(A/N: Alright. This is a promise made to my dear friend and character inspiration Lauryn Brook. In return for her letting me sully the good name of Lucy Bloom I promised a spin off story in return. Here we go)

Blood of Life

Lucy fidgeted aimlessly with her necklace. To the untrained eye it appeared to be simply a fashion accessory, an old brass skeleton key on a thin gold chain. This however, wasn't for show. This key was a keepsake, a reminder of the worst mistake of Lucy's life. This key locked the coffin that had been Lucy's prison for the last year, her punishment for feeding on an unwilling human, a human she poached from her supposed friend Margo. In the end, she'd been so greedy that she'd almost killed the man.

Upon her release she'd been assigned a counselor, a sort of parole officer to make sure she didn't seek retribution on Margo or Henry. It was now three months later and Lucy's counselor had deemed her fit to return to open living without restriction. It had been a new start.

Tonight she sat in front of her computer playing with the key to her freedom. Occasionally she sipped her bottle of Tru Blood. She'd been living strictly synthetic since she'd been released. She amazed herself at her ability to control herself. When she'd been released her hunger was incredible. She felt like she had the night she'd been made, the night she rose from her grave and drained a group of campers before her maker was able to restrain her. They'd offered her a donor, but she refused. In her year of captivity she'd come to the decision about her feeding habits.

Her scars itched. She wasn't use to that. She hadn't remembered having an itch in the last 40 years. She was healing slowly. The silver burns on most of her body had pretty much healed, but there were areas on her arms and legs that itched and tingled as it tried to repair itself.

The message board on her screen was busy tonight. New posts were popping up every few minutes. There were a lot of people needing the service she could provide. The challenge was picking the right person.

This wasn't common; there weren't many vampires willing to do what she wanted to do. It was new, progressive, and a little controversial. The AVL had tried to shut down sites like this, fearing the repercussions, but for every site they closed, 3 more opened. In the end the AVL decided it would be easier to try and regulate these arrangements instead of stopping them.

Lucy browsed dozens of posts; all of them sad stories, pleas for help, desperate people begging for a loved one to be saved. Husbands, wives, parents, siblings; they had all logged on in hopes of winning the gift of life. These sites were for people, human people, looking for vampires willing to turn a loved one in order to save their life. Sadly there were more needy humans than vampires willing to take on the responsibility. Even sadder, most of those needing help were children. This presented a special challenge. Changing a child was a moral and legal conundrum. The Authority frowned upon it, but it could be done.

This was the challenge Lucy was looking to accept. In her year of contemplation Lucy had decided to better her life, make amends for her actions by saving a child.

She had always wanted a child. She'd been 24 at the time of her turning. She had many friends at the time with children. Like any woman in her 20's she'd imagined what it would be like to be a mother, but that dream ended with her human life. No, Lucy would never feel a child growing inside her. She would never hold a child of her own flesh, but she could create a child of her blood. She could save someone else's child and bring it into its new vampire life.

After over an hour of reading, a task she was much faster at now than she'd been in her human years Lucy had narrowed down her choice to three. The first was a boy of 12 with a rare blood disorder; doctors had said he wouldn't live past 15. His parents posted pictures of him playing with his younger siblings and fishing with his dad. In the end Lucy decided he had plenty of time to find a maker and crossed him off the list. Second was a girl of 7. She had been in a car accident two years earlier and in a coma ever since. There was some debate on the site as to weather or not changing her would work. If her brain was damage the result may not be what they wanted. The girl might be uncontrollable and unpredictable. This too, Lucy crossed off her list. The last had been on the board for several weeks. She assumed it was the age that turned others away. This would be a challenge indeed. It was a 5-year-old girl. The post was by a social worker. The girl had been in the hospital since she was two. No foster or adoptive family could be found because of her condition. The girl had leukemia. No bone-marrow matches had been found. No family had stepped forward to claim responsibility. The girl didn't even have a name. They were calling her Jane Doe…the post said she liked to be called Janie.

Red tears streaked her face as Lucy read the post. No one wanted this girl. Even the social worker stated that her relationship would end as soon as Janie found a maker. She was a discard, a throw away, an unwanted child lying helpless and dying in a hospital bed. Through her tears Lucy clicked the reply button.

I will speak to the appropriate authorities in my state and get approval for this. I will contact you as soon as I receive their decision.
-Lucy Bloom, Vampire

Next Lucy sent an email to Margo. It was awkward. She had not spoken to Margo since she'd been release from her coffin. She'd apologized to her and Henry but wasn't sure if the apology had been accepted. She wasn't sure she would have accepted under the same circumstances. Still, she needed an audience with the Queen and the only way to the Queen was through Margo.

Margo,
I understand you may not want to hear from me, but I desperately need and audience with Her Majesty the Queen. If you could arrange this I would be most grateful. If I must give the reason for this meeting I would like to do so in person. I would be willing to meet with you, in public of course, perhaps at Fangtasia? Please consider, this is very important.

Lucy

Lucy went to ground the next two nights with no answer. On the third night she received a reply.

Fangtasia, tonight at 10.

Margo

Lucy wore her best dress. She was not dressed for Fangtasia. She was dressed for a meeting with the Queen's second. She was dressed, she hoped, like a vampire who could be trusted to make another.

Margo sat at a corner table dressed in dark denim shorts and a black Fangtasia tank top. Lucy grinned; they hadn't had those when she'd be locked away. As Lucy approached she saw that Margo was not alone. Lucy hadn't seen Pam since a few weeks before she'd been sentenced and locked away. Her blond hair glowed in the dim light of the bar, flowing down to her bare shoulders. Lucy noted that Pam looked amazing in her hot pink halter-top. A very summer look, for so early in spring.

"Margo," she said with a slight bow. "Thank you for meeting with me. Pam, nice to see you again."

"You too," Pam said. "Before we begin let me say. I have always liked you, but I am here at the behest of my maker. I have been instructed to protect Margo and back her up at all costs. I would hate to destroy someone as beautiful as you, but that doesn't mean I wont. Got that Cupcake?"

"Got it. I promise this is on the level."

"Then sit," Pam instructed.

Lucy sat across from the two vampires and folded her hands on the table. "I have requested an audience with your mistress because I would like to become a maker."

"You don't need approval for that," Margo said. "As long as the person is willing. They are willing, aren't they?"

"Yes," she said understanding the concern. "There is a bigger issue at hand. I have found a human on Blood of Life."

Margo raised her eyebrow. "The human's age?"

"Five."

Both Margo and Pam looked shocked.

"Five," Pam said. "Do children even speak at five?"

Lucy smiled; Pam certainly had been a vampire for a long time.

"Yes," Lucy said. "She speaks. She has leukemia. The doctors say she will die before the end of the year if something is not done."

"And her parents give consent?" Margo asked.

"She has no parents. She didn't even have a name when she came to the hospital. Child services posted the information. They said it was at the request of the child."

"Does she understand," Margo insisted. "Does she know what will happen? That you will have to bite her and kill her, then bury her in the ground. Does she know that she'll be dead and have to drink blood forever and never see the sun?"

"The doctors say that have explained all of this to her. Apparently she is very bright for her age. She reads. They say she knows exactly what will happen and said a vampire bite can't be worse than a spinal tap."

"You know that this will be a lot of responsibility. She will be extremely impulsive and hungry. You will have to watch her nonstop for a long time. Then there is the challenge of her later life. She will eventually have the mind of an adult and the body of a child. She will have urges and desires that her body was not meant for. You are opening a massive can of worms here."

"I understand. I am not going into this half-heartedly. I know that she will be my responsibility until the day I meet the true death. I am ready to dedicate my life to someone other than myself."

Margo sighed. "Alright. Give me the girl's information and I will give the details to Her Majesty. You will hear from us soon."

Lucy stood and handed Margo a slip of paper from her pocket. "Thank you," she said with a bow. As she exited, she saw Eric Northman sitting at the bar talking to Margo's human Henry. Lucy couldn't meet either of their eyes. Eric had never been fond of Lucy, even less so when she'd put his bar at risk by committing a forced feeding in the parking lot. And Henry, well, Henry had been the meal in said forced feeding. She left the bar silently hoping the sins of her past would not put a stop to her plans.