Payne rolled over and tried to pull the thin cover tighter around her.  She hated winter.  So far, the only time she'd been warm was in that weird flying broads apartment.  She was a strange one.  She curled up and put her head under the covers to capture the heat.  It was better than nothing.  Noise from the street was making impossible to get back to sleep.  The demolition was absolutely impossible to sleep through.  This building would go soon too, but at least it was dry and kept most of the wind off of her.  She wondered why no one else was using it. 

She got up and went into the bathroom.  "Maybe I should move back in with Lennie," she thought.  "Living like this sucks."  She had a plastic bottle of water and she poured it on her hands and splashed in on her face.  At least the weird lady had let her take a shower.  She looked at her clothing.  It was still presentable.  She knew enough people to get laundry done and promote the occasional bath, but there had to be a better way. 

She sat on her floor mattress and sipped the cold coffee from last night and considered Eliza.  It was hard to think of her having a name.  She'd followed her for almost two week now and she'd never guessed she was being followed.  Payne could move like a ghost.

That night in the park had started it.  She'd see Eliza follow a young man into the park and vanish into the darkness with him.  Sometime later, she'd come out and Payne could have sworn she had blood on her.  She'd been torn between following her or checking on the man. She settled for checking on the man, and much to her surprise, he was sitting, leaning against a tree smiling and acting distracted and dreamy.  He'd never seen her.

She'd retraced her steps, and with a combination of instinct and luck, had  managed to catch up with Eliza.  That started the game.  Payne, much to her distress, found herself becoming a night person.  She began thinking of Eliza as the "Wild Child."  She quickly realized that Eliza was no child, but she certainly was wild.  Eliza, on more than one occasion had calmly walked into areas that she'd not even consider going into. 

Payne reached over and got the pizza box that was on the floor next to the mattress and pulled out a slice of yesterday's pizza.  She chewed distractedly on it taking small sips of coffee to wash it down.  One thing, well, more than one, but the first thing that had really scared her was the murder.  It had been in the papers.  It had not made the front page because it was only a couple of drug dealers but it had be an inside story of some note.  Two known drug dealers were found dead and really cut up. The paper made it sound like some sort of drug deal gone wrong but it really didn't hold together.  Payne knew the two were acquaintances and worked some "girls" together.  They may have done a little dealing on the side, probably to keep the girls supplied and in line, but they'd not be dumb enough to piss off any heavy hitters.  They were not that stupid, but they were known for brutality to their girls.  Noone, not even the cops, were sorry they were gone.

What was disturbing Payne, was that she'd followed Eliza into that area on the night of the murders.  She'd only gone so far and then she'd be afraid to follow any further.  It was a cold night lit by a full moon low in the sky. The wind was blowing evil looking clouds across the sky and it was not a good night to not be out and an even worse night to be in this area.  She'd huddled, cold, and more than a little scared in a door way for almost an hour and then she'd given up and gone back to Eliza's apartment building.  Eliza appeared about fifteen minutes later and that was eerie, too.  That was it.  She appeared.  Payne had not seen her approach, had not heard her, but suddenly, there she was. 

She'd gone into her building and a few minutes later a dim light showed in her window.  Payne had returned to her place in the breaking dawn.  That afternoon, when she'd awakened, she'd pulled a paper from a trash can and flipped to the local news.  The two column picture caught her eye.  She recognized it from the previous night because she'd spent time freezing her ass off staring at that same view.  An arrow indicated the alley that Eliza had turned into and that had caused her to give up following.  Payne had slowly lowered the paper, her hands slightly trembling and then she shook her head.  No, it was impossible, not that tiny little thing. 

Several nights later, she saw a confrontation between Eliza and an obnoxious drunk.  Eliza had done something, she never did see quite what it was, but the drunk and dropped to his knees and was literally begging for mercy.  Before walking away, Eliza kicked him in the stomach, revealing a mean streak as well as some surprising self-defense abilities.  Payne was only about 5'3" and not much more than 110 pounds but Eliza was tiny compared to even her.  When she'd helped Eliza down from the dumpster, she'd been light as a feather.  Payne could not understand how she'd dropped the drunk but then she couldn't understand how she could fly, yes fly!  And she didn't understand how Eliza ha saved her life.

Yes, saved her life.  She'd jumped.  Payne sighed and wasn't sure if she was glad or sad that she was still alive.  Life sucked and she knew it, but for once in her life she had the nerve to do it and . . . and she was still here.  Payne sighed and shivered.  It was cold.  The coffee was cold.  The pizza was cold an she was cold.  The freaky bitch had really tried to be nice.  She had saved her life and when she went all talky, she'd said, "If you ever need anything, call on me.  If I can, I'll help."  Payne picked up the last ice cold pizza slice and threw the muddy coffee across the filthy room.  Stuffing the pizza slice into her mouth, she picked up a small duffle bag and walked out of the abandoned building chewing day old cold pizza.
 

"No, no, no, no. . .  Not again."  Eliza pulled the covers over her head but the knocking and the buzzing of the door bell continued.  "Oh, shit," she muttered.  "It day damn light!"  She sat up and yelled, "Stop that damn banging!  I'm coming."  To her relief, the banging and buzzing did stop.  Squinting, she found the old robe and pulled it around her bare body and staggered to her feet, trying to avoid as much of the sunlight in the dim room as possible.  As she made her way towards the door, she heard raised voices and a smack. 

Yanking the door open, she saw a skinny man holding onto the girl she'd met the other night and he was drawing his hand back as if to strike her.  Eliza realized what the smack she'd heard was.  "Let go of me, you bastard!  I'm not your damn property," Payne screamed and spit in his face.  His hand was descending towards her face when Eliza interspersed herself between her and the hand, grabbing it in a iron grip. 

"You don't want to do that," she hissed in a deadly low voice. 

Pain flickered across his face from the strength of her grip.  Eliza looked as bad as she felt.  Her hair was mussed, her face was haggard and she was squinting the daylight of the hallway.  The man glared at her and spat an obscenity.  His attempt to twist his arm from her grip failed but served to irritate her even more.  With a vicious twist, she dropped him to his back, his leg folded awkwardly behind him.  Maintaining her grip, she dropped her right knee painfully on his stomach.  She leaned forward, and showing just a hint of fang, said, "You're trying to piss me off, aren't you?"

He glanced at her exposed breasts, her very angry face and felt the power of what had happened.  "No ma'am," he gasped.  "No, I'm not.  Honest!"  With a lightning move, Eliza pulled him to his feet, spun him around and with a well placed foot, propelled him towards the stairwell exit.  Without looking back, he yanked the heavy door open and his retreating footsteps could be heard banging down the stairs. 

Eliza pulled her robe together with one hand and grabbed Payne's hand with the other and pulled her into the dim apartment and closed the door.  She spun towards a flabbergasted Payne and hissed, "You pick a gad awful time to come banging on my door!"  She held her had up and shook her head.  "Sorry!  I told you any time day or night.  I just wasn't expecting this day."  She tried to smile and almost succeeded. She yawned and sat heavily on the couch. 

Eliza became aware of shaking.  "Are you ok?  You don't look good."  Eliza opened one eye and nodded. 

"'m ok.  Just need sleep."  She waved distractedly,  "Make yourself at home," and promptly went back to sleep.

Payne stared at the sleeping Eliza.  "What a contradiction," she mused to her self.  "Hope she has some food in the house.  Opening the refrigerator, was a disappointing and slightly nauseating experience.  There were two bags of blood there and a can of open cat food.  The opening of the refrigerator door did attract a large cat, though, who gently rubbed her leg and meowed his desire to be fed.  She was not exactly a cat lover, but this one seemed to be polite so she gave him a quick scratch behind an ear and emptied the can into his bowl on the floor.  She also added some fresh water to his water bowl. Much to her surprise, she got a thank you rub before he started eating.  "Cat's as weird as she is," she thought.

Her search to the kitchen yelled a box of stale corn flakes and several bottles of brandy, good stuff, too.  Payne is a survivor.  Pouring the corn flakes into a bowl, she added some brandy from an open bottle and had a brunch.  Three bowls later, she was full and more than a little tipsy.  The brandy had a lot more punch than she'd expected.  Giggling at the circumstances she found herself in.  Payne wandered into the bed room and flopped onto the empty bed.  She held on to the side of the bed to keep from tilting off, and within minutes, fell asleep smiling, full and warm for the first time in weeks.
 

Payne was having trouble breathing.  She twisted her head to the right and left and felt a weight leave her chest and heard a giggle.  She opened her eyes, and in the dim light, realized she was nose to nose with a large cat.  He head butted her between the eyes and jumped over her body and she heard him thud to the floor.  "If Toby likes you, I guess you can't be as bad as you look."  She rolled over and saw Eliza sitting next to the bed watching her.  She sure looked better than the last time.  Her short, dark hair was neatly combed, she was wearing form fitting leather pants and a soft white blouse.  She was smiling but staring at Payne intently, almost studying her.

Payne realized she was in Eliza's bed and felt very uncomfortable at being discovered there.  She quickly sat up and regretted it instantly.  Her head throbbed and her eyes felt like they were going to pop out.  "Oh god," she whispered. 

Eliza giggled again.  "Stale cornflakes and brandy is not the best bed time meal!  Here," she said, holding our a paper container with a metal handle.  Payne's eyes snapped open and she grabbed the pint container of shrimp fried rice, who's odor had preceded it.  Smiling, Eliza handed her a fork.  After a few big swallows she looked at Eliza and smiled. "For a freaking weirdo, you're all right!"  She chewed and swallowed.  "Really, thanks."

Eliza sat back and stared at Payne, shaking her head and watching Payne wolf down a full pint of shrimp fried rice.  "You are a piece of work girl.  You want to tell me what was going on this morning?"

Payne wiped her mouth with the back of her hand and sat the empty carton on the bed.  "Nah, not really.  You want to tell me what the hell you did?  I mean you come running out half naked and act like Kung Fu Mamma, not that I ain't grateful, he was getting ready to pound me good, but what the hell did you do?" 

Eliza stood and paced around the room.  She wasn't quite sure what to do with Payne.  Should she like her, trust her, or kick her ass out?  Somehow she reminded Eliza of Toby.  He was down and out when she'd found him and it was rather obvious that Payne was fighting a battle and losing.  She was far too thin, dirty, and smelly but feisty and not giving an inch.  Eliza looked at her and sighed.

"How old are you anyway?  I mean you look like twelve but you work in a bar and you've got a really nice apartment, even if you don't have any food in it."

"What?"  Eliza retorted.  "How do you know I work in a bar?"

"Sheeit, I've been watching you for almost a month and you never tumbled to it!"  Payne's eyes got big and she slapped both hands over her mouth, almost as if she was trying to push the words back in.  The expression on Eliza's face was not encouraging her to continue.  She suddenly remembered how easily she'd dropped Lennie that morning.  She could swear her eyes were actually glowing and was it her imagination or did she really have fangs?

Eliza shivered and got her emotions under control.  The few mortals who knew what she was would never engage her like this, and no vampire would deliberately antagonize another.  It was just too dangerous.  It took an effort of will to get the fangs to recede.  At this point, if Payne figured out what she was, she wasn't sure what she'd do.  She snorted.  Codrin would say to eat her and that would solve the problem, but Eliza really didn't want to go that route.  Eliza took a deep breath.  "Payne, why are you here?"

Payne felt butterflies in her stomach all of a sudden, and her hands were slightly shaking.  "You said if I ever needed anything, I could call on you," she said in a small voice.  "I was cold and I was hungry and. . . and. . ." she sighed "I needed help."  A tear leaked out of one eye and was angrily wiped away.  "Hey," she said more forcefully, "if you don't want to help, that's ok.  I understand.  Why would you want to help me, anyway?  I'm nothing like you and I really don't deserve your attention.  I just mess everything up." 

Eliza could sense the desperation and depression in her voice and it almost broke her heart.  She knew that feeling.  Eliza remembered her jumping over the side.  This one was brittle.  She could break and there would be nothing left.  Eliza sat on the bed next to her and put her arm around her shoulders.  "I'll help you, Payne.  I'll help."  Payne stiffened but she didn't pull away.  Then she relaxed and before Eliza realized what was happening, Payne's arms were around her and she was sobbing.  Eliza held her and looked at the ceiling, wondering what to do.  Rocking gently, murmuring nonsensical words, Eliza waited for the frenzy of weeping to end. 

Slowly the crying eased and she could feel Payne struggling to gain control.  Suddenly Payne pushed away from Eliza and sat with her head hanging.  Brushing her face with her sleeves to wipe away the tears, she sniffled.  Eliza passed her the box of tissues and waited.

Eliza quietly said, "I told you I’d help, and I will.  I need to know how I can help, what you need.  We covered the cold and hungry.  You ate and are or should be, warm.  Now, how else can I help?"

Payne looked at Eliza and swallowed convulsively.  She knew she was going to have to tell Eliza something.  She just wasn’t sure what.  It had been so long since she trusted anyone, that it was hard to do so now.  She sat silently looking at Eliza, thinking about how to start and what to say. 

Putting on an air of bravado, Payne stood up and not quite able to hold Eliza’s eye, said, "Um well, thanks for the food, I’m gonna go now."  She moved hesitantly, as if waiting for Eliza to make some protest.  Eliza just sat watching her.  She knew it wasn’t going to be easy, but if she wanted help, she was going to have to ask for it.  Eliza knew she couldn’t force her to accept it.  All she could do was be there, if possible, when or if she was needed.  She wasn’t sure she wanted to get involved in the first place.

Payne moved toward the door and stopped.  "You really are going to let me go aren’t you?" she asked Eliza. 

"Look Payne, I can’t force you to trust me or to confide in me.  All I can do is say that I am here if you need me.  It still stands.  When you’re ready you can tell me as much or as little as you want.  But know this, I cannot help you if I don’t know what it is you’re fighting or afraid of," Eliza told her.  "I’ll wait.  You’ll realize I can be your best friend or your worst enemy."

Payne’s face whitened and she said, "I saw what you did to that guy this morning, and I’m glad you were a friend.  I don’t think I’d like to be on your bad side."

"Where are you staying Payne?" Eliza asked her.  "If you need a place to crash, there’s an extra bedroom here."  Eliza surprised herself with that statement, although she knew that it had to be made.  She knew someone that was living on the street when she saw them and Payne had all the earmarks of a street person.  Eliza felt she was too young to be alone on the street. 

Payne stopped, listening to Eliza.  She was torn.  What to do?  She hesitated and then turned around, slowly, hesitantly moving back to the couch.  Her face white, almost a pale as Eliza’s, she asked, "can I stay?" 

Eliza knew how much this had taken, to ask that question and without hesitation, nodded and gestured to the spare room.  "The bed’s made up.  Pointing to another door, "you know where the bathroom is," Eliza commented. 

Looking at Payne, Eliza told her seriously, "remember Payne, I won’t ask and you don’t need to tell me anything.  If you want to talk, say so and I’ll listen.  I can help or I can stay out of it.  Your choice., always.  I sleep during the day and my day is the night.  You can choose either, but try not to wake me when I’m sleeping.  I tend to get cranky."  With a slight smile at Payne, Eliza moved to her bedroom.  Coming back to the spare room, Eliza dumped a load of clean towels, wash cloths and such items as Payne would need on the bed. 

"Eliza............um, thanks," Payne stammered.  Turning away, she made a show of putting the towels and things away.  Grabbing the backpack that wasn’t too far away from her at all times, Payne looked quickly around and saw that Eliza had left the room again.  Quickly she unpacked the few clothes she had and a hairbrush and comb.  Glad Eliza had given her a new toothbrush, she smiled sadly.  Payne took a quick look at the picture she pulled out next and buried it under the few clothes in the draw.  A silent tear ran down her cheek. The hairbrush and comb looked out of place on the dresser top.  They were silver.  But they were all she had left from before.  Not much when you think about it.  A hairbrush and comb of silver and one photograph.  Sinking down onto the floor, she put her head in her hands.  She’d lost so much, but she’d made it so far.  She wasn’t going to let this setback stop her.  She had an agenda. Doubt crept in and with it the depression she had to constantly fight.  "When would it all end," she thought?  She’d come so close to giving in the other night.  Jumping off the roof, that was sheer stupidity.  If she’d died, he would have won and she wouldn’t let him.  She’d made it this far, she wouldn’t give in now. 

She couldn’t.