Vampires 3 - Vampire Transgression by Michael Schiefelbein

Author:Michael Schiefelbein [MM, Michael Schiefelbein-]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

8

Joshu directed the two shaggy boys to hold the ram’s legs, front and hind. The boys, in homespun tunics, relished the job, gazing at the ram’s walnut-sized testicles and then at each other on either side of the animal. In a white tunic that exposed his sinewy arms and throat, Joshu rubbed his thumb along the blade of his knife, its handle tied in place with coiled rope. The Jerusalemsun beat down on his long hair and broad back. His brown skin, further darkened by the summer sun, glistened with perspiration. The craggy hillside radiated heat around him. Joshu squatted, raised his eyes to heaven, and with a steady swipe, sliced the skin over the left testicle. Then he bent down and removed the bloody node with his teeth, spitting it on the scraggly grass. A tawny dog, his skin dull and patchy, suddenly appeared and lapped up the testicle. He had barely finished swallowing it when Joshu spit out the second testicle for him. He and the two boys laughed as the dog snatched it up. With one swift motion, Joshu docked the ram’s tail, to keep it from collecting brambles. With the job complete the boys released the ram. For the first time, it bleated, havinglainsilent and docile throughthe procedure.

Joshu glanced up at Victor, shading the sun from his eyes. “Like a lamb,” he said, “he did not open his mouth. Like a lamb.”

“What kind of heroics do you call that?” Victor said. “It’s weakness. You let themdefeat you. You walked into their trap. Theycastrated you.”

Joshu grinned, his chestnut eyes clear as a baby’s. “Love is the onlypower.”

“Love? For who?”

Joshunodded toward the boys.

“For filthy shepherds? They’re too ignorant to scrape the lice out oftheir hair.”

Worried, the boys rantheir hands throughtheir nappylocks.

“Sedition charges, Joshu. What for? Leading a mob of mangy shepherds and fishermenand rottinglepers?”

Joshu’s expressionturned serious. “You’re indanger, Victor.”

“Youhad your chance. Don’t pretend to love me.”

“You’re in danger.” Joshu stood and raised the bloody knife toward Victor’s throat.

Victor’s eyes snapped open in the dark sarcophagus. The warmth of the sunlight, so real in his dream, gave way to cool cellar air. But the dreamseemed just as realas it had inhis sleep. He almost expected to find Joshu waiting for himwhen he raised the heavy lid, to hear Joshu’s warning once again and feel Joshu’s cold blade against his throat.

But he knew Joshu was not really present. Only twilight awaited him outside this tomb. It lingered beyond the cellar’s walls—every cell of his body registered it—though he could rise now with little risk. He climbed out of the casket and caressed the ivory ornamentation on Paul’s Moroccan chest. He lifted the lid. Pale and tranquil, Paul slept, his long hands clasped together on a red shirt, the tapered nails nearly two inches longer now than when he had climbed into his resting place. Victor kissed Paul’s full, pale lips. Immediately a sense of apprehension arose inhim.

The feeling, which he’d noted periodically after Paul’s transformation, had grown more intense lately.

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