A/N: The girls Ingrid turn in series three were only minor characters, but I felt they deserved more attention, enjoy.
Lucy supposed she would have felt cold. That is, if she were still human.
She ran a hand self-consciously through her hair. It wasn't that she felt out of place on a Friday night in a big city wearing a short dress and heels, and she wasn't
there alone, it was just that she hadn't seen her own reflection in months, not since Ingrid had turned them. And, she realised with a jolt, she would never see it again.
Being a vampire was taking some getting used to.
Lucy often felt like this, as though she was the one who struggled most with their new lives. It hadn't been a problem at first. Between adjusting to the constant bloodlust and fighting the vampiress liberation cause with attempted assassinations of the chosen one, there hadn't been much time for thinking.
Now though, as the she wondered the city streets a few paces behind the three other vampires, she found herself left in the company of just her own thoughts.
Lucy thought a lot about what had happened to her and the others. She thought about how true the words Ingrid had spoken to them after turning them had been, and how they hadn't made it any easier; they would miss their families. Lucy missed her family more than she'd ever thought possible. In fact, she missed everything; her parents, her little sister, her friends, her boyfriend, sunlight, school and even coursework. It had all been so normal. Most of all though, she missed what she could have had: life.
Now, everyone who mattered to her thought she was dead. Or, were actually dead themselves.
Lucy felt a flash of anger jolt through her as she watched Ryan walking ahead of her. It had been months since his sister had killed Gabby. She'd reduced Lucy's best friend in the world to nothing more than a pile of smoking ashes. And there was nothing Lucy could do about it; Erin was still under the protection of the Grand High Vampire, even though she'd murdered his own kind. Lucy hated feeling powerless.
It wasn't Ryan's fault though, Lucy thought trying to reason with herself as they continued along the darkened streets. She just needed something, in this case someone, to direct her emotions at now that they were so much more volatile than they'd ever been.
She often found it easy to resent Ryan. He seemed the most content with their situation. He could still see his sister, though now as a vampire, he'd never let on just how much this meant to him. And he was determinably loyal to Ingrid, though, truthfully they all were, but he was quite clearly her favourite. He had been making valiant efforts to please her and gain her approval because she was still treating him with slight trepidation and contempt after the blood poisoning incident. It was a front though; Lucy could tell that Ingrid needed Ryan an awful lot more than she would ever be willing to admit to anyone, maybe even herself.
They were making their way slowly out form the centre of town and along the quiet dimly lit back streets. There weren't many people around except the occasional taxi and its intoxicated occupants.
"So..." Sarah began after a little while. This was her whiny tone. It meant she was hungry and getting impatient. She'd never had the best self control. She and Lucy had never been particularly close either, especially after Sarah lost out on the position of goal attack to Lucy in this year's netball team. Initially, Lucy had thought that being in their current situation would have brought them together; out of all the girls, they were the only two left alive. Lucy thought back to when she had tried to talk to Sarah about this, earning only a patronising reply of, 'But, Lucy, we're dead too, remember?' Sometimes Sarah simply astounded Lucy, they were so different.
"What exactly are we looking for?" Sarah continued, pouting behind Ingrid's back.
Ryan and Lucy remained silent, they didn't know either.
Ingrid carried on walking her back to the three of them as she spoke, "We're looking for food." She said simply, "Dad won't let us into the blood cellar and I won't let us starve, so we hunt."
She had explained this before, how as young vampires they needed to learn how to survive. The recent truce with the slayers however, had made this an awful lot more difficult than it should have been.
"His Grandness won't be happy about this." Sarah shot back defiantly.
Ingrid turned abruptly at the mention of her brother and stood glowering at all three, "We are vampires. We need blood," She hissed through her fangs, "But my baby brother needn't worry," she continued straightening up with a smile that didn't meet her eyes, "we're not going to be breaking his precious treaty because we're not going to be biting them."
By that, Ingrid meant they would find a way to shed enough blood to feed themselves, just one that didn't involve puncturing jugulars. Personally, Lucy thought this was worse. It only encouraged the more sadistic vampires, and to be honest that accounted for the majority of them, to actively torture their prey before they killed them. In comparison, biting was kind, almost.
With that thought, Lucy felt a bit queasy, but continued to follow the other three vampires along the road, drawing in some unnecessary oxygen to calm herself as she did so. Still feeling nervous about what Ingrid had planned, she thought about how, if her parents had let her, she would have been a vegetarian. That didn't help.
"Shh," Ingrid hissed suddenly, though none of them were speaking. She stopped dead, listening intently and the three younger vampires copied. Ingrid turned slowly looking back in the direction they'd just come from. And then they all heard it. Screeching tyres, the rhythmic thud of healthy human hearts mixed with incessant pounding of the bass coming from the stereo of the vehicle. This was what they'd been looking for.
It all happened so fast, no breather could have followed it. Now, of the three passengers in the car, two were clearly dead. They had been sat in the front seats and, without seatbelts, they hadn't stood a chance. As the sounds of the crash reverberated around the dark street, echoes bouncing off high brick walls, Lucy could recall the events with perfect clarity.
Moving with incredible speed, Ingrid had appeared on the road directly in the path of the vehicle. Lucy could hear how the driver's heart began to pound as he startled and swerved, narrowly avoiding Ingrid.
The car had hit the pavement and continued off the road far too quickly for any of the breathers' minds to keep up with through the haze of alcohol. The bonnet seemed to wrap around the lamp post, forcing the rear of the car to fly up off the ground, throwing the passengers forward. The top of the steering wheel rammed into the driver's throat snapping his neck instantaneously. He was thrown back against his seat under a shower of glass shards as the whole car shuddered back down.
The front seat passenger had been hurled through the windscreen, shattering it. Glass fragments flying around him and the driver, scratching at any exposed skin they found. His body had landed across the front of the car, a tangled mess of bloodied limbs sticking out at unnatural angles.
The backseat passenger had clearly broken many bones during the impact. But he was now the only one with a pulse.
After just seconds, the car was motionless, the sounds of the crash ebbing away into the night.
There was so much blood.
Lucy shut her eyes tightly and held on to an unnecessary breath in a futile attempt at self-control. She didn't need enhanced hearing to follow the sounds of Ryan and Sarah as they pounced, lapping up the blood of the two front seat passengers. Her resistance was fading and Ingrid's cold, whispered words of encouragement from over her shoulder were all it took to have her opening her eyes and deliberately inhaling the delicious scent.
It was sweet and metallic and filled her head with frenzied thoughts she couldn't hold onto long enough to make sense of. Lucy drew in another ragged breath that caused her throat to physically burn with thirst. She felt it grate at every fibre in her body, willing her to drink. It wasn't just that she needed blood to survive, this desire to kill and drain everybody now ran marrow deep. Its intensity was overpowering. Lucy wanted blood. She could feel her hold on herself slipping. Somewhere inside her, something was telling her that she didn't want to be like this. But the voice was weak, and what it said was wrong.
Lucy's movements were and sure and forceful. She grabbed at the back door of the car, easily ripping it from its hinges and began to crawl in across the back seat to where the last mortal was lying crumpled, dazed from his concussion and shock. His shirt was seeped through with blood and where the top buttons were undone his left collar bone was visible. Lucy watched the blood oozing from the wound, transfixed with hunger. She felt the familiar sharp scratch of fang against her tongue as she inadvertently licked her lips. She knew her eyes would be jet black, dangerous and unreadable, as she clawed her way forward.
This breather was hers and nothing could stop her draining every last drop of succulent blood from his warm veins...
"Luce?"
Except that, maybe. The word came out shaky and uncertain and Lucy froze. It couldn't be. She hadn't heard that voice in so long.
"Adam?" She blinked, her eyes now back to their usual brown as met his green ones, wide and bright with fear. Fear of her, she realised jarringly and her hunger dissipated immediately.
"Adam," Lucy began again softly. Moving slowly, she reached out to touch fingertips delicately to his pale cheek in confirmation; it really was him, "I..."
Lucy was suddenly being hurled backwards. Landing on the pavement, her head hit the brick wall behind her with an audible crack. Pain flared through her skull. After a few moments, Lucy cautiously opened her eyes and what she found herself facing was worse.
Adam was sprawled on the pavement between her and Ingrid. Unable to properly support his own weight, his whole frame shook violently with the effort it took for him to look up to meet Lucy's eyes.
"You know this breather?" Ingrid sneered disdainfully at the last word. She accentuated her question by curling fingers around Adam's injured arm and using this grip to drag him into a standing position. Adam gasped sharply.
"Yes!" Lucy cried out, "Please, Let him go!"
Blood lust and loyalties abandoned in that moment, Lucy needed Adam. She could never let Ingrid hurt him. Lucy leapt up onto her feet and made to lunge at Ingrid, who stood perfectly still save for a small click of her fingers. In the next instant, Lucy was being pushed back against the brick wall. Two strong, well-fed vampires each gripped one of her arms, pinning her back while she hissed and writhed.
Ingrid ran a sharpened fingernail down the length of Adam's throat with just enough pressure to cause pain and drive further screams form Lucy, but not quite enough to draw blood. Ingrid tilted her head back, hissing slightly as her fangs shot down. Her blackened eyes focused on the laborious thud of Adam's pulse under his skin, her intentions clear to all...
"No!" Lucy shrieked. She was surprised to realise that she wasn't the only one calling out to Ingrid.
Ryan seemed unable to stop himself as the anxious words tumbled from his mouth, "But the truce - with the slayers..." He didn't deliberately intend to go against Ingrid, but he could see the potential consequences of their actions, what this could lead to. He only wanted to protect those who mattered most to him.
Ingrid snarled, clouds rolling ominously behind her. Her tone became menacing as she addressed all three of them, the venom in her voice reiterating the threats she'd made so often, "You dare to defy me? I made you. I am your queen," Her voice was growing louder, emphasised by the powerful cracks of thunder starting up above them, "don't you ever forget that!"
Her words rang dangerously around the deserted street and Ryan and Sarah intensified their grips on Lucy in demonstration of their unwavering devotion to Ingrid. Lucy barely noticed though. She found herself unable to focus on anything but Adam as Ingrid turned her attention back to him.
"Please, don't hurt him!" Lucy cried desperately, her voice breaking with emotion as she let out her soft admission, "I love him."
Lucy looked into Adam's eyes for a long moment before tearing her gaze away to meet Ingrid's stare, imploring. There, for a moment, she thought she caught a slight glimpse of something in Ingrid's eyes. Empathy? Or a memory... A weakness she would never share with anyone voluntarily so she kept it hidden, buried deep where it wouldn't be seen.
Lucy blinked and when she looked back at Ingrid, whatever she'd seen was gone along with all traces of any emotion.
"Begging? How pathetic, Lucy. You should know better." Ingrid let out a cruel, mirthless laugh, "I am Countess Dracula, Princess of Darkness," her voice was cold and sinister as she continued; "I don't do mercy."
With her final words, Ingrid tightened her grip on Adam. He twisted his neck in a clearly agonising manner in order to meet Lucy's eyes for a final time. Hers were wide with distress whereas his were defiant and strong as he whispered back, "I love you too, Luce."
At this Ingrid seized a fistful of Adam's hair and used it to pull his head to the side, leaving his throat exposed and vulnerable. Lucy let out a vicious snarl. Ingrid paused then, long enough to flash a wicked smile at Lucy, her fangs glinting brilliantly before they sunk deep into the flesh of Adam's throat.
Lucy's anguished screams and ferocious thrashings were ineffective against her captures and she watched on, tormented and helpless, as Ingrid drained the life from the one person she'd loved most in the world.
After a few agonising moments for Lucy, Ingrid had drunk her fill and dropped Adam's body unceremoniously to the ground. His eyes staring out unseeingly through his light brown hair now matted with blood and sweat.
As his heart beat feebly for the final time, Lucy felt her last weak link to the mortal world snap.
Ingrid was right; Lucy was a vampire.
Immortal, forever trapped in an endless nightmare.