Time. A fleeting mistress that had the ability to stop existence and repce it with nothing but the ticks of emptiness. While Sylvie knew she couldn’t really control what time did, she did know that she wanted more of it and with Casey. Timing until recently had been lousy. Everything from devotion to another vampire, an admission of possible love that was denied all the way to a lost friendship were a few things that pgued Sylvie. Distance and fleeting time had driven a rge spike between them and in that desperation, Sylvie admitted she’d found a line of surrogates for what she truly desired since her vision first exposed the possibility of finding love and romance in Casey’s athletic arms.

  Once more, Mistress Time had denied her the soft moments she wanted with her Strawberry-copper haired partner and instead had her flying over a mostly dead single peak in the middle of nowhere.

  -To gather something deadly to vampires as well as humans. Where’s the fairness in this?-

  Rather than dwell on what she didn’t want to do, Sylvie stopped the train of thought and used the cool air over her blue wings to distract her. She’d managed to cover the distance to the little mountain and after making a few passes over the hill, spotted and cataloged the various devices that the military had erected in an effort to monitor the radiation levels and give off warnings should someone get too close. Unconcerned about the cameras spotting a bluejay, Sylvie nded and pecked the ground like any normal bird as she hopped around in an effort to find some tiny hole that could make it easier for her to get within the old vampire ir without using too much of her blood reserve.

  -What I wouldn’t give for the contacts right now. I bet Kody could have put sonar or something in them.-

  It wasn’t lost on Sylvie that the irony of the situation was her ck of vision in the usefulness of the contacts or some of Kody’s more useful designs.

  -Some precognitive ability right there.-

  Internally grumbling Sylvie concentrated and thankfully noticed a rather tall anthill. Taking the time to review the vision she did have, Sylvie estimated that from where she was the distance was easily traveled through the ant tunnels as long as the little critters had gone more easterly into the mountain, rather than south and deeper into the ground.

  Without much other choice Sylvie memorized where she was and estimated she had maybe twenty seconds of ghost form before she’d have to tap into Casey’s bond to make it safely out.

  -Here goes nothing. Cassiopeia lend me the wisdom within your stars and guide me.-

  Without warning and just before Sylvie changed into her misty form, a wave of calm and confident reassurance permeated Sylvie’s mind and body.

  -Thank you..you delightful sun-fre.-

  Sylvie smiled internally and spoke internally for Casey’s emotional support. Time. Sylvie knew it was still against her and finally summoned her ghost form and immediately turned into a light gray mist that matched the fleeting puffy clouds above. Using almost no effort due to her amorphous form, Sylvie traversed the small tunnels and wound her way eastward. Right when her count hit twelve, Sylvie popped out of the anthill much like a pressure valve would release steam. Once clear of the mountain, Sylvie quickly changed into her normal vampire form and activated the radiation tape on her sleeves and the bigger monitor on her chest. “I’m in, guys…can you hear me?” Sylvie spoke into her Bluetooth to no avail.

  Contact beyond the thick mountain cavern was a long shot and Sylvie knew that before she even delved into the anthill to get the dangerous prize she sought. An estimate of ten minutes before her suit would start to slowly break down had been advised by Kody in the small pnning strategy they discussed. Sylvie punched in the code for her iPhone and then started the timer she’d set and dropped the little computer into a small pocket on her chest.

  Down to the dark shadows of where vampires returned to the earth, the little room was exactly as Sylvie envisioned it a few days ago. Approaching the dias, Sylvie peered down into the small pool that she’d once seen as silvery-metal gss. Devoid of its shine and lovely views of other worlds, the pool appeared dead and as thick as oil. She studied the entire circur structure, and found that down to the quartz that helped empower it, the scrying device had become contaminated and brittle and made the pool utterly useless.

  -Small win here. Maybe our luck is changing. A few more years and this pce will fall in on itself.-

  Satisfied with her intuition Sylvie looked down at her little sensor tape and it had begun changing colors. “Barrels.” She spoke into the useless microphone. “Might as well keep talking just in case you both hear me by some stroke of luck.” Unwilling to touch the once metallic pool, Sylvie left well enough alone and sought out her targets.

  Stuffed in a far corner, a pyramid of slowly decaying metal banded barrels with dried blood everywhere got Sylvie’s attention. “Oh no.” She excimed and bolted over to the stockpile to notice that of the fifteen that made the small triangle, the entire lower five had disintegrated and only their copper banding remained. Using her advanced vampire vision, Sylvie took time to inspect the grains of wood to determine their worthiness. “All of the barrels are compromised in some way. I can’t be completely sure that any of them have the element remaining, but I do sense and smell the blood.” Dawning on Sylvie that by smelling the blood, it meant her suit was already compromised. “Note for future pns, the suit in here is more or less useless.”

  Peeling off the suit and retrieving her phone, Sylvie stuffed the little device into her jeans pocket and paced the floor for roughly a minute. “Okay.” She spoke to herself as if the microphone weren’t in the tattered helmet. “I have four that I can see are mildly affected.” With the list of her gear in her head, Sylvie smiled and fished through the backpack and pulled out the small Geiger counter and flipped the unit on.

  Initially spiking to its highest reading, the little needle settled and its little hallmark clicks started to echo in the cavern. Sylvie walked over to the barrels and took readings from the lowest set that had been spttered all over the floor then the four containers that she’d identified as least damaged and compared the readings. “A significant difference.” With a flip of a switch, Sylvie smiled and watched the little machine turn off and had her own little revetion. “Without this chunk of technology, I would still be standing here.” She mused aloud and then went quiet.