Vivienne

-You are slipping, old lady.-  Vivienne heard her dark voice taunting her. -Docile.  I have made you complacent- Vivienne took a deep breath and shoved her familiar voice to the back of her mind. “Faye, darling.  You caught the note and the missing soil.  Casey and I both smelled the coffee.”  She pointed to her progeny. “You must have part of my gifts, mon amour.”  She walked over and picked up the letter, “I am sure you linked this together when you saw the note.”

Faye shrugged and stood beside Vivienne. “I have a theory, yes.”  Faye kissed Vivienne on the cheek. “The band comes here with a note to find you, The others have a new puzzle, all hell breaks loose around the city, and now something has been in the house.  Could have removed the dirt, certainly read the note.”  

Vivienne’s blue eyes twinkled, “Whoever it is, knows we are coming.”

“More specifically, they know that you are coming.”  Faye smiled. “Trap maybe?”

Vivienne looked at the clock on her phone, “I should kill every last one of them.”  She stood up and headed for the stairs. “Our ride should be outside, we will be in Petersburg shortly.”

“Wait..”  Faye followed Vivienne downstairs and out of the front door. “What do you mean you should kill every last one of them?”  Faye’s green eyes widened when she saw the limousine. “A limo.”

Vivienne held out her hand. “Stage one of the journey.”

Faye took Vivienne’s hand for a few seconds and breezed past her, nodding to the chauffeur. “There’s a stage two?”  Faye sat down on the black leather seat and straightened her dress once more. “You didn’t answer the question, as usual.”

“The second and third parts are all part of the experience, mon amour.”  Vivienne winked as she sat beside her partner and looked into Faye’s green eyes. “Are you hungry, mon amour?”

Faye shook her head, “I am fine for now.”  She folded her arms, “Answer, please.”

“Oh, very well.”  Vivienne winked, “Since you insist.”  Vivienne pointed to the crystal container in front of them. “That is flavored for us, mon amour.  Just in case.”  She winked and saw the unwavering look in Faye’s eyes. “I said I should kill them all.  It would resolve everything at once.  No vampires, no puzzle to solve.”  Vivienne curled her fingers and picked at her nails. “You and I can disappear and never have to worry about the puzzle.”  Vivienne smiled and opened the decanter. “Ah, bourbon.”

“Hypocrite.” Faye uttered defiantly.

“Excuse me?”  Vivienne raised her eyebrow and faced Faye. “Interesting.  I didn’t expect this.”  Vivienne shrugged and poured herself a glass of the blood infused bourbon. “I knew we would eventually have opposing views on subjects, but…”  Vivienne held up her finger while she sipped her drink. “...I didn’t foresee this while we were still…new…to each other.”

Faye looked out of her window and the city lights passed by. “You don’t get it do you?”  Faye shook her head lightly. “You have been solitary so long that you don’t see it.”

Vivienne tipped her glass and devoured the contents. “See what?  A way for you and I to live in peace?”

“No.”  Faye rested her chin in her hand as she kept gazing out of the window. “You don’t want them to decide your fate or tell you what to do, but you are perfectly happy deciding their fate.” Faye looked over, “What you have created isn’t peace, it's fear.”  Faye poured herself a drink. “Vivienne, did you ever stop to ask yourself why you wanted to be alone?”  Faye tasted her drink and smiled. “I could get used to this.”

Blinking a few times and swishing the drink in her glass, Vivienne pondered what Faye told her. “Faye.”  Vivienne stopped and refilled her glass. “Three millennia and didn’t stop long enough to think about too much.”  She shrugged. “I don’t regret any of it.”  Vivienne put her glass down and grasped Faye’s hand. “I told you that we both hunted our brethren for our first taste of blood.  What I didn’t tell you was that I..”  She pulled Faye’s hand to her lips, kissing it lightly. “...I enjoyed it.”  Vivienne’s fangs clicked into place and her blue eyes radiated with a light ring of red, “What can I say to you that will convey what it was all about?  Was it vengeance? Was it hate for the others?  Was it the life stolen from me?”  Vivienne shook her head. “No, mon amour.  Those answers would be too easy and make you think that I was filling some justified path.”  Vivienne flicked her tongue over her fangs. “Desire.  Desire to hunt.  The thrill of the hunt.  I am or was a hunter.”  Vivienne’s eyes swirled red and blue, creating an eerie royal purple. “That was what consumed me. The next hunt, the next challenge.” Vivienne’s nails curved into the wicked talons of The Raven. “Every hunt brought me closer to the top.  Apex.  Alpha.”  Vivienne took a deep breath and closed her eyes. “I did that for over three thousand years.  Driven desire to hunt the best and kill the beast.”  Vivienne’s claws disappeared and her fangs retracted. “My last hunt…”  Vivienne opened her crystal soft blue eyes and kissed Faye’s cheek. “...was no challenge.  I hunted the one who made me.  Half driven insane from his darkness, He thanked me when I killed him.”  Vivienne reached for her drink, “His name was Caleb.”

Faye set her glass down and turned in the seat to face Vivienne. “Thank you for telling me.”  Faye gently kissed Vivienne’s hand, “I still love you and am still in love with my huntress.”  Faye paused. “I know that took heaps to tell me.”

“Thank you, mon amour.”  Smiling when her progeny kissed her hand, Vivienne sighed lightly. “Oddly, it feels like stones have lifted from my chest.”

Faye started giggling wildly and hugged Vivienne. “Never change.”  She kept laughing. “You know the expression goes ‘a weight’ has been lifted.”  Faye kissed Vivienne’s long neck before pulling away. “I get it.  Like the old lady you are, you retired.”

Rolling her blue eyes, Vivienne sat back in her seat and enjoyed her drink once more. “When they established the veil, I didn’t want anything to do with it.”

“You told me.”  Faye shrugged and smiled again. “You know, for not wanting to participate in the veil, you just spent the last few nights enforcing it.”  Faye winked and tapped her head.

Vivienne closed her eyes and shook her head. “Alas, the pupil is the teacher.  I suppose I did enforce it.”  Pointing out of the window, Vivienne added, “We are arriving at our destination.”

“The airport?”  Faye laughed. “Why are we taking a jet?”

Avoiding the comment until the limousine came to a stop, Vivienne smiled. “Listen.” 

Faye heard the soft warbling of blades to her right.  She’d just turned to look out of the window when the door opened and the chauffeur greeted the couple. “Madam Park.”  The driver offered his hand and Faye stepped out onto a deep burgundy carpet.  Faye took a couple steps on the plush carpet and heard the driver, “Doctor Moreau.”  Faye watched him kiss Vivienne’s hand gently. “It was my pleasure, is there anything else I can get you this evening?”

One shiny boot at a time, Vivienne emerged from the luxury vehicle.  With swan-like grace, she took a matching step and offered her arm to Faye. “My helicopter.”  Vivienne nodded to her driver, “Thank you for your service, that is all we will require this evening.”

Faye followed the carpet with her eyes right up to the magnificent machine before her. “You have got to be kidding me.”  

With a wink and a smile, Vivienne kept walking the long carpet to where the side doors were open on the airbus. “What do you think of ‘Nightingale’ mon amour?”  Vivienne asked as they approached two gentlemen waiting to help them onto the helicopter.

Faye took a quick look over the giant machine.  Painted deep blue and covered in stars that formed the constellation Orion, Faye shook her head. “I shouldn’t be surprised, The hunter.”  Faye took one of the gentleman’s hands and lifted her dress so she could easily clear the steps inside. “Careful, I might get to know you.”  She winked and waited for Vivienne.

Vivienne slightly bowed and took the other man’s hand and stepped into the helicopter. “Of course, Orion.  I thought it fit well.”