by Taryn Rose
“There’s no point in running. I will catch you.”
Skarlet opened a tall cast-iron door and escorted Emma inside. The girl gasped at the sight of dozens of languid, slouching humans shackled to machines. Plastic bags expanded and contracted with red, the deep color pervading the barren two-story openness like morbid Christmas lights. The humans didn’t even flinch at the newcomers. They were beyond cries for help. In one glance at Emma, Skarlet could see through her naïve eyes. It was pure horror.
“Noo!” she cried out and ran to the door.
Skarlet watched her pull at the handles, knowing it was beyond her strength to pry the doors open. She flew to her side anyway.
“What do you want with me?” she yelled as she struggled. “Help!” she banged and hurled herself against the bolted doors. Skarlet watched a throbbing artery running up her right shoulder to her neck.
“Why did you take me here?” she cried, and turned to Skarlet. “What is this?” she spoke forcefully. “I recognize some of these people, but…I can’t place from where. Why?” she demanded. “Tell me why I recognize them!”
Emma’s outpouring moved Skarlet and she had a sudden urge to explain herself to the girl. How her immortality, her complete power over the girl was not liberation. How her existence was about absolute enslavement to a lesser cause than humanity.
“You saved me, Skarlet! I don’t understand,” Emma sobbed and threw herself onto Skarlet, begging for mercy. Skarlet stroked her delicate blonde tendrils.
“I don’t have a choice, beautiful Emma,” she said.
“You do,” she looked up at her. “Of course you do,” she pleaded. “We all have a choice. Please, don’t let me die,” she put her head back down into Skarlet’s chest. Her cheek against Skarlet’s intimate flesh. It jolted her senses and a bestial urge began rising in her core. She suddenly felt fiercely protective. Like Emma Jones belonged to her. She didn’t quite understand it, and she held her. Frozen. Is it more than a desire for her blood? She felt like a mother who couldn’t find the words to explain to her child why the world works as it does. And a memory surfaced of a moment in church when she was a little girl. A time before vampiria took over her body, when she prayed to a higher power. Her mother held her hand, watching as she communed with God, pride lighting up her eyes. Skarlet blinked and the memory was gone. Her blood lust was gone too. Only compassion remained. And an attraction so strong it may have overpowered her desire for blood. She sensed she could have a real connection with this woman, this mortal, even though she knew it was irrational to believe in a relationship with a human. That was the first thing all new vampires were taught when the Commission assumed jurisdiction over them.
Skarlet watched as the other humans were drained by siphoning machines. The instructions were they be kept just alive enough to produce more blood, then force fed a sugary concoction at regular intervals. Wait an hour, begin depletion again. She sighed heavily and put her lips on the girl’s head.
Emma jerked back and looked up at her. “If you’re gonna kill me, get it over with,” she said. “Make it quick!” she cried, and boldly beat her fists against Skarlet’s chest. “I never should have moved to New York,” she wept. “Oh God.”
Skarlet held her, restraining the girl.
How could she sacrifice the life of an innocent, beautiful creature to a mad vampire-scientist’s obsession? An insane belief in a mythical cure for vampiria—the blood of a descendent of a long-dead Norseman. An aching began in her fingertips that worked its way down to her stomach. The girl would die an agonizing, pointless death and Skarlet would be the cause. She was the deliverer.
She scanned the warehouse and saw no guards. They must be out hunting for dinner. The guards were instructed not to drink from the humans for fear of fostering addiction. So when temptation became too great they headed out into the woods and drank the blood of whatever beast they could find. In these parts, usually deer.
A thud sounded and Skarlet instinctively clutched Emma closer. She heard the back door pushing open—a guard was entering the premises. Someone was back from a kill. His reflexes would be heightened. She knew she couldn’t compete with a vampire strengthened from a recent meal. As her own heart raced, her mind sharpened. Skarlet had to make a decision and act on it quickly. The thought of connecting Emma to a draining device and watching her be depleted, a heavenly creature wasted, made her feel ill and brought her to action all at once.
She grabbed Emma by the arm and kicked down the cast-iron door.
“Who’s there? Show yourself!” a male voice summoned as she fled the warehouse with Emma.
She hooked her arm around Emma’s waist and the girl didn’t resist. Skarlet closed her eyes, took a deep breath and transitioned into a meditative state. The thickened, blood-like substance that filled her vampire veins rumbled as she summoned every drop of it upward. She engaged the full supply of her adrenaline, ten thousand times that of a human, until her body took flight. She gripped Emma’s body tightly and forged upward with her into the night sky.
Chapter Three: Emma
Her body was pressed against Skarlet’s, and she suddenly felt light. The ground beneath her feet disappeared, and she opened her eyes. The sky was getting closer. It was unreal. They were above the treetops. Actually flying away from that wretched place. She pressed her face against Skarlet’s neck, like it was magnetic, and swallowed down hard to soothe her racing heartbeat.
Once they were high enough, Skarlet shifted their bodies into a horizontal position. Emma carefully lifted her head and stared straight ahead. They were weightless, together, gliding through the sky. The lights of the Manhattan skyline were visible in the distance.
“We’re flying. Oh my God!” Emma squawked.
Skarlet kept her eyes straight ahead as she piloted. Then Emma took a good, long look at her. She admired the woman’s profile. Her long, lustrous black hair waved behind delicate ears. A high, straight nose and chiseled cheekbones gave her character, and Emma decided that Skarlet’s look matched her power. She stole a few more glances at this woman who actually lifted a car tonight. The car she was inside. But even as she marveled at this encounter with the supernatural—the most majestic experience she could have ever imagined, she couldn’t help wondering what would happen to those poor victims in the warehouse. And why do they look familiar? Skarlet saved her from something horrific, but why? She couldn’t possibly be human, that was apparent, even though their bodies pressed together felt awfully human. Emma could feel her heart thumping through her ear drums as she raced through the warm, black sky on the sultry May night. Skarlet’s long, black leather coat waved behind them like a superhero’s cape. Skarlet was more like a character out of one of her plays or musicals than an actual being. Her thoughts distracted her and she shifted, rubbing against Skarlet’s bare arm, her skin soft, but firm as a trampoline.
“This is crazy!” yelled Emma. A warm gust of wind passed over them and she squeezed Skarlet’s arm tightly.
Skarlet squeezed her back and smiled.
A smile is a good sign, thought Emma. Maybe she really is saving me.
“How about this?” Skarlet said, her hold loosening.
“What are you doing?” Emma widened her eyes. Her heart skipped a beat as she felt herself slipping away.
“Relax, just hold my hand.”
Emma gripped Skarlet’s slender but powerful arm, sliding her hand down the defined bicep to the forearm, then wrist, until she clasped her larger hand. She extended her other arm outward and it felt as if she was flying by herself, next to Skarlet, connected only by their interlocked fingers.
“You can steer,” said Skarlet.
She obeyed, angling her body to the left, and Skarlet propelled them in that direction. “Whoaaa.”
“Where do you live, Emma?”
“One-Eighteen Christopher Street,” she replied. “Are you taking me home?”
“Yes.”
“That way,” pointed Emma, and Skarlet steer
ed.
“Come close again,” commanded Skarlet, and she brought Emma’s body against hers as they descended. Her palm pushed up at Emma’s belly, leveling the two of them. Emma self-consciously sucked in her stomach, even though she knew how ridiculous that was.
Skarlet brought them down slowly, gracefully. They landed in front of Emma’s seven-storey brown-brick apartment building. Christopher Street was mostly empty. The few pedestrians were busy attending to their own lives. Typical self-involved New Yorkers, thought Emma. Only in New York would people not notice someone flying right in front of them.
“Let’s go inside. Quickly,” Skarlet said intensely.
Emma dialed a code and a buzzer sounded, allowing her to pull open the door. Skarlet slipped inside with her, and furtively looked around, as if she were evading someone or something.
Emma pressed the elevator button and the old, rickety car clicked into gear. It was all the way up on the seventh floor and squeaked its way down.
“So you lift cars and fly,” said Emma, leaning against the wall, grinning.
“Emma,” said Skarlet, looking up at the descending elevator through the shaft.
“Who are you, Skarlet? Superwoman?” Emma tried to keep things light, remaining as cool as one could be expected in the presence of a flying Amazon.
“What happened tonight, it needs to stay between you and me and no one else. Do you understand?” she pressed.
Emma stared into those persistent emerald eyes that no longer scared her quite as much. “Yes,” said Emma, and she wondered if this woman, this wondrous creature, put her own life in danger by saving Emma’s tonight.
The elevator arrived and to her surprise, Skarlet got inside with her.
“I need to familiarize myself with your apartment in case I have to come back.”
Emma swallowed. “Am I still in danger?”
“You’ll be fine as long as you never talk about tonight.” She paused and took a breath. “You and I never met.”
“But what about Hank and the driver? You said they lived.”
“They will confirm that you got home safely.”
“Why would they lie? They’ll say there was a car accident. That they were attacked!”
“I retrained their memories. Hank’s driver took you home. Hank was never in the car with you.”
Emma took a moment to process Skarlet’s words and paced back, gripping the rails. “Is that why there were no police involved? No one pursuing us?”
“I took care of those details, Emma, “ she said with heaviness in her eyes.
Emma exhaled deeply.
“Remember, you never met me. That’s very important, Emma. You came straight home after Fiorello’s.”
“Okay.” She decided to trust the dark, powerful woman.
The elevator door creaked open and Skarlet followed her down the dreary hall to her apartment. Once inside, she watched Skarlet scan the place. She checked out the apartment’s layout—two bedrooms, eat-in kitchen, L-shaped common area. She picked up a large vase off a side table and set it back down, then stared briefly at a chrome sculpture of the sun with its bursting, pointed rays that hung on the wall above the painted-on fireplace. Emma wondered what she was thinking.
“What about you?” Emma asked.
“What about me?”
“Will you be okay, Skarlet? You took a risk for me tonight, didn’t you?” Emma moved in closer. She couldn’t explain it, but she felt drawn to her. Unfamiliar emotions stirred inside her as she considered the likelihood that she would never see her dark superwoman again.
Skarlet’s cheek twitched slightly. “You do not need to worry about me.”
Emma sensed that her sudden move closer made Skarlet nervous, and that excited her.
A door opened behind them and a handsome, curly-haired man in a bright red dress emerged. It was Theo, one of Emma’s roommates. “Well, hello, Missy. So much for no more late nights.” He had on his usual Thursday night drag—that red, satin cocktail dress, his uniform at the cross-dressing cabaret club where he waited tables. He looked Skarlet over. “Who’s your tall friend?”
“This woman saved my life tonight,” Emma said.
Skarlet winced and Emma sensed she had already said too much.
“I’m Skarlet,” she said and extended her hand.
“Theo,” he said and took her hand. “You’re strong for a girl,” he said, wiggling his hips. “Were you at Emma’s opening night? Isn’t she amazing?” he said, and planted a kiss on Emma’s cheek. She froze, unsure what to do until receiving a cue, an instruction from Skarlet.
“She is amazing,” Skarlet said, lighting up, it seemed. “It is nice to meet you,” she said and put her hands on his shoulders. She pressed down firmly.
“Ow, ow…ow!” Theo crouched.
“Skarlet! What are you doing?”
She let go of him. “He’s absolutely fine. The last five minutes will be erased from his memory.”
“You didn’t have to do that. Theo is my friend. He wouldn’t—”
“What is going on out here?” Emma’s other roommate, Chris, a dark, string bean of a man, stepped into the living room, tying his bathrobe. He pushed back a handful of gelled, black hair.
“This is Chris.” Then she leaned in and whispered, “Please don’t hurt him. Chris and Theo are my dear friends. They won’t talk about you.”
Chris went to Theo, who was sitting on the floor, clearly in a fog. “What happened to him?”
“Can you take him back to bed, sweetie?” Emma asked, trying to avoid an explanation.
“Is this a friend of yours?” He looked over Skarlet in his trademark judgmental way, nostrils flared and upper lip curled. Chris and Theo had been together for the last ten years, on and off. Chris was less ostentatious, but also the less entertaining, responsible one. Emma met them when they performed in dinner theater together. They instantly bonded and when she needed a place to live, they kindly let her sublet a room until her show business career got off the ground.
“Yes. She’s an investor. An up and coming Broadway investor.” Emma twisted loose strands of her hair and stared at the floor.
“Hello,” Skarlet said, with a hesitant smile.
“Alright then. Theo,” Chris said with a sniff. “Off to bed with you.”
Theo went to him like a lost puppy returning to its owner. He seemed disoriented, but happy. Chris smiled and waved a skeptical hand at Skarlet as he shut their bedroom door.
“He’ll have no recollection of any of this,” Skarlet assured her. “I’ll trust you about your friend, Chris. Goodbye, Emma.” She turned abruptly to leave, her long leather coat spiraling around with her.
“Wait.”
Skarlet stopped.
“Look, I…I know we ‘never met before’, but I’m glad we did.” Emma put her hand on Skarlet’s shoulder and she turned back around to face her. Emma took a deep breath and paused. Her eyes fluttered, as she struggled to find the right way to end the evening.
Skarlet clasped her hand suddenly, and Emma stared into her intense eyes. She felt herself melting inside.
“So am I,” Skarlet uttered. “So glad.”
Emma took a breath, collected herself. “I want you to come to my show. Tomorrow night at eight at the Evermore Theater. I’ll leave a ticket for you at the box office.”
Skarlet lifted Emma’s hand and kissed it, sending a tingle down Emma’s spine. She instinctively reached for Skarlet’s arm and stroked down, like she had when she was learning to fly. She felt an intimacy with this woman. The dark heroine who changed her life forever.
Skarlet cupped her palms against Emma’s lower back suddenly, pulling her in. Emma gasped at her sudden proximity to the woman’s lips. She held her gaze and froze as Skarlet brought her lips down to meet hers, kissing her. Gently at first, pressing her much larger breasts against her own. After a night of terror, Emma finally felt free, a feeling that magnified the waves of sexual energy that were surging through her body.
She opened her mouth to catch a breath and sucked in the woman’s supple, assured lips, wanting nothing but to devour them. Her legs spread apart instinctually, a result of an aching that needed to be sated. And Emma recognized an urge she never felt before: To make love to a woman. An unbearable urge to be taken by Skarlet in all her ferocity. They locked fingers and licked at the tips of each others’ tongues. The hands that clasped hers were so powerful, but also elegant and beautiful. She looked at them, picturing how they would cascade down her naked body.
Skarlet pulled away, shocking Emma’s system.
“Goodbye, Emma.” She licked her lips then turned and closed the door firmly behind her.
“No!” Emma shrieked.
She opened the door and ran out into the hallway after her. The flutter of a shade caught her eye and she surged to the open window at the end of the hall. Ducking her head outside, she searched for Skarlet, looking all around. But she was gone into the night. Emma sighed in disappointment, her chest heavy as she retreated and pushed the window shut. She held in her tears until she was back in the safety of her apartment. Sliding down her door, she sobbed against it, telling herself the emotions were the culmination of a brush with death and a taste of the supernatural swirled together with sexual longing. The woman, that mysterious creature, was pure danger—she knew that. But she also knew she would never be the same person again.
“Emma!” Chris burst out of his bedroom and ran to her.
He sat with her by the door and held her. She sobbed into his terry cloth robe, unable to control her tears. “It’s gonna be alright,” he said.
“Emma.” Theo appeared. “Oh my God, why are you crying?” He ran to her too. “Oh, honey.”
Chris held her for a while, stroking her hair, calming her. “Are you gonna tell us who that woman was?” he finally asked.
“She’s no one.”
“No one, my ass! You were like an animal in heat for her. I saw,” Chris said.
“Did I miss something juicy? I always miss the good stuff,” Theo chimed in.
“I’m sorry…I can’t,” said Emma.