1
Vivien
“Hold on to your tail, Cupcake!” I shouted over the roar of my motorcycle as we barreled down the road.
The small reaper puppy yipped behind me. I sped up, trying to get closer to the guy roaring on his black bike ahead of us.
Initially, I’d wanted a motorcycle with a sidecar for Cupcake, but the Kawasaki Ninja allowed me to weave in and out of the packed night traffic of Las Vegas. And seeing as Cupcake was an incorporeal dog who would grow up to reap souls, I didn’t have to worry about her safety on the sport bike. The fact that it was fuchsia also drew me like a moth to flame.
Cupcake’s tiny body perched behind me, pink tongue hanging out as the wind whipped by us. Chancing a look back, I noted no one got hurt. I would have smelled the blood. The perks of being a vampire.
“Fuck a duck,” I muttered, as the black motorcycle we chased cruised through the tail end of a yellow light. Though it turned red, and traffic began to cross from either side, I couldn’t let him get away.
My lungs filled with air I didn’t need as I braced myself. We shot through the intersection, causing cars to screech to abrupt halts. The smash of steel rang out, and horns blared in an angry chorus.
I set my attention on the motorcyclist again. A scabbard slung over his back. The glint of a sword hilt peeked out at me.
Why did this dick nozzle want me to chase him down the Strip on a Friday night? Even in autumn, people were out en masse, partying like the world was going to end.
And if I didn’t catch this guy, the world could very well come to a screeching halt.
He’d gotten far enough ahead that I was in danger of losing him. I needed to close the gap. My vampiric senses scanned the surroundings, taking everything in, making calculations. Yellow flashing lights caught my attention from the side of the road.
My body registered before my brain that I was about to do something tremendously stupid. An enabling yip of encouragement came from behind me. Cupcake was on board with it. I cut in front of the cars to my right.
Don’t do it.
The growl of warning inside my head sounded exactly like a certain scary man I knew. I swatted it away. We’d been hanging out too much if he now lived rent free in my mind.
That being said, while vampires were immortal, they could be smashed into a painful bloody pulp.
I twisted the throttle, taking full advantage of the fifty feet of clear shoulder, avoiding the orange cones. Connected to a long truck bed were a couple of trailer ramps. The construction crew used them to unload the bulldozer that was now hard at work on the road. The workers’ faces contorted with horror and disbelief as I roared by them.
My wheels hit the slope, and I hoped I’d reached a fast-enough speed to pull this off. Suddenly, we were sailing through the air. Time slowed into thick honey as Cupcake and I flew over lines of cars. Bright neon lights blinked down on us from the billboards overhead. The smell of cigarette smoke and someone’s heavy cologne wafted out of an open car window. I regretted not wearing a cape for this epic stunt.
Unable to help myself, I screamed out, “I’m king of the world!”
The black motorcyclist looked back over his shoulder, witness to my glorious daredevilry as we closed in on him.
It seemed a great way to savor the moment. Just like Jack did inTitanic. Then I remembered young Leo said that before the ship famously crashed and killed most of its passengers. A fact that rushed up as quickly as the blue sedan. I hit the roof hard, denting it with a sound crunch. Muscles tensed, I worked to navigate down the slant of the hood. When the tire bounced on the asphalt, my teeth clacked against each other. A metallic taste covered my tongue, but the bike continued up the street.
An unhinged giggle of disbelief escaped me.
We’d made it.
Cupcake yipped behind me, and I could feel her squirm against my back. Her tail must have been wagging double time.
My gamble had gotten us significantly closer to our target.
When the motorcyclist turned his head to see us gaining, he missed the car pulling out onto the road. The black bike smashed into the van, sending the rider rolling in the opposite direction.
“Whoa, shit,” I breathed. That was a hell of a hit to take.
But then he was up and running.
I heaved a dramatic sigh. “Runners, am I right?” I asked Cupcake.
She gave me a yip of affirmation that she knew what I meant.
