Empress of Blood

That's the stuff! she thought after finishing her little diagram of the town. All it took to get here was a minor bender and a bit of friggin! Maybe I should try that combo out more often... It was at this point that Sally's superego actively interjected to admonish her on her willingness to engage in such debauchery again. The normally respectable detective sobered up again at the unwarranted jab. She turned her attention to the job at hand, to catching the creep that stalked the streets of the innocent, if admittedly boring town. Sally gently slapped her cheeks to banish all nerves and errant thoughts. I'll probably only get one chance at this, so I'm going to have to make it count.

Later that night, and without a single drop of alcohol in her bloodstream, Sally roamed the predicted area in search of her perp. And lucky for her, the perimeter where the assailant was most likely to strike that night also happened to be the town's miniscule commercial area. Sally found some solace in the fact she wouldn't look like the creep herself, being out as late as she was. A crinkled cigarette burned orange between her lips as she stood guard by a nearby bench. If anyone stopped to look at her, the worst they'd think was that she was on a smoke break.

However, not much happened after she set up camp in the area. About the only interesting developed in the first hour of waiting was that a cat snuck up on her. The night air was pleasant on her skin, though, so Sally didn't end up being excessively uncomfortable being outside. Her eyes darted from shadow to shadow, hoping to see a figure emerge. None did, and so Sally's desire to catch her prey merely grew.

Maybe my presence is scaring the weirdo away, she thought, throwing her cigarette butt to the ground and squashing it with her boot. Sally waited a solid thirty minutes for good measure, then decided to stroll around, thinking she might be able to attract the perp that way. The streets were mostly empty, of course, and not a single star could be seen through the thick blanket of clouds overhead. Ancient street lights cast the only light besides that which seeped through a few second-floor windows.

It struck Sally that the town really was the perfect place for a criminal to hide out. If someone out as late as she was there'd be no one around to help... perhaps not even a person around to hear you scream. A sudden gust of wind sent a shiver down her spine, and Sally began to wonder if she might have made a mistake by making herself bait. At least she had her concealed knife, but if the perp was strong enough, there was a possibility of that failing her as well.

Fear made Sally's heart pound in her chest as she walked farther through the deserted streets. She was all alone without back-up, and in the hunting grounds of a crazed assailant. Sally put a down a mental note to ask for a raise from her superiors when she got back home. And damn straight it was going to be 'when' she got back. No vampire lover was going to take her out, not if she had anything to say about it.

Sally was walking more briskly then, hoping to come across a better vantage point where she could observe the situation without having to be so exposed. Soon she realized a street corner was approaching, which caused her sympathetic nervous system to kick into overdrive. For all she knew, the perp was waiting there for someone foolish enough to approach. Every sound seemed amplified, from the patter of her boots on the pavement to the distant chirps of insects. Sally darted her eyes back and forth across the street, honing in on little details—the flickering of a lightbulb, the faded letters on a shop window—before moving on to a different area of her scenery.

At last, when Sally's pulse was beating so hard she thought she might pass out, a calming presence arrived in the street, letting her system go off alert. Like the sudden appearance of a desert spring when the hero is on the verge of dying, Mina emerged from a distant doorway. If she weren't so alert, Sally would have thought her mind was playing tricks on her. But, no, there she was, real as the cobblestone beneath them: beautiful, angelic Mina. And without missing a beat, Sally's fear abated to make way for a rising protective instinct.

You shouldn't be out her so late! she thought. Don't you know there's a criminal on the loose?

The detective, now invigorated by her new purpose, confidently strode over to the woman ambling away into the dark night. Sally figured Mina was thinking deeply about some important matter, because she barely noticed as the detective came up to her and put a hand on her shoulder. Mina started at this unannounced touch, then swiftly turned to see who was behind her.

"Oh, sorry," Sally said, backing up. She put her hands up to show she meant no harm. "I didn't mean to surprise you like that. I guess I just got over-enthusiastic."

Mina clasped a hand to her chest as she let out a heavy breath. "You really can't sneak up on people this late at night," she said, beginning to smile now that she knew it was Sally.

"That's kinda why I came over here: sneaking up on people, that is," Sally said. "It isn't safe for you to be out alone like this when it's so dark out. There's a criminal on the loose, you know."

Mina tilted her head quizzically at the concerned constable. "I'm perfectly alright by myself. Though I do appreciate you worrying about me, Sally." She brushed her hair over her ear and stepped closer. "And I could ask the same thing about you, couldn't I? Aren't you in danger as well?"

A thrilling jolt went through Sally as the beautiful woman approached her, but she quickly summoned up her steely resolve again. "Not at all, miss," stiffening her back in a show of confidence. "I'm a police officer of this great nation, and I will best any villain who tries to harm you."

Mina recoiled slightly at that, tightening her jaw when Sally said the word "police". Evidently the talk of the town hadn't gotten around to her yet. "I see. And since I know you don't work for this town, then that must mean you've been sent to investigate the recent attacks."

Sally brightened up. "That's right!"

"Yes, I have a good sense of causality. You could say that I've lived long enough to infer events well." A spark lit in Mina's eyes, then, as if telling an inside joke, and it caused her to shed the tension that was beginning to set in her face. "But enough about that. I think I'll take you up on your offer to escort me. It is still available, isn't it?"

For a moment, Sally forgot all about the criminal on the loose. She could only spare attention for the enchanting women standing before her in the moonlight. Mina did look particularly good in the evening, with the almost silver sheen her pale skin gained. In a way, Sally thought the woman was most suited to being shrouded in night. It seemed to be her domain.

Mina offered her hand to Sally again, with gravid expectation this time. "Come. I'll lead you to my house."

Sally's duty flashed to life in her head one last time. If she abandoned the hunt to follow Mina, then she might not get another chance to catch the perp. He could change his pattern, or worse, escalate his attacks. But Mina's waiting face was too much to bear. She had a duty to protect innocents too, didn't she? And wasn't Mina an innocent in danger? That sideways logic was enough for Sally to convince herself it was right to follow this strange woman home, and so she eagerly took Mina's soft hand.

They went softly through the nighttime, with the vibrant stars as companions. Sally was too in awe of Mina to speak for a good couple of minutes after setting off with her, and was beginning to worry Mina didn't have an ulterior motive taking her home beyond just having an escort, when the beautiful woman finally spoke again.

"I have to ask, Sally: how do you like the town so far? It must be quite a shift from what you're used to."

"It has its own... charm," Sally stumbled, not wanting to offend Mina by giving her real opinion. "But you're right, I'm not really used to it yet."

Sally broke into her graceful smile and let out a small chuckle. "You don't have to hold back, Sally. It's okay to say you don't like it."

The constable instinctively gripped Mina's hand tighter. "How did you know I feel like that?" she quietly asked, embarrassed by how easily she'd been found out.

"You're pretty easy to read, detective. At least, you are when you're with me. At the bar you always seemed more closed off, more like the typical image of a 'tough' cop."

Sally's mouth went dry, having her secret so completely revealed. For how little the two of them had interacted, Mina seemed to know quite a bit about her. "Do you prefer me like that? As a tough cop?"

Mina stopped to face Sally directly, the previous humor on her face replaced with stolid sympathy. "No, I don't. I like you much better like this, with your mask cast aside."

Sally found herself temporarily speechless. She felt as if Mina, this woman who'd just appeared in her life, was finally giving her the permission to let her walls erode away into nothing. All that artifice and confusion she'd constructed over the course of her life sloughed off as well, leaving only the naked truth of herself. Sally opened her mouth to refute what Mina had said in one last attempt to preserve that old illusion, but no words came out.

The still night air was suddenly broken by a clatter from an upstairs window, lurching Sally back to reality. "We should keep going," she managed to say. "It would be better to get to your house before it inevitably starts raining."

Mina closed her eyes and took a deep breath in, seemingly gauging the quality of moisture. "How did you know?" she asked jovially.

"What?" Sally replied. "Do you think it's going to rain?"

"I do." She caught Sally staring askance at her and then added, "oh, don't look at me like that, you develop a sense for these things after a while. It's not so odd." She started walking forward again, bringing the constable with her.

"Really?" Sally said, an unfamiliar lightness and humor spreading through her. "How about your bones? Are they aching too, grandma?" Mina gave her a playful push, and the two of them went on through the streets of Brimfield, waking stray cats with their laughter.

Sally didn't even notice that they had come to an empty field, far from the light of the town, until Mina's had slipped away from her own. It was absurd to think that she had been so oblivious as to mindlessly allow Mina to lead her there, but she had. The beautiful woman must have cast a powerful thrall on her, or else taken over her caution like a siren's song. Those could be the only explanations.

Sally surveyed the peaceful surroundings, unobscured by any structure and lit by moonlight alone. "This is where you live?" she weakly joked. Isolated in a sea of grass, Sally was increasingly unnerved by the situation.

"There's something I've been wanting to tell you," Mina said, ignoring Sally's question entirely. "But I had to bring you here first. I had to put you in a circumstance where you could be completely outside external influence."

Sally leaned back on her heels, feeling the soft give of the soil beneath them. "It must be something important, then," she replied as her uneasiness gradually built into a panic. It was unnatural how much Mina had stripped her of her awareness, so unnatural that it set off primal alarms in her like she was some little forest animal faced with a slavering predator. Sally knew it had been too good to be true; a beautiful wouldn't try to take her home unless she had something else to gain by doing it.

"You're scaring me, Mina," Sally said. Her hand was beginning to drift to the knife hidden beneath her jacket, and Sally prayed she wouldn't be made to use it. "I want to go back to the town."

Mina's eyes softened in perhaps guilt or sadness, but when she spoke her voice was as resolute as always. "It will all be okay," she reassured Sally. "Just don't look away."

In one unbroken, agonizing gesture, Mina covered her forehead with her hand and slowly pulled it down, as if playing peek-a boo. Her eyes were the first thing to change. They went from a beautiful brown to searing crimson, glowing faintly in the darkness. Dark circles formed under Mina's eyes as well, almost like she were wearing mascara. The rest of her face changed in turn as her hand went over it; the skin went from pale to nearly porcelain white, and her ears elongated at their tips. But the final change was also the most striking. Hand back down at her waist, Mina opened her mouth to reveal a set of sharp, vicious teeth. To Sally they looked closer to those of a beast than a human's—more like fangs. And in the middle of that horror show of bone, where the canines would normally be, lay two pointed needles of teeth.

Mina casually let her jaw close. She bore her glowing red eyes into Sally with palpable, physical force, searching for a change in the constable's demeanor. Sally, however, was totally motionless—petrified. She was convinced that Mina must be a horrible illusion, that this could only be a nightmare. But at the same time, she was secretly conscious it wasn't.

"I suppose it would be pointless to tell you what this means. You'd have to be a pretty hard-headed detective to not know by this point, and I don't think you are." She ambled her way toward Sally, appearing as a terrifying demon coming to take her soul. "I could have killed you," she went on, grazing over Sally's fingers with her own. "I still could. It would make things much easier for me... But I won't. The gods never forgive those who spoil such beauty. And just as importantly, you remind me of her too much."

As much as Sally wanted to convince herself that this was all a bad dream, that she was still in her little hotel room, snoozing fitfully under the covers, she simply couldn't believe it. Everything felt too solid, too visceral to be a dream. The constable trembled as she thought of the other option, that Mina really was a monster intent on taking her away to the land of darkness and evil. Worse, her knife wasn't going to be any help against Mina was.

"Why?" Sally asked through dry lips. "Why go through all this trouble to bring me here? Or for that matter, why didn't you kill any of your victims? Do you prefer playing with us before you eat, is that it?" Sally had no clue what had gotten into her to allow for this outburst. Typically, you don't try to argue with vampires, but since she was likely about to be bled dry anyway, Sally figured it couldn't hurt.

Mina, or the creature called Mina, tilted her head inquisitively. "Why? Because I don't want to kill people. And I don't want to harm you, either, Sally." She circled around the constable like a crow around carrion, and finally stopped when she got behind her back. Mina wrapped her arms around Sally's waist, then softly placed her chin on the frightened woman's shoulder.

"As I said, you don't throw away precious treasures when they've been so thoughtfully thrown in your lap," she whispered into Sally's ears. Mina's hot breath tingled on Sally's skin, causing a faint ember of arousal to flicker in her. "You're my precious treasure, Sally. I knew that the moment I was able to look into your eyes."

Sally griped at the fabric of her pant legs, searching for something to hold onto a give her even the smallest tether to reality. She was confused, confused and increasingly... happy? Why? Why would she ever be happy in a situation like this? Had she really denied herself so long that a terrifying position like the one she currently found herself in, now felt liberating?

"Then..." Sally asked, her voice quavering, "who is this 'her' you keep talking about?"

"A friend. An old, old friend whom I miss deeply." Mina moved her head to Sally's other shoulder. "This isn't really about her, though. All your resemblance did was get my attention, and maybe stop me from killing you outright for investigating my activities." Mina nibbled on Sally's earlobe then, careful not to break the skin. "So how about it? Will you stay with me?"

"Stay?" Sally mumbled, still recovering from the sensation of Mina's teeth on her.

"That's right. You have a choice, my dear: either you leave and forget about me forever, or you stay here with me... in my home." As Mina said this, Sally began to perceive a change in the air around here, as well as in the rolling hills ahead. First there appeared to be a huge, grayish smudge in her vision, obscuring the area ahead, but then that smudge grew and gained new details. Lines formed in the mass and shortly became stones, which in turn multiplied to shape colossal spires. Those turrets rose into the starry sky, where they came to rest at last.

Soon the blob was gone and, in its place, stood an enormous castle which appeared at the same time ancient and pristine. Gargoyles stared down at the pair from lofty perches, their sculpted features making them look almost alive. And in a high, high window, perhaps five stories up, a single orange glow escaped. Sally could merely gaze up in awe. The feat she'd just saw performed was so great, so titanically impossible, that on any other night she would have thought herself entirely mad—like, full on straight-jacket and padded room kinda mad. But after what she'd seen so far, all Sally could do was accept it and move on.

Mina pressed her face even closer against Sally. "So, what will it be? Will you return to an unfulfilling life or bet it all on this frail chance?"

Sally loosened her grip on the knife. "You'll really let me go if I wanted to?" she asked.

"Of course I will. This is your decision alone to make. However, don't expect to come across me again if that's what you do end up choosing. I can only be so indulgent."

The constable closed her eyes and took in a deep, revitalizing breath. She could still feel the weight of Mina's body on her, she could still feel her heat. Moreover, Mina's words continued to echo in her mind. The 'dear' reverberating especially loud. Was it worth it to give in to this creature of violence and affection? To sacrifice all the things she'd worked to obtain? To sacrifice her respectability? Because Sally knew, knew in the deepest reaches of her heart, that if she went with Mina into her house, she would never be able to return to her old life. It would all be gone, everything.

Yet simultaneously, a powerful sense of ease washed over her. Maybe it was time for a sacrifice after all. She had no real close friends, no family to care for her unconditionally, no girlfriend to share her life with. Hell, Sally wasn't even sure she'd ever shared a real love with another person. In a sense, Sally realize she'd been partially empty since the innocence of childhood left. Now what did she have besides her job? And was it worth losing Mina for?

Sally turned around and planted her lips right on Mina's with a passionate vigor.

No, she decided, it wasn't. She didn't ever want to lose Mina.

Mina reciprocated the constable's gesture by holding her head up and pressing even closer to Sally. Her tongue tangled with Sally's as she wrapped her other arm around her lover's back. And despite having already held Mina's hand, Sally half expected her body to be cool to the touch. Vampires aren't regularly understood to have warm blood, after all. But that misconception was quickly wiped away when their mouths connected and Sally felt Mina's hot, sweet breath seep into her and the vampire's life force contrasted against the brisk evening wind.

Sally could tell her own body was warming up as well. That familiar tingling had returned in her groin and her heart seemed to be pumping radiant sunlight instead of blood. Mina's slight body and wonderful, slick tongue had that effect on her, made her swell with lustful joy. A few times Sally brushed up against Mina's sharp teeth, which, to her surprise, only amplified her arousal. Those teeth were a reminder that she was completely at Mina's mercy, at the thought of that made her panties go slick with desire. The two of them kissed for only a few minutes, but those minutes seemed to stretch for hours. If only we could be like this forever, she thought, stuck in each other's embrace until moss crept up to our lips.