Vivienne

Huddled in a quiet corner of the rooftop, Vivienne finally felt Faye finally suckling her blood from the open wound on her wrist. “Slowly, mon amour.  You have substantial damage to your body.”  The doctor in Vivienne took over and she scanned the welts and open sores where the holy water had made contact with Faye’s skin. “My love, you should be fine.  A bit sore and a few scars, but nothing permanent.”  Counting to eight, Vivienne pulled her wrist free and licked the fang holes closed.

Faye grumbled and started moving slowly. “I feel like I got hit by a brick.”  She looked at the holes in her shoulders and dedicated some of the blood Vivienne had nourished her with to repairing the damage. “You have to save them, if you can Vivienne.”  She pointed to the mist rising from the hole in the roof. “I also have to get the hell off this roof.”

Spotting the final moments of the battle between Brian and Casey, Vivienne pointed below. “I’ll go back inside and see if I can save anyone.  Casey needs your help.  I will meet you down there when I finish my search.”

Faye groaned and reluctantly stood up then spotted Casey trapped between the earth golems. “What the hell can I do against that?”

Vivienne’s battle mind seemed to come to life in that instant.  A rush of events unfolded in her mind, as she put all the pieces that she’d missed before into a puzzle that now made sense. “The detours, the trucks..”  She pointed at the four approaches to Phantasmagoria. “Perfectly planned.”  She thought about the note from Franco. “They even knew when we’d be here.”  Threads that didn’t seem to make sense suddenly burned from her blue eyes. “They are coordinated.”

Faye watched as Vivienne seemed to go into a light trance pointing out all of the factors that led to the current chaos.  After noting that her wounds had stopped bleeding, Faye flexed her neck and arms in the effort to shake off the pain she was in. “Keep talking.  What should I expect?”  She pointed to Brian.

“Just break his concentration.  Watch his hand, wherever it goes the magic flows.”  Vivienne spotted a pair of hazy muddy-yellow eyes a block away. “I see you there.”

“See what?”  Faye slowly turned and spotted the tiny orbs of light. “Ohh…”  

Vivienne heard the wail of sirens coming from all sides of the city. “This was to get my attention, Faye.  If we are going to find out more we have to capture the ones left.  You try to get Brian.”  Vivienne dashed back down the hole of the roof and out of sight.

“Okay, Brian.  Let’s see what I can do about distracting you.”  Faye crawled down the darkside of the building and headed into the night.

The Darla pulled out the small doll tethered together by the fine wire and reinforced silk thread in her hand. “I see you too, darling.”  Denise looked at the doll once more and shook her head. “No.  Now isn’t the time.”  Shoving the doll back in her parka pocket, The Darla spotted a couple more fleeing people running away from the building. “More.”  Lashing out with her twisted black and green magic, the people froze and were wrapped like the others. “I knew I would see you again, my love.”  Denise whispered to herself as the red pulses from her last two victims pulsed into her. “Just as I remembered you.”  Denise felt the twinge of excitement flutter in her belly when explosions erupted from all directions.  Tapping her bluetooth earbud to activate it, The wicked voice of The Darla warned her companions. “Captain Mattson.  I do hope that you and Captain Kino are headed out.  Your time is up.”  She paused for a moment and caught another screaming person in her tendrils. “Captain Jonah, the portal will be up in a couple minutes, get a move on.”

Captain Kino broke through over the coms, “I am knee deep in thralls, I can’t move.”  She swung her charged nightstick in a wide arc hitting a couple in front of her. “Get me the fuck out of here.  The mist is lifting. I won't have cover much longer.”

The Darla sighed, “Control yourself Captain Kino.  If you are stepping in water, get clear fast.”  The Darla focused her magic on the power lines leading into the building and sent thick strands from the transformer to the puddles of water closest to her lady captain.  A loud crack and screams of agony came from the building as the power went out and doused the area in complete darkness. “Your way should be clear, Anglie.”

“Fucking beautiful, that was amazing Loved One.”  Captain Kino laughed and saw her way clear to the abandoned house. “I am the only one from my squad left though, sorry I failed.”

“We will assess when we get back to the farm, you performed well..”  The Darla released the magic from the wires. “...Don’t worry about the others right now, they all knew what could happen.”

Raollet stopped moving when the lights went out. “Fuck.”  The old farmer adjusted his baseball cap once more and pressed his hand to his broken ribs.  Passing by the empty theater, he picked up a piece of broken wood from the ornate bar that had been splintered somehow. “Nice.  Nothing like vampires giving you the weapon you need,”  he chuckled and winced.  Making his way to the side exit closest to where Brian, Raollet caught a swift whiff of chai and blood before he held up the makeshift stake. “Blue eyes, I bet that is you.”  Squatting and peeking from behind the door, Captain Mattson watched the black-pink haired vampire dart and weave between the barbs that Brian had crafted for his own defense. “You are resilient, Ashburn..I will give you that.”  Looking at the shaft of wood in his hand, Raollet knew that his broken piece of wood was unbalanced and slightly curved.  Turning away so that his magic use wouldn’t be immediately seen by the Korean vampire, Captain Mattson focused his magic to reconstruct the shaft in his hand.  Imagining bent reeds at first, the hard wood resisted the force for a couple seconds then against its nature, straightened out with a few strained moans like a stiff wind were bending it.  Swirling his lime green rune over the top of the shaft, Raollet peeled away layer after layer of the stick and honed it like a pencil. “Perfect.”  Crawling back to his hidden location, Captain Mattson seemed to catch the situation at the perfect moment.

Faye groaned and weaved between the branches, breaking them as they attempted to stab at her chest. “I did not sign up for this.”  Feeling the tigress within her swell up and take control, Faye’s exposed skin broke out in black stripes of camouflage.  Agility being her best friend, Faye danced and clawed her way to the top of Brian’s pedestal.  Digging her claws firmly into the densely packed dirt, Faye reached out and grabbed Brian by the neck. “Kindly let Casey free, I would hate to hurt…”

 Captain Mattson had come to realize that the short haired vampire didn’t hear his presence due to all of the commotion going on around her.  Raollet stood up and hefted his magical spear and threw it with all the strength he had in his arm.  When the shaft left his fingers, He called his magic to aid in the trajectory and the spear landed true, piercing Faye through the back and protruding through her chest. “Gotcha!”  Raollet watched as Brian’s magic failed and the two came tumbling down from the pillar of dirt that had vanished. “Brian…Brian….”  Raollet rushed over to the young mage. “We have to get out of here.”

Faye lay helpless and covered in dirt.  Unable to move she merely looked at the tall man with the baseball cap. “Why?”  She coughed up blood. “I was only trying to stop him from hurting..C..Casey.”

Raollet helped Brian to his feet and ignored Faye, “Hey sport..shake it off.” Raollet pointed to Casey. “She’s free though…can you..”  Captain Mattson patted Brian on the back when he watched the girl start sinking into the ground. “Mud and quicksand.  I love it.”  He tugged on Brian’s frayed shirt, “Get that one and let's get out of here.”