Master: Crimson Read online

  * * * *

  They stalked the man through the woods, watching as a voluptuous, magenta-haired whore sucked his cock like she was born to do it. Gabriel wasn't exactly sure whether it was the scent of blood, or the sucking sounds, or the way the hooker’s lips wrapped perfectly around the businessman's dick; one of those factors, if not combination of all three, made him so hard, he was panting. On the other side of him, Raiden was silent, but the younger vampire sensed his erection acutely.

  After a few breathless moments, Gabriel resolved that bloodlust was a turn-on, so he would just have to get used to it. It was really no big deal if he and Raiden had twin boners. It didn't mean anything; it was merely a bodily reaction to a series of stimulants. Before he was able to process this thought, the talented prostitute finished the businessman off, snowballed in his mouth, and collected her fee. Gabriel was impressed. As she walked away, he was almost tempted to get her number, but then thought better of it. After all, he would probably end up draining her veins before she had time to get him off. Plus, she’s not my type.

  Before the man could finish dressing, Raiden gave Gabriel the signal to make their move, having discerned there were no other warm bodies within a quarter mile radius. Everyone was too busy fucking their brains out to take note of the two figures creeping soundlessly toward the half-dressed businessman.

  In the moment before Raiden pounced, Gabriel wondered briefly if he would really be able to go through with taking another innocent life. When his fangs slid neatly into his bottom lip, slicing the skin, spreading the taste of blood over his tongue, all thoughts of mercy ceased.

  The man had no time to cry out. Raiden bore down upon him like the reaper, teeth shining. Gabriel saw everything first in slow motion, then in fast forward when the man fell, arms spread open as Raiden tackled him to the ground. Crushing the man’s face into the dirt, he ripped the collar off his expensive suit coat, baring his neck; turning it slightly sideways to expose the carotid. With a single blow, he snapped the man’s spine, paralyzing him on the spot. Not able to struggle anymore, the man lay silent, the agony having rendered him momentarily unconscious.

  Raiden sidled up the man’s body and motioned mutely for his pupil to follow. The hungry, carnivorous gaze he threw upon his prey was enough to elicit shudders. Gabriel met his eyes, questioning, eager; Raiden gave the slightest nod, and bowed his head to the man’s neck. He waited for Gabriel to imitate his motions. The younger vampire looked around as furtively as he could manage, given the raging bloodlust sweeping through his veins. His control reached its breaking point, and some sinister part of him liked it.

  * * * *

  Gabriel maneuvered near the victim’s neck with deliberate care, impressing Raiden that he could still keep his hunger in check. Perhaps he’s cut out for this after all, the older vampire reflected. Within his chest, there was a feeling of awakening, a slight stirring. He wondered if it would stay with him after the feed ended. Though he could sense his student’s impatience, Raiden wanted to take this slowly—teach him the proper way to enjoy a meal. The hint of a smile twitched at the corners of his mouth, and then the singer decided to put on a show. He raked his hand carelessly through the man’s hair, dragging his blunt nails along the path of his jugular vein with deliberate torpor. Gabriel watched breathlessly. His eyes grew foggy and distant as Raiden moved his fingers to the pumping carotid.

  With no further ado, he made a shallow puncture in the victim’s skin. A tiny trickle of blood escaped the surface. Gabriel whined deep in his throat like an animal. The older vampire shot him a warning look, silencing him—though clearly, it was difficult for him to stay quiet. On with it, then. Raiden wet his lips, readying himself. The actor mirrored his action, catching him off-guard with the unintentional eroticism of the act. He hadn't quite forgotten about the earlier scene, in which they had spied on the hooker’s skillful blowjob. Frustrated, he reached out; grabbed and guided his protégé’s hand to the man’s neck. He could wait no longer.

  “Open it up,” Raiden whispered. “Be careful not to do it too hard, or it’ll spray all over you.”

  Gabriel still moved not a muscle.

  “What are you waiting for?”

  “I don’t know if I can,”

  “It’s better to do it like this, and not wait until you’re so hungry that you attack anyone. Would you rather bite a kid again, or one of friends? What about your family, don’t you—”

  Gabriel fiercely clamped his other hand over Raiden’s mouth, cutting off his words. He stilled, staring at him with fury and anxiety. The taste of the actor’s skin—the sweat, the blood beneath—weakened him. All at once, the memory of Gabriel’s turning slammed into his skull, and he swayed slightly under its weight.

  More… Quite suddenly, he was licking Gabriel’s palm, eyes closed as the familiar flavor consumed him. Gabriel pulled back, startled, and then Raiden made his move. Descending upon the victim, he shot his fangs into the open wound. He lost himself in the blood, praying that his creation would follow.

  * * * *

  The last straw of Gabriel’s resistance broke when he watched the Raiden feed. It was so disgusting, so feral, and yet so fascinating, so surreal to see him in action. The chords in his neck stuck out, protesting against the amount of force the older vampire was putting into his meal. The blood pounded, sending vibrations all through Gabriel’s body. Raiden’s pulse was much louder than the victim’s. Through a thick curtain of hunger, he realized that the man was dying. His window of opportunity would soon close.

  With that, the fledgling vampire’s paralysis broke. His incisors, having reached their maximum protuberance, caught roughly on the man’s neck, opposite Raiden. Clumsily, he tore open the victim’s skin with a complete lack of finesse, but he was too far gone in ecstasy to care. Though the blood was not nearly as sweet as the boy’s, it was still a means to satisfy his craving. For a brief moment—like he first time he fed—Gabriel forgot everything. There was only the strong rush of blood down his throat, the tight pucker of lips around shredded flesh, the helpless grunts of pleasure and exuberance as the blood filled him.

  And fuck, it felt so good, so hot and slippery and wet in his mouth, bitter and salty, like semen, like life. Trickles of blood coursed down his face, their heat tracking a molten path down his skin, searing it, changing the density with its fiery course. His insides dissolved, melted like plastic under the steady, insistent flame of his bloodlust. Raiden’s hand snaked its way around his waist, gripping him; intimate and possessive; wordlessly urging him to take more, drink deeper, taste everything.

  Desperate grunts fell from his mouth like curses, free and uncensored, raw, rough, heedless. Through a fog of pleasure, Gabriel saw Raiden lapping at the excess blood, hips thrusting dangerously as each drop was consumed. For a brief instant, he almost reached out to touch his creator, to feel the burn beneath the flesh, to scratch at Raiden’s skin until it broke and bled. They shared the man between them equally, each swallow prompting the next, joined indirectly by skin, saliva, and blood. Gabriel drank, and drank, and drank, an unending cycle of swallowing and sucking, using more and more force as the blood flowed less and less generously. More—

  “Gabriel.”

  Raiden leaned into him, his words a mere brush of air against Gabriel’s reddened cheek. The actor was lost in the moment; it took him a second to register the hand on tugging slightly on his hair. Angrily, he looked up, his concentration broken by the interruption.

  “He’s almost finished.”

  Raiden stared down at him, mouth blood-smeared, eyes lacking their normal distance. The cooling body between them did nothing to disguise the scorching heat in that gaze. Shivering with desire, Gabriel sucked the remaining bitter-sweetness out of his victim’s opened artery and wrenched himself away, leaving Raiden the last, noisy drops. Panting, the older vampire slowly extracted his arm from Gabriel’s waist.

  “Feel better? I bloody well do.”

  Although Gabriel was not
facing him, he could hear the sound of the Raiden licking his lips in satisfaction. He shuddered, sinking to the ground as sudden exhaustion overtook him. “We have to get rid of it," Raiden mumbled, shaking off sleepiness as he reached for the razor in his tool belt.

  Gabriel torpidly craned his neck in Raiden’s direction, the drugged, full feeling fading.

  “Him. We—have to get rid of him.”

  “Whatever.”

  My second kill without a name. Surprisingly enough, that thought didn't sting as much as it rightly should. At the moment, he was simply too sated to give a damn.

  * * * *

  Raiden made Gabriel hold the dead man’s head while he carefully manipulated the wounds. For good measure, he stabbed the body a few times in the upper back, pretending not to notice as the actor shuddered and turned away. To his credit, Gabriel was very obedient, and followed all of his instructions. He stood guard while Raiden put the finishing touches on the body, positioning it just right so that whoever found it would not be forced to face the ghastly sight of all those open, bloody holes. The cautious vampire tried not to leave his victims in the open, but sometimes, it was simply unavoidable.

  Mouth Garden was one of the few places Raiden could get away with leaving corpses; due to the park's very nature, visitors tended to look the other way in the face of crime, and keep walking. For years he had abandoned corpses here, and sure, the story sometimes made the paper, but the murders were never really linked, since he varied his biting tactics every time. Save that one incident, he never failed to eradicate all traces of the bite marks. Really, corpse-arranging was an art, a skill that he had only recently developed. Raiden couldn't lie: he was damn good at it. Judging from the reluctantly-impressed look on Gabriel's face, his student agreed.

  They removed their raincoats and turned them inside out, hiding any lingering stains. Raiden took off his tool belt and tucked in inside his raincoat, keeping it safely out of sight. After a final review of the killing scene, he led them back to the car. Gabriel was clearly nervous, but he made a point not to set his pace any faster than Raiden’s. They reached the parking lot without attracting any attention. Before they got in the car, the older vampire checked them both for any errant bloodstains. Luckily, there were none. Since the coast was clear, they took off their gloves and sunglasses; stashing them alongside the raincoats and tool belt within a secret compartment installed in the trunk. Then, they left the scene of their first official meal together.

  On the way home, neither of them spoke a word. Raiden was relieved, since he wouldn’t have known what to say anyway. His wayward brain kept rerunning the vision of Gabriel feeding eagerly beside him. My pupil’s a quick study, he proudly thought before he could stop himself. Of late, the singer had often caught his reminiscences straying to the juicy temptation beside him. How Gabriel had trembled, under the faintest sheen of moonlight; beneath the gossamer strands of fearful sweat and tears lurked a scandalous promise of lust and danger.

  As he pulled into the driveway, his long-checked horniness came back at full blast. This is so not the time to pop a chubby. His body, however, disagreed. Raiden inhaled, catching a similar scent of arousal from the passenger seat. Apparently, someone else’s body was also misbehaving. He glanced over at Gabriel, startled to realize that his creation was staring back. Don't. Gabriel tilted his head back, tempting Raiden’s bloodthirsty libido with the column of his throat. Its tanned contours gleamed; the slight hint of elongated incisors indented a plump, parched bottom lip. In that moment, the older vampire could have bitten it, to feel the tender flesh break against the coaxing of his fangs, to steal another taste of Gabriel’s unparalleled bitter-sweetness. With a slight shudder, Raiden forced himself to look away. He suppressed the pulsing in his groin as the car slowed to a halt. A plan formulated in his mind—a plot so devious and wanton, he was practically ashamed.

  Then, Gabriel’s soft sigh interrupted his lascivious scheming. Sweat broke across Raiden’s upper lip and he felt feverish. He swallowed hard. The moment, taut, stretched thinly across space and time; he was afraid, fearful of the want to consummate this strange urge, intimidated by the unbridled, unholy ache consuming his blood and teeth and cock. He licked his lips. Fucking sexual. Smirking, he glanced sidelong at Gabriel, noting with a perverse sort of pride that under the carefully placed hand on his lap lurked a painful erection. The younger vampire squirmed minutely in his seat, as if he knew Raiden had caught him. Between a rock and a hard spot. He nearly choked on his amusement, but then another painful wave of desire silenced him. This should not be happening.

  “So, did I pass the test?” Gabriel asked suddenly, his voice hoarse and thick. Raiden’s breath caught. And so...it continues.

  “For now. You can stay here for now.” With that, he turned the engine back on and reversed the car out of the garage, slightly into the driveway.

  Gabriel regarded him with the usual gape of confusion. “What are you doing?”

  “Having a smoke. Care to join me?” Raiden exited the car before his student had time to respond. He perched on the hood of his 350-Z. For no apparent reason, he felt pretty fucking good.

  * * * *

  They sat in the twilight, wisps of smoke curling, joining and merging, the pungent taste of nicotine and lingering blood heavy on their tongues. Gabriel knew he had no right to feel this kind of peace, but still it persisted. Raiden’s lips quirked into a half-smile and he took one last, long drag of his cigarette. The older vampire’s eyes gleamed with mischief. Nudging Gabriel’s shoulder, he leaned conspiratorially in the actor’s direction.

  “So, about tonight…was it good for you?”

  Gabriel gave him the death-stare for about five seconds. Raiden withstood its malignance patiently. His eyebrows rose in anticipation. Relenting, Gabriel let the smirk he had been holding inside burst across his features.

  “What do you think?”

  “Fuck YEAH.”

  They connected eyes and burst into simultaneous laughter. The action caught him by surprise with its illusion of friendship. Maybe—

  Raiden suddenly grimaced, as if tasting something rotten. The fragile moment shattered. Once again, the weight of loneliness descended upon Gabriel, and he could barely breathe for its crushing impact. Raiden made as if to get up, but then changed his mind and settled for stretching his slender frame across the length of the car’s hood. Gabriel watched him and shaded his eyes with one hand, sighing.

  “We’ve certainly got our work cut out for us.”

  “Yeah.”

  The actor lowered his body to the hood, mimicking Raiden’s position as he also covered his eyes. They continued to rest there in silence for a few minutes, each mired in the quicksand of his own thoughts. Periodically, Gabriel peeked through his fingers at the side of his maker’s face. Pity…that someone so beautiful can be flawed beyond redemption. Still, as the silence between them became more companionable, as the dark dipped them into serene obscurity, he wondered.

  Chapter 10

  The Nickname

  Your eyes can’t hide

  Behind sweat-soaked bangs.

  Your lips can’t lie

  When they form my name.

  Taro’s silence was downright eerie. Raiden closed his eyes and prepared himself for the worst. Well, it can’t be nearly as bad as that time I said he looked fat in a skirt. The lead guitarist pursed his lips into a prim pout. In the pre-twilight gloom, his eyes were like two endless black holes, sucking all the light from the surface of his face, leaving only shadowy planes in their wake.

  Ok, so maybe it’s worse. The singer winced, sensing an oncoming deluge of wrath.

  “You agreed to do what?” Taro questioned through gritted teeth.

  Raiden sighed and narrowed his eyes, fiddling with one of his lighters. “I believe you heard me say it just now.”

  “No, I really don’t think I did. I may have THOUGHT I heard you say something, but what I heard surely wasn’t what you meant to say.”
r />   “It’s exactly what I meant to say.”

  For approximately four seconds, Taro looked absolutely dumbfounded. Then, a fleck of relief glinted in his eyes. Out of the blue, he began laughing. Raiden frowned. This wasn’t going quite as he had expected.

  “Raiden—this is—literally one of the—the funniest things you’ve—you’ve—ever said! I’m p-practically in t-tears,” Taro choked. The vampire’s sharp hearing focused on the rough pants escaping from his best friend’s laughing mouth. The sounds reminded him of Gabriel—which wasn’t surprising, since all thoughts of late lead to his creation. He could feel the stirrings of a migraine beneath his tensed scalp. A hot meal would do me good.

  “Okay, I get it,” Taro gasped, trying to find his breath. “This is your twisted way of getting back at me for making you go to dinner with Gabriel, isn’t it? Clever, Raiden, but alas—I’m not falling for it. Good try, though.”

  “Listen—”

  “Hush! I think I’ve put up with enough foolishness for one evening. It was a great joke, but I didn’t come here to goof around. So anyway, about our upcoming photo shoot, I was thinking you could maybe grow some facial hair. I mean, you’re getting kinda, you know…past your prime. Don’t feel bad, we all are. Anyway, the point is, I think our manager wants us to go for the masculine look, you know? And not to be harsh, but there’s nothing more pathetic than an ageing princess,” he finished with a good-natured chuckle.

  Oh, hell no. Raiden took an angry step forward. “I’m serious about doing this movie, T.”

  “You can’t be.” Taro dismissed him with a curt hand gesture that riled the singer to the very core.