Vampire Lord 6 Chapter 1

I stared at the six gorgeous women before me and thought about how amazing they all were. They wanted to turn into vampires for me. They were ready and even excited about it.

We were gathered around the kitchen counter of the small church where the girls had just finished eating lunch, and if it hadn’t been for the fact that the world was drowning in bloodsucking vampires just outside this small West Virginia town, it could have just been any other day.

Except for the fact I was one of the bloodsuckers, and now all the beautiful women in front of me wanted to be vampires, too.

“What are we waiting for?” Catherine asked. “Let’s get badass.”

“That’s all you have to say?” Natalie rolled her eyes at the auburn-haired girl.

Catherine tended to be as subtle as someone who used a baseball bat to toss a salad, but Neko had a determined smirk on her face, too. The pink-haired Japanese girl also had the idea to turn vamp, and she’d been clever enough to swipe up almost a dozen AIDs vaccines from the hospital we raided the night before in our efforts to save Catherine’s uncle, James.

“Hold on,” Erika said. “We wanted to stagger the vaccines, remember? Just in case one of us has a bad reaction or takes a week to turn like Sam did. We don’t really know how this is going to go.”

“Yeah,” I joked and nodded at Erika. “We don’t need six brand new bloodsuckers going crazy around here just when we’re starting to get things prepared.”

“So, then, who goes first?” Neko asked as she shifted from foot to foot, and she seemed eager to turn and become an even more badass fighter than she already was. Neko had been incredibly helpful in all the missions she’d gone on with me so far. She was a skilled judo fighter and a real pro with an axe, and I thought the Japanese girl was about as anxious as anyone could be to become a better fighter.

And who could blame her? It was the end of the world. Being a skilled fighter and a badass vamp was definitely a huge advantage in the vampocalypse.

“I’ll go,” Natalie said, and she turned to look at Brianna and Neko. “Isaac turned right away, so maybe I will, too. And the faster we can have another vamp on our team, the stronger we will be.”

“You might be right about that,” I replied to my girlfriend after I thought about her hypothesis for a moment.

“That’s interesting,” Erika mused, and the way she bit her lip and furrowed her cute eyebrows made me guess she was really thinking through all the possibilities of Natalie switching first. Erika knew how to work her way through the online message boards and had been a key player in getting us out of New York, and she had established herself as the academic brains in our little group.

“So, where are we gonna do it?” Brianna questioned as she nervously twirled a lock of blonde hair around her finger.

“Well, what are each of the town’s buildings being used for?” I asked the girls. “We need to find a place with some privacy and also one we can secure in case Nat has a problem adjusting to the change.”

“The church is for sleeping, cooking, and eating,” Lily said.

“People are also sleeping and resting in the post office and that little thrift shop next door,” Catherine added.

That made sense. I’d spotted some furniture through the windows of the shop, so that made a great place for people to lie down. The wooden pews in the church were better than the ground, but they weren’t all that comfortable.

“The general store has become our command center,” Natalie went on. “That’s where all the weapons are being sorted and stored, and where people are going to find out about guard duty and patrols.”

“It’s also where the majority of the non-perishable foodstuffs are being kept.” I nodded. Much to Catherine’s delight, I’d spotted an entire row of beef jerky packages in a variety of flavors on the shop’s shelves. The general store also had an entire section of tools and supplies that could come in handy in a pinch, so it was the perfect place to set up as the central command point.

“What about James’s cabin?” Neko suggested.

“Oh, that reminds me,” Erika spoke up as she adjusted her glasses. “I thought the cabin would be a good spot for us to set up as our main base of operations once we deal with the vamps down in Black Betsy and get the defenses settled.”

“That’s a good idea,” I said. “It’s too far from town for us to be there all the time, at least until we put an end to those fanged fucks downstream, but once things are settled, we can spend more time there.”

“That’s great.” Catherine smiled. “Uncle James knows what he’s doing, and that place has everything I need.”

“Like a hot shower?” Natalie teased.

“Yes,” the auburn-haired beauty said and shook out her long hair. “Thank you very much.”

I laughed at the long-legged girl’s priorities. She was completely herself, and I had a feeling nothing was going to change that, not even becoming a badass vampire. Plus, she had a point. The cabin was close enough to town that we could be here in a few minutes if something happened, but it was far enough out to give us the kind of privacy I’d want for us all when things were calmer. Maybe I could even convince Celia to keep James at her place for a little while so the girls and I could all enjoy ourselves. I knew I’d want to spend some quality time with my women once we had that luxury, and I expected a lot of noise would come along with that.

“What about the gas station across the way?” Brianna asked.

“No.” I shook my head. “Too exposed, too many windows. That would be way too easy to escape from if you went crazy on us right away.”

“That’s smart.” Erika nodded. “We need something more contained and more private. We don’t know exactly how the people here are going to take the news that they suddenly have six new vamps in town. I seriously doubt it, but they could go all torch and pitchfork on us.”

“They’ll be fine,” Catherine said, and she rolled her eyes. “Or else Uncle James will put them in their place.”

“What about in the back office of the church?” Lily asked.

“Now, there’s an idea.” I turned to look at the olive-skinned beauty and smiled.

“That’s perfect,” Erika said. “There aren’t any windows.”

“And we wouldn’t want to draw attention to ourselves right now,” I said. “The people are getting anxious. They want answers. I think the two men I passed at the barricade coming back from Black Betsy could tell something is up.”

I didn’t really blame them. Their entire town was in danger from fifty bloodthirsty monsters just a few miles down the road. Until the girls and I had arrived, they’d been fending for themselves, and not doing all that well at it.

A vamp named Thaddeus had himself quite the fiefdom going down in Black Betsy, and he kept at least a hundred humans stashed away as his own personal blood bank. Even once all six of the girls were turned and we had set up every possible defense we could, it was going to be the fight of these people’s lives to defend their little town.

Catherine nodded in my peripherals. She’d gotten to know the townsfolk a little while she sat by her uncle’s side, and by the look on her face, she had gotten the same feeling from them. They were glad to have us here but were still terrified of Thaddeus and the threat he posed to them all.

And they didn’t know if we could save them.

“Alright,” Catherine said and clapped her hands like a little kid on Christmas morning. “What are we waiting for, let’s turn my girl vamp.”

Brianna and Neko exchanged a look of curious excitement, but Erika was still making mental notes, and I could see she wished she had access to a real computer and the internet.

“So… who’s going to give her the shot?” Brianna asked.

“I can,” Lily said as she stepped forward. “I didn’t finish nursing school, but giving flu shots and stuff was pretty early on in my classes, and I aced that shit.”

“Besides,” I said with a smirk and a wink at Lily, “you’ve got steady hands.”

“T-Thanks, Sam.” She blushed a little and brushed her dark curls away from her face.

“Wait, do we have a needle?” Natalie asked. “Fuck. I hate needles. That’s why I didn’t get the vaccine in the first place.”

“Shit,” I said and looked at Neko, who’d been the one to swipe the vaccine vials from the hospital last night, but she just shrugged her shoulders slightly at me in response.

“What about Val?” Brianna suddenly suggested. “She’s a vet or whatever. She’s gotta have something for, like, goats and stuff, right?”

“Good thinking, Bree,” Neko chuckled at her friend, and I smiled again at how amazing all my women were. They each had their own strengths, and even though Brianna sometimes seemed a little ditsy, she was super clever and often came up with our best ideas.

“That’s a great idea,” I said and shot her a smile that made her cheeks blush the cutest shade of pink. The flush of fresh blood to her face made me think about the look in her eyes when I’d fucked her and Neko in the hospital just last night, and an ember of desire flared to life in my gut.

“Well, let’s go get this thing done,” Catherine said, and she waved a hand in the air as if it was the most obvious thing. “Where is she?”

“I think she was going to check in on James soon,” Natalie replied. “She wanted to make sure he wasn’t developing any kind of infection from his broken leg.”

“Alright, then let’s go get her,” Neko announced as she turned toward the door.

“Hang on guys,” Natalie spoke up, and she looked nervous for the first time as her wide eyes flickered to me. “I need a minute to talk to Sam.”

“No problem,” Erika replied. “Neko, Brianna, let’s go find Valerie and let her in on our plan.”

“Then we can ask her about her supply of medical syringes,” Lily said. She’d clearly picked up on Erika’s subtle attempt to clear out the room and helped her pull the blonde and Japanese girl away to give Natalie and me a moment.

Catherine lingered for a moment, and I could tell the auburn-haired girl could sense the anxiety in my girlfriend just as much as I could. After all, they’d been best friends and roommates for as long as Natalie and I had known each other. If there was anybody besides me who could tell when Natalie was nervous, it was Catherine.

“Don’t worry, Nat,” Catherine said and gave Natalie a tight hug. “You’re going to be the hottest, most badass vamp chick ever.”

“Thanks, Catherine,” my girlfriend laughed, and a small smile twitched on her lips as Catherine pulled away and bounded toward the door.

“Well, the hottest, most badass vamp chick ever except maybe me,” the long-legged  beauty said over her shoulder with a cocky smile. Then she followed the other girls out of the room and let the door close behind her.

Once the door closed softly behind the auburn-haired girl, Natalie stepped into my arms and pressed her forehead against my chest. She breathed deeply and relaxed a little as I wrapped my arms around her and held her close.

“What’s wrong?” I asked and pressed a gentle kiss on the top of her chestnut brown hair.

Natalie sighed heavily and pulled away just far enough to look up at me. Worry shone in her beautiful pale blue eyes, and a little crease had formed between her eyebrows.

“What if…” she began and took a deep breath. Then she forced the words out quickly as if they would try to hide inside of her throat if she didn’t push them out. “What if I turn into a psychopath like Isaac?”

So, that was her fear.

I pulled her back against my chest and stroked my hands up and down her spine to soothe her.

“No way,” I assured her after a moment. “You’re nothing like him.”

“But he was my brother,” my girlfriend murmured into my chest, and her voice quivered ever so slightly. “We share a lot of DNA. What if that has a huge impact on how the vaccine affects us?”

I thought a moment before I answered because, honestly, I had wondered the same thing. How much of our genetics had a hand in the outcome of the way our bodies reacted to the vaccine? But then I thought back to Hippy Hank and how different he was from Isaac, and I thought about how different I was from either of them and all the other vamps I’d come into contact with. It seemed like there were as many kinds of vamps as there were people, even if most of them had turned out to be assholes.

I hadn’t known Natalie’s brother all that well while he was human, but I’d never really gotten the best vibe from him. He seemed like a nice enough guy on the surface, but I was never able to shake the feeling that he was really some wannabe frat bro douche underneath it all. Before the vampocalypse had started, I never bothered to put all that much thought into it, but his true colors finally shone through when he tried to murder me and take my women as his own personal bloodbags.

“I think,” I finally said, “that genetics have more of an impact on how fast the vaccine affects us. And our personalities have more influence on the kind of vamp we become. I’m more or less myself, still, right?”

I could feel my girlfriend nod her brunette head where it stayed burrowed into my shirt. Her breath was warm against my chest, and she smelled delicious just like she always did.

“Well,” I told her, “then you’ll still be the most beautiful, wonderful, and best person you are now, just, you know, with a different diet. Plus, you’ll be one hell of a fighter and an even better shot than you are now with your new vampire strength and senses.”

“That makes sense.” My brunette girlfriend pulled away from my chest again to smile up at me. “Thank you, Sam. Okay. I think I’m ready.”

“There’s my brave girl.” I smiled back at her and hugged her tight one more time before letting her go.

Natalie moved toward the door to find the other girls, but before she could reach her hand to the doorknob, there was a quick knock, and Catherine stuck her head full of auburn hair around the edge of the door.

I guessed she’d been listening intently at the door, probably with her ear pressed to the wood.

“You guys ready or what?” she asked, and excitement and impatience were clear in her voice.

“Yes,” Natalie said, and I could hear her eyes roll in her head with affection for her best friend.

“Good!” Catherine flung the door wide open.

I could see all five of my women standing there around Valerie like they were trying to escort a dirty cat to a full bathtub, but the farm vet didn’t look uncomfortable in the least. In fact, she blushed slightly before she dragged her gaze up from my chest to meet my eyes.

“Hey, there, Valerie,” I chuckled softly and gestured for them all to come back into the kitchen with us.

“Hi,” Valerie said once the girls were all huddled around the kitchen counter once more. “Okay, uh, so what’s this all about?”

“You didn’t tell her yet?” I asked as I turned to my six women.

“We thought it would be best if you explained it to her.” Erika shrugged.

“Well--” I started.

“I’m going to turn into a vampire!” Natalie blurted out before I could even form the words together in my brain.

Valerie’s eyes went wide for a split second. Then the corner of her mouth lifted in an admiring smirk.

“Hm,” she began as she propped her hands on her hips and leaned to one side, which cocked her delicious ass in my direction.

Whether she did it on purpose or not, I couldn’t tell, but I took a split second to admire the luscious curves nonetheless.

“Is that a good ‘hm’ or a bad ‘hm?’” I questioned.

“Good one.” The farm vet smirked. “Because I think that’s a pretty good idea.”

“Yeah, it is,” Catherine stated as if she was agreeing that the sky was blue.

“But how are you going to do it?” Valerie asked. “We never even got the vaccine out here in Red House.”

Brianna snickered softly.

“That’s not the problem,” Neko drawled, and the pink-haired girl smirked like she was quite pleased with herself.

“The problem is we don’t have a needle to inject her with the vaccine,” Lily finished.

“We were hoping,” Erika said, “that you might have what we need, or at least something close enough that it would work.”

“I can help with that.” Valerie nodded her head slowly, and then her eyes lit up with an idea. “Give me five minutes, I’ll be right back.”

The farm vet looked at each of my women in turn, and by her expression, she clearly approved of these girls and their plan. After one more nod, she headed toward the hall of the church, but she looked back at me over her shoulder as she opened the door. There was something burning in her eyes I couldn’t quite put my finger on, but it made my mouth water just a little. Then she was gone, and I shook my head and turned back to Natalie.

“What is it?” I asked when I noticed she was chewing on her bottom lip.

“I’m just really going to miss you drinking my blood,” my beautiful girlfriend said, and her cheeks turned pink.

She must have been thinking about all the amazing sex we’d had since the first time I drank from her, and my cock grew hard just at the thought of her sweet and salty blood in my mouth.

“I’m pretty sure I can still drink from you, even if you’re a vamp. Remember that guy in the raid who tried to take Celia’s kids? His blood still tasted normal even though he was a vamp.”

“I bet he’d fed right before they came to Red House,” Erika said. “Nat, I bet if you feed, then Sam would be able to drink from you, too.”

“That makes sense,” my brunette girlfriend mused with a thoughtful, and hopeful, expression.

“Or it could be one of the different powers you get from each of us,” Brianna added.

We all turned to look at the blonde again.

“What?” She blushed. “You drank from Catherine right before that. What if it’s, like, the super sight you get when you drink from Lily? Or the calm focus you get when you drink from Natalie?”

“We’ll have to test that theory out.” Erika nodded thoughtfully as she pushed her glasses up, and I could practically see the gears turning in her brain as she made another mental note.

“That could be huge.” Neko whistled. “If you can drink from any vamps you want and get different powers from them the way you do from each of us, you’d be unstoppable, Sam.”

“Woah,” Catherine said, and her eyes shone with excitement. “You’d be, like, super Drac.”

“Okay,” Natalie laughed. “We can speculate about Sam’s super powers later. Let’s do this.”

Just then, a soft but insistent knocking came from the door, and Valerie poked her dark blonde head into the room.

“Come on in,” I told the vet. “We’re ready.”

Valerie smiled brightly as she stepped into the room, and she closed the door behind her and took a spot between Neko and me. Then she laid a brown leather satchel on the counter in front of us. The bag was old but sturdy, and it looked like it had been in the veterinary business longer than Valerie had.

“This should do the trick,” she said as she pulled a few items from the bag and laid them carefully on the counter, and she brushed her bangs away from her hazel eyes. “I use these syringes to vaccinate the new lambs every spring. It actually is a gentler needle than a lot of other vets tend to use.”

“Thank you.” I smiled at the farm vet and touched her bare elbow gently. She had a kindness behind her no-nonsense exterior that I’d started to notice.

I could see a blush creep up her cheeks, and all of a sudden, I caught the smell of wildflowers and fresh spring grass. The scent lingered around her messy bun and freckled skin, and my attention was instantly brought to the pulse thrumming through the artery in her neck. It made my cock hard again, and I wondered if she would taste as delicious as she smelled. I’d had a few small sips of her blood along with the few other volunteers in town, but that wasn’t the same as drinking from her as I had with all the other girls. When I had just a sip, it wasn’t her full flavor, not enough to really taste her. All I could remember now was the general taste of sweet and salty that all blood seemed to have.

“Yeah, no problem,” Valerie said, and her voice was a little breathy before she cleared her throat. “So, did you want me to…”

I looked at Lily, and she shrugged as if to say it didn’t really matter to her either way.

“Do you feel comfortable doing it?” I asked the vet. “We were going to have Lily do it since she has training as a nurse.”

Valerie and Lily looked at each other and both shrugged. Then they turned to Natalie, and they were clearly looking at her to decide for them.

Natalie bit her lip gently while she turned her options over in her head, and after a moment, she looked at Lily.

“Would you do it, please?” she asked the pretty Latina girl.

Lily nodded at my girlfriend and looked to Valerie to prepare the syringe for her.

Valerie smiled softly as she opened one sterile syringe and pulled out a single sterile alcohol wipe. Then she looked around hesitantly.

“Here,” Neko said and passed one vial of the AIDs vaccine to Valerie. “You’ll need this.”

“Thank you,” the vet replied before she turned her attention to the vial.

“Come on, Bree.” The pink-haired girl tucked the remaining nine vials into her pockets for safekeeping and looped her arm through Brianna’s. “Let’s leave the experts to it and go check on the progress they’ve made on the barricades and the fencing around town.”

I nodded my approval at Neko, and she gave me a quick wink.

“Catherine?” Erika asked. “Could you come help me find a good spot to set up the satellite dish? I want to see if I can catch a signal.”

“Sure, shorty.” Catherine smiled at the dark-haired girl and followed her toward the door.

“Plenty more to research?” I joked at our own personal techy genius.

“Well, you know,” she replied over her shoulder as she pushed her glasses back up. “We have a lot more questions now, don’t we?”

I smiled at my women as they wandered out the door one by one until only Natalie, Lily, and Valerie remained in the church’s small kitchen with me.

“Let’s go to the back office so we can have a little more privacy,” I said. “Just in case someone else wants to come in here for a late lunch.”

The women nodded at me, and Valerie led us out of the kitchen and down a short hallway to the back of the church. She stopped at a carved wooden door at the end and turned the knob.

The office was small and dark, and there were no windows in the room, which would be perfect for our needs. There was a heavy wooden desk in the middle of the room and a wall of bookcases behind it. Two threadbare armchairs took up the corner to our left, and a small side table sat next to the door on our right.

Valerie flipped the light switch beside the door, and a soft yellow glow filled the room, which didn’t look like it had been used recently. A stack of books on one corner of the desk had a thin layer of dust on top, and there was a tall, narrow filing cabinet behind the desk and a faded bulletin board on one wall. Whoever had used the office before had kept it neat and orderly.

“This is perfect,” I said.

I closed the thick wooden door behind us and stood in the middle of the room, and Natalie clutched onto my hand.

Valerie stepped up to the desk and laid out her supplies on the leather top, and she began showing Lily how the syringe worked.

“They’re always different,” Lily complained offhandedly.

“Yeah,” Valerie snorted. “You’d think they would just have one design and be done with it. Make it a little simpler.”

The two girls rolled their eyes and laughed together. Then Valerie pulled a pair of exam gloves from another pocket in her brown leather bag and handed them to Lily.

The pretty Latina girl pulled the gloves on like it was just another day, instead of my girlfriend’s last few moments as a human being.

I turned to look at Natalie again. She was staring with wide, nervous eyes at the syringe on the table, and I remembered her fear of needles.

“You okay?” I asked her. “Need me to hold your hand?”

“Yes.” Natalie bit her lip and nodded nervously at me. “Actually, can I sit on your lap?”

She looked like a small child at that moment, nothing like the bold woman I knew she was. Needles must have really freaked her out if she was acting like this, but I still saw the steely resolve under her anxiety, and I could tell she was going to do this even if she had to face a hundred needles.

“Of course, sweetheart.” I walked around the desk, sat down in the chair behind it, and patted my lap as an invitation for her to come and have a seat.

“Thank you, Sam.” My gorgeous girlfriend stepped toward me, and I wrapped my hands around her waist. Then I lowered her gently down onto my lap and tucked her right side against my chest. She took a deep breath and tugged the sleeve of her cotton shirt up to expose the upper part of her left arm to Lily.

“Are you ready?” I asked as I held her close to myself. My arms were draped across her curvy legs that dangled out over mine, both to comfort her and catch her if she started to faint.

Which, at the moment, looked like a real possibility. Her pulse was fast, and her breathing was shallow.

Natalie nodded silently, but she looked a little paler than normal.

“I’ll make it quick.” Lily moved around the desk and cleaned a spot on my girlfriend’s arm with the alcohol wipe. Then she placed the wipe into the garbage can that Valerie held up for her and turned back to Natalie with the syringe in her steady hands.

“Thanks for doing this, Lily,” my girlfriend muttered in a strained voice.

“Of course. Now, are you ready?” Lily looked at the brunette once more to make sure she was prepared.

My love took one last breath as a human, and then she nodded to Lily and closed her eyes.

The olive-skinned girl bit her full lower lip in concentration, and she gently but firmly poked the tip of the syringe into my girlfriend’s upper arm and pressed down on the plunger.

Valerie took a small step back as if she thought Natalie might suddenly spring at her and rip her throat out, and I held my breath as Natalie’s color began to even out. She didn’t look quite as pale as before, and she breathed in deeply before she finally opened her eyes.