Path of the Vampire forum

Swirls of cool fresh water caressed the shadow’s bare skin beneath the moonlight. Each like an embracing finger passing by as her body moved against the current. In the darkness below the surface the freedom of fluid movement was gained through each stretch of her arms. Teamwork of both shooting forward and then pulling back to her sides effectively sent her further ahead. Even the of something on the move, gliding across her back, slick over her skin is no deterrent. Peace filled her in this journey. Her feet kicking leisurely back and forth bringing her closer to her destination. Home.

The illumination of the iPhone screen glowed while the body of the communication device shivered for attention. From where it was currently sitting there was none to be had. The shadow destined owner was still navigating the route back in the river. All went dark then a few seconds more brought another glow from the screen. The business number belonging to Twisted Sister Custom & Design scrolled across as an alert while the incoming phone call icon flashed.

“****! ****!” The woman who hated the sight of blood was being forced to see more than she ever planned on. How Foster managed to call her she had no clue but he did.

Foster was gagging and leaning forward gagging on his own blood. Rainbow was dropping the F bomb darting around like an aimless moth beneath the shop lights in the office. Dominique always had a first aid kit around. It was nearly the size of a steamer trunk that she kept stashed out of view because all of the stuff in it.

Everything was inside. Surgical trays, intravenous fluids, narcotics, various tubing and even an ambu bag. Not only that, the business owner even gave inservices as to how to use it all routinely. Some of it was helpful but soon it went into bizarre. It didn’t make sense on how she went into splinting legs and setting shoulders instead of heading to the emergency room. All the employees in the small group at the equally odd mandatory 1 am meeting sat with jaws dropped. As soon as someone asked why would they need to be setting shoulders or splinting possible breaks instead of doing the normal thing and just heading to the E.R. she went on a rant about the evils of modern medicine. Ten minutes was spent on how accidents happen where you least expect them. Examples of planes going through business roofs, bulls charging through cement walls and most memorable… possible alien encounters were covered in detail from start to finish. It was extreme to say the least and only slightly softened by the ending when she reviewed the history of wilderness medicine and homeopathic options that save money and don’t feed the mass market monsters.

Three out of the five shrugged, the nice mellow buzz flowing through them thanks to her liberal stance on smoking weed. The fourth asked about the current employee healthcare benefits and got the honest answer when their boss patted the suitcase size first aid kit. It had every painkiller inside and an ample supply of antibiotics. She assured them she had it good with a prominent physician that would deal with anything invasive that her hands couldn’t get a hold of. The fifth was still not sold. He wanted dental and asked if she knew a dentist. He had a cavity that he couldn’t afford to fix and it was getting worse. Dominique offered up a solution for it and he went pale instantly.

Rainbow finally got her hands on the white piece of luggage with a red cross on the top. A cross that had been formed out of two strips of red duct tape with the message beneath ‘Do NOT call 9-1-1! Call me!’. Her shaking hands opened the clasps that held it shut. Once it lifted the weight of it dropped to the floor beneath it. The sounds of a plethora of bottles and pills landing was brief.

“She isn’t answering!”

Rainbow kicked the luggage and looked back to find Foster pulling the blood soaked towel from his face. It was finally apparent his tongue was partially missing. Horrified she burst around and looking for what was no longer in his mouth. They sewed things back on. She just needed to find it and grab ice. Ice. Where the hell was some ice? She flipped up the ice cream cooler lid and grabbed two frozen treats then rushed back. A little more searching had her flailing her hand as she picked up the lower portion of his tongue. Foster passed out hunched over without notice as soon as the pink thick severed muscle was sandwiched between two fudgsicles. Rainbow was running on adrenaline and shock. She wouldn’t realize until much later just exactly what she did in the very moment at hand.

“**** it.”

She tried to push Foster back but she felt the slick material of his blood drenched shirt move beneath her hand. The knife that had held him up had been removed too soon. There was no more time to waste. She ignored the directions on the suitcase and called for emergency services. While they were on their way she left a voicemail on Dominique’s cell.

“Foster was attacked. Check the cameras. You didn’t answer so he is heading to the hospital.”

The iPhone on the kitchen counter ceased its movement. The glow of the screen lasted long enough for the incoming call alert to switch to 1 new voicemail. The sounds of sirens and voices came as a relief to the woman and she instantly started sobbing as the first responding officer became visible.

Breaking the surface of the water several hundred yards from the dock had the dark head and eyes appearing just above the water line. She wiped the water from her eyes and brushed the limp strands of her hair from face. Her toes used the slick rock and loose bottom to grip on beneath the water to keep her at the very edge of the bank while her hands gathered and twisted the excess water from her hair. Slowly her feet braved the challenge of the unpredictable surface they walked on. The closer she came the more aware she became that her dock had a visitor.

Using care not to make a sound she approached and finally make out who it was. HOPE reached up as she sprung from the rocks beneath her feet and attempted to take the uninvited by the back of his collar and toss him into the river. Unfortunately on a larger scale some things were just not meant to be. This was one of those. HOPE was met with a resistance that the shadow did not plan on. The body she was aiming for stayed put and in her failure she did the only reasonable thing she could do being that she was bare as the day she was born. She embraced the shadows around her and went quickly for the bank to gain solid ground.

Dominique was at a loss as to why the vampire who seemed to have finally found his clothing was sitting on her dock beneath the stars. Vita Bella stars to specific. Her body was dripping but hardly a reason for her to avoid her barefooted progression that had her walking down the dock. It was her property and she didn’t expect to have to dress for anyone and she certainly wasn’t going to start at that particular moment. Besides the shadows that clung to her, protected her was the best ensemble to grace her body.

“So, this is a surprise.”

The wet prints left by her feet sparkled beneath the partial moon’s light. She found the opposite and empty adirondack chair and claimed it with her bottom. Sliding back she relaxed as anyone would who owned the spot they were currently on, which she did. The position left her downwind and with that advantage she was taking in the scent of what was close to the dirt just at the edge of the dock. Moist dirt that was rich, it’s source from a deeper layer. Had he been digging somewhere before he arrived or ….yes. It was there before. That and the leftover scent of spent Marlboro reds. Her nose twitched subtly and her head reclined so that her dark eyes were heavenward.

“What brings you by?” He was entirely comfortable where he was. The recent fail at attempting to send him to float away told her as much applied with him. “Surely couldn’t be out for a walk. It is quite a hike.” It was then that she caught a few more scents that struck her with a night breeze moving in. Overpowering the chemicals that remembered in his apartment a couple nights back was the sweetness that only could be found in the slick walls of a warm palatable vein. She licked her lips slowly, top first then bottom,as she waited for a response.

Dominique was finding it increasingly hard to keep human employees around. The longer that time passed the more fragile she found them to be. Namely for the way the seemed to be targeted and she knew she was the issue more than they were. Her choices would need to adjust to this revelation but for the moment she was finding out that perhaps her shadows have worn off and if so she was sitting there wearing a lot less of the darkness than she thought she was. Her brow lifted as HOPE was rather visible which meant the rest of her was as well. Nothing was ever fool proof. Even what she had in her bag of magic tricks.

This was not half as important though as the mention of Foster. It just so happens that he was allergic to apples. Apples and celery. How she knew this wasn’t anywhere as important as to why would Foster be eating applesauce or ice cream? And how in the hell did Ric know Foster had a chest tattoo? She stares at him leaving the silence between them to speak for itself. She had sort of been in this spot ...kinda before. Right? So, maybe there was something she was not getting till this point. She did have a way of skipping over those she was not willing to accept. She had time to work on it.

“So do you feel better?” Evidently Foster was going to be laid up for sometime depending on how manhandled-scratch that-vamp handled the guy got thanks to a visit from Mr. Sunshine himself. It was a little disappointing. The guy was at a serious disadvantage to start with. “ I got a mess to clean up I guess. Paybacks are a *****, is that it?” She lifted off the chair and figured clothes might be a good idea if there was any validity to her assumptions. “Yeah, clothes.”

Dominque walked towards the house. Her path cleared the steps up to the main grounds and took her by the tent she first called home. The glowing eyes in the distance of the masked bandits did little in the means of distraction. She had bigger issues to worry about than three nights of garbage strewn about the northwest corner of the property. What the vampire did in her wake was his business. Follow, stay or leave. It was his choice as was all that lead him to the point of being there. She was done looking back...on many levels. True to her nature she was ready to take whatever came at her head on. Including the recent blood spill likely still needing clean up and even him if it became needed.

The tell tale sounds of feet moving over the ground she considers nearly sacred for many reasons is not lost on her at all. The aroma of smoke that was distant continues to trail behind until the vice loses its duration of use.

While her uncle went on about how he didn’t really care about the condition Foster was currently in, what it meant to her or what it would require of her as Foster’s boss she felt less concerned about the repercussions of her own upcoming actions. Foster was a dick? Well when was the last time he had he looked in that mirror one is expected every so often for a reality check. Of course he wouldn’t do it literally and find his reflection. It was apparent he had no reason to.

The man lingering behind but still moving along gave two shits less about pretty much everything. Except, it would seem, for her sire. Two peas in a pod those two are. She knew Doc well enough to see it in how he dealt with their first encounter. It made a lot of sense. Ric wore similar shoes through his existence as the one who created her. They were rugged, hard and free from offering any sort of apology or reason. Both would sink in anywhere, immerse themselves wherever they damn well pleased and stomp down anything in their path. Ric may have been spared how well she knew the type. Doc talked about their history as much as she did. Hardly at all. Barefeet stepped onto the warm stone tile at the ground rear entry. The heavy industrial door was held in her hand as she looked over her shoulder to find him stopping short of it.

“You are confused about something.” She had her back partially to him but her range to eye him evenly was not compromised in the least. Her eyes fixed in a hard line right back at his. “I don’t give a **** if you care or not when you make a mess. And I sure as hell don’t expect you to give a **** if I am the one about to clean it up. Memorable?” Her lips tightened when she paused. “You are about as memorable as what I had two weeks ago for dinner.”

With that she slammed the door in his face and locked it as if she was shutting up like she routinely did. Onward she went through the rear corridor that opened up to the stairwell that would lead her through darkness up to the top floor where she would get the clothes she needed. Not because he suggested it but because she sure as hell could not walk into her business like she looked when there could be people around looking for answers.

Alarms were in effect. The iphone lighting up and blinking on the kitchen island counter said as much. The shadow that the device belonged to was all too aware that the space she took for hers and hers alone was once again penetrated with a presence she thought was left outside. Filling up on the needed blood pack was the only reason for delay in dealing with the return of the uninvited. Each draw on the plastic depleated the sweet fluid within. Once it was sufficently drained she deposited it in the compacter that did a fine job of reducing it’s existence into nothing traceable.

It was while she was in that space that she could react and grab the weapons she passed on the second floor but left them where they were stored. The third floor was passed through on light confident steps. Nothing in her pace would give notice that she was unsettled. On the fourth floor she arrived to find Ric perched on her white sofa with a game controller in hand and his feet on her glass table. LESS was quick to curl at the tips and hook the fabric of the cuffs of his pant legs and knocked them off.

“Seriously, do you mind?” A heat filled her as she looked at him pointedly. The itch beneath her skin crawling and digging at the layers that blocked it from release. “So you come in and prove your point. I didn’t mess with your stuff.” HOPE reached down and disconnected the controller from the game console. The screen continued to display the game in progress showing a scene of demise to the character he was running. “You have some huge boundary issues.”

Not waiting for his response she made her way to the bedroom wardrobe and quickly hopped into a set of black faded rock climbing shorts and a white tank that stated boldly in black letters “TRUST ME...I have a beard.” She scooped up the cell phone from the kitchen surface while passing it by and hit the voicemail. The faint sound of Rainbow announcing that indeed there was a huge mess to clean up could be heard until the voicemail ended its play while she pulled it away from her ear.

It had her attention, of course, but much less in the way such things would have in the past. Humans could be fixed. She had been too many times to count. At this point she was done investing her energy on saving every last one she was affiliated with when the warm body got in a predicament. Foster has his issues and a deadly sense of direction. He was fortunate to be enroute to one place that could help him. If he had been the one who showed up at the door he gave her the directions to he would not exist...or worse. Her jaw tightened as she shut off the cell and tossed it on the white chair she moved by as she came to the sofa where he was seated. Any resident animal within viewing position quickly disappeared in a blur of multi-color patterns and fur as she closed in on the man.

“Need some help finding your way out, hmmm?”

The subtle stretch beneath her skin was stirring, simmering through her dark blood as her eyes stayed on the one who was close to meeting the beast within her. It wouldn’t be cute and it sure would not be kind. She never intended to see one of her walls broken but if he didn’t leave she had no issue sending him through the unfriendly sky once again.