The Innocent Life of Valerie Vale

Dark Desires

Dark Desires

Nico put his feet up onto the table, he was bored. The night was growing old and he had already been out feeding, torturing and inflicting pain on the ignorant and the miserable. He licked his lips, searching for traces of dried blood. He found none. He had already licked them clean but he was still hungry.  

Dark Desires was a place of magic. The beat of the music created a trance-like state in those who let their mind wander and their imagination run free. It offered soul to the soulless and delivered an escape to those who still clung on to life. It was a place of indulgence, a place of greed, a place to dream and a place to sin. It was a place of addiction, a place of lust, a place to covet but never to win.

Liebgott burped loudly as he guzzled his beer. The slob had already put away seven pints. Hannibal was quiet as usual. The boy focused on Lucia, a favourite of many who danced provocatively in the centre of the room. He was hard.

Dark Desires sprawled like a labyrinth across several floors. The Theatre was the name given to the main room which smelled of smoke and liquor and tasted of perverted domination. There were podiums and catwalks, quiet booths and extravagant poles. There were women of every sort, flavor and kind… tall and short, blonde and brunette, curvy and slender, living and dead. Strippers undressed, danced, enticed and enriched the lives of men for brief moments of pleasure and ecstasy. Private booths catered for the bold while discreet rooms lay beyond and above where a chosen selection of the best prostituted themselves for small fortunes. Lucia was one of those and she excelled in her duties.

The Red Room was on the second floor, Alex’s room of choice. The Blue Room was on the third and the Green Room lay near the back of the building on the first. There were other rooms of course... the Eclipse Room, the Vanity Room, the Pain Room and the Candid Room. There was the Flower Room and the Winter Room, the Dark Room and the Blood Room. Rooms, so many rooms all decorated and designed with one thing in mind… depraved pleasure.

The gambling den lay beneath the Theatre within the cellar. There, gentleman and scum won and lost riches, pride and dignity. Private poker games were a favourite among clientele but the club catered for craps, blackjack and roulette. It even regulated private wagers and enforced them under pain of death.

Vampires paid for convenient meals of live human flesh. The club provided nobodies and outcasts. They were the forgotten, lost souls picked up on the streets and kept quiet in the cellar until their presence was required for feeding.

Those with less cash opted for bottled blood or for the assortment of human treats that were trained and paid to have their blood sucked from their bodies. They were the cocktails, who offered a refined and tranquil service. It was a gentle delight but for some it lacked the violence of a real kill. Human men even paid to experience the sensation of being bitten by devilish sirens… for like a drug, it was addictive.

Nico gazed across the room and focused on Jack who sat alone in thought, save for the generous glass of whiskey he held in his hand. He hated Jack and his smug attitude. All he had now was alcohol, a steadfast companion through life that helped him forget the cold past and blinded him to his present state of existence.

Nico reflected on the past. He remembered Sarah, how fair she once was. He remembered the brightness of her smile and the joy she took from life. He hated her for that and he despised Jack even more for possessing her kind and gentle heart. In the end, Jack had it coming.

Sarah fell from grace and became lost in the valley of darkness through her tortured mind and her brutalised soul. It was all Jack’s fault really but Nico had a hand to play. He took solace in that.

This was Nico’s time. Jack had his chance and he ruined it. Things could have been different had Jack acted sooner but it was too late now. He allowed the love he had for his wife to shatter the friendship he shared with Alex. Immoral deeds were undertaken and three deaths forever linked their past. Jack was suffering and Nico was resolute. When the opportunity came he would kill him too.

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