“You didn’t like Sarah’s lovebite, then?”
I sighed as Jackie Harris sat down at the bar next to me. Everyone had wound me up about my encounter with Sarah Mayhew and now it looked like the telesales supervisor was going to have a go, even though it had happened over a week ago.
Perhaps having the office Christmas party in a pub that was having a ‘Dracula’ theme, where everyone was competing for the fifty pound prize by coming as the best dressed vampire, had presented a good opportunity.
“What’s left to be said? She’s your best friend. I’d have thought she’d have told you everything.”
She smiled sadly. “Not exactly best friends anymore. We’ve had a bit of a…falling out. Because I’m also her supervisor, I have to discipline her if she screws up like anyone else who works under me. She didn’t accept that, and we haven’t spoken since. I’ve only heard bits and pieces from my workmates, so fill me in, Mark.”
“Not a lot to tell. We met up after work, went out and got pissed, ended up at her place and had sex. During which, she bit me.”
“Not a very erotic way of telling a story,” she shook her head in mock disapproval. “I heard she gave you a lovebite in a very…sensitive area.”
“Bloody painful it was too,” I replied. “My nose swelled up for days.”
Jackie frowned. “Nose? I thought she bit you – “
“Down below?” I laughed. “Is that what she told you? Thankfully, no. Where is Sarah tonight, anyway? She’s never been one to turn down a party.”
“I’m not sure,” she replied. “She didn’t turn up for work today. Didn’t even phone in sick.”
I frowned. Not like Sarah.
And neither was Jackie Harris. Because I was the delivery driver I didn’t get to see much of the office staff, and I’d never had many dealings with Jackie. I’d only seen the thirty year old divorcee in the end office, slaving over a hot telephone trying to get some much needed orders for the company. This was probably the closest I’d ever been to her.
And she was stunning. Tall, well proportioned, with shoulder length blonde hair which she’d dyed black for the occasion. She’d made a real effort with her costume. A long black evening dress clung tightly to her arms and curvy body before flowing outwards to the floor like a dark, glistening river. It had a split down one side, revealing long, shapely legs clad in sheer black nylons and black leather knee length boots. When she turned around to order a drink from the bar I noticed that the back of her dress had a mesh panel with a spider’s web embroidered in black lace. She’d painted her heart-shaped face white, with black lipstick and eye make-up. Frighteningly realistic fangs adorned her upper incisors, and her hazel eyes shone with warmth and intelligence, acknowledging the interest I was taking in her.
“You didn’t bother with the fancy dress, then,” she said.
I looked around me. The landlord had told me that this theme had been Jackie’s idea, and she’d persuaded him to turn the small pub into a vampire’s lair for one evening. It wasn’t very festive. Black crepe paper covered the cramped tables, held down with candles that dribbled black wax around the plastic skull candleholders. Fake cobwebs adorned the optics and the pumps behind the bar, and Jackie had even supplied a signed photo of Gary Oldman as Bram Stoker’s eternal Count.
All the regulars, which were mostly people from work anyway, had made the effort. The women were wearing similar clothes to Jackie, but not one of them pulled it off as well as she did. Some of the guys from accounts had come in dark mourning suits from a bygone era, while the three sales reps had dressed in floor length capes that were fast becoming covered in fag ash and spilt beer, top hats precariously balanced on their heads. I looked at my plain black shirt and jeans, smiled, and replied: “Not my scene, I’m afraid.”
She laughed and leaned closer. A conspiratorial finger beckoned me nearer.
“Perhaps Sarah should have bitten you properly. You might have felt more of a vampire then.”
I shuddered at the reminder. Sarah had responded to my howls of pain by trying to give me a lovebite on the neck, but I was having none of it. I’d walked out, puzzled by her muttering “God, she’s going to kill me.” I’ve never liked lovebites, anyway. For some people they enhance the pleasure of sex, a slight pain heightening the sensations received during lovemaking. Some like to take the flesh between their teeth and suck strongly, breaking the little blood vessels beneath the skin and leaving an instantly identifiable bruise. And some like to use their teeth, drawing blood with a gentle nip…or not so gently. But I’ve never liked it, I told Jackie.
“It’s not so much the pain as the loss of control. I think, Christ, she’s got her teeth into me, where’s it going to lead to next?”
Jackie cocked her head to one side. A lock of raven hair fell across her cheek, and I felt the temptation to lean across and gently brush it aside.
“Sarah was silly. What can you expect from a nineteen year old? I’m not surprised you didn’t want to see her again. Perhaps you need to meet a woman who can do it properly. If it’s done well, the lovebite can be better than sex itself.”
The hair was still lying across her cheek, no effort made to flick it away. Enticing.
I decided to risk it. I moved closer to her, raised my hand to her cheek and slowly stroked the hair back to its former position. Her eyes closed and her lips parted slightly.
Just then, David Seares, the sales director, stood up for an announcement.
“Here we go,” I grinned at Jackie. “The prize for sexiest vampire of the night goes to…Jackie Harris!”
She smiled back at me, a slight blush fighting through the white make-up.
“I need some air,” she whispered. “Fancy a walk?”
“Don’t you want to hear what The Man has to say first?”
“No, I’m not interested.” She seemed a bit uneasy as she slid her coat on, and I wondered what was troubling her. “Let’s go.”
I needed no further encouragement. All eyes turned towards us as we headed for the door, a few snide comments and knowing chuckles emanating from the reps. Sod ‘em, I thought, scarcely believing my luck. They were only jealous because they’d been trying to hit it off with her for ages and it was me going to score with her instead! All the same, I felt a bit unnerved. Jackie didn’t seem the type for one night stands. Ah well, I guessed she had needs like everybody else.
We said nothing as we walked down the snow-covered street, not even when we stood outside the door to her three bedroom semi, facing each other. I moved forward, my lips close to hers.
She pulled her head back slightly and raised a finger to my lips. Her hazel eyes fixed me with a powerful gaze, almost hypnotic in the weak yellow light cast by the streetlights. “Not here,” she whispered. “Come inside.”
The small lounge was warm and welcoming, a pleasant change to the winter chill outside. Brightly lit lamps shone off beige papered walls, a comfortable looking three piece suite in warm hues of russet and gold sat invitingly around a black coffee table on the deep pile carpet. A TV and video and a drinks cabinet filled the unit on the far side.
“Want a drink, Mark?”
“Nothing with blood in,” I replied as I dropped my jacket on the armchair with hers.
She laughed as she poured a crimson coloured liquid into two wine glasses, half filled with vodka. “Only tomato juice, don’t worry.”
She sat on the sofa and patted the space beside her, an invitation to sit.
We sat facing each other, a gap of a few inches separating us. Her arm was stretched along the back of the sofa, almost touching my neck. I took a sip of my Bloody Mary, grimacing at the strength of the vodka in it.
“I do believe, Ms Harris, that you’re trying to get me drunk.”
She smiled. It must have been hard work trying to smile with inch long plastic fangs stuck in her mouth. At the pub, some people had tried drinking with their vampire teeth still in and had only succeeded in dribbling beer down their chests.
“Don’t you want to take those out?”
“Not just yet,” she replied, taking a sip of her drink. No dribbling there, she must have practiced this. “If I have to take this part of my outfit off, I’ll have to take the rest off.”
I stared at her firm breasts pushing against the thin material of her dress. Her nipples were still erect from the walk in the cold. “That’s not a bad idea,” I said weakly.
She shook her head, black hair shining in the lamplight. “Not just yet. I kind of like being a vampire. Something I could get used to.”
I smiled to myself. A tease and a bit of roleplay, that was good. I leaned forward and felt her arm drop from the back of the sofa onto me, her hand on my shoulder, gently but firmly drawing me closer.
Her black lips found mine, gently brushing against them before pressing more firmly, her plastic fangs bulging through her lips, pressing into mine.
I returned the kiss, more passionately. My tongue probed gently, seeking access which was readily given.
The drinks fell to the floor, scarlet fluid soaking into the carpet like freshly spilled blood, but she didn’t seem to notice or care. I closed my eyes and felt her leg sliding over mine, her dress opening around the slit, riding up over her soft, nylon covered thighs. She twisted her body slightly, climbing on top of me. I shuddered as she pushed her hands up my shirt, her cold fingers caressing my chest before ripping the garment off me. She pressed her body tighter, pulling me forward, hot sweet breath fanning against my face.
And now I began to feel afraid. Her lips were brushing against my neck and I could feel a delicate suction as she began to give me a lovebite. Memories of Sarah Mayhew filled my mind, and for some inexplicable reason I had an image of her mouth filling with blood. I tried to push Jackie away, but she held me tighter, the suction from her lips on my neck growing stronger, more powerful. My head spun, and the vision of Sarah changed. Her mouth was no longer full of blood. It was open in a soundless scream as the hole in her neck gaped wider, her life fluid pouring from it in a relentless torrent which Jackie drank from greedily.
And now I could feel my blood oozing from me as Jackie used her teeth on me. There was no pain, just a dizzying and intense pleasure as my fluid fell into her eager mouth. I shrieked in ecstasy, the image of Sarah evaporating as my orgasm took hold of me.
Jackie’s lips released me and she rocked back, eyes closed, moaning in her own ecstasy.
I believed her now. I had needed the right woman to show me how a true lovebite could be so intense, so utterly orgasmic. She’d said that the right lovebite, properly given, could be better than full sex, and I agreed totally. Why bother with clumsy copulation when penetration can never lead to the almost spiritual orgasm we had both experienced?
Of course, there’s a price to pay. There always is when you indulge in something beyond human levels of experience.
You have to leave your humanity behind. That’s why I didn’t feel particularly moved when I read in the papers the next morning what David Seares had told the partygoers, about how Sarah Mayhew’s body had been found in a ditch, her throat torn to pieces. Jackie will not tolerate anyone who fails to administer the lovebite properly.
This was the winning entry in Guy N Smith's Graveyard Rendezvous Competition in 1998. The rules stipulated an erotic theme.
