Page 2 of Afflicted

I hold my breath, trying to stay perfectly still so they just move on. They’re just doing a patrol.

But they don’t move. They just stand there. The seconds tick by and my heartbeat pounds in my ears. Why won’t they go away? I finally have no choice but to exhale, and my lungs rasp as little as I do which sends a fresh wave of panic through me. They saw that movement, for sure. They have to know I’m awake.

Then they inhale. Deeply. Through their nose.

Oh my god. A feeder is standing over my bed and sniffing me out. I just know they can hear my heartbeat, and the blood ricocheting through my body right now. They can probably smell it pooling in my pussy.Please go away. Oh my god, please just walk out right now.

The feeder sucks in a heavy breath, through their mouth this time. They make a sound that’s covered by the growl of thunder overhead. I swear to god they mutter something. Something that sounded a lot like the wordfuck.

Pellets of rain begin to ping against the tin roof. The feeder shifts on their feet, boots shuffling against concrete, then they finally move away with a heavy exhale. A few seconds later, the door to the dorm falls shut, the magnetic lock snapping into place. I breathe a sigh of relief, and realize my hands are shaking.

Holy shit.

I roll onto my back, staring at the ceiling where a fan spins around languidly, doing nothing but spreading the thick air around the dorm. My t-shirt is sticking to me, sweat rolling down my neck, and I desperately want a shower. But, like everything else in this place, that happens on schedule. I can’t just get up and shower when I want, I’ll have to wait til tomorrow. I get a shower before draining. They like us nice and clean for that.

I grimace at the thought. I’m on shift this week, after having eight weeks off. I always dread these weeks. Daily needles, big bruises and feeling light-headed all the damn time. We get a better diet on draining weeks, but not even that is a pay-off anymore. These days, the smell of steak cooking just turns my stomach.

It used to remind me of summer, my dad standing by the grill while we swam in the lake. He’d call us in while Mom fixed everyone’s plate. Steak always came with potato salad, because “that’s what the Germans do” she told us. I don’t even know if that’s true. I just believed her.

Now my steaks come with orange juice and iron supplements that give me cramps.

I fucking hate steak now.

I sigh, grabbing the front of my t-shirt and fanning it away from my body to try and get some air against my sweaty skin. I should sleep. They’ll get us up early tomorrow. They always do on draining days. If I don’t sleep, it makes the dizziness and nausea so much worse. I close my eyes, counting my breaths, trying to relax.

Footsteps sound on the other side of the metal wall, right behind my head. The window above me is open a little, illuminated by a flash of lightning, sending shadowed images of the bars lining the frame across the dorm. Thunder rolls loudly. The footsteps sound again, as though someone is pacing. It’s a feeder on their patrols I decide as I yawn. Just like I thought. They didn’t smell me after all.

I’m sure I’m imagining it, I’m sure it’s just one of those weird half awake dreams, but as I drift off, I’m sure, I’m certain I hear that feeder sniffing again.

CHAPTER2

SILAS

There’sa time and a place to fantasize about the smell of a pretty human as she gets herself off. To think about the sounds she made, grinding her hips against the bed because she’s so desperate to be fucked. To imagine all the ways you’d make her scream, and wondering how her pussy tastes.

Sitting in a meeting with your superiors while they discuss your promotion definitely isn’t it.

And yet this morning, while everyone around me discusses accommodations and protocol and all the benefits I was now entitled to, all I can think about is the pretty blonde and the intoxicating scent of her orgasm. I don’t even know her name. It shouldn’t even matter. But I’ve never been the type to just let something go.

This promotion was incredibly welcome. Two years on gate duty had been mind-numbingly boring, but it was better than sitting up in a factory in Boston producing electronics and weapons. So I’d taken it. Rural Georgia was still much as it was before the world went to hell, and I enjoyed the fresh air and the countryside.

Then the higher-ups finally realized that I was equipped with a set of skills that they could use to increase their security systems. Off gate duty, out of the cramped guard compound where I lived with the other grunts, and into officer’s quarters of the Milledgeville Human Preservation Complex. The guards were kept separate from the humans, but the officer’s cabins were in the human compound. Of course I knew I’d be in contact with humans again. It didn’t really bother me.

I just didn’t expect the prettiest human I’ve seen in my life to cross my path.

Being in a relationship with humans is against the rules now.Against the rules.That makes it sound so benign. Whenever it’s spoken about, it’sagainst the rules. It’s punishable by something worse than death. Humans are our commodity, our livestock, a precious asset we have to keep secure. Fraternising with them, much less biting and fucking them, is strictly forbidden.

It wasn’t always that way.

Before all this started, when the world had just found out about our existence, even I’d tried having a relationship with a human. Back when I’d been determined to hold on to the last shred of my humanity. But a new vamp and a human turned out to be a deadly combination. Realizing you’ve killed someone while you’re coming inside them isn’t a feeling I’m anxious to experience again.

And yet, right now, sitting in with my new bosses and other newly promoted vamps, I’m staring at my hands in my lap, imagining fucking her with my fingers, feeling that pussy contract on my hand as I make her come. I imagine tracing pictures on her body, connecting all those heavenly freckles on her skin into myriad shapes as her skin cools after countless orgasms.

Hardly ideal.

I shift in my chair, crossing my legs to hide the very obvious bulge in my trousers, and cross my arms over my chest. I set my face in a frown, nodding so as to appear attentive as I gaze around the room. Sure, I’m definitely listening.

Yes, absolutely the budgets will need addressing.

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