TASTE OF BLOOD

A Long Chase

Rad was in a corner of a bar, drinking a whiskey, talking to Marco on his cell. He was getting an update on business and any word from the Council. He asked to talk to Alex.

"How are you doing Rad?" Alex tried to hide his concern, but even on the phone Rad could read his friend.

Rad took a long sip of whiskey. Vampires did not get drunk. But right now he wished he could. He looked around the dark bar taking in the details and watching the one person he was going to talk to later. "You don't want to know."

"You got some messages from the Council. Seems they were a bit upset when you left in such a hurry and didn't help wipe some of Bath's powers away." Alex's voice had a trace of amusement in it.

Rad smiled his crooked smile. "Hey, so they had to do a little work. Time they got off their lazy butts. Some of them have been on that Council too long."

"How goes the hunt?"

There was a long silence.

"It is the most frustrating and the most interesting hunt I think I have ever been on. This woman is amazing. The bad part is she is making me more aware of her in ways that I should be able to stay away from. There is the Council Directive, which I am probably going to break. Yet, I want her to agree. Strange, the more I am away from her, the more I hunt her, the more..." He did not finish that sentence.

Again there was a long silence.

Finally Alex spoke. "Perhaps you should let someone else find her."

"Alex, you will enjoy this. I have to find her. I have no choice. But it still comes down to the fact that I am the best hunter. I don't think anyone else will be able to find her. She is too smart. She bought clothes at a Good Will and changed. I don't know where she got rid of the old ones but it changed her smell for a time. I am actually running at night to pick up her scent. I get traces of it everywhere but none of it pans out. She knows I can trace the smell of her and she is doing things to throw me off the trail. She is the best I have ever hunted."

"Rad, she is more than just special blood. She is avoiding all Vampires on the road and leading you on a merry chase. Wonder what she really is?"

"When I catch her I will let you know. But I think that we will not be turning her over to the Council. I have gotten a thread of a memory from a guy who worked in a kitchen. Looks like I have a long run south. Get me a car." He hit the button on the Blackberry and got up and went out into the night outside the bar to wait.

The man came out with two friends, all of them pretty much wasted. He took his time. Once he had the man alone, he search the man's memory to find her. It had been weeks ago that the man had seen her. There was no indication of where she had gone, but he had memories of her, very strong since he was attracted to her but didn't find any way to get close to her. She had disappeared.

In anger Rad took his blood and left him in an alley, weak and drunk and unconscious. He went to an agreed upon place and found a servant with a black Mercedes with dark tinted windows. The servant offered him blood by tilting his head, but Rad thanked him and declined, then traveled swiftly south.

* * * *

She was in a little town on the border of Texas and New Mexico. It was off any of the main routes and had never been very large, only one main street. Now with the economy so bad, about half of the stores were boarded up. The ones that were open were dark and the windows unwashed, covered with the dust from the unplanted, surrounding fields.

The only working industry was a small iron foundry that was on the edge of town, still putting some people to work, as iron was one of the items in demand in the U.S. Two of the stores on the main street were owned by the family that owned the foundry. One of them was doing so bad it was only open three days a week. It was a women's dress shop, as advertised through crusty windows. The other was the hardware and general store, also with windows you couldn't see through. That store had one man and two kids to handle the inventory along with any customers.