A Night to Remember

The night was hot, the music was loud, and the boys were flocking to her. That was all Indigo Jones thought about that sticky July night.

That is, until she saw Mackenzie Stevens. The boys standing behind her were different. They wanted something from her. Some were stalky, some were skinny, some had braces, some were badly dressed and some were just downright disgusting. They wanted something that she didn't want to give, though she enjoyed the attention. The difference with Mackenzie Stevens was that she wanted something from him. And she was determined to get it.

The only thing that stood in her way was a skinny blond-haired girl in a magenta-colored dress who wore way too much lipstick. Indigo looked from the girl to Mackenzie, resentful. She flipped her dark hair behind her shoulder, tiny curls framing her face perfectly, and long ringlets cascading down her back in luscious waves. That's right, all natural. She pulled down her electric blue skirt that clung to her body in all the right places, and started to saunter over to the two.

Mackenzie was leaned up against a wall, smiling at Blondie. He wore a black T-shirt that seemed almost too small to contain his chest, and jeans that looked almost too casual for the occasion. He was tall; about six foot. He had strong, high cheekbones, an angular, set jaw, and lips thin and curved. His eyes were a soft, icy blue, that turned every girl's head when he walked by. But they had a spark in them that hinted that he was a closet romantic.

Being the impulsive woman she is, Indigo marched up to the two, ready for anything. Including a brutal rejection, but she knew that Blondie was anything but classy. This will be easy, she thought.

"Well, hello there," she smiled at Mackenzie, ignoring Blondie altogether, feeling a little giddy about the blatant disrespect she was showing her.  

"Hey," he responded, his eyes darting toward hers.

She stepped in front of Blondie and was inches from his face. He took her by the forearms, turned her around, and pushed her up against the wall. "You got a name, sweetheart?"

Blondie scoffed and walked away, adjusting her dress uncomfortably, as the sting of rejection hit her behind the eyes. She refilled her cup and glared at them from across the room.

Indigo replied, "Indigo, and you?"

"Mackenzie Stevens. But call me Mack." His lips pursed in thought, then looked at her again. "You saw me talking to Sara, didn't you? And you thought you could interrupt us?"

"Yes, I did. Anyone who wears that much lipstick doesn't deserve to spend the night with you." Tacky b***h, she thought to herself.

Mackenzie chuckled. "And you think you do?"

"I think I'm a much better candidate than Blondie," she smirked. Instead of trying to push away the thoughts about how close he was, she used his proximity to fuel her side of the banter. She could feel his body as if it was pressed against her and not inches away. It threatened to suffocate her in a way so sexy she could barely stand it.

"I see. Well, you go on and have another drink, Indigo. I'll come get you when it's time to pay up." He winked, and then walked away casually. She stared at his back for a few moments, eyeing those luscious muscles, and then went to get another drink, just as he'd instructed. It intrigued and excited her that his demeanor was witty and casual, yet he exercised his control of the situation easily and fluidly.

Feeling adrenaline and excitement pulse through her, Indigo downed half the drink she'd just acquired. The boys began to flock once more, and a skinny, acne-scarred boy with braces repeatedly kissed her hand. She kept drinking and purposefully ignored the insignificant boy giving her hand attention. All her thoughts were on Mackenzie.

Mackenzie, however, made a beeline for Sara. He came up behind her and put his arms around her waist, his head resting on her shoulder. Her head turned to the side and she smiled devilishly. I'm sexier than that brunette b***h, she thought to herself smugly. Mackenzie laughed at her jealousy, then turned his attention to the boy who was pursuing Sara. He was stocky and young-looking, driven by a raging libido and a taste for older women. My dinner, Mackenzie thought. The boy's eyes lost their cocky demeanor when they met Mackenzie's, and he walked away, disappointed, his shaggy hair falling into his face. Mackenzie smiled again, his eyes returning to the pale blue that always had girls fainting.

"Welcome back, Mack," Sara said. "I'm guessing you took care of that b***h?"

"Of course I did, sweetheart. Now, follow me," he said. He made no move to defend Indigo, but he knew that he didn't need to; he wasn't going to Bind himself to Sara. With that in mind, he led her to the basement and sat her down on a shabby old couch, which had a layer of dust on it so thick that Sara sneezed.

"Bless you," he said quietly. "Ready?"

She nodded vigorously, eager to give herself to Mackenzie Stevens. She couldn't hide her excitement if she tried, but she made no attempt. She was sure Mack was used to girls like her, practically bursting at the seems to do a raunchy strip tease for him.

Laughing at the arousal in her eyes, he took Sara's wrist gingerly in his hand and leaned over it, mouth open. Fangs grew from his teeth, and he pierced the skin on her wrist swiftly and efficiently. She almost screamed, but the sound was caught in her throat as the oxygen-rich blood seeped into his mouth and he held on to her arm tighter. This is where he had learned the art of control. He’d had to. There was no way his parents would let him murder anyone, nor would he let himself, even for the sake of nourishment. There would always be another human.

Sara had been writhing beneath him for several minutes by now, the dusty basement absorbing her moans. She slipped out of consciousness and soon after Mackenzie decided to excuse himself from his dinner. He pulled her feet up onto the end of the couch and put an empty cup on the floor next to it. He then made his way back up the stairs and into the party. He didn't worry about Sara-- she'd be out for a few hours, and she'd just think she passed out from the four or five shots she'd downed earlier. Humans are easy to manipulate, especially when alcohol is involved.

The party looked like it was really just starting. The stereo in the corner of the living room was blasting a well-known rap song, the girls were half naked, and drinking games were well underway in each corner of the room. Mackenzie smirked at the fun they were all having, and proud that this year's BP was a success. He had, after all, been hosting it. Mackenzie scanned the room and found Indigo, on a loveseat to the far left of the room, talking to yet another haughty, arrogant vampire.

What Indigo, and every other human girl in the room, didn't know was that all the males here were vampires. About once a year, the males at Harrington Academy have what they call a BP- a Binding Party. They invite human women so that they may turn them, Bind with them, and recruit them for Hudson House, the girl's dormitory at the Academy.

Harrington Academy is a co-ed private school for vampires on the outskirts of San Francisco, California, on a total of twenty acres of land. The two dormitories are the J. H. Harrington Commons for the boys, and Hudson House. Richard Harrington had started the school in the 1980’s, and his son, Joseph Hudson Harrington was born about ten years before that. Lenora Hudson, Mr. Harrington’s long time human (and eventually vampire) lover, was Joseph’s mother. Hence, the names of the dormitories.

Anyway, what Indigo also didn't know was that Mackenzie had been watching her all night. He'd chosen her to be his Bond and since she'd come to him first, it didn't seem so wrong. Besides, the girls find the Binding process pretty pleasurable, so being a vampire for the rest of their days doesn't seem so bad at the time. Unless your first Bond leaves you, which brings an onslaught of depression, pain, and heartbreak. Yeah, not so bad.

Despite that depressing fact, life with one Bond can be very exciting. In fact, most vampires strive for one Bond because it's simple and rewarding. And because more than one Bond causes physical pain on both sides of the first Bond. It also doesn't help that the only way to break a Bond painlessly is for both vampires to die simultaneously. Pretty tough.

Mackenzie sauntered over to the love seat and wedged himself between Indigo and the vampire boy on his left. He looked at Indigo and smiled.

"Hello, sweetheart. Ready to go?" He asked. She smiled at him and took his hand.

The vampire who was courting her previously looked at Indigo, prepared for her to deny Mackenzie's request. He thought that he was a much favorable Bond that Mackenzie was. The haughty look in his eyes made Mackenzie roll his eyes. As if.

To his dismay, she replied, "Yes, Mack, I am."

Feeling disappointed and utterly rejected, the vampire stood up and scanned the room to find a better candidate. He had remembered seeing a blond girl with red lipstick and a magenta-colored dress. He thought that she'd be a nice enough Bond, and set out to go find her. Mack shook his head when he heard the young vampire's plan. That was the problem with the young, ignorant ones. They just flippantly find any girl and go for the Bond. Would you go into a marriage that blindly?

Mackenzie led Indigo upstairs into a dimly lit bedroom. She sat on the bed and looked up at him. He had stopped in the middle of the room and looked at the floor. He was rethinking his decision. Hesitating on the biggest decision of his life. He had just judged the young vampire for his blind decisions, and he was about to make one himself. He suddenly felt that Indigo might not be the best candidate. Who was to say that she'd be faithful? He certainly couldn't. He didn't even know her.

She looked at him intently from the bed. "Something wrong, Mack?"

"No...Yes. Well, sort of."

She patted a spot next to her on the bed. "Talk to me."

"I just don't know how far you expect this to go," he said, choosing his words carefully.

"Oh, you're taken?" Her face fell slightly.  

"No, not yet. I'm not just talking about tonight. We could move past tonight."

"I see."

"I just wasn't sure how you'd feel about it."

Indigo laughed. "How I'd feel about it? I think dating you would be a serious step up from the s****y love life I've got going. I think that dating you would be the best thing that ever happened to me, and I'd have to kill myself if I screwed that up."

Mackenzie sighed with relief. Choosing a Bond was a serious milestone, but, unfortunately, the vampires didn’t have much time to get to know their candidates. The decision is almost entirely based on intuition. That was what Mackenzie was banking on. Leaning forward, his hand resting on top of hers, he kissed her lips softly and pulled back, gauging her reaction. It was a genuinely innocent kiss, yet it held so much promise for their Bond. She kissed him back happily, and he smiled. She didn't seem all that shallow-- not compared to Sara, anyway. He didn't want to spend the rest of his eternity with someone he couldn't even have a conversation with. She seemed like a smart girl, and multi-faceted. Intelligent and beautiful, Indigo seemed like the most attractive girl in the house at that very moment.

"I see," he said, and chuckled. "Okay, do you mind if we chat a little while?"

Indigo smiled. "Not at all. Unlike some girls, I enjoy having deep conversations."

"That's good. I quite enjoy them myself. What do you do? Apart from charming the pants of prep school boys, of course."

She laughed freely at this. "Well, your uniforms are just so sexy, that I can't resist! Actually, I'm an aspiring writer and singer, as well as a soccer star. I'm working to get my novel finished right now, and I'm in the community choir Coda. I've been playing soccer competitively for six years."

"Wow, that is amazing! What's your novel about?"

"It's about a dystopian society ruled by vampires. Their main hindrance in having a Utopian society is the rogue werewolves that live underground and on the outskirts of the city. The vampires rose to power after a disease wiped out the human race, and they killed off over 80% of the werewolf population. The werewolves start to band together and create an army. I suppose it's kind of...crazy, to say the least."

He choked a little, caught off guard. How did she know about the werewolf problem? Was she even human? He shook off his fear. If she was anything other than human, he'd smell it.  "That's quite a topic. How did you find the inspiration for a plot like that?"

"I had a dream about a war between a vampire and werewolf army," she said nonchalantly.

"Really? How interesting..." He suddenly felt that Indigo would be a better option than any of those other girls simply because of her knowledge of their world. He decided to go for it. "Do you trust me, Indigo?"

She nodded and smiled encouragingly.

"Well, when I do this, it might feel weird at first. Just go with it."

"Alrighty then..."

He laid her down on the bed and got on top of her. He turned her head to the side and she closed her eyes as his fingers lightly traced down her neck, making her shiver. Upon opening his mouth, out slipped his fangs like newly-sharpened knives. They cut through the skin of her neck precisely and smoothly. She whimpered at first, and then, as the dopamine was being released from his fangs, she started to writhe underneath him. Indigo, only feeling his body against hers, and the tingling sensation right underneath her skin (as if a fingernail was slowly making its way across every part of her body), started to moan involuntarily. Her veins were flooded with tingles and her mind was beginning to numb, and she could feel her own arousal growing stronger. What was he doing to her? She didn't know, but she didn't want him to stop. Every part of her began explode in a cannon of sensation, and her forehead broke out in a sweat. Her breathing became husky, and her arms wrapped around Mackenzie's neck, squeezing, pulling herself as close as possible, needing to feel every inch of him against her. And all too soon, Mackenzie became satisfied with how much blood he'd taken from her. He looked up and her eyes were dilated, and she let one more moan escape her lips. Mackenzie took his fingernail and slit his right wrist once. The purple, unoxygenated, venom-infused blood oozed from the cut. He put it to her lips and she drank it willingly. Her eyes rolled back in her head, the sweet taste lighting her taste buds on fire. Her fingernails dug into the skin of his arm as her tongue lapped at his wrist. As she drank, her caressed her with his right hand, down the side of her face and neck, across her collarbone, to the side of her left breast and down her side. She began shaking at her core, completely giving herself to him. Soon, her head rolled back onto the pillow, her lips glowing purple, and her eyes glazed over, sparkling. He took his wrist away and watched the cut, willing it to close. He kissed her lips softly once more, and looked into her disoriented eyes.

"You sleep now, Indy. You're going to need it." He pulled her eyelids down and pulled a blanket on top of her. He laid down beside her, arm reaching around to hold her, and they slept until Indigo woke up, alive and dead all at the same time.