Leaving Austin

Sangre flexed her hands on the wheel and shut her eyes for a moment. She could hear the clanging of the wheels and the low churn as the train lumbered to carry it's own weight across the tracks in front of her. 'I have too much in common with a train' she thought. 'I am older than I should be and my bones feel tired.'

"Damn it" she said. 15 minutes had passed and no end to the train was in sight.

She was still about 100 miles from Nachton City and she had no idea what the hell she was going to do when she got there. Beside her on the passenger seat was the beat up matchbook that freaky feral kid, Tommy, had given her. Everything she needed, he said, just follow the yellow brick road. What as ass, he'd been. But then he'd mentioned the Tacharan and Sangre knew she needed to get out of Austin for good.

It was long past time to go. All the ghosts around there were played out, tired and bitter. She had nothing else to show them and the city felt chaotic with new bigger, badder blood moving in. Most of the short timers were already gone - fallen to each others rage, or to the bullet, or some glory hunter's vengeance plan. Stupid and full of risk, they'd walked around acting like they were in a Goddamn movie. No happy endings there. Lets face it - most of the vampires she had ever met had been bad guys. REALLY bad guys AND gals sweating from a fresh kill ready to show the underworld just how fucking tough they were; so they mostly deserved what they got. She'd avoided that path for over a hundred years, she wasn't about start getting messed up in all of that now.

If those dramatics weren't enough, her friends, her real friends, were starting to talk as well...

'Sangre - you just never seem to change. You don't look a bit older this year. What's your secret?'

Forever 31 in a neat little package.

With a long whistle, the train had passed and the crossing arm lifted slowly for her to move on. But she sat there, her cold fingertips pressed to her eye lids. What was she doing? What did she expect in Nachton? Tommy had said she'd find parts of herself there that had long been missing. The clans were there, he'd said. All her life she'd fought her vampire side. That change had not been her choice and to give in, to surrender to it, seemed accepting of it somehow. It confused and scared her.

She checked her watch. 4:37 am. Not long until dawn and she wasn't sleeping in the trunk again. Sangre slid the car back into gear and headed out.