That Old Devil Moon

Alexandra lay dying. What was surprising was that she was not dead already. She watched with an odd sense of detachment as Daedalus lifted her body. She was pleased that her eyes were open; they allowed her to see the sky. The clouds were parting, but a light sprinkling of rain still fell. She felt the droplets fall onto her face and saw as the water around her ran red with her blood. The moon was a sharp crescent in the sky and she felt its light shining down on her, a reflection of the sun's bright glare that she would never see again.

She thought of Frank, his eyes, his smile, his body, his kindness.

Don't fail me Lilly. In this one thing, please don't fail me.

The phone had rung less than an hour after Frank had left. Alexandra had spent every minute fighting the desire to dial his number, to call him back to her. A wave of anxiety swept over her when the sound of the phone cut into her thoughts, she leapt for the receiver, but was disappointed to hear the voice of her Sire on the other end.

"Lilly, I can barely hear you, why are you whispering?"

"Listen carefully," Lilly's voice remained low, "your cop talked. Lawson went right to his Sire, and the Prince has declared a Blood Hunt on you."

Alexandra tried to respond, but found that her voice had caught in her throat. A Blood Hunt was the ultimate death sentence. It made her the modern day equivalent of a Wolf's Head, she could be killed without consequence, she could be devoured, her blood and soul consumed and the perpetrator would be congratulated rather than condemned.

"Did you hear me?"

"Yes."
"Damn it Alexandra, you have to run, now."

Alexandra nodded her head in response, then remembered that Lilly couldn't see her.

"Where can I go?"

"I don't know but for God's sake don't tell me when you figure it out."

Most Kindred kept a kit to facilitate the sudden necessity to disappear, passports, cash, whole identities into which they could slip with little notice. Alexandra had never excelled in forward thinking and had nothing prepared.

"Talk to Taliesin, if he doesn't kill you he can help you get a new identity."

It was good advice, and Alexandra looked up at the clock, she could make it to the Brujah's bar before sunrise, if she hurried. Only one thought now delayed her.

"What is going to happen to Frank?"

"Not now Alexandra."

"Yes, now Lilly, what will happen to him?"

"I am to kill him."

Alexandra nearly dropped the phone, before she knew it she was shouting into the receiver.

"No Lilly, please you can't."

"I have to."

"Lilly I am begging you."
"Alexandra."

"Look I am going to try, but we both know no one outruns a Blood Hunt. I am as good as dead already, please Lilly don't let him die because of me."

"What do you want me to do?"

"Ghoul him, same as I was going to do, please. I am going to die, but I think that the torment of hell will be a little more endurable if I know that he will be spared."

Time ticked by with her only answer being silence from the other end of the line.

"Alexandra, I don't understand, but I will try. Now get the hell out of there."

"Thank you Lilly, thank you."

That having been settled Alexandra grabbed a small suitcase and began to throw some clothes and supplies into it. Not more than ten minutes had passed since she and her Sire had hung up, now she stood on the curb outside her apartment trying to figure how far she could get on the twenty dollars which was all the money she had to her name, as the Prince would surely have frozen her accounts by now. The rain fell hard on her shoulders, and soon her clothes clung uncomfortably. The sky above was thick with clouds, and that combined with the tall buildings that lined her street made her feel claustrophobic.

Could she get all the way to Taliesin's? No, but she had to get off the deserted streets, the public eye was her friend now. She needed to be seen by people.

Where are all of the goddamned cabs?

She kept alert glancing around constantly trying to spot the approach of a cab, and to ensure that none of the shadows that surrounded her were more substantial than they appeared. Another ten minutes passed, this was taking too long, and she had stayed in one place too long. Images of sitting ducks danced through her mind as she began to move. The direction she picked was random, but the speed at which she moved rivaled that of any but the most reckless cab drivers.

Invoking this power was expensive, and though she covered a great deal of ground she soon found herself growing hungry.

Good, she thought, if I frenzy I can at least take a couple of them with me.

Finally she reached a more populated area and slowed to a normal pace. She quickly became aware that she was being followed. She quickened her pace, but did not use the immense speed of which she was capable. It would do no good. At last she spotted a cab idling on a street corner. She rushed over pulled open the rear passenger door and slid in.

"Ace's High, corner of seventh and Vanburen."

The cab driver flipped on the meter without saying a word and took off. Alexandra was grateful the driver was not chatty, she had too much to sort out in her mind to be bothered by whatever inanities he might want to expound upon.

She fumbled in her case looking for her cell phone. Oddly she was not angry at Frank. Sure he had doomed her, but his actions had been so human, she could not find it in herself to hate him for it. When she finally found the phone she held it, fingering the keys anticipating the moment when she could call him. She had to convince him to accept Lilly's offer of the Blood Bond. Her mind was whirling with arguments she hoped would persuade him when the cab came to a halt.

Alexandra closed her eyes. Great red droplets welled up in in her eyes and began to cascade down her face. They had pulled into a deserted alley, and one quick jerk told her that the child proof locks had been engaged.

"You may have three minutes to speak to your lover," she recognized the voice; it belonged to the Nosferatu Primogen. There was a small sense of relief, Daedalus, would not revel in her suffering as some of the others would, also his opinion of Diablerie was well known, she would not be subjected to that horror.

She dialed the number; the phone rang half a dozen times before she heard Frank's voice say.

"You have reached the voicemail of detective Frank Cohnaic, I am unable to get to the phone, please leave your name, number and a brief message and I will get back to you as soon as possible."

She waited thinking that he would never get back to her, that he was lost to her forever.

Beep.

"Frank, it's me, by the time you get this message I will be gone. Please darling, Lilly will be in contact with you, agree to anything she asks. Please. There is very little that I have done in my life of which I am proud. Loving you and being loved by you may be the only thing I have ever done that meant anything at all, and to me it meant everything. I love you my darling, I love you, I love you, I love you-"

Beep.

Alexandra bit her bottom lip and nodded her head. The million other things she could have said raced through her mind, but there was no time left to regret. She steeled herself for what was to come and launched herself at the door which flew off its hinges as she darted into the night beyond.

The Nosferatu was on her instantly. She struck out with fist and teeth, but he was the stronger. In the moment where he seized her under the chin and tore upward she could have sworn, though it was difficult to tell in a face as disfigured as Daedalus', that she saw pity and regret looking back at her.

She would have screamed, but as her head came off her neck it became impossible. What was left of her flew several feet through the air before hitting the pavement, bouncing a couple of times and finally splashing into a puddle.

To her surprise she remained conscious, her eyes still saw, her mind still thought. She watched as the body that had been hers slumped to the ground, Daedalus silhouetted against the light of a streetlamp which cast its yellow glow on the street outside the alley. He walked over to the driver's side door of the cab and opened it. A few moments later a quiet clunk told her that he had popped the trunk.

She puzzled at her predicament. Decapitation was supposed to kill Kindred, and yet she was not dead. She lost interest in whatever Daedalus was doing, it was irrelevant now. She thought about Frank, and the time that they had spent together. She thought about the years that stretched behind her. She thought, for the first time in longer than she could remember, about her children. She hoped they had lived good lives. Then as the blood drained from her and the world began to fade from sight, just for good measure she thought again of Frank, and it was with his image in her head and the moon in her eyes that death finally claimed her.