Quickly taking dow man in her clutches, Sylvie licked her lips free of his blood once his body turo ash. “Unlike your former employer who ate anything she wao, I have always thought that vampire blood could be addictive.” Walking out of the shadows, Sylvie picked up the cash on the sidewalk which amouo about fifteen-hundred dolrs. “It’s just a theory of my own. I mean it’s ohing to use it while ied passion, because that isn’t feeding. That is used for bonding.”

  “I get it.” Casey whispered as she pounced on the sed lookout who was half asleep. Dragging the man to the roof like the other, this man mao pull his pistol from his waist and fire a shot backwards. Moving faster than the guy’s trigger finger, Casey twisted away from the muzzle of the pistol and grabbed the man’s wrist, shattering it instantly. “Tisk. Tisk. Bad boys with guns.” Casey watched as the gun skittered off the roof and nded in the grass. “Poor boy, this will be over soon enough. t to twenty.” Casey bit into the guy's ned relished the blood as it cooled her throat and empowered her body a little more than it rior to the moment. Moments ter, Casey watched the little dust-like bits of her st meal go floating off into the distance. “Oh, I feel sort of sloshy.” Casey id ba the rooftop and held her stomach. “I guess I am a wimp.” She giggled, “I only took down a couple guys and here I am ready to pretend to sleep.” Lifting up her head, Casey spotted Sylvie moving to the front apartment rooftop, “Still in a haze?”

  “No, just hungry. The easy picks are gone. Now we have to wait it out.” Sylvie hunched down and sighed.

  Getting Sylvie’s attention, Casey poio an older-looking sports car with two guys sitting in it doing almost nothing. “Wait for what? That’s a couple of dealers in that car.” Casey ughed, “They are stoned out of their minds, I mean the car looks full of smoke.” Casey shook her head, “Look at it this way you could be a little stoned as well thanks to their blood. Makes it easier to deal with An when we go back.”

  “That’s true.” Sylvie snorted and agreed with her progeny. “You want one? We both go back high as kites.”

  “Assuming it’s just pot they have.” Casey ughed a from the roof, and nded where the pistol hit the ground. Taking the time to crush the gun into uselessness, Casey tossed the fragments into the woods and walked around the parking lot until she saw the car. Taking a sed to smell the air and focus owo men, Casey nodded. “It’s just weed, thankfully.”

  “So are you joining in or am I going to be alone in this?” Sylvie asked as she silently approached the car.

  Casey was just about to answer wheiced an elderly woman walking up to her with what looked like a tray of cupcakes. “Sylvie, you hold off a few seds? you see what’s happening here?”

  “I see her, are those cupcakes?” Sylvie inquired and backed into the shadows so that the two men in the car couldn’t spot her.

  Walking to meet the woman in the ter of the lot, Casey bowed. “Hi there.”

  Swishing her long gray hair behihe old woman showed various marks on her hat were clearly old wounds from vampire bites. “Hello yourself. It’s been a while since I have seeiful fangs such as yours.” The woman handed Casey the tray, “Cupcakes with a special enriched jam I created myself.” She winked. “I served a couple years ago when this pce used to be o live in. They moved on.” The elderly woman shrugged. “I thought you might enjoy something tasty and a little information about a certain abuser in apartment B-8.”

  “A blood bunny?” Casey inquired and looked over to Sylvie. “I didn’t know they existed beyond the few I’d met.” Casey took the cakes and plucked one from the tray, “Thanks.” Casey bit into the soft and rich cake and immediately tasted the blood that was infused in the jam. “Iive and quite delicious.”

  “Is that what they call us these days?” The old woman raised one of her eyebrows and smiled, “I like it. Blood Bunnies.” She paused and tapped a cake, “My blood, dear. You do all kinds of wonderful things with it.” She winked. “Now then, the father in that apartment tends to abuse the wife and son all the time, more so when he’s e home drunk.”

  Finishing off the one cupcake, Casey waited until the enrig jam cleared her throat before she spoke again. “Unreal.” She started walking the old woman back to her apartment. “I am curious as to how you khat I would go after that abusive guy?”

  Reag up to pat Casey on the shoulder, the elder smiled and winked. “I was around a fi of vampires, and after a bit, you kinda knew whies hadn't given up their humanity.” She shrugged and gave Casey a kiss on the cheek. “Most of your kihe veil in pce, mainly because it’s survival. Others do it because it keeps the peace.” The dy walked inside her apartment ahe cupcakes o table. “You just seemed to me, to be the kind that had some moral pass to work from. Like I don’t see you feeding from a mother and her children.”

  Casey shook her head, “That’s not me.” She huffed, “I am onight as a matter of fabsp; So I guess I am still f what and who I will be.”

  Silently gliding up to the back door where Casey and the woman were chatting, Sylvie ed her arms around Casey for support. “Don’t worry, she’s in good hands with me.” Sylvie poio the door leading to the basement. “Do you happen to have that seed off as a dark room?”

  First handing Sylvie a cupcake, the brown-eyed elder took the time to sit down with a relieved sigh. “Yes, I darke years ago. I didn’t know if a vampire would or not.” She shrugged. “I guess I am still looking out for my Masters and Mistresses after all this time.”

  Taking the time to eat and finish the cupcake, Sylvie felt the blood jam settle her mind and clear her focus. “Amazing.” She looked at Casey. “My eyes?”

  “Totally beautiful full white moons, I have my Sylvie back.” Casey leaned over and kissed her girlfriend on the cheek.

  Kneeling in front of the old woman, Sylvie smiled and patted her on the knee. “I will add your pce to the lightout bunkers. We’ll call this one Cupcake Retreat, how’d that be?”

  “Oh my.” The dy fidgeted for a few seds, “To sit down and talk again with other vampires like before?” She rocked excitedly in her chair, “Yes, Yes. Please. It gets so lonely around here, and I would like to relive some of the old glory times.” She reached out to grasp Sylvie’s hand. “Will you sponsor me? So I am safe?”

  “Of course.” Sylvie reassured the kind woman and walked to the door for her basement. “I am going to make my mark here, and that should let others know.” Extending one cw, Sylvie carefully carved the look of her third eye into the door and pleted it with a full moon on the right and a sun on the left. “Moon is my eyes, Sun is Casey’s eyes. We both sponsor you.” Sylvie winked. “I am Sylvie Miakoda and she is Casey Rivers. Who do I have the honor of knowing?”