Chapter 5: Stag
The wounds on Slaine’s back had healed thanks to the blood Koko and Yoko had given him, but his body was still being ravaged and tortured by the hell centipede’s venom. He was sweating profusely, had a very high fever, and was writhing on the bed in pain as the twins took care of him and dabbed a cool, wet towel against his feverish brow.
Even if Slaine had wanted to go in search of Becca he would have been unable to in his current condition. “Becca…I’m sorry…” Slaine murmured in his feverish state.
“Becca?” Koko snapped, “Who the hell is Becca?”
“She’s probably the human female Slaine tried to turn.” Yoko suggested in a low voice.
Koko shot Yoko an incredulous look. “How can you be so calm about this? You love Slaine too don’t you, dear sister? What if this Becca steals him from us?”
Yoko looked down at Slaine, her expression stoic. “I do love him…but what can we do? It is his will.” Although I will try to protect my sister’s heart to the best of my abilities.
An evil smile curled Koko’s lips. “Oh, I’ll tell you what we can do. We can find this little human and kill her.”
Yoko frowned at her sister’s idea. “This would make Slaine angry with us.”
Koko huffed. “I don’t care. I won’t share Slaine with anyone! He belongs to us!”
Yoko smiled slightly. “Yes, indeed he does.”
Twenty minutes later, Slaine came awake with a start and sat up in bed. He was feeling slightly better, but still very weak. The smell of smoke…had awoken him. Something was burning! His immediate concern was for the twins. Slaine leapt out of bed and stumbled on his feet. “Koko! Yoko!” He called out and following the smoke entered the bathroom.
The sight that met him was Koko tossing Becca’s clothes into the bathtub, which had a roaring fire inside of it. “Koko! What are you doing?” Slaine demanded.
Koko turned around and smiled psychotically at Slaine. “I’m burning Becca’s clothes. That’s her name isn’t it? Becccccaaaa?”
Slaine swallowed nervously. “How do you know about Becca?”
“You were calling out her name in your sleep.” Yoko revealed.
“Crap.” Slaine swore and ran a hand back through his sweaty hair. “Koko, stop that this instant. I paid a lot of money for those clothes!” He strode into the bathroom.
Yoko gasped, her red eyes widened, and she pointed a trembling finger at the bathroom mirror. “Slaine, your reflection!”
Slaine let out an exasperated sound. “What about it?” He said as he glanced at the bathroom mirror - only to discover that he had a reflection and he wasn’t willing one to appear. “What the hell?”
Koko screamed at the sight. “Slaine, you have your reflection back. But why?”
“Slaine’s soul has obviously returned to him, dear sister.” Yoko said in a calm tone.
Slaine put his hand on the mirror. “My soul has returned?” What does this mean?
“But how? How and why did Slaine get his soul back?” Koko screamed out of fear and frustration.
Yoko shook her head. “That I do not know, sister.”
But somehow Slaine knew - deep down he had the feeling this had to do with Becca Thorn and his feelings for her. When Slaine had bitten Becca he’d made sure not to inject any of his saliva into her so that if he failed in turning her into a vampire she wouldn’t become a zombie. His extra caution had worked out for the best. Becca was still okay, and Derek would protect her with his life, so she was in good hands. “Koko. Yoko. You can’t tell Dracula about any of this.” He warned them.
Koko huffed and flipped her long red and black hair over her shoulder. “No duh. That goes without saying.”
“He would kill you. Slowly and painfully.” Yoko said in a dreary tone.
“Thanks, Yoko.” Slaine said sarcastically. Now he knew what this heavy weight inside of his chest was - his God-given soul, and the voice of his conscience had also returned. Crap, this is so not good. Slaine was already having a hard time keeping up the whole ‘I’m an evil bloodsucking vampire’ persona in front of Dracula. Maybe it was for the best that he’d failed to turn Becca. He would have cursed her soul to Hell after all - out of a selfish desire to always have her with him.
Slaine rubbed at his chest, feeling conflicted about where his true loyalties lay now. Dracula was a direct enemy of God - if Dracula found out that Slaine now possessed his God-given soul…there would be hell to pay.
***
As soon as Yoko and Koko left Slaine’s apartment, Archangel Uriel walked back into Slaine’s bedroom to see that he’d gone back to bed and was fast asleep. And who could really blame the poor guy? Hell centipede poisoning was excruciatingly painful, but there was really nothing he could do except wait for the poison to leave his system.
Archangel Uriel was at Slaine’s apartment because she’d grown curious about her Derek’s Archenemy and the evil vampire who’d killed his wife Cinnia more than two millennia ago. One of Uriel’s powers was that she could turn invisible, and so she’d seen the whole thing.
She’d seen Dracula interrogate Slaine about the human female he’d tried to turn and watched how he hadn’t said a word about Becca Thorn. She’d watched Slaine get whipped with the hell centipede and become poisoned.
When Uriel had watched Slaine collapse to the floor in a heap and Dracula leave him there twitching on the floor - something had stirred within Uriel and she’d actually been tempted to heal him. But that was ludicrous! Crazy! Why would she want to help Derek’s Archenemy?
If anything, Uriel should have been rooting for Slaine’s destruction. He was an evil vampire, a murderer who fed from humans and killed them. But…there was something about Slaine that called to her.
Uriel had watched Slaine call for help and a few minutes later two stunningly gorgeous vampire twin girls had arrived to nurse Slaine back to health in his poisoned state. An unexpected wave of jealousy had swept through her. Are those girls his lovers? She’d wondered hotly.
But most interesting of all had been when Uriel had followed Slaine into the bathroom where Koko was burning Becca’s clothes and had caught sight of Slaine’s reflection in the mirror. She’d barely been able to stifle her surprised gasp when she’d seen it and had almost blown her cover. Her mind had whirled with thoughts and possibilites.
Slain has a reflection…then his soul has returned. But how is that possible? Unless…Becca had been in love with Slaine when they’d made love. Yes, if that’s true, then his soul would have been returned to him since Becca is a Judge but…what about Derek? God informed me that Derek and Becca are ‘soul mates’ and that the red string of fate connects them…but then where does that leave Slaine? Nowhere and with no one. Uriel had felt a sympathetic pang for Slaine at the thought.
After the chaos in the bathroom, Yoko and Koko had left the apartment and Slaine had gone back to bed. Uriel had stayed behind while invisible to watch Slaine a little longer. Slaine was currently tossing and turning on the bed, still feverish, and in the troughs of a nightmare. “Becca…Becca…I’m sorry…” He kept saying over and over again like he had before.
Uriel reached out and brushed his sweaty hair away from his face in a tender gesture. “He really loves her…in his own twisted way. But…it’s an unrequited love, isn’t it, Slaine? Because Becca is destined to be with Derek.” Unrequited love. Her heart went out to him. After all, she could relate.
She’d been mindlessly in love with Levi Devlin…and rejected by him. She’d grown jaded and bitter about ‘love’, and had cut her long, curly, platinum blonde hair off, deciding it was time for a change. Her over-protective brother Gabriel had had a cow when he’d seen what she’d done to her beautiful hair.
“I really shouldn’t be doing this but…” As Uriel stroked Slaine’s head a golden-tinged light surrounded her hand and she began to heal him of the poison. I hope I’m not making a mistake saving him like this…please do
n’t let me down, Slaine.
***
The following day at Voodoo Tattoo was much like the day before. Derek cooked Becca an orgasmic breakfast, only Garth was there too since he’d fallen asleep while watching a Tony Jaa movie. Becca’s jaw dropped slightly as she watched Garth shoveling food into his mouth at a rapid pace. She’d never seen someone eat so much. “Whoa.” She whipped out her smart phone and took a picture.
“When do you open your shop?” Derek asked Garth conversationally.
Garth paused in shoveling food into his mouth. A sad, dejected expression came to his face. “The sign on my door says nine o’clock but it doesn’t really matter…no one is going to come.”
“Why’s that?” Becca asked curiously.
Garth sighed, and his shoulders sagged in defeat. He scratched his head. “Anytime someone enters the shop and I greet them - they take one look at me and run away.” Garth scowled as he remembered the last group of girls who’d entered and looked at him like he was some kind of monster…and he’d been in his human form, dang it!
“Ah…” Becca looked at Garth. She’d gotten to know him through work and so had never really been too intimidated by him, but…she suspected that as a stranger he would be a pretty intimidating guy at six-eight, all bulging muscles, spiky orange hair, unusual gold eyes, and with that the scar over his nose.
Garth usually wore muscle shirts, jeans, and sneakers. He looked a little like a UFC Champion…and not the owner of a candy shop! Becca’s heart went out to Garth but she didn’t know how she could really help him. “Hang in there, Garth. You never know when you’ll get a customer.”
“Yeah, I better get going then. Like you said - you never know.” Garth got up from the stool and headed for the exit.
“Bye Garth, take care.” Derek called after him.
“You guys too.” Garth called back and raised his hand.
After Garth had left Becca was ready to enjoy some alone time with Derek, but the front door opened and Derek’s first customers of the day entered. It was a lovey-dovey couple and they wanted ‘couple tattoos’. Their idea was for the girl to get an antique, heart-shaped locket with keyhole on her forearm, and her boyfriend would get a gold, antique looking key.
Derek got to work tattooing the heart-shaped locket on the girl first and a new workday at Voodoo Tattoo began. Becca took a few pictures with her smart phone, but then…she began to get bored. Today, she’d selected a pretty green dress with gold Celtic symbols on it to wear, and boots. She was so sick of boots, but this was the only kind of shoe Derek had in the closet.
Becca pouted. She missed the shoe collection Slaine had gifted her with. She needed shoes. She had to go shoe shopping A-SAP. Usually, she bought at least one new pair of shoes a day. It was like an addiction. Boots do not go well with a dress. She needed some high heels, cute strappy sandals, or platform shoes. “Yeah.” Becca said wistfully as she imagined all the different kinds of shoes that would look great with what she was wearing.
Derek was busy tattooing a portrait tattoo onto the back of some beefy guy, and was in deep concentration mode. The tattoo design looked very complex and would take a least another hour or so to finish. Becca could go out to the shoe store, and get back before Derek even noticed she was gone. Alright! Sounds like a plan.
Becca sneakily borrowed Derek’s credit card and snuck out the front door of Voodoo Tattoo. She hailed a cab and told the cabbie to take her to Jimmy Choo. Less than half an hour later the cab was pulling up right in front of the classy, modern boutique. Becca paid the cabbie and exited the car. She looked up at the store’s black awning, which had the words: JIMMY CHOO on it in white. Purple lights were shinning artfully against the white exterior of the shop. Jimmy Choo was so funky, classy, trendy, and modern.
Becca entered the shoe store and smiled from ear-to-ear. “Time to do some shoe shopping!” She rubbed her hands together excitedly. Becca pursued the store’s selection with a critical eye and a store clerk approached.
“Hello, welcome to Jimmy Choo, how may I be of assistance? Are you looking for anything in particular today?” The peppy young woman asked Becca.
“Well, let’s see…I’d like to try on these, these, these, and definitely these.” Becca pointed to all of the shoes she wanted to try on. “In a size seven, please.”
The salesclerk blinked but then smiled. “Yes, of course, right away, Miss!”
A few minutes later, the salesclerk emerged from the back with a stack of four boxes in her arms and stumbled her way over to Becca before setting the boxes down at Becca’s feet. Becca proceeded to have fun trying each pair of shoes on. She loved shoes! She left a pair of green platform shoes with straps on her feet that went rather well with the dress she was wearing. “I’ll wear these out.” She told the clerk.
“And the others…?” The salesclerk asked. “I could put any of them on hold, if you’d like?”
“I’ll be taking them all too, of course.” Becca said and fished into her purse for Derek’s credit card. “Charge it.”
A wide gin spread across the salesclerk’s face. “Yes, Miss!” She charged three thousand five hundred dollars to Derek’s credit card, boxed the shoes, and put them into a large shopping bag. The salesclerk handed Becca her card and then her shopping bag. “Thank you for shopping at Jimmy Choo. Please, come again.”
“No problem. It was definitely my pleasure.” Becca said as she put the credit card back inside of her purse and took the shopping bag. She checked her watch. She’d taken forty-five minutes. Perfect. If she caught a cab quickly she’d make it back to Voodoo Tattoo before Derek even noticed she was missing. And besides, vampires couldn’t go out in the daylight so she was perfectly safe.
Becca left Jimmy Choo, walked down the sidewalk, and searched around for a cab. However, as she passed an alleyway she heard the sound of someone crying. Becca paused and peered into the dark alley, but she couldn’t see anyone. “Hello?”
The sound of a woman sobbing loudly reached Becca’s ears again.
Becca couldn’t just ignore it. Someone could be hurt and needed her help. She entered the alleyway and made her way down it. “Hello? Is anyone there?”
At the end of the alleyway, she saw a woman crouched on the ground and crying into her hands. She was wearing a dark blue gown, and her hair was braided down her back.
“Hello…are you alright, Miss? Can I help you?” Becca reached her hand out towards the sobbing woman. However-
The woman’s crying turned into maddening giggling. “Teeheehee. What a stupid human girl you are. I don’t see what Slaine sees in you. Koko and Yoko are right to be worried.” The woman turned around to reveal a face that had been painted white, and cold, pale blue eyes. The woman smiled eerily at Becca and tilted her head. “You look tasty.” There was an odd, hungry gleam in her eyes.
Becca took a step back. “E-Excuse me?”
The woman launched herself at Becca, grabbed her arms, and sunk her teeth into Becca’s shoulder. Becca cried out in pain. The woman literally took a bite out of her, and Becca was so freaked out by this that she passed out on the spot.
Neena let go of Becca and she fell to the ground in a heap. Neena noticed that Becca hadn’t let go of her shopping bag even though she’d passed out. She opened her mouth, reached inside and pulled out a piece of green dress that had gotten stuck between her teeth. “Mmm, her flesh tastes good. Pity, I can’t eat her. Yoko and Koko want her alive so that they can play with her. But maybe if I’m a good little girl they’ll give her to me after they’re done…yippee!”
Neena picked Becca up and slung her over her shoulder as if she didn’t weigh a thing. She exited the alleyway, skipped down the sidewalk and headed for Iron Casket.
***
Becca awoke to a bucket of cold water being thrown into her face. “Wakie, wakie, little human.” Came a husky sounding sneer.
Becca opened her eyes, which had to adjust to the dimly lit room. The only l
ight was coming from two lit candelabra that were sitting on the floor close to the chair Becca was seated in. Only Becca’s immediate surroundings were illuminated. Standing directly in front of her were two women who looked identical to each other…like twins. They also looked Oriental, had long black hair, red eyes, and were wearing kimono. The woman from earlier was skipping around the room and looking bored.
When Becca tried to stand she realized she’d been tied to the chair. Thick ropes were around her wrists and ankles. She was trapped. “Who the hell are you witches?”
Koko smiled as she approached Becca and leaned in close. “I believe that the right question to be asking is: what are you witches?” The woman’s smile widened revealing her abnormally sharp canines.
Fangs. “Vampires.” Becca gasped.
“Oh! Oh! And I’m a zombie!” The woman with black braided hair said excitedly. “And my name is Neena. And I’m Dracula’s favorite!” The woman was full-grown and yet she acted like a child.
Becca raised a red eyebrow at Neena. “Dracula? You can’t be serious. You people are crazy.”
“Oh, we’re dead serious.” Yoko said calmly.
“I can’t believe Slaine wants to turn this weird girl into one of us. She’s so…lowly. Common. And she talks funny.” Koko’s lip curled back in disgust.
“She has an accent. She must be from the south.” Yoko explained.
“Well, are you from the south, lowly human?” Koko asked sharply.
Becca raised her chin. “Yes.” Of course there was no way she would tell these freaks where in the south she’d lived. The last thing she wanted was to involve her parents in all this craziness her life seemed to be surrounded by lately. Her shoulder was throbbing in pain, but she didn’t dare to look at the wound. If she did she’d probably throw up or faint.
This whole scenario was like out of a bad horror film, and Becca hated horror films. She’d definitely never wanted to be in one. This is like that movie…Scream…or I Know What You Did Last Summer. It was probably better not to think about that. She realized.
Koko made a noise of disgust and waved her hand dismissively through the air. “She’s one of those…hicks or hillbillies. How pitiful. I suppose her only redeeming quality would be her pretty face.” Koko reached out, grabbed Becca’s chin, and turned her head from side-to-side as she appraised her.
Becca flinched as Koko’s long, red nails dug into her flesh, but she glared back at the woman. “What do you want with me? Why am I here?”
Koko ignored Becca’s questions. “Yoko, fetch the table, would you, dear sister.”
“Yes, my sister.” Yoko moved out of the pool of light and returned pushing a metal table on wheels. On top of the stainless steel table were what could only be described as torture instruments.
Becca swallowed as she looked at the scalpels and what looked like a pair of pliers. She didn’t like where this was going one bit.
Koko let go of Becca’s face and sashayed over to the table. She picked up a scalpel and looked at it thoughtfully. “Do you think Slaine will still want her if we scar her beautiful face, dear sister?”
Yoko smiled eerily. “We should cut her ears off first. She wouldn’t be able to hear Slaine’s sexy voice anymore.”
“What an excellent idea, sister mine. Or maybe we should start with her cute little sloping nose. That way she wouldn’t be able to smell Slaine’s delectable scent.”
“No, I have a better idea. Let’s take out one of her eyes.” Yoko suggested. “And then we can make her watch as we squeeze it and it explodes.”
Koko cackled at the idea. “Oh, that’s good! Why didn’t I think of that?”
Becca felt bile rise up inside of her throat. These two vampire chicks were sick…and jealous of her and Slaine, she realized. “Why are you doing this to me? I don’t want to be a vampire, and I’m not in love with Slaine like you two obviously are!” Why do I feel like I just told a lie? Had I been falling for Slaine? But now…forget it! I definitely don’t love him any more after what he pulled! That vampire jerk!
Koko’s eyes glowed red like burning coals with her anger. She stalked towards Becca and backhanded her hard across the face. “Silence, lowly human. Did I give you permission to speak?”
Becca turned her head and glared at Koko, even as blood dripped down from her split lip.
Drip…drip…drip…
“Just for that I think I’m going to start by cutting your ears off.” Koko declared as she brought the scalpel close to Becca’s face.