Sylvie

“Charles Sheppard if my memory serves me.”  Casey added and sniffed the air once more. “We are a little overzealous peach-pie.  We need to shower so the world doesn’t know that we have been rolling in sex all day.”

Reluctantly, Sylvie reversed her path to the front door and headed to the bathroom. “Yeah, You have a point there.  Shower, then we hunt, then we find the fuck’n skull.”

“Ahem, my line.”  Casey walked into the bathroom with Sylvie.

Roughly an hour after they got into the shower, Sylvie had finally made her way to her motorcycle with a sheepish grin on her face. “You said shower.  I didn’t know that was code for sex.”  She laughed and turned the ignition. “I thought we were supposed to be getting the sex smell off of us.”

Raising one devilish eyebrow, Casey nodded to her lover, “We got the smell off.  Nothing said we couldn’t add to it while we got clean.”  Snuggly fitting one of the helmets to her head, Casey slid her arms around Sylvie’s waist. “So, straight to the university?”

Donning her protective gear, Sylvie nodded and drove out of the driveway and onto Brander’s Bridge road, taking the opposite route she was used to. “I figure that we go find the professor and charm the man into giving all of his research and the skull to us.”

“Sounds like you have it all planned out.”  Casey quipped as she spotted a couple walking with headlamps walking out of a small nature park.  Smelling their delicious blood, Casey felt the hunger rise like a tidal wave.  She suddenly didn’t want to wait until they were in the neighboring city of Petersburg, so Casey quickly developed a plan and implemented it.

When Sylvie felt Casey’s arms slide away from her waist, She glanced back to see her partner standing on the seat and changing into her predatory bird form. “What the..”  Sylvie spotted the two hikers and settled down. “...This should be interesting.”  Watching as Casey jumped high into the air, Sylvie smiled as Casey shifted flawlessly.  “Good girl…You go get them my blood-dove.”  Swinging the bike into the parking lot of the park, Sylvie shut off the engine and waited.

A few minutes later, Casey came out of the woodline dragging the two people. “Charmed, so I figured I would share dinner.”  She winked and looked down at one of the people. “Don’t worry, you are going home soon to eat.  I am just helping you both to your car.”

Both of the people looked up with a glaze in their eyes and nodded. “Home, we are going home.  Thanks for the help back there.  We are very hungry…aren’t we?”

Once Casey gently pushed one of the people to Sylvie’s waiting arms, She let her fangs drop into place and with a swiftness punctured the man’s throat, drinking gingerly.

-Oh my, he’s not hungry for food.-

Casey thought to herself as she counted to ten and licked the wound closed.  She pulled the helpless man into her arms and stared him in the face, before blowing her radiant breath right in his nose. “You won’t recall much of anything.  You two will sit here for a couple minutes then leave for home.”  Casey rolled her eyes and added, “You will be gentle and kind to her tonight, understood?”

Nodding in an almost drunken stupor, the man smiled. “Mmhhmm, I always am.”

Sliding the man to the backside of a tree, Casey wiped her mouth and waited for Sylvie to finish up. “That was a quick snack before the park.  I saw them and couldn’t help myself.”

Closing the holes in the woman’s neck she’d been feeding from, Sylvie scooped the woman in her arms and placed her beside the man. “I am not upset, Casey.”  She pointed to the seat on her bike, “The acrobatics were not really necessary, I would have stopped.”

“It was more fun that way.”  Casey laughed, “I got to show off my lovely vampire skills, I have to impress my maker you know.”

Getting back on the motorcycle, Sylvie half-smiled and started the engine once more. “You have already impressed me, Casey.  I have never seen a newborn adapt like you have.”  Sylvie looked into the woods as she heard more voices. “You know, I bet it would be fun to gather up all the folks in the park, drag them out here and after feeding from all of them, make up a story.  I mean imagine them coming out of the stupor and going, ‘Why are we in the gravel?’ - I think it would be hilarious.”

“You are cruel as you are gorgeous.”  Casey kissed Sylvie on the neck. “I suppose you would fill them full of UFO sightings too?”

Sylvie kicked her bike into gear and once again headed for the border of their town. “Not the UFO type, more like I would leave ghost stories.”  She giggled and paused, “You know I am winning.”

Holding Sylvie tight around her waist, Casey leaned on Sylvie’s back and asked, “Winning?  Whatever are you talking about moon-muffin?”

“Damnit.”  Sylvie responded. “We are gonna run out of combinations at some point.”

Casey squeezed Sylvie’s waist, “We have an eternity to think of more, so I am not overly concerned about it, peach-puppy.”

“Damnit!”  Sylvie exclaimed a second time in thirty seconds. “How can I compete with that speed? My wonderful sugar-snookums.”

Casey rubbed her lover's back and laughed lightly as they sped down the road.  It was only after Casey spotted a myriad of red and blue lights, mixed with flashing orange ones that she said anything. “Sylvie, I am sure you see that mess down there.”

“Yeah, I do.  Now I wish we’d looked at the news before we left.”  She cleared her throat and focused on the contacts in her eyes. “Code are you online?”  She sensed the tech come to life and the green bars circled in her vision for a few seconds.

“Querry?” The little AI chip asked.

Pulling over to the side of the bridge overlooking the mess of overturned trucks and police tape, Sylvie answered her little computer. “We are crossing the Saint Christopher’s intercity bridge and there are lots of police and fire trucks present, can you tell us what is going on?”

“Working.”  Scanning all for all sources, a few seconds later Code answered. “..Associated press release yesterday, combined with twenty-four coverage from broadcast stations…”  It paused, “...No less than seven overturned trucks with court records were found yesterday morning.  Rescue workers saved two people of the twelve in the vehicles.  Further news indicates there are two more victims of ‘The Cross Killer’.  One is identified as Charles Sheppard, a tenured professor at Tri-city Community University.  Listed missing over two days prior. Stop.  Associated press release, Second victim of ‘The Cross Killer’ named Noah Osborn, Clerk of Court for the city of Petersburg.  Stop.”  Code went silent for a few seconds. “Would you like to know the means of their deaths?”

Unbuckling her helmet and hanging it on her handlebars, Sylvie sighed and answered Code. “No thank you.  You did well, we thank you.”  She turned to Casey. “What a mess.  I hope Alan isn’t blaming this on me, I wasn’t anywhere close to this mess.”  She rubbed her temples, “With the professor dead, we are going to have a hell of a time getting the skull and the notes the man took.”