Huntress of the Fallen

God help me! Vittoria thought with dismay. I'll probably be dead before ever finding an ass as sweet as this one again!

Vittoria hurriedly shifted her gaze downward and scanned the rest of Bryana's list before the visitor detected Vittoria's blatant leering. She was delighted to notice that the last two books Bryana read about Venice were authored by none other than V. Soriano.

"My books have only been published in Italian," Vittoria said as she tried and failed to contain an elated grin. "No offense but do you read our language better than you speak it?"

"I had your works translated to English," Bryana replied. "But my translators are not scholars. They lack understanding of the relevance or significance of the passages they converted from Italian to English. That's why I wished to meet with you in person. For what it's worth, your books were the only ones about the history of Medieval and Renaissance architecture in Venice that didn't make me pass out from boredom."

"Now that's a pull quote that belongs on the book jacket," Vittoria joked.

Vittoria hoped Bryana wouldn't notice the deep-red flush of her cheeks that betrayed how hot and bothered she became from drooling over the sight of Bryana's plump backside.

"So will you be able to help me or not?" Bryana asked bluntly. "I have no time to waste."

"It will take me days, if not weeks to recover all the information you're requesting," Vittoria exaggerated without shame. "We must scour every library and archive in the city for maps and primary sources that are of a similar age to the dark house from your photograph. Perhaps we should endeavour on site visits to any similar structures we're able to find as well, hmm? Like I said, weeks. Can you abide that long of a timeframe?"

"It sounds as if I have no other choice," Bryana conceded.

Vittoria handed Bryana a loose sheet from atop her cluttered desk.

"This is my teaching schedule and office hours. I will block out my time outside of class and devote it exclusively to your research. Come meet with me during those hours. For no other have I done this."

Vittoria held Bryana's magnetic gaze the entire time while speaking to her, nearly long enough to be absorbed by the twin black holes staring through the entrancing woman's eyes. Vittoria pulled back just before she lost herself too deeply within them.

"I suppose I should be grateful," Bryana said, though she didn't appear particularly thankful. "Mostly though, I already feel sadness and regret for involving you in my obsessions. But nevertheless if a secret entrance to underneath this city exists, I must find it."

"We are agreed, then?" Vittoria asked as she extended her hand.

Bryana hesitated for a second before accepting the handshake. She seemed unused to physical contact, though not uncomfortable with it. The grasp of their palms lingered for a few seconds while Vittoria enjoyed the gentle touch of Bryana's strong, calloused hand.

"Agreed."

Please let Bryana feel the same sparks that I'm feeling, Vittoria prayed. Please don't let this all be in my head, the invention of a desperate, lovelorn mind.

Vittoria maintained Bryana's grip for an uncomfortably long time until she reluctantly released her hold on Bryana's iron fingers.

"I will visit the Biblioteca Nazionale after work today and run a preliminary search for any sources that might serve as a starting point," Vittoria said. "They know me well at that library and my University fellowship affords me the privilege to borrow any of their materials for indefinite periods. Let's meet at 3 tomorrow to go over everything I've found so far."

"Thank you, Professor Soriano," Bryana replied with a gracious bow of her head.

"Vittoria, please," the professor corrected her companion. "There's no need for formalities. We are friends and partners now, you see? I see the beginnings of a fantastic relationship."

Bryana seemed uncomfortable with that notion but agreed, "Yes. Partners. You're... not what I expected, Vittoria. I expected someone more... well..."

"Old?" Vittoria guessed. "More professional? Less flirtatious?"

"All three, I suppose," Bryana muttered. "There aren't many who have ever wanted to flirt with me."

"Signora Pearson," Vittoria said incredulously. "That is the most absurd thing I've ever heard. You are more beautiful than any woman I've ever known."

Though Vittoria had already become hopelessly infatuated with Bryana, she still had yet to comprehend her full beauty. When Bryana's entire face brightened and the corners of her mouth slowly turned upward Vittoria realized this was the first time she'd actually seen the woman smile. She sensed that this gift was not one freely given, Bryana's smile had to be earned. Vittoria had never seen a sight so lovely. Her heart dropped straight down to the pit of her stomach.

She's smiling, was Vittoria's first thought. Just for me, she smiles so beautifully!

Her second thought was, Oh God, I'm in so much fucking trouble.

"Until tomorrow then, Vittoria."

After Bryana departed with a final wave of her arm, Vittoria sighed loudly and fell back into her chair with enough momentum to send the seat spinning around. She already knew golden hair, kissable pink lips, and two remarkable dark eyes would be haunting her dreams tonight. The more perverted areas of Vittoria's mind couldn't help wondering whether Bryana kept her pubis cleanly shorn or if she featured a wild tangle of hair the exact same shade as the golden tresses that billowed past her ears and neck. Vittoria shuddered when she imagined what those full wet lips would feel like kissing all over the most private areas of her body.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" Vittoria admonished herself. "And what the hell just happened?"

Vittoria couldn't remember the last time a first meeting with a woman affected her so profoundly. Not only that but Bryana seemed totally oblivious to her own irresistibility! Perhaps the fascinating woman was simply uninterested in her but Vittoria resolved to do anything she could to spark her attraction. Excitement built in Vittoria's chest near to bursting and butterflies fluttered about inside her stomach the longer she dwelled upon her new acquaintance.

"Oh, you've got it bad, Vittoria. That bastard Lucca knew exactly what he was doing."

Vittoria was alarmed to notice what time showed on the face of her antique wall clock and she hurriedly prepared for her next lecture. She adjusted the schedule in her planner to include several hours at the Biblioteca this evening, an activity that admittedly far surpassed nearly any the bookish professor might engage in for enjoyment. She would do anything to help distract from the incessant visions of dark eyes and golden hair that kept invading her mind even though performing such research would only keep Bryana even more present by assisting in her insane quest.

Vittoria smiled and closed her eyes for a moment of pleasing surrender as she allowed her thoughts to drift once again toward her new acquaintance. Tomorrow couldn't come soon enough.

+++++

Bianca ran her hand across the weathered stone railing as she descended the stairwell leading down the front steps of the Tolentini building. She drove her foot into the pavement then strode purposefully in the direction of the cheap hotel she currently lodged in. Her eyes stared blearily with exhaustion from so many nights in a row without slumber. Bianca vowed she would fit in at least a few hours of sleep before hunting this evening.

Bianca stared straight ahead while she marched, not even bothering to look up at the domes, spires, and minarets of arguably the most beautiful city in the entire world. She had seen this city's true face already and the facade surrounding her couldn't hide the very same ugliness Bianca found in every other metropolis she'd visited. Bianca reflected again upon the ancient black house that the escaped vampire had disappeared into. This city held something dark and terrible beneath its bridges and canals, the evil resting there had been awakened and was now seeping up through widening cracks in the city's stone walkways.

Exactly four years ago to the day, Bianca walked away from the crumbling madness of Castle Sidexes as the lone survivor of a cataclysmic battle between light and darkness. The corpses of Bianca's two remaining sisters, one her beloved Mirela and the other the unholy fiend Loredana, were left behind in the smoking ruins when Bianca escaped naked and half-dead into the wilderness below the Carpathian mountains.

After procuring clothing and nourishment, Bianca ventured on foot back to the airplane hangar where the pilot who brought Bianca and Mirela to Romania awaited her return. Roland seemed unsurprised that Bianca came back alone. He flew Bianca to Switzerland where she visited the bank that Mirela kept the majority of her fabulous, excessive wealth deposited in. Mirela's safety deposit box contained several false identities she had created for her sister, one of them the Bryana Pearson alias Bianca currently used. Bianca also became the sole inheritor of an immense fortune gained through only the most craven and evil means. She couldn't help wondering how much blood Mirela spilled in accruing such incredible wealth.

At the very bottom of the box, Bianca found a bright red folder that contained her destiny. If she wished to, Bianca could incinerate this folder and walk away with more wealth than she could spend in a hundred lifetimes. But a sense of duty and responsibility to her slain sister compelled Bianca to open the folder and learn its contents.

Though Bianca and Mirela succeeded in banishing from this earth the Demon Lord Beelzebub, (an ancient infernal who was the creator and source of power for all vampiric creatures) their victory did not eliminate the threat entirely. Vampires no longer possessed the ability to create more of their kind but the many surviving undead continued hunting and preying upon humans to feast upon their nourishing blood.

Inside that red folder, Bianca found extensive reports detailing information Mirela had collected on every vampire cabal on the face of the earth. The fiends were shockingly widespread with their claws gripping everything from international prostitution and human trafficking to organized crime, smuggling, and politics. Bianca learned from Mirela's notes the locations of every cabal along with details regarding their leadership, funding sources, and battle tactics. Enough information that Bianca could finally take the fight against her sworn enemies instead of merely reacting to their latest atrocities.

Using her wits, her strength of body and will, her deadly silver blade Viteza, and the vast wealth and invaluable notes inherited from Mirela, Bianca waged war upon vampires the world over. Since beginning her quest, Bianca had traveled to Tokyo, Shanghai, Melbourne, Montreal, Los Angeles, New York City, Mexico City, Rio de Janeiro, Cape Town, Cairo, London, Berlin, and several more obscure locations. She hunted relentlessly until countless undead had experienced Viteza's painful kiss. The edge of Bianca's sword beheaded vampires and their brainwashed human familiars without pause or mercy.

Bianca used to pride herself on her luxurious, waist-long golden locks but she hacked her hair short following a deadly encounter in Mexico. As she went in for the final kill that would dismantle the Mexican cabal, the vampire managed to tangle its spindly fingers in Bianca's tresses and caught her in an inescapable grip. The fiend slapped her sword away before Bianca could turn it upon him and the creature's teeth came only inches away from rending apart Bianca's throat and feasting upon her lifeblood. At the last second, Bianca pulled from her belt a long silver knife forged by her own hand which she drove up through the bottom of the vampire's jaw with enough force that it stabbed past the ghoul's gnashing razor-sharp teeth and became embedded deep inside its brain.

That encounter was the closest to death Bianca had neared since surviving Sidexes. Later that night she used the very same knife to hack her long hair off and kept her hairstyle cut short from then on.

Four years Bianca traveled the world in her relentless pursuit of justice. Or perhaps it was vengeance she sought, the two sentiments now indistinguishable from the other. In addition to her pre-existing knowledge of the French, Romanian, German, Dutch, and English languages, Bianca also became fluent in Spanish, Japanese, Mandarin, Arabic, and Afrikaner. She hastily studied Italian in preparation for what she prayed would be her final hunt. Bianca had already eliminated the bloodthirsty Yakuza vampire gangs of Tokyo and permanently shut down the blood banks and infamous vampire nightclubs of New York City and Los Angeles, inspiring such fear in the hearts of evil beings that hatred for the Huntress spanned continents.

Though the cabals residing in all the major cities of the earth were destroyed through Bianca's ferocious efforts she still kept herself abreast of any further signs of vampiric activity. The materials Mirela left to Bianca listed several safehouses and fallback strategies that might be employed by cabals who fell under attack by rival vampire clans or other supernatural forces. She'd already rooted out isolated groups of survivors by seeking traditional indications of a vampiric occupation such as a preponderance of mysterious disappearances or several brutally violent unsolved murders.

One curiosity listed in Mirela's documents was the description of a network of tunnels and a central hub hidden underneath the city of Venice that was named the Necropolis. Unfortunately, Mirela's information on this subject was all rumor and hearsay. She had never visited Venice once during all the extensive travels of her four-hundred year existence. A recent report on unexplained murders in Italy piqued Bianca's interest and she resolved to investigate in person.

So Bianca found herself in Venice, where she intervened in an assault against children two nights ago that proved without a doubt a vampire cabal now occupied this city. These denizens of the underground rose from their tombs at night, ascending to the upper world where they prowled for easy human prey to make a quick meal of. Or in the case of the dozens of missing persons reported over these last few months they instead dragged their meals down to the hidden places deep beneath Venice where they took their time playing with the victims while they slowly drained them over the course of several days.

Hopefully Vittoria would be able to assist Bianca in unlocking the entrances to the underground Necropolis. Bianca had roamed this city for a week without any luck in penetrating these hidden portals.

Bianca wasn't sure what to make of Professor Soriano. A gorgeous woman, beautiful even, but Bianca didn't care for her dismissive attitude toward Bianca's claims of a hidden network below the city. If Vittoria had seen and experienced the weird and horrifying things endured by Bianca during her quests then maybe the sheltered professor would believe differently. Bianca almost swore Vittoria made a pass at her, as outrageous as that sounded. The Italian woman certainly wasted no time in outing herself as a homosexual.

Was Vittoria able to sense my preference for women just from our short conversation? Bianca wondered. Am I truly that easy to read?

Bianca hadn't slept with man nor woman once in the four long years since she escaped the trauma and tragedy of that horrific night in Sidexes. It wasn't until this last year that Bianca even felt comfortable masturbating again. For the longest time sexual pleasure did nothing but remind Bianca of the ways her mind, body, and soul had been raped and used by an entire host of vampires. Her will had been stripped away and her human form warped beyond recognition. Though exorcised and healed of her demonic possession, Bianca still bore the physical remnants of that corruption.

Even fond sexual memories only made Bianca reminisce on the last time she slept with Mirela. It was the day after that perfect night they spent together that Bianca's most beloved chose death over having to spend one day longer as Dark Queen of the Vampyr. With the help of professional counseling Bianca eventually worked through her disorders and graduated to loving herself again, though she still had yet to experience sexual desire for any others.

More than anything else, Bianca couldn't allow herself to become attached again. Love. Romance. Personal relationships. These were easily exploitable weaknesses that Bianca could no longer afford to engage in. Her desire for such things had been incinerated along with her sister's gorgeous body. Bianca's heart was an empty shell, she lived only for vengeance and the dealing of death to her enemies. She wouldn't feel whole again until either she died and rejoined her sister in the great beyond or else eradicated every last vampire from the face of the earth.

Any interest Vittoria showed in Bianca must merely be the same attraction a curious onlooker has toward a freak show or sideshow museum oddity. Bianca need only look at her eyes or her naked breasts in the mirror to see the ways she'd been permanently branded by evil, both inside and out. Those evil kinds of marks were not so easily healed or disposed of. Bianca vowed to keep this college professor at arm's length while they worked together over the next few weeks. The Huntress could ill afford any distraction from her important works.

A pungent stink rose from the polluted canals baking in the heat of the mid-afternoon sun. The stench matched Bianca's sour mood as she traipsed imperiously toward her place of lodging. As Bianca crossed the Ponte Marcello she sighted her sister again.

Mirela waved happily at Bianca from the other side of the bridge overhanging the Rio Del Magazen. The lovely red lips of Bianca's deceased older sister broke into a wide, joyful grin once Bianca spotted her. Mirela covered her mouth and giggled as Bianca halted so suddenly that she stumbled forward with uncharacteristic gracelessness. She nearly pratfalled straight to the ground before an outstretched hand balanced against a stone railing rescued her from utter collapse. Bianca scowled at Mirela and marched hurriedly in the opposite direction from her.

+++++ Chapter II: Sisters of Dark +++++

Katia cried out with exuberant laughter as she leaped around the dancefloor, her hands waving up in the air and her dark hair billowing wildly about her head every time she bounced. Katia's hips, thighs, waist, and bottom moved in time with the pulsing electronic beat reverberating off the neon-lit walls of the nightclub. The pill Katia's best friend Gwen slyly handed to her earlier enhanced the flashing lights and bright shimmering colors that oscillated around, across, and above the dancefloor. Katia twirled in a daze of pure happiness and ecstasy as the music assumed control over her bodily rhythms. She surrendered herself totally to the invisible notes floating high above her and allowed their sweet sounds to guide her way.

The line to enter the most popular dance club in Venice stretched around the block outside but Katia's boyfriend Giovanni knew someone who knew someone that could get them in through the back door. Gio danced beside Katia now, his large, masculine hands gripping Katia by her tiny waist as he pulled her close enough to feel the heat of her body. Her inhibitions effectively eliminated by alcohol and drugs, Katia grabbed Gio by the back of his shaven head and licked his thin lips before shoving her tongue down his throat. Gio squeezed Katia even tighter against him and Katia giggled when she felt the stiff pressure of his growing erection rising up her abdomen. Katia and Gio swayed in perfect rhythm while they made out shamelessly in the middle of a raised dance floor made of mirrored tiles.