Chapter 7 - The next life

It's been a while. This final chapter has been partially finished for more than a year, but it just wouldn't come together. I'm still not 100% happy with it, but I'm posting it so that I won't delay for another year.

Max came to all at once, her eyes snapping open, only to see nothing but utter blackness. She stuck out an arm, and it moved only inches before striking an unyielding surface covered in some kind of soft padding.

"What?" she exclaimed, disoriented.

She had just been in bed with Carmine, and now she was... in some kind of box, she decided, after a few moments of feeling around. She had only inches to move in any direction before hitting more of that padding.

"Carmine!" The sound of her voice vanished immediately, and she started to panic a little.

She was trapped! With that thought, she struck out with a fist at the surface above her. Despite the very limited leverage she had, there was a creaking of wood.

Not a very strong box, then. She still didn't know what was going on, but she was getting out of here.

Another couple of blows later, she was rewarded with a splintering sound as she felt the top give way. Making as much of her awkward position as she could, she pushed with all her strength. There seemed to be something on top of the box, but after a moment or two it split further and pushed up.

Then, as the cloth covering ripped, something fell on her face, bits of grit landing in her mouth. It tasted like... dirt?

The suspicion that had been building but that she had been unwilling to acknowledge finally became undeniable: she was in a coffin, buried alive!

Now she really did panic. More blows and a couple of heaving pushes completely demolished the lid, making the dirt above fall in and completely cover her. Keeping her eyes and mouth closed, she worked feverishly, pushing the earth up and to the sides, digging her way up to the surface.

Fortunately, it was only light, loosely-packed dirt, and she made rapid progress. She hadn't even begun to feel out of breath by the time she broke the surface, feeling cool air against her face.

Still, she didn't stop until she was almost all the way out, then wiped her face and opened her eyes.

It was night, though there must be a full moon, because the light was pretty bright. She was in a grassy area, near a couple of trees. In fact, she recognized as she looked around, she was in an actual graveyard! There wasn't a headstone near her, but there was a row of them not far away.

And... Not ten feet away was a stone crypt, with Carmine casually leaning again the side, wearing her slinky red dress and looking at Max with an easy smile, as if she hadn't just watched her girlfriend dig herself out of a grave.

With a sudden rage stronger than she could remember ever feeling before, Max sprang up, scattering dirt as she pulled her feet the rest of the way out of the ground, and rushed toward Carmine with a screech.

Carmine didn't seem surprised; before Max was half way, she reached around the corner of the crypt and thrust something in Max's direction.

No, not something, someone, Max realized, as she collided with the guy who stumbled at her. He was about her age, built like a football player, and looked dazed, as if he was barely conscious. Max made to push him aside, but then she breathed in.

It was simple the scent of a recently-showered guy, wearing some kind of body spray, but from a single brief breath she smelled it as clearly as if she had had her nose pressed against him.

And suddenly, she was ravenous.

Instincts she had never had before suddenly made themselves known, and she acted without thinking. She grabbed the guy around the chest and pulled him down, then bared her teeth and bit.

The taste was intense. Better than bacon, better than chocolate, better than anything she had ever had before! She sucked and drank, not even thinking about what she was doing but only wanting more.

It didn't last long, perhaps only a minute or two. Then there was a hand on her shoulder and she was forcibly pulled away from her meal. She saw the guy stumble and fall back, landing on his butt on the grass. He still looked dazed and unfocused, even with the side of his neck stained red.

The scent of him wafted on the breeze, and she made to move back to him, only to find Carmine holding her back. She made to push the other woman aside, but was rebuffed. Acting on another new instinct, she hissed at her.

That only made Carmine smile faintly at her. "No, stay. You've had enough for now."

She spoke in that confident, commanding tone that Max normally loved, but this time, still driven by unreasoning hunger, Max made another attempt to push past her girlfriend. This time, it earned her a slap to the face that had her stumbling back and falling, landing in the same position as the guy a few feet away. The slap had left her face stinging, though the pain didn't seem to matter much, and faded after only a few moments.

Still, it was enough for her to come to her senses a little. She shook her head and looked up at Carmine, who was standing over her with a considering look on her face.

"Are you back with me now?"

Max brought a hand to her cheek and rubbed it, then moved to her mouth, where a she touched a sharp canine tooth. Clarity returned, though the hunger was still strong.

"You... made me like you?" she asked, though the evidence was pretty obvious, now she had some time to think properly.

"I did." Carmine reached out a hand to help her back to her feet. "It was a little impulsive, but you looked so good in my bed I decided I didn't want to wait."

Max considered this. The subject had been an unspoken presence in the background during the months of their relationship, though neither of them had ever brought it up explicitly. Max had thought about it herself. She had expecting Carmine to bring it up eventually, and had been unsure how she would respond. Their were clear advantages to vampirism. Immortality, for one. But she had never been sure if giving up the sun, would be worth it, never mind the other things that came with real life.

"You could have asked me!"

Carmine shrugged. "Why? You might have refused, and wanted to keep you."

That was the self-centered reasoning Max had sometimes noticed from Carmine, stated rather more plainly than usual.

She blinked. It was only natural, wasn't it? Now that she thought about it, of course Carmine thought about her own desires, and what other people -- human people -- wanted didn't matter, did it?

Max herself hadn't thought like that before, she realized, but right now she couldn't really think of why.

She considered if she should get upset about Carmine's unilateral decision. Not really, she thought. The advantages of her new condition were important, and suddenly things like the sun or the ability to enjoy 'real' food didn't matter anymore. As long as she could taste that heavenly taste again...

She blinked again, and sniffed. The guy she had bitten was still sprawled on the grass, looking vacant. She looked at Carmine again.

"OK, fine. Just let me get back to my meal, there."

"Nope. You've had enough from him. Any more and you might kill him."

"Who cares?" There was a brief thought that she would have cared, not long ago, but she dismissed it.

Carmine sighed. "People will care, if sucked-dry dead bodies start turning up. That will attract the wrong kind of attention."

"So?" Max clenched a fist, feeling the new strength in her straining muscles. "We're stronger than them!"

Carmine pinched the bridge of her nose. "Save me from the overconfidence of newbies. Yes, we're stronger than any of them. But not stronger than all of them. If humans realize we exist, and start ganging up on us, we'll lose. That was true in the past, from what the older ones I've talked to say, and it's even more true now, as their technology has improved."

Max shrugged, not wanting to yield to Carmine's greater experience but unable to argue with it.

"But I'm still hungry!"

"That's just because you're not used to it yet. It'll pass, and we'll get you some more to eat tomorrow." She took Max's arm and gently pulled her along. "Consider it a lesson in self-control. Anyway, don't you like following my lead?" The last was said with a smirk.

Max grumbled, but followed along. When Carmine paused briefly to apply a self-adhesive bandage to her meal's neck, she controlled her urge to rip it off and suck him dry.

A little while later, they were in Carmine's car, on their way back to their apartment, and Max was examining her new state of being. She spent a few fascinated minutes looking into the rear view mirror and seeing only the back of her own chair. Then she took a deep breath, and held it and held it as the minutes ticked by on the dashboard clock while she felt no need to take a new breath.

She could get used to this, she considered, while Carmine smiled indulgently in the driver's seat.

Finally, as she brushed the dirt off her clothes -- they'd have to vacuum the care when they got home -- another thought occurred to her.

"Wait, I was buried. Does everyone think I'm dead? Really dead, I mean?"

Carmine shook her head. "I thought about doing it that way, but no. I thought you still having your legal identity, at least until it becomes untenable, was too useful to throw away. But it is traditional to be buried for the change. I think it might even be necessary, so I didn't want to risk just leaving you in the bed until you woke up." She looked aside at Max for a moment and smiled. "I got a coffin, and buried you myself. The shovel's in the trunk. We'll have to go back tomorrow to clean up after ourselves. I should have done it immediately, but I wanted to get you away from your snack before you lost control and caused trouble."

Max nodded thoughtfully. That was a relief. She didn't know how much interaction she would want to have with human society, but it was good to have the option.

For the rest of the drive, she went back to testing out her new status.

***

Carmine was smiling to herself by the time they reached their apartment building. It had been an impulsive decision to turn Max, but she was adjusting well. There had been the initial bloodlust, but she had gotten it under control pretty quickly -- or at least, faster than Carmine had, in the beginning; she hadn't had much experience with other new vampires to compare.

Now, on the way up to their apartment, Carmine was amused by the way her girlfriend kept glancing at her absence in every reflective surface they passed. It was good that she was enjoying herself.

They entered, and Carmine closed the door behind them, then turned to Max.

"How are you adjusting?" she asked, as she took her arm and led her inside.

"Pretty good, I think. The lack of reflection is jus strange, but I'm really noticing the enhanced senses now. You know, I thought it was a full moon, just because I could see so well? But on the way I saw that it was just a sliver. Plus my sense of smell is really good now. Which, not always an advantage with all these cars around." She wrinkled her nose adorably. "But overall, I feel great. Strong."

Carmine opened the door to the bedroom and pulled her inside.

"Let's take you for a test run, then!"

Max caught her meaning immediately. Her eyes lit up as she bent down to catch Carmine's lips in an aggressive kiss. She let out a squeak as her tongue caught one of her newly-sharp canines, but quickly rallied and took advantage of them to nip hard at Carmine's lower lip.

Carmine felt a holt of arousal at that. Max had been attractive, fun and sexy as a human, but now that Carmine had turned her, there was another layer of attraction there. She returned the kiss with equal fervor and pulled a Max's dress with both hands. She had dressed her in a cheap, simple dress before the burial, since she knew it would likely get dirty, so she felt no compunction at potentially damaging it as she pulled it up.

When the dress bunched up under her arms, Max pulled back and looked Carmine in the eye.

"You're always so rough with my clothes," she said, smirking, the expression unfamiliar on her features. "But I'm realizing, now, I can do this as well!"

With those words, she took Carmine under the armpits, lifted her up, and swung her against the wall with a loud thump, before giving her another hard kiss.

"And this!"

Her grip tightened in the fabric of Carmine's red strappy dress, and then she pulled in two directions. The dress resisted for a second, but then tore in two with a loud ripping sound.

Clearly, her new strength was encouraging Max to act more aggressively than she previously had when they had sex. Carmine knew that she herself was still stronger, but the arousal she felt at it inclined her to allow Max her fun, for now.

Still, she wouldn't let her partner have everything her own way, so with an effort of her own, she ripped Max's dress to shreds as well.

She hadn't worn underwear herself, and had not bothered to put any on Max either, so that left both of them naked but for a few shreds of cloth.

Max immediately responded by pressing herself against Carmine, making as much contact as possible. Carmine noticed the absence of the body heat she had gotten used to in this situation. A pity, but she couldn't have everything.

As Max continued kissing and groping her, Carmine responded by interweaving their legs and grinding her thigh up against Max's groin. That earned her a breathless gasp -- literally breathless, since Max was forgetting to breathe -- and a sharper nip at her lip that actually broke skin.

Max licked at the drop of blood and let out a puzzled sound. Max knew why: another vampire's blood did not have the same intoxicating taste as that of a human, though it was arousing in its own way. She wasn't inclined to interrupt their current activities to give an explanation on the subject, however.

Instead, she finally took some initiative of her own, breaking the kiss and taking hold of Max's arms, then giving her a shove that threw her across the room to land on the bed.

Before Max could react, she jumped after her, landing in a crouch over her lover's body, trapping her beneath her. She gave a practiced smug smirk before returning to the kiss, this time getting her hands into the action as well and giving both of Max's breasts a sharp squeeze.

That got her a pleased moan, which encouraged her to deepen the kiss while her hands explored further. She gave each excited nipple a pinch and bit Max's lip in response to the yip she gave, then tangled a hand in Max's hair to hold her in place while her other hand rand down her side and back to grab her ass.

Max wasn't passive for long, and after only a few moments her hands got into the action as well, gravitating quickly to her own ass, gripping both cheeks and attempting to pull her down. She didn't let her, keeping her lover caged between her legs, and the bed creaked as her knees were pressed hard into the mattress.

Max didn't seem to care, keeping her hands in place and kneading her ass while they strove for dominance in their kiss.

Carmine was pretty sure Max rapidly lost track of time, but she herself kept a mental count. Eventually, she broke the kiss, pulling Max back down by the hair when she tried to follow, and stared into her eyes.

"You're enjoying the lack of need to breathe, aren't you," she teased, enjoying Max's expression as she realized that while they had been kissing intensely for several minutes she had had no need to break off.

"Yeah," Max breathed, expression changing into a wide smile.

"Then I've got another position that'll let you enjoy the experience!"

***

Max was light-headed, though only from the intensity of their make-out instead of the breathlessness she was used to from kissing Carmine, so it took her a moment to realized what she meant. That was enough time for the other woman to sit up, turn around and shuffle backwards until she was kneeling over Max's face.

The first wetness was already shining on her pretty pussy in the dim light of the room, and Max appreciated the way her new, more light-sensitive sight let her make out every detail for the few seconds she had before Carmine descended, shifting a fraction so that her pussy landed exactly on Max's eagerly waiting mouth.

She lapped at it eagerly, by now very familiar with what Carmine liked. Her girlfriend was aggressive about it, pressing down hard on Max's face until her tongue was buried deep in her pussy and her nose trapped, cutting off all her access to air.

Earlier, when would not have been able to keep this up for long, but in her new state she felt no urge to escape even as the minutes passed. To the contrary, she wrapped her arms around Carmine's thighs to press her closer and make as much contact as possible.

There was another difference, too. Before, her girlfriend had never been as warm to the touch as a human woman, no matter how passionate their lovemaking got or how excited she got, unless she had fed very recently. Now, she was no warmer, but Max's own lack of body head meant that it was far less noticeable.

Then, a few minutes later, skilled fingers ran down her stomach to find her own needy pussy. As they skimmed along either side of her clit, all her analytical thoughts faded, and she concentrated on all the sensations she could feel.

She drank in Carmine's pussy, savoring the taste that she had long grown accustomed to but that now seemed to have all-new aspects. She gripped Carmine's thighs with her new strengths to hold her in place and listened to the music of her moans and gasps.

And soon, she gave some moans of her own, muffled though they were by the slick flesh covering her mouth, as those familiar finger set to work teasing her clit and eventually thrusting inside her.

Everything about this felt familiar, just like the sex they had been having for months, and at the same time it all felt brand-new as well. Her body was responding more intensely, arousal thrumming along every nerve, every sound crystal clear, the scent and taste of Carmine's arousal sharp and distance and overwhelming.

It usually took her a while to come purely from Carmine's fingers, but this time it took only a few minutes, without her even paying too much attention to her clit, before Max was trembling and shaking under her lover.

Carmine didn't let up, only speeding up her thrusting fingers, and when the heel of her hand rubbed against Max's swollen clit in just the right way, she came.

Her body tensed and she let what little air remained in her lungs in a long groan. She lifted half off the bed as her back tensed into a bow, and finally shuddered and bucked as her orgasm peaked. With a last, uncontrolled jerk, she heaved herself upward and, without meaning to, threw Carmine off her to land next to her on the mattress and making the bed give another protesting creak. She held herself like that for a moment, body taut, until it passed and she collapsed back down.

***

Carmine quickly recovered from being thrown off, and propped herself up on one elbow to watch her lover tense and collapse through her orgasm. She felt a smile form on her face as she considered the fact that Max would need to get used to the new sensitivity of her body in her new condition.

Just as she herself needed to get used to her lover's new strength. She had been accustomed to being the stronger one of the two of them, and though she was of course still stronger, the difference was now considerably smaller, as demonstrated by the way Max had abruptly, if unintentionally, thrown her aside.

She was looking forward to the possibilities it offered.

It only took a minute or so for Max to recover from her climax. She blinked her eyes open slowly and turned to look at Carmine.

"That was... stronger," she managed.

"It was," Carmine replied. "Are you ready to return the favor?"

Max nodded sharply and made to push herself up, but Carmine was still faster.

"Don't bother. I know where I want you."

She grabbed her lover tightly by the hair, rolling her over onto her front, then pulling her closer as she herself lay down on her back and spread her legs. It took very little convincing to maneuver her partner's head between them, urging her skillful mouth against her pussy again. Then that wonderful tongue immediately went back to work.

Carmine kept a firm grip on her, keeping her pressed firmly against her excited flesh, though truthfully Max showed no inclination to back off even the slightest bit. She seemed intent on exploring every inch of the outside and inside of Carmine's pussy, her tongue roving over and between her lips, flicking her clit and plunging as deep inside as it would reach.

"Yes, good girl..." Carmine murmured, letting her head fall back and her eyes slip closed, concentrating only on the sounds and feelings caused by Max's actions.

After a few minutes, her lover's frenzied activity slowed down a little as she settled back into the practiced methods that she knew Carmine liked best. Long, slow licks up the length of her pussy, with occasional flicks over her clit but avoiding too much direct contact, interspersed with deep probing with her tongue inside. She was settling in for the long haul, and Carmine let out a sigh as she surrendered herself to the sensations.

She didn't pay attention to how long they lay there like that; they were on the same nocturnal schedule now, and they had the whole night. She was going to take full advantage of her lover's new stamina.

After an unmeasured amount of time, during which Carmine had had one brief, sweet little climax that had not interrupted Max's efforts in the slightest, Max finally changed her approach. Without pulling back -- not that she could, with Carmine still holding on to her hair -- she moved her hands under Carmine's thighs, encouraging her to lift her legs a little.

With the access that gave her, she tipped at the inside of Carmine's thighs once or twice, newly sharp canines pricking at sensitive skin, then kissed her way down until she could, with her tongue outstretched, just tickle her tailbone.

Carmine tensed up for a second before that tongue swiped up, between her ass cheeks, leaving a trail of cool wetness over her asshole and back up to her pussy.

Carmine giggled and shifted her grip, encouraging her lover back down. Max took the hint and shifted her attention to Carmine's puckered hole, swirling her tongue over it and making it twitch.

Max didn't usually take the initiative like this, but it was clear she was using the opportunity of her enhanced senses to explore Carmine's body all over again. Carmine had no objection to that right now.

After a little while, Max's tongue turned back to her pussy, leaving a trail of saliva, and probed it deeply again for a while before moving down again.

The next few minutes, Max alternated eating Carmine's pussy and ass while her hands urged her legs up apart and up the give her all the access she could get. Carmine lay back and luxuriated in the sensations, keeping a hand in Max's hair but otherwise making no move except the occasional shudder when Max's tongue touched a particularly sensitive spot.

She gasped when Max's thumb touch her asshole, her legs trembling as it carefully but without pausing slipped inside, moving and twisting to stretch her hole while Max's mouth kept working at her by now dripping pussy.

Gradually, with her pussy now receiving constant attention and the thumb working its way deeper into her ass, Carmine's gasps turned to soft noises of encouragement and vocalizations like, "Max!" and "Faster!"

She was usually the one in control in bed, but with Max's change in status she felt they were rather more equal, and made no attempt to assert control beyond those vague directions.

Max grew bolder as she kept going, tongue thrusting deep into Carmine's pussy and licking roughly at her clit while her thumb moved in and out of her ass in the same rhythm.

Carmine was already pretty keyed up from Max's efforts before her orgasm, so it wasn't long before she felt her own climax approach.

Her encouragements became less and less coherent as her pleasure built, until she was simple letting out a steady stream of "Max, Max, Max!" while both her holes were plundered.

And then even those sounds stopped when she let out a shout as her orgasm, expected but somehow still surprising, crashed into her at a particularly rough thrust in her ass accompanied by lips clamping around her clit and sucking hard.

She shuddered and her legs clamped around her lover's head while her voice trailed off as the last of her breath escaped her. Max kept up her efforts all through her orgasm, drawing it out until Carmine jerked, hard, a last time and then went limp. Then Max let out a giggle, withdrew her thumb, and planted a last kiss right on her twitching hole.

***

Max sat up, smiling down at Carmine as she lay there boneless in front of her.  The two of them had always had a very satisfying sex life, but she had not seen Carmine come undone quite like this very often. It was a good sight, and with her new sense of smell the way the scent of Carmine's excitement filled the room was almost like a drug.

After a minute of reveling in it, she moved to lay next to her lover and pull her into an embrace, laying her head on her shoulder.

They lay there for an unmeasured time, until eventually Carmine turned in her embrace and rested her forehead against Max's.

"So, you like what I've done for you yet?"

Max grinned. "I don't think I would have agreed to this if you'd asked me, and I'm pretty sure I should be angry that you didn't, but now that it's done, I like it. I feel powerful, and... free."

Carmine hummed, like she had expected this.

Max thought on it more, now that her earlier hunger had faded a little and her lust was satisfied for the moment, and examined her feelings.

"You still had... influence over me, before, didn't you?" she asked, looking into Carmine's eyes. "Even after I realized what you were, and thought you didn't anymore?"

Carmine simple nodded.

"Yeah... I think I wouldn't have been happy about you using your power on other girls, to get them into bed and feed on them. I would have thought it was... bad?"

She trailed off. She could imagine how she would have felt, that she would have considered what she had helped Carmine do to be a violation of their... their prey's will, but for the life of her she could no longer understand why that should matter to her.

Carmine's grin grew wider as she kept looking into her eyes. "And do you still think so?" she asked, though it was clear she was expecting Max's answer.

"Hell no," Max replied, emphatically. "They're just humans." She paused, considering. "I could have killed that guy you gave me to feed on. Before, I would have felt really bad about that, but now I don't care."

Carmine moved forward and kissed her deeply. Max gave herself completely to the kiss, closing her eyes and simply being with her lover, until Carmine finally broke away.

"And that is the true gift I gave you. The power and the eternal life are good, but the real point of it is the freedom from guilt and all the feelings that stand in the way of being able to simply go for what you desire." Another quick kiss. "There are some practical considerations to ensure we don't expose ourselves, of course, but nothing like tedious morality to get in the way."

Max thought about it.

"Before, I would have been really angry about that, I think. But now... I'm just thinking about the possibilities!"

"Exactly. And to start with... You've helped me often enough. Tomorrow, you'll get to hunt for yourself for the first time. And I'll get to watch.

***

Julie lingered by the bar, slowly sipping a mediocre cocktail. Most of her friends hadn't managed to make it tonight, and those that had had wandered off a while ago, as they found people to dance with -- or to go home with, for some of them.

For herself, the night seemed to be a bust.

She was considering whether to give up and go home when she looked up and, through the crowd of dancers, her eyes caught on a woman standing on the side of the dance floor. She was wearing a slinky red dress, contrasting against her dark skin. A mass of wavy hair framed her face.

Julie realized that she was staring just as the woman seemed to notice her. Their eyes met, and the woman smiled sharply. A moment later, she moved, stalking purposefully toward Julie, the dancers seeming to move out of her way automatically.

Julie stood, frozen like a deer in the headlights. She felt herself begin to blush, unable to break their locked gaze.

In the flashing lights of the club, it almost seemed like the woman's eyes glowed red.