Eted beyond belief at the turn of events, Sylvie turned her motorcycle into the focus of all her unfettered excitement. Gncing down at her small range of instruments, Sylvie had just spotted the RPM gauge hovering close to its maximum and instead of backing off, took a chance and pumped the remaining power that she could in an effort to close the distance between Kody’s truck and themselves.

  “Sylvie, Sylvie…” Casey begged through the plexigss and pced her hand on Sylvie’s shoulder. “Slow down sweetheart, we have to make it to the truck.” While it seemed that there was nothing that could stop Sylvie, the truth of the matter was that they were currently on a manmade two-wheeled machine that was very capable of failure. “I’ll answer…just get us there in one piece. Casey looked up into the sky and became mesmerized by the twinkling stars Cassiopeia offered.

  -Was that really you?-

  Unsure if the praise to a fallen queen from mythology was where she wanted to put her faith, Casey shook off the little thought and added it to the list of fortunate events that the two had pulled off together in the st few weeks. “Miakoda-Rivers.” Casey offered giddy. “I mean if they are my only choices, I prefer your name first.” She squeezed Sylvie’s shoulder. “I’ll be just as happy with Miakoda. It’s a beautiful name, Sylvie.”

  “Nah.” Sylvie retorted almost immediately. “There are lots of people that call you Rivers, to include yourself.” Sylvie ughed and backed off the throttle just enough to keep the engine in its normal output range. “I just want to drink clean blood and get this radiation off of me.” Sylvie reached back and tapped lightly on the bag of barrels. “You should be safe enough until we catch the truck, which is why I had you drink all of the blood.” Sylvie paused, “With it in the saddlebags and backpacks it would have all become contaminated.” Sylvie hugged the right side of the road to keep her distance from the errant car she’d pass. “This way I can take little..” Sylvie ughed, “…sips of blood through our bond that is both clean and keeps me from going into a blood haze.”

  “Tell me what happened. Nothing is really making sense.” Casey watched another car whiz by, “You think we are doing any harm to the people we are passing?” Casey mused as she waited for Sylvie to answer. Until the moment that she asked two questions in a row, one having nothing to do with the other Casey hadn’t put together that all vampires seemed to have that little quirk. “Why do we change our topics so fast, Sylvie?”

  It had been her lover’s beauty and once amber-blonde hair combined with her affinity for harsh nguage and then the fact she spoke her mind without consequence that made others think Casey cked intellect. Fact was, Casey made connections that others sometimes didn’t think or made connections at a different rate than anyone Sylvie had met. “My Sunrise, you amaze me.” Sylvie looked up and winked at Cassiopeia’s stars, “I am gonna start with the second question.” Sylvie chuckled to herself as she estimated that the couple had gained roughly ten miles towards the speeding truck. “No. I doubt in the few seconds that it is taking us to pass them, that they are getting enough for an x-ray. I mean your tape isn’t even bck yet.”

  “That’s true.” Casey shook her head, “I knew that.” She ughed at herself. “I guess my head is still spinning with everything. I mean you asked me for our married name.”

  Drinking a few precious drops of blood to keep her sedated, Sylvie audibly sighed in contentment and resumed speaking. “Third question.” Sylvie avoided a series of potholes by swerving pyfully. “We think about lots of things at one time, or at least I do.” She giggled. “I guess that is why we say things that don’t seem connected or extend the conversation greatly.” Thinking about doing more antics, Sylvie quickly felt the tap on her shoulder and remembered the fragile barrels. “Right, thanks.” Sylvie offered sheepishly. “Like just now for example.” She paused. “I have all of the answers you want, and I was thinking about pying around while riding.”

  “We are down to what happened.” Casey poked her girlfriend in the back. “With the way you keep staring up, I figure it has to do with the rge ‘W’ in the sky.”

  Circling around to the st question Sylvie answered as easily as she could. “The pn was going like clockwork. Nothing with a hitch, until I saw the barrels. There were ten and the four you are holding like a package of eggs are all that remain. I took all four just in case.”

  “Makes sense so far.” Casey affirmed.

  “I used a huge amount of blood in my gas form getting into the hill.” She sighed, “Then my blood started becoming contaminated and cleansing it didn’t make sense, given that we had to catch Kody anyway.” Sylvie took a tight corner with ease and maintained her speed along the rural road, “If we had done all the work here, I could have gotten clean like we proposed. Shower, lead boxes, the works.”

  “I get it.” Casey adjusted the sack in her arms to ensure the barrels didn’t take any undue bounces as the two made their way. “Get me in gear, I drink all the good blood we have and you pull as needed without worry.” Casey patted Sylvie and quietly admired her partner for her quick thinking. “The way you think on your feet is outstanding, Sylvie. You did it back at the farm too.”

  “Thanks.” Sylvie added almost ftly. “This time it was the ck of an idea that almost made us fail. I didn’t have enough clean blood to make it out of the ir. Clean blood. I still had contaminated blood.”

  “But…” Casey tried to interrupt.

  “Just listen.” Sylvie wanted to be as reverent as possible given the moment of her revetion. “Something.. or someone made me think…the tainted blood isn’t useless. It just can’t cleanse me.”

  Without a gap in her understanding, Casey knew exactly what Sylvie had done. “…But you didn’t want to clean yourself, you wanted to get out of the cave.” Resisting the urge to bounce in the seat, Casey thought she was going to explode with joy and excitement. “U-Used all of your bl-blood..” Casey did her best to talk beyond all of the little pops of happiness going off like fireworks in her mind, “So now there is no blood to cleanse and you are pulling enough clean blood to keep you going.”