The Crimson Z
Robert Cloud
Lee Rush
Richard Savage
Abby Blythe
Kara Elsberry
ISBN 0-9774682-8-3

Collection Paranormal
Stories
688 paperback pages
Multi-format ebook $6.99
Paperback $29.99
Free Shipping

The Crimson Z has it all, contemporary, historical, sweet, sexy, erotic.

The Crimson Z Includes:

Love of a Pendant's Heart
A Short Novella
by Lee Rush

The Anniversary
A Short Novella
By Richard Savage

Incorrigible
A Novella
by Abby Blythe

On The Wings of a Dream
A Novelette
by Kara Elsberry

The Blood Ritual of the Crimson Z
A Novel
by Robert Cloud

The Awakening
A Long Novella
by Robert Cloud

The One

[This piece follows The Anniversary…certain portions have been removed to avoid spoiling the ending of The Anniversary]

Zachariah paused and looked into Melanie's eyes. His heart
was growing closer to her every moment they spent together
and he knew was doomed. Even though he maintained peace
with Lilith by telling her he loved her, his heart had long
stopped having any feelings for her. He could not care for
someone that had betrayed him with so many lies even if she
were not the monster he knew she was.

As he looked at Melanie he knew that he could not be with
her at his age. He was too old for someone her age and after
he was young again she would not even recognize him.

Even if Melanie stuck around and fell in love once he was
young again it would be far too dangerous for him to ever
allow her to be alone. Lilith was still very much with him and
was a very active spirit. Worse still he suspected that
Lilith was able to return to her bodily form even beyond the
times that the magic of the commissioning allowed.

If that were true then Melanie's life could be in danger
every single moment. A relationship with her could mean her
death. That was the primary reason he had remained alone all
these centuries. He could not risk anyone being hurt by the
rage and jealousy of Lilith. Still he yearned to hold a woman
close to him again and in his heart he knew that Melanie was
right for him.

[Portions relating to the ending of The Anniversary removed here to avoid spoiling the ending of that story]

Zachariah coughed as he held back his tears. Many of the
stories of his jewelry told tales of love so deep that it touched
him. At those times he would often remember the love he had
felt for his own Lilith the first time he had actually seen her
smile and knew God had answered his prayers and she would
live. He looked at Melanie and smiled but as he did so Melanie
faded from his sight and he drifted to memories of the past,
his mind caught upon those first moments when he was truly
happy. In silence he flitted from one happy memory to the
next.

He saw his mother trying to hand Lilith a bowl of broth and
Lilith looking at it like it was poison. She had even said that if
she ate that she would be sick. His mother had laughed and
told her that she had already eaten two bowls, that while she
had been unconscious she had been spoon fed two large
bowls of it. Lilith's eyes had grown huge. Zachariah could not
remember ever seeing anyone's eyes so large, nor so dark
and beautiful. Had he not already fallen for the woman he
would have then. As it was his heart melted more as he
drowned within their depths. He watched as Lilith tentatively
took a spoonful of the soup and tried it. She waited, then
after a moment she threw away the spoon and drank it from
the edge of the bowl like someone who had never tasted
anything so good in her entire life. Lilith's reaction was
precious and it endeared her more to him and his family.

It was only moments later that she suddenly pulled the
blanket up and screamed, backing into the corner and asking
if it was daytime. His mother had said yes. Lilith responded
that she was allergic to the sun. Rachel, his mother said she
had never heard of such a thing. Then his father had asked
Lilith how her allergy affected her. Lilith said it caused her
extreme pain. He asked her if she was in any pain right then.
She said no. He asked her if she would look at her foot. When
Lilith did she saw that a slither of light had penetrated
through a hole in the thatch of the roof and was shining upon
her foot. She wiggled her toes. Then she waved her hand in
front of the light. Slowly she climbed out from under the
cover and walked outside the door. She looked up at the sun
and stared at it like it was the first time she had ever seen it.
She pulled Zachariah out into the sun and began dancing,
then Rachel and Zakarias, so that all the family was dancing
in a circle. Lilith laughed like a child, free and happy. Dancing
about and swirling the new white shift that Rachel had given
her to wear, Zachariah's heart was dancing along with her
every step.

In those days normally courtships from the time of the
marriage proposal to the wedding were required to last at the
very least a year. Because Zachariah was well past the
normal marrying age, and due to other special conditions the
village elders allowed a much shorter than normal courtship.
They were married only six months after she had entered into
his life.

It was also very important for the people of that time that
men and women remained virgins until they were married,
and the wedding sheets were displayed as proof of a woman's
virginity. A woman that was not a virgin would be scorned,
run out of the town, and possibly even killed in the village of
new her husband. Yet when he had seen her on the road he
had suspected that she might have been raped by some
brigands and when there was no virgin's blood he took a knife
and cut across his foot to cover the sheet and protect the
woman he loved.

He was surprised and somehow pleased when Lilith had
carefully, even passionately licked the wound upon his foot
and sworn her love to him.
* * * *
"Papa Zach, are you alright?" Melanie's voice broke the
trance that the past had brought upon him. He shook his
head and looked at her.

"Yes, sweet child. It is just these stories; they remind me
so much of my own loss."

Melanie nodded and placed a hand upon his shoulder, "You
miss your wife don't you, Papa Zach?"

"Yes, Melanie, there are times I miss her more than I
thought possible. There are others that I barely remember
her at all." He knew as those last words left his lips that they
were a mistake. He could already hear the rattle of the mirror
and knew Lilith was not happy with him. She would blame his
lack of memory upon his daydreaming of Melanie. Yet in some
ways it was not entirely false. Melanie reminded him so much
of the sweet side of Lilith that he had fallen so deeply in love
with.

Melanie leaned down and kissed his cheek, "Papa Zach, I
have got to be going, it is getting late and tomorrow is a
school day.

"I will be here about an hour after I get out of school. I
have to go home first and do a couple of quick chores and
then will race right over."

Zachariah looked up at her and smiled, "But you have
already done all the unpacking."

"Yes, but there is still the cleaning, and if the Grand
Opening is Halloween night then we need to decorate." She
smiled so innocently his heart ached to hold her close to him
like he used to hold Lilith.

"Then I will see you around four in the afternoon."

Melanie leaned down and kissed his lips again. He knew it
was like a granddaughter kissing her grandfather yet she
seemed to hold the kiss a little longer than a granddaughter
would. As she stood up and turned to run out the door he
laughed at himself for being foolish. It was just his old heart
wishing that there could be more between him and her. He
was nearly a hundred, and yes soon he would be young
again, but she would not know him then and he would have
to act entirely different towards her or Lilith would come out
seeking Melanie's blood.

No sooner than the door had closed behind Melanie than
the mirror began rattling violently. Zachariah stood and
walked to it quickly, "Lilith, settle down. You do not want to
break the mirror now, do you?"

You lecherous old man, if that girl had not commissioned a
piece I would make you swear to bar her from this building. I
know your heart and I can tell you want her.

"Come now, Lilith, be serious. You know I can do nothing.
She thinks I am over 100, and after the change she will think
I died. The younger me will have to treat her differently. I will
not be able to get close to her or she will see that I am the
same person and know our secret."

Then you had better remember that, old man, or on the
night when I walk, I will visit her.

"Lilith, leave her be. You know I love you."

Do you? If you do, then why have I had to feed the last
few times I have risen?

"Perhaps it is the magic has grown old? Or the children
have not been as pure? That one child that was nearly a devil
could have had something to do with it."

Maybe? But I wonder if your love for me is as strong as it
used to be Zachariah.

"Lilith, if it was not, I would not still be here. When I
became young I would have left you and sought another. I
would have risked that the magic would have worked with
another love as well. But no, Lilith, it is you that I love," he
said as he tenderly stroked the mirror.

And I love you, my Zachary. I am sorry to have doubted
you. Now it is time to begin to make the piece, or it will not
be ready in time for the commission.

"Yes, I know. All is ready."

Zachariah walked by the counter and gathered all the tools
he had used to measure Melanie's crown for the tiara.
Especially the tool that still held the hair and flesh from her
scalp and the cloth that had been soaked with her blood but
now lay dried. Then with a spry step that did not match the
age of his body he went to the chest of treasures and pushed
the hidden latch. Soon he was within his little workshop and
the table was ready once again for his new offering of blood.

Zachariah stood looking at the table, the table that had
been so much a part of his life since the day he had knelt
upon it and prayed to God to save the life of Lilith.

It was almost eighteen months later that the carving that
it now had upon it had been completed and by his own hand
but even now he could not remember doing the work. He had
been in some kind of trance. The prophetess had said it was a
trance invoked by God. That he did believe. The fact that
he and the stone were connected there was no doubt in his
mind. He also believed that the magic he used came directly
from God, however he was told by the prophetess that the
stone could be used to summon dark magic too so he should
never let anyone else use it.

Centuries had passed and he had noticed changes in Lilith.
He had begun to suspect that she had lied to him about some
of the things she had claimed to be facts that she had told
him before her death. There were also suspicions about things
she had told him upon the first night she had risen about
what the magic of the commission would allow her to do.

Then one day he had stumbled upon proof that there was
nothing that Lilith had ever told him that he could believe was
true. He found out that when she came forth upon the night
of the magic she would feed.

He had lain awake for months in torment wondering how
many people he had helped her to kill, how many innocent
souls were upon his head and believing he was as guilty as
she was for their bloodless bones lying perhaps never found.
He made up his mind to walk away from the stone and never
return.

Three days later he had heard the chimes and bells of the
churches, an announcement was being read at the Papal
Palace. Pope Lucius III had made a discovery of a device of
greatest heresy.

Zachariah had pushed his way through the throng of
people and upon a wagon being pulled toward the palace was
his table. He knew immediately that for the Pope to get his
hands upon it would be disastrous. The carving upon the
stone was not something that the Pope would see as Holy but
as vile and obscene. To him it would have been seen as a
remnant of some form of pagan worship and would be judged
as unholy in the eyes of God. Zachariah feared that if the
Pope tried to destroy the stone some catastrophe would
occur. His mind returned to the scene of Pompeii and the
tremendous loss of life there.

He followed the wagon and when it stopped along the road
still about twelve miles outside of the city of Rome Zachariah
took a chance and jumped into the seat. Whether it was the
magic of the stone, or his luck or some other divine guide
watching him he was far away from the small tavern and no
one had seen him. However, his sin of leaving the stone did
not go unpunished. Pope Lucius III started blaming a witch
for having secreted the stone away from his couriers. He
began a massive search for witches to try to find the stone. It
was that one night that led to the instigation of the Spanish
Inquisition.

He sighed, no matter what he wanted to do his fate was
tied to that stone, he could not leave it, nor could he stop the
magic once it had begun. Whether the magic was truly of
God, which he believed with all his heart and soul; he was
bound to it as a slave was to their master.

He walked to the stone and sat the tray down upon the
table. From the dresser under the table he took a glass jar
and set it on a tray. Then from the basin he ladled out two
cups full of rain water. Carefully lifting the measuring
instrument he took a small wooden rod and pushed the flesh
and hair out of the scoop so that it fell into the jar, and lastly
he dropped the cloth that was soaked with Melanie's blood
into the jar as well.

Slowly he stirred the contents of the jar until the water
began to take on a pink hue, then he placed a screened lid
upon it and screwed it down. As he poured the blood water
mixture onto the table and it filled the etching of the tree of
Life the engraving began to glow brilliantly. The crimson gold
hue filled the room as the blood flowed into the last lines of
the etching. Zachariah nearly stumbled as he fell back into
the chair behind him for the glow did not dissipate but grew
even brighter until above the stone table stood a three
dimensional image of the tree as if it were alive and living
growing out of the stone. The branches swayed as if caught
within the wind, and the roots drank deeply of the blood.

Slowly the tree turned into a webbing of silken golden
fiber. In the hundreds of times that Zachariah had performed
this ritual only once had the webbing been more than a two
dimensional form just an inch above the stone table. Even
then it was nothing compared to this, this was far beyond
anything he had even imagined was possible. His heart
pounded like thunder reverberating within his chest. He could
hear Lilith calling to him from the other room, wanting to
know what had happened. She had to have seen the flash of
light, it was so brilliant it had to have shown through thin
openings around the hidden door to the room but he did not
dare answer her. How would he explain this? Zachariah
shuddered. He couldn't bear to imagine what Lilith would do
with this much power.

What are you trying to hide from me? By the Light and
Dark! Is that the Tree of Life?

Zachariah shook, "Lilith, I thought you could only speak
and see from the mirror in the main room?"

That was all I could do, but something happened.
Suddenly I found myself here.

"How? If you are bound to that mirror, how could you get
here?"

I do not know. Are you questioning my honesty,
Zachariah?

"No, my Love," but something told him that she was lying,
and he began to wonder how many other things she had lied
about. Yes this was extraordinary, but she had told him that
she was bound to that one mirror and he had to protect it
with his life for if it ever broke she would perish. Now here
she was in another mirror. Perhaps it was this magic, but
somehow he suspected it was not.

Is that the Tree of Life, Zachariah?

"I think so. It happened as soon as I put Melanie's blood
on the stone."

Oh!

Zachariah could almost feel her thoughts; he could sense
her mind weaving together the import of this monumental
moment. This much magic must mean something so powerful
that it would change things forever between him and Lilith,
his only prayer was that it would leave Melanie unharmed.
Do you know what this means, Zachariah?

"No, Lilith. I have not a clue, yet I can tell you do so
inform me."

It means that the girl is the One! She is the One that will
allow me to live again, to walk on the Earth again and to
finally leave this mirror realm I have been bound to.

"How? The body that is created from the magic is only a
shadow; it fades in but one day."

No! Zachariah, it means Melanie and I can share the same
body. She is pure, untainted. She has caused no one any
harm, and she has never been touched by passion. She is a
virgin.

"There have been other virgins, Lilith."

Zachariah! Yes, but not one that has never had an impure
thought. This girl has not even thought of impure sex, but she
has also never even thought of causing someone to be hurt.
She has never hated someone, never thought ill of someone.
She has always done her best to do the right thing. This girl
in every sense of the word would be considered a saint.

Zachariah looked at the mirror oddly, "First what do you
mean about impure sex? Kinky sex? I know there is no way
that this girl has thought about that. She is too traditional."

He could feel her laughter in his head, No you old fool.
Impure sex is sex without love. Even if she thinks of sex with
love she must still think of it as happening only after they
have committed to being together forever.

He nodded, that was something he could understand and it
definitely fit with what he knew about Melanie. She was that
type. He looked into the mist of the mirror and asked, "And
until now we have never met another like her?"

No never.

Zachariah did not like the idea of Lilith sharing Melanie's
body. He knew that Lilith would taint her. Lilith would turn
that saintliness into a demonic and diabolical monster in a
very short time. There was no blinding light of insight just a
deep painful acceptance that what he had known since shortly
after Lilith's death was indeed true. The woman he had fallen
in love with had never truly existed. From the very day Lilith
had entered into his life she had been hiding her true nature
from him. She was a liar and a monster and now she wanted
him to trust her with Melanie?

How could he trust her when the last several times she
had formed she'd had to feed and she had been very cruel
and evil about it? She had even made him watch, delighting
in his revulsion of her hunger. If she were to share Melanie's
body would Melanie become the Wampyr that Lilith was?

"How would you share her body? How would it affect her?"
She could have the body during the day, since your love
can no longer protect me from the sun, and I will take it at
night.

"But won't your nature affect her? Won't she become an
undead like you were?"

Zachariah! I know you care for her! Once you are young,
maybe you will love her enough to protect her. Besides, we
do not know she will become as I am.

"We do not know she will not either!"

You are correct! We do not! However you have no choice!
You know the contract of the commission and the ritual. Once
you begin it you must follow it through. The stone is the one
that decides what happens. The fact that the full Tree of Life
is there is the sign that she is the One! You must offer her the
option. Only she can decide to accept or deny it.

"And if she denies it?"

We both die.

"Then I pray for death."

I knew you had lied to me. You do love her, you old fool.
With a scream the mirror in the room shattered and Lilith
screeched out of the room back to the mirror in the main
room. Zachariah knew she was right. He had no option he
had to complete the commissioned piece. The distant smoke
of Vesuvius rose into his memory as with a trembling hand he
reached toward the Tree of Life and pulled a fine wire of
golden filament from the tree. Slowly he began to weave it
into the form of the tiara. As he worked the tree unraveled
and the tiara took its shape.
* * * *
The mirror trembled as Lilith broiled in fury. Yet she
waited. She waited until she was certain that Zachariah was
deep in his trance and weaving the gold for once he had
started he would not awaken from his trance until the
framework of the piece was finished. As she waited her hatred
for Melanie grew deeper.

She thought back to the days before her death, when she
had learned that Zachariah's love had protected her from the
sun and ended her need for blood. For a long while she
basked in the new found freedom his love had given her, but
then something else had begun to eat at her.

Over the centuries of feeding upon humans she had come
to enjoy the hunt. To watch their eyes when they knew they
had come face to face with a monster of legend and were
about to die had filled her with such wondrous power that she
had felt invincible. Soon the bloodlust had come back, not
because she had the need to feed, but because she had the
need to kill, to taste again the power she could hold over
someone's life.

She began to sneak out at night. Many of her powers had
dimmed but not all, she could still transform. She could still
command the creatures of the night, and she could still
hypnotize with a single thought. Yet she was careful. She did
not kill too many. She did not want Zachariah to know. She
relished in the fact that she had taken the lives of twenty two
people before she found out she was with child. Her only
regret was that she had not taken more, but then she found
out that that number twenty two had an important effect on
the rest of her existence.

She found out that every twenty two days she was able to
rise out of her prison in the form of a mist and hunt. She had
often wondered if she had killed fewer people if the number of
days would have been less, she did not understand the
connection but knew there was one. It was only after her
death that she began to be thankful she had not taken more
lives because she thought if she had killed fifty then she may
have been stuck in her prison for fifty days before being
released to kill. Her hell would have been even a greater
torment.

This had remained her secret. In the nearly six thousand
years since she had died she had never told Zachariah about
this ability, and she had left hundreds of thousands dead
without him ever suspecting. How fortunate for her that
tonight was the 22nd night for if it had not been she would
have brewed until the 22nd night and she might have spilled
her secret to Zachariah. Of course soon it would not matter.

Once she was reborn as a Wampyr she would turn him into
her slave and he would regret ever having betrayed his love
with that little girl. It was only a shame she could not take
her anger out on the girl.

As soon as she was certain that Zachariah was lost in his
trance the red mist began to seep from the edges of the
mirror. It floated quietly to the center of the room and began
swirling about like a cyclone of blood. There was no sound,
yet it seemed like a silent thunder filled the room and the
form of a woman stood where the cyclone had been. She was
little more than a vapor but she was startlingly beautiful. As
she gazed at her own blood colored reflection in the mirror
she smiled at herself vainly. She had known that Zachariah
had no choice but to fall in love with her the moment he had
seen her. There was no woman that had ever walked the
earth as lovely as she was.

She took one last glance at herself and then screamed in
rage. How could he not still love her? Then she shot straight
upward and the mist exploded through the little cracks and
crevices that were invisible to the eye and came out through
the roof. She reformed above the roof as a large red hawk
and flew in circles to get her bearings.

Her ears picked up sounds of laughter and screams of
terror many miles away, yet the screams were not true
terror. It was more like those screams that are then turned
into fun. She flew towards them. Soon her eyes saw all the
lights of a larger commercial area and a mall but what was
pulling her was a little further to the north. Yes. A park. An
amusement park, it was open and there were a lot of people
in costume but it was too much out in the open. Yet the idea
of feeding on someone on the roller coaster while the person
sitting next to them watched tempted her. It was an amusing
thought but she had to be careful, she needed that bitch,
Melanie's body and if she were to kill someone openly like
that then it would be more difficult for her to kill later.

There was a building next to the park that had a lot of
activity. She remembered now, the amusement park had
opened an all year around indoor water park, but that would
also have no privacy, no place where she could find someone
alone that would not be discovered quickly. However she
recalled that Zachariah had told her that they were near a
tourist resort. Even further north of the amusement park
there was a village called Lake George. He had laughed about
them having a Haunted House that was open all summer
long. Actually two, one called the House of Frankenstein and
the other Dr. Macabre's Haunted Mansion, and with Halloween
just around the corner she bet both of them were packed with
visitors.

Perfect! She flew in that direction and finally saw Dr.
Macabre's. Slowly she spiraled down and entered into a
window that was open in the back. Once inside she allowed
herself to become a cloud of red mist and drift along the
ceiling.

From one room to the next she drifted looking for a
suitable victim. Then she spied a young man, about
seventeen, the same age as Melanie. He was dressed in an
outfit like a prisoner from a penitentiary. There were fake
holes that looked like bullet wounds and he had a chainsaw in
his hands to scare people as they walked by. The chainsaw
was a fake. It roared but there was no chain on it.

Slowly Lilith drifted down behind the kid and as he stepped
out and took a deep breath to scream at two girls that were
walking past the spot where he was hiding, Lilith allowed him
to breathe her into his lungs. Immediately she began to feed
upon him from the inside out.

Lilith watched through the eyes of her victim as the girls
saw him stumble forward. Her victim struggled against her
but there was nothing he could do. He dropped the chainsaw
and grasped at his neck. There was a large mirror on the far
wall and Lilith was particularly enjoying seeing his eyes begin
to protrude from his face, one even popped out of its socket
and hung from the nerve. The girls screamed and ran.

Oh how sad, Lilith thought, they are going to miss the best
part. Then she laughed and the hideous laugh came strangled
from the mouth of her victim.

She continued to look through the one remaining eye of
her victim as his face began to turn ashen. He dropped to his
knees reaching out toward the fleeing girls but they never
saw him. From his finger tips his flesh began to fall away as
ash and the outer layers fell away leaving muscle tissue then
it too began to become ash. Finally the skeleton fell into a
heap and the last thing to dissolve was the eye that Lilith had
used to watch.

Slowly the red mist rose to the ceiling as the next couple
entered into the room and found a prisoner suit filled with
nothing but a skeleton. She had read the boy's mind while
she fed upon him and knew that Billy was prone to days of
drinking and drugs. As he had died he himself had thought no
one would miss him until he did not show to pick up his
paycheck. Lilith laughed to herself for the one thing she
always loved was when she picked a real winner for a victim
and this one was a real peach. Before he had left for work he
had punched his girlfriend in the face. As far as Lilith was
concerned this boy deserved to die.

When Lilith had finished watching a few more couples
enter and noticed that none of them even paid any attention
to Billy's bones. She headed back to the window. Her hunger
was satisfied but her anger was not. She had to kill again, she
had to kill a female, someone that reminded her of Melanie,
but she had also learned not to commit two murders too close
together, and not to make them too similar in nature. She
had almost gotten her only hope of release, Zachariah, killed
by making that mistake.

She flew south, following the highway that ran alongside of
Lake George. She decided she would follow it for as far as she
dared so that she would still have time to get back before the
sun rose. In her form when she stayed high she could fly at a
pretty good speed. So in about thirty minutes she was upon a
really large city. Her eyes caught the signs above the highway
just before going into the city. Albany.

She followed a main road that was labeled Central into the
city and there she found a large arena like structure. Some
event was going on and there were people on the streets.
There were some alleys too and she continued to circle about.

Looking in the alleys, Lilith was hoping to spot someone that
reminded her of Melanie. She had no idea how much time had
passed in her journey but she was certain that the sun would
not be waiting too much longer before it rose above the
horizon. If she were not in the mirror before it did then she
would die, yet she was having no luck in finding anyone that
paid even the slightest resemblance to Melanie. Finally she
saw a blond haired girl covered in tattoos walk into an alley
on the tottering heels of stilettos. She was followed closely by
a man with a red Mohawk. He was covered in even more
tattoos, so many in fact that Lilith had trouble seeing skin
that was not marked with a tattoo. The girl stopped and
leaned against the wall. The man looked around him furtively
making certain they were alone, then he looked at the woman
and Lilith could see the smile cross his face as he reached into
his back pocket and pulled out his wallet. After fishing out
some bills he handed them to her and watched while she
stuffed them into her bra.

Lilith did not want to watch her kill get fucked. But before
she moved the man did something that sent Lilith into a
blinding fury, he slapped the woman across the face and
screamed, "Bitch," at her. Lilith decided she would take them
both, but she had a special treatment for him. Like lightning
she struck. The mist of blood formed into two blades of red
crystal and she struck downwards. One caught the man just
under the sternum and she lifted him dangling him above the
ground. He tried to scream, but she knew he could not pull in
the air to do so. She did not want him dead just yet.
The girl screamed, only to be silenced by the blade as it
cut upwards between her spread thighs, stopping at her
heart. Lilith then made second stroke across the woman's
breast and left the body lying in three pieces. As she looked
down she smiled.

Then she turned back to the man and formed a mouth in
her mist form whispering, "So you like being rough with
women?"

He shook his head no, and as he did so her free arm
shifted from the blade form into an arm with a hand whose
fingers ended in five blades sharper than any surgeons'
scalpels. The fingers sliced through fabric and flesh as she
deftly severed his cock and scrotum and lifted it up to his
face. "Open wide!" She commanded with her Wampyr ability
and against his own will his mouth opened. His eyes grew
wide as she stuffed his mouth full.

Then she turned her arm that was still a blade in a perfect
circle and pulled out a cylinder of his flesh that contained his
heart. She watched his face go slack as he died. Now she was
satiated. She looked up at the big clock upon a building
nearby and saw that it was only a little past two in the
morning. She would be back in plenty of time. So back to the
shop she flew, returning to her prison until the night that the
commission was completed and the time was right for
Melanie's decision.
* * * *
The sun had risen and the clock had struck nine when
Zachariah's trance finally broke. Lying within his hands was
the complete gold-work of the tiara, gone was the Tree of
Life. He rose and laid the tiara on a table to the side and
lowered the heavy glass plate to the top of the stone table.

If this had been a normal commission, he would have
covered the table with a cloth, then left the room and locked
the door of the cabinet making any chance of an accidental
discovery impossible, but this was not a normal commission.
He still had one chance to return to this room with this
commission. If Melanie said yes.

He turned back to the tiara and lifted it. Looking at it
carefully he was amazed at the intricacies within it. All that
was left was the placing of the gemstones and for that he
usually did not have to enter a trance. As he turned the tiara
around his eyes caught upon the jeweler's mark on the
backside of the tiara, the mark of the Z. It resembled the one
upon both the cabinet and the table. Each time he looked at
the figure of the tree the sensual woman within the trunk
enticed him to stare longer upon her. Zachariah had often
wondered if the woman was supposed to be anyone in
particular. She seemed to be familiar and at one time he
thought she sort of resembled Lilith but it was not Lilith of
that he was certain. As he turned the piece a beam of light hit
the mark and it just for a brief moment appeared as if it filled
with blood. It was for this unique trait of the mark that the
shop had been named The Crimson Z.

He carried the tiara out into the main room and shut the
cabinet behind him hiding the entry to the mystical room once
again. For some reason he did not feel it safe to leave the
tiara out of his sight so he carried it up to his apartment and
laid it on the dresser beside his bed.

Melanie would be there in just a little over seven hours and
he had not slept at all the entire night. He also knew from the
silence that had met him when he had left the ritual room
that Lilith was not in a good mood. As he walked past the
mirror he did not even feel her icy fingers reach out to touch
his mind and sense his thoughts and that was not a good sign
at all. He knew it was best not to press the issue. For his own
peace of mind and sanity it would be best to try to get what
sleep he could for when he did finally have to deal with Lilith
there would be hell to pay. Slowly he climbed the stairs for
once he did feel every bit of the one hundred and ten years of
his body's age. Working the magic drained a great deal from
him. Sitting down on the edge of the bed was the last thing
he remembered.
* * * *
"Papa Zach, Papa Zach!" He felt a nudge at his shoulder.
He opened his eyes and saw Melanie holding the tiara in her
hands; her eyes were wide and filled with tears.

"Papa Zach! Is this? Is? It can't be? You only showed me
the design yesterday. Even had you been up all night no one
could have made this in one night."

She leaned down and helped him up and then hugged him
tight. This time when she kissed his lips he was not mistaken
they definitely stayed there longer than was appropriate for a
granddaughter and grandfather. His heart thundered tightly in
his chest.

"Yes Melanie, that is it, and I told you that some of my
items are magic."

"Papa Zach! I thought that magic stuff you have been
telling me was just stories." She danced about and then sat
down beside him, hugging him tightly, "But for you to have
made this in only one day the magic has to be real!"

"Sweetie, I was up all night. I did not get to bed until nine
this morning."

Melanie frowned. "Well then, Papa Zach, you lay back
down, and I am going to go make you a late breakfast and
after you have eaten it then you can take it easy while I
clean."

He smiled and then said, "I still have the gemstones to
set."

"If you did the gold in one night, there are still four nights
before the dance, you have plenty of time. So you can rest
tonight. In fact, after you eat your meal just go back to sleep.
No story tonight. You can tell me one tomorrow night."

"Okay, sweetheart, I definitely could use the sleep."

Melanie was true to her word. She made Papa Zach a
hearty breakfast, but a healthy one, only one piece of bacon,
toast, one egg, a slice of cantaloupe, and some orange juice,
and then she tucked him in, kissed his forehead, and told him
to go to sleep. He did not take much urging and quickly went
to sleep.

While he slept she cleaned the place. Lilith watched her,
memorizing her every move. When she took over her body
she would have to fool Zach so she watched her every move
and listened to every sound she made committing each
movement and sound to her memory so that she would be
able to draw upon them to fool Zachariah when the time
came. Her only worry was that he would become wise to her
plan beforehand and then she might have to kill him. That
would be a shame for without him that stone was worthless.
He was the only one that could use it. Of course without the
stone he was nothing but food.

Melanie closed up and locked the shop at nine and went
home. When she returned the next day Zachariah was still
asleep and she knew the old man had to have worn himself
out. She also knew it was not healthy to sleep the clock
around so she went to wake him.

Carefully she nudged him, "Papa Zach!"

"Is it time for you to go home now? Do you need me to
lock the door?"

Melanie almost giggled, "No Papa Zach that was yesterday.
It is now four in the afternoon on Tuesday."

Zachariah sat up quickly for a man his age and looked at
her with a look of wonder in his eyes. "Are you telling me I
slept for over twenty four hours?"

"You sure did! I told you, you over did it, making that tiara
in one night. Now you need to get up and stretch and then
when you are done shaving and cleaning up I will fix you a
meal. So come downstairs when you are done." She leaned
over and kissed his lips again, "Thank you again, my Papa
Zach."

Zachariah smiled at her words and watched as she nearly
danced out of his room. He heard her as she skipped down
the stairs. Thirty minutes later he was sitting beside her
enjoying the light dinner she had fixed them. Cucumber
sandwiches, she had said. He had never eaten a sandwich
without meat on it, but it was not bad.

After the meal she cleaned up and then began to put up
the decorations as he began to set the stones. For the main
stone he chose a sapphire the same color as her eyes. It was
an offset diamond cut, so it formed a cross with the way the
facets were cut. It was also large, nearly as large as his
thumb. To each side of it and on the lower base was a ruby,
round cut and a little larger than a standard dress shirt
button. The remainder of the stones were twenty eight
diamonds, ranging from one quarter carat to one carat in size
for a total weight of twelve carats. Zachariah knew that there
could not be a price set on the piece. If it were appraised it
would bring a value of well over a million dollars. However all
the kids at her school would think the stones were fake or
rhinestones. Only Melanie and he would know the truth. He
would not finish setting the stones in one night, but it would
be done in plenty of time for her dance.

At about eight Melanie came in and sat down beside him
as he was finishing setting the two rubies. She smiled at him
and he returned her smile and for many moments they stared
at each other in silence before she finally broke the silence by
saying, "Well Papa Zach, I do not regret missing my story
yesterday, but I do have to say I have been dying all day to
hear one today. So can I go pick a piece from the cabinet?"

"Sure, sweetheart."

With the exuberance that only youth has she leapt from
her seat and bounded to the cabinet. Opening the doors she
looked at all the pieces and her hand started toward one
piece and then another and then shifted to another then
suddenly darted and she chose one. She carried it over to him
and in his hands laid a pendant with three interwoven
triangles upon the face of it.

The old man smiled, "This is an amazing tale. Not only in
the story but in how it came to return to me."

"Let me tell you a true ghost story, but not your ordinary
ghost story. For this is one ghost that had a lust for life, and
that lust did not pass away when she did, she was able to find
a way to fulfill her lust even after death."

[Incorrigible follows this chapter.]

Toy's Story:
Aquisition of a Sex Toy
By Robert Cloud

Bound By Fate
By Lee Rush

Fool Me Once
By Jessica Joy
(Jessica also writes as Abby Blythe)

1 Fan -- Books given this rating include very minimal sexual activity between hero and heroine. Sexual activity that does occur is described without the use of graphic terms. These titles will be found in our Tender Destinations line and in our Amorous Adventures line.

2 Fan -- Books given this rating include a moderate amount of sexual activity between hero and heroine, however it is described in romantic as opposed to graphic terms. These books will be found in our Tender Destinations and Amorous Adventures lines.

3 Fans -- Books given this rating include a lot of sexuality between hero and heroine. The activity may be described graphically but will not include fetish elements. Books with this rating will be found in our Sensuous Journeys line and in our Amorous Adventures line.

4 Fans -- Book given this rating include a lot of sexuality between hero and heroine and will typically include fetish elements. Sexuality in these books is described graphically but with a softer touch than our 5 Fan titles. Books with the 4 fan rating will be found in our Forbidden Experiences line as well as our Amorous Adventures line.

5 Fans -- Books with this rating include a very high degree of sexuality between hero and heroine. These books include fetish elements which are described graphically. Books with this rating will be found in our Forbidden Experiences and Amorous Adventures lines.

Tender Destinations
Are poignant stories of meeting and falling in love. They contain a minimal level of sexuality.

Sensuous Journeys
Are emotional and poignant but include explicit descriptions of the lovemaking between hero and heroine. There is no explicit fetish component in these books.

Forbidden Experiences
Are powerful and emotional love stories with explicit sexuality which includes fetish content.

Amorous Adventures
Are love stories with an element of suspense or danger.