Love Lost

Love Lost, Love Found

By

Christos Kastellanos

Chapter Three

Cast of Characters

Chariton, Greek name meaning "grace, kindness and the ruling king of the Lamia

Alexandros and Abaddon Michelakakis, identical twins and sons of King Chariton

Alexandros, his name is Greek and is composed of the elements; Alex, which means "to defend" and Andros "man," hence "defender of mankind and heir to the Lamia throne.

Abaddon, Greek name derived from Hebrew abaddown, meaning "destruction, ruination.

Michel, his name meant the avenging angel, and he was the youngest brother of Alexandros and Abaddon.

Michael Lakis, Greek name derived from the word nazara, "the guarded one, and FBI agent

Chris Nomikos, a descendent Chrysanthos and a young police officer with the Springfield, Massachusetts police department

Patrick O'Malley, older detective and good friend with Chris

Brian Mathews, local bartender at the Pub, a popular gay bar

Chapter Three

Rickie, come to me,' the cute young hustler heard as he walked back and forth along Taylor Street, hoping to land a john, and with him, money. Rickie, obey and come to your master,' the voice clearly spoke to his mind.

Obediently, he walked down Taylor, across Main, keeping to the shadows of Fort Street, he approached Columbus Avenue. He looked neither left nor right, but crossed the street blindly; walking as fast as he could toward the place his master was beckoning him to.

`Come Rickie, it's just a few more blocks and then I shall reward you for your obedience,' he mentally heard.

He walked down Columbus and when he approached Riverfront Park, he walked through the police tape and continued on into the park. It was dark, the street lights didn't seem to give out their usual light, and a dense, cold fog enveloped the area, sucking up what light there was and casting a shadow over the area.

`Come to me, my handsome boy,' the voice whispered with a haunting refrain that beckoned him onward.

He knew he shouldn't be here, Chris had warned him so many times about the park's dangers after dark, but something, someone was calling him, controlling and urging him to come.

`Soon my love, soon you shall be in my arms and together we shall consummate our union,' his master whispered softly, his voice tickling his ears, even though the words were only in his mind.

Ahead, just stepping from the shadows and surrounded by a greenish fog, was his master. His eyes glowed red and his arms were outstretched to him, as Rickie moved against his will, forward.

He should scream and then run, but his feet only knew forward and his voice seemed parallelized in his throat.

`No...run you fool...run because your life depends on it,' Rickie cried out, but again his voice failed and his words were only in his mind.

Fear of being rejected by his master clouded his thinking, when he stopped before the handsome stranger and began to remove his clothes.

A sudden chill ran down his spine and he shivered violently, standing there naked in the night.

`You are cold, come into your master's arms and let me warm you,' his voice was thick and yet, soothing.

Standing in his embrace, Rickie should have felt warmth from Abaddon's body, but a cold as cold as winter chilled him to the bone. Abaddon pushed Rickie down to the softness of the grass, covered his young hard body with his own, and lifting Rickie's legs high, plunged his swollen sex deep and fully into Rickie's heated sheath.

Rickie cried out in agonizing pain, yet the sound reached only his mind, as his body was savagely raped. The pain was nothing like he had ever experienced, yet it seemed to pleasure him, as Abaddon thrust violently over and over into his torn canal.

`Scream out you fool...surely a cop is close by and will save you,' he thought but when he looked into Abaddon's black eyes, all thought and reason left him.

He wrapped his arms around Abaddon's neck and pulled his mouth downward, down to his pulse that was rapidly beating in his neck. Abaddon smiled, his two fangs grew long and dripped as he salivated over the spot where Rickie's pulse beat its strongest.

Deep, deeply his fangs sank; Rickie closed his eyes to the sudden pain, and let his master drink freely. When he opened them again, he felt lightness about him, as if floating, and what should have been a clear view of his master's face, was blurred and growing darker.

Darkness finally claimed him and Abaddon slowly rose to his feet.

"Sleep my slave, for tonight you have found favor in your master's eyes and soon I shall return to you," he whispered and with the wave of his hand, turned to mist and disappeared with the fog.

"So tell me, why me Mike, why did you insist that I be your partner," Chris asked, while stopping at a traffic light, and glancing over at Michael.

"Why not you, we already knew one another, so I figured it would be better to be with you, then going through the trouble of getting to know another officer," he said, lying through his perfectly straight teeth.

"After one night of working together, you feel that we know one another?" he asked, stepping on the gas and moving along. "You and Patrick worked, I watched you two," he added as he turned from Main onto Taylor.

"That reminds me, is there something going on between you and Patrick," Michael asked.

"That, mister, is personal and has nothing to do with our working together, now..." he stopped and pulled over to the curb, when he saw Brian waving him over.

He parked the car, got out, along with Michael, and together met Brian at the curb.

"What's wrong Brian, you look worried," Chris asked.

"It's Rickie; he was supposed to meet here over an hour ago. I waited for him thinking that he maybe found a customer, but the other guys said he just walked away."

"Maybe it's like you said, he got lucky and will be back soon," Chris said, looking around the area and then looked at Michael whose face showed his concern. "Do you think something happened to him?"

"Call it a gut feeling, Chris, but something tells me that Rickie is in danger," he saw the panic in Brian's eyes and quickly amended his words. "I'm sure its nothing, for my gut feelings are seldom right," he lied again, but Brian wasn't buying it.

"This is not like him, Chris, he always calls me if he's going to break our date," Brian confided.

"Who was the last one to see him," Michael asked, seeing two other young men walking back and forth along the street, each keeping a weary eye on the cops.

"Hey Jamey, can you come over here please," Brian called out to a twinkish looking boy who looked no more than twelve.

He reluctantly came over, ever mindful of the new cop, for all the boys knew Chris and trusted him.

"Is he even old enough to be out after dark," Michael whispered to Chris.

"Hey Jamey, would you mind showing mister hot shot here your id? For some reason he doesn't think you are even done wet nursing yet," he added, causing Jamie face to redden.

He pulled his id from a back pocket in his jeans, handed it to Michael and stood there tapping his foot while Michael read it.

"This says that you are nineteen," Michael said, holding up the picture and comparing it to the boy.

"That's right, last May sixth, why?" he said taking back his id and shoving it back into his pocket. "Certain men like my boyish looks," he told them. "I'm actually safer to have sex with than an actual twelve year old is, wouldn't you think?"

"Yes..."

"Never mind Mike," Chris interrupted and turned his attention to Jamie. "When was the last time that you saw Rickie," he asked and Jamie looked at his watch before answering.

"One hour annnnnnnd fifteen minutes ago," he said. "Funny thing about him though, he just stood on his corner for a moment with that dumb look of his, and then just up and walked away. I called over to him but it was like he never heard me. I followed him for a bit and watched him cross Main Street, which he never once looked to see if cars were coming," he was quick to add.

"Where did he go from Main Street?" Michael asked.

"I don't know, one of my regulars stopped me and I went with him."

"Let's go Chris, I have an idea as to where we might find him," Michael said, taking the driver's side and forcing Chris to hurry around the cruiser and get in.

"I hope you do know," he said as the cruiser sped away.

Ignoring the fact that he was going the wrong way down a one-way street, Michael took the shortest route he knew. He pulled the cruiser into the driveway of the park, tore through the yellow police tape and sped down the darkened path, heading south on the paved walk.

"Where are you..." Chris stopped mid-sentence when he saw a form lying on the grass beside the sidewalk.

Michael stopped the cruiser and both were out and running, as Chris called in for an ambulance and back up. Michael knelt beside Rickie, whose color was white as snow, feeling for a pulse.

"Is he..." Michael nodded and stood up, reaching for the radio on his shoulder.

"This is car 83, cancel back up and the ambulance," he said and Chris turned sharply, gazing in shock at him.

"What are you doing, its protocol to call for back up and an ambulance," he explained and reached for his own radio, but Michael's hand covered it and stopped him.

"Let me explain, and then if you wish to call in, I won't stop you," he said.

They walked back to the cruiser and Chris leaned against it, facing Michael, and ready to listen with a skeptical mind.

"This had better be good, Mike, because I will see you demoted as an agent if its not."

Michael nodded; he had no idea as to how Chris was going to react once he told him the truth about what was truly going on with these murders.

"I want you to listen carefully, Chris, for what I am about to tell you will more than likely challenge all reason," he began and Chris slowly nodded his head. "All that I ask is that you trust me here, listen with an open mind, and believe that what I tell you is the truth."

It was true that they barely knew one another, yet there was something about Michael that went deeper than being acquaintances, it went far deeper, yet Chris could not figure out the why or what it was.

"Alright Mike, I'm listening," Chris said quietly, his voice calm and trusting.

"I know who is committing the murders," he blurted out and watched as Chris' face showed his shock. "It's a vampire," he paused, took a deep breath and added, "and he's my brother," Michael said stepping closer, a breath's distance closer, and waited for Chris' reaction.

"A vampire, you did say a vampire," he asked and Michael nodded, causing him to step around Michael and walk over to where Rickie's body lay silently on the ground.

Pulling his flashlight from its holster, he clicked it on and shown it down at the dead boy. `So where are the two pin pricks that...' he was mentally thinking.

"There will be no marks, he knows how to conceal them," Michael said.

"How did...never mind, don't answer that," he said and turned to look directly at Michael.

"You expect me to believe that one, vampires exist, two, that it was a vampire that has been committing these murders, and three, that this vampire is your brother? What are you Michael, crazy?" he shouted and backed away, as he again reached for his shoulder radio.

Again Michael's hand was suddenly there and covered his.

"Please," he asked softly and Chris settled back against the car.

"Okay Mike, I'm listening," he said with his arms crossed over his chest.

"The killer's name is Abaddon, and he is my brother and yes, a vampire. How do I know this, because look at Rickie's body, the color of his skin, that boy was drained of his blood. That alone will cause him to come back to life as a vampire, but in bondage to Abaddon."

"If what you say is true, and I'm not saying that I believe you, but if it's true, then Rickie will be rising before sunrise?"

"Yes, and not only will he be very hungry for blood, but he will be indentured to whoever feeds him upon wakening. I am sure that Abaddon will return at any moment to ensure that he is the one that feeds Rickie."

"I get that, because I read somewhere once that you had to remove a vampire's head to kill them, or at least, drive a wooden stake through the heart."

"Some of what you have seen in the movies and read in books is true, some is not. Vampires must have blood to survive, but a true lamia will only take what he needs to live and leave his human donor alive and unaware that he had just given blood. It is also true that to kill a vampire; you must either behead him or drive a wooden stake made of ash wood, through his heart. But once you do the latter, you must burn him to ashes," he added.

Chris was quiet; his mind was still formulating questions as he looked suspiciously at Michael.

"Is this why you are here, you knew it was your brother and came to capture him?"

"Yes and no, I knew that it was Abaddon doing the murders, because this is not the first city or time that he's done this in, just two years ago, he terrorized Berlin, Germany with a string of 17 such murders. I almost had him, but instead of fighting me, he chose to move on. Once he left Berlin, I lost track of him until this month and read online of the bizarre murders that had not only plagued the city, but had the local law enforcement baffled as to who was doing the murders."

`Do I dare ask him if he's...' he thought, but feared asking, not knowing what kind of reaction he would get.

"Answering your question, yes Chris, I too am a Lamia," he said looking directly at Chris. "And yes, I do read minds," he added.

"Right, and why wouldn't you be able to read a mind, after all, don't all vampires read minds?" he nervously asked.

"No Chris, only Lamia can read a human's mind, unless that human places a block around his thoughts. But once a Lamia kills a human while taking blood, he then becomes a vampire and loses his ability to read minds, along with other powers."

"I don't believe this... no, this is just too preposterous to believe. Vampires, smampires, next you'll be telling me that there are such things as werewolves," he ranted and when he glanced at Michael, Michael was nodding. "There are such creatures...are they evil like the vampire?"

"Chris, like any other species, from humans on up to Lamia, vampires and yes, even werewolves, there is always good and evil among them."

Michael stepped closer to him, causing Chris to jump aside. "Oh God please don't bite me, I promise never to tell any others about what you just told me," a frightened Chris said.

"I wasn't going to bite you, nor was I going to harm you in anyway," Michael said, moving like lightning and grabbing Chris quickly into his arms. "I am just going to talk to you, Chris, now relax and listen to me," he told him, still holding Chris tight.

"Okay, but let me go and don't you ever do that to me again," a scared Chris said, Michael released him and stepped back.

"What I need you to understand, Chris is that any time now, Rickie is going to awaken and believe me or not, he's going to be hungry. Now we have a couple of choices here," he began.

"What kind of choices?"

"Either we take him somewhere safe until he awakens and feed him, or we wait here and deal with his hunger once he awakens. There is also my brother to consider, because he will return to feed Rickie. Look at the boy, his head is still attached, a sure sign that Abaddon intends on making a slave of the boy. Either way, Chris, he will awaken and he will need to feed," Michael stated, leaving Chris shaking once again with fear.

"How hungry will..."

"Extremely hungry, Chris," Michael said and waited for Chris to decide.

"Where would we take him, Mike, and more so, how do we possibly feed him if and when he does awake?"

"There is a third choice, we could decapitate him and that way take care of him rising and needing to be fed." He suggested and Chris went white with fear.

While they had been talking about how to handle Rickie, Rickie suddenly sat up. Michael knew something was wrong and whirled around, just as Rickie lunged at him. He quickly subdued the boy, wrestling him to the ground, sitting on him and pinning him down.

Chris stood there frozen, his eyes looking at the long fangs that protruded from Rickie's teeth and he believed.

"Rickie stop fighting, its me, Chris," he said to the boy, Rickie seized struggling and looked up at Chris.

"Chris...what is wrong with me, I'm so thirsty for...blood," Rickie said, looking from Chris to Michael and then back to Chris.

"You're a vampire now and you need blood to survive," Chris told him and Rickie looked at Michael, who simply nodded.

"I don't understand Chris, I was working my corner as I always do and now," he paused and looked around him before he continued. "Now I'm in the park and you and this...this man is telling me that I'm a vampire and need blood to live."

"I know that this is hard for you to understand, Rickie, it was for me also, but it's the truth so would you please just listen to Mike here," he asked and Rickie nodded.

"My brother made you, and unfortunately, he controls you. There is only one way to break his hold on you, well truthfully there are two. Another lamia can feed you your first taste of blood and move the control from the one that made you to him, or..."

"What makes me think that the second option is worse than the first?" Rickie asked accepting a hand up from Michael.

"Because the second option would be to decapitate you, thus breaking the hold on you, as well as ending your life," Chris added before Michael had a chance.

"Oh fuck guys, I really don't like that choice," he said looking at Michael as if the man was about to rip his head off.

"Then I am offering you my blood and with it, life and salvation," Michael said as he unbuttoned his shirt to allow access to his neck. "I shall be in control at all times of how much you drink," he told Rickie who was lying there pale as snow and frightened.

Once he had removed his shirt, Michael handed it to Chris. He lowered his neck closer to Rickie, placed a hand to the nape of Rickie's neck and pulled him forward. Rickie knew what to do; he opened his mouth and sank his teeth deep into the pulsating vein on Michael's neck, drinking liberally of the rich blood that flowed.

Chris stood there parallelized in shock, watching one feed off the blood of the other, for what felt like eternity. His senses seemed to be in overdrive, as his brain struggled to believe all that he had heard and seen so far.

Gently, Michael whispered to Rickie's mind, `now kiss the spot where you just fed,' he urged and he kissed the spot, closing the wound and making it disappear. When he stood and helped Rickie to his feet, he clothed him with a wave of his hand.

"What the fuck did I just see," Brian asked, stepping from the shadows and looking at the two policemen and his lover.

"Brian...oh shit," Rickie said, stepping free of Michael and toward Brian.

"Stay where you are, Rickie, you are not going to bite my neck like you just did to that cop," Brian stated as he took several steps back and colliding with Abaddon.

"Hello brother, how dare you take from me what is mine," he snapped at Michael and reached for Brian.

Brian jumped forward just as Abaddon reached for and missed him. Before Abaddon or Brian could react, Michael grabbed Brian, pulled him to him and shielded him with his own body.

"I'll explain everything after, Brian, but right now just do as Michael tells you to do," Chris whispered to the frightened man, who simply nodded.

`Rickie, come to me,' Abaddon mentally commanded of the boy.

"You no longer command the boy, Abaddon, because you were not here to feed him, I was, so now he's mind to command," Michael told him.

"You had no right, he's mine not yours," a furious Abaddon challenged.

"I have every right, I fed him when he awoke," he challenged back.

Abaddon lunged at his brother, causing the others to fall back. Chris pulled Brian and Rickie back, he too sheltering them with his body.

`Rickie, take Chris and Brian to safety,' he commanded the boy.

Rickie stepped close to Chris' side and whispered, "he wants me to get you and Brian to somewhere safe," he said, Chris turned in shock.

"I didn't hear... oh shit, he told you through mind control, didn't he," he said, realizing how it worked between Michael and Rickie.

"I don't understand it all myself, Chris, but he does and he wants us, but more so you, out of harm's way," he assured him, pulling him and Brian along into the shadows.

Once they were a safe distance away, the three turned and ran for the squad car, with a faster Rickie leading the way. When they reached the car, Chris and Brian were gasping for air and Rickie stood there unaffected by the run, smiling.

"I know that this is probably not the time to say this, but fuck, its so cool being a vampire," he said with great excitement while the two men stood there staring at him.

"You're right, Rickie, this is not the appropriate time to mention that," Chris scolded. "We need to get backup before... who do I call about two fighting vampires," he questioned.

"You can't Chris, now lets get the fuck out of here as he told us to do," Rickie said.

"I have no problem with leaving," a terrified Brian said, climbing into the backseat of the cruiser and slamming the door closed behind him.

Chris and Rickie got in the front and Chris started the car, soon speeding away. He drove as fast as he dared, keeping an eye on Rickie. He knew that Michael had fed him, but was it enough to hold him, he wondered. What if Michael doesn't make it back, what then, he further asked himself.

"Don't worry Chris, I may want to blow you, but I will not feed off you," Rickie whispered, Chris jumped and then shakily laughed.

"Promise," he asked.

"Promise," Rickie assured him.

"The blood bank, we can get all the blood you can drink from there," Brian said from the back seat. "You should have listened to me baby boy, when I asked you to give up hustling," he was on the verge of tears when Rickie turned and their fingers touched through the mesh that separated the front from the back.

"And do what babe, live off you?" he asked.

"Yes, and you could have gotten your GED and gone on to college," Brian told him.

"Well I'm sure that we all can see the dangers of hustling, and all the what ifs are not going to change the fact that he's a blood sucking vampire," Chris said, quieting the two and drawing their attention back to the problem at hand, a safe place to wait.

"Michael says to go to your house and make sure all of the doors and windows are closed tight and locked." Rickie told him.

"Then Michael is still alive," he asked and Rickie nodded.

"So far, but they are still fighting," he said.

Chris drove them to his apartment and after pulling his cruiser into his garage and after closing the door, did they vacate the cruiser. Without lights to guide them, Rickie led the two men by the hand, because now he could see perfectly in the dark.

"This is so cool, I can see as if it were daylight," he marveled and both Chris and Brian growled.

After Chris opened the door and stepped in, he noticed that Rickie stood just outside the door.

"Well are you just going to stand there?"

"I can't come in for some reason, because there is some kind of force stopping me," he said looking at Chris bewildered by it.

Chris remembered his dream and how the form in the doorway to his balcony had asked to be invited in, and he looked at Rickie and smiled.

"Come on in Rickie, I am inviting you in," he said and Rickie felt the barrier lift and stepped through the doorway, closing the door behind him.

Once inside the house and with the lights on, Chris and the others went about securing the doors and windows. When they were sure that all was secure, they gathered in the living room to wait.

"I need to call in to the precinct and let them know something," he said looking from Rickie to Brian and back to Rickie. "How am I going to explain my absence," Chris asked as he sat down hard on a chair, his face in his hands as the events of the last few hours came rushing in and causing an overload mentally.

Rickie knelt in front of him, his hands holding Chris' as he forced Chris to look at him.

"I don't have any answers, but must, like you and Bri, wait for Michael to come once he's taken care of his brother," he said softly, seductively, already noticing the power of his voice on humans. "Call in and tell them that you are taking a break," he whispered into Chris' mind.

Chris pushed the button on his shoulder radio and called his cruiser out of service temporarily. Chris looked up, their eyes met and Rickie got a wicked funny smirk on his face.

"You are hot, Officer Chris, so take off all of your clothes," he whispered hauntingly to Chris' mind and the young cop stood, and began removing his clothes. "This is wicked cool," he said, turning to look at a stunned Brian, who was watching Chris as he stripped.

"Don't you even dare us that mind shit on me buster," Brian scolded, knowing that it had to have been that to make Chris strip.

Brian soon got caught up in the moment and moved to the edge of his chair, watching intently as Chris removed his service belt.

"Can you make him do a dance or something so that it's sexy as he strips," he asked, without taking his eyes off of Chris.

`Dance for your master, seduce me,' he commanded and Chris began gyrating his hips and easing his trousers down.

`Enough,' Rickie heard sharply in his mind and knew it was Michael.

But it was too late, Chris was naked and rubbing his body up and down Rickie's body. Chris turned his back to Rickie, and using Rickie body as a pole, slithered up and down him, all the while he played with his cock.

"Damn baby, what we could do with your power of suggestion," Brian exclaimed, coming over to Chris and kissing him.

"You are not my master, he is," Chris adamantly said, pushing Brian away and clinging tightly to Rickie. "Tell him master, you are the only one that I want to please," Chris said seductively, licking Rickie's neck as if it were a lollipop.

"Oh fuck sweetie, show me how much you want me," Rickie demanded and watched as Chris dropped to his knees before him and began to undo his jeans.

Chris had just pulled Rickie's jeans down and taken his cock into his mouth when a knock at the door broke the control that Rickie had over Chris. Chris flew back, looked at his state of undress and at what he had been doing to Rickie and was livid.

"Brian, go answer the...no wait, let me see who it is first," he said but before he could rise, Rickie was already there and opening the door.

"Nooooooo," both Brian and Chris yelled out in unison, but Rickie was faster and had the door wide open and inviting in whoever had knocked.

A cold chill ran down their spine as, from the shadows, a form materialized.

To be continued...

Comments are appreciated at christoskastellanos@yahoo.com

Thank you for reading it and taking the time to respond. Chris