The Three 'F's

Chapter 5: The L.A. Life Adrian had to stop for gas on the way out of town. Unfortunately the gas stations that stayed open after sunset in Sunnydale protected their attendants in bullet (and vampire) proof booths, so Adrian gave up some of his cash to pay for it. He could have just driven off without paying, but that would likely get the cops looking for him a full day earlier. By the time they got to L.A., Adrian was thinking that the Bitch might have been right about the car. The engine was making some very unpleasant noises when he took the off-ramp from the freeway, to drive the last few blocks to a hotel that he knew, that catered to some of the more unusual denizens of the world. He had stayed there a couple of times, when he had been sent to L.A. to run errands, such as playing courier to and from the Boss’s lawyers at Wolfram and Hart. He let the hotel take an impression of Lisa’s Mastercard to pay for the room: he didn’t plan to be here long enough for anyone to find out she was dead. It was still early, not even midnight yet, when they deposited their bags in a north facing room with heavy curtains on the windows. Adrian decided that it was time to placate the Bitch a bit, and go do a little ‘shopping.’ He ditched the car in a mall parking lot, leaving it unlocked with the keys in the ignition. With any luck some kid would steal it, and further muddy any trail that the cops might try to follow. The mall had a Denny’s that was open all night, so even if no one stole it, it might be a few days before anyone noticed that the car had been abandoned there. They walked away from the mall, with the Bitch complaining about it every step of the way. “Why are we walking?” she asked, for what seemed like the dozenth time. “There were lots of cars back there that we could have stolen.” “If we steal a car out of the same lot we dumped the old one in, it gives the cops a nice easy trail to follow,” said Adrian. “Besides, all those cars were crap. I thought you wanted something nice. Now, if you shut up, I’ll let you kill the bloodbag whose car we do take.” They had walked for over a mile before Adrian started to look for potential victims. He spotted a couple coming out of a restaurant up ahead of them. They looked to be in their mid-twenties, they were well dressed, and the restaurant looked expensive. The man also seemed to be a little drunk, and he was arguing with the woman he was with. Neither of them were paying any attention to what was going on around them. There was no one else visible on the street. “I’m fine!” said the guy. “I can drive! No problem! Now quit nagging me!” He pulled a set of keys from his pocket, and pressed the button on their fob. The horn beeped, and the lights flashed on a blue Lexus sedan with Nevada plates, parked in the restaurant’s lot. “There’s our ride,” whispered Adrian. “You grab the girl, but don’t kill her yet; just keep her quiet. I’ll take the guy.” “Why shouldn’t I kill her?” asked the Bitch. “She can’t tell us the PIN for her bank card if she’s dead. We drain their bank accounts before we drain them.” Adrian smiled. “Don’t worry, we’ll get to play with them first.” The bloodbags were still arguing about who would drive. Adrian walked up behind the man, and clapped a hand on his shoulder. “You should have listened to your lady there, fella.” The Bitch was standing behind the girl now. “But the hell out of this!” said the guy. Adrian smiled. “If you’d listened to her, you might have been out of here by now.” His face rippled. “And you might have lived to see the sunrise.” The guy was drunk enough to just look confused. His girl was in better shape, and she started to scream, until the Bitch slapped a hand over her mouth, and grabbed her. That seemed to make the guy mad. “Hey! You can’t do that!” He tried to punch Adrian. Even if he’d been sober he wouldn’t have had a chance of actually connecting with him. Adrian dodged the blow easily, and brought his knee up into the guy’s groin. He doubled over in pain, and Adrian brought his knee up again, this time smashing the guy’s nose with it. Adrian caught the keys out of the air as they dropped toward the ground. He opened the driver’s door, and hit the button to unlock all the others. He opened the back door, picked the guy up, and tossed him in. “You get in the back, and keep him under control,” he told the Bitch. He took the girl away from her. “I’ll handle this one.” --- Adrian drove the Lexus to a secluded spot. The woman was whimpering in the seat beside him. Her face was bruised from the smacks he’d given her to make her stop trying to scream. The man was moaning in the back seat. Adrian parked the car, and turned to the woman. She was clutching her purse in her hands. He took it away from her. Adrian looked through the purse. He found some theatre tickets for next weekend, and a hotel key-card. Better and better. It looked like they were planning to be in L.A for a while. It might be more than a week before anyone reported these two missing. He pulled out her wallet, and started to look through it. First he extracted nearly two hundred dollars in cash, and shoved it into his pocket. He did the same with her credit cards. Next he pulled out her driver’s license. “Amanda Pearson, Las Vegas, Nevada,” he read from it. “That’s a pretty name: Amanda. Can I call you Amanda?” The woman nodded quickly, too afraid to do anything else. Adrian smiled at her. “Thank you Amanda.” He kept looking through the wallet, and found a photograph of a young girl, maybe five years old. He held it up. “Is this your daughter? She’s a very pretty girl.” Amanda looked even more afraid. Adrian could smell her fear as well as see it. It was intoxicating. “Well, Amanda, if you and your husband here—he is your husband isn’t he?” Amanda nodded again. “Yes, well, if you’re good, and do everything I tell you to do, I might not find it necessary to go to Vegas, and kill your daughter too. You know, I’ve always wanted to visit Vegas.” He grinned back at the Bitch. “We could stop over there, before we go to France.” Oh fuck! Amanda’s fear was so delicious! Adrian had to work to keep himself in check. He could play with her later, first he had to do some business. “Hey Bitch, get me his wallet!” The Bitch felt around the guy’s pants and pulled his wallet from a back pocket. She handed it to Adrian. This one yielded nearly three hundred in cash. His driver’s license showed that his name was William. “Hey, Willy! Wake up!” called Adrian. The man just moaned again, and his head lolled from one side to the other. “Slap him a few times,” Adrian told the Bitch. She did. “Not so hard!” said Adrian. “We want the bloodbag awake, not knocked even more unconscious!” She slapped the man a few more times, hard enough to sting, but no longer risking adding to his concussion. “Stop!” mumbled the man, and he managed to get a hand up to block her next slap. “Okay, you can stop. Can you hear me now, Willy?” The man was awake, and looking around fearfully. He didn’t say anything. “Slap him again!” The Bitch slapped William a couple more times. “Can you hear me, Willy?” asked Adrian again. Willy quickly nodded. “Now, Willy, I’ve already explained things to Amanda here, and she seems to understand them pretty well. Here’s the deal.” He held up the picture of the little girl. “You do everything I tell you to do, when I tell you to do it, and I might not kill this lovely little girl of yours.” Adrian looked back toward Amanda. “What’s her name, by the way?” “Josie,” said Amanda quietly. “Pretty name for a pretty girl. I like it.” Adrian addressed William again. “Anyway, if you want Josie to grow up, you will do everything I tell you to do, when I tell you to do it. Do you understand me?” William nodded his head. “I can’t hear you,” said Adrian in a sing-song voice. “I understand,” said William. “Good.” Adrian held up the two ATM cards he had extracted from Amanda’s and William’s wallets. “In a little bit, I’m going to drive us to a bank. When we get there, you are going to go to the machine, and you are going to withdraw as much money as the machine will let you have from your account, and from your wife’s. You do know her PIN, don’t you?” He saw William nod. “Good. Melody here is going to go with you, to make sure that you don’t get any ideas about running away, or maybe trying to call the cops, or anything stupid like that. If you try anything like that, she’ll kill you, I’ll kill Amanda, and then we’ll both go to Vegas, and have fun with Josie. Capice?” --- Adrian parked the car in an alley near the bank. He took out his knife, and ran the blunt side of the blade along the line of Amanda’s chin, while watching William’s reaction. “You understand what you’re going to do?” he asked. “I do,” said William, through clenched teeth. “You realize that if I think you’re taking too long, she won’t be alive when you get back?” William nodded. “You’re going to watch him, and make sure he behaves,” Adrian told the Bitch. “And that he really gets all the cash that he can out of those machines.” “I just need him for the PIN numbers,” said the Bitch. “I know how to get all the cash.” Adrian figured she was telling the truth about that. She was probably an expert on milking a card for all it was worth, with years of practice at it. That was one of the reasons why he was trusting her to do this job. The second was that he didn’t want the ATM’s security cameras getting a picture of his face. Much better if she was the only one photographed. He waited until William and the Bitch were out of sight before he got out of the car too. He went around to the passenger side, and opened Amanda’s door. He pulled her out, and then shoved her into the back seat, where there was room to play with her. He followed her into the car, and closed the door behind him. Amanda tried to scrabble away from him. She reached for the handle on the far door. “Ah-ah-ah!” Adrian grabbed her, and pulled her back toward him. He nicked her chin with his knife, and she cried out. “Here are the rules, Amanda,” said Adrian. “You can’t try to get away. You can cry and scream all you want, this car is pretty soundproof, no one will hear you. You can fight me all you want. You can hit, bite, scratch, kick, anything at all, but if you try to get away again, I’m going to do everything to Josie that I’m going to do to you. Do you understand me?” Amanda whimpered, and nodded. Adrian smiled at her. “Good.” He pulled her close, and licked the blood off her chin, before pushing her back down onto the seat. He slid the blade of the knife down between her tits, down to the lowest button showing on her blouse. He cut it away with a quick flick of his wrist, and moved up to the next one. Amanda’s whimpers grew louder as each button was cut away. Adrian used the blade of the knife to push the fabric aside, and then slid it under her bra, between the two cups. She sobbed as he sliced it away. Adrian brushed the blunt edge of the blade across her tits. Amanda’s sobs got louder. “Maybe I wasn’t entirely clear before,” he told her. “I want you to scream.” He sliced her nipple with the knife. She screamed. “Oh yeah!” Adrian let his face transform. He clamped his mouth down over her bleeding tit and sucked her blood into his mouth. It wasn’t enough, so he bit into her. Amanda screamed even louder, and she started to beat at his head and shoulders with her fists as her body squirmed under him. It only inflamed him more. He tore her skirt and panties away from her body. He released her tit, and moved down, to bite into her cunt. Oh fuck, that tasted good! Blood and pussy! The spiked heels of Amanda’s shoes cut into his back as she kicked at him. Adrian held her around her hips, leaving her arms and legs free to flail at him. Her struggles weakened after a few minutes. Whether it was exhaustion, or the futility of it, Adrian didn’t know. It wasn’t the loss of blood: he hadn’t taken that much yet. Just enough to whet his appetite; not enough to weaken her. It was nearing time to end it. He reached down to open his pants. She stopped struggling when his mouth released her pussy. She just lay there, quietly sobbing. She cried out again when his cock penetrated her, but not as loudly as she had before. Adrian figured she must prefer having his cock in her, to his teeth. That was easy enough to fix. He bent down over her, and sank his fangs into her neck. She screamed again. --- Adrian was leaning against the back of the car when the Bitch brought William back. He was stumbling along, with her half holding, and half supporting him by the collar of his jacket. “He give you any trouble?” asked Adrian. “No, he was very good,” said the Bitch. “How much did we get?” “A couple of thousand,” said the Bitch. “And I wrote down the numbers, so we can get more tomorrow.” “Good thinking.” Adrian held out his hand. “Now hand it over.” “Why do you get it all?” she asked. “I did all the work.” “And I’m your Sire.” Adrian snapped his fingers. “Hand it over.” The Bitch handed him a thick wad of money, but she didn’t look happy about it. “You got what you wanted,” said William, “now let us go.” “Yeah, I guess you’re not much use to us, anymore,” said Adrian. William was looking at the car. He couldn’t see anyone inside through the windows. “Where’s Amanda?” “Oh, she’s right here, Willy.” Adrian stopped leaning against the back of the car, and turned around to open the trunk. “No!” cried William, when he saw his wife’s naked and bloody corpse. He tried to pull away from the Bitch. “I told you not to take too long, if you wanted to see her alive again.” Adrian closed the trunk again. William dropped to his knees, sobbing. “Why?” he cried. “I was hungry,” said Adrian. “Now, there is one more thing you can do for us.” He smiled at the Bitch. She had done well, and it was time for her reward. “He’s all yours, Harmony.” The Bitch smiled. She picked William up, and slammed him down onto the trunk. Her face changed, and she sank her fangs into his throat. Adrian watched her feed for a few seconds. He was still hot from Amanda’s blood, and he was hardening again, watching the Bitch. He stepped up behind her, and lifted her skirt. She still wasn’t wearing any panties. He rammed his cock into her: feed ’em, and fuck ’em. That’s how you controlled your minions. Adrian watched Willy’s face, over the Bitch’s shoulder while he fucked her. He could see the life draining from it. Only a few seconds more… He leaned down close to Willy’s ear. “And Josie will make a fine dessert,” he whispered. He saw Willy’s eyes fill with perfect despair, a moment before the life left them. He felt the Bitch coming, and then he exploded into her. --- They disposed of the stripped bodies in a dumpster in the alley, after thoroughly smashing in their faces, and cutting off their hands to make them harder to identify. Adrian had seen that done in a movie once. Their hands and clothes went into half a dozen other widely separated trash bins across the city as he drove them to another mall. The Bitch had gotten William’s blood on her clothes—she was still a messy eater—and she really wanted to go shopping for new ones. Adrian’s clothes were in even worse shape. His didn’t have as much blood on them, but Amanda’s heels had shredded the back of his shirt. He parked the car in another Denny’s lot, across the street from their target, and they walked the rest of the way to the mall. The Bitch went to the entrance doors, and pulled at one of them. It was locked. “How do we get in?” she asked. “Well, we could just break the door, but I have a better idea,” said Adrian. He reached out and grabbed her dress. He pulled, half ripping it away from her. “Hey!” cried the Bitch. “Relax!” Adrian ripped her bra away too. “We’re here to get you new clothes, remember? Now, you start making a lot of noise. You pound on the door, and yell about being attacked. The guard comes, he unlocks the door, lets you in, and you kill him. You don’t even have to be a good actor. He’s not going to be thinking about your performance, after he gets a look at your tits.” Adrian was right, on both counts. The Bitch wasn’t much of an actor, and it didn’t matter. The night guard opened the door almost as soon as he got a look at her. The Bitch botched the killing him part though. She didn’t know how to kill someone quickly. Adrian had to finish the guard off, before his cries could alert anyone else. He darted quickly from the darkness, grabbed the guard’s head, and gave it a sharp twist, snapping his neck. “That’s how you kill someone,” he told the Bitch. He grabbed the guard’s collar, and dragged him into the mall. He dumped the body inside the information kiosk. They spent the rest of the night going through the stores. Adrian finished his own shopping quickly, but the Bitch had to visit half a dozen shops, to get all she wanted. The lingerie shop had been fun. The Bitch had modelled lots of outfits for him. From boxers to thongs, bras that lifted her tits, but left her nipples exposed, to bustiers, and merry widows. Long slinky night-gowns of smoky material, to pink and frilly baby-dolls. She couldn’t make up her mind about what she wanted to take. Adrian resolved her problem by telling her to just take everything she liked. They didn’t leave the mall until the sky was starting to brighten with the approaching dawn. Adrian was wearing most of the stuff he had picked out for himself. A new shirt, covered by a nice black leather jacket, and new pants. He had a bag with a couple more shirts and pairs of pants. A drug store had supplied them with soap and shampoo that met the Bitch’s requirements, as well as other things like toothbrushes, and make-up for her. He was regretting his “take everything” advice to the Bitch. He was loaded down with a half a dozen bags full of things that she had taken, and she was carrying just as many. They almost didn’t make it back to their hotel room before the sun rose.