CHAPTER 3

I do not own Doctor Who, and I am making no profit off of this.

Several months passed after the day that Amanda first started to fully trust Katherine. They became extremely close during this time, and a strong bond had formed between them. They had both started to think of each other as family.

Amanda had caught herself several times lately almost referring to Katherine as 'Mother' or 'Mum'. She had managed to stop herself so far but she wasn't sure if she would always be able to.

She was afraid to call Katherine by those names because she wasn't sure how she would feel about it. She didn't want to make Katherine angry or upset and push her away by becoming too emotionally attached.

What Amanda didn't know was that Katherine was doing the exact same thing. She kept stopping herself from calling Amanda several terms of endearment because she was afraid that the little girl would think that she was trying to take her mother's place. She also had to resist stroking her hair, hugging her, or showing any other kind of affection to her several times a day. She didn't want to anger or upset her either.

Both of them wanted to reach out to the other, but they were both too afraid to do so. They were each terrified of losing the other and being alone.

Then something happened one day that changed all of that forever. Several local villagers started getting attacked at night. No one died but several people were found drained of a lot of blood and had fang marks on their necks.

Amanda started asking Katherine not to go out to get her anything anymore until the attacks stopped. She was afraid that she would be blamed for them if someone saw her.

Katherine was pleased that Amanda never asked her even once if she had anything to do with the attacks. She had automatically assumed that Katherine was innocent without even thinking about it. That touched her heart greatly.

For a while Katherine was able to keep from going out, but then the day came when there was nothing for Amanda to eat. Amanda begged her to stay in the crypt and not leave, but she couldn't do that. She couldn't just stand around and let her . . . friend starve.

Katherine stealthily entered a local village and visited several homes collecting food for the little girl. She decided to forego the good deeds in exchange for the food tonight. She just wanted to get in and get out quickly.

It wasn't going to be that simple though. As Katherine left her last house, she found someone waiting for her outside.

"I knew that if I waited long enough, I'd find the vampire that was preying on the local villagers," a man with a huge stake in his hand said to Katherine.

She recognized him immediately. He was a vampire hunter named Hugh de Beaufort. She had seen him in action before. Luckily, she had always managed to escape from him those other times. He offered his services to local villages to kill off all of their vampires for a huge fee. She knew that he would never believe that she was innocent.

She wasn't afraid of dying, but she was afraid of what would happen to Amanda if she did. She kept picturing the little girl starving to death as she waited on her to return.

She decided to do something that she had never done before rather than let that happen. She decided to fight back against the vampire hunter! It was the first time that she had ever attacked anyone.

Acting quickly before he could react, she quickly disarmed the hunter as she knocked the stake out of his hand. She then grabbed him by the throat with lightning speed and threw him several feet away into the nearby woods. She ran for her life as fast as she could.

She managed to make it back to her crypt without being caught and locked the door behind her. She stood there terrified. It had been the first time that she had ever come close to being staked before.

"What happened?" Amanda asked her as she stood there unmoving for several minutes.

Katherine never answered her. She just stood there in shock.

"You almost got caught, didn't you? I told you not to go! If anything had happened to you, I never would have forgiven myself!" Amanda said as her eyes began to tear up.

Without thinking about it, Katherine put her arms around Amanda and hugged her tightly. She had come close to permanently dying tonight. She was never going to keep herself from showing her how she felt about her ever again.

"I love you, Amanda," Katherine said as she kissed the girl's forehead.

Amanda was shocked for a moment and didn't respond. Finally though she gathered up the courage to say, "I love you too, mum!"

Katherine smiled at her and hugged her tighter.

"You called me mum! I've been waiting for so long to hear that," She said to her in an elated voice.

They both laughed at themselves for how stupid they had been to put off telling each other how they felt for so long. A silent pact was made between them day that they would never do that again.

"Please don't go out there again, mum," Amanda begged Katherine.

"Believe me I won't. I'll have to find some other way to find you food from now on. Perhaps I can go among the villagers and befriend them. They may let me do night work in exchange for food," Katherine suggested.

"I could do it. I could ask them for work. Maybe they'd pay me or give me food. I could work anytime day or night," Amanda countered.

"What if they start asking questions and become suspicious of you? They'll learn about me and then they'll take you and put you in an orphanage like you feared would happen. They might even do worse to you. They may think that I turned you or did something to you. They might attack you if they thought that I had contaminated you in some way. No, you can't do that. We'll have to think of something else," Katherine said.

Next: Katherine clashes with the vampire hunter again as she tries to come up with some other way of getting Amanda the things that she needs. Also, who is attacking the villagers anyway?