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  Kim climbed up into the seat and within seconds he was roaring out of the lot and down the highway back toward town.

  Kim scooted over next to him and glanced out the rear window in time to see a pair of headlights follow them out of the bar’s lot.

  Ben grabbed her hand and shoved it down into his lap. Kim laughed and unzipped his zipper, bringing his penis out into view. It wasn’t especially large, but it was hard and she could feel it throb under her fingers.

  “Put it in your mouth,” Ben ordered gruffly, hunching his pelvis forward.

  “Uh-uh, darlin’, not while you’re driving,” Kim said. “Wouldn’t want you to have a wreck ’cause of me.” She looked out the windshield and pointed at a turnoff just ahead. “Why don’t you pull off onto that road and we’ll see what I can do?”

  Ben grinned and jerked the wheel, almost losing control in the small amount of snow and ice on the road as he turned down the dirt road.

  He stopped about a hundred yards off the main road just around a bend in the dirt road and switched off the engine. Twisting on the seat, he looked at her expectantly.

  Kim sat up and let the dress fall off her shoulders, exposing her breasts to his view, her nipples hardening in the chilly night air.

  “Doesn’t this seat recline?” she asked. “I don’t want to get a crick in my neck.”

  “Sure baby, sure,” Ben said. He reached down and flipped a lever and the back of the seat lowered until they had enough room to lie down on the seat.

  Ben grabbed her breasts and pulled her down onto him. “Hey, just a minute,” Kim said, letting her voice sound weak and frightened. “Not so rough, honey.”

  Ben made a fist and swung his hand at Kim, catching her in the jaw and snapping her head back. “Don’t give me orders, bitch!” he yelled, backhanding her across the lips and making them bleed.

  “Now,” he said, grabbing her head and forcing it down toward his lap. “Suck my dick!”

  Kim obligingly put her lips around his erection and began to move her head up and down, licking and sucking him until she knew he was about ready to climax.

  She sat up, stripped out of her dress and straddled him, letting him glide into her wet groin.

  He dug his hands into her breasts hard enough to bruise them, evidently unable to enjoy sex unless pain and subjugation of his partner was involved.

  As he began to buck against her and his eyes closed with pleasure, Kim let herself begin to change, sending out a mental message to Ed whom she sensed waiting just outside the driver’s door.

  When the door opened and the cab light came on, Ben opened his eyes and his heart almost stopped at what he saw. One monster straddling him, her fangs dripping red drool as she pumped against him, and another equally fearsome creature whose grinning lips exposed fangs almost four inches long beneath red-rimmed, glowing eyes from hell who was standing just outside the pickup door.

  In spite of his terror, Ben felt himself begin to spurt just as both creatures lowered their heads to his neck and began to feed on him.

  He got off one short scream before his throat was ripped open and his life’s blood spurted into Ed’s and Kim’s waiting mouths.

  A few minutes later, when Ben had been drained dry, Ed grabbed his lifeless body and jerked it out of the cab and threw it on the ground. He bounded into the cab and took Kim in his arms, pulling her against him.

  She grinned around bloodstained fangs and put her hand on his chest pushing him down on the seat. “Here, darling, just let me get the taste of that bastard out of my mouth.”

  She lowered her head and encircled his penis with her lips and began to suck him into full erection.

  After a moment, he could stand it no longer and he grabbed Kim and pulled her up alongside him on the seat. He kissed and caressed her breasts, told her how much he loved her, and then gently eased himself into her. She arched her back and dug into him with her claws. “Don’t be gentle,” she growled, “fuck me hard!”

  And then they coupled in wild abandon on the pickup’s seats, each howling in pleasure as they climaxed, their bloody lips locked together.

  Exhausted and exhilarated at the same time, they lay back in each other’s arms. “Now,” Kim said, licking some blood splatters off his chest, “wasn’t that better than using bottled blood?”

  Ed glanced down at her and motioned toward his still-erect penis. “Do you have to ask?”

  * * *

  After a short rest period to calm their wildly beating hearts, Ed and Kim changed back to normal and got dressed. Ed put Ben’s body in the passenger seat and turned the pickup around and drove back to the road with Kim following in their car.

  He turned toward town and drove about four miles along the highway, searching for just the right spot. At a right angle curve on the edge of a high ledge, he stopped the car in the middle of the road, and pulled Ben’s body over behind the steering wheel.

  Kim appeared next to him holding a gallon can of gasoline, which he quickly poured over Ben’s body. He shut the door, put the truck in gear, and as it moved off toward the curve, he flipped a match through the open window.

  Flames engulfed the truck as it crashed through the barrier and became airborne, plummeting like a falling star toward the rocks a hundred and fifty feet below. Ed watched until the truck landed and exploded into a raging fireball, lighting up the night sky for miles.

  He put his arm around Kim and walked with her back toward their car.

  “You feel better now, sweetheart?” he asked kindly.

  She reached around his waist and hugged him to her. “Oh yes, darling. Much better, but not nearly as good as I’m going to feel after we get back home and I get you in our bed for act two.”

  Ed grinned as his eyes flowed over her dress. “In that case, I’ll make it home in record time.”

  Chapter 17

  A long, sleek, black limousine eased into the parking lot of the Rejuvenatrix Spa and parked next to the walk leading up to the front doors.

  Theo Thantos, Christina Alario, Brahma Parvsh, and Gabrielle de Lavnay exited the vehicle and stared up at the imposing edifice of the spa and hotel.

  The building had been built to resemble a large Swiss chalet, with towers and spires and balconies with elaborately carved figures and designs on the railings. Tennis courts, an Olympic-size swimming pool, and even riding stables complete with dozens of horses could be seen dotting the property.

  “Very nice,” Gabrielle said, nodding her head as she surveyed the setup. “I’ve heard of this place from some of my friends, but I still don’t know why you insisted we come all the way out here, Theo.”

  “Just be patient, my dear,” Theo said, his mood expansive. “I told you I was going to explain how we could transform a lot of important people without anyone being the wiser, and this is part of my plan.”

  The large, double doors of the front entrance opened and John Ashby stepped out, followed by Marya and Elizabeth Whitmire and Sammy Akins.

  Whitmire and Akins still looked a bit drawn and pale from the ordeal of their recent transformation, and the reason for their appearance wasn’t lost on the visitors.

  Brahma Parvsh sucked in his breath at the sight of Elizabeth, who was a striking looking woman. “I sense we have a couple of new recruits,” he said, already planning on how he might persuade her to join him in his bed.

  “They’re the key to my plan,” Theo said, ushering his visitors up the stairs toward the front entrance.

  As they approached the front porch, Elizabeth smiled and spread her arms. “Welcome to my home, people. Come right in and we’ll show you around.”

  * * *

  Minutes later they’d all been introduced and Theo had assembled the group around one of the dining room tables. As Sammy poured coffee and tea for them, Theo elaborated on his plan.

  “Elizabeth, this is not all of the group that is helping us. The others have jobs where they had to be and we didn’t want to raise any suspicions this early in the g
ame.”

  When she nodded, he continued. “Now, as you can see, Brahma and Gabrielle, we have control of a very tony establishment where our . . . um . . . prospective transformees can be kept for up to a week or two without anyone suspecting foul play.”

  Gabrielle nodded. “Yes, but what about the normal clients? Won’t there be concern if their reservations are canceled?”

  Elizabeth smiled. “There won’t be any need for that, Gabrielle. In addition to the regular hotel style rooms you see at the inn, we also have a number of guest cottages scattered about the property. They are designed for complete isolation and are intended for the use of our many celebrity clients. I will simply make sure any of our new recruits get assigned to those areas.”

  “I didn’t see any cottages,” Brahma said as he sipped his tea.

  “That’s because they are located back in the woods that surround the spa,” Elizabeth explained. “I think they will be perfect for what Theo has planned.”

  “Yes,” Sammy Akins added, “And some of the cottages even come with adjoining facilities for servants and support personnel that some of our celebrities require, and they can be used to house the Secret Service agents that will accompany any governmental higher-ups we invite.”

  “Speaking of that, just how are we going to persuade our more important targets to come here?” Gabrielle asked. “Lord knows, even I have trouble getting them to attend one of my parties occasionally, and that’s in town and not out here in the boondocks.”

  Elizabeth’s eyes darkened momentarily at Gabrielle’s description of her spa as being located in the boondocks, but Theo put a hand on her shoulder and spoke up. “That’s already being taken care of,” he said, smiling. “Some of the targets’ family members are being told they’ve won a contest where the prize is a week or two at this spa, which should suffice for the media and judicial types. As far as the extremely high-up governmental targets, we’re going to have to get them by first converting family members who have access to them and then let them do the transformations for us.”

  “Won’t that be risky?” Brahma asked. “They’re sure to call doctors at the first signs of illness in any of these people.”

  Theo nodded. “Good thought, Brahma. In fact, we’ve already decided some of our first guests will be the doctor for the Congress and we’re even working on getting the president’s own physician to attend.”

  “It certainly seems like you’ve thought of everything,” Gabrielle said with admiration, her obvious flirtation with Thantos causing Christina to bristle. She opened her mouth to make a sarcastic comment, but closed it at a warning glance from Thantos and a mental command, “Not now!”

  “I hope so,” Theo said, trying to sound modest as he turned his attention back to Gabrielle. “However, one of the most important parts of my plan is you, Gabrielle.”

  “Oh?” she said, smiling and patting her hair, pleased both at his attention and at his compliment.

  “Yes. One of the problems with targeting extremely important people in the government is getting access to them. They are, as you know, usually very insulated from the general public.”

  She nodded, starting to get his drift. What he was saying was true. It’d taken her the better part of ten years to become famous enough so that her calls to Washington royalty were always returned.

  “So, we’re going to need you to utilize your many Washington contacts to first spread the word about how great this spa is, and secondly to give out some guest passes as gifts to your political acquaintances,” Thantos said.

  “That should be no problem,” she said. “Politicians simply love to be given expensive gifts, and they love even more attending beautiful places when someone else is picking up the tab.”

  “Good,” Theo said. “Now,” he added, glancing around the table, “I want all of us to make a list of fifty or so people that we think should be targeted. I’ll call up the others in our group and have them do the same thing and then we’ll get together and make our final list.”

  “Perhaps, before we do that,” Brahma said, stroking his chin while his coal-black eyes bored into Elizabeth’s, “Elizabeth might consent to give me a . . . um, personal tour of her beautiful facility?”

  “Yes,” Gabrielle said, smiling coyly as she glanced at Thantos, “and I would appreciate a more detailed view with you, Theo, if you have the time.”

  Thantos glanced quickly at Christina and saw her lips pressed into a hard, white line.

  “Uh, I think it’d be much better, Gabrielle, if Sammy here showed you around. I’ve got some very important calls to make and I need to get right on them.”

  Theo watched as Gabrielle pushed her disappointment to the side and gave the muscular Sammy an appraising glance. Good, he thought when she smiled coyly at the young man. It wouldn’t hurt to put a little icing on the cake with these two.

  Elizabeth returned Brahma’s look, letting her eyes roam over his hard body. “I wouldn’t mind at all, Brahma.”

  Sammy glanced at Gabrielle’s rather dumpy body and carefully shielded his thoughts as he said, “Me too, Gabrielle. It’ll be a pleasure.”

  Chapter 18

  Ed and Kim Slonaker exited their plane and walked through a large revolving door on the second floor of the Portland Jetport just before noon.

  Elijah Pike held up his hand in greeting so they could see him over the heads of the other people waiting in a small crowd outside the door.

  He gave Kim a hug and shook Ed’s hand. “Everything go okay on your flight?” Elijah asked as they walked toward the baggage claim area.

  Ed grinned, glancing at Kim, whose face wasn’t nearly so happy. “Yeah, ’cept Kim got the full treatment by the security staff. Full search.”

  Elijah raised an eyebrow. “Oh?”

  “I guess she just has a suspicious look about her,” Ed teased, watching her out of the corner of his eye.

  “Keep it up, big boy and I’ll spread you all over this airport,” she replied through gritted teeth, though Elijah could see a gleam of humor in her eyes.

  As they walked down the corridor, she sighed and relaxed a little. “You know guys, when pale-skinned Canadian females start hijacking airlines or blowing themselves up with body bombs, then I will be able to understand why people like me are subjected to full searches, while at least three Middle Eastern types waltzed right through the check-in with a ‘have a nice flight’ from the guard and a big toothy smile.”

  “It’s all in the name of political correctness,” Elijah said. “The PC police won’t let us check minority types because that might be racial profiling, even though it is precisely those minority races who pose the security check. Maddening isn’t it?”

  Kim glanced at him. “For a supposedly sophisticated country, you people down here in the lower forty-eight sure do manage to let a lot of idiots do your thinking for you.”

  Elijah chuckled along with Ed as they waited for the Slonakers’ luggage to come up out of the conveyor. But, after a moment, he asked in a low voice, “Kim, I’m curious about something.”

  She cut her eyes at him. “You’re wondering why I didn’t just give the guard a little mental push to make them forget about me?”

  “Exactly.”

  She shook her head. “I’m just not very good at that sort of thing,” she said, a note of chagrin in her voice. “In terms of psychic ability, I come up way short in persuasion techniques.”

  “Don’t let her kid you, Elijah,” Ed said. “Kim may not be the best at controlling other people’s behavior, but she rates second to none in other psychic abilities.”

  That peaked Elijah’s interest. In his research over the years he’d found that members of his race varied widely in both the amount and type of psychic ability they had. In fact, this was one of the abilities he was hoping to influence with his new “share the blood” experiment back at his cabin.

  “Tell me about it, Kim, if you don’t mind,” he requested. He also knew that some of his kind were very
reticent to discuss that particular part of their makeup. He didn’t know why, but for some reason, Vampyres who’d slaughtered thousands of innocent people to feed their hunger over the years would suddenly stammer and stutter and become totally tongue-tied when asked to discuss their particular psychic abilities.

  She looked at Ed, who nodded. “Okay, I’m very strong on precognition, and I’m starting to develop some mild telekinesis ability.”

  Elijah’s eyes widened. He’d heard of some Vampyres having precog abilities, but she was the first he’d come across to admit to telekinetic abilities.

  “So, you can move things around?” he asked.

  “It’s more than that,” Ed said. “Telekinesis involves mental power over all things physical.”

  “I don’t understand,” Elijah said. To him, telekinesis was about moving small objects like in the movie Poltergeist.

  “Let me give you an example,” Ed said, glancing at Kim, “If it’s all right with you, sweetheart.”

  She shrugged and he continued, “A couple of months ago, Kim and I were out at dinner. When we finished and were walking back through the parking lot, a local thug I’d arrested a couple of weeks before stepped out of the shadows and pointed a .38 pistol at me at point blank range.” He held out his hands, “I was so startled, I didn’t have time to try and ‘push’ him mentally, so I was as surprised as he was when he pulled the trigger six times and nothing happened.”

  “What’d you do?” Elijah asked.

  “I bitch slapped him unconscious and put the cuffs on him and we took him to the station on the way home.”

  When Elijah looked puzzled at the point of this story, Ed explained, “When we got to the station and I told the sergeant the story, he said, ‘must’ve had bad ammo,’ and he pointed the pistol out the window and pulled the trigger. The sergeant was as surprised as Kim and I were when all six bullets fired.”

  Elijah turned to look at Kim, who laughed. “I was as startled as Ed when that punk pointed his gun at us and I forgot for a moment that it couldn’t hurt us, so I just kind’a pushed at the gun with my mind and made it not fire.”