The Merciless Alpha(erotica)

Melissa was sitting on Sadie’s sofa on the verge of hyperventilating. She wasn’t sick, and she wasn’t in her general state of anticipation of learning some new sexual trick from her vampire mentor. No, she was on her last nerve awaiting . . . dinner. More specifically, Sadie’s dinner guest. More specifically, a wraith.

She had accepted that Sadie was not like most vampires, or like most law enforcers, or . . . or like anyone, but this was pushing even Melissa’s credulity. No one had a wraith over for dinner, much less ask one to bring a salad. It wasn’t that wraiths were evil or hideous, it’s that they were barely “there” at all. You could touch one, thought the people touched by a wraith tended to do so while being ripped apart for some terrible wrong they had committed. You could hear them talk, but their lips didn’t move. You could see them, but they didn’t have that sense of solidity: they were in the world but not really a part of it. When they moved, they made no noise, and they gave off no scent. While not immune to magic, they could not be targeted with direct magic, and they were immune to magical influences on the mind. And heaven forbid you have a stray vengeful thought with a wraith around, because they would be likely to act on it for you if they got the chance.

“She’s not due for a few more minutes,” Sadie said, taking a perverse glee in Mel’s nervous behavior. “If you’re THAT freaked out –”

“I’m not freaked out!” Melissa’s voice sounded like that of a teenage boy going through puberty. She reached down and scratched the ears of Sadie’s new nameless cat as it wound its way absently between her legs. The feline purred, then slunk over to the bed and made herself at home.

“Of course not. Then go get the tenderloin out of the oven.”

“We could have just eaten at the fund-raiser you know.”

“But then I wouldn’t have had an excuse to leave early and have dinner with Mary!”

“You . . . you’re insane! You don’t obey any kind of logic –”

There was a knocking at the door.

Sadie looked at Melissa and motioned to the door. Mel’s eyes shot open and she shook her head. Sadie nodded vigorously. Mel shook her head. Sadie rolled her eyes and headed over to the door. Melissa stood up, not sure how one was supposed to greet the one species more undead than vampires.

“Greetings,” Mary said, holding a pre-packaged salad in her hands. She looked as if she didn’t know why she was there or what she was supposed to do.

“C’mon in!” Sadie said cheerfully. “Put that on the table. Mel, would you get the dressing out of the . . . Mel?”

Melissa was staring at Mary, who was staring back. Mel blinked several times . . . Mary didn’t.

“I’m afraid that I’m making your friend nervous,” Mary projected.

“Is she just standing there motionless not making any real facial expressions?” Sadie asked from the kitchen.

“Yes.”

“Don’t worry, she’s always like that.”

Melissa’s trance broke long enough for her to shoot Sadie a dirty look. When she looked back at Mary, she saw the wraith actually crack a little smile.

‘She’s not that different than me,’ Mel thought. ‘She’s actually scared.’ It was more Melissa’s intuition than anything that directed her down that thought path. “My name’s Melissa,” she said, her voice firming as she spoke. She extended her hand.

It was the second time in a week that Mary had been offered direct physical contact with another being. It was the second time in a century that someone had done so without being on the receiving end of vengeance. She shook this lovely young creature’s hand. “Mary.”

“May I take your . . . shawl?” Mel asked, trying to be polite but not sure what she should be asking for.

Mary, pulled the bluish-black garment from her hand and gave it to Melissa, letting her waist-length silky-black hair fall freely.

‘She’s beautiful,’ the goth chick thought. ‘Not ming-blowing sexy like Sadie, but more elegant.’ It was easy for her to see that the woman had once been a vampire. There was something about the way her lips were formed. She wondered if Mary still had fangs. For some reason, that thought made her neck tingle. She gently folded the garment and placed it on a hanger behind the door.

Mary placed the salad on the table where it was rapidly picked, opened, and deposited in a bowl by Sadie.

Melissa relaxed a little and approached the dining table. “I didn’t know you cooked.”

“I can’t,” Sadie replied. “This is mostly just heat and forget stuff.”

“I was wondering. I thought you lived entirely on gas station food and blood . . . and Guinness.”

“Good point!” the vampire muttered, grabbing a black bottle of her favorite brew out of the fridge. “Mary, you drink?”

“Alcohol? I’ve never consumed anything but wine, and it’s been a long time since that.”

“No sweat.” She glanced in the bottom of her refrigerator. “I’ve got a bottle of Bordeaux . . . 1945.” Friend of mine gave it me and I never got around to drinking it.”

“That sounds exquisite,” Mary said.

“Great. You open and poor. Wine isn’t my thing. Mel?”

“I’d love to try the wine,” she said.

“Traitor.”

And just like that, any remaining tension eased away. It turned out that Mary was very intelligent, having had nothing much to do except wreck vengeance on the wicked, read, mess around on the world-wide web, and pet her cats for quite some time. She had completely renovated her house on her own, ordering supplies on line and having the delivery personnel leave it in a nearby abandoned warehouse. No one was willing to drop it directly off at her front door.

“That reminds me,” Sadie said. “I’ve got everything measured out and holes dug, so would you be willing to help put up my deck next weekend? I’ve got an eye on some great redwood –”

“Redwood? Maybe you should consider an artificial wood. It would handle the weather here much better. What are you smiling at?”

“You sounded like ‘This Old House’ for a second. And no fake woods! The redneck in me would never allow it.”

“Very well.” The wraith still looked cautious, as if this was all some big joke, but she was willing to risk being the butt of it. Even the most casual of acquaintances was better than the life of solitude she had chosen. “Do you have sufficient tools?”

“I dunno. I may not,” Sadie thought.

“If you could arrange transport, I have everything you might need.”

“Cool.”

“Can I help?” Melissa murmured.

“You?” Sadie asked. “Physical labor?”

“Hey, you got me in a dress,” Melissa shot back. “How hard could it be to build a deck?”

“Building things with your hands takes sweat and discipline,” Mary said, feeling that her favorite hobby was being disrespected.

“Oh, I don’t think that sweat and discipline is a problem for our little Melissa,” Sadie said. Mary missed the joked. Melissa did not.

“You know who else is good with his hands?” Melissa asked, raising an eyebrow.

Sadie looked at her. “Terrence? That pretty boy?”

“He’s an an ex Navy Seal you know,” Melissa said. “He can probably handle a hammer. But that isn’t who I was talking about.”Copyright by Nôv/elDrama.Org.

Sadie was baffled. “Then I say, ‘hunh’?”

“Officer Koloff,” Mel said. “You two need to do some bonding anyway, and you looked quite comfortable with him at the fund raiser.”

Sadie laughed it off. “Cute. Vlad is quite married and besides, he and I are like oil and water.”

“Slick and wet?” Mel asked innocently. Like everyone else, she didn’t much care for Vladimir’s wife, and wouldn’t mind seeing someone drive a wedge between them. Sadie could do it, and they had looked quite fetching together.

“You are so getting yours later!”

Mary watching the verbal sparring between the two friends and felt . . . warm. It was good to be amongst others again.