Chapter 3

Chapter 3

“Roxana, come now, you’ve drained him dry.”

The woman lifted her head from the neck of the Uber driver she was feasting on and threw a predatory glance at her companion. “He’s still alive. Just one more minute, my love…”

“Of course, my goddess. As you please.” Alexander turned from the murder in progress and regarded the view as he used the cleaning wipes the driver had on hand to mop the blood from his chin. They had told the Uber driver to take them to the middle of Kenneth Hahn Park, which was both secluded and featured a high hill from which they could look north over Culver City and West LA all the way to the Hollywood Hills.

They had ordered the Uber using a smartphone they took from their previous victim, a first-class passenger on the flight from Paris to LAX. They hadn’t eaten anything on the ten-hour flight and were famished. Alexander’s appetite had been sated halfway through the Uber driver, whose Middle Eastern blood tasted of curry and spice, but Roxana always did have a deeper thirst. It was one of the things he admired about her.

Behind him, he heard the final gurgling death of the driver, followed by Roxana exiting the rear driver’s side of the Prius and pulling the corpse out of the front door, dragging the body to a stand of trees, and tossing him effortlessly down the hillside. Another advantage of this location: plenty of scavenging animals, coyotes, and even a mountain lion or two to gnaw at the body and hide the true nature of his death. Roxana was hundreds of years older than Alexander, descended from early Syrian blood, and had taught him volumes about survival in the human world. Together they had negotiated the centuries, feasting decadently and avoiding unwanted detection.

“Clean me,” Roxana purred as she approached her mate from behind, wrapping her arms around him and turning him away from his view so they stood face to face.

He gazed at her, his pale blue eyes meeting hers, which were a bright hazel with flecks of gold and red. They almost glowed in the semidarkness of the city night, and entranced him, as they had for centuries.

“My love, you barely have a drop on you.” Alexander knew better than to utilize the wipes he had used for himself. His mistress demanded a more personal approach. He found a trickle of blood that wound its way from the corner of her mouth and down her chin. With one hand, he stroked the side of her deceptively delicate face, and with the other, he gently lifted her head to reveal the crimson trail on her neck and licked it clean.

Roxana’s hand traced his arm from elbow to wrist, her ecstasy flowing across her face. Her hand covered his and she intertwined their fingers, squeezing them into a fist, their two hands enmeshed as one. His fingers against her head grabbed her hair and pulled lightly but insistently, increasing the pressure of his tongue on her throat and chin. His mouth opened wider, and his fangs traced twin trails along her flesh. She moaned softly in response. When the human’s blood was cleaned from her flesh, he continued to kiss and lick her cinnamon skin, moving down her neck.

Finally, Alexander pulled on her hair to tilt her head back and sank his fangs into her neck. Not feeding, but devouring her in his passion. She in turn twisted her head to align her mouth with their entwined hands and bit into his wrist. They were bound to each other through blood and desire, and they sank slowly to the ground, sipping each other’s essence as they made fierce love on the grass. Their groans and cries attracted a couple of the larger animal predators in the park, who came to investigate the sounds of potentially vulnerable humans (and the smell of fresh Uber meats), but as Alexander and Roxana climaxed simultaneously, even the mountain lion was frightened away.

After, as Alexander rose to re-dress, Roxana remained on the ground, one arm under the back of her head, not bothering to cover her naked body with the dress that had been hiked up to her breasts. Even the warm evening air felt relatively cool on her skin.

“I hate this city. There are no stars.”

“Would you rather live in the country, my queen?” Alexander asked facetiously, knowing the answer.

“Don’t be stupid, my batal,” she chided gently, using her pet name for him, a Syrian word that roughly translated as hero.

Alexander turned his eyes up to the dark grey night sky that enveloped the light-polluted metropolis. Even with his superior vision he was only able to see a few dozen stars. “The whole world is pushing the night away. Just two hundred years ago, we could see the galaxy in the sky, every night from almost anywhere. I miss it, too.” He moved to gaze at his mate. “Still, there is no better place for us to flourish than here.” The Americans had created the perfect society for people to disappear without question. Homeless humans flocked to the City of Angels because they could live on the street in relative comfort. “We must go where the cattle are.”

“It is wise. And still…” Roxana lifted herself onto her elbows and stretched her face into the air. “I hate the smell. The salt of the sea reminds me of home. But the smoke and oil chokes me.”

“That will pass in time. In a few hundred years, humans will realize how stupid they were to burn things for energy, and the air will be clean again. Or they will destroy themselves and our worries will end with them.” He smirked down at her, then offered her a hand to help her up. She reached a slender arm up and grasped his wrist, which had already healed from her bite, and pulled up to stand with him, her dress falling into place.

“I know why you have really led us here, my batal. I know your very soul,” she said, her eyes narrowing. “You cannot hide your feelings from me.”

“I would never think to try and do so, my queen.” Alexander turned his head and looked north again. “He is here.”

“Why do you obsess about your sire?”

“Obsess? About his weakness? About his willingness to reject his nature and befriend the humans, rather than feed on them?” He entwined a hand with Roxana’s and gently pulled her to stand next to him, looking over the city. “No, my love. I do not obsess about these things. His betrayal of our kind is two hundred years old. But he has managed to build an empire that is thriving and amassed himself a fortune. We are going to take that from him and put it to better use.”

Roxana lifted a hand and traced her middle finger along the scar that ran from above Alexander’s right eyebrow down the length of his face to his jawline. “And what of him?”

Alexander’s eyes glowed with hatred. “I doubt he’ll part with his wealth voluntarily. And if he must die, so be it.”

Roxana pivoted and placed a hand each on his back and chest, then slid them downward. “You are powerful, my love. I have always known it. Now you shall ascend to rule this world.” Her hand reached his groin and ass and squeezed. “Show me your power again, my lord.”

His cock grew quickly in his pants. He traced a hand up her spine, deftly undoing each clasp of her dress as he moved, until he reached the back of her neck. When he removed the small hook from its eye, the dress fell from her shoulders, its silky caress causing her to moan softly into his shoulder.

He took her again, and this time, their animal passion cleared the park of all wildlife.