Chapter 2
I do not own Claymore
Returning home from her feeding, Anastasia fought back the urge to retch. The would be rapist and murderer she'd fed from had very foul blood.
A lifetime of drinking, dissolution and unforgivable sins had tainted his blood almost beyond edibility.
Any other vampire wouldn't have fed from him, only her desire to keep a low profile induced her to feed from the worst dregs of human society.
She would need to haunt the local 'lover's lanes' for a month to rid her mouth of the taste; in the meantime, she rinsed out her mouth and took some antacid to settle her stomach and lay down to rest.
Anastasia replayed the attack in her mind, that girl had seemed familiar somehow. She seemed to know her from somewhere, somewhen...
"Vroman's! I remember her from the book signing at Vroman's. She was with that big woman, that claymore named Sheila. What was her name again? Ah yes! Susana, Susana Basa."
Picking up her phone, Anastasia pushed the little buttons until she heard a ringing.
At three rings, Sheila answered her phone.
"Yes?! Anastasia?"
Anastasia asked.
"How is she? Susana, I mean."
Sheila replied tersely.
"So you're the guardian angel? The one who rescued her. The man is dead you know, wasn't that a bit harsh?"
Anastasia countered with.
"He was the one who chose his fate, I only deep feed on murderers and serial rapists, his sins were legion."
"So, you are without sin?" retorted Sheila, "I find that interesting, coming from you!"
"I didn't call to get lectured about morality. I called because I was concerned about someone who loves my books enough to stand in a Goddamn line and wait for me to sign an autograph. It wasn't her fault that she also knows someone older than modern civilization, or that I was nearby and heard her screams, it was just pure, dumb, luck!" riposted Anastasia.
Sheila paused a moment and replied quietly.
"Susana will be fine, we brought her to her hospital and she's getting her left foot looked at because it's broken. Sorry, it's been a crazy sort of day."
Anastasia whistled softly and said.
"I saw her kick him off of her just before I got to him, he flew into the support pillar, fell to the floor and just lay there. All I did was finish him off by feeding on him, his chest was already crushed and he was dying. I didn't think she'd kicked him that hard."
Sheila said matter of factly. "Adrenaline will do that to a person, getting attacked like that must've brought on a big surge of adrenaline and her survival instincts just took over. She doesn't remember much about the attack at all."
Anastasia chuckled a bit and said quietly.
"I'm partly to blame for that, I kind of fogged her memories of the incident. I do it aspart of the healing process for assault victims I've rescued."
Sheila responded drily.
"Did you think to look at her phone? There was a picture in it of what might be you, bent over the dead man."
Anastasia's heart skipped a beat and she blurted out.
"Crap! Who else saw this besides you?"
Sheila said reassuringly.
"Not to worry, I deleted the picture and Susana doesn't remember taking it, nor did the cops think to check her phone. I'm going to have Deneve doctor up her phone so that there's no gaps in the photo folders, just in case the cops smarten up."
"Who's Deneve?" asked Anastasia.
"She's a warrior like myself and she knows how to cover our tracks very well. If you try googling us, you'll find out that we don't exist and the stories are just folk legends or fantasy tales." Replied Sheila cheerfully.
"Well, from one folk legend to another, thank you! I owe you one." said Anastasia, "You're welcome!" replied Sheila. "I'll talk to you this Monday evening. Bye now!"
Susana woke to the sounds of strenuous exercise and the scent of sea air wafting in through the bedroom window, she lay in bed blinking for a few moments.
This wasn't her bedroom, she sat up and looked around.
There were three narrow beds and three dresser drawers in the room she was in.
A wooden rack held two of the biggest swords she had ever seen, this was definitely not, her bedroom!
"Where am I?" she muttered.
As if in answer to her question, a tall, flaxen haired woman with silvery gray eyes came in the room bearing a tray with food and drink on it.
"Sheila?" Susana began, then she realized this woman was strange to her.
The woman had an almost spiritual feeling about her, like mother superior from her grade school.
Only she was beautiful almost beyond compare, the woman smiled at her and said.
"Good morning! I am Galatea, Sheila and Helen brought you here from the hospital, late last night."
Susana sat for a moment in confusion, then she remembered.
The attack, the dead man, the police, her broken foot, Sheila and that demented friend of hers, Helen and the way she drove to and from the hospital.
Susana shivered involuntarily and Galatea asked.
"Are you cold? I can get you another blanket."
Susana said hastily. "No! I'm fine, I just remembered last night that's all, it was pretty scary for me!"
Galatea smiled warmly and said. "Riding in a car with Helen driving? Yes, it can be an experience to remember. She is a pilot and a world class rally driver and seems to have trouble separating competition from commuting, I'm afraid."
Susana smiled weakly and said.
"It was more than just Helen's driving, while she's a scary driver. Getting attacked and nearly raped was the worst, and I may have killed the man who attacked me. I just don't remember if I really did it or not. It wasn't one of my better days I guess." Galatea set down the tray on the small table, turned to face her and asked.
"Do you need any help getting out of bed or to the bathroom or anything?"
Susana grinned at Galatea and reached for the crutches the hospital had given her the night before.
"I think I'll be okay, thanks anyway!" she said and slid out of the bed and hobbled off to the bathroom.
Stephanie Chin M.E. Stared at the corpse on the examination table, it was the transient they had brought in the night before.
He had attacked a little Filipina and had gotten his chest caved in when she apparently kicked him, breaking her foot.
His chest was spread wide open and the shattered breast bone and splintered ribs were obvious to even an untrained eye, the injuries had been mortal all right.
It was the loss of blood that was bothering her, where had it all gone?
His abdomen was not filled with it nor had there been significant blood spattering at the scene.
Stephanie read over the report written by her assistant, it all looked to be in order, all of the "T"s were crossed and the "I"s dotted properly.
Any other time, she would just look it over and initial her approval and away it would go, to the archives, to be forgotten.
Nobody looked into the deaths of transients with long histories of violent crimes, they weren't worth the trouble.
Taking a powerful flash light and magnifying glass, Stephanie looked over the rest of his corpse, looking for any out of place things, unexplained injuries or wounds to explain the blood loss.
The large scratches on his throat drew Stephanie's eye, were they recent? Or older injuries.
Transients led rough lives, he could have fought with another transient and gotten scratched or they could have happened during the attack.
Ms. Basa's fingernails had been broken in her efforts to fend him off and forensics had taken skin samples from under her fingernails.
Using her fingers to stretch and pull on his skin to see if any of the scratches were deeper, Stephanie noticed what appeared to be two half-healed puncture wounds slightly over 3 centimeters apart.
She straightened up suddenly and blurted out.
"No Fuckin' way!" and began laughing, "I've got you now, damnit!" she yelled exultantly. "I've got you now!"
Stephanie Chin M.E. Spent the remainder of her Saturday evening, photographing and measuring the tell-tale puncture wounds on the corpse's neck.
The copious notes and photos she took, were not included in the documents that accompanied the corpse to the crematory and then on to the police criminal archives. They were for her own personal research project, one she had been working on in secret for two years now.
Not even her long time lover, Steve Driscoll, knew of it.
Susana hobbled outside and found a chair on the patio behind Miria's rustic house. Sheila was out on the grassy area with several other blonde haired, silvery-gray eyed women.
They were engaged in hand to hand combat training and the sweat stained condition of their clothing indicated the seriousness of their efforts.
Susana couldn't help noting that all of these ladies were in superb physical condition and had amazing bodies, she felt a little self conscious of her small size compared to these amazons.
One of them blew on a whistle and they disengaged from their sparring, grabbed up their sports drinks and chatted amiably.
Sheila grinned at her and called out to her.
"Hey, Susana! How are you feeling?"
Susana called back.
"I feel fine, everything considered. Exactly, where am I?"
The woman with the whistle came over and extended her hand.
"Hello! I'm Miria and this is my home. You're out in Malibu actually. Sheila and Helen brought you here late last night."
Susana shook hands with Miria, she was struck by the feeling of strength in Miria's hand, Sheila had the same sort of hands, strong ones.
She replied,"I'm Susana and I'm feeling a bit lost right now, but, thank you for taking me in last night, it must be an inconvenience for you to have an unexpected guest like me dropping in."
Miria smiled at her and said.
"Its not a problem, in fact, your being here just might keep Helen from uprooting small trees or juggling granite boulders. So it's probably a good thing you're here."
Sheila came over and leaned over to hug Susana briefly, then she asked. "Do you need anything, squirt?"
Susana replied brightly.
"Oh, just all the years back that my life got shortened last night. Between that homeless guy attacking me and Helen's driving, I think I got scared out of about twenty years of my lifetime!"
Miria just chuckled and said.
"Helen's good for that I admit, but if it comes to getting there in a hurry, there's none better behind the wheel."
Sheila chuckled and commented.
"Don't worry, I'll be taking you home on Sunday and we'll see about retrieving your car from the parking garage."
Susana asked. "Have you seen my phone? I need to let my folks know what happened and that I'm alright aside from a broken foot."
Sheila replied. "It should be in the room with you, I think it's on the nightstand."
Sheila had noticed Deneve slipping into the house earlier, presumably to 'doctor' Susana's phone a bit.
Deneve came walking up and introduced herself.
"Susana? Hi! I'm Deneve, I've heard some good things about you." She extended her hand and the two shook hands briefly, once again, Susana noticed the feeling of great strength in Deneve's hand.
Susana leaned back and said with a grin.
"Oh? What sort of good things? I'm really curious..."
She raised an eyebrow and glanced at Sheila who was looking slightly uncomfortable and repeated herself.
"What sort of good things?"
Deneve grinned at her and said amiably, "Sheila hasn't really said much of anything really, other than that you're a pretty good sport about things and you two have been taking jazzercise classes together. Oh! And you introduced her to Filipino food."
Susana visibly relaxed and smiled at Deneve.
"I do have a question about Sheila, if I may ask."
She said. "She's so tall and big and yet, I will eat more than she does, she always takes food home when we go out to eat."
Miria chuckled and said.
"We all eat like that here, a ten year old girl can eat more than I do."
She pulled up her sweat top, revealing the long scar that marked all the survivors of the organization and said.
"This scar is from experimental surgery that was done on all of us when we were young girls in Romania. We were chosen because of our similar appearances and closeness in ages. Our stomachs were stapled so we can only eat small meals, we also received extensive martial arts training and physical conditioning. This is why we are so lean and physically fit, the drawback is that none of us can ever wear a two piece swim suit or revealing clothing. I can't tell you how many times Galatea has had to turn down job offers from modelling agencies."
Susana looked thoughtful and said.
"Sheila's never told me anything about her childhood, except that she had learned how to defend herself in an orphanage. I didn't know about the scar because I never saw it before, at least I didn't notice one when we changed after swim class."
Deneve smiled and added. "Sheila was one of the last of the children to get the surgery, by that time, they had figured out how to minimize the scarring. The communist government in Romania collapsed not long after that and we slipped away in the confusion."
Susana tried to stifle her yawning and failed miserably, she blushed and said apologetically.
"I'm so sorry! I just can't stay awake any longer, I'm going back to bed, please excuse me."
She rose to her feet and hobbled on her crutches back inside Miria's house.
The sleep inducing tea Galatea had given her at Miria's request, had worked nicely.
Sheila turned and faced her former captain and one of her top lieutenants, and remarked.
"I did not know you two could sling B.S. So effectively, you damn near had me convinced, and I was there!"
Miria grinned and said cheerfully
"You liked that, didn't you! Good B.S. Is always a mixture of truth and absolute fiction. Your small friend isn't stupid or blind, she was bound to notice our similarities and our common peculiarities, so I thought I'd just varnish the truth a bit and fend off her curiosity. I didn't expect Deneve to add her own ingredients to the mix, which I greatly appreciate."
Miria took her whistle, blew a sharp note and shouted.
"All right ladies! Nappy time's over, hit the course! We're burnin' daylight here."
The ex-warriors fell into teams of two and started out on Miria's fiendish obstacle course. Teresa and Clare, Helen and Deneve, Miria and Sheila, warriors all, soon disappeared from view. Galatea looked in on Susana, she was fast asleep.
Galatea smiled at her sleeping form and closed the door to her bedroom.
She stripped off her outer clothing and set off after the rest of the ex-warriors, her long legs propelling her rapidly.
She would soon catch the others, after all, wasn't she a former number three?
Stephanie Chin M.E. Stood in the parking garage where the transient had been killed.
She had come there on a hunch and was standing at the exact spot where the man's body was found.
Stephanie slowly took in the layout of the garage, the lighting was still pretty dim and non-existent in places.
She took her brightest flashlight, switched it on, and swept the beam in a wide arc, its brilliance eradicating the deepest shadows.
The beam reflected off an object up in a corner of the garage, it was the eye of a security camera that had been missed in the initial investigation.
So, the garage had security cameras after all, but did they work?
Stephanie opened her phone and punched number one on her speed dial list, before the third ring Steve Driscoll answered.
"Steph? Is something the matter?"
Stephanie smiled to herself and replied.
"Everything's just great, dear."
"Okay, now I'm worried, where are you and just what are you doing?" replied Steve. "Tell me where you are and I can be there in minutes."
Stephanie grinned and answered. "I'm at the parking garage where we cleaned up the dead transient who'd attacked that girl."
Steve cried. "Y'mean the one in the Rampart area?"
"Yep!" answered Stephanie.
"Don't you move one Goddamn inch from there! I'm already in my car." the line went dead.
Stephanie Chin M.E. Remained there in the parking garage, her phone set on 9-1-1 in her left hand and her right was gripping the Walther PPK .380 snuggled in her coat pocket.
Ten minutes passed by before Stephanie's thoughts were interrupted by the squealing of tires being tormented, and brilliant headlights swept across her slim form as the bulky automobile screeched to a halt and Steve Driscoll leapt out.
Stephanie released her pistol and felt Steve's muscular arms envelope her briefly just before he held her at arm's length and said gruffly.
"What are you, crazy? Are you trying to scare me?"
Stephanie smiled up at him and said lightly.
"I love you too, dear."
Steve's eyes glanced upward briefly in that forlorn, heavenward appeal for common sense universal to all couples, even if they won't admit to being one.
Steve stepped back and said.
"Okay, seriously now, why are we here?"
Stephanie grinned at her long time lover and pointed past his right shoulder.
Turning in the direction indicated, Steve saw at once, the formerly obscured security camera lens, now illuminated by Stephanie's flashlight.
"Damn! How did we miss that? D'you suppose it works?" asked Steve.
Stephanie replied. "I haven't a clue. How do you feel about 'off the record' searches?"
Steve shrugged and replied frankly. "You do know that anything we find this way, is inadmissible evidence?"
Stephanie just grinned at him and replied. "This is for a research project of mine, strictly for personal reasons."
"Well okay, since you put it like that, let's trace the cable!" replied Steve with his own boyish grin, the one that first caught Stephanie's eye so long ago.