Fempire

It was near closing time and we were both a little tipsy when we left the bar. A few steps down the sidewalk Andrea froze. She cocked her head as if listening for something. First thing I thought was a mugger or rapist.

Andrea grabbed me. Kissed me hard. A tooth jarring kiss.

"Ooh! Hey, girl. I love you, too, but can't we wait until we get home?"

"I'm going to bite your neck and I want you to swoon."

"Huh?"

"Swoon. Faint."

"But-"

"Just do it!"

She bit me.

"Ow! Hey!"

"Swoon, damnit!"

I swooned.

Andrea picked up me as if I weighed nothing. I liked her for her strength (among other things), she was strong like a man, but soft like a woman. She carried me around the corner of the building into the parking lot. Thoughts of mugger were gone. I figured she was into some kind of kinky game.

She set my feet on the ground and held me with one arm while she opened the door. She settled me in the seat, buckled the seatbelt.

"Can I unswoon now?"

"Sh!"

I cracked one eye open just a hair, just in time to see her run the red light. Andrea drove two blocks, turned, drove six more, turned again, and pulled to the curb.

"Okay, we're safe for now."

"Safe? From what?"

"Fempire."

She was out of the car before I could ask. We were parked in front of the pub and a guy dressed all in black was hefting an ornate planter through the door. We followed him.

"Sorry, ladies, we're closed."

Andrea gave him a look. A look I can't describe. Something I'd never seen before. But then again...

"We'll come in for a drink. Just one. Red wine."

He blinked and stepped aside.

Andrea guided me to a booth in the far back corner. She pulled me onto the bench next to her. She was gripping my hand - tight.

"Do you love me?"

"What? What the hell kind of question is that?"

"Do you?"

"Yes! Of course I do."

"Would you marry me?"

"If it was legal, absolutely. In a heartbeat."

"You have to do something. No questions. We don't have time. My little ruse didn't work."

"Ruse?"

"The bite. You have to do something and you have to do it now!"

"Sure. what?"

"Eat me."

"She raised her ass off the bench, hiked up her skirt, and pulled her panties off."

The bartender brought the wine, turned and left.

I glanced down.

"Uh, sweetie, uh, little blue string."

"I know. Just do it! Now!"

She tugged the string, wrapped the bloody tampon in a napkin. I slid to the floor, crawled between her legs. I'm not squeamish about these things. Andrea has eaten me several times during my period (orgasms cure cramps), but come to think of it, this was a first for me.

"Make me come. Hurry!"

When it comes to sex, hurrying doesn't work. And although I did my best it was several minutes before I got my reward: a drizzle of girl juice mixed with blood.

"Again!"

Things went kind of surreal. I was getting some kind of buzz. Not an alcohol buzz or a pot buzz. It was almost like a caffeine rush combined with a very mellow feeling.

Andrea came again, a bit more quickly this time.

"Good. Good. Once more."

In a minute I was rewarded, yet again, with a girl juice and blood cocktail.

She tugged my ponytail.

"Okay. good. That's enough. She's heading away."

I scrambled up onto the bench.

"She?"

"Mm."

"Who? The fempire?"

"Mm."

She sat with her eyes closed for a minute. I sipped my wine.

She opened her eyes, turned to me, and kissed me.

"How do you feel?"

"Me?" I shrugged. "Fine, I guess."

"Not a little ... odd?"

"Yeah. A bit. I'm kind of buzzed, but mellow."

She was quit for another minute, then, "Katie, there's something you need to know."

She took a deep breath.

"I'm a fempire."

"Fempire?"

"A female vampire."

I blinked. "You're not serious!"

"Never more serious in my life."

"You mean like with bats and fangs and drinking blood?"

"No, no, yes. No bats, no fangs," she opened her mouth to show me, "but, yes, I drink blood."

"This isn't one of those goth things is it. I mean, I've seen girls with fangs. But it's all make believe."

"No this is very, very real. You almost died just now. She was coming for you and because of my period, I'd have been too weak to protect you. But now you're marked as mine - at least temporarily."

"You're serious."

She nodded. "Yes, yes I am."

"Am I ... am I a vampire now? I drank your blood, kind of."

"We prefer 'Fempire', but, no you're not. Although, pardon the pun, you've gotten a taste of it."

Andrea picked up her wine and sipped.

"It's not like the stories. Although, like lots of things, it is based on bits of fact."

"For starters most vampires are women. We're closer to the blood than men. Witness." She gestured at the napkin on the table. "And it's the way we're made. We're more susceptible, for lack of a better word, to it."

"And you really drink blood?"

"Yes, but not as much as you think. In a way it's toxic. Kind of like a flu shot. You get a bit of the virus, but just a bit. If you get too much you get sick. It's kind of like that."

"How much do you drink?"

"A little bit every few days. A few ounces, tops. It's like a meal. You eat, your body absorbs the nutrients, and a while later you're hungry again. Although, honestly, I'm always hungry. It's something you learn to deal with."

"And you're immortal?"

Andrea took my hand, gave it a squeeze.

"No, Dear, I'm mortal. Very, very mortal." She took a sip of wine. "But I'll live a very long time."

"Unlike the stories, blood doesn't rejuvenate us. But it does put the aging process on hold. It's like my body uses the blood for energy, so it doesn't have to produce any, so I get a pass on that day."

"But if you drank blood every day, wouldn't you live forever?"

"Uh uh. Like I said, it's toxic. It takes a few days for the toxins to get washed out of my system."

"And then you can have another snack." I laughed. "I don't believe I'm having this conversation."

Andrea smiled at me, kept my hand.

"So you're not dead and you're not immortal and you don't rejuvenate. I mean, you'll get old, right?"

"Yes, I'll get old, but we do heal faster than normal folks."

"And we're faster. And we're stronger."

She gripped the edge of the heavy wooden table with one hand, lifted it off the floor.

"I could toss it across the room ... if I wasn't, you know, in a weak state. I'm not superhuman, probably as strong as a really strong man."

"You bite people? I mean, your teeth..."

She tapped her front teeth. "Crowns. Underneath I have implants, very pointy implants. Kind of standard equipment now days. Before I got the teeth done I had hold 'em down and poke them. There's a reason hat pins were popular at one time."

"And they become vampires, I mean fempires, right?"

"Uh uh. They just lose a bit of blood. The one part they got right was that you have to drink a fempire's blood to become one, but it's not a one-bite deal. It's like the vaccine analogy. It takes a few doses to become permanent, and even then you need a booster every few years."

"And then you have to go find the fempire you bit?"

"No. Any well-fed fempire will do. As long as she's just had a meal, I mean."

"I, uh, I had some of your blood. Does that mean I'm turning into a fempire?"

"No, Dear. That was spent blood, not fresh. There was just enough of my essence to mark you as tainted goods. Scare the other away. If I'd have given you fresh blood it's, well, rather addictive. But you're fine. In a few days it'll wear off."

And before my brain could catch up with my mouth - "But I don't want it to wear off!"

"Make me like you. Please Andrea?"

"It's not a decision to be taken lightly. You'll have to feed. The blood bank will only take you so far. Besides, I'm too weak now."

"You use the blood bank?"

"Mm."

"Hey. I just thought of something. Don't the people know? When you bite them I mean."

"You saw what I did to the bartender."

"Have you done that to me?"

"Yes."

"Did you ... feed?"

"No. There were a couple of times when you almost stumbled on my little secret, so I had to do the voodoo thing."

"So the people don't remember. What about teeth marks?"

"My teeth are almost like needles, barely leave a mark."

"Listen, I'm really starting to fade. Let's get out of here."

I closed my eyes and offered my neck. "Would this help?"

"Katie, I ... " She stroked my cheek. "Yes. Yes it would help."

She squeezed my hand.

"It's easier down here."

It hurt. Not as much as I'd feared, but still. She kept her lips on my wrist for maybe a minute, maybe two.

"Thank you."

I opened my eyes just in time to see her popping the crown back into place. There was a bit of blood on her lips. She licked them clean.

It was like the movies in a way. She'd didn't rejuvenate like vampires are supposed to do, but she perked right up, kind of like she'd just mainlined a triple espresso.

We left the car and walked the couple of blocks to home. Half way through the park the moon came out from behind some clouds. I gestured at it.

"Does that-"

"Uh uh. And sun doesn't hurt me either."

"Andrea?"

"Mm?"

"When can we ... I mean ..."

"Are you sure you want this? This is forever, you know."

"I know. When will you be, uh, strong enough."

"I'm good now. In fact I'm just starting to peak."

Andrea paused a moment, then reached up and popped the crown from her teeth. She bit herself in the wrist. Blood flowed. She held it up for me to drink.

I drank.

 

15.05.11