Bonus Material - A Tour of Vampirerotique Theatre - Episode 5
I’m standing in the middle of a very drab blue-grey room that is probably bigger than most people’s apartments, with a very handsome blond spiky-haired vampire. Okay, he’s not all vampire. As Snow, the premier attraction at this erotic theatre for most readers, puts it—he has a little fairy dust in his veins.
I would never say that to Payne’s face. The man has a complex about his incubus side, even now that he’s found a woman who loves him for who he is.
Payne stands a few feet from me, close to the expansive four-poster bed. He folds his arms across his chest, causing the dark grey material of his shirt to tighten across it and around his arms. The sleeves are rolled up his forearms, just the way he likes them, revealing the swirling marks inked up the underside of his arms in a long ribbon that disappears beneath his shirt. The fae markings are placid at the moment, but I know to monitor them for a sign of his emotions. Red and black means danger.
“Hi,” a soft feminine voice comes from behind me and I turn to see Elissa there, tying her unruly silver-streaked chestnut hair up into a ponytail as she comes out of the bathroom. She smiles affectionately at her mate. “Payne has been itching for you to show up.”
“I know,” I say and she smoothes her hands down her black camisole top, neatening the hem over her dark jeans. “He kept poofing in at the most annoying times during my tour of the theatre and now he’s kidnapped me, from Snow’s room no less.”
“Payne,” Elissa scolds him and he shrugs nonchalantly, unfolds his arms and jams his hands into the pockets of his jeans.
“She was running late.” He rocks on his heels, doing his best impression of an innocent man.
Elissa looks to me for confirmation.
“I was running early,” I say, unafraid of Payne now that Elissa is present. The part incubus vampire would never raise a finger to harm me when she’s around. He’s too aware that he’ll get into serious trouble for it, and the man is part sex demon. Tell him he won’t be getting any sweet loving if he goes off the deep end and hurts someone and he turns as gentle as a kitten.
He does bare his fangs though, a threat that I ignore because I’m too familiar with the males at this theatre and their tendency to do that.
“Here, make yourself comfortable.” Elissa waves her hand and the chair in the corner shoots across the wooden floor to me.
It’s the first time I’ve seen Elissa use magic, and I’m a little awestruck by it.
Elissa can do all sorts of spells even now that she has broken with her coven to live with Payne. Vampires are a big no-no for witches because they once tried to exterminate her kind. The fact that Payne is also part demon makes him seriously forbidden, but love tends to find a way around such rules, and I’m especially glad it did when it comes to these two.
I take my seat and Payne moves to lean with his back against the bottom post of his bed.
Elissa crosses his path and sits down on the dark blue covers of the bed. I notice that Payne’s dark grey gaze has followed his mate and is lingering on her, the flecks of blue and gold in it bright against their stony backdrop. It’s nice to see him in love. He deserves some good in his life after everything he has been through.
Elissa glances up at him and smiles, and holds her hand out to him. He’s quick to take it, coming to sit beside her on the bed and slinging his arm around her. He presses a kiss to her temple and then sighs. This is the man who had said he would never fall in love again the last time I spoke with him. Strange how things change so quickly. He’s crazy about his witch.
Elissa is crazy about him too, in love enough that she risked everything to be with him. It’s heartening to see them together because having documented how they came to be in each other’s lives, and everything that happened during their romance, I know how much they needed each other.
A witch and a part-incubus vampire. They’re probably the strangest combination at Vampirerotique, and now their story is out in the world for everyone to read.
“I think you broke Payne.” I smile at him when he growls, a low rumbling sound that warns me I’m treading on thin ice. “He’s all... nice.”
Elissa laughs, the sound light in the room, stealing her mate’s attention back to her. “I broke him good and proper.”
Payne blushes and I know just what Elissa is insinuating, and the way the gold and blue in his eyes begins to devour the grey tells me he’s thinking about just how much he loves being broken by her.
“Elissa, what’s it like being a witch in a den of vampires?” I can resist asking that one.
Elissa sighs emphatically. “It can be difficult, but I think that everyone has accepted me now. I’ve even gained the respect of some of the performers by fixing wounds they’ve picked up or um... doing more interesting things for them.”
“Oh, sounds intriguing. What have you been doing?” I lean forwards, curious to know.
“I’ve sort of started up a little side business here at the theatre, now that my main business is gone. I can’t return to the world, and I don’t want my skills to get rusty, so I feel it wise to practice what magic I can and continue here, and... well...”
Payne grins and nudges her with his shoulder. “What she can’t bring herself to say is that she’s been hooking them up with performance enhancing potions.”
My eyes widen. Elissa blushes as brilliantly as Aurora had been during our meeting.
“So you’re making potions that, ah, help them with stamina and the like?” I say and her blush only deepens and then she clears her throat, tilts her chin up and looks me straight in the eye.
“Not just spells to increase the endurance of certain anatomical parts but also other potions... like love spells. Oh, so many vampires in this theatre are looking for a little love. I think it’s sweet...”
“I think they’re using them like rohypnol in the local clubs.” Payne gives her a look that says it’s true when she frowns at him. He pinches her cheek and smiles at her. “You’re too nice. You don’t know just how bad vampires can be. You think we’re all lovely now.”
She laughs. “I don’t think you’re lovely at all... I know what you’re like. I’ve seen you hunt.”
“You have?” That surprises me on two levels. One, that Elissa would let Payne feed on another, and two, that someone has broken the taboo subject of how these vampires get their blood. No one has ever talked to me about it before.
Elissa nods. “I have. I was bored indoors and we were at a club that caters to fae and demons called Underworld. It’s a place not too far from here. Payne was trying to tell me it was a bad idea, and then someone I recognised walked in... and they noticed me. Well... needless to say, Payne showed me just how bad a vampire could be.”
Payne grins, flashing fangs this time. “Let’s just say he won’t be talking to anyone about Elissa... he’s as silent as the grave.”
That’s a terrible pun. I give him a dour look, an expression this man has trademarked during the time he’s been at Vampirerotique.
Elissa nudges him now, gently bumping her shoulder against his. Payne glances down at her and red begins to break through the grey, gold and blue in his eyes. His gaze drops to her mouth and she tilts her head back, her silver eyes going hooded.
“Vicious vampire,” she whispers.
“Wicked witch,” he counters and leans in.
I drop my gaze away from them before I get another eyeful, giving them a moment to get it out of their system, and pull my phone out of my pocket. I have a list of questions I wanted to ask them about their book, Bewitch, so we can move on from their introduction and talk more about how this unlikely couple met and came to be together.
Related Bonus Material:
Characters:
Notes:
The Vampirerotique Tour episodes are a series of first person story-style interview pieces written about the theatre and characters featured in the Vampire Erotic Theatre romance series.
