Dia de los Muertos.
Day of the Dead.
The name was deliciously appropriate.
The Spanish sounded so romantic as it rolled off my tongue.
“The overlords moved the Blood Rite to coincide with the festival nearly a century ago.” Adelie fussed in my closet searching for something. “Everyone agreed it was just too marvelous a festival to not take advantage of. Mostly, it’s celebrated in Mexico, but there are a lot of people all over the world who love it, so we use it.”
I folded my arms. “They just up and moved the Blood Rite?”
She peered at me through the clothes. “Please. Is anything in our world done that simply?” She ducked back down. “Of course it wasn’t just up and moved. It took years of petitions, and causes and revisions, and arguments and proofs… It’s like, come on, you ancient assholes. Just realize this is a good thing. This is just another way to hide. If our Blood Rite were at the same time as the humans held Dia de los Muertos and Halloween, it was just another level of protection.”
“Halloween. Hmm. That’s the Christian usurpation of Samhain, right?”
“It is. The human witches still observe it, but most human children in the New World dress up for Halloween. It’s just so much fun that we can go freak people out during Blood Rite and not be feared.”
“They don’t fear us—”
“Perfect.” She lifted a long black shift and held it out. “And no, they don’t fear us on that one day. Show up a week later, and you’d have humans pissing themselves. But that one day, we can go out, show everything about ourselves, and they love being terrified by it.”
“Interesting.”
Adelie shook her head. “Humans are so damn weird.”
I laughed and took the dress as she held it out for me. “What the hell is this? Am I dressing up as a nun?”
“No. This is part of the celebration. Everyone wears formless black clothes and paints their faces like a skeleton. But not a regular skeleton.” Opening the computer on the desk, Adelie typed in a few words and the images of painted faces popped up. They were magnificent and colorful while still looking like the dead. “Like this. Now, the only requirement as a vampire at the masquerade is that you have to wear a red hood, but as a candidate for queen, you can do what you like as long as it’s red. I have ideas. That’s how the humans know we live in the castle. They all—”
“The humans? What?” My eyes widened. I had to have heard her wrong.
“The one day a year we invite the locals in and host a party.”
“The villagers? But it’s such a small town. Do we replace the residents every year?”
“We don’t kill them anymore. It’s not efficient. All the drinks are spiked, and the humans are delirious most of the night but happy and high. We use a drug called Molly. Ecstasy. They love it, and they are smiling and… well, you’ll see.”
She gifted me a grin that made my stomach flutter.
I had a feeling this was going to be a wonderful night.
Adelie’s makeup for my face was amazing. Using only red, black, and white, she turned my already pale skin to true white which made me look just like one of the women on the screen; I adored the symbolism. She put a black-black wig on me and tied it back with massive red satin roses, making it look as if I were wearing a crown. That, I really loved.
Helping her dress, I had to step back and let her do her own makeup since I wasn’t as good as she was. Adelie was amazing as she transformed herself into a skeleton with turquoise highlights. She managed it, so we looked nothing alike and nothing like ourselves.
Oh, this was going to be fun.
During the time we were getting ready, the castle had been transformed—I was sure by vampires who were using their speed. The walls and ceilings, draped in streamers, flowers, and balloons of vibrant shades of orange, red, and black. Little light-up ghosts in orange and purple were hung in various places. If it didn’t have a purpose, it was draped with black cloth. I had to say, the hewn rock castle stronghold, typically frightening on a bad day and depressing on a good one, was transformed into a palace that reveled in the magic, strength, and death it harbored inside its walls. Celebrating it, making it something to enjoy.
And enjoy it we would.
The humans from the nearby village, as well as some from farther away, started arriving at dark. There were impressively close to two thousand when it was all tallied. There would be plenty of food along with even more drink for them. Drinks with the concoction in it were labeled in a way the humans wouldn’t suspect.
The vampires mingled with the humans, talking, chatting...and measuring.
This was our Blood Rite.
When I was young, the Blood Rite was gory. The vampires would lure hundreds of humans to a hall or a temple and hold them in Thrall. Every vampire in the area joined in, and the night became an orgy of feeding.
The humans slaughtered and buried by the time the sun came up, while we spent the next day sleeping and recovering. It was a ritual the vampires had always performed to cull the local population and to reinforce the idea humans shouldn’t approach our strongholds, our enclaves. They didn’t know what we were or what we really did; they just knew when you found our homes, our hiding places, you were dead.
In most cases.
Some humans were brave enough to endure and capture the heart or soul of a vampire. Some of us had sought permission to turn those. If the Council denied permission, their vampire lover had to kill them that night.
We showed no mercy.
We put our victims in Thrall to shut them up. Simply to keep them from screaming.
Humans were lambs.
We were the slaughter.
As we moved through the flock of fresh warm blood, it was hard to control the desire to reach out and grab a neck. I had been warned it wasn’t like that anymore for the Blood Rite.
It was better.
What was better than being blood drunk on the night of Blood Rite?
I waited. I was nothing if not patient.
They had promised there would be a signal.
By using the flowers in my hair the way she did, Adelie had marked me as the candidate for queen. There was no mistaking the crown I wore. Several people—humans and vampires—laughed and bowed. I nodded at them as I passed, making a note of the delicious necks I saw around me. There were half a dozen large rooms for me to walk through, observing the people around me and how they interacted. There was one room for the food, another for the tables, one for dancing, one for mingling, and one with dozens of plush couches, chairs, and chaises. Vampires and humans were everywhere.
I laughed in delight at the situation.
Before my Rest, there wouldn’t have been mixing. It would have been brutal drinking, gorging on blood. This was far more entertaining, and I was quick to understand why they had all fought to change the Blood Rite from a messy, gory affair to this subtle dance.
I waited.
All of the humans were drinking. Someone was chugging the punch they had been offered. It didn’t take long for me to start seeing the drink take effect on the humans. They were smiling, giggling, touching. The sense of affection notched up and up in the rooms where the party was held. There were fewer and fewer humans in the dining room.
The five overlords appeared at the entrance, wearing all black. There was no mistaking their arrival as they filled the room with their presence, washing over everyone with a not quite Thrall feeling for the humans.
Adelie found me standing in the doorway seconds later, and smirked.
A moment later, she let her fangs drop.
She pounced on the neck of the human she had been talking to and teasing.
The signal was given, but to my delight, the vampires didn’t strike at the humans as one. It was far more drawn out. I realized, as a people, the vampires had become more subtle, wielding their thirst and power as a precise tool, a surgical instrument. The Blood Rite had been gory and grossly sexual without the sex. This Dia de los Muertos was meant to be lascivious, a dance of seduction and satisfaction for both human and vampire.
There was no more death associated with the Blood Rite. The name was now fanciful.
I watched for a while, the vampires waiting for their human companions to start falling further under the spell of the drugs. It wasn’t long before a lot of them were sipping from wrists as well as necks.
Adelie led her choice human by me. “The part I didn’t tell you earlier was there is something about the drug in the human system that affects us through our blood.” She turned and pulled the handsome man down to kiss him hard. “The sexual desire goes through the roof, and it just fucking feels amazing. Get yourself a human, Gwen. Take them for a ride. This is so much better than killing them.” She pulled the man along, and I could see he was completely erect behind the shapeless robe.
Well.
Scanning the room, I found a few of the very handsome men I had spotted earlier and headed for my number one choice. He was of medium height with a dark complexion and light hair. An unusual combination with his night black eyes, but I could see he was well hung, and while I didn’t plan to use that, it was good to know.
Grinning as he saw me approach, he gave me a serious full-court bow. “Hello to you this evening.” His Spanish was a delectable sound as it rolled past his lips.
I stepped into him and wrapped a hand around his neck. “Good evening to you, too,” I answered in kind. “Are you enjoying the party?”
“More now that I’ve got you here. I was watching you all night, thinking about how much I would enjoy your lips…,” he leaned down to my ear, “...and your breasts.” He grazed over the top of my nipple, and I felt it pucker. How my nipples hadn’t been erect already with the scent of sex in the air, I didn’t know.
Pulling him down, I kissed him. Soft and sensual and liquid—he was a damn good kisser. He tasted like the punch, sweet and bitter at once. I let him enjoy my mouth as I took my light pleasure from the kiss.
I nipped his tongue with my fang. He didn’t seem to notice, but the taste of blood danced across mine, and I waited for a moment to get a proper taste of him. Once I had a little mouthful, I swallowed.
The shock rolled through me. Adelie had been right. There was something in their blood that transmuted the drug for us and made it taste sweet, succulent, and sexual. It dropped right to my pussy, and it was going to take a miracle for me to stick to my ‘not having sex’ pledge.
I drove a fang into his tongue, piercing him enough to feed myself, and pinned him there against me. I waited for a mouthful of his blood and swallowed. And again and again. It was deliberate and careful, and the consuming feeling of ‘fuck him’ drove through me with each taste.
Even better, he was nonplussed by the fact I was drinking his blood. He smartly had kept his throat closed, tipping his head toward me. All the wonderful, sweet liquid dripped into my mouth.
I couldn’t use only this man. I needed more of the sweet wine of blood they had created in the humans here. It wasn’t fair to hog him, either. Some other male or female deserved to taste him and ride him and give him his release.
So many to choose from…
A swipe of my tongue over his sealed the fang puncture and I pulled back.
“Graçias, señor. There are many others here who should have the pleasure of your company. Find one, and let them enjoy you as thoroughly as I would.”
He took my hand and kissed the back of it, leaving a little imprint of the blood on his lips. “If you have need of me later…” He smiled and moved away.
The scent of sex was in the air, and I walked toward the room with the couches. I hadn’t truly understood why it was there. I assumed it was much like a renaissance parlor, where there would be discussion and flirting. I also suspected I was wrong. My suspicion was confirmed when I walked in and witnessed every single body in the room writhing in the pursuit of climax.
Holy yes.
It was heady, and I was ready to just pin someone against the wall and have him take me and get this over with. But I wanted to show I was better than the base instincts of our race.
Proving that was going to be a real bitch.
There was another one of the men I had picked out. He was sitting on a couch watching his friend as a vampire was riding him. He was clearly enjoying the show they offered him, and I thought how this would be a good place for me to take my next drink.
Walking up behind him, I smiled at the woman mounted on the human. She bowed her head and then rolled her eyes as she clearly hit a good spot. “He’s yours for the taking,” she managed to whisper a moment later. “I have my toy right here between my legs.”
“I see that.” I smirked and wrapped my arm around the watcher. I used my other hand to turn his head to the side to make my access easier. Mesmerized by the show, he barely acknowledged me.
I sank my fangs into the tender flesh. The first mouthful almost drove me to orgasm, and I pulled harder, but then I forced myself to let the blood drip down my throat. I would be blood drunk and stuck with a dead man if I gave in to it.
It was easy to see, as I sipped this perfect man’s blood, why they didn’t want to kill anyone anymore. There were males and females throughout the room who clearly waited for this night to reconnect with a human whose blood had called to them. The Blood Rite was the chance for people to resample the tastes of those who had intrigued them. It wasn’t unusual for a vampire to find a human they found particularly tasty. In ages past, those humans were captured and turned into blood slaves. No more—this was the replacement for that. Blood freely given tasted better than chained chattel, even if we did still have those.
This man was wonderful on the palate. I could feel the slight tingle of actual drunkenness slipping through my veins. He groaned as I drank—and that didn’t help me, especially as I felt him grinding against the couch arm where he was perched.
I pulled back from his vein and whispered in his ear, “Go ahead. Take your cock out. Pleasure yourself.”
He eagerly pulled his hard cock out and fisted himself. I paid him no mind and went back to just tasting him, taking my pleasure from his flavors. I could feel his body moving, and it took all I had to not hop up on the couch arm with him and grind myself to orgasm. His body sparked hot a few moments later as I gifted him a particularly deep draw from his vein.
He shuddered as he came, and the flavor of his blood changed again.
This drug was marvelous.
Trying to turn his head, I held him still and sealed my bite. “Thank you. Quite tasty, young man. You’ll find another tonight who will bring you more pleasure. Put your cock away, and enjoy yourself finding her.”
How debauched could I get without actually finding my own dick to ride? Could I hold out the whole night? Or would I end up riding the couch arm…or maybe a convenient hand?
I made it a personal challenge.
Adelie was on a couch in the far corner, her costume disheveled and hiked up. It wasn’t quite enough to show her off to the world, but the world wouldn’t have cared at that moment. Most of them were doing exactly the same thing she was. She had picked a very good specimen, and she was enjoying herself. Thoroughly.
“Oh, Gwen.” She sighed. “You should taste this one. I waited for him this year. The way the punch makes him taste…” Her undulations over this man never stopped as she spoke, and for someone who could be shy—for a vampire—about her sexual proclivities, I wondered how much of the drugged blood she’d had.
I smirked. “Save him for me.”
She put a hand on my arm to stop me from walking away. “No, taste him. Now.”
“You’re…” I raised an eyebrow. “You’re sure?”
“Mmm. He’s tasty, and he needs to come. I’ve finished three times up here.”
I giggled. She was very, very drunk.
I sat next to the man on the couch and checked him out. He wasn’t particularly handsome, but there was something about the strong features that was highly appealing. He had a lustful look in his eyes, stuck there almost. He was enjoying Adelie as much as she was enjoying him.
I stated conversationally, “My friend tells me your blood is delicious.”
He smiled. “She said the same to me. I do know her pussy is amazing.”
I took his arm and put it on my lap, deciding I would wind him up first. Lazily tracing circles around the skin on his wrist, I sought out the pulse with my finger first, and then slowly stroked my thumb over it. Bringing the wrist to my mouth, I changed from circling with my finger to using the tip of my tongue to create the same pattern. His breath beat in his chest as he watched me, his eyes wide.
Moving from the tip of my tongue to the broader part, I licked the salt from his skin. Even that tasted good, and I suspected I’d had a lot of blood, as well. Dropping my fangs as he watched, I scraped across his skin to where my thumb hadn’t stopped stroking his pulse and then pressed them down to the vein just below his skin. I wrapped my lips around the small wounds and pulled lightly on his blood.
“Sh-sh-shit,” he stuttered, and his eyes rolled back and closed. “Oh, shit. Again.”
With the taste of his blood, I had no problem complying. He was the flavor of perfectly prepared chocolate soufflé. A raspberry cream. A chocolate sorbetto. A hint of the finest figs, all with an underlying scent of male and man. This one probably had a vampire sire in his family somewhere, and they were long, long down the line, but the spice there was unmistakable.
“Oh, fuck yes,” he hissed.
I licked between each hard draw. He gasped and thrashed anew. This one liked a touch of pain with his pleasure, and I was happy to help. Adelie’s breathing sped up with her fourth approaching orgasm, and I wanted him to give her the best climax.
I drove my fangs in deep and drew on his vein as hard as I could without breaking him.
He screamed and thrust upward.
The blood taste altered once again to let me know he had come.
Adelie yelped with her own climax.
I sucked at his wrist as the two of them wrung the sex from each other.
This time, I sealed his wrist for good and laid it across his chest.
Adelie collapsed on top of him. “Mm. Gwen. Isn’t he wonderful?”
“Oh, I can see you enjoyed him.” I patted her on the shoulder as she made herself comfortable. “Don’t forget to go to bed at some point, Adelie. We have a Challenge tomorrow.”
“Mm.” She groaned as she looked at the man underneath her. “Get hard again, Rinaldo. I want to go again.”
I laughed as I walked away. Poor Rinaldo. He would be so sore tomorrow and have very little to remember for it. Adelie would probably leave him some nice memories, though. She loved her little human pets.
I meandered through the rooms, looking at the faces of the humans and vampires, some engaged in simple drinking, other in more torrid sex acts. There was nothing short of an orgy in another corner of the room. I started to count the bodies and laughed when I got to ten, and I wasn’t done. I gave up trying to count. They were moving too much and were enjoying the pile they were in.
When I spotted Cato in a different corner, with a woman who looked frighteningly like my mother, I had to leave the room before my night was spoiled.
I walked through the now virtually empty dining room to the dance floor. More humans and vampires to watch, and I did revel in this. Adelie had been right. This was a much better version of the Blood Rite. Everyone, even the humans, was enjoying themselves.
I wanted to throw myself into the utter debauchery of the show, but I had a Challenge the next morning and waking up still drunk and probably sore, was a bad idea. I permitted myself one more human, though.
Watching the bodies swirl and loop, I spotted a few men who interested me. They were all starting to look tired, and it was going to be time to either bed them for real or send them home. I wanted one that was not overly tired.
A man on the other side of the dance floor caught my eye. He wasn’t tall, and he wasn’t breathtakingly handsome, but as Adelie’s Rinaldo, something was interesting and alluring about him.
Crossing the dance floor, I took his hand. “A dance, sir?”
He spun me out onto the floor and pulled me back into his arms. “With a gorgeous woman like you? Of course.”
I smiled, humored by his flamboyant words.
“You are utterly beautiful.”
I laughed. “I am wearing makeup.”
“I can see it in your eyes.”
I let them spark red. “Can you?”
“Mierda, that’s hot. How did you do that?”
“Come closer, I’ll tell you.”
I quirked my lip in a smile as he lowered his head to my mouth.
Sinking my fangs into his neck, I drew on his vein—
I jumped back away from him in the next instant, and spit the blood all over his face.
Poison.