DISCLAIMER: As usual, all My-HiME / My-Otome characters and profits belong to Sunrise. I'm just a poor fan fiction author and not worth suing.

A/N: WARNING: This chapter details the disturbing life of Mistress Tomoe Marguerite and may not be suitable for my more sensitive readers. If you are disturbed by violence, PLEASE heed this warning. If you choose to ignore it, you can only blame yourself for the queasy feeling in your stomach, because I warned you.


The Crimson Countess

Mistress Tomoe Marguerite

It was early afternoon by the time Natsuki pulled herself together and away from her window. She got dressed and went directly to Shizuru's bedchamber.

"Countess?" Natsuki called softly into the dark.

"My Natsuki."

Natsuki entered the dark bedchamber, lit a candle on the bed stand, and sat down on Shizuru's bed. The Countess' crimson eyes glowed with happiness as she looked at her companion. Natsuki leaned down and kissed Shizuru passionately. The Countess wrapped her arms around her companion's neck and pulled her onto the bed.

"Are you in need of nourishment?"

"Always," Shizuru teased, causing Natsuki to blush.

"Shall I fetch one of the maids?"

"Not today," Shizuru said seductively as she straddled Natsuki.

Several hours later, Natsuki knocked on the guest bedchamber door and waited. A few seconds later, she was greeted by Chie's smiling face. The dashing young noblewoman was now dressed, as was Lady Senoh. Chie motioned for Natsuki to enter. The raven-haired young woman entered the bedchamber and stood with her hands clasped behind her back, her feet apart.

"Lady Hallard. Lady Senoh. I trust you two slept well?"

"Yes, we did," the two young women said in unison.

"If you don't already know, I am Lady Natsuki Kruger. The staff calls me Lady Natsuki. The Countess asked me to give you both a tour of the estate and extend her invitation to stay for a few days."

"Speaking for myself, I would love to stay," Chie answered.

"I too, would love to take The Countess up on her offer," Aoi added and looked at Chie.

"Wonderful. I shall let The Countess know and arrange for another room."

"Another room will not be necessary," Aoi blushed as Chie and Natsuki looked at her with stunned expressions.

After recovering from her shock, Natsuki cleared her throat loudly to bring Chie out of hers.

"If you both are ready, shall we begin the tour?"

Natsuki led the way out of the bedchamber. Aoi slipped her hand into Chie's as they exited.

As usual, Natsuki began the tour with a walk around the beautiful gardens, ending at the lake. When Chie spotted the small rowboat, she asked Natsuki if she and Aoi could take it out on the lake. Natsuki smiled and motioned for them to enjoy themselves. The young noblewoman sat under her favorite tree and looked out onto the lake, replaying her memories.


After Natsuki came to live with Shizuru, life in the Viola estate turned tumultuous. Tomoe grew increasingly jealous and possessive of Shizuru, especially over social engagements. The young vampire felt it was her right as The Countess' protégée to accompany her on all social engagements. Natsuki felt it was her right as Shizuru's companion. The Countess felt like the last bone between two starving dogs.

The entire ordeal came to a head one night as Shizuru was getting ready to attend a grand ball being thrown by one of her distant relatives in a neighboring kingdom. She decided to spend a few days there. Both Natsuki and Tomoe expressed their desire to accompany Shizuru. The two had been fighting since The Countess received the invitation, two weeks ago. Shizuru laid out the clothes for her trip in silence, while the two young women in her life bickered.

"You freak! I'm going, NOT you!"

"You? Not on your life! Who's going to protect The Countess? Certainly NOT some mere human!"

"Why you blood-sucking freak! I can protect Shizuru just as well as you!"

"What a joke! Face it, you're just FOOD! That's why The Countess won't turn you."

Tomoe knew this insult ALWAYS hit home with Natsuki and the young vampire wielded it happily. Natsuki squeezed her eyes shut to keep the tears from falling. She could never develop immunity to this insult. Is ALWAYS managed to hurt and hurt deep. Tomoe was too busy gloating to notice the icy cold stare Shizuru was giving her.

"Tomoe, enough," Shizuru said her voice icy cold, like her stare.

The young vampire looked apologetically at Shizuru.

"Yes Countess," Tomoe said dejectedly.

"Tomoe, leave us," Shizuru said without looking at her protégée.

"But…Countess," Tomoe pleaded.

"I said leave us," Shizuru glared hard at the young vampire.

Tomoe lowered her head submissively and reluctantly left Shizuru's bedchamber.

"You didn't have to do that. I would have…," Natsuki began, but was cut off when Shizuru kissed her deeply.

"Yes, I am sure my Natsuki would have trounced Tomoe," Shizuru placated Natsuki.

"I WOULD HAVE!" Natsuki yelled through her bravado.

Shizuru silenced Natsuki with another deep kiss. The Countess led Natsuki to the bed and pushed her companion backwards onto it.

"Shi-zu-ru?"

The Countess smiled wickedly at Natsuki as she seductively stripped for her young companion. Natsuki's emerald eyes widened with pleasant surprise, as she tried to drink in all of Shizuru's naked beauty.

"Na-tsu-ki," Shizuru softly moaned as she enveloped Natsuki.

Tomoe stormed down the hallway. She was beyond angry. Natsuki's presence at the estate and especially in Shizuru's life was too much for her.

"I want to kill that bitch!" Tomoe mumbled over and over to herself, as she continued down the hallway.

"Mistress Tomoe?" Miya asked tentatively, not sure whether it was wise to bother Tomoe in such a foul mood.

"Miya," Tomoe stopped, turned around, and looked through the young maid.

"Mistress? Is something bothering you? Can I help?" Miya smiled brightly.

"Come," Tomoe grabbed Miya's hand and pulled her down the hallway.

Once Tomoe pulled Miya into her bedchamber, the young vampire slammed the giddy maid up against the wall and kissed her roughly. Miya moaned into Tomoe's mouth. The young maid was used to Tomoe's rough treatment and learned to endure it, out of her love for her mistress.

"Mistress," Miya moaned loudly as Tomoe grazed her teeth on Miya's neck.

"Miya," Tomoe growled and with one hand, pinned the young maid's wrists over her head.

Tomoe's other hand went directly between Miya's thighs. The young vampire grabbed Miya's panties and ripped them off. The young maid gasped as the cold air hit her hot bare flesh. Tomoe slid down to her knees and kissed Miya's mound, as if asking for permission to enter. Miya opened her thighs and Tomoe buried her face in the young maid's wetness. The young vampire happily fed on Miya's copious essence.

As Tomoe fed, she suddenly tasted something different. The metallic taste grew as Tomoe buried her tongue further into Miya. The young vampire could not get enough of the new taste and drove her tongue as far into Miya as she could. Tomoe's desire for more of this new essence grew and the young vampire growled as her tongue moved violently inside Miya.

The young maid was sexually spent and physically exhausted. Tomoe's actions were now very painful. Miya tried desperately to get Tomoe to stop, but the young vampire was completely lost in her desire.

"Mistress, please stop. You're hurting me," Miya pleaded and pulled on Tomoe's collar.

"STOP!" Tomoe growled, grabbed Miya's hands, and pinned them to the wall as she continued licking Miya.

Miya was dry and Tomoe's tongue felt like sandpaper against her raw tender flesh. Blood began to trickle out of Miya and down her thigh. Once it hit Tomoe's tongue, the young vampire was thrown into a frenzy. Her eyes rolled back and she opened her mouth, exposing her sharp fangs. She was breathing erratically and in a flash, she sunk her teeth into the inside of Miya's thigh. The young maid let out a blood curdling scream.

Shizuru stopped kissing Natsuki and listened intently with concern on her face. Natsuki looked at The Countess puzzled.

"Shizuru? What is it?"

"Tomoe," Shizuru answered, got up, and grabbed her dressing gown as she sped out of her bedchamber towards Tomoe's bedchamber.

Shizuru flung open Tomoe's bedchamber door. The Countess' crimson eyes were ablaze with rage as she witnessed the end of Tomoe's carnage. Miya's bloody naked body lay sprawled on the bedchamber floor. Tomoe was covered in the young maid's blood.

Natsuki skidded to a stop outside Tomoe's bedchamber and stood in the doorway.

"Return to my bedchamber," Shizuru hissed at Natsuki.

Natsuki could not move. She just stood there staring, in a state of shock.

"GO!" Shizuru commanded and slammed the door in Natsuki's face.

Natsuki staggered back from the force of the slammed door. After a few minutes, she numbly walked back towards Shizuru's bedchamber. Natsuki walked past the bedchamber and out into the gardens.

"So much blood," Natsuki mumbled continually as she walked deeper into the gardens.

Shizuru grabbed Tomoe and slammed her up against the wall.

"What did you do?" Shizuru demanded as she held Tomoe against the wall.

Tomoe's eyes were distant as she looked through Shizuru.

"What did you do?" Shizuru demanded again.

Tomoe looked down at Miya's lifeless body and back into Shizuru's angry eyes.

"TOMOE!" Shizuru screamed.

Shizuru's scream brought Tomoe back to her senses. When the young vampire saw the rage in The Countess' eyes, her eyes widened.

"C-c-countess," Tomoe sputtered.

"Tomoe, what did you do?" Shizuru asked in a forced calm tone.

"I-I-I don't know what happened," Tomoe muttered as she stared into space.

"Why did you savagely kill Miya? She loved you."

"I know, but the taste…her taste…blood," Tomoe said cryptically and looked pleadingly into Shizuru's eyes for answers.

"What are you talking about?" Shizuru asked thoroughly confused and released her hold on Tomoe.

Tomoe took in a deep breath.

"Countess, I was feeding and suddenly I tasted Miya's blood. That is the last thing I remember before you arrived," Tomoe said sadly and slid down the wall.

The young vampire sat on the floor with her knees against her chest and her arms wrapped around her knees. Shizuru was lost in her own thoughts as she stared at Tomoe.

"Erase this mistake," Shizuru said coldly and walked towards the door.

Shizuru stopped, turned, and looked at Tomoe, still on the floor.

"NOW!" Shizuru yelled and left.

Tomoe jumped to her feet and began cleaning up her mistake. She gently held Miya's lifeless body in her arms, kissed the young maid's cold lips, and broke her neck.

"Goodbye Miya."

When Shizuru returned to her bedchamber, she found it empty. She searched the nearby rooms, but could not find Natsuki. Frustrated, she sat in her drawing room and made herself calm down. Once she regained her normal composure, she drew in a deep breath and picked up Natsuki's scent. Shizuru followed it out into the gardens and past the lake, before the sky began to lighten.

Shizuru returned to the mansion extremely angry, having been forced to return without Natsuki. Her protégée brutally killed one of her most loyal maids and now she lost Natsuki. She knew what she had to do, but first she had to deal with Tomoe.

By the time Tomoe finished 'erasing her mistake,' it was late morning and she was exhausted. She was just about to slip into bed when her mistress' voice stopped her cold.

"My dear Tomoe, you did a wonderful job 'erasing your mistake,'" Shizuru said in a sweet smooth voice that sent chills down Tomoe's spine.

"Y-y-yes Countess," Tomoe stuttered in fear, not daring to turn around and face Shizuru.

"Very nice job indeed," Shizuru said in the same sweet smooth voice, as she wrapped her arms around Tomoe's waist.

Tomoe's entire body shook with fear.

"You are shaking my dear Tomoe. Are you frightened of me?" Shizuru whispered in the young vampire's ear.

Tomoe nodded her head.

"Well…you should be. After what you did, I can no longer trust you to walk among humans," Shizuru said coldly.

"What are you going to do to me?" Tomoe asked in a frightened shaky voice.

Tomoe yelped and then whimpered as she felt Shizuru's sharp fangs sink into her jugular vein. As Shizuru drained the life from Tomoe, The Countess remembered back to the day she found the young girl.


Shizuru was travelling through a neighboring kingdom, on her way back home, when she came upon a mob gathered around an alley.

"Excuse me sir, what is going on?" Shizuru asked one of the men in the mob.

"They caught a little thief and are administering some justice," the man gloated.

Shizuru did not like the way the man said 'justice,' so she slowly made her way through the mob to find out what was going on for herself. She was shocked to find four men brutalizing a battered and bruised young girl. Shizuru knew she was helpless to do anything with all these people around, so she was forced to wait until the men were done with the young girl.

As Shizuru helplessly watched the four men brutalize the young girl, she burned their faces into her memory, so she could administer some justice of her own, later that night. After the last man finished with the young girl, he kicked her in the ribs before leaving the alley. Shizuru made a mental note to insure that man received extra special justice.

Once everyone was gone, Shizuru tended to the young girl. She knelt down next to the battered young girl. The Countess cradled the young girl's head in her lap.

"Can you speak?"

"Y-y-yes."

"What is your name?"

"T-t-tome," the young girl said and coughed up blood.

"I am afraid you are dying my dear Tomoe."

"I-I-I don't want to die. I can't…," Tomoe coughed up more blood.

"Alright."

Shizuru checked her surroundings. She brought her hand up to her mouth and bit into the underside of her wrist. Shizuru held her bleeding wrist over Tomoe's mouth.

"Drink my dear Tomoe."

Tomoe held Shizuru's wrist to her mouth and drank. The Countess stopped the young girl after a few seconds. Tomoe laid her head back in Shizuru's lap. A few minutes later, Tomoe's body began to violently convulse. Shizuru held her tightly until Tomoe's body relaxed and The Countess waited.

Several minutes later, Tomoe violently awoke and gasped for air. She blinked, looked around her, and realized she was in a bed, with a strange woman staring at her from a chair next to the bed.

"W-w-who are you?"

"I am The Countess Shizuru Viola," Shizuru smiled warmly.

"Where am I?"

"You are in my room at The Inn."

"B-b-but I was…"

"Yes. That is where I found you. I brought you here."

"Those men…I was dying…you let me drink your blood."

Tomoe's eyes widened with horror as she realized what happened.

"I am…"

"You are alive and my new protégée."

"Your what?"

"My protégée. You will stay with me and I shall teach you how to live as a vampire…unless you have changed your mind?"

"No…Countess."

"Good. You must be hungry."

"Yes, but…"

"I have a training session and feast planned for you tonight," Shizuru smiled widely, exposing her fangs.

That night, Shizuru instructed Tomoe on proper killing and feeding etiquette, as they drained the life from the four men who brutalized and raped Tomoe. Shizuru took special delight in killing the man who kicked Tomoe. She taught her new young protégée the fine art of vampire torture techniques, before they finally killed the man.

Within the first week, Shizuru learned Tomoe was from a noble family. Her parents were killed when the neighboring kingdom invaded. Tomoe was forced to care for her younger sister. They went to work as maids for The Smiths, a family who got wealthy from helping the neighboring kingdom before the invasion. Both girls were subjected to all sorts of abuse at the hands of the men in the family. The Master got her younger sister pregnant and she died in Tomoe's arms, giving birth in the stables. The baby died a few hours later. Tomoe ran away and lived on the streets, where Shizuru found her.

Several years later, during one of The Countess' gala balls at the mansion, Fate handed Tomoe the opportunity to exact her revenge upon The Smith family men.

"Master Smith, my young protégée and I were wondering if you and your two handsome sons would be our guests for a few days?" Shizuru asked in her most charming voice, insuring a positive answer.

"Of course! We would be more than happy to accept your generous offer," Master Smith said a bit too eager.

"Wonderful," Shizuru smiled.

After locking Master Smith and his two sons in the dungeon, The Countess and her protégée tortured and killed the two sadistic adult sons first. The dungeon was filled with the sounds of the two young men's screams and pleas for several days.

As Tomoe peeled back a thin layer of flesh on the older son's back, she remembered how he used to take great pleasure in forcing her watch, while he and his brother sexually brutalized her younger sister with various objects for hours.

The Countess saved Master Smith for last. He lasted a week before Shizuru grew irritated with his insipid whining and crying.

"Master Smith, I hope this teaches you a lesson on how to treat your staff in the future," Shizuru teased before Tomoe killed him.


A pang of pain and regret seared through Shizuru's chest as she expertly snapped Tomoe's neck.

"Goodbye my dear Tomoe."

The Countess disposed of Tomoe's body and left in search of Natsuki.