Authors Note: This short has about 9500 words. It’s in the world of the Hypernaturals so there are adult Vampires doing Adult Vampire things with humans in here. You have been warned
Copyright 2010, 2018 CJ Stevens
Nova looked up the cliff at the ruins of ‘her’ people and could not help but be sad. These ruins had been empty for at least five hundred years, her people spreading out and away from these dwellings. They could not stay. Not being able to stay was a very old story for her people here. Nova had not been of her people even back then, but they were her people still, in her heart.
As an Archaeologist specializing in early American cultures doing post-Doc work, Nova had free rein, all across this city. She knew at some level almost everyone working on not just this site, but several others. She certainly knew where the unattached men were, Just in case the compulsion arose.
Some on the projects commented on her deep knowledge of the subject given her age, but she was considered an Archaeologists Archaeologist: A person only others in the field would ever know about and respect.
Nova made sure it was that way. She could not do her work if she did not have at least some respect in the field, but she wanted no attention outside it. She never wanted to be on late night television, in the slot the pet or animal wrangler people often filled, talking about her controversial theories regarding the ancient Pueblo people.
For one thing, they were not theories, but only her own kind really understood that. She could not afford to stand out too far, and gain too much attention. She did not want anyone getting deeply interested in her or her life.
Nova was here, in her homeland after years of not being able to be here, and she wanted to stay. Continue her dangerous work. Work she had started so very long ago. She had her first name back in this iteration of herself. For most of her kind that was normal: to keep the first name and only change all the other parts as life slipped into life. That used to be a lot easier than it is today. She had to be very careful and spend a great deal of time rebuilding and re-establishing that which she knew so well. She had to use words like “Anasazi” which, at one point in her life, had been poison on her tongue to use. She had adapted. She knew that the work meant being part of the modern community no matter how offensive some current assumptions might be.
Nova knew her time to solve this current problem was limited. Sooner or later someone would stumble onto her find. That could not happen. At least, the humans could never find the sight as it really was. She admitted to herself that as wrong headed as modern thought was about her people sometimes, she was responsible for some false trails that had been taken. When the sites were found and Nova’s historic tinkering was not detected it was assumed that the grave had been this way since it’s original interment. The more centuries that has passed since she had changed things at the site, the better. She only changed something when it was required to hide the bigger truth. As a scientist she valued truth above everything but the necessity of keeping the Secret.
It was getting harder to remain undetected. Modern science was going to be able to better detect her early efforts someday. See how something was disturbed that does not add up. What had been discovered so far was considered to be grave robbing or the like.
She had to be very careful, but that was Nova. She never took any risks she did not have to. She double and triple checked everything. She learned and educated herself constantly to be sure she was always one step ahead.
Ultimately she was going to be required to work with others. Groups like the Cleanup Crew. She was never going to be able to know all she needed to know anymore. She could not be Anthropologist, Archeologist, Forger, and have every skill of a Forensic scientist too. Just her footprints left behind things that she had to cover up for fear of creating a noticeable disruption..
Nova had professional respect for the women on the Cleaning Crew. They were one of the few in their world that were supported by the Council. The women of the Crew could spend all their time learning and doing, without having to spend a great deal of time building credibility with the outside world. They were a sort of secret society inside the secret society.
Nova had left her sister up there too long, in her secret place. Soon enough, she was going to have to change things. Adapt them to whatever story they needed the site to tell. She was going to have to let the Cleaners help her this time.
She sighed. Looked over at the hot sun, felt it beating on her skin. She was wearing a large-brimmed hat, and scarves around her neck to keep the sun off. Sunburn can happen even to someone as dark as herself out here. The sun would be down soon enough. The students and their teachers would pull back to the tents and the nearby bars to talk about the days finds. Nova felt the pangs. She wanted companionship. Company.
The little bar probably would not even exist if not for the college trade. Universities like Stanford, William and Mary, Brown, Boston U, to name but a few sent people here. That was just the North American ones too. The ruins of the Pueblo People were known throughout the world, and if they did not gather quite as much attention from early Civilization studies as, say, the Pyramids, the ruins in the Mediterranean, or even the fossil digs in Africa, they at least had the advantage of being in a modern Western country. Travel was easier and there were bars and liquor stores.
This little bar was one of Nova’s favorites. They knew how to make a Manhattan. It was an open air design, so the sweaty scents of confined humanity were spread out. As a bonus, it was popular with the students.
Nova looked like a woman in her mid twenties. No beauty by modern standards with a more prominent than average brow, she also was not ugly. Her long black hair, usually in a braid, could be freed to cascade about her face and shoulders, and was often admired by the men she slept with.
She had been keeping an eye on one young man and decided tonight was going to be his night. He was always alone and always at the bar, with papers spread out. He was small framed, and wore thick rimmed, geeky looking glasses. His dark brown hair was always in a mop from him running his hands through it as he worked on the papers.
Nova had been circling him for a couple of weeks. Knew the papers all over the place were the basis of his Doctorate. He was trying to prove that the climate changes in the region were far more responsible for the movements of the people than war or other factors. As such, he had taken core samples of rocks, and spectrographs of plant remains and was looking for any possible way to get that available water in any given range of years. Map it to movements. His work was very data intensive. One reason he liked the bar was not just more counter space, but it had a plug for his laptop and tablet computers. There was a lot of inference in his data, and his ideas, but Nova knew he was on the right track.
He was a geek among geeks. A loner. Against stereotype, he did not smell all that bad. Clearly, even out here in the desert, he bathed. His drink of choice was beer, and he always matched his beer with a tumbler full of room temperature water so that he never got that drunk. Given how many beers he drank, he was amazingly thin. All in all he seemed perfect for Nova. All she needed to know now was whether he liked women. If he preferred men, then she had just wasted a lot of stalking.
His name was Andy, and it was time to see if she needed to have a quick rethink on this. It would not be the first time she had decided that a man was her next lover, and it turned out he was largely immune from her charms because his sexual orientation ran another way.
Andy was in his usual place, his drinks to the side of the laptop, everything else in an arc in front of him, in piles only he understood.
Nova’s preparations for this foray into Andy’s world were twofold. One, she had some data for him. Two, she was fresh from a shower, her long hair loose and shining. Her clothes were a fresh set of what she “wore to work”: Khaki slacks. Khaki shirt, long sleeves rolled up exposing her unmarked forearms. Boots only slightly dusty: No scarves or hat tonight. She wanted him to have a good view of her body and her hair. She was as thin as he was in most ways, she wore no bra, and had the buttons on her shirt down enough to be clear what sex she was, without being too open. She did not want to scare him off. He seemed flighty.
“Hello” Nova said as she stood to his right, looked openly over his papers with interest.
“Uh.. Hi?” Andy replied, clearly not even aware she had been standing there.
“You’re Andy.. Right? Doing the Doc work on the movement patterns during Pueblo one and two?”
Andy looked more engaged in the conversation now. Less distracted by whatever he had been concentrating on.
“Uh.. Yes. How do you know about… me. That? Do I know you?” Andy looked Nova over more closely, and she was satisfied to see his regard linger for an extra second on the open buttons of her shirt. It was a good sign.
“No, no. Not yet. I’m Nova. Doing some Post-Doc stuff out here, but I did some undergrad work on your topic. Thought you might be interested in some of my raw data. The hardest thing about this stuff is getting the data pulled together. I’m working on the cannibalism meme thing now, so I don’t really need the data any more. I never published any of it, but it’s solid. You are welcome to it.”
Nova knew there was a lot in that for Andy to absorb, and that was on purpose. She wanted him off balance while she evaluated him close in. She flipped some hair forward and watched his involuntary response. His eyes switching to the hair that ran over her chest. She inhaled deeply and decided he would do. From that point on, Andy was no longer going to be making any real, conscious decisions about how the night would go. Nova was firmly in control. He was interested. That was all she needed.
She knew others that were far better at this than her. How she did this was of necessity. She wanted to like the man. Enjoy him. Give to him before it was all too soon over, and she was just a memory. She wanted that memory to be a good one for him because it was going to be a good one for her.
Andy loosened up, and they talked for a while. Nova was in no hurry because she had not let the compulsion build into a deep need. She ordered a Manhattan with a side of water. She did not try to match Andy drink for drink. She intended to remember the night completely.
After a time she decided Andy was more than ready. He was pulled out of his project and focused utterly on her. Perhaps that extra open button helped, but Nova had an arsenal at her command. Andy was going to be with her tonight and for a few nights to come.
“Andy: I want to you come over to my room. I have some of my research data. I’ll show it to you: See if you think it will be useful.”
Andy was Nova’s favorite kind of man. One that she had to seduce both mind and body on. It was so much more satisfying than a one-night stand with some brute. There had been more than enough of those along the way. Needs are needs.
“Sure, Nova. Sounds good. I would love to see your stuff. Let me pack this stuff up.” And Andy was geek enough that when he said ‘see your stuff’ he was talking about data, not her body. That was going to change soon enough.
At her room, Nova set her purse down on the stand for the luggage, and waved Andy in. He looked around with interest, noted her field hat and scarfs wrapped around a lamp that was off, and acted like he had not seen the inside of a generic hotel room recently. In truth, since Nova was in it for the summer, as a home base when she was not up at a site overnighting, it had a few touches that were not standard. Nova never really put down roots, but she needed some beauty in her life too.
She carried with her some pottery pieces. She had made them, in the various styles of her people over the years. She also had a Navajo blanket folded at the foot of her bed, and a weaving replaced the standard hotel picture on the wall. It was in the closet. She could pack it all in five minutes or less.
Andy was no dummy. Nova felt a certain bit of pride at her choice. He picked up the pottery with admiration. “Oh. Nice! These look authentic.” He flipped them over. Spun them around. Held them close to the lamp by the bed “Oh. These are. Wow. I never had any of these for my own. Could not even afford them. Where did you get them?”
“They have been in my family for years. I am descended from the people here.”
Andy looked up at Nova with a new appreciation.
“I thought you looked like you had some Pueblo genes in you, but wasn’t sure. All the tribes around here and all the intermarrying. You look like you are very full-blooded. Being here must be super interesting to on an entirely different level than for most.”
Nova smiled at him warmly. “It is. Very much. I have never done any research into my family tree, which is funny when you consider my profession, but my mom always said we were pure blooded. That was important to her. It is less so to me. People are people. White man is here to stay, and not all of them are bringing blankets full of small pox. You don’t seem to have any disease ridden blankets with you.”
Andy laughed nervously “Yeah: I live here. I work all the time. I am too poor a student to buy any authentic Indian blankets. The closest I get to disease and malady out here is I get paper-cuts from my research paper and lungs full of dust. Bruises. Pulled muscles. A sore back. Even scorpion stings from time to time. Nothing communicable.”
Nova knew going even that far into the realm of being suggestive was a real effort for Andy. He obviously did not date a lot of women. She extended her plans for him. She would probably have to teach him first. The thought of a longer term relationship was not unwelcome, even if, ultimately, it was a bad idea. It would just be harder to leave him later.
She dusted off her shirt front.”Yes: Dust is our way of life. Isn’t it?” With his attention back where she wanted it, she moved to him slowly. Took her pottery from his hands and set it carefully back on the bedside table. Andy’s eyes were wide, but he was rooted to the spot, watching her. Nova could read him well. His scent told her many things in addition to the obvious visual cues. Andy had not expected anything to happen in her room, despite her being pretty obvious at the bar. It’s not that he did not want it to happen. He very much did. He just did not expect it.
Nova wondered if Andy might be a virgin. That would actually kinda suck. She was small, and though he was not tall, he was a little taller than she was. She looked up into his eyes. Slowly unbuttoned her shirt and pulled the tails out of her pants. The scent from her skin wafted up to his nose, and he inhaled deeply. His eyes dropped to her newly exposed body. Her skin was smooth and flawless. Andy was lost in her as she knew he would have to be once she got this close, in a private space, where she could let her pheromones do what they were meant to do.
As they lay together, Andy slept. As well he might since there was no way he could keep up with her in real life. Andy was only human. Even under her obvious welcome and with her clearly expressed sexual intent, he had been tentative at first. Not a virgin but also not sure of himself. To his credit, he was a fast learner, and under her tutelage she had managed to have him satisfy her a few times. He was a diamond in the rough, but he had potential. He did not mind being told what she liked and was enthusiastic above and beyond the chemical inducements.
His naked body was laid out to her view beside her and was frankly not the movie idol type. Thin legs and arms. A patch of hair in the center of his sternum. Moderately good recovery time however, so he was young and healthy.
Nova did not really care. She had been with every body type a man could possess at some point in her life, and when it came down to it, what she cared about in bed was sincerity, even if some initial impulse was not totally their idea. Andy was sincere if nothing else. No major kinks. Given the disparity of their sexual experience, she was sure he thought she was the one with the kinks.
She thought about the morning. Andy would be ready for her again, she was sure. She would get some sleep, and wake him up about an hour after first light. He would not mind. Then she would be sure they had plans for the following night before she cleaned up and they left. She did not have to met the Cleaners till 11 AM. She had time. Maybe she’d take Andy to breakfast at the little Taqueria nearby she liked. Doc students never get good meals, and between his studies and her plans for his body, he needed to eat.
Nova was Council. She knew all the North American Cleanup Crew members, and that meant she also got to pick which ones she wanted for this job. This one was not as much about which women were her favorites, but which ones had the skills for this job. Even on the crew there were specialties. That was the way of the world now. No matter how good or how smart or how educated, you just could not know everything.
The Crew members pulled up to curb where Nova was standing in a moderately recent vintage road dirt colored Jeep. There were two of them in the car, and they were dressed for work. Practical clothing, to blend in to the others around here. Nothing bright or memorable. Even the Jeep was practical and nondescript. Standard Brush bar and winch. No decals. No bumper stickers.
Both gave Nova deferential nods of the head and they walked up to her.
“Councilwoman.” greeted Anne “How are you?”
“Very well Anne. Very well. Yourself?”
“I won’t complain. If nothing else this job is going to be more interesting than average.”
“Indeed.” Nova agreed then addressed the other woman “Anita. How are you?”
Nova knew that Anita was just changing her name enough to westernize it. Her original name was Anahita. Her middle eastern good looks were disguised with her hair up in her hat, and a white smear of zinc sunblock across her cheeks and nose. Also standard for these parts during the summer.
Nova liked Anne. The short dark haired woman was extremely intelligent, imminently practical, and widely versed on many of the skills of her profession, from hand to hand combat to forensics. She was well read and had experience working in museums.
Anita was a slightly different story. While Nova had no real problem with her, she was new to the country, having arrived here less than ten years ago from Egypt. Nova worried that her exotic looks would gather attention. Nova did not envy beautiful women their beauty. Nova just wanted nothing to go wrong here. She also did not know Anahita / Anita as well as Anne. What could not be argued was her experience for this. She had worked the tombs of Egypt for a very long time. She understood almost as well as Nova the importance of the job, and the way it had to be done to keep the edits to the site they needed to do undetectable by modern science. They also needed the modifications to tell the story they wanted to tell.
Cleaners do not just clean, they also leave things behind to change the tale. Move the attention to where it needed to be. It needed to be away from them. It had to be utterly realistic, and fit all the known facts, and yet not tell the real story.
What Nova knew about Anita from various conversations was that she was sincere in her job and focused on the mission. No Cleaner could be otherwise. For all that she probably would have asked for a lesser experienced member of the North American Crew she knew better, but for a conversation she had with Anita a few years ago at a very exclusive lecture of Nova’s about the real history of the Pueblo People. That lecture had been pretty well attended. They usually were. Nova was a good speaker when she wanted to be. Anita was a fellow Archeologist and had stayed behind to chat. They had been talking about the job, and it moved to the need. The hunger. How it was managed during the job. Anita told Nova “You don’t shit where you eat. If the need is unmanageable, I will leave before I mess up the local situation. It has never happened though. I make sure before I start a big job I am sated first.”
Nova assumed that meant Anita would not be looking around here, and that was what she wanted. Anita was too pretty.. No.. Beautiful. She would be noticed in a small town full of horny college students and their professors.
That was the way of that job. For Council, or for long term Archeology, the rules were different. For Nova it was different too. She made a habit of not being very memorable except when she wanted to be. All Andy would remember was the time he met the girl who had taught him all the things that he could use to his benefit later in life. His memories of Nova might be wistful, but they would not be frequent.
“Come on up. I’ll lay it all out for you.” Nova told the pair and waved her arm towards the door to the hotel.
In the room Anne and Anita stopped to sniff the air. Andy did not wear cologne, but still there was a hint of a man about the room now. His deodorant if nothing else had been well used by the morning. The two women glanced without surprise at the bed. Saw the sheets that Nova had not bothered to make and that the room service people were not allowed to touch. Nova only allowed them in the room once a week for a major cleaning. The rest of the time she kept up the “Do Not Disturb” sign. Nova had no secrets about her sexual conquest from these two. It would not have been becoming to try.
Anne pulled the coverlet up so she could sit on the bed. She may understand what adults do in beds, but that did not mean she wanted to sit on the wet spot. Nova made a mental note to get clean sheets before Andy returned that evening. He was going to help her make more wet spots, but that is the beauty of a hotel room. Never ending clean sheets. Not everything about the modern world is bad.
Nova folded a 3d topographical US Geological Survey map over the wall hanging to create an impromptu display board. Various things were indicated in highlighter colors, though until Nova told the two, they would have no idea what exactly it was. Arcs and circles of color. Some adjacent to each other, others distinctly separate.
Anita disdained the bed and pulled an armchair around. Nova did not take that personally either. It was another woman’s hunting grounds. Anita was respecting that even as Anne was saying by her actions ‘Let us get down to business’.
“The current site is here.” She pointed. “All this area is already finished.” She indicated an arc. “There is a new site here. A recent discovery. Small, but gathering attention as it is turning out to have a lot of buried artifacts. Pottery and such. It used to be a dwelling site of a large family, and it had an on-site garbage disposal area in the day. That is what they have found now: You know how excited archeologists get about trash pits.”
Both did, and that was why they were here.
“So, here is the problem, and why I went back into the field for this. Over here…” Nova indicated an area with no markings or colors “Is where she is.”
Anita visually measured the distances between the two areas. “They are not that close yet, but you are right. They are too close. May I ask why this was not dealt with already? You have known about her…”
Nova finished “.. For many years.” She looked at the map as she answered, but did not point at anything. “Look at that. All that discovery is from the last twenty-five years or so. For centuries, after the water went away from here, no one wanted to be here. It was quiet a solitary and she could rest in peace. Even a hundred years ago, when there was some poking around, it was only a few, and they didn’t really know what they were looking at. They were there to take things and leave. They wanted pottery. Some thought maybe they would find some arrowheads. No one cared about the trash or the bones.”
“You are a scholar Nova. You can’t be angry they are finally treating this area with more dignity and respect.”
“If you call being called a cannibal being treated with dignity, then sure. But no, I understand your point, and you are right Anne. However it means her time of rest is over. We must… disturb her.”
“She a relative? Or are you using ‘sister’ the same way you would to refer to Anne and I?” Anita asked.
“Oh, we might be related. Hard to know. I would guess we are in some way, but yes: I was using it the way I would about you, mostly. That and she is Pueblo. She is of where I am from. I found her remains and knew what she was. I knew this day would come. At the time I was not thinking it would be so soon. Modern technology has just moved everything along so quickly. I got to thinking about her, and then I started to wonder if I even had time to do this right. I decided I needed your help to be sure it was done right and done quickly.”
Nova gestured at the map “Of the Crew, you two have the best skills to help me with this. You understand not only your jobs, but mine. We must be quick, and we must be cautious.”
“I would like to see the site.” Anita said
“Me too.” Anne agreed
Nova nodded. “Yes: You should go. I will not go with you. Not this first time. Even at night I do not want to risk having us seen. I will let you see if for yourself. We’ll get together tomorrow to decide next steps. What the new story will be. How to make that happen.”
Anita came close to the map. “Where is it? Exactly on this?”
Anne came over to see as well. Nova pointed with the tip of a pencil “Just here. There is a good moon tonight, so you will have no trouble seeing. There is what looks like of a rock slide, and just up-slope there is a flat rock that appears to be sliding down the hill still. It is not. There is a crevice on the Northeast side that you can slide under and in. You are both small framed, and that is good, because it is very tight. Wear tight clothing. Sports bras and the like. Neither of you is as gifted as I am in the small breast department. Check it for snakes of course. I have come across a number of them. There is a fault cave that opens up under and behind it, and she is resting there.”
Now Nova indicated a course with the pencil “If you go across here, it is mostly rocky outcropping. Easy to walk across, and less having to hide your trail. Near the cave entrance there is loose gravel, so you will need to take care of that on the way out.”
Pointing at the solitary dig going in the trash pit of the dwelling “These people are far enough away that they have no line of sight to to her resting place, even on a good day. There are many hills and other site-line blockers. I have never seen them wander too far away from this dig at night, but during the day of course there are enterprising students hoping to make the next big discovery wandering around. There are also horny couples looking for a place to hide and rendezvous. Neither should be this far away from the main dig, but you never know.”
Most of that cautionary discourse was unneeded, but Nova felt like she had to say it anyway. This was her baby. She was not happy she could not completely deal with it herself.
Andy spent the night in Nova’s room again, and this night was like many second times. He was more ready. Had a better idea how to please her and what she wanted from him. It lost some first time charm, but not much. For her part, Nova could anticipate Andy’s desires. She taught him some desires that he had that he did not know about. To know about them, he would have needed more experience than he had up to now. That was changing.
Not all smart men become good lovers. Some stay lost in their head space. Nova was making sure that Andy came down from the intellectual heights that was his paper and learn a few things about the real world. He would be the better for it, she told herself.
Her post Doc work was a fiction, mostly. Nothing she could not do in her sleep. Andy’s Doctoral work was real and a first time thing for him. After breakfast, he was gone, with a promise to return again later that night. He told Nova as he left “You are making it hard for me to think about my paper. I am zooming along, in the groove, and suddenly all I see is your body on top of mine. Or your mouth on my… well… Really throws off the train of thought.”
Nova had no use for coy. There was not any point to it anyway. “I am glad you think of me. Try to concentrate though. Your work is important too. If you get too lost in your thoughts of lust, just remember that you’ll have the real thing soon enough again: Tonight in fact. So make sure you are ready by having as much of that paper out of your head as you can. When you are working on that paper, work on that paper. When you are with me, be with me.”
Andy agreed that was sensible, and the idea that he was getting laid again that night put a bounce in his step as he left the hotel.
Anne and Anita arrived at 11 again. They knew to give Nova space at the moment. Not disturb her night rituals.
They lunched at the hotel cafe, sipping coffee and talking about things that did not matter, but that were fun to talk about. Anne, feeling fairly comfortable with Nova felt it OK to ask. “Is he good?”
Nova had been daydreaming for a moment, and Anne had correctly understood why. Nova was not doing what she told Andy to do. She was thinking about what to show Andy next.
“When you get right down to it Anne, there are only so many ways humans can have intercourse. Technique is all well and good, but what matters, as I am sure you know, is the attitude, and whether it matches yours.”
She looked back and forth between Anne and Anita. “Either of you like it rough? Or to be treated like a whore?”
There were vigorous shakes to the negative from both women. “Me either. So how Andy is good is this: He is gentle and sweet and just wants to do well. He takes direction without acting like it is getting up his macho nose. So yes: He is good. And he is getting better.”
Anita looked a little fierce, her dark eyes blazing “I want one like that. Last one was such an asshole. Seems all I attract. I really have to hunt to find better.”
Nova smiled. “Advantage of not looking like you, dear.”
Anita replied “You know: Looking like this is nothing I did. It’s just how my mom and dad’s genetics went together.”
Anne reassured her “They made a beautiful baby. Cheer up: You get to choose the men by and large now.”
Anita did not look at all cheered “Yeah: For all the good that is. Sooner or later, we move on, don’t we? It’s easy to leave a jerk. Not so easy to leave a lover.”
That had way too much truth in it for Nova’s taste, and she was trying not to think about it.
In the hotel room, they assembled a council of war.
“What did you all think?” Nova asked them as they settled into chairs and onto the made bed. It would still need new sheets again.
Anne and Anita held a silent election, and Anita spoke first “I hate to disturb her. She has been there for centuries. But Anne and I scanned the site, and the paths, and the nearby encampments, and we agree. They are too close. She will be found.”
Nova had not really been looking for vindication of her professional opinion. She already knew this. At the same time it was good to know they knew it too. What she worried about was further confirmation of things she knew that were as yet unsaid.
Anne went next “The opening to the crevice is a pain in the ass.”
Anita added “I am wearing a tighter sports bra next time…”
Anne went on as if Anita had never said anything “… Going to slow things way down. The work space is not great either. It looks like she used to actually live in there. Hide out maybe. Either way, a fair number of artifacts, including the skeleton, but not much room left-to-right to work. It’s long, but it is not wide. I went as far back as I could, given my size and correctly tight bra and it looks like only the first three meters of so of the space have been inhabited, and only by her.”
That bra comment made Nova wonder if Anne and Anita were not getting along completely.
“I like to breath. Sue me.” Anita shot back. There was not venom to it. Felt a little like good-natured ribbing. Nova guessed Anne had been giving Anita a hard time about her attire. She decided they were OK with each other and promptly forgot about it to get back on point.
“It was that lack of workspace I am worried about. Hard, sheer walls on either side. A few small boulders for a table and chairs. Small gravel and sand for a bed. Not much to work with. If she ever cleaned animals in there, she was good at making sure the carcasses were elsewhere. I found knives and bowls and such, but never any bones that did not belong.”
Anne agreed “The only thing that did not belong there was the arrow in her chest. Would not be deadly with proper medical attention these days, but back then?”
Anita added “I looked at the Arrowhead. Looks like Pueblo design. Materials, design, and workmanship are all correct.”
Nova shook her head in agreement, but slowly and sadly “It’s Pueblo all right. I have looked at that arrow many times over the years. It’s actually typical of the stuff that was made in late Pueblo, and further south.”
“So: It is true. There were invasions? Wars?” Anita asked. She was an Egyptologist, but she knew the varying stories.
“Its true. And it’s not true. There was trade. Commerce. Lots of it. This was a huge place, for back then, and you’ll find things from all over the area, all mixed together. Go dig though a dumpster in New York City and see how much stuff there came from China or Japan or Korea. Hell: Go look through that Jeep you are driving: Parts from everywhere. Back then it was nothing to have something like that farther north. Point being, I thought about it. Sure, it could have been some little skirmish. Wrong place. Wrong time. Or they may have hunted her. Killed her for what she was.”
Anne pointed out “It went in from the back and out the front. Almost certainly intersected her heart at least a little. She probably never saw it coming.”
“I agree. I think she got away, arrow in chest, and hid. Probably had to break off the shaft to get in the cave. That had to hurt like hell. In the cave, she bled out. They never figured out where she went.”
Anita was pacing, disturbed by the story of the ancient woman. “If it was even her they were hunting, and it wasn’t just some raid or accident. It all comes to the same thing. She crawled off to die. Hidden. Alone.”
“My thoughts exactly.” Nova told her.
Ann paused. “I see why you left her alone all this time. That has to end now. She was old when she died. Very old. You know what that means.”
Nova looked back at Anne evenly. Here was what she had been dreading. “No way to tell a new story. No way to change the scene that makes any sense.”
They were quiet as they thought about that unwelcome truth. Anne finally said: “I can see no way. This is not a good fossil story. We cannot salt the earth with minerals to explain what the skeleton is made of. We can take just her, leave the knife and pottery and such, but why? As near as I can see that is nothing not already found elsewhere. There is no real scientific value to it. There is sentimental value to us. I think we take it all. Clean it up. Maybe put in a snake carcass or ten.”
Nova waited, and when Anita said nothing, asked “Anahita?”
The use of her old name was not lost on her “I am sorry Nova, but I cannot see any other way. What would we make this say? What would we leave behind that in any way honored our fallen sister? I cannot find a way to make her death serve our kind, and her body creates too many questions as it is now.”
There was another silence before Nova said: “I thank you two for coming out here. If this is to be the way of it, then it is something I can do myself. I thought it might be, but I did not trust my judgement. I am too close to it.”
Anne told her “This is not a thing to do alone, Nova. We will help you. With three of us, it will be quick, and we will honor her as much as we can.”
“I am pulling you away from other duties…”
Anne cut her off. “Councilwoman! We are staying. Deal with it.”
Nova had been on the Council for a while, and was used to some deference, even though their kind was fairly informal about most things. This was part of why she liked Anne. She spoke truth to power. She was afraid of no woman.
“Very well. I have everything we need for an erasure, not even counting what you probably brought. Tonight?”
“Tonight” they chimed, though not with any sort of happy cheer.
Nova had one last thing to do before the night, other than change the bed again, for all the good that was going to do her tonight. She had to find Andy and change plans with him.
Andy was easy to find. He was spread out at the bar. He was drinking two waters for every beer so that he would be clear headed for his night with Nova. The night she was about to cancel.
“Andy?”
“Oh! Hi! I did not expect to see you here.”
“I am nothing if not unexpected. I need to change our plan tonight. Something came up: Nothing major. Just some old friends from out of town for one night only. Came here to see me on their way to California. They want to catch up. I want to be with you, but I can’t turn them down. They came all this way…”
Andy looked crestfallen. You can’t become sexually active all of a sudden and then have that ripped from you unexpectedly.
“So… come back here with me.”
“Where?’
He stood and followed her. He realized she had on a skirt which he had never seen her wear. She always had on practical clothes.
“Uh.. Nova? This is the men’s room.”
” I know. More things to hold on to. They keep it spotless in here. Not an easy thing to do. I like this bar.”
“Uh.. Grab onto?” All Andy saw was the stalls, the two urinals bolted to the walls, the two small sinks…
When he looked back at Nova, she had shucked her one piece dress, tossed it over the stall door, and was naked except for her sandals.
“You are going to screw me in here. Over the sink where I can watch your face. Got it? Lock that door and then get those damn pants off. I am ready.”
Even though the room was set up for multiple occupancy, it had a barrel bolt, which Andy drove home eagerly.
He wasted no time doing as she instructed. She enjoyed herself for a few minutes, then opened her eyes and looked at him in the mirror. Their eyes locked and Nova told him with assurance: “This is just so you don’t forget me and also that I was wanting you and didn’t want to wait. Tomorrow night? My friends are gone, and we are going to catch up. You will be getting very little sleep so rest up tonight.”
Before Nova would start she stood over the silvery gray skeleton, which looked back at her with empty eyes. Jaw agape. She studied her one last time, committing the scene to her memory.
Ann and Anita stood behind her, crowded in, but understood the moment, and were still. Waiting.
Nova finally said with a wave down at the dead woman’s remains: “She was old. So very old. The humans would have noticed.”
Anne said: “I have never seen older. This was not a good way to die, but she clearly had a very long life. Her bones will weigh a great deal.” Anne did not try to say that her long life was in any way compensation for this death.
Nova was grateful for that lack of an attempt to try to find the bright side. She was dead. Long ago. Now she was a problem, and ultimately the kind of problem that their kind had dealt with many times before. Having the final say, Nova told her companions “Ok. Let’s go. Bags?”
The set up a line. Nova picked up things and put them into black canvas bags. She would never have used a trash sack. Not for this. Not only because they would not be strong enough. Trash sacks may be used for everything in modern times, but it was just not respectful. As they worked, Nova realized she was really happy Anita and Anne had stayed to help her. She never could have cleared this in just one night.
The pottery was wrapped carefully in bubble wrap, then into fiberboard, taped, then into the bags. Nothing was over stuffed. They had plenty of bags, and the crevice was not tall. Anne and Anita were on their stomachs handing things to each other to get them outside. ‘It’s good to be young’ Nova thought, not that she was actually any physically younger or older than her companions. She felt very old tonight though.
Her escapade in the men’s room had helped her general attitude. It was good to be young and stupid now and again. It reassured Andy, and that was the original main point, but it had ended up helping her too. Made it easier to face this exacting but dirty work.
Everything went out. The skeleton had to go in parts, and that just felt so wrong. Taking her apart like that. There was no choice. Even in fragments she was heavy. Careful examination of the top layers of small rocks and sand had them decide that at least six inches had to come out where the body had lain. She had decomposed so many years ago, but there still might be things that had leaked down from above that were not supposed to be there,
Two hours work had the cave empty of any trace that anyone had ever been in it. Another hour had it reloaded with fresh sand and pebbles, carefully spread to look like nothing had happened there ever. They then dropped in some modern human trash as if kids had been in there. Candy wrappers. Soft drink cans and bottles. Some from city dumpsters. Some from the local stores, emptied, and bent up to look like fresh trash. Hopefully no fingerprints would be sought because they added none. Soda cans could not appear in the cave magically. Everything they did was gloved and designed to leave not so much a stray hair of theirs behind. No snakes had presented themselves. They seemed to understand that would be their doom. One mouse had, and its body was there, with the trash.
There was no evidence of any kind of the remarkable life that had ended here.
Now the problem was carrying the pile of sacks to the Jeep and removing traces even from the ground they had lain upon. The Jeep was not nearby. It was handled rapidly and in less than another hour, the Jeep was loaded and the exterior area of the cave made to look as if no one had been near in a while.
Nova hugged the two women goodbye and did not cry until they were long gone. She would have the pottery available to her at her Colorado Springs apartment. Her sister would be gone. Melted down in a furnace. Her remains slag and powder that no one outside the community would ever understand the origin of. The sun was still an hour away from coming up, but Nova was not going to chance being caught out here by anyone.
Cleaning up, she went to bed, thinking ahead. About what she was going to do next.
When Andy arrived, they went out for dinner. Nova paid and told Andy to forget about the expense. That she was really sorry about standing him up last night.
“Nova! Really! It’s OK. Your friends were here. You had to see them. Besides… you already did something to make me forget all about that. You didn’t have to, but that was fun.”
“It was. We are doing that again someday.” Nova pointed across the street at a little stucco building. “They have a room for rent over there. I am thinking about taking it. Moving out of the hotel. How much more time do you have to work on your Doctorate?”
“Well… to be honest, I need more time than I thought. There is so much data to collect and collate. Everything has to be double and triple checked. You would not believe who is on my review committee.”
“I’ll make you a deal then. This is a no strings attached offer, and it will not hurt my feelings if you say no. I can’t be here all the time, but if I take that room, would you live there, with me, when I am here?”
“You want us to move in together?”
“Sort of. Like I said, I have many other places I have to be, but I like it here, and I like you, and I want to have someone to come home to every now and again. You can spread out in the apartment. Won’t have to live in that bar. I’ll buy you a great big table or desk or whatever.”
Andy was looking very thoughtful
“And…?”
“And nothing. If you decide to do post doc work here, and want to stay there, and with me. Up to you. If you want to move on that’s fine too.”
“I want to do it. I do. But it feels like I am going to be a kept man or something!”
Nova looked at him “You can leave any time. No strings means no strings. I like you. I want to spend time with you. I hope you like me. I can help you with your work, but I won’t be doing it or anything.”
“I like you very much Nova. I have never met anyone like you.”
“No… No. I am sure you have not. Ok. It’s a deal I’ll take care of everything tomorrow, and you can move in whenever you like. I only have a couple more days here before I have to go away for a while. Business in the big city. All that.”
“You never told me what you do.”
“No. I didn’t. I don’t have to do anything, actually. Daddy left me enough money I can screw around my whole life if I want. I work with museums. Consult on early American stuff. It’s a good gig. Doesn’t pay worth shit, but like I said, I don’t need the money.”
In fact, Nova owned the building across the street, but that was nothing Andy needed to know about. The current landlord did not even know that. Nova was not even giving herself a break on the rent. Nothing could ever draw attention to herself as being out of the ordinary. The Secret required even small things to make sure it was kept.
Andy undressed Nova slowly, reveling in her smooth skin. He did not know if all women had skin like this, but he loved touching hers. He was encouraged on that point.
“Our last night here.” Andy noted.
“We can come back from time to time. Relive early memories.”
“That would be nice… like this is nice…”
Nova had worried about the pressure and the speed she was using here. She knew no one in her world would approve of this. It’s not that it is not done. It is that it always turns out badly. Screw them. She had a life to lead too, and she was not going to endanger anyone with this relationship. Andy had no idea what was going on, who she was, and she was going to keep it that way. She had centuries of practice at this kind of deception.
After their first round of lovemaking, they lay running fingers along each other’s bodies. She edged up to put her face near his.
“You seem OK with all this. We are not moving too fast?”
“No… I’m fine. It all seems right somehow.”
“It is. For now.”
She thought about her ancient and unknown sister. Laying there, staring at nothing, her head back, her jaw open. Her fangs in clear view. Nova slid her own hypodermic-like fangs out from behind her lateral incisors and slide them into Andy’s neck. He stiffened, and she help him still with her strength so he would not injure himself. Andy relaxed as the hypnotic she had injected arrived at his brain.
Her need had reached the level where she had to drink as soon as possible, but she had to take care of Andy first. She pulled back from his neck and whispered to him.
“Andy?”
“Yes?”
“We will never be in love. We will care about each other a great deal. We are both OK with being together because we respect each other and we enjoy each other.” Nova was going to be sure no one on the Council had anything to say about her taking on a long-term human lover. She was due some happiness, damn it.
“Of course. I care about you. You are amazing.” he said in sleepy tones
“When there are times, like tonight, that I bite your neck. You won’t remember any of it. You’ll just recall the sex. How good it was. How much you love to make love with me.”
“I love to make love with you.” Came the sleepy reply.
“Good. I am going to drink now. Afterwards you will be ready to make love. You and I will take our time and make love slowly and completely. Whenever you see my fangs and I drink, all you will recall is wanting to make love with me after I drink. Wanting it to be good, for both of us. Do you understand?”
“I understand. I want to make love with you now.”
He did, however she had to drink now. The smell and taste of his blood was raging in primitive places of her brain. Andy tasted as good as she had hoped he would. He was healthy. He was happy and a happy man always tasted better. When she was done lightly sucking out the blood she needed to put the compulsion down for another month, she licked the tiny wounds to start the healing process.
“Andy? I am done. You are wonderful and you gave me what I needed. Thank you. Now I need you to love me.”
Andy came back to himself and rolled on top of her gently. He remembered nothing about her sucking at his neck other than he felt the need for her and knew somehow that she was ready and that her need was the same as his.
Vampire hypnotics work even better when it is something the person wants, and Andy wanted to make love to Nova. He liked her and he very much enjoyed their love life. He wanted her joy. His whole mind and body were bent on that goal. He had never met anyone like her. A woman that knew what she wanted and who told him how to please her.
Nova told herself she was not using him. She would give Andy as good as she got, and when the time came for her to leave him, she would leave behind someone that would be a gift to the next human woman in his life. She would apply her hypnotics one last time to make sure that all he had were memories of the good times, and the confidence to find himself a human love.
She was in no hurry for that day to come.
