Selene would regret ever wearing that perfume, a sweet lilac scent. The perfume was so strong and fresh, Zea easily tracked Selene to an old lab building. The building was in a secluded spot on campus that if a fight broke out, which she was counting on, no one would notice.

The dilapidated building was in the midst of being renovated as Zea entered. The roof had pockets of holes that let in some of the moonlight so Zea stuck to the shadows as she made her way down the halls as soundless as possible. She didn’t want Selene to see her coming.

Selene’s perfume led Zea to a large room that had a mix of construction equipment covered in tarps and abandoned, broken desks. In the back of the room, leaning on a large dust covered desk that was missing one leg, was Selene. She had her arms crossed and she didn’t look all too surprised to see Zea approached her with a drawn sword.

“A cultist witch,” snarled Zea, showing her fangs.

“The witch part is true but not the cultist,” said Selene. “However,  you’re a vampire and a nerd. Both are very true.”

“You should've run instead of waiting for me,” said Zea. “Now surrender.” She took a deep breath.

Suddenly, Zea disappeared and then reappeared with her sword at Selene’s throat. “You won’t be fast enough to cast a spell,” she warned.

“Yeah, I know. I am counting on it,” grinned Selene.

Arms made from the building’s titled floors shot up underneath Zea and enveloped her in a tight grip. “You think this will stop me?” she barked. She still held her sword and only her arm was trapped between two giant tiled fingers.

“I know you can throw that by a snap of your wrist and probably take my head off. After all, you nearly did,” said Selene who then faded away and only her voice could be heard. “By the way, that flower you’ve been growing for eighty years is ugly.”

“So it was you at the gardens.” Zea’s eyes glowed red and she by sheer strength of her sword arm broke one of the tiled fingers. The golden necklace she found was a ruse planted by Selene, but to what end?  “Was I going to be your next victim?” she asked. She looked around for Selene as she broke the other tiled finger to set herself free.

Selene’s voice echoed. “I was going to ask you the same.”

The construction equipment flew off from their places and formed into a creature with sawed arms and sledgehammer legs. The creature launched itself at Zea with its sawed arms swinging in circles like a mad man. 

Zea dodged and blocked the creature’s attack. She ducked a side way kick from the creature that instead took out a pile of broken desks. “I am giving you one more chance to come out and surrender,” she said. Her vampiric senses started to heighten as she tried to pinpoint where Selene really was.

The creature slammed down it’s saw-blades limbs in a fury of blows on Zea. Cement and wood dust kicked up into the room. 

“No, you surrender, nerd,” Selene’s voice sounded very close to Zea.

Then the creature stopped suddenly. It was still for a few seconds before each piece of construction equipment fell to the ground one by one. When the dust settled, standing in front of the pile of equipment, was Selene being held by Zea with a sword at her neck and arms twisted behind her back.

“Damn, I didn’t know you can be that fast,” said Selene. 

Zea controlled her breathing. She didn’t want to show that moving that fast had actually made her out of breath and her limbs felt they were on fire. She felt a little embarrassed, that after all these years since she had left the monastery that had taught her to move at the speed of sound, she had yet to master it.

“But it seems you have a limit,” commented Selene.

“It doesn’t matter. You shouldn’t have put on that perfume. Makes it so easy to track you,” snarled Zea into Selene’s ear. Her fangs were out in full and she was tempted to bite into Selene’s sweet delicate neck and drink her dry.

“Did you like it? It’s not a perfume,” said Selene. “And judging how much you have been sniffing me, it should be kicking in right now.”

Zea’s arms suddenly let go. Selene quickly moved away. What’s going on? Her sword dropped out of her hand. She stumbled backward until she hit a pillar. She slid down until she sat on the floor like a broken doll.

“What did you do to me?” barked Zea.  Her limbs were not obeying her.

“Isn’t it obvious? My perfume was your undoing.” Selene approached Zea. She knelt down and lifted Zea's chin. “And given that you are a fodder, this should last for the whole night,” she smiled widely.

Zea glared at her.

“Oh, I know because that hickey was a dead give away,” chuckled Selene. “The average vampire doesn't have bruises like those lasting for more than an hour.” She winked. “You still had your hickey when class was over.”

Zea was not amused, but she was impressed how much Selene gleaned from that small detail. She made a note to cover her hickies better in the future and, should they meet again, be more careful around the witch. 

Then Selene became serious. “Before I turned you into the East Coast Coven, the one thing I couldn’t solve was why you were collecting body parts. You don’t seem to be the type to collect trophies of your victims.”

Zea knitted her eyebrows. “What are you talking about? I am not the murderer. You are!” 

“Hmm.” Selene pursed her lips. “You were in New York City a few weeks ago. So that puts you at the time and place of Samuel Wicker’s murder. Considering you had just made,” she cleared her throat, “a pact with the West Coast Coven, you also have a motive. It is a known fact that Talia has no love for Thomas Wicker.”

“I didn’t kill the son of the High Priest of the East Coast Coven,” countered Zea. She remembered Talia mentioning her disdain for Thomas Wicker in the past but that was it. The high priestess didn’t dislike him enough to want to kill his only son. However, it is a big concern that there was another victim.

“Then why were you in New York City?” asked Selene. Her voice tilted like she already knew the answer.

“I was visiting,” Zea said slowly. 

“Correction, you were visiting your old home in Boston and were passing through New York City,” said Selene. 

Zea was surprised Selene saw through that. Despite her current situation, she was impressed with Selene. “How much do you know of me?” she curiously asked. She had covered her past to the point no one in the vampire council in Europe knew who she really was except for that one bloodling of her sire. Despite that blooding strong dislike of her, they wouldn’t tell out of pure embarrassment it would be to them and their sire. Afterall, she was Dracula’s shame.

“Enough to know that Zea isn’t your real name,” said Selene. She studied Zea’s face by turning the vampire’s head side to side by the chin. 

Zea arched an eyebrow as Selene gently brushed her thumb over the bottom of her lips. Why was Selene examining her? What is she looking for? More importantly, what was she going to do next?

Selene then adjusted Zea so that the vampire could look at her without her help.  She then stood up and crossed her arms. “Hmmm.” She started tapping the tip of her shoes on the ground a few times rapidly before she spoke again. “I think for the first time in my life I might have gotten the wrong person.”

“I am beginning to think that maybe you aren’t the killer, let alone a cultist,” said Zea.

“If I am the killer, then why are you alive right now?” chuckled Selene. “Use that big brain of yours, nerd.”

Zea could help but crack a smile. “Yes, it’s highly unlikely you are the killer but you drew that pentagram on Roberta Langley in blood.”

“I was attempting to get the dead to speak. Needless to say, I am not that great with necromancy,” said Selene, slightly annoyed. “Damn, I am back to square one. I was so sure too. The clues tracked to the university. If it’s not you, who could it be then, hmm?”

Zea heard the footstep and then the click of a crossbow getting ready to shoot. “Get down!” she shouted.