Blood Royale

“Look, Johnny, it’s a wild vampire!” Telila whispered, peaking through the leaves of a great wall of brush. Telila was a tall, slender young woman with long blonde hair that fell loosely fell on her shoulders. She crouched down onto her knees, the dirt staining her jeans.

Johnny, a tall, athletic male with short black curls, brown eyes, and brown skin, quietly approached and knelt down at Telila’s level. He moved the leaves before him to the side, and he saw who Telila was talking about.

In the distance, his heightened eyesight zoomed in on the most beautiful, yet frightening thing he’d ever seen. It was a woman, about the same age as Telila, and she was crouching over a human man who was covered in his own blood. He seemed barely alive as he showed vague signs of movement, and some faint groans could be heard from under his breath.

The woman in question was nearly completely naked, except for a loincloth made from some white animal skins. She had long, thick black hair, and was lapping at the blood on the man’s chest, which was covered in deep gashes. Blood stains dripped from her bare breasts, which were nearly as white as the moon itself which shone on her through the gaps in the forest canopy. The feral vampire mounted the dying man, bent over him and bit down on his neck. As she did so, she moved her pelvis in a very seductive manner which made both Johnny and Telila blush.

Neither of them had ever seen one of their kind in such a raw, animalistic state.

“So, she’s the one who’s been leaving a trail of bodies all over town,”

Johnny said.

Telila nodded, fixated on what she was seeing. Something stirred in her. She squeezed her thighs together as she watched.  

“I wonder if she even knows what she’s doing?” She mused to herself, wondering if she realized all the people she’d killed were starting to raise suspicion in a serious way. There were weekly broadcasts all over the news about freshly slain men, all who’d been drained of their blood. They were calling it the work of a sick “vampire wannabe”, as no one actually believed in vampires – except for vampire hunters. She watched as the wild vampire finished off the man below her. She’d dug so deeply into his neck that Telila could see how badly it was torn up. The woman laid there on his body, lapping up the rest of his blood, and licking her own fingers and arms as if she were a wild panther. Eventually, she slowly stood up, looked down at her work with a satisfied, dark smirk, and then began to walk away.

“If we don’t catch her, she’s going to be the end of us.” Johnny whispered.

“What do you suppose we do with her?” Telila asked.

Johnny was silent for a moment.

“We might need to take her out,” Johnny replied. “Let’s go!” he commanded.

They both followed her at a safe distance. The darkness was no problem for either of them, as they both could easily see in the dark. They walked for what felt like over an hour until they could no longer follow her. They stayed behind, undercover in the trees and bushes, while the feral vampire walked up to a small lake. There, they saw her remove her loincloth and dip into the water to wash the blood off of her face and chest.

There was some kind of energy, some kind of magnetism that excited them both as they watched her. It was something that neither of them was able to manifest in themselves as well as the feral vampire. They both watched as she very slowly rinsed her body and chest in the clear water. Telila and Johnny both found themselves experiencing an intense heat rise within them.

“She’s potent, I can feel her from here.” Telila said, watching her get out of the lake and put her loincloth back on. After not hearing any response from Johnny, Telila looked over and saw that he was breathing heavily, and his eyes were subtly glowing yellow.

“Johnny?” She said, surprised by his state.

Johnny shook his head.

“Sorry, nearly lost it for a second,” he said.

They both watched her as she continued on her way and followed close behind her. It wasn’t until it was nearly dawn that she looked to have arrived where she was intending to go. They watched her approach a massive boulder with a wide opening – a cave entrance that was surrounded by grass and covered in moss.

“We should go get her before she falls asleep,” Telila said.

Johnny looked at her, wide-eyed.

“Are you nuts? We should wait until she’s asleep before we go get her, that way we have a better chance of subduing her – or killing her if need be.”

Telila looked at her friend with a mixture of shock and anger.

“So typical of you to take the less refined and sophisticated route. You see a wild being that could possibly be helped, and you don’t even consider it. You just want to kill.” Telila spat at him disgustedly.

“Whoa, where did that come from?” Johnny asked, taken aback.

“Naturally you’d ask that, because you magically forget every other time I point such things out to you.”

Johnny frowned.

“That’s not fair. I just mean she could be a liability, we should wait until the sun comes up so we can get her while she’s asleep.” Johnny said.

“And do what?” Telila asked.

“Whatever we have to.”

Telila knew there was no reasoning with him. Throwing caution to the wind, she rushed forward through the cover of the brush and noisily headed for the feral.

“Telila, stop, are you insane?!” Johnny loudly whispered, running after her. “Come back!”

Telila ignored him.

“Hi!” Telila yelled at the top of her lungs.

The feral vampire froze for a few seconds, perking her ears up. She turned her head to see who was yelling for her, and stared into the distance – her pupils constricted to the point of near invisibility. As Telila jogged over to the wild vampire and stared into her eyes, her stomach dropped. She’d never seen such a vicious, soulless, predatory stare. It was like looking at something that was simply made to kill.

Telila stopped a few meters in front of her, her hands shaking somewhat. Being stared down by this feral vampire was like having a hot laser on her skin. Johnny stopped a few feet behind her, his own bright brown eyes fixated on the feral vampire woman.

“Telila… Great, what do we do now?” Johnny asked, trying to fight off his terror. 

Telila took a tentative step forward.

“We’re not here to hurt you, we just want to get to know you. My name is Telila, what’s yours?” The feral vampire watched Telila’s every move, her eyes racing around with wildly accurate precision as she took in her appearance, and then took in the appearance of the man behind her. She tilted her head to the side in confusion.

“I don’t think she understands you,” Johnny said behind her.

Telila descended her fangs.

“We’re both Vampires, like you!”

The feral vampire looked at her fangs and perceived her action as a threat. She descended her own, revealing much larger fangs with two extra sets. She then proceeded to slowly crouch down to the ground, preparing to pounce on either one of them. She let out a deep growl.

Johnny gulped.

“No, no, we don’t want to hurt you.” Telila said, backing away slowly and holding her hands up in front of her.”

“Why are her fangs bigger than ours?” Johnny asked.

“I don’t know, maybe it’s because she’s been wild for so long?” Telila guessed.

Suddenly the feral vampire’s head whipped to the horizon. The sun was rising and was shining on her skin now. She stood up and quickly rushed through the cave entrance.

“Why is she running?” Johnny asked.

Telila followed her gaze to the sun peaking through the opening between the trees.

“She can’t tolerate the sun.” Telila said.

“What? Why?” Johnny asked.

“Think about it. Feral vampires have let go of their humanity and have completely given in to their vampire nature. That means that she wouldn’t be able to tolerate what we can. Where she has bigger teeth and stronger instincts, we have more tolerance for the things she doesn’t. I’ve read about this in our history books that tell of how we used to actually catch fire in sunlight before we regained our humanity.”

Telila tentatively walked up to the cave opening. The sun was shining on her more brightly now. She stayed near the threshold of the cave and peeked around. In the distance, she saw the feral vampire sitting down on various animal skins layered on top of each other.

“I know how to help her, I think.” Telila said.

“What are you going to do?” Johnny asked. Telila crossed over the threshold and stepped halfway into the cave. The feral vampire never once took her eyes off of the duo.

“This is a bad idea.” Johnny warned, wide-eyed as he watched his friend edge closer to apparent danger.

“Don’t worry, I know what I’m doing.” Telila said.

“I doubt that…” Johnny mumbled under his breath. Telila brought her bare wrist up to her lips and bit down, drawing blood. The feral vampire moved ever so slightly, as if she wanted to rush up to Telila, yet restrained herself.

“Telila, don’t!!” Johnny warned.

“it’s okay, this will help her understand us.” Telila said.

“Just hold onto my other arm and get ready to pull me out if anything bad happens. Johnny possessively grabbed the arm that was in the sunlight and watched as she presented her bleeding wrist to the feral vampire. She stood up from her animal skins and cautiously walked over to Telila. She glanced into her eyes, understanding what she meant. The vampire gently took a hold of Telila’s arm and glanced down at the now-closing wounds on her wrist. She brought Telila’s arm up to her mouth and bit down. Telila gasped and bit her lip.

Johnny gently began to pull on Telila.

“No, don’t. She needs to drink.”

And drink she did. She drank deeply of Telila’s blood, and as she drank, visions erupted in the vampire’s mind. She learned her name, and she saw Telila’s whole childhood – she saw that she was originally born in England in the early 1900’s, and she watched her grow up with her family. She saw her get married off to a man who did not please her. She did not like the way the man touched Telila. She saw her run away, and eventually, she found a vampire – she begged him to turn her so she could escape her life. She did not want to be forced into being a maid or sex object for the rest of her life.

“That’s enough, please, no more,” Telila groaned. “Let go!”

Johnny started to pull her out, but before he could, the feral vampire released her. She looked up at Telila, and Telila saw that her pupils were wider now, more humane looking and less like a predator on the hunt.

“Can you understand me now?” Telila asked, now standing fully in the sunlight with Johnny.

“I can understand you now, Telila.”

Telila’s eyes widened with excitement. “It worked! That’s wonderful!”

“You really didn’t have to take so much of her blood.” Johnny said defensively.

There, the feral vampire’s eyes flashed back to the predatory stare for a second when she looked at Johnny. They softened again when she looked at Telila.

“What’s your name?” Telila asked after a moment.

“Anessa.”

“That’s such a lovely name.” Telila said, beaming shyly at her.

“How is it you are able to stand in the sunlight so long?”

“Oh, we’ve been raised to incorporate our dual nature as vampires and humans.” Telila said

proudly.

Anessa squinted her eyes in uncertainty.

“I guess… you never did that?”

Anessa shook her head.

“Do you want to come back with us so we can teach you?” Telila tentatively asked.

Anessa looked into Telila’s light blue eyes and noted how they were similar to her own eye color. She then slowly looked down and lingered her gaze on Telila’s chest. Telila looked to where Anessa was staring, and could feel her intentions emanating from her gaze. She turned scarlet.It was as if she could see through Telila’s blouse.

Anessa continued looking her all the way down with a sort of hungry reverence. Her eyes met with Telila’s once again, and she smiled cheekily.

“I do.” Anessa replied.