Broken: A Love Story & Other Short fiction

Pheobe & Isaac - Vampire Vignette 1

                 

Phoebe & Isaac

Vampire Vignette #1

Isaac wanted a new girl to toy with. She had to be subtly pretty but nothing that would turn too many heads. Pretty. An "all American girl."

Jane.

"Oh come on Phoebe. Jane? Couldn't you be a little more creative."

The music was loud but Isaac could hear Phoebe perfectly, an advantage of being a Vampire, half hearing her and half reading her mind.

It was 1980, a dance club and they were in New York. The place was cavernous, the walls covered in graffiti all in grey tones. The strobe lights caused the walls to appear moving, as if the writing was pulsating. It was mostly dark and men and women danced. The place was full of men on drag--some mock beauty contest. It was a garish scene with one woman with big hoop earrings and a black miniskirt with fashion magazine ads taped to her dress. The strobe light flashed and lit up Phoebe's face every couple of seconds.

Phoebe kept her eyes on Isaac, she was half serious. Maybe she was sick of finding human women for him. To take or kill whichever. It was like shooting fish in a barrel he had once said, and it was. The real hunt and game was Phoebe's. Identifying his prey, practically seducing them herself in order to find out everything she could. So she could weave a web of deception and then curate the girl to Isaac's liking.

Isaac liked the arrangement.

"Maybe you should stop looking a gift horse in the mouth." Phoebe said then took a long sip of her vodka tonic.

Isaac noted to himself that Phoebe was beautiful no matter what she was doing. This came and went--his attraction for her.

At the moment Phoebe was wearing a peach halter dress, maybe a little too 1970s but she liked it and she didn't really care if it was true to the era they happened to be visiting. Her red hair looked like it was on fire under the purple lights of the night club. She'd made herself up so her skin looked human. And she did look human indeed, unlike other women who became vampires (or vampiresses as many wish to be called)--unlike them Phoebe retained her curvy feminine physique. She was even busty. Her eyes were blue, almost glowing. She was meant to be seventeen forever.

She shook her head, half looked around the crowd before her eyes landed on him. "Really, you shouldn't be so ungrateful. I go through all this trouble. What have you ever done for me?" She lit a cigarette and handed it to Isaac and then lit another for herself. She nodded, raised her eyebrows. Challenged him. He loved it. "Really. I'd like to know."

Isaac took a deep drag then let it out. He squinted at her. "What have I done for you?  For one thing I brought you into this world. Doesn't that count for anything? Gave you immorality."

Phoebe rolled her eyes. "I was going to be brought into this world anyway." She raised her eyebrows.

"But you would have been marked."

            "True." She smiled and looked into her glass for a moment. A group of three or four heavily made up girls pushed through and bumped into the two of them. They pushed their way towards the other side of the bar. She closed her eyes for a moment and the blue eyeshadow caught the light and sparked. When she looked at Isaac again her eyes were even bluer. "Yes. I would have been marked by your brother. Bound together for eternity. Without you, maybe I wouldn't have minded it so much."

"I can guarantee you would have minded it very much.  My droll, painfully tedious brother."

"Well, I didn't see it that way back then."