If there was a kind of weather that made her madder than anything else, it was the damned rain. It had started light, falling from somewhere high above the skyscrapers of New York, where she couldn’t see the moon most nights, so there’d been no way for Raven to see the clouds rolling in, and now she was running down the street looking for the nearest open door to go into.

There was a time when this city had been called the city that never sleeps, but that time was past. Things roamed the darkness, and much to her eternal regret Raven was one of them, though not the traditional sun allergic vampire or Luna loving werewolf that most people locked their doors against. No one bothered with crosses and the like anymore, since they found out that most vampires couldn’t care less about them, which she was thankful for every moment she spent outside. She was one of the few, the humbled, the demon possessed, and crosses hurt, even at a distance. She rubbed her lace covered arm in remembrance of the last very painful time she came across someone with a blessed object, a simple golden cross, just last week. There would be a scar there until the day she died.

But that God would let it be soon, she thought to herself, sniffling against the cold water that was now pounding down on her. This week she was dressed gothic, a memento of their last victim, as a demon tearing out of ones skin tended to go through clothing rather quickly, and scavenged stuff was all she had, anymore. Torn fishnet stockings, lace shirt under a too tight black PVC corset, long tiered skirt that was now tripping her up as she tried to run in the heeled lace up boots. Sometimes she felt bad that the demon had taken to picking victims that at least had the same shoe size as her, but other times she was just grateful for shoes that didn’t pinch.

Bright red neon declaring “Tender Mercies” assaulted her as Raven rounded a corner, and she drew back, knowing that it was usually a bad idea to head into a club that was actually open on a Saturday night. Nightclubs always had at least one vampire, and that was in Manhattan, where it was safer. Down here almost everyone in the building would be a vamp or a vessel, and she scanned as human and full of blood as the next unfortunate soul. Lightning cracked above her and thunder rolled through the street, so loud that she almost lost her balance, and the desire for shelter won out.

The club was darker than most, a testament to the keen eyesight of its patrons, and the music was a solid wall of sound that enveloped her body and made itself a part of her, booming in her chest. Raven looked quickly from left to right, trying to find a clear spot in the writhing bodies dancing to the beat. A red haze fell over her vision, and she knew that if anyone cared to look at the women who just walked in, they’d see her eyes glowing like a Christmas tree, but most people didn’t care to look past their noses until you were ripping something out of them. If anything had been learned in all this time of being ridden by the devil, that was it.

There! An empty table, close enough to the door that she could run if she had to. She was at it less than 3 minutes later, sinking thankfully down into a dry leather seat, holding her head in her hands and taking deep breaths. She already felt the tell tale wetness at the base of her spine that meant split skin, and her fingertips were bloody, scratching against her scalp. Her wet hair hung limp past her elbows, dripping onto the floor as she willed herself not to give in, not to change, especially in a room full of people who may or may not be clinically alive.

“I won’t change…can’t lose it, can’t change, can’t change,” she whispered to herself, clenching her fingers tighter in her hair. More pain from her fingertips, and it helped, helped her focus. She became dimly aware of someone standing next to her, tapping a pen against a thick pad of paper, foot keeping time to the beat.

“Want some water?” the native city girl asked, her accent thick and loud overtop the music, though she had to be even with Raven’s ear to be heard. “Maybe a little somethin’ … else?” she continued, sounding almost hopeful that it might be the second choice. Raven shook her head, then hissed as the smell of freshly drawn blood reached her – someone hadn’t sealed the wound when they’d drunk from her last, and now the stink of it was strong and clinging to the waitress.

“Sanctuary!” Raven yelped out, knowing that every vampire bar worth its liquor license had a few back rooms for the vamps that couldn’t control their hunger, free from sunlight and prying eyes. If she was going to change, she might as well do it in a heavily padlocked room with no one else around. If she didn’t get there fast though, this little red headed islander was going to be the first to die.

The girl gave a little shriek and hit a bright red pulsing button at her wrist, bringing no less than three pale skinned bouncers to the table in less time than it took Raven to draw a breath. Heavy shackles went on her wrists, another around her throat, and then they were carrying her from the table, over the dancing throng, people occasionally looking up at her when the skinny bouncers bumped into them. With skin at room temperature and hard as cold iron besides, most people didn’t want to chance a second touch.

She was tossed into a dirty dingy room, water running down the walls, and a heavy door shut behind her. A hiss of steel came to her ears, and a wet plop as something dead and bloody was tossed into the room – this didn’t seem an upscale enough place to toss to her a plastic baggy full of blood – and then it was fully dark again.

And as soon as she was out of sight and sound of the crowd, the demon left her, retreating back into her mind, laughing at her weakness. She smiled bitterly, glad at having her skin mostly intact, and watched the claws retreat from her fingertips, leaving her hands to heal up, though at an accelerated rate. Sometimes when the demon fully came out she’d be curled up in a little ball on the side while it ran rampant. She’d had a full 12 hours to herself once, until it came back. It always re-entered through her mouth and eyes, turning into a thick black fog, and she often wondered why it bothered to rip out of her in the first place if it could just slip back in so easily.

She curled up against a wet wall and grimaced a little as she sat down on the long tail poking out from her spine, ruefully bringing it out from behind her and coiling it around her waist. When the demon wasn’t controlling it the thing tended to just lay limp wherever she set it, and she had a tendency to forget that it was there. She leaned back against the wall again, and crossed her arms over her chest, closing her eyes against the gloom. They might let her out in a few hours, or a few days – either way though, it didn’t matter. She no longer needed to eat or really breathe, another present from the devil inside. Mostly she still did either out of habit.

Sleep she did need, though, and when she did it was deep, because she rarely got a spare moment to herself. The demon insisted that this was habit too, but she got the feeling it just liked the hallucinating she did after 48 hours or so of hot coffee and yawning. It was dreamless in the traditional sense, instead her memories were rifled through and put on display to her unconscious mind, normally ones involving times when she was happy – it was either an attempt to cheer her up so she didn’t wake up grumpy, or a torment to contrast just how bad things were now compared to then. She could never be sure, and the devil was mum.

Tonight there was a montage of times with her mother, being held as a small child in comforting arms, being sung to on the front porch in a low swing, and the air was pure, with sunlight streaming down around them. She was slowly growing up, going from a tiny tomboy to a young woman, and it kept replying over and over, stopping when she was 19 and starting over again, because that’s when her mother died. There were no images of the operating rooms, or the cancer treatments, just the happiness of butterflies and snowballs, lollipops and fluffy white clouds.

Then she was awake with a start, a crack of light spearing across the floor, showing the sun was coming up, and she lumbered up to meet it, happy to be let out. And was knocked backwards as something thrashing and heavy landed against her, the door slamming shut again. The weight was immediately off her, landing heavily against the door, then sniffing the air and snatching up the dead thing on the floor. Another hiss of steel and a wet plop, and she was left in the dark again, something panting and snarling beside her, snacking on blood. Sucking noises were never as loud even in candlelight as they were in complete darkness. She stayed still and listened, unwilling to bring the demon to the forefront even to get a glimpse of the vampire in the room with her.

There was a contented sigh, and then another long series of sucking noises as the creature went to the other carcass, making happy noises to itself. After a while the sounds stopped, and then there was some more sniffing, and a quizzical noise.

“Why’d they lock me up with a human?” a voice rang out somewhere in front of her, getting a little closer with each word. She stayed silent, not wanting it to get any closer, a little afraid. Most vampires, when they frenzied, were at it for a good long while, and it was somewhat worrying that this one was over it so fast.

“Hey look, I won’t bite ya. I’m just homeless tonight. I get a free meal, a place to spend the day…it’s like jail, right?” the voice was reasonable, assuring, male, but she kept quiet, not willing to risk it quite yet. “Most jails are nicer than this though, but you tend to have large bunkmates who want to get to know you better, if you know what I mean. They take away your cool toys, too.”

“I’ve never been to jail,” her voice came to her ears and she was so startled she actually jumped, and cursed inside her head. The demon had snuck up and gotten control of her while she was standing there scared. The tail around her waist tightened in response to her jump, showing that she was definitely on the right train of thought.

“That right? Good to know you decided to join the conversation,” the vamp said, “I was starting to run out of stuff to say about our nation’s fine prison system. They don’t tend to like vampires all that much. You got a name?”

“Raven,” her mouth said, and she silently thanked the demon for not giving out her real name. Generally it reserved that pleasure for people they were about to kill.

“Gee Raven, that’s a pretty…your parents hippies or something? Mine’s Sam. Sammy to my friends. Samuel to my enemies,” the vamp joked, and she heard what sounded like pockets being rifled through, and suddenly was blinded by a match touching to a cigarette, throwing her hands up in front of her face. A tiny candle came next, putting the man in a pool of soft yellowed light. He was staring at her like she might grow another head; long brown hair framing a stubbled face, thick slightly chapped lips, and a long noble nose. He was dressed in a simple t-shirt and jeans, both black, with a radiation symbol across his chest in yellow, a dirty brown leather trenchcoat beside him where presumably the candle, cigs, and match had come from. Unlike most vamps he wasn’t bone thin, atrophied, instead more full bodied, thick at the chest and waist, a slight stomach seen under his shirt. Almost healthy, if pale.

“You got a tail,” he breathed, and she yanked it behind her, once again in majority control of herself. The tail lashed back and forth behind her, straining against her grip, then finally relented and went mostly still. It still waved back and forth in slow arcs, like a holding pattern, but that was better than before.

“Yeah,” Raven said stupidly, blushing, at a general loss for words. How do you explain to someone that you’re sharing your skin with a demon that came across you on a back road in Indiana when you were drunk out of your mind? “But only sometimes.”

“Hey, it’s okay, I got a pooka friend with ears you could drive a Mack truck through. We all got our quirks,” Sam said, tapping a little ash off his cig. He took a long drag, and rubbed his eyes. “You don’t eat people by any chance?”

“Well…no, not really,” she hedged. Occasionally she did, but lately only if they wore the same size shoes as her. The vamp yawned, and smiled at her, then laid back on his wadded up jacket, and took a final smoke before mashing out the cigarette against the floor. He blew out the candle and stuffed it in a pocket, leaving her blind again in the darkness.

“Good. Wake me when the sun’s down, okay? I doubt anyone’ll be by before then.”

And then she was, for all intents and purposes, alone again in the room, falling asleep herself a few minutes later.

****************************

Sam was peering at her when she woke up, squatted down about a foot from her face, straddling her stuck out legs, a curious expression on his face. He smiled when her eyes came open, but didn’t move back, until she finally gave him a little push, the vampire still smiling. She saw the door to their little dungeon was wide open, and when he held out his hand to help her up she gratefully took it, using him to steady herself a little on her tired legs. The demon wasn’t making a peep inside her head, quiet as a door mouse, and she wondered suspiciously why it wasn’t already hungering for the people in the other room.

They both exited, unescorted, through the bar and out into the street, Sam smiling to himself walking beside her. Once they were through the club the street revealed that it was raining again, but with the crush of humanity inside the building she didn’t want to chance staying inside – especially once they found out that she wasn’t a vampire. Invoking Sanctuary was a right reserved just for bloodsuckers.

“You want out of this stuff?” Sam asked, leaning over her – now that he was bathed in bright neon rather than sickly flame, she noticed again how tall and broad shouldered he was, with that slight tummy nudging against his t-shirt when he stood up straight. She nodded, and he took her hand, swinging it happily as he walked with long strides, forcing her to scurry to keep up. She looked around at the landscape as they moved past, watching the neighborhood get a little nicer, then a little more artsy, moving into the Soho district, where it seemed that the city here, at least, really didn’t sleep.

Sam unlocked the front door of a tall apartment building, then pulled her into the next elevator to arrive, still keeping hold of her hand as if she might bolt any second. In truth she was a little scared now, especially with the devil being so quiet, but if he’d wanted to hurt her he could’ve done it last night, and blamed it on the frenzy.

They finally made it to his apartment, and he bowed low in front of her, gesturing inside. Raven stepped hesitantly in, then gawked at the books lining the walls, filling the room, scarcely noticing the door closing behind her and Sam’s heavy footsteps. He set a hand on her shoulder, and she looked back and up to him, then to the books again, mouth agape. There had to be even more in the boxes scattered across the room, and enormous collection of fire hazards that rivaled most libraries she’d seen.

“Nice, huh?” he asked, moving past her to look out a tall window at the view of the streets below, people moving to and fro. “I like to read, when I’m home.”

“Very nice,” she breathed, stepping over to a wall filled with what looked like horror and sci-fi, next to a bookcase devoted entirely to Reader’s Digests. She kept her eyes roaming, touching the spines of the volumes all around her, reading off books on mass murderers, shark anatomy, how to make dolls, everything she figured a vampire would want to read about, and a few things (the dolls book, really) that she would have never guessed. Many were first editions, collected over what she guessed was this vampire’s lifetime so far.

She started at his hand on her shoulder again, and felt the demon stir within her at her alarm, but though she calmed looking at the vampire’s eyes, the devil did not. She felt her skin splitting along her shoulder blades, and Raven let out a short whimper at the pain of it.

“Oh, it’s all right,” Sam said to her, petting her hair with his other hand, “It really feels pretty good once I’m in.”

Her eyes widened along with his mouth, catching the sight of stark white pointed teeth just before they tore into the side of her neck, and she knew that the demon’s wings were bursting out of her back, the tail ripping through after them, but her mind was a delicious fog, making her weak kneed.

She panted, her breath coming in little gasps of air, and her body was trembling, as much from shock and the demon struggling as the waves of pleasure coursing through her. A vampire’s kiss was supposed to block out the pain, but she never knew that it was like this! She grabbed fistfuls of his hair, her body shaking even more, bliss concentrated at her neck. His hands roamed over her skin, plucking at the strings of her corset, his fingernails slicing through, letting it fall off of her so he could hold her breasts on his fingers.

She let out a small moan as he pinched one of her nipples, pulling it out and away from her body as far as he could without hurting her too badly, giving it a little twist before letting it spring back close to her. He took his mouth from her neck and gave it a long lick with his tongue before moving down to her chest, leaving a long wet trail of blood. He painted around her right nipple with his tongue, before taking it into his mouth and sucking on it, his teeth puncturing her skin again, and she stiffened, the demon’s wings flapping weakly behind her. The devil was no longer snarling, it was in fact silent, leaving her to this other monster.

She felt Sam’s fingers trail down her stomach, splaying out against her belly and dipping down under the elastic band of her skirt, then her panties, sliding down until he could cup her sex, sucking greedily at first one breast and then the other as he massaged her with his palm. He left the dots on her breasts to bleed as he lowered his mouth, pulling down all the lace from her body with his free hand as he slipped a finger inside of her. Her pussy tightened around him, her breathing even more rapid, and she shook her head like a drunk as he touched his tongue to her clit, swallowing the little bud in his mouth, teeth scraping against her flesh.

The wings and tail retreated back into her body, and though she was holding his hair and pulling she could no sooner move a mountain than Sam’s head, even if some small part of her still wanted to. He was teasing and sucking, never coming up for air, working another finger inside of her, and Raven moaned more, even though her breasts hurt and blood was still running down her chest.

And then the teeth were there again, and he was sucking in blood along with her clit. Colors exploded behind her eyes as she arched her back and legs, muscles tightening. And then he was holding her up under her arms, his tongue bathing across her nipples, sealing the wounds he’d made, and he laid her down on the floor, on top of her skirt and ruined corset.

She felt weak and helpless, more than she ever had before after sex, and knew that it must be the blood loss. Her fingers were tingling as if they were asleep, and he left her for a moment to return with a blanket. She was still very cold, her teeth chattering. He stripped off his clothes and laid down beside her, flush and warm from her blood running through him, and snuggled in close, warming her up little by little.

Raven turned her head towards him, still weak and sluggish, and slowly blinked as she tried to get his image to focus again. The demon was rousing in her mind as well, seemingly as tired and spent as she was. The vampire was smiling like a Cheshire cat, ear to ear, his hair mixing with hers on the floor. She covered her chest with her arm, and her crotch with her hand, suddenly feeling more vulnerable now, in the afterglow, than she had been when he’d had his fingers inside her. He gave the side of her mouth a soft kiss, and stroked her cheek, his skin fevered against the cool marble hers had become.

He left again and came back with chocolate and milk, feeding them to her to get her blood sugar back up, to help with the shock of losing blood. In truth she hadn’t lost anymore than she’d normally lose giving blood at a hospital, but the method had been very different than normal, to say the least. The demon was gurgling happily to itself like a baby.

Sam fed her chocolate, setting it on her tongue and letting her melt it in her mouth, letting her drink milk from a fluted wine glass – as if it came from something higher than a cow. A few minutes of this and Raven was feeling much less woozy, sitting up and dragging the blanket with her, surveying her now ruined stolen corset. Even if she did get string to lace it up again, there were places on the back that were so badly ravaged by the demon’s wings that she’d never be able to repair it.

Sam pressed his body against hers from behind, raining down soft kisses on her shoulders, and she shifted away from him. He made a surprised grunt as she elbowed him, and turned her face so he could at least look in one of her eyes. He kissed her right at the corner of her eyelid where it melded into the skin close to her nose, forcing her to close them, then quickly moved his mouth back to her neck again, just under her ear, letting his teeth scratch across the epidermis. Instant shivers rushed through her, and she leaned back into him, pliant, letting the blanket fall from her arms to the floor. He cupped her breasts, kneading them, and let his teeth enter her slowly again, making her gasp and arch again in pleasure. It wasn’t like the initial pleasure from last time, it was more as an aftershock, and she moaned.

She felt her body lift, and they both fell back, slowly, her skin sliding along the length of his. She left his penis draw down her spine, then her ass, until it laying back against her groin. He spread her lips with one hand and began to slide between them, the head and shaft of his cock rubbing against her entire pussy, stroking her clit, and she moaned again, scratching at the skin of his she could reach.

He entered her with one down then backward thrust, and began pumping with a slow rhythm that matched the drawing of blood at her throat, and she thrust back against him, let out low whimpering moans, with one of his hands pulling at her nipples and the other lazily fingering her button. He began to drive into her faster, licking her wound closed again, increasing his rubbing to an almost frenzied pace, as she seated and bucked on top of him, Raven’s eyes wide but not really seeing anything.

She came again and he shuddered under her, holding her close to him as he gave a few more token thrusts inside her, then pulled her back with him again, letting his dick shrink inside of her until it finally left her, and though she could no sooner move than run a marathon right now he held her with an iron grip, snuggling his face into her hair. They stayed like that for a long while, him spooning to her as he fed her more chocolate, until gradually the light in the apartment began to brighten, coming around the edges of the pull down blinds. His hold loosened in increments until it went suddenly slack, his arm falling from her body, and he was as still and cool as marble again. She laid on him for a few minutes more, then rolled off and scrambled away, holding the blanket around her tight, covering even her head. The demon was laughing hard now, loud enough that she wanted to clap her hands over her ears, not that it would do any good. She dropped the blanket and started hunting through the apartment for a shower, finding one behind the second door she opened. She unlaced her boots and climbed inside.

She turned up the water as hot as she could stand it, then almost freezing cold, alternating again and again until she felt in control of herself once more. She cleaned herself mechanically, methodically, and after another hour she was finished, toweling herself off and wrapping the terry cloth around her as she prowled through Sam’s home. She wouldn’t be able to go outside in just the lace top, and her skirt was a total loss. At least she still had her shoes.

She found a big t-shirt with some sort of computer company logo on it, and a thick grey sweater, and safety pinned a pair of boxers so that they wouldn’t slide off her hips, belting on a pair of jeans that she had to roll up the cuffs on over four times. A pair of long tube socks went all the way up to her knees, and over these she laced up the boots, unwilling to abandon them without anything to replace them yet, no matter how strange she might look. The overall effect was that she was around eight years old and dressing from her father’s closet, but at this point Raven didn’t really care. The devil was at least down to a low giggle in her head, which was highly unbecoming to an agent of hell, she was sure.

She covered Sam back up with the blanket, and took his trench coat, locking his door with the key she found in the pocket. This last thing she slid back under the door’s weather stripping, then went down the elevator, and out into the daylight, letting it warm her skin. In one of his pockets she found his wallet, and the rumble in her stomach told her that she knew just what she was going to buy first.

No, technically she didn’t have to eat, but when a vampire was paying, how could you refuse a little Russian Tea Room hospitality? After all, there was sugar in vodka, right?

THE END