Feral Hearts Read online

  In seconds, the hell bitch was no more than dust.

  Everyone began to untangle and helped each other to their feet, dusting themselves off. Paul was spitting and coughing, trying to get the ashes out of his mouth.

  “The heart,” Angela said. “Just like in the movies.”

  “That was amazing,” gasped Jenna as she checked Ed, finding he was still unconscious, but breathing well and unharmed but for a few bruises. “You made it look easy.”

  Angela shrugged. “Women are stronger than we think. Grab your spears and go for the heart when they come in.” She retreated, waiting, like a big cat, watching for her prey to arrive.

  “Barry is bad off,” Paul said, looking at his friend. The infection soaked the bandages and smelled worse. Without asking for opinions, Paul grabbed Barry’s feet and dragged him off the bed with a loud thud. Barry’s head bounced but he didn’t make a sound; he was too far gone. Turning around, he pushed Barry out of the room. Jamie helped, and the two of them shoved most of Barry out into the hallway.

  “Be ready,” Jamie said, as he took his spear. “There’ll be more.”

  There was no sound, but quick as a wink, Barry’s body vanished, yanked into the hallway and taken.

  Everyone jumped back.

  “Jamieeeee,” a sultry voice called. It was like the moaning of the wind, a whisper that filled the room, a tone that made their teeth ache. “Jamie, darlinggggg…you owe me one more man…the handsome devil….Paulllll, and you owe me a female…and now for taking Cristobelle’s life…you owe me more. Give me what I desire, and I shall let the rest go freeeee.”

  Paul clutched his stake and shook his head. “Jesus, with that tally who’s left?”

  “Oh, for fuck’s sake, this bitch isn’t going to let any of us go. She never was,” Angela yelled.

  “I’m coming, Jamieeeee.”

  “What does she mean about a female? And I can tell you straight up, she is not getting Ed,” Jenna shouted at Jamie.

  “Who the fuck is Ed?” demanded Paul. “You’re fucking batty. Maybe we should hand you over.”

  Jamie shook his head, looking defeated. “Angela’s right. She wanted Barry, Paul, and one female. And now…more. She’s restocking her army as we kill them off.”

  “Look…you killed this…Cristobelle, Angela…so I nominate you to be the female.” Stefania crossed her arms.

  “I’m not going, so you can forget that deal. I’ll stay and fight,” Paul said. He hefted the spear and practiced a few lunges. “This is your tour, Stefania. Maybe you should go, oh fearless leader. Take one for the team.”

  “Shut up,” Angela snapped.

  Jamie raised his spear. “Didn’t you hear me? There’s no deal. There never was.”

  Angela nodded. “He’s right. You’re idiots for listening to her bullshit. She’s a liar. She wants you to fight each other. You’re making her job a whole lot easier.”

  “She gets off on it, like a cat toying with a mouse before she consumes it,” said Jamie.

  “So what do we do?” asked Stefania.

  “We fight,” said Lucy.

  A beautiful redhead, her hair cut short on the sides but long down her back in a V shape appeared silently in the doorway. Her breasts almost burst from her tiny halter top, and her skirt was a mere band of fabric. Paul cursed his erection, even as he watched her move delicately into the room. They all backed away like little fish steering clear of a great white.

  A very young girl, elfish with huge, hungry black eyes, joined the other woman. Her tight, white dress was gore-splattered. Yet another woman glided in. Dressed in a bloody pair of shorts, she wore no blouse and her breasts were slick and coated in red. She gleamed and writhed as the sticky blood itched.

  “Go!” Angela yelled, as she turned away from Jenna, raised her spear, and ran at the vampires. Paul and Jamie followed, and Jenna and Lucy went after the elfin girl, both carefully aiming.

  The vampires didn’t meet the spears, but evaporated into the air as the tourists spilled into the hallway. Laughter echoed off the walls.

  “Jesus!” cried Paul, eyes wide as he looked down the hallway.

  There were fanged women crawling on the walls and ceiling like bats gripping the jagged walls of a cave with sharp claws.

  They all turned to run in the other direction, but Viktoriya was standing there, arms outstretched, claws extended, blocking the way.

  The demon horde swarmed and descended upon the group like a plague of hornets, sinking their fangs into Lucy, Angela, Stefania, and Jenna. It all happened so quickly that none of the girls had any time to react.

  Viktorya sliced Paul’s head off with one clean sweep of a clawed hand. She grabbed the open neck, pulling him close, and sank her face into the severed neck erupting with blood like a volcano of gore.

  “Jesus, Lucy, it hurts,” gasped Angela, her tough veneer stripped away.

  “I’m so sorry,” sobbed Stefania. “I’m so sorry.”

  Jenna went limp under the multiple sets of fangs penetrating her skin, the will to live slipping away from her slowly with every gulp of her blood.

  Something moving behind Viktoriya caught her attention. “Lucy, do you see it?”

  Lucy waved a weak hand in Jenna’s direction. “It’s okay, Jenna. It’s okay.”

  “No, really, you don’t see him?” pressed Jenna in a whimper.

  Viktoriya dropped the headless body of what was once Paul. “Pity you’ve already gone mad, my dear. I don’t allow that in the ranks of my daughters. You’ll have to be locked up with the other lunatics.”

  Jenna smiled knowingly. “Oh yeah? Why don’t you turn around and we’ll see who’s crazy, you bitch.”

  Viktoriya suddenly looked startled and turned around, as if she sensed what Jenna was talking about. There stood none other than Doctor Ed, in the flesh, beaming with anger.

  “You get your hands off of Jenna! She’s mine!”

  Doctor Ed gave her a hearty shove, throwing all of his weight into the vampire, catching her off guard. By the look on Viktoriya’s face, it appeared as if she’d seen a ghost.

  He shoved her and she stumbled backwards, lashing out with clawed hands. Jenna, still holding her spear, summoned the strength to lift the point up as Viktoriya ran right into her, impaling herself on it.

  Lucy, Angela, and Stefania looked on in utter disbelief as the expression on Viktoriya’s face went from annoyance to panic. She clutched the spear sticking into her chest, penetrating her heart, and let out an unholy yelp that shook the hotel.

  Reflexively, the other vampires released the girls and they collapsed to the carpet in crumpled heaps. Jenna held onto the spear, using Viktoriya to keep her up.

  Jenna pulled herself towards Viktoriya until they were face-to-face. “There’s a new sheriff in town, bitch.”

  Viktoriya began to convulse, and her eyes bulged out of her skull until her head exploded like a melon hit by a bullet. Jenna thrust her face into Viktoriya's bleeding stump, sucking down the demon whore’s black, syrupy blood.

  “Holy shit,” muttered Lucy on the floor as she inched her hand over to Angela’s and held it.

  Jenna finally came up for air, her face covered in blood and her eyes wild. She looked more animal than human. “Kneel!”

  The entire vampire swarm, who were clutching each other as they watched their mother die, collectively took a knee before their new master. It all happened so fast that they were barely able to process it all, but they supplicated themselves nonetheless.

  By vampire law, a new queen had arisen, and they were compelled to swear their allegiance. With Doctor Ed’s help and her quick thinking, Jenna had left the neurosis, the hypochondriasis, and the awkwardness behind.

  Jenna blossomed into a beautiful predator, a mother of death, and queen mother of the undead. She had cosplayed this character many times before, but now she got to be this horribly beautiful creature.

  Things would never be the same for her again.

  * * *


  “You understand what that means, right? I mean, face it, girls, we won the battle and we survived. But each of us is bitten, and don’t tell me you don’t feel the strength and power flowing through your veins.”

  “Don’t even say it, Angela….” Lucy warned.

  “We’re vampires. I wish I could look in a mirror. We don’t have reflections now, but I can see you. Jenna, you’re gorgeous. I mean knock-out, super-model gorgeous. Your hair…wow. Once you wash it…and Lucy…seriously…you are like the most beautiful woman on earth. You’ve changed,” Angela said.

  Lucy narrowed her eyes. “I was just thinking about how you look, Angela. The hard lines are gone and your eyes are bigger and softer. You’ve changed, too. This is because…are we…I mean…what if….”

  “Hey…Ed…he’s waking up!” Jenna crawled over to Ed and tended to the lump on his head, filling him in as he regained his senses.

  Lucy and Angela watched their new queen as she tended to an apparition that wasn’t actually there. Poor, crazy Jenna. Although they each knew what they saw standing behind Viktoriya in that brief moment, neither could explain it. One minute there was a man pushing Viktoriya into Jenna’s spear, the next he was vanished.

  Jamie groaned.

  “Jenna…Jamie is still alive. He was unconscious. I’m still really pissed off at him for what he did,” Angela said as she stroked Jamie’s head softly.

  He stared up at her with terror in his eyes.

  Jenna smiled. “Have at him. Things have changed, and he really does wish to be reunited with his father.”

  Angela grinned, showing beautiful pearl-white fangs, delicate and sharp teeth that she wanted to learn to use properly. “Lucy? Care to share?”

  “I thought you’d never ask.” Lucy returned the grin.

  Jamie screamed a long time as the new vampires learned the art of bloodlust.

  * * *

  Jenna yawned and stretched her arms, moving like a big cat as she slinked across her big, soft bed, sliding over its black, silk sheets and thick, warm quilts. She felt lazy, languid, and very pleased with herself. All in all, her vacation had taken a strange turn and life would never be the same, but then, who would want it to be as before? She had gotten everything she wanted, after all.

  Cattabulous meowed happily from his corner of the bed where he was curled into a ball, sleeping after having patrolled his domain, marking a few corners, and chasing a couple of mice who’d peeked at him. He’d catch them at his leisure, because he had all the time in the world now. His mistress, Jenna, might be the queen, but in his world, Cattabulous was the Emperor.

  Ed, kind and thoughtful as always, was conscientious and gave his cases to competent doctors. He said farewell to a few colleagues. He brought beautiful, adorable Cattabulous over from the United States so they could all be together. Ed was thoughtful that way. Actually, he and the cat were fast friends, and Cattabulous enjoyed sitting in Ed’s lap before a warm fire on lazy, slow evenings.

  This evening was one of those calm nights.

  Lucy was downstairs, and unlike those who came before, didn’t depend on tradition or lore. Instead, she trained the few women who worked at Feral Hearts in the art of being smart as well as gorgeous. She taught a few simple defensive moves to ensure protection, and she taught the sisters how to know an easy mark as compared to one who might…just might fight back. She even had a funny term for those who might cause them trouble and warned all the women to avoid any man who might be a Barry.

  Lucy had decided that she didn’t need one man to be her life partner, but that there was a whole world of love. She wanted to sample it before, and if, she decided to settle down. She was so beautiful and intoxicating that she had no trouble finding men for weeks or months of companionship. Of course, the break-ups were a little discomfiting for the men.

  Angela was also happy in her new life. She was sweet on one of the local men, who perhaps feared her a little, but was also taken by her beauty and kindness. He followed her around like a puppy begging favors, and Angela liked that. Her stories made Jenna laugh, if nothing else. She had changed the most, softened, and she stayed high on her power and control. It was better than a drug, and she was happily addicted.

  “Here’s a bite for you,” Ed tempted Cattabulous with a crystal dish of liver, origins best not described.

  “You’re spoiling him,” Jenna laughed, but she only smiled as Catttabulous leapt from the bed to the carpet and feasted on the delicacy.

  “Lucy got it for him. You know she dotes on him,” said Ed. He didn’t add that they all did. Jenna knew how they all adored her cat.

  Ed plumped up his feather pillows and lay next to Jenna, kicking off his shoes and wiggling his toes. He didn’t complain because he enjoyed his new job immensely, and he was fantastic at it. Anyone could organize a singles’ trip. Anyone could set up a lonely hearts travel vacation, but only Ed was truly qualified enough to set it up so the right people came.

  He usually had three trips going at once, ten people on each, and of those, usually eight or nine returned home with a serious love interest. Sometimes all ten found love. It was simply reshuffling a deck, moving the cards around a little, and everyone found what he or she wanted. In fact, many were now married, engaged, or about to be one or the other. Everyone was happy on the trips he set up.

  Except for the one or two in every few trips.

  Ed considered that to be negligible. What was a few people in the grand scheme of life? They were people who could be written off anyway as they had no redeeming qualities, no attainable goals, no real value.

  They were the leeches on society. They were Barrys. Male or female, there were plenty of Barrys to go around. In fact, Ed had already planned a whole group of Barrys just to celebrate their one year in Derosso. Angela and Lucy would be thrilled with the smorgasbord of flesh-failure.

  Jenna smiled at Ed. Since her ascent to power, their love-making sessions were the stuff of legend. They had time to enjoy everything as it was, but in time, she would help Ed join them as the first man in their ranks, a true king. There were too many possibilities to be hasty.

  “Oh, Ed.”

  “Active tonight, huh?”

  “Very. I can’t wait. So many possibilities….”

  Ed grinned. “And none of them frighten you.”

  “Not a single one. It’s too exciting,” Jenna gushed. Her eyes were bright with happiness, and she almost purred. “So, tell me about this trip of misfits you have planned to surprise the girls.”

  Ed grinned wider. “There were five. Then ten signed up. Fifteen. Now twenty.” He gently reached over so he could feel Jenna’s huge, swollen belly, anticipating the birth of their first child, a baby who would be the first hybrid. A new species, actually. Love for Jenna and the baby filled him, but he shook off his sappy mood and continued, knowing Jenna loved the counting, “Twenty five. Thirty.”

  Fifty would be the final number. Fifty would be the feast.

  Forty would be his age when he joined Jenna in eternal life.

  His children would number fifteen. Jenna adored fives.

  Five would be the centuries they reigned.

  No one wondered about those who vanished after a singles trip. It was as if they’d never existed, and locals both feared the place and were fascinated with it. Those who knew the truth were in the sanitarium, quite insane and uncaring.

  However, there was a single person there in the asylum, one who knew, who remembered, and who watched with fury and agony blistering his soul. That was Jamie.

  And he was only one.

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