Kodiak Jack: Heroine Blood

Rachel shook again and spat. "What??? What are you talking about??? I can help you if you'll get me out of here...."

The woman reached up again and rolled the shoulder length mask Destiny wore up and under her chin over the dog collar, exposing her vulnerable and muscled neck.

"MMMmmmm.... I can smell the delicious sex on you.... your blood is hot.... I love hot blood."

"You.... you can't really be a vampire!!!!" Rachel said pleading.

"Oh, yes, my love..... I am very much everything you fear..... a blood sucker....a predator of the living...... the sweet release of death." She said kissing Rachel's throat with black lipstick covered lips, her arms around Rachel's body, holding them at her side, her hands molding and fondling the bulbous breasts.

Rachel shivered at her touch and fidgeted with her legs and feet as though wanting to spring up and run, but also apparently having some internal battle within herself that prevented her immediate action.

"There is no such thing as real vampires! You are just mentally ill..... I can get you help...." She tried to whisper as Leanna licked her exposed throat from shoulder to the back of her ear.

"Wanna see?" Leanna offered. "Let me remove that awful blindfold." She continued as she took hold of the exposed part of the scarf and pulled it down under Rachel's chin.

Rachel immediately turned and met the woman's gaze with a frightened, shaken stare. Leanna smiled back at her with a devilish grin.

"Hi, there...." She whispered, her lips only inches from Rachel's.

Rachel seemed to suddenly soften and relax in the woman's arms. Her eyes became heavy lidded and she lay still against Leanna's chest, almost seeming to fall asleep. If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes I would never have believed the effect of a vampire could be so instantaneous, even against a super powered heroine.

The woman whispered. "See? I am a vampire. Am I not the most beautiful thing you have ever seen? Don't you want me, gorgeous?"

Rachel surprised me and slowly nodded her approval. She then gently smiled back at the woman and seemed to be ready to actually kiss those dead lips. Bleaccch! I thought to myself. Don't do it girl!

"Come with me?" Leanna asked. "Come with me to my place and be my love?" She asked nodding, as though she might get a rejection from Rachel.

Rachel slowly nodded like she was now living in a dream and smiled saying, "Yes.... yes, I want to love you"

"Of course you do." Leanna replied squeezing Rachel's breasts with gentle strokes.

"Augustus....." She called into the yard without taking her eyes away from Rachel's enraptured stare. "Do you see anything? Are we truly alone?"

The man stepped forward from out of the trees and walked over to where the two women were on the ground. He was Mr. Nightmare, the vamp in the grey jacket from Layla's, and his appearance sealed Leanna's identity as the woman who had bitten her. I had them both, dead in my sights. But Layla had said there were three of them. Where was number three?

Grey jacket helped both women to their feet and they cut the piano wire that I had tied her thumbs and forefinger together with, using sharp, overly long finger nails on their hands. This was shocking, since piano wire is pretty hard to cut with anything, especially with fingernails. These vampires were not going to be a walk in the park to take down.... but then again, I had a small arsenal of my own to deal with them.

With the mesmerized Destiny Blue between them, released from the collar and chain, they turned and began to walk out of my sight toward some unknown destination. I would have to follow them, choose my moment when they were otherwise detained - probably while feasting on fresh super heroine- and then open fire on them.

Once they were out of range, and I was confident there was no third vampire waiting for me in the bushes, I shuffled down from the tree and followed their obvious tracks in the cemetery grass. I would need to keep up with them, losing them would mean creating a future situation where they would be more on edge for another trap set up and thus harder to fool. I didn't have any time to do this all over again. I had to hope that they were as enamored by the prospect of feeding on super powered blood as their victim was enraptured by their obvious control over her. I had to hope, so that they wouldn't be looking over their shoulder - for ME.

*******

The grass was moist with the pre-dawn dew. Heavy booted foot impressions were left behind by the still costumed crime fighter, Destiny Blue, and they were also book-ended by two sets of other, lighter tracks. No doubt made by her captors. The dawn was only a short period of time away, the sky still dark, but there was an increasing visibility that told me I had very little time left to make this whole thing happen. It was a good thing I had the tracks to follow. There were above ground mausoleums everywhere. They peppered the landscape and were surrounded by underground graves in a random, haphazard fashion.

The tracks led me to an above ground grave, alright. It was about ten feet tall at the highest point of the arched roof. It had ugly black water stains extending from the roof and leading down the side walls which were dark grey and had a pop marked surface like stucco. There were vertical windows on the side which was east of the entrance doors. I silently moved across the wet grass with my loaded sawed off shotgun in my hands, and my hand guns also loaded, ready and hanging from holsters at my side belt.

I pressed up against the vine covered side of the east wall and tried to peer into the windows without tipping my hand as to my presence. And there they were, all three of them standing not ten feet from the window itself. A huge, cherry wood coffin was behind them. I could see small, flickering fire torches along the wall, which gave off hardly any light at all and threw a warm, orangy glow across their faces.

Mr. Nightmare stood in front of Rachel and he seemed to be holding her boots and her face/head mask, now removed, with one hand. The woman, Leanna, stood behind Rachel, breasts pressed into her back and she peered over a shoulder and seemed to be caressing Rachel's lower belly with slow, almost creepy stokes. I could somewhat see long finger nails, extending from her bony, white hand, scraping the fabric of Destiny's costume. Rachel herself looked back over her shoulder at the half dead, red eyed face, with surprising lust and love and a smile that could melt butter. ACK! I told myself. What kind of crazy hold do these dead things have over living humans?

The time was now, I told myself, as I took a step backwards and readied to aim my shotgun right through the window. I had Leanna and Augustus dead in my sights and in good range. I could get both heads in one shot, take them both out. The woman then moved and took a hold of Rachel's top and pulled it slowly down her shoulders, revealing those impressive breasts of hers. I could see Augustus laugh at her as she seemed to blush from being uncovered. He then helped her to step out of the leggings by taking hold of her hand, and the woman disappeared down below window range, no doubt pulling the rest of the leotard costume from Rachel's feet.

I settled into my sight position, waiting for her to stand back up. When she did, and placed her dead hands back on Rachel's nude shoulders, I almost pulled the trigger. I tried several times to pull the trigger. But damn it all to hell, I suddenly had buck fever. Rachel's beautiful, and in love face, was framed by both devils and situated directly between them as they moved in together on her. Rapture and lust filled her facial expression.

If I fired, I'd have to take her out, too. I'd have to separate that fine piece of female ass from her incredibly attractive head. I couldn't do it. I kept seeing that pic of the little girl, the niece or some such relative, cute as a button, and for some reason I couldn't take Rachel away from her. I gritted my teeth and cussed myself. I felt the dawn coming up behind me, my moment slipping away.

I moved away and lowered my gun, slipping off to the side of the wall, trying not to make too much noise as I shook my head in disgust, inwardly cussing myself. The trees were getting brighter, the horizon had a thin line of sky blue developing far off behind the still mostly black silhouette of the oak trees and surrounding graves sites. I took a deep breath and peered back inside the window, I couldn't forget that it was Layla who was in danger here, and she took precedence.

With one eye I peered into the dimly lit mausoleum and could see that Rachel was now being helped into the coffin, its huge lid had been opened by Augusts and he stood by the head of the coffin holding it open as Leanna had Rachel by the hand, and was assisting the naked woman as she stepped up and into the coffin. Rachel layed down into the crypt as though she were relaxing into bed and Leanna began pulling up her long dress from the floor and bunching it in her hands.

Her legs were bony and white as well, and her feet, with long, ugly toenails, were bare. She then laid down into the coffin with Rachel and took a lover's pose with her, holding her head with one hand and wrapping her dead arm around Rachel's midsection. She whispered in her ear and seemed to lick Rachel's lips with a blood red tongue. Rachel caressed her in return as though they had been long time lesbian lovers. She had a wide, pink gummed smile for Leanna, which one only sees from women when they are pleasantly flirting.

They then embraced and Mr. Nightmare slowly lowered the lid of the coffin as Rachel's chest heaved when the woman casually opened her mouth wide and revealed long incisor teeth with which she took a large, hard bite of Rachel's neck. She would no doubt feed from her bed partner for the rest of the day - if I gave her the chance. Then, once the coffin was closed, the man picked up the rest of Destiny's discarded superhero outfit and folded it over one arm. He then headed for the door. I sucked in a breath and began to calculate in my mind my next move.

Mr. Nightmare was about to get away. If he walked out of the door now, I could just blow him away, but then I would alert the woman to my presence. If I let him go, with the dawn coming up behind me, he would just go lie down in his own grave until the next nightfall. I could get him later. The dawn was now my friend, not my deadline. I just had to wait until light, only moments away, and then throw open the coffin and blow the feasting woman's head off at close range. Then, I could find the man again later, somewhere in the maze of mausoleums and above ground graves that surrounded this area of the yard. Once I found him, asleep in his grave, it was only a matter of close range shotgun fire. I liked the game plan. I would just wait.

Unfortunately for me, the best laid plans of both mice and men often go wrong. Before Augustus had even grabbed hold of the heavy wooden door to the mausoleum, I suddenly heard a noise and felt a huge weight come down across my back. It forced me to the ground like it weighed five hundred pounds or more.

"Aggh!" I groaned as I ate a face full of vines and grass. I could barely see a black dress slack pants leg and some shiny black shoe near my left cheek standing on the ground. I quickly rolled over.

Above me was a huge man with another white face, slicked back black hair and burning red eyes. He held his arms out away from him, his fists gripping the ends of what must have been some kind of opera style cape. He wore a black tuxedo, white shirt and black bow tie. His mouth was pulled back in an incredibly ugly animal snarl which had long, yellowish dagger teeth in both the upper and lower rows of his jaws, and let me tell you: he wasn't just angry.... he was livid and roaring at me.

"GGRRRAAAAAAGGGGHHHHH!" The obviously third vampire I had been expecting screamed at me as I lay on the ground underneath him. I raised my shotgun in reflex and fired into his chest. BLAMMMM!!!! He went sailing over the yard about forty feet away and landed on his head, spinning and turning... and still hissing.

I got to my feet and advanced on him as he quickly recovered from the point blank range shot and then he lunged again at me. I wasn't going to take any chances and raised my shotgun up, aimed and fired again as he covered the distance between us in mere seconds, hissing and growling and showing me his disgusting dagger filled mouth. I fired just as he was closing in and as the shot rang out in the yard, his head exploded like a pumpkin dropped from a tall building, splattering upon the surrounding trees and grave stones. His body wobbled and collapsed among the remains of his disintegrated cranium.

I regarded his body for only a moment and then re-loaded while turning to see if I could catch the fleeing vampire woman who had, no doubt, heard all the shooting and roaring and was now getting away. Augustus was now gone, a smart move on his part, and I had no trouble getting into the wooden door of the mausoleum and moving over to the coffin whose lid was still closed. Was the woman still in there? I looked around the small room and felt no presence, heard no movement. Holding my gun upward and away I lifted the lid of the coffin, which was cherry wood, hard and more solid than most. I was ready to blow her away if she were still within. But, she was gone.

Rachel lay by herself inside the coffin, pale from having been bitten, and her eyes were wide with fear. She saw me and seemed unable to move an arm or a leg.

"Get.... get me....... out....." She begged with almost 'frozen' lips. It seemed as though she had become trapped within her own body somehow, perhaps due to the effects of being bitten and layed by the woman. How handy it was to have that kind of power, the ability to disable your prey while you drain them of their own blood. They struggle to get free, but just can't help themselves a they feel their life draining away. Real horror kind of stuff.

I heard a door slam on the other side of the mausoleum and instantly knew that the woman was still within range, and had headed out into the yard. I looked up and then down again at Rachel and said, "Sorry darlin', gotta run now."

"Noo...Nooooo...." She begged as I let the lid slam closed, her pleas cut off in mid protest.

I turned and ran out into the yard myself, following the trail in the grass left by the fleeing Leanna. She was fast, for sure, and I could see her dress flailing in the early morning pre-dawn as she darted between oak trees in an attempt to out run me. I aimed and fired at her as she appeared and disappeared from behind tree after tree, the whole time I was running after her as she fled. I had to have hit her several times, and she took a lot of buckshot. I ran out of ammo after a handful of fires and pulled my hand guns from out of my belt holsters and began peppering the yard with fresh ammo. Before I could get close enough to take off her ugly head, she transformed, turned into something like smoke, and a small winged bat replaced her. She then took off darting and spinning out of range.

I lost her.

Breathing heavy from all the action, I wobbled around on rubbery legs, cussing and spitting into the morning dawn. The sun rose quickly and all vampires would now be asleep or well hidden. I managed to get nothing done for all my planning, all my efforts. I leaned against a tree to catch my breath and lit up a cigar, watching the grave yard shadows replace the blanket of darkness.

I really was getting too old for this stuff. Really.

*******

Tracks in the dewy grass were helpful. Mr. Nightmare had hard boots, but he was a guy who didn't weigh much. That kinda thing happens when you're dead. Two hundred yards across the headstone filled yard was another above ground mausoleum.

The dawn, now a buddy of mine, had forced grey jacket into his usual sleep place, he was unable to get too far away from me before he would become flambe' in the sunrise. On purpose, I blew open the lock and chain he had left on the grave door, once again giving the ducks in the pond a start with my blast of buckshot. I wanted him to hear me coming. I needed for him to hear me coming. But such was not to be the case.

I figured he must have been too concerned with the shock of seeing me blow up his buddy and didn't think about the sunrise until it was too late, otherwise he could have disappeared just as the woman had done. She must have ducked into a hole in a tree, high out of reach, and awaited for the next sundown. Why he didn't go this route of escape, or something like it, I couldn't tell you.

There he lay, all hands crossed over his repulsive chest, while lying comatose in his cherry wood coffin, which was lined with a nice burgundy colored velvet. Cherry wood was one of the hardest and most solid of all woods. Why choose this as the material for your coffin, I wondered? There was little that made sense to me with these freaks. His creepy head rested on what looked to be a rather expensive pillow. I wondered just who the hell this guy had been in his former life. That is, just before I blew his head to a million shards and splinters.

But, that was a few days ago. It had been a hard road to hoe for practically no results, besides taking out two of the monsters. I had gone the whole ordeal almost an entire day with no rest, and hardly a meal. For the last three days I had rested, cooked some T-bone steaks and steamed some veggies. I tried to figure how I was now gonna track the female vampire when she knew someone was after her. There were four different cemeteries on each of the four corners of the city. There were literally thousands of mausoleums. They could all be full of vampires, or they could all be full of nothing but dead citizenry. What to do? What to do?

On the third day of analysis paralysis, Layla rang my cell phone.

"Hey, old man. What's keeping you away?" She whispered into the phone. I thought she was playing high school games with me. I didn't care. She was still safe and I wanted her to keep me posted on anything new that might come about.

"Nothin' darlin', I'm sittin' here missing your sippin' whiskey." I told her, listening to the noisy back ground of chatty customers and cracking pool balls in the back ground of her establishment sounding over the phone.

"You'll never guess who's here...."

I sat up in my easy chair, my spine tingled. "No...."

"Yeah, it's the woman...."

I sat full up and then on the edge of my seat, took a last swig of my whiskey and asked, "Did she come looking for you?"

"Noooo, no no.... she's here with another woman."

"Vampire?" I asked smashing my cigar out in my favorite ash trey.

"I don't think so.... this one doesn't look like the other ones...."

"Why's that?"

"She's huge, like a body builder..... big blonde hair..... impressive looking...."

I got a tingle somewhere in the back of my brain. "You recognize her?"

"No... but remember the bet? Remember she wanted to bring down Lady Liberty?"

It was like a cold slap. I had assumed that the bet was off now that I had eliminated the two men in the three vampire trinal, but..... could she still be after Lady Liberty???? I remembered the effects that she had had over Destiny Blue, and all the lesbian over tones.

"You think that's her???" I spat out.

"I think so." She whispered with confidence.

I couldn't believe the luck. Following the vampire was now simply a matter of keeping tabs on the city's greatest Super heroine: Lady Liberty. Fortunately I was an old hand at tracking these women, so the vamp would be obvious in her pursuit.

"Darlin'" I told Layla with a big smile, "I am on my way!"