In Another Life: Book One - Going Through the Motions

Chapter Two: Wabbit Season

Los Angeles – November 23rd

The loud splash distracted the two newborn vampires just enough for Eliza to come behind them and rip their heads off in one smooth motion. Isabella moved slowly, circling the trio that had tried to surround her into the perfect position. The last one that had tried to attack, ended up in the pool... without a head. Newborns weren't known for thinking clearly, or at all. So, consumed by blood, they were not much more than cannon fodder.

Her move was unexpected, and faster than the fledgling vampires could track. If someone with experience was watching, they would frown at her game. Baiting the poor creatures with a simple faint, but a successful one. In the space of three heartbeats, all three of them were dead on the tiles surrounding the pool.

"Six down... a fuckton more to go." Eliza said with a half-hearted grin.

"You exposed us too soon." Isabella remonstrated without much censure through a sigh, the blackness that had enveloped her eyes reverting to their usual bright ruby red.

"It's not like they could hurt us." Eliza responded with a typical shrug; she'd grown bored of playing the waiting game. A full day of hunting and tracking was already getting tiresome.

"With a coven this large, they could hurt us." Isabella warned as she scanned the neighboring houses looking for the seventh member of the coven, they had been tracking through Culver City, under the 10 freeway into the maze of streets making up Cheviot Hills. The empty house had been advantageous, the pool convenient and the hedges surrounding it even more so.

"No, I mean something is odd about them. I can't put my finger on it, they just seem... off." Eliza was kneeling by one of the corpses examining a lifeless hand.

"I think it's just that we've been chasing this nest for the last ten hours." Isabella said absently.

"That might be a record for us." Eliza said with a frown, as Isabella pulled out her cellphone hitting a speed dial button as she brought it up to hear ear.

"779 Forrester Drive. Los Angeles. Six to tidy up." She hit end on the phone without waiting for a response.

"You know they hate that." Eliza said with a small grin, before going back to examining the corpse.

"Don't care. Anything useful?" Isabella said glancing down at Eliza.

"Does the fact that this one looks like she lost a fight with a paintball machine gun count as useful?" The vampire she was looking at had black spots all over her skin, like a leopard.

"No... er I don't think so Eliza. And no, I'm not letting you buy one of those either. Do you have a point?" Isabella said feeling a bit impatient. Dawdling and pointing out strange tattoos weren't going to help them catch the next one.

"I... don't have one." Eliza sighed and got to her feet. "You sure our cleaning crew will get here in time? Hate to leave this for the LAPD to find." Eliza looked around at the carnage, all distinctly inhuman.

"I'm sure, their lives depend on it." Isabella almost allowed a small smile to escape her lips at the idea but thought the better of it. At times she could see herself becoming too much like Aro. She had no illusions about the kind of monster she had become, but she never wanted to turn into something like him.

"Morbid much? Although, shit like this happens every day in LA, I doubt the cops would even put it on the news." Eliza grinned, which quickly fell as she thought about the repercussions. "Maybe we should start..."

"No, we need to keep moving. We do our jobs; they will do theirs." Isabella turned to survey the area again, scanning the shadows for a hint of the trail. They needed to find the one that had gotten away.