It took a while for the high to die down. Lhexa simply stood and felt the rush of magic around her for… she didn’t know how long. It didn’t matter. Magic. Could there be anything more wonderful in this universe? She’d have to ask Ena.

  Was Ena somewhere in this world? She’d cast her first spell to meet her. But, she didn’t feel like she was in a rush. After all, Ena had said they’d have eternity. Everything else she’d been told had come true, hadn’t it?

  But, as the emotional high gave way to normality, she started thinking about her circumstances. It was time to leave this place. But, how? There was definitely a guard outside the door.

  What was this place? She struggled to remember. Marie’s memories didn’t come easily to her. Some kind of… compound? Marie didn’t know all of it. She’d thought that this had been a mob affiliated building where girls were taken and forced into sex work. Like her.

  But clearly something much… darker had been happening as well.

  “Creeps just can’t be satisfied with the classics anymore.”

  It was an idle thought, but the sound of her voice surprised her. It was deeper than she was used to. A little raspy, with a hint of an accent. Lhexa wasn’t sure what the accent was. But, it made her sound like she was right out of an ancient film or something.

  Well, first things first. Clothes. She examined herself. Inconveniently there wasn’t a mirror in here. But even looking down she was sure her dress was too torn up to be able to pretend there wasn’t a conflict.

  Although, she might be able to sell some damage as the client being into some rough play. She’d have to sell the fear too though if she went that route.

  She took a deep breath, and then realized that she hadn’t been breathing for quite some time. Huh. Side effect of all the vampire blood she’d just absorbed? She licked her lips where she’d been bleeding. No more blood, but the skin was still a bit torn. She didn’t have makeup or anything to cover up in this room either. Damn.

  She probably wasn’t strong enough to physically fight her way out of the whole building, so she’d need to sell that nothing was wrong for at least a little while. Her head was pounding. A big headache was starting to form. All the blood loss? All the blood she’d drank in? Magic fatigue? Whatever.

  Lhexa shook it off. She was used to it. This was nothing.

  Okay, enough planning. Action time. If she sat here and thought through every possibility she’d be here all night. It was time to go with her gut.

  She strode over to the door and opened it, poking her head out. Sure enough, standing not three feet from the door was a man in a dress shirt and slacks. He had a weapon on his hip. Marie’s memories told her it was a handgun.

  Lhexa put on an exasperated expression.

  “Can you come in here for a sec?”

  The guard looked beyond surprised to see her. Internally, she struggled not to laugh at his expression.

  “What the– What’s going on?”

  “He won’t shut up about wanting a second girl. Says I’m not enough! He wants me to get you. He’s gettin’ real mad.”

  The guard looked confused, but slicked back his hair and started to approach. Lhexa gave him a relieved smile and ducked back into the room. She got behind the door and waited. She still felt weak, but her best shot was to get in the first blow. A strong hit right to the back of the head was gonna have to be enough to give her an advantage.

  The man stepped into the room. He looked down at the pile of ash and took a step forward in bewilderment.

  “What’s…”

  Lhexa slammed the door closed and took her swing.

  The man’s head came clean off his shoulders in an instant. Lhexa froze in shock. The head bounced down onto the floor with a loud bumph sound. She stared at it. Blood shot from the body’s neck, as the remains fell to the ground.

  The blood flowed across the floor like a living thing, rivulets worming their way over to her, then up onto her. It flowed directly into her skin. She stood there absorbing the scene, and more.

  “Huh. Well that’s a gas.”

  Lhexa didn’t even really know what that meant. It just came unbidden to her lips. She laughed. She laughed and laughed and laughed, feeling it bubble up from inside her. She hadn’t laughed like this in… how long? Since before Freddy– No. No, that was Marie. Still. The feeling of it overwhelmed her. Simple, childish joy.

  The blood flow became a trickle, and then stopped. It had felt so good while it flowed into her too. Warmth that spread across her whole body. A contended sigh escaped her.

  Well, that changed things didn’t it? The desire to destroy this place instead of simply escaping was growing in her chest, but she shook it off. Revenge was great, but there may be more vampires here. Plus, she clearly didn’t know what she was and wasn’t capable of. No, leaving was still the best option by far.

  She bent down and examined the body, patting it down for anything that might be hidden. The guard had the gun, a pack of smokes, a box of matches, and $15 dollars on him. No ID or anything. Just the clothes he was wearing. She considered swapping clothes with him, but Marie’s memories told her that a dame in those clothes would draw more attention than a ripped dress. Not less. Lhexa thought that was ridiculous, but if that’s how it was…

  She took a moment to take the gun holster and belt as well. Securing it to her thigh, she made sure her dress covered it well enough. Thankfully it was a shirtwaist dress and the lower part billowed enough to be cover as long as no one looked too close. She took the money too, since she could hold that in her hand. No bag or anything was in the room, and the dress didn’t have pockets.

  Lhexa popped the door back open. Time to walk out of here. She still wasn’t keen to make a scene. The guns would probably still be pretty bad to get shot with, even if she apparently had the strength to rip a grown man’s head off.

  She started down the hall, changing her body language to match what she wanted to get across at a glance. Irritated, confident, or at least putting up a front of confidence despite having just done something unpleasant, and most of all sure she was supposed to be here.

  The only real problem is, she didn’t actually know where she was going. Marie had been… drugged or something? All of the halls looked the same, and the trip into the compound was a blur in her mind.

  Well, really she just needed to find an unobserved window. Although, if there were guards outside, maybe it was better to leave through the front entrance anyway, rather than getting caught sneaking out a window.

  So, she just wandered, looking for what looked like an exit. The first time she walked past someone else in the hall she was screaming internally, but they hardly gave her a second look despite her appearance. After the second one, she calmed down a little. Maybe this would be easier than she thought!

  Just as she was having the thought, she spotted the main entrance. Shit. Three suits and a dame behind a… reception desk? This place had a receptionist? No matter. She’d just stomp past them and leave.

  “Miss! Where are you headed?”

  The receptionist rang out. Of course it’d be another woman that actually looked closely at her. Lhexa rounded on her.

  “Home. I’m done.”

  “Done?”

  She rolled her eyes in exasperation, quietly panicking on the inside.

  If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

  “Yeah. Client was satisfied. All he wanted was to look at my toes and watch me drink some wine. Ripped my dress a bit too. Want more details? I can tell you all about it, but I don’t think anyone wants to hear that.”

  Lhexa indicated the men in the room who were already frowning at her description of the clients ‘interests’. They looked ready to wave her through, but the receptionist just looked confused.

  Kill her. She clearly knows what was happening here. Kill her. She was helping get you killed. It’s only fair. Tear her head off, like the guard. Drink her blood. You can take all of them. Do it. Do it. Do it.

  Lhexa bit down the sudden rush of feelings. What was that? A bad idea either way. This place was big. If they had some kind of alarm… No.

  The girl behind the counter was looking through some kind of paperwork, clearly trying to see if she was wrong about Lhexa being scheduled to leave.

  Well, shit. She was going to get caught here either way, wasn’t she?

  “Here’s what he paid me.”

  She put the money on the counter.

  “If that ain’t enough to prove I did my job, just send one of these schmucks to ask.”

  One of the men stepped forward.

  “Watch your mouth, woman. I oughtta–”

  He was cut off by the receptionist.

  “Actually Sal, could’ya? I can’t find her on the sheet…”

  That made the other two men look at each other warily. The man named ‘Sal’ just nodded to her and started down the hall.

  Fuuuuuck. Well, she was definitely going to have to fight her way out of this room. How? A spell? She was still pretty tired, and didn’t have any time to prepare. No lyrics. No components. No, that wasn’t it. Strike one of the men first, try to get to the other one before he could shoot, and then the dame? She shouldn’t use the gun. She hadn’t shot one before, it would do less damage than a direct strike from her, and it made a lot of noise. No, unless she couldn’t reach someone it was out of the question.

  It’d have to be a tussle. Was there anything she could use in the room to extend her range at all? She swore. The moment she got out of this place, she would have to get something. For now, she needed to play along. Keep an eye out for an opportunity.

  She leaned over the counter, scanning the area behind the desk as she did.

  “Look Miss. It’s been a real drag of a night. Isn’t there anything I can do to get out of here faster?”

  The receptionist gave her an obviously fake smile. Yeah, she knew something was up for sure. Just as the girl behind the counter started to reply though, Lhexa saw a metal baseball bat poking out from beneath the desk.

  Lhexa returned the girl’s smile. Their eyes met. The receptionist looked uncomfortable. Good. Lhexa lunged forward and grabbed the handle. Both men behind her moved at once, but they couldn’t see what she was doing or what she had. As she rose and turned she took a swing. It was blind, since she couldn’t see behind her, but it had all the force she could muster behind it.

  The man’s arm snapped like a twig under the force of the blow. He screamed. The second man was scrabbling for his gun. But before he could get it out of the holster the bat collided with the side of his head, tearing it away in an instant. Lhexa spun on the first man and grabbed him around the neck. Or she meant to. Her fingers sunk in, crushing his windpipe. The screaming stopped.

  Lhexa rounded on the receptionist. The girl already had the phone in her hand. She screamed.

  “Please!”

  “Nope!”

  Lhexa ran her through with the bat. She’d meant to knock the wind out of her before a followup, but she really did not know her own strength yet. She pulled the bat back and away, tearing the woman’s insides away in the process. Blood from three bodies flowed across the floor and up to her.

  Oh, she could get used to this. She paused to enjoy it, but heard sounds coming from the rest of the building.

  Ah, shit. She had to leave. Now. She threw open the double doors at the front of the room, and walked out onto the sidewalk. Right. This building was on one of the side streets, just off the strip. Vegas. What a horrible city.

  She noticed a terrible cracking sound and looked down. The cement under her was cracking? She took another few steps. It was breaking. It was like she weighed literal tons.

  Lhexa hazarded a glance back inside the building. The floor was ruined, starting from where she was standing when the blood flowed into her. Inconvenient.

  She took a few more steps. She was leaving footprints. They’d just need to follow them to find her!

  “Shit!”

  A man burst out of the doors behind her wielding a shotgun. He was only a few feet away from her. She instinctively raised her hand, as if that would protect her. The gun went off. There was a spray of blood and an explosion of pain as the blast caught her hand. Practically right into her palm. She screamed and swung out with the bat in her other hand, taking one of the man’s arms and lodging it deep into his chest. She pulled it free again.

  Another two people rounded the corner leading into the entryway. Without thinking for another second, Lhexa turned and jumped away. The pavement where she had been standing got absolutely destroyed, but she made it at least thirty feet. How far could she jump if she was really trying?

  Before her pursuers got it together she tried again, this time making it significantly further. She had little control over it, but could clear quite a distance in a single jump. The concrete cracked again as she landed. She was still going to be leaving a trail! It would be harder to follow, right?

  She took two more leaps, this time clearing a house and making it to the next street over before landing on a car and demolishing it. It took her a minute to pull herself free of the wreck.

  Her hand! Her hand hurt like hell! She looked down at it, expecting to see an absolute mess. The pain was still nearly unbearable, but her hand looked… pristine. She flexed it. All of the joints she moved popped as if they hadn’t moved in ages. Or maybe ever?

  No time to think on that. Relieved that she wouldn’t be missing a hand, she continued her escape. Another jump. Another crater. Thank goodness it was dark enough that as long as she wasn’t standing under a street light it would be pretty hard to see her. She had to get outside town. It’d be a lot harder to follow her if she was moving in dirt, sand, and total darkness.

  Her head was pounding. Her face hurt. Her hand was screaming in pain. She was starting to feel dizzy too. Sick, maybe? Drugged? She wasn’t sure. But she needed to find safety, or she’d really be in trouble.

  She took another leap. She was feeling weaker too. Almost minute to minute. Why? Was it because she hadn’t just absorbed any blood? She already wasn’t making it as far with each jump though.

  Lhexa didn’t have time to think about any of this really. On the horizon, she could tell the sun was going to be up soon. Something deep in her gut told her she did not want to be outside when that happened. Vampire lore made her think she might burst into flames. She wasn’t sure, but she was sure she didn’t want to find out through experimentation.

  Then, it happened. When she went to jump, she made it only about ten feet. But the asphalt didn’t break when she landed.

  “Small miracles.”

  Lhexa was really starting to feel feverish now though. But if she wasn’t leaving footprints she could continue on foot and find a place to hide.

  Where though? She couldn’t go back to the hotel she stayed in. It’s the first place they’d look. She didn’t have any money on her, having dropped the $15 to grab the bat. She had a bat, a gun, and her dress. That was it. How was she going to stay out of the sun? Dig a hole? That was stupid.

  She kept walking, keeping her eyes out. She could break into a house, if she could find one with a basement or something. But she might be discovered, and the people in the home might squeal. No, she needed something else. A sewer? Marie’s memories told her Vegas didn’t really have anything like sewer tunnels. Lhexa swore.

  She made a turn, and then saw something that might work. She didn’t like it, but it’s not like there were many options. Her body ached. Her head hurt. Her teeth felt like they were going to explode out of her mouth. Her vision was blurry. She needed to hide now.

  So, she approached the gas station, and headed around behind it. Sure enough, there was a dumpster.

  “Ewww…”

  She opened it and the smell hit her. No time to think or complain though. Lhexa climbed in, and pulled the lid closed. Shit. Some light came through. Not a lot, but it’d be a problem if someone opened it. She swore, and started digging. It took some rearranging to get under enough garbage to be sure she was covered.

  Sticky, smelly liquid pooled in the bottom of the dumpster with her. It made her want to tear her skin off. But, here she was. Alive. Tired. In so much pain she could barely stand it, even as sleep licked at the edge of her consciousness. But alive.

  Lhexa giggled. Then, laughed with her whole heart. What an exciting night.

  Lhexa sat up. She was on a stage. The stage she had made for her spell. Although all the brochures were gone. She looked down.

  She was in her own body again. If she didn’t know better, she could have written the experience off as a dream. But it felt real. She was sure it was.

  Besides, all the components she’d gathered for her spell were gone.

  Why was she back here? Because Marie’s body was sleeping? Lhexa stretched and looked around. She could hear the sea, smell the salt in the air. She took a deep breath, then let it out. Enjoying the feeling of air in her lungs properly.

  She stared at the sky for a while, and didn’t move. She just absorbed the experience she’d had. Let it sit. Digest. Then she put words to the most important thought in her mind.

  “I’m really hungry.”