Hot Blood: Tales of Erotic Horror

good reason… No, I will not tell you my name. And I am not calling to question your competence. Far from it. My purpose is only to ease your mind, which presupposes that you are good at your job and you really care about a medical anomaly. Do we understand each other? Not yet? Then hear me out… Good.'

Less urgently, he went on: 'An analogy is a disease called granuloma inguinale, which, I don't have to tell you, can destroy the whole sexual apparatus with ulcerations and necrosis, and penetrate the body to and all through the peritoneum… Yes, I know you considered that and I know you rejected it, and I know why… Right. Just too damn fast. I'm sure you looked for characteristic bacterial and viral evidence as well, and didn't find any.

'… Yes, of course, Doctor — you're right and I'm sorry, going on about all the things it isn't without saying what it is.

'Actually, it's a hormone poison, resulting from a biochemical mutation in — in the carrier. It's synergistic, wildly accelerating — as you saw. One effect is something you couldn't possibly know — it affects the tactile neurones in such a way that morphine and its derivatives have an inverted effect — in much the same way that amphetamines have a calmative effect on children. In other words, the morphine aggravated and intensified their pain… I know, I know; I'm sorry. I made a real effort to get to you and tell you this in time to spare them some of that agony, but — as you say, it's just too damn fast.

'… Vectors? Ah. That's something you do not have to worry about. I mean it, Doctor — it is totally unlikely that you will ever see another case.

'… Where did it come from? I can tell you that. The two brothers assaulted and raped a woman — very probably the only woman on earth to have this mutated hormone poison… Yes, I can be sure. I have spent most of the last six years in researching this thing. There have been only two other cases of it — yes, just as fast, just as lethal. Both occurred before she was aware of it. She — she is a woman of great sensitivity and a profound sense of responsibility. One was a man she cared very little about, hardly knew. The other was someone she cared very much about indeed. The cost to her when she discovered what had happened was — well, you can imagine.

'She is a gentle and compassionate person with a profound sense of ethical responsibility. Please believe me when I tell you that at the time of the assault she would have done anything in her power to protect those — those men from the effects of that… contact. When her husband — yes, she has a husband, I'll come to that — when he became infuriated at the indignities they were putting on her, and begged her to give in and let them get what they deserved, she was horrified — actually hated him for a while for having given in to such a murderous suggestion. It was only when they vandalized some things that were especially precious to her husband — priceless — that she too experienced the same deadly fury and let them go ahead. The reaction has been terrible for her — first to see her husband seeking vengeance, when she was convinced he could rise above that — and in a moment find that she herself could be swept away by the same thing… But I'm sorry, Dr. Thetford — I've come far afield from medical concerns. I meant only to reassure you that you are not looking at some mysterious new plague. You can be sure that every possible precaution is being taken against its recurrence… I admit that total precautions against the likes of those two may not be possible, but there's little chance of its happening again. And that, sir, is all I am going to say, so good —

'What? Unfair?… I suppose you're right at that — to tell you so much and so little all at once. And I do owe it to you to explain what my concern is in all this. Please — give me a moment to get my thoughts together.

'… Very well. I was commissioned by that lady to make some discreet inquiries about what happened to those two, and if possible to get to their doctor in time to inform him — you — about the inverted effect of morphine. There would be no way to save their lives, but they might have been spared the agony. Further, she found that not knowing for sure if they were indeed victims was unbearable. This news is going to be hard for her to take, but she will survive it somehow; she's done it before. Hardest of all for her — and her husband — will be to come to terms with the fact that, under pressure, they both found themselves capable of murderous vengefulness. She has always believed, and by her example he came to believe, that vengeance is unthinkable. And he failed her. And she failed herself.' Without a trace of humor, he laughed. ' 'Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord.' I can't interpret that, Doctor, or vouch for it. All I can derive from this — episode — is that vengeance is. And that's all I intend to say to you — what?

'… One more question?… Ah — the husband. Yes, you have the right to ask that. I'll say it this way: There was a wedding seven years ago. It was three years before there was a marriage, you follow? Three years of the most intensive research and the most meticulous experimentation. And you can accept as fact that she is the only woman in the world who can cause this affliction — and he is the only man who is immune.

'Dr. Thetford: good night.'

He hung up and stood for a long while with his forehead against the cool glass of the booth. At length he shuddered, pulled himself together, went out and drove away in his little hatchback.

THE UNKINDEST CUT J. N. Williamson

Edmunster had never before liked the feeling of other men's flesh on his, so he was perfectly miserable when Stanwall's plump hands closed round his privates. They were called that with good reason, in his view, and Edmunster suffered the older man's clammy touch only because he had decided it was finally time, and he must.

Yet for the hundredth time, perhaps, Edmunster wondered if he would really be able simply to function from day to day, once this was beyond him. It did not seem sensible or realistic to hope he would not be altered in those ways that… mattered. That was what Bruce Peterson and Roger Hinesley assured him, however, in voices much too loud for such delicate exchanges of confidences. But then, they would say that. It was typical of birds such as Peterson, and Hinesley; these were modern times and a man had to do what this kind of man had to do. All that. They'd had no appreciation of what such a choice, such a decision, meant to a proud man like Lawrence F. Edmunster.

Frequently sighing, trying not to tremble or to flinch away, he looked all the way down and saw that Stanwall was on the verge of beginning. It didn't help the way Miss Allair was in and out of the room, nor that the woman seemed amazingly disaffected or bored by the terrible thing Stanwall was about to do to him. With bare legs raised, he turned his face to the discreetly draped window in mortification and, a last time, contemplated how it'd been for him. Wonderful, that was how. Natural, and normal, and he had no intention of lying about it now. He'd enjoyed women as much as the next man — more — and simply because this was happening did not mean Larry Edmunster felt obliged to repudiate a wholly healthy, enjoyable past.

He'd blurted out — 'Is it going to hurt much?' — before he could stop himself.

The serious Stanwall glanced up from between Edmunster's legs as if annoyed at being distracted. 'I told you it would not. Lots of men — right this instant — are having this done. Don't forget, Larry, you came to me. Voluntarily.'

I knooow, Edmunster thought, cursing his weakness.

But the truth was, the procedure was the solitary, responsible decision remaining to him after getting two of his last four lovers pregnant.

And it was true that both Bruce and Roger swore that a vasectomy would not interfere with Edmunster's free-swinging pursuit of pleasure.

'I am going to make the incision in a moment,' Stanwall announced. 'Don't worry. The local I gave you has dulled all sensations and you may not feel a thing.'

When Edmunster squeezed his eyes shut, they popped open again at once. How ridiculous, how ludicrous he looked. It was taped back at such a definitely unnatural, sickening angle he felt utterly helpless. May not feel a thing also meant he might feel a lot. His sensations did feel dulled, though. All of them, actually. Perhaps that was only the vulnerability of being exposed, or the fettered humiliation of the way it was rendered entirely hors de combat; but now he was starting to feel torpid, enfeebled… prostrate… the whole length of his body.

'Doctor.' His own voice seemed detached; distant. 'How soon… after… will I dare — have relations?'