First Death Pt. 04

When I woke up, the cabin of the plane was dark but the roar of the engines was gone. Lily's white face glowed in the ghostly light of the laptop screen across the aisle from me. I stretched out on the couch, noticing the windows were shut. I pushed one open, a bright beam of light pierced the cabin.

"Shut that," she hissed at me.

I immediately slammed it shut, "Sorry," I offered quietly, standing up, "I forgot. What exactly does it do to you?"

Her eyes briefly flickered over to me as I sat down across from her; she continued to work on the computer while talking, "A lot of the old myths are true. Sunlight will kill a vampire; third generation on down the effect is almost immediate. Their skin bursts into flames and they burn hot and for a long time until they are nothing but a pile of ashes. Death's vampires can withstand a small amount—I've been exposed to a full minute before and remained conscious, though it took me almost a month to fully recover. Anything longer and it just depends on the strength of the vampire; older ones don't burn but turn into a pile of dust."

"That sounds like a horrible way to go," I said.

She nodded, "Probably the worst. At least getting shot in the head or decapitated is quick and if a vampire gets drained by another there is at least a euphoric feeling from the venom." Fixated on her task, she picked up a phone and dialed a number; it wasn't her usual phone but looked like a new one. When I saw the box for it, as well as one for the laptop, I figured she must have had someone grab her new electronics so she couldn't be tracked.

I left her to her phone call and went into the bathroom to freshen up. It was tiny but about three times larger than any airplane bathroom I had seen. I pissed, washed my face and brushed my teeth, wetting my hair to try to bring some life back into it. I wanted a shower and to change my clothes but I imagined that I'd have to wait until tomorrow before that was going to happen. It was going to be a long night.

When I got back into the cabin I heard Lily's voice speaking on the phone but it was unusual—chipper, flirtatious, not angry.

"I realize that it is short notice, Mr. Keller but surely you have some available? How many? Well ideally, I'd like at least thirty, both men and women. I'd be willing to pay twice your advertised fee of course and I will provide transportation to and from. An extra thousand? Oh, Mr. Keller, you do drive a hard bargain. Well...all right. I suppose I can make that work. I'll have limos over to pick them up by 7 pm. A pleasure doing business with you too, thank you." She hung up the phone and dialed another number.

"Yes, this is Mrs. Smith, we spoke earlier? I'd like four stretch for the evening. I'll email you the pickup and drop off address. Return services? No, no one will need a ride back. Thank you."

My brow crinkled, "What was that?"

She glanced up briefly, "A diversion."

As soon as the sun set we were out of the plane and loading bags into the back of a black SUV. It was brand new—the dealer's plates were being taken off by a man wearing a polo, swapping them with a pair that Lily dug out from a bag.

He looked at her curiously, "I appreciate the sale, ma'am, but if these aren't valid..."

She smiled at him, handing him a wad of cash, "For your discretion."

He hesitated before taking the money and stuffing it into his pocket. He said nothing more but put the new plates on the vehicle.

I threw my bag in the back, almost shutting the door on Jinx as he hopped up into the back seat and over my stuff. I went to get into the passenger's seat only to discover a steering wheel; Lily stood beside me, waiting for me to move.

"Right," I said, circling around the vehicle to get into the opposite side. It felt very weird.

I tried to look out at the countryside as it flew by at however many kilometers an hour—I wasn't sure of the conversion rate—but it seemed like a blur, "Where are we?"

"Just outside of Newcastle," she replied. I had no idea where that was. When I didn't respond, she added, "Lucas lives in a small village in Northumberland. We're closer to Scotland than London, if that helps."

It did, a little. Ever since I was working on that dreadfully long paper on the history of Scotland I had started to develop a crush on the determined resilience of the people. I thought about going, after I was done with my Master's; now I was so close but even less sure if I would get to see the rolling country side than I was back in Cali.

After about half an hour, she slowed down.

"Are we getting close?" I asked; Jinx was in my lap, twitching his tale.

"Meow," he almost barked out.

"No," Lily said, squinting her eyes, "there's an accident ahead."

In a few minutes we rolled up to it. When the SUV's high beams lit up the two cars, it was clear that the crash was bad. The front of a red car was smashed in, glass shattered and I saw the air bag hanging out of the broken window. The other was a newer truck, which must have been clipped by the car crossing the line. It was more or less whole though the bumper was demolished and the windshield had a gaping hole in it. There was blood around the broken glass.

"Stay here," Lily growled at me when she threw the SUV into park. She got out and trotted over to the scene. I watched her jump and slide over the top of the red car before disappearing into the darkness.

I waited. And waited. Several minutes passed before I muttered, "I should go out there."

"Meow," Jinx seemed to be angry at me. I looked down at the cat, wondering what he knew that I didn't. I jumped when the driver's side door flew open and Lily hopped in.

"Is anyone alive?" I asked, before I saw her face. Her fangs were fully extended, red eyes wild like a feral animal.

"Not anymore," she said quietly before she drove around the wrecked cars and pulled back onto the road.

I felt cold; my heart started racing. She had just killed someone, she had just fed. She was driving faster. I tried to contain my fear, I tried not to look at her, at the terrifyingly beautiful predator that she was.

She knew I was scared, "There was nothing that could have been done even if an ambulance had shown up before we got there," she said, as if trying to reassure me by justifying murder.

"How many," I managed to choke out.

"Three that were still alive," she said, "One was already dead. This is not how I like to do things Matthew, but I am in a bind. I need every advantage I can get if I am to best Lucas and if that includes hastening a few humans' ends, then so be it."

"You might as well just kill me too, then," I snapped childishly.

"Yes," she said coldly, "I should have. It would have made things a lot easier. I could have let the wolves catch you or better yet, I could have drained you and left your corpse in your brother's grave—no one would have found it. I could have skipped town and started over somewhere new, again. But instead, here we are. I keep saving you and I agreed to let you tag along even though I am most likely walking into my third—and final—death. Honestly, Matthew, I'm not even confident you'll survive the night either."

I stared over at her, shocked, "Then why are you even bothering? You could have just dropped me back off at Dad's and disappeared!"

"I don't know," she growled, "perhaps I'm tired of running. Perhaps I'm just tired, period. You can only live so long before you are simply just existing and taking up space."

The ferocity of her angered tone warned me to stop; thankfully, I was smart enough to listen. I turned my head back around to the window but I gave up on trying to make sense of the blur beyond the glass. I rested my head back and closed my eyes.

I might have slept, or half slept, sometimes it is really hard to tell the difference. I woke up when I felt that the car was no longer moving. The view outside the window was still; we appeared to be on a dirt road, surrounded by woods.

"Are we there?" I asked quietly. I dared a glance over at her.

She sat with her hands still on the wheel, staring off into the darkness ahead. I wasn't sure she even heard me until she finally answered, "No. The diversion won't arrive for another hour and we're five miles away. I should..." she peeled her hands off of the wheel and got out of the SUV without finishing.

I glanced at the clock; it said 11:10 pm. I watched it and waited. 11:11 pm. Make a wish. I wish we won't die tonight. I heard Lily open the trunk, shuffling around; I lifted Jinx up and set him in the driver's seat, getting out and walking to the back.

I froze, my eyes glued on her; she had kicked her boots off, standing barefooted on the ground and her yellow plaid shirt was fully unbuttoned and in the process of being slid off of her arms. Her white skin glowed in the faint moonlight, shadows outlining her perfectly sized round breasts, framed elegantly in a black lace bra. She caught me staring—she didn't bother stopping but instead stripped her shirt off and followed up with her pants, revealing a matching pair of black lace panties, the wide bands perfectly placed on her hips and arched over the top of her round, pert ass.

I finally managed to tear my eyes away from her naked body; I stared into the back of the SUV and picked up the first thing I saw as a way to skirt my growing arousal, "What are these?" I asked, holding up a gun clip. The bullets inside were a normal brass casing but from what I could tell the tips weren't lead, they were some kind of red looking stone. Each casing was engraved in what looked like Latin, though I had no idea what it meant.

"Be careful with those," she said, unceremoniously stuffing her clothes into a duffel bag after she had pulled different ones out, "those are tipped with cinnabar and filled with quicksilver."

It took me a moment to process the archaic references; I immediately put them down, "Mercury? That stuff is toxic! If you shoot those bullets, it could vaporize—"

"That's kind of the point," she said offhandedly, laying out her clothes. She turned to me, "Ancient alchemists were correct—quicksilver can be transmuted but none of them were smart enough to figure out the proper formulas. Shooting a vampire with one of those," she pointed at the clip, "will certainly end their life. The quicksilver still in the cinnabar will enter their blood stream and seep through their bodies, while the rest will vaporize and kill every other living thing in the vicinity."

"That includes the shooter," I frantically pointed out.

"Only if the shooter breathes," she retorted.

"You...don't...breathe," I said slowly, getting more and more unnerved.

"No, not unless I need to speak. But most fourth generation on down still do—they haven't been around long enough for the unnecessary novelty of it to wear off."

I stared at her, dumbfounded. I had no response and my mind was quick to remember that she was still almost naked. I tried to look away—god, I tried so hard but it was impossible. My gaze wandered down from her bright red pupils, past her glistening deadly fangs, down her impeccable slender neck to the perfect mounds on her chest, lingering before slowly drinking in the rest of her body. I felt the blood draining from my limbs, being recalled and immediately rerouted directly to my growing cock. Lily knew it too.

The second she moved, I involuntarily took a step back away from her—it was in her eyes. She was hungry. I knew it didn't matter where I ran, there was no way I could escape her. In all honesty, I didn't want to. She grabbed the front of my shirt in her fist, pulled our bodies together as our lips met in a passionate, desperate kiss. She tasted like sweet spiced wine, dark, mysterious and cold.

"What are you doing?" I managed to form a complete sentence while not pulling away.

Her deft fingers had already unbuttoned my shirt before they slid it and my jacket off in one fluid movement, "Think of it as the last request of a dead woman," she panted against me.

Our hands were exploring each other's bodies; I managed to get her bra unclasped and off just before she had my pants and briefs down around my ankles. She wrapped her arms around my neck, lifting one of her legs up my side. I took the hint and grabbed it, along with the other and she slid them around my waist while my large hands grabbed her ass. I slid my fingers under the lace of her panties, pulling the crotch aside, before crashing into the side of the SUV, pinning her against the cold metal. I slipped a single finger into her cold, but wet cunt—fuck, she was tight. Lily let out a soft moan into my mouth. I withdrew my hand and grabbed my throbbing dick, stroking the tip of it against her opening before slowly easing the head in. I was confident in my abilities and unashamed of my cock; I knew seven inches wasn't anything to brag about but it was thick and I knew how to use it and I knew when it would take some effort to make it fit.

Lily pulled back enough to glare at me, growling, "What are you waiting for?"

"I don't want to hurt you," I honestly admitted, "you're so fucking tight."

She laughed—yeah, seriously, laughed in my face, "I dare you to try."

Challenge accepted—I rammed it in, all the way down to the hilt. She threw her head back against the SUV, a guttural groan coming out of her throat. I pulled it out and slammed it back in again, and again. Lily leaned forward and rested her forehead on mine, her frightening red eyes staring into my soul as I fucked her relentlessly. She licked her lips, loving the roughness of the encounter. Thank god she was light but still the fast pace of lifting her up and impaling her back down on my cock made my arms burn and my body sweat with the exertion. I was getting close but feeling her cold soft cunt clench desperately at me each time I withdrew meant I knew she was close too.

Her eyes drifted shut, her cheek slid against mine and I felt her panting in my ear, though it was probably due to the force of me repeatedly crashing into her. She mewled, her head drifting further down and for a brief second I thought she was losing consciousness—until I felt the scraping of her fangs on my neck.

"What the fuck—" I panted out, while I tried to pull my neck away but still kept pounding my dick in her at the same time—I am a guy, after all—but I barely got the words out before her teeth pierced my skin and sank down.

It burned worse than before but that quickly vanished. I cried out to the heavens, the cascade of pleasure surged through my entire body like a wildfire. I tried to resist but when her cunt clamped down hard on my cock as she came while drinking my blood, I felt myself burst into a million pieces. I had to throw my hands against the car on either side of her to keep from collapsing. I had fucked many, many women and the amount of times that I came was beyond the ridiculous, but never before in my life had I had an experience like that. My legs were shaking so bad, I knew it was only a matter of time before we were rolling in the dirt. I pulled the back door open and managed to fall ass first onto the seat without knocking myself unconscious. It was an awkward position at best but I wrapped my arms around her back and held her close to my chest. She had released her bite and I could feel her licking the puncture wounds. I should have been pissed, I should have dropped her the second I knew what she was going to do but now knowing what I would have missed made leaving her inconceivable. I also knew from here on out, nothing would ever compare.

We laid there, Lily with her ear pressed to my chest, me stroking her back while my dick grew soft and eased out of her. I felt my own cum leak from her cunt and onto me but I didn't care. I was lost to the world, still trying to find my way back from wonderland when Lily finally pushed herself up and out of the SUV.

I rolled my head to the side, seeing the clock, 11:46 pm. It felt like an eternity, a heaven of depravity and pleasure that I would never get back into because she was walking towards her death.

I forced myself up into a sitting position and eased my boxers and pants on. It stank like cum and sweat. I didn't care. I stumbled out of the back seat and towards the trunk; Lily already had donned a skin tight pair of black pants and leather boots and was pulling a shimmery, metallic, long sleeve tunic on.

I grabbed my shirt and jacket off of the ground before I reached out to her; my hand slid around her waist and I pulled her close, "What's this?" I was staring at the shirt before I looked up to her feral eyes. They held no affection to me, just a dark secret and lifetimes of knowledge that haunted her. She didn't push me away or jerk free of my grasp, she simply slipped backwards and grabbed a skin tight, long sleeve black shirt to put on over.

"It is similar to chainmail but made from carbon fiber. Strong enough to stop a bullet, knife or pair of teeth but flexible enough not to impede movements," her voice was calm and smooth.

I tried not to take offense to her dismissive attitude while I slipped on my shirt and buttoned it; on the back of a gentle breeze, I could smell sex. I pointed it out, "Aren't you worried they're going to smell you?" She glanced at me, confused, before I blatantly spelled it out, "You smell like cum."

She grunted, slipping on a vest and a couple thigh holsters, "Vampires have a terrible sense of smell. Younger ones have an even worse sense of taste—they can't tell the difference between an innocent teenager and a convicted felon. If I were walking into a den of wolves I'd be concerned but as it stands I have bigger things to worry about."

Lily slipped the clip of quicksilver rounds into a wicked looking gun; it was so black, it seemed like it was painted with vantablack. She tucked that gun into a leg holster, snapping a strap over it before loading herself with various other weapons. None of them looked legal or even remotely real, all were finely decorated with various scrolls of Latin and seemed as if they were stolen from a movie set. Lastly, she grabbed a wicked looking hunting knife and her asp before shutting the case in the back. She briefly glanced at me before disappearing around the side of the car.

I knew a brush off; I had given the casual 'that was fun but never again' attitude to a few women before. I just never got it myself. I realized how demeaning it truly was but tried to rationalize it—no strings attached sex was always a good thing, right? I mean, if a vampire got clingy and wanted a committed relationship, there would be nowhere to run; I'd be hunted down for the rest of my life and probably die from anemia within a few days because I would always give in.

I got in and put my seat belt on and we were off again. It was barely three minutes before we were parked somewhere in a different set of woods. In the distance I could see the towering shadow of a large building; it looked like a mansion, an old three floor estate stone house. From what I could tell it was surrounded with a neatly manicured lawn, punctuated with a few flower gardens. 11:57 pm. I was guessing her diversion was arriving at midnight; after I thought about it, my stomach dropped.

"The limos—you arranged for a bunch of human escorts to be dropped off here. You—you didn't request a return trip because you knew they wouldn't make it out alive," I turned and looked at her, trying to demand the truth.

She never denied it, "Yes."

"You just sentenced thirty people to their deaths," I was practically growling, outraged at the offhanded way she discarded life.

Lily was immune to my attitude; her voice remained calm and steady while she turned her glare at me, "The odds are not in their favor. But consider this, Matthew—the last I knew, Lucas' coven was at least fifty strong and that was over a hundred years ago. Who knows, honestly-by now there could be a few hundred vampires in there or maybe only twenty. The more that are distracted, the more I can catch off guard and take out. Each one wouldn't hesitate to drain a human dry when they are hungry, bored or mildly inconvenienced—the only reason why they don't is the tight leash that Lucas keeps around their necks. If I manage to kill him, those left standing will be released upon the world to wreak havoc. Yes, I am sending thirty worthless humans into the fray for my benefit, so that I can stand a chance at wiping this smudge of defiance off of Death's ledger." She was breathing now and fast; but as soon as she realized it, she looked away from me and the movement of her chest stopped, "Do you have the address I gave you?"