Bonus Material - A Tour of Vampirerotique Theatre - Episode 6
You join me again in the dull grey-blue apartment that belongs to Payne and Elissa, two of the residents of Vampirerotique, London’s premier vampire erotic theatre. I’ve already met the general manager, the aristocrat vampire Antoine, to introduce you all to the theatre, and I’ve taken a tour of the building with the very sweet and doting elite vampire, Javier, and his pretty mate, Lilah. I’ve also spent some time getting re-acquainted with Snow and Aurora in their apartment.
Payne stole me away from them, using his ability to teleport to bring me to his apartment to meet his witch, Elissa. We’ve been talking about them and now it’s time to talk more about their romance, which seems to be in full bloom.
Elissa leans closer to Payne where they sit at the edge of their large four-poster bed, her hand pressing into the dark blue covers. Payne obeys her silent command and dips his head to press a kiss to her lips. I make a retching sound and look back down at my phone, at the questions I’m going to ask this rather forbidden couple.
“Is it safe to come out now?” I say and Elissa’s light giggle fills the room.
“Yes,” she says and I glance up and wrinkle my nose when Payne leans down and kisses her throat, growling into it. He’s doing it on purpose now. When he first came to the theatre, I didn’t have him down as a troublemaker, but he has become one since meeting Elissa. He seems more comfortable now, both around the others at Vampirerotique and with himself.
“So, how did you two meet?” I think it’s a good place to begin and maybe it’ll get Payne to stop devouring his woman’s neck. He does something that makes her jump and yelp, presumably a bite with blunt teeth, and she smacks his back.
From what I’ve discovered about Payne, smacking him is probably only encouraging him.
“Behave,” Elissa pushes his shoulder and then giggles. “Answer the question.”
He draws away. “I had to go to her shitty little town.”
Elissa playfully slaps his chest. “I liked that town.”
The town he’s referring to is an underground fae town. It’s in a cave deep in the English countryside underneath a mansion where the elite of the light side of the fae species live. Since Payne has a problem with anything fae, he didn’t like going there. Understandable once you know his history like I do.
“You met Elissa there?” I say and he nods.
“She was getting herself in trouble. I saved her arse.” Payne grins at me, his grey eyes filling with masculine pride. “I’m always saving her arse.”
“I don’t recall asking for your help.” Elissa pats his knee, her smile indulgent but her silvery eyes silently warning him he might end up in crippling pain if he tries to spin a tall tale about how they met. “I was handling the situation just fine.”
Payne shrugs. “I can drop you back there and see how you handle yourself without my help if you want?”
I wouldn’t put it past Payne to teleport Elissa back to the town just to prove his point.
Elissa rolls her eyes and looks back at me. “I had a little trouble with some jerks from the Rozengard coven. Payne showed up and helped me kick some major butt... and then I conned him into helping me again.”
“Conned is right.”
She grins at him. “You loved it. I don’t recall you complaining when you were tied up... I do recall you—”
A blush scalds his cheeks and he places his hand over her mouth. “She’s devious. Never trust a witch. Now I know why people tell me that.”
“She tied you up?” I can’t help bringing that one up again because I do love it when men blush. His cheeks darken another shade. “Sounds kinky.”
Elissa nods enthusiastically and says something that Payne’s hand over her mouth muffles. I don’t need to hear it to know that she was pointing out that it was, and that despite Payne’s embarrassment and protests, he enjoyed the hell out of it. His eyes are swirling blue and gold, a sign that his incubus side is rising to the fore and he’s thinking naughty thoughts.
“You went to the fae town to find help for Chica and Andreu, didn’t you?” I hope to divert the course of the conversation away from the wicked stuff that Elissa and Payne got up to and back to the reason he was there. If I don’t, he’s likely to pounce on her. There’s only so much teasing this incubus-vampire can take before he needs a fix of his wicked witch.
Payne releases her mouth and nods. “Yeah. I said I would help them out. I felt bad for Chica.”
His eyes darken and Elissa rubs his knee, sympathy and concern in her eyes. We both know Payne’s past and why he felt the need to help Chica, who is a succubus, with her problem. He grumbles something and looks away from us both. Elissa leans over and presses a kiss to his shoulder and takes hold of his hand, clasping it in both of hers.
“I needed help with something too, so we decided to help each other out. I didn’t realise at the time that what I was asking Payne to do was something that hurt him. If I had known I would dredge up bad memories...” she trails off and looks up at him, and he glances across at her, a trace of vulnerability in his eyes.
The two of them have been through a lot together. Theirs is a story of overcoming fear and fighting to carve out the future they desired against the odds. I’m glad that Chica’s predicament took Payne to the fae town where he met Elissa, because they are perfect together, healing each other with their love. Elissa is the magic that Payne needed in his life.
My phone beeps and I look down to see it’s time for my next appointment. I’ll leave the two love birds alone and go in search of my next victims. I need to find Javier and Lilah again, and I think I know where they’ll be. Fingers crossed the newly-weds aren’t living up to their reputation and going at it like bunnies.
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.
