“But what if he doesn’t return?” Nikki asked.
“He will,” Jill said.
“Yes,” Saul agreed. “I feel there were plans afoot when he was here—plans that he did not get to carry out to their full extent. But I’d like to wipe out the rest of the Rogues before he comes back.”
“Are you fighting them tonight?” Kara asked.
“I don’t know. Probably.”
“I want to help,” she said.
Saul nodded and smiled at her. “I figured you would.”
“I think we should all buddy up for the night,” Jill suggested. “Don’t go home alone. Just in case the Rogues that are left decide to be brave.”
Everyone nodded wearily. They were all tired and worn out from the day’s violence. It had been more emotionally draining that anything, but none of them would realize that until they were able to be alone and think over the day in peace.
As the sun started to set and Red Creek began to gather the darkness of the coming night, the group broke apart and went their respective ways. They left in silence, knowing that this single day would forever connect them and that the fight they were now all a part of was not over yet.
3
At Penny’s request, Ray had driven her home and taken the guest bedroom. She had not wanted to stay at her home alone, and understandably so. Truth be told, the idea of going to his own empty house had terrified Ray. He had agreed to go to Penny’s easily enough, especially when she had offered dinner and a bottle of wine.
They had driven to Penny’s house in silence. Ray could not help but notice that Penny had not invited Kara or Paul. He didn’t know if this was anything worth dwelling on, though; Kara was preoccupied with the slow death of the town she had been hired to protect while Paul was something of a quiet sort. Neither of them would have been great company under the circumstances.
Not that Ray thought he’d be much company, either. He was exhausted and, although the thought of some warm food and just enough wine to make the room tilt a bit was nice enough, he would much rather just fall asleep.
Ray took a nap on her couch while Penny showered. When she nudged him awake after she was out and dressed, he took his turn in the bathroom while she cooked. Ray had a relaxing shower, the kind that seemed to unknot ever knot inside of his body. Still, when he stepped out and dried himself off, he felt exhausted enough to easily fall asleep right there on the bathroom floor.
Ray managed to pep himself up and headed down to Penny’s kitchen. Dinner was ready and the wine was poured. She served him chicken parmesan that smelled like it had come from a high-scale restaurant with a tired smile on her face.
“You really don’t have to do this,” Ray said. “You worked just as hard as I did today.”
“True. But I miss cooking. I miss waiting on people, you know? Do you ever get that?”
Ray thought he did. But he figured for a woman, it was different—especially a woman that had married a rich man and had, as she had put it earlier in the day, “kept a house and dawdled.”
Neither of them spoke as they ate. Ray wasn’t sure how Penny felt, but he didn’t see the point in rehashing the hell he had been through. The only sounds in the kitchen were the silverware clattering gently against the plates.
When they were done, they did the dishes together. They had another glass of wine, speaking briefly about their parents, their distant kids, and other trivial things. The conversation lasted only ten minutes and they called it a night before the bottle of wine was emptied.
Penny showed him to the guest room upstairs and then retired to her own bedroom down the hall. Ray fell asleep less than five seconds after his head hit the pillow. His blurry eyes barely saw that it was 8:42 before sleep swallowed him.
Sometime later in the night, he thought he heard the opening of a door. He looked to the clock and saw that it was 3:30. He instantly thought that a Rogue had come into the house and was here to kill them in retribution. He sat up quickly, hitching a breath and clamoring for any sort of weapon that might be nearby.
“It’s okay,” said a voice. He eased at once when he realized it was Penny.
“Can’t sleep?” Ray asked.
“No, I slept quite fine,” she said. She stood there in the doorway, looking in without moving.
“What’s wrong?” he asked.
“Nothing. But I’d like to ask you something.”
“Sure.”
“I told you earlier how I missed cooking for people…how I missed serving.” Penny stepped into the room, soon standing at the end of the bed.
“Yeah?” Ray prompted.
“I miss a lot of things,” was the murmured reply.
Penny sat on the side of the bed and found one of Ray’s hands. She took it in hers and laced her fingers through his. “One of the things I miss the most,” she said, “is the feel of a man’s hands on my body.”
Penny placed Ray’s hand on her left breast and softly urged him to touch her. He did, awkwardly, enjoying the feel of her modest breast through the silk sleep shirt she was wearing.
Penny sighed and leaned towards Ray. She kissed him softly, lips moving along his jaw line until they reached his ear. “Take me,” she whispered, punctuating her words with a nibble on his earlobe.
Ray responded slowly. He’d been without his wife for so long and hadn’t slept with a woman in almost eight months. He wanted this, possibly even more than Penny did, but he was tired and slightly uncomfortable with the sudden change in their relationship. Penny was nearly ten years older than him and, until very recently, the two had been virtual strangers.
Slowly, Ray brought his other hand up and caressed Penny’s face. He kissed her on the mouth briefly and hated the fact that he was beginning to shake – from exhaustion or nerves, he was not able to tell. But he wanted her here with him, wanted to please her.
“Tell me how,” he said. “Tell me what you want.”
“For now, just this,” Penny answered. She leaned in and kissed him deeply. Their tongues slid together, slow and warm and passionate as their bodies pressed against one another.
“Undress me,” she said.
Ray nodded. He unbuttoned the silk shirt slowly, button by button. When her breasts were uncovered, he grazed her nipples with his fingers and cupped them. He was slightly ashamed when he found himself surprised that they were still so plump and firm. Penny was in her early fifties, but had the body of a woman in her thirties.
Ray bent his head and lowered his mouth on one of Penny’s breasts, feeling delight spike through his body as she groaned against him. He fumbled lower, slipping her sleeping pants down her smooth legs with careful fingers. Penny raised herself, helping by allowing the garment to slide down her body. She pressed against Ray, guiding him to lie back onto the bed. Penny pressed close to him, then reached into the waistband of his boxers. She took him in her hands, her actions as confident as her words had been moments prior.
“Everything you do to me, I will do to you,” she said with a sleepy smile. “And I want you to start by putting your mouth on me.”
Ray nodded, pressing eager kisses to her breasts and down her torso.
Penny moaned at the attention, but shook her head. “No,” she said. She then took his hand and placed it between her legs, pressing his fingers hard against her to show him how wet she was. “Here.”
Ray couldn’t remember the last time he’d done that…certainly more than two years. He found himself eager to do it now, to please Penny and help wash away the torment of the day with pleasure.
“Tell me what you want,” he said. He used his fingers to spread her softly apart, his tongue pushing into her in a way that experience had taught him most women liked.
Penny moaned and pressed herself up into his face, bucking her hips as he slid two fingers inside.
“Yes,” she groaned. “Faster.”
Ray obliged, her soft sighs and moans teaching him what Penny liked better than any words would have done. He felt
her tensing, clenching around his fingers – relaxing, as release washed over her. It happened quickly, taking less than two minutes. She settled back onto the bed and pulled him up.
“I lied,” she said. “I’ll do everything you do to me, but you warn me before you come. I want you inside of me.”
Confused at first, Ray nearly asked what she meant but then she was kissing his neck, his chest, his stomach and, before he knew it, his member was in her hot mouth. Her tongue was soft and wet and so, so hot against him; he was terrified that he was going to lose it in the first few seconds.
Penny seemed to sense his excitement. She gradually slowed her actions, eventually stopping completely. When she spoke, he could feel her breath on his cock.
“Calm down,” she said. “We’ve got all night.”
Ray relaxed as best as he could, finding it beyond peculiar that she was confident with him here in the darkness of the bedroom but had seemed to be the most fragile of the Marked when they had been in the midst of their hunt.
Ray shook his head, pushing thoughts of vampires and blood away. He allowed his nerves a moment to settle down, let his body relax. As he did so, he took the time to actually take in Penny’s naked form. He rested one hand on her hips and another just under her left breast. When he felt that he had control of himself again, he rolled her onto her back. He felt as if the new position allowed him a better control of the situation – and his own over-excited body.
Still, it had been a long time for him. The swiftness of his release did not take Ray by surprise; at least they had both made it count. It was slow and sweet at the start as their hands explored one another, Ray attempting to learn what Penny liked even as he teetered at the edge of orgasm. As they neared the end, it became more frantic and Ray was pleased to get at least a few shouts out of his companion, bringing her to release for the second time.
The last few seconds of their coupling was punctuated by the sweet sting of Penny’s fingernails running down Ray’s back. It was a gesture of passion, mindless and simple; Ray adored it. He suddenly wanted to lay there with Penny, hold her close. He knew their intimacy had been more about comfort than anything else, considering what they had gone through in the last sixteen hours or so. Even so, he could not quite stop the warmth that unfurled in his chest as he watched Penny fall asleep next to him.
Outside, Red Creek was still and silent. Still, any unfortunate passersby would have easily noticed the lurking figures of several waifish forms ambling through the streets, like lost souls looking for a home.
4
Saul was starting to sense a sort of kinship developing between Nikki and Jill. It had always been there, from the first day the two women had met, but it seemed that the day’s events had helped draw them even closer together. Sure, they didn’t have the ideal living situation, but that was not something that Saul was going to bring up anytime soon.
Saul thought on that as they sat together in the living room of the cabin and watched dusk transform into night. He looked out of the hole where a door used to stand and rolled his eyes. Replacing a door simply didn’t take priority over other things when there was, by all accounts and purposes, a vampire war going on in Red Creek.
They’d all showered and were doing their best to prepare for the night ahead of them. Saul fully intended to head back, but his body was exhausted. He couldn’t even begin to imagine how the members of the Marked were feeling. Every time he thought about how vigorous and determined Kara had been for the last three months or so, it awed him. It made him wonder if maybe humans weren’t as weak-willed as he and most other vampires had assumed them to be. He knew that his own father had often tried to convince others of their kind that human beings weren’t the helpless and miserable species that other supernatural beings assumed them to be.
“How many more do you think there could be?” Nikki asked.
“It’s impossible to know,” Saul said. “I think Kara might be able to answer that for us tomorrow. She’ll need to get an idea of how many missing persons reports had been filed and then cross-reference that with the Rogues we killed today.”
“Another question,” Jill spoke up, “is how the remaining Rogues will respond when Gestalt returns. Do we have another fight on our hands, you think?”
“I’d assume so,” Saul said. “There’s no way that—”
He stopped there, looking queerly at the doorway that led outside. Jill and Nikki followed his gaze and saw the same thing he was seeing: a white mist rising up from the floor, swirling gently as if pushed by a breeze.
“Is it the Guard?” Nikki asked,
“I don’t think so,” Saul said. “This seems…different somehow.”
He took a few tentative steps towards the mist and stopped when he was standing three feet from it. He could see the outline of a figure taking form, etched in the mist like a wandering ghost.
His mind raced back to when Benali had come to visit him on his own, just before his treason with the Greely clan had been discovered. But he knew right away that this figure was not Benali. He couldn’t be certain, but he was pretty sure this was a member of the Guard. He thought it was—
“Polyxia,” Jill said form behind him. “By herself?”
“It seems that way,” Saul said.
Polyxia finally materialized completely, standing still and silent in the doorway. She seemed tired. Her eyes were weary and her white hair was a mess on top of her head. She looked to Saul with something that he thought looked very much like regret. On her own, not flanked by the rest of the Guard, she looked brittle and frail.
“Polyxia,” Saul said. “To what do I owe the honor?” There was some sarcasm in his voice, as he was still not happy with the Guard due to their lack of promised answers regarding his father.
“The rest of the Guard does not know that I am here,” Polyxia said. She walked over to Saul’s couch and sat down as if she was just any other old lady in need of resting her bones. “I have come to warn you…and to give you the answers you’ve been seeking.”
“Warn me of what?” Saul asked.
“The plot against you. The Guard suspects that you have always wondered about their allegiance…even during these last few months when you worked closely with us. The Guard has been plotting against your family ever since the months leading up to your father’s death.”
“What sort of plot are you—” Jill began. But Polyxia held up a hand to silence her.
“I don’t have much time,” she said. “It physically pains me to evaporate and teleport without their help. I’m getting old,” she said with a thick, dry laughter.
Saul couldn’t help but grin at her remark. Yes, she was old; she was probably pushing one thousand.
“Then tell us,” Saul said. “And please start with why you are electing to risk your status with the Guard—and possibly your life—by coming here.”
Polyxia sighed heavily and began her stories.
“The Guard has not been working as it was designed to work for nearly five hundred years now. It has become less about looking over the supernatural realms and more about how those realms and the beings within them can be manipulated into being placed more firmly in the control of the Guard. I’m the only member that has ever admitted displeasure in this. The Guard, I suppose you at least suspect, was behind your father’s death. They organized and orchestrated it. Gestalt did indeed kill your father, but he was sent to do so by the Guard.
“The reasons behind it are simple, although many clans have distorted them. As you know, your father was something of a scientist…or more like an occultist, I suppose. One of his great gifts was to shut off his craving for human blood without much trouble. And as a result, he was able to use samples of human blood to find a sort of immunity – a way for vampires to no longer crave human blood. Did you know this?”
“I was aware he was researching something to do with vampire blood,” Saul said, looking awkwardly over to Jill. “But I always thought it had something to do with
making us less vulnerable to the sun.”
“Oh, he touched on that, as well,” Polyxia said. “And that is, I believe, the front he was using while he was doing his real research. Well, as you can guess, the Guard did not take kindly to the fact that a vampire was actively looking for a way to make vampires and humans live peacefully together. Vampires are powerful beings; the Guard cannot afford to lose their hold over vampire clans. And if vampires lost their craving for human blood, the Guard’s supervision over vampire clans will no longer be necessary. ”
“So they killed our father for that?” Jill asked.
“Yes. We warned him several times. I even visited him a few times by myself, trying to reason with him.”
“How did Gestalt kill him?” Saul asked.
“Given the circumstances, Gestalt couldn’t very well put a stake through your father’s heart. Doing so would have alerted Red Creek’s human authorities, perhaps even lead them into stumbling over what was really going on. So I believe Gestalt used some enchanted blade from Moorcheh’s collection instead. That was what I was told, anyway.”
“Why would the Guard come to me as a friend and an ally, after all of this?” Saul asked.
“Another part of the plan. Keep your enemies close and all that,” Polyxia said. “Your power was of some concern to us. It was decided that the best course of action would be to keep you under our control. But that didn’t work out very well for us now, did it?”
“And what about Gestalt?” Jill asked. “Did the Guard send him here?”
“No. He heard about the Greely plan and got motivated, I suppose. He is one of the fiercest Rogues in all of history. It was by sheer luck that Magdeline crossed his path here in Red Creek. She promised him forgiveness for all Rogues if he sides with us and infects the entire town with his…children. And, of course, if he could wipe out your clan, that would be a bonus.”
“So what’s the Guard’s next step?”
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