Eternal Service by Regina Morris

front of a moving bus, for example, if you didn’t already have suicidal tendencies.”
    She fidgeted with the buttons on her blouse. “Vampires in the movies compel women into their beds, against their will. Could you compel a woman to undress?”
    The question embarrassed him – probably because he had never been asked such a question before. Maybe because the question came from Alex. He wasn’t sure.
    He considered his answer. “Depends. If she were an exhibitionist? Yes. If she believed her shirt had toxic waste on it? Sure. If they were already inclined to go to bed with me? … Well, there would be no need to compel her in that case.” He cleared his throat and continued, “Women get undressed every day, Alex. It’s ordinary for them. If I wanted a woman’s shirt off, I see no reason why I wouldn’t succeed.” He realized his last statement sounded a bit off–putting, so he added, “Of course, it’s a moot point unless I wanted the shirt off to begin with. Personally, I’ve never compelled a woman in such a way.”
    She appeared more nervous at his answer, so he smiled at her to look less menacing. Now he realized that all he could think of now was her shirt off¸ and the idea surprised him. Of course, she was a beautiful woman, and any man would want to see more of her incredible body, but he had not realized until this moment how much of an effect she had on him. He was actually aroused, and he had not felt that sensation in response to a woman in quite some time. He knew his eyes were pitching black in response, so he blinked several times and resisted his feelings.
    “Something in your eyes?” she asked, as he continued to blink.
    “It’s nothing.” He wiped his eyes and felt for his fangs with his tongue. No fangs produced themselves under his inspection; he was okay to look at her. “I’m fine,” he said as he gazed into her emerald eyes again.
    He watched as a squirrel came up to her. She tore off a piece of bread from her sandwich and handed the food to the animal. He found it odd that she didn’t tear the bread and throw it onto the grass for the squirrel to pick up; she was hand–feeding it. “You should be careful, Alex. The squirrel could bite you.”
    She looked at Raymond. “I’m guessing one of the points of this outing is to prove to me that not everything that can bite you will bite you.” She studied the vampire from head to toe, and then gazed into his eyes. “You don’t sound so sure of that though. Are you sure I’m safe around you?”
    She toyed with him, or so he thought she did. Was she flirting with him? Maybe she was serious. He chose his next sentence carefully. “I’ll ask your permission before I bite you. I give you my word on that, Alex.” As if a ton of bricks fell on him, he realized saliva pooled in his mouth. He wanted to know the taste of her blood. He wanted to feed from her vein. He swallowed hard and tried to dismiss his feelings.
    Alex took a look around the park. The place was filled with families enjoying the sunny day. “Just in theory, why not create a super army of our own. Why always be on the lookout for human and vampire threats alone, why not create a threat for our side? … In theory of course.”
    “Because we’re living beings. We feed, breathe and have children. We’re not robots … and this isn’t Nazi Germany and we’re not a supreme race. Plus, the more vampires there are, the harder the secret of our existence is to keep. Eventually every rock star would want vamp bodyguards; hell, they’ll want to be vampires themselves. Where would it end? The Colony is a small group. Vampires are not federally registered or on government reservations, they are scattered and, at least with the civilian vampires, they are relatively unorganized just trying to live their lives among humans.”
    “Don’t say that word again.” She appeared irked at his last statements.
    Surprised by her tone, he asked, “What word?”
    “‘Hell’.