Chapter 12

It was warm, and someone who smelled really nice was kissing her forehead and murmuring softly into her ear. The breath from those sweet lips tickled her flesh around her ear and neck. That was what had awakened her. She opened her eyes.

“Béla!” Jolene said, smiling up at her rescuer. “How… where? … Are you really here? Am I dreaming you again?”

Béla grinned down at her sister and nodded. “No, Sweetie, I’m really here. And you’re safe.”

Jolene struggled to sit up, surprised that she was in a bed – not her own, as this one smelled a bit musty as though it wasn’t used on a regular basis. But that was better than waking up with her body sore and stiff from lying on the cold ground for the last…

“How long…” she started to ask.

“It took me a day to get here, ” Béla said softly, almost apologetically. “I flew part of the way, got a railcar to Providence, then flew from there to here.”

“All that flying?” Jolene asked, trying to smile. “You smell really good for that much of a workout.”

“I’ve been here several hours, ” Béla explained. “I let you snack, but then I had to clean up a bit. I brought you inside and gave you a bath, too.”

Jolene grinned. “Thanks.”

Then she jerked her head around, wildly searching as she remembered…

“Those men!” Jolene cried out. “They tried to kill me!”

“They’re gone, ” Béla said, her voice still soft. “They won’t hurt you anymore.”

“But… but, ” Jolene tried to say, “What happened to those men? I saw one… explode!”

“I saved your life, ” Béla told her, raising one hand to smooth back a lock of Jolene’s dark hair and gazing into her sister’s almond eyes. “As ‘Carte Blanche’, I commanded the bridge officer, Chief Raman, to protect you – to kill those two who would kill you. He had his gunner use the laser cannon on them.”

An image of a dead woman tied to a lamppost. She was burning. Jolene had ordered her death. An image of Béla promising the populace of her district that such a violent and savage reprisal will never again occur, no matter the provocation.

Tears flooded into Jolene’s eyes, understanding completely what Béla had just told her.

“You broke your promise, ” Jolene murmured sadly. “Once again I’m responsible for the loss of a valuable human life.”

“No!” Béla insisted, hugging her tightly “They gave up their right to call themselves ‘human’ when they tried to butcher you! You surely didn’t go looking for them, did you?”

“Of course not!” Jolene replied defensively. “But… I thought you were angry with me for ordering the execution of…”

“Stop!” Béla implored, shaking her head in denial. “I was never mad at you! I was upset, but only until I viewed the court records. I never faulted you for your decision.”

“No, but there are those who do, ” Jolene replied. “I feel it in people’s minds, and in their attitude toward me. Sometimes I bend over backwards to give a really light judgement, and that plaintiff’s resentment hits me right in my face!

“Then I came up with the idea of awarding people unused land for doing good things and flew up here to check out what was available. As soon as they got me alone, they shot me out of the sky and did their best to murder me!”

She showed Béla her image of waking up and discovering a shotgun being jabbed into her chest, then being killed as her heart and lungs were blasted out through her back.

“I’ve never been shot before, ” Jolene murmured, upset and still bewildered by the experience.

“Well, that’s something you won’t forget very easily, ” Béla replied, not really knowing what else to say.

They sat in uncomfortable silence for a few moments. Jolene would have gladly fled if she’d been strong enough to fly away, but she couldn’t, and Béla seemed to be pretty much determined to stay with her until she was stronger. So they sat, silent, for the moment.

“There is something I should mention, ” Béla said, breaking Jolene’s reverie. “You said something about ‘light’ judgements?”

“Yeah?” Jolene replied, wondering where Béla was going with this idea.

“Well, ” Béla continued, “being in people’s minds so much, I’ve found that most people – the decent ones, anyway – most of them already know what they deserve and what they don’t deserve. If you give someone a break, and they know they don’t deserve it, that person will thank you profusely and be ‘ever so grateful’… But… in that instant when you felt sympathetic towards him and gave him a break, you lost his respect.”

“What?” Jolene asked, confused now. “How?”

“You didn’t play fair with him, ” Béla explained. “You played him as a favorite. And… he will eventually come to hate you. Things will happen to him… things he might even subconsciously cause, himself. But in his mind, his misfortunes will somehow become your fault. I don’t really understand why people react that way, but often… not always, but often they do. I think it has something to do with each person’s ability to be responsible – either they’re responsible for what happens to them, or you are.”

“God, that’s wicked!” Jolene exclaimed, understanding a little better. “It’s possible, I suppose, that what you said could be what’s been happening in my district. I’ve been too lenient. ‘Unfairly’ so, so it seems.”

“It could be, ” Béla agreed. “Plus, if someone brings charges against someone who has wronged them, and you let them off, you lose their respect as well. If that’s what you’ve been doing, any problems you’ve been having in that area aren’t really likely to be because of that one decision to execute the Lady Sarah.”

“I think I need to lie here for awhile longer, ” Jolene said. “That’s a lot to think about, and I still feel pretty weak. I’m just glad you aren’t mad at me.”

Béla smiled and kissed her sister. “You need another feeding.”

She lay down, almost pushing Jolene onto her back, and presented her neck.

“I’m awake now, ” Jolene protested, trying to resist Béla’s vampiric offering. “You don’t need to do that!”

“I like doing that, ” Béla grinned. “I was in the middle of doing that when you cried for help.” She shot an image of Elaine sucking greedily as she and Béla orgasmed against each other.

“Oh. Sorry, ” Jolene said sheepishly, turning bright red with embarrassment as Béla continued the image of what she and Elaine had been doing. Béla had just passed out from blood loss when Jolene, dreamwalking, had called for help.

“You make that feel sexy, ” Jolene grinned, embarrassed at sharing such an intimate, obviously personal and female moment.

“It is sexy, ” Béla replied, smiling back. “And now you get to find out just how sexy it can be…” Pressing her slight weight down against Jolene’s chest, Béla lay her head against her sister’s neck. “Just bite down, darling… Uuuhhh!”

Béla landed on the floor as Jolene shoved her off the bed. “Hey! What’s wrong? Stop messing around and let’s get you healed, okay?”

“I’m sorry, ” Jolene tried to explain, her voice shaking with emotion. “I just… I don’t want the sex part. Okay?”

“Alright, ” Béla agreed, sitting down on the edge of the bed again and patting the mattress, indicating that Jolene should lie back down with her. “But you need to feed. No more nonsense about it. Okay?”

Jolene lay back down on the bed, radiating anxiety and nervousness mixed with some dizziness.

“Come on, Honey, ” Béla said softly, stretching forward to expose her neck, her hardened nipples brushing against Jolene’s nipples.