Scenes From A Love Song 2: This Kiss

by Shirin Dubbin

Adrenalin pumped a steady rhythm in Scarlet’s ears. Twirling her custom set of stakes she speared vampire after vampire, in sync with the pumping of her blood, leaving motes of dust on the night air. The mahogany weapons bore points sharpened to deadly and had been blessed by a pastor, a priest, an imam, a rabbi and a guru. (The girl liked covering her bases.) Hell, she’d even had her favorite baker dust them with cocoa powder. For Scarlet—formerly known as Rose Red—chocolate-mocha-almond-double-fudge cupcakes were a religion. Amen and hallelujah.

Shoot! A vamp scored her lipstick red motorcycle jacket with a five-talon strike. Keep your head in the game girl. Moonlight glinted off the offender’s long fanged grin. Scarlet hop kicked, smashing a steel toe boot into his chin and, following the move, impaled the sucker on the point of a stake. He fractured into dust.

Note: soon as this ordeal ended and her man was safe she’d be headed straight to the pastry alter for some chocolate healing. It wasn’t blasphemy. Scarlet had migrated to this dimension from the Realm of Fairytales where witchcraft was a daily occurrence and casting spells happened as often as saying good mornin’. She and religion were still getting to know one another.

Uppercut. Spin. Kick.

She’d hated living in the Fairytale realm. Girls from the HEA behaved like perfect ladies…or else. Plus, all the men over that side were preening princes, pompous knights or doddering old coots. Over this side she got to be an ass-kicking chick. If her famous sister, Snow, could see her now she’d smack a dwarf and spew apple bits.

Three more vamps went down beneath Scarlet’s whirling stakes.

His scent lit her senses before the man came into view. Blue. She smiled. He burst through the door and onto the roof, taking out vamps with a wooden sword sharp enough to cut a second into two. Blue knew how to make an entrance and Scarlet loved the way he moved.

“Woo weeee! Do it babe!” she hollered as he pivoted his rodeo lean body and took the heads off the vamps encircling him.

They’d been separated for going on two days. Seemed he’d followed the clues to the warehouse same as she had. A happy exhale. She dusted another vamp. She’d missed him something terrible. With things as bad as they were she’d had to face the possibility of never seeing him alive again. She couldn’t live with that.

She loved this man.

In her realm, his counterpart had been called Bluebeard, a stone cold wife killer. She’d tangled with that snake herself but took to dimension hopping before becoming wife number seven. Things were different here. In the Realm of Blood and Darkness he was good ole Blue, a navy haired, vamp slaying machine and body-rocking lover of the first degree.

Amendment to her earlier note: soon as this ordeal ended and her man was safe she’d run straight to the church of Blue for some sexual healing. Amen and hallelujah.

“I’m guessing you’ve got the totem?” he shouted across the moonlit rooftop, beginning to cut a path to her.
“Yep. Beat you to it.” A smile. “Sure seems like they want it back though.”
“Desperately,” he chuckled.
“Well, they can’t have it. You need it to live an’ I need you.”

He winked, punched a vamp so hard its fangs embedded in the wall behind them then cut another into thirds.

What a man.

Damn the vampire princess who’d cursed him. An’ all cause he wouldn’t sire half-vamp, half-slayer babies with her. He just wasn’t the kind of man who dreamed of ruling the world. It was enough for Blue to keep his corner of it safe.

Arcing beads of blood caught the moonlight and her attention. Swinging round she noticed the ragged wound in his abdomen. Desperation to get to him kicked in.

“You’re hurt.”
“Tis only a flesh wound,” he tossed back in his best Monty Python, impaling vamps on rapid lunges.

“No,” she said, “You’re slowing down.” She pulled the dragon totem from the inside pocket of her jacket. A vamp took the opportunity and pounced, looking to remove her head. Scarlet ducked and its talons sliced the band holding her ponytail in place instead. A mantle of garnet hued tresses floated down past her shoulders. The vamp paid for the hairstyling with its unlife.

“Catch!” a four-talon swipe opened her cheek. She ignored it and drew back to toss Blue the little dragon sculpture. (The only thing that would save him)

One second more and she would have made it.

Vamp physics flooded onto the roof and blew the pair to opposite corners. To her credit Scarlet held on to the totem, steeling herself against the blow as she hit the stone ledge. Blue skidded across the rooftop leaving a trail of blood behind and coughing up more as he slowed. He needed the totem to restore his nigh-invulnerability and he needed it now.

“Babe!” she screamed throwing the sculpture with dead accuracy. The vamps dove, seeming to freeze in mid-air, as the sculpture hurled end over end towards its target. One sucker came a hair from intercepting. Blue kicked him in the gut, reached up and caught the little dragon at the same moment a horde of vamps buried him beneath a pile-on tackle.

Scarlet leapt to her feet, scooped up one of her stakes and hightailed it to her love’s aid. A rumbling roar brought her to a sliding stop. Blue shot up from beneath the pile, sending vamps flying to the four winds and cutting them down before they hit the ground.

Oh yeah, he had his powers back. She took out the turn-tails and physics with only one thing on her mind.

Blue dusted the final vamp and ran toward her. They met halfway in an explosion of sparks. He laughed spinning her round and round. All the while staring into her eyes. Anticipation skyrocketed. The kiss he laid on her was so amazing it set her blood to boiling and seared her right down to the soles of her feet. Woo weeee… Steam built up inside her boots. Two seconds later the steel toes blew right off them and went sailing over the ledge. Two more seconds and the couple achieved lift off. Floating in lazy circles they continued to devour one another, setting off rapturous bursts of light. Amen and hallelujah.

Folks all over the city woke up, looked out their windows and swore the Fourth had come early this year. Some saw lovers silhouetted against the moon. And the music? They all heard that.

“This kiss, this kiss. Unstoppable.” Bliss.
Inspiration: This Kiss by Faith Hill

Hope you liked SFALS: This Kiss. If so look out for my urban fantasy romance, Keeper of the Way

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Scenes From A Love Song: Ain't Gonna Lose You

by Shirin Dubbin

Hello All, I've just arrived at RRP and thought I’d kick off a new series, Scenes From A Love Song. It's where a few RRP authors will share quickies (as in super shorts) inspired by our favorite soundtracks for lovin'. Here goes the inaugural edition…

She put the song on repeat and turned up the volume until the melody merged with her heartbeat. Her mobile phone had grown hot in her hand. Pressing a random button she checked the number she’d stolen from her best friend’s address book. Oh good, fate hadn’t erased it just to mess with her. She checked it again. You couldn’t put much past fate.

And now for a sadistic choice: make the phone call and risk losing someone who’d become closer to her than blood or smash the phone against the nearest wall and risk hemorrhaging away a happy life.

Perhaps she was delusional and Tesla—that’s what she called her best friend’s brother—hadn’t felt the jolt of electricity pass through him the first time their hands met. Not in the same way she had. Maybe he couldn’t feel her presence in a room the way she could his. Perhaps their almost telepathic connection had escaped his awareness.

It was possible she’d flown over the cuckoo’s nest five miles back…but then she remembered the smile on his face whenever she caught him staring. The way he’d watched her from the corner of his eye when he proclaimed he’d be the last of his siblings to marry. He knew they were inexplicably bonded as well as she did. So why was the idiot about to propose to another woman?

The song began again and she hoped this time around she’d find the courage to dial. The memory of the one night they’d sat and talked reasserted itself. The look of wonder on their faces when they’d discovered they both loved watching Oz and basketball. Combined with the perfect harmony that hummed through her as they spoke of prom nights, the almond slant to her eyes and his need to protect those he loves.

That had been a few years ago. Although it was clear their attraction hadn’t diminished the few times they found themselves together—unless diminished meant elevate to levels that knocked innocent bystanders on their asses—neither had found the courage to push past their doubts into something beyond merely knowing.

She’d forced herself to forget. Moving on to date men who actually asked her out rather than sending their sister, her friend, to test the waters. She hadn’t known the question of their getting together had been a serious one. So, she’d laughed and cracked a joke. Rather scathing but funny. Who was she kidding? If there was ever a reaction born of fear it was the joke she’d made that night.

It took a year for her to realize how serious that question had been. Tesla released an album. Several of the songs recounting, almost verbatim, times they’d spent together and the conversation they’d had. Unfortunately, when she’d broached the topic her best friend hadn’t been willing to risk match making a second time. She hadn’t pushed it, not wanting her friend to think she was exploiting their relationship to get next to the famous big brother.

Now Tesla, her Tesla, was about to propose to another woman—and with an amazingly huge ring. Talk about your over compensating. The Girlfriend’s knuckles would scrape the ground once he put that Hope diamond stand-in on her finger. She had to save the Girlfriend’s pretty little hands didn’t she? Of course she did.

A deep breathe. She dialed before she could stop herself. He answered and she burst an aneurism…but recovered when he said her name.

“Hey, how did you--?”
He interrupted, wowing her.
“Oh, I didn’t realize you had my number,” she said.

A smile lit her face at his response. Her courage buoyed and she let him have it.
“Of course you’ve been thinking about me. You’re about to marry the wrong friggin’ woman.”

Omigawd. She was gonna die. Right there. Right then. Better if she did it before he cursed her out. But he didn’t.

“You knew that!” her voice shot up to octaves only dogs could hear. She adjusted to demure. “You knew that, huh? Somehow I knew you did.”

A second smile as she ‘clutched her pearls’ and answered before he could finish his question.
“Yeah, I can catch a flight tonight.”

The song began again. She’d totally forgotten to turn down the volume. He took notice.
“Huh? Oh, you like? It’s a great song. Ain’t Gonna Lose You by Brett Dennen.”

She could hear the smile in his reply. He was so right.
“Yeah, seriously apropos.”
Inspired by: Ain't Gonna Lose You by Brett Dennen

Hope you dug the first SFALS. If so look out for my urban fantasy romance, Keeper of the Way.

**Click HERE for Full Post**