Marcus
What I was going through happened a few times throughout my long and difficult life. Enduring the amount of pain I had every time was obviously not enough, and once Qadir found out what happened, I'd be beaten to an inch of my life... No, I felt I needed more—suffering. I really didn't think I could go on anymore. It was too much for too long, and nothing I did right or wrong made it stop. I knew and feared I would snap at some point. It was now a reality…
The prostitute in my room ran around, muttering, "S— this is f—up!" She grabbed her dress and pulled it over her head. "What are you?" Her hands shook, picking up her shoes and pulling them on. Flighty eyes jumped between the door, me, and the window. My face had changed, and now someone would have to kill her. "F— F— F— I knew I shouldn't have taken this job," she stuttered.
Someone hammered on the door. "Marcus!" Kubra yelled. The woman yelped and ran for the window. Reclining back against the pillows, I laughed as she ran around, freaking out. Inside, I was a nervous mess about what my manifestation would cause. Every muscle twitched to see whether Kubra would tell Qadir.
"Come in!"
Kubra pulled down the old brass handle. His mouth pulled irritatingly, and he drew in a heavy breath. "Why?"
The woman jerked on the window. It was bolted. She ran for the door, "I don't want to die," she yelled all the way there, panting loudly.
Kubra hit her once. "Every girl in here would've heard her scream… We still have two weeks left, and now you f—ed it up for all of us!" My crazy amusement died down even further; there was no way to contain the situation. Kubra looked at the lifeless body; he had killed her. "Well, you might as well drain her to get rid of that face."
I leaped off the bed and closed the distance. My manifestation disappeared, and I sat back on my feet, sighing. I'd been starved for four months! Not only me, but all of my men.
"Do I need to get someone else for you?"
"Yeah, we didn't get far."
"You've indulged more than normal already."
"Have I, how many?"
"Four different women! And each stayed for several days… They begged me to let them go." Repulsed, I turned my chin away from him. It was not normal—no. I usually had one woman when we were allowed off the compound. This time, I lost it. "If you go on like this, Qadir will lock you up."
"F— Qadir."
"You want to act out, but once you're in front of him— Never mind, change rooms… Go next door… I'll have to clean this mess you made."
I walked out onto the carpeted hallway, only one room down, and opened the door. A woman who was bored out of her mind was on the bed against the pillows. She wanted to get up and fix herself. "Don't bother. Strip." I closed the door behind me. Her gaze kept drifting up and down my body. Finally, it rested on my erection that didn't want to go away. She didn't have much to take off. I picked her up and tossed her on the bed. An irritating laugh escaped her. I flipped her and dragged her ass into the air. Faced with voluptuous ass cheeks, I… wavered. This wasn't right. I was missing something… The day before, I would've—anyway—a moment of silence descended. My mind hit a drug high—blood—straight thinking—coherency.
"Do—"
"Shhh," I cut her off.
After another moment of me trying to figure out why I was hesitating, she turned onto her knees, pulling my attention. Taking me in hand, my body jerked. I closed my eyes and lifted my chin, waiting for a tongue to lick me up and down my shaft. No—dry lips went right at it. This wasn't right either. Why? She didn't use her hands and went at it roughly and vigorously. I grabbed a chunk of her hair and dragged her off me. "Ow, ow! I'm sorry. If you tell me how you like it."
"I thought you were a professional."
"Everyone likes it different… Just tell me what I can do for you."
I was losing my mind, that's for sure. I pulled even harder on the hair in my fist, exposing her neck. She looked up at my face and released a bone-vibrating scream. I bit into her, shutting her up with my venom. Alive yet unable to move, she could only stare out in front of her. The whole weight of her limp body hung from my grip, pulling on her scalp. It had to hurt. I let go, and she dropped to the mattress.
My entire adult life, I felt like something was missing… or maybe even someone. I brushed it off. But not like this. Living to occasionally f— women wasn't a life… And that was what it boiled down to; I had no life left in me.
Kubra burst through the door, "For f—sake, Marcus!" He complained in his most whiny voice, "What the f—! I can't take this anymore… This has been going on for months."
I stared at him for a moment; my thoughts messed up. Has it? Why was I going crazy? Kubra grabbed her ankles to pull her off the bed. "She's still alive." He threw a mini tantrum. "What year is it?"
He paused and looked up at me. He let her go and stood to his full height, "New Year's Eve, twenty seventeen… Marcus, you're freaking me out… I thought you were just that drunk, but do I need to be worried?"
"I can't do this anymore."
"Why? I remember the tight space I enjoyed last night. Just focus on the good like you always do… Marcus, we're vamps living among humans… This," he gestured to the woman, "Is as good as it gets or you find a wife."
I scoffed and got off the bed, "A mindless slave?"
"She doesn't have to be… You can keep your eyes open, or you can choose one at the next auction and make it work."
"A car! Now." I hurried to the other room and got dressed.
I pushed my feet into my shoes as I made my way out into the hall again. "Jessy!" I slammed my fist on his door.
He stuck his head out, "Yes." I looked in to see a dark-skinned, very plump woman sitting on a chair having a cigarette.
I chuckled, "So that's your type? Would never have guessed."
He looked back at her, "I have a thing for latinas." She laughed and was relaxed. They were having a good time. If my men could only get married. It was time I did something. The urgency was now, and I either died or… Qadir would listen and make the changes.
Would I ever know what it was that made me feel this way? "I'm sorry to break up this party, but get the men back at the base asap."
"Marcus, most of the men haven't even got their turn… It's not easy to coordinate two hundred thousand men to get off in four weeks, let alone leave half of them unsatisfied."
"It's not like you to contradict me… What's going on?"
"Eh… I…" Jessy guiltily dropped his gaze. It wasn't just me, was it?
Kubra joined us, "I think you're both going f—ing crazy."
Jessy looked down the hall as the two bodies were carried off. He sighed. A piercing cry came from across the double-story open foyer space. It wasn't me! Painful shrieks echoed, and then a silence descended. The Latina in the room came to her feet, "I've been hearing girls scream all morning." Jessy closed the door in my face.
We waited. He came out with her fully dressed and had her by the wrist, pulling her down the multiple-floor staircase of the mansion. A body hit a wall with a thudding rattle right next to us. A loud grunt from an angry male. He hissed as furniture broke. The lady on the other side whimpered and cried, "No! No! Please!" Jessy went into a run.
Outside, he pushed her into a car and slammed the door. "Get her out of here," he yelled to the driver. The two humans sped off. "I'll have it done."
"Kubra and I will take the chopper."
"See you on the compound," he saluted and drifted off to do his duties.
"Have you finally realized things are going south in the ranks?"
"Yes, it's time I have a chat with my father."
***
It took several days to get back to the compound… Frustrated, I jogged up the stairs and headed for the kitchen. Agahtha was tasting some dishes in her slow manner. She looked up. At first, her eyes hardened, then they softened, and she held out a hand. I took it, and she dragged me to the pot. Licking the spoon off, I said, "Delicious… Are you well?" She nodded and went on stirring. Agatha was always a little different after I came back over this December break... Disappointed in some way. I guess she had reason; I was disgusted with myself.
***
One week later, Qadir finally called me to his study. I closed the door. "Marcus, what happened? You brought the troops back without clearing it with me first… I had to cut my time short because—"
I interrupted him—for the first time in my life, "The men are going crazy? They began killing their whores, and it set the others off."
He manifested, growled, and looked over his shoulder. He spun around, "What has gotten into you and the men?!"
"We were starved for four months! They are not allowed to get married. You and your men here have taken all the women and have the first choice… Only four times a year they can get out… We're going insane, and if you think putting us in a dark corner will work this time, you're more deranged than we are at this point… You'll have a bunch of Rodrigo's on your hands." I rambled my little speech, still scared of what he would do.
He slammed his fist on the table, "You didn't break him! And it seems the men need more, not less, time down in the tunnels."
I ignored his tirade and focused on the conversation, "You have an army with no purpose…"
Qadir was puzzled by my sudden ability to not turn into a dog at his corrections. He dropped his manifestation, sat down in the chair, and leaned back, eyeing me suspiciously, "I have been waiting for this day. Sit." I did sit on command. "I have plans for your men."
"No, you don't… We're too small to make any difference in a war… We're too large to only be protecting the compound. This system of yours is not going to last another year… You need something else to make the humans bend, and I get that you need the army to patrol all your prisoners, but there will be nothing left if we spiral out of control." Qadir loudly strummed his fingers on the table. "There must be something you're waiting for… A counterstrike that will turn the tables in your favor, and then you'll give the men their freedom… But until then, what do you want us to do? The crisis is now, and you've been taking wife after wife. Another is coming this week, and the men see it."
"They come home and alternate in their shifts… They're not worked every day of their lives."
"It makes it worse… A taste, and it gets taken away."
"If we gave them all houses, we would have to double the size of the compound."
"Yes, and you're keeping the funds tight to have reserves… For what!?"
"It seems like it is time I tell you what is really important."
I sat back and waited; usually, he would give me some crap. I was hoping for my own way out of this life.
"We… are… not from Earth." My eyes came up, a slight frown on my already scowling features. Qadir rummaged through a drawer and slid a small black circular tube across the table—almost like an old camera roll. "Wave it through the air." Hesitantly, I picked it up, thinking he was making a fool of me.
***
After I got educated on our origin and the magnitude of every decision he had made, I flung it again, taking away the rendering and a message from my grandfather.
"Marcus, I'm here because of past mistakes… You will return to your roots as soon as I take over Earth… And I can promise you two hundred thousand is enough." Qadir stood and poured us both a drink, something he'd never done. "Now you understand why I raised you the way I did. You have to do it." I nodded, taking a sip. "Our crazy lost sheep… is abducting werewolves and creating some toxin to infect us right back… I need him here to use him as my… first strike."
Rodrigo? I let him go. Could I bring him back to this hell? "If I find him and we give the men a time frame, they might get back into their boxes… But more time off, a change in our shifts, and a constant brothel rotation… And no more starvations."
"It's because they're not in their manifestations… They are not tasting the blood available to us, out there in the universe… Once this is over, we'll walk around the way we are supposed to… Eat the way we are supposed to… As soon as you can find him, I think we can turn this around and use him to our advantage."
"I understand."
"Marcus, I told you to take a wife a long time ago. Multiple if you want… Is your loyalty to the men the reason?"
"No… Like you, I want more out of life, and this is one area where I won't bring in the drama of a harem household into this." I gestured to the room. "You make it impossible."
"I wouldn't interfere with your household… It is about time you have your own house. Take the east wing and make it your own… There will be a clear boundary between the two houses."
"Thank you. In that case, maybe a marriage from our home planet that could help once I'm there."
"Political alliance." Qadir smiled. "Very well… You can go choose one yourself."
Despite myself, a smile tugged at my mouth. This was what I was missing. I needed to go home… I left the room without another word.