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Sabine McTannish - Ventrue |
Background | Allies | Fiction |
Beginnings |
“I do not struggle in your web
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It was a late winter’s night and I was working late at the store once again. The books needed work to cover the money James was stealing. I rubbed my eyes, anger burning inside me. James took the money for his current mistress. It seems he’d always had mistresses, even right after our marriage. He called me cold, but he hadn’t slept in our bed in months. How could I be warm and loving to a man who couldn’t, wouldn’t be faithful? Who stole every penny of profit from our department store, McElroy’s?
I picked the pencil back up and manipulated the numbers yet again. McElroy’s was deeply in the red and it would take some time to hide where the money was going. In the last few years I had grown to hate my husband. How much longer could I live like this? I heard a noise from the floor and wondered what it could be. It was very late, everyone had gone home hours ago. I got up and walked through the secretary’s office, the same secretary that I was sure James was in bed with at that very moment. I glanced at her desk, piled high with work she never seemed to get to. I went out onto the department store floor to investigate the noise I’d heard. Silently I walked the aisles, taking pride in the displays and merchandise. I had worked very hard to make McElroy’s the profitable store that it could be if James wasn’t steeling money. Pride in the store and the knowledge that it would quickly go out of business without me was the only reason I stayed with James, the only reason he hadn’t left me. While walking through the women’s clothing department, I saw a figure standing in the shadows. At first I thought it was a mannequin, then I realized that it couldn’t be. I knew all the displays in the store, and this figure was not a part of them. Fear warred with anger at the intrusion as I walked closer. “Who are you?” I demanded. “Who I am is not important,” she replied calmly. “Yet. What is important is what I can do for you.” I smiled coolly. “What can you do for me?” “How would you like to live forever?” she drawled. “To have great power over mortals? Money beyond your imagination? The adoration of whomever you wish? Beauty and youth as long as you exist?” I laughed, but there was no warmth in the sound. “You speak of the impossible,” I told her. “Whoever you are, leave my store or I will call the police.” Her laughter rang out, warm and tinkling through the store. “Sabine, I own the police. I have power over the mortal world. I have billions of dollars. I have mortals who worship me. I have lived for two hundred years.” As she spoke the last words, she stepped into the light. She was gorgeous! Long dark hair framed her youthful face, green eyes flashed fire in the dim light. She moved with a fluid grace that seemed preternatural. I moved closer. “Does my offer intrigue you now, Sabine?” she asked. “Who are you?” I whispered. Suddenly a wave or awe rolled over me and I fell to my knees. Whoever this woman was, she was magnificent, surely a goddess. And this goddess was offering to let me join her! Then the worshipful feeling I had dissipated as quickly as it had come. “Did you adore me?” she asked, smiling. “You can have that from any mortal you wish, and from many Kindred.” “Kindred?” I asked, looking up at her from my knees. “It is what I am, what you will be,” she replied. “You will have everything I have promised, but there are some drawbacks to my offer.” She took my hand and helped me to my feet. “You will live forever, but never see the light of day. A stake through the heart will paralyze you, fire will destroy you. And to live you must drink blood.” “You are a vampire?” I gasped, stepping back from her. “I am Kindred,” she said firmly, baring her teeth to show me her fangs. “Join me, join the Ventrue clan.” I turned and walked a few feet away, looking around the store that I felt so much at ease in. “I would have the power to stop my husband from ruining this place?” “Yes.” “Then I accept your generous offer,” I replied, turning back to find her standing quite close to me. “Make me as you are.” She raised her hands to my shoulders and pulled me close, burying her face in my hair. She nuzzled at my neck for a few moments, then nipped at my skin. The pain shot a jolt of fire through me, arousing me as James had never done. My arms went around her waist and I angled my head back to give her better access. She licked at my neck for a moment, then stepped back and took my hand. She led me through the housewares section and into the bedroom department where she laid me gently on a king sized bed there on display. For a moment she stood over me, looking me over quite thoroughly. Then she bent to undress me. I lay still under her fingers, feeling the fire burning where her cold hands touched me. Soon I lay naked on the maroon bedspread, my hair spread out around me. Quickly she undressed and her cold body covered mine, stoking the fire within me. She kissed me deeply, her hands roughly caressing my body. Soon I was writhing beneath her, trying to touch her everywhere. Then she captured my arms at my side and spread my legs with her knee. I shifted to give her the access she wanted and gasped when her tongue touched my skin. I thrust upward, desperate for her to continue. I felt her lips and tongue move slowly toward my thigh as her hands held my wrists in a bruising grip. My fingers dug at the bed as I begged her to kiss me again. Then a sharp pain at the apex of my thigh pushed me over passion’s edge as I bucked wildly beneath her, screaming in my ecstasy. Her fingers moved across my skin and I felt the passion rise again even as I grew weak and dizzy with the realization that she was draining my blood. It only aroused me more. She released my hands and moved up my body. I pulled her closer, my nails digging weakly into her back, wanting to feel her skin against mine, her teeth in my flesh again. Her lips moved to my breast and her hands gripped my hips tightly as her teeth sank into me. She drank and soon I was too weak to move and my arms fell to my sides. I felt my life slipping away and wondered if this had been a ruse that she had used to kill me. Then she moved upward on the bed and ran a sharp nail across the skin of her neck. She grabbed my hair painfully and pressed my lips to the wound. Too weak to protest, I let my mouth fall open and tasted the blood as it ran toward the back of my mouth. Reflexively I swallowed, feeling the potent vitae burn through my body. Instantly I latched my mouth on the cut and drew deeply, swallowing as much as I could. The feel of her fingers touching me again while I drank aroused me so greatly I orgasmed again. My body was wholly on fire with the sensations of sex and death, and my arms went around her again, my nails digging deep scores in her back and shoulders. I drank until she pulled my head back and bit drove her fangs into my neck. Gasping at the pain, I turned my head and put my teeth on her shoulder, reveling in the pain and pleasure she was giving me. Suddenly I felt my teeth begin to change and elongate. My fangs entered her skin and blood again filled my mouth. Much later she moved away just enough to rest her forehead on mine. I realized I was not breathless as her tongue snaked out to lick the blood from my lips. “You are one of us now, Sabine,” she said softly. “I have watched you for months, worshiped your mortal beauty from afar. Will you allow me to continue this worship now that we are close?” She touched one of my nipples, pinching the hard peak and sending shivers through me. “Yes,” I whispered, pulling her head down at cutting at her lower lip with my new fangs. I lapped at the blood that dripped onto my face. She laughed and I watched as she used her own fangs to slice at her tongue, then kissed me, biting into my tongue until our blood mixed freely and we drank. Slowly I pushed at her, rolling with her until she lay on her back. I returned the favor she had given me earlier and kissed her everywhere. An hour or so later, dressed in a man’s suit, I stood alone on the street beneath James’ mistress’ apartment. A light burned in the window, and hatred burned in my cold heart. Earlene stood a block down the street in the darkness between two streetlights, watching me. It was snowing lightly, and several inches of slush lay on the ground from the previous day’s snowfall. I walked into the building and climbed the stairway to the second floor, hesitating outside of the door. I could hear the sounds of music and laughter coming from inside the apartment. Quietly I opened the unlocked door and stepped inside, closing the door behind me. I walked a few steps into the room and watched as my husband groped the young girl, his lover, on the settee. Firelight and candles lit the room and champagne cooled on the coffee table. As James dipped his hand into the woman’s cleavage, her diamond necklace gleamed brightly, a necklace that had cost several thousand dollars of my hard earned money. Rage rose hot within me. “Jimmy,” the girl gasped as she saw me over his shoulder. He spun. “What are you doing here?” he demanded harshly. “Why Jimmy,” I said coolly, “I just wanted to learn what it is you like.” I walked closer, gesturing toward the woman who lay half-naked beneath him. “She pleases you, perhaps I can learn to please you.” “You cold bitch,” he spat, caressing his mistress’ bared breast. “Doesn’t it bother you to see this? Is there truly ice in your veins?” “There is fire in my veins, James,” I purred. “At the sight of you and she together like this.” I walked closer until I stood beside them where they lay, the firelight flickering over their skin. I saw fear in her eyes, glittering like dew on a spider’s web, holding her captive and still. James didn’t seem to notice her fear as I knelt beside them. “Would you like to join us then?” he laughed, obviously expecting me to decline. He looked shocked when I placed my hand on top of his where it caressed her breast. “Yes,” I said simply, hunger putting passion into my voice. He laughed again. “Maybe you are cold only for a man. Maybe it takes a woman to make a woman out of you.” Remembering the bed in the store and the way my body had responded to that of my sire, I smiled. “Perhaps.” James bent to the girl’s right breast and began to suck and lick at the nipple. Slowly I lowered my head and licked at the other, tasting the salt of her sweat and fear. She gasped and tried to pull away, but was trapped by James’ body on hers. She raised an arm to push me away, but I grabbed her wrist and held it in a bruising grip. When she moaned in pain, I sank my fangs into the soft tissue of her breast. Her heartbeat pounded loudly in my mind as I slowly suckled at her breast. She moaned pitifully and arched her back, reaching toward James and myself. He shifted to run his hand down her body. As his hand reached the moist interior of her thigh, he raised his head. “If I had known you would respond this way,” he told us, “I would have brought the two of you together a long time ago.” He captured her lips and kissed her deeply as I continued to drink. She shook from the multitude of sensations wracking her body. I reached between them and freed his penis from his clothing, caressing it gently. Licking the girl’s wound closed and leaving her weakened, I whispered into James’ ear. “Come to me now, feel me.” He broke away from her lips and looked closely at me. “You have never asked for me, Sabine,” he said wonderingly. “Do you truly like this?” “It is like sustenance to me,” I replied honestly. “Come, let me drink from your cup.” He gave the woman one last caress and pulled us both to the floor with him. He placed her hand on my breast and began to remove my clothing. As his hands caressed my body, I tugged his neck closer to my lips. I felt his mistress timidly place one hand atop his and the other on mine helping each of us rouse the other. James reached for her even as my hand tangled in her hair. Finally he came close enough for my lips to find his vein as he leaned over to kiss her again. My hand tightened painfully on his body as my fangs sank into his throat and I drank deeply, feeling his body react and release on my thigh as I swallowed more and more of the thick hot blood that filled my mouth. I felt him weaken even as his orgasm reached its peak. He slumped atop me and still I drank reveling in the knowledge that each draught I took from the font of his neck was draining his life, even as he’d drained the life of my precious McElroy’s. As the last of his life left James, the girl pulled away and leaned against the couch. She raised a hand to the breast I had drawn from and stared at me wide eyed as I licked the last of the blood from James’ neck and rolled his body aside. I returned her look calmly. “You have killed him,” she said in horror. “He married me for McElroy’s,” I told her emotionlessly. “He never loved me. He was destroying the business for love of you. He deserved to die.” “What are you?” she breathed, fear again filling her face. “What did you do to me? To him?” “Would you like me to do it again?” I asked softly. She jerked in response. “No,” she whispered. “I want to live.” “Why should I allow it?” I demanded sharply. She thought a moment. “I felt your teeth in me,” she said at last. “I felt the blood draining from my body. I watched you drink him dry. I know what you are. You have limits now, don’t you? Sunlight and fire and crosses. How will you raise your son?” My son. For the first time I thought of the six-month-old baby who lay at home under the watchful eye of our housekeeper. Suddenly I knew what I had to do. On our way to this apartment, my sire had told me how to control humans. “Veronica,” I said, soothing her with the quiet patience of my voice. “I will allow you to live under certain conditions.” “Anything,” she whispered. “You will give up your life. You will take James’ last name and move into our townhouse. You will raise my son as if he were you own. He will be yours in every way. You will become my sister and he will never know who I truly am. I will provide you with money and you can have a new life. You can find another job, even marry if that pleases you. You will never tell a soul who or what I am.” “I will do as you ask,” she vowed fiercely. “It will be as you say.” “One final thing,” I added. “You will drink of my blood tonight and the next and the next. After that you will drink whenever I ask it of you.” “Your blood?” she gasped. “Won’t that make me like you?” “No,” I replied. “But it will give you great strength and fortitude, and you will not age so long as you continue to drink from me.” “To stay young and strong,” she breathed, gazing into the fire. “You would take my life away, yet give me so much in return. A son, a home, money, youth. How can I repay you for all these gifts?” “Never betray me,” I said quietly. “If you do I will kill you just as I killed him, and with no regrets.” “You have my loyalty,” she replied sincerely. “For as long as you wish it.” I raised my arm and slashed at the wrist with my fangs before holding the dripping wound out to her. “Drink,” I urged. “Drink deep and live. We shall seal the bargain between us with blood.” She took my arm and raised it to her lips, drinking even as she offered me her own wrist. I twisted her arm a bit for better access and sank my teeth into her soft flesh, careful not to take too much. After a few moments, I released her arm, licking at the wound to close it. Slowly she released me, a glassy look in her eye. I could smell her arousal and see that her fear was gone. She slowly stood and dressed herself as I watched. Then she began to redress me, taking great care with each button of the suit I wore. Still silent, she went into the bedroom where I could hear her moving around. I went to the doorway to tell her I would buy her whatever she needed, but she brushed past me silently, her arms full of papers that she unceremoniously dumped onto the fire. Then she removed the diamond necklace that twinkled at her throat and placed it in James’ outstretched hand. She straightened and looked at me, a proud figure with her life coming apart around her, to be rebuilt by me for my own purposes. “Veronica Miller is no more,” she declared. “Veronica McTannish has been born this night and she is yours. You are my mistress.” I nodded, accepting the truth of that statement. Veronica McTannish reached out her hand to me. “Come,” she said softly. “Take me to my son.” |
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