Chapter 2

Drinks and Tricks

Kokoa gritted her teeth as she stepped out into the burning summer sun. It was a stupid human myth that vampires would combust and turn to ash at just the flicker of sunlight, but still, with their heightened eyesight, a day like today were definitely uncomfortable.

And the heat didn’t help.

Kokoa could already feel the slight dizziness as her thirst began to grow, weather like this always worsened the anaemic symptoms that surfaced whenever a vampire didn’t feed.

The long grass tickled her legs as she began to cross the garden – her well-worn flats slapping against the concrete path – their cooling touch like drops of water in a desert, nice but inefficient to combat the heat. She could smell the vile stench of burning fuel and oil before she even reached the stone archway. Kokoa didn’t hesitate to cross the threshold and leave her Mistress’s garden, some of the children had already noticed her presence, mainly the boys, and they were openly staring at her ethereal beauty. They wish they could be good enough to worship such perfection, if they saw Moka they’d probably drop dead from blood loss. That thought made Kokoa smile.

As she got closer more heads began to turn in her direction. The two teachers, chaperones or whatever they were finally noticed her, one man attired a standard dark suit wearing glasses and a woman wearing a short blue skirt, navy blue stockings and a dark blue blouse. They did look pretty yummy, maybe her big sister would allow her to have a taste. The pungent stench of the fuel and hot oil gradually began to be penetrated by the combined scent of the humans, their individual salty sweaty scents mixing with the sweetness of the blood pumping beneath their flesh.

It made Kokoa’s mouth water – she could even smell the building arousal from the male teacher and some of the boys that were a little further along in starting puberty.

Soon even the man hunched over the open hood of the bus – who Kokoa assumed to be the driver – looked over and saw her and stopped what he was doing to stare, he was sweaty and covered in dust and oil. She’d never thought she’d meet a human she didn’t want to drain dry, but this one was…off-putting to say the least.

Kokoa made a show of clearing her throat to ensure all eyes were on her and help make sure no one was staring off into space when she was talking. It was bad enough just talking to humans. To be ignored by humans and have to repeat herself would be far too much.

“My Mis- Lady,” Kokoa corrected herself, it wouldn’t do to have humans asking personal questions, “has asked me to invite you all in for a sit-down and refreshing beverage until the mechanic gets here,” she said, taking a moment to admire her manicured nails.

“Mechanic?” the human woman asked, of course, it would be the female who wouldn’t be totally mesmerized by her supernatural beauty.

“Yes,” Kokoa said, her eyebrow twitching in irritation, “My Lady saw that you were in distress and has contacted a local mechanic.”

“That was nice of you, thank you,” the human man said, interjecting himself into the conversation, and going by the look on the woman’s face, it wasn’t a welcome intrusion.

‘Just what I need, human drama.’

“You can thank Mi- my Lady over drinks,” Kokoa said, catching herself again.

“Thank you, but I’m afraid we can’t go inside your-“ the woman began.

“I’m sure it’ll be fine Miss Oka,” the man interrupted.

“It’s against policy to-“ the dubbed Miss Oka, began.

“We don’t want the kids to get sunburned and dehydrated, I’m sure we’ll be okay making this one exception,” the man interrupted again, Kokoa’s eyebrow began to twitch more frequently.

“We can’t just-“ Miss Oka started again.

Kokoa cleared her throat.

“The Lady insisted that you come inside, she said it would be a couple hours before the mechanic could get up here and she would hate for the children to get sunstroke and dehydrated waiting out here,” Kokoa said, reeling the lie off with a silver tongue that would impress a Devil with its elegance.

“But-“ Miss Oka tried again.

“And we have a phone that my Lady would be happy to let you use,” Kokoa pushed, anger beginning to bubble in her chest, applying pressure around her heart. Her fangs were starting to vibrate. She wanted to tear this woman's throat out.

“It’s just-“

Again Miss Oka was interrupted though this time by one of her students walking up behind her and tugging on the bottom of her blouse – inadvertently causing her cleavage to expand – the teacher looked down at the child.

“Miss Oka I’m thirsty.”

The human woman bit her bottom lip and looked over the rest of the children, her expression twisting with an unsure expression.

‘Come on already, I’ve had enough of being out here!’

Miss Oka’s shoulders dropped and an aura of defeat curled around her body.

“Okay…thank you err Miss?” Miss Oka began, turning back to face Kokoa and only pausing when she realized she didn’t know her name.

Kokoa nipped her tongue between her fangs and teeth, the slight stinging pain helping to calm her bubbling anger. She was already long past simmering. If Moka hadn’t given her a direct order, these humans would be much more entertaining, with the agonized screams and fountains of blood.

“Shuzen. Miss Shuzen.” There was no way in hell was she giving some grubby human her name, the bitch should be kissing her feet and begging for her miserable life.

“Miss Shuzen-“ Miss Oka continued, “We’d be happy to accept your offer, thank you for your generous offer and help,” she went into a low bow afterwards.

‘At least it has some manners.’

Kokoa gave her a nod and turned to face back towards her big sister’s mansion, her skirt fluttering up in the wind and inadvertently giving the humans a quick view of her strawberry pink panties.

“Follow me,” Kokoa instructed – not even realizing her brief exposure.

“Okay, everyone single file, this nice lady has invited us all to come inside and have a drink while we wait for someone to come and fix the bus,” Miss Oka called over the collective of students, they quickly arranged themselves into a line, and she turned to address her colleague, “sir would you mind following up the rear to make sure we have no wonderers?”

“Of course Miss Oka,” he returned with a nod.

Miss Oka then proceeded to lead the way after the petite redhead – who’d already reached the archway again and was entering the large garden that Miss Oka could only describe as gothic.

When she crossed the threshold, it felt like she was walking onto the grounds belonging to some old, haunted house. Her heart was already started to hasten its beat. She swallowed and forced herself to continue, and resolved herself to just be more alert than she normally would be. If the children saw she was worried – or afraid rather – it would not be good, they’d immediately become uneasy and start panicking.

Kokoa stopped when she reached the door atop the two stone steps leading to the stone-sheltered area. She glanced back over the shoulder, the humans were slowly mulling into and through her Mistress’s garden in a tight single file line – like ants. Kokoa sniffed and pressed the toe of one shoed foot against the heel of the other, leisurely taking off her flats as she waited for the bugs to catch up. The cold stone felt nice under her socked feet – heat billowed off her feet, free of the snug confines and the disorientating dizzying sensations beginning to cloud Kokoa’s mind began to lessen, she couldn’t wait to be back inside.

When the female teacher was nearing the steps leading to the door, Kokoa let out the irritated sigh that had been building up inside her and pulled the door open – the cool air escaping from within was like stepping through an icy waterfall to the young vampire, she stepped inside. That was sooo much better. Now she just needed a drink…and a wash – Kokoa felt her toes curl as she became consciously aware of the sweat and grime coating her body from her short excursion. Stupid humans.

The female teacher stopped at the door, pulling the door fully open and start to squint as she peered into the gloomy, rich interior of the archaic mansion. Kokoa turned to stare at the woman, raising a challenging eyebrow.

Miss Oka swallowed. The hairs on the back of her neck were standing on their ends. Things really didn’t feel right and every instinct in her body was screaming at her that this was wrong. This was dangerous. She should run.

“Everything alright Miss Oka?” her colleague called from the back of the line when he realized the line had totally stopped in its progress behind her.

She opened her mouth to say something, but the words just wouldn’t form.

“Welcome to my humble abode,” Miss Oka flinched as the overly sweet voice sounded from the darker end of the entering corridor, when she squinted, she could just make out the silhouette of a woman walking closer.

Moka stepped into the light. She was wearing her extravagant silver, bat-decorated robe, and was holding a silver platter with a crystal jug filled with a clear red liquid and a small tower of plastic cups.

Miss Oka swallowed, her thirst slamming back to the forefront of her mind. She looked back at her students; they were all just staring at her. Her heart was going a mile a minute. Surely, she was just being silly. It was just a creepy house. Surely these women just wanted to help them, right? She struggled to convince herself.

Eeeereeek

Miss Oka flinched, her head whipping around to face the sudden sound, the woman wearing a robe had just pushed a door open.

“This is the parlour, why don’t you all come in and have a drink?” the woman entered the room before Miss Oka could say anything and Miss Shuzen followed after her.

‘You’re just beenbeing paranoid,’ swallowing dryly one more time, Miss Oka stepped over the threshold and with shaky footsteps, led her students into the parlour.

The room was dimly lit, a black iron chandelier hung from the ceiling, holding several lit candles. Blood red carpet coated the floor of the large room, and there were two long, maroon leather sofas with a matching armchair surrounding a long, dark mahogany coffee table in a ‘U’ shape, with smaller Victorian-style darkly coloured coffee tables between each sofa and the armchair, withand identical tables on the opposing side of the sofas. Against the left wall was a large Victorian bookcase filled with aged books neatly arranged, and at the back of a room was a very big ornate fireplace so dark it appeared to be carved from obsidian.

Miss Oka stood to the side as her students funnelled into the room, their little oohs‘oohs’ and awes‘awws’ didn’t help to put her at ease despite the cuteness. The silver-haired woman leaned over the dark coffee table, candlelight bouncing off her fair locks as they cascaded forward, obscuring her pale face and emphasising her impressive bust as they parted around her cleavage. Miss Oka could just make out the woman’s small smile through the shimmering curtain.

The last child funnelled into the room the remaining two adults entered the room, Miss Oka attempted to deliberately let the door stay open but before she could even move back towards the doorway the aloof Miss Shuzen stepped forward and guided the dark oak door to silent close. The younger woman noticed Miss Oka’s gaze and the teacher was rewarded by a disapproving sneer.

‘If we’re so unwelcome why insist that we-‘

“Now please, help yourselves to some juice, you must all be parched after being stuck out in that heat,” the white-robe-clad woman said before starting to pour the ruby liquid into the small plastic cups, the children mulled around the table and waited patiently for their individual cup.

The feeling of unease still wouldn’t leave Miss Oka. Every hair stood on end and she could feel a tension building up her spine. Even the beat of her heart was faster than normal.

“Miss Oka,” said a small voice and the teacher nearly leapt out of her skin, she looked down and saw one of her students, Kimi, the coal-haired girl had two cups in her hands, one stretched out for her while she held the half-empty one close to her body. “I got you some juice,” she said shyly, cheeks tinging a light shade of pink.

Miss Oka forced a smile and took the small cup gingerly.

“Thank you, Kimi, that was very nice of you.

The little girl’s face brightened – and the pink of her cheeks deepened – the sight was heartwarming, but still, the incessantly growing fires of fear inside her refused to dampen. Acting on autopilot Miss Oka brought the cup to her lips and let the cool, refreshing liquid pour into her mouth, the very touch of the droplets returning moisture to her chapped lips. It was very sweet, but not unpleasantly so.

“Pet,” the white woman began, drawing all eyes to her, she seemed to be speaking to Miss Shuzen, “lock the door,” her sickly-sweet tone was like a death knell to Miss Oka, an icy, clammy wave washed over her body. She swallowed.

Click

Miss Oka span on her heel, nearly losing her balance in her haste. She watched as Miss Shuzen pulled a key from a lock that she hadn’t noticed before and pulled at the neckline of her white shirt and dropped the bronzed key into the dark depths of her cleavage.

‘Oh no-‘

“The potion shouldn’t take long now, soon these, humans, will be at a more…appropriate size,” the woman in white said.

Miss Oka really didn’t like how that sounded.