Hazel held the red rose close to her heart, Amy loved roses. She fought back a tear as she knelt beside a grave. She had to set things right.
With a final caress to the marble, Hazel stood up.
She was about to turn back and leave when she saw a woman in a black dress with a white hat emerge out of a crypt. The woman saw Hazel looking at her. Hazel was rooted to the spot - never had she felt an attraction this strong, not even with Tess. She gazed for long into the woman's eyes. And then she remembered herself. She shook her head and blinked once. When she looked again, the mysterious woman was gone, vanished as if she were just an illusion.
Hazel chided herself and left the cemetery. She boarded the bus and sat at the back. The ride was a long one. A few minutes into the journey, she heard a soft moan from the seat behind her. It was the same woman in black and there was a girl with her, a ginger-head. They were making out oblivious to all those around them. The woman noticed Hazel watching her and looked straight into her eyes, the girl too turned to face her. It was Tess. Hazel stared, transfixed at the entwined pair. The bus jolted when it hit a bump in the road, and made her blink. When she looked again, there was no one there. She stared hard at the empty seats. Surely they had been there just a second ago. She could never have imagined it. It was too vivid.
She crossed the huge dark living room, and went up the ornate stairs. She arrived at a long hallway. There were rooms all long the corridor. The third room on the left. It was instinctive. She went in. The room was an exact replica of her bedroom back in her apartment. And on the bed was Tess, naked, and touching herself.
The high of the orgasm cleared up, leaving her even more hungry. Tess lay besides her catching her breath, her perked up nipples stabbed the air each time she inhaled. But Hazel sought something more. The woman from the cemetery. What was she? A mere phantom of her imagination? She wished she were there. She wished she'd take her like she did Tess in her dreams.
The door opened. Hazel turned her neck to see who it could be. It was the woman. Her dark hair streamed past her pale shoulders, her lips - red as blood would have riveted Hazel but it was the silver-grey eyes that enthralled her. Hazel wanted her. She wanted the woman to take her. It wasn't a carnal desire. It was something more, something primal. A longing in her very soul.
The woman in black, pulled at a knot and the silk dress she wore melted off her body and puddled on the floor. Hazel held her breath watching the pale skinned beauty climb on to the bed and lie besides her. Hazel expected a blast of heat from her but all she felt was a vacuum, drawing her towards it, like a moth to the flames.
Hazel leaned to kiss the blood-red lips. The moment she touched the lips, the room shifted. It was darker now, the mattress was softer and the bed, bigger. But no Tess. Tess, the name echoed inside her head. Who is Tess? She tried to remember, but it felt like peering into a muddy pond in the middle of a moonless night, futile. The effort sapped her will and focus. Only the persistent need remained.
The woman's kiss was soft and insistent. Hazel yielded readily. She revelled in the invasion of her mouth and the submission of her tongue. Hazel let the woman take her. A cool hand cupped her searing hot sex. The contrast only made the heat from her own body that much more intense.
Hazel embraced the woman, urging her closer. The cold, hard nipples crashed into her warm flesh. Smooth and soft, yet Hazel could sense the hard muscles beneath the woman's skin. But that was as far as her thoughts remained coherent. Two fingers teased apart her nether lips, sliding up and down the slick pink flesh, while the pads of the palm massaged the clit gently yet firm. A finger penetrated her. Hazel shuddered. The finger delved deeper into her sopping vagina. Hazel moaned in to the the woman's mouth, the warmth of her breath was consumed the second it left her.
The woman broke the addictive kiss. Hazel opened her eyes. Hazel hadn't touched her and yet the woman seemed to be in rapture, as if Hazel's very presence was giving her a rush. But Hazel was far too gone to think now. The woman lowered her mouth to Hazel's breast and sucked on it. Sparks splintered form the nipple under assault and spread down her torso, joining the fireworks that the woman's fingers were setting off inside her sex.
Hazel arched her back, drawn taut by the sensations that blitzed through her body. It was as if the woman was waiting for this. She let go of Hazel's breast and clamped down on the fully stretched neck.
Fear, and desire erupted in equal measures. Hazel, at that instant, understood what was happening but it just a fraction of a second of total clarity brought on by fear. It was lost just as fast, plunging her back into the wanton haze. She felt the throb of her pulse where the mystery woman was kissing. It resonated with the one in her vagina.
The woman swept Hazel's hair away from her neck. And then it came. It was pure bliss, nothing like anything she had ever had. Not on her own, not with Tess. It was drawing her very life out of her, merging it with something ancient and powerful. She didn't writhe, just a silent gasp of surprise. Her pupils dilated and yet all she saw was blackness. It was cold.
*
Hazel opened her eyes. By all rights it should have been dark - pitch black but she could see as clearly as in daylight. The ceiling was low at about eight feet, and it had murals painted all over it. They were of a woman in various settings. She seemed to be a queen or something. People bowed or knelt before her in all the different settings. What was this place? She looked around her, the walls were close too. It seemed like an empty store room of some sort. Why would anyone paint murals in a store room? She sat up. Her hands were on a marble platform. She got off it to see it better.
It was coffin. She backed against the wall, fast. This was a sepulchre. She panicked and looked for a way out. There was stone door, sealed shut. She couldn't get out through that. She screamed hoping to attract someone's attention. Something shimmered through the door. She mistook it for sunlight at first but then the shimmering stopped and a figure solidified, a woman. She was wearing black. Was it her? She backed away fast.
"Amy?"
The woman looked at her with both pity and scorn, a look that only a sibling can give you.
"I saw your scribbling on my headstone. Touching."
"Amy?"
"I think we've already established that."
"You are dead."
"Give the girl a golden star."
It was Amy. But did that mean...?
"Am I dead?"
"Technically, yes."
"Technically? What does that mean? Am I having some out of body experience? Did I have an accident as well?"
Amy laughed. "That's cute, sis. But you are in deep shit, you know."
Hazel stepped up to Amy. It was then she realised that her sister looked insubstantial. She placed her hands on her shoulder expecting it to pass through her but it rested on her. She however felt the same coldness she had felt when the woman had kissed her. She backed away again.
"Haze, remember that woman you were drooling at when you visited my grave?"
Hazel would have protested but her sister was right. So she merely nodded.
"She's a vampire. A very old one at that."
"A vampire?"
"You banged her, didn't you? Or was her who banged you?"
"So, she killed me?"
"Nope. She did worse."
"Worse than being dead? That's not possible."
"Tell me, Haze. Can you see clearly in here?"
"Yes."
"So didn't you wonder how? There's no light inside. And no light can get inside either. Don't you think that's a little weird?"
Being locked up inside a tomb was weird. Talking to her dead sister was weird. Being able to see didn't rank as high in the list of weirdness.
"And you have a cool scar on your neck by the way."
Hazel felt her neck. There it was on the left side of her neck, two small slightly raised bumps.
"Ames... Am I... Am I a vampire?"
"Finally. I knew there was reason we were related."
"That's a good thing, right? I'm not dead then."
"Hello? I just told you were in deep shit, remember?"
Hazel looked blank. She was not dead. She was moving about and talking. It was to her dead sister but still that was something.
"The hot vampire chick you banged. She has your spark, your soul. You need to get it back."
"My soul?"
"Stop repeating stuff. Just listen. You need to dig up my grave and take a small piece of me with you, my pinky would do. That way I can do where ever you go. Oh, and you have to wait till sundown. Go out now and you will get the world's worst case of sun burn, ever."
Hazel was processing what her sister had told her. It was crazy.
"How did I end up back here?"
"You never left the cemetery. You were all teary and emotional. Easy prey for a vampire to glamour you into their lair."
Hazel looked at the marble coffin. She dropped her voice to a whisper.
"Is she in there?"
"Nah. She's like this grand poompa of the vampire circle. You don't expect her to hang around here all day, do you? The only thing I don't get is, why did she turn you instead of draining you?"
"You are worried that she didn't kill me."
Amy shrugged "I could have used the company. The guys around here are all old farts. Not exactly fun. Do you want my help getting your soul back or not?"
Hazel wasn't sure. What if all this was another hallucination too? There was only one way to find out. She had to get outside. She needed to call Tess. She would be worrying about her. She ought to text her. My mobile! She searched the floor for her clutch. It wasn't there.
"If you are looking for your mobile, it's lying just outside."
"I need to call Tess."
"Yeah. And what will you tell her?"
"Can you open the door?"
"Sis, you're a friggin' vampire. You can punch open the stupid door whenever you want. Tell me you tried to push open the door before you went all banshee?"
Hazel looked sheepish.
"Well, that settles it. You'll stick to my original plan - Get out after sunset, dig a piece of me out, and go kick some vampire butt."
*