Breathless Ch. 01

"Vladimir, but how does that --"

"Okay Vlad --"

"It's Vladimir, not --"

"Vlad, don't interrupt me. It's rude. Anyway, give me the skinny on the local layout and what you had in mind, and we'll catch us some meanies!"

Officer Koloff turned away, and Sadie could hear him grinding his teeth. He waved to a couple of people as he approached a car that had a laptop sitting on it. Someone had Google Earth loaded up and it was zoomed in on the neighborhood.

"Okay everyone," Koloff growled, this is Arbiter Hewitt, and she's . . . taking over this team for the foreseeable future. She's been gracious enough to let those of use who have been here for a while to run THIS particular operation --"

"No sweat!" she added cheerfully, giving him a slap on the ass.

Koloff cocked his neck in one direction until it made a cracking noise, then he did the other side. "As I was saying, we've got three perps in one of these three buildings." He used some kind of device to circle the buildings on the screen.

"Cool! A Madden pen! Can I --"

"No! It's my pen!" Koloff growled, then realized he sounded like a five-year-old screaming for his favorite toy. "All three perps are armed with low-grade semi-automatic assault rifles. We've cleared the area of civilians, and I'd like to handle this before the press gets here." He looked at Sadie. "Normally they'd be here already, but no one likes to come into the Gravestones. They're probably still drawing straws to see who gets stuck with the job."

Sadie looked around, and noticed that the onlooking crowd of "civilians" had a very seedy atmosphere to them. "Got it. So how are we handling containment?"

Koloff's visage softened for just a moment. 'Maybe the girl knows her business after all.' He should have expected that she would, being an Arbiter and all. They didn't let just anyone in to that particular club and he should know: he'd applied three times and been rejected. "Got snipers on the rooftops here, here, here, and here. Blocks off the area. We've got sniffer units with backup in the park and over at the Quick Stop if they break containment. I . . . we were planning on doing a sweep from here to here, driving them to the boulevard where they'll be out in the open."

Sadie decided that she and Vlad were going to be friends. The man knew his business.

"Sounds good," she said, nodding her approval. "Just to be safe, double up the snipers at that end of containment in case they outright bolt when they run out of places to hide. Who can see this manhole cover? I really don't want these guys going to ground on us. Gunfights in tunnels make my skin edgy."

Koloff begrudgingly admitted to himself that it wasn't a bad addition to the plan. He got on his walkie-talkie. "I need to more sets of eyes on the northern and eastern positions. And get me some blue-suiters in the alley next to the pharmacy and tell them to keep their eyes on anyone trying to get into the sewers."

"When do I get my walkie talkie?" Sadie asked, almost petulantly. She didn't have her own Madden pen, she didn't have a walkie talkie . . . It just wasn't fair.

"You'll get your equipment when we get to the station," Koloff replied, rolling his eyes. 'I will not like her,' he thought. 'I will not, I will not, I will not!'

"Fine. You seem to have things handled from the ground level. I'm going to go topside in case they go high. Don't ask me why, but for some reason these guys sometimes go up where they have nowhere to run just because they've seen bad guys do it in movies and it looked cool." She looked around. "Would one of you big strong men lend me your walkie talkie?" She'd used her best Marilyn Monroe voice, and it worked. Nearby officers fumbled all over themselves trying to get her to use their equipment. She picked one out of the crowd. "Thanks babe," she said, then hooked it onto her belt.

Officer Koloff was gritting his teeth again. The girl was all over the place. "Don't you want a vest?" he asked. "They DO have guns. I'm pretty sure I mentioned it."

"Oh Vlad, you worry too much. Besides, those things really don't flatter my figure." She beamed a smile at him. "So, let's get it started, ha! Let's get it started in here," she sang, dancing her way over to a gutter drainage pipe on the closest building. She was swaying her hips quite provocatively, making many officers completely forget why they were there.

"She has a nice singing voice," Officer Devlin muttered.

"Oh shut up," Koloff said. 'He's right though.' He watched as she grabbed the pipe and scurried up the side of the building, disappearing over the ledge with amazing speed. He'd actually almost forgotten that she was a vampire.

*Little Bo Peep to Big Bad Wold. I'm in position. Over. (click) *

Several officers snickered as Koloff just stared at his walkie talkie.

*I said . . . Is this thing on? Little Bo Peep to Big Bad Wolf. Are you ready to roll? Over. (click)*

Dead silence.

*Vlad? What the hell frequency are people on? (tap tap tap) (click)*

More silence.

*Vladimir? (click)*

"Yes?" Koloff asked smoothly.

*Are we ready to get started? (click)*

"We'll bust down the first door in sixty seconds. Please stand by."

Sadie watched the assault team approach the door from a hidden location on the rooftop. The roof was littered with ledges, air conditioning units, fireplaces, piping, and miscellaneous odds and ends that people had brought up over the years rather than throw away. It was a mess which, in Sadie's mind, made it fun.

'I don't care how hard he tries to deny it,' she thought. 'he WILL like me!' As soon as the boots hit the door, she took off running across the rooftops, looking for points of egress. She located the top of the fire escape and the access door for maintenance, then found a good spot of cover to watch both of them from until she got the all-clear from the people down below. So she ran towards the second building, jumping across a ten-foot divide as easy as walking. The second building had multiple methods into the building, so she stood on top of one of them, pointing the shotgun at one and her pistol at the other. She hoped she didn't have to use the shotgun, since silver shot was expensive.

*Nothing here, but we heard some doors slamming the next building over. All personnel except the snipers converge on building number three. (click)*

Sadie would normally have recommended caution on the off chance that the quarry had hidden well and could sneak out after being passed over, but she chose not to. This was Koloff's gig, so she'd let him sink or swim. Besides, it was hard to hide from a werewolf's nose, even in human form. So she headed towards the third roof. The gap wasn't as far this time, so she decided to put on a show for the snipers. She stowed both guns again, then did a cartwheel into a back springboard complete with a half-pike roll, landing on the edge of building three with perfect grace. She saw the glint off of one of the sniper's scopes and blew him or her a kiss. Then her own guns came out and she got back to work.

"I love my job!" she said to a fleeing rooftop pigeon who realized that a dangerous predator had just invaded its nesting area.

Gunshots erupted from the building below her.

"Someone talk to me!" she shouted into her walkie-talkie.

*We're taking fire! (click)*

"No shit!"

*We got one pinned at the end of the hallway, and a second just shot out the back door. No idea where the third one is. (click)*

*Sir,* came an unknown voice, *we caught the squirter who came out back. (click)*

*Careful Arbiter Hewitt. Devlin heard footstep going upstairs!"

Sadie hurried along the rooftop. She wasn't worrying about the fire-escapes yet. The guy would probably head up hear and then try to climb down. She spotted the access door about the time it opened, and the third gunmen came charging out.

"Damn," she whispered. The young man in front of her couldn't be more than eighteen, and he had a look of panic in his young eyes. She wondered briefly how a kid like this could have got caught up in something so stupid and trivial as holding up a liquor store. 'He should be more concerned with getting a prom date,' she thought. But young or no, he had a gun and was terrified, making him very dangerous.

*Arbiter, I have a shot. Please --*

"No! He's just a kid. I'll take him. Stand down unless he kills me. Then you have my permission to kill him right back. Over."

*Arbiter, let the shooter --*

"Negative!" she said, diving behind a hulking rusted out air-conditioner as the startled young man squeezed the trigger, spreading lead all over the rooftop.

Sadie had to think fast. "If I haven't subdued him in ten seconds, take the shot!" she shouted into her walkie-talkie. 'Well,' she thought, 'here goes nothing.' Her heart was pounding and she took a deep breath. I wasn't that she needed to breathe, but she found the act relaxing.

One . . .

Sadie stowed her rifle and pistol and whipped out her handcuffs.

. . . two . . .

She took off at breakneck speed, her eyes seeking out cover.

. . . three . . .

The young man swung his rifle to Sadie's new position, so Sadie did a diving roll forward, placing her behind a brick chimney.

. . . four . . .

The gunman fired, unloading bullet after bullet into Sadie's cover. Sadie, realizing that he would be watching the only two ways out, the left and the right, chose option three. She leaped through the air, clearing the chimney and landing just a few feet to her opponent's right-hand side.

. . . five . . .

Sadie caught the boy's wrist as he tried to turn the gun on her, slapping one end of her cuffs on it.

. . . . six . . .

She stepped around to her adversaries back while kicking backward with her heel, knocking the gun from his hand.

. . . seven . . .

The young man was panicking. He'd never seen anyone move like this. He swung his free arm, trying to elbow this woman in the face.

. . . . eight . . .

Sadie caught his free arm, twisting it behind his back and slapping the other half of the cuffs on him.

. . . nine . . .

She ducked down and did a spinning leg-sweep, knocking him to the ground with his arms pinned beneath him.

. . . ten.

"Got him!" she said happily.

*We noticed! Nice work Arbiter! (click)*

"Shuck! It was nothing! Call me Sadie."

*Hey,* came Koloff's voice, sounding a little annoyed, *we caught one too! (click)*

"Yes you did, you big strong wolf man!" she said, using the voice usually reserved for talking to pets and babies. At the other end, she heard silence. "Vlad? Vladie?"

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An hour before sunrise . . .

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Sadie was having a great time. She'd invited the entire team out for drinks when their shift ended. About a quarter of them showed, with the rest having to get home to their families or other obligations. She'd called Melissa to see if she wanted to go, but the girl had refused. 'Can't quite figure her out,' Sadie had thought.

Also conspicuous by his absence was Vlad. She had asked if he ever hung out with his men or if it was just because it was Sadie who had asked, but she had only gotten some snickers in return. It had been Fitzpatrick who had shed some light on that subject.

"See," the man had said in a semi-drunken slur, "he probably had to go home because his wife is a bitch."

"You know that female werewolves HATE being called --"

"Nah, she's not a werewolf. She's an elf. And she most definitely is a bitch. No idea why 'e married her. They go together like sex and nunneries."

Sadie didn't have the heart to tell him that she had enjoyed many a night of passionate sex in nunneries, but chose not to. He was a good-old-boy kind of wizard and she would hate to burst his bubble by telling him the only thing that attempting to repress your sexual feelings did was make you really horny.

"And what I don't get is he does anything she asks, and it ain't even the good stuff. He ain't no woose, which you can see fer yourself. He'd probably have a big pack here in Midian if he'd just lose her."

"Maybe he loves her and --"

Fitzpatrick spit out his drink. "Love 'er? He can't STAND her."

Sadie had let their field wizard go off on a tangent while secretly trying to scope out her chest. She'd gotten a fair amount of notice from her team, which didn't bother her in the least. She'd have to be careful though. She didn't mind bedding colleagues, but she stayed away from people directly under her control. It led to bad feelings. It was a shame really, since she had some fine looking specimens, including young officer Trent Devlin.

'If I hadn't been saddled with them as a team, I could bang anyone I wanted.' That soured her mood a bit, but not for long. Sadie was almost incapable of staying depressed.

"You got a ride home?" she asked Fitzpatrick, who was on the verge of falling asleep in his chair.

"Yah. Devlin will get me home. He's a good kid." Fitzpatrick threw an arm around the rookie's shoulder. "You know that right? You are a good kid."

"Yes Donnie. You've told me that several times." The young man was blushing, hating feeling like "the kid" in front of his knockout new boss.

Sadie actually hadn't drunk that much and it took a lot to get her to where she knew she shouldn't drive, so she got up and headed out to her truck. 'Not a bad first night at all.'

It didn't take her long to get home, and she had to resist the urge to drop by the Cat Scratch Club to look for Frankenstein or a little company. When her truck finally weaved its way down than narrow stretch of gravel leading to her trailer, she found not one but two visitors.

Melissa was there, dressed in a similar outfit to the one she had first worn over. She was leaning against the trailer, keeping an eye on the other newcomer. Sadie didn't even need to guess who that guy was. He just screamed vampire-welcoming-committee.

"Hey Mel!" Sadie said happily, waving at the young woman. "You should've come out out for drinks. It rocked the hiz-ouse!"

Mel's face kept that stoic form she used with most people but Sadie. "Yeah. Sounded like fun." She was almost glaring at the vampire standing next to his black Porsche. Sadie wondered how he'd gotten something with such low clearance down her driveway.

"Sadie Hewitt," the man said smoothly, taking off the obligatory sunglasses that so many vampires felt compelled to wear at night, "my name is Michael Dazza. I represent the Midian Council and was sent to welcome you do our little corner of the world," he finished with a deep bow. "I was asked to confirm a date for you to present yourself to the Council so that you might meet your brethren and --"

"That would be never," Sadie said primly, having a seat on the hood next to Melissa. "How long has the suit been here?" she asked.

"About an hour. He got here right after I did."

"You shouldn't have waited, or at least called --"

"Ahem!" Mr. Dazza said, looking irritated. Vampires hated being ignored. "What do you mean 'never'? It is your duty --"

"Dazzy boy, I never really cared much for duty, or tradition or . . . well, anything that probably gets you all hard in your shorts." That got a snicker out of Melissa. "Listen, I don't pay dues . . . or attention for that matter. So go on back to your Council and tell 'em that I'm not here to cause problems but I just as soon they left me alone and stayed out of my business. Got it?"

"This is highly improper!" Dazza growled.

"Improper is what I plan on doing with this little lady as soon as you get going," Sadie replied, wrapping an arm around Melissa's shoulders. She didn't like the way this clown was eying her, and since Melissa didn't seem at all interested in him, "So why don't you get to getting?"

The other vampire looked furious. The light of the full moon really didn't help his complexion one bit. "This is yours?" he said, his voice suddenly dripping with sugar. "She doesn't smell claimed."

"Gimme a break! I just got here! I'm taking her for a test drive, seeing if I want to buy."

Melissa nodded, offering her neck to Sadie in a submissive gesture. Even though they were just playing a game to piss this guy off, Sadie couldn't resist a lick and kiss to that beautiful skin.

"I'd invite you to stay, but I don't think I'm going to like you." Sadie stared at him for a minute. "You're still here. Could you please correct that?"

Dazza had no idea what to do. He'd probably never encountered this kind of reception in his life. He turned and got back into his car, heading at a snail's pace down the drive. Sadie took great delight in hearing that expensive car bottom out in at least two places.

"So . . . why aren't you presenting yourself to the Council?" Mel asked.

"Can't stand 'em. It's like the world's most boring wine and cheese party, except everyone walks around being mysterious. It's dull."

"Will you get in trouble?"

"No. I'll get bad-mouthed and probably can't expect much help from them, but I can live with that."

Melissa smiled. "You really are a different beast."

"You should smile more often. You've got a great smile. Why didn't you come out with us tonight?"

The girl shrugged. "I really don't want most people at work to see me as . . . approachable. I'm not a people person."

"I'm still trying to figure you out."

"Join the club." Melissa was quiet for a moment. "I know you said that you don't do broods, but . . . but --"

Sadie hopped off the car and stood in front of the young lady. "But what? You had a potential brood master standing in front of you and you didn't even blink."

"I don't want just anyone," Melissa said, getting a little angry.

"So what do you want?"

Melissa sighed. "I'm not a hundred percent sure. I don't like or trust most vampires that I've met, but I can't shake this feeling, this . . . need." She blushed from head to toe. "I can't believe I'm even talking to you about this."

"Sometimes it helps just to get things off your chest." Sadie lowered her eyelids halfway. The girl looked good, and she hadn't left yet. "What kind of relationships have you been it? How do you know that being a broodling is what you want, or are you just a goth submissive?"

"And the award for making-me-really uncomfortable goes to . . . you!" Melissa replied, fighting to regain her stoic poise.

"I'm not trying to embarrass you. I just think that you should know for sure what you want before you get into something dangerous. Being in a brood with a callous or particularly pompous vampire can be VERY dangerous. Same with having a bad dom in just a sexual relationship. I've seen people want in so badly that they give themselves to the wrong person, and sometimes they can't get themselves back."

Melissa cocked that one eyebrow again. "You know, you're actually behaving all serious now. You're a lot more depressing when you're serious."

"Hey, I'm ALWAYS willing to be playful," Sadie responded, letting her smile come back. She pushed forward, spreading Melissa's knees slightly with her hips. Melissa didn't move except to lower her head, but didn't break eye contact. 'Her first response when approached sexually is to submit.' The girl seemed excited, so much so that the pounding of her heart echoed in Sadie's ears. 'Now to test something else.' She placed one hand on the side of Melissa's head and the other on the girl's bare shoulder. Almost instantly, Mel began trembling. It was feint, but Sadie could pick up on it. The closer the vampire's mouth got to that luscious neck, the worse the trembling got.

Sadie was very careful and particular about who she bit, but this girl's delicate neck was tempting her like few things could. But satisfying THAT particular craving was not what this was about, and she had to keep reminding herself of that. She let her fangs extend just enough to touch the skin but not break it. And as she had expected, the girl's skin went completely clammy and she heard a feint whimper. Slowly she pulled her head back away from Melissa's neck. When their eyes met again, the young goth chick was obviously confused.