dainty fingers. A moment later, latex girls came hurrying through the darkened doorway they had disappeared through previously. Each took a place at the ends of the table. With practiced flourish, the two removed the silk cloth to reveal our buffet.
The body of a naked woman lay motionless in the center of the table. She was dark --skinned and lovely. Her long hair had been intentionally placed around her head to look as though it was flowing. My mind flashed on a headless Reggie, naked hookers in black and white, guzzling gallons of blood drenching a damp basement. Adrenaline took over and I couldn’t breathe. Without my control, my body pushed itself back into the chair as far as it would go and my eyes closed tight. I waited to hear Tatum react. Nothing. Seconds passed; it felt like minutes. A round of applause rolled lightly through the room, but no reaction of terror. No screams. No gasps of horror.
Shit. Naked bitches on the table cannot be a good thing.
I forced my eyes open and darted them around the room. Victorian clad heads of staff dined on intricately wrapped pieces of sushi. Each fanged mouth gobbled up rice and seaweed like it was their last meal. In shock, I looked to the dark skinned woman on the table. Covering her flat stomach, ample chest, protruding hipbones, were little pieces of sushi and other edibles. Her eyes were closed and her lips parted naturally, but she was breathing normal controlled breaths. A living, breathing, food canvas. In that moment, I was both relieved and disappointed. I was quite ready to Quinton Tarantino my way out of this den of bloodsuckers. Plus, what kind of vampire colony sat around and ate raw fish and rice?
I didn’t eat anything that once touched someone’s naked flesh as a rule, so I quietly sipped from my fancy pewter glass. No one had seemed to notice my quiet spectacle and I was glad for that. I wasn’t really ready to explain to a room full of plastic fanged blood drinkers that I thought perhaps they were serving up a pretty little Creole girl for dinner.
I watched as the pleasantries continued. The little vampires played nice, drank their respective liquids from their fancy glasses, ate stinky fish from the flesh of the naked girl on the table, and I prayed they’d be serving something edible soon.
Cyrus spoke only when spoken to and I noticed the other Secondus’ did as well. Malcolm was holding a superficial conversation with a woman to his left and Tatum sat there looking pretty, as she did so well. The Victorian-clad man sitting to my right stared down my dress as often as he could and the woman across the table from me watched him with a crooked brow. Other than the weird clothes and the naked girl, it seemed like any other business dinner I’d ever attended. The hostess welcomed her guests, made a toast to teamwork, and fed everyone food and drink. The only suspiciously odd thing was the obvious line drawn in the sand between Primus and Secondus. Oh, and the plastic fangs. It seemed ridiculous to me why anyone would take this game of dress up so damn seriously. Serious to the point of allowing yourself to be treated as a second class citizen all in the name of bloody hierarchy. It was probably why I was single and worked for myself. Lack of appreciation for authority and chain of command. Damn the man. Save the Empire.
A warm hand slid over mine that rested on the soft linen tablecloth. I turned to see Cyrus’s tanned hand run reassuringly across the back of mine. It wasn’t a lingering touch, just something to let me know I wasn’t alone in the room, I guessed. I smiled in his direction, but received nothing in return. His eyes stayed fixed on the others around the table. It seemed to me like he was watching each conversation, eavesdropping in a sly little way. I guessed one could discover a load of new things he could use against people if one just shut the fuck up and listened.
Clever .
An hour passed and I had been served a delicious soup
The body of a naked woman lay motionless in the center of the table. She was dark --skinned and lovely. Her long hair had been intentionally placed around her head to look as though it was flowing. My mind flashed on a headless Reggie, naked hookers in black and white, guzzling gallons of blood drenching a damp basement. Adrenaline took over and I couldn’t breathe. Without my control, my body pushed itself back into the chair as far as it would go and my eyes closed tight. I waited to hear Tatum react. Nothing. Seconds passed; it felt like minutes. A round of applause rolled lightly through the room, but no reaction of terror. No screams. No gasps of horror.
Shit. Naked bitches on the table cannot be a good thing.
I forced my eyes open and darted them around the room. Victorian clad heads of staff dined on intricately wrapped pieces of sushi. Each fanged mouth gobbled up rice and seaweed like it was their last meal. In shock, I looked to the dark skinned woman on the table. Covering her flat stomach, ample chest, protruding hipbones, were little pieces of sushi and other edibles. Her eyes were closed and her lips parted naturally, but she was breathing normal controlled breaths. A living, breathing, food canvas. In that moment, I was both relieved and disappointed. I was quite ready to Quinton Tarantino my way out of this den of bloodsuckers. Plus, what kind of vampire colony sat around and ate raw fish and rice?
I didn’t eat anything that once touched someone’s naked flesh as a rule, so I quietly sipped from my fancy pewter glass. No one had seemed to notice my quiet spectacle and I was glad for that. I wasn’t really ready to explain to a room full of plastic fanged blood drinkers that I thought perhaps they were serving up a pretty little Creole girl for dinner.
I watched as the pleasantries continued. The little vampires played nice, drank their respective liquids from their fancy glasses, ate stinky fish from the flesh of the naked girl on the table, and I prayed they’d be serving something edible soon.
Cyrus spoke only when spoken to and I noticed the other Secondus’ did as well. Malcolm was holding a superficial conversation with a woman to his left and Tatum sat there looking pretty, as she did so well. The Victorian-clad man sitting to my right stared down my dress as often as he could and the woman across the table from me watched him with a crooked brow. Other than the weird clothes and the naked girl, it seemed like any other business dinner I’d ever attended. The hostess welcomed her guests, made a toast to teamwork, and fed everyone food and drink. The only suspiciously odd thing was the obvious line drawn in the sand between Primus and Secondus. Oh, and the plastic fangs. It seemed ridiculous to me why anyone would take this game of dress up so damn seriously. Serious to the point of allowing yourself to be treated as a second class citizen all in the name of bloody hierarchy. It was probably why I was single and worked for myself. Lack of appreciation for authority and chain of command. Damn the man. Save the Empire.
A warm hand slid over mine that rested on the soft linen tablecloth. I turned to see Cyrus’s tanned hand run reassuringly across the back of mine. It wasn’t a lingering touch, just something to let me know I wasn’t alone in the room, I guessed. I smiled in his direction, but received nothing in return. His eyes stayed fixed on the others around the table. It seemed to me like he was watching each conversation, eavesdropping in a sly little way. I guessed one could discover a load of new things he could use against people if one just shut the fuck up and listened.
Clever .
An hour passed and I had been served a delicious soup
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