A Big Shiny Blue Marble Ch. 44

Rudhi sat down and her eyes opened a little as she looked over, "This is very warm! There is heat coming from this around the skin here."

"Uh-huh," Randi laughed, "and that's the other reason for the fleece -- to keep your ass from getting burned. That gearcase will get hot in a while."

Randi was about to put the vehicle into gear when she looked through the periscopes at the mirrors that she'd put on the "fenders". They stood up about a foot and a half on metal frames and they were there to keep an eye down the sides and toward the rear. She saw a motion in one of them and hissed. "It's that bastard again. I thought that I ran him off a long way back, but I guess he's got a stubborn streak as well as a tiny brain."

Rudhi thought for only a moment, "He is the one who hurt you."

Randi looked over, "Yeah, how did you know that?"

"When we like someone, we feel much from them,"Rudhi said, "How do I get out again? I will make sure that he causes you no more hurt."

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The man was sneaking down the side of the thing carefully with his pistol in his hand. He didn't know anything much about it, but from what he'd seen it do to a cliff of solid rock, he thought that it was something that he might find a use for. He just needed to get inside and force whoever was in it to teach him a little before he killed them and drove off. He figured that it would be perfect to use for making a large withdrawal from the bank.

He stepped away a little as he heard and saw the hatch on the top of the thing fly open. Something dark and transparent shot upwards out of it and was gone. He couldn't see it anywhere, but he knew that he now had his way in. He took one step and the thing was back -- right in front of him now, and the shape of it became ... he couldn't believe his eyes. He was looking at an incredibly beautiful - and naked - woman right there in front of him, but his appraisal took a downturn when she smiled and he saw those teeth.

He raised his shooter and began to fire as he tried to scramble backwards to get away. Every time that he pulled the trigger, she was somewhere else and he heard laughter. He went through six shots in no time and threw the pistol as he ran back to his horse and pulled his rifle from its scabbard, but she was on him then and the rifle fell, swept aside with no effort from her.

She grabbed him by the throat then and it seemed a little ludicrous, since he was taller than she was. But those were his last thoughts for a time. He fell to her feet in a heap, unconscious and forgotten for the moment as Rudhi flew back to the idling machine with her heart in her throat.

She'd felt it as something had happened to Randi.

Even though she'd told the redhead to remain inside the vehicle, Randi had climbed halfway out of the hatch. Now she lay sprawled half off the turret and there was blood seeping out from under her on the paint.

Ruhi was there in an instant and turning her friend over, she could see that somehow in all of the shooting, one bullet had found the only person that she knew here -- the one that she was so happy to have found a friend in only minutes before. Randi's eyes opened and she coughed a little and Rudhi could see by the brightness of the blood that she'd been hit very close to the heart and since it was coming out of her mouth, it must have hit her esophagus as well.

Randi coughed again, "I guess I'm ... too nosy for my own good."

Rudhi gave quick and careful thought to everything and she sobbed a little in desperation, but she came to an idea several times as she thought furiously. Each time that it surfaced in her mind, she discarded it and sought for another way, but one after another, the other thoughts fell apart in her mind for one reason or another. By the time that she was down to the only thing which remained, Randi had lost consciousness again.

Rudhi didn't know what to do, but she decided quickly to act in the only way that she knew would work, knowing that she might not get much in the way of thanks for it if she was successful, but then, if it was really unwelcome, she had an answer for that too and she'd give Randi the way out then. She untied the bodice quickly and pulled it open wide, looking down at a pair of perfect breasts that she couldn't bear to think about being dead.

Rudhi thought about herself for a moment, and concluded that she had this to spare by a small margin, so she placed her palm over the wound. Things went in both directions after that; the bullet slowly lifting free and being drawn to the surface, and a lot of Rudhi's life force moving in the opposite direction into Randi's breast. The flow of heart blood stopped in a second and Randi's blood pressure began to increase a little as Randi went from feeling herself drift away down a long deep well to suddenly being caught in the fall and pulled back up.

Rudhi kept her hand on Randi's breastbone, only taking it away for a brief instant to pluck the bullet as it rose through the surface and set it aside before placing her hand back gently -- as quickly as she could. She looked down at that face and decided that for the first time in who knew how long, this was someone that she didn't want to see leave her life and it felt good to her to feel determination once more. She began to press down on Randi's chest as much as she dared, not wanting to crack the already damaged cartilage which she felt underneath as she opened her mouth to place her lips over Randi's.

At the first breath, Randi's eyes flew open and she coughed up more blood. Rudhi was prepared for it and took it, being what she was and she replaced it quickly with another breath as her hand moved slightly in patterns now over the bullethole which was already closing.

The stricken young woman gasped and inhaled deeply, not understanding how she could -- with Rudhi's face there and her lips over her mouth like this, but every time that she did, she got air as she listened to what rushed into Rudhi's nostrils for them both. She felt pain at first left over from the gunshot, but it passed quickly, and though she felt less pain afterward, what she felt was heat -- searing heat in her chest. Her breastbone ached a little from the injury and the pressure and her mouth hurt somehow in a way that reminded her of having a toothache.

The deed was done in another minute and Rudhi pulled back to look at Randi with worry and concern for a moment as Randi struggled to try to feel if she was really here and if she was still dying or not and if not then why not and what the hell had just happened here and what the hell had this girl just done here and ...

Randi found that she could move her arms and she reached for Rudhi, who suddenly looked so relieved. "What ... happened to me?" she whispered.

Rudhi stared and would have answered, but right then, she did something that she knew that this girl wouldn't likely appreciate very much, but she didn't care. Rudhi kissed Randi very softly for a moment and then pulled back.

"I am sorry," she smiled a little ashamedly, "I am very happy that you live.

Something from his weapon hit you and you were dying. I thought of only one thing that I could do which I knew would save you." She looked a little uncomfortable then, "There was no way that I could ask, and so I acted. The thing that was in you is gone," she said in her thoughts as she looked away and down. She lifted the bullet and held it up before Randi, "This was in your heart. I have removed it, obviously, and I have healed you, but, ... Randi, you may be very angry with me, because I may have done the wrong thing."

"What. ... what do you mean? I remember tasting blood, ... and ... that you -- "

Her eyes widened, "You sucked in the blood that I coughed up!"

Rudhi nodded, "I told you that I could drink blood. I did it because it was more important to me that you get another breath and I wanted to waste no time in spitting it out, so I swallowed. Randi, I was not feeding on you. I never would. I ... I let you feed on me in a way. I pushed some of my life into you."

She looked very uncomfortable then as she thought, "I gave you some of my life and I healed what was done." She looked away then at the gray sky and the land around them, "It does not come purely."

She looked down again at the girl in her arms, "It comes with some of me in it. You may not want this and if I have done wrong, then tell me and I will ease your life away if it is what you want instead, but I could not ask before.

You were a human and you are still that," Rudhi said, "You are not dead, and I am so happy to see this, but you are also a little like the one who gave this to you now."

"What does -- what does that mean?" Randi asked, "You told me that you're not a vampire."

"No," Rudhi said, "I am not. But in some ways I am a little like them. Until now, you had your life inside you. Like all of your kind, you have needed to keep it there by eating and drinking. This has not changed, but now, some of your life is from what I am. I need to eat as well, but it is not enough to keep my kind alive, and so sometimes I need to take life from other creatures -- and it does not matter what they are, so long as there is life for me there. It does not happen often, but it does happen. I would not have needed to do this again for a long time, but now ..."

She looked down, "And you will need it in just the same way now - unless you wish for me to take it back so that you can die."

"I don't want to die," Randi said in little more than a whisper as she shook her head, "I can feel something in me now that's like being hungry -- but I just ate a sandwich."

"Not the same and not enough," Rudhi said, shaking her head.

"What do I do then?" Randi asked, "It's getting worse. How do I make it go away?"

"It will never go away," the other one said, "just like the hunger to eat; it only hides until the next time. You can take what you need from another by only your touch on their flesh. I am sorry," she said," It was the only thing that I could do to help you."

She looked at Randi with a good deal of guilt on her face, but Randi smiled then, surprising Rudhi, "Thank you for what you did, if I was dying. So, I'm not dead, right? I don't feel dead or anything. Actually, I feel pretty good, except for that hunger."

"You will gain strength and live longer," Rudhi smiled a little.

"Well, this is going to be weird anyhow, no matter what, I guess," Randi said, "But, ... "she sighed a little, "I don't know how to say this, and Rudhi, I don't know if you can understand it, but, ... well, I've never been real big on girls. Now, I'm still not. But I've found somebody that I like an awful lot and I know that you've just saved my life. Thank you."

Rudhi smiled with obvious relief, "I was so afraid that you would be angry. Was that all that you wanted to say?"

"Yes -- I mean -- no, I ... well, could you kiss me again? Just one more time? I really liked that."

Rudhi smiled and kissed Randi again and the redhead even giggled a little as Rudhi licked way the blood which was on her chest afterward, but it ended when they heard the man get to his feet and look around unsteadily. Seeing them, he began to run for his horse. He had a lot of trouble getting into the saddle and almost fell off in his shakiness, but he managed to get the beast turned around and galloping.

Randi had been watching and she sat up as Rudhi allowed it, "I want him." Randi said. "Am I going to get his shitty habits?"

"No," the dark-haired one replied, "You got life from me. From him, ... it is only like food that you need."

She was alone an instant later as Rudhi became the dark streak once more and took the man clean out of the saddle. He fought and kicked, but it was to no avail. Rudhi only smiled as she held him fast.

His eyes were huge with fear as he saw the redhead walking to him with her bodice hanging open, She was looking far more confident than he'd ever seen her before.

"Remember me?" Randi asked, "You took my money and you kicked the shit out of me." Her hand flashed out faster than she'd have believed possible and she almost broke his neck as she slapped him. The man began to cry past his dislocated jaw.

She grabbed him by the throat as she spoke around her new and slightly longer teeth, "You fucked me. You fucking RAPED me! And then you beat the shit out of me again, just for fun -- just to see me cry and beg. I pissed blood for a week, you ASShole!

Well now it's my turn."

She lunged for his shirt and tore it clean through, leaving red lines and bruises behind. As he tried desperately to fight, she raised the thumb under his throat and he began to choke, but he hung motionless and still as she placed her palm over the middle of his chest.

His eyes bulged in horror as he felt his life leaving him. The eyes there sunk into his darkening face and when she let him go to drop onto the ground, he was a dead husk.

Randi stood with her eyes closed as she began to feel better. "Just tell me," she thought quietly, "Am I a ghoul now?"

Rudhi thought for a moment as she tried to understand the word. "No," she said at last, "As I take the meaning from you, it means someone who eats the dead. And before you ask, you are not hungry because we ate those ... sandwiches."

"I didn't leave anything for you," the redhead said suddenly, "You helped me and - "

"Listen now," Rudhi said as she put her arms around Randi, "You seek to find words for this which I do not know. You wonder about the teeth in your mouth. You can hide them. You cannot change what you now are, but you can change how you appear a little. You will use the teeth at some time when you need food as well as the life. You do NOT need to feed on only humans. You need to turn around and go back to your machine."

Randi blinked, "Why?" and the other one rolled her eyes and pointed without looking, "The animal that he rode will be enough for me."

Randi watched anyway as Rudhi flashed away toward the steed and a moment later she came back while another husk lay forgotten behind her. She handed Randi the man's weapons and his saddlebags. After a look and the quick removal of two boxes of ammunition for each one she threw them into the weeds.

"We will not need this for a time now," Rudhi said and the two walked toward the idling tank.