StarFall Comics
A Division of Pullemouttayerhat Productions
A Wholly-Owned Subsidiary of StarFall Innovations
Proudly Presents:
Blood Ties
#4: Sunday Bloody Sunday
cover: A blond vampire sinking her fangs into another vampire's neck.
WARNING! This title is labelled ACRAPHOBE, and contains language and situations that may not be suitable for readers under the age of 13, or for anyone who is in the least bit squeamish.
Amber and Donna raced towards the 20th Street Church, sticking to the shadows as best they could. Donna was amazed at how little Amber had changed over the past few days. Sure, Amber exhibited all the usual characteristics of a vampire - blood red eyes, enlarged canines, enhanced strength, and bad breath - but those she had expected. To her, Amber was still... Amber.
"How many are there?" Donna asked, panting for breath.
"I'm not sure," was Amber's reply. "I know of three for certain, but I kinda got the feeling there were more."
There was a heavy silence as they approached the Church.
"Donna," Amber asked, "I want you to do something for me. If I should start... y'know, losing it in there? Becoming more like them?" She paused, not quite believing what she was saying. "Kill me. Quickly."
Donna was stunned. She could hear the fear in Amber's voice, see it in her eyes, even feel it in the air around them.
"I'll try," she whispered. "Let's hope it doesn't come to that."
Opening the immense oak door, the two girls stepped hesitantly into the Church.
Mike awoke with a start, his body cramping from spending so much time asleep in an armchair. Quickly, he noticed ... or rather, sensed .. that things were out of place. He hadn't been harmed, so that ruled out a visit by Keili. But Donna was missing, and there was a breeze blowing in the window. The open window.
Oh, shit, he thought to himself. I hope she hasn't gone and done anything stupid. Like try and take out Keili by herself. A quick glance around the room confirmed his suspicions... the pile of stakes they'd carved was missing.
Then Mike sniffed the air, as a stray scent caught his nose. The roommate. Slipping a pair of shades on his eyes, and a baseball cap onto his head, Mike stepped out onto the fire escape.
Amber and Donna sliced silently through the flooded crypt of the Church, Donna carrying a number of stakes in plain view. As they approached one of the vampires inhabiting the crypt, Amber motioned Donna to stay put.
Sliding up behind the vampire, a young man who'd dozed off, Amber suddenly jumped up behind him, sinking her fangs into his neck. Quickly, before the vampire could scream, she clamped her hand over his mouth, effectively muffling his cries.
Donna watched in horror. This was her friend, her roommate, who was savagely drinking the blood from another being. That Amber's victim was himself a vampire didn't seem to matter. She'd expected that Amber would use those fangs, but to see it... to hear the slurping noises as she drank... to see Amber enjoying it, was almost too much for Donna to bear.
Amber let her drained victim slide out of her grasp. Easily, she caught him by the neck, and popped his head off with a twist of her wrist.
Turning back to Donna, Amber licked the excess blood from around her mouth.
"I was afraid..." Donna started to say. "I almost staked you."
"It's okay," Amber replied. "I... I didn't even like the taste of it." Somehow, Donna knew Amber wasn't telling the truth. "C'mon. Let's get that bitch Keili."
Keili sat up from where she slept, and nudged Sam, who was sleeping on the cold stone floor next to her.
"Hrrmmm?" Sam asked, still half-asleep.
"Wake up. We got company."
Sam shot to a sitting position. "You think it's him?"
Keili sniffed the stale air for a moment. "No. It's the new girl. And she brought her friend."
Their bodies turning to a thick mist, clothes flopping down to the cold stone floor, the two vampires floated over the water.
Mike paused at the doors of the Church. If he hadn't known better, he would have sworn that one of the gargoyles had shifted since last night.
"I gotta have my eyes checked," he muttered.
Pushing the door open slightly, he slipped inside... and sneezed.
"Shit... even as a vampire, the dust gets to me."
A sneeze reverberated through the crypt, bouncing off all the stone walls. Amber and Donna froze.
"I hope that wasn't one of your friends," Donna muttered.
"So do I."
"How much farther?"
"Should be..."
"Right behind you!" Keili called out, solidifying in the water behind them. Off to the redhead's side, Sam materialized.
"SHIT!" Donna yelled. Wasting no time, she dove into the water.
"Follow her," Kei hissed. "The traitor is mine."
With a fluid motion, Sam dove into the water, leaving Amber to face Keili.
"You actually thought you could just sneak in here like a pair of slugs and take us down with wooden stakes?" Keili taunted her victim. "How pathetically delightful!"
Springing at Amber, Keili wrapped her hands around the younger girl's throat, and squeezed. Amber reacted on instinct, and brought her knee up into Keili's stomach, and pushed her away.
Recovering quickly, Keili smiled. "Fight. Fight, little worm! Make your true death amusing for me!"
Mike heard Donna's scream echo up from the lower level, and dashed for the stairs. Flying down them and into the chamber below, he came up short when he saw Keili and Amber circling each other like rival wolves.
Interesting, he thought. But where's....? Then he spotted Donna some distance away, being chased by Sam. There she is.
Diving into the water, he swam towards the pair, passing unseen past the other vampires. Kicking off the crypt floor, he slammed into Sam's stomach, sending her flying away from her prey.
"You okay, kid?" he asked, making sure Keili was still occupied with Amber.
"Never better," Donna replied, gasping breathlessly.
"Good." With a smooth, practiced motion, he grabbed one of the stakes from her hand. Seconds later, the stake had embedded itself in Samantha's forehead.
"Not the heart?" Donna asked, slightly confused.
"Don't believe everything you see in the movies. The brain is still the most vital part of the body, even for vampires."
Hearing a scream, they turned towards Amber and Keili, and froze. Amber lay face down in the water, a wooden stake sticking out of her back.
"I hope you brought more of those stakes," he whispered.
"Why, Mikie, honey," Keili purred, a satisfied smile playing on her lips. "You brought home the bacon. Why don't I show you just how I like it. Crispy!"
Mike realized that he and Donna were surrounded by Keili's followers, many of whom bore firebrands.
"We are in it deep, kid. When I tell you to, run. And don't stop until you get back to your apartment!"
The vampires closed the circle around the two, with Keili on the outside, waiting like some hideous spider. Mike klnew the chance of their escape was almost non-existant, but they had to try. When the circle had closed in tight enough, Mike pulled out a souvinier he had kept close since his friend Hunter had been murdered.
"Run!"
Pulling the pin, Mike shoved the incendiary grenade down the shirt of the vampire in front of him, and dissolved into mist. Many of the vampires recognized the device and scattered, leaving a wide enough path for Donna to scramble away, and out of the Church.
"SHIIII.....!!!!!" the vampire yelled seconds before he was vaporized in a burst of hot burning white plasma. Several of the other vampires near him were also killed in the blast. Swearing in several languages, Keili misted and disappeared through a ventilation shaft in the ceiling of the crypt, followed closely by several others who had not panicked when the grenade went off.
Coming to rest in the steeple, Keili resolidified.
"Mike'll pay for this," she hissed. "His meddling has set me back a good three years. Oh well... There's still my safehouse farther south... near the Bethlehem Steel plant." And didn't that one... yes, the "hero" of the Fresno Massacre moved near there... I could get a taste of revenge after all. Chuckling to herself, she watched as the Ithaca Fire Company arrive to put out the fire in the crypt.
"Sunday, bloody Sunday," she hummed to herself, using the smoke to cover her exit from the Church.
Epilogue:
Donna slept restlessly, her heart still racing from the encounter at the Church. She was on edge. Only the three sleeping pills she'd taken helped.
In her dream, she imagined Amber misting under the door, gloriously vampirically naked. Her chest did not even betray the wound from where Keili had impaled her heart. Although she'd kept her feelings under wraps for years, Donna had long lusted for her friend.
And now Amber was offering herself to her.
Amber embraced her, preternaturally strong arms pulling her close. Noticing a trickle of blood on Amber's breast, Donna could not help but lick at it. Even in the dream, the blood seemed warm, salty... and intoxicatingly delicious. One lick turned into another, and then another, until Donna was actively drinking blood from Amber's breast as if she was a baby.
"I missed you," Amber whispered, her hintingly hot breath on Donna's ear. "Soon, we'll be together. Forever."
The dream then became too real, as Donna felt something - no, not "somethng"... Amber - bite deep into her neck. She instinctively screamed; a scream which died out as she lost conciousness.
Holding Donna's inert form over the bed, Amber withdrew her fangs from her friend's neck, and smiled, blood dripping from her lips.