It was only mid evening by the time Josh and his friends ordered their fifth round of drinks. It was another warm summer night in the making in downtown San Diego, and though the sun had set over an hour ago, it was still pleasant enough for most of the crowd at the bar to be comfortably wearing short sleeves. Most of the ladies at the rooftop bar were completely sleeveless, wearing halter tops or cocktail dresses that were only held up by spaghetti straps. Just as the bartender starting distributing the latest order of cocktails, Eric, one of Josh’s best friends, leaned in towards the group.
“So did you guys hear Juan Soto is having shoulder surgery?”
“Bro, who cares? He is out on an 80-game suspension for ‘performance enhancing’ drugs. He already blew the season,” Josh remarked as he scanned across the bar. Josh was very up to date on all of the latest happenings with the Padres roster and could quickly run through ERA’s, RBI’s and batting averages without blinking an eye. “Damn, this place has some serious scenery tonight. I see a lot of ladies that are looking thirsty”.
Jared laughed. “You better hope so – your only chance of getting any attention is if you find a girl who is three sheets to the wind. Haaa!”
The group joined in on the laughter and covered their eyes in shame as they mocked Josh. He chuckled a bit himself, as he didn’t mind being the butt of a joke. His buddies never missed the chance to poke fun at him since he was clearly the best looking and most athletic out of the group, not to mention that he had the most successful career. They made it a point to jeer at him now and then just to keep his head out of the clouds.
“I’m just waiting for my special princess,” Josh quipped with a grin on his face. His buddies knew all too well that Josh was a ladies man, and that he could typically smooth talk his way into any situation that he wanted. “But until then… I gotta take a leak.”
As he walked past the line of young women who were waiting in front of the ladies room door, Josh noticed how various sets of eyes followed him on his way to the adjacent men’s room. He played it cool and kept his eyes ahead. He’d have plenty of time to get a better look when he was back at the bar after he finished up in the restroom.
After taking care of business, Josh washed his hands, exited the men’s room and started to head back towards his friends. He was only a few yards away from them when he noticed what he considered to be “a total smoke show” walking past him. She had on a mid-length black dress that accentuated her alabaster skin, dark red lips and dark, brunette hair. Though the dress was more conservatively cut than most of the other dresses seen around the bar, the outline of her salacious figure was plainly visible. All of his friends noticed her too and they also noticed Josh looking back at her.
Josh ran to the bar and grabbed his drink. “I’ll be right back…but don’t wait for me if I’m not back in 5.”
He could hear his friends’ laughter behind him, but his mind was already focused. He worked his way through the crowd, dodging people left and right until he caught sight of her. She looked like she was heading towards the door. He raced until he caught up to within a few feet of her and then advanced and gently tapped her on the shoulder. “umm, excuse me?” The girl shyly turned around and made brief eye contact, questioning his intentions. “Oh, my apologies. I know it sounds crazy, but it looked like you were walking out of the bar alone. But that can’t be right. With downtown San Diego being such a dangerous place, I’m sure that I’m mistaken.”
She initially started to roll her eyes, but then involuntarily scanned this new stranger up and down and tried to subdue her smile. “Yes, downtown can be a real warzone, what with all those e-scooters zipping by at breakneck speeds. Thank you for stopping me. This could have been my last night here.” She gave a half smile at her sarcasm. “I’m sorry, but my friends left without me, and I really need to get home.”
“Wait, wait, can I buy you a drink? At a minimum it will give you more liquid courage to face your journey ahead” Josh was laying it on thick.
She turned and looked at the doorway leading to the elevator bank, hesitated, and then looked back at Josh. He watched the wheels turning in her mind as she contemplated her next move.
“I’m Vee- short for Vanessa. Vodka Cranberry?”
Josh knew that he had his hooks in. He spotted a high top table with a perfect view of the city just as the couple that was sitting there began to get up to leave. Everything was falling into place. Josh and Vee sat down and Josh flagged a waitress that was passing by and called in the drink order. He softened his brow, slightly squinted his eyes, smiled and began to lay out his most charismatic performance. She was eating it up.
“One more drink” turned into two, which turned into a few more. They smiled and laughed and time quickly slipped by as they found themselves in this hypnotic trance that comes with a conversation with new attractive stranger. Josh noticed that Vee seemed very timid, much more so than the other young ladies that he typically pursued, and she was also more reserved generally. But he could see that she liked him. He saw it in her eyes, in her gestures and in her posture. He needed to take this opportunity.
“You know – it’s a warm summer’s night, and we don’t have many left. Annnd, the bar is closing soon. Are you up for a stroll?” Vee smiled, blushed and took his extended hand.
After leaving the bar and taking the elevator to the street level, Josh walked Vee along 8th avenue, continuing to entertain her with stories of his childhood in the Midwest, sharing knowledge of the various buildings in downtown San Diego, and anecdotes surrounding the last round of funding he achieved at his tech startup. After covering a few blocks, Josh paused and looked up at the newly built mid-rise building in front of them.
“So, umm, I don’t want to be too forward, but this is actually my building. Or at least, I mean my condo is in this building. Do you want to come up? If you prefer, I can call you an Uber, but I will miss you if you disappear on me already.”
Vee hesitated momentarily then responded, “Maybe another time. It’s probably better if you just call me an Uber”
He acknowledged her request, and then he leaned toward her as if to whisper something into her ear. She leaned in and listened, prepared to receive his clandestine message. She could feel his warm breath against her cheek, and then his lips brushing against her skin. And then he realized her lips were meeting his. As they kissed he wrapped his arms around her waist and held her body close to his own. He could almost feel the blood coursing through her veins. “Maybe, I’ll just come up for one drink.” She capitulated.
As soon as they were through the threshold of Josh’s condo, their lips were locked in a passionate array of kisses. Their bodies seemed glued together as they synchronically moved in lockstep towards the master bedroom.
Josh reached for the zipper behind her dress and began to slowly unlock its teeth. They continued kissing as Vee, in turn, unbuttoned Joshes shirt and discarded it on the floor behind him. By this point, the dress’s zipper had reached its base and the dress began to slip off of Vee’s shoulders and into an accordion piled at her feet. Josh could feel the exhilaration as he began kissing her exposed chest and breasts while he tossed her bra into the the rest of the disarray that was collecting on the floor.
As Josh pressed towards Vee, he could feel her submitting to him. As the back of her legs touched the foot of the bed, he noted how she willingly laid back and called him down to her with her expression. He began to crouch down and support himself with his elbows against the bed, briefly made eye contact, and began to gently kiss her again.
Vee then used her hand to block Josh’s elbow from moving, shifted her hips and used his weight to leverage into a roll, now leaving her seated on top of him. Though Josh was a bit surprised by the move, he went with it and fleetingly closed his eyes and could feel his boxer shorts being slid down his legs. Before he knew it, Vee was straddling him. She began to ride him, slowly at first, but then moving with faster and faster waves of passion. Soon Vee was aggressively moving back and forth and Josh enjoyed every bit of this pleasure as he reflected upon his good luck on this night.
As Vee moved, she began to lean down so that her lips were against his neck. He felt her kisses and then she began to gently suck on his skin… ”Hey, take it easy there, I can’t walk into work on Monday with a giant hickey.” He laughed at his own comment but Vee did not respond, nor relent in any way with what she was doing. “Vee….Vee I’m serious!” Josh tried to sit up…”Vee I’m frickin’ …aouuchggggg”
Josh could feel the warmth of his blood running down his neck before he even realized what had happened. Then, almost immediately the pain set in. Like the point of a knife pressing into the musculature of his neck, only it wasn’t a knife. It was like a hot iron twisting under the ligaments and tissue below his jawline. Then came a tearing, searing pain that was accompanied by a spray of blood as Vee finally pulled away from his neck, with what was seemingly a mouthful of maraschino cherries. Instinctually Josh reached for his neck but the gaping hole that was left was too much for him to cover with his hand, and small geysers of blood began to rhythmically spray through the cracks between his fingers.
The blood loss was dramatic and rapid, and Josh could feel himself getting lightheaded. He tried to keep his focus and he maintained his concentration just long enough to fixate on the once cherubic but now twisted face of Vee who was heroically sitting above him. She was licking blood off her lips as trails of red traced down her neck and over her bare breasts. Josh was incredulous as he met eyes with this demure, insecure girl that he had just met hours before. He saw that Vee picked up on his gaze, and she looked down and smiled, her teeth outlined in his fresh blood. Josh’s head rocked back and forth as he tried to understand what he was seeing. Her teeth. Her fucking teeth. What the fuck!?? It was only then that Josh had seen what appeared to be a mouthful of serrated razor pointed teeth, accented by hyper-pronounced canines.
Josh began to feel lightheaded…he began to relax the grip on is neck as his warm blood continued to spill, now a continuous dribble, unabated onto the mattress beneath him. Josh felt himself losing consciousness as he saw the blurry outline of Vee lowering herself towards his neck and he vaguely made out the sound of a whisper, “Thanks dear, you are delicious.”
