“You have me there.” Amber confessed and looked away from the road to blow Jessica a kiss. “I do have a question though.”
“What’s that, Amber?” Jessica patted her lover’s knee.
“What the hell are narcotic poison points?” Amber fshed her fangs after they clicked into pce. “These?”
A heartwarming gleam radiated from Jessica’s eyes as she looked upon her best friend, “What? Can’t I make a comparison to the feeling anymore?” Her body having fully recovered due to her ward stamina and regeneration, Jessica sat up with a half-smile on her heart-shaped lips. “We used to say all kinds of silly garbage when we lived in Phantasmagoria.” Jessica stopped with her lighthearted comments and her eyebrows snapped together with concern. “That is a bunch of lights out there, Amber. You weren’t kidding earlier were you?” Jessica tapped the door window and guessed there were about fifty sets of lights. “I wonder if it's gotten any new coverage yet.”
“Oh, I am sure there is.” Amber sighed, “An entire campground...no, I wasn’t kidding in the least.”
Doing a calcution in her head, Jessica took a long deep breath when she realized where the hunt had taken pce. “That’s very close to home, dumpling. I mean ‘Harmony Meadows’ is supposed to mean peaceful and safe.” She shrugged, “I know your mind is spinning, Amber.” Jessica rexed and turned on the radio. “Rex, I doubt the investigators will find anything useful.”
“I wasn’t the least bit clean, Jess.” Amber took in a useless breath in order to expin the whole situation again. “I said before that there are body parts everywhere and I was not in my animal form like I should have been.” She spped her forehead scrutinizing herself, “Dumb vampire, just dumb.” Amber pursed her lips, “I am at least gd that I can’t leave any real evidence behind. I mean the cws might perplex the coroner but I don’t think it’s a veil break.”
“If it is, then we find out where the bodies go and simply burn them one night.” Jessica turned away from the window and gave Amber a hopeful look. “The best thing about living with vampires for over ten years is that we can cover the worst blood meltdowns.” Intent to stop the young vampire from spinning into another tangent, Jessica scooted across the seat and crammed herself against Amber. “We can sort it all out at home where we can use the lightout shelter to get all of the … anger out. We did design it to hold your outbursts.” Loss of life was one of the things that came with a lifetime with vampires. Ten-plus years had made Jessica virtually immune to the sheer violence vampires were capable of and it sometimes made her sound callous. “I sound inhuman.” Jessica ftly stated and reached up to massage Amber’s neck. “We have a night filled with the smell of strawberries to offset the carnage.”
“Funny. You do know that strawberries have red blood too.” Amber gnced over and winked.
“Blood is everything.” They both quoted at the exact same time and then stared at one another.
Their arrival at their farmer’s market was met with a crowd full of anxious vendors and customers. Having arrived roughly forty-five minutes te, Amber held up her hands to get everyone’s attention. “Folks, please. I will keep us open an extra two hours, that should give everyone time to set up and purchase the things they need.” Amber waited for the grumbling to slow and then held her breath to stop the sweet scene of blood emanating from the crowd piercing her senses. “Jess.” Amber whispered into her lover’s ear. “I am going inside to set tables and things out.”
Nodding slowly and then followed by a quick kiss to Amber’s soft cheek, Jessica focused on pulling their produce from the truck. “Go for a walk if you need to. Maybe circle the building to get a little fresh air?” Jessica answered in her own low ethereal tone. “I can set this up…” She watched Amber disappear into the building and ughed quietly to herself.
Once inside the huge octagonal building, Amber took a long and slow deep breath and let the deep scent of pine swirl in her lungs and erase the intensity of gallons of blood that had been waiting outside. While going around to the vendor stations and putting out their tables, Amber admired the space that Jessica and she had designed.
Made from the pine and maple trees that surrounded the little town of Enly, the structure was mostly designed like a log cabin and rose four stories into the air, leaving a wide open and natural-looking space for people to wander around freely. While devoid of windows along the sides, the roof had powerful fans and domed skylights that allowed the stars and moon to shine through. Four of the huge log walls had barn doors that could be opened to allow entry of most anything that the little township could envision. Keeping the aesthetic consistent, the signs used by all of the other vendors were made of the same wood and had their names burned into small and neatly readable block letters. Finishing off the rge structure was a cobblestone floor made from the local quarry, pounded into pce and held with fine sand.
Once her head completely cleared, Amber made her way back to the center of the floor where their little octagon stand took the best space in the building. While it had been Amber’s intention to just sell produce, Jessica insisted on selling little keepsakes of their building and to develop a personal line of candied apples and pears denoting their logo and name, ‘Moonshadow Fields.’ Using her supernatural speed, Amber had set up all of the different rental tables for nightly sellers and then bolted around and unlocked the other three sets of doors. Once satisfied that everything was ready, Amber slid the big doors in the front open, “Welcome back, Moonshadow Market is open, come on in. All four doors are open so we can get some breeze.” Amber picked up some of her massive strawberry haul and faked that it was obscenely heavy to carry. “Jess and I will be ready in a few minutes.” Amber spoke with a fake grunt.
No sooner had Amber set down her first batch of strawberries than she heard a set of familiar Mary Jane’s quickly hitting the cobblestone. “Oh boy.” Amber prepared herself for her senses to be overwhelmed with the reminder of the blood that tasted of honeysuckle mixed with peaches and a dominating scent of sage. Keeping herself busy as possible by sorting strawberries into little green cardboard boxes, Amber knew she'd have to face the inevitable and both breathe in the woman's euphoric blood and actually respond to whatever topic that fell from the young woman's mind. Taking the initiative and eager to get the incident over with, Amber spoke first. "Slow down, slow down Lay, you're going to trip getting over here. Rex, I'm not going anywhere, so breathe."
There it was, the accursed name. Lay. A name attached to a lovely young woman in her early twenties, which combined with her lengthy and elegant blonde hair and guileless apple green eyes made Lay a desire for almost anyone. Complete with her small curvy waistline and a bulb-shaped butt, Lay had made a beeline straight for Amber. A little fir of anger pulsed behind Amber’s eyes when she witnessed Lay wearing the exact same dress that she somehow figured was no accident. “I hate you, Jess.”
