Vampire Lord 6 Chapter 4

As I grew closer to the office door, I could hear the angry growls of a blood thirsty vamp. I rushed to open the door, but before I could grab the doorknob, Neko ducked out and slammed the door shut. Then she threw herself against the wood.

“Perfect timing, Sam,” Neko sighed. “We could use a little back up.”

“Thirsty!” Catherine howled and clawed at the other side of the wooden door. “I’m so fucking… Thirsty!”

“Fuck,” I muttered.

The auburn-haired girl was starving for fresh human blood and would do anything to get some. She was apparently having a rough reaction to the vaccine, so she needed blood, and she needed it now.

Meanwhile, Erika and Lily were curled up into little balls on the floor just outside the door.

“Uuuggghhh,” Erika groaned. She was as white as a sheet of paper, and Lily’s skin was pale under the natural tone of her olive skin.

“Neko.” I laid a hand gently on the Japanese girl’s shoulder. “What happened?”

“A lot,” the pink-haired girl panted. “Erika and Lily are really sick, they both feel and look like shit.”

“I can see that,” I said as I knelt down in front of the girls slumped over on the floor and pressed a hand to Erika’s cheek.

“Sammm,” Erika rasped. She burned with a fever, and her eyes were far away when she glanced at me. “Hurts…”

“I know, it’s going to be okay,” I murmured soothingly before I turned back to Neko. “What about Catherine?”

“Well, she was totally normal, stopping her feet and whining about how she hadn’t turned yet,” Neko explained. “Then all of a sudden she went real quiet, and her eyes started to go red. Then she launched herself at Bree--”

“Where’s Brianna?” I demanded, and her absence was a sudden knife of fear in my heart.

“I-I’m h-here, S-Sam.” Brianna’s voice was quiet and shaky, and I followed it to where she stood several feet away near the emergency fire exit off to the side of the office. “I’m o-okay.”

“Are you hurt?” I asked her as I skimmed my hands over every inch of skin I could see. I grasped her face softly in my fingers and tilted her chin up to check her throat.

“I’m fine.” She breathed unsteadily, and the artery throbbed enticingly in her neck. “Just kind of freaked out.”

“Bree was right next to the door when Catherine went berserk,” Neko explained. “She got out the door before anything could happen. Erika and Lily had come out here already to get away from all the dust in the office.”

“It’s so hard to breathe in there,” Lily mumbled and tugged limply at her collar. “The air’s so dry.”

“Sounds like you feel exactly how I did after I got the vaccine.” I brushed a bit of damp hair away from Erika’s forehead. “I think you need blood, all three of you.”

Catherine growled again and pounded her fists against the office door, and the sounds of books being thrown around followed a moment later.

“I think you’re right,” Neko laughed without humor.

“Sam?” Valerie asked from behind me, and I realized she’d followed me into the church. “Everything okay?”

“The girls are having a rough transition.” I gave the dark blonde a crooked smile over my shoulder. “Think you can lend a hand?”

“Sure.” She smirked at me and knelt down in front of Erika and Lily with me.

“Erika, Lily, you need to drink,” I murmured as I took Valerie’s wrist in my grasp and rubbed my thumb over the spot where her pulse thrummed steadily. I sniffed at the heady scent of grass and wildflowers coming off the soft skin of Valerie’s wrist, and I spotted a few caramel colored freckles dotted across her forearm.

“Here, I want to help, too.” Brianna scooted over to us and offered one arm to Lily and the other to Erika.

“Just bite gently, like this,” I instructed. Then I sank my pointed canines gently into the artery in Valerie’s wrist.

The taste hit me hard and knocked a little sense from my brain. The dirty-blonde was delicious, and she tasted like honeysuckle and clover. I could hear the pace of her heart pick up as I sucked in a mouthful of her sweet blood, and I looked up at her beautiful face as another wave of crimson pulsed across my tongue.

Valerie’s eyes were shut, and her head was tilted back. The vet’s lips parted softly, and she moaned as I pulled in more of her blood to my mouth. The sight of her face relaxed in pleasure sent streaks of fire down my spine, and my cock stiffened in response, so I only indulged in a few more mouthfuls before I pulled away and licked the wounds closed.

“Fuck,” Valerie whispered and bit down on her full bottom lip. Then her eyes went wide like she realized she’d moaned the word out loud, and she blushed deeply and glanced away. “I didn’t think it would really feel so good.”

“Thank you,” I murmured to the beautiful girl before I turned my attention to Erika and Lily.

They each held one of Brianna’s wrists in their hands and looked at me with hungry eyes, but just like Natalie had.

“I wanna taste,” Erika begged for permission in a raspy whisper.

“Go on,” I encouraged. “Drink.”

Without another word, they leaned their mouths down to the tanned skin of the blonde girl’s wrists and pierced her flesh swiftly with their pointed canines. The second the rich, sweet blood hit their tongues, relief washed over their faces, and I couldn’t help but smile.

“Mmmmm.” Erika’s shoulders relaxed, and she closed her eyes in satisfaction and slurped slowly at Brianna’s blood. Her complexion returned quickly to its normal porcelain tone, and her breathing evened out.

Lily pulled blood into her mouth more hungrily from the blonde girl’s wrist, and she looked up at me with bright eyes as her skin regained its delightful glow. Her dark curls even seemed to regain a little shine as the olive-skinned girl drank.

“How do you feel?” I looked over my two new vampire ladies and was amazed to see how much better they seemed after a taste of Brianna’s blood.

“Oh my god,” Lily panted as she released Brianna’s wrist with an audible pop. Her eyes were bright and clear as she licked up the few stray drops of blood on her lips, and then she stood up quickly, more quickly than any human could, and gasped when she realized how fast she’d moved. “Woah.”

“Yeah, that takes some getting used to,” I chuckled, and I leaned over to lick Bree’s wounds closed myself.

“It’s incredible, I feel… wow,” Erika said. She squinted through her glasses and then pulled them down her nose experimentally. Her mouth fell open, and she moved her glasses to and away from her eyes twice more. “It did fix my eyesight! I don’t need glasses! Wow!”

“That’s fucking cool,” Neko giggled from where she stood in front of the door. “I can’t wait to turn, too.”

“Aaah!” There was a sudden harsh pounding on the office door, and it brought all our attention back to the fact that Catherine was still trapped in the church office and a little blood crazy.

“What about her?” Valerie asked. The intense heat in her face from when I drank from her had ebbed, but her eyes were still a little hazy with desire.

“She needs to drink, too.” I stood from the floor and reached a hand to the doorknob. “Neko?”

“Sure thing, Sam.” The pink-haired Japanese girl perked right up and stood beside the door.

“Lily, Erika,” I said. “I want you two to be ready to grab her if she tries to escape.”

“Got it.” Erika laced her fingers together and cracked her knuckles, and there was a look of excited determination on her face, like she wanted the long-legged vampire to try an escape just so she could test out her new strength.

“She won’t get past us, Sam,” Lily confirmed, and she spread her feet to brace for an impact.

“Alright.” I turned the door knob and slowly opened the door. Then I quickly filled the doorway with my body and peeked inside.

The room looked like a frat house after a rager. The bulletin board had been torn down and snapped in half, the books on the wall of shelves had been pulled off and thrown around the room like confetti, and the doorjamb beside me was scratched to hell from where Catherine had clawed at the wood in an attempt to free herself from the office.

“Catherine?” I murmured when I finally caught sight of her.

The long-legged supermodel had her back to the door, but she turned in a flash and crouched into a low defensive position like a tiger ready to pounce when she heard my voice. Then she grabbed at whatever object was closest to her and lobbed it forcefully at my head.

“Fuck!” I ducked swiftly as a book whooshed close by my ear and slammed into the wall behind me.

Catherine snarled and tried again, but I evaded the second book just as easily as the first.

“Hey, it’s okay, it’s me, Sam,” I said as I tried to soothe the feral woman before me.

“Aah!” Catherine’s voice was ragged as an enraged scream tore loose from her throat, and her eyes were wild as they darted rapidly around the room. Then she tensed her muscles and threw herself at me. The auburn-haired girl lashed out with both hands and tried to claw my face off with her fingers curled like talons.

I felt the sting of her nails tearing down the side of my cheek, but it healed over instantly.

“Easy!” I shouted and gripped her wrists in both my hands, but it was no use. The auburn-haired girl was wild with thirst, so I wrapped my arms around her body instead and squeezed her like a vice. She thrashed wildly against me, and her upper lip pulled back in an animalistic snarl. “Catherine, calm down!”

“Noooo!” the long-legged girl growled and lunged at my throat with her teeth bared. She tried to wedge her arms up between our bodies, so I tightened my grip to the point where I feared I might collapse her lungs.

“Catherine,” I tried again in a soothing tone.

“Grrr,” the tall vampire growled at me and kicked out at my shins with one foot then the other.

“Sweetie.” I pushed her forward until the desk bumped up behind her legs. Then I leveraged myself against her and knocked her back onto the desk. “If you keep up this thrashing, you’re going to break a nail, and I don’t think the salons are open during the vampocalypse.”

I said the joke off-handedly, but something must have clicked for the newly turned vamp because she stopped struggling all at once and blinked up at me.

“Sam?” For a moment, Catherine’s eyes cleared and focused on my face, but they were still red around the edges. Then she groaned loudly, and her face scrunched up in pain as she curled in on herself. “Soooooo thirstyyyyy. I-I can’t… even think. Please help me? It hurts so bad. Please, Sam…”

“I know, I’ll take care of that real soon,” I murmured soothingly before I turned to shout over my shoulder. “We’ve got it under control here. Lily and Erika, take Bree and Valerie into the kitchen and get them something to eat. We’ll join you in a minute.”

“Okay, Sam,” the olive-skinned girl called back.

“Sammmm,” Catherine whimpered as she clawed weakly at me. Then she sank to her knees in front of me and pressed her forehead against my stomach.

“I know, baby,” I cooed to the auburn-haired girl and loosened my grip on her arms. I stroked one hand soothingly down the length of her hair and looked over my shoulder at Neko standing in the doorway. “Let’s get you a drink.”

“Hey, Pierce,” Neko teased lightly as she lowered herself to the floor beside me. “How about some Japanese cuisine?”

“Mmm,” Catherine hummed, and she looked a little dazed as she lifted her head and blinked sluggishly at Neko. “Neko? I love sushi.”

“Be gentle,” I commanded the auburn-haired girl softly.

Neko held her narrow wrist up to the other girl’s mouth and smiled encouragingly.

“Sam?” The long-legged vampire looked up at me for permission, and her red-tinged eyes were intent on my face.

“Go on--” I started, but before I even finished the words, Catherine had lowered her mouth hungrily to Neko’s wrist and sank her teeth skillfully into the artery just beneath the skin.

“Mmmm, you taste amazing.” Catherine moaned loudly as the pink-haired girl’s blood flowed freely onto her tongue. After a couple swallows, she lifted her eyes to glance at me, and I could see her focus and clarity return. “Fuck, it feels good.”

“Thanks,” Neko giggled and then gasped softly as the auburn-haired girl sucked more blood into her mouth. “It feels pretty fucking good for me, too.”

My dick quickly stiffened at the sight of my women enjoying each other, and I couldn’t wait to get them all to myself again so we could fuck and lose ourselves senseless. I was happy to see they got as much pleasure from one another as I did from each of them, but I shook my head to clear out the fog of arousal.

“That’s enough, Catherine,” I told her. “Now, lick the wound to close it up.”

“Sure thing, Drac,” she replied as she pulled her mouth away obediently. Then the auburn-haired girl licked the inside of Neko’s wrist so the skin healed up nicely into two tiny white scars. “Thanks, by the way. I… I don’t know what happened. Nat, Erika, and Lily didn’t react like that.”

“It’s okay,” I assured her. “Turning into a vamp isn’t an exact science. You were just a little hungrier when you turned.”

“I think you mean hangrier,” Neko snorted, but she winked at Catherine to show she was joking.

“Ha-ha.” The auburn-haired girl rolled her eyes.

“Alright, let’s go join the others in the kitchen and get you something to eat,” I said, and I offered Neko my arm so she could lift herself off the floor.

“That sounds good,” the pink-haired girl replied.

“Holy fucking wow,” Catherine said from beside us. Her eyes were back to their usual chocolatey brown, and she had a smile from ear to ear. “This is fucking wild!”

“Feeling better?” I chuckled.

“Uh, fuck yes,” the long-legged girl declared as she spun in a little circle. “This is the best.”

“I’m glad you’re enjoying yourself.” I smirked at her. “Now, let’s get these girls something to eat and drink.”

I led Catherine and Neko down the hall so we could join the other girls in the kitchen.

We joined them in the kitchen, and Neko sat at the kitchen island where Lily was passing out granola bars and bottles of Vitaminwater to Brianna and Valerie. Erika had apparently found a bag of raw almonds in a cabinet and poured some into a bowl that she placed in the middle of the island.

“Feeling better?” Valerie asked Catherine as she grabbed a handful of almonds and popped one between her sexy lips.

“Fantastic.” Catherne grinned and flashed her new pointed canines.

Neko took a few almonds, too, and tore open a s’mores flavored granola bar while Brianna sipped a bottle of Vitaminwater.

“How’s it going in here?” Natalie asked as she strode into the kitchen. “We all vamped up or what?”

“Fina-fucking-lly,” Catherine groaned and rolled her eyes. “It took forever but is so worth it.”

“It’s so amazing.” Lily grinned from ear-to-ear.

“Yes, so worth it,” Erika added and gestured pointedly at her face where her glasses used to be.

“That’s awesome,” my girlfriend laughed and smiled at the other girls. Then she turned to me, wrapped an arm comfortably around my waist, and reached up on her toes to give me a kiss. “I sighted in all the rifles, but everyone will still need to be careful.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Catherine moaned. “I know you’re talking to me. I know the rules, I’ll be careful.”

“Good job, babe.” I leaned down and laid a loving kiss on the top of my girlfriend’s head.

“Thanks,” she said and smiled up at me. “It felt really good to get that sorted finally, and now we’ll have a lot more accuracy at greater distances.”

“Sooooo… ” Neko interjected, and I turned to see the pink-haired girl bouncing on her toes. “When can I get my vaccine?”

“Me, too,” Brianna said and raised her hand like a kid with a question. “I wanna go with Neko.”

“Well, that depends on Valerie,” I said and turned to look at the vet, who popped another almond into her mouth. “Are you okay with giving a little more blood?”

“Sure,” she said with a little too much excitement in her voice, but she must have heard it because she straightened her face and shrugged. “I mean, yeah, no problem.”

“Right.” I smirked at her. “Well, let’s do it then. Lily, go get the vaccines ready, and we’ll meet you in the office in a sec.”

“Okay, Sam,” Lily replied before she sauntered out of the kitchen and down the hall.

“Sam?” Catherine asked, and her fingers were laced together tightly as she scuffed her toe at a spot on the floor. “Is it okay if I go check on Uncle James?”

“You feel okay?” I asked the auburn-haired beauty. “You in control?”

“Yes,” she declared and pulled her shoulders back. “I just know he’ll be worried about me, and I want to show him I’m okay.”

“I’ll go with her,” Natalie offered and squeezed my hand.

“Okay, go ahead,” I said. “We can meet up in a little while. I’ve got an errand to run later, but I wanted to wait until dark.”

“Great.” Natalie smiled and gave me another kiss before she and Catherine headed out the door.

“I’m going to head over to the general store and see if I can catch some wifi.” Erika tapped a finger on her chin in thought. “There’s a lot more I want to research now.”

“Okay, catch Nat and Catherine and have them meet up with you there when they’re done visiting James,” I told her. “We’ll join you in a little while once Neko and Bree turn.”

“Sure thing,” Erika said and walked out of the room to catch up with my gorgeous girlfriend and her best friend.

Then it was just the four of us left in the kitchen, and Neko could barely hold onto her patience.

“We doing this, or what?” she demanded with her hands on her hips. “I’m so fucking ready to be a badass judo vampire.”

“Me, too, except the judo part.” Brianna tried to hide her giggle behind her fingers.

“You ready?” I asked Valerie. I’d taken a fair amount of her blood already and didn’t want to push her too far.

“I’m good,” she answered, and she stood as she popped the last almond into her mouth. “Let’s do this.”

“After you.” I gestured toward the office, and the gorgeous farm vet strode out of the kitchen. I couldn’t help but breathe in deeply as she strutted past me, and she smelled like springtime and life.

I wanted to drink from her again, and then I wanted to fuck her over and over again until she was packed full of my sperm.

“Ooh, I’m so excited to be a strong, sexy vampire!” Brianna squealed with joy and clapped her hands together. Then she looped her arm through Neko’s and practically dragged the Japanese girl down the hall.

“Calm down, Bree,” Neko scolded playfully. “I’m still attached to that arm!”

I laughed at the sexy women who walked down the hall arm in arm, and I was still a little amazed they’d all decided to change their entire lives for me. It was no small gesture to forgo being human for a future of unknowns, and there was still so much we didn’t know about the vaccine, its long term effects, or even the whole scope of what being a vampire really meant.

But we would figure all that stuff out together.

I followed Valerie, Brianna, and Neko through the door of the office. Lily had cleared the debris from Catherine’s small rampage off the desk and laid out two syringes and two alcohol wipes beside a pair of gloves. The olive-skinned girl held a small stack of books in her steady hands, and I saw she’d already stacked a few piles on the floor in front of the heavy desk while she waited for us to join her in the office.

“Cleaning up?” I teased Lily as I closed the door behind me.

“I like to put things in order,” the Latina girl explained and shrugged her shoulders a little self-consciously. Then she bent forward to add her small stack to the others, and the swell of her hips and the curve of her ass stared me right in the face.

“That’s so cute,” Brianna said and hopped up on the edge of the desk.

“Are you two ready?” Lily asked as she brushed the dark curls back from her face.

“Hell yes,” Neko said with a huge smile on her pretty face. The pink-haired girl slid onto the desk next to Brianna and shrugged her jacket off her shoulders

“What she said,” Brianna laughed and jabbed a thumb at the Japanese girl beside her.

I went over and took a seat in one of the armchairs in the corner of the room, and Valerie followed my lead and sat beside me in the other. The gorgeous vet crossed one long leg over the other, and the denim of her jeans did little to hide the shape of her thighs from my gaze. My palms ached to slide up the inside of her thighs and peel the fabric away from her skin, but I clenched my fists and refrained.

For now.

“Ooh, that’s cold.” Brianna’s sudden gasp pulled me back to the moment.

“Oh, man, I haven’t even started yet.” Lily sterilized a spot on the blonde girl’s upper arm with a small alcohol wipe and held a syringe filled with the AIDs vaccine in her other gloved hand. “You gonna freak out when I poke you with this?”

“No,” Brianna giggled. “I don’t mind needles at all, but the wipe was cold!”

“Okay, then here we go,” Lily chuckled, and she quickly jabbed the needle into the blonde girl’s arm and pressed down on the plunger.

“Weirdo,” Neko teased her friend as her booted feet swung idly in front of her. “But you know I love you.”

“Thbbft.” Brianna blew a little raspberry at the pink-haired Japanese girl and tugged her shirt back over her shoulder.

“Your turn,” Lily declared and turned to sterilize the injection site on Neko’s upper arm.

“Yes,” Neko hissed softly, and her dark eyes glinted with excitement. “Do it.”

She’d waited with infinite patience while the other girls received their vaccines and turned, but I suspected she wanted it more than any of the others. Neko was a hell of a fighter, and to become a vampire would only increase her power and strength.

“Here we go,” Lily mused and pressed the vaccine into Neko’s toned arm. Then she capped both syringes and tossed them into the garbage can from clear across the little room with barely a glance to aim. “Huh, cool. I’m liking these faster reflexes and enhanced senses.”

“So?” I asked the two girls I’d rescued from Natalie’s psychopathic brother. “Feel anything?”

“N--” Brianna started to shake her head but stopped suddenly. Then her eyes went wide, and her dainty fingers gripped hard on the edge of the desk on either side of her legs. “Oh. Shit.”

“What’s--” Neko began to ask her friend and also stopped mid-sentence. “Yeah, wow.”

“What is it?” I asked, and worry tinged my voice as I stepped up close to lay a hand on each of their knees.

“Oh, it’s like sandpaper in my throat,” Brianna complained as her face scrunched up, and she pressed her hands against her neck and collarbone. She tilted her head back, and her mouth hung open like a fish out of water gasping for breath.

“More like a million shards of glass,” Neko added and hung her head forward. She tried to clear her throat, and the sound was like a century old engine filled with sawdust as it tried to turn over.

“That’s good, that means it’s working quickly,” I replied as I turned over one shoulder to look at Valerie. I quirked my eyebrows at her in a silent request to come to me, and she stepped forward immediately.

“Here.” The dark blonde veterinarian offered a wrist to each of my girls and flashed me one of her brilliant smiles. “Just what the doctor ordered.”

“Mmm,” Neko hummed and gripped Valerie’s wrist gently in her hands. “Oh, I can smell you.”

“It’s like springtime,” Brianna added as she took the girl’s other wrist, brought it up to her nose, and sniffed delicately. “Reminds me of Easter egg hunts.”

“Uh, thanks?” Valerie laughed lightly and shrugged one shoulder at me.

“Go on,” I encouraged my girls and moved one hand from Brianna’s knee to Valerie’s lower back to support her. “Find her arteries and bite into her skin, but not too much, let your fangs do the work. You’ll feel so much better in a minute.”

I watched as Brianna bent her blonde head over the vet’s hand and sank her pointed canines into the softly tanned skin to taste the blood that flowed steadily just beneath.

“Mmm.” Neko watched her friend drink for a second before she turned her own mouth to Valerie’s other wrist and pierced through to suck on the vet’s sweet blood.

“Oh, yeah,” Valerie moaned quietly. Her head fell back, and her knees wobbled, so I placed both my hands at her waist.

I gently massaged my fingers into the toned muscles of her abdomen and stepped up close behind her. The curve of the dark blonde girl’s ass fit perfectly against my hips, and I leaned forward just enough so she could feel the length of my hard cock against her butt.

“Ooo,” the beautiful farm vet cooed and bit down on her lower lip. Then she arched her lower back and pressed her ass more firmly against my erection.

I couldn’t tell if she realized she had done it or if she was as lost in the moment as I was, but either way, I didn’t really care. Valerie’s sweet ass felt so good as she grinded against my dick, and I wasn’t about to say anything that might make her stop.

“Fuck, you taste so fucking good,” Neko moaned, but she pulled away and licked the wound closed before I had to tell her to. She had so much self control, and it was really impressive.

“Good girl,” I hummed in approval at the pink-haired girl, and she blushed ever so slightly at my praise. Then I glanced at Brianna, who was still sucking in dainty mouthfuls of Valerie’s blood. “That’s enough, Bree.”

“Oh, s-sorry.” Brianna’s blonde head came up long enough to give me an apologetic look, and then she leaned down and quickly licked the few drops of blood from the vet’s skin to close the wound.

“Good job, girls,” I praised my newest vampire women, and I gave Valerie’s waist one last squeeze before I released my hold on her. “How do you feel?”

“Really good,” Brianna answered. Her smile was as bright as the sun in August, and as she hopped down from the desk and executed a small pirouette, her blonde hair spun out around her and swished the smell of the summer ocean in all directions.

“I feel like I could take down every one of those fanged assholes by myself,” Neko declared and threw a few mock punches at an invisible target in front of her. “This is incredible.”

“That’s about right,” I chuckled at the girls’ enthusiasm and checked on Valerie. “What about you? You feel okay?”

“Wha--? Oh, yeah, great. Really good.” The dark blonde woman fumbled over her words, and her eyes were bright under heavy lids. She breathed heavily between her open mouth as she licked her lips with hunger, and I tried not to smirk.

“Don’t worry, babe,” I soothed her quietly and brushed my hand seductively up her side. Then I gave her a little wink. “We’ll take care of that later.”

“Fuck,” the farm vet murmured so quietly that if it hadn’t been for Gary’s blood, I probably wouldn’t have been able to hear it at all.

“Come on.” I gestured to all three of the sexy women before me. “Let’s get Val here something to eat and drink again and go find the others. I have an errand to run tonight, and I want to head out soon.”

“Okay,” Brianna replied with a huge smile, and she moved out of the room with a little bounce in her step.

“Oh, Bree, so excitable,” Neko teased her blonde friend as she followed her out the door and down the hall back to the church’s stocked kitchen.

“Hungry?” I asked Valerie as I looped my arm around her back to guide her steadily down the hall. She’d given a good amount of blood today, and I wanted to make sure she had something filling to eat before we did anything else. She needed protein to build up all the red blood cells we’d taken from her, and a few almonds wasn’t going to cut it.

“Starving,” the sexy dark blonde girl purred as her eyes focused on my lips.

“Let’s get you some food, and we can take care of that that hunger later.” I coaxed her through the door in front of me and gave her denim-clad ass a swift slap.

“Oh!” Valerie gasped as my hand made contact on her butt. The heat of her skin through her jeans burned my palm, and it made my dick hard.

“Sit down,” I said as we moved into the kitchen.

“No, I’m okay,” she argued and reached for an orange from the fridge and another handful of almonds. “Lemme grab a quick snack, and we can go meet up with the others.”

“Here, take this, too.” Brianna handed her a bottle of apple juice and a protein bar. “These are kind of gross, but they really helped after Sam would feed on me.”

“Thanks.” Valerie smiled at the blonde and stuffed the protein bar into her back pocket.

“Let’s go find Catherine, Nat, and Erika,” I said. “I bet they’re all at the general store by now.”

“They’re probably all huddled over Erika’s laptop, cruising through the vamp message boards.” Neko smirked.

“Yeah,” Brianna snickered and led us out of the church. “Bet she hasn’t found anything new, though.”

The sun had set since we had gone into the back office of the church, and the street was dark.

“I can fucking see everything,” Neko gasped, and she spun slowly to look at everything we passed with her new vamp sight.

“This is so cool,” Brianna squealed and clapped her hands together.

From the corner of my eye, I spotted Valerie chew on her bottom lip. She opened her mouth and closed it again like she wanted to say something, but before she could gather her courage to say it, we reached the general store.

Brianna and Neko bounded up the steps two at a time and pushed through the creaky front door, but I fell back beside Valerie.

“What?” I tugged lightly at the farm vet’s elbow and forced her to face me. “What is it?”

“N-Nothing, it can wait,” she said, and she quickly followed the blonde and pink-haired girls into the store before I could say anything more.

“Hey,” Natalie greeted us as we filed into the store. My girlfriend stood at the glass counter beside Catherine, and Erika typed rapidly on her keyboard at her other side. “How do you guys feel?”

“Better than everrrrr,” Brianna sang and did another little spin.

“It’s fucking great, isn’t it?” Catherine asked and raised her hands up to the ceiling in a raise-the-roof kind of way.

“I can’t wait to try out all this strength.” Neko flexed her arms and rolled her shoulders like she was about to go into the biggest judo competition of her life.

“Funny you should say that,” I said and drew the attention of all seven women gathered in front of me in the general store.

“Oh, yeah,” Natalie replied. “You said you had an errand you wanted to run tonight.”

“What’s the mission, Drac?” Catherine asked and rubbed her palms together in anticipation.

“I’ve got to head out to Charleston,” I explained. “There’s a Cabela’s there and a farm supply store on the way. We need more guns and a shit ton more ammo before Thaddeus and his fanged fucks come for us. Plus, we’ll need all kinds of seed and farm tools before we can really get to prepping our new crops around town.”

“You won’t be able to plant anything until spring, but it’s smart to have the seeds and fertilizer on hand now,” Valerie spoke up as she munched on her snack.

“Right,” I agreed. “It’s about a thirty minute drive to Charleston, and we’ll have to go right past Black Betsy. So, who wants to go with me?”

I laughed as all seven women threw their hands in the air like a class of first graders who’d been asked who wanted extra recess time.

“Okay, well, I definitely want you to come with me, Val, since you know the area,” I chuckled at their enthusiasm.

“You gotta let me come, Sam,” Catherine begged with her hands pressed together in front of her face. “I need to do a test drive on this kick ass new vamp body of mine.”

“Sure, Catherine, you can come with me,” I agreed, and I smiled at the way she clapped her hands and jumped up and down with excitement. “I want Erika to come, too.”

“Sure, Sam.” Erika smiled and closed the laptop in front of her. “I’m not getting anywhere here, anyway.”

“Nothing new on the message boards?” I asked the shy girl.

“Not really,” the brilliant dark-haired vamp sighed. “The Internet's going down fast all across the country, and probably other countries, too. There aren’t many people left with power either, so information is really scarce. And besides, I doubt any vamps are on there sharing their life stories right now. They’re probably way more focused on getting blood and building up their territories.”

“Or surviving as minions in some other vamp’s territory,” Lily suggested, and she wrinkled her nose in disgust at the idea.

“I’d like to get away from the screen for a while.” Erika nodded. “It’s just frustrating me at this point.”

“Okay, then Nat, I’m leaving you in charge while Catherine, Erika, Val, and I are gone.” I took my girlfriend’s hand in mine and gave it a little squeeze. “Make sure the guards posted around the town are switching out every few hours. We don’t want anyone getting exhausted and falling asleep at their stations up there. That wouldn’t do anybody any good.”

“No problem.” Natalie nodded and returned my squeeze with one of her own. “And I’ll check in with those guys you had scoping out the area for new crops, see what they came up with. I know we need to sort out the vamps in Black Betsy first, but as soon as that’s handled, we should have our next steps ready to go.”

“Perfect,” I replied. “Gary, the big burly guy in the overalls? He has the biggest ranch in town, and he told me he has a dozen dairy cows. The other guy’s name is Jason, he’s the town surveyor. I liked them both, they seemed really nice. They should have an idea about which areas around town will be big enough and sunny enough to plant new crops.”

“Okay, I bet they have a bunch of locations in mind then.” Natalie nodded and furrowed her brow as she made a mental list of all the things I wanted her to do.

“And make sure Gary stays safe,” I added. “His blood is really useful.”

“What’s his blood do?” Brianna asked with wide eyes.

“It made my hearing really intense,” I explained to all the girls. “I could hear Neko scream in the church from all the way down here earlier.”

“Like my blood gives you really good vision?” Lily asked.

“Yeah, I bet that’s what bats hear like,” I said.

“Wait a second.” Valerie held a hand up to halt our conversation. “Different blood gives you different abilities?”

“Sometimes,” I answered. “Not all blood has special properties like that, but everyone’s blood affects me differently. Which is another reason why a little bit from everyone in town is so helpful to me. It makes me stronger in a bunch of different ways.”

“Wow, that’s really cool.” The farm vet gazed distractedly into the distance for a moment, but then she refocused her eyes on my face and stared hard at me with wide, curious eyes. “Does my blood do anything special like that for you?”

“I don’t think so,” I chuckled lightly at the beautiful dark blonde. “It smells amazing, and you taste really good, and I always feel sort of happy and peaceful when I drink from you, but I haven’t noticed anything more than that.”

“No third eye or super intuition then, Spike?” Catherine teased, and she gently slapped a hand against her cheek in feigned horror.

“Not that I’ve noticed.” I smirked at the auburn-haired girl.

“Getting back to the situation at hand.” Natalie released my hand and pulled her hair back into a fresh ponytail. “I’ll check in with Celia, too. I saw her and Lieutenant Perkins heading over to Duke’s Diner on our way over here a while ago. I’ll see what they think about the barricades and defenses in general. Maybe they have some more ideas about what we need to add.”

“Good.” I nodded. “Brianna, you did such a great job earlier, can you go with her please and take notes about everything?”

“Sure, Sam.” Brianna smiled from my praise and went down an aisle to grab another notebook off the general store shelves.

“I want to know what Celia, Perkins, and the others think about different possible scenarios, too,” I continued. “Like what they might suggest if the vamps all attack at once, or if they come in waves, or if they split up and come at us from all sides instead of just trying to breach one of our barricades.”

“Lieutenant Perkins,” Natalie corrected with a smile. “He’s very adamant about that.”

“Lieutenant Perkins,” I laughed. “I’ll try to remember that. Oh, and ask Celia about a secure place the children and older folks can be safely hidden. There are kids and even babies in this town, and we need to get them somewhere safe and secure so we can protect them during the attack.”

“Right, one of these buildings must have a basement or something,” the sexy brunette replied.

“There should be a storm cellar in a few of them,” Catherine added. “They get pretty intense storms here sometimes in the spring and summer, and in case you hadn’t picked up on it, these people like to be prepared for almost anything.”

“Perfect,” I said. “That’ll work, something underground would be best, especially if there is only one entrance. That’ll make it easier to defend. And we’ll probably want to mask their scent if we can, like how I did with the diesel when I left you girls in Rhino back in New York.”

“Sure.” Natalie nodded again. “Bree, can I have a piece of paper, please?”

“Yeah, here you go, Brianna answered. Then she tore a page out of her notebook and handed it to my girlfriend.

“What do you need me to do, Sam?” Neko asked.

“I want you to find out what kind of supplies the townsfolk have stored up,” I told the pink-haired girl. “What kind of stockpile are we working with? Canned goods, dry goods, non perishables? And how long could something like that last us? Also, get an official headcount, we need to know how many people we have here. Mark how many are children and their ages. Little kids eat less than adults, so it will affect how we ration out our food.”

“Okay, no problem.” Neko smiled and went down the same aisle Brianna had pulled her notebooks from. She came back a moment later with one tucked under her arm, and she waved a folded road map of West Virginia in the other hand. “Look what I found, I bet this could come in handy.”

“We won’t really need that,” Valerie said with a cocky smile. “I know the way to Charleston like the back of my hand.”

“That’s why you’re coming with me.” I smirked at the farm vet. “But the girls can study it while we’re gone and figure out the different possible routes Thaddeus’s vamps might use to attack us.”

“Good point. Can I have a piece of paper, too, please?” The dark blonde girl held out her hand to Brianna. “We should make a list of supplies we’ll need before we head out and mark which ones we can find at each of our stops. That way we won’t waste time looking for something in the wrong place.”

“Brilliant,” I said and gave her a wink. “I knew you were going to be an important addition to our team.”

“Well, we should stock up on as much ammo as you can find.” Natalie started to tick off items on her fingers, and Valerie scratched a pen across the paper quickly. “Plus, we have those three 9mm pistols, and we only have a few dozen rounds left for those. Also, grab as many 12-gauge shotgun three and a half inch shells as you can for the Benellis. Skip anything that says ‘birdshot’ and get the ones that say ‘buckshot’ or ‘00’ or ‘slug’ instead. If you can find any other rifles or handguns that are the same calibers we already have, that would be easiest for fast reloading. Then anything else that looks useful. I doubt they’ll have it, but if you find any more grenades or flash bangs, those are good, too. Hell, even a flare gun could be useful.”

“Yeah, and I was going to grab as many axes as I could find,” I said as Valerie’s hand flew across the paper to add items to our shopping list. “I don’t know what Cabela’s sports section looks like, but if there are any bats, I’ll take those, too.”

“If they have golf clubs, those would also be good for smashing in vamp brains,” Catherine added. “But make sure to grab drivers, not putters. Putters would be pretty useless.”

“Golf clubs?” Neko smirked at the long-legged girl.

“What?” Catherine demanded and propped a hand on her hip. “My dad likes to golf, and those suckers are easy to swing and give a lot of oomph when they hit.”

“Put it on the list,” I told Valerie, who had stopped her pen mid-list to look up at me for approval.

“I’m also putting all the things we’ll need to grab at Town and Country Supply.” Valerie’s pen danced rapidly across the page again. “Oh, and I’m pretty sure there’s a Home Depot right next to Cabela’s. They’d have a lot of useful things. Axes, shovels, hell maybe even some chainsaws.”

“Excellent, we’ll hit both stores while we’re out there,” I told the beautiful dark blonde girl. “Now, I’m sure you know all the backroads from here to Charleston, and then some, but I want to take a good look at that map before we head out.”

“Here, Sam.” Neko unfolded the paper and spread the map of West Virginia out on the glass counter next to Erika’s laptop. Then the pink-haired girl smoothed out the creases with her hands and jabbed one slender finger at a spot in the western section of the state and another finger just southeast. “We’re here, and Charleston is here.”

The eight of us gathered as closely around the map as we could squeeze, and I felt Valerie’s leg brush against mine when she leaned forward to trace her finger down a road on the map that was labeled route 62.

“We could take 62 south and then hop on I-64 the rest of the way into Charleston, but 62 takes us right through the middle of Black Betsy,” the vet explained and moved her fingers across the colored lines of the map. “There’s no way to bypass downtown if we go that way, but if we took 62 north to Winfield Bridge and across the river here, then we could take route 817 south and pick up I-64 at the Kanawha River Bridge exit, here. That way, we wouldn’t go anywhere near Thaddeus’s territory or Black Betsy. We’d have to cross the river twice, though, and that’s before we even get near Charleston. There’s one more spot just north of the city where I-64 crosses the river again.”

“That makes sense,” I said. “We’ll take that route coming back with our supplies, but on the way out, we’ll go south down route 62.”

“You want to purposely go near those fucking fanged fucks?” Catherine asked with a huff as she tossed her hair over her shoulder.

“Yes,” I stated. “Where are the bodies of the vamps from the minivan raid the other day?”

“The ones who tried to take Bud and Becca?” Natalie asked.

“Yes, there were six of them,” I said.

“James took them off somewhere to dump them,” Neko replied. “Why?”

“Do you know where he is right now?” I asked the auburn-haired girl.

“Yeah,” she said. “He’s over at Duke’s Diner with Celia and some of the others. He said being stuck inside the church all day was bringing him down, and that he needed a change of scenery.”

“Okay, let’s go ask him where the bodies got dumped.” I started to fold up the map.

“Oh, just give it here,” Neko grumbled and snatched the paper from my hands before I could try to figure out the insane folds.

“Thanks,” I said and gave the pink-haired girl a grateful smile. Then I watched the Japanese girl as she took all of ten seconds to fold the map quickly and expertly with nimble fingers.

“Well, what are we waiting for?” She tucked it under her arm and gestured impatiently at the door of the general store.

“Right, let’s go find James.” I walked to the front of the shop, and with my improved hearing from Gary, I heard the precise sound as all seven women fell into step behind me and followed me out the door. Together, we walked across the street and down the short distance to the small diner.

There was a huge faded yellow sign that spelled out “DUKE’S DINER” in bold letters. A neon sign in the shape of a coffee cup hung from one of the front windows, but without any power, it was dark. A little silver bell jingled merrily as I pulled the glass door open, and I held it for my women as they sauntered into the diner.

Celia, James, Lieutenant Perkins, and a few other faces I recognized from this afternoon filled up the round tables and a few of the half dozen red pleather booths along one wall. The floor was a typical black and white checkerboard pattern, and black and white photos of the town in rustic wooden frames filled almost every inch of the faded yellow walls.

“Hey Sam,” James called out from his seat in the middle of the crowd. “Come on over.”

“Just the man we were looking for.” Catherine smiled affectionately at her uncle and sat down in the little chair beside him. “Sam’s got a question for you.”

“Anything,” James affirmed. “What is it you need, Sam?”

“I need to know what you did with the bodies of those vamps who tried to snatch Celia’s kids,” I announced.

“Dumped ‘em just outside the southern barricade,” Catherine’s uncle replied, and his gray eyebrows drew together in confusion. “But what do you need ‘em for?”

“I’m going to dump them on Thaddeus’s doorstep.” I grinned.