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Kodiak Jack: Heroine Blood

By: DarkLordPriapus



"Are you insane???" The woman asked with an uncharacteristic amount of panic. 

She was relatively young, athletic and under all that superhero crap, I could tell she was quite the looker. They all were. I had never seen one fat, ugly or even small boobed. This one was no different.

I bit down on the end of my cigar and grabbed hold of the taught cables I had in one hand, with both hands. Slim and small-ish as she was, hanging over the side of the Waltham building tangled up in thin metal cables, her weight began to drag on my already diminishing strength reserves.

I looked down at her from my standing place on the roof and with a cigar smile I told her. "Crazy is relative, darlin'."

She fretted and twisted in the air, trying in vain to release herself from the mess of tangles that the cables had created while wrapping themselves around her svelte body. Kicking and twisting, she couldn't help but drive her foot into the brick wall of the twentieth floor building she hung from. The kick knocked her away and then there was nothing to stop her momentum as she slammed back into the wall with a bump.

"Agh!" She groaned and gritted her teeth. "Do you .....realize .... what we heroines do for this city????" She spat up at me.

I wrapped the cables one more time around my wrists, trying to get a better grip for what was about to come. I said, "Honey, you got your job to do..... I got mine."

"We.... we're part of the thin .....blue line..... the line that keeps this city from going to ruin...going to the criminals.... going to the people who would tear it down.... for their own selfish means!" She shot up at me angrily. Her bright, white teeth and pink gums were on full display. It reminded me to go and see my own dentist - when I had the time. 

Maybe she really believes that, I told myself, while taking into consideration the sky blue body leotard she wore and the dark blue boots and gloves that seemed to me to be a bit too long for comfort. She also wore a dark blue domino mask. Her hair though, was long and straight and black and swished back and forth beneath her as she hung almost upside down, tangled in metal cables. 

Thin blue line, I thought. Blue Raider. Made sense.

"Honey," I said, getting a little worn out from holding her twenty floors above the alleyway below. "You're the one who chose to be a blasted superhero. I'm just the middle man."

With that, I pressed the buttons on my wrist cuff and the electrical charge shot through the cables Blue Raider was tangled in. She jerked and twisted in unnatural ways with an ugly grimace on her face and a groan leaking from her throat. 

"GGgrrraaaaaaggghhhhh!!!!"

In a moment it was over. She hung limp, unconscious. I had to steady myself on the side of the roof barrier and tried to pull her up. But I was too spent. My arms wouldn't provide the strength needed and I found myself cussing myself for letting a chase of a super heroine go on for as long as it had.

"Dammit." I spat. I then looked out over the edge of the roof to see what was below the hanging girl, down on the ground of the alleyway. About ten feet away to the right, in the corner, was a trash bin with its lid up, lots of refuse in its belly.

"Good!" I said, nodding. I then dragged the cable over to the corner of the building, making my exhausted muscles scream at me in lactic acid anger. The wall was rough and brick, it gave me lots of trouble with the cable as I dragged it across its face and the heroine below spun and bounced as we moved. When I was in range, I let her go. I watched as she silently floated downward, all arms, legs and long black hair flailing about helplessly. She landed with a cushioned thud in the trash. A lot of it bounced around her, covering her up. The cables slapped and 'twanged' against the metal sides.

"Shit!" I said grabbing my arms in pain, huggin' myself with the sudden release of the painful strain. I then stood up and tried to straighten my middle aged back and took a long drag on my cigar.

"Crap!" I told myself. "I need a drink bad."

I wished I could have just gone home at that point, got a shower, a shot of sippin' whiskey, maybe some of the apple pie I had left in the fridge. But, I still had work to do. Heading down to the street, I went quickly as I was able to the trash bin where I had dumped Blue Raider. Pulling on the cables, I dragged the sleeping girl from the trash and laid her out on the ground. The alley was isolated, the night dark and the street light out on the sidewalk created a surreal double darkness within the alley. Its light caused anyone out on the street to adjust to the lamp and thus made the alley almost completely black to any nosy passerby.

I pulled rope from inside its hidden spot under my trench coat and began securing my latest quarry. I tied her wrists behind her back, her knees together and then her ankles. I was good at this, just like roping a bull in a rodeo, so I was fast as well. I then roped the girl in a hog tie, ankles to wrists. I then also tied a small noose which wrapped around her neck and was tied to her hands. 

The cables I had to re-roll and attach back to my military belt which wrapped around my waist. I then took the blue spandex clothed 'baby heroine' and tossed her over my shoulder. She was young, maybe 20 years old, I thought. Nice round butt. Lovely, firm boobs. She'd bring a pretty good price. The usual price, but still pretty good.

Three blocks away I returned to my SUV and flipped opened the rear door that led to the interior cab. Inside were the sleeping bodies of Blue Raider's buddies: The blonde, Night Bird and the brown haired, Ocelot. They had both given me a bit of trouble tonight as well, but they too were young, not long out of school, wet behind the ears and all. They also weren't on the list of biggies, but they usually brought in about a million a piece. For all the trouble heroines were in capturing them and then selling them to their enemies, the low reward combined with volume, was my proffered choice of business.

I tossed Blue Raider on top of her fellow idiots and the other two groaned slightly as she landed on top of them. In the side panel of my truck I retrieved the medical doctor masks I had pre-soaked in chloroform from a clear plastic bag, and one by one, I placed the masks over their beautiful faces. I then stood back and took a breath, smoked my cigar and watched them rise up and struggle slightly in reaction to the fumes, as if trying to escape in their sleep. Just as quickly they seemed to deflate as their bodies went deep into an unconscious state. They'd be no more trouble. To me. Or anyone.

I looked at my watch to see how much time I had left before the usual delivery ship left the dock for the night, and it was almost 2:30am. I knew I had just enough time to make it, and that might be a good thing. It was better to have them packed away and headed out to sea. I could relax. I could forget about them. Sometimes the little buggers managed to escape and I'd have to rope and tie them all over again, but that's usually when there was too much time between capture and shipping. I was glad that couldn't happen this time.

I cranked up my SUV and headed for the docks. On the radio I found an old Hank Williams song playing on the local country music station, and as I drove, I sang along with the lyrics as best as I could remember them. The night was late and the traffic practically non-existent. I drove quickly to the docks and found the great sea bearing Silent Runner still parked at the dock. Two guys from the ship stood around on the dock under a hanging lamp on one of the poles. I pulled up about twenty feet away. I sat there in the darkness of my cab waiting.

I drew on my cigar, causing the end of it to turn red with the internal fire that burned the tobacco. I then did it again. The fire burned brightly. I then did it a third time and blew out a strong column of smoke. The men at the light pole threw down their cigarettes and headed over to the SUV. I rolled down my window.

"You almost missed us," The one with the beard said as he strolled up.

"I had trouble. You leave and I will have to throw them in the water."

"Nah. Don't do that." Said the skinny one. "How many?"

"Three." I told him, still munching my cigar.

"We got something to tell ya from the boss." The bearded one added.

"Zat right?" I said with a raised eyebrow. I was expecting something like a fist fight to follow his statement. I didn't know why. I was ready for almost anything, but I was also still beat up from running down three young super heroines.

"Where ya got 'em? Inna back?" Asked skinny.

"Yeah. Lemme out." I responded while opening the door.

We all walked around to the back of the SUV and I popped open the cab door. They looked in the back of the truck and saw the sleeping idiots I had caught that night. They both nodded in a way that was like: Yeah, that's the usual.

"Your boss, what's he got?" I asked. 

"Word is.... Kodiak.... he want's something bigger.... bigger fish." Said beard.

"Bigger, huh?" I said nodding. "Bigger has a higher price...."

"He knows. He's a little tired of the small fry you bring in. Wants to wheel and deal in a bigger pond for a while. You dig?"

I nodded. "I dig.... yeah.... not sure if I want the headaches...." I said shaking my head.

"He didn't say you had to give up the rookies and street levels you usually pick up. He just wants to see you bring in a bigger one.... a really troublesome one."

I nodded and blew a column of cigar smoke. "Oh, I see.... he wants to get me killed." I said half joking.

Skinny smiled and half laughed. "No, no.... he wants Lady Liberty. He'll give ya 10 mil just for her."

"WHOA!" I said in disbelief. "He's serious!"

"He is. This small fry sells pretty regular on the market." He continued while referring to the sleeping children in my cab. "But, Lady Liberty has proven to be a constant pain in the ass. Nobody can beat her......."

"Which is why she's a pain in the ass." I added. "She knock over one of Vanno's operations?"

"Three! He lost big bucks on the deals." Beard said with conviction.

I rubbed the back of my neck. "I dunno... I am not really equipped to go for the big news icons...." 

"You'll do it. You're an old pro." The beard assured me.

"I want my ass kissed, I'll hire a hooker." I retorted.

Skinny threw up his hands. "That's the boss's message. Take it or leave it."

I watched him closely. I then looked over at the beard. "Okay, boys. I'll see what I can do." I told them. 

But, the truth of the matter is that I had no idea how I was gonna pull off a major capture like Lady Liberty. She was the old pro in these parts. The mentor to all the young fluff that came my way and thought they too could be a rock star heroine with the public. I took a lot of them down and sent them overseas, but had always managed to avoid the old professionals of the game. I kicked myself internally for agreeing to such madness. 

Beard and Skinny shook hands with me on the deal and then they got busy extracting the heroines from my SUV cab. They tossed them over their shoulders and I carried one too, just to help them out. We made it up the ramp of the ship and down a corridor, then into a larger room with lots of crates. In the corner were the empty ones and they dragged three out into the open floor. We each dumped a stupid, young girl into a body sized horizontal crate.

I straightened up and nodded my end of the night's festivities. "That's all I can do, boys. I'm gettin' too old to be carrying them around like this after a night like tonight."

Beard took out a small computer phone and told me, "We're good. Let me connect you up."

He hit a few buttons on the phone. It "beeped" and "booped". In a moment I had three million in my bank account and we all shook hands again on it. Skinny had grabbed a hammer and nails and started to place the long wooden crate covers over the boxes as he prepared to hammer them closed for the long trip across the ocean.

I turned and left the ship, went back to the SUV. I thought about the mission of Lady Liberty. Taking out a major player was a step I had always avoided. Maybe Blue Raider was right. Maybe I was getting "insane" in my old age. 

*******

The Saturday nights in this town were getting to be a drag. Business was good, don't get me wrong, but it was the same business all of the time. I walked down the street toward Layla's in the cool evening breeze. It was damp with the past cloudy weather from the few days I had spent at home getting my aged body to come back from the latest hunt. I hurt. All over. I was getting too old for all this super heroine crap, and with each step I took down the cobblestone sidewalk, my knees gave me little annoying reminders in the form of creaks and digs of pain.

I stopped just outside of Layla's pool hall and bar, stared into the one way window at the neon sign that hung there. I liked neon. I didn't know why. It was tacky, gaudy and low rent looking, but it quietly hummed and glowed with magenta and blue light created by gas, or some such thing. It made me relax. Dammit, it down right hypnotized my ass, to be honest. I liked the feeling.

Layla stuck her head from around the entrance and called over to me, "Kodiak! Get your ass in here! The whiskey's melting your ice."

I turned to her slightly, my back still a bit stiff, and gave a slight puff on my cigar which I held between my teeth.

She said, "...and put that thing out, you can't smoke in my bar, ya know that."

I nodded. I threw the cigar into the street where a thin puddle of water still remained from the wet weather and the red tip of my cigar went out instantly. 

"I'm comin' darlin. I just have to drag myself over there." I told her as I shuffled toward the entrance.

The hall was alive with juke box music I never cared for, some jungle crap that was a big deal these days with young people who couldn't smell bullshit if you rubbed it in their nose. Pool balls cracked and rolled and dropped into pockets from several of the various fourteen or so professional size tables that filled the rear of the room. There was plenty of low level light, reflective green light covers and mirrors all over the walls.

Layla moved around the back of the bar which extended from the doorway, near a small outdoor patio set up, and then toward the back of the room. She grabbed my shot glass of whiskey, which she had put ice into without my asking, and slid it across the bar towards me as I grabbed a stool and pulled up to the bannister.

I took a slow drag on the caramel colored alcohol in my glass and felt it slide all the way down. It was good. Always was when Layla served it.

"How you been darlin'?" I asked her as she leaned in to greet me and put her elbow on the bar, resting her chin on her hand.

She was an old warhorse in this business. 40 odd years old. Been doing it since she was in her twenties. Bars were her life. With a background of parents who ran guns and robbed Brinks trucks while she was still in diapers, rough living was what she had been raised on. A few looks at her greying brown hair, pulled back in a sloppy tail, the smattering of badly chosen tattoos in various places on her body, the dark eye liner, the bloody red lipstick and the age lines now creeping into her face, told you most of what you had to know. But, she knew her whiskey. It's what I liked the most.

"I'm still rolling, old man. What's your business these days? Still dealing in silly females?"

I chortled. "I have.... yeah.... I have. It's gettin' to be too much though.... think Imma be gettin' out of the game." 

She shot me a surprised look, but still didn't bother to move her head. Sleepy was her permanent disposition. "I don't believe it. You have too much fun."

"I did at one time. But now it's hurtin' too much." I said shaking my head. "They're still fast... young ..... sometimes pretty tough.... I keep slowing down."

She grabbed the bottle of whiskey sitting a step or two away on the bar and poured more into my shot glass. "So just take more of a break between jobs..... it's what my parents used to do."

"Wish I could do that..... but suddenly I got a bigger assignment from the customer."

"No shit? Bigger money?"

"Much. Ten mil. But, also a bigger fish."

She leaned forward on her folded arms with a sly smile as though she wanted to share a secret. "Fill me in! Watcha got?"

I looked around behind me, trying to make sure none of the patrons milling around in the semi darkness were too close to hear. I then leaned into her in order to close the gap between us even more. "Ever hear of Lady Liberty?"

She gasped, "Oh? Really bigger fish!"

"Ten mil, I bring her in."

"Well, if you're gonna quit. Sounds like the right time."

I nodded my agreement.

She looked over my shoulder away from the bar and then back to me. "But you're not the only one who's after her. You better move fast."

I sipped some whiskey. I grunted and turned my head slightly sideways. "Hmm?"

"There were some men and a woman in the corner a few days ago. They was talkin' bout Lady Liberty, too. They made a bet."

"Uh, huh." 

"The woman said she bet she could bring down Lady Liberty in her own way, y'know like her own fashion..."

"Some kinda super?"

"Nooooo.... and you're gonna love this...."

I widened my eyes and slightly shook my head as though to beg her to get on with it.

She gave me a crooked smile and said, "They were all.... vampires."

I snorted. "WHAT??? You mean like they were ..... goths or something?"

She whispered. "No, no.... these people.... two guys and a woman...... they were the real thing."

"Layla, I'm the one drinking the whiskey, darlin'."

She chuckled. "Seriously..... they have been in here before..... I didn't think they were the real thing for a few times..... I thought they were just goth kooks, too.... but no..... they really do the blood sucking thing...... the grave yard thing."

I shook my head in disbelief. "Sweetheart....."

"Don't believe me and miss out on the chance for ten mil and a retirement."

"I want to believe you.... you have never steered me wrong.... but VAMPIRES???"

She nodded and gave me a 'yep, it's true' expression. Then she stood up and pulled the pony tail curving around her neck and then down her front away from her throat. She cocked her head sideways and showed me the two little puncture wounds just below her jaw line. 

I bristled and stood up on the bar stool foot rests, leaning in to get a better view in the neon lit darkness. Suddenly angry I spat, "What the hell is that?"

She took a few beats and let the ponytail slide back down around her neck. She lowered her eyes and said, "They're vampires. ........ I know."

I shot her an angry look as though to send her a message about my sudden displeasure at this development. "Why the fuck didn't you tell me about this???"

She reached over her shoulder with one hand to scratch her back. "I..... I kinda .... liked it."

I pursed my lips and stared her down for a silent moment. "They're killers.... y'know?"

She lowered her eyes and whispered. "Yeah, I know."

"You seriously think I'm gonna allow this to go on?" I told her with almost a growl in my voice.

I grabbed my glass and tapped the bottom of it on the bar with a demanding rattle. She grabbed the whiskey bottle and filled me up again. I could tell she was a little worried about a suddenly angry and whiskey-ed up Kodiak.

"When do they come back?" I shot at her with a command in my voice. I then took a fast swig.

She shrugged. "I dunno, honey..."

"Where do they.......uh..... y'know......exist?"

She placed her hand over her mouth and leaned forward again with a wild look in her eyes. 


Kodiak Jack: Heroine Blood



"Graveyards.....Mr. Ex-Detective." She replied with a muffled voice.

I pulled back and slowly looked behind me, scanning the room. Several people had just come in from the night and were perusing the tables. I looked back at her. "Which one?"

"Grey jacket. Whitish hair." She mumbled from behind her hand.

I pretended to drink from my glass and looked out over the room again from under the brim of my fedora. There were about six people who had come in, not all of them together, but the one with the grey jacket was tall and thin. His whitish skin was hard to miss, but easy to overlook as a goth and not the real thing. Real vampire - that is.

I covered my mouth with my glass. "That the one do that to you?" I asked, referring to her bite marks.

"No." She whispered back. "The woman."

I looked at her sideways. "She here?"

"No. But, that's her friend."

I nodded my understanding. I moved away from the bar and kept my drink at my lips, my other hand in my trench coat pocket. I slowly moved across the room, nonchalantly strolling in the general direction of the mark. He was creepy alright. Un-kept despite his slightly eighties looking jacket and black slacks. Pointed shoes, probably boots up the pants leg. Boney hands, discolored finger nails. Black lipstick, so no possibility of my catching a look of blue-ish lips of the un-dead. 

Freak! I thought to myself. Black lipstick on a man? Jeeze!

Though boney and slim, I surmised that he could indeed be stronger than he looked and when I moved passed him, supposedly on my way to the men's room, he stunk of graveyard. Layla wasn't shittin' me. 

She wasn't anyone's blood bank either. Not if I had any say in the matter.

I went to the little boys room and relieved my bladder and then re-entered the pool room. I walked back to the bar where Layla was serving other patrons. I motioned to her to come over to the end, away from nosy ears. She walked over and leaned in to listen.

"Set me up another..... and get the kitchen to slap together a pastrami on rye.... when that freak leaves.... I leave with him."

She nodded her understanding and smiled at me. She then reached up and touched my cheek. "The kitchen's closed at this time of night.... ya know that."

"Open it."

I grabbed the seat at the end of the bar which would allow me to watch Mr. Nightmare while he played pool and would then eventually order a Bloody Mary. It figured to me that he would order a drink that one only has the morning after. 

From under the brim of my hat I watched his ugly ass with steely, determined eyes. 

******

Mr. Nightmare played billiards for something like two solid hours before calling it a night. He sucked at it. I kept the pastrami coming with the whiskey, just to be safe. When he headed out into the early morning, something like 1:30 or 2:00am, I gulped down my last glass and nodded my intent to Layla. She gave me a cute closed mouth smile and a wink as I went for the door.

A big street sweeper was out in the road making all sorts of flushing noises as it passed by the hall. I had to avoid it and cross behind it in order to keep up with skinny and ugly. He was quick. He moved at a joggers pace without the extra effort. I was fortified by my late dinner and the alcohol made me more than brave. More than brave, but not stupid. I kept my distance behind him. He never knew I was there, tailing him. It was an old practice that was now in my blood. I could tail anybody. 

Turning a corner about three blocks away, I could see there was some sort of disturbance in the road. The skyscrapers in this part of town reflected red flashing lights on their towering facades. Red flashing lights of course meant cops. Backed up traffic extending around the corner meant cops in the road. I peered around the corner of the next building to get a look, seeing as Mr. Ugly had headed right for the disturbance. I pondered if he had maybe smelled the blood from a car accident, and was looking for his own late night dinner. I felt a little disgusted by it all. What can I say? I hated the idea of vampires.

In the road was a phalanx of cop cars. They were all surrounding a spot somewhere about half a block up from my position. Nightmare skipped along gleefully and then disappeared somewhere behind the group of cars, gawkers and various pedestrians who had stopped to take a look at the commotion. He was headed in the direction of St. Smithen's mortuary. "Graveyards", Layla had said. I grimaced when I realized Nightmare had probably headed for the accident on purpose, not to find blood, but maybe to lose his tail. Namely, me. And lose me he did. I cussed under my breath. 

I looked up and saw a two story warehouse that I knew was vacated from the overall condition it was kept in. I headed up the back alley, black in contrast to the many lights in the street, and found the fire escape. I then skipped up the bar steps and entered a broken window. Inside the long, empty room was little but trash, dust, broken glass and an old mattress in the center of the floor. I could only imagine what went on here on those nights when the cops weren't so close by. There was a low level green glow that covered the walls and floor and the bright lights of the street, the flashing lights of the cop cars, illuminated the ceiling as they shone through the cracked and broken glass windows that lined the street side of the building.

I walked over to the last window on the west side and leaned in to view the street below. Glass shards cracked beneath my shoes. Down in the street there were six, maybe seven cop cars all in a make-shift circle. There were various perps, maybe about a dozen, all lined up and sitting on the curb on the opposite side of the street. They were cuffed and being processed by several officers. I could hear police radios chatting back and forth, cops questioning the men and the men shouting back now and then. But the thing that caught my eye was the center of the mess down below. In the center was a police lieutenant in a suit and tie, his name was Spencer. Harvey Spencer. I knew him from my former days as a detective. We had crossed paths once or twice in a blue moon.

Spencer was chatting with an incredible woman I had only heard about in random conversations here and there. She was a super known as Destiny Blue. Standing about five foot nine, built like a brick shit house... that is to say she was major stacked, it was hard ....eh, difficult to take my eyes off of her. She had a big hair head of dark auburn that flowed down her head and over her shoulders like an oil rig that had just blown. Her torpedo shaped breasts were big, real big, I'd say she was a double "D" for sure, and they held up tight and smooth as the jutted out from her chest. Slim waist and rounded hips made her any man's wet dream, for sure. I had to hold my breath and try to relax when I saw her. 

She had a dark blue and magenta super hero outfit that hugged her body like the clear wrap they use in a butcher shop to keep the steaks fresh. Her mask was full faced from head to neck with only her eyes and nose and mouth exposed. Her low cut top showed off plenty of her massive cleavage and ended just above the belly button of her tightly ripped, flat tummy. The spandex tights on her bottom were low cut as well and ended somewhere near her knee high boots. They had long, spike-y heels that looked dangerous. 

I had a device in one of my inner pockets that could augment distant conversations and I grabbed it and shoved it into my ear as I regarded the scene down in the street. My receiver unfortunately picked up all the surrounding conversation and ambient noise as well, so I had to work at picking out the words I wanted to hear. Double D was explaining her reason for being there that night and the battle that had ensued in the warehouse across the street. Officer Spencer nodded, wrote in a pad he held, and spat a question or two her way as they discussed the situation. 

She had been trailing a drug ring for some time, it seemed. Finally caught up with them, and engaged them in a little "one-on-twelve". From the size of the cuffed group, I figured she must be one hell of a fighter to have taken them all down. She spoke to Spencer in calm directive tones, outlining everything that had transpired. I noticed something else though. I noticed she seemed a little out of breath. She also seemed to be struggling to get her head to work as she searched for a word here and there to describe the prior events. Fatigue. I liked this. I liked this a lot.

Destiny Blue. A super heroine who wasn't quite on the same level as Lady Liberty, but she was no rookie either. She held that upper middle class position in the ranks that made her dangerous, but not unbeatable by the right timing and planning. I watched her in the street and felt myself motivated by opportunity which could not be ignored. She was steak alright. She was a steak dinner all cooked and ready and sizzling on the plate. I was hungry. I had lost Mr. Nightmare in the crowd below, and I would have to use old hunting methods to catch an animal. 

Destiny Blue was Filet Mignon. 

After another twenty minutes or so, Double D said her goodbyes and thanked Spencer for taking care of the rest of the mess she had created. 

"I have to go..." She told him. "It's been a long night."

As she moved down the street, I turned from my own position, keeping the timing and pace of her gait in the front of my mind. I couldn't see her, but I could estimate just how far she would travel in the direction she had left. I checked my inner coat and my trench coat of all my arms and tools which I carried everywhere, always ready for a situation like this. It was a pain in my ass, for sure, but one never knows when one will stumble upon a million dollar haul.

I made it down the ladder and then out into the street, covered by the surrounding pedestrians still milling about. Double D was about a block down and her lovely behind was swaying back and forth as she made her way east. Luckily, a few adoring fans had run up to her and were pestering her for autographs and peppering her with questions. She was patient and helpful, but I could tell her patience was quickly running out from some of the closed palm gestures and sideways body language she used. The fans blindly missed the signals. They were a big help at keeping my tail of the heroine hidden from her, no doubt, superior senses. 

I could see as she headed down the street, that there was a large yellow van that had been parked facing the street with its body hidden back in an alley. I smiled. I knew just what miss heroine had done and where she was going. Slipping behind one of the buildings, I ran down a dark alleyway and jumped up and over a dumpster that was against a brick wall. I scaled the wall and tossed myself over it and landed in the adjoining alley. Several cats scattered as I interrupted their late night exercises. 

I did this a few more times, making headway on Blue's progress, so I hoped, and ended up in the alley behind the van. Just where I wanted to be. I took out some short mooring rope from my trench coat and tied my wrists to the top baggage rod of the van to ensure that I didn't go splat on the cement during a wide turn and I hunkered down on my belly atop the roof of the van. In the alley darkness, I felt I would be hidden from view as Destiny Blue returned to her transport. 

I was right. The fans kept Destiny chatting as she made it to the alley and then told them she had to leave in polite, clipped tones. She climbed into the van and cranked it up without even checking the outer perimeter. A sloppy move, if you ask me. If I had wanted to discover who she was, I would have pretended to be an annoying fan too, or maybe paid a kid to do it. Now I had her van location, and all I would have to do was wait until next time. If I had been one of the bad guys, that is. But if things worked out, there would be no next time for Destiny Blue. 

The trip was fast and windy. I had to shove my hat under my chest and inside my coat so as not to lose it. I covered my head with the outer coat so as not to freeze in the cold night air. Double D was a cowgirl at the wheel, she wasted no time getting up on the interstate and barreling along at what must have been over sixty miles per hour. My wrists ached from the pull on the mooring ropes, but the rope and the baggage bar held tight. The van made its way up into the high rent district with all the mansions and palm trees lining every neighborhood street. When we finally stopped, it was at a gated home that was surrounded by high brick masonry and wrought iron metal work. 

As the van moved beyond the swinging gate entrance and up the driveway, I listened for dogs. Dogs could be a problem as they made too much conspicuous noise when an unknown trespasser entered the grounds. Surprisingly, I didn't hear any. Not at first, at least. But when Destiny parked in the garage and entered the house, I could hear the security dogs running up to meet her. From her reaction, she must have had more of a "love" relationship with them as pets, more so than a pure security exchange. I slid down the opposite side of the van, the side away from the interior entrance and made my way around to a nearby inner window. I could see that the dogs were Rottweilers. They really seemed to love old Double D, too. Beautiful dogs, they were. Beautiful and not totally safe for an intruder like myself.

I waited until the lights had gone out on the lower level of Destiny Blue's mansion. I could see all the Ethan Allen furniture and high end gold fixtures that decorated the house. She was some sort of high society rich girl, for sure, which told me that perhaps there was some bucks to be made here after all. Considering the future use of Destiny Blue in my own plans, those that would lead me to the bigger prize of Lady Liberty, I had decided to forfeit the potential income, but now I surmised that perhaps I would return later, load up her van for myself. 

When I heard the water pipes begin to roar down in the garage, I knew it was time to move. I pulled my tranq dart gun from another pocket in my trench and readied for the approach of the two Rottweilers. Picking the lock on the interior garage door, I let myself into the spacious kitchen within. Naturally, the running paws, scraping nails on the marble floors, and huffing breath of the dogs began almost immediately. 

Standing in the darkened kitchen, I held my tranq gun ready for them to turn the corner at any second. They did as expected, and two single shots took them down quickly. I stepped over the sleeping dogs and unloaded the liquid casing from my gun that held the sleep potion I used on puppies. Making my way quietly and quickly up the large swaying staircase to the second floor, I replaced the liquid tube with another which was especially formulated for nosy, pesky young women with super abilities.

Like a policeman expecting an attack at any second I held my gun with both hands and with extended stiff arms. I moved down the hallway toward the sound of a running shower and marveled that it appeared as though Double D lived alone in this big house. I slowly opened the bathroom door, peering through the crack of the door and found that Blue was indeed inside of the shower. The shower had a fancy, flower printed curtain, which was helpfully opaque. I could see the silhouette of her tremendous body outlined behind the curtain by the omni directional overhead lighting. She was friggin' fantastic! 

Scrubbing and washing and soaping, she was blissfully unaware of my presence. I suddenly pulled back the curtain, shoved my gun in her tummy and fired, all at once. She turned and gave me a wide eyed look of shock and surprise which might have been followed by a statement like: "What the fuck?????" But she had little time, as my drug worked almost instantly and she collapsed unconscious into the tub.

I stood there watching the shower water run over her shiny, beautifully formed breasts. Her hair was back above her head and floating in the swirling water like a great auburn colored crown. 

"Goodnight, princess." I told her, and I lit up a cigar. 

******* 

The note on the front door of the house, the one I had left there for the hired help, told the day workers, whomever they were, that Ms. Hansen would be out of town for the day and that they could all take a day off with pay since she wouldn't be around. Rachel Hansen was some sort of society big wig, for sure. She had awards and certifications and degrees all over her living room wall. She had photos, too. These photos spelled out the story for me that she would be unable to relate.

There were lots of charity event type pictures, ones with the Mayor, the District Attorney, a few powerful men from the business world that I recognized, and of course, Lieutenant Spencer from the police department. I didn't know if he realized that Destiny Blue and Rachel Hansen were one and the same. He's a smart guy though, not a fool, so I would say that if he's been in social situations taking pictures with Rachel Hansen, standing right next to her, and also out in the street chatting with her after Destiny Blue broke up a drug ring; then I would say he at least has some strong suspicions. Funny thing how some cops will look the other way with certain vigilantes.

Rachel had a big den with a pool table, a wet bar and lots of 12 year old whiskey. Needless to say, I enjoyed quite a bit of it during my stay at her estate. Tastefully done, filled with lots of Ethan Allen style furniture, I was amused to see a neon sign above the bar for Burmiester beer. I filled a glass with some of the finest whiskey she could buy, and turned off all the lights except for the neon sign and then sat back in her expensive recliner and listened to the neon buzz in one of the quietest houses I had ever been inside of.

I picked up a framed picture from the table next to the recliner as I sipped the warm, delicious whiskey and looked over a pic of Rachel with what looked to be family members, brothers, sisters.... maybe even a little nice who was cute as a button. Rachel held her on a hip and they both smiled happily into the camera. 

The dogs I put into some cages I found in the rear washer-dryer room and let them sleep off their dart drugs. They were beautiful animals. I would have to see to it that they weren't destroyed. If I brought them to the pound, it was only a matter of time. That shouldn't happen. It's kind of like when you have kids, the government is the worst place they can be cared for. They will take them away from you within two hours of leaving them home alone and then it takes six months to get them back. If you do get them back. Some die in government custody. Some are abused. You never know if it's your kid who will be the next kid scarred for life. That shouldn't happen either. 

I loaded the van with some of Rachel's more expensive items, lamps, gold ash treys, some silver ware, a few watches and other good money getting items which I would hock or sell some other way. I loaded the dogs in their cages into the back of the van, too. Before I took off to my own home for some needed items and then returned to put the finishing touches on Destiny Blue, I went back up to the bedroom, which was her own I surmised, and checked on her condition where I had left her about six hours ago. 

I had taken a hammer from the garage and punched some holes in the wall around the stud just above her bed head board and then ran some mooring rope through and around the back of the stud. I then laid the naked hero on her bed and tied her wrists high above her head with opposite ends of the rope. Her sleepy head lolled to one side and rested upon her arm which was pulled upward and back. 




Kodiak Jack: Heroine Blood



She'd have lots of trouble getting out of those ropes with her thumb tied to her forefinger on each hand. Thumbs are so necessary. Without a thumb, the hand is practically useless. At least for untying rope, anyways. 

A medical mask dipped in chloroform was tied around the back of her lovely, auburn haired head for insurance, and pulled down to cover her mouth and nose. She would sleep for a long time. Which was great, for what I needed to do. I then placed a blind fold made of a silk scarf I found, black colored, over her eyes and flipped off the lights before I left. She'd be well kept as long as no one got suspicious of her darkened home and thought she might still be inside.

Did she have some appointment to keep that she would uncharacteristically miss and tip off some close buddy to come and look for her? I didn't know. It was a weak spot in the plan that I would have to deal with if it happened. But for now, she was secured.

I took off with the van before any of the house help showed up. I enjoyed driving the thing, it was state of the art. I thought about keeping it, but then it might be traced back to me. Not a good thing. The dogs I dropped off at a training facility for security which I was acquainted with, they appreciated my donation and would make good use of Rachel's pets. I felt good about keeping them going, especially since I was going to probably ruin their owner.

Back at my place I got some tools, mixed some ingredients and put together some needed items that would help me to prime Destiny Blue for use in my master plan. I waited 'till dark and then headed back to the mansion. Nothing had changed, and the help must have come and gone for the day. The house was still dark and Rachel was still comfortably napping where I had left her almost sixteen hours ago when I had first trussed her up. I was grateful. I didn't need the added complications to the plan.

I had a blood bag filled with a special cocktail of chemicals that were designed to get her libido and her sympathetic nervous system cranked up into high gear. I attached the bag to the bed knob of the head board which was conveniently placed high and above the bed. I then took a tube and inserted it into her vein in her right arm and let the cocktail drain slowly into her system as she slept. It would make her skin hot, and she would give off a sexy stink that couldn't be ignored. Basically, she would be raw steak thrown into a tiger's den. 

I stopped and thought a moment about her superpowers. She had super strength, but her skin was still pierce-able. She had cuts and bruises from her battle in the warehouse that were healing up with amazing speed. So she could fight, heal fast and was strong and quick. Was this power in her blood? In her DNA? The chloroform was a good idea. She may have already fought off the effects of my dart drug. 

I wondered: Do vampires acquire the abilities of this kind of blood when they feed? The last thing I needed was a super powered vampire to deal with. I had a syringe full of knock out drug that I emptied into her buttocks, once again for good measure, and then drew some of her blood from her arm before she got too full of the cocktail. I emptied her blood into a vial that I kept in a small, hard case in one of the pockets of my trench coat. It would be something I might need later. I wasn't quite sure the reason. 

I sat next to her with a special jar of cream which I personally put together as an excuse to get a grope in of her incredible body. Yeah, there were other ways to apply the stuff, but why not do it by hand? I started with her incredibly toned and flat belly. I rubbed the creamy mixture deep into her flesh and watched it shine in the dim light of her bedroom as I covered her tummy, her upper thighs and then the rib cage, followed by those magnificent double D breasts of hers. They sat on her chest like great, big, fat, white Hershey's kisses. 

I rubbed the cream in deeply and smoothly, copping a feel of her venus like womanhood with all the pleasure that a man could find in the application of more psychotropic, mind control type drugs that would make Destiny Blue putty in my hands. She moaned and sighed in her sleep as I treated her body like a wax job on my car. When I had covered a good bit of her naked ass with the drug cream, I stepped back and lit a cigar to look her over.

She was all shiny and wet looking in the lowered light. Her auburn hair was spilled out behind her over the pillow her head rested upon. Her eyes were closed, but her mouth made little breathy movements involuntarily which clued me into the effectiveness of the chemicals I had draining into her blood stream and also the topical cream being absorbed by her skin. Her breasts heaved with the deep breathing of sleep and her thighs would gently rub together in some sleepy reaction to perhaps a nice dream she might be having. How helpless she was. How easy to have simply covered her face with a pillow... if I were one of the bad guys, that is. 

I admired her light, downy soft hair that formed her triangle and I lightly caressed it with my finger tips. I wanted it. I lit up another cigar and went to fetch some items from her bathroom. I grabbed a razor and a small plastic bag from one of her drawers. I also grabbed the lady shaving cream. I then sat down next to the sleeping hero and began to remove her patch of dawn with slow, smooth strokes. 

I know what you're thinking. Kinky, and a little weird for a guy like me, but I was also the sentimental type. I wanted something to remember my conquest. Can you deny a guy a little bit of trophy of his own?

She writhed a little in her sleep as I relieved her of her mons and I had to stroke her leg and her tummy and gently command her to settle down or she might get cut. Despite her unconscious state, she seemed to understand and quieted down, but the surprising thing was the small frown of dissatisfaction that her curved lips formed.

I had to wonder if she was really awake and just biding her time until she had an opening to make an escape. But no, once I was finished collecting my fetishistic prize, she went back to deep sleep and I left her alone in the dark to continue to drink from the chemical bag and absorb the chemical cream. I raised her lovely legs skyward and rubbed some on her amazing backside as well, just for good measure.

I played some pool. Watched a sports show on her big screen TV. Fixed some steak and steamed some veggies for dinner in her impressively outfitted kitchen. I drank more of her expensive whiskey and also found her computer. It was on and free of password protection. (!) After a few hours of fiddling with passwords in her online banking account, I got lucky and hit on the names of her dogs, which I got from the pedigree certificates above her desk in the office study room she had toward the back of the house.

I sent checks to myself at my offshore banking account totaling $500,000 dollars directly from her checking which held over three million dollars. It wouldn't alarm anyone with the smaller amount and I would consider it my "bounty" for eliminating Destiny Blue for the people who, if they had known, would shake my hand for taking her out.

Around midnight I decided it was time to move on to the next step and returned to the place where I had left Rachel tied up. She was slowly waking up now, her body full of chemicals which the now empty medical bag had deposited into her bloodstream and the now dried chemical "wax" on her skin, which she had absorbed. The chloroform mask was dry now also, and useless. She still wore the blind fold. I pulled the mask down and she was suddenly stiffened by the realization that someone was there with her. I sat down on the bed next to her.

"Hello, darlin'." I said with a cigar between my teeth.

She squirmed and weakly pulled at her restraints and tried to turn her eyes toward the sound of my voice. "Who....... who....?" She murmured with 'drunken' lips.

"It's not important who I am, Miss Destiny Blue..... Miss Rachel Hansen....." I snorted and then blew a column of smoke into her face.

I couldn't see her eyes behind the blind fold, but it was clear she was suddenly aware of her ultra vulnerable position. I placed my hand on her now slick and smooth lower belly and rubbed a bit, much to her shock and displeasure.

"Stop!" She tried to insist. But then she realized that I held all the advantages since she was obviously naked, trussed up and her brain was buzzing with chemicals. "Listen..... I can .... give you all the... money .... you want."

"I don't want money, darlin'." I replied caressing her upper thighs. " I want you... Miss Destiny Blue."

"Who....ever.... you are....you can't get ...... I have friends ....... in high places...."

"Oh, I see that.... I have been enjoying your lovely house while you slept. I drank your whiskey. I took money from you bank account. Played your pool table. Made myself at home and I saw your many pics on the wall. Shame that's all over with now, sweetheart." I told her with a satisfied smile which she couldn't see.

She breathed hard and kept trying to pull on her ropes. Tried to release her fingers from the tie up of thumb and forefinger. Her thighs rubbed together with nervous strokes.

"You can't escape, Rachel." I told her patting her tummy. "You super heroine days are over, just like all those young ones who've disappeared over the last five to six years."

"YOU!!!" She spat, still trying to see something through the black blindfold. "You're that heroine bounty.....hunter???"

"MM-hmm. That's me, honey. But I won't make any money turning you over to some arch nemesis. I have another plan for you."

"BASTARD! Let...... let.... me go!!!"

"Nope. You're my bait. Feel that heat on your skin? Feel the sexual desire in your loins? The swelling in your boobies?"

"EEGGGHH!" She growled at me with gritted teeth in response.

"Your body is a hot pocket of lust and sweat that's gonna bait me a vampire I need to take down."

"Vuh-vampire????"

"Yep."

"You're insane!!!!"

"Heroines always seem to think that about me." I said shaking my head and blowing some cigar smoke.

"You can't smoke in my house!!!!" She insisted.

"That's redundant, darlin'." I told her. "And it's time to go." 

******* 

Hanging loosely over my shoulder, Desitny Blue spat and mumbled her increasingly incoherent protests. She was a pretty good weight, and I had to watch my knees with her up and over my shoulder like that. It had been hard to get her down the stairs and into the van, then I had had to make sure she was belted into her seat. Her head was rolling around without control and her limbs were weaker than a kitten, but her lovely sex was flowing all over the seat and the floor of her van. She groaned and moaned the whole way to the graveyard. No doubt, she was having orgasm after orgasm due to her drug influenced state. When I had to grab hold of her to adjust her body she almost went into convulsions from the over sensitized nerve endings in her skin. But she would just have to deal with that. 

I shoved an oily rag into her mouth and tied a cleave gag between her teeth before I threw her over my shoulder again and headed out into the grave yard. She hung over my shoulder writhing and moaning. The place was creepy and dark. On the outskirts of town, it had been the yard for over three hundred years worth of perishing citizens. The lock on the gate was easy to pick and the van was the only thing making noise in the middle of the very early morning. Nothing moved. It was an unnatural thing. 

The yard was huge and filled with graves, both below and above ground. The above ground graves counted in the hundreds and were spread out all across the expanse of the property. They were old, grey and weather beaten. I hated the overkill of death the place seemed to naturally emanate.

In the center of the yard I found an open space where I could dump Rachel, which was surrounded by big oaks that I could hide behind. I tossed her on the ground, naked and only tied now with her fingers and thumbs bound. She groaned and wined through her gag as she felt the grass and hard ground beneath her. I expected that. The drugs made her super sensitive to anything touching her, and with the raging libido she was experiencing, anything she felt was even more sexually super charged. She sweated in the cool night air with a high gloss sheen of smelly, hormone filled dew. If no one saw us in the yard before I could get set up, the plan would work perfectly.

I had a small bag over my other shoulder in which I had placed her costume, boots and mask. I thought that the obvious super heroine garb would be an extra incentive to my target. To Destiny's dismay, I re-dressed her in her costume, the boots, and then pulled her mask over her head, keeping the blindfold beneath it and still over her eyes. The same for the gag. The shoulder to forehead mask was great for keeping those items right where I wanted them. She groaned and complained the whole time as the tight fabric pressed close to her skin and I was glad I had gagged her before hand with all the caterwauling she vocalized.

Once I had her dressed I took out some of her perfume I had also hidden in the bag with her costume, and sprayed her down good. I then sprayed myself and my outer clothing. There would be no difference in the scent between her and myself to anything nearby that might have an over developed olfactory sense. 

With one of her Rottweiler dog collars wrapped around her throat, I attached her to a chain and then wrapped it around the nearby headstone. Some old guy from 1924 had been resting there for almost 100 years, and I figured he wouldn't mind if I made good use of a stone that no one visited anymore anyhow.

With her now secure and ready, I slapped her on the buttocks and said, "Keep sweatin' and crying darlin', it's show time."

She moaned and rolled on the grass. I could tell from the way she whined after I slapped her that she was begging me not to go through with feeding her to the vamps. But, I wouldn't hear of it. I had gone to too much trouble and had a real reason for taking them down. Well, at least the female one. Layla was a good, close friend of mine whom the vamp was targeting, and the vamp also wanted Lady Liberty, whom I was also targeting. Destiny Blue was the bait to the trap as she lay sweaty and writhing in the grass, chained to a headstone. It was kinda sexy and beautiful to see.

In a creepy way.

I got up and headed for the nearby oaks, climbed into a high position on top of one of the trunks, up in the branches, and waited. I had several of my best guns ready and loaded. An Ithaca sawed off shotgun to 20 inches, a Smith and Wesson 500 .50 cal. magnum, and a Desert Eagle 50 AE. Yeah, you could say I was prepared for a fight. A big fight. I knew what I would have to do to stop something that was already dead, yet still animated. Crosses and wooden steaks were for pussies. Nothing humanoid can continue without its central processing center. Take its head - its body falls down. Super heroines were lucky that I had a thing for collecting on their lovely butts. I could have easily just taken them all out, if I had wanted to.

An hour passed. Two hours passed. I was getting all cramped in the tree and worrying that Rachel's natural healing ability would erase all of my chemical work in her blood stream. Once she recovered, she'd come after me hard and fast. I'd have to kill her. Vampire style. Well, at least MY vampire style. 

I wished I had thought of it before, but I really should have waited until just before dawn, or maybe just after sunset. Vamps didn't hang in grave yards, they just hid out there during the day light hours. The night was spent hunting. What can I tell you? Vampire hunting was a new thing for me.

Almost three hours later, the Destiny Blue show was getting boring and I needed some whiskey shots to calm my fraying nerves. Rachel continued to writhe, moan and squirm on the grave site where I had placed her. She even attempted to pull at the chain holding her in place with her free fingers, but gave up on that eventually. Intermittent attempts at crying out for help were gratefully interrupted by surging orgasms that took her attention in other directions before she made too much of a spectacle of herself. But eventually, all that noise paid off.

I could suddenly hear a whispering of voices somewhere out of my line of site, and my awareness shot to attention as I gripped my shotgun and readied myself for the final act. I pulled out my listening device, the one which magnified voice sounds and shoved it in my ear. I then listened and held my body as still as I was able.

I heard a male voice say, "It's obviously a trap."

A female voice responded. "Yes... but smell her! She's delicious!"

"What's with the ugly costume?" He answered.

The female giggled. "She's a supergirl. Captured and chained! Ooohhh.... I just love it!!!"

He snorted. "Don't be a fool, Leanna! She's bait!"

"You think someone's hunting us?"

"I have little doubt."

For a few moments the voices went quiet, and I gritted my teeth because I thought I had lost them despite all my work. But, I waited and they started up again.

"She might have super blood....." Whispered the female voice.

"Mmmm... well..... can you sense anything? Anyone besides her.... somewhere here?"

A few more moments went by of quiet that made me fret inwardly and then I saw movement out of my right eye about 50 feet away.

"I don't smell anything except her perfume..... and her sex....." The woman told the still hidden man.

She stepped out into the clearing and slowly made her way over to where Rachel lay on the grassy grave site. She had slowed down considerably now, her powers no doubt eliminating all my juicy chemicals, and she seemed to be slowly stretching and quietly moaning to herself, completely oblivious to her impending peril. The woman tip toed over to her, watching her surroundings like a cat waiting for the trap to spring and the man remained hidden. 

Without knowing just where he was, I would have to adjust my attack plan slightly, let them believe that there was NO trap and that they had simply been given a free lunch by some buddy, or perhaps a worshiper who was making an offering. I didn't know just what they might construe as the motive for the costumed babe left for them, but there was only one way to get both vamps in front of me strategically. I had to let them have Destiny Blue.

The woman that the man called Leanna, was about six feet tall, white hair that flowed straight down her back and a wiry, bony frame of a body. She appeared to have red eyes, from my perspective, and her skin looked as dead as I would have expected. She crouched down and pulled Destiny up and laid her on her own chest as she wrapped her arms around the suddenly shocked heroine.

"Hello, dear....." She whispered into Destiny's ear. "Where is the kind soul who left me such a treat as you to take as my own? Huh?"

Rachel visibly shook and fretted about trying to sense just who was with her now, as she was still blindfolded, and she muffled some type of plea through her gag. "MMmmnnnoo... nnnuuu"

"Oh? Blind and mute, eh?" Said the vamp into her ear from behind with a disgusting sharp toothed smile. "Maybe I can fix that?"

She still scanned the area around her with suspicious eyes and the man remained hidden out of my sight. Then the woman reached up and pulled the gag from Desitny's lips, followed by the removal of the oil rag that had been stuffed into her mouth. Destiny coughed and spit when it was removed from under her full head mask. 

"Who are you?" Rachel asked with not a small amount of edgy fear in her voice.

"Your host, my dear." The witch-like woman replied. She caressed Rachel's impressive mammaries and Rachel tried to shrink back from her touch. "I think.... if I take you home... I shant have to feed for over a week..... maybe a month."




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!" 





Kodiak Jack: Heroine Blood



*******

The wind was whippin' up somethin' fierce as I made my way from the parking garage under the nearest mall. I had to traverse the 300 yards or so from the under belly of the local Macy's and then through the courtyard of the food court, and then out into the wind once again as I made my way to Layla's. The main drag was filled with the worst invasion to come to America since - well, I don't know when - there were franchise stores on both sides of the street; Pudrucker's, Cammin Rolls, and of course the usual Buckstars Coffee on every corner. 

Shoppers, and street people as well moved out of my way as I took up the space on the sidewalk. My trench coat swaying and flappin' in the wind, revealing my belt full of ballistics and the obvious sawed off shotgun attached to my side, underneath the coat. I suppose this was the main shock that they all suffered, not so much my quick pace and aggressive demeanor, but the fact that I was fully armed in a commercial district and cutting a mean path through the lazy, late night populace. Few of them knew it, but it was a good move on their part to get quickly out of my way. 

Layla's neon sign was just where it always had been, but this time I stopped in front of the window and looked inside, beyond the neon glow. It was no time for chillin' and relaxin'. I scanned the interior pool hall but couldn't find either the woman or the suspected Lady Liberty. The wind rushed at me in strong gusts as I stood near the window, it kept pushing me toward the doorway, and I was just fine with that. 

I went inside, trying to be as calm and inconspicuous as I could possibly be, and slid into a seat at the crowded bar. Layla saw me enter, and moved toward me with raised eye brows. I nodded my own greeting and motioned with my chin towards the interior, with a questioning look in my eyes.

She leaned in over to me while standing behind the bar and whispered. "Toward the back.... on the left side.... by the green Gordon Beer sign."

I nodded and looked over the room while wrapping my knuckles on the bar itself. Layla knew just what that meant and moved to get me the usual neat whiskey. The room was more than full, an unusual thing I had not seen much of at this establishment. I had to really crane my neck to see past the many patrons filling almost all of the pool tables and also the "restaurant like" area near the big screen TV's. Tenders and waitresses moved about the crowded room and mixed in with the pool players who seemed more than a little annoyed to have to watch their backs as they bent down to take their shots. I felt for them. I hate crowds in pool halls myself. 

Suddenly my eye caught the white hair of the female vampire, Leanna, sitting near the wall just under the sign that Layla had referred to. I grabbed my whiskey without looking away as Layla returned with a shot glass half full of her best. I took a sip and latched visually on to the 1/4 th of a head that I could see through the crowd. But, I couldn't make a visual on the woman with her.

I leaned over and whispered to Layla. "I see the vamp.... but where is the broad you said was with her?"

Layla looked at me with annoyance. "You can't see her from here because of the crowd, old man. Get your ass up. Go walk to the men's room..... I'll hold your seat."

I nodded my agreement and placed a napkin over the top of my whiskey glass. I got up and made my way through the crowd, making sure no one saw my armory under my coat. All I needed was a panicked crowd in a bar to once again ruin my chance to finish a job. TWO jobs - now that I think of it.

I couldn't be sure whether or not the woman had ever really seen me. I believed that the only time I had come in contact with her was when she was making a break for it through the oaks in the graveyard. Grey jacket had seen me. The third one had seen me, for sure. But could the woman I.D. me if she saw me while I made my way through the crowd. I held my breath in hopes that this was indeed NOT the case.

On my way I did indeed see the woman seated with her by the wall. The broad was big. VERY big. This lent a lot of truth to the suggestion that she was indeed Lady Liberty. But she was blonde. I had always seen Lady Liberty as a brunette. I though a lot about this as I made my way into the men's room. I stood by a stall pretending to do my business. 

Would Lady Liberty be here in her civilian identity with some one who was a vampire? Did she know Leanna was a vampire? If she did, would she be so bold as to reveal her secret identity? I then started to get a little paranoid. Was Lady Liberty so good at what she does, that it was she who was leading the vampire on? Could she be immune to the effects of the lesbian crap that I saw Destiny Blue fall victim to? Revealing a secret identity, even to the undead, is risky business. They can't go to the press with it, but they can threaten all of your family and friends. So it couldn't be.... could it?

Lady Liberty was the "old hand" at this heroine business that all the young babes whom I had captured and sent away, went to for training and advice. I had managed to avoid her. A vampire turns up in Layla's talking about taking Liberty down, something I would naturally be interested in, if I were involved in a job to capture the hero. She also bites Layla, thus marking her for future vampirism. I would, of course, jump to her defense. I was busy laying traps for vampires with Destiny Blue... was this whole thing a layed trap.... by Lady Liberty.... a trap for ME???

I had never seen those guys at the dock before, the beard and the skinny one. I had just assumed they were with the organization. Was this actually all a set up by Lady Liberty to reel me in??? Was Blue Raider and her buddies free and somewhere laying low and ready to join their mentor in bringing a stop to my operation? This couldn't be.... could it??? I had captured about 50 of the young heroines... and this could indeed bring notice from a big gun like Liberty. I was about to land both of my marks, and I was stoked and ready to do so.... just so I could retire from all this. But, could my next step be just the one Lady Liberty had been waiting for? No. Impossible, I tried to tell myself. It's too fantastic!

I made my way back to the bar and noticed that the two women had moved and were now standing near the door. I couldn't immediately return to the bar and I milled around trying not to be obvious. The women then walked out into the outdoor patio space and turned their backs to me as they stood around chatting, Lady Liberty holding the small of Leanna's back as though she was the 'man' in the couple. One would indeed expect this, for sure, just by regarding them. 

Even though Leanna was about six feet tall, Liberty was about five or six inches taller. She had big shoulders for a woman, so I thought, and her boobs were classically big as well. Her biceps and thighs were full, strong and cut.... meaty like a weight lifter, and probably not something a man wants to feel next to him when waking up in the middle of the night. She was probably wearing some sort of blonde wig, I surmised, and had a semi-business woman and also casual athletic outfit she was wearing which accented her curves, which she DID have, but the outfit did little to hide her 'lady wrestler' physique, despite the high heel pumps on her feet.

She would be one hell of a tiger to take down. What should I do? Let the vamp seduce her, and then move in and take her? She wasn't Destiny Blue but then again she was also worth ten mil to me. What to do? What to do?

They then left the bar and headed outside. I moved quickly and grabbed the rest of my whiskey and slammed it down into my gut. I winked at Layla as I followed them out into the windy city. She gave me an amused expression and shook her head with derision. But, I know she understood what I was up to, no matter how ridiculously incredible that whole scenario was. 

Once outside, I saw them strolling across the street like lesbos headed for the bed. Arms around each other's waist, and whispering closely in each other's ears. Ordinarily I might have stopped and tried to articulate my feelings on the matter.... was it a hot moment? Was it kind of disgusting to see such a public display? But not today. There was way too much at stake to even consider my own thoughts on the matter. The moment was now, and I had to take it. I wasn't going to wait for any seduction scenario. I was going to kill the vamp bitch now, and then take on Lady Liberty.... if indeed this was Lady Liberty. If not, then there would be no battle. 

I reached into my trench coat and grabbed hold of my sawed off shotgun. I planned to yell out a warning to Liberty to duck and then I would blow the vamps head off, all in one shot. It was time for action. 

However..... c'mon, you knew that was coming. Quick as a shot, Lady Liberty grabbed Leanna and took off for the skies. 

I stood with my mouth agape for several seconds as I now realized that not only could Liberty fly, but the vamp HAD to know just who Lady Liberty was. I told myself, regarding the heroine, either she's a little nuts.... or the vamp truly had her, just like Destiny Blue. 

With no time to go back and get my new yellow van in order to keep up with them, I smashed open the car window, with the butt of my shotgun, of a Dodge Viper that was parked nearby on the street. I hot wired it with a tool I had in my belt and fired the engine. In moments I was after them, though I wondered just how I could keep up with them far above me in the night sky and also not regulated by the streets and stop lights and such. I also had problems with the Viper not being able to take heavy turns, they had a history of rolling over or sliding off of a road that had too steep of a curve. But I would have to deal with it, I wasn't losing Liberty or the vamp!

I had no doubt that the vamp would be euphoric after such a trip through the sky without having to change into a bat or smoke or whatever. But who was in control? Was the vamp making Liberty fly? Was Liberty somehow scamming the vamp? Their easterly direction seemed to imply the other side of the town where another major graveyard was positioned just off of the border of the ritzy side of the neighborhood in that area. It was hilly terrain, and the whole area wasn't as old as the western yard. I had to make a few assumptions as to their direction, hampered by the streets and physical layout of the surrounding city scape while I was driving a car. Soon enough though, I arrived at the Elysian Fields cemetery.

Armed and ready for a major fight, I parked the Viper outside the gates of the cemetery and found my way into the yard by way of some worn out section of the black metal bars near a large tree whose stump had broken through the pre-fab metal. I had my usual fedora on my head, my bullet proof trench coat with its multiple pockets filled with tools and weapons, and my three guns, two on my hips and the sawed off shotgun which hung under the coat from a shoulder harness, at my ready. 

Once inside I listened close for any sounds of female voices, and as luck would have it, voices carry pretty good in a silent yard of stones and hills. I could hear slight giggling sounds far off to my left at about 200 yards or so. I know, I was damned lucky, they could have flown anywhere and lost me, but I was playing the odds and tendencies, something I was good at, and once again my instincts paid off.

The yard was full of hills and trees, mostly oaks as I could tell, but a few willows here and there. The above ground graves were plentiful in this area and all grey, vine covered and obviously well kept by the still functioning maintenance staff. The night was thankfully clear, and the moon light, reflected by the mid-month full face, cast a light glow over the whole area. If it had been a new moon that night, the surrounding hills and foliage would have cast the area into almost a pallid blackness.

I peered out from behind an above ground grave, all grey marble and statues surrounding the facade. I could see the vamp and Lady Liberty standing together across the yard at about 90 feet, holding each other like lesbos and whispering in each other's ears. It appeared that they might be preparing to enter into one of the above ground single occupant mausoleums. I couldn't let that happen and checked to see if my shotgun and sidearms were ready and loaded. They were. 

Vamp pulled back, holding both of Lady's hands in her own, as though they were about to dance or something, and she looked up at her with some kind of a nasty smile and said something I couldn't hear. Liberty, looking down into the vamp's eyes, smiled back and nodded her head in agreement. Leanna then turned and moved for a doorway on the nearby crypt, like she was leading Liberty into the tomb - and that's when I showed up.

"Hi-YAAAAAHH!!!" I shouted as I darted out from behind the tomb across from their position. I lifted my shotgun, barreling towards them, and took aim as I ran at them full force.

They both froze, which is just what I wanted, and turned to look at me with wide, shocked expressions. They stood side by side now, with Leanna's head away from Lady Liberty, and I fired with deadly aim, right in her kisser. 

BAK-LAM!!!! BAK_LAM!!! Echoed my shots as they rang out throughout the yard. I swore I could see her red, dead looking eyes almost as if I were nose to nose with her at that moment, and the focus was strong and true as my shotgun shells connected before she could even react. Her head exploded into thousands of shards of bone and a messy splatter of brains and such with a singular, wet smacking sound that I won't soon forget.

As the vamp's body wobbled and then fell aside, Lady Liberty looked on in horror, and then with an angry snarl she looked back up at me.

"YOU IDIOT!!!!!" She growled.

I pulled to a stop and leveled my gun in her direction with a quick turn and said, "I wouldn't move too much just yet, Lady. You're next!" 

"Do you know what you've done?????" She asked, her hands almost shaking.

"Well... either I saved your ass from a life of vampirism, or I've ruined some sort of master game plan you had going. No matter. I needed to protect a friend from this bitch, and I also need to bring YOU in." I said this while never lowering my gun or taking my eye off of the site.

"ME??? You fool! She was leading me to the sect.... going to show me where they all were...."

"Oh, yeah? So... what.... you were trying to rid the town of these freaks?"

She walked up to me with little care as to the shotgun I had trained on her, as if it meant nothing, and she grabbed me by the collar of my trench coat. 

"Who the hell are you anyway????" She shot at me. "You've blown months of my work on this case!!!!!"

"You're not afraid of guns, eh?" I said holding the shotgun in one hand and trying to push her away with my other.

"Answer me! Who the hell are you and what are you doing here????" She insisted, putting her mighty, snarling face in my own.

Before I could speak there was a loud howling sound from over the surrounding hills. It reminded me of a group of wild dogs.

"OOOOwwwwwoooooHHHHHHooooooooWWWWwooowwww!"

Liberty looked beyond me and then around at the surrounding hills. "They're here!" She said with steely expectancy. "Your ass may be in a lot of trouble, mister! Stay behind me, understand?" She said taking a few steps backward. 

I looked around as she did and listened to the painful wailing. "Don't worry about me. I am armed to the teeth for this." I replied, cocking my shotgun and getting in firing position.

Lady Liberty then did something I hardly expected at all. She started to twirl on the spot. She spun twice and was suddenly surrounded in brilliant light, full of sparkles and glittering stars. The creatures surrounding us, howled in response. I had a tough time concentrating on any one thing for quite a few moments, as I watched an amazing transformation while trying to keep tabs on what must be an approaching army of vampire creeps.

In no time flat Lady Liberty stood before me all brunette hair, star spangled red, white and blue costume, and cape....well, a short one that only reached her midsection from her shoulders. And now she was even taller as her magical transformation also outfitted her with what must have been four inch stiletto heeled boots. I almost laughed out loud at how incredibly well suited she was to instant battle conditions. I saw the golden rope also attached to a waist belt, it hung at her side.

"You're not going to just fight them with that rope, are you?" I asked with amusement.

She looked around at the surrounding hills, the howling was becoming more pronounced. She told me, "You just keep a civil tongue in your head and I'll think about keeping you alive over the next half hour or so."

"It won't last that long." I told her swinging my back toward her. "Here they come.... back to back!" I commanded with suggestion.

She didn't question me as they came pouring over the hills, jumping and leaping like a wave of wild jackals. 

"YYyaaaaiiiiIIIII- Kakkakakak - OOoowwwwwooooowwwww!!!!!!" They sounded as Lady Liberty and I were suddenly surrounded on all sides by a cascading wave of vampire bodies. The noise they made was deafening.

As the dead, horribly twisted faces came closer into view I aimed and fired, again and again. BAK-lam!!!! Bak-lam!!!! Sounded my shotgun over and over again. Lady Liberty was just behind me. I could see all sorts of strange lights and hear incredible explosions from over my shoulder as she once again performed the unexpected. 

Liberty had a power I could only have guessed at, having never done any real homework on the heroine. She was about to show me, without any reservation, just why she was considered the boss of all heroes in these parts. From her hands and fingertips Lady Liberty fired huge, Fourth-of-July type fireworks that blasted and exploded with a deafening din. The yard lit up with brilliant glowing explosions of color in all hues of the known rainbow. Vampire bodies flew right and left, howling and growling in pain as they reeled from the force of the power and the intense light she unleashed.

I turned to my side and blasted an attacker at point blank range, exploding his head in the process. Liberty looked over at me in a moment of receding dead bodies with a concerned look on her face. 

I told her, "Hey.... they're already dead."

She pursed her lips and nodded her understanding. Then she turned and threw a right cross at another nearby vampire which hit with such force that his head also exploded. His body fell limp to the ground. 

She raised her eye brows in a moment and said, "Yeah. I guess that DOES work."

She then turned and met the still oncoming crowd of creatures with considerable combinations of fighting skills and her fireworks ability. She was truly more heroine than I had ever seen before. One jumped in from her left and she leaped up and kicked him away. Another jumped on her back and she reached behind her and set him on fire with a silver twister type shower of sparks. He groaned and jerked around as though he had been electrocuted. She continued to swing and kick and pounce with each new attack. 

I never had had such a partner in a fight. I was able to almost forget about my rear flank and continued to fire away at attacking vampires who leaped and fell from the sky over and over again. I had to wonder, with each falling body, just how many there would be, and how high the pile of death around me would build, before I ran out of ammo.

The crowd then suddenly pulled back as they all seemed to respond to some unseen, unheard command. They headed for the hills around us and Liberty and I flattened our backs to one another once again, scanning our surroundings for the next wave of the unexpected.