, what happened?"
"It does appear that after twenty-three years of clean living, I'm a drug
addict. The stuff in your veins, bright eyes, it is deadly addictive to anyone
that isn't dead already." He lowered his head to kiss her, "Evening Krissy."
"You okay now?" Over that past few months she had gotten through to Mitch,
and he didn't call her or Jessy 'master' or 'mistress' constantly. But she
couldn't get him to stop it all the time. She had this sneaky suspicion that he
did it just to watch her gnash her teeth from time to time.
"Strip me, frisk me, and make me your bitch." He chuckled squeezing her as
tightly as he could.
Kris just laughed. "Oh that's right, I forgot you respond to feeding from
Jess, pretty much the same way I respond when I do from you."
"Well, you going to take me somewhere and have your way with me, or not?"
He nibbled at her ear.
She just laughed, pushing him back to the couch. "We are just going to have
to get a bed for this room too. The couch is comfortable enough, but I want to
pin you to a bed every now and then, without breaking the moment by having to
carry you up or down a flight of stairs."
"Promises, promises." Mitch moaned as he felt her fangs at his throat. "Go
on baby, I'm fine."
Jessy watched over her as she fed from Mitch. Smiling as she pulled away
without being asked. *If you have this much control now, I don't have to worry
so much about you, and Butch can start spending the day with you. *
*Don't get too lax, lover, Mitch doesn't count. Yes I love them all, but I
was going to marry him. * She pulled back from Mitch. "Soon love, very soon,
but I have still got to take care of a few things." She kissed him again,
"speaking of things that still need taking care of. What did you finally decide
in regards to Bobby?"
Jessy sighed. "Originally I was all for saying no. Precious has been hurt
enough as is. But with the obvious need I, we, are going to have for more
feeders, I guess I am going to have to say yes. I need at least four more, and
he will be one of those I take." He shook his head at her grin. *But I have to
warn you. I might have to take his will to get him to agree, at least at first.
*
*No you won't. I will go with you, you keep telling me that no one will
know who I am unless you want them to, some mind trick that we can do. If he
saw me, realized what was really happening, Bobby is known, or at least he was
before Alex, to be a switch hitter, he can bend, and if he knows that he doesn't
have a choice, he will bend. Just don't try to force the issue until I try to
talk to him. Explain what is going on. Personally I think he will be too glad
that Alex didn't really just leave him, to worry about the rest. *
*Okay, but the other three, I want to be boys, there might be a uneven
amount of men right now but too many are connected to either each other or one
of us, my girls don't have anyone to play with. And now with you here, and have
had not only Butch latch on to you, but Danny as well, and I have Pet, my Girl
and Precious. And I just don't see Princess and Baby being happy with my Boy,
too much water under the bridge. So if I get a few more men for them to play
with, I won't keep getting lost, hurt, looks from them every time I go to feed
them, or feed from them. *
*So, you plan on making this a group trip, or just you and me? *
*My boys have to go. Precious most definitely. And if I take him, I will
have to take Pet as well. The two of them are in the middle of trying to out do
each other in pleasing me. It's so sweet, it's almost cute. And you know what
I think of cute. *
Kris just laughed out loud again. *Yeah, a five year old playing, with,
himself is cute, and neither of those two have been five in a very long time. *
* * *
"Okay, you three sit here for now. We'll be back as soon as possible."
Jessy opened the driver side door to the van that he had loaded Kris, Randy,
Alex, and Mitch into. He had wanted to bring the whole lot of them, but right
now, with as lost as Jake was, he was a little worried that the boy would wander
off and get hurt. So he left his girls home alone for now. If all went well,
he would be bringing them home a surprise anyway.
"It's okay, Jessy, I would just as soon sit here, I don't want to be with
when you try to talk to Bobby. You do realize that he might not take to this as
well as both Kris and Alex thinks he will."
"I'll just sit here with Precious, and hope for the best." Randy reaching
over the seat to pat Alex on the leg. "And if there is a chance that this
little talk you are planning to have with him goes badly. Master, he doesn't
need to see Bobby have his will stolen. It will be hard enough on him to deal
with him in that shape until he finds his way back to himself, without asking
him to watch it happen."
"I know that, Pet, that is why I said for the three of you to wait in the
van." Jessy held out his hand to Kris. "Come on baby girl, let's go see if he
is going to be as cool with this as you think he will be."
* * *
Bobby looked up at the sound of the chime that announced another customer.
"We're closed folks."
He looked horrible, he didn't look like he had shaved in days, which was so
unlike him, Bobby was known to be just a bit fastidious. And what was even
worse was the collar that he now wore around his throat. Kris turned to Jessy;
*can you fix it so that he can see me as who I really am, no one else? *
*If he was alone, yes, but you can't just disappear infront of all the rest.
* He indicated the other cook and two waitresses. *We should have waited for
him at his home. At least, I don't think he has moved, Alex wasn't sure. *
*That's why we came here. Just ask for a cup of coffee, and take a seat.
Bobby is always the last one to leave on a Saturday night. *
Jessy nodded. "I understand that, but I've been driving for a long time,
just some coffee, if that would be all right."
"I said we were closed." Bobby didn't even look up again.
*Damn, he didn't used to be this way. Okay, Jess; push just a little, if
you have too. Just don't strip him of his will. Watching Alex go through his
second time damn near killed me. I don't think I could take it if Bobby ended
up like that. Just tell him that you think you might have some information
about where I might be, and we'll see how quickly he empties the place. *
"Come on friend, what is one lousy cup of coffee. I might even have a
little info about that missing girl whose picture I have seen all over town.
Not looking for the reward, not into money that much, just want to talk to you
about her," he caught Bobby's eyes. "Alone."
Bobby just shook his head. Who did this boy think he was fooling. There
was no way he could possibly have any clues to help them find Kris, she was
dead. After over six months he had finally accepted that. But what the hell,
his new lover was going to beat him tonight anyway, so he might as well earn
that beating. And the boy was sinfully cute. "Okay, take a seat. I'll be with
you in a minute or two." He poured both Jessy and Kris a cup of coffee.
*I thought you said he couldn't see me. * Kris looked at Jessy, a somewhat
frantic look on her face.
*Oh, he sees you all right, but the face you wear now, is not one that you
were wearing just a few minutes ago. *
* * *
Bobby made the usual noises as his crew left. See them Monday and all of
that. "Okay, what is it you have for me?"
"Just give me a minute or two more so that I know that we are fully alone.
What I have to say and show you, just might upset those that aren't privy to
certain things."
Bobby just shook his head, 'it figures', what had Alex once told him, that
when he was free, no one wanted to have anything to do with him, but get a
collar and all of a sudden they were falling out of the wood work to lure him
away. "You don't have to worry about that boy, my crew, they aren't stupid,
they know what this collar around my neck means. But do you? Pretty as you
look, I gave up trying to be a Dom when my boy left me, looking for greener
pastures."
"Yes, and he found them, he is so happy that he has been at me for weeks to
take you as well. Kris and Mitch are absolutely no help with him when he gets a
wild hair to pester me."
Bobby looked at this boy, trying hard not to laugh. "You are the one that
my boy ran to? You," and here he had been putting up with snickers and nasty
comments for years that he, just, wasn't Hard enough looking to be a good Dom.
"Well, good for you, I guess. And I suppose you just had to come and rub my
nose in it. But be warned. You may think you have him, but take it from me, he
is not a trustworthy sub. He up and left me at the worst possible time he
could." Then he stopped. "Wait a minute, did you say Kris and Mitch, too?"
"Let him see me, Jess." Kris was heartbroken. She had known Bobby wouldn't
take Alex leaving him well, but she had never imagined that he would take it
this badly. "No Bobby, we didn't come to rub your nose in Alex's defection."
She smiled at him as he almost leapt from his seat and suddenly Kris was there.
"Alex, I'm sorry Bobby, I didn't ask for him to be taken from you, but he and
Mitch stumbled over Janis, Jessy's mother, when she came here to mourn the 'odd
bird' as you called him. He was her brother, and after seeing that she put me
in Jessy's hands, came here to visit the last place that Marcus had known any
peace. They caught her unaware, and she couldn't hide what she was from them.
So she took them both, and brought them to us."
Bobby looked at her for a long moment. "What the hell are you talking
about? I've been going out of my mind for the last six months, thinking that
you were dead. And here you sit, and you don't look like you're dead to me."
"But I am dead, Bobby. Marcus, that freak of nature that had been haunting
my working nights for about five months, he killed me."
Bobby just growled at her. "So now you are one of the walking undead. What
is going on Kris? You put me through hell, all of us, and now you're going to
try to tell me you're, a what, zombie?"
"No, not a zombie. I'm a vampire now." She smiled at him, fangs clear to
be seen. "I am sorry if I worried you. It wasn't my idea. But up until just
tonight, when we realized with as often as I feed, we were going to have to take
more mortals to help with keeping me from draining all the ones we have. I
thought it better if you just thought me dead. It was me who talked Jessy into
letting Alex call you. I already felt bad enough for the grief I knew I was
causing you. I just couldn't let you keep wondering what happened to him. He
was a wreck when he got off the phone with you."
Bobby just sat there, looking at her, trying to figure out what kind of
twisted game she was playing with him. "Okay, so you're a vampire now. So you
came here, to clean up the loose ends?" His temper was beginning to get the
better of him. "I don't know what twisted joke you are playing on me, but sure,
go ahead, kill me. I would just as soon die than continue living. I'm a flop
at what I do, hell even as a slave, I suck."
"We aren't here to kill you, we don't kill anymore, too dangerous. If we
still killed mortals, then my boy wouldn't be sitting in the van, even as we
speak, waiting to see if you are willing to come on your own, or if I have to
take your will." Jessy reached out to lay a hand on Bobby's. "If I have to do
that, there are a lot of people in my home that would be upset. Alex didn't
leave you, he was taken, and by the time he found his way back to himself, he
couldn't leave me. So being a sucker for a pretty face, I finally agreed to
come and take you as well."
Bobby just continued to shake his head. "Why in the hell would you think I
would be willing to come with you?"
"Because, Bobby, now that you know what we are, you have too. Willingly, or
lost in your self for a while, but you will come. Alex has already suffered
enough on account of me. And think of it this way, boss, you already wear a
collar now, so it won't be that hard an adjustment for you."
"I wear this damn thing, because I figured, with as badly as I did as a Dom,
then I had to do better as a sub." He pulled at the plane black leather collar
around his neck "But you know what, I suck at this too. Raymond, he is getting
to the point that I have to be willing to put up with anything, just to keep him
from throwing me out." His temper was getting the best of him. He didn't care
what he said anymore. "I'm going to have to let him brand me, just so he'll be
happy for a while." He was trying, hard, not to think about where Raymond was
going to brand him. He'd be out of work for weeks.
"That, my friend, is because you are no, normal, sub. I was there, I heard
what Alex said to you. It wasn't true, he was only going out of his way to make
you hate him. He only wanted to let you know he was alive, so you could go on.
I never realized that in his plight to drive you away, you would go to this
extreme." Jessy paused. "I would never brand you. Come on Bobby, just say
yes, don't make me take your will from you. I don't think Precious would ever
forgive me if I had to."
Bobby looked to Kris, pain and betrayal clear in his dark gray eyes. "Why
are you doing this to me, Kris? Wasn't it enough that I thought you dead? Now
you come here and pull my chain with some silly ass fairy tale about being a
vampire. I wasn't born yesterday. Vampires, damn girl, couldn't you come up
with something better than vampires?"
"Keep a close watch on me, Jess, I'm getting better, but Bobby doesn't have
a blood tie with you, so he can't recover from the loss of blood as well as our
bunch can." She turned back to look at Bobby. "I knew that you might have just
a little bit of a problem with this, but I never thought you would ever call me
a liar." New to her new strength as she was, she was stunned at how quickly she
could move. Bobby didn't even have a chance to cry out as she was on him,
pushing him back in the seat, leaning over the table, to sink her fangs in his
throat. Easing her ever-present hunger.
Bobby just sat there, too shocked to do more than that. 'My God, she really
is, it's, all-true'.
*Okay, ladylove, I think you made your point. Enough, later, I promise, but
not now. *
Kris pulled back, licking the wounds as they closed. "Now do you believe
me?" She cupped his chin, placing a light kiss on his lips.
He sat there, unable to move. "You, you, you're a . . .."
"Vampire, yes, takes a few minutes to digest doesn't it?"
He looked from her to Jessy. "So, now that I know, what do you plan to do
with me?"
"Take you home, and see if you can help me to learn what my boys need. You
were damn good, Precious's behavior is all the proof I need."
This time when Bobby shook his head, it was in denial and not disgust. "I
can't do that. Can't just disappear like she did. If I do, god only knows what
people are going to say. I might even, after Alex and Mitch's mysterious
vanishing act, be blamed for it all."
"So, you will know the truth, and no matter how often you go out of my
house, no one will ever recognize you. It will literally be like you fell of
the face of the earth. Come on Bobby, please, for Kris, and even more
importantly for Alex." Jessy didn't want to take Bobby's will, and he was
beginning to worry that he might have to.
"But this diner, I have sunk everything I own into it. If I just went poof,
then there would be a lot of people out of work, and a lot of questions."
"Not if you sold the diner there wouldn't be." Kris figured what the hell,
she didn't want the money to begin with, so at least it was going to go to a
good purpose. "Name your price Bobby."
"You want to buy this place?"
"Well, yeah. I want you to come home with me, Bobby, but I don't want you
to feel ripped off. So name your price."
Bobby just looked at her. "Unless you came into money from a rich relative
I didn't know you had, you can't afford what I would ask for this place"
"Remember that guy who killed me? Well, while I was still out wandering
around in my mind, he killed himself, had to, it was, either, him or me. And he
had just made me his replacement. He has left me with more money than god. Now
again, how much?" She looked to Jessy, who just sat there with a combination
amused and stunned look on his face. "You have any idea how much a month that
trust he set up for me is?
"I think it is roughly around a hundred and fifty thousand a month." Then
to Bobby, "she is very serious. And what ever she gives you, it's yours. I
don't steal from those I claim as my own."
Bobby shook his head, never, not even if he lived to be a thousand, would he
ever have thought of vampires. "As it is, all the equipment included, two
hundred and thirty thousand." The dinner wasn't really quite worth that. But
he wasn't really in the mood to sell. "But tell me, girlfriend, what are you
going to do with a diner?"
"Rent it out, of course. And I will give you twice what you're asking, hell
knows I can afford it." She pulled out her checkbook, the one that Jessy had
given her to the moneys in her trust. "You can bank this, or cash it, what ever
you want to do. The IRS will never be able to track you down. Because as of
tonight, you no longer can be found, but if you go to bank this money, best do
it under a different name, if you plan to cash it, and just disappear, it would
be easier. Think about it, Bobby, this kind of money can buy a whole lot of
things that you never had the money to get before now. You won't need any, you
will belong to us, and trust me, boss, you will never do without anything, ever
again, but it is still nice to have a little money put back," she laughed
softly. "Okay, a lot of money, mad money is what it will be. And once you have
lived with us, and fed from Jessy long enough, you can take Alex and go lay out
on a beach somewhere, or gamble, or buy enough toys to outfit several thousand
subs."
Bobby looked at the check that Kris handed him. A four hundred and sixty
thousand-dollar check. He had sold his diner, true it wasn't like anyone gave
him any choice, and he was bright enough to know that the only reason he was
still sitting here, and not dragged off, kicking and fighting the whole way was
because he and Kris went back a long way. "This is a mighty big check,
girlfriend, how do I know it isn't made of rubber?"
"The bank that check is written against, has a twenty-four automated
service. All you have to do is call and verify that I really do have the money
in that account, Bobby." Kris knew they needed to hurry. "Please, Bobby, just
take it, we'll finish the paper work later, but you have to come with us now.
Don't force Jessy to take your will, your mind, from you.
He looked at the check in his hands. "I can't, stupid of me, I know, but I
can't."
"I warned you that he might not come as easily as you and my boy kept
insisting he would." Jessy really hated that he would have to do this. Oh he
knew that he might have to take the will from the two or three other boys he was
planning to collecting tonight, but this one he didn't want to have to do.
"Okay, Bobby, look up, listen to what I am going to tell you."
Dark, storm cloud gray eyes met Jessy's green. "I am sorry, I would just as
soon not have to do this, it is going to tear my boy up, but better this than
let you continue on the path you are walking right now. I'm a vampire, and
vampires are well acquainted with death, even if we haven't killed in almost a
hundred years, we still know what it looks like, and you are dying." He reached
out and stroked the face of the man that he was going to have to dominate.
"Don't be afraid, honey, no one is going to hurt you while you are lost to
yourself. Kris might not be able to protect you as you need to be protected
like you are right now, but I can, and I will." Unlike with Jake, Jessy didn't
just yank all rational and intelligent thought from Bobby, but instead, gently
lured him to sleep. Placing a mental blanket over his conscious mind.
* * *
Kris helped Bobby to lock up the place. Ever mindful of his fragile state,
Alex was going to be upset, but hopefully by the time Bobby worked his way back
to himself, everything would be cool in their house again. Kris prayed that it
would all work out. She was still having guilt problems over the fact that she
was the blame of so much hurt.
*Don't beat yourself up over it, baby girl. I'll see to it that he is taken
care of. After all, I seem to be getting pretty good at walking them through
it. * Jessy pulled Kris close as they left the diner.
*I know that, Jess, I'm just worried about how Alex and Mitch will take
seeing him like he is right now. *
*I'll just remind my boy that he wanted me to take Bobby, and I had warned
you both that the odds of the mortal taking to his new life well, at first, were
real slim. You let me take care of Precious. Trust me, he will settle down
quick enough. * Actually, the more he thought about it the more he was glad
that he had finally given into Alex's nagging. As good as it felt when he held
his boy's, he didn't know near as much as he let on about how to take care of
what they needed. Now once this cute little mortal finally made it back to
himself, he would be able to sit him down and pick his brain about the lifestyle
that he now lived.
"Okay, Bobby," Jessy opened the sliding door to the van. "Crawl on up
there." Then to his other three, "I'm sorry, but he is going to be lost to
himself for a while. He couldn't come without me forcing him. Don't worry any
of you, I won't let anything happen to him. Butch, Precious, you both know me
well enough to know I won't."
Bobby climbed up into the seat. Watching quietly as Randy buckled him in.
"It's going to be just fine, Bobby, our master will see to it that it is just
fine."
Alex, who sat in the back with Mitch, looked at his old lover, crying softly
as he took in Bobby's lost, unshaved and disheveled state, but the most painful
thing of all was the collar around his throat. "He's a slave now. What have I
done."
There, really, weren't any words to comfort him. No one could think of
anything to say that could ease his distress. He wouldn't believe that it
wasn't his fault that the man that he loved, as much as either Kris or Jessy,
was in the shape he was in now. But Jessy did make a solemn vow to himself that
he would fix it. That was what he seemed to be doing a lot of as of late,
fixing little problems so that they didn't grow into big ones. He also swore
that his boy would never know the truth, about Bobby. He would bind him to him,
and end the illness that the mortal was now dying of. And he would do all of
this without ever letting any, other than Kris, who had been with him when he
took Bobby's will from him, know how close Bobby had come to being really sick,
to dying. "Precious, you didn't do anything. I did, it was me that took you,
my collar you wear now, wait, baby, I promise, it will all work out just fine
