Terran Times.

Violet Visions.

Viola Grace.

VIOLET-OF-THE-NIGHT.

By Astrid Cooper.

*he hands were soft as feathers as they stroked along her T thigh, upwards, moving inexorably higher, then retreating, until after an agony of waiting, the fingers reached her purple curls. The fingers transformed into coils of water, thin slivers of iridescence that shimmered in the mauve light. The water spread over her, dipped into her, washing her every cell with silver. The arousal spread through her, the ebb and flow, like the waters of home, slow and thick like blood. She ran a tongue over her parted lips and moaned.

"Majesty."

The word barely penetrated her fevered mind as the feathers stole into her body.

"Please, Your Majesty!"

Violet snapped out of the illusion, angry-angry at the interruption, angry at the thwarted s.e.x. She had taken so long to prepare this program, to bring her to a peak that would last for hours-or so she hoped.

She opened her eyes and glared at the minion.

"Curse your grey-scaled hide, Garit. I told you I wasn't to be disturbed."

Garit, the mud demon, bowed, his peaked forehead sc.r.a.ping 1 Violet Visions.

the ground before him.

"Yes, Your Magnificence, but this is a matter of great importance."

"What can be so important that you would drag me from my pleasure?"

"A death, Oh, exalted one."

"Death in the Netherworld is a common thing, mud-eater."

"Yes, Your Majesty, but you need to come to the throne room and see."

Pleasure was out of the question, Violet thought, as she tore off the red circlet from her head, severing her connection with the simulator. She stepped out of the sh.e.l.l-shaped dome and threw a diaphanous purple robe over her body.

Garit raced ahead of her, opening doors, and bowed her into the throne room.

Her ebony throne sat upon a raised pedestal and around it was another processor, the machine also sh.e.l.l-shaped-she craved all things nautical, to remind her of home, a world far away and long gone.

She strode into the chamber and halted, her gaze falling on the body lying on her purple and silver tiled floor.

"Who is responsible for this mess?"

Violet Night scanned the line of ghouls-cowards all. They shivered in their claws and refused to meet her gaze. The three demons stared back at her insolently, but as they saw the wavering conduits, like tentacles attached to her throne, they thought better of their defiance and bowed. When she was in a mood, the tentacles wavered and the demons made themselves scarce.

Violet studied the human corpse-she knew it for a human by its iron stink, but the body was badly mauled. The head hung by a thread from a lacerated neck.

2.

eXtasy's Collective Mind.

"Well?"

Doneto cleared his throat and her gaze narrowed upon him.

"We think it was a human," he said.

"A human doesn't kill like this."

"This one does, Majesty!"

Violet smiled tightly. "Doneto might be only four feet tall,"

she said, "but he's got more guts than the rest of you put together." The diminutive demon beamed as the others turned jealous gazes upon him. "But don't let my compliment go to your heads, Doneto."

"No mistress." He bowed.

"And just why do you think a human did this?"

"I... er saw something," Doneto said. "I was patrolling the alleys and I heard a scream."

"You wanted a piece of the action?"

"The thought did occur. When I reached the scene, I saw this human on the ground, and another above him, using a scimitar to cut him."

"A scimitar?"

"Yes, mistress. And when he'd finished, he drank the blood."

The silence in the chamber was profound. Deep. Still. Shock made Violet shiver. It was not often that she shivered. "He drank you say?"

"Not prettily, like a vampire, but drank, yes. Then, when he saw me he ran off."

"That's not strictly true! The demon has delusions of grandeur!" A man stepped out of the shadows...no, not human, vampire. Violet caught the musky scent of the undead as he strode insolently up to her.

"Bow before Her Magnificence!" Doneto said, the bristles on his left head rising like the quills of a porcupine.

"I bow to no woman."

3.

Violet Visions Violet felt her fangs pierce her bottom lip. "To what do I owe this pleasure?"

"That human was killed in the alley at the back of Midnight's Bar."

The Queen fastened her gaze on Doneto. "When were you going to tell me this?"

"I was getting around to it."

"Hired help isn't like it used to be," the vampire said.

That was true. "And who killed the human?"

"It's been dealt with."

"That wasn't what I asked. What is your name, vampire, and how did you get in here?"

"Like I said, hired help isn't what it used to be. I got through the portal and dispatched the guards before they had a chance to scream."

"You killed them?"

"Strictly speaking, they were dead already."

"Semantics," Violet said, dismissing his words and his smile with a wave of her talons. "And what is your name?"

"De Vargas-Santiago Vallejo De Vargas." He bowed. "My friends call me Val." His black eyes were tinged with red.

"Well, senor De Vargas, to what do we owe the pleasure of your company? It's not often we get a blood-sucker in my realm."

"Charming to the last, succubus."

"You arrogant b.a.s.t.a.r.d!" Violet didn't know whether to rip him from head to toe with her talons, or drain him of his life essence.

"Arrogant-yes. b.a.s.t.a.r.d-no! My pedigree is impeccable."

Violet sniffed. Vampires were like that-fixated on their genealogy. "Then, for the last time, what the f.u.c.k are you doing here?"

"Saving your skinny a.r.s.e." He folded his arms across his 4 eXtasy's Collective Mind black dinner jacket and then craned his neck to look around her. "Well, perhaps not so skinny. From what I can see through that gown..." He licked his lips. "Tempting. I'm here on business and my business is to let you know that your security has been breached. Or was-this human got to within three feet of the portal. He knew about you, about us."

"And so, you killed him? For my sake?"

"For all our sakes. If he found out about you, then he knows about us, and there's no telling what else, so I had him killed, but he had already killed this one." He looked down at the corpse. "He left the body where it would have been found. One thing we don't need is attention drawn to us, especially to the Midnight Bar. h.e.l.l's Gates, if you were forced to close, where would the brothers drink?"

"So much for your philanthropy!"

Vallejo grinned, exposing two white, pointed fangs. He was a handsome man-most vampires were, in a pale, unnatural sort of way-though his skin still retained a vestige of the olive tone of his ancestry, his black eyes...interesting. His black hair was slicked back from his face and hung like an ebony curtain over his shoulders.

"Doneto, I want the patrols tripled...any human who enters my domain, I want to know at once." Violet paused. "I thank you for your diligence, senor. Perhaps you'd like to nourish yourself before you leave?"

"Was I leaving?" His gaze swept the chamber and the demons and ghouls looked decidedly nervous. If a vampire couldn't get fresh human blood, they weren't adverse to supping on lesser game.

Violet smiled as her minions swept back, cl.u.s.tering together, alarm radiating from their misshapen bodies. "He's not going to dine on you, so stop that sniveling."

5.

Violet Visions "No?" Vallejo demanded.

"No," Violet said firmly, her gaze piercing his. He inclined his head. "I can supply you with an elixir."

"You have fendahl?" The vampire's eyes shone ruby red.

"I have. I was saving it for a special occasion, but what the h.e.l.l... I can always distill more. Follow me." Violet turned on her heel and swept out of the throne room, her gown billowing around her. She didn't wait to see if the vampire followed her- if the promise of fendahl didn't interest him, nothing she could say or do would. She smiled to hear his light footsteps on the tiles behind her.

The door of her private audience chamber slid aside and she strode inside, the purple curtains parting before her. She halted at the ornate gold table and turned to him.

Moments later, Doneto scurried into the room, carrying a gold tray that held two gold goblets. She smelt the spice and honey and the distilled blood of centaurs and saw that the vampire also caught the heady brew with his senses.

Fendahl...as rare as a phoenix egg, coveted by all of the nether-realms-the vampires were particularly susceptible to the potent brew. She knew its recipe, and had brought it to this backwater world-with the result that she ruled as Queen.

She sat down on the sofa, and Vallejo joined her side. Doneto bowed and offered him the first goblet.

"Ladies first," he said.

Violet smiled and then frowned as she heard Doneto's light t.i.tter. The little pest was getting out of hand. "You have something to add, demon?"

"No, Majesty."

"Then take your ugly heads out of here. Leave the tray on the table, we'll serve ourselves."

The door slid quietly shut behind him.