Night Time 26

Licking my lips I was surprised that I hadn't shed a drop of Louella's delicious blood. Her blood-washed sleeping form tempted me to finish the job but the look in Harry's eyes stopped me. Oops, I guess one didn't leave bodies when they could help it. Not that Harry was such a great example. I arched an eyebrow and looked over at Leo slumped against the wall unmoving. Harry had two corpses to my one semi-dead friend, and that was just for tonight. Oh god, she was a friend. A pang of something flickered and died. As far as I was concerned I wanted to completely sip her dry. I was changed.

Erika came to the door and knocked saying loud enough to be heard through the thick door, "Is it safe to come in yet?"

I looked at Harry. He smiled and said, "Just a minute."

Excuse me, just a minute to do what? It wasn't like Leo would suddenly be undead and Louella less, well Louella. She was sleeping but still very needy. I could see the points of her breasts tipping up the bed sheet and while sleeping she was still whimpering and moaning her wants. And she wanted someone to finish what both Harry and I had started near as I could figure. I looked at Harry and waited for him to tell me what to do.

He walked to the door saying, "Don't worry, Gwendolyn, Erika is here to help us."

Us? There now was an us? When did that happen? Harry smiled and slowly pulled open the door, "Erika, did you leave Cinda downstairs with Maria?"

"Of course, she is also to alert us if those creatures show back up. So what do you need me to do, Sire?" I just noticed that Erika was no longer fighting Harry. And excuse me but now Harry was a 'sire'?

Something definitely had changed in the past few days between them. Erika wasn't automatically challenging Harry but being subservient and supportive. I could see it went against the grain in some ways but there was a feeling of rightness to it all. Harry belonged in charge and Erika was a good servant. Damn, I had changed too. I could see there was a different texture to Erika than before when she had breakfast with Cinda and me. She was now part of this entire new world I found myself in and a part of since Harry had come and found me.

Harry simply indicated the two in the room with a hand gesture encompassing the blood spilled from Leo on the sheets and the lightly slumbering Louella. Erika nodded while she said, "You two head out. I will take care of this all."

We left the room and I knew that Erika was more than capable of handling the problems Harry and I had left her with in the bedroom. I no longer gave them any thoughts. As far as I was concerned they were no longer an issue for me. Erika was more than able to dispose of them however it was needed. Admittedly I thought briefly of Louella then dismissed her without a pang of regret. What would be would be. It wasn't something for me to worry about anymore. There was more to do now.

Simply enough, I wasn't under any illusions any longer. Harry had come for me. My mom's death was regrettable, but something that was destined to happen. She wasn't part of the vampire world and her death created a reason for Harry to show up. He hadn't caused her death, just used it as an excuse to find me. My mom must have been killed by those goons Maria had on her porch when we arrived. As we slowly walked down the stairways we had bolted up earlier I asked Harry, "Did those monsters from the porch kill my mom?"

He nodded slowly. The banister was sleek under his hand. I found myself desiring his caress, watching how he fondled the wood underneath his fingertips. There was something soothing in his touch and my new body ached for it. I tried to distract my wayward thoughts from this odd new passion.

"Did they rape Cinda's mom?" I had begun to put the pieces together.

Again he confirmed my logic. "Yes, they did." Again his hands called my eyes. Walking even slower down the steps I felt something riding me. Waves of desire and need warred for space in my brain. Seizing the idea of the two odd assailants and my newfound bloodthirst, I gave this new thought some room to grow.

"May I kill them?" After all my hunger needed to be quenched, I knew, and it wasn't like those two were exactly boy scouts.

Smiling I saw he had grown his fangs out again.

We had reached the bottom of the stairs and went to the open doorway. Maria wasn't causing much trouble. Sniffing the air slowly I could tell her life was nearly gone. Her body was little more than a pile of bloody rags. Skin was flayed and sinew and various internal bits and pieces were visible. I could now smell the wrongness of Maria. If I had drained her I would have polluted my system, maybe beyond redemption. The cats had done a great job of destroying Maria. Cinda was pacing and flipping back and forth between her and Misty. Misty finally won.

"Oh, look, our little Lynn baby got her fangs!" She wasn't mocking me she was congratulating me in her odd way. She was glowing her excitement. I refrained from replying since she wasn't exactly looking for comments.

"Harry, you old dog you, finally got her over to the dark side did you?" Misty pushed a button. I knew this from the pulse in his jaw. He refrained from doing anything for which I was somehow grateful. I still was tied to Cinda-Misty, regardless of my new state. A vampire. Who knew? I mean, I had just come to terms with being an orphan with a best friend who was host to a ghost, and now I was a vampire. Not to mention all the other odd things happening in my town.

Harry turned to Misty and simply said, "Be gone."

And like that, Misty flickered out of Cinda's eye. Her mossy green iris was covered twice with quick blinks of her lashes to her cheek. Cinda was puzzled, but calm all things considered. Harry still had his fangs out, as did I. I wasn't sure why he was sharing the information with Cinda until it dawned on me that Cinda would be my servant like Erika was now his. I liked the idea of having Cinda with me. Harry nodded to me to approach Cinda. I felt a flicker of information sink into my mind from Harry.

Don't ask me how I knew it was from Harry. I just did. There was a Harry feeling to the thoughts. It wasn't like sentences and words, but more like visual aids with emotions. Armed with those bits and pieces, I knew what I was to do.

"Cinda," I softly spoke while walking up to my friend. Cinda was very still watching me without a word. She didn't seem overly shocked by the show of fangs in my face.

Next to us Maria was softly drumming her feet on the porch as her body let her life ebbed away. El Diablo and Banshee had stopped their methodical flaying of Maria before Harry and I had reemerged after my change and they were now sitting on either side of the stairs leading up to the front door. The huge snowflakes were continuing to fall gently in the yard. I could see little that wasn't covered thickly with snow now. The flakes spun slowly as if they had all the time in the world to reach the ground. The night bounced back noises oddly with the muffling from the winter scene. Tree branches were crackling and falling to the soft snow pack. It was hypnotic and the cats' heads bobbed up and down as if they too felt the pull of the snow. Shaking my head from the distraction I looked back to see Cinda was waiting for me to say something.

"I need you to be strong, Cinda." I felt odd but I continued to talk to my friend. I had only a few minutes to get her on board and out of here before things got strange again. I could feel the monsters returning. Somehow I knew they were in the distance waiting for the opportunity to drag me off to whatever hellhole they had come from to find me.

"I am strong enough, Lynn. If not, Misty will take over," with that simple statement Cinda was confessing to her secrets. No matter what Misty had thought, Cinda really did know who she was. That made one of us. I was still feeling my way along.

"Okay, fair enough. I have to do something to make this work." I tried to downplay the creepy factor. I followed Harry's mental urgings to the letter, all the while keeping watch on the cats. They would let me know when the monsters were back. Cinda quickly followed my commands and directions and we were bonded. All of us. Harry, Cinda-Misty and I. And when I reached out a bit I found that Erika was also tied into our little group. Only Harry and I were vampires, but now I had a family. Once the words and actions were done Erika flew out the front door, carrying Louella.

"No time to finish the setup, Harry. Sorry. I could see from upstairs when I was setting the timers that we have some heavy hitter types of visitors quickly heading this way. I am pushing the timer on the charges and dumping her in Leo's car and letting her drive her ass home before it all comes crashing down." Harry nodded his permission while casually tossing Maria like a rag doll inside the house. I could hear her body smack the floor like so much wet laundry. There was a slight moan letting me know Maria was still clinging to life. Harry spoke quickly to Louella.

"Louella, wake up. Leo gave you his car to get home since you walked. See? It is snowing too much for you to walk home safely. So why don't you go now, take a shower and get into bed?" She was still wearing the top sheet and perky breasts. Erika had taken the time to swab off some of the obvious blood streaks from Leo's death but I could smell the tainted blood of the Winters line. There was a corruption to them that I could now detect. Maria's blood was vile and flowing in the doorway but Leo's blood had been strong and wrong. Harry had made me carefully and by not allowing me to truly drink from Leo I could see why now that I had a new set of senses with which to explore such things.

She nodded and grumbled, "But I was having such lovely dreams." There was a slight frown as she must have recalled something more than the fluffy thoughts both Harry and I had pushed into her brain. She wasn't quite awake but sort of sleepwalking. Erika quickly bundled Louella off the porch into the garage half lifting the waitress off her feet, which were chillingly naked as the rest of her. The cats were both looking to the east end of the property intensely. I knew the monsters were nearly here. Erika came running back from the garage and I heard Leo's car start up. Louella was behind the wheel looking half asleep. I could see that the sheet had slipped into her lap and her shoulders were blue-white. I wanted to sink my fangs back into her neck and finish her off.

Clapping his hands briskly together Harry called our attention to him, "Okay, we need to leave before this place gets leveled." A look to Erika confirmed there were explosives inside waiting to go boom.

"What about them?" Misty poked her head up long enough to ask while looking at the two huge men lumbering back to us.

"Mine." Was all I said. I flew off the porch with only the cats behind me.