Sylvie

Quickly taking down the last man in her clutches, Sylvie licked her lips free of his blood once his body turned to ash. “Unlike your former employer who ate anything she wanted to, I have always thought that vampire blood could be addictive.”  Walking out of the shadows, Sylvie picked up the cash on the sidewalk which amounted to about fifteen-hundred dollars. “It’s just a theory of my own.  I mean it’s one thing to use it while in heated passion, because that isn’t feeding.  That is used for bonding.”

“I get it.”  Casey whispered as she pounced on the second lookout who was half asleep.  Dragging the man to the roof like the other, this man managed to pull his pistol from his waist and fire a shot backwards.  Moving faster than the guy’s trigger finger, Casey twisted away from the muzzle of the pistol and grabbed the man’s wrist, shattering it instantly. “Tisk. Tisk.  Bad boys with guns.”  Casey watched as the gun skittered off the roof and landed in the grass. “Poor boy, this will be over soon enough.  Count to twenty.”  Casey bit into the guy's neck and relished the blood as it cooled her throat and empowered her body a little more than it was prior to the moment.  Moments later, Casey watched the little dust-like bits of her last meal go floating off into the distance. “Oh, I feel sort of sloshy.”  Casey laid back on the rooftop and held her stomach. “I guess I am a wimp.”  She giggled, “I only took down a couple guys and here I am ready to pretend to sleep.”  Lifting up her head, Casey spotted Sylvie moving to the front apartment rooftop, “Still in a haze?”

“No, just hungry.  The easy picks are gone.  Now we have to wait it out.”  Sylvie hunched down and sighed.

Getting Sylvie’s attention, Casey pointed to an older-looking sports car with two guys sitting in it doing almost nothing. “Wait for what?  That’s a couple of dealers in that car.”  Casey laughed, “They are stoned out of their minds, I mean the car looks full of smoke.”  Casey shook her head, “Look at it this way you could be a little stoned as well thanks to their blood.  Makes it easier to deal with Alan when we go back.”

“That’s true.”  Sylvie snorted and agreed with her progeny. “You want one?  We can both go back high as kites.”

“Assuming it’s just pot they have.”  Casey laughed and leapt from the roof, and landed where the pistol hit the ground.  Taking the time to crush the gun into uselessness, Casey tossed the fragments into the woods and walked around the parking lot until she saw the car.  Taking a second to smell the air and focus on the two men, Casey nodded. “It’s just weed, thankfully.”

“So are you joining in or am I going to be alone in this?”  Sylvie asked as she silently approached the car.

Casey was just about to answer when she noticed an elderly woman walking up to her with what looked like a tray of cupcakes. “Sylvie, can you hold off a few seconds?  Can you see what’s happening here?”

“I see her, are those cupcakes?”  Sylvie inquired and backed into the shadows so that the two men in the car couldn’t spot her.

Walking to meet the woman in the center of the lot, Casey bowed. “Hi there.”

Swishing her long gray hair behind her, the old woman showed various marks on her neck that were clearly old wounds from vampire bites. “Hello yourself.  It’s been a while since I have seen beautiful fangs such as yours.”  The woman handed Casey the tray, “Cupcakes with a special enriched jam I created myself.”  She winked. “I served a couple years ago when this place used to be nice to live in.  They moved on.”  The elderly woman shrugged. “I thought you might enjoy something tasty and a little information about a certain abuser in apartment B-8.”

“A blood bunny?”  Casey inquired and looked over to Sylvie. “I didn’t know they existed beyond the few I’d met.”  Casey took the cakes and plucked one from the tray, “Thanks.”  Casey bit into the soft and rich cake and immediately tasted the blood that was infused in the jam. “Inventive and quite delicious.”  

“Is that what they call us these days?”  The old woman raised one of her eyebrows and smiled, “I like it.  Blood Bunnies.”  She paused and tapped a cake, “My blood, dear.  You can do all kinds of wonderful things with it.”  She winked. “Now then, the father in that apartment tends to abuse the wife and son all the time, more so when he’s come home drunk.”

Finishing off the one cupcake, Casey waited until the enriching jam cleared her throat before she spoke again. “Unreal.”  She started walking the old woman back to her apartment. “I am curious as to how you knew that I would go after that abusive guy?”

Reaching up to pat Casey on the shoulder, the elder smiled and winked. “I was around a fine set of vampires, and after a bit, you kinda knew which ones hadn't given up their humanity.”  She shrugged and gave Casey a kiss on the cheek. “Most of your kind keep the veil in place, mainly because it’s survival.  Others do it because it keeps the peace.”  The lady walked inside her apartment and set the cupcakes on the kitchen table. “You just seemed to me, to be the kind that had some moral compass to work from.  Like I don’t see you feeding from a mother and her children.”

Casey shook her head, “That’s not me.”  She huffed, “I am new, tonight as a matter of fact.  So I guess I am still forming what and who I will be.”

Silently gliding up to the back door where Casey and the woman were chatting, Sylvie wrapped her arms around Casey for support. “Don’t worry, she’s in good hands with me.”  Sylvie pointed to the door leading to the basement. “Do you happen to have that sectioned off as a dark room?”

First handing Sylvie a cupcake, the brown-eyed elder took the time to sit down with a relieved sigh. “Yes, I darkened it years ago.  I didn’t know if a vampire would need it or not.”  She shrugged. “I guess I am still looking out for my Masters and Mistresses after all this time.”

Taking the time to eat and finish the cupcake, Sylvie felt the blood jam settle her mind and clear her focus. “Amazing.”  She looked at Casey. “My eyes?”

“Totally beautiful full white moons, I have my Sylvie back.”  Casey leaned over and kissed her girlfriend on the cheek. 

Kneeling in front of the old woman, Sylvie smiled and patted her on the knee. “I will add your place to the lightout bunkers.  We’ll call this one Cupcake Retreat, how’d that be?”

“Oh my.”  The lady fidgeted for a few seconds, “To sit down and talk again with other vampires like before?”  She rocked excitedly in her chair, “Yes, Yes. Please.  It gets so lonely around here, and I would like to relive some of the old glory times.”  She reached out to grasp Sylvie’s hand. “Will you sponsor me?  So I am safe?”

“Of course.”  Sylvie reassured the kind woman and walked to the door for her basement. “I am going to make my mark here, and that should let others know.”  Extending one claw, Sylvie carefully carved the look of her third eye into the door and completed it with a full moon on the right and a sun on the left. “Moon is my eyes, Sun is Casey’s eyes.  We both sponsor you.”  Sylvie winked. “I am Sylvie Miakoda and she is Casey Rivers.  Who do I have the honor of knowing?”