Chapter 19: Eva

  Eva and Dustin awoke the next night fairly early. Well, Dustin did. The unclothed Eva was groggy from her post-murdering state. She uselessly checked herself in the bathroom mirror and found my twisted reflection staring back at her for just a moment; Inhumanly long fingers with claws for nails, wisps of shadows and tentacles swirling about, multiple arms, and no coherent facial appearance.

  Just a void of darkness with purple eyes.

  “What the fuck?!” Eva gasped loudly, practically shrieking like she was about to be stabbed, reeling back from the mirror. “Dustin! Dustin!”

  She stumbled against the door, half-turning to look into the hotel’s main room where the other fledgling was getting dressed. He hobbled over, one leg in his trousers and the other trailing behind. The shirtless human stared at her, eyes wide as well.

  “Eva… your hair.”

  “Huh?” She pulled the golden locks with silver-white streaks into view. “What!? Oh fuck… Isabella’s gonna know.”

  Dustin gulped. “We can dye it.”

  No, you cannot. It will not stay. I tried many times in the past. The void takes all, because Mother wishes to show the world who Her chosen child is.

  Eva nodded rapidly. “Lemme see your beanie.”

  The man tossed it to her. She pulled all her hair into one bundle and tucked it up inside the knit cap. I wanted to chuckle at her futile attempts, but didn't want to make myself known just yet. Eva dressed herself in the contraption I earlier suspected of holding her breasts. It did hold them underneath her long sleeved blouse.

  Her heeled boots were ill-suited for combat and would have to be swapped out as soon as possible. Perhaps I could subtly influence her decisions without revealing myself, because if Isabella and the others knew I survived, they would behead Eva and that'd be the end of me. Eva pulled a shoulder holster on, followed by putting a modern .40 caliber pistol inside it and covering her blouse with a denim jacket. Her thin leggings and boots came next.

  My cell phone dinged from inside the bag of things they had on the desk, but Dustin and Eva ignored it. Instead, the two lovebirds focused on Eva’s hair and face with Dustin remarking, “You look paler than usual.”

  “My reflection’s different, too.” Eva glanced at the mirror where I allowed her normal reflection to show itself. It was her, but blurry and partially ethereal if one were to look hard enough. She didn’t look that bad. I would have chatted her up under normal circumstances. Such as if she wasn’t my sire’s fledgling.

  Dustin looked around the woman to the mirror behind her, frowning deeply. “It looks normal to me, but let's not mention any of this to Isabella.”

  “I swear it was different…” The half-elf rubbed the back of her neck with one hand while Dustin squeezed her other. I could sense Eva’s worries and hear her thoughts almost as if they were my own.

  Did I fuck up? She's dead, right?

  No, Eva. I am not. I am watching you.

  The two of them went back and forth about Eva’s reflection and hair. Since neither of them had committed to draining a vampire’s soul before, the fledglings had no idea if what was going on with Eva was normal or not. And there wasn’t much information on the subject, because I kept it hidden. I never lost the battle of wills and so my victims always found themselves in my stomach, not my brain.

  Eva worried about her reflection as she paced back and forth, waiting for Dustin to throw his trousers and shirt on. She scooped my phone from the bag, effortlessly flicking open the screen to the messaging app right away. The half-elf scoffed at who messaged me. “Who the fuck calls a person ‘Dinner’?!”

  “Maybe it’s her personal meal?” The man shrugged.

  Eva rolled her eyes. “I still wouldn’t call them ‘Dinner’. I’d call them by their name.”

  “What do they want?” Dustin asked while Eva scrolled up through the messages to the first time Dinner and I spoke.

  “To know if the witch made it home safely or if she still needs a ride. It kind of sounds like her retainer or partner.”

  “Let’s deal with them before we hunt down her fledgling. Tell Dinner that you’ll meet them by the old Coliseum.”

  Eva wrote out a simple message: I need help! Meet me at South Encinar’s coliseum at 9:45.

  That is not at all how I’d respond, but I wasn't going to give Eva any hints that what she was doing was going to hopefully tip Dinner off to what was going on. I doubted it. Dinner would soon be a vampire’s snack and further in debt. Was it my responsibility to save the poor half-elf with a bad spine?

  No, not at all.

  Was I going to do it?

  Yes, yes, I will.

  I felt where my fingers should be, where Eva’s fingers were, against the phone case, just trying to make her trigger finger tap against the phone. It took a little mental effort to prod it to move. The finger twitched before it tapped against the case in time with the movements I was doing. One… two… three… four… I felt each tap as if it were my own finger.

  “Perfect.”

  Eva froze in place, even the finger stopped moving. She slowly glanced up from the phone and looked toward the washroom. A strange feeling washed over the half-elf as her eye twitched and her voice filled my head.

  Is someone there? Cass… Cassandra…?

  I retreated to the place I had been when she awakened. That way I could sulk without being discovered, because I was an idiot and whispered instead of thinking. Eva stood there for quite some time, asking different ways if anyone was in her head or not. Similar to how Jezebel was trying to get Amelia’s attention the night I awakened.

  She finally turned to look at Dustin, biting her lip. He paid her no mind as he finished getting dressed and ready for the night. It was only 7:58 pm according to my phone in Eva’s hand. There was still ten hours of night and I had two vampires to kill, but that required getting ahold of Eva’s body entirely.

  It was a situation I never encountered before. Perhaps it is a situation one of my victims found themselves in when I killed them, but since I, Lady Cassandra von Colterville the 1st, was still the same woman in spirit and body. It is likely that none of them ever defeated me. I didn't even know it was possible for a vampire to find themselves in the situation I found myself in!

  It might be because the System had a hand in it, or it might be normal. Again, I had no idea this was possible. It was a first for me just as it was a first for Eva. I couldn't let anyone know. Not Lyra, not Jean, and certainly not Isabella. If they knew of my fate they would use it to their advantage.

  But, the two fledglings were planning to kill both Dinner and Lyra. I had to act with haste, but mind how I acted as Eva. For now, I wait and observe.

  *** ***

  The two fledglings failed to bicker as the two of them drove across town to the coliseum. Eva kept any oddities to herself on the drive and I refused to prod her extremities any further. Instead, I began to root around in her memories to get a feel for who she was and how best to mimic her once I took over. If fully taking over was a possibility. That was one thing that occurred to me as I rode on her shoulder as it were.

  Would I have full control or would we share it? Perhaps I might be able to project myself to her much in the way a spirit would. Just to haunt her dreams and waking hours.

  When I grew bored of digging through the memories of sitting at a desk filing paperwork away, I decided to test my limits once again. Only instead of using her extremities that I know I can influence, I used her eyes and fears to attempt a manifestation in the back seat.

  It wasn't the best of manifestations, either. Only a vague shadowy outline of a person sitting in the seat, but it was enough that Eva felt me ‘staring’ at the back of her head.

  She slowly looked over her shoulder in my direction, eyes tracking from one side of the car to the other.

  Dustin noticed her movements and asked, “Everything alright?”

  “We’re alone, right?” Eva replied, tearing her eyes from the backseat.

  “Yeah. What's up? You've been acting funny all evening.”

  “I don't know. I’m just tired, I guess, and hungry.” Eva rubbed her stomach as a small smile crept over her face. She had a whole vampire the night before and was still thinking of food. That was good for me.

  “Already?!” Dustin gasped. “You drank every drop from the Moon Witch of Encinar! How can you still be hungry?”

  Eva’s tongue pressed against the back of her teeth as she thought about it. On one hand, she did drink me dry, and I applaud her. I would have thought my blood tasted terrible with how much I lean into the void beyond the stars. Poor, poor Eva will soon find out just how bad my hunger truly is.

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  It starts as a small ache from the moment I awaken. Should I not find sustenance right away, the ache builds into a throb. That throb then turns into a burning pit in my stomach. The burning pit becomes an all consuming fire. Blood sacks can truly sate the hunger for the most part, and cans half-work, but a vampire? Well. That is the only way to cool the ache. One whole vampire, and soul, and I’d be set for a month. A sip, or a long drink and the hunger would quiet down for a day or three.

  Eva reached into my grocery bag and pulled the necklace out. She held it against her chest, then turned it around a couple of times. The half-elf frowned deeply. “It's kind of ugly, don't you think?”

  “It might look nice on you?” he replied.

  “She asked her retainer for advice on the necklace. I’d think it'd be a giveaway for me to show up wearing that.”

  Dustin half-shrugged and nodded. And so the two of them rode on in relative silence with the vampire slowing down for the cops and speeding up once he passed them. He turned on the radio to fill the quiet. Upbeat music played out, causing Eva to lightly clap her hands together. The half-elf hummed as a singer complained in German about her partner forgetting the color film and now no one believed them about how beautiful the sunset was.

  I got the feeling Eva had no idea what the lyrics were, because she was pronouncing them terribly. I smiled at an opportunity, allowing myself to match with Eva and hum with her. With the half-elf in her state she wouldn't notice if I gently smoothed over the way she was pronouncing the words and at least made it sound better to my ears.

  We continued like this for the rest of the song with me attempting to keep up. I fumbled when I got to the end and found myself falling to the helm as it were. With a strange slap to the face feeling, Eva, well, I sat in the car as warm heat caressed my face. Another vent gently blew across my body while the very seat itself warmed my backside!

  It was comfortable, if a bit odd, because I hadn't intended for it to happen the way it did. My fangs were already out, as Eva didn't like to hide them like I did. The necklace glittered softly in my lap when we passed under street lamp after street lamp along the highway.

  Eva went quiet. I went quiet. I could feel her poking and prodding as she tried to feel her face, so I mimicked the movements to make her think she was still in control. She relaxed and sighed softly. When she was placated, I gently picked up the necklace, wrapping it around my neck and clasping it shut.

  Dustin saw this out of the corner of his eye and turned to look at me. “I thought you weren't gonna wear that?”

  I shrugged. “It makes me look pretty, no?” With a small smile, I hoped the man didn't see through my ruse. I didn't have enough information to completely mimic Eva just yet!

  Again, he shrugged and looked ahead.

  I followed his gaze out the window as Eva tried to get back to the helm. She knew something was off, because she was speaking inside my head. What? Why did I put that on?! Hey! Who’s there?

  The woman’s clothes were not at all to my liking. It felt like I was naked to the world! I didn't have enough layers. There needed to be a skirt at least! And while the brassiere did fine to keep the girls in check, Eva’s posture was horrendously slouched. I needed my corset to keep everything aligned and to cover up at least some of the damage my… old body had.

  Slowly, I moved my fingers along my stomach, expecting to find bumps or any signs that I had been shot, but they were gone. There was nothing under Eva’s thin shirt. It was so thin you could just barely make out the color of her brassiere underneath! Modern people are strange.

  The disconnect was enough for Eva to shove me aside and take over once again. I didn't resist. I wanted to wait for her to be deep in feeding from Dustin where she'll be struggling with her hunger because she has realized what I realized.

  Vampires are fucking delicious.

  The warmth left me, as did the strange feeling of wearing almost nothing. I harrumphed where I was and sat down to bide my time right as the song ended and a familiar news broadcaster spoke, “Good evening every vampire! If you're looking for traffic this evening then you're in luck, because it's fairly light today. No accidents so far, and slowdowns are in the usual spots. You'll get to work on time. Now for the other news; Encinar Police are still investigating the events surrounding the illegal blood den down the Blood Tank. Who would have thought an elder vampire thought dead was running a blood prostitution ring from a club called the Blood Tank?

  “Not me! Never. Police are requesting any information you have on Lady Colterville’s whereabouts. She is wanted in connection to siring a fledgling outside of System Guidelines and running a blood prostitution ring. She is considered armed and extremely dangerous. Do not approach Lady Colterville if you see her. Call the police instead.”

  “What?” Eva asked as the thought consumed me. She blinked a few times, quickly shook her head and then slapped her forehead. “Sorry.”

  “Maybe we should call Isabella. Sire will know—”

  “No!” Both Eva and I were of one mind on that and yelled in unison to Dustin. She huffed, smoothed out her hair and jacket, then slumped back in her seat. “I’m fine, Dustin. It's just a bit of morning sickness is all.”

  Dustin exited the highway, causing Eva to sigh in relief. The coliseum was fairly easy to spot thanks to a massive parking lot where buildings likely once stood. A giant LED sign showed off advertisements to everyone driving along the highway. This one was directly targeting vampires by showing a thin vampire drinking diet blood, claiming it could lower your weight within a month.

  What the fuck is Diet Blood?!

  Huh?

  I hissed at myself and resigned to wait until they saw Dinner.

  *** ***

  Dinner was smarter than I gave them credit for, but it made sense since they were a mech pilot. Those machines looked fairly complex to me even if Dinner claimed they could teach me to run it in under five minutes. Teach me to pilot it, yes. Teach me to be good at it? No. Even I could see the years required to efficiently pilot such a machine.

  And that made sense why Dinner’s company wanted them to stick around.

  But Dinner wasn't piloting their mech. Or sticking around. Eva and Dustin had made it to the rendezvous location and waited for Dinner to appear. I don't know how used to murdering people the two vampires were, but they just sat in their SUV waiting for Dinner to come to them.

  Dinner had to have known something was up because when they pulled into the parking lot they took the long way around until their Veren Type 1 was coming head on at the SUV. It seemed to be going fairly slowly, too. Perhaps walking speed or less.

  Both Dustin and Eva’s windows were rolled down, allowing the cool night air to filter inside the car. Storm clouds grumbled overhead as they flashed internally. The vampires held weapons close to their stomachs with Dustin having a strange pistol Eva’s memories called a machine pistol. Through her memories, I knew the weapon was capable of firing full auto. Eva held a full auto carbine much like Isabella’s, but not as fancy. It was a common variant chambered to fire ‘large’ .308 caliber bullets.

  My boomcannon was better than the rifle. I had a scope at least while Eva was stuck with a simple iron sight and laser dot.

  Eva pulled the charging handle back and let it snap forward, saying, “That's her car. Let's kill the bitch and go.”

  Dinner didn't stop coming toward them like I expected even as the passenger door opened. Every single forward light on the vehicle lit up like the sun, sending Eva into a panic. From the high beams to the fog lights in the bumper; the lights on the door pillars to the four auxiliary lights running across the roofline. Everything looked like one powerful ball of sunlight rising over the horizon.

  The two vampires shrieked in surprise, covering their eyes.

  Dinner’s car roared to life and zoomed by the SUV, tires squealing and trailing a stream of white smoke. Through the spots in Eva’s vision, I glimpsed a flame-red haired person holding a hand out the passenger window with the middle finger in the air.

  Dustin spun the wheel around and hit the throttle, sending Eva deeper into the seat as the SUV roared after Dinner. By the time Dustin was facing the other direction, the Veren Type 1 had pulled onto the street and was accelerating away with its signature flutter.

  Eva braced her feet against the floor, removed her seatbelt and held onto a bar just above her head. “I think I saw the fledgling in the car, too,” the half-elf said.

  “Good. We can… is something following us?” Dustin leaned to the side, glancing to his left at the door mirror.

  Eva turned to look over her shoulder and gasped. A small illuminated object roughly the size of a housecat with four wheels was speeding after us. I dredged through her memories, attempting to make sense of what I was seeing, and came to the conclusion that it was an armed remotely operated vehicle like what Dinner had kept in their car’s frunk. Extremely deadly to civilians and easily dealt with if Eva had bothered to pack the Electronic Counter Measures.

  She hadn't. They didn't expect Dinner to be using drones, because almost nobody in the city used them. A drone like the one chasing them was military technology used against armored tanks and mechs, not unarmored cars driven by vampires.

  “Drone!” Eva gasped.

  Dustin pressed the throttle even more and shoved Eva back a bit. She braced her knee on the seat to keep herself steady, bringing the rifle up to aim out the back window at the drone. The half-elf had far better vision than I did without my glasses. She was able to see without any blurriness or double vision around the bright lights.

  Although, I think she regretted firing the weapon the instant she squeezed the trigger. The report was so loud it shattered the nearby window, sending shards of glass raining onto the street as Dustin tried to follow Dinner through South Encinar.

  I don't know where we were going or what the road ahead looked like, because I could only see from Eva’s point of view as she lined up another shot on the drone.

  Her ears rang profusely as Dustin yelled, “She said the retainer’s a mech pilot, not a getaway driver!”

  “Shut up and drive!” Eva shouted back. She tucked the rifle against her shoulder once more and waited.

  Dustin juked left, then threw the SUV into a right-hand turn, practically throwing it sideways, tires squealing beneath us. It was all he could do to make the turn. The SUV leaned to the side, throwing Eva’s aim off in the same breath she squeezed the trigger.

  Weapon thumping against her undead shoulder, the bullets whizzed past the drone as it crept closer. I didn't know the range, nor the speed of the device, but it was fast. Fast enough that it could keep up with the SUV through traffic and still dart to the side any time Eva took aim.

  Almost as if it was being controlled from somewhere else. Only I didn't know by whom, but assumed it to be Dinner or Lyra. However, as I dredged through Eva’s memories on drones I realized one very important thing about the situation.

  The drone was a rolling bomb chasing after us. Dinner likely assumed I was dead, and with good reason, because I refused to be captured. Lyra would know about my capabilities, but what neither of them knew was that I was in the car with Eva and Dustin.

  As Dustin haphazardly threw the car through another turn, Eva stole a glance ahead. Dinner’s Veren was smoothly transitioning from the slide into another as they narrowly avoided hitting a group of cars. The old rust bucket straightened out and dashed behind another car, then out into an open lane and zoomed past it. The half-elf was fitting the Veren through gaps I couldn't even see. And neither could Eva!

  I doubted Dustin did, because he barreled his way through traffic instead, shoving his way through one gap. A loud crunch echoed throughout the cabin, originating on both sides of us as we simultaneously hit two cars on the way through.

  Dinner was fast approaching a wall of stopped traffic and would have to make a decision, but what the decision was, Eva didn't care. She again focused on the drone chasing us and took aim.

  I focused my energy onto her hand. It resisted for just a moment before I took over it and reached into her jacket pocket for my phone. Pulling the phone out from the pocket, I ‘hinted’ to Eva that she should send a message to Lyra, since Dinner was driving the Veren.

  Eva saw sense in the plan and fired off a message I told her to send: We have your sire in the car, fledgling. Call off the drone!

  Eva put the phone away and lined up another burst. Bullets tore through the drone’s front wheel and suspension, sending the small machine skidding toward another car. I bit my lip, hoping it didn't hit some poor bystander and explode.

  The drone managed to limp its way to the sidewalk and flames began to consume the machine.

  Eva turned around again. And this time she was quite sensible in that she did not shoot through the window. There just wasn't enough room to bring the weapon up. As she calmed down and took a long look at Dinner’s car, which was spun around and sitting in the lane facing us, the System sent her a message:

  Drone destroyed! 25,650 experience points gained. XP needed to level up: 9,250,000.

  It was quite a lot of experience points needed and meant that Eva wouldn't level up for some time if kills gave that measly amount of experience.

  Eva dismissed the message and looked over at Dustin. His fingers drummed silently on the wheel, head cocked as he clearly thought about what to do. They were in a standoff and Dinner could blind them with their lights, but would it work a second time when they knew about the lights?

  My phone dinged with a message from Dinner: Greetings, vamnappers! Did you enjoy the race? A Horizon Ranger dropship is currently inbound to our location. Give Lady C to me, or they will land and I will take her by force.

  P.S. We have filed the correct paperwork and paid the fees to conduct an emergency extraction in Encinar airspace, meaning the city defenses will not fire on the dropship. You have thirty minutes to give Lady C to me or face the full brunt of an urban assault mech wing.

  Signed, Lieutenant Commander Ripper of the Horizon Rangers.

  “Oh fuck…” Eva whispered softly. “The retainer’s not just a mech pilot. She’s a fucking Horizon Commander! Killing her is useless!”

  Eva’s fingers tapped away at the keyboard and sent Dinner a message of her own: Do not do this.

  It is already done, Dinner replied.

  Eva bit her lip, eyes darting to Dinner’s car, then to her left where Dustin was. “She says we have thirty minutes to give her Cassandra or a mech wing is coming after us.”

  He shook his head and said, “She’s bluffing. Encinar won't allow an outside company to take a contract against vampires in city limits.”

  Both Dustin and Eva didn't notice what I noticed from Eva’s shoulder. There were no police sirens anywhere despite the gunfire, the drone, and the chase. In fact, civilians were actually fleeing the area either through driving away, turning around, or running from their cars. Side streets were unusually clear of traffic as if something was preventing the vehicles from approaching. To me, it felt like the situation where I wandered into Encinar that first night and people ran from me thinking I was a werewolf.

  “What do we do?!” Eva gasped, just now realizing that they were, well, fucked no matter what they did, as she would say. I was dead as far as she knew and that meant that they could not give me back to Dinner.

  Eva furiously typed away, fingers a blur as she sent: Call them off! We’ll double whatever she’s paying you. Just turn your car around and leave. We’ll send the money to your company’s account within the hour.

  Dinner’s reply was quick: I am doing this because I can and I’m bored. There is no other reason you need to know. You have Lady C, I have the means to rescue her. We will hunt you until she is in my possession or the city is in ruins. Take your pick. You have twenty-nine minutes and counting.

  Eva twirled her hand about like she was swinging a lasso. “Turn around, turn around, turn around! She’s going to level the city. Fuck! What do we do?!”

  Nothing. They were both dead and I didn't have to do anything. I felt a smirk creeping across my face and hoped it reached Eva’s mouth. They were without wind in their sails. Eva chuckled to herself thanks to me. The fact that she and I shared the same body meant I’d have to convince Dinner I was me when it came time to make the exchange.

  Dustin’s concerned look was rightly earned, because both fledglings encountered something neither of them were equipped to deal with.

  How does a vampire defeat a mech dropship?

  We’re so fucked…