Girls’ Night

By R.J. Byrd

“So, maybe we could get out of here…” I bit my lip and smiled shyly at the man sitting next to me. He gave me a lusty grin, but before he could say anything, my best friend threw an arm around him and totally stole his attention away. We had both been flirting with him for the last twenty minutes. Before entering the bar, we made a bet: whoever could get a guy to leave with her first won. He probably thought this was his lucky night.

“Wanna go back to my place?” my friend asked, shoving her huge boobs in his face. He agreed without even bothering to look back at me. My friend, Emma, gave me the middle finger before they left. I just rolled my eyes. Damn, Harpy. I wasn’t being mean; Emma was an actual Harpy. The creature of legend. Except instead of being half woman, half bird, she usually looked like the blond bombshell who just walked out of the bar. However, she did have wings and could hold her own in a sword fight. She also just won the bet. I blame the fact that she had bigger boobs.

I didn’t envy the man who just walked out of here with her. She was going to tear him apart, literally. Well, maybe not literally, but she was definitely going to kill him. Don’t feel too sorry for the man; he is not innocent. He’s a vampire, and while not all vampires are bad, there are the ones who kill for sport and pleasure. Drain their victims dry even though it’s not needed. Those are the ones we go after. Our rag-tag little coven of immortals was always on the hunt for those.

I may have lost the bet but wasn’t ready to give up. I still wanted to have my fun. I sensed another vamp in the bar when we walked in. I was a Furie, a descendent of the goddesses of vengeance. I could sense others auras and I could tell if anyone had a dark past but no feelings of remorse. Those were the ones who called to my nature.

I walked over to the other vampire and huffed loudly as I sat beside him. I ordered a shot of vodka and quickly downed it.

“Bad night?” he asked, giving me an appreciative once over. Being a descendant of goddesses, I wasn’t lacking in looks. Long wavy brown hair with lots of shine, clear skin, bedroom eyes and full lips. This vampire looked young like he had been turned during college. However, it must have been a long time ago because his aura was dark and malevolent.

“Fuck off, junior,” I said and ordered another shot. With vamps like this, you couldn’t make it too easy. They liked the hunt. So did I. When a cocky half-smirk appeared on his lips, I knew I had him.

“Calm down, let me buy you a drink, make your night better.” Without waiting for me to agree, he ordered two shots of vodka for us. “Toast?” he asked me, holding up his shot glass.

“To assholes who break your heart,” I said, raising up my glass before letting the shot burn down my throat.

“Want another?” he asked, already holding his arm up for the bartender. I bet he thought I was getting mighty drunk. Alcohol affected me about as much as it did him. It would take many, many more shots to get me drunk. This time, he toasted to hot brunettes. Three shots later, I was pretending to be fall down drunk.

“You’re cool and hot,” I said to him. In between the last two shots, I learned his name was Nathan. Not that it mattered much. I gave him a long look before giggling and putting my hand on his shoulder, moving it slowly down his arm, pretending to be impressed by his muscles.

“I think you’re ready to get out of here,” he said to me with a creepy look that he would have never given me if he knew I was sober.

“Yeah, let’s go!” I stood up and leaned heavily on him as we left the bar.

“You are so hot. It’s almost a shame,” he said in my ear as we got out into the cool night. I had to keep myself calm. I could already feel the desire for vengeance starting to grow in me. All those innocent mortals he drained dry. I’m sure he’s killed immortals too. While we are very hard to kill, it’s not impossible. Vampires like him had given up their souls for power. That kind of evil needed to be destroyed.

“Come on, baby,” he said, pulling me roughly into an empty alley. “This will all be over soon,” he ran a cold finger down my cheek. I wondered how long I should let him believe he had a chance to kill me or even touch me again. When I noticed his fangs start to grow past his bottom lip, I decided to act. I wanted to put on a good show for my friends who I knew were watching nearby. I started with a head butt that only made me see stars for a few seconds. Nathan staggered back and hit the wall behind him.

“What the hell?” he just got the words out before I landed a solid kick to his ribs. I heard a satisfying crunch. At that point, my game was over; Nathan knew I was immortal, too.

He wouldn’t hold back. This was going to be fun.

His eyes started to glow red, and his body size seemed to increase as he came at me with murder in his eyes.

I dodged the first few blows but he got in a kick to my stomach that had me gasping for air. I quickly realized we were almost equally matched in strength and speed. Our brawl was fast and brutal. Each of us landing blows that temporarily phased the other.

I gained the upper hand when I decided to stay down after receiving a particularly nasty kick to the chest. I slammed on the ground and felt the air rush out of my lungs. Each inhale sent a sharp ache throughout my body. Damn, he must be getting angry. I could feel myself rapidly recovering but I wanted to draw him closer to me.

“That took longer than it should have,” he said, slowly walking over to my prone body. He wiped the blood off his cheek where I had scratched him earlier and crouched down beside me. “What are you anyway?” he asked, not expecting me to answer.

When I opened my eyes to look at him he was surprised to see my bright green irises bleed to all black. My true power was making itself known. His mouth dropped open and he gasped. His eyes darted around in shock. I knew what he was seeing in his minds eye. All the people he murdered.

The vampire stood up and started to back away. While he may not feel remorse for the killings, unexpectedly seeing those he murdered would be a nasty surprise.

I felt the need for vengeance rise up inside me. All those poor souls whose lives were taken by this monster. I could feel their desires. They wanted blood, they wanted his life, and I would gladly give it to them.

In a flash I was in front of him raking my sharp nails over his face and stomach. I could feel my claws digging deep into his flesh, drawing blood to satisfy the needs of the dead. I dodged the answering blows, then with the need for revenge coursing through me, I landed a solid right hook that made the vampire stumble. Those few moments of distraction were all I needed to pull out the wooden stake that I had hidden under my jacket.

The look of shock on his face only lasted a moment as he stared at the thick piece of wood I had just embedded into his heart. It was all over. He collapsed to the ground, dead.

I could feel my eyes turning back to green and my nails receding as the need for vengeance was satisfied. Those poor souls could rest easy now.

I straddled his lifeless body as I pulled a pair of pliers from my jacket pocket. I always carried these around just in case. I leaned over and opened his mouth, exposing his fangs which had shrank a bit since he died. I gripped one fang with the pliers and pulled. It took three good yanks before the fang popped out. I then proceeded to do the other one.

As I was admiring the bloody fangs I heard clapping from behind me. My friends were impressed.

“That was awesome,” said Emma. “You put on a better show than I did.”

“Yeah,” said Claire, standing next to Emma. “Emma killed the poor bastard almost instantly. It was so boring.” Claire was a Banshee with long black hair and pale skin. While she was physically weaker than Emma and myself, her voice was a powerful weapon. She had expert control of the pitch and volume of her voice and could easily injure or even kill if she wanted to.

“I was wondering why you pretended you couldn’t get up. It did create good drama,” said Olivia, ruffling my hair as she stood beside me. Olivia was a very powerful witch and our group’s unofficial leader. She could wield many powerful spells and potions and had an almost encyclopedic knowledge of Lore creatures.

“Why did you pull out both fangs?” asked Emma.

“I need a new pair of earrings,” I said, holding up the pointed teeth to my ears. We all started laughing.

“Are we still on for the movie?” asked Claire.

“For sure,” said Olivia helping me up. “I just need to get rid of this first.” She crouched down next to the dead vampire and muttered under her breath. All of a sudden his entire body was engulfed in flames. A few seconds later all that was left was ash.

“Let’s go,” said Emma, linking arms with me and Claire.

This was a fun girls’ night.

The End

Copyright 2024 R.J. Byrd All Rights Reserved