The coastal hills spread north and south in a green carpet which rose in the east to a crest which was still above them. The gleaming sea lapped the long thin line of beach. Sally’s breath was loud in her ears.

“Lavinia,” she said, heart hammering, “Listen to me.” I must be the leader, the responsible one. “I need us to start down. Now.”

Lavinia gasped, “Okay, baby.”

Sally melted with relief. “I love you, I love you,” she gushed.

They dropped ten feet. Her stomach lurched into her throat. Lavinia’s face was pained with concentration.

Sally stopped herself from screaming, don’t you know how to get down!? She longed for sand between her toes. Lavinia gasped and they bounced a few feet back up. “Baby, I, I…” Lavinia fought the ecstasy. “I don’t know how to stop it.”

Sally’s mouth was as dry as paper, but she wrestled the fear aside like that sagging green curtain in their camper, and said bravely, “Baby. Never mind. Fly us higher. You need to fly. Just … keep me warm as much as you can.” Lavinia’s skin was radiant with heat.

Lavinia stopped struggling and gushed upward like a fountain of molten copper. Her eyes asked forgiveness but she couldn’t speak. New arias of love burst from her mouth.

She was meant to fly this high. I hope I was meant to go with her. Her front was deliciously sweaty; her back was cold but Lavinia turned them so the sun could warm it.

The sky was a magnificent cerulean robe and Sally imagined it wrapping her. They were almost as high as the tallest coastal hill now. To the west, the sharp rocks of the Farallon Islands broke the clear sea.

With Sally’s body blocking much of the sun, Lavinia was able to talk. “Jeez, kid,” she started.

“I love you, shut up,” Sally panted. Their voices were small in the tremendous gulf.

Lavinia stroked her back gently and Sally realized the air wasn’t icy cold. Airplanes flew a lot higher. And Lavinia seemed to have reached her cruising altitude, which made it easier to relax and drink it in.

Ripples still passed through Lavinia as she said, “Fuckin’ incredible, huh?”

“It’s a miracle.”

A miracle. Tonight, cities and towns, fields and farms would crawl with vampires. Right now, they infested the slopes of Mount Everest, stood vigil outside the Kremlin, glided along the Great Wall and haunted the temple at Angkor Wat.

And every one of them was a potential angel.

Tears welled. For five years she had accepted the presence of supernatural evil. Why did this seem unbelievable?

“Any clue how you’re doing it?”

“Fuck if I know. Aaahhhh, mmmmm,” she rippled into a long moan. “Like, I arch my back to come? But, mmmmm aaawwwww…” Sally almost gave up on getting an answer; she’d asked more for the reassurance of hearing Lavinia talk coherently (if somewhat stoned).

But Lavinia managed, “Does it happen for you, when you’re drifting off to sleep you kinda spin and twirl and float?” Sally nodded. “Well, each wave of oomph feels like that, ‘cept the spin and twirl and float is real.”

Sally nodded. “But you can control it, sort of. You’re keeping the sun on me instead of letting us spin. So, you’re not just nullifying gravity, because with no net force and no net torque on us, we’d just keep—”

Lavinia laughed gently. “Not up for a Four Dicker, baby. We’ll do the physics another time, mmm?” Her eyes drifted shut and she moaned.

Sally guffawed. After the conversation that had included Richard Feynman, Richard Wagner, Richard III and Richard Nixon, Lavinia had joked, “Fuck, that’s a lot of Dicks for a pair of dykes!” She’d called their intense intellectual conversations Four Dick Dialogues ever since. Lavinia tended to overuse a joke but just like food tastes better out of doors, jokes sound funnier when you’re naked in midair.

The thought of food made Sally realize she was hungry. “Babe, I really hate to ask, but can you try and get us down again?”

Lavinia’s eyes popped open, full of dazed concern. “Fuck, I’m sorry, let me try again.” She furrowed her brow.

“Does it hurt you to try?”

Lavinia relaxed for a moment. “Yeah. Fighting it’s like, hah, like when you got the running shits and you have to hold it for 20 blocks.” She screwed her face up again.

“Ugh,” Sally winced. “There has to be another way.”

I could ask her to drink my blood.

She held her breath. Lavinia had risen as a vampire less than five minutes after she’d been killed. Five minutes from now, they could be flying hand in hand.

Hesitantly, she asked “Are you, um, thirsty for my blood?”

“Mmmm?” Lavinia looked confused. “Uh uh, no. Solar powered, that’s me.” She squeezed her eyes shut and they jolted ten feet down.

Sally found herself annoyed. “You could make me a vampire, you stubborn thing!”

Lavinia’s eyes flew open. She looked distressed. “No, not, uh uh. Don’t want you making such a big decision just ‘cause I’m –aaaaaahhhhh! – too chicken to feel some cramps for a while.”

Sally reluctantly realized Lavinia was right. Besides, three billion evil soulless fiends vs. one happy flying sun worshipper? They didn’t know enough about vampires yet.

Lavinia watched her realize it, then nodded. “Okay, now shut up and let me do this. And hang on tight.”

“I can stay up longer, don’t…”

Lavinia silenced her with a kiss. “You’re shaking, baby. This is on me, I gotta learn how to do this. When I was seventeen, I drove stoned for ten miles looking for a bathroom. I can do this.”

Sally realized she was trembling and got stubborn. “Make love to me again first.”

Lavinia clamped tight on the waves of desire. “Don’t be such a fucking—”

Determined to conquer her fear, Sally wriggled and turned them so more sun fell on Lavinia. They surged upward as Lavinia moaned and arched and Sally looked straight into her eyes.

At first, she saw only blind passion there, then dawning concern and a fierce inner struggle, like sun burning at smoky fog.

Suddenly, Lavinia pulled her solidly towards earth.

Instead of pushing them higher with each roll of her hips forward, she pulled them earthward with each swing of her hips back. As her chest arched into Sally’s they hovered instead of surging. As she exhaled a deep rush into Sally’s mouth, she pulled Sally’s breast to hers and sank deeper into the embrace of gravity.

Sally felt a waterfall of gratitude. Lavinia was taking her home. Joy was in Lavinia’s eyes; she knew she’d done well.

Sally realized how near she must have been to collapse when the horizon stopped tilting. The amphitheater opened out and took them in and the soft, beautiful sand drew nearer.

With a whoosh of wings, a white gull circled them three times and flew away as, with one final breath, Lavinia pulled them to earth. She carried Sally into the shade, laid her gently down and sat beside her.

Sally declared weakly: “Whatever we get some piece of paper to say, you are my wife.”

Lavinia, running her fingers through Sally’s black hair, said finally, “Yeah, I’ll take care of you.”

“Even when I’m being an asshole?” She blushed at how she’d been a stubborn idiot, but Lavinia nodded, relieved to hear her acknowledge it.

“My hero,” Sally said simply.

“Aaah, you fuckin’ idiot.” Lavinia knuckled her hair with affection, looking like she was going to cry.