Stressed as all hell, I slammed my foot on the gas pedal as my car barrelled down a largely-empty highway. It had taken me the better half of a week, but I finally had a good idea of where Mistress was, and I would waste no time in coming to Her rescue. That was, if I still had a Mistress to rescue, which I had to keep believing at all costs.

It felt strange to be dressed in my vampire hunting gear again, but it was what you needed when you were dealing with a vampire. That I was sure of now: Nicole “Nikki” Perreira, also known as hunter_419, was, in fact, a vampire. And her protégé, Caroline Hanson, was probably her thrall, certainly following her orders in kidnapping Mistress, at the very least.

Now I was taking on the undead on my Goddess’ behalf rather than my old naive belief that I was removing evil from the world. In essence, this was a holy mission. Nicole was like… a rival goddess or something, my Mistress’ mortal enemy. I feared what would happen if she were to try and enthrall me. Would my loyalty be split between the both of them? I didn’t want to think about that. I couldn’t. I had to save Her and rest assured that She would prevent anything like that from happening. The alternative would be a true nightmare.

Through searching public records, I had tracked Nicole down to a large two-story house in New Hampshire, about an hour and a half north of Mistress’ hotel and much further inland. The real estate here looked very expensive, and I couldn’t find any record of Nicole being employed for the last several years, so I had to assume that she inherited it. That, or she had hypnotized and enthralled her way into it only recently. The possibility had to be considered. Not unlike what Mistress had done to acquire Her current home, after all.

But they were nothing alike, as people. My Mistress was gentle and loving… Nicole was a stone-cold killer whose body count couldn’t fit on two hands. And that was disregarding whatever humans she had killed since being turned. At this point, it wasn’t just about saving Mistress, but avenging everyone she had hurt. Just like I had used to do… though, Mistress didn’t like what I used to do very much, so I tried to keep those thoughts to a minimum for Her.

I had already been by to scout the place out the previous day, driving by with little more than a quick stop. This was a nice neighborhood—I couldn’t just kick down the front door. I had agonized over what time to come here and try to get in, eventually deciding to come in the late evening at around 7 PM, just before the sun was going down. That way, if I encountered Nicole herself, she’d be more limited, probably tired, and I could retreat to safety in the sunlight, but if I found Mistress, I could sneak out of the house with Her once the sun had set if I timed it right.

I parked several blocks away from the house and snuck into its rather unkempt backyard through trees and bushes. The houses were far apart in this neighborhood and it didn’t seem like the sort where neighbors regularly interacted with one another, so I felt I’d have little risk of attracting attention.

I found my way to a wooden cellar door in the back of the house, locked up by a padlock. I figured that this would be my best way in without attracting too much attention. In fact, I had brought a crowbar with me for this very purpose. Just a quick tug on the handle and… I was in. Well, that made some noise and pulled the door clean off its hinges, but that was expected, and I’d have to deal with it. I was basically carrying out a home invasion here, so remaining completely undetected was most likely going to be impossible.

The house’s basement was small and didn’t look like it saw a lot of use. It smelled musty, and all that was around was a washing machine, clothes dryer, and some cleaning supplies.

I counted myself lucky that Nicole wasn’t keeping her coffin down here. I had found Emily’s former goddess, Kathy, sleeping just like that when I had tracked her down. Though the hunter community had a solid understanding of this concept, it had only been once Mistress had taken me that I knew for sure that Her kind could sleep in ordinary beds. It was apparently much more comfortable for Her, in fact, and of course, it gave Her room to share with thralls like me.

It only made sense that Nicole would be sleeping in her own bed, then. She knew vampires better than anyone other than the undead themselves, probably better than the recently-turned—so she’d know that she could sleep wherever she liked, whatever was most comfortable for her.

I tiptoed up the stairs with a wooden stake in hand, trying to remain as quiet as I could. Maybe the two hunters could write off the sound in the backyard as a falling branch or something, for the time being. I did worry, though… vampires had pretty sharp senses. If Mistress could smell people’s blood from several rooms away as she often did in her hotel, then surely Nicole would be able to smell me even down here. It seemed like a confrontation with her was inevitable.

But when I carefully pushed open the door to the kitchen at the top of the basement stairs, everything was eerily quiet. I was certain that this was the right house—Nicole Perreira lived here and Caroline Hanson lived in a small apartment where keeping a vampire imprisoned would be totally impractical, but maybe the hunters just weren’t around right now? It seemed improbable for Nicole during daylight hours, but she could have been holed up somewhere else, I supposed. I must’ve been the luckiest girl in the world. Hopefully, I could still find Mistress and get the hell out of here.

There had definitely been people in this kitchen recently. I caught the scent of recently-simmering oil. That must’ve been Caroline making herself some food. In fact, there was still a cutting board left out on the counter, stained green by chopped vegetables.

And on the back wall of the kitchen was a corkboard with various photos and website print-outs containing information on Naomi Rennt, my Mistress. It wasn’t unlike the notes I was keeping on my desk at home about Nicole herself. I myself was in one of the photos, pictured in the parking lot of the hotel. The hunters very much knew I belonged to Mistress, of course. That was no surprise. But to see myself up on the wall of Nicole’s house, listed as a target, almost, was rather jarring. It made me think of what it must have been for Mistress to constantly deal with threats against Her, people spying on Her. It must have been a stressful part of being a vampire.

I couldn’t dwell on it long, though. I was staying as quiet as I could, and no one seemed to be around, but I could not afford to waste time and end up being wrong, or end up with one of them returning.

If Mistress was here, I had really expected Her to be locked up in the basement, but if that wasn’t the case, the attic or garage would probably be the next safest bets. Those were secluded places where they could easily manage Her movements, though it would be difficult to build any prison that could reliably hold her. Not unless it was custom built.

The garage in particular had seemed a likely possibility, since there were a couple of cars parked outside on the driveway. It was close by too; I headed through the entrance in the laundry room, opening the somewhat creaky door as gracefully as I could. I really, really hoped I wouldn’t find one of the hunters there waiting for me…

The inside of the garage was dark, but I recognized the slender, beautiful figure of my Mistress immediately. There She was in a metallic cage, with lattice bars more brilliant than ordinary steel. That was silver, a material that really could keep Her imprisoned. Oh Goddess, what had they been doing to Her?

I swiftly closed the door behind me, and turned on the flashlight on my phone. Mistress was sitting cross-legged in the middle of the cage, looking rather uncomfortable, and flinching away as I shined the light on her. I was quick to turn the light elsewhere. She was naked from head to toe, Her soft tits and Her beautiful girlcock out where I could see them, and Her whole body was covered in a thin layer of dust and grime. It was a little humid in this garage, and smelled like tire grease. It was easy to see how She would get dirty over time, even though She didn’t sweat or produce waste from blood.

Her usually styled and combed red hair was awfully disheveled and messy. Though She was still the most beautiful woman I had ever seen, She looked like shit, relatively speaking. And when I looked closer, I noticed that Her skin looked very dry, almost wrinkly, Her body frail, Her face tired… more like a decaying corpse than I had ever seen Her before. Mistress was starving. She was being starved. I couldn’t allow this to happen! And, of course, my blood could help Her recover.

She seemed happy to see me, yet deeply conflicted, as She moved closer to my side of the cage, gingerly avoiding the bars as though She had become very used to doing so. Had She really been stuck in this one cage for the last five days straight? This was cruelty beyond cruelty, something that couldn’t be allowed.

“Oh, Lilith… Valerie, it’s really you,” She said, her voice lovely as always but hoarse and strained. She looked to be on the edge of tears.

I leaned in close, hands up against the cage trying to reach for her but failing, keeping my voice as low as I could. I knew Mistress had sharp hearing, and would have no difficulty understanding. Thankfully I had chosen not to bring any garlic, since it would draw attention and be unpleasant for Her, while not being an overwhelmingly effective repellant.

“It’s You, Mistress! I found You,” I whispered, in tears myself. I truly had the chance to rescue her now, to make this right. I inspected the cage’s gate. This had to have been custom-made; even the lock was made of silver. I had to assume the key would be too. So Caroline was being kept in charge of certain things, then. Nicole wouldn’t be able to unlock the cage on her own. That surprised me a little, but perhaps it was worth it to them to make it that much harder for Mistress to free Herself.

I kneeled down in front of Her on one knee, bowing my head and feeling like everything could be OK again for the first time in almost a week. Soon, She would be free, and everything could go back to how it was supposed to be.

“I got off in the car right before coming over here, Mistress. I’ve been doing it every day. Just like You ordered me to,” I said, feeling warm and content. This was a longstanding order of Hers, dating back to the night after I was enthralled. I loved fulfilling my obligations for Her… I would think of Mistress and Lauren and the horny dreams She gave me every time I did it.

“Good girl,” She said, a small smile on Her face. “But let’s not delay. Can you get Me out of here, sweetie?”

“Oh, yes—where are they keeping the key? Have You seen it?” I asked, standing back up to look around the garage. Shining my phone’s light around, I didn’t see much of use, just a toolbox in the corner and a few shelves. If the key was in fact silver, the light would reflect off of it, but nothing here appeared metallic except the cage itself. The hunters must have hidden it somewhere inside the house. There were few hiding spots here.

“I don’t know,” She said, looking distressed and speaking quickly. “But be quick, Valerie. Oh, Lilith, if they know you’re here… they have horrible plans for both of us.”

Wait, what? They were preparing for me? Fuck, that changed everything. Was this all a ruse? I turned back toward Mistress in panic, only for the door to open behind me.

It was Nicole Perreira, looking a lot like she did in her photo with Caroline, though paler than she was back then. Oh, wow. This was the enemy, but she was really hot. I recalled how I had felt when I had first confronted Mistress. That had been frightening to me at the time, and overwhelming to me in an unpleasant way. In retrospect, I knew it was destiny, a path set forth for me by my Goddess, but this time was altogether different. I had my hand on my wooden stake already.

“Ms. Hawthorne,” she said in a measured tone that was clearly holding something back. “Well met. I, uh, haven’t done this since I was turned. You’ll have to forgive me if I act a bit awkward.”

“Done this?” I said, my voice trembling. “Done what? You expected me here?”

Mistress collapsed on the floor beneath Her, as upset as I’d ever seen Her.

“They’re going to kill Me, sweetie,” She said sadly. “I thought that you might get Me out of here before they noticed, but they… you knew she was here all along, didn’t you?” She looked at Nicole. “You were just biding your time. I should have warned you, Valerie. You ought not see this.”

“Of course. I smelled her as soon as she broke in from upstairs. We needed you here, Valerie,” Nicole confirmed. “It’s not personal. You need to watch that bloodsucker die so that you know it’s over. You’ll know it’s not coming back. And you’ll be able to tell its other thralls that it’s dead without any doubt remaining.”

I was stunned. This wasn’t the first time Nicole had done this, was it? They would kidnap a vampire, put them in their silver cage, wait until one of the vampire’s thralls came looking for them, and kill the vampire in front of the thrall, proving once and for all that the vampire was dead. I thought of Gail, so devoted to Mistress that she would never believe Her dead regardless of the evidence I found. If anything would convince her, this would. And I thought of Emily, whose Goddess had died by my hand right before her eyes, probably contributing to her relatively smooth recovery.

Would I “recover”, too? Would I go back to the life I lived before meeting Mistress, working a miserable job in a dying industry at the counter of a greeting card store, and learn to be content with that? That was unthinkable! I couldn’t lose Her now. Without Her, I wouldn’t have realized my love for Laurie, I wouldn’t have known my true purpose in life, I wouldn’t be happy…

And then, dissociating in the middle of the garage and thinking about the implications of this always being Nicole’s plan further…

“You did a sloppy job of covering your tracks on purpose, didn’t you?” I said. “The bullet casing wasn’t left there by accident.”

“I left it there,” said another voice behind Nicole. I watched as Caroline slunk into the room behind her presumed Mistress, standing side-by-side with her. She looked deeply uncomfortable and on edge, keeping her eyes away from everyone else in the room, even her own Mistress, which made me think that Nicole may not have been her Mistress at all.

“She isn’t my thrall,” Nicole said, as though reading my mind. She was fidgeting around, though, and looked pretty out of her element. Mistress was always in control of Herself unlike her, though today may have been an exception, what with Her head darting around inside the cage, peering at both Caroline and I regularly. She needed our blood, and I very much wanted to give Her what She needed.

“OK,” was all I could say. Maybe she wasn’t her thrall. Not all vampires were like Mistress. Not all vampires dedicated their undeaths to killing other vampires. This was believable.

“But she could be,” said Mistress, letting out a strained, though beautiful laugh. “Don’t you think Valerie is adorable? Tracking you down to rescue Me, putting all that effort in for what might have ultimately been a dead end… she’d do literally anything for me, fledgling. Imagine if you could have that with Caroline. And you’d have a reliable source of blood. You’d never have to worry about hurting innocent people ever again, especially if you let Me teach you how to control your voice.”

Caroline was shaking her head and doing a throat-slitting motion at Nicole, looking fairly frightened. Her face was a tired one; like her mentor and like Mistress, she seemed to be at the absolute end of her rope, perhaps for different reasons. Trying to resist two vampires regularly for a whole week—particularly my irresistible Mistress—would take a lot out of someone.

“I’m not going to do that,” Nicole said, sounding unsure of herself. It was so strange to hear a vampire hesitate in that way. I supposed that I had seen my Mistress under pressure before, but She always had a certain unshakeable confidence about Her. My Mistress had killed humans before, but She had always had good reasons for it, and She never acted outside Her own moral framework. Nicole was clearly far less matured in her undeath; the humans she seemed to have killed were mere collateral damage in her attempts to nourish herself. My Mistress might have been irresistible to me, but She wasn’t supposed to be irresistible to other vampires. If Nicole was being swayed, it was of her own free will.

I knew one thing: if I didn’t want to be Nicole’s thrall, I wouldn’t want to be in Caroline’s position right then.

“Look at you, hesitating like that,” Mistress said, chuckling weakly. “It’s because deep down, you know I’m right, fledgling. You can keep on being a serial killer of our kind, trying to hold on to your human life, convincing yourself that you’re different from Me. But you’ll… you’ll get it eventually. You’ll think back to how good Valerie and I had it, and you’ll regret what you did.”

Caroline put her hand on Nicole’s back, gingerly calling for her attention.

“Nicole, we’re so close,” she said in a panic. “Don’t fuckin’ give up on me now! Valerie is right there. Let’s get it over with! Push the button!”

Without saying anything, Nicole nodded and slammed the button on the wall next to her using her fist, damaging the panel and the wall behind it with sheer strength. I heard a mechanical whirring as light began to fill the otherwise-dark room, the previously-closed skylight above Mistress’ cage slowly pulling itself open, letting in a sliver of sunlight. Mistress, weakened as She was, winced and began covering Her head, retreating into the corner of the cage to get as far away from the encroaching light as She could.

This was a critical moment. If I didn’t think of something quickly, She would be burned to ash. This would all be for nothing… I wouldn’t have a Mistress any more. That couldn’t be allowed to happen.

I gripped the stake in my right hand and rushed toward Nicole, knowing that I stood no real chance. If Mistress could catch me when I had caught Her almost completely off-guard the day I met Her, then Nicole would see this coming from a mile away. But I had to do something. The only other option was unthinkable, worse than death.

And indeed she did see me coming. Before I even saw her arm moving, Nicole had batted me clean across the garage with one stroke of her hand. I landed on my back near the garage door, badly bruised, my head barely spared from crashing against the door and resulting in much worse injury. But fuck, Goddess, everything hurt.

I realized that Nicole was being consciously merciful with me; careful, even. She could’ve done much worse if she had really wanted to hurt me. Even if all she wanted to do was neutralize me, she could’ve held me in place to have me look her in the eyes. She must have been reluctant to use that power, for one reason or another.

“Look at it, Valerie,” Nicole said, as I struggled to move. “Look at your so-called Mistress! It’s weak. Pathetic. An animalistic predator. You owe nothing to it. It drains your vital fluid and expects you to love it in return! We’re giving you your freedom back! Accept it!”

The skylight was slow-opening, and Mistress was still holding on, though increasingly backed into a corner. Nicole herself was averting her eyes from the light shining down from the ceiling, just as vulnerable to it as Mistress. I couldn’t afford to listen to this blasphemous nonsense. I needed to move, despite pain that would probably take weeks to heal. I had to get going!

I picked myself up off the floor slowly and charged at Nicole again, stumbling to the side. It was all I could think to do. Giving up wasn’t an option. Not for Mistress, and not for me! I loved Her above all else and I wouldn’t ever let this monster take Her away from me.

“I don’t need free will!” I shouted. “I’m blessed to be Hers!”

Nicole grabbed me by the shirt, tossing me to the side as Caroline winced behind her. I hit the wall next to the two hunters hard again, getting more bad bruises, feeling something blocky behind me that jabbed into my side. The control panel for the skylight, I realized. She clearly didn’t have a full sense of her own strength, having damaged the panel to begin with — she was just throwing herself around, trying to keep me in check without critically injuring me.

This was something I could take advantage of. I didn’t know if this would actually work—the skylight might’ve had a failsafe mechanism that would cause it open to all the way if it was disabled—but if I didn’t do anything, Mistress was going to be incinerated by the sunlight she scorned anyway. I was just stumbling, slumped against the wall and nearly fallen over, but I had to try.

I wrapped my pained, bruised left hand around the mechanism, gripping it with all of my very limited human strength, and pulled as hard as I could, ripping it clean off the wall. Then I let myself fall to the ground and just kept pulling, tearing off wiring and a bit of drywall that sprinkled down onto my legs as sparks flew and… and the whirring stopped as the skylight stopped moving, the light then covering about three-quarters of Mistress’ cage while leaving a few feet of breathing room for Her. Well, room, anyway. It would only be breathing room if She chose to do so.

“What did—” Nicole growled as she looked down at me with absolute fury on her pale face. “What did you do?”

She bent down and pinned me to the floor with what I knew from experience was a mere fraction of her strength, glaring with fire burning in her eyes. I averted my gaze for fear of being put in trance, but did it really matter? With her hands next to my throat, I thought she might be about to break my neck and end it all.

“Don’t you realize that this is for your own good, Valerie?” Nicole shouted. “You’re only hurting yourself when you try to save that monster. Maybe a thrall like you is beyond saving!” I felt her grip tighten around my neck. I was completely fucked… this truly would all be for nothing in the end. But I would rest easy knowing I did it for Mistress…

“Nicole!” I heard Caroline shout. “Stop that! You’re hurting her!” She bent down, unsuccessfully pulling Nicole away from me. I could barely breathe.

“She fucked it up, Caroline!” Nicole snarled. “That thing was seconds from being dead! We’re going to have to get the whole damn thing reinstalled now!”

“You know it’s not her fault! Let her the fuck go before you do something you regret!” the younger hunter pleaded.

Nicole’s grip loosened a little, she looked up at Caroline, and I let out the biggest breath I could. Maybe there would still be a chance left to fight for Her undeath.

“We’ll just have to do it the old-fashioned way,” Caroline continued. “Put a stake in her heart… I mean its heart.” She looked relieved, for my sake surely, but I also had a sneaking suspicion that she was a bit more squeamish about killing my Mistress.

“Or you could just let Me out,” Mistress said weakly, Her eyes closed, Her body curled up almost in fetal position, hiding from the light. I wanted to release Her, comfort Her, feed Her with my own blood, but I was in no position to do so. Caroline was right. Pulling the control panel out of the wall had only delayed the inevitable, but it had been the best that I could do.

“Let’s go get the key, Nicole,” Caroline said. “Come on.” She put her hand on the doorknob behind her.

Nicole stood up and dusted herself off, both hunters managing to ignore Mistress, the most important person in the room. The two of them exited the garage, leaving me lying on the floor next to the wall, and Mistress lying on the floor inside the cage.

“Mistress,” I said weakly, tearing up and struggling to pull myself up into a sitting position. “I’m so sorry I couldn’t do more. I’ve comprehensively failed You.”

Mistress shook Her head, trying to put on the best smile She could. It looked rather half-hearted.

“No, no, Valerie, you’ve done wonderfully,” She said, almost whispering in her beautiful, melodic voice. “Time is a very valuable gift.”

“But what can we do?” I loud-whispered back. “They have the key. I can’t take on both of them, especially like this… there’s no way I can get You out of there.”

“I know a way.” Mistress smiled. “Cut Caroline, darling. Draw blood from her. I’ve seen Nicole struggle all too much with her instincts while I’ve been in here. This will probably be all I need to drive her over the edge. Then she’ll be vulnerable. You did well bringing your hunting gear, sweetie, as much as it pains Me to see it.”

“Yes, Mistress,” I said, slowly coming to my feet. “I’ll do my best for You.” I didn’t feel the greatest about hurting someone like that, but it was for my Mistress, after all. It was what had to be done. Any sacrifice would be worth saving Her undeath. And hopefully I’d be able to save Caroline from my own actions before things went completely off the rails.

“Good girl,” She said, filling me with warmth. I thought it would probably be the last time I would have the pleasure of hearing such praise, though.

A minute passed, as I readied a silver chef’s knife that I had bought for my first vampire hunt, concealing it in my vest’s pocket. I counted myself lucky that Nicole had been too flustered and eager to leave to strip me of my weaponry.

Caroline and Nicole returned, the former carrying a silver key in her hand. I was standing, albeit hobbled. I’d have to act fast despite barely being able to stand at the moment.

“Alright, I’ll unlock the gate and put the thing out of its misery,” Caroline said, walking toward the cage. “You take point, Nicole. And make sure Valerie doesn’t try anything.” She shot me a glare as she reached for the lock.

This was my moment, while Nicole was still getting her bearings. I charged toward Caroline as Nicole slumped against the wall behind herself. She was trying to stay calm, it seemed like, trying to get ahold of herself, like Mistress had said.

“What the hell?” Caroline shouted. And Nicole, to the side: “stay away from her!” But even with her speed, Nicole hadn’t been quite fast enough. She dashed into place and grabbed my arm, straining it back into a deeply uncomfortable position above and behind my head just as I had whipped out my knife, leaving a small slash across Caroline’s arm. The damage had already been done, and she yelled out in pain as she reeled backward, dropping the key onto the floor between us.

Nicole was backing me into the wall now, forcing me back inch by inch and glaring at me as I did.

“You would attack my own apprentice?” she snarled, having the same sort of possessive affect that Mistress took on when one of her thralls was put in danger. “I should have neutralized you when I had the chance!”

“I think you’re missing the point, dear,” Mistress said, chuckling and looking up at Caroline hungrily. “Doesn’t Caroline smell just lovely? Look at all of that warm, yummy blood dripping from her wound. Doesn’t it smell delicious? It could all be yours if you just take it.”

Caroline was a deer caught in the headlights, hyperventilating and scrambling to hold her wooden stake up in self-defense. Mistress’ plan had worked. Well, at least the first couple of steps had. She was still stuck in Her cage, and I’d have my work cut out for me taking out Nicole if she did become distracted.

But Nicole only started laughing maniacally, a sneering look on her face that I could tell from all I’d seen of her was pretty atypical.

“You think I’m that desperate?” she growled, whipping around to face Mistress. “I’ve spent the last six months getting ahold of my instincts, stopping myself from attacking Caroline… I’ve already had to deal with this! I might be a fucking parasite who inherited my own memories, but I’ve still got those memories! I’m not a human any more, but I don’t plan on giving up my humanity like you! Just like that! It’s what parasites like you and I can do if we put effort toward it!”

Nicole lurched toward me then, forcing me down to the ground with her on top of me. Even disregarding her supernatural strength, I was in no shape to resist. She was kneeling then on top of me, one hand on my chest, holding me down. Everything still hurt, and I realized that she wasn’t even helping Caroline or trying to hurt Mistress. What was happening?

“Nicole, what are you doing?” Caroline asked. “This is nothing we haven’t seen before! How many times has a thrall threatened you with a knife? I’ll be fine! You don’t need to hurt her more than she’s already hurt!” She held the cut on her arm with her other hand, pained but not seriously injured, just as I had intended. Clearly I wasn’t the only one who didn’t understand what was happening.

“You don’t get it, Caroline! It can’t be the way it was before!” Nicole shouted. “I might have been holding onto my humanity, I might’ve retained it, but ‘Nicole’ is dead! I’m just a parasite with her memories. But parasites like us can still retain something of what we were before.”

She looked back at Mistress. “You don’t even try to do that, do you? You just try and goad me into enthralling Nicole’s old apprentice, thinking that I’m totally controlled by my instincts, just like you are. So I’m thinking, what if I just enthrall your thrall instead? Take her for my own? What the fuck are you going to do about it?”

My heart was pounding as I realized what she was going to do to me. My devotion to my Mistress had kept me from falling for Nicole’s own charms so far, but she could enthrall me if she wanted. And if she killed Mistress and survived herself, would I survive as her thrall? Would I… like that, as I loved being Mistress’ thrall? I couldn’t! I couldn’t abide even thinking these blasphemous thoughts!

Nicole held me in place, looked me in the eyes, and I stopped thinking altogether.

Naomi

I wanted to rip open the cage’s bars and wrestle Nicole off of my beloved Valerie, but I had even less room to move around than usual, thanks to the encroaching sunlight. And if I could get out there, I would be far too weak to do anything. Even if I had just had a fresh meal out of Valerie, Nicole was much more muscular than I was. As much as I loved being in control, I wouldn’t stand a chance.

It didn’t stop me from pounding on the bars and burning myself, screaming and shouting all the hate and scorn I had built up over the last week, all I could muster. I had never been so wronged… the hunters were going to kill me, and Valerie was going to be taken from me. No one took my thralls from me. They were mine, my possessions, my prey, my girlfriends! This was the greatest insult one of my kind could give to another, one even the most careless of vampires preferred to avoid lest another return the favor, and I was powerless to act against it. I hated that.

But Nicole was taking her time. Oh yes, that was Nicole. She could call herself a parasite if she wanted, but I knew better. I was the same person I always was since before I was turned, just with an immortal form and two additional centuries’ worth of experiences that had made me the person I was. She was too — she was just unwilling to accept the decisions she would have to make to maintain her immortal form. She would use any excuse she could think of to escape that. It wasn’t the first time I had seen something like it.

She was just kneeling there on top of Valerie, grinning down at her with bloodlust shining in her gray eyes, Valerie’s own glassy eyes staring back at her, totally entranced. And Caroline was standing next to her, looking as uncomfortable as I’d seen her since I was brought here, clutching her wooden stake tight in both hands.

“She’s mine!” I shouted at the top of my lungs, leaving another big dent in the cage’s bars with my fist. I was used to the burning pain that silver brought now, at least somewhat. I supposed I had built up something of a tolerance after being exposed over and over, even if that exposure tended to be my own damn fault. My hands were still heavily burned, but I was enduring the pain.

“You can’t have her!” I continued, but Nicole barely seemed to listen. She was too absorbed in the incredible rush of power she must have been feeling over Valerie, a sensation that I was all too familiar with, one I loved very much. I so wanted to convince the older hunter to get off of her high horse and accept her undeath, but not like this. Never like this.

“Nicole… Nicole!” Caroline said, leaning down toward her mentor. “No one should have her, Nicole! She’s a person worth respecting just like me! Just like you! You aren’t a parasite, Nicole, you’re my friend! I know you’re still you! Listen to me!”

“I’m… I’m a parasite, Caroline,” Nicole said again, one hand holding Valerie down. “I’m a parasite just like Samantha. And I can have anyone I want now. Anyone! Even another vampire’s thrall. And there’s no one who can do a single thing about it.” I had no idea who Samantha was, but I couldn’t bring myself to care. All I saw on top of Valerie was a rival predator threatening one of my most beloved girls.

“Oh, god,” Caroline said, hand over her face. “No, no, this doesn’t have to turn out like Samantha, Nicole! We’re so close to being done with this! Just let me go finish Naomi off. You’re letting her get in your head even more than she’s gotten in mine!”

“She, her… You see that monster as a person, don’t you? Just like me. This has always been your mistake, Caroline! You’re weak! Too merciful. So fucking merciful that you spared me when I should be buried in the ground in Italy with a stake through my heart if you knew what was good for you! Think about it. All those women I killed in alleyways. That’s blood on your hands, Caroline! We’re parasites and I can’t help myself! I’ll kill or enslave everyone I should care about, just like Samantha did!”

Nicole lifted Valerie up by her shoulders, staring her in the eyes again, asserting her hypnotic control. I had a one-track mind watching this. I could only think that it should be me looking at her, owning her, never Nicole. And then she was feeling over Valerie’s neck with her fingers as my beloved thrall let out light moans. Nicole was finding the vein, surely, pleasuring her prey before she drank from her. She had no fucking right!

“Or you could just… not, Nicole!” Caroline insisted. “Hell, you were just talking about how you can hold onto your humanity! Don’t be like Samantha! Don’t be like Naomi! If you’re so sure you’re just a parasite pretending to be yourself, lean all the fucking way into pretending! Be the best version of yourself you can be, alive or undead! And don’t drink this innocent lady’s blood just for spite against a monster that’s not worth your time!”

Nicole sighed, chuckling sadly and doing a waving motion at her protégé. “Nicole was never all that great a person, anyway. She killed vampires like it would somehow bring Samantha back. Just to feel something, when nothing else could fill the void she left behind! I might as well do the same with humans.”

She sank her fangs into Valerie’s neck then, defying my continued pounding on the bars and Caroline herself, who was trembling, tears in her eyes. Valerie moaned and screamed in delighted agony as Nicole messily drank from her, the blood trickling and dripping onto the floor beneath her. Valerie was really going to die… she was going to die trying to save me. I had never had such a thing happen before. Most hunters preferred to spare the thralls, but Nicole was clearly far more deranged than most hunters. We were both going to die when this was over. I had failed as her Mistress, and I felt nothing but blind rage and shame.

“Do something!” I screamed at Caroline. And I remembered what she had told me. “Your promise to her, Caroline! If she lost control of herself and went too far, you promised her you would…”

“I would put a stake in her heart,” Caroline said over Valerie’s screams. “I don’t need you to remind me, Naomi. This is my mentor. My fight.”

Nicole seemed to barely hear anything we were saying. She was enjoying my thrall’s blood too much for her own good.

“Get the hell off of her, bloodsucker,” Caroline said, stabbing her former mentor in the shoulder with that silver steak knife she liked to carry, what I had gathered was a gift from Nicole on the day they had met. Nicole collapsed on the floor to the side, screaming out in pain, her lips stained with my Valerie’s blood.

“There you go!” Nicole shouted, laughing madly. “Be ruthless, Caroline!”

The older hunter pulled the knife out of her own shoulder by its wooden handle, groaning in pain as she did. She must’ve been running on pure adrenaline; it was actually quite impressive to me that she would manage to do that so quickly without silver’s touch overwhelming her. I still felt the pain in my forehead on occasion, and certainly those burns I had gotten on my hands and forearms pounding on the bars.

“Just… just stay down, Nicole,” Caroline said. “Stay off of her.”

Valerie was lying on the ground, unresponsive. Receiving one’s first bite was a completely overwhelming experience for a human, but I had drunk from her dozens of times since she was enthralled. Maybe it was simply an effect of being enthralled twice? Fuck! What would that even mean for her? She’d go on obeying Nicole when I was gone, disregarding her time with me entirely? But there was no way that Nicole would be half the Mistress I was. Lilith, she’d probably erase her memory of both of us if Caroline made her come to her senses. I hated to think of that!

But Nicole had been allowed to take a lot of blood before Caroline intervened. Enough of her spit had gotten on the bite wound to largely close it, but Valerie’s lovely scent was dampened beyond what I would expect. I wondered if her unresponsiveness wasn’t mere emotional overwhelm, but something far worse…

And Nicole was over there on the ground, still laughing spitefully through gritted fangs.

“Hey, bloodsucker,” she addressed me, turning to me with satisfaction in her eyes. “Your thrall’s blood was so delicious to me. What was that, A positive? I’m going to take a lot more from her when she’s mine.”

Barely holding myself back from throwing my entire naked body toward her and the cage’s bars, I pounded on the mats beneath me with both fists. It was mere mockery from her, but she was so fucking inexperienced. She’d be such an awful Mistress! And she was going to get away with it all?

“It’s O positive, fledgling!” I said. She couldn’t even get that right. What a fucking disgrace.

Caroline spoke up, terribly on edge, her wooden stake held tight in her hand. “Nicole… Nicole, I know it feels good to talk shit to Naomi right now, but can we focus? I need… I need you to focus, Nicole, please. I need you to remember you’re you.” Fucking hell. The last thing I needed right then was for these two hunters to repair their relationship and commit to killing me together. Caroline was the one who needed to focus.

Nicole sat up slowly, her hand over her stab wound. Valerie still wasn’t moving. I felt paralyzed.

“You don’t get it, Caroline,” she said. “This was never going to go the way we wanted it to. Valerie’s mine now. I’m not going to let her go. I’m gonna keep her as an act of defiance. Bloodsuckers worldwide will know what I’ll be capable of if they cross me.”

Caroline looked horrified. “What about Valerie herself, though? She didn’t do anything wrong! You have to let her go, erase her memories or whatever!”

“Neither of you are going to get what you want for her,” I said, my head on the floor in despair. “None of us are.”

“I’ll ask you again, bloodsucker,” Nicole said. “What are you going to do about it?”

“I’m past doing anything about it,” I said, my face a dirty, teary-eyed mess. “We all are. She’s dying. You killed her, fledgling. You took too much blood.” I had wanted to deny it, but it was fucking true. I could smell it in her veins, and she was almost as pale as I was, and humans’ hearts were never supposed to beat that fast when they were unconscious. She wasn’t incapacitated by enthrallment. She had gone into shock due to blood loss.

If I had known what would happen here, I’d have stopped my thralls from coming at all. I’d rather have wasted away alone in my cage than let this happen to one of my own. She was the love of my undeath — one of many, but irreplaceable. I was inconsolable. I knew then that I never should have been her Mistress at all.

“You… you killed her, Nicole,” Caroline said in a small, meek voice, holding back tears. “You killed her.”

The only thing left to do was seek retribution. And I think that Caroline knew that, too.

Nicole let out a small “fuck”.

She paused, looking around the room. “We can bring her to the hospital?” she said, seeming to regain a certain sense of control over her wild bloodlust. All too familiar after recovering from hunger.
“She has minutes left to live, I’d estimate,” I said. “You’ll never make it. I know all too well how quickly you can lose someone when they lose too much blood.”

Nicole balled her fist, shaking and crying. “Then she shouldn’t have fucking ruined the skylight and attacked my… my Caroline! Why did she have to get herself killed?”

“You told me a long time ago that thralls were sacred, Nicole,” Caroline said. “I think you’re right. I never should have saved you back in Italy.”

She let out a cry then, her wooden stake stabbing straight at Nicole’s heart, but her mentor was far too fast, rejuvenated by the blood she had taken, all the way at peak performance. The stake shattered clean in half from her strike, the pieces flying across the room and hitting the wall behind Valerie. Shit.

“Oh, no, you’re not betraying me now!” Nicole said. “I-if I can’t have Valerie, maybe… maybe I’ll make you my thrall instead, Caroline!” She stared daggers at Caroline, approaching her with threatening intent as she backed away, defenseless.

Rarely had I seen one of my kind quite this off the rails. Not since… not since his worst outbursts. This was very bad. Oh, sure, I had wanted her to enthrall Caroline before, but Caroline was the only person who seemed even slightly reasonable right then. I didn’t deserve to survive if Valerie would die, but there were good ways of dying and bad ones. I didn’t want to know what Nicole would do to me if she got her way.

“Samantha wouldn’t want this, Nicole,” Caroline said. “I never knew her, but I’m sure. Even at her worst, she was a victim of bad circumstances.”

“Samantha’s been dead for ten years,” Nicole replied. “I don’t give a damn about what she would want any more.” But from her tone of voice, she didn’t sound so sure — whoever the hell Samantha was, anyway.

Caroline and I were both out of options, I realized. It was the end of the line. Though, glancing at the floor, maybe it wasn’t as straightforward as Caroline was probably assuming.

“The knife, Caroline!” I said. “Take it and stab her in the heart! It’ll work just as well as a stake! Fulfill your promise to her.”

“It will?” they both asked in unison. Oh yes, most hunters assumed a stake was necessary, but any stabbing weapon would work just fine on my kind if it went through the heart. Humans were just too stuck in their assumptions to even consider trying most of the time.

I nodded. “It will.”

Nicole reached for the steak knife on the floor faster, of course, but the silver blade was facing toward her, and the caution she was forced to take let Caroline pick it up first.

The younger hunter reared back, closed her eyes, and said, “you deserved better, Nicole.” And then her mentor was removed from this world. I looked away. There had been enough death on my hands for one day. This needed to happen, of course, but seeing one of my own kind stabbed like that was a bit too much for me.

And now it was just me, Caroline, and Valerie’s rapidly-dying body. Caroline was kneeling on the floor, holding a knife stained with vampiric ichor above the corpse of her best friend in the world, one of the most miserable people I had ever had the displeasure of knowing.

“She met the same fate as her girlfriend, Naomi,” she murmured. “It felt like there was nothing I could do.”

I didn’t care. Valerie had so little time left before she was gone herself. There was nothing I could do to save her. She had lost so much blood… even a doctor would have trouble saving her now. Humans couldn’t survive with that little blood, and it was all my fault.

Though… I hadn’t even let myself consider the possibility before, but there was still one option left. It would be the only way to do anything resembling right by my beloved thrall. It was something I told myself I’d never do.

“And somehow you’re looking more trustworthy than her or Samantha. Low bar, I guess,” Caroline finished.

“You have to let me turn Valerie,” I said.

She turned to me, wide-eyed. “What?”

I sighed. It was this or dying myself. No two ways around it. “It’s the only way, Caroline. I’ll drain the rest of the blood out of her and make her my fledgling. If she can’t get to a hospital, it’s the only way. And I’ll be certain she never turns out like your mentor.” I glanced at the corpse on the floor beside Valerie.

“I thought you didn’t do that,” she said.

“I don’t,” I growled through gritted fangs. “But I’d rather die than let her die saving me.”

She just stared at me, not entranced, just bewildered.

“Oh, Lilith, there’s no time, Caroline! Do you want her to die, or not? I’ll throw away everything I am if it means she’ll go on!” I pounded the floor in frustration. One way or another, this chapter of my undeath would be over. There was no other way.

The young hunter panted, looking around. “I’m gonna get the hell out of here, Naomi, you understand? You’ll never see me again. And I’ll never be your thrall.”

“Fine!” I snarled. I truly didn’t care. Only Valerie mattered now. I’d give everything for one of my thralls.

She produced the key. “Just don’t try anything. If you care so much about her survival, you won’t try and play tricks.”

I nodded quietly, and said, “yes, Mistress”. One final reminder of what she had cultivated.

She put the key in the cage’s lock and turned it, then pulled it open. And I swore that I had never seen a human move so quickly before that evening.

As weak as I’d ever felt, I crawled my way out of the cage onto the concrete of the garage floor, catching my leg on the silver bottom of the cage as I pulled it out. I must not have had that long left myself, if something wasn’t done. But thankfully, I’d get all the blood I needed and more now. I’d kill two birds with one stone, though a killing metaphor really didn’t feel appropriate at the moment.

Still, I considered that maybe it wasn’t so inappropriate, either. Besides Nicole’s corpse on the floor next to me, I’d be killing Valerie, too, in a sense. When I was done here, she would be dead. That was simply how this worked. She’d come back, of course, but by all appearances, she would shuffle off of her mortal coil for the next several nights, and she would only partially return.

Even if I could save her, she’d never be the same again. We’d never have the same relationship again. She couldn’t just be my thrall any more. This was something altogether different.

I reached down for Valerie’s neck, on the left side, untouched by Nicole, and sank my fangs into her. Her blood was flowing weakly… she had lost so much, and I could hear her heart working overtime and getting quite overwhelmed. Still, she tasted amazing, not just for having the most sizable quantity of blood I’d tasted in almost a week. I savored her scent and flavor, a flavor I’d never get another chance to taste, crying as I did.

When I got all I could from her neck, I was careful to seal the wound extra tightly with a heaping of saliva. My mouth was dry, but I was starting to regain my strength, and bodily fluids with it. I didn’t feel so desiccated as I had for the last few days.

It wasn’t that simple, of course. I had to be as thorough as I could possibly be, and drink every last drop. Anything less than a perfect job would just leave a corpse, and I’d curse myself forever if this didn’t work out. My thralls would have to find a new Mistress. I would not be worthy of the title.

I moved onto her torso, taking a nice long drink from her upper hip. I imagined that this was quite unusual for one of my kind to experience, turning someone without most or all of their blood intact to begin with. My kind turned humans for a variety of reasons, but it tended to be long-beloved thralls in good standing who were turned to serve as fledglings, or otherwise random humans who tasted delicious when a certain kind of vampire wanted to ensure the propogation of our kind. So rarely was this done to actively save someone from a state of peril. I acted with the utmost urgency, for my Valerie had so little blood to take to begin with, comparatively…

The taste of her sweet O positive blood reminded me of all she had meant to me. She was the first hunter I had spared, largely on a whim because I realized I could, and I wanted to own her. I realized that now there had been a second. I wondered what Caroline would do now. She had been the second human I’d chosen not to enthrall in the last year, as well. I hoped that she’d learn something from this experience, as I had. I wondered what would be left in the wake of her mentor’s death, as I caught a glimpse of the bloodless body behind me. Would she continue to hunt my kind? Somehow, I doubted it.

I wondered what would become of Lauren. She and Valerie had been a package deal, almost, though that had not been my intention. They had stumbled into my thrall together, I supposed. And now Lauren would be the only human between the three of us. Would we own her together, both her Mistresses? I didn’t know. I didn’t know what Valerie would want. She would accept what I had given her as her Mistress, of course, but was it something she would want outside of that? I feared becoming just like him, as I finished drinking the blood out of her torso and moved on to her legs. I needed to focus on what was best for Valerie, now.

No matter what happened, I would always be there for her. I owed her that much.

TO BE CONCLUDED IN BLOODLESS