Coming Together In Vein

Helping Vampires to Save the World

Let's face it. Vampires are sexy. Something about the undead stirs up our juices. Perhaps it's their irresistible power. Even when we know the danger, we're so very tempted to surrender to their all-consuming lust. Maybe we want to comfort them, to save them a lonely, bloody eternity. Maybe we secretly crave immortality ourselves.

Vampires are frequently portrayed as evil or at least amoral, viewing humanity from the jaded perspective of centuries. Now, though, vampires are doing their part to save the world.

Coming Together: In Vein is a brand new collection of vampire-themed erotica and erotic romance edited by Lisabet Sarai. All sales of this novel-length volume support Doctors Without Borders (Médecins Sans Frontières). MSF works in nearly 70 countries providing medical aid to those most in need regardless of their race, religion, or political affiliation. Right now, despite being barred from the country, MSF doctors and nurses are in Syria, working with patients from both sides of the civil war. They're performing surgery in caves and sneaking into refugee camps to distribute desperately needed medications.

You can help MSF in its life-saving mission, simply by indulging your passion for vampires. Buy a copy of Coming Together: In Vein in ebook, Kindle format, or print. Enjoy! Then help spread the word! Every copy we sell has the potential to save someone's life.

The list of contributors includes many names you'll recognize. Every one of these authors has provided his or her work free of charge, to support the charitable aims of the project. Furthermore, the editor is giving away a free copy of her short story collection Body Electric  to everyone who buys a copy of Coming Together: In Vein. (For details of this offer, click here.)

You'll find an excerpt below – just to whet your appetite.

Sink your teeth into Coming Together: In Vein. Help our vampires save the world. 

~

From “Willing” by Xan West

I pull out my blade and show it to him. His eyes widen and he whispers, "My safeword is chocolate." I am surprised. Most who frequent the fetish scene know nothing about real BDSM. That these are the first words out of his mouth shows that there may be more to this boy than I thought. I stand still, watching him. He is older than I had first surmised, at least twenty four. The little leather he wears is well kept, his belt clearly conditioned and his boots cared for by a loving hand. He is motionless, knees slightly bent, shoulders back, offering me his chest. His pulse is not rapid, but his eyes eat up the knife and his lips are slightly parted, as if all he wanted was to take my blade down his throat.

His brown eyes stay fixed on the knife as I move toward him. I tease his lip with the tip of it and then speak softly.

"How black do you flag?"

His eyes stay on the blade. He swallows.

"Very black, on the right, Sir."

"Is there anything I need to know?"

"I am healthy and strong. My limits are animals, children, suspension and humiliation, Sir."

"And blood, hmmm?" I am teasing. I know the answer. It is why I found him here, and not at the Lure.

"Oh please, Sir. I would gladly offer my blood."

"Why?"

He takes a deep breath, closes his eyes a moment, and then opens them. The pulse in his throat starts racing, but his voice is calm, and matter-of-fact. I tease my blade against his neck.

"I have been watching you a long time, Sir. I have seen how you play. I see the beast inside you. I know what is missing. Those boys at The Lure don't know how to give you what you really need. They don't see that they are barely feeding your craving, and not touching your hunger. The boys here don't see you. They just see their own fantasy. They are simply food. I am strong, Sir. Strong enough for you. I can be yours. My blood, my flesh, my sex, my service. Yours to take however you choose, for as long as you want. To slake your hunger. I would be honored, Sir."

I take a deep breath, stunned, studying him. This boy who would offer what I never really thought was possible. He has surprised me again. That alone shows this boy is more than a meal. He just might be able to be all that he has offered.

*****

I'm a big fan of Xan West's work, so I chose this excerpt among a few really great ones.

Lisabet Sarai has me musing

Lisabet writes:

You ask:

What makes a character sexy? Is it enough that another
character desires him/her/hir, or should the reader be
seduced too?

Here are my thoughts. A character can be sexy as an object or as a
subject. The object case involves a character as the focus of some
other character's desire. We see the "sexy" character through the
second character's eyes, and find him/her attractive because (if) we
can identify with the second character.

One measure of an author's skill is his/her ability to make us
desire (or at least feel the appeal of) a character who would
not traditionally be viewed as sexy. An example that comes to
mind is a wonderful story by Robert Buckley in which
the narrator finds himself drawn to a woman who looks like a young
version of a bag lady, a nerdy, shy person whom everyone ridicules.
(I can never recall the titles of stories! But if you ask Bob,
I'm sure he'll know the one I'm talking about.) She works with him,
in the "morgue" of a newspaper, and one day he happens to catch
a glimpse of her bare abdomen as she's reaching for something on
a shelf. He finds himself fascinated by her, seduced by this
fleeting view of naked flesh.

A character is sexy as a subject when he or she feels attractive and
desirable. My novel Incognito opens with the character of
Miranda hanging around in a club, dressed in her roommate's
suggestive clothes, but not feeling in tune with her costume at
all. Everyone ignores or rejects her.

As the book progresses, she becomes more sexually open and also
more accepting of her own desires. As a result she becomes (I
hope!) a sexy character, though she was not at the start of
the novel.

The prototypical Dom character is sexy because he's sure of
himself, sure of his ability to bring his submissives to ecstasy.
Often, characters who know that they are irresistible, are.

Lisabet Sarai


KB: Lisabet also reviews erotica at Erotica Revealed. She's
written several novels (Raw Silk, Ruby's Rules) and has two collections of short stories out (Fire, and Rough Caress).

When I read this in Lisabet's answer: "One measure of an author's skill is his/her ability to make us desire (or at least feel the appeal of) a character who would not traditionally be viewed as sexy." my thoughts went to comments about the film Notes On A Scandal. Someone said, "Thank goodness the British made this movie, because Hollywood would have cast a 23-year old hunk of god flesh as the 15-year old student, and everyone would be saying, "Yeah, he was hot, totally worth the risk," but by casting someone who could look the part of agangly , pimply teen, the audience was wondering, "What the hell is she thinking," which changes the emotional
impact of the story. I like stories that make inexplicable desire interesting. (which makes me think of Lolita...)