Shadow Phantoms - H.P. Mallory Page 0,12

from asking questions, I placed my kingdom upon a cruise ship, perpetually sailing around the oceans of the world. It was to be a home for vampires, safe from the interference of any outsiders. Before I knew it, I had enough subjects to require another ship, and then another. Now a small fleet of three, by night you could watch vampires passing between the ships, dematerializing from my flagship the Carpathia and reappearing on the Apuseni or the Calimani. The ships were all named for mountain ranges in the old country—despite my age (six hundred years or thereabouts) I am not a traditionalist myself, but others appreciate this nod to the places where we came from.

The rules of the Coalition were simple:

- No killing of humans.

- No drinking of them without their permission, except in dire need and then not to excess.

- No turning humans into vampires without my personal permission.

Other than that, my subjects were free to do as they pleased, as long as they did not bother me in the process. Yes, I quite wanted to be left alone.

While my subjects were quick to agree to my terms, there was one subject raised—one that became quite an issue; what were they to do? As a species, vampires are long lived and filling such time can be problematic. That problem is increased when the entire population is confined to a handful of ships, and thus unable to terrorize those on the mainland.

It took me perhaps an hour of solid thinking to find the solution to this problem. And that solution was: to have fun. Yes, I believed Epicurus quite had it right when he said the point of life was pleasure. Hedonism thus became my new mantra.

And my fellow vampires were quite pleased to assent to my decree. The fleet of the Vampire Coalition thus became a hedonistic hotbed of sex and blood. It had not been my plan to create a never-ending party cruise, but I took the view that whatever kept my subjects from killing was for the best, and there were worse things to do with eternity than to spend it enjoying oneself.

To feed my subjects, there was a large population of humans onboard. Again, this had been something that initially concerned me, but there was an underground community of men and women who liked to be bitten by vampires and took pleasure in it. When I contacted this underground society, I was pleased to find they were quite well-organized and were happy to help. Periodically they would put word out to their members that we would be taking on new ‘crew’ at this port or that port and people actually signed up to be a living meal for the next few months. And in most cases, those living meals also became sexual meals as well. For all but myself.

This meant there was a regular turnover of humans for feeding, and between meals they made themselves at home and treated the trip as a holiday. Since they were onboard for such a long time, the humans inevitably became drawn into the orgiastic lifestyle—vampires slept with vampires, humans slept with humans, vampires slept with humans, vampires slept with humans and vampires, and some surprisingly complex intimate relationships evolved. In six centuries of life I thought I had seen everything; I had not come close.

This was the Vampire Coalition.

It was not exactly what I had set out to create, but it would do. It was not the Underworld. It did not have that moral purpose of peace between the races. But it kept the vampires happy and out of harm’s way. I was not certain if I was proud of it, but it had taken my mind off my own problems for a while, and running the coalition meant I limited my thoughts of Bryn to merely twenty three hours a day.

It could be worse.

###

“This feels a bit unfair,” pointed out Denise, as we squared up in one of the boxing rings in the gym upon the massive ship. “I mean; I’m a pretty mean kickboxer. I used to do Judo and Krav Maga. But you’re a vampire.”

“I will not come at you full strength,” I encouraged her.

Denise nodded uncertainly, though her face still held a touch of; would it not be more fun just to have sex?

“Come along then.” I darted towards her and Denise backed off, scared by the speed with which I moved. “Fists up. Take a swing.”

After a few rather half-hearted attempts, she began