Chapter 339: Day Two at the Beach - Torina, Part 1
Torina slipped into the emerald green bikini and studied the effect in the full length mirror. She frowned and pulled at the top, as if she could physically force her ample breasts to sit higher. She'd spent more than two hundred years trying to get them to cooperate and they still refused.
She turned this way and that, nodding in approval at some things and frowning at others. A voice from long ago came back to her, "If men find you pleasing you will never need to worry. Happy is the woman who looks to these things."
The words sounded wise, but her mother had been wrong. No matter how pleasing you were there was always something to worry about. Hunger, thirst, loneliness.
"My stupid brother."
As if conjured from her thoughts she saw him through the window. He took a seat on the brightly lit patio and gazed towards the ocean. A short woman wrapped in a kimono hurried after him and took a chair. She held yards of blue fabric in her lap and, as Torina watched, she turned to her embroidery.
Things stirred in the back of Torina's memory. Quilting parties. Embroidering a handkerchief for her father. The sounds of giggling women and tiny stitches in neat rows. The memories were disjointed and hazy, too old to be important, and she brushed them aside.
She headed downstairs and outside. The tropical night was warm. A sea breeze caressed her skin and rustled the palm trees. A pair of grass roofed mansions sat in the center of the island, home to the group of vacationers, and she left her own for the one with a kitchen. Why they'd only put amenities in one house had not been explained, but it was an inconvenience.
She paused suddenly at the sliding glass doors and scented something in the wind that would taste better than canned blood. Even if they put an umbrella in it.
Torina turned towards the trees and plunged into the foliage. She wound her way up the dark hillside until she came to a clearing at the top. The mortal stood, hands clasped behind his back and eyes on the sky above, unaware of her presence. He wasn't particularly attractive, though he wasn't ugly. He had dark hair, cropped close, and ginger skin. His shoulders were broad and spoke of manual labor, and she imagined his chest would be muscled, but it wasn't his body she was interested in, only his blood. She could smell it coursing through his veins, singing for her taste.
And why shouldn't she sample him? He was one of the humans that peppered the island with the sole purpose of making the vampires' stay comfortable.
She took a purposefully noisy step. He spun around, eyes wide. Fright rose and fell in them, masked quickly under servitude.
He bowed. "Madam, how may I be of service?"
She walked towards him slowly, swaying her hips in a calculated rhythm. "There's no need to be so formal. It's just you and me here."
He looked up. His face flushed and he dropped his eyes again. "What can I do for you?"
She stopped before him and lifted his chin with her finger. "I can think of lots of things, can't you?"
He gulped, his eyes locked in her deep emerald gaze. Her smile was slow, seductive, satisfied, like a spider with a particularly tasty bug.
That's what he is.
***
Torina wiped her mouth and left him lying dazed in the grass, staring at the stars. She picked her way down the hill and swerved towards the beach, pausing at the edge of the trees. Several of her vacation companions were already there, including Micah, a bald specimen with a goatee and tribal tattoo down one side of his face. He lounged on a beach chair, dressed in a pair of patterned swim trunks and a white tank top that hugged his well-muscled chest. A cigarette hung from his lips, and he motioned to someone she couldn't see.
She gave her breasts a final, fruitless lift and plunged out into the open, making a point to draw Micah's attention. The bald vampire gave a low, crude whistle and she struck a pose for him. He swung up from his beach chair and headed towards her, hands extended. Torina lithely danced away a step. "Did I give you permission to touch?"
"Why the fuck else would you run around in that?" he asked.
"Because it's a bathing suit." She rolled her eyes. "Unless you think it's better to swim without it?"
Micah leaned back on his heels and gave her a long once over, then he jerked his thumb towards the others. "If it was one of those jack asses I'd say no, but you're the exception to the rule, baby cakes."
"Baby cakes?" The name was so ridiculous even she couldn't keep a straight face and she broke into laughter. "You need to put more thought into your terms of endearment."
Before he could defend himself, she patted him on the back and strode towards the water. Though it was night, the ocean was warm, and she slid into it until the water was over her breasts. She lunged forward and swam with long, smooth strokes.
Swimming was something she'd learned in her new life; her immortal life. Her mother would never have allowed her daughter to do something as undignified as that. Ladies were ladies, and swimming was a sport for boys and badly raised girls. Torina imagined her mother watching television; young women wearing little more than underwear, sweating, swimming, running, doing the same things that men did. It was just as well that they'd received immortality after her mother's death. The woman would never have been able to handle the modern world.
When she got tired of swimming she made her way back to the shore. Loren, a teen vampire with dark curly hair and large brown eyes had joined his bald friend. The boy was dressed in a pair of loud Hawaiian style swim trunks and nothing else. His pale, naked torso only reminded everyone how young he'd been when he was turned; doubtless no more than sixteen. He always left Torina torn. In her day sixteen was a respectable age for marriage, even children, but modern conventions frowned on that.
In my day. As if I'm an old spinster.
The thought was infuriating, and the boy caught the irritation that flashed in her eyes. "Hey, Torina! What's wrong?"
She quickly composed her features; lips slightly pouted and turned up at the edges, brows lifted just enough to make her eyelids look thicker, and chin tucked just a little to draw attention to them. "What could possibly be wrong in a place like this?" she purred and touched his arm.
Loren flushed and broke into a grin. "That-that's true. I thought maybe Micah did something stupid."
The bald vampire swept to his feet. "What the fuck, pipsqueak?"
Loren shrugged. "Well, you kinda have a history of saying stupid stuff."
"That's an understatement."
Torina turned towards the sound of the new voice to find Jorick walking towards them. Tall, and broad-shouldered, Jorick had long, sweeping black hair and eyes the color of night. He moved with grace, like a classical dancer, but his aura of raw power removed any doubts about his masculinity. Torina could think of several words to describe him: beautiful, egotistical, frustrating, self-centered, and delicious.
She wondered if his human companion found him as confusing.
"Fuck you, Executioner dog." Micah spat and purposefully turned his back on the dark vampire.
"No, fuck you," a voice said at Jorick's side, and Torina suddenly noticed Katelina, the human in question. She wasn't ugly, but she wasn't a great beauty. Vampirism and some correctly applied makeup could work wonders, and, as she had done before, Torina squinted at her and tried to imagine what she could turn her into with a little work. The first thing would be her hair. It was a nice shade of blonde, but Katelina left it to hang long and limp in a plain ponytail. It would look better with some waves in it, and a few curls framing her face, especially around her eyes. Blue like a summer sky, they were Katelina's best feature, but she failed to play them up. She desperately needed help.
Not that I have time to mess with such trivial things.
Torina turned her most winning smile on the dark vampire. "Jorick. How lovely to see you. What are your plans for this stunning evening." She brushed her fingers over his shoulder and down his arm, to let her hand rest just above his elbow.
He cocked an eyebrow. "Katelina wants to 'hang out' on the beach."
"And you don't want to?" Katelina scowled darkly and Torina didn't need to focus on the woman's thoughts to know what she was irritated about. She gave Jorick's arm a soft squeeze. "I suppose you'd rather stay holed up with-" she leaned closer and paused to let the innuendo fill itself in, then amended it to, "one of your books?"
"He didn't bring any," Katelina said firmly. "And we're going for a walk."
"A walk sounds lovely!" Torina let the vampire go to hook her arm through his. "I'd love to join you."
"What do you wanna go with that jackass for?" Micah flexed his arms. "I'm a lot more fun than he is."
She gave a silvery laugh and patted his bulging bicep. "I'm sure you are, but absence makes the heart grow fonder." She tugged Jorick forward before he could untangle himself from her. "Have you seen the cove?"
