Why was Lavinia pressed against the rear doors, pressed so hard that she looked flattened? Why could she suddenly move and why was she trying to get out now?

The skin around the edges of Lavinia’s arms and face -- started to split, leaking whitish fluid.

Sally understood in a flash, knowing that Lavinia would have gotten it much quicker. “Babe, you’re still welcome in my home!” she cried, tripping over her tongue to get the words out.

Lavinia collapsed into a quivering messy heap on the cramped floor.

Sally threw herself to the floor next to her, heart pounding. “Are you okay, baby?!”

When Lavinia woke up, Sally’s invitation (or whatever magic the raven jacket had done) must have worn off. Nobody had pounded on the rear door: Lavinia had been dragged from the bed and slammed against it. The relentless force had mashed her nose and split her skin in a line like a child’s outline around the edge of her body. If Sally had taken one more second to get the words out, her bones would have broken.

Lavinia’s eyes flicked left and right. She didn’t recognize Sally and a hard lump swirled through Sally’s body. “Lavinia!” she begged. “Come back to me, baby. You came back from further away already. Don’t give up now. You’re still you, come on, it’s me here.” Slowly, Lavinia’s eyes closed and she subsided into that bleak, lonely place where Sally had found her this morning.

“Are you back, love? Are you still you?” Lavinia was oozing a bloodless pus. (Was it “bloodless,” Sally found herself wondering. Pus was fluid with white blood cells. White blood cells were still blood. Did the vampire “rules” only count red blood cells as blood? She shook her head. Jesus Fuck, as Lavinia would say.)

Lavinia’s eyes opened slowly. “I see why,” she started in a beaten voice, had to stop for several seconds and finally finished, “why they just give up.”

Sally examined the long outline where Lavinia’s skin had split. Whatever the whitish stuff was, it clotted even faster than regular blood.

Would she wake up a mindless animal every time she slept? “I see why they just give up.” Sally began to understand. If you had to fight your way back to humanity every time you slept, you might choose to stay an animal.

“Baby?” she said helplessly. The thought came to her that both their lives might be easier if she just staked Lavinia now. (And what was it about wood, anyway? Why did wood kill but not metal or plastic? And was it only specific kinds of wood? She wanted to talk about these things with Lavinia.)

She’d told herself she could deal with anything if she could just stay with Lavinia. But how long would it be before she, Sally, just gave up? She’d never felt so bleak, so helpless.

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But I’ve been given a second chance that I never thought I’d get, I can’t fuck it up.

“Would some sun help, baby?” she asked. A quiver passed through Lavinia’s body. Her face brightened. “It might could,” she said in a tiny voice but with a flicker of excitement. (Even as a vampire she still exaggerated her palooka talk.)

Sally peeled back a curtain on a side window to make sure they still had privacy. A cop was standing out there! No, it was a trick of shadows. The alley was still deserted. But it was time for them go somewhere else.

“Babe, I’m going to have to drive to where there’s sunlight, unless you can -- no, forget it.” Of course Lavinia couldn’t walk outside, not paralyzed as she was, not half split open.

“Jus’ ... gimme an umbrella, I’ll dance like ... fuckin’ Gene Kelly.”

“Singin’ in the Sun, what a glorious feeling,” Sally said, before Lavinia could decide she had to explain the reference. It was a relief to feel annoyed about something so normal for a minute.

“Don’t go all old fart on me now,” she continued. “I’ve dealt with vampires but I’m about to do something really dangerous.” She looked with dread at the front of the camper where a cranky clutch and a steering wheel on the wrong side waited for her.

She forced herself to eat before tackling it. She hadn’t eaten since the night before and she was so hungry her head hurt but she still felt guilty as she satisfied her hunger while Lavinia lay there.

Mercifully, driving was easier than she expected. The clutch took muscle to operate but she was strong. The steering wheel on the right took some getting used to.

The real problem was where to go. Parking on a busy street was out of the question. Head into a residential neighborhood? What if Lavinia started screaming again? Heading to a popular outdoor tourist spot like Twin Peaks or Ocean Beach was out for the same reason.

Lavinia was stuffed miserably under the little table again so she wouldn’t roll and flop around. As Sally drove from street to street, aware of the day grinding relentlessly toward sunset at 7:20, she felt rather than heard Lavinia whimper over the noise of the engine.

At last in desperation, she headed south onto Highway One, the coastal road. Any beach campground should be deserted; few enjoyed camping with vampires swarming like mosquitoes around their little island of safety.

She came up behind a slow-moving truck and here the British right-hand drive defeated her. To see if she could pass she’d have to edge three fourths of the vehicle into oncoming traffic. She fumed and sweated and swore and finally pulled off at a small state beach which had a big parking lot but no campground.

It was after 5:00 now. Two other vehicles were parked in the center of the lot, a red convertible and an SUV with tinted glass windows, impossible to see inside. Sally parked at the extreme left end, turned off the loud, knocking engine, and looked into the face of the sun, thinking.

A lot of unknowns here: the owners of the red car finishing their beach walk, an SUV which might be filled with paralyzed vampires driven by some maniacal soccer mom. But she couldn’t make Lavinia wait any longer.

The curtain it came off its sprocket again as she crawled through. She shoved it out of the way, got down on the floor and pulled the heartbreaking mess that was her lover groaning out of the small space.

Trying to be ready for anything, she hefted the cool dead weight. A single gold bar shone onto the bed. Into that sweet light she shifted Lavinia’s haggard face.

It worked just like before. Lavinia screamed her orgasm scream, her body undulated and her face shone with a joy which made Sally cry with happiness.

She held Lavinia’s hand, which seemed to warm a little, sat cross legged beside her, and for a long time simply watched her feel good.