Chapter 10: Annus Mirabilis

"Do not go gentle into that good night, Old age should burn and rave at close of day; Rage, rage, against the dying of the light." – Dylan Thomas

"Hi. No, don't get up." I smiled and whispered and it was easy for me. "Sit down ... down..."

There were two guards, big security men with uniforms and guns and radios. There were cameras too, recording us, and we didn't worry about them so much, not yet. I had something to do finally, because I was so good at this sort of thing and getting better all the time. I'd just walked in, through the metal detector and behind the desk as if joining them. The two men had only stared at me and Angela followed slowly, smiling and watching. She could do it too, but not as easily.

"What's your name?" I touched the black man sitting his chair and he looked up at me, loving me.

"Saul," he said thickly and perhaps some part of him might have been resisting, but I didn't think so. He was lost completely.

The white guy sat in his chair a few feet away. He'd wanted to stand up for a second, but I didn't even have to touch him. He was weak and I paid him little mind; Saul was the stronger of the two.

"I'm looking for a woman..." I glanced at Angela and she nodded, " ... the one who came in here tonight. What's her name?"

"Ellen," Saul said softly. "Sister Ellen Sawyer."

"Sister?" Angela smiled at that. "She's a nun?"

"Yes," he nodded.

"Where is she now?" I asked gently, reasonably.

"Seventh floor, with the FBI people," Saul told us.

"Do you want to fuck me, Saul?" I leaned close, staring into his big brown eyes. "Do you want to love me?"

"Yeah," he breathed.

"I'll let you do it." I caressed his cheek and he turned his head to follow my fingers like a dog.

"Please..." he sighed.

"Your cock is so hard for me ... Isn't it, Saul?"

"God, yes."

"Where are the recorders for the cameras?"

"Security station ... On theecond floor."

"Take me there, Saul ... and I'll give you everything you want." I leaned close licking across his thick lips with my tongue. "Anything you want."

"Hi, big boy..." Angela smiled and moved to the other guard, pressing her hand to his chest.

Angela found me kneeling over Saul about ten minutes later, feeling ripe and bloated with his blood. We'd fed so much tonight, I didn't think I'd be hungry for a week at least. Most of Saul's life had spilled across the tiled floor after he'd showed me the digital recorders and how to format them. Everything was turned off now, Saul had promised me with his dying breath. Angela had blood around her mouth and I took her in my arms, licking it away carefully before engaging her in a deep kiss.

"Seventh floor?" I asked her and Angela nodded.

We were on a killing spree now, there was little doubt about it, and once we left Sacramento we'd have to stay very low for a very long time, or so I assumed. Angela hadn't said anything specifically about it yet, but it wasn't that hard to figure out. We'd just killed two federal employees, they were only security guards, true, but that was going to be as big a deal as killing those two cops. Now we were on our way to visit the FBI, which was where this other vampire was, and I had no idea what that could mean. Had they caught her or was she one of them, or were they working together? I wanted to ask Angela, but there was no time for that, not anymore.

We took the stairs, running up six flights, or more like flying really, we had so much energy. It seemed effortless and the climb took all of a dozen seconds, no more than that. I was flushed with excitement, but not exertion. I could have gone up a hundred flights easily without pausing for breath.

The FBI offices were to the right, past the elevators and through some large glass doors, etched with the official seal. The lights were on and I could sense the other vampire clearly now. Definitely a she. Definitely close, and she was either fucking or feeding, I couldn't tell which. Maybe she was doing both as her excitement was strong, like a sweet perfume on a warm breeze. I had her now and I grinned at Angela as we pushed the unlocked doors open.

"Excuse me..." an oriental man spotted us, " ... Oh shit!"

He'd looked up from his desk almost casually at first. He recognized us quickly, perhaps as the two fugitives they were looking for, but I think it was just good instincts really. He didn't know exactly who we were, but he knew we were wrong, and he'd already started reaching for the gun at his hip.

There was someone else, a tall woman with dark hair and rather attractive, and she reacted slower than her friend. I took the woman in the blink of an eye, even as Angela tore the Asian man's throat open with her fingernails. It was over so quickly that I blinked in surprise and Angela gave me a little shrug. I'd expected the FBI to be a little tougher than that, or something. But they were people, that was all, disciplined maybe, well trained for sure, but just people in the end and we were something else altogether. Killing them hadn't been necessary, but we'd wanted to do it. Angela and I were too excited not to.

"That way..." Angela breathed, sucking her wet fingers and jerking her head towards a hallway.

We'd been very quiet, except for the guy who'd gone for his gun, but even he hadn't made much noise at all as he'd died. The other vampire, whoever she was, knew we were there though. She could sense us clearly, I was sure. Newborn or not, we were too close and too excited with fresh blood not to be noticed.

She knelt naked on the carpeted floor of a conference room or at least it looked like one to me. A large room with a huge wooden table in the middle with chairs around it. The opposite wall was all glass windows looking out over the city. The vampire was impaled on a man's cock and they were fucking, or at least they'd been fucking; now she was merely feeding. She appeared beautiful, sleek and dark, hunched over her kill and grinding with her pelvis as she looked at us. She was the most beautiful woman I'd ever seen, even with the change, or maybe because of it. Blood ran from her mouth, down her neck to her heaving breasts, upturned with long dark nipples. Her eyes were embers, so red they were black, glowing and malevolent.

"Are you here to kill me?" she asked and I thought she sounded almost hopeful.

I didn't say anything, but remained standing in the open doorway as Angela walked into the room, moving to the right and staying close to the wall. I let myself fall back into my disguise, into human form as I stood there. My fangs receded slowly, my eyes fading into blue and losing their feral glare. The stiffened hair on my head and neck went soft once again, while my fingernails grew soft and harmless. I was just a girl once more, a little runaway, lost and vulnerable and easy to love.

"What a pretty little girl," the woman smiled at me, amused by the change. "Come here..."

I felt an urge, my body leaning towards her even as I realized she was using the thrall, but she was weak with it and I wasn't a human. I took a slow step and then another, but not because I had to. I ignored Angela's look and she might have been confused maybe, wondering if the woman's trick had worked, but I just wanted to get close to her. I wanted to touch the nun and try my own luck with that game. I was very good at it and this would be a little test, a real test. If I could touch her, she might even fall for it.

The smell of the man's blood filled the room, but I'd already fed so well that it was easy to ignore. He was dead, that seemed pretty obvious, and his cock lay limp beneath the vampire's sex, but he'd had one last orgasm inside her, probably while she'd fed from his neck. I could smell the cum, hers and his, intermingled and leaking from the woman's undead womb as she moved slowly now, still riding him as if she'd forgotten.

Angela circled around slowly and watched us closely. I didn't think Angela wanted to kill this vampire, but only find out why she'd be here in Sacramento when it was so plain that Angela and I were on a killing spree. That was the only word for it, really, and I smiled at the woman, getting close enough to touch her now. She just sat there, riding that dead guy like she didn't have a care in the world, and that seemed so weird. Angela would be wary because of it, but I had to be careless, the way my nature demanded.

"You're so beautiful," I whispered, reaching out slowly as if I might touch the vampire's face. "Can I kiss you?"

I wasn't suggesting anything, just talking in a normal voice, looking and sounding like a little girl. I didn't look dangerous at all now.

"Do you want a kiss?" she licked her lips, staring into my eyes and I nodded slowly.

My fingers found her cheek and she felt feverish with fresh blood coursing through her veins. I stood above her, but not by much; even sitting on her dead lover the woman was very nearly my height.

"You look tired," I whispered, using the voice, using my touch. "You should sleep. The sun is coming. Sleep now..."

"Wha..." she blinked at me and I'd surprised her.

She'd thought she was in control, even confronted by the two of us, this woman, this vampire nun or whatever she was. She had been so confident, so sure of herself. It was what confused Angela and made her nervous and cautious. It should have frightened me, but this vampire was newborn and now she was feeling the uncertainty as her mind fought with my suggestion. She had a strong will and even as a human in her former lif, e I'd have had to touch her. Now she was a vampire and all I could really do was surprise her. She wasn't going to sleep.

"Sleep ... Close your eyes..." and I used every bit of strength I had, focusing on her intently.

Fear passed over her face and then the woman snarled at me, giving her head a violent shake and I jerked my hand away as her teeth snapped shut on the air where it had been. Angela moved, in the blink of an eye she crossed the room to join us, but the woman was too quick, unbelievably fast, springing away from the body a dozen feet to crouch on the table, hissing at us.

"You'll have to do better than that," she said in a hoarse whisper, smiling and somersaulting backwards suddenly like she was an Olympic gymnast, or in a kung-fu movie maybe.

I kind of blinked at that, but only because it looked seriously cool and Angela just laughed at her. The vampire stood on the carpet then, naked and tense, glancing around the room as if considering her options. Her clothes and purse were on the table. The man hadn't bothered undressing at all, his suit was simply ripped open, hanging from his corpse like bloody rags. The woman had been careful though, folding her clothes neatly, and she moved towards the small pile slowly, keeping an eye on us.

"What are you doing here?" Angela asked her finally. "What do you want?"

Angela was moving again, sliding to the woman's left and so I moved to her right, encircling her, splitting her attention so she couldn't watch us both at the same time. I didn't think we were going to actually kill her, but I'd never confronted another vampire before either. I wasn't exactly sure how this was supposed to work, but I guess the idea was that we were testing each other, the way wolves will upon meeting, determining seniority and establishing dominance.

"Trying to clean up a mess," the woman replied, looking at Angela. "You're the older, so..." she turned her head to glance at me, " ... you must be the one who started all this."

"Looks like you've been making a little mess yourself," Angela said, meaning the dead guy on the floor.

"They'll blame that one on you too, I'm afraid." The woman stared at Angela again, giving her a smile and a shrug. "You know how it is."

"You're Michel's new pet." Angela kept moving, side stepping to her right. "How is he these days?"

"The same," the vampire grinned. "He wants me to give you a message..."

"Stay out of his San Francisco?" Angela laughed. "I know."

"That's the one." The woman had reached her clothes and now she opened her purse, reaching inside while she kept her eyes on Angela.

I started moving even before I saw the gun exploding to life in her fist. The woman had pulled it out and aimed it at me in a fraction of a second. I'd moved to my right, towards the windows, using the teleportation trick to move a dozen feet in the time it took for the bullets to cross the room. Two fat bullets smashed into the wall where my head had been, blowing out large chunks of drywall even as the sharp crack of gunfire filled the room.

Angela had moved in that same instant, launching herself at the woman, who should have been still occupied with shooting me, but she wasn't. The woman had pointed her gun, pulled the trigger twice, and yet somehow she met Angela with a sharp kick, bringing her right foot up and out, snapping her foot like a whip across Angela's face. It sent my mate sprawling, all of her momentum suddenly redirected so that Angela slammed into the wall and through it with a heavy crash, landing in the hallway outside.

I guess she did know kung-fu and in the half-second it took me for me to see and understand all that, the woman had brought her gun around again, pulling the trigger as I moved, the windows shattering behind me. I was peppered with glass and the odd snap of bullets splitting the air, missing just inches behind me as I crossed the length of the room. The entire wall was gone now, the great panes of glass reduced to jagged teeth and guillotine blades ready to fall. Cold air rushed into the room and I breathed deeply, lunging out of her sight to crouch beneath the table just ten feet away from her.

The FBI guy's body lay right next to me and I saw his gun near his waist, big and black and wet with blood. I'd never touched a gun in my life, but if a nun could shoot one, how hard could it be? I couldn't see her, although I could sense the vampire plain enough, but only as being close and I didn't need a sixth sense for that. She was moving then and I heard her bare feet on the table, moving down the length of it as I reached for the gun.