Untamed

By DM Evans

Chicago 1922

I watched the girl go into the building, humiliation burning my face. I had rescued a silly dog from getting run over and all I could think of, as she enthusiastically thanked me, was how I wanted to open her throat and guzzle her down like a starving man at a banquet. I managed to get her away from me. Rudeness usually worked. I couldn't bear being so close to another human. Why couldn't I control these urges? It had been over two decades since I was cursed but it wasn't getting any easier. And when I thought my night had hit rock bottom it went lower.

"That was pitiful."

I had thought the scent I'd caught on the breeze had been a pleasant memory but the voice told me that if I turned around she'd be behind me, my death and life, mother, lover. I couldn't turn and find out. I didn't know what would happen if I looked into Darla's dark eyes. Sinister thoughts were already bubbling up from the demon locked inside of me and my soul wept at them.

"I'm almost ashamed to see you, Angelus."

She wasn't going to let me get away. I hesitated for a moment wondering if I ran how far would she chase me? Instead, I turned rigidly then my legs nearly melted. I had practically forgotten how beautiful Darla was. I remembered how she appeared the first night I had seen her, like a queen prowling the alley behind the pub. In retrospect that should have been my first clue she was trouble. But I had been young, foolish and drunk.

Just like that night so long ago in Ireland, Darla glided out of an alley, her heels barely making a sound. She was the one sweet scent in the whole dank area of the city tonight, just as she had been then. Darla's hair was lacquered into short, golden waves, like undulating amber, crowned with a band of jet and crystal that caught the light.

I sighed. "How did you find me, Darla?"

She gave me that haughty laugh she had perfected. "I wasn't looking for you." Darla gestured at the club. "I'm here to hear Louis Armstrong. Just a lucky coincidence."

I would have said unlucky but I held my tongue as she came closer, canting her face up at me, that sultry little smile I used to love playing on her lips. "Enjoy the show," I muttered. Watching her drove me wild, so I took the coward's way out and turned my back on her.

I felt her small fingers closing over my hand and there was no denying the strength used to spin me around. "Just look at you." She ran a hand over my hair. "You look so proper and innocent. At least you smell better than the last time I saw you."

Her hand felt like silk against my cool skin. She was so stunning my mind didn't even wrap around the fact she'd just insulted me. She smelled like lilacs and as usual she wore the most up to date fashions. It was a passion with her. Too many vampires never changed the way they looked. They were obvious and that was dangerous. Darla taught me to blend in. Even now it stayed with me. My clothes were conservative but not out of date.

There was nothing conservative about Darla. Her tubular dress made her look nearly naked as it was nothing but panels of black lace over a champagne slip. The lace hem, breaking just at her knees, had slits so the dress moved like smoke around her lovely legs. She had her stockings rolled down and her knees rouged like the flappers did. She must have had her breasts flattened by some sort of corset, giving her a young, sweet look and the strapped shoulders and scooped neckline were decorated with beads and rhinestones. The kohl eyeliner made her eyes even more luminescent and large.

I leaned into her touch in spite of myself. She stroked my cheek again, her instincts telling her I was still susceptible. I wanted to scream, 'you're not the only one who lives on instinct. No, I've got instincts of my own,' but they betrayed me. I didn't run. Instead I remembered the taste of her blood, a dulcet memory on the back of my tongue. My fangs ached in their sockets, wanting to draw her blood. My tongue begged for another sip, or better yet to taste the sweet nectar of her intimate dew.

"You almost killed her, Angelus," she whispered, standing on tiptoe so her lips would be at my ear. "You're ready to come back to me, my sweet boy."

I barely heard the words, too overwhelmed by a rush of lust like I haven't felt in years. Darla couldn't possibly miss the scent of my arousal or the way my trousers tented up over my erection. She backed me into the alley even as I protested the fact I had considered murdering that girl.

"I saw the look in your eyes, Angelus. You wanted her." Darla's voice was soft in my ear.

"No, I didn't. I just wanted her to take her dog and go."

That didn't even convince me. Darla pressed me back against the brick of one of the clubs, her fingers skillfully massaging my cock through my trousers. It had been so long. There had been no one since the night Darla invited me to devour an infant or leave the group. I tried to draw on that memory to give me the strength to escape her but all I could think of was shoving her against the wall and driving myself up under the silk and lace into her. I knew she would be wet and ready for me. I could smell it. I was lucky I didn't spill in my trousers from the way she worked me.

"You wanted her," she repeated, almost swarming up my body. I had forgotten how limber and talented Darla was, that she had made sex her life's work.Ê "Just like you want me."

My tongue felt too thick to argue. I cupped her ass as she wrapped her legs around me, grinding against me. The tip of my penis butted against my zipper as I rubbed myself across her cool cleft. Her mouth met mine and I forgot why I had ever left her. Darla arched up, giving me access to her neck as her fingers played over the ridges of my brows. I hadn't even realized I had changed into my vampiric face. Darla had as well. I dropped her. Her nails raked my neck as she tried not to land on her backside in the filth of the alley. She succeeded at the cost of some of my flesh.

"No," I growled, my voice hoarse. "I can't do this."

"This says otherwise." Darla viciously squeezed my cock, which was already going soft.

"I won't kill, Darla and you wouldn't want me unless I did," I said, knowing that for a fact.

She looked human and chaste again except for her brown burning eyes. "You are a magnificent hunter, Angelus. You don't deserve to be sucking the blood of rats and cats and whatever else you're stinking from."

"I won't kill a human. I can't." I wished I sounded like I had more conviction.

"Then let me kill them for you, my angel. You need to drink human blood. You're better than this," she said, sounding honestly distressed.

And I was so tempted. I could rationalize it. Humans killed for their meat so why shouldn't we kill them? Because it was wrong and I knew it. But for a moment I wanted to say yes to this exquisite creature who once promised to show me the world.Ê "No, Darla. You should go. This will never work."

She stamped her foot almost childishly, the heel of her shoe sounding like thunder in the alley. "It will, if you'd let it. You're a hunter, Angelus. You were the best. It doesn't have to end here. I can help you."

I laughed bitterly. "Nothing can help me, Darla."

"I can't believe the wonderful creature I made has come to this." The venom in her voice stung me.

"That's just it. You made me a monster. You have untamed me." A wave of hatred for her flooded me as I said that, thinking on all she took from me. It forced out everything she had given me until nothing remained.

Darla's laugh was every bit as acrimonious as my own. "Untamed? I didn't untame you. You were never tame, Angelus. You were a wild creature when I found you." She stabbed a perfectly manicured finger at my chest. "You can be so amazingly thick, do you know that? Did you think I just happened to be in that alley the night we met?"

I stared at her. Yes, actually I had thought it was just my bad luck.

"I had been watching you. I knew what you were, a drunken wastrel hopping from one bed to the other so fast the poor girls didn't know what was happening. I knew your reputation, how your father was trying to hush the girls claiming you had fathered children on them. He was embarrassed by your wildness but I loved it. It was the reason I wanted you. It was the gypsies who tamed you. I was the one who embraced you for what you were." Her eyes flooded with tears. "I loved you."

I looked away. I couldn't bear seeing her in this much pain. Did I love her? I wasn't sure. I always thought I had. But maybe it was something different. Love was supposed to be good and pure and we were anything but. I had needed Darla. I lusted after her but did I love her? It hurt to even think about. "I'm sorry, Darla."

Her fist landed on my jaw before I could move. "So am I. You're right, Angelus. This won't work. Stay out of my way or you'll be dust riding the breeze."

Darla stalked out of the alleyway and into the club. It was an empty threat. I don't think she could really kill me. Oh, we had betrayed each other to save our own skins over the years but I don't think we could kill each other. But I left anyhow. I had to before the temptation won out. Darla made for a very attractive offer but it hurt, too, thinking on what she said. I had always been wild and untamed. I still was. Any tameness in me was mere veneer. It might be too late to change but that didn't mean I couldn't try.

 

"Wild" by Poe from the album"Haunted"

I go wild 'cause you break me open
Wild 'cause you left me here
I go wild
Wild because the chips are down
Wild because there isn't anybody else around
Wild when the waves start to break
And God knows they're breaking in me now
Wild 'cause it doesn't make sense
For me to cry out in my own defense
Wild 'cause I would do anything
To tear you off your precious fence
So this is what it's like living in limbo
First I'm high then I'm soloI go wild'
Cause you break me open
Wild'Cause you left me hereI go wild
'Cause your promises are broken
WildWhen I know you're nearI go wild go wild
Tell me what you've come for
Moving like a hunter through my back door
Leaving the perfume of all you adore
To die nameless on my floor
Yeah well we both know you don't play fair
I guess you really think that you get me there
Let's be honest perhaps this little ride's too much for even you to bear
You've got a lot of nerve to come back here
You're not the only one who can smell fear
I go wild
'Cause you break me open
Wild
'Cause you left me hereI go wild
'Cause your promises are broken
Wild
Don't you get it dear
You're not the only one who lives on instincts
No, I've got instincts of my own
You've got a lot of nerve to come back
Plan your attack, yeah I am still waiting
You wrote the rules to try to contain me
You broke 'emNow you have untamed meI go wild go wild
Tell me what you've come for
What is it you adore
Won't you tell me?
What would you go wild for
You've got a lot of nerve to come back here
Speak up my darling, I have been waitingI go wild
'Cause you break me openWild
'Cause you left me hereI go wild
'Cause your promises are broken
Wild
Don't you get it dear
You're not the only one who lives on instincts
No, I've got instincts of my own
You've got a lot of nerve to come back
Plan your attack, yeah I am still waiting
You wrote the rules to try to contain me
You broke 'em
Now you have untamed me
Go wild
Go wild

 

~Fin~