Chapter 40 – Purging a Demon

October 4, 2004 = Monday

~Eliza Flores~

I didn't know where I was, but the landing hurt, and the ground was hard. I opened my eyes, but with the darkness around us, all I could see was we were in a barren wasteland covered in small boulders. I lay there for a long moment, finally forcing myself to get to my knees to find I was still dressed in the clothes I wore in the chantry. Not far away, a man also got to his feet, realizing only after he looked up at me that it was Lasombra wearing a male version of what I did.. I scrambled the rest of the way to my feet, squaring off with my clan forefather, but he didn't attack.

No, he did something I didn't expect; he knelt with both knees on the ground then placed his head to the earth.

I paused, wondering why he knelt not twenty feet away when I felt it. A sense of dread, like the feeling I got when Simeon was driving me to Long Beach to be raped. My beast crawled around under my skin, as if I were about to flake out. I looked around, the dread building and my beast getting wilder as I saw a man walking towards us, a dark aura around him that gripped my soul in its dark hands.

In the end, it was the dread that made me hit my knees, and then I felt something else happen; the beast that had been wanting to rip its way out of my skin fell quiet within me. I never felt so alone in that moment, and I think it scared me more than the dark one walking towards us.

"Hello, Lucian," he said, his voice deep and gravelly. "Still trying to overthrow me?"

"Always, old man," Lasombra said, and I realized that Lucian must have been Lasombra's true name. "One day, me and the others will wipe out everything you have worked for, and this world will be ours!"

"It was never ours to take," the Dark One said, then turned to me. "Eliza Flores, such a curious sort you are. Warrior, academic, healer, philanthropist, assassin; such an odd sort. Rob you of what you cherish most, and you start anew. Place an object in your path, and you carve a new one that's even better. If it weren't for your curiosity and desperation that brings you here today, I might have even traveled to meet you in your city to test you for myself."

"Who are you?" I asked, not sure if I wanted to know the answer. Whoever he was, he had power over Lasombra and the beast within me, and there weren't many that came to mind that could do that.

The Dark One tilted his head, smirking at me as he again spoke.. "What I am is curious to see how one survives a fight with a ten thousand year old kindred," he said, his voice calm as he observed us.

"She'll not lay a finger on me," Lucian snarled, the fear that consumed me ebbing away. I frantically tried to think of a way to fight, deciding that the only way I was going to get a weapon was to mold one from shadow.

As we stood, Lasombra made a motion in the air and then scowled, and the katana I was willing into existence also failed to appear. We both looked at each other, shock on our faces before turning our heads slowly to the other man.

"She is but young," the dark aura man remarked, smirking at a powerless Lucian. "You may fight on an equal footing; no less, no more."

"Then she will still die," Lucian snarled, charging at me. Instinct from practice made me backup, throwing off his initial attack and striking back with the flat of my palm to his chest. Lucian clutched at his ribs as he fell back, then dove low in an effort to tackle me.

I tried to jump over him, but his tackle was a ruse, and he stopped directly under me, causing me to fall directly on top of him. They uneven surface of his body caused me to fall beside him, where Lucian grappled in the dirt. We wrestled briefly, but Lucian's larger size gave him a distinct advantage and he soon had me pinned.

"I win," Lucian snarled, confident in his victory."

"She is still alive," was Dark One's reply, and I closed my eyes as I said a silent prayer.

I swore once, to never do this again, that it was dangerous and unneeded, but here I was needing it. When my sister had first been raped, many long years ago, I had taken karate lessons. I applied myself to my studies, and though when I first started my journey I was a weak, scared little girl that only knew weak little girls came home bleeding and crying and had to spend several nights in the hospital and cried at the drop of a hat, I grew to be a strong resilient teen that no boy could ever rape. I had trained myself into a living weapon, that could respond to a threat before my brain even registered it.

Because of that, because a simple minded boy who was eager to show me some special something he found grabbed me by the shoulder, I too paid a price; regret. I had learned to become a weapon, but I never learned to control it. I just was, and that poor simple minded boy suffered for my failure.

After him, I refused to fight or train again, though I guess I never lost my fearless attitude. I still walked the streets after dark, traveled alone, and generally cared for myself. It took me losing everything to rely on Sammie for a place to stay, and even then I was working on putting my feet back down. I could still fight back, but now I used my mind. I forced myself to think before I acted, but as I looked up Lucian's hate filled face, I knew the time for me to stay my hand had ended. It was time for me to uncage the monster I locked up with the regret for Tom Cullen, and let Lucian know what a real warrior I was.

Bringing my feet up, I wrapped them around Lucian's head and used my leg muscles to throw him off me. Lucian must have been used to having potence to assist his strength, because he didn't try to stop my legs from wrapping around him but just held on tighter to my body. His tactic didn't work, and in moments I was on my feet while Lucian sputtered in the dirt. His murderous look might've wilted my soul if he still had presence, but this was a fight to the death without our vampiric powers, and he was ten thousand years out of practice.

Scrambling to his feet, he tried to box and grapple with me, but I used my advanced karate techniques to slap his hands, arms and kicks aside, while using palm, knee and elbow to bruise and beat him down. Again and again he charged, our tireless bodies meeting in a flurry of blows and kicks, and I proved to Lucian that I was a force to be reckoned with.

Soon, Lucian made a critical mistake and without thinking, without thought, I give him a spiked heel to his nose that ripped most of it off. Lucian fell back, holding his sensitive appendage, but all I could see was Tom Cullen crying and trying to shield himself, so I held back.

"Go on, young one," the Dark One said, coming closer as Lucian struggled to see past his ruined nose. "The fight is yours, is it not?"

"I don't want to be the monster, sir," I said, relaxing my pose. "I don't kill like that."

"Even though he tried to destroy you, you would show him mercy?" he asked and I nodded.

"I don't want to be the monster," I reiterated, then thought of the gargoyle I had destroyed to get here. It might have been its own creature in the end, escaping Strauss's control. But he was attacking me, and the gargoyle was more than capable of ripping me limb from limb. "If you can, banish him back to where he came from. I didn't want him in my life to begin with."

"Are you sure?" he asked, and I nodded my head. In a swirl of shadow and blood, Lucian disappeared. "Then so be it," he said.

"Thank you," I told him, glad to be rid of his influence for good.

"I wondered if your humanity had faltered, as it has with so many of our kind," he said, melancholy tainting his voice. "So much violence for its own sake, destruction of our blood for no other reason than to increase their own standing and violating the sacred Traditions set down ten thousand years ago."

"The same Traditions the Camarilla uphold today?" I asked and he nodded. Wow, the Camarilla must have been around for a long time.

"Indeed," he said, setting his eyes back on me. "But I see we are not as lost as I had begun to fear. Remember, young one," he said, turning his back to me as he began to walk away. "Wherever we go, it's the blood that makes our fate. Farewell, Miss Flores."

With that, the world I had been in dissolved into the room I knelt in. I was still kneeling, my left hand around a rock and my right in the circle. I leaned back on my heels, feeling relief at the thought that Lucian was no longer in my head, and when I turned to see Strauss and Eloise both with blood covered hands, I smiled at them, even as I took in the wrinkles of their business-like suits.

"It's me," I said, releasing the rock. "Lucian, Lasombra rather, is gone."

"It worked?" Eloise asked and I smiled at her as she gave a whoop of joy.

"I am impressed," Strauss said, giving me a rare smile. "What was it like?"

"A big barren wasteland," I told him, remembering the battle. "We fought without our powers, and I think Lasombra had never learned to fight in the last ten thousand years without them."

"That may explain why Tremere failed against Saulot," Strauss said, hand rubbing his chin. "A mage without his magic is worthless against a seasoned warrior. It is how we fight, to be robbed of that?"

"I'd lose in a heartbeat," Eloise added, growing somber. "How did you survive?" she asked me, studying me.

"I was a black belt in karate when I was fifteen," I told her, and her eyes went wide. "I didn't need a weapon or powers to be deadly, I just had to let my body react like it wants to."

"I guess you killed him?" Eloise asked, and I shook my head.

"No, there was another person there," I told them, getting to my feet. "He never said his name, but Lasombra, or Lucian I should say, called him 'Old Man.' Seemed like he had built something that Lucian and the others ripped apart."

"Enoch," Strauss breathed, rubbing his chin in thought. "Lucian and the other antidiluvians are said to have destroyed the First City in their bid for power. That city was built by Cain."

"Biblical Cain?" I asked and Eloise nodded slowly.

"According to legend, Cain was the first," she told me. "He started Enoch, the first city. It was a paradise where kindred and kine lived together in peace. Cain fathered the Second Generation, and depending on your source whether it was three or five people, and they fathered thirteen more, the Third Generation.

"Supposedly, in the beginning," Eloise continued, "They all got along. Cain forbade siring more and his order was followed. In the end, the Third Generation betrayed the Second, killing them all and took the city for their own. Some say the Second Generation survived the Great Flood from the Bible, not being killed till they had built the Second City, again by the Third Generation."

"Sounds as if no one knows what happened," I told her.

"Despite some of us counting our age in centuries," Eloise said, her voice sad as she shook her head, "And more counting their age in millennia, we don't know what happened at the beginning. We have a book, the Book of Nod, which is supposed to catalog the beginning but we don't have the whole thing. Parts are missing."

I sighed, the old adage that everything faded in time reminding me that even our origins were shrouded in a bit of mystery. That we seemed to stem from Cain's curse seemed fitting to me, but it brought up more questions.

"So, what's the deal with generation?" I asked them, wondering where we fell on the scale of things.

"It's how far removed from the original vampire," Eloise told me, as Strauss drifted out the door. "Most kindred today are probably twelfth and thirteenth generation, though older kindred are more likely to be lower."

"Does it affect anything?" I asked her and she gave me a curious look.

"It's mostly a cap on how powerful you can become," she said, giving me the rundown. "Think of it this way, in five hundred years, you will still not be as powerful as your sire, who in turn is never as strong as his sire. Every time you sire new kindred, they'll be weaker than you, and so on and so forth. But there are ways of lowering your generation, like the diablerie you carried out."

"Diablerie?" I asked her, not really getting the word. I knew it was something bad, something about feeding from other kindred, but not exactly what.

"Feeding from another kindred until you kill them," she told me, her words light but the weight of them hitting me hard.

"Feeding from other kindred," I said, moving to sit in a chair in a corner.

"Until you kill them," she finished, making an important distinction for me. "You fed from kindred?" she asked me, catching on to my horror.

"A few times," I told her. "I think Lucian did something to me. Human blood doesn't really satisfy me anymore."

Eloise looked a little perturbed by that, then brought a table over by me. "Let me see your hand," she asked, coating her hand in blood. I gave her mine, and the blood pooled over my hand, forming an eleven, then shimmered and formed a four.

"Well, I'll be damned," she said. "Fourth generation kindred."

"Is that good?" I asked her, and she nodded.

"That makes you one of the most powerful kindred around," she told me. "Hell, even I'm tenth generation, and I doubt Lacroix is any higher."

"Does that give me any advantage?" I asked her and she nodded.

"It means you can't be dominated by anyone," she told me and I give her a quizzical look. "Ventrue, even we Tremere, have the ability to force others to do what we want. It doesn't always work, and it can anger people when it doesn't and they know what we tried to do. It's one way of making a forever enemy."

"You mean, Lacroix could force me to do whatever he wants," I said, remembering coming away from a meeting with Lacroix feeling as if I'd been gypped.

"Maybe, when you were first turned," she told me. "He can't do that anymore. Hell, there's only a Tremere who can dominate you now, and maybe one Ventrue, since Mithras died in London."

"Select club, huh," I said dryly and she nodded.

"It also means your powers can grow beyond anything most of the Lasombra you'll meet are capable of," she told me. "It also means that you are becoming what the other fourth and fifth generation kindred are; a Methuselah."

"And that is?" I prompted her, and she bit her lip as if she were nervous about something.

"The order that kindred progress starts at fledgling. That's a newly created kindred, then progresses to neonate, who is old and mature enough to be responsible for their own actions. After that, it gets fuzzy. The next level up is Ancilla, who are usually at least a century old and fairly powerful. They're the most common kindred you'll ever meet, as I'm one of them.

"The next level up is Elder," she said, continuing my lesson. "They are powerful kindred, not only because of personal power, but in political power as well. Strauss, Lacroix and Isaac are the true Elders of Los Angeles, as they have their own domains over their fellow kindred."

"What about Therese Voerman?" I asked her. "She claims domain in Santa Monica."

"Mainly because no kindred resides there," she told me. "Break the masquerade there and see who comes for your head."

"Point taken," I said, figuring that Lacroix would send his deputies after whoever breached the masquerade.

"The last level is Methuselah," she said, and a hint of sadness crept into her voice. "I only met one once, in Vienna. Lucky for me he wasn't after my blood."

"Would that be bad?" I asked her and she give me a shrug of her shoulders.

"Well, when you're being fed from, or so I've read, you don't have much ability to stop their feeding," she told me. "That means it's easy for them to keep feeding until they drop you into torpor or kill you outright."

"And whether or not you awake the next night or a year from then," I said and it clicked into place. It would be scary to be fed from like that, not knowing if you were going to survive or not.

"So you see why I say lucky," she told me. "Um, while I have you here, do you mind if I ask you something?"

"Sure," I said, as she eyed the closed door. A large tabby stood there, but he wasn't facing us, but seemed to be acting as a sentry.

"Did Strauss actually offer to teach the secrets of Tremere magic to you in exchange for destroying his rogue gargoyle?" she asked me.

"Yes," I said, and she shook her head.

"That's what I had heard," she said, putting her head in her hands as she hunched over. "I don't guess you understand the ramifications of someone not of Tremere blood learning our secrets?"

"Not really," I said, eyeing her as she rubbed her face. "I guess it's a crime in your clan? Strauss once told me not to seek out the mysteries."

"A crime?" she said, lifting her head to look at me. "One punishable by death. We are very strict about that."

"I guess you need me to testify to that to some type of governing body?" I asked her.

"Lord Barkiss in New York City," she informed me. "He'd likely come here to handle this personally, as it's a regent who's selling us out, rather then sending a lackey. Then again, we might even get a council member here."

"So who'd replace him?" I asked her, wanting to know who I would be dealing with when I dealt with the Tremere in the future. I kind of liked Strauss, he was a seeming straight shooter that didn't delve into the political double talk that I hated so much.

"I would," Eloise then said, leaning back in her chair. "I am the magister here."

"So you'd have a lot to gain if I would testify on your behalf," I said, and she turned her head to eye me.

"Yes," she drawled, as if she wasn't liking where I was going. "I'd be Strauss's replacement, including his role as primogen. As the leading Tremere in Los Angeles, I'd have considerable political clout, and would be free to direct the chantry how I saw fit. Let me guess, you want a boon in exchange for your testimony to Lord Barkiss, because there are so few who can force the information out of you."

I give her a smile, knowing she was on the right track. I already had an idea how I wanted that boon paid, since it would likely be the only way I could feed. "Yes," I told her and again she sank back into the chair.

"I guess magic truly does come with a price," she muttered as if she didn't want to do this.

"Are you interested?" I asked her and Eloise nodded her head.

"It really isn't even a choice," she said absently. "One of the highest offices in the city in exchange for being your food source. How often would you want to feed from me? Monthly? Weekly?"

"The start of every night," I told her and she snapped upright in her chair.

"Every night?" she said aghast.

"Yes," I told her, giving her a hard eye.

"You do know that if I fail, and Strauss is bound to know it's me once Lord Barkiss gets here, that my life won't be worth spit if Strauss manages to avoid the charge."

"What will happen to you then?"

"More than likely I'll get kicked out of the chantry," she said, staring at me hard. "He'll also try to have me killed, or do it himself."

"So, if we fail, I'll have made an enemy of one of the most lethal kindred in town," I said, making it more of a statement than a question.

"Well, you remember what happened to Kenny," she said, referencing the day we first met not long ago. "Strauss can not only boil your blood, he's mastered a new form of domination. Supposedly he can use the blood of a ghoul as a link and send domination up and down that link."

"So if he got my ghoul he could try dominating me? I thought you said only equal or lower generation kindred could dominate me?" I said, distrusting the woman. Was she lying to me?

"Well, before Lucian somehow raised your generation, he likely could have," she told me, making me collapse back in the chair. "But, if wanted, he could dominate your ghouls into staking you and bringing you back to the chantry."

"Wouldn't they be loyal to me?" I asked, remembering what was said about ghouls being slaves to their kindred masters.

"If you had dominate, you could make people act like your ghouls even if they had never tasted your blood," she told me, then cocked her head to the side as if she'd thought of something. "Up for a test to see how strong your blood is?"

"What do you have in mind?" I asked her, not sure if I could trust her.

"Older kindred sometime can manifest different abilities," she told me, and I thought about my new powers of celerity. "If you don't know what you're doing, discovering them can be hit or miss. Some, like dominate, require more instruction to fully understand. One of the fundemental aspects of dominate is the ability to give one word orders that have to be obeyed."

"So if I said dance?" I asked and Eloise nodded, as she continued, "I'd get up and dance."

"So how does it work as a power?" I asked her.

"Look into my eyes, then push your will into a word," she told me, staring at me to make it easier to look into her eyes. I did, then pushing my will into the one command that was on my mind, said "Strip." Eloise got up without a word, then began to undo her blouse. She was actually pulling it off her shoulders, exposing her white cotton bra, when she suddenly realised what she was doing and yanked her shirt back closed and gave me a devilish look.

"Funny," she said without any warmth as she rebuttoned her shirt.

"I had to make it something that you wouldn't normally do, and that was all I could think of," I told her with a smile.

"Well, you have the powers of dominate," she told me as she situated her shirt properly back into the waistband of her skirt. "Willing to push how far you can go with it?"

"What's on your mind?" I asked her, and she looked nervous, as if what she was about to risk teaching me something she shouldn't.

"Look into my eyes, and instead of pushing your will into words, push your will into me," she said. "If it works, please remember, you are taking control of my body, so please be careful what you do."

"How do I stop?" I asked her, wanting to make sure I wasn't stuck as her and get us both in trouble.

"Will yourself out of my mind and you'll snap back into your body," she said, and I nodded at the simpleness of it.

Looking deep into her eyes again, I pushed my will into her, then with a stretching feeling in my brain, found myself looking at myself. My body acted like a marionette doll who's lines had been cut, collapsing into the chair I had been setting in. Looking down, I realized I was now in Eloise's body. Curiousity made me pat myself down, finding it odd to be feeling a body that wasn't my own.

Stepping over to my body, I found it as cold and lifeless as a corpse, as if I truly was dead. It was with a grim smile I realized I could suddenly fake my own death easily by possessing a paramedic and then carry my 'corpse' back to the ambulance and take it home.

Willing myself out, I had to lift my head to look at Eloise. She smiled at me, then went back to her chair. "Even I can't do that one to kine," she told me as she sat down, crossing her legs. "It's not quite full mastery of dominate, there's more powerful things you can do with it, but I don't even know what they are. I can probably look it up, but it'd take time."

"Are you trying to distract me from feeding from your neck?" I asked her, a thought about why she would be offering to teach me various disciplines popping into my mind.

"Yes," she said somewhat sheepishly. "It's just, once you know what all I know about feeding, even from other kindred, you tend to not allow anyone the chance to bite your neck."

"So, I can feed from you, or you can teach me everything I don't already know?" I asked her and she nodded, telling me I had it right. "Does that include Tremere blood magic?"

"Thaumaturgy is the one thing I can't teach you," she said, drawing a line on that. "I can teach what the Tremere know about the other disciplines, but not thaumaturgy."

I sat there, thinking about her offer but decided that I needed her blood more than I needed her knowledge. It was too difficult to acquire, and I could already feel the need to feed again. "Blood," I told her, making her slump in her chair. "Like kine to a kindred, I need your blood more than I need your knowledge and wisdom."

"Alright," she said, consigning herself to be the first real kindred in my herd of blood dolls, meaning I could pass Constance off to whomever I chose for a childe. "But there aren't any freebies on blood. I was hoping to whet your appetite with the stuff on dominate, but you didn't bite. I guess you really do hunger for kindred blood."

"More than you know," I told her, then rose from my chair. "I guess I need to try and find a neck to bite. You might want to be quick on getting word to Lord Barkiss, lest Strauss get onto us and silence you. I won't risk alienating Strauss if you're dead."

"Alright," she said, standing up to join me. "I can have word to him by tonight, and I'll let you know. Phone number?"

I told her my number, and we started out the door. Silence fell between us as we walked, as more cats and familiars walked the halls or peaked around furniture. I could only hope our conversation in what appeared to be the attic of the chantry had been private, probably why Keenan had stood guard for us.

Outside the chantry, I stood for a moment as I thought about what I needed to do. I needed to see Venus Dare about that bet, and check on my ghouls at Four-Play. It was time for their feeding, as it'd been almost a week since they'd been fed initially.

I was about to climb on the Ninja when my phone rang. I pulled it out and answered it, hoping it wasn't a prank call. It wasn't, it was Fat Larry.

"Baby girl," he said once I'd opened the line. "Just got a call from a friend that needs some work done. Kind of basic stuff, not like that stuff you pulled for me earlier."

"Who for?" I asked him, hoping it wasn't someone important so I could blow it off.

"Girl of mine called Venus," he said, and I smiled at realizing I might have a way into her good graces. "She got problems, needs a messenger that don't mind getting out of a tight spot."

"Sure," I said, glancing at the clock on the Ninja as I turned the key on. It was getting early. "But it's a bit late, if you know what I mean. Think you can set it up where I can I meet her tonight, say eight?"

"Sure," he said, sounding happy. "I'll tell her your own you way down. My advice, bring plenty of little friends, if you catch my drift."

"I got some ideas," I told him, and he chuckled darkly at that. "Got something that might make Clint Eastwood envious."

"That's my girl," he said. "Hey, I gotta customer coming, so I'll talk at ya later," he said, then the line went dead. I smiled as I tucked the phone in my pocket, glad I didn't have anything coming up tonight. Really all that was left was to repopulate my house, and Duke may need his second dose, so I started my Ninja and headed for Four-Play/

Pulling up in front of the club, the neon lights were still blazing away as they tried to attract customers. Going inside, I found a pair of girls sitting on the counter dressed only in lingerie as they advertised what was to come. The bouncer at the door just waved me on through, opening the door to the main area and I walked on into the techno beat that was playing. Dancers sat around the club, each one trying to entice me to their table.

Only Angel and Sharron didn't try, each giving me a smile as I approached. They positively glowed, telling me each was still running strong in my blood, but it was Sharron who flinched first as I neared them. Looking in the ghoul's brown eyes, I could already see the fear hidden there as I got closer. I knew what she was afraid of, that I was here to send her to make adult movies for extra cash. It was always an option, especially if she didn't rake in the money, but that wasn't why I was here today.

Walking by her and hearing her audible sigh of relief, it was Angel who then tensed. When I got closer and didn't angle away, I thought I could see a flash of fear behind her greenish eyes, fear that grew when I stopped in front of her table.

"Yes?" she said, her hand gripping her drink as she looked into my eyes.

"Got a movie call for you," I told her, giving her the card Isaac had given me. "You meet the director at the time and place on the card, and if the guards give you any gruff, show them the card and you should get right in."

"Oh, sweet," she said, her shoulders relaxing as she took the card. "Which director is it?"

"Scorsese," I told her and her draw dropped.

"Martin Scorsese?" she asked in an astonished voice.

"Yes, so don't blow your audition," I told her and she nodded as she slipped the card down into her bra. "You don't want to know what I had to do to get that audition, so make it count."

"Yes, ma'am," she said enthusiastically, as she gave me a smile. "Finally, my chance to get out of this dump."

"Duke still in his office?" I asked and she nodded.

"Seems to have a headache, been grouchy all night," she told me. I nodded, figuring he was needing his fix and gave Angel a smile as I walked to his office.

The guards opened the door as I turned the corner, allowing me in without asking any questions. Duke must have talked with his people and told them to treat me with respect, because everyone seemed to know I was at least running part of the show here.

Duke sat behind his desk, seemingly staring at a ledger. I could tell he was having trouble concentrating by the way he kept rubbing at his temples, and that he didn't acknowledge me until I rapped my knuckles on his desk.

"Ah, just the woman I been wanting to see," he said, closing his eyes as he leaned back in his chair. "Been thinking I should call your boy Brian, because I feel funny."

"It's time for your fix," I told him. Duke stood on his feet, looking unsteady as if he'd been drinking all night and was hung over. I bit my wrist, letting the blood flow out and Duke sucked greedily on it until I pulled him off. When his eyes cleared from the ecstasy, he stood straight and tall again.

"I needed that," he said, flexing and stretching his muscles.

"So, where is the motel?" I asked him, and he gave me directions. "Thanks, for the information, Duke. How's the business going?"

"Got that new girl, Sugar, broke in after you left last night, though it took a few hours," he told me. "She ought to start making money now. She going to be able to keep that attraction stuff up?"

"Not for much longer," I told him, making him frown. "She's got to have her blood fix to keep doing it, but she's run away from her master."

"What will happen to her? Not that I'm thinking of running away, I just want to know what happens if you disappear."

"Like tonight, you get surly and start to feel bad, then you get violent," I told him. "You end up acting like a druggie wanting his fix, getting violent if you can't find it. Eventually it passes, and depending on how long you been sucking my wrist is to what happens next."

"What do you mean?" he asked me, a curious look on his face.

"Your body will age, so if you're older than a human should be..."

"You pull a Crypt Keeper," he said, getting the picture. "Well, I won't keep you. I know you're running out of time."

"Let me know when Sugar starts to get surly," I told him, inching towards the door. "I'd hate to lose her and maybe I can convince her to take my blood."

"Will do, later mistress," he said, and I stepped out the door.

Taking the alley exit, I walked back around to my bike, and headed for the motel. The sky was brightening in the east, so I pushed it a bit and parked out front. The guy already had spare keys to the two rooms laid out for me, so all I had to do was unlock the door and go in.

The first door I unlocked turned out to be Constance and Heather's room. Heather looked delighted to see me while Constance had a more sour look. "You're back," Heather said, running to embrace me and abandoning the leather coat she was making. "I'm almost done with the new coat. I should have it ready by tonight."

"Good," I said, and Constance sidled away from me.

"Is it really you?" she asked me, as if she were afraid Lucian was inside me.

"It's me, Constance," I told her, relief flooding her face. "I got rid of him, so it's just me now. You won't have to worry about getting hurt when I wake up."

"I was so worried," she said, coming over and giving me a hug. "I didn't want to have to run away again."

"No more running away for you," I told her and she hugged me again. "I'm working with a friend who's studying law and we're going to get proper custody of you."

"Do you think Charlie will agree to it?" she asked me, and I nodded.

"I can guarantee it," I told her and she hugged me again.

"So, I guess we need to be at your mansion tonight?" Heather asked and I nodded.

"Yes, I have lots to do and hunting down the gang will be a waste of time," I told her. "You can move everything back in while I'm asleep, which won't be long from now."

"Alright," Heather said, glancing around the motel room. "We'll see you at dusk."

I left the pair in their room, going down a few to where Brian was likely staying. I no more opened the door and looked in before shutting it again, the image of Brian and his lover burned into nonexistent irises. I quickly went back to Heather and and Constance's room, and opened the door.

"Hey, would you mind letting Brian know to come home after he gets done with the bimbo?" I asked them and the began to giggle.

"Sure," Heather said, trying her best to suppress her laughter. "But I think he's in love with the place."

"Only if I get someone else to protect me," I said and they began smiling at each other.

"Better not tell him that," Constance said with a big smile on her face. "He'll be lining up people to take his spot just so he can come back here."

"If that weren't the last thing I needed," I said, shaking my head. "Oh well, see you tonight," I told them, shutting the door.

Looking at the pre-dawn sky, I decided it was time to quit fooling around, and quickly sat astride the Ninja and brought it to life. As I had done the night of Jose's trial, I didn't back up the bike, and instead just turned it on a dime and headed straight back out the drive. The entire way home I kept the bike in the triple digits, glad that traffic was against people entering LA and not leaving it.

Pulling into my drive, I looked around at the shadows on the ground as the sky began to lose its pink and turn blue. Feeling tired, I went inside and straight down the stairs to my room, sealing the door behind me. Sleep was already pulling at me, so I peeled off my clothes before crawling nude into bed, asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow.

Author's Note: Sorry about the long wait, there's been a bunch of problem's in my personal life. That and there's nothing harder to write than this political stuff. Hope you enjoy it, and a big thanks to all who leave reviews! It makes it so much more fun to write knowing I'll have reviews to read.

Hope everyone enjoyed the chapter, and the next night? Venus Dare makes her glorious appearance.

Please remember to check out my Upcoming Story Ideas, which can be found here - s/12370971/1/Upcoming-Story-Ideas - They contain all the stories I work on when I get writers block, or if I watch something and get inspired.

Reviews are always welcome!