A Chance of Death

It was after a short rainstorm in Sheffield Lake, Ohio. Serena dragged Jett’s suitcase down the street grating plastic off with each step along the wet sidewalk. Her brown eyes were red, as if she had cried so much that there were no tears left to cry. The grinding noise sounded liberating to her. The scorned woman was making sure this was the last time she would see her soon to be ex-husband Jett. Anger swept over her, only nights before, when Jett came home with lipstick on his collar.
His last words before he walked out on her, replayed in her head, “The ladies at my club know how to treat a man, unlike you!”

“I will treat you like a man…” She mumbled under her breath.
Serena hated the fact he owned Kitty’s Place on Cleveland Street. She wanted to tie him to one of the stripper poles and execute him with an audience of drunkards, the way her father had done to her last husband. But with daddy having passed away, Serena had to take on the family business, and handle dirty men all by herself. This mobster’s daughter seemed to attract unfaithful men.

He had sworn to Serena many times before he was only in it for the money, and that she was his princess. On many occasions she would wait up late for him to come home, and he would not come home until the sun had already risen in the sky with his collar covered in lipstick and the stench of cheap perfume radiated from his clothes. They would argue until Serena had to go to work. She was tired of her stale marriage. All that held them together was the house and the marriage license. She had even made appointments with a divorce lawyer on several occasions, but until now she never had the heart to just end it. Serena kept hoping for her happy ending that would never come.

She finally reached the doorway of Kitty’s Place. As usual the music was blaring so that the windows of cars parked outside were shivering from the excitement. She yanked the door open and tossed the suitcase in, before she even stepped inside. The flying suitcase took the bouncer by surprise, and hit him square in the chest; the surprise alone sent him crashing to his knees.

“Where is Jett?” Serena yelled over the pornographic soundtrack.

“He is in his office.” The man said with a cough, “Serena, don’t go back there.”

The scent of cigarettes, alcohol and perfume filled the air. The sickly sweet scents made the daughter of a former mob boss want to wretch. The smell of cheap perfume, whiskey and cigar smoke filled the air; it permeated her clothes and made her feel dirty. The angry Serena to be picked up the suitcase once more, before she stormed towards the familiar wall with an oddly placed two way mirror. The drunkards didn’t even notice, and continued to stuff the alimony they owed in the other woman’s G-String. She put her ear to the door and heard a man and a woman moaning, one of which was distinctively Jett.

She picked up the suitcase and swung it around. After gaining enough momentum she sent it crashing through the mirror, and into his office. The suitcase shattered the mirror, and she saw a barely clothed Jett entwined with a woman in a cat costume. Her grubby paws were all over him. They both looked straight at Serena with shocked looks upon their faces. She pulled a camera from her purse and took a picture of Jett’s surprised expression, as his disgustingly greasy form was captured with that woman for all to see.

“Thanks. This will help nicely with the divorce.” Serena said and then around to leave.

Jett went to stop her but with his pants around his ankles, he could not catch up to the Italian princess. Instead he tripped, and fell into the remains of the mirror. The shards imbedded themselves all over his exposed flesh. His screams of pain were heard by all of the drunkards who came to get their jollies. As Serena left, she looked back one last time and saw that the mood was definitely killed. She even saw the stripper crying to someone else rather than bothering to help Jett. This job was far more amusing than any of the hits her father had done. Hopefully now, Jett would feel as cheated and alone as Serena had for months now.

A few men followed her out of the strip club. She walked along the sidewalk as if she didn’t even notice, but her hands were inside her pockets giving her a chance to grab her pistol if it came to it. She could hear them mumbling.

“That cold hearted bitch... Someone should teach her a lesson.” One of them said in a deep raspy voice.

“Cheaters always defend each other… how nice of them.” She remarked under her breath.

She heard a familiar click and turned around drawing her pistol from her coat. As she turned around, Serena realized it was more than a few men following her with guns drawn. In fact, there were at least ten of them, not including the cat girl stripper, who had joined them. She pulled the trigger and a bullet blasted from her gun, and tore into the forehead of the drunken man closest to her. The scent of burnt metal took to the cold air.

She felt as if she were in one of the stories her father had told her about when she was little. She was confident she would make it; the skill of a mafia king ran through her veins. His arm dropped and shot the ground at the mafia heiress’s feet, before dropping to the dirt himself. She knew she was severely outnumbered so she bolted into an alley to get the advantage, and yet they were still hot on her trail. She felt bullets whiz by her body. She turned and shot at the stripper for being the object of her former husband’s affection.

The bullet went right through her shoulder and all the feline did was put her gun in her uninjured arm. In this single glimpse Serena could not believe what she saw. The grubby paws of that cat girl were real, and she had fangs extending from her mouth puckering her lips slightly where they touched. The monstrous cat did not even bleed right, a through and through hole and not of drop of blood in sight. It was if her flesh was already dead, but somehow it was there running after Serena. She was nothing like the vampires in the movies, she sent a chill down Serena’s spine with her consuming stare.

“What the heck?” She yelled as she ran.
It seemed she could not run fast enough, and with each shot she sent spiraling behind her; she was emptying the clip of her gun. And amongst all the chaos as they entered a residential area, and due to the confusion, Jett’s other woman finally hit her mark and a bullet seared through Serena’s coat and into her stomach. The pain burned, she grew dizzy and stumbled around as she tried to find a place to take cover.

She tripped over a garden gnome, and fell face first through a basement window. The glass tearing into her skin as her already battered body flew through it. She landed on a workbench and took out all of the stuff that was on top of it. She was too weak to move and she heard someone coming.

She pressed her hands hard against the cold metal table and tried to get up once more. She could feel nothing but pain at this point. Amazingly tears streamed from her eyes as she knew she was about to die. The tears blurred her vision; she tried to look around for a way to hide. The fearful woman saw a blur of white move past her. She heard a lot of screaming outside and abruptly it became silence.

“What is going on?” she thought to herself, as her eyes strained to make out any movement at all.

She was dizzy because of the lack of blood flowing in her veins. She heard footsteps coming closer to her again, and she could not get her body to move. This was the end and Serena knew it. . There was no time for redemption. She believed the sins of her father still ran through her veins. She saw the blur coming toward her again.

“Go ahead and kill me.” She sobbed, “I am not going to make it anyway.”

A cold hand softly pressed against her cheek, “Don’t worry milady.”

The voice of this man seemed to sooth her, as if it was God himself coming to tell her she was going to Heaven, despite everything. He grabbed her by the shoulders and pulled her up into a seated position against the wall. The stone was so cold, she seemed to absorb it and grow colder and colder.

“Your life seems so meaningless...” He said as he put his arm around her and palmed the back of her head. Her head seemed to just droop to one side, she felt intoxicated. It was the best feeling she had felt for a long time, no one had even come close in all of her romantic endeavors.

“Meaningless?” She asked.

“Not another word, I will give you eternal life.” He whispered in her ear.
His icy breath sent chills down her spine. He moved his head away from her and she heard something like leather tearing, but the hand on the back of her head did not move in the slightest. A drop of something wet fell upon her lap. His lips met her shivering skin, she felt him bite down, but rather than sharp pains it was a feeling of ecstasy as he began to drain the life out of her. She felt herself dying, as her blood flowed from her flesh to his lips.

He put his wrist to her mouth gently. It smelled and tasted of old copper, just like the casings she held in her mouth to reload her pistol, the first time dad took her out on a job. That single drop upon her lips made her feel alive again. It was like a drug, she wanted it more and more with each drop that fell to her lips. The pain of her injuries seemed to slip away as she drank.

She felt her life slip away from her, but somehow she was still there. She opened her eyes and saw a man with stark white hair and grey eyes standing before her. He was wearing a white lab coat with the name Seth embroidered just below his collar. She had fallen into a laboratory and somehow now she was able to stand and her wounds were gone. She put her hand to her cheek; she felt of death but was somehow alive without a pulse.

“Am I a dead?” She asked.

“Technically. Who cares about technicalities?” He laughed.

It was if her flesh was already dead, but somehow it was there running after Serena. She was nothing like the vampires in the movies; she sent a chill down Serena’s spine with her consuming stare.

She was dizzy because of the lack of blood flowing in her veins.

It can be assumed why she’s dizzy. Unless she’s so trained that she thinks about her blood condition constantly, there’s no reason to mention why she is dizzy. This phrase mostly pulls you away from the character.

She put her hand to her cheek; she felt of death but was somehow alive without a pulse.

I understand she is a vampire with heightened senses, and vampire stories need to mention blood, unless she has a medical background that is always on her mind, she probably wouldn’t notice a lack of pulse- at least not from her cheek.
This is kind of a drop off ending. We don’t know what happens to her, her husband, though we can guess what happened to cat girl. We also don’t know anything about the lab. You successfully changed her, but you didn’t resolve any of the conflicts besides life or death, and with vampire stories that is generally one of the lesser conflicts and one of the last to be solved.
Try to stay in tuned with your character. Maybe figure her out better, don't force yourself on your characters. Readers need to know what's going on, but they get captured by the characters and how they reveal what is going on. You have a good start here, but you need to develope the story further.