Vivienne

Drake had brought the Flying Cannibals to this part of the beach for the week, by the request of an elder vampire within the council.  Lately the council had been dealing with a huge break in the veil and the results were not going well for the vampires within the break.  Drake had seen firsthand how some of the battles were going and graciously volunteered to come out here to get away from the fighting.  Only after the troupe was on the road and driving towards the beach, did the singer open the letter given to him by the elder vampire, Franco Tarsy.

Recalling the contents of the letter, Drake once again muttered to himself like he did at first. “Fuck.  I knew this was too good to be true.” He pulled on his stringy black hair for a moment. “You know, had I known you wanted me to find her before I started bringing the troupe out here I would have told you to get fucked.” He took a breath and looked over his bored progeny and smiled.

When the Cannibals reached the city, Drake could tell from the lack of missing person leaflets and how the police casually patrolled, the place was ripe to pick clean.  The concerts provided even more opportunity for the troupe to feed and be well nourished for the next part of Drake’s plan, which was to capture the Raven. “You said bring her, so I am.” The singer whispered and sat up in his makeshift throne. “Alright, we have made an absolute mess of things here, haven’t we Cannibals!”  He heard the others start howling in agreement. “Alright, get all the blood you can, I suspect we will have company soon.”

“Dude, what the fuck are you talking about?  We leave tonight, lets just burn this place now and get the fuck out of here.”

“We have one more thing to do and it's for the council.”

“You always say fuck the council. Why are we..”

Drake held up his hand to his ear. “Did you hear that?  Sounds like the fire door just ripped open.  Get someone down there, now!”

The singer listened closely as a few of his vampires reached the broken entrance. “Drake, we have..oh fuck me…” Was the last thing beyond the sound what he thought was a bow of some kind being fired.

“What is going on down there?  I thought for sure she’d come in directly like she did before.”

Drake jumped as he heard screams of his troupe coming from a closer room.  Grabbing a long wooden stake the size of a two-by-four, the scared leader stood up from his bloody chair.  A moment later the singer almost lost his nerve as he watched the body parts of his younger vampires splatter against what was left of the walls in his room.  When one of his newest younglings' head rolled to a stop at his feet, his other older companions looked at him.

“What the hell is going on Drake?  What didn’t you tell us, you prick?”

“I have to bring the Raven back to the council.”

The four older members of the band stared at their leader in disbelief. “I thought that was a horror story to keep us in line.” One of the band members mentioned.

“No, she’s very real.”  He managed to state as another two fledglings cried out from the distance.  Drake forced his fear down in the attempt to regain some control of the situation.  “Thralls and younglings, back off and wait for my signal.  Do not try and take this creature down, you can’t.”  The screams continued and Drake turned to his second in command who was about as old as he was. “You have the holy water I asked for?”

Knowing that music kept her focused, Casey put in one of her earbuds and started playing a song by R.E.M called “End of the world as we know it.”  Walking to the fire door, the ward pulled on the steel until the locks buckled and allowed her to enter.  She’d taken ten steps into the hallway when two vampires came around a corner in a blur.  Raising the crossbow, she aimed as she was taught and the big dart hit one square in the chest dropping her like a stone.  Stunned by the sudden loss of his companion, the other vampire started screaming, “Drake!  We have, Oh fuck me..”  was all the vampire managed to say before another bolt hit him in the chest as well.  Casey walked up to the twin corpses, “Viv, that is two down.  Want me to just leave them with the bolts in their chests?”

“Cut off their heads and burn them before removing the bolts.”  

Lacking any true means to behead the twin vampires, the ward resolved to just burn the two and pull the bolts as the bodies burned.  Igniting the girl vampire's clothing, Casey stood by as the flames consumed the clothing as kindling and the flesh of the undead creature caught fire, burning blue-gray as the flesh fell off.  What she didn’t expect was the horrific scream the young vampire let out as its flesh and bones were reduced to ash.  Pulling out her phone and turning up the music in her ear, Casey drowned out the begging and pleading the girl vampire screeched while also coughing up the blueish blood from her victims.

“You didn’t behead her did you, Casey.” still amazed she could hear her mistress through the commotion of going on in the hotel, the charmed ward answered. “No, I lacked any means to do it.  I am waiting until its heart burns before I remove the bolt.  Will that work?”

“Yes.  Beheading them is the best way to prevent my brethren from regenerating, other than unrecoverable damage.  It also keeps them from screaming like she is.  Fortunately, this works to our advantage.  Fear is always a great motivator.”  

“I am looking at two piles of ash here Viv, it is a little creepy.”  Casey reflected as she pulled the fire door closed to keep the illusion that the building was safe. “Confused is more like it. Like, why am I not sitting here crying that I killed two people?”

“Casey.  Clear your thoughts.  Find Faye, you are a hunter among hunters.  You will succeed.”

The ward’s mind cleared of all doubt and felt her resolve turn to iron. “Yes. I will find Faye, I will succeed.”  Making her way to the lobby, Casey found the area empty.  The ward had seen the other vampires there earlier so she knew that the two guarding the door had to be close by.  Turning just as her peripheral vision noticed what appeared to be a cold breath, the vampire materialized and knocked the crossbow from Casey’s hand, and in the second swing sent the ward through the front desk with a punch to her gut.  Seeing the other vampire jump on top of what remained of the wooden structure, Casey fought back the pain from her ribs and back and grabbed a thick piece of wood as the vampire jumped at her.  Once more, her aim hit true, and the wood shard from the desk dropped the creature like the others in the hallway.  Exposing his fangs, the remaining youngling crept over to the blonde, picking her up by the roots of her hair. “Stupid little girl.”  He clamped his other hand around her neck. “Drake, I have this bitch down here.  Smells like a ward of some kind, what do you want me to do with her?”

“I have much bigger problems up here.”  Drake squawked to his underling. “Do what you want, just make sure she can’t do anything else.”

He turned and saw Casey’s luscious brown eyes, and started unbuckling his pants. “I have a great idea for you.”

 Frantically, she reached for another scrap of the desk, pulling it free while the vampire was busy getting his pants off.  Casey’s music changed and she heard the older lyrics of Bon Jovi as he announced in her ear “Shot through the heart and you’re to blame, you give love a bad name.” Jamming the stake squarely in his skinny chest, she hit the floor in a hard thump.  Crawling over to her crossbow she sat on the floor a moment to assess how hurt she was.  Feeling her ribs slowly setting in place, the wounded ward stood back up with a small wince and burned the other two corpses, this time relishing the bloody screams the two let out as they laid locked in place becoming ash.