Dark Whispers: Running Amok 24

"I'm not your bitch. And I if I was you I'd have aimed higher when shooting at me." With that she swung her damaged left leg back and easily kicked Kevin two feet in the air. He never saw it coming since he'd figured she wouldn't be able to use her injured leg to harm him. His mistake, and as he had already seen her do the exact same move to the now thoroughly dead Tony, Charlotte found that pretty amusing. Her hair swept forward unwanted into her face and she took a second to flip the blonde strands back and waited until he began to rise up from being doubled over by her well-aimed kick. She really liked how nicely that one had landed between his legs smack dab in the cojones. Then she grabbed his right wrist and briskly snapped the gun out of his hand with a simple flip of her hand. Her strength wasn't her normal vampiric sort, but sufficient to break bones without thinking. Again there was an audible snap of the small bones in his forearm as the gun fell from his lifeless fingers. Charlotte really liked those snapping bone noises. But what she really needed to do was to get the rest of him to join his fingers without having to fang in and do the job.

The girl was cautiously peeking from the closet. Charlotte could feel the little girl's eyes on her back. It was all she could do to not spin around and yell for the kid to get her ass out of sight. When Kevin jerked and stared past her she knew she should have. Kids were so unpredictable to her. Shaking her head in frustration, she hoped that she wouldn't have the girl sobbing at being yelled at by Charlotte and the psychos threatening to kill her.

Gasping out he worked past his pain to shout rudely at her, "Get the fuck out of my way!"

Kevin then pushed past Charlotte with a surprising burst of strength -- given his balls were now probably somewhere around the middle of his stomach, if not higher. Her gunshot wound itched and she could feel the innate vampiric abilities closing off the shot on both sides of her thigh and stopping the seepage between the entry and exit wounds. The downside of the fast healing was that she was now extremely bloodthirsty and she knew that she really shouldn't suck off Kevin given his ties back to Kenyon. She hated such choices. The blood seeping slowly from her wound thankfully had begun to slow, nearly staunched by the vampire healing.

The girl leaped away from the closet doorframe but a second or three too late. Kevin tried to grab the doorknob with one hand while attempting to snatch the girl out with his other. He probably would've succeeded had he been by himself. But he gave Charlotte a clear shot at his back; he shouldn't have been greatly surprised when Charlotte leaped onto his exposed back with claws and attitude. Both thumped the already injured thug down to his knees. Given that his body couldn't have fully recovered from the kick, it wasn't that hard. The little kid was now aware of how bad he wanted to kill her. Still she didn't scream or get hysterical. Those clear blue eyes glittered behind her glasses as she said, "Do it fast. He's calling for help in his mind."

Charlotte had heard Kevin's mental scream when she had leaped on his back but she didn't know humans could hear that stuff too.

"You're a weird kid aren't you?" Charlotte hissed out. It was tough keeping her fangs in given her hunger but didn't want to drain the sweeper, tempting as it was.

"Naturally," A grin revealed the child had her adult teeth. They seemed too large for her small mouth but no fangs. Even as the neighborhood was tainted with the scent of vampires the little girl didn't have anything blood calling from her. She was something else for sure. Charlotte just didn't know what.

"Okay, so how do you suggest I leave the corpse in your house? In your room, on the landing, or perhaps out the window? Give me some options here since it's your idea and your home." She was sarcastically serious with the pixy faced kid. She was the one clamoring for Charlotte to hurry up and kill the invaders. It was like Charlotte had a new boss to add to the collection. She still had Kenyon waiting for her explanation of stealing from the bank safety deposit boxes. Then there was good old fang boy, Jim, wanting to run her and she wasn't even going to think about the vampires on the council. She sighed softly and came to a conclusion.

Kevin was struggling underneath her. Her knee was square in between his shoulder blades pinning him to the carpet face first. He could have bucked off a female but a vampire wasn't nearly as moveable. His mind and mouth had begun to catch up to the situation. Twisting underneath her he tried to catch her eye. Given the angle he just ended up looking pathetic and very tempting and prey-like with the wild eye rolled up sideways. It reminded her of rabbits when hawks were swooping down and pegging them. She kept her focus and didn't let her vampiric nature get the best of her for a change. After all there was a child present.

"Fuck, lady, you can't off me!" His brain was frantically searching for options. His energy was topping off the chart with fear and something else. The misguided man thought someone was going to save him.

"Hmmm, so I am no longer 'Bitch'? How exactly did that change? Oh wait, I've got it! It changed once I kicked your ass!" Charlotte snarled.

"Turn your back, kid," was all the warning she gave. As the little girl spun so did Kevin's head. A satisfying pop and snap fed her nature. She really did like that sound. Besides, it wasn't like Charlotte thought that they would be coming back to the house anytime soon. She felt the man die and put his head back on the carpet facing the correct direction. She patted him on the back of his head while saying, "You can come out now. Grab what you need. I don't think we should stay here for much longer."

"Agreed. They will be sending more to get me." The kid pulled at the hangers in the closet and found some items she couldn't live without. She was aware of Charlotte's intentions. The vampire could see it on her face. It was a certain adult look. She was resigned to her future.

"I can keep calling you 'Kid,' but you probably have some name you like better, huh?" Charlotte watched how fast she was jamming things into a large worn gray duffle bag. The kid had done the scramble and dash before it sure looked like.

"My name is Iris Stonehouse." She said.

"Okay, right, Iris it is. Hi, Iris. I'm Charlotte." She looked around the brightly colored room and wanted to leave. It was really perky and kid friendly.

"You don't have a last name?" Iris had some authority issues Charlotte thought while she snarled back, "Charlotte is fine. So where's your mom?"

Iris paled. "I don't know. She disappeared two days ago. She does that every now and then. She always can find me."

"Hell, she have you low-jacked or something?" Charlotte was unnerved by the matter-of-fact way the child relayed her mom was missing. It didn't seem to bother Iris that she had been on the computer and listening to music when the men broke in to kill her.

"Or something." The grin was mischievous and secretive. Iris Stonehouse had hidden something in plain sight and Charlotte didn't have a clue. It wasn't like she was good at the parenting bit. She had zero contact with kids for the most part. Well, except ever since she had snagged the money and pretties from the bank it seemed she was constantly being surrounded by kids and teens. It totally grossed her out at some level that she had no desire to explore.

"Whatever. Grab your stuff, Iris. Let's hit the road then." Charlotte headed for the door.

"Wearing this?" Horror etched over the kid's face.

"I guess not, huh?" Charlotte wasn't sure what kids wore and figured anyone wearing such a tacky get up didn't care much what folks thought, but she obviously was wrong. Iris had kicked off the pink fuzzy bunny slippers she had been wearing when she was packing her bag. But granted the flannel pink and yellow pastel night shirt coupled with the purple sweat bottoms may have been a bit much even for humans. Braids flying Iris jumped back to the closet saying, "Turn your back, please."

Feeling stupid Charlotte turned away, giving the girl her privacy while mentally tapping her foot impatiently. Out of the corner of her eye she watched some small shirts and blouses thrown off to the side while Iris scrambled to find the 'right' look. Time was ticking and the kid was still grunting and shifting behind her.

"Done." Charlotte turned back slowly to see that small bits of light brown hair had escaped from Iris' braids while tearing her shirts on and off in the mad dash to get dressed. Iris pushed her silver frames back up her nose to rest where they belonged on the narrow bridge separating her bright eyes. Two spots of red were on her cheeks high up letting Charlotte clue in that the kid was waiting for her to comment on the newly changed outfit.

Jeans -- check. Some sort of weird clunky looking tennis shoes -- check. A long sleeved pink (naturally) shirt with some sort of white flower in the middle -- check. Charlotte nodded like she knew anything about children fashions.

"Looks great." Mentally she wondered how much more she was supposed to say. The look on Iris' face was calm and not upset so she must have said enough.

Iris stepped over the dead Kevin without a glance at his quickly cooling body. Charlotte was impressed, as most humans would have skirted the body and made some comment. Iris then paused at her desk and asked, "Can I bring my flash drive?"

Charlotte nodded, "Sure." She hadn't a clue what a 'flash drive' even was. She was half expecting the kid to grab some disc.

Then she watched Iris go to the computer and pull some finger sized black thing from the front of her machine. Charlotte had some vague familiarity with computers but wasn't sure what the flash drive exactly did. She kept meaning to find out more about the newest technical bits and pieces but time got away from her and she really had thought that the drive was like a computer floppy. Mentally shrugging and knowing she needed to find out about the various drives she shelved the stray thoughts and headed outside. Bodies were cooling and they needed to get away before someone came looking for the sweepers.

She was halfway down the stairs when she turned to see Iris was struggling with her bag. Sighing she reached back and grabbed the over stuffed duffle saying, "Anything else you really need? Go grab it. I'll take this and meet you down the block. It's a pink car."

Had this been a master vampire-directed killing she would have called someone local for body cleanup. Since she was off the books it was not an option. Charlotte liked having humans due her bidding. But then it wasn't her house and there wasn't anything to link her back to the murders. Well with the exception of her taking the kid with her. That certainly tied her back to the dead thugs. Shrugging she headed for the pink car.

Iris said, "I'll be there in a second."