"Damn!" she spat, but she did gently close the library doors and avoided breaking another fingernail.  She'd done everything right, she was sure.  She'd been cool, aloof, but approachable, but the problem had been the hour and a half he'd spent on the phone with "her!"  It was Kathy, Jack's research assistant.  He'd called her by name, unaware of how sensitive her hearing had become.  Since there were no masking sounds, the closed door to his office was not that much of an impediment to her hearing his side of the conversation, clearly.  What she'd heard had really pissed her off!  Pissed off; there was no other good word for it.  It was unladylike and definitely not sporting but Eliza was not feeling in a sporting mood.  The thought had crossed her mind that she should eat the bitch, but then she realized that it wasn't Kathy's fault.  They were both attracted to John and he was the sleaze that was two-timing her.  She sighed.  Well, they had made it once!  "Guess I can't compete with a chest that size," she muttered as she walked down the steps.

The Blood Bristo was active but not too crowded.  She moved to the back and chose the same booth she'd had last night.  She walked back to the bar where the bartender had her plum brandy waiting for her.  He was almost civil, tonight, as he gave her the change.  She winked at him and took the drink to her booth.  "What this place needs is some good music," she thought.  As if someone was reading her mind, speakers sprang to life and she could hear the tuning of a radio.  Some decent jazz was tuned and turned down to comfortable level, barely, just barely, masking the buzz of conversation.  Another drink seemed to be in order.  She stood to order another and saw Vicki coming in.  They waved to each other at the same time and giggled the same way.  Eliza waved to her, indicating she should join her, and ordered a second drink.

Vicki slid in and accepted the proffered drink with a smile.  "Ah, you know how to treat a girl," she said.  Her eyes widened as the brandy made itself felt. "Oh, we working girls don't usually get the good stuff!  How do you rate?" she laughed.  Then looked embarrassed.  "Oh, I'm sorry, you did tell me that you are a librarian.  I'm sorry.  I didn't mean that the way it sounded."

Eliza smile and reached across the table and gripped her forearm.  "No problem," she grinned.  "I'm a working girl.  I just work with computers. "

"Aw, you're so sweet.  First you save my ass then you're nice."  She looked down and sipped the brandy.

"You taking the night off?" Eliza asked to change the subject.

Vicki made a sour face.  "Looks like it.  Wednesday's a slow day.  Guess hump day doesn't get the men wanting to hump!"  She sighed.  "I really could use the money too.  That son of a bitch ruined my coat, my blouse, my slip and my bra, not to mention leaving a scar on my tit!"  She rubbed her breast.  "Guess I was still lucky, huh?  I was looking in the mirror and there are marks on my neck too.  That sucker really tried to kill me."

Eliza put on her best innocent face.  "I guess it really was lucky I happened along.  After I smacked the hell out of him with that board, some of the fight went out of him.

"I sure wish I could remember that part.   I bet that was funny.  I remember him hitting me and I remember falling back, but the rest of the evening is blur.  All I remember is some weird, I mean really weird, dreams."  She giggled.  "I was beginning to wonder but here you are!  You are real and not something I dreamed or something . . ."

"Oh, Vicki!  You were hit hard.  The knife wound may have not been serious but you could have had a concussion, coupled with the cut, maybe some shock symptoms.  I think you're one tough customer and I mean that!  If you had some weird dreams, you earned them the hard way."  Two men came in and sat at the bar, near the front.

"Oh, you wait here.  I'll be right back," Vicki said.  She walked up to the men and stood between them, putting and arm through the arm of each of them.  Eliza could see Vicki laugh and they stood up and the three of them walked towards the back of the bar and towards her. "Gentlemen, I'd like you to meet my good friend, Eliza.  Eliza meet . . ."  She paused.

"Ah, I'm Jeff," the first man said.

"And I'm Mutt," the second one stammered, looking Eliza up and down.

"Whew," Eliza thought.  "I think I've just been undressed!"  She smiled and held out her hand.  "I'm pleased to meet you both," she said.  There was a momentary look of confusion on their faces.  "Don't they know how to shake hands?" she wondered.  Actually they did and hastened to do so as soon as it registered on them that she expected conventional meeting protocol to be followed.

Vicki slid into the booth and "Jeff" sat next to her.  Actually demonstrating some manners, "Mutt" politely asked, "May I join you, Eliza?"

"But of course," Eliza replied offering a hundred watt smile and sliding further into the booth, making room for him to sit.  "What have I gotten myself into now," she wondered.  Vicki started chattering.  She would ask questions of the men, listen raptly then rattle on.  She talked a lot and she had told almost all of what she knew about Eliza, but listening carefully, Eliza realized that she'd said almost nothing significant about herself.  "This lady is good," she thought admiringly.

Drinks had gotten low. "Come on guys, you want to keep us happy now, don't you?"  Vicki said spinning an empty glass on her forefinger.  The two men looked at each other and Mutt reached into his jacket pocket and took out a roll of money, peeled a bill off and handed it to Vicki. When Vicki, saw the roll, she kicked Eliza under the table and raised her eyebrows pleadingly.  She snatched the bill so quickly that if seemed to vanish.  "Thank you kind sirs," she said jumping up and bouncing to the bar.

Mutt turned to Eliza.  "So your a librarian.  What does a librarian do?"

"Well, I'm not working as a librarian right now," she replied.  Mutt smirked a little.  "Although I am working in a library.  I'm a research assistant and I'm doing computer searches on world wide databases via the internet and correlating the results for further analysis by the project head, Dr. Rolf."  She smiled sweetly.  "I work a night shift and I just came in here to unwind a little.  You know, it was one of those long hard days."

Vicki returned bearing drinks.  "Here you go guys.  Enjoy.  This joints going to be closing soon."  She slid into the booth and pushed a drink to the appropriate party.  The music was pleasantly low, so conversation was not difficult but could be reasonably private.  Vicki continued to be the center of attention and Eliza was well into her third drink and feeling pleasantly buzzed when she realized that Mutt's hand was on her thigh.  She briefly tensed and then relaxed.  It really didn't feel all that bad.  In fact, it felt rather good.  She briefly wondered if John was with her and then dismissed that thought and banished it with another long pull of brandy.  "Hmm," she observed aloud.  "Could I have another please," she asked in her best little girl voice.

Mutt jumped up.  "Plum brandy, right?"  She nodded and smiled.  He quickly returned with another drink for her.  "Never let it be said that I'd allow a pretty lady suffer from thirst," he quipped.

Eliza smiled.  "Thank you kind sir!"  Thinking, "Hot damn! It worked."  Mutt's hand had found it's way to her thigh again, and with much of the fourth drink in her, it was beginning to almost seem like a good idea.  She was wearing a skirt tonight and he would rub the soft flesh above her knee and then allow his hand to trail up her thigh, and she was getting itchy fangs.  She could smell the heat of him and a little taste would be fun.  She was turning around and trying to figure out how you could get a "nip" without being to conspicuous when the closing lights started to some up.

"Damn," Jeff said.  "Just when this party was starting to get good.  You girls want to take it to my room?  We can get something good to go?"

Vicki bounced in her enthusiastic way.  "Oh, I'd love to.  How about you, Eliza?"  She shielded her mouth with her hand so that only Eliza could see.  "Please, please . . ." she whispered.  Eliza hesitated.  "Oh come on.  Don't be a party pooper!" Vicki squeaked.

Mutt squeezed her thigh and smiled.  "Oh what the heck," she said grinning.

The motel room was clean and cool.  "Come on in girls and make yourselves comfortable," Jeff said.  "I'll open the Champagne."

"Just how comfortable can I get?" Vicki asked in a coy manner.

"Oh, I'd say as comfortable as you want to get," Jeff snickered.

"Oh, I am very good at getting comfortable," Vicki enthused.  Without hesitation she slipped out of her blouse and removed her lace bra.  She bounced on the on the bed and it was like magic.  On each bounce a piece of clothing seem to vanish.  All three of the were staring at her open mouthed.  The men for obvious reasons and Eliza because she'd never even imagined anything like that.  Lying on her back, Vicki giggled and kicked her feet to the ceiling. "I'm comfortable now, who's going to join me?"

Jeff started shedding clothes like the room had suddenly gotten too hot.  Eliza had never seen a man get naked so fast.  He jumped into the bed with Vicki and they became a tangle of arms, legs, giggles, and laughs.  Mutt looked at Eliza, grinned and started taking his shirt off.  "Oh, what the hell!"  She peeled off her blouse, slipped out of her bra, and dropped her skirt.  Mutt gave a low whistle.

As she stepped out of her panties he said, "I have got to go to the library more often!"  To the tangle on the bed, "Hey, you two, move over." He sat on the bed and held out his arms to Eliza but she was entranced by the sight of Jeff and Vicki.  She never seen a man and a woman together like that and she was fascinated, not to mention more than an little stimulated.  Mutt grinned.  "Oh, you like to watch, hmm?  Here, you can watch me."  She did and she was, now, more than a little aroused.  She inhaled a long slow hissing breath and walked over to him.

Sometime later she carefully removed her fangs from his neck and hoped Vicki and Jeff had not noticed anything.  They had been very busy and weren't paying any attention to anything other than each other.  Mutt was dozing and she was just at the edge of sleep, drowsy, satiated in both ways, and so comfortable.  "Come on, Mutt.  We've got an early day tomorrow.  We've got to hit the dusty trail," Jeff groaned.  She felt Mutt get up, but she was too drowsy to care.  Jeff and Vicki crawled over her and she was really tempted to nip Vicki's delicious breast as it passed over her but she resisted and continued to drowse. She heard the three of them talking then she heard the door close.  And then a shriek had her sitting bolt upright on the bed.  Vicki was jumping up and down waving her hand in the air.

"We did it!  We did it!  We did it!  Here, this is your's," she said, handing Eliza a wad of money.

"Huh?"  She looked at the wad of money and reflexively counted it.  "EEK!  This is two weeks salary!  You have got to be kidding me!"

"You and me, we're quite a team.  Your innocent librarian look is a real winner.  Sweetie, you're like honey to flies!"  Vicki said laughing.  "Hey, we've got the room for another hour.  What do you say that we finish the champagne then go back to my place and crash."

"That sounds like a plan to me!  Let's do it."

"Oh, here you go."  Vicki handed her a water tumbler and filled it with the champagne and poured herself one too.

Taking the glass, Eliza sat back on the bed, sipping slowly at the champagne.  Smiling, still drowsy, she lay there watching Vicki.

Vicki, still bouncing, looked at Eliza grinning.  “What?  why are you staring,” she asked.

“Is it always this good, this much money?” Eliza wanted to know.

“No, not usually, you can meet some weirdos too,” Vicki replied.  “I remember once , some guy thought he was a vampire, and wanted to bite my neck,” she laughed.  “I don’t believe in things like that,” Vicki said.

With a smile, Eliza wanted to know why not.  “What would you do if you found out they were real?” she asked.

“Well to me, they rank right up there with ghouls and witches and things like that.  I have never seen them so I don’t believe they really exist.”

Laughing, the two of them finished the champagne and continued talking.

Eliza realized that she would need to sleep soon; she needed to rejuvenate.  Either here, Vicki’s place or her own home, but it was becoming increasing obvious that she was going to crash.

“If we’re going, Vicki, lets go.  I know our hour here is up and we gotta go.  I’d just as soon we either get to your place or go home now.  This booze and, she snickered, has combined to make me very tired.”

Gathering their things together, making one last sweep of the room to make sure they left nothing behind, they left the room.

Seeing it was almost dawn, Eliza knew she needed to get to safety soon.  The daylight was becoming more and more bothersome to her eyes.

“Slow down Eliza, damn, but you move fast.  I’m running to keep up.”

Sorry, Vicki, I didn’t realize I was moving that quickly.  I know I walk fast and  sometimes don’t think about it when someone else is with me.”  She adjusted her pace to a slower walk for Vicki’s sake.

They arrived at Vicki’s a few moments later, and both went in.

“Will you stay or do you need to get home?” Vicki asked.

"I’ll stay, but I need to sleep, I’m so very tired now.  This working at night has really changed my habits around,” Eliza said.

They went to Vicki’s apartment and as Eliza sat on the couch, she found herself falling asleep.  No choice, just . . . falling asleep.

She never felt Vicki shaking her nor did she feel the light covering she placed over her.  She slept as if dead.