Vivienne

Placing the blood-infused contacts into her eyes, Faye looked at Kody. “Now what?  I can see the leads and circuits.  Amazing design.”  She giggled, “I have never seen so many things on a die this small.”

Kody waved at Vivienne and Faye to move when a customer walked in. “Here to donate?”  Kody smiled when the gentleman nodded, “Good.”  They handed the man a tablet, “Fill out what you can and my assistant Dave will be with you in just a moment.” Kody watched the man take a seat on the other side of the lobby, “Miss Faye, the lenses are fueled the same way that you fuel anything else.”  Koday tilted their head to the side, making their messy hair flop again, “If you understand me.”

Faye grinned and focused a tiny bit of her blood reserve on the lenses covering her eyes and the circuits blazed to life.  She looked around and the leads scanned everything and sent the impulses straight into her mind, “This is nifty, but Kody..”  She waited for a moment as the lenses scanned the vampire behind the desk, “This isn’t anything I can’t figure out already.  I have a good guess of what everything in the room is already, down to how many beats that man's heart is doing.”

“Its usefulness comes from taking the mundane and making it relevant.”  Kody paused, “Right now you are collecting information for the cpu’s to process and store.  I gave you the newest models that I have made, they also have an update that will help you spot..”  Kody’s voice became a whisper, “The Ripped.  I managed to isolate an element that all Ripped possessed based on the few dead we have recovered.”

Faye kept scanning everything the contacts let her, “What element did you isolate?  Franco said that there was no way to detect them really.”  Giggling softly, “This is amazing.  Makes what I did at the hospital look like child’s play.”

“That was you then.”  Kody folded their arms, “I had a feeling that there was a bit of brethren in that attack.”  They pointed at the contacts, “You don’t have to worry about data corruption or storage.”  they laughed, “Antiquated.”  Whispering again, Kody leaned closer to Faye. “Blood allows the barrier into our own mind, so you are only limited by what you recall or forget.”  They leaned up and shrugged, “Don’t ask me how, I am good at infusing things, not getting the knowledge of how it works.”  Picking up the board they were working on, “I was always good with this stuff.”  Kody winked.

“Yeah, the hospital was Vivienne and myself.  She did the leg work, I only exploited her being inside.”  Faye watched the man in the lobby get escorted to the back and start getting pumped for blood. “Hey, Did Luna get the blood from you to give to Vivienne and myself?”

Kody nodded, “Sylvie is one of a kind and hard to say no to when she gets passionate about her visions.”  They shrugged again, “It was only a few bags of blood.  We bring in double that every night.”  They chuckled, “Humans like to think they are doing good and helping out, it beats hunting.”  Kody sat back down and grabbed the tool they were using and the circuit board. “I am working on a board that while infused with blood can effectively eat away wood.”

“Inventive.”  Vivienne finally spoke, “You hope to resolve the human means of a stake in the heart.”

Kody looked up, their eyes powering up and glowing white. “I can see what makes you a hunter, Doctor.  I have mentioned this to Issac and he doesn’t seem to care.  He just wants to detect and kill the Ripped.”

“There is something to be said about directly getting rid of your enemy.”  Vivienne added cooly, her blue eyes watching Kody carefully. “Consider me curious, my new friend, I must inquire as to why you are using a rather old looking board to design your newest infuser.”

Kody handed Vivienne the little circuit, “I find it is easier to develop things with more traditional components to ensure that it works like I want, then use the more rare and exotic resources when it is complete.  Miniaturization without a proper mapping is a waste and time wasted.”  Kody shrugged as Vivienne handed the board back, “If your reputation is true, then you did more than this when you stalked the others, right?”

“I would rather not impede the progress I am having in actually talking to our brethren by discussing how I once hunted.”  Vivienne remarked and walked behind Faye and began rubbing her shoulders. “My lovely tigress here has been overly excited about meeting you.”

Kody smiled for the first time in their discussion, “Faye.”  They pointed to one of the chairs, “You are more than welcome to join me here.  Perhaps we can discuss how to get this working?”  Kody pointed at the ceiling, “Doctor Moreau will be going to the council meeting soon enough and since I have no intention of attending, you and I could work on this.”

Conflicted between the offer to work on a tech project or the supple hands massaging her shoulders, Faye quietly bit her bottom lip until she finally made a decision. “Kody.”  She looked back into Vivienne’s bright blue eyes, “..Kody, I would love to help you on the project after the meeting, if that is acceptable?  I am the reason that Vivienne is here in the first place.”  Faye reached over the counter and picked up the soldering iron that was partly hidden from view and carefully placed a chip on the board and quickly sealed it perfectly in line with what Kody had been doing. “There we go.”  She winked and giggled, “Now just flash that ROM with your instructions and it should be good to go.”

Kody scratched their head for a couple seconds and snort-chuckled, “Sure, come back when you have time.”  They pointed at the solder points, “Fancy work.”  Kody added, “Crimson Muse is on the other side of this office.  Franco keeps it packed, he has about as much traffic as Livia does.”

Bowing lightly, Vivienne reached for Faye’s hand and pulled her out of the office. “Mon amour, that was the hint to let them work for a bit.”  Hearing Casey giggle, Vivienne winked at her ward. “Help me drag her out of here or we will never get to the rest of this place.”

The three started walking and passed the central staircase and to the section with a red neon sign that had ‘Crimson Muse’ in script with a fancy violet rose at the end.   When the three walked through the wide entrance, the boisterous crowd went silent as a graveyard.  Casey approached a little podium with one of Franco’s thralls standing there in complete shock. “Doctor Moreau to see Mister Tarsey please.”  Casey waited a few more seconds and then snapped her fingers in the thrall’s face. “Hi there.  See me standing here, right?”

Blinking a couple times the thrall answered Casey but never took her eyes off Vivienne, “I…I see you standing there..bu..but..”  He gulped, “...I am not really sure what to..um..do.”  

Casey laughed and tugged on her business jacket, “Maybe walk and go get Mister Tarsey?  We did just spend all day with him, so I think he’s expecting us.”

He trained his brown eyes on Casey, “Give…give…give me a minute to..to..”

When Vivienne took a couple steps forward, the man nearly fell over his own feet trying to back away. “Perhaps you can explain to me what Crimson Muse does?”  Vivienne’s French voice softly coaxed the fearful thrall. “It appears to have a great deal of cubicles.  What are they for?”  Vivienne’s blue eyes gazed down the scared thrall’s frame as he appeared to wet himself. “Dire situation, indeed.”  Vivienne pointed to the back of the large room. “Why don’t you go and get yourself cleaned up.”  She looked over to her ward, “Casey, could you kindly escort him?”

“Sure, Viv.”  Casey trudged behind the podium and grabbed the man by the arm, “Come on slick, let’s get you settled and cleaned up.”  Casey and the man headed down the center of the plush carpeted aisle and through a door labeled ‘Muse’s Only’.