Sips of Blood Part 6

"Dracula's Lair?"

"A Goth place. It's a place where people who are into the darker side of life go." Lucy said this with sophistication.

"Certainly not a place for me," Sade said. "However, I would like to hear more about it."

All the way back to the car Lucy educated Sade about the Goth life. "It may be silly to you, but one never knows when one may meet a dark spirit, like a werewolf or a vampire."

"Do you still want to drive?" Sade had the car keys in his hand.

"Honestly, I'm way too tired."

Not tired enough to keep still on their ride to New Jersey.

"I plan on going to France my junior year. Do you ever go back?"

"It has been many years. Ah, mais I feel that soon I will."

"You have family there?"

"No, the ones I am close to are here."

Lucy c.o.c.ked her head to the side in order to lean against the car door. Sade glanced over and noticed two ruby dots on her neck. She had been playing at vampire, but he did not play games.

"You've gone way to far!"

"Pardonnez-moi?"

"You've pa.s.sed the exit for Jersey City a while back."

"Je m'excuse. Perhaps a little farther up we will find a place to stop and check a map."

Sade pulled into an empty parking lot and drove around to the back of the office building.

"Please, look in the glove compartment; I should have a map there." He stopped the car, and Lucy fumbled to open the glove compartment.

"It's either locked or stuck."

"What is this?" Sade asked, reaching out to touch the pseudo puncture wounds. "You like donner ton sang?" His fingers skimmed her neck in search of her carotid.

"Oh, those things. It's kind of a s.e.xy idea to be bitten on the neck and become someone's s.e.x slave."

"An idea that can well become true if you so wish."

He drew an arm about her, and she did not shy away. He stared into her round painted eyes and invited her into his world. She moved closer to him and gently his grip tightened. Her fingers touched his smile. He slid his lips down her fingers and kissed the palm of her hand. The smell of sugar and chocolate penetrated his senses. The odor of human fear hid under the sweets. But it was there, and he had to move before she could regain her senses.

Quickly he moved to her neck; she screamed and hunched a shoulder. Taking his right arm from around her shoulders, he used his right hand to grab a hank of her hair and pulled her head back.

Suddenly she was out the door running toward the front of the building, her head covered with bobby pins and clips.

"Sacrebleu!" Sade looked at the droopy wig he held in his hand. He threw it to the floor like a dead rat. His hands were stained and slippery. She had obviously used a cheap die to attain the deep ebony color.

Should he chase her? he wondered. He would definitely be swifter than she. He looked down at the wig lying in a puddle-like ma.s.s. Somehow his appet.i.te for this girl's blood had been vanquished by a head of hair.

"A fake Goth," he muttered, starting up the car and driving out of the parking lot onto the freeway. A car had already stopped for the girl, and she was too busy hesitating to go near that car to notice Sade drive by.

Chapter 13.

Sade couldn't bear the feel of the black dye on his hands, not to mention the fact that the dye was streaking his steering wheel. He pulled the car into the parking lot of an all-night diner. Once inside the diner he headed straight for the men's room.

"Hey, our rest rooms are just for customers," a male voice yelled out.

Sade didn't bother to turn to look at the man.

"Fine! Pour me a cup of coffee." He pushed open the door to the men's room and was sorry he had. A stench of vomit hit him immediately, and the person responsible was not finished yet, as Sade could tell from the retching inside the single stall.

After turning on the tap water, Sade spilled some liquid soap into his palm. Before putting down the bottle he spilled a bit more. A little water and voila, soapy foam covered both his hands. Perhaps I took too much, he thought as he worried about getting the slippery, smelly soap off his hands. He knew, however, that he often did things in the extreme.

He heard the stall door open.

"Imbibe a bit too much, monsieur?"

"No, food poisoning."

"Ah! You must be married."

"Why do you say that?"

"Already you are thinking up excuses."

"It's true. I couldn't have had more than a couple of gla.s.ses of wine. And perhaps one or two martinis before dinner."

"Port? Cognac?"

"Just one snifter at the end of the meal."

"Sounds like food poisoning." Sade made room for the man at the sink. He glanced at the man's profile and then looked into the mirror to see the man's face in full. Even beneath the dripping water that the man was splas.h.i.+ng on his face, Sade could see the incredible similarity.

"The British espece de cretin, Stuart."

"Excuse me." The man crossed in front of Sade to retrieve some paper towels from the machine.

"Stuart?"

The man tossed the soaked paper towels into the trash. "Are you speaking to me?"

"I am Louis. Louis Sade. And your name?"

"David Petry." The man put out his hand to shake Sade's.

"Incredible," Sade said, ignoring the proffered hand. "You look so much like someone I met once."

"Just once? He must have made a strong impression on you."

"He changed my niece's life."

"Oh! I didn't do it, whatever it is."

"If I thought you had I'd..." Sade thought for several seconds. "You look tres pale. You don't look like you should be driving."

"I'll hang around for a while before I drive home."

"Anyone waiting for you?"

"That wife thing again. Naw, single. Used to have a hound, but he ran away. Must have found a better home someplace else. At least that's what I hope happened."

"You like animals? My niece has a rabbit that she refuses to feed from."

"She won't cook it and eat it?"

"So to speak." Sade was thinking about what a better meal David would make. There was an edge to Sade's hunger, but this mortal could potentially bring Liliana back into the fold of vampirism. "Perhaps she would change her mind if you came home with me. Besides, you do not look well, and I am not sure a brief rest will make you whole."

"Wait a second. Are you asking me to go home with you so that I can talk your niece into cooking a rabbit?"

"No, into feeding."

"She anorexic?"

"In a way, yes."

"I think she needs a psychiatrist more than an accountant. Good luck, though." David reached for the door k.n.o.b.

"Wait! I would feel, how you say, guilty if I didn't do something to a.s.sist you."

"I'll be fine. Don't worry about me. Sounds more like your daughter--"

"Niece."

"Niece is the one who could use your help."

"That's what I'm trying to do. Help both of you."

"Don't need any." David opened the door and exited.

Sade looked into the mirror. "Where is your charm, your charisme, your savoir-faire?"

Sade stormed out of the men's room.

"Hey, here's your coffee." The man behind the counter waved with a dish towel. He had practically no hair on his head, and his features seemed to resemble a clown's. His eyebrows were too bushy, his nose too red, bulbous and pitted; his mouth turned downward in a sulk.

"Coffee? I don't drink coffee, monsieur."

"Oh no you don't. That jerk before you ducked out without ordering, not you too. Pay for the coffee you ordered."

"I would gladly pay for something to drink, but I fear that you and I would differ over the price to be paid."

"I got this menu here." The counter man tossed a stained plastic-coated paper on the counter. "Even got a Gallo jug under the counter."

"Gallo? No Chateau Lafite?"

"Whatever you said we don't have. At least it doesn't sound familiar."

Sade walked to the counter and picked up the menu.

"No, I don't see what I enjoy to drink on the menu."

"I'm sure I can come up with something."

"Yes. Yes you can." Sade leaped over the counter and grabbed the man around the throat. When the man reached behind him to find a weapon, Sade grabbed his wrist and broke the arm over his knee. There was a high-pitched scream before Sade jammed his thumb into the man's voice box.

Sade cleaned up in the ladies' room. The soft pink tiles and the smell of menstrual blood was far preferable to the stink of the men's room. Neatly Sade cleaned the counter man's blood from his lips. He rinsed his mouth several times to eliminate any blood stain that might be on his teeth.

The meal may not have had the delicacy Sade preferred, but it certainly had been sating.

Sade remembered the name. David Petry. He used his limited-edition hand-painted Namiki fountain pen to write the name on the cuff of his s.h.i.+rt. He meant to replace the s.h.i.+rt anyway; besides, this way he wouldn't lose the name.

He walked back to the dining area, over to the counter, where he left money for the coffee, then went to the door, flipped the "open" sign to "closed", and left.

"You must be fully cognizant of the death you are going to undergo: this perverse blood has got to be made to seep out of you..."

Justine.

by the Marquis de Sade.

Chapter 14.