Vivienne

Vivienne looked at her ward and smiled, “Allow me, Mon amour?”

“Sure, go for it.”  Faye purred and laughed.

Vivienne watched curiously as Casey started poking around in the artwork. “This might come as a slight shock, but not everyone is built the same way, my ward.”  Vivienne ran her hand over the right side of Faye’s chest lightly. “She and I both have a condition called dextrocardia.”  Vivienne patted her own chest on the right side. “Our hearts are on the right side of our body.  I knew that she wasn’t staked from the beginning.”  Vivienne cupped Faye’s cheeks, “I trust you, Mon amour.”  Vivienne kissed Faye’s forehead lightly.

“Nice trick.”  Casey kept going through the myriad of artwork. “I know it has to be here..they all have the flaw.”

Sniffing the air, Vivienne turned and looked outside where an eerie green glow had started pulsing. “Time’s up.”  Vivienne pulled Faye into another loving embrace and whispered into her ear. “I trust you smell..”

“Ozone, yes.”  Faye giggled and relished her partner's arms around her, and the light scent of rosemary that always permeated from Vivienne. “I think it's..”

Vivienne clasped Faye by her hand and headed for the barn door entrance, “...a hint to her magic.  It took me a bit of time to piece it together.  It happens a split second before one of her abilities goes off.”  Vivienne placed her hand on Faye’s chest again before giving her a longing kiss. “You know, you gave yourself to me in our tub, with your blood…”  Vivienne looked up and saw Denise’s green and gray form oozing up from the middle of the cornfield. “...I have given myself to you now.”  Vivienne blinked her compassionate, brilliant blue eyes. “Thank you..”  Vivienne paused and held Faye once more. “My love, from first..”

“..Sight, Vivienne.  At first sight.” Faye softly agreed and wiped a half bloody tear from her tigress eyes, “We have to deal with that.”

Stoically standing and unable to take her eyes off her half-Korean lover, Vivienne reached out and touched Faye on her shoulder, having missed the feel of her skin.  Breaking her semi-trance because of a loud crash from the studio, Vivienne reluctantly focused on the task at hand. “Indeed, it would appear that Denise is bent on seeing this to the end.”  Catching the green eyes locked on her perky breasts, Vivienne smiled and tilted Faye’s chin until they were staring at each other once more. “Tigerlily?”

“MMhmm?”  Faye purred at the utterance of her pet name. “What?”

Turning Faye’s head so she looked outside at the impending storm, Vivienne sighed. “I admit to being confused with you so close to me, however, it would appear that our current state requires less desire and more aggression.”

Lost in her lover's visage, Faye had not bothered to see what it looked like beyond the inside of the barn.  Until now.  Taking in the complete scene, Faye could hardly believe that the place she saw was the same farm.  Gone were the life filled green cornstalks, replaced by chemically ashen lifeless husks.  Various farm animals such as pigs, cows and horses that had softly neighed when she’d arrived, were gone and in their place nothing but bleached bone reminiscent of time in the desert under the scorching hot sun.  

While she hadn’t seen the farmhouse, Faye grunted and rolled her eyes at the damage she could see from her location.  Holes punched in the kitchen wall, the wrecked back door, missing windows on the upper floor, and the overall fact the home was still smoldering from whatever had gone on. “You certainly know how to bring the party, Viv.”  Faye paused, “I heard the commotion, but I never thought it was this bad.”  She pointed to the open hole in the ground in front of the farmhouse and then back to Vivienne. “They can do that?”

Nodding slowly to Faye, Vivienne calmly responded, “There were four of them here.  Five if you count the guy in the street.”  Vivienne watched as clouds swirled and formed overhead, streaked with lighting and an eerie green light. “Now it’s just her.”

Giving Vivienne another tight hug and kiss on her shoulder, Faye let the comfort of Vivienne’s presence flow and give her the strength to continue. “I wanted to help.”  Faye watched as the flashes of lightning illuminated the farm in murky green light. “It took every bit of control I had to not run out and ..”

Glancing over her shoulder to where Faye had walked around and hugged her, Vivienne softly smiled. “..not come and save..me..”  Vivienne took a small breath, “..I know, mon amour.  I know.”  Vivienne blinked and turned after another set of green fluorescence cascaded overhead. “I would advise that we leave the rest of this for later, Faye.”  Vivienne winked, “I promise not to be obtuse.”

Chuckling to herself, Faye nodded in agreement with her girlfriend. “That will be the day.”  When a light icy flake passed through Faye’s vision, the young vampire noticed that although the farm was in shambles, there was a soft and peaceful light blanket of snow forming. “Vivienne..”  Faye hesitated, “...What if we just forget it, take Casey…”

“..and leave?  Go somewhere far from here and move on?”  Vivienne completed the thought.

“Yeah.  We know what to look for now.  We can avoid her.”  Faye wrapped herself tightly around Vivienne from behind.

Visions of the soft and lush grassland of France popped into Vivienne’s mind along with the cottage that she once remembered in an age gone by.  “You know we cannot, mon amour.  What of your sacrifice, what of the sacrifices of the others?  What of the myriad of refugees that are now domiciled in Ravenstead manor?”  Vivienne glanced at the much bigger cloud, and turned away to give Faye a quick kiss. “No, this has to end now.”

“It was just a suggestion.”  Faye offered kindly and pulled herself away from Vivienne. “I hate it when you are right.”  She winked.