Dancing Nitely Read Free Page A

Mavrides’
luck with the females of the species, Smith had long since evolved
beyond sexuality. Blood and power games were the only things that
held the elder vampire’s interest.
    “ You have a car?” Delphe
asked as they prepared to leave.
    “ I don’t
drive…cars.”
    “ We’ll take mine,
then.”
     
    Her vehicle was waiting for
her in the parking lot. A human dressed in a dove-gray chauffeur’s
livery opened the door of the vintage Duisenberg as they
approached.
    “ I meant what I said about
your fighter,” Mavrides reiterated. “He should have
won.”
    Delphe shrugged. “The world
is full of humans.”
    A prepubescent girl pressed
herself against the opposite door as they climbed into the back
seat. “Come-come, Sherri!” Delphe said as he caressed the child’s
pale cheek. “You shouldn’t be afraid of my friends.”
    ***
    They ended up at his
place.
    The Countess ordered her
chauffeur to wait until she returned. The human nodded and said
nothing as they took Sherri with them to Mavrides’ apartment. The
girl whimpered when Delphe ordered her to leave the car, but that
was the only protest she made. Mavrides admired the power the
Countess wielded over her thralls.
    Vampires, at least
physically, are impotent and sterile. They have no need for
primitive mammalian means of replicating themselves. But all undead
were once living beings, and the drive to procreate is a strong
one. Because of that, it is the last of the human instincts to fade
from vampire personalities. Mavrides could not imagine a time when
sex would be meaningless to him, but there had also been a time
when he could not imagine never seeing the sun or his own
reflection again.
    He escorted the Countess
and Sherri into the room he kept for one-night stands, with the
black tapers burning in candelabra set at the head and foot of a
specially-designed double-width coffin. Delphe seemed suitably
impressed.
    He climbed inside, fully
dressed, and motioned for her to follow. Delphe laughed quietly and
herded the frightened Sherri ahead of her.
    “ There’s nothing to be
afraid of, my dear,” Delphe whispered soothingly. “All we want to
do is love you. Isn’t that right?”
    Mavrides smiled to
encourage the child, opening his arms wide to embrace her. “Yes. We
just want to share our love with you.”
    The girl glanced nervously
at Delphe as she climbed into the coffin, then Mavrides grabbed her
and pulled her close. She gasped as his cold, dry hands tightened
on her wrists, pinning her against him. Delphe slid in after her,
trapping the girl between their bodies. Sherri started to cry, but
Delphe quieted her sobs by stroking her hair and muttering
meaningless endearments.
    Mavrides was surprised at
how much warmth the child radiated. She felt like a hot coal
pressed against his flesh. He reached around the human and wrapped
his arms around Delphe, pulling her closer. She did the same,
squeezing the girl-child between them as if she might lend her heat
to their ice-cold flesh.
    Mavrides’ eyes met and held
Delphe’s for a long moment. He could dimly remember when the sex
act had been different, but he could not recall if it had been
better.
    Their fangs sank into
Sherri’s throat at the same time, uniting the vampires in a moment
of mutual sharing; the greatest intimacy possible amongst the
undead. Sherri cried out as they punctured her, then fell silent.
They fed two more times before dawn called a halt to the night’s
performance. By the third feeding, Sherri’s eyes had rolled back in
their sockets and her lips were blue.
    It was the best sex
Mavrides had ever known.
    ***
    He woke up that evening to
find himself alone in the coffin.
    That wasn’t exactly true:
Delphe hadn’t bothered to take Sherri’s corpse with her when she
left.
    “ Stiffed again,” he groaned
as he crawled over the body, cursing the Countess under his breath.
At least you’d think she’d have the decency to dispose of her own
empty, instead of leaving