They stared at each other slack jawed.  "Oh, sheeeit . . . ." they said as one.

Eliza reached for the note, but Vicki grabbed her wrist. "No!  Don't touch it.  There may be prints!"  Eliza froze.  Vicki was right.  She shouldn't touch it.  Taking a tissue from her purse, she carefully peeled the note from the door by grasping one corner.  Inside, they were staring at the offending note on the coffee table like it was alive and ready to bite them.

Eliza put the .380 on the coffee table, next to the note.  "I'm spending the night here.  Toby's got a full bowl of food, plenty of water and I'm not letting you out of my sight," she said to Vicki.

"I'm really glad you said that.  I really don't want to be alone about now.  I've never considered my self a scaredy-cat, but my hands are shaking."  She held her hand out and a slight quiver was noticeable.  Vicki clenched and opened her hands a couple of time.  "I don't like guns, but that one sure looks good right now."

"They can be useful," Eliza nodded.  "That one has saved my butt a couple of times."

Vicki looked at her wide eyed.  "You've shot someone?" she asked, awe in her voice.

Eliza couldn't help but grin a little.  "Remember the other night.  You know, when I came and the guy was here and I . . . . " Eliza reddened and Vicki laughed.

"Damn, Girl, I wish I could blush like that!"  She giggled.  "Oh!" She exclaimed.  "Was that the guy I read about in the park?  The one who had his throat torn out?"

Eliza wrinkled her brow.  "Oh, yea.  I didn't shoot him, did I?"  A noise in the hallway stopped her from continuing. Both ladies froze and held their breath.  The sound of footsteps harmlessly passed and they could hear them ascending to the fourth level.  The both exhaled noisily and giggled.  "You think we're wound a little too tight?" Eliza asked.

Vicki nodded.  "I think so.  Look, I've got some brandy in the refrigerator.  How about a little liquid relaxation?"

"Ooo," Eliza responded.  "Don't see how we can go wrong there!

Into the second drink, both of them were beginning to relax.  Eliza leaned back and wiggled out of her boots.  "Ah," she sighed and she dropped them to the floor with a "thump, thump."  She hiked her dress up and pulled her feet close to her body on the couch and massaged her feet.  "Oh, that feels good," she moaned.

Grinning, Vicki asked, "You're always wearing boots.  Aren't they hot and uncomfortable?"

"I like the way they feel, and in the winter they were really nice, but it is getting a little too warm for them."  She sighed.  "I'm going to miss them.  I like the way they look and feel."

Vicki nodded.  "You are a fox wearing them."  She picked up the glass of brand and slowly drained it.  Eliza stared at the pulse in her neck and felt a wave of blood desire rush over her.  Vicki was  tasty, she thought, remembering the last time she'd made a snack of her.  It was almost involuntary on both of their parts, but it had been nice.  She could feel her fangs itch and dug at one with her index finger without really thinking about it.

Vicki lowered the glass and their eyes met.  Eliza felt an electric shock go through her body.  Damn, she wanted to bite that delectable neck!  Vicki smiled.  "Why are you staring at me?  Did I dribble brandy on myself or something?" she asked.  She pulled her blouse away from her body and craned her neck down to see if she'd stained it.

Eliza remembered how soft her breast had felt and how her neck throbbed as she carefully inserted her fangs. "What?!" Vicki squeaked.  "Why are you staring at me like that?"  An image of them pressed together, naked, with her fangs in Vicki's neck, flashed through her mind.  She could almost taste the sweetness of the blood and feel the delicious warmth of the contact.  She felt a flush of lust and desire radiate through her body.  Shivering, she realized what she was thinking and blushed a violent deep red.

Vicki stared at her and giggled.  "Are you getting itchy for me?"  Eliza was at a total loss for words and she felt her face and breasts burning with embarrassment.  She made a strangled half-sound and Vicki giggled again.  "You are so cute! And I am sort of noticing you sitting there showing all that leg."  She sighed.  I do enjoy men, but a woman really knows how to please a woman."  She put her hand on Eliza's thigh and slowly slid it higher and higher.

Eliza was torn.  She wanted to grab Vicki's  hand and cross her legs but even more she wanted that hand to go even higher and she found herself spreading her legs rather than crossing them.  Vicki leaned forward and put her cheek on Eliza's cheek and softly breathed in her ear.  Eliza hesitantly put her arms around her and pulled her on top of her.  Vicki blew in her ear and then sharply nipped her neck and allowed her hand to reach where Eliza had been wanting it to reach.  With the nip on the neck, Eliza lost it.  She totally abandoned thought and became a vehicle to experience sensation.

Initially, Vicki was the dominant aggressor, but as they both became more and more excited, Eliza's strength and carnal urges took control and she became the more aggressive of the two.  Her fangs were fully extended and she briefly wondered where their clothing had gone, but she didn't let it worry her.  She'd not had a decent sexual encounter with anyone other than herself for far, far too long and she became totally involved in all aspects of what was happening to her and what she was doing.  She'd been a little confused at first, but Vicki had been confident and kind.  It did not take long to understand what Vicki had meant by, "A woman knows how to please a woman."

"If Vicki is half as pleased as I am, she is one happy girl!"  She found soft flesh and gently bit and sucked, loving the warm flow of blood into her mouth.  She gasped!  Vicki could bite too.  Oh, if she would only bite harder!  Eliza arched her back, hoping Vicki would bite harder and . . . . Eliza gasped and groaned.  She wanted more, more, more!  She held onto Vicki and loved the feel of Vicki holding tight to her.  Passion rose, peaked, diminished and they slept.

The splintering of the door frame awakened them.  The brandy, the sex, and the blood had her groggy; she quickly but unsteadily got to her feet.  He snarled and swung the two by four at her, she felt ribs break and she was knocked all the way into the kitchen.  She hit the linoleum floor in a crumpled heap.  She heard Vicki start to scream, heard the smack and passed out.

It seemed like forever to her, but her blood enriched body was responding to the emergency.  As she regained her feet, she saw the man lift Vicki's unconscious form from the couch by the hair, bend her head back and bring a long knife from a sheath on his side.  Shifting his grip to a position that would allow him to cut her throat, he felt 102 pounds of fury strike him.  He dropped Vicki and slashed at Eliza, leaving a bloody trail from under her right breast across her navel to her thigh.

She hissed at the pain of the cut and the pain of the broken ribs, but driven by pure fury and the need to protect her friend she bared her fangs and leapt at his throat.  He knew how to handle the knife and he impaled her low in the throat.  He grinned into her face, waiting for her to die.  She wrenched around and using her jaws and fangs, bit into the wrist holding the knife.  She could hear the crunch of bone and she tore to the side, severing tendons.  He screamed and kicked her, the heavy boots landing between her legs shattering her pelvic bones.  The force of the kick, knocked her back into the couch.  She bounced off and landed on top of Vicki.  She was on all fours, knife protruding from her thorat, covering Vicki with her body.  As the man approached, she pulled the knife from her throat and shakily stood.  The apparition of a naked, bloody woman facing him, a woman who should be dead, but who instead, was facing him and snarling like a fiend from hell, was too much for him.  Clutching his shattered arm, he turned and ran.

Eliza collapsed on top of Vicki.  An unknown amount of time passed and Vicki groaned.  As time passed, Eliza’s, wounds healed.  Slowly the wound in her throat closed over until there was just a slight pink dimple in her flesh.  The bloody cut closed over and would have frightened Vicki if she’d been awake to see it. "Lizzy, you ok? Lizzy, talk to me.  Tell me you're ok!" Her voice was rising and she was getting to the point of panic when Eliza groaned.

"I'm ok.  Are you ok?"  Eliza rolled off of Vicki and managed to get onto the couch.  She helped Vicki up who collapsed next to her and fell into her lap.

"Son of a bitch slugged me.  My damn head hurts and I'm dizzy as hell, but I think that's all."

"Hold still," Eliza commanded.  Vicki's head was in her lap so she very carefully examined her.  She gently touched the lump and Vicki flinched.

"That's it.  That's where the bastard hit me."

"No kidding!" Eliza quipped.  "Vicki, do you trust me?"

Vicki reached up and touched her cheek and smiled.  "With my life!"

"Then close your eyes," she said using her fingers to help her close them.  She leaned over and allowed her fangs to extend.  She bit into her wrist and sucked some of her own blood into her mouth and then leaned forward and using her fangs, traced to long gashes over the wound.  Putting her lips to the wound, she sucked some of the blood, allowed her's and Vicki's blood to mingle.  Using her tongue and lips, she spread the mixture over the fang lacerated wound.

Vicki moaned and then whimpered a little.  A few moments later she said, "Mmm, that feels so much better."  Eliza held the position for a few more moments and then sat up, making sure her fangs were fully retracted.

She smiled.  "Feeling better?"

Vicki nodded.  "Yes, but I saw part of what happened to you.  You're going to tell me about it, right?"

“Well, you tell me what you saw or think you saw and I’ll tell you about it,” Eliza said.

Vicki looked hesitant at first, but said, “I’m not just talking about that thug.  I mean before, before.  When we were going hot and heavy, I would swear I saw fangs.  I felt a bite and blood flow.”  Reaching her hand up, she felt her neck but only smooth skin met her touch.

“What else Vick?”  Eliza asked.  “Is there something else bothering you?  As you can see, my canine teeth are rather long.  I should have had braces when I was younger, but we couldn’t afford them.  I guess they really do look like fangs, sometimes.”

“Oh, I’m sorry Lizzy, I didn’t mean to insult you.  Your teeth are fine but, I guess, with all that was happening I didn’t see clearly.  Also being dizzy or dizzier than usual doesn’t help either. I know there was something else, but I can’t think what it was at the moment.”  Shaking her head, as if to clear cobwebs, Vicki just looked at Eliza with a confused expression.

Smiling shakily, Eliza told Vicki she thought that they should take some classes in self defense.  This was in their own best interest.  “I know we are going to meet that goon again.”

“Maybe you should come home with me since he knows where you live.”  Although maybe a hotel would be better,” Eliza stated.

“I have a better idea,” Vicki said reaching for the phone.

“You aren’t calling the cops, are you?” Eliza queried.

“No, a friend,” Vicki replied.  “Hey Jimmy, could you come down here?  Yes now, we need a big strong man,” Vicki simpered.

Throwing a look at Eliza, that almost had her laughing out loud, Vicki hung up the phone.

Hearing footsteps coming up the stairs, they both looked at the door or where the door was supposed to be.

Jimmy came up to the splintered door and bellowed, “why in hell haven’t you called the police?”

“Because, Jimmy, ummmmm Eliza, why didn’t we call the police?”

Eliza glared at Jimmy, saying snidely, “because we just woke up?”  Handing the phone to Jimmy, she told him to be her guest.  “My voice doesn’t want to work right,” Eliza coughed.  “That sob hit me in the throat, it hurts,” Eliza moaned.

Finishing his call to the police, Jimmy looked around the rooms at the damage. “No I’m not touching anything, geez I know enough not to do that,” Jimmy crankily retorted.

Pounding footsteps up the stairs and a knock on the door frame, announced the arrival of the police.  The same officers that had been here yesterday came in.  We’ve already called the detectives, you know the drill.

“Unfortunately we do,” Eliza said.  “You’re going to grill us all over again.  Another 5 hours of telling our story again and again,” she croaked.

Quietly one of the cops spoke into his radio, asking for an ambulance to be dispatched to this address.

“We’ll meet you at the hospital for your statements, Ladies, I want you to be examined by the doctors, to make sure you aren’t hurt worse than it seems.  By the looks of this apartment, this was the same guy who attacked the others.  Why he didn’t off you two, I’ll never know,” the cop stated.  “You were damn lucky, I’d say.”

Eliza didn’t really want to go to the hospital, knowing that the doctors would just love getting their hands on her.  “I wonder if this virus is detectable,” she thought.  “Damn that’s all I’d need, is for the docs to discover I’m a vampire.  I can see the headlines now,  “READ ALL ABOUT IT, VAMPIRE DISCOVERED IN OUR TOWN”, oh yeah I really need this.”

They could hear the siren wailing as it came down the street.  Pulling up in front of the building, the squad chief grabbed his clipboard and ran up the stairs, leaving the rest of the crew downstairs until he discovered what they’d need.  Seeing everyone alive, conscious and talking, he told the crew to stand by.  Looking around, he whistled,  “Damn and no one is dead in this mess?  Must not be your time.”

He checked Vicki and Eliza out thoroughly.  “I think only you, Vicki, should be seen at the hospital, that’s a nasty bump on your head.  I don’t know how you did it, but the skin isn’t cut. “ Looking around again, he shook his head.  “Awful lot of blood around and none of it seems to be yours or hers.  Strange!”

Eliza asked if it was alright for her to ride with Vicki, in the rig.

“Sure, no problem, as long as you have a ride home,” the captain replied.  “We don’t provide the return trip,” he added with a grin.

“No problem girls, I’ll meet you there and bring you home,” Jimmy piped up.

The arrival of the detectives started a movement toward the door as the captain spoke into his radio.  Stretchers not needed, both ambulatory.  We are on our way down.”

Vicki stood and swayed slightly.  Looking at Eliza, she whispered she was still a little dizzy.  Moving to take her arm, Eliza nodded.

Craig Jeffers, the squad captain, moved to Vicki’s side and they slowly started down the stairs.  Vicki was holding tightly to the railing and Craig, for some reason, to Vicki.  Of course, its his job, Eliza thought to herself.  Smiling though, she thought they looked good together.

Glancing back over her shoulder, she saw Jimmy watching them leave with a frown on his face.  She could almost read his mind.  He knew something wasn’t right with the explanation they’d given.   Looking right at him, she sent a wink and a smile.

“See ya there Jimmy, and thanks,” Eliza called back.

They seated Eliza in the front seat and made sure she was buckled in, then they took off with sirens wailing.  Laughing to herself, Eliza knew the sirens weren’t needed, they just wanted to get there quickly.

The sirens wound down and Eliza knew they had arrived at the hospital.  Now the fun began.

Eliza knew she couldn’t go into the Emergency Room with Vicki.  The smell and sight of blood would be a torment.  “Can’t have the fangs come down,” she thought.

As Vicki was wheeled off to the Emergency Room, Eliza called that she’d wait here.

“I really think you should be checked out too,” stated Craig.  He added, “just for safety sake.”
“I’m fine, really,” Eliza said. “I’m more concerned about Vicki, since she took such a nasty blow to the head.”

“Well ladies, I hope things are ok for you, I have to go,” Craig said.

Watching them walk away, Eliza grinned.  Nice people, she thought.

Now following her nose, she found herself outside a door marked “BLOOD BANK”.  How very appropriate, she thought with a grin.

“I know where this is now, for future use,” she said to herself, turning and making her way back to the ER.  Settling down, she began her wait for Vicki and the still absent Jimmy.