Sylvie

Taking on her normal form, Casey appeared in front of the angry man and absorbed the hit from the frying pan causing the weak aluminum to radiate a little hollow chime as it connected with Casey’s face.  

In contrast, the moment that Casey had the man's unbridled attention, Sylive appeared from under the door and opened it.  A slight movement from the boy on the floor caught Sylvie’s attention and she winked once, then put her finger over her lips.

-Nice to know he’s okay.  Smart kid.-

 Quickly gathering the two beaten bodies, Sylvie easily hoisted the two in her arms and escaped through the door. “It’s better that you two don’t witness what is about to happen.”  Sylvie trailed off for a moment, “You know the kind older lady in apartment A-10?”

The little boy smiled through his swollen lips, “Mmhm, Vera.  She makes the best chocolate chip cookies.”

“Good, because you and your mother will be staying with her for a while.”  Sylvie offered and reached the front door of Vera’s apartment.  Working to place both of the people on Vera’s sofas without causing any extra pain, Sylvie bundled the mother in a light blanket. “I can’t see that he broke anything, but you sound like you are having issues breathing.  Let me get a friend over who’s a doctor who owes me a couple favors.  Lifting her cell phone from her back pocket Sylvie hit the speed dial.

Moving so she could be in a comfortable position, The mother held up her hand. “Ww-we have tried to hide here before, Wayne found us in a few hours and dragged us both back.”  She said half-sobbing.

“Amos.  It's Sylvie.  Can you hurry along to Branders Bridge Apartments, A-10?”  Sylvie basically begged.

Chuckling on the phone, “Trying to have dinner out there are you?”

“Come on, I have two hurt people here that this lovely ex-blood bunny Vera is going to care for.”  Sylvie shamelessly offered. “I knew you used to be a doctor way back.”

“Yeah, a spirit-doctor for the tribe, sheesh.”  Amos sighed, “Luckily for you I did train as a real doctor for the two world wars.  I will be there soon.”  Amos disconnected the call.

With the immediate danger cleared up, Sylvie listened for what was still going on from the apartment and was comforted when she knew Casey still had things well under control.

Waiting for her partner to get the victims clear of the abuser, Casey let the man swing a few more times which had the same effect as before. None.  “Now that your kid can’t see this, you have about a minute to live and think about your miserable life.”  Without thinking about it, Casey clutched the evil man by his neck and squeezed until he started choking.  Desperately the man kicked and scraped his dirty fingernails across Casey's glowing skin to no avail.  Casey held off until she saw the man’s lips turn blue, then eased up for a few seconds. “That was about thirty seconds.”  She paused, having heard the name Wayne from where his wife was trying to survive. Smiling and bringing Wayne close to her face, Casey dropped her four fangs in place. “Wayne, no one will miss you.  I would savor this for hours, but I have something better to do than just watch the fear in your eyes,”  Flicking her wrist so that Wayne’s neck was exposed, Casey planted her lips firmly over his rapid pulsing and injected her fangs long enough for the blood flow.

Hungry beyond belief, Casey didn’t let the normal flow of Wayne's blood to pulse out evenly but rather sucked it out faster than she knew was possible.  By the count of fifteen, her meal had turned to dust without another word.

Licking her lips and scanning for anything that could link the twin vampires to the situation, Casey nodded happily when she realized it was only the family’s blood and such that had been left behind. “Sylvie, I am on my way back, I closed and locked the door to the apartment.”  She paused, “You weren’t kidding, I still feel a little hungry from using gas form.”

Unwilling to be spotted from sitting on the roof and spying on the drug dealers, Casey instead went back to Vera’s apartment and settled down in front of Sylvie, backing into her arms and pulling them around her waist. “I like this.”  Casey leaned her head back on Sylvie’s shoulder. “Mmm, Now for plan two.  Upon the request of our lovely hostess, we are taking down a drug den.”

Vera beamed, “It would go a long way to making this place better.”

Sylvie spoke up, “Yeah, going in blind will make things worse and nothing would survive.  So something stealthy would be great.”

Casey hopped up and down excitedly. “I had the very same idea.”  She pointed a long red fingernail at Sylvie, “It means you explain animal form.”

Casually taking Casey’s hand into her own, Sylvie walked down into the lightout shelter.  She pulled her progeny into a hug and then gave her a kiss on the cheek. “Many find this part difficult to master.”  Sylvie pursed her lips. “You’ve done so wonderful, I don’t want you to set back too early.”

Upon seeing the look on her girlfriend's face, combined with the somber way she’d spoken, Casey winked and smiled. “I will explain my plan and see if it resonates with you.”  She winked while pulling Sylvie over to the small bed. “I want to use a black widow spider as my animal form.”  Casey wiggled her eyebrows. “I’ve had fun all night stretching and twisting myself like a contortionist, so let’s make it permanent.”

“Your animal form isn’t permanent.”  Sylvie chuckled. “I just think vampires get into a habit and then use what they like the best, using less blood that way.”  Watching Casey as she trailed her fingers across the light blanket as though she were an actual spider, Sylvie rolled her eyes and let out a light sigh. “Alright, just like everything else that our bodies use, blood is the important part.”  Sylvie leaned forward and noticed that the sun-glowing orbs had no visible red in a ring. “Well you aren’t hungry, so that is a positive.”  A quick kiss to Casey’s cheek, and Sylvie crawled deeper onto the bed, “It’s best to think of your blood levels as values.  It doesn’t matter what value you give it, so long as you understand what you have left to spend.”  Opening her hand, Sylvie acted like she was playing with an invisible spider. “My general rule has been, think of how much you need to shift and double it.”  Sylvie laughed, “I can’t tell you the amount of times I have seen a youngling not use enough blood and they look half-man, half-crab.”

“I have one more question.”  Casey crawled on the bed beside Sylvie, “Can we change the very nature of our blood to match the form we take?” Sensing that the question wasn’t fully explained in a way that Sylvie could answer, Casey adjusted. “Can I use my blood to make venom for my black widow spider look?  Make it so poisonous that it will kill them in a matter of seconds to minutes.”

A light went off in Sylvie’s head, “I get it now.” She laughed, “I’ve heard about blood-crafters, but I have yet to meet one.  There are rumors that a small troupe of them lived close by and made all kinds of blood-infused magical items.”  She shrugged, “Kody does it, so maybe it takes some study to do it.” Meeting her moon eyes to Casey’s sunbright ones, She raised her eyebrow. “We are on a time limit.  Give it a try and let’s see if you can do this easy enough.”