Bloodsucker

She stared, recognizing him from the picture she had seen in the case file. "Darren? Is that you? Darren Vonn?"

Darren stepped further into the room and smiled...showing a set of fangs. There was a mirror in the study, and Krista could see that he was not reflected in it. "Holy shit, a real vampire..."

The vampire smiled wider. "Yes. A nightmare come true."

"What did you do with Carl? Where is he?" she demanded.

"Nothing. It was my uncle who took care of him. Anton, the elder vampire."

"And my friends? Zach and Willie?" Joey said from under the desk.

"That was I," said Darren in an emotionless voice.

"You fucker!" Joey shot the vampire in the chest, but the creature simply stood there and smirked as the wound instantly healed. Joey fired again, aiming for the head. A neat 9mm hole appeared in the vampire's forehead for an instant, then immediately healed as well. "What the fuck...how can you... no way..."

"That would kill a zombie, but I'm a vampire. Our healing powers are..."

Darren's head suddenly exploded in a gory burst of red and brown goo as Krista's powerful.44 magnum round slammed into it. "Try healing from THAT," she said as the headless corpse slumped down.

She turned to Joey. "You all right?"

"Y...yes, Miss Krista." He couldn't stop staring at the decapitated vampire body.

She went over and helped him out from under the desk. "You were very brave. And you can just call me Krista, without the Miss."

"T...thanks, Mi...I mean Krista. So what do we do now?"

"We still need to find a way to call for help. Come on, let's keep searching the mansion."

"What about Anton, the elder vampire? He's still out there..."

Krista patted her revolver. "If he tries to get in our way, I'll blow his head off too."

They searched all the remaining downstairs rooms one by one, always hypervigilant for a vampire ambush and jumping at every little sound. But they found nothing - nothing that could help them and no sign of Anton.

"Come on," said Krista. "Let's go search upstairs."

"U...upstairs?" stammered Joey. "That's where..."

She turned and grasped his hand comfortingly, looking straight into his eyes, as he was the same height as her. "I know that's where your friends were killed. And I'm sorry it has to be this way. But we need to find something that can help us, and we can't get separated. I'd tell you to wait outside, but it's a cloudy day and Vampire Anton wouldn't have any problem going out there. We have to do it. If you need a few minutes, we can wait."

He swallowed hard. "No, I'm ready."

She smiled and squeezed his hand. "Come on. Let's put an end to this wannabe Dracula's reign of terror."

Krista led the way up the staircase, Joey right behind her. The stairs creaked loudly as they ascended them, adding to the atmosphere of dread.

There were four bedrooms upstairs. They searched them one by one, finding nothing of use in the first three. When they reached the closed door to the fourth, Joey paused. "That's old Anton's master bedroom. I bet he's in there."

"Maybe. Maybe not," Krista whispered back. "Only one way to find out." Gripping her revolver tightly, the muscles in her tanned forearm standing out at full strain next to the rolled-up sleeve of her white blouse, she kicked open the door.

The room appeared as abandoned as the others. In the center of the large bedroom sat a fancy-looking king-size bed with four elegant wooden bedposts. A desk, chair, and several chests of drawers, all expensive and antique-looking, lined one wall. On the other side was a closet door, firmly shut.

Krista nodded at the closet, motioning for Joey to follow close behind her. They approached it cautiously, guns at the ready. She reached out, her.44 in her right hand, then suddenly yanked the door open with her left. Except for several heavy winter coats, it was empty.

Joey breathed a sigh of relief, then frowned. "What are we going to do now?"

Krista's eyes traveled from the view out the window of the western sky to the coats in the closet. "Look." She pointed out the window. "There's a break in the clouds. In a little while, the sun should be shining through the gap. When there's sunlight, we'll make a break for it out the window." She then pointed to the coats. "And if we have those on, we should be able to deal with the cold."

"It'll still be dark in a few hours, long before we could make it back to town..." Joey said.

"I know. But if Vampire Anton tries to ambush us in the woods, we have weapons. It's the best chance we've got. We can't stay in here forever. Now help me barricade the door."

They moved some of the heavy antique furniture against the bedroom door. Krista looked out the window again. "Now all we have to do is wait."

"My least favorite part," said Joey. He shivered from fear as he looked at the door. "Sorry."

"Don't apologize. You're too young to get mixed up in something like this."

"I'm not that young. I'm eighteen. I'm going to go to college, study science, finally get taken seriously instead of everyone thinking I'm just a punk kid obsessed with vampires...Well, if we can get out of this alive, I mean..."

Krista motioned for him to sit next to her on the bed and took his hand in hers. "We're not going down without a fight."

He smiled at her gratefully. "I'm just glad I'm not alone in here."

She smiled back. "You're not the only one." She leaned in and gave him a soft kiss on the lips. Seeing his stunned reaction, she kissed him again. This time, he got much more into it, kissing her back.

When they finally pulled apart, Krista asked, "Have you ever been with a woman, Joey?"

"N...no. I mean, just to second base. But I've never..."

She began undoing the buttons on her white blouse, silencing him. She wasn't wearing a bra and her firm 34C tits, perky enough that they didn't need one, became exposed, her nipples fully erect. "If we're going to die, it'd be a shame for you to go without experiencing a woman's body. And for me, I've been so busy with work that I haven't gotten off for a week. That's a LONG time for me, believe me." She finished removing her blouse, kicked off her boots, and took off her black leather pants, standing there in her lacy white panties, her tanned, hard six-pack abs looking great next to the white cloth.

"With how hot you are, I believe you." Joey, his heart pounding, removed his shirt. His small body was nice and tight and toned. She reached over and helped him unzip his pants, already feeling his throbbing hard-on underneath. Pulling his pants all the way down, she then yanked off his underwear, freeing his surprisingly impressive manhood.

"Six and a half inches. And nice girth," she said out loud. Seeing him staring, she added, "I've seen enough that I can measure just by looking. You're definitely not little where it counts."

"Um...thanks, I guess, Miss Krista." He was blushing furiously.

She giggled as she removed her panties, exposing her small bit of brown pubic hair neatly trimmed into a landing strip. "I told you, you can just call me Krista, without the Miss."

"I like the way Miss Krista sounds better. Makes you seem more...domme. I've always loved aggressive women."

"I can tell, honey." She suddenly threw him onto the bed, using her impressive strength to do so, then performed a cartwheel followed by a back flip to land on top of him. "Aggressive enough for you, baby?"

"Oh yes, Miss Krista. And those gymnastics moves...where did you learn all that? That's so hot that you're athletic enough to do that..."

"Oh, I was a dancer, honey. Any good female dancer will know how to do back flips. Now, enough talking. I'm going to give you a nice, hard fucking. You just lie back and enjoy it." She did a straddle press to lift her body up, showing off her impressive upper-body strength, then lowered herself onto his rock-hard cock.

"Yes, Miss Krista. Oh my God. Ooooohhhhh..." he moaned as she screwed him. He reached up and began playing with her round 34C breasts, tanned the same brown as the rest of her, as he continued to take his fucking. Her nipples were pointy and sharp.

She winked down at him. Then she increased the power of her vaginal muscles, really working his cock. "I do full-body workouts. And the vagina is a muscle too. Can't neglect it," she whispered huskily.

"I...I can tell," Joey grunted. He moaned in pleasure, then in pain as the pressure increased. "Aaahhhhhhh..."

"You like that, baby? I can tell." She increased the pace of the screwing, feeling herself get closer and closer to climax. She suddenly felt him stiffen inside her. "Not yet!" She slapped him hard across the face to delay his finish. "Just a few more seconds..."

Krista shrieked loudly as she came hard in one of the most powerful orgasms she'd ever had, her entire muscular body shuddering. That did it for Joey and he came a second later, shooting wave after wave of semen into her. When he was done, she did another straddle press to take herself off of him, rolled over, and lay next to him on the bed. She took his pale hand in her brown one. "Sorry for slapping you."

The post-nut clarity washed over Joey. "That's okay. It just made it more intense. That was amazing, Miss Krista."

She giggled. "Thanks. I get that a lot." Turning serious, she looked out the window. "It's almost time. Let's clean ourselves off and get dressed."

Just as Joey was zipping up his pants and Krista was buttoning up her blouse, there came the sound of footsteps in the hall. Coming closer and closer.

"Over there! Quick!" she whispered, motioning for Joey to wait behind the bed. He nodded, hurrying over and crouching down, his pistol in his hand. Krista stood several feet back from the door, aiming her revolver with a confident two-handed grip.

Again there came the banging and smashing on the door, just like what had happened downstairs seemingly so long ago. The crack appeared in the wood, growing larger and larger. Then the figure stepped into the bedroom, an old man, carrying a sword.

"Anton Vonn," she growled as she recognized him from his picture in the file.

"Yes. It is I."

Krista suddenly fired a shot at Anton's head. But the vampire had superhuman speed. There was a blur, then he reappeared, safely two feet to the side as the bullet thudded harmlessly into the wall behind him.

She fired again. This time, he simply deflected the bullet with his sword, sending it into the wooden side of the bed.

He began advancing on her. She fired her last three rounds, aiming for different points each time, but the superhumanly fast vampire was able to dodge or deflect each bullet. Some of the deflected ones came within inches of hitting her.

"AAAHHHHHHH!" Joey suddenly leapt up from behind the bed, firing his pistol at the vampire.

"No! Joey! Don't!" shouted Krista.

Anton reacted effortlessly, deflecting the bullets with his sword. One of them flew right into the center of Joey's torso. The teenage boy stood ramrod straight for a second, then collapsed to the floor, his empty pistol clattering down beside him.

"Noooooo!" cried Krista. She glared at Anton. "You fucker!"

The elder vampire smirked cockily. "My nephew was a fool. He let you catch him unaware. But I have brains to go along with my superhuman physical abilities." He suddenly leapt at her, flashing his blade. She gracefully backflipped onto the bed to avoid it.

Krista threw down her empty revolver, eyes darting wildly around the room for a weapon, as the vampire began advancing again. As her gaze passed over the bedposts, she suddenly nodded. A powerful kick from her booted foot broke the nearest one. She now had a makeshift club.

They dueled, his sword against her club. She parried his attacks as best she could, knowing it was only a matter of time. There was no way she could win against his superior strength and speed. Several times she came very close to being impaled or disemboweled, and only her lightning-quick back flips or cartwheels enabled her to avoid a gruesome death. Finally, however, a sudden kick to her arm from the vampire caused her to drop her weapon.

He jumped on top of her on the bed, pressing his blade against her throat. "An impressive performance...for a mortal. But you're no match for a vampire." He opened his mouth, showing his fangs. "Soon, however, you will experience vampire abilities firsthand. As my obedient vampire minion...and lover..."

"AAAAHHHHHH!" With the last of his strength, Joey stood up and struck Anton in the back of the head with his empty gun. The blow didn't hurt the vampire, but it distracted him for a split second. That was all Krista needed. She snatched up the broken wooden bedpost and impaled Anton in the center of his chest with the sharp, jagged end of the crude but brutally efficient makeshift stake. He let out a scream. Then his body crumbled away into dust.

"They always stop to gloat. It's like they just can't help themselves," she remarked out load.

Joey nodded, then toppled over onto his back.

"Noo! Joey!" Krista rushed over, kneeling down beside him. "I'll get you help..."

He smiled up at her faintly, speaking as if he'd gained decades of wisdom in a few minutes. "Come on, Krista. We both know it's terminal." He coughed up blood.

Tears formed in her blue eyes. "Thank you for the assist. You saved my life. I'm so sorry I couldn't save yours."

"You did...more than enough," he gasped out. "Thank you for making my first... and last...time so special..."

Joey's eyes closed, and he did not speak again.

"Noooooo!" Krista stood up and punched the nearby wall, leaving a fist-sized hole.

She looked down at the body. For the first time since she had met him, Joey's face had an expression of peace. She took several deep breaths to calm herself down. She couldn't lose control. Not now.

She picked him up. He wasn't that big, and with her strength she was able to handle his weight easily. She laid him neatly on the bed, covered his body with the blanket, and gave a soft, final kiss to his forehead. "Be at peace, Joey."

Krista looked out the window. The faint November sun was shining now, but her mind was no longer on escape. Not yet. She wasn't leaving until she made damn sure that Anton didn't have any more vampire minions roaming around. Joey, Carl, Zach, Willie...no one else should have to go through what had happened to them. Picking up her makeshift stake in one hand and the late Anton's sword in the other, she headed out of the bedroom, a determined look on her face.

Near the end of the upstairs hallway, she noticed something strange on the wall. Tucking her sword into her pants, she began fiddling with the wall section. After a few moments, there was a whirring noise and a panel slid open, revealing a hidden doorway with a secret staircase behind it. "Gotcha," she said.

The staircase was spiral-shaped and very narrow. It continued down past where the ground floor would be, although there was no exit to that level. It finally emerged into a large, empty basement. She began exploring it cautiously. There didn't seem to be anything there, but...

She remembered the secret door. Perhaps there was another one down here, too. She began checking the walls carefully.

It wasn't long before she found it. A secret panel opened up a new section of the basement. Inside was what looked like a fully equipped mad scientist's laboratory, along with several coffins. "What the..."

Suddenly, she sensed a presence behind her. She began turning around, but was hit hard on the head and slumped to the floor, unconscious.

* * *

Krista awoke with a terrible headache. Wanting to hold her head, she discovered that she was seated, tied to a chair, with her hands tied behind her back. Her ankles were bound to the legs of the chair.

A noise from across the room made her look up. She stared at the figure she saw, recognizing him. "Carl? How are you still..."

She froze as she noticed the nearby mirror...that Carl was not reflected in. She gulped as the realization hit her. "It was you all along, wasn't it. You were the mastermind, the true elder vampire. Not Anton or Darren."

"Correct, young lady," said Carl, turning towards her and showing his fangs for the first time. "A simple matter of slashing my own tires, and the ones on Zach's truck too, the first time we were separated. Then the old scream and disappear trick. Anton and Darren were merely my minions. After I turned them into vampires, of course. It was easy to bend them to my will. No one ever suspected me. Carl, the harmless caretaker? No way. Spooky old Anton was the vampire lord, he had to be." He chuckled.

"But why?" Krista demanded.

"Why?" Carl laughed. "The same reason anyone else throughout history who wanted to become a vampire desired it. To live forever." His voice was loud and aggressive, but she could detect the insecurity underneath.

"It was power, wasn't it," she said. "Your desire for power. You were indeed Carl the harmless caretaker. A lonely old man stuck in a small town. A small fish in a small pond. A man who had nothing, was going nowhere, and knew it all too well. It made you insecure, and that insecurity must have eaten away at you. Enough to make you turn a couple of regular guys into evil monsters and kill innocent kids." As she spoke, she began trying to loosen the bonds around her wrists, hidden behind her back.

"Shut up, bitch!" he shrilled angrily. He began advancing on her. "I merely took what I was rightfully entitled to, that which life denied me. Life isn't fair. I heard that a thousand times. Until finally I decided to turn it around and MAKE it fair for ME! I heard you upstairs with Joey. Giving that good- for-nothing punk kid sex, while you looked at me as if I was just a nobody, unworthy..."

She nodded as she continued loosening her ropes. "Ah, the stereotypical, sexually frustrated, lonely, jealous old man. A classic case."

Carl glared at her as he came closer. "No one's going to disrespect me anymore! I have all the power now!" He pointed to the laboratory equipment. "After all these years, after all that work...finally, I'm going to get the life I deserve."

"So how did you do it?" she asked, knowing that appealing to his ego would buy her time.

"I knew the old man well. When he was younger, Anton did a lot of research into vampires. But eventually, he got bored of it after not getting anywhere. So I decided to pick up where he'd left off. I started studying his papers, his experiments... Sometimes I'd even stay overnight in the mansion or make secret trips there, hiding in the basement. The old man never had a clue. Slowly but surely, I got closer and closer to the secret of becoming a vampire, the secret of immortality."

"Then one day, on one of my secret trips, I found that old Anton had kicked the bucket. Died peacefully in his sleep. This presented some new opportunities, but it also raised the issue of Darren, the nephew. I knew I had to get rid of him. Not only would it give me a chance to get the mansion for myself, it would also give me another body to work with. So I drove back to town and went straight to Darren's house. I told him that his uncle had died and asked him to come with me to the mansion, making sure he didn't have the chance to tell anyone where he was going. While Darren was in the old man's bedroom saying his final goodbyes, I snuck up behind him and strangled him to death with an extension cord. Then I dragged his corpse to the basement and put it in one of the coffins in the secret room."

"I waited until the day of my scheduled weekly visit to notify the authorities of Anton's death. I made sure everything was nice and clean. There was no danger, there was no reason for anyone to search the basement, and they wouldn't have found the secret room anyway. A couple of days later, I broke into the funeral home one night, stole Anton's body, drove it back to the mansion, and stashed it in a coffin next to Darren's. Now I had two bodies to work with, and with Anton's corpse disappearing, any vampire talk would be focused on him, not me."