A social affair and a discovery

Across town from the makeshift wedding were country club couples The Kirks and The Van Pollards. Both found themselves at a quaint piano bar earlier in the evening. The night before the Kirks were just outside the epicenter of a vampire outbreak. Their good friends transformed them and in the cacophony in the bar the next night the Van Pollards joined the growing darkness. The reason why the Van Pollards were at the bar was that nothing was occurring at the country club, and the only other high social event was a boring one at the historical society. With the group of four vampires actively seeking new blood they decided to make their way to that event.

After a quick stop-off for a change of clothes not soiled with blood and sex they drove to the historical society. Inside were 15 other guests and 4 people running the event. It was a large, open, and well-lit room. The vamps agreed with a glance towards one another that they'd have to play it cool for now. At the lectern was an older woman finishing her speech regarding the need to speed up the conversion of old microfiche to digital. She sputtered to a finish and the audience applauded loudly at the hope that the boredom might be coming to an end.
Mr. Stanhope, the president of the society, took his turn speaking, "Thank you again. This ends the discussion part of our festivities and onto the auction part. As you know, we only have a limited space for items in our museum so from time to time we'll sell off some of the less significant items for fundraising. That is not to say these are not historical or legitimate. In fact, we hope that will entice you to take these objects home. Let's start with this early 19th century washing board."
Slowly, items were being bid on. The Van Pollards and Will Kirk stayed in their seats, while Michelle Kirk made her way outside. There were puffs of smoke around the corner of the building. She followed the trail of smoke to see another member of the country club, Dean Waldren. He was a man in fairly good shape for someone in his fifties. She wasn't surprised that he was out here leaving his wife inside. Even when she was human she had no trouble calling Dean's wife a "dumb frigid bitch".
"Got a light?" she asked as she took a loose cigarette that was sticking out from his jacket pocket.
Amused by her boldness, Dean pulled out his lighter from his other pocket and lit the stolen cigarette in Michelle's mouth.
She took a deep drag and let out a satisfied exhale. Angelique tended to smoke more as a teenager and only occasionally as an adult.
"Dreadful show," he remarked.
"Your wife made you come?"
"Affirmative. They say, 'Happy wife. Happy life. which is why I have neither. Still one has to try, correct?"
"Does 'one'? I'm of the opinion that a happy wife comes from already having a happy life."
"And do you have some, er, method to grant me a happy life?"
Michelle took one last drag from the cigarette and then threw it to the pavement and crushed it with her high heel. She strutted to Dean's Lexus and knew he'd follow behind.

Back at the bar, a patrolman drove Ursula, Anthony, and Sophia to their bar. The patrolman needed to get back to the station as the next patrolwoman was set to relieve him, and he wanted to make sure he got back in time to make sure she was "with the program".
As they were walking in Sophia heard her phone ping.
"Hey, Missy eloped!"
Sophia showed the photos Becky sent her to her parents. They were of the honeymoon in her rental home with all four ladies enjoying the night to the [fullest.

In](http://fullest.In) the back of Dean's luxury automobile Michelle was naked on top of Dean as he was on the back seat. She was bobbing up and down doing most of the work. He lasted only a few minutes, reasonable considering how long it had been since he was with his own wife. He relaxed to regain his strength, but Michelle would not wait. She rapidly lunged down and put a vice grip with her fangs into his neck. Not long after with the blood drained, Michelle jerked her body back up and tilted her head back to feel the warm blood flow down her throat.

Back in the historical society the three vampires inside at once felt a sensation. It was like the mental version of an out-of-tune hum. Each turned to the other to try and find its source. They looked at what was being auctioned at the moment, a coat rack, and they knew it wasn't that. They did notice that someone had brought up what would be the next item for auction. It was just a 2-foot candle, used at least once. Nothing stood out about it at first glance.[
](http://glance.In)In walked Michelle, dressed once again and wiping her mouth with a tissue to make sure she didn't look suspicious. She sat down next to her husband as the auction continued on.
Michelle leaned close to her husband, Will, and whispered, "I made Dean promise you'd have a turn with his wife before they left."
"That'll have to wait."
"What's going on?"
"Don't you feel it?"
Michelle took a second to cancel out the droning of the auctioneer, and then it clicked. "I do feel it. What is it?"
"We don't know yet."
Dean Waldren stood at the doorway, clothed as if nothing happened. He used a beckoning motion to have his wife come over. She reluctantly did. Dean then looked to Will to see if he was coming to join him and his wife in the second adventure in his car. Will waved them off and the two left.
"Our next item appears to be a baptismal candle," the auctioneer continued unknowing of the schemes surrounding him, "It's handmade and its date of creation is unknown. We believe it was made around the time of the town's founding."
Once the candle was in full view of the audience what caused the strange feeling in the vampire was clear: It had the same insignia as the vampire wine.
"I'll start the bidding at $10."
"10 dollars!" Ford Van Pollard quickly shouted.
"10, do I hear 15"
"15," said a voice in the back. A 15 dollar bid on an old candle would never draw any attention, but here all four vamps turned lightning fast to see who was bidding against them. It was Carter Shipbottom, the richest and most religious man in town. He owned the country club and the golf course that hosted a professional event each year. The bidding continued. The vampires knew from their dealings with him that he'd take up any excuse to display his wealth.
When Ford upped the bid from $250 to $500, the auctioneer stepped in, "Mr. Van Pollard, you did come in late so you may not be aware that this is strictly a cash only event. Do you have that kind of money on you?" The Van Pollards and Kirks quickly pooled what currency they had available, but as the kind to use their credit cards for everything they couldn't reach even 200 dollars. As the candle was handed to Carter it took every ounce of restraint from the four to do and say nothing. When all the items were sold, they walked to their cars. Before they could make it outside, Carter told Ford, "No hard feelings, right?"
"R-right."

After some very extended schmoozing with the other attendees Carter drove back to his mansion in the dark of the night. He parked in his massive driveway and opened his driver's side door. Several hands grabbed him and pulled him out of the car. They dragged him into a nearby wooden area making sure to muffle his screams. Once they were deep enough in with no one in earshot they tossed him to the ground. He got up and saw he was surrounded. Surrounded by his acquaintances, the Kirks and Van Pollards.
"Is this about--" Carter began to ask before a fist cracked open his jaw. Other blows came from all directions and within seconds he was back on the ground. He begged for mercy, and when it was clear he wouldn't be able to get up the kicks and punches became clawings and gnashing of fangs. Since the vampire wine was introduced in the town the vampires all possessed an eerie calmness between satiating their desires for blood and sex. At no point was there a hint of anger. Even when Sophia accidentally dusted Dominic there was no anger. But this was different. They had the candle back. They could have turned him to their cause like they had so many others. Yet they needed to hurt him for even briefly denying them one of the vampire relics. He was slashed and torn to pieces. The bites were not just to suck blood but to maul him, to rend him limb from limb. It wasn't long before Will stood up and looked at the candle they had retrieved then at the mutilation they had done. The others scoped around with their mouths looking for the last bloody bits to consume. All was right again, will thought. He had no idea what the candle was or what it could do. Still he was confident that this too would be revealed.