WAKING UP DEAD
by Lizzie T. Leaf

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After a night of passion Deb Stein wakes up to the scent of pine and the discovery her life has changed forever.  Now instead of the glare of paparazzi flashbulbs, she’s in the spotlight as Dovey Divine who takes it off for a roomful of lusting strangers.  Her goal now is revenge on the man who turned her into one of the living dead.

Aaron Lowell’s one night stand left him consumed with guilt in taking his partner to the dark side.  He knows she’s out for blood…his blood and he can’t blame her anymore than he can forget her.

CHAPTER ONE

Aaron Lowell stood in the shadows watching the costumed party guests stream into the brownstone. These people must appreciate Halloween, he mused, as another group walked by decked out as witches, ghouls and vampires.

This could be the answer to the debate about where to feed tonight since his attire blended with the various creatures, immortals and this year’s current celebrity that everyone wanted to emulate. Aaron adjusted his cape and fell in behind the last of the revelers and followed them up the steps into the house. Appearing to admire the décor, the newcomer drifted away from the group in search of tonight’s food supply.

Thankfully, over the past year control enabled him to contain the desire for warm human blood and only satisfy the thirst once a month. The rest of the time, bottled animal blood sustained him. He longed for the day when his only food source would be the kind he purchased from the butcher. For now, the need for warm pulsing blood from a human source sent him out to hunt every thirty days.

“Great costume, man.” A Frankenstein wanna-be stood at his elbow, stewed to the gills. The alcohol fumes were strong enough to make a vampire drunk from the smell. Drinking this fool’s blood could lead to a massive hangover, even for one of the living dead, so Aaron decided to forgo this easy prey.

It was interesting how the Hollywood version of vampires didn’t apply to the reality of their existence. The headaches that afflicted him as a human still occurred occasionally. Sunlight didn’t fry him and yes, there was a need for a constant blood supply to ensure one’s existence. But it didn’t have to be from a human source; animals worked well, especially for the older vampires. Daniel, his mentor, attributed theses qualities to the line of vampires that made him. This was a little known colony originating in South America, some of whom migrated to the Caribbean and still maintained a number of human qualities. Rumor in the community of the living dead was that this group even had children.

“Thank you.” Aaron allowed his fangs to show to give his companion the full effect.

The inebriated idiot blinked and grinned. “Cool. How’d you do that?”

“Trade secret. If I told, then I’d have to bite you.”

The drunk hailed a waiter walking by with a tray of drinks. Aaron watched the wasted man reach for one and decided it was time for them to part company. “I really must find my friends.” Aaron left the lush guzzling on his new drink and wandered around the room looking for the perfect snack. When he saw her, his heart would have skipped if it still had a beat.

Blonde hair, the shade of sun bleached wheat, cascaded down the back of a smooth white neck. The strapless black dress set off the creamy shoulders to perfection and hugged her full busted figure. The glow of health radiated from her rosy complexion and when she looked in his direction, he wanted to drown in the deep, emerald green pools of her eyes. Aaron’s mouth salivated at the thought of placing his lips against the vein pulsing along the side of her slender neck.

A frown wrinkled her alabaster brow and her eyes narrowed as she looked in his direction. A warm flood of satisfaction flowed through him at her noticing his attention, but how could she be upset with him? They’d never met. He decided to mind call her and resisted the urge to smile as she drifted in his direction. As the beauty drew near, her scent filled his nostrils, making him not only want to feed on her warm blood, but to also claim her body in a moment of passion, confirming that lust existed in the undead.

When she stalked past him, he couldn’t believe it. What the hell? His mind-speak had never failed before. Aaron watched the luscious woman make her way toward a couple in the process of removing their coats. From the rigid manner of her body and the scowl on her face, he didn’t have to read her mind to know she wasn’t happy to see the newcomers.

“This is a private party.” Deb’s body language spoke anger louder than her voice. Her emerald eyes shot daggers as they roved up and down the couple dressed as Elvira, Queen of Darkness, and Dracula, “This party is invitation only and it’s also a costume party—not the Pimp and Ho ball.” She crossed her arms and glared at the man. “How the hell did you and the skank get in, Scott?”

“You don’t have to be nasty, Deb. We have an invitation.” He pulled a piece of paper from the pocket of his tux jacket and waved it in front of her face. “Guess this means we’re on the guest list.”

“Fine. Tomorrow you can have a new social secretary too, since mine thinks you’re so great.”

Deb and Scott. Aaron ran the names through his head a moment before they clicked. He had crashed the party of Deb Stein, first class socialite and paparazzi darling. No wonder she looked familiar. This woman’s appearance created more media madness than Paris, Brittany or Lindsay when she showed up someplace. She could out-party any of the celebrity bad girls. Plus she had the money to do it with after she turned thirty and inherited the millions her father left to keep his little girl in the lifestyle she was accustomed to.

Given the tension between her and the couple, Scott would be Scott Hanson, the former boyfriend who dumped Deb for Jenny Rames, the brunette clinging to his arm as if she was an attached appendage. The love triangle created headlines in the tabloids for months. Great fodder for the news rags when any of the beautiful people had love problems. Throw in the fact that Jenny was Deb’s best friend and the cause of the split, the story became a piranha feeding frenzy among the scandal sheets.

Aaron reached into Deb’s mind to probe her thoughts. The fury raging there almost caused him to blow a fuse. Wow, this was one pissed lady and not because she lost the love of her life. No, it was an ego thing since she he’d dumped her before she had the chance to tell him to take a hike.

Deb was also none too pleased with Jenny, either. She expected her friends to cover her back, not stab it as Jenny had done. Not only had the slut bitch gone after Deb’s man of the moment, she’d betrayed her in the press on more personal matters. Their boarding school antics like smoking grass and slipping out at night didn’t need to be additional fodder for the gossip mongers. Right now, Deb Stein was trying to figure out how to save face and not suffer another humiliating slam in the scandal sheets tomorrow. Maybe the handsome vampire she blew off a few minutes ago can help.

Aaron straightened his tie, then pushed his way through the spectators to  her side and slipped an arm around her waist. “Darling, you promised not to be gone so long.”

He’d give her credit for maintaining her cool at his appearance beside her or the intimate manner in which he touched her. Nothing in the way of surprise registered on her face when she turned to him and smiled. “I’m sorry love, but I didn’t expect to be detained by the arrival of new guests.”

“Oh. Are they important enough that you neglect me for them?” Aaron stroked her back while he let his eyes roam over Scott and Jenny.

“No.” Deb took Aaron’s hand. “At one point I thought they were, but not now. They have no importance in my life anymore.”

Head held high, she linked her arm through his and led him through the gaping crowd clustered around them. Aaron picked up the grumblings of disappointment from several on-lookers now that the show was over. The rich wanted to see blood as much as any street gang.

Deb released his arm and grabbed two glasses of champagne from the tray of a passing waiter. “Come on, let’s get out of here.”

Aaron followed her up the stairs and down a long hallway. When they stopped in front of a pair of double doors, she motioned for him to open them. He did as directed and stepped aside to let her enter first.

She set the glasses on a table in the sitting area of the bedroom and pulled off the long blonde wig, then dropped it on the floor. Running her fingers through her own short platinum spikes, she turned to face him. “Thank you for doing that.” Her voice was rich and husky. “Do I know you?”

“No, I don’t believe so.”

“I’m Deb.” She slipped her arm through his. “And you are?”

“Aaron.”

“Well, Aaron. I think we know each other now.” She pressed her soft mouth briefly against his and pulled away, laughing as she picked up the glasses of champagne and handed one to him. “Here’s to a long, interesting friendship. Or to a one night stand. Which one is yet to be determined.”

He watched the movement of her throat as she swallowed the sparkling wine. “Which do you want?” His original intent was a one-nighter, but the idea of having her warm sexy body as not only a monthly food source, but also as a regular sex partner appealed to him. He’d heard of vampires who did that sort of thing and if they were careful not to over feed, the relationship lasted a long time.

“Not sure. Let’s start with tonight and see where it goes from there.” Deb wrapped her arms around his neck and rubbed her body against his.

Vampire or not, he was male and his body responded to her slow, sensuous gyrations grinding against his lower torso. Her breasts were full, firm and ripe, begging to be touched. He knew from the lazy smile spreading across her face, she felt his rock hard erection responding to her crotch-to-crotch rub. The last time he made love with a human female was over a year ago, just before he was turned. Since then, his only sex consisted of a few passionate nights with the two female vampires that Daniel, his mentor, let live at his house. They were vicious in their sexual needs as well as their blood quest and he’d come away from those encounters with several nasty bites, which thankfully healed quickly. Exchanging blood didn’t satisfy him like a night of making love with a woman used to. Maybe it was time to see how it felt again.

His mouth found hers and when the tip of her tongue teased his lips, he had no desire to deny her entrance. He let her explore the inside of his mouth for a few moments before deciding it only fair he got the same privilege. She made no resistance when he tasted her.

Instead, she worked them toward the king-sized bed, decorated to be the focal point of the room with its draping silk curtains and stacked with mounds of pillows. Still entwined, they fell onto the cream colored satin cover. Lust surged through him and Aaron rolled over, positioning Deb along side him to give his fingers access to work the zipper down the back of her dress. Without breaking his hold, he slipped the fabric over her body until her breasts were bare. Aaron rained kisses across her shoulder and down her arm. He held a slender wrist in his hand and placed it against his mouth. The need to taste
became uncontrollable and his fangs extended without conscious thought. “Ouch. What the hell are you doing? Are you some kind of freak?” Deb jerked her wrist from his hand and licked the puncture.

“Sorry. Got carried away. I promise not bite your wrist again.” The next time will be your neck.

“You better not be a freak boy or I’ll boot your ass out of here.” She grinned, slipped over to the edge of the bed and stood, where she shimmed the dress over her hips and kicked it out of the way. “Why don’t you get out of your costume?”

Costume. How surprised would the little socialite be to learn the black tux wasn’t exactly a costume, but his normal evening attire? Black had become his standard wardrobe, even for his daytime business dealings, but tonight he’d traded his standard black slacks, jacket and opened necked shirt for the cape and tuxedo.

Free of the clothing restraint, his hard-on stood at full attention.

“Ohhh.” Deb pushed him down and dropped to her knees by the edge of the bed. She leaned forward and smacked her lips before she took the head of his pulsing cock in her mouth.

Aaron closed his eyes and gave into the sensation of her mouth sliding back and forth on the full length of his erection. Her hot tongue licked the tip in quick little twirls, before teeth scratched from top to bottom and then up again along his hard shaft. When she reached the bulb, she sucked, nibbled, and then consumed his hard shaft to point he almost begged for mercy. She devoured him like a yummy dessert, causing the sacs of his scrotum to tighten, ready for explosion. He knew he was close to spilling his seed down her throat. One thing for sure, this woman knew how to give a blow job.

He twisted his fingers in the short spikes of her platinum hair and urged her to move up beside him. As she stretched against him, his hands released her hair and moved down to her bottom. Kneading the flesh of her firm ass cheeks sent thrills through his finger tips. Rearranging their positions his mouth claimed hers as one hand moved to the soft skin of her inner thighs, caressing upward to the strip of hair that barely covered her female opening. His finger stroked the soft inner flesh of her vulva as she sucked his tongue with the same greedy hunger with which she’d devoured his cock only moments earlier. The erection he didn’t think could get any harder throbbed in anticipation of burrowing into her heat.

Aaron longed to bury his head in the area seeping with the wetness that covered his fingers and taste her juices, but the need to be inside her was stronger. Pushing her long legs apart, he positioned the head of his aching cock against her opening. He entered in one thrust and her love muscles grasped him in a hold a sumo wrestler would envy.

A glimpse of her passion filled eyes before his lips sought hers told him she was as close to joining him in tumbling over the edge. Once again his mouth claimed hers and this time the battle of tongues was brief and brutal. When she drew blood with a bite to his, he withdrew to prevent his fangs from shredding her soft tissue.

“Yes, oh yes.” Deb’s hips lifted to meet his every thrust. “Harder.”

His lips trailed along her chin and down to the neck that ignited his desire when he first saw her.

“Harder. I said harder.”

She bit into the flesh of his shoulder as he did his best to meet her demand. He felt her teeth sink deeper into his shoulder as his fangs slipped into the pulsing vein of her throat and he drank, taking her to paradise with him. Lost in the passion of the moment he supped long and deep. Not sure he could ever get his fill of this woman, thoughts of a long future together drifted through his mind. Slowly, the stinging in his shoulder brought him back to reality. Shit. Who was the vampire here?

Lifting his head, Aaron looked down at the still face. Realization hit him in the stomach with the force of a sledge hammer. He’d taken too much blood, but worse yet, she’d tasted his. There was no excuse for what he’d allowed to happen.

Disgust consumed him now, as passion had only moments before. In his quest to satisfy that lust, he’d allowed her to become infected with the virus that changed him into a creature of the night. In doing so, he’d taken Deb Stein to the dark side.


* * * *

Slumped in a wing backed chair in front of Daniel’s desk, Aaron cupped a wine glass in both hands. He swirled the red liquid and watched it coat the crystal. The thought of consuming any more blood repulsed him right now.

“Drink, Aaron. It’s fresh; delivered from the slaughter house this evening.” Daniel sipped the contents of his glass and smiled at Aaron.

“Don’t you think I’ve had enough?” Aaron set the glass on the table beside his chair. He’d expected direction from his mentor, not encouragement to drink the ruby liquid, even if it was animal blood instead of human.

“Yes, well…” Daniel finished the contents of his glass and put the crystal on his desk. “We do have a bit of a problem, here. The fact that the Steins are Reform Jews may be our saving grace, so to speak.”

“How so?”

“Daniel turned to the computer on his desk and tapped in a few words.

The screen filled with files of information on Reform Jews and clicked to open the one at the top of the list. “It says here Reformers don’t believe in modern technology. They resist autopsies and burials are quick. A committee consisting of friends prepares the body and it’s placed in a plain pine casket, dressed only in a shroud.”

Aaron moved over to stand behind Daniel and read over his shoulder.

“They’ll want to bury her before their Sabbath, which is in two days.”

“True.” Daniel nodded in agreement. “And given her lifestyle, the mark on her wrist that you forgot to heal over may be attributed to a drug overdose.”

A smile of sorts twisted Daniel’s lips. “Let’s hope she doesn’t wake up while they’re washing the body or there may be additional funerals.”

“How can they bury a young, healthy woman without her death being investigated, no matter what their religious belief is?”

“Come now, Aaron. You’re a businessman. You know what money can accomplish and the Steins are old money in addition to having lots of it. The grandmother is noted to be a force to be reckoned with and not many want to cross her.”

Aaron nodded in agreement. He’d heard about Bebe Stein’s ability to make the strongest of men shake in their boots. The old woman made the late Leona Helmsley seem like a Mother Theresa.

Pushing up from the chair, Aaron walked over to the window and stared out at the reflection of lights on the Hudson River. Yeah, he was a businessman and even in his current state of existence, he wasn’t sure he could take on the old bat. His company bought and sold real estate and he didn’t need her as an enemy.

True, he’d accrued plenty of money before making the big mistake of taking a shortcut down a dark alley last year, but without his business his current life would be one long bore.

The vampire surprised him with his speed and strength. Before Aaron knew what happened, darkness consumed him.

When Daniel found him a week later, he’d been wandering the streets, dazed and confused. Daniel brought him here to his high class condominium and fed him several bottles of blood. The nourishment allowed him to think straight and listen to his new mentor explain what happened.

A rogue vampire was in the city feeding on unsuspecting humans. From some, he only drank a small amount. An unlucky few he feasted on until he almost bled them out, and then returned a touch of blood mixed with the virus he carried to make them into one of his kind. Aaron was one of the unlucky ones infected by a relatively new strain of vampire virus.

Over the past year, with Daniel’s guidance, Aaron had learned to adapt to his new life as one of the living dead. He’d evolved enough to get most of his nourishment from the blood supplied by Daniel’s contacts in the slaughterhouse district and to limit his consumption of human blood.

Tonight had been one of those nights when the need to consume his food from the warm, surging liquid in the veins of a human took control. But, he’d allowed himself to become caught up in a moment of passion and turned an unsuspecting mortal into a vampire.

He was sure the beautiful Deb Stein, once so full of life, would damn him to hell every day just as he did his maker, when she realized what had happened.

“Aaron.” Daniel joined him by the window. “It’s probably a good idea for you to leave town for awhile. This is going to be a high profile news item in the press, especially for the dirt mongers. It would probably be best if you weren’t around in case someone from that party remembers you.” He clasped Aaron on the shoulder. “I have a house in New Orleans that didn’t suffer much damage from the hurricane a couple of years ago. You can stay there and setup an office in the area. I’m sure there’s a lot of property for sale and the city is in the process of rebuilding. There’s plenty of opportunity there for a businessman like yourself.”

“You think she’ll come after me, don’t you?”

Daniel shrugged. “Who knows? You go. I’ll take care of things here. The press if it becomes necessary, as well as Deb Stein.”

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