Tales of Dylak-Leem - Chapter 3

Chapter 3 - Laid To Rest

With a grimace, Keo jerked her knives free of the rapidly dying merchant.

The man fell bonelessly to the muddy ground of the alley, his half-drawn sword tumbling away to lie in a puddle. He made a weak attempt to grab at her feet, probably more from reflex than anything else, and she kicked him in the head, hard. He gave a choking gurgle and died, his blood already starting to pool in the mud beneath him.

The short woman knelt, wiped her daggers on his clothing, and then expertly cut the purse from his belt. A quick rummage through his tunic revealed a second pouch, which quickly vanished into a pocket of her long black cloak. She glanced over at the sword as the rain continued to fall, black eyes calculating. The hilt was gold and silver, with a ruby in the pommel. Worth a nice sum. But it was very, very distinctive. Selling it would be like laying a trail of breadcrumbs leading back to her and her responsibility for the rich fool's death, and Keo wanted to avoid that. The man's family likely had money enough to try and seek revenge on his murderer, if said murderer was careless enough to leave any traces. She'd been careless enough for one day.

She stood, and strode off briskly down the alley, the black hood concealing equally black hair. Keo hadn't intended to kill him when she spotted him taking a shortcut through the alley, just rob him. But the idiot had tried to draw steel instead, despite most likely never having been in a real fight in his life. Her daggers had been buried in his chest before he could even get his blade clear of the scabbard.

It was aggravating. It could cause trouble for her. She should have done a better job of intimidating the man. Not for the first time, Keo wished she was taller. As it was, she was short, with snub features under long black hair. Not a picture to strike fear into men's hearts, unless they knew better. She wasn't a killer by trade, but she had no hesitation about killing when the job required it, and very little in the way of remorse.

Her friend and partner in crime Lise said she was a cold fish, citing her disinterest in having any sort of a sex life as proof. That was a different story, Keo knew. She understood that other people apparently loved copulation, but she found the entire idea somewhat distasteful and far too intimate for her tastes. She'd tried masturbating once or twice, to see what the fuss was about. The results had left her decidedly unimpressed and a little disgusted. 

Killing was different. The first time she had done it, she hadn't been able to sleep for days afterwards, the heady thrill of besting someone in a contest of life and death mixing with a sort of sick, unbelieving horror over having ended a life. The next time had been a lot easier. Now, there was just a fading adrenaline rush.

She emerged from the far end of the alley and melted into the crowd, moving as quickly as she could without attracting attention. The body would be found within a few hours, and most likely the watch would blame it on one of the locals after an easy score. Someone would probably take the sword... it was too valuable for most of the scavengers in this quarter to leave lying... and with luck whoever did would receive the blame.

Still, prudent to remove herself from the area as fast as possible.

The rain continued to fall as she made her way through the city towards her destination. Foul weather was her friend; it meant less people would be abroad tonight, those who were would be miserable and distracted and just wanting to get in out of the damp, and visibility would be low. With luck, there would be a fog coming up off the river.

It was early evening when she arrived at the Wanton Wench. The tavern was as crowded as ever, and she pushed her way to the bar, where she ordered a cup of hot cider. Then, steaming drink in hand, she made her way to the rear booth where Lise waited for her.

The taller woman nodded a greeting as she slid in. Like Keo, Lise was dressed in a dark cloak and black leather. Unlike her, she had dark red hair and sharp features, and wicked blue eyes. "Keo. Fucking cold out. Probably freeze our tits off on tonight's job, although part of it will be in out of the wet. How's things?"

Keo took a long drink of her cider, savouring the warmth, and then shrugged sourly. "Could be better. Botched a mugging. Killed the fool. Probably untraceable, but." She shrugged again. They both knew that deaths could lead to complications.

"Cold, deadly little killer Keo." Lise wagged a mocking finger at her. "You at least get something good for your troubles?"

"Let's see." She extracted the two purses and opened them. The welcome gleam of gold greeted her, with a smattering of silver. "Not too bad. Don't know if it was worth the attention. Had to leave the sword." She shook her head. "Was a nice sword. Worth more than this."

"You're just not greedy enough, Keo. Live a little. Take some risks! Get laid." Lise grinned. "That's how I spent my morning. I know a gentlemen with the most amazingly talented pe-"

"Don't want to hear it. Get to the job." Lise was Keo's closest friend in the world, but her habit of regaling her with her many sexual exploits was grating.

Lise sulked for a second, then rallied. "Fine, be that way. This could be a profitable one for us, girl. We've made some good scores together, haven't we? I'm hoping this tops them all."

That sounded promising. She'd joined forces with Lise three years ago, when they were both new to their business and a little desperate. They'd broken into houses for a while before realizing that the dead could be even more profitable, with less competition and chance of being caught. Being a grave robber wasn't the most glamorous field, but Keo found it suited her. She didn't mind corpses, and she wasn't frightened at all by solitude and lonely places. That was what discouraged most people from their trade; superstitious dread and the very real chance of things that weren't superstition at all.

They run into a few of those things over the years, but always managed to handle them. And they'd made a tidy profit, too.

"There's a tomb in the older part of Ghasthauver Cemetary. Maybe a century or two old. Belongs to Countess Amelie D'Bastian, buried in it with her jewels. We're going to lift em."

Keo frowned. "Over a century? Small chance there's so much as a silver ring left. Wealth like that, someone has to have carried it off ages ago."

Lise grinned. "Oh ye of little faith. The tomb's magically sealed. Countess didn't want anyone having their wicked way with her after she was gone. Out of the league of filthy bone-thieves like us, except for this." She produced an iron key with a faint blue glow at the tip. "The wizard Miria sold me this. She inherited another mage's collection of junk, and the key to the crypt was in it. It'll get us in the door past the wards; she warned me that any other traps that might be there are for us to deal with."

Keo nodded thoughtfully, black eyes flickering from the key to her friend's face. "Do you think we can trust Miria?"

"I don't know about TRUST, but she has a working relationship with us. We provide her with fresh cadavers for her research, remember. I don't think she'd want to risk that. And her reputation is someone who generally tells the truth, if not necessarily all of the truth. She told me she was confident the key would work and that she was pretty sure the loot was still in there. If she was wrong..." The redhead shrugged. "I'm out some coin and the two of us wasted a night we could have spent more profitably."

Thinking it over, Keo took another long drink of her cider. The part about the magical wards disturbed her. She didn't care for magic, and she thought the presence of it increased the odds of other unnatural stuff, which was the bane of every grave robber. And she didn't like Miria. The blonde mage looked down her nose at them; valuable business relationship or not, Keo was sure she'd happily double-cross them if it became worth her while to do so.

Still... a noble's jewels from a century back was a rich haul. The gems and jewelry would be valuable, and they could be fenced without having to worry about the owners and the watch tracing them back to the thieves, since the owners in this case were long dead and the items long forgotten. A score like that was worth a bit of risk and doubt, and besides...

Lise and Keo were very different, but they had one thing in common: they both enjoyed a bit of danger and thrill. That factor made up Keo's mind.

"Alright. I'm in." She set her drink down. "We going tonight?"

"That's the plan. Between the rain and the chill, nobody's going to be out and it'll be dark as a coal cellar. Perfect for our business. Not the most comfortable working conditions, but all part of the job, eh?"

"Wonder why I keep doing it."

"Because you're such a stiff you belong in a lich-yard," Lise said. "And it's good money. And you get to work alongside beautiful and talented people like myself, the brains of the operation. Done with your drink?"

Keo looked at her mug, took one last long pull, enjoying the warmth as it slid down her throat. It was going to be very not-warm soon. "Yeah."

"Great. Let's get going. It's a ways to the place, and I want to be well clear of the cemetery by daybreak."

Few people paid them any heed as they slipped out. Keo and Lise were regulars, and the crowd was accustomed to their presence. One or two, like Egrid Hardtusk, idly wondered where they were off to and if it was going to be profitable. But only for a second or two.

---

It took them two hours to make their way out of the city and down along a trade road, then a poorly maintained dirt track. Finally they descended a hillside, dipping down into a low part of the Kesarde river valley. Fog from the river grew thicker and thicker, and before long out of the mist loomed the wrought-iron gates of the graveyard.

Ghasthauver Cemetery had an evil reputation among the city's boneyards. It was seldom used anymore; most of the graves in it were from at least the last century, save for a few plague pits that had been dug there during the great contagion fifty years ago. The lack of traffic only added to the fearful atmosphere of the place, and when the great trade barges passed it by on the river, the bawdy shanties faltered and stopped, to be replaced by sailor's hymns for protection. 

Lise and Keo slipped through the unlocked gates like two black shadows. Each had a bag slung over one shoulder and carried a hooded lantern. Visibility was poor in the mist, but for the time being they were making due with the light of the full moon. They both had excellent night vision, thankfully.

Silently, they padded down the rows of crumbling graves, Lise leading the way. The redhead's eyes darted from side to side as they went, and once she choked back an oath as a crow burst from a clump of underbrush.

"Something the matter?" Keo asked neutrally.

"I just don't like this place. The last time I was here was without you, and something stalked us all the way out, something that stank of carrion. Most of the stories are just shit dredged out of an alecup, but there's a nasty core of truth to it, I'm guessing."

Keo shrugged. As far as she was concerned it was a graveyard like any other graveyard. Better than most since it was less trafficked and there was thus less chance of running into anyone.

They continued on, past a statue of a weeping angel. Fungus had defaced the seraphim, making her look like she had some sort of horrible skin disease. Lise paused for a second, face unsure. "I think we take a left here. Or maybe at the cenotaph up ahead... damn this fog!"

Keo just waited silently, foot silently tapping. After a while, Lise pointed left. "let's try this way. I think this is where the turn is."

"One hopes."

They set off down a row of graves. The path dipped down into a hollow, and before long they came to a rusting iron fence, the rails capped with demented-looking cherubim faces with empty eyes. Lise grinned uneasily and poked her partner in the side. "I was right. Nearly there."

"Good."

They carefully eased open the fence's gate, making sure that it didn't squeak by applying a bit of oil first. The graves beyond were elaborate; some were not graves at all, but small tombs.

"This used to be a hot place to be buried if you had money," Lise said. "About a little over a century ago. Ghasthauver was one of the best lich-yards Dylak-Leem had, in that day."

"What happened to it?"

"Don't know. Got a bad reputation. An evil one." Lise shivered a bit, and not from the chill or the rain. "Can't you feel it?"

"Feel what?"

"Something nasty. Something that doesn't like the living, and maybe likes the dead a little too much." Lise looked nervously around as they walked, peering into every shadowed alcove in every marble crypt they passed.

"Sounds like me." Keo sneered a little, a faint chuckle escaping her lips. "You're losing your nerve. This feels like every other bone-yard we've worked in for the last three years. The gods know, a place this old and big, there's probably some wight or zombie roaming around. We've dealt with that before. It's part of the job."

"Yeah, I know. Just gives me the creeps. But I'm not backing out."

They came to a tall, black crypt carved with coiled vipers, and Lise raised one hand. "This is the place."

Keo frowned at it. "Interesting motif."

"Her coat of arms or some shit." The taller redhead walked up to the door, and carefully uncovered her lantern. "Give me a second to work here, Keo. The key has to be inserted a special way and then given a certain number of turns, you can't just jam it in."

"Take your time." Bored, cold, and damp, Keo leaned against one of the crypt's pillars and stared out into the night, listening to the patter and rustle of the falling rain.

The patter and rustle...

"That's not rain," she quietly hissed, suddenly ceasing to be bored. Her black eyes scanned the swirling fog that cloaked the hollow, trying to catch sight of any movement.

There. A shape loomed out of the mist, then vanished again. Man-shaped, but bent.

"We've got company," she said, reaching for the crowbar inside her sack. She had other surprises as well, but the crowbar would do for now until she had a better idea of what they were dealing with.

"Can you handle it?"

"Yeah. For now." Movement again. It was trying to get around and come at them from the side.

There was a horrible, ragged growl, and then something loped out of the fog at her. It was man-shaped and nude, corpse-white, and it smelled terrible. Hands reached for her, and she swung the crowbar with her full strength.

It sent the thing staggering back, making a hurt sound like a wounded child. Keo reached into her shirt and pulled out a vial of water. Unstoppering it, she threw the contents of it full in the creature's face.

The results were dramatic. The thing's head melted like a wax-blob chucked in a fire, and it collapsed to the ground with an agonized gurgle.

Lise finished her work and hurriedly came over to see what was going on. She stared down at the now unmoving, headless corpse. "Holy water. Got to love the stuff." She pointed to the thing's crotch. "Well-endowed gentleman paying court to you, Keo. Pity you're so standoffish."

"You probably would have fucked the thing and sent it on it's way."

"With a tool like that, maybe in life, but the poor dear's really let himself go." Lise chuckled. "Door's open. Let's get our money and get out of here before anything else finds us."

Picking up their lanterns, they swung the door open and descended into the darkness of the yawning crypt.

---

It was dry inside, at least. The walls alternated between stone and richly done mosaics. The floor was tile, cracked and chipped in places but still giving an impression of wealth. It was largely free of spiders or rats, which was a welcome mercy; Keo supposed the magic ward had kept them out.

Carvings on the wall showed slaves paying court to a richly-garbed woman. As they went along, the scenes changed, one showing the woman presiding over an execution. Another made Lise snicker and poke her in the side; the woman was shown having sex with a burly man and a handmaiden.

"That's what I want on my tomb," Lise said.

"Typical degenerate noble," Keo muttered. She didn't have much love for the aristocracy.

The next mosiac showed a less humorous picture; the woman, arms red with blood, conducting some sort of human sacrifice. "Charming girl, this Countess was," Lise muttered.

Keo didn't reply.

They passed through a few anterooms and descended a set of stairs. "The casket and goods chambers should be right ahead," Lise said. "The old bitch is probably wearing most of the good stuff. We'll have to use the crowbars."

"I am, indeed, wearing most of the good stuff," an amused voice said. "But you'll get little use out of your crowbars."

The two thieves stopped dead as a figure advanced out of the darkness of the crypt. She looked to be in her late thirties, and was nude except for rich jewelry on her neck, arms, head, and waist. Her long hair was pure white, and her skin was an unhealthy blue-grey, the color of a corpse. But the thing that froze the two women was her eyes, which were burning with red foxfire.

"Shit," Lise muttered. "Keo, you used your holy water, right?"

"Yeah." Keo warily set her lantern down and pulled her daggers. "Use yours. I'll try and follow up on it."

"I think not." The woman pointed a finger at Lise and spat an obscene syllable. The redhead gave a strangled shriek, clawed at her ears, and then went down in a boneless heap, unconscious.

"Necromantic skank!" Keo leapt at the woman, daggers flashing. She got in one grazing hit before, with a laugh, her foe backhanded her into a wall. Staggering, she got back into a guard position, circling towards the fallen body of her friend. She needed the holy water Lise was carrying.

"Such a vicious little mouse," the woman mused. "Squeak some more for me. Do."

"Fuck you!" Keo feinted a lunge, then made a dive for Lise. Pawing a hand into her friend's shirt, she pulled out the flask of holy water and stood. If she could just get the woman in the face, it would probably hurt her enough for Keo to grab Lise and run...

The woman laughed and spoke another word. Keo never heard it; the not-sound hung in the air as something seemed to hit her like a ten-ton hammer. Her arms and legs ceased to function; dimly, she felt the flask of holy water fall from nerveless fingers. Then she herself crumpled to the ground, twitching and flopping.

Footsteps. The lady walked over and knelt by her, the rubies on her naked breast glinting redly in the dim light of the lantern. "Introductions. I am Countess Amelie, little mouse. What is your name?"

"Fuck you," Keo rasped again, trying to get her limbs to work. This was bad, the worst spot she had ever found herself in, but if she could just get moving again and get to the fallen flask...

"Well... since you mention it..." The woman reached out, and with one sudden motion tore open the front of Keo's leathers. Icy hands closed around Keo's exposed breasts, and her soft globes were kneaded, chill fingers tweaking her nipples.

Keo spat a shocked curse, "Let go of me, you bitch!"

"Oh, not yet, little mouse." Amelie released her breasts and straddled her stomach, facing her legs. To her growing panic, Keo felt the cold hands slip to the waistband of her pants, unfasten them, and ease them off her unworking thighs. "How unfortunately hairy your woman's parts are. In my day, a lady kept herself trimmed."

Keo didn't reply, instead focusing her efforts on trying to move. Her limbs twitched and flopped like landed fish.

Icy fingers spread open her outer lips, and her captor laughed. "You still have your maidenhead! So unworldly and innocent, for a thief of the dead. Did you save yourself just for me?"

A cold, wet tongue licked her labia with a shock like a stab, and she shrieked in mixed fear and outrage, desperately trying to get up. Amelie gave a throaty chuckle. "So agitated, little mouse. Relax. You'll enjoy this, for a time."

"Like hells, you rotting whore!" Keo shrieked again as the chill tongue nuzzled her clitoris. "Stop!"

"Stop? But no. I have needs, little mouse. And I will sate them, on you."

With that, Amelie's mouth opened wide, revealing two needle-like fangs. With a hungry snarl, she sank them into the soft pink flesh of Keo's vulva.

Keo howled. Pain and an electric sensation raised through her, and she was seized with an overwhelming need to remove the being's mouth from her privates. She thrashed as much as she was able to, but her arms and legs continued to do nothing more than flop uselessly.

Amelie's tongue bulged and grew, extending from her mouth like a grey-blue serpent. It pushed against Keo's inner lips, seeking entry. For a few seconds it fumbled there, stymed.

"No! Don't! Lise, HELP ME!"

With an insistant push, the tongue tore through Keo's hymen and slid into her tight hole. She screamed with pain and outrage, then cried out again as the tongue continued to grow, sliding in and out like a long rubbery cock. It ground the tattered, bloody shreds of her maidenhead into the walls of her vagina as it violated her with enthusiasm.

Keo had never felt anything like this. The combination of pain and physical pleasure made her cry out over and over as the cold tongue-cock licked its way deeper and deeper into her virgin cunt. Amelie's fangs were still imbedded in her vulva, and she was aware of a sick sense of suction there, and knew the vampire was drinking her blood as well as her juices. She knew she had to do something, but her limbs still refused to obey, and her body was increasingly becoming unwilling to do anything other than spasm as the intense sensations from her pussy rocked her.

A long scream ripped free of her panting, shuddering form. She was shivering, but sweat poured down her body, forming little rivers down her brow, down her legs, between her breasts. Her heart pounded like a drum, in time with the rhythmic lapping of the undead cock-tongue between her thighs.

This couldn't be happening, she thought in a frenzy. She couldn't be deflowered like this.

"Stop! AHHHHHHHHHHH! Gods! Oh gods!"

Amelie pushed her pelvis back, and Keo recoiled as the vampire's hairless, dripping cleft was shoved directly into her face. She opened her mouth to scream again, and the undead pussy's lips met her own. Icy liquid, musky and bitter, dripped into her mouth, and she nearly gagged.

The cock-tongue continued to slide in and out of her, lapping up the increasing amount of moisture pouring from her vagina. She felt herself starting to grow cold, even as the tongue within her and the juices at her mouth started to grow warmer.

She needed to get away. She needed to escape. But she found she was having trouble making her thoughts fall in a coherent way. Something was building in her quivering body that she thought might be her first ever orgasm, but it seemed distant, somehow detached. It was so cold.

The liquid at her lips was growing warmer, and she seized on it with desperation. Greedily she licked out with her own tongue, sending it into the blue-grey snatch, trying to lap down as much of the warm nectar as she could. She felt like she was drowning in an icy sea, and that liquid offered her only lifeline.

They lay there in a vile 69, the vampire fellating her with increasing force. Keo felt herself climax for the first time, felt her body strain and shudder, wanted to scream but instead kept desperately lapping at the river of warmth from Amelie's cleft.

Then the cold seemed to swallow her up, and she fell into darkness.

---

Keo drifted back into thought from a dark, cold place, only to find herself in another dark, cold place. She was lying on her back on a padded surface, arms at her side, and someone was lying on top of her. Somebody female, from the feel of the large breasts pressing into her own smaller ones.

Her eyes opened.

Glowing red foxfire eyes and a leering mouth grinned back at her.

Keo screamed, and tried to throw the vampire off of her. She failed. She was in a small, confined space, the Countess was right on top of her and apparently much stronger, and she felt weak, dizzy, and oddly empty. She screamed and thrashed as Amelie kissed her on the lips.

"You return, little mouse." A hand reached down to slide along her hip. "You were dead for several hours. I was beginning to think you might not rise. But you drank enough, it seems."

"What have you done to me?" rasped Keo, hysteria entering her voice.

"You are dead, little mouse. Now, like me, you shall sleep away the day and stalk the night. Well... I say sleep... but we will find more interesting things to do, shall we not? That was why you saved yourself for me." The hand on her hip snaked between her legs. "Night is far away. I will make you sing."

"Oh gods..." Keo's eyes darted frantically from side the side. Between the musty smell of ancient satin and what little she could see by the light of the vampire's eyes... she was in a coffin. And from what the Countess was saying...

It took a second to be sure, but there was no doubt of it. Her heart wasn't beating. She'd been killed and raised as undead.

"Oh gods," she whimpered, then gave a choking cry as the hand between her legs slipped two fingers into her cleft. "Stop! Please, just let me go!"

"You cannot go, little mouse. It is day, when we rest in our eternal bed." Amelie kissed her again, fingers probing deeper. "You cannot go until night falls. And that is a long ways away. Until then, you are mine."

"No! Oh gods! You can't- AHHHHHHH! AHHHN!"

Laughing, Amelie rubbed her breasts against her helpless lover's smaller mounds. Her legs curled around Keo's as her hand clenched, two fingers inside and stroking, the thumb stimulating her clitoris. "I can. I can. Scream for me again, little thief."

Keo screamed.

For the next few hours, a space of time that felt endless, the vampire Countress sated her vile lusts on Keo's quivering, helpless body. Sometimes the thief gasped and sobbed with physical pleasure, other times she shrieked with horror and pain. Amelie proved inventive and enthusiastic, coming up with all manner of things one woman could do to another in the close confines of a box.

Finally, just as Keo thought her mind was going to break, the Countess raised herself off her and pushed the lid open. Standing, the vampire adjusted her jewelry. "Night has come, little mouse. Rise up."

Keo scrambled shakily out of the coffin. She was stark naked, and in the dim light of the tomb she could see that her skin had turned a chalky blue-white color. She gave a choking cry, and fled into the next room, desperate to get out of this horrible place.

Entering the next antechamber, she immediately skidded to a stop.

Bound to a low stone slab in the center of the room was Lise. She was awake, frightened-looking, and tied in a spread-eagled position by thick, decaying ropes. Her head jerked up in surprise as Keo stopped. "Keo! Get me the fuck out of these ropes, quick!" She paused, taking in her friend's appearance. "Uh, are you okay? You're naked. And kinda pale."

"I'm... I'm fine. Just... hold on a second." She could see one of her knives lying on the floor, discarded. She could use that to cut Lise's ropes, and then they could both escape...

But as she looked at Lise, she felt unsure. No. She felt... she felt HUNGRY.

She shook her head violently. That was the wrong thing to feel. But it was true. She was so cold. She was so empty and cold. And Lise was just lying there... tied... with such a warm, soft body full of heat and life...

No. She shouldn't.

"Keo, hurry up! Before that bitch comes back!"

She should just cut Lise free and run. But she was so usefully tied now. It was like a gift. And Keo was so cold and hungry. Just a taste...

Her eyes went to Lise's waist, and she stepped forwards.

"Just cut me loose, and- Keo? Hey..." Her hands began to fumble with Lise's pants. "What are you doing? I haven't got a knife in there. There's one on the floor."

Shaking, she pulled the leather trousers down to Lise's ankles, and gazed hungrily on her friend's bare snatch. Lise shaved her box, except for a bit of trimed red fur that she left for style. That was good. It would make this easier.

"Keo, uh, I like you as a friend, but not like this, Keo, this is not the time for this, and I'm not really into women, Keo, for fuck's sake!"

She bent forward and slowly, shudderingly, took a long lick of the redheaded thief's labia, tasted a hint of moisture. The hunger inside her was a raging inferno now, and she could feel her canines start to grow and lengthen into needlelike fangs.

"Keo! Stop it! KEO!"

With a snarl, Keo sank her fangs into the pink folds of her friend's pussy. Lise howled in pain and surprise, but the shock was almost as bad for the one doing the biting. Rich, warm, salty blood immediately started to flow into her, a river of warmth. It was like the best food and drink she'd ever had. It was like shelter from the cold. It was like all the good things other people had told her about sex.

She felt her tongue growing, felt a thirst that matched her lust for blood. Eagerly she rammed her newly-erect cock-tongue into her friend's well-traveled hole, and found it already a little wet. She lapped it down, then pushed it further in, seeking more.

"KEO! Oh gods... oh gods... KEO! What... why are you.... AHHHHHH!"

The warmth continued to grow as Lise's blood flowed into her, and Lise's body spasmed under her mouth. The redheaded thief was thrashing against her bonds, whether in the throes of passion or trying to escape was unclear. The crazy thought came to her that if she drank enough, she could come back alive... could cure whatever the Countess had done to her... Lise tasted so good, and she was so hungry...

"Oh fuck... oh fuck... KEOOOOO! PLEASE! KEO!"

Lise's sopping cunt kept growing wetter and wetter, and Keo continued to drink her warm nectar down. It was her shield against the awful cold... it made her think of sunlight and good things... of walking by the river in the morning, of a sunny day in a street cafe, a glass of dark wine... she was so hungry, and Lise tasted so good. Her blood and her nectar were like a lifeline out of a cold, dark chasm, and Keo took it and her with almost vicious energy.

Lise's words had changed to incoherent moans now. She shook uncontrollably as Keo's dark lust ravished her, her shivering body thrashing in her bonds. Soon her orgasm made itself known with wailing cries.

Keo's body felt like it was full of electricity. She was wet herself, horny for the first time in her memory. She wanted to fuck Lise all night and make her scream for more. But even more than that, she wanted more of this glorious, intoxicating blood, and this divine nectar flowing from her cunt.

The redhead was slowly panting and gasping now, shivering violently. Her eyes had rolled up in their sockets. Keo barely noticed. She just kept drinking and tongue-fucking her friend's wet hole.

After Lise stopped making noises, she didn't notice either. She only took note when the flow of blood stopped.

Dimly, through a haze, she pulled her fangs free of her friend's rapidly cooling vulva. Stumbling back, she stared dumbly at the pale figure splayed on the slab. "Lise? I... I'm sorry, I was... Lise?"

"You used her up," Amelie's voice said behind her, amused. "You were hungry, little mouse."

"Oh gods." She was dead. Lise was dead. She had just killed her best friend. "Is she... will she rise, like I did?"

"You only become a vampire by drinking from the fountain of the one who drains you. You were not as generous as I." Amelie gave a fond chuckle. "You are too young to produce a new child, anyway. The power is still weak in you."

"Lise... I..." She spun and stared at the Countess with a look of pure hatred. "You intended this. You fucking bitch."

"I knew you would need refreshment. Look at yourself. Do you not feel better?"

She looked down. Indeed, the color had mostly returned to her skin. And she felt less hollow, less cold, more... more alive. Even though deep down, she knew she wasn't.

"Damn you!" Keo turned and fled, unable to look on the scene any longer. She sped from the antechamber, leaving the Countess and the corpse alone.

Amelie smiled and listened. Soon her ears heard the clang of the tomb's door as Keo made her escape.

"Run, little mouse," she murmured. "Run and scurry. Daylight will be here soon enough."

Then she turned her head sharply, staring at the white mist forming next to the slab. This was not entirely unexpected, but still unusual.

The mist slowly formed itself into a transparent figure of a woman, her eyes wild. "What... what the fuck."

"You are dead," Amelie informed her. "Your friend drank you dry."

"I know. That bitch. She fucking killed me. She fucking bit me in the twat and then KILLED me!" Lise's shade punched at the air. "Shit! I had a date tomorrow!"

"You'll get used to it," Amelie said, unsympathetic. "Or perhaps you won't. Some never do."

Lise stared down at her rapidly cooling corpse. "Did I really die with that fucked-silly expression on my face?"

"You really did."

"Of all the ways for miss virgin-cunt Keo to discover sex, this one never occurred to me in my worst nightmares. Damn! I had such a hot body, too! Are you just going to let it lie there? Can you... I don't know, at least close my legs?"

"In a little while, I was going to take it outside and put it somewhere for the crows to pick at."

Lise cursed for several minutes. "What the hells am I supposed to do now!?"

"Go for a walk. See if you can possess someone. You look to be a strangely potent ghost; you should be able to take someone's body, at least for a time."

"I can do that? Good." Lise clenched her transparent hands into fists. "Keo and I have some talking to do. That bitch fucking KILLED me!"

Amelie watched the ghost float from the crypt, and shook her head. Uncorporeal undead could be so gauche sometimes.

---

Keo ran through the graveyard, past crumbling headstones and monuments. It was dark, foggy, and a steady rain was falling. She knew she ought to have trouble seeing, and ought to be freezing cold. Neither was true.

She had to get out of here, had to get away from Amelie. Then she could figure out what to do. Maybe she could go to a priest... no, they'd probably just burn her. Maybe a wizard. Could you cure undeath? She didn't know. She had better find out before doing anything rash.

She stumbled in a wet patch of gravel, tumbled to one knee, rose back up and continued to run. She was now painfully aware of other shapes in the fog. They ignored her. She was one of them, not the living.

She was running full-tilt now, and the faster she ran the more she expected to feel the familiar pounding of her heart, and the more its absence disturbed her. She was breathing still, but she suspected that was more from habit than necessity.

The cemetery gates loomed ahead. With a grateful sob, Keo dashed through them and kept on running.

She would need to avoid the main road until she found some clothes. There were some farm cottages up in the hills. One of them might have a clothesline. Worst come to worst, she could knock on a door and claim to have been set upon by bandits.

Maybe she should have stopped to take Lise's clothing.

Keo bit her lip, her emotions churning at the thought of undressing her dead friend. She had never dreamed of thinking of Lise with lust until this happened, but now that it had... her feelings towards the other woman had a decidedly impure edge to them now. Except that now she was dead. Because Keo had killed her.

Her dead stomach twisted with guilt. She should have resisted. Should have not given in. But she had been so hungry... it hadn't really been her fault... it was Amelie's fault. Yes. That whore was the one to blame for all of this.

She tripped over a large stone as she climbed through a poorly-maintained hillside field. A bolt of lightning illuminated the sky, and she groaned in frustration and guilt and misery. Her skin was beaded with rainwater and smeared with streaks of mud from her fall, and her black hair was matted and wild with rain.

These were the unsettled hills just outside of Dybek-Leem, brooding above the river, home to a few old barrows and some degenerate shepherds and growers of suspicious wine. She thought she was a few miles from the city, but her sense of direction was a bit confused. Under normal circumstances she would have been worried about being out here stark naked and unarmed. As it was, it barely registered.

She trudged on as the rain poured down. Again and again the picture of Lise writhing under her lips came pushing into her mind, making her body feel warm despite the fog and the wet and the wind. The worst part of having killed her best friend was how much she had enjoyed it. It had been like the sex that Lise was forever describing, wild and intoxicating and alive.

If only she hadn't killed her. Maybe she could have done it again...

Keo gave a short shriek, flailing her fists madly at the storm. She needed to stop thinking this way. She had to get her cool back. Calm, methodical, collected. That was how she operated.

Wearily, she stumbled on. She could see a ramshackle house in the distance; maybe she could get some clothing there.

A figure suddenly loomed out of the rain, and she froze, then relaxed somewhat. It was a man, a big, bearded man in the homespun wool clothing of a shepherd. Just one of the locals.

"Hello," she said, trying to sound as friendly as possible. "I was robbed by bandits-"

"Don't even, Keo," the man said, walking towards her. "Don't even start."

"D-do you know me?" Had she ever met this guy? Had she robbed him? How did he know her name? He didn't look familiar. "I don't remember having met you-"

Without warning the man lashed out with his fist, taking her full in the stomach and doubling her over. Instantly he was on her, grabbing her arms. "You don't remember me, bitch? Do you remember eating me out and KILLING me? Huh?"

"L-Lise?" It was her friend's cadences of speech in the deep male voice. "How... what the fuck?" She struggled, trying to break free.

Her vampiric form was stronger than her natural strength had been, and she could see the man's arms strain. But she was only a young one of her kind, and the man was both burly and possessed by a spirit who didn't much care about his body's physical limits. "I'm a ghost, or some shit," Lise told her conversationally. "I'm possessing this yokel; he was nearby and he was nice and strong, like a fucking ox. We need to have a little talk, Keo."

"Okay. Fine. Let go of me and we can talk."

"No, it's not going to be that kind of talk." Lise shoved her forwards and down, sending her to her knees in the mud. "You raped and murdered me. I thought we were friends, Keo. How could you do that?"

"I'm sorry! I didn't mean to, Lise!" She was babbling now. "I was going to cut you loose, but then I saw you lying there, and the hunger... gods, I was just so cold and hungry... I couldn't stop myself. It was her fault! SHE set it up that way!"

"She may have set it up, but you're the one who did it, you treacherous bitch!" Lise slammed her to the ground, her face splashing into a puddle. "It was your fault! Your fault I'm dead!"

"I'm sorry!" Keo choked, squirming and struggling. "I didn't mean to!"

"Sorry is not enough. I'm going to even things, here and now."

Keo laughed hysterically. "I'm already dead, Lise. You can't kill me again."

"I wasn't talking about killing you." She heard the rustle of wool, and suddenly felt something hard and fleshy pressing against her backside. "What do you think about cocks, Keo? Still don't like them?"

"Lise! Wait a minute, Lise!" This couldn't be happening. She could feel the erect member between the twin moons of her ass, and tried to crawl away. Two massive hands restrained her. "I don't... I don't want this! I said I was sorry!"

"I've never had a dick of my own before, and I really want to put it to use." Lise laughed unpleasantly, and put the tip of his cock to Keo's puckered asshole. "This guy's pretty big, and you're pretty small, so this might not be too comfortable for you. Too bad, huh?"

"Lise, please!"

"Please? Please fuck me up the ass with your inbred shepherd cock? Don't mind if I do!" Lise dropped his full weight down onto her, driving her into the mud with a squelch. His penis punched into her sphincter with difficulty, and Keo screamed in pain and shock as her anus was violated.

"AHHHHHHHHHH! LISE! THAT HURTS! YOU CAN"T DO THIS!"

"Yes I can, you bitch!" With gusto, Lise began to vigorously sodomize her. His hard peasant cock barely fit into Keo's tight little rump, which only made him the happier. Keo, on the other hand, was in a great deal of discomfort. Even in her highly-infrequent imaginings she had never dreamed of being used like this, and by her best friend to boot. She could smell the body Lise was wearing, wet wool and cheap tobacco and cheaper wine, his panting breath hot on her neck as he took her.

"Lise! I'm sorry! Oh gods!" Her friend's borrowed cock was slamming against the walls of her rectum. Mostly it just hurt, but part of the motion was stimulating the inner part of her sex, giving a bit of sexual arousal to the nightmare. She moaned, then screamed as Lise went particularly deep in her backside and a flash of lightning lit up their pumping, squirming buttocks.

Lise was humping her ass with increasingly hard thrusts, ignoring the rain pelting down over both of them. He pushed her face into the mud with one hand, causing her to gurgle and thrash even more. 

"Fuck! Fuck! Ahhh, I fucking KNEW men had it better!" Lise moaned, hammering away. "I'm enjoying this, Keo! Is it good for you too?"

Keo's answer was a scream as her anus tore under the pounding it was receiving. She writhed as Lise's host body pinned her to the muddy ground with his weight, impaled on the cock in her rectum.

"Guess not! Ahhhhhh, FUCK! Yeah!" Lise was practically slamming Keo's small body into the ground now with each thrust, sending mud splattering everywhere. "Say my name, Keo! Say it and maybe I'll forgive you!"

"Lise!" Keo sobbed, slumping rag-limp and letting herself be taken. "Lise!"

"Ahhh! Damn you!" With a cry, Lise's body spasmed and came, pumping a jet of hot gooey peasant semen into Keo's rectum. He jerked her head back by her long black hair as he strained, spending himself in her bowels to the utmost. Then he went limp, his heavy form collapsing over her small, muddy body, panting.

They lay there motionless for several seconds, the rain beating a rhythm on their shuddering bodies. Keo's mind refused to focus. She could feel the undead flesh of her back passage slowly healing even as she lay there, could feel the beating of the man's heart and her own silent chest, could feel the slowly shrinking member in her ass. She didn't know what to think.

"How the fuck did we wind up here?" Lise asked, her voice distant and confused. "Things were so normal yesterday."

"We should never have gone into that cemetery," Keo rasped. "It was that bitch. It's all her fault."

"Yeah. Maybe. But it was your fault too. You did that to me. And you enjoyed it. I could tell."

"And you didn't enjoy what you did just now?" Keo shot back bitterly. "I know I didn't."

"Yeah, I know. But your ass was pretty good, Keo. I don't really go for women, but that was fucking intense. I'm going to totally possess more men if I have to be a fucking ghost." Lise laughed. "So we've each given the other some incredibly bad sex and gotten off on it. I guess that's us in a nutshell."

"This is the most fucked up day of my life."

"Neither of us is alive, dear."

"Fuck!" Keo hammered at the mud with a clenched fist, sending brown splatters everywhere. A sort of tired anger was bubbling in her. "Can you get off me, Lise? If I have to be dead, I'd rather not be dead in the mud with a dick in my ass."

"Yeah. Okay." The weight lifted, and she felt rain hit her bare back as Lise raised himself up. His cock tugged out of her asshole trailing blood and semen, and he stood up. After a second, Keo gingerly eased herself up and stood. Her naked body was covered with mud and bits of leaf in the front, and red marks in the back. Her black hair was rain-bedraggled and mud-flecked. She glared at the shepherd body, who smiled and made an obscene gesture with two hands.

"You just got done with that," Keo said, a hint of venom in her voice.

"I sure did. You sounded really fetching moaning my name like that, old friend. Next time I'll try the other hole."

"If you even think about a next time, we'll see what it feels like to possess a guy who's having his dick cut off."

Lise laughed. "You want to be the one doing the penetrating, huh? Want to get in a little more of that tongue action on me? Make me scream with delight?"

Oh gods yes. "I..." Keo's eyes and voice softened. "Would you, Lise? I mean.... I've never felt like that before-"

"I fucking KNEW you enjoyed it." Lise's voice was angry. "Fuck you, Keo. You and your tongue and those needle teeth can go to the hells."

"I'm sorry." She turned away, torn between depression and anger.

"Yeah." He slowly began to remove his clothing. When Lise was done, he tossed the wool garments to Keo. "There. So you don't have to go wandering the hills bare-assed any more. I'm going to drop Inbred Boy here off at his house."

"T-Thanks." She slowly got dressed in the scratchy wool homespun. For a second she hoped he didn't have fleas; then she remembered they wouldn't be interested in her anyway.

"So long, Keo."

"Bye, Lise."

---

It took her another hour to get back to the city. She wandered through the nighttime streets like a lost soul, which perhaps she was. Finally she wound up at the small lodgings she kept, shuffled in the door, and collapsed on her unmade bed.

What was she going to do?

She needed to find out more about how being a vampire worked. There was so much she didn't know about the basic of her condition... it was dangerous. Of course, everyone knew some basic things. Vampires didn't like sunlight. They didn't like holy water. A stake through the heart could dispatch one. They grew stronger with age. They could turn into various things, and command beasts of the night. There were other things, but they were uncertain in her memory, or contradictory.

Was she going to have to stay indoors during the day? She did a lot of her work at night anyway, but a profound sense of loss hit her as she realized she would probably never see the sun again.

Was she going to have to feed regularly? Could she make due with regular food? Keo was not squeamish about killing people, but part of her recoiled at the idea of regular murders just to sustain her life. Among other things, that would get notice before too long.

Notice. She had to keep her condition a secret. There were too many ways letting it get out could get her killed. The undead had no rights except a swift final death.

People wouldn't talk too much about why she only showed herself at night. In her occupation that wasn't unusual. They would wonder where Lise had gone. She could say she'd decided to move on, or she could say that a job had gone bad and Lise had been killed. Both had their risks. She'd have to think about it.

Keo stripped out of her borrowed clothing, got a kettle of water and a cloth, and carefully began to clean the caked mud off her body.

Aside from a faint pallor, the flesh under her scrubbing fingers looked the same as it had the day before. It was hard to believe what had happened.

Memories of her gasping and moaning under Amelie's body and hands assailed her, and her fingers clenched. She tried to force her thoughts elsewhere, but that only shifted her inner vision to the memory of lying face down in the mud, being taken in the ass by her best friend, calling her name.

And then the intoxicating memory of drinking Lise, her lips between her friend's thighs, taking her sexually and stealing her life...

Keo swore. She didn't want this. The mess of it was one of the reasons she'd maintained her long virginity.

For a long time she just lay in bed, head whirling, tormented by thoughts. Then a strange sort of compulsion intruded. A need to get up.

Yielding to it, she got dressed, picked up a pair of knives, and slipped out the door.

Her steps took her out into the city. It was early morning, before the sun was up, and the streets were nearly deserted. Quietly she slipped from shadow to shadow, wondering what she was after.

She was heading to the city gate, she realized. Out of town.

As she walked out into the countryside, she realized with sinking certainty that she knew the path she was taking. It was the same one she and Lise had taken last night. She was going to Ghasthauver Cemetery.

"I don't want to go there. That's the last place I want to go!" she hissed to herself. But she kept walking, drawn along by an increasingly strong urge.

As the gates to the cemetery loomed out of the mist, she started to panic. What was going on? Why was she coming back to this awful place? Why couldn't she run away?

She strode faster and faster, the crumbling gravestones passing by on either side. A living corpse loped out of the mist, leered at her, and walked at her side for a second before vanishing back into the fog.

She reached the disfigured angel statue, and suddenly it hit her. Vampires had to sleep in their coffin during the day.

"Oh no," she said desperately, protesting what she knew to be true. "That's not mine! I can buy my own!"

She was running now. Daylight was coming, and her mind was forcing her to hurry.

She burst into the tomb, down past the snake carved panels, past the murals of triumph and sexual depravity, past the slab where she had eaten out and killed Lise.

Then she was standing at the coffin, on its low stone dais.

Slowly the lid opened. The countess lay within, nude except for her jewelry, the gems and circlets that Keo had thought to steal. 

Amelie smiled and reached out one hand to beckon. "Welcome back, little mouse. It is time for me to savor your sweet young body again. We will pass the long hours of the day together."

Keo's eyes bulged as she stepped into the coffin and carefully lay down. As Amelie's arms enfolded her in a vile embrace and began to tear the clothing from her, she threw back her head and started to scream.

The lid slammed shut.

An hour later, Lise floated through the room. The ghost watched the rocking, creaking, moaning coffin for a while, then shook her head.

"Hell of a way to finally get some, Keo," she muttered. Then she floated from the chamber. When it grew dark maybe she could go possess a hot guy and have some fun.

Continued in Chapter 4

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