NOVEL SIMPLE Chapter 4: Fate, Faye and the Flying Cannibals – Part Ten
Casey stood frozen as she watched her mistress take off in a blur out of Drake’s room carrying her injured companion and the band leader as if it was a normal thing. It took a beam from overhead crashing on the floor doused in fire to shake the ward from thinking of her mistress’s crystalline and lustrous blue eyes. -The plan!- Casey reflected in her mind for a brief moment, and took off down the hallway towards the stairs. She reached the door and pulled it open and stopped. “Oh, forgot!” She exclaimed to no one. “Alright, slow down Rivers. You need a phone.” Taking a few seconds to rifle through the myriad of discarded and bloody phones, Casey found a working one and bounded down the stairs until she reached the fifth floor.
She pressed the button on the side of the phone and watched as it auto dialed and the operator came over clearly. “911 Emergency response, how can I help you?” Casey did the best she could to sound panicked, “Y..yes I am .. I think it’s called Ocean Lilly something? I..” She screamed loudly then went back to the phone. “..Oh my god, oh my god…”
“Ma’am? Talk to me, can you get somewhere safe?”
“That wall!” She breathed heavily into the phone, “Burning and nearly fell on me.”
“Ma’am focus on my voice, We can calmly get you out. I assure you EMS is on the way, we know the building is on fire.”
Casey looked down the stairwell of the five flights. -Alright, Rivers. It’s all or none.- The ward leapt off over the rail and free fell to the lower floor screaming the entire time. Once the auburn haired woman landed and absorbed the impact the best she could, she crushed the phone ending the conversation with the emergency operator. “Just like screaming for a roller-coaster. Now then, let’s see what we can do now.”
Looking around and finding debris already forming in the stairwell, she picked up pieces of the cement blocks and crushed them into powder, rubbing it in her frayed hair and all over her face giving her the look of a withered survivor. “Shit.” She felt the crossbow and the various stakes she had made on her person. “Sorry, Viv. These have to go.”
Opening the door from the stairwell into the main lobby she quickly sprinted to a hotspot engulfed in flame, and tossed the weapons. “Eh, It was fun while it lasted.” grabbing a small charred beam Casey pinned herself back in the stairwell. “A little of this in the hair and on the skin..” She smiled while covering herself in soot, “Now we need one more thing.” Looking up, the ward went up one flight of stairs, pulled out one of the metal railings and started banging on the floor with all her strength. As she heard the sirens of the fire department show up, the floor gave way from the burning and beating, dropping her back to the main floor, covering her in shards of rebar and concrete that shattered. She bit on her lower lip a moment and looked at her mostly unmarred skin. “Almost. Okay, this is going to hurt.” She half laughs and starts hitting herself with a chunk of broken rock to create injuries. Tasting her own blood, the ward stopped and tossed the rock on the ground and laid down. “Okay, come get me.”
Vivienne had the gas pedal pressed to the floor and the sedan’s engine straining under the speed that the vampire pushed it in the effort to get to her home. She weaved in and out of traffic, moving with her enhanced reaction well over one hundred miles per hour. “I heard everything you and your band-mates discussed. Even your stupid plan.” She swerved to avoid a small truck. “So, deliver your message. You mentioned that the others wanted to meet with me? I thought I made it clear that I don’t want anything to do with some council or perception of vampire command structure.” She looked over to the motionless vampire for a moment as she turned onto the long stretch of road towards her home.
Drake’s eyes raged over with blood pooling in their rims. “You know if I could move I would dig my fangs right in your neck and end this whole charade. Fuck you. I am not saying a word unless you take this fucking stake out.”
“You said it before. You were sent to find me, enough with the threats that you and I both know you cannot fulfill. Deliver your message.”
“Will you let me live?”
“You know the answer to that, Drake. I gave you your chance to live. You even came out here to my city and made yourself a nuisance. You got my attention in the worst way possible.” Vivienne turned onto Midnight Crescent lane. “No. You die, it is that simple. If for no other reason, that I find you disgusting to be in presence of.” She pulled into the garage for her home and grabbed the band leader by the hair, dragging him out of the vehicle, then lifting Faye from the backseat. “What you tell me will decide if all the other members of the council die as well.”
Vivienne glanced down at Faye, quickly assessing her wounds. She raced inside her house, to her unused kitchen, tossing Drake like a sack of potatoes into a far corner. Placing Faye on the huge table, she yanked away the bloody rags that Faye had on and felt over the length of her body. “It is a miracle that you have made it this long.” She gave a worried yet admirable smile. “You have a strong will to survive, my dear.”
Drake started cackling in the background. “At least I die knowing I fucked you over. We both lost tonight, Raven.”
Knowing that the wounds on her Korean lady were too numerous, Vivienne sprinted out of the room, returning with a bag of blood and a large needle. The doctor started the transfusion, squeezing the blood into Faye’s arm. “That should give you enough blood for the time being.”
“Nothing you can do, bitch. I did that on purpose, you morose cunt.”
Ignoring the taunts from the band leader, Vivienne watched the blood start pouring out of Faye as if a sprinkler had started. She leaned down and heard Faye’s heart slowly beating. “There we go, hang in there. I hate to do this, my love. I have to know though.” Vivienne raised her hand to use the needle and noticed that her normally dead steady hand was shaking.
“Fear is a bitch isn’t it..Viv..” Drake kept laughing. “Let me just add this. I. Liked. Her. Blood. Even took it right from her cunt. She was really sweet. I can still taste it. She even came for me.”
The ancient vampire brought her hand down and looked for a moment, toning out the diabolical laugh of her prisoner. -This is not fear. You know what this is. Unlike the other careless mistakes over the last few days, this takes precision. So stop shaking.- Her will taking control of her body, Vivienne’s hand stopped its twitching. Up and down, the needle swung and hit Faye squarely in her chest. Pointed and true, the needle pierced the Korean woman’s skin and into her barely beating heart. Depressing the plunger, Vivienne had to wait a split second before Faye’s eyes flashed open.
Seizing the moment, Vivienne cupped Faye’s cheeks in her cold dead hands. Her blue eyes welling up with blood, “Faye, I only have moments. The epinephrine has a very short span. I am so sorry I left you. I never meant…” She shook away the bloody tears. “I don’t have the time to save you.” She ran her hands over Faye’s shoulders and back to her cheeks. “I got there too late, my love. I can’t patch you up and make you whole again.” Her French accent breaks a moment. “I have to do something drastic. While you still have precious blood in your body, I need to know if you want to live..my darling. No matter the cost. If I do this, you and I will be connected forever. I never wanted this for you..It's the only thing I have left.”
Spitting up blood trying to breathe, Faye coughed out a few words and shook her head up and down. “Y-yes. The chance to..” blood flowed from her lips, “...be with…” She weakly whispered, fluttering her eyes a moment. “..love..you..” Faye kept nodding and trying to focus -Keep breathing.- Her mind openly screamed. Knowing that her body was broken and bleeding, Faye kept breathing the best she could, the only thing that kept the door of death at bay, a set of luminous crystal blue eyes.
Vivienne laid her head on Faye’s chest and listened to Faye’s heart beating. The soft and gentle sound of her life slipping away. Pressing her hand on her chest one final time she turned Faye so that the weak pulse in her neck was exposed. “If there was any other option, Faye.” She wiped away her crimson tears, locked her fangs in place and plunged them deep and true into the artery, drawing out what was necessary.
-Oh, my!- Vivienne internally shouted as she swallowed the first pull of Faye’s force into her. Something was there, something more than human nourishment. More than giving her body the means to function. -Vivienne. You can taste love.- She pulled the second mouthful and held it on her tongue, once more the plasma radiated with more than just what she’d come to expect. There was the sweet and sticky iron flavor that everyone had, then there was the sensation of melting chocolate on her tongue. Seconds ticking away, Vivienne struggled with the taste that suddenly clouded her mind. -Rejuvenating, immortal.- Coming to her in a rush, the taste on her tongue certainly seemed pure and almost as if she’d ripped open a newly discovered fruit and become doused in its juices. -Ponder it later!- Holding the arterial fluid safely in her lips, leaned over and kissed Faye, biting her own lip. The mixture of the dead and living flowed like thin syrup between the two women.
The shadow of death loomed in Faye’s mind. The ever present idea of peace clouding her will to keep breathing. She felt pressure, her Vivienne kissing her. Breathing as deep as she could, Faye pressed back into the kiss with all the strength she could find. -If this is it..let me make this perfect.- She begged her mind enough so her broken arms moved to embrace the woman she loved. -Blood?- Her mind raced, feeling the thick rusty liquid being pushed down her throat. -Keep Bre…- Faye drew her last breath, her mind satisfied with the one tender moment she shared with -Her Vivienne.- The breath slowly pushed from her lungs, the blood stopped pulsing from her wounds and her arms crashed to the table.
Dead.