Penny's Choice

by Annette Archer

  Then her dreams shifted; instead of the vampires killing her family, it was the Brotherhood. They came in through the windows, like the vampires. Oddly enough, the same vampire still pushed her in the closet and stood watch over her as the her family was butchered outside.

  The next few weeks went by in a blur of introductions and training. Charles was assigned as her main handler. They spent most of their waking hours together. However, it was not all fun and romance as Penny would have preferred. Charles was mostly business. Randomly he would pull her into a secret passageway and make out with her for a few minutes. It never lasted long enough for Penny. Then it was right back to fighting. Violent fighting. Charles was the beast fighter in the Brotherhood and he was doing his best to make his girlfriend into the second best fighter in the kill...or kill her in the process.

  "Are you crazy, you idiot, you could have broken every bone in my body," Penny said, yelling with every vocal cord. She held her head in her hands and managed to stand somewhat straight. For a second, she thought she saw real concern in his beautiful eyes, but then it changed back to aggression.

  "Hey I didn't pitch you with all my strength. I am aware who I am fighting with," Charles said, egging on Penny.

  "What does that mean?" Penny didn't like being insulted. Why couldn't he just kiss her instead of hitting and insulting her? She knew it was training, but still, it wasn't fun.

  "I want to see what you can do. Fight me, hit me back, you weakling," he said. He was holding a practice weapon in his hands.

  "Look, I don't really want to fight you right now," She said, irritated.

  "Why? Don't admit that you're afraid!" He said. He brandished the weapon at her. Penny was not afraid of Charles. She knew that he wouldn't really hurt her.

  "What now?" She asked. "Do you really want to keep this up for another 10 straight hours? I could use some food or a shower or something."

  "Hey, have I ever mentioned that you are really... amusing?" He advanced toward her slowly, but menacingly.

  "Go away, you crap face, I don't want to fight you right now, okay?"

  "Oh geez, I just hurt you! Take your revenge and hit me back," he said, provoking her even more.

  "If I fight you, I'll just beat you... probably to a pulp," she said, but she wasn't very convincing.

  "I know you lack in muscle department so before you move I'd rip your very sexy head right off," he said, looking straight into her eyes. She inhaled.

  "Screw off," she yelled, turning away, but be he just followed her.

  He glared at her persuasively. "Just one more round... I promise, that's it," he said, grinning.

  All of a sudden adrenaline charged through her and she rushed at Charles who stood there waiting on her attack. As she attacked, his fist sprang towards her face, but her instincts responded and she ducked. She was distracted with her brief victory and didn't notice Charles's other fist. He punched her in the gut, stealing her breath from her lungs.

  "Son of," she started to say, but couldn't get the rest of it out. She fell to her knees, gasping for breath.

  She attempted to get off the floor, but Charles kicked her back and she fell back to the ground with a thud.

  She spit blood out from her mouth. "Charles you are mad!" she said, through her clenched teeth. His face was very serious and he stood before Penny and raised her gently by the shoulders. He kissed her on the cheek. He seemed upset that he had caused her to bleed.

  "Call me mad or whatever else you want, but remember, I’m going easy on you," he said, backing up a little. "You're going to be facing much harder than me soon. I just don't want to see the vampires tear you apart. They don't care that you get hurt like I do."

  She gazed in his eyes; there was great feeling in them... not anger, but something else like pain.

  He placed his cheek on hers. His breath ticked her ear. These were the moments that Penny loved. The ones were he stopped being her trainer and just loved on her. She knew he was right, though. The vampires would not be so kind to her. If she couldn't take all that Charles could dish out, then who was she kidding that she could battle a real vampire?

  (CHAPTER 4) The Cleanup

  Penny stalked down the black hallway. Her first mission with the Brotherhood swung in full motion. She had spent months training and finally got her chance to prove herself and her abilities to the Brotherhood and, of course, Charles. Reports had come in that a small mostly unorganized coven of new vampires were causing mischief in a college town in Georgia. Three college girls had gone missing and two college guys were found drained of blood and butchered in a bathroom in the University of Georgia library.

  On Penny's way to the town, Charles received a call that another body, the body of a beloved librarian, was found in the microfilm section. With two equally spaced holes found on several of her main arteries, the attack clearly looked vampiric. The town newspapers went on a frenzy about vampires in town. Penny and Charles's job had just moved up priority. Their mission shifted from kill two or three vampires to kill the vampires and cover it up.

  Charles and Penny had been staking out the UGA library for a week. They knew that there were only three vampires, which was very odd. Normally covens had at least a dozen members. Many larger well established covens could have as many as a hundred. But for some reason, this coven was only three. Charles had mused that perhaps an older vampire had turned a student, but been unable to return. And, the new vampire thought that perhaps some of his friends would enjoy the immortality too.

  The vampires spent their days in the drop ceilings of the main library. The poor librarian that had been sucked dry was trying to remove some dirt from ceiling tile when she stumbled upon their daytime hiding place. While vampires are not required to sleep like humans, they still relished their cat naps.

  Charles crept close to Penny. It was nearing dusk when the vampire would strike out to find their targets. The library was a great location for the vampires because it was a five minute walk from the downtown of the bar capital of the South East. It was easy to pick up slap drunk co-eds.

  “Hey, Charles,” Penny said. “Why don't we find more bodies or hear about more disappearances?” That question had bothered her a lot. If vampires were such ferocious killers like she had witnessed and there were so many of them, then why wouldn't there be a lot more cover-ups on the Brotherhoods hands?

  “Most vampires don't kill when they eat,” Charles replied. He suddenly put his hand up like he had heard something moving in the darkness. Penny drew her new wooden stake-like daggers from her boots. She was about to pounce when Charles shoved her against a bookshelf.

  “Thomas, what are you doing here?” Charles hissed in the dark.

  “Helping out,” Thomas replied. Penny could hear his trademark giggle in behind the bookshelf.

  “God, Thomas, I thought you were a vampire,” Penny interjected. “I could have killed you.” Her heart was pounding. She didn't know how the mysterious man had managed to get the drop on them.

  “Not to be mean, but you’re not that good yet,” Thomas said. He giggled and stuck his head around the corner. “They stay in the back.” He was still shrouded in layers and mostly covered by darkness.

  “Thomas, you shouldn't be here,” Charles said, again.

  “Libraries are my specialty. Do you think I am just going to let a bunch of killer vampires ruin the library for everyone?”

  “Hey, why do think they sent me? I'm ready!” Penny was hurt that Thomas didn't think she was ready to take on vampires yet.

  “These guys sure, but not...” Thomas was cut off mid-sentence by Charles.

  “More organized vampires...Thomas is right,” Charles said.

  “Fine, what's the plan?” Penny said. She put her hands on her hips and curled her lips in a snarl. She stuck her tongue out at Thomas even though she knew it was probably too dark for him to see it.

  “What are you? Two?” Thomas said as he caught her tongue in between his fingers. “Shouldn't you b
e putting that down Charles's throat anyway?” He chuckled and let go of Penny's tongue.

  “Ow, how did you even see me doing that?” Penny asked. She rolled her tongue around in her mouth.

  “Thomas has always had the best eyesight in the dark. It's part of what makes him so adept at fighting vampires,” Charles said, offering an explanation for Thomas's odd behavior.

  “Bilberry extract,” Thomas said, elaborating. He playfully poked Penny in the stomach.

  “Alright, we came here to do a job. Keep out of it Thomas,” Charles said as he moved cautiously down the shelves.

  “No,” Thomas replied. “I don't take orders from you. And you need me.”

  “He's right Charles, even with only three unorganized vampires, I like the odds off three humans against three vampires.”

  “No, we can handle this on our own, Thomas,” Charles said continuing to ignore Thomas's reasoning.

  “No you can't, because I know something that you don't know,” Thomas said, strolling up to Charles and crossing his arms.

  “Like what?”

  “Those vampires in there are Priscilla's fledglings and there are more than just three now,” Thomas said. Charles took a step back and slumped against the floor.

  “Priscilla? Are you sure? Why would she even do something like that?” Charles said with his head almost buried in his knees.

  “She planned on rising against the...her matriarch...I guess. She's being punished quite severely, or so I hear. The Matriarch is giving a large reward to anyone who's willing to take them out. So now you are going to have to deal with vampire hunters too.”

  “Um, not to be the stupid one, but who is Priscilla?” Penny asked.

  “Particularly nasty vampire. Responsible for your family's death actually,” Thomas replied.

  “What? You know about my family?” Penny asked. She wanted to know everything that Thomas knew. Why wasn't she told this before? Why hadn't they tried to take her down?

  “This is not the time, sweetheart,” Charles said as he stood up. He put an arm around her and kissed her on the head. “We'll talk about it after this. Do we have the time on the...other hunters?” Charles asked.

  “Um yeah, I'm not sure how much time,” he said. Penny thought she could hear him smiling. “I sent them over to the wrong library...right now they are stalking the law library!” He laughed hard.

  “Thomas, keep it down!” Charles smacked him in the stomach with the back of his hand.

  “You two fight like brothers,” Penny said shaking her head at the old friends. “So what are we going to do?”

  “Well, there are two more vampires that should be emerging tonight,” Thomas said. “So, I think that the best course of action would be to use those wooden daggers of yours as a last resort.” He pointed to the daggers still gripped in Penny's hand. When she realized that she still had them in her hands she stumbled to put them back in her boots.

  “I am guessing you brought some fire guns?” Charles asked.

  “Indeed I did,” Thomas replied. “One for each of us.”

  “But I haven't used a fire gun yet,” Penny said. Fire guns shot out bullets that when they hit a target they would burst out in flames. It was one of the main weapons in a hunter’s arsenal, but they were also dangerous. She had wanted to try one out, but Charles had told her that they were only for much more advanced agents. In another year or so, she would be able to start her training.

  “Well, today's your lucky day,” Thomas said as he pulled out a fire gun from his pack. He handed it to Penny.

  “Whoa, wait a sec,” Charles said. “She doesn't have any training. Those things are dangerous if you don't use them right.”

  “Don't worry, Chuck,” Thomas said as he handed Charles a gun. “She's a better aim than you are!”

  “Funny,” Charles replied as he checked the clip. The gun looked like almost any normal gun, but instead of gunpowder it used air to propel the bullets with the flammable chemicals. The bullets came out slower, but it didn't matter if the bullets went into the target, just that they hit the target.

  “Sounds, like a plan,” Penny said. “I promise, I won't be trigger happy.” She grinned at Charles.

  The sun had set and it normally would have been time for the three new vampires to set out on their hunt. But since two new vampires were supposed to be born tonight, they would stay nearer.

  Five vampires against three humans? Penny thought. We're going to need a little luck.

  Thomas took the lead and took them around several bookshelves and then motioned for them to stop.

  Suddenly a vampire came out of nowhere, flying at Thomas. Penny panicked. She hadn't seen a vampire since the night her family was killed. Before she had taken careful aim, she shot the fire gun twice at the vampire and missed. The bookshelves behind Thomas exploded into burst of flame, the books feeding the frenzy of the fire in just seconds.

  In a superhuman feat Thomas and the vampire leaped on top of an adjacent bookshelf. Thomas's hat fell off and Penny could see his long curls as the vampire snapped at him. Thomas wouldn't make it long against the vampire.

  “Get her out of here!” Thomas yelled at Charles.

  Before Penny could even think, Charles had her in his arms and was heading down the back stairway.

  “But, Thomas!” Penny kicked at Charles with all her might. She wasn't going to abandon her friend just like that. And she was surprised that Charles just left him behind like that too or even more surprisingly took his orders.

  “Thomas is probably better off without us to get in the way,” Charles said as he continued to keep a firm grip on Penny. They raced down the stairwell as smoke began to fill the building.

  “Fire, Fire,” Charles yelled as they joined a group of befuddled students on a lower floor that wasn't taped off with police tape. Charles pulled the fire alarm and students started toward the doors. Penny and Charles joined the herd spewing from the library. Flames were already shooting from the sixth floor window when Penny turned around to survey the damage. A figure burst from another window and landed on the ground gracefully. Penny assumed it was a vampire and took off running.

  “Wait, that was Thomas!” Charles said, stopping Penny from pursuing.

  “Thomas? Thomas just jumped from a sixth floor window and didn't break a bone?” Penny said looking at Charles with a hint of disbelief in her eyes.

  “Thomas, well, look, can we just not mention Thomas anymore?” Charles rolled his eyes and turned around.

  “The man has saved me twice,” Penny said, trying to pry an answer out of her strong, but silent boyfriend.

  “And he'll probably save you another ten times,” Charles said. “He's one of the most self-sacrificing individuals I know. He's the good guy.”

  “Does he always help the Brotherhood like this?”

  “No! Just you and me,” Charles said, violently grabbing Penny. “Don't ever mention Thomas to the Brotherhood, Thomas's life depends on it. Please.”

  “Look, as far as I am concerned, I owe Thomas my life twice already. I'm not going to purposefully cause him trouble.” Penny broke Charles's hold on her. “And it really hurts that you don't trust me. You never tell me anything.” She stumbled back, fighting tears.

  “I'm sorry; I'm just not used to being able to trust people,” he replied. “Just give me a little time, k?” He put his hand on hers.

  “Maybe,” she said she was still mad, but her heart still skipped half a beat when Charles touched her.

  “But I know more about Thomas, except how he can jump out of a building – which is not much to know, but is more than I know about you… and I've only met him twice.”

  “Can we talk about something else?” Charles sighed.

  “Sure. How about the mission,” Penny said as she stared up at the inferno blazing in the library.

  “Yeah, like the mission, at least we don't have to worry about the cover up anymore. No more evidence,” Charles said. Penny thought she saw a small
smile on his face. “That's one thing he always could do well.”

  “Well, maybe not for the public,” she replied. “But we have to do something about the Thomas element in our report for the brotherhood.”

  “Sometimes I get tired of the brotherhood,” he said quietly. He sat down on a fountain and traced his finger through the water.

  “So why did you join?” Penny asked. She sat next to Charles.

  “You thought you had a choice,” Charles replied, “but you really didn't.”

  “What do you mean?” Penny asked. Of course she had a choice. Didn't she?

  “Never mind,” he said. He drew his legs up Indian style and looked off at the burning building. “He always knew how to leave a mess too.”

  Penny hated how Charles always seemed to evade her questions. She decided to give up and ask Thomas when he showed up again.

  “I goofed up,” Penny said.

  “What, no, Thomas shouldn't have given you that gun,” Charles said. “You never shot one before.”

  “No, no, that's not what I meant,” she said, looking at the throng of students gawking at the firemen.

  Some students were excited about the drama, some were excited that maybe school would be canceled, and the good students were crying about the inability to get their work done. A group of librarians stood by some trees and, despite being out of the library, still whispered to one another. “I mean that's the cover story. I took your gun and got overzealous.”

  “I couldn't have you take the blame for my crazy friend,” Charles said. He glanced over at the police who were talking to the librarians. One of the women pointed over in their direction. “I think we’re going to have company,” he said slowly nodding in the direction of the police, “perhaps we should have gotten out of here while we could have.”

  “Don't worry, I'm a good liar,” Penny said and winked at him. “Plus, it will give us a chance to do a little more damage control.”