The door was the same dim metallic beige as the concrete blocks that made up the flat roofed building and opened into a large warehouse that had been divided into several sections by chain link fencing and the gray carpeted half walls that typically reside in former office buildings. Low distant moans punctuated with short lived shrieks mingled discordantly with papers rustling and the even purposeful tread of boots. There was little color to be seen, everything was dull whites and grays washed out by the fluorescent lights that beat down inexorably in even rows and hummed just perceptibly. The stale, hot air, reeked of urine, defecation and sweat, the stench of the holding pens outside, but condensed, never washed away by a breeze, never cooled by the night air. As we approached the other end of the building the odors of diesel and gasoline provided some relief from the foul air. A great weariness fell over my body. My limbs trembled with the exertion of each step; their weight almost unbearable. I felt too tired to think, feel, or even to fear. I trudged on without thought my body moving automatically and I saw everything as if it were distant, and unimportant. Oh, the other hand my guide had stepped up his pace. His nostrils flared with each infrequent breath, his eyes were wide as if he were on the verge of losing control, their brown turned the color of drying grass in the harsh light, surrounded by thin plentiful red veins. We came into an area bordered behind us by those gray partition walls and on its far side by a chain link fence. There were several gurneys scattered around the concrete floor, their stuffing leaking out on the floor and some had been reduced to only hard boards on top of metal frames set on black plastic wheels. A couple of vampires came out of the chain link fence, one backing as they carried a squirming young man with blonde hair that hung almost to the floor. One of his eyes was closed as if he was permanently squinting and was crusted with mucus and dirt. A fly landed on his stomach and then flew away as he twisted trying to kick his feet, but they were tucked firmly under the armpits of one of the vampires. He glared at me as they passed baring his teeth and making a deep rumbling sound in his chest as if he were growling. There was language contained in the sound. They brought him to one of the empty beds and swung him up onto it. Another vampire popped up from behind one of the gurneys on which a human quivered fitfully against the straps that bound him to the bed and gnawed at the leather gag that pinned his head down. They pulled a thick leather strap dangling from the side of the bed over the arrival’s chest and arms, and another smaller one over his legs and pulled them tight through silver buckles. The man screamed, but not the hideous wailing of those outside but an outraged roar that diminished as the belt dug into his chest. The vampires then pulled the gag across his mouth, silencing him as he ground his teeth together in an attempt to prevent the leather from slipping into his mouth, but they slid a long piece of wood in between his teeth and pried them open asking, “You wanna lose a tooth, no skin off my teeth,” over and over again as they laughed. When his teeth popped open the gag filled his mouth and he sputtered and spat around it until his head was forced against the bed as it was pulled tight. The two vampires moved to another bed where a woman lay with her eyes closed breathing weakly and unstrapped her before they carried her off, back into the fenced area. The vampire who worked in the area retrieved a plastic tackle box from behind the man he’d been initially attending and pulled a needle from it. He licked the needle, his tongue dull and grey, before he attached it to a tube that ran to a bag sitting on a plate that rocked gently back and forth, clicking at the beginning of each interval. The bag, the tubes, and the needle were all stained a dark rusty red. All the vampires were tense, their movements lacking the usual vampiric smoothness, their limbs instead moving in a series of disjointed jerks. Their tongues continuously flicked in and out over their mouths, running over their lips, their eyes were wide, and a thin sheen covered their foreheads. The vampire loosened the man’s right arm and twisted it so that the inner arm faced upward, before he strapped it down by a cord looped around his wrist, then he tied a tourniquet around the man’s upper arm, patting the arm like a dog when he was finished and slipped the needle into the vein in the crook of his elbow. The man’s body pulsed against the restraints as much as it was permitted to as the ambassador muttered something about alcohol swabs. The vamp released the tourniquet and blood began to flow through the tubing and into the bag beneath the gurney. The vampire rubbed his hands together staring at the blood as it pooled in the bag, then wiped his forehead with one hand and looked up at my captor. “I gotta get out of here,” he said in a raspy voice as if his throat had dried out. “I gotta feed.” His eyes darted back to the blood and then to the bodies that were unwillingly being
