Back on the Rocks

As Susan neared her Lancer Evo, she noticed a sound coming from down the street. Light bathed the road, illuminating the wet asphalt. She quickly shoved Sable into the passenger’s seat, slid across the hood of the Lancer, and jumped into the driver’s seat. No sooner had she started the car than did the headlights turn towards them.

“You think it’s them?” Sable asked.

“No one else has a reason to be out this late at night. Buckle up and hang on.”

Susan turned the key in the ignition. The turbo engine roared to life. Sable quickly put her seatbelt on as Susan pulled the Lancer out of the parking lot. In that few seconds, the headlights caught up to them. Susan noticed that it was incredibly fast the way it suddenly appeared. No way it was someone random. As her car got onto the road, the headlights pulled up right behind them. The sound of the engine over hers when it wasn’t revving up told her a lot. Still, there was only one way to know for sure.

“What’s going on?” Sable asked. She was sounding rattled.

“Change of plans. I’ve gotta talk to one of the bosses about this.”

“What’s that mean?”

“Well, unfortunately, we can’t lead these guys to where we’re going. So…”

“Soooo…”

“So hold on tight. I gotta lose ‘em before we get to Nagoya.”

“And how are you gonna do that?”

“By taking a trip through the mountains.”

“Okay…”

Susan looked over at Sable. The girl didn't understand what that really meant. Mountain passes in Japan weren’t like in the states. They were narrow, twisty, and usually only two lanes total. Taking the mountain routes in Japan was about equivalent to taking dirt roads in the US. You never knew what you were going to get when you went there, and they were commonly used by kids trying to show off their driving skills.

The Lancer kept its speed up, even in the rain and the dark. The first leg was easy. She took a route through to Hamamatsu, and they were followed without fail. Susan kept the car going easy. She didn’t gun the engine or try to show off. She was testing them to see if they’d really tail them the whole way. They weren’t exactly being subtle. She let her sclera turn black, her eyes glowed red, and her pupils turned to slits as she stared in the rearview mirror.

She saw them. Vampires. Sitting in a white Subaru Impreza WRX STI. Her vision as a demon could reveal many things, but it was going to be tough. The Subaru Impreza WRX STI line was a beast. A purpose-built rally car meant to take high speed corners and turns in conditions that were anything but ideal. Rain, sleet, mud. Getting the traction down was what these things were made for, no matter what. That, and being able to be the fastest while doing it.

The STI could outclass any normal car, and even many other racers. It was Subaru’s vision for the rally races, and that meant it had everything under the hood and in the body to make it perform. But even with all that going for it, Susan wasn’t just driving some normal daily driver. In fact, she wasn’t even driving a normal racer either. Susan’s Lancer Evo III was a rally car as well. And not just any rally car, but the STI’s direct competitor. Mitsubishi made the Lancer line to deliberately rival the STI line. Everything that made the STI special on the road pretty much worked the same way for the Lancer with differences being down to personal tuning.

The mountain passes were coming up as Susan pulled the Lancer out of Hamamatsu. As they proceeded towards Nagoya, she started getting serious. One hand was on the wheel, another on the gear shift. As soon as the coast was clear, she took Route 257. It opened up to the countryside, and that’s when she let the Lancer loose. The engine revved and backfired as the anti-lag system engaged to keep the speed up as she upshifted into fourth. It sounded like someone shooting a gun, and suddenly the headlights behind her fell back.

That wasn’t going to last. Susan could see the subtle nuances in the rearview of how the STI moved, and it was now roaring its own engine to match hers. This was it. The chase had well and truly begun. She stayed on 257 the whole way for now, taking corners in the all-wheel drive Lancer like they were straightaways as she shifted gears up and down to make her maneuvers. Buildings flew by in the windows, blurring together. Sable gripped her seatbelt and the “oh shit bar.” She was shaking like a leaf, but Susan hadn’t even really let the Lancer do its work yet.

The STI came up like a bat out of hell. The headlights blazing into the back of the Lancer. Susan felt her blood start to boil. She got too into this kind of thing. Now, as they matched up, Susan was determined to keep that Subaru behind her and leave it in the dust. Even if that meant pulling out all the stops. The problem was she couldn’t get off 257 for a good bit. She knew a few places around here that she could use to shake the STI off, but it was going to be a good while before then. And now, as the STI came up on her bumper, she knew it was either trying to knock her off the road or make her push the car too fast.

Susan let the turbo do the work as they came up to a straightaway. The ALS kicked in as she upshifted all the way into sixth gear, which was a gift of a Japanese only production in the Lancers. The export versions only had five gears. She pushed the car, letting her eyes see ahead of her as the road stretched out into the night. The tires kept their grip on the slick roads for now, and the headlights were getting farther behind her as she put the pedal down.

The sound of screaming next to her drew her attention off the road for a second as she looked to her left. Sable was pale as a sheet like she’d seen a ghost, and she looked like she was about to try and crawl out of her seat. Her hands were wringing the seatbelt and handle anxiously. Susan was not going to be able to work like this.

“Miss Whitfield, if you could be so kind as to keep it down.”

“KEEP IT DOWN?! YOU’RE DRIVING LIKE A FUCKING MANIAC!!!”

“Sable. I need to concentrate and you’re not helping.”

“YOU’RE GONNA GET ME KILLED!”

“If you don’t put a sock in it…”

“LET ME OUTTA THIS THING, GODDAMMIT!”

That tore it. Forget any sort of idea of personal space. Susan saw a straightaway coming up and took the opportunity. She reached over and grabbed Sable’s face from under her chin. She pulled her head to her side and swooped in. Their lips met. Susan’s tongue pushed inside and circled around. She broke the kiss as soon as she made it and watched as Sable slumped back into the passenger’s seat.

“Wha…what did you…”

“The kiss of a succubus.”

“Bu…but…”

“Don’t worry about it, Sable. You’ll be fine. I know that you’re not the most normal person.”

“Then…why did…”

“Cause I’d rather you be groggy than screaming my ear off. Now be a good girl and hold onto something. It’ll wear off by the time we get to Nagoya.”

“Okay…”

Sable couldn’t focus. The aphrodisiac effect of a succubus’s kiss could fell even the most willful, but Sable had wards placed upon her for protection. That, and her other efforts, mitigated the effect down to the equivalent of feeling like she took a benadryl. She couldn’t scream about Susan’s driving if she wasn’t fully awake for it.

With that solved, Susan pushed the car back to where she needed it to go. She put her hand back on the shifter and saw a corner coming up. She downshifted and took it with such speed that her tires squealed as she drifted. A small town went by in a blink as she pushed the car onwards. She put it back up to fourth gear once there was another straightaway. The headlights were still following along, and that pissed her off.

All that work and yet Sable made her lose her focus. It would be tough, but she had to shake them off soon. The whole operation was riding on it. She felt her black heart slamming in her chest. No way this could all end right now. Not after all the work she and the other agents had put in. They had to find a way to make it worth it. To make it work. And to stop these neckbiters, no matter the cost.

The Lancer screamed as Susan put it into another corner, putting her pedal to the floor as she made another drift around the corner. Unlike other cars, the all wheel drive meant that she had to take corners at top speed and keep it up through the whole turn in order to drift. She looked over and saw Sable staring out the windshield with half-lidded eyes as she kept a small grip on her seatbelt. Well, at least she was taking it better than others. Susan pushed the car through another corner. Thankfully no one was out so late in this weather. Even with the rain, the Lancer and the STI were keeping up on the corners. Traction didn’t seem like it was going to be a big problem.

That only meant she had to get rid of them some other way. No doubt the STI was also heavily tuned up. The only way the outcome would be decided was by who was the better driver. Which was, as usual, how things were mostly decided in a race. Susan whipped the steering wheel back over as she took the third corner. The next few miles she was on were filled with zig-zags. As she took corner after corner, she pulled out at high speeds and kept the car from sliding around the place by keeping the steering under control.

Susan pulled the zipper down on her jacket as she felt herself getting heated. This wasn’t just a race; it was a gauntlet. She was going to need to pull something off before they got to the destination. And as the headlights once again pulled into view, she saw something else in her rearview. Small little flashes. Next to the headlights.

“What the-”

She looked harder into her rearview. With her demonic eyes, she noticed one of the vampires was hanging out the side with an M3 Grease Gun chattering off .45 ACP at her. They weren’t satisfied with trying to run her off the road, they were trying to take her out.

“You mother fuckers…if I get bullet holes in my ride, I’m going to personally drag your sorry asses down this road!”

The Lancer squealed as Susan downshifted. Up ahead, another small town. She made her first move. She put the car into a turn as 257 swung westward, but she immediately got off it and whipped the car to the right, heading north onto Route 32. She felt the car fly sideways as the tires slipped across the wet pavement. When they finally caught onto the road, the car took off down 32. Susan smirked to herself. That smirk vanished when the headlights reappeared behind her.