Horror

Sex, Drugs, and Immortality

I pinned Darby against the wall and nibbled my way from her lips to her throat. She stopped me.

"You'd have better luck at the hospital," she breathed.

"I'm sorry?"

She pulled out a nurse's badge from a local hospital. She tugged where it had been stuffed in her cleavage, tightening the lanyard around her neck, and held it up to my face. How did I miss that?

"You're a Drinker right? If you want blood, you'll have better luck at the hospital." There was a forcefulness in her voice now.

I smiled, pressing my mouth back to her neck. "If you think I'd rather drink from a bag than your bosom, you are terribly mistaken. The bagged shit tastes like rot and plastic and you probably taste like honey whiskey by now." I licked a line down her chest. "Besides, it's not like I'm going to kill you."

"I'm not talking about the blood bank. I'm talking about getting high." I paused, lips that were locked on her flesh now falling slack. "That's why you get people drunk right? You want to get high?"

I laughed a cold breath onto her skin that sent shivers. "I'm listening," I pulled back and looked into her eyes. They were very determined shit-brown eyes.

"Morphine drips, comas, no one would ever have to know," she panted.

"And you're just going to let us?" I asked, brushing a lock of hair behind her shoulder. "Why?" I finally demanded.

"You're charming," she smiled tentatively, almost holding her breath.

"Not that charming," I added hostilely. "What's in it for you? Do you think you're going to get me high and I'm going to think you're pretty enough - for now - and just let you join my friends and I? Just like that? Is that your plan?"

"Something like that, yeah."

I glared at her, eyes locking in a stalemate as she stared back. When she squinted, the constellations of freckles that dusted her nose conjoined into one large mark that looked like an ugly splotch of discoloration.

I turned over my shoulder, still holding Darby in place against the wall. "Change of plans, folks," I shouted. "Tonight, we drink together." When I looked back at Darby, a sly smile stretched across her face; she looked proud of herself. I slapped her on the ass as degradingly as I could to shoo her out of the alleyway and back to my friends.

Once we got to the hospital, we let Darby go in first. It's always a little easier that way for a lot of reasons. As Darby crossed the threshold, Leon tried to grab the door quickly before it closed. He barely missed.

"Hold the door for us, would you?" He asked, pacing in front of the threshold nervously.

Darby's face lit up with an enlightened grin. "That's how you skirt invitations, isn't it?"

I shook my head to Connor and Vixie. 'Don't say a word,' I thought. I didn't need this girl to know anything about me and my friends. How we work, what we do, who we are. Nothing. I just wanted to get in, get out, and get on with my night.

"Don't be a tease, Darby," I cooed in a sing song voice until she held the door for Leon. We all rushed in, holding the doors open for one another, awkwardly dodging armpits as we crouched under the other's arms. And there we were, in a hospital with free reign.

Darby took us to the elevator and brought us to the third floor. Apparently this was the ICU unit.

"It's where the good shit is," she promised, twirling her hair in her fingers as we waited for the crisp ding of the elevator to signal we had arrived.