A Female Vampire Part 6

Melody smiled up at him as she watched him fall into sleep, to the state so many men end up in just after they c.u.m. She pa.s.sed her hand over his eyes almost ceremoniously, going into his mind, telling him to sleep soundly and not to wake for hours. She licked the drops of blood from her lips; it had only been a taste. She had all she needed already. She opened his door and slid off his lap to the ground beside it. Wrapping the blanket around him, she picked him up and laid him against the bridge's front frame. Someone would find him there, or he would wake up there. Either way he would be safe.Melody stepped into the car and closed the door behind her. The keys twisted in her hand and the car's engine started. The moon was enough light for her, and she drove across the bridge towards the city.

Racing against time, she stopped at a farmhouse just long enough to steal a s.h.i.+rt and pair of jeans from the clothesline. She pushed the car to its limit, pus.h.i.+ng close to one hundred and twenty miles per hour. She slowed only for turns. The light from the city illuminated the sky as she neared it. She could feel the vampires in their high-rise building. The red-haired vampire, still at Melody's home, screamed back in her thoughts, sending Melody the message that they knew. They "knew" she was coming back. Melody threw a message back, letting them know exactly where she was headed: their lair. She could see the red-haired vampires turn and head back to their high-rise lair. Melody focused on the building and could feel Eric inside. He looked back at her, his presence calm; it was as if they were standing in a room, looking back at each other.

"Ignore the others, Melody, come join me. I've been so alone, and now...

now I have you. Join me, and I'll give you all that I have, all that I own."

He opened his arms and motioned her to him. She could feel his call to her, so peaceful, so sincere. The others were truly nothing; they were fledglings and nothing more. It was she he wanted. He needed her. All this she could feel from his mind. "I wait for you, my Melody, my beautiful one. Come to me."

Melody turned off the engine of the car, looking across the road at her home.

The door hung on a broken hinge, the wood splintered.

She walked inside. The smell of fresh blood was everywhere. Furniture had been splintered to pieces, her coffee table stuck halfway into the back wall over her dining table. The vampire girls had been thorough in their destruction.

Blood smeared the walls, though the source of the blood she hadn't found yet.

She walked into the kitchen and the refrigerator door hung open, the light flickering inside. The wine bottle of blood was spilled on its side, the blood dripping from it, most of it drying on the floor already. Kitchen knives stuck in the walls everywhere, blood staining their blades.

Melody remembered the last glimpse she had gotten of the vampire girls there.

"Chimise?" she called, but there was no response. She called again, hoping to hear the familiar 'meow' Chimise always gave her when she called her, but there was only silence. She turned the k.n.o.b to her bedroom and opened the door; the floor was covered in feathers torn from her pillows and comforter.

Above the head of her bed, like a b.u.t.terfly pinned to the wall with knives, the white bloodied fur of an animal was hung. Melody turned and nearly puked, she could smell the blood in her stomach rising to her throat. She held her hand against her mouth and closed her eyes. She stood still a moment, calming her stomach and gathering her thoughts.

When she opened her eyes again she looked in her closet. Most of her clothing had been ripped from the hangers; dresses lay in shreds. Melody knelt down at one pile and picked her leather jacket up from under a torn dress. It had survived along with the leather jeans hung on the same hanger.

Melody slid the stolen jeans off and pulled on the proper-fitting leather jeans, the fabric forming a seal against her skin. It always felt so natural to her.She found the matching boots in a drawer they had neglected to ransack and zipped them up around her feet. She slid the leather jacket on and zipped the sleeves closed, taking the leather gloves from its pockets and flexing her fingers stretching the leather as she smoothed them onto her hands. Melody braided her hair behind her and looked into her blood-smeared mirror.

"Ready for war."

Chapter 10 - Lightning

Melody's heels clicked on the pavement of her garage floor as she flipped on the light at the doorway. She could already see in the darkness what was done, but she couldn't believe her eyes at first. Her bike, her beauty, was covered with scratches deep into the metal. It seemed to cry to her in silent pain as she looked over it. Her sleek beast had always been faithful to her. Every wire frayed and cut, the naked wires sticking up into the air as an animal's bones sticking out of its own skin. And the gas tank lid had been forced open with a crow bar, which still lay beside it baring the blue paint stains it had received while doing its unforgivable deed. Sugar lay in clumps over the tank while inside a mountain filled and spilled out of its mouth.

Melody clenched her fist and took in a deep breath to keep her calm.

They had destroyed everything she had, everything she owned.

She walked outside, letting the front door teeter on its broken hinges. She started the convertible, pressing the b.u.t.ton that activated the motors to pull the top open and down. She wanted to feel the cool night air on her face.

Daylight was coming in an hour, maybe more. It didn't matter. She pressed the gas petal further down. The Chevy jerked forward and sped towards downtown, racing towards the tall black tower.

Her mind told her who waited; they didn't hide their thoughts from her.

They welcomed the battle. A presence went before them, at first only a whisper, but it grew louder until it drowned out the other vampire voices and images. Eric called to her, calm, tender, offering his hand. He would protect her.

No more harm would come to her. All she had to do was reach out and take his hand.

"Forever together." he echoed to her. He was sincere.

She stopped the car in front of the building. Rain started its slow approach over her, the tiny droplets. .h.i.tting her body and sliding down her leather clothing.

She turned her head up, looking into the dark sky, the clouds covering the stars.

The rain would surely get worse. The drops caressed the skin of her face, soothing it, cooling it.

The black automatic doors of the building swung open for her as she approached. The guard was missing from his normal post at the desk just inside.

She listened, her head turning from one side to the other. She could hear "them," inside the walls, on floors above, in elevator shafts. There were more than just the two red-haired women. There were many more.Her footsteps echoed in the hall with enormous intensity as she went to the elevators and pushed the b.u.t.ton. She knew where they were, and they knew where she was. It didn't matter. The elevator door opened and she pressed the b.u.t.ton for Eric's floor.

The drop of a body's weight fell onto the top of the elevator with predictable timing. The panel above her ripped from its hinges. The lighting flickered and sparked as the vampire jumped down into the elevator with her. He bared his fangs and hissed at her, his clawed hands out, ready to strike. She had been ready; she struck her fist through his ribcage, the bones splintering.

She grabbed hold of his heart and gave a mighty pull, ripping it from his chest.

It gave a final pump, spilling black blood down her glove. The vampire fell back against the wall looking at her with wide eyes. Seeing his heart in her hands, it giving a final quiver. He took a deep breath and his eyes rolled back in his head as he slumped to the floor. Melody licked the heart for just a drop of blood, tasting it. He had been made by one of the red haired women; Eric had not made him.

The bell rang and the elevator door opened to the darkened room.

Candles were lit in the corners to give the room dimension. She dropped the heart on the floor as she stepped from the elevator.

Melody's mind went out, feeling for Eric. She could feel the other vampires moving through the walls, the floors, the shafts, moving towards her, moving upwards. There: she found him on the roof. He was waiting for her, calm and thoughtful, looking out onto the city despite the rain.

"I'm here, my Melody, come to me." he called to her.

Melody ducked just in time for a chair to smash into the wall above her.

One of the red-haired women lunged towards her and caught Melody by the neck, digging her claws into Melody's skin as if she were peeling a grapefruit.

Melody howled, stinging with pain, and felt a small stream of her own blood seep from the cuts. The red-haired woman pinned her against the wall, her eyes glowing, looking into Melody's own, enjoying her torment.

"I liked Lisa, you shouldn't have killed her," she hissed, pressing her nails deeper into Melody's neck, her nails scratching against her windpipe. Melody's hands went to her neck protectively, holding the woman's hand away just enough to keep her breathing consistent.

"And what do you care, did you make her?" The red-haired vampire laughed and smiled wickedly.

"You don't get it, Eric made her! He wanted her, just like he wants you.

He made us all, don't you understand? He wants all of us for one purpose or another."

"So you are going to kill me. Won't he be upset about that?"

"You are just another one. The strong survive, and you aren't strong enough."

She withdrew her claw from Melody's neck and simultaneously struck her other claw towards her belly, intending to rip her intestines from her as she died in agony. Melody caught her wrist, the woman's fingernails barely sc.r.a.ping against her leather jacket. The red-haired woman looked up just in time to see Melody swipe at her throat, removing her voice box and holding it in her hand.

The woman held her hands over her throat, trying to seal the wound, but her dark blood only spilled out between her fingers. Her gurgled screams seemed like nothing. Melody tossed the round bit of flesh to a chair and coughed, regaining her own steady breath as her own blood sealed her wounded neck. The skin healed together once more. She turned around, finding the broken chair at her side. She snapped a wooden leg from it and walked towards the gurgling woman whose eyes were beginning to roll back into her head. She seemed to gasp for air and received only her own blood. Melody kicked her backwards, letting her fall onto her back, still clutching her throat. She slammed the wood deep into the vampire's chest, the ribs cracking open, the wood piercing her heart through one side and then the other. Her body quivered for a second and then relaxed, her hands falling to her sides, the blood spilling fresh from the wound in her neck and pooling around her head on the floor.

A scream echoed in Melody's head and she held her ears from it instinctively even though it didn't help. The second red-haired woman's image appeared in her head and hissed at her, swiping at her with her nails.

"Sister." was all Melody could make out. She looked down at the dead vampire at her feet. They must have been mortal sisters. She was approaching, she could feel her better than any of the others who moved towards her. Her speed was faster, full of anger and rage. She was coming for her.

Melody took to the stairs, quickly climbing towards the roof. If she were to have any chance against the full number of vampires, she would have to find Eric.

Why did he stand there, looking across the city as morning approached?

Why did he allow the carnage inside? He surely knew of it. He knew they attacked her, and the outcome. Was he testing her?

She raced through the last door at the top onto the top floor; she could hear the others behind her, racing up the stairs towards her. She locked the door behind her running through the offices to the room at the other end that held the stairway to the roof.

The steel door to the stairway behind her flew off its hinges and shattered the gla.s.s office wall in front of it. The red-haired woman stepped out onto the debris.

Melody glanced at her, but didn't stop until a male vampire stepped calmly in front of the door to the stairs leading to the roof. She didn't have a choice.

Melody turned to face the red-haired woman who walked towards her.

Her eyes glowed red, her hair seemed on fire as it swirled behind her. The woman's pace increased as she neared Melody, her hands flexing, not able to wait to slice into Melody's flesh. Yes, to rip her limb from limb and listen to her scream. She wanted her to scream in pain as her sister had no opportunity to do.

Her sister had no voice to scream. To howl, oh how that would feel, to hear her howl in anguish. The red-haired woman smiled as her eyes darkened. She reached swiftly for Melody, but Melody only turned, grabbing the woman by the arm and throwing her into another gla.s.s pane wall. The gla.s.s fell down in shards around them. Melody stepped inside the office, grabbing the woman by the hair and pulling back her own fist to deepen it into the woman's face, but the woman kicked and tripped her, sending her to the ground. The woman was on top of her in an instant, growling, breathing upon her face as she choked her. She was stronger than Melody: as much as she struggled, she was losing. Melody reached around her for anything, any way of escaping.

Gla.s.s impaled the woman's back, slicing through her bones and into her heart. Blood trickled from the side of her mouth as she looked down at Melody.

Melody pushed hard against the shard; it cut her own hand as she held it, pulling it down through the woman's back and organs. The woman fell back away from her, looking down at her chest, the tip of the gla.s.s pressing through her skin, a tiny blood streak staining her s.h.i.+rt. She looked up at Melody who gasped for breath on the floor, the cuts on her hand closing. The gla.s.s shard wasn't enough to kill her; she knew that. Melody stood up as the woman backed away from her: trying to heal, trying to focus. The gla.s.s...she had to remove the gla.s.s. The woman stopped when she reached the back window. The lights of the city flickered anonymously below. Melody screamed as she rushed forward and kicked her in the chest, the Plexiglas window buckling and cracking behind her, almost refusing to break and suddenly tumbling to pieces, taking the woman with it to the ground below. The woman screamed as the stories of the building raced past her, the ground finally silencing her.

Melody walked out of the office, the gla.s.s shards grinding into the carpet under her boot heels. She looked at the male vampire.

"I've won my right. Let me pa.s.s." He smiled at this and shook his head.

"Won your right for what? He's already chosen another." He stepped away and motioned her to the door. "Go up if you want." He then turned and walked to the elevator, pressing the b.u.t.ton and listening for the chiming of the device traveling up the shaft.

Melody lowered her eyebrows in confusion. Her mind went to the other vampires. They no longer moved towards her, but neither did they move back.

They seemed to be waiting. She opened the door to the stairs and climbed up them, opening the door to the roof and stepping out onto it. Eric stood at the far end away from the door. She could hear voices. She looked up at the sky; the dark clouds were turning gray. The sun was coming, and only the clouds would be there to protect them for long. Lightning flashed nearby, illuminating the sky.

"And how long can we stay out here as the sun rises?" A woman's voice.

"A bit longer at least," Eric answered, turning towards the blond-haired woman and stroking her cheek tenderly. "For you, I will give all that I have."

"Sounds familiar." Melody remarked as she stepped out behind an air conditioning unit behind them. The women looked at her and then back at Eric.

"Who is she?" Eric looked at Melody as if she were no one special.

"I think you should get out of here." Melody instructed the woman. The woman looked back at Eric and he nodded to her.

"Go wait for me, I won't be long." he instructed. She nodded and crossed the roof towards the door. She reached the air conditioning unit and screamed.

A blood streak marked the center of her back as she fell to her knees. Eric's eyes glowed as his teeth clenched.

"No!" he growled as she fell to her back, the wooden arrow sticking out of her chest. A small gla.s.s cylinder wrapped around the end of the arrow broke open just as she hit the ground. The chemical inside instantly ignited when the air touched it, burning her body. Her arms and legs flailed around her as she died, burning, her heart impaled by the arrow. The wood of the arrow smoked in the flames.Daniel loaded another arrow, glancing around the air conditioning unit, getting ready for another shot. Eric roared and raced towards him, but Melody caught him in the air.

"No, leave him," she growled as they rose into the air, tangled together; the rain struck them harder. His hand went to grab her hair as she struck her claws into his skin. She couldn't penetrate his organs; he was too old, too strong. He twisted her head in his hand and she pulled away, pus.h.i.+ng away from him with her legs, flying higher towards the clouds above. He floated there, staring at her.

He smiled at her, his fangs showing, and turned. He raced towards Daniel. "No!"

she screamed, trying to catch him in the wind, racing towards Eric. Daniel's arrow hit its mark, and it deepened into Eric's chest, but not far enough. Eric laughed as the fire from the breaking vial crackled in the wind on his chest, the rain stroking his body nearly killing the flames. Daniel's eyes widened. He had nowhere to run.

Thunder boomed and the explosion hit. Daniel and Melody fell away, covering their eyes from the blast as the lightning reached down from the heavens and pierced Eric's body, jumping through him to the lighting rod just below where Eric's body seemed suspended in air until the pure electricity stopped. His charred body fell onto the tall lighting rod, impaled. His skin turned black and smoldered. The flames lightly crackled as it burnt his exposed bones and charred flesh.

Melody landed lightly beside Daniel as he stepped close to Eric. Eric's mouth opened, his two white fangs showing. He seemed to be saying two simple words without breath.

"Help me." Melody shuddered and turned towards Daniel. She could hear the others, the vampires. They were afraid. They were fleeing. Some ran from the building, others simply vanished from her mind, blocking their thoughts from her.

Daniel lowered his crossbow, the weapon of the hunter, and stared at the husk of a corpse Eric had become. He blinked and looked at Melody. He put his arm around her and she leaned towards him. He could feel her lips upon his neck, giving him a tender kiss, and then the welcome sting of her fangs. How gently she fed on him, taking his blood. He held her against him tightly with both hands, wrapping her up against him. She raised her hand and cut a slit into her neck with her fingernail, the blood dripped slowly from it as she fed on him. He leaned down and kissed her wound, the blood covering his lips. He licked it from his lips, how sweet it tasted. He sealed his own kiss over her wound, feeding from it, kissing it, and loving it. Heat burned inside him, striking electric waves through his veins. He could feel it fill him. Feeding from each other, they were completed; they were one. They locked in each other's embrace, their lips to each other's necks.

"To be with you," his mind whispered to hers.

"Forever," she answered.

Eric's body seemed to s.h.i.+ft on the rod and Melody looked across the sky.

Daylight was coming, and the clouds were moving on. The rain lessened.

They stepped apart.

"Here comes your daylight, Eric, your way to oblivion. Send me a postcard of what you find on the other side, will you?" Daniel took her hand as they ran to the door leading downstairs.

At the first floor, the elevator bell rang and the door opened. Daniel led her to the front door. His bike was parked across the street, an extra helmet laying on its seat. Melody smiled to Daniel and they crossed the street to his bike. Sunlight would come in a few minutes, maybe less. She could feel it approaching, and she knew Daniel felt it too: her new fledgling, her mate.

"I've got something for you," he said, walking in front of her to reach the bike first. He opened a large backpack he had set behind the bike and Chimise looked out at her.

"Chimise!" Melody picked her up and hugged her lovingly.

"I found her in the back yard. Must have been one of your fur coats they butchered above your bed. Oh, and I got the money too, though I tell you those two red-heads had me running pretty good when they saw me." Melody smiled and leaned over to kiss him. He smiled and gave her a helmet. "Plenty of time for that later I think; daylight is only a moment away." She nodded and strapped on the helmet, turning up the neck of her jacket and zipping it up, covering her skin.

She closed Chimise into the backpack again and hung it from her shoulders.

A crowd had gathered around the body of the red-haired woman who had fallen to the street below. One man was on his cell phone and the sounds of an ambulance echoed from down the street. Melody could see the red hair against the ground between the circled crowd. Suddenly the red-haired figure screamed and its broken limbs waved around as it burst into flame. The people around her jumped back, some screaming themselves at the horror of it. Daylight.

Melody looked up to the top of the black building and a thin line of black smoke drifted from it. It was Eric's body, or what was left of it. The red-haired vampire's body soon became still as daylight progressed. Her bones became ashes before her spectators' eyes. There was nothing left for the ambulance, which was now in sight just down the road.

Melody looked at Daniel through his blackened helmet visor; Eric's face looked back. She blinked, and Daniel's eyes looked back at her.