I paused, hovering my trembling finger over the call button on the security gates, but before I could gather the strength to push it they were already opening. The sweeping driveway was edged by huge, spindly pine trees. To the side of the house was a swimming pool, the size of an average house on its own, surrounded by rows of loungers, tables and chairs. The place was eerily deserted, only a slight rippling on the surface of the pool. Coloured lights made the water glow a bright, sparkling crimson.

Alex’s home couldn’t be more different from his brothers’. Instead of the vast, timeless grandeur of Zac’s place, this mansion was a modern architectural dream. All crisp, angular lines and shining metal, illuminated by swathes of spotlights. One whole side of the house was mostly window, blacked out with shutters.

I clutched at the churning in my stomach. It was entirely possible my heart might go ahead and beat right out of my chest. Wonderful. That was going to get a houseful of bad vampires really excited. Nothing I did had any effect at slowing the beat.

This depth of fear should have had me turning round and heading for the safety of Zac’s arms, but there was something else going on inside me. A curiosity. An excitement. I couldn’t help wanting to find out what Alex was actually like. Surely if he wanted to kill me, he could have done so by now?

I parked my bike next to the only other vehicle in sight – my original Ducati, my Loki. Left there to stand lonely and isolated, mocking me. Straightening out my jacket, I swept my hair back and rang the door buzzer. It swung wide instantly.

There he was. Those cool blue eyes, fierce and predatory, gazing down at me. He wore only a pair of faded, torn Wranglers that hung low off his hips. No shoes or socks. I tried, but I couldn’t look at his feet for long, his ludicrously muscled torso was like some sort of magnet. I felt so compelled to reach out and touch it that I had to grab my hands together behind my back.

Taut and chiselled to perfection. Dark tribal looking ink ran from his shoulders, down the whole length of his arms and across the top of his chest. Just like Zac, except no colour, only black.

A shining barbell pierced through his left nipple, calling out to me to lick it. I’d had a lot of kinky dreams about him recently, and he’d always had his nipple pierced in them, with the same tattoos… but I could swear this was the first time I’d actually seen him without a shirt.

“When you’re done assessing me, would you like to come in, darlin’?” he graciously swung his arm to gesture me through, power rippling from his every pore. My head snapped back up to look at his face, ablaze with the brightness of his seductive, smug smile.

“After me then,” he turned, leaving me to follow inside. The whole of his back was also tattooed, thick black swirling lines and patterns that danced like tribal visions as he moved, walking with the speed and grace of a predatory animal. Zac attempted to hide his un-human traits from me, always trying to move and behave normally. Alex would not be the same. He would get more pleasure from showing me exactly how vampire he was.

I caught up with him in a living area once he stopped. I’d been so consumed by his presence that I only now took in the surroundings, and immediately wished I hadn’t.

The room was inky dark, only patches of soft illumination from a few scattered lamps, their light stretching out but swallowed up by black before it got very far. I felt like there were things happening in that blackness, the corners and shadows hiding their secrets. Peering into the gloom only revealed flashes of skin, glimpses of movement.

It was too quiet… but I could feel them. Feel the presence of many bodies, yet no noise, aside from some shuffling and… wet sounds.

A naked man lay sprawled out in a patch of lamplight to my left. Another man straddled him, pouring something thick and oozing into his mouth, only the gentle slurping providing any indication that the spread-eagled man was even alive, he lay so limp.

My breathing came so rapidly, such short, shallow pants, that it began to be the only sound I could hear — the rattled gasping of my own fear.

A hand touched my shoulder and I screamed. The room exploded with hisses and growls, the shadows seeming to move and close in on me. Groaning and snarling, sniffing…

“Quiet,” Alex commanded, squeezing my shoulder. The eerie silence slammed right back down in an instant, the shadows retreating back to the corners. “Perhaps we should go somewhere a little more inviting,” he whispered in my ear.

I felt him disappear from my side and the sudden absence of his demanding energy left my skin cold. I went to follow him but my feet wouldn’t move. Literally, they were rooted to the spot. I pulled and strained at myself, my body paralysed from the waist down.

A low, evil chuckle whooshed past my ear on a breath. Then a roar, full of rage.

A man, still chuckling, swam into view from the shadows, pulled forward as if by an invisible force. His feet walked him toward me, but he seemed to be fighting it. The smile slid from his face and the laughter stopped as I once again felt Alex beside me.

“Sit,” Alex said.

The man shook his head, but slumped to his knees.

“You will stay here until I’m ready to deal with that mistake you just made,” Alex smiled, and this time he took my hand and led me down the hall with him.

* * *

Stammering for words, I tried to turn around and head back for the front door, but his fingers were closed around mine and the tingling shot right to my head, dizzying and confusing.

Alex paused by a doorway and released my hand. I became aware of a new noise; a rhythmic squeaking. A man approached us, pushing a wheelchair; the wheels scratching as they came down the wooden floor. He was the size of a house, towering over the frail, wraithlike woman seated in the chair. Greasy, dark hair hung limply over her face. Her body as white as the delicate lace slip that she wore, barely covering her. So thin, so gaunt. Bruises and puncture marks were dotted along her bony arms, her hands limp in her lap. A saline bag hung from a pole attached to the chair, the tube running down and into a needle taped to the back of her hand.

The man breezed past us, giving me a sly smile and a little wave with his fingers, like he was waving at a child. I sucked in a breath as he passed. I’d seen him before, on the motorway, when my bike tyre had blown.

The woman’s face, half hidden by that lank hair, swam past me like an apparition. Haunted, lost, broken. I knew her face, too. I could see the articles, the social media links that had continually popped up for a few weeks about the B-list celebrity that had fallen off the wagon and into a mess of drugs and public brawls. I never read that shit, but the headlines had flitted by me enough times. Then, as is the case with celebrity gossip, it went quiet just as quickly as it had come.

I whirled back round to Alex, “That… that was—”

I didn’t bother to finish the sentence once I realised that several women had attached themselves to him whilst I’d been gawking at the wheelchair-bound ghost.

Alex raised an interested eyebrow, urging me to continue, as one of the women leant back in his arm with a line of white powder spread across the top of her breast. It gleamed in the dim light against her smooth umber skin. She was slender, but in the right way, curves in the right place. She stood in complete contrast to the wan figure that had been pushed past me. Her lips were full, her eyes bright and eager, her afro hair styled and preened.

When Alex realised that I’d gone back to staring without speaking, he snorted the powder from her in a flash. The relaxed, doting bombshell of a woman eased up and pawed at his chest, nuzzling his shoulder.

Another woman to his right… no, a girl – she barely looked legal – had her hand running up and down his thigh, inching ever closer to the goods. Three more ladies stood right behind, in the room off the hallway, eyes to the floor, hands clasped in front. All buck naked. And beyond them, deeper into the room… I couldn’t even look. There was writhing bodies in all manner of sexual encounters.

Alex gently brushed aside powder-girl’s afro and whispered into her ear. Her face took on a hazy, wistful look as she held an upturned hand out to him. He locked his gaze onto mine, a wicked smile plastered on his lips. His tongue snaked out to run along her wrist. Something in his face changed, flickered for a moment, more sinister. The usually piercing blue eyes darkened.

Holding carefully, he sucked at her delicate wrist and she let out a whimper. A trickle of blood crept slowly down her arm as he took visible gulps, swallowing it down, staring at me. I clamped a hand over my mouth to muffle the gasp. She groaned, her head rolling back, eyes closing.

He drew back slowly so that I saw his fangs withdraw from the flesh. Two small holes remained, blood seeping out, which he lapped at seductively. One of her hands went between her legs and started rubbing.

She wasn’t in pain. She wasn’t engulfed by fear or trying to escape. She proffered herself up to him with eager need. The others stood in line behind, presumably waiting their turn. Zac told me they didn’t just feed and let people live. This was nothing like the image he painted. But then, the other room, the wheelchair…

Alex continued lapping and drinking and not once did his eyes falter from their assault on me. Piercing right through me with their amused, sadistic spell. A pool of heat spread between my thighs and throbbed in time with my thundering heart.

When he’d finished he dropped her arm and she grumbled, moving it back up towards his face. He pushed it away in annoyance and she dropped to her knees, scrambling to pull down his zipper. She wasn’t going to? Surely not…

He kept his stare firmly levelled on me, some of the intensity gone, resuming the usual sexual smile, slowly licking at the blood pooled on his bottom lip.

She took his cock out and sucked it.

I turned and marched away.

I got a few paces before he called out, “It could be Anna on her knees here.”

I stilled, blood rushing in my ears – fear, loathing and lust all crawling up my spine in a fucked-up ménage à trois.

“There we are, good girl. Come join me for a drink,” he said casually, as if we were alone and he didn’t have bitches rubbing him in all the right places.

I stared daggers into those girls, until he glanced down at the one busy sucking his considerable cock. “Well, shit me, where are my manners?” he laughed.

“Perhaps up your own ass, along with your head?” I suggested.

He bit his bottom lip and grinned. “Enough,” he said, and just like that they all sulked away, blending into the vampire-filled room beyond, finding other cocks to gobble.

He stood alone, adjusting his zipper and gathering himself back together. After considering me for a while, he said, “For the record, my authority is not based on ego, darlin’. It’s hard fact. I give orders and people obey. If I decide I want you, then you better be ready to fall in line.”

* * *

He sauntered off down yet another hall, leaving me to follow his perfectly sculpted ass, which – annoyingly – looked extra enticing in that low denim.

We passed several rooms, each one had a similar scene inside; sex, drinking, vampires feeding. I hurried past one with a girl chained up naked to a wall. I couldn’t tell if she was pleased or not, but I had my own shit to worry about right then. There were bigger problems first, like figuring out how I was going to get back out of this house.

Another male vampire crossed the hallway with a naked woman who was attached to a chain via a collar around her neck. She was almost as ghost-like as the wheelchair girl. Pale, withdrawn. She crawled on all fours behind him as he pulled her along on the chain.

I was already working out how I could get the cops in here to shut this shit down. Maybe ones from out of state somehow, that hadn’t been bribed or head-fucked yet.

Alex stopped in another doorway and I nearly walked right into him.

“Grand ideas like that get people hurt, Jess,” he said simply as he dipped through the open door.

Compared to the darkness of the rest of the house, this room seemed as bright as a sunny day. I squinted in at the brushed metal furniture, the sleek leather corner sofa, and weird tube lighting built into the walls.

Two men sat at a metal and glass table, one of whom I recognised as the fucktard called Parker, who’d taken my bike that night. I hated that dreadlocked asshole. Seated with them was a pretty blonde and a prettier brunette. The vampires laughed and encouraged the girls as they drank shots.

A gun sat in the middle of the table. I couldn’t work out what was going on at first. I watched in slow motion as Parker handed it to the blonde, telling her it was her turn now. She took hold of the gun and with a little giggle, gingerly turned it on herself, her tiny nose twitching like a mouse.

“NO!” I shouted, trying to run to her but Alex’s arm had shot out. “What are you doing?”

She looked at me with a startled expression and then laughed. “Russian roulette. Want to join us? No? Thought not. Get lost you frigid cow or I’ll aim it at you?”

This made them all laugh harder than before, whooping with encouragement as she waggled the gun in my direction. Her ego swelled visibly from their praise. She planted the muzzle in her mouth and pulled the trigger.

Click.

Laughing hysterically, she began shouting about how she was a “bad ass bitch”.

“Parker, we are not to be disturbed under any circumstances. Zachariah will try to get in soon,” Alex said.

Dreadlocked twat-face nodded in reply. My stomach churned.

Alex stepped forward and strolled over to the dumb mouse, who sat wide-eyed and open-mouthed at his advancement. He took her chin delicately in his fingers and lifted her face up to his. Her lips pouted to kiss him, that little nose flaring.

“You ever point a gun at my guest again and I will fuck you up,” he whispered.

She winced and nodded, or tried to.

With a sharp jolt, Alex grabbed hold of me and ushered my lagging feet up a shining, spiral staircase. Polished marble floors, many windows, all shuttered up. We passed many closed doors on the second floor, the groans from within could have been pleasure or pain, I couldn’t be sure. Then up more curved steps, and into a vast suite.

A massive, modern bed sat in the centre, with enough space to sleep an army. The sleek silver canopy rose from the headboard, sweeping overhead, with built in lights and speakers. Luxurious sofas and chairs decked the edges of the room.

Hanging on one wall was a framed movie poster – the vampire in his white shirt and collared coat, the word Dracula written in dripping red letters.

“Is that supposed to be funny?” I pointed to the print. He just grinned in response.

“Did you choreograph everything that’s happened here tonight, from the moment I got through the door? The vampire freakshow. Put on to… what? Scare me? Seduce me?”

“Considering both of those emotions are running rampant through your body right now, had that been my plan I’d say it was a success.” He ambled towards me and for a moment I got distracted by the way his abs flowed as he moved.

Until the sound of a gun echoed through my head, swiftly followed by a high-pitched shrieking.

The scream was abruptly cut short, ending no sooner than it had begun. I whirled around in panic.

“Relax,” he said. “Parker will have stopped her at the last second and shot it at the wall. Crazy bitches these college kids.”

“No, that was a real scream. It didn’t miss. What are you doing with them?” I urged.

“Playing,” he shrugged.

“Like cats with mice?”

“I thought you liked guns?” The edges of his mouth lifted in a suggestive smile.

“No.”

“This isn’t the place to start playing coy, darlin’. Didn’t you like it when I took my gun and fucked you with it like a little whore?” He took another step and pressed me down onto the bed. I thought he was going to make a move, but instead he sat down on the floor in front of my legs. It was disarming to suddenly have the predator sitting subservient at my feet. I didn’t like it.

“That wasn’t real.”

“No? Maybe you’re right, maybe you’re wrong, maybe one day I’ll tell you. But either way, you fucking loved it.”

“Why am I here?” I spat out, straining against the flashbacks from that encounter – memories that suddenly pressed so hard against my core that my body cried out for more.

“Good question. Why are you here?” He leaned back and the visions faded.

A loaded question. It felt like there was an answer to that, one that I must never voice.

“I… you… if you touch Anna,” I muttered.

“Oh, yes! Anna! You need to choose, her or Danny boy with the misplaced confidence. Which one is going to join me for dinner?”

“No! You said, if I came—”

“Tick tock, darlin’. Choose, or I’ll go with gluttony and take both. Restraint isn’t a strongpoint of mine.”