Kapital Zwei

“Food, everyone, food! Kita, wake up!”

Kita groaned and rolled over, burying her face into the fur blankets that lined her sleeping shelf. She was exhausted. What had happened last night? Suddenly images began to flood her brain, thoughts of walking in the moonlight, a dubious predator, and a clandestine kiss. Her cheeks flushed pink as she remembered what had followed, convinced it was a dream. Kita stood slowly and rubbed the sleep from her eyes, listening to the rest of her clan gather in the village square for the communal morning meal. She put on her loose garments, and slipped out the back door, walking through the wall gate and down to the creek. The morning dew on the leaves looked like a thousand diamonds, Kita thought, or she might have, had she ever seen a diamond. But such things were the amusements of the raubs, reminding them of their own existence. Hard and beautiful and cold. Kita’s human world was one of a strict and traditional pulse, of living as long as you could, of community. She envied that wild and frightening beauty. The sharp teeth on her neck, the cold hands on her breasts, the hot pulse between white legs . . . . . Kita woke from her musings with a start. A dream, she told herself, only a dream. She had reached the small and quiet grotto near the stream and stripped off her dress. She always hated the group bathing with the other village girls, it was supposed to be some sort of female bonding or something, frolicking naked in the water together. This was much more relaxing. She eased down into the water it was just deep enough to cover her breasts when she sat down, and icy against her sun-warmed skin. The light sparkled down through the leaves, dappling the water with spots of gold. Kita laid back, her hair spreading across the water as she floated dreamily under the trees. After about half an hour, she stood slowly and eased her way over to the bank. Standing there, she looked at her twin body wavering in the water and gasped. Her neck, breasts, and sundry other expanses of sun-gold skin were covered with fading bite marks. Running her fingers over her body she recalled what had happened, now that she knew it had happened, it must have. Sinking down into the damp earth by the water, Kita stared at her reflection and shuddered at what she had done.

She could here them laughing. Salome’s giddy semi-inebriated shriek rose up through the floor, piercing Ambrosia’s ears and knocking her rudely from oblivion. She sighed and buried herself deeper into the silk bedding. Not even ten o’clock and they were already into the liquor and wine. As more of Salome’s flirtatious chirping, followed by Tager’s teasing drawl bit into her brain, Ambrosia leap up and flung shut the heavy brocade curtains around her bed. Staring up at the canopy, her brain began to process the events of the previous night. She remembered the taste of the human’s mouth, her honey brown hair, the breathless sounds she made into the darkness. She was so sweet. So wild, untamed, untouched. Ambrosia felt a shiver run down her spine, and was shocked. She was by no means a blushing virgin. She was too beautiful to have lived two hundred years and not liberally experience the pleasures of sweat and skin and kisses in the dark. But, somehow, this was different. The other raubs she had lain with, both men and women, were too hard and cold, even in the heat of passion. All the years of killing jaded them, and lovemaking was just another conquest, a need to be met. However, this young girl’s appeal did not come solely from her humanity. Raubs would occasionally deflower a pretty young human before they killed them, and these humans were eager to please, thinking that it might mean they get to live another day. But not the girl with the honey eyes. She had stared with wonder at Ambrosia’s body, she had been lost in a trance, and Ambrosia wanted to carry her off to her room, keep her forever in her satin draped bed. Suddenly a particularly loud shriek carried through the curtains, and she knew it was time to get up.