Sisters of Fate

"I was still out of breath and with a surprising amount of energy I was able to croak out a warning."

"Get away from here, fast," I croaked. "He's a..."

"...Foul demon of the night who shall soon be slain," spat the woman in the green hood.

"The woman on my left in the green outfit was staring at him, while the one on the right seemed to be more concerned with me."

"He roared again and the woman in green stabbed a five foot long pole mace with a vicious spike on top of the mace head and a thick blade on the opposite end into the ground. It made a thunk sound as it struck the ground with a surprising amount of power. The vamp looked at her while her hooded friend dressed in red tried to help me to my feet."

"I couldn't see their faces because of the hoods but the vamp looked at them with far more concern than he'd shown me. As he looked at the woman in green, he was struck in the shoulder, only inches away from his heart by a crossbow bolt. He screamed in pain and snatched it out still smoking. He started to run away with that strobe effect of his at full blast. A third woman melted into view from the darkness. She was dressed in head to toe white leather with a hooded cloak that was very similar to the other two."

"Before any of them could try to follow the vamp, all of the homeless people in the alley attacked us like zombies. The woman in white vaulted onto the top of a dump truck sized trash bin and started shooting them with her crossbow. The woman in green began bashing them with her pole mace. The woman near me in red started slashing them with an incredible spear."

"There are too many. We should leave," said the woman in white.

"I was feeling better and my strength was returning. There was no way I'd let a bunch of women defend me while I did nothing. The woman in red was very close to me and didn't consider me a threat. As her cape flashed open with her movements, I saw that she wore a Daisho. The Daisho is the traditional pair of samurai swords. I grabbed her Katana and she turned to look at me in shock. Even as she raised her spear to defend against me, I cut down the man behind her who was trying to brain her with a rock. Her cloak swirled in the darkness and she nodded her head at me in thanks."

"After that, the battle was too pitched to spare time for anything except fighting."

"I hate...let me reiterate...I hate using other people's swords. But in this case it was necessary for survival. The one thing going for us was that the people we were fighting had no technique and they were also in that same drugged or mesmerized state that Terri was in. I tried not to kill anyone and noticed a lot of head shaking from my temporary allies. They mumbled incessantly as we cut through the homeless zombies."

"Only one left," said one of the women.

"I turned and looked just as she said,"I've got her."

"I moved faster than I ever have in life. I covered the space to stand in between the woman in green and Terri, faster than I've ever run. I caught the staff of the pole mace against the back side of the Katana's blade. The woman in green clearly didn't understand my attention."

"Aren't you greedy?" she laughed.

"The voice that came from beneath the hood was filled with mirth, aggression and perhaps a little bit of anger."

"As she spoke, the other two joined us."

"Fine," she said. "You can kill her. See sisters, this is why we don't work with men. They're all the same. They're all egotistical and greedy."

"I'm not going to kill her," I spat.

"Then get out of the way and I'll do it," said the woman in the green leather.

"She raised the pole mace and again I blocked it. This time, I blocked it before she could even swing it. The mace had a huge head with an almost needle sharp spike on the end that was at least four inches long. The wicked spear like blade on the other end was very sharp as well."

"No one is going to kill her," I said.

"Says you," said the woman in green.

"This time she swung the pole mace at me. I easily blocked it but the attack had only been a feint. She brought the other end up and I leaped backwards out of range. She pressed her attack and I sidestepped a vertical strike. As the heavy head of the mace descended to my side I brought the edge of the Katana down on it forcing the mace head into the dirt. Then I raised my foot and stomped on the shaft breaking it. She jumped back in surprise finding herself left with only half of her weapon."

"The woman in red stepped between us ending the fight."

"Why use weapons when words will solve the problem?" she asked.

"He is a fool sister," said the woman in green angrily.

"The woman is far worse than all of the others combined. Most of these fools were simply glamoured. They would have awakened up and had no memory of what happened. We killed them because they were weak and would have been especially vulnerable to the vampires will. He could have contacted them over great distances with but a thought and willed them into doing anything. But that woman has been tasted by the fiend. She WILL turn and then we'll have two of them to deal with. And this vamp is very old and very nasty. He actually had the stones to go into a public tavern with people about. Both of them have to die. And for the greater good, if this fool wants to die defending her, so be it."

"The woman in red turned to me. As she did, she let her hood drop and I saw her for the first time. It was as if my world had been black and white for all of my life and suddenly there was color. Her long unruly hair was a very light brown. The highlights and differing shades and hues in her hair alone would take hours to categorize. There were hints of gold, blond and even red mixed in with the brown. I swear I could have spent hours staring at that hair. But those same hours would have been wasted because her face was far more exciting."

"Her large, innocent, hazel eyes were so expressive that they gave the impression she could tell you everything she thought and felt with just those eyes. At one moment they appeared innocent and mirthful. The next you could see that she'd experienced so much pain and death that it was a wonder she still breathed. Her nose was a perfect little button with a very small almost unnoticeable bump on its ridge. I'd seen that same imperfection on a lot of fighters. It told you that their noses had been broken. In her case, it only added to her beauty somehow. I guess the phrase that a far more literate person than I would use is that her slight imperfection only added to her beauty."

"Then there was her mouth. The expression Cupid's bow had to be invented to describe those lips. The weird thing about them is that her natural coloring made the need for any lipstick or cosmetics negligible."

"The strangest thing about it was that as I stared at her, she stared right back at me. I don't know how long we stood there locked in each other's gazes. Time seemed to stand still with neither of us willing or able to look away."

"The woman in white finally broke up the staring fest. She pushed her hood back and lowered her crossbow until the business end of it rested on the ground. Her hair was nearly as white as her leathers. She appeared to be older than the woman in red but that could have been only my perception. She too was beautiful. Her unlined face made judging her age difficult. She could have been anywhere between early thirties and early sixties. She was shorter than the other two and from the opening that I could see in the cloak, far more slightly built. Besides her crossbow, she wore two weapons that were either very short swords or very long daggers. They hung from a frog on her left side under the cloak."

"Sister Penance," she said. "Perhaps we should inform him of the danger and let him make his own decision. He has earned that right."

"At that point, the woman in green pushed back her hood as well. Her hair, unlike that of her friends, was a very short pixie cut. It was red and her creamy Irish skin and freckles hinted that it was natural. She was taller and thicker than the other two as well. Her thick arms and legs spoke of great strength. She also had a slight gut and huge breasts. This woman was an Amazon. I could see hundreds of men with domination fantasies happily groveling at her feet."

"Look dummy," she said angrily. "Or can I call you Ken? Ken, Barbie as you know her, is gone. She is under the control of a very strong, very ruthless bastard who now sees you as a threat. Unlike us, you don't have the training, the discipline, or the smarts to handle this. Barbie's life is over. Her existence will be a living hell from now on. The best way to save her soul is to put her out of her misery. Look at her."

"She snapped her fingers several times in front of Terri's face. Terri didn't respond."

"See Ken," said the woman in green. Her voice dripped sarcasm. "The best thing for us to do would be to end this for her. She won't even know it happened. It will be quick and painless."

"Sister Penance," said the woman in white. "Perhaps you should let someone else explain it. You are a bit too...direct."

"Man," she said looking at me. "Your...lady friend is at the very least enthralled and possibly halfway to becoming like the creature you saw. If he wills it, she will kill you in your sleep. She is no more than an extension of his will at this point. The kindest thing to do would be to end her torment. If you care for her as Prudence seems to think you do, you wouldn't want her to suffer. And if you are the kind of person that I think you are, you have to realize that she is a danger to everyone around her. The being that controls her has no morals and no sense of honor. He exists only for blood and his own selfish needs. He would not hesitate to have her strap a bomb to her chest and wander into a school. He could be paid by any unscrupulous person to do that and more. She needs to have her torment end."

"Jason," said Prudence softly. "Are you sure you know what you're getting into?"

"I was shocked on two fronts. The first was because she somehow knew my name. It was kind of disconcerting. I'd never seen her before and she knew who I was. And she spoke to me as if we were friends or had some kind of connection. Sure, she was beautiful, perhaps the most beautiful woman I had ever seen, but I had trouble with the fact that she apparently knew a lot about me; while I knew nothing about them."

"My second problem was that she somehow thought that she could tell me what I needed to do or anything about my relationship with Terri."

"She moved even closer to me and I knew that something was wrong then. I saw her eyes pop open even wider and I could tell she felt it too. Her presence was overwhelming. She smelled like soap and fresh air and just...magic. Standing close to her was like being near a generator. Energy came off of her in waves. She started to fidget even as she spoke to me."

"Jason," she said again.

"Good Lord, what the heck is wrong with her?" asked Penance. "Forget it. Patience, Prudence, let's just go. If she tears his fool head off, it's not our problem. We did try to warn him. He's a big boy. Let him pick his own toys. It's not our fault if he chooses blood sucking Barbie with the Kung Fu grip."

"Penance, if you don't want to stay, then don't," said Prudence. "As a matter of fact, maybe the two of you should try to find another lead on the vamp. I'll try and explain to Jason what he's gotten himself into while trying to do our job."

"The other two looked at each other and then back at Prudence as if she was crazy."

"You're going to go off with some MAN alone?" asked Penance.

"She knows what she's doing," said Patience. "I'm sure her actions will prove to be very prudent in the long run."

"Go with God sister," said Patience to Prudence.

"If he tries anything, call me and I'll gut him, or HER...or both of them," spat Penance. Then they walked away, leaving us alone except for Terri, or what was left of her.

"I didn't know what to do. So I handed her the Katana I'd borrowed from her. She smiled and pulled a cloth out of a hidden pocket and wiped down the blade and then returned it to the Saya or scabbard that she wore from a low slung double belt on her hip. The way she carried the swords was interesting. They weren't thrust through a sash the way the samurai wore them. They dangled on her hip, hung from a double belt in a style similar but different from the way fencers carried their rapiers during the seventeenth century."

"We should get her to your place and secured so we can talk," she said.

"Wait, who are the hell are you three?" I asked. "And why do you call yourselves sisters? You don't look like you're related. The other two have accents. They're very slight but still there. None of you look the same."

"Jason, we're burning moonlight," she said. "But I promise, I'll tell you everything you want to know. I'll even tell you the things that I shouldn't. You did save me back there."

"I smiled and told her she'd saved me first."

"I'm parked near your car," she said.

"She gently took one of Terri's arms and I took the other as we headed back towards the parking lot. The early evening had faded and darkness had fallen. We truly were, as she said, burning moonlight as we walked back past the bar, with Terri walking between us. She looked like she'd had too much to drink which simplified any explanations we might have had to give."

"On the other hand, there was simply no way to explain Prudence. How exactly do you explain a six foot tall golden haired goddess dressed entirely in red leather? How do you explain that she's carrying a spear and wearing two swords under her ankle length hooded cloak? Halloween of course."

"As it turned out, we didn't need an explanation. Although we did get more than a few stares, no one stopped us or questioned us. We made it to the parking lot without incident. We loaded the still zombified form of my wife into my car, then Prudence stored her weapons in hers. The weird looking Chevy that I'd looked at before turned out to be her car."

"As the eerily silent Volt followed my Mustang home, I kept thinking about that old joke. You know the one where the kid tells his father about the dog that followed him home and asks if he can keep him. Shit, Prudence had followed me home. Did that mean I got to keep her?"

"Mentally, I slapped myself. I was still married to Terri and I was already having thoughts about another woman. What kind of asshole did that make me?"

"Probably a very healthy one since Terri had cheated on me with multiple men and then gotten involved with..."

"I was still having a tough time calling that thing a vampire. I just didn't want to believe that they existed. And if they had to exist, why the hell couldn't they look like Kate Beckinsale? Vampires should be all sexy in shiny black armor and work boots, with a pouty expression and a subtle British accent. She should drop ten floors off the top of a building and walk away from it just to sashay over to me and stare at me with her incredibly blue eyes and then..."

"Shit, I almost ran through a red light. Luckily my huge 14" Brembo brakes stopped me before I drove into the cross traffic. Terri strapped beside me in the passenger seat, still stared directly ahead without noticing anything."

"A few moments later, we pulled into our driveway. Prudence got out of her car and came over to help me with Terri. As we entered the house, she politely asked if she could take off her cloak. She'd left the spear in her car but carried the swords with her."

"If I'd been lulled into inactivity before when I was locked into her eyes, seeing her body was even more stupefying. Prudence was almost six feet tall but very shockingly put together. In fact, she looked as if someone had just gone through a catalog of high performance lady parts and built the perfect woman."

"She had long shapely legs with thick tapered calves. Her hips widened atop those legs and her ass tempted me to smack it just so I could watch it jiggle. Her waist was so tiny I was sure I could get both hands around it. Her breasts weren't huge but they weren't tiny either. They were perfect and since I could see the nipples poking out and tenting the leather of her tunic, I was sure she wasn't wearing a bra under all of that leather. I know that it was rude to stare, but she seemed to welcome the attention."

"She insisted on checking out the house to make sure that there were no unexpected visitors. I heard her walking from room to room looking over the house and suddenly I didn't hear her moving anymore."

"I sat Terri down on a couch and went to see if she was okay. I found her in my workout room. Her eyes were glowing as she looked at the swords displayed on floor to ceiling racks along one wall."

"I knew it wasn't just luck," she said, when she noticed my presence. "Your moves were too practiced for you not to have some type of training with weapons. That is unusual in this day and age. Someday you'll have to tell me why a guy like you has so many swords. Some of these pieces are beautiful. There are very few antiques here though. And your swords are all dead."

"I didn't know that swords could live," I said.

"She followed me back into the living room, where Terri sat just as I'd left her."

"Jason, I'm not your enemy," she said. "Far from it, in fact. I probably shouldn't tell you this but I'm amazed by you. I envy you, the choices you make and the things you do."

"I thought that sounded funny since I'm just a normal guy who likes swords."

"What's with you and your...uhm... sisters?" I asked. "You still didn't clue me in on that."

"It's really simple, Jason," she said. "We're from a very special order within the church. We're called the Sisters of Fate. Our job is to handle threats like this and we..."

"You mean all of this shit is real?" I asked loudly. My voice was so shrill and so loud, that even Terri turned to look at me."

"Prudence just nodded her head. She looked at me with real concern on her face."

"Vampires are real?" I asked. "What about werewolves...what about..."

"Yes, there are werewolves," she said.

"Do they get all hairy and transform?" I asked. "Where does the hair come from? Where does it go when they change back?"

"As much as we can tell, it's all the result of fantastic spikes in hormones," she said. "When they change back, it's not exactly like the movies. All of the hair just drops off from the inappropriate locations."

"What else have you seen?" I asked.

"Well, not all of our cases are in the US," she said. "That's why most of us are from different locations. Patience is of course Russian and Penance is Irish and..."

"Wait," I said. It hit me very suddenly. "You said that you were from the church; the Catholic Church? Are you supposed to be some kind of nun? You can't be a nun..."

"Why not?" she asked.

"Because you can't be," I said nervously. "You're too..."

"Too what?" she asked. "Too young? There are many nuns including Penance who are younger than I am. We have some who are just out of high school."

"Too hot," I said angrily.

"What does hot mean?" she asked. She rubbed her forehead and then mine. As we made contact both of us shuddered.

"I don't seem to feel any hotter than you do," she said smiling.

"Hot means...attractive," I snapped.

"Oh, so nuns have to be ugly?" she asked smiling.

"Okay, clearly, that isn't the case..." I said. "...Because if it was, you wouldn't have been allowed in."

"So you're saying that I don't have what it takes to pass the ugly test?" she asked smiling.

"I was beginning to feel weird so I changed the subject."

"So what are some of the things you've run into?" I asked. I noticed that the twinkle in her eyes got brighter and she finally took her hand off of my forehead.