Carmilla sat on the bed, the small human curled close to her. Poor dear, worn out by their adventures that she fell so deep into sleep not once has she stirred. The vampire smiled greedily, her slender fingers lightly brushing the woman's shoulder. Numerous evidence of their activities decorated Kira's body like seasoning on a meal. Markings that made clear this woman belonged to another, something certainly on Carmilla's mind as she made them in the night.

Usually she would not have gone this overboard, the vampress was truly quite subtle in her bedroom life. Not that she cared what other people thought, but simply did not care to have people gawking and staring at her possessions no matter for what reason. Last night however, yesterday in general one in particular had eyes for what was hers. Yes, Eona's interest in Kira has clearly not changed and while in her niece's absence it mattered not, with her presence now it was certainly an annoyance.

Kira turned over in her sleep, her bare back to Carmilla who now had view of part of the human's scars. The four raised discolorations on her shoulder healed well since their unfortunate creation. Looking, the markings on Kira neck too were visible, a slap in the face to the Empress of the one time she had the human out of her sights. Despite the set-back, it worked wonderfully in her favor, a situation easily manipulated that resulted in the eviction of an obstacle with little effort. It aided in the long run as well—no matter how many times she maybe bitten, even by a Pureblood she would not be turned.

In the short-term that boded well for Carmilla, but of course, with humanity came mortality to a number of causes. Disease, injury; the Empress intended for this one to live as long as possible, so long as she remained hers at least. Considering Kira's actions and willingness she had little concern of that before, but now...Carmilla wondered if Eona's presence would cause a fracture in that devotion.

Kira was no fool however, despite her attempts at hiding, the Empress knew a great many things. She was smart enough to know how to survive, despite being a human she had also done well at navigating the Game. While being in the bed of the Empress had many political and...desirable advantages, what was absolute was the unsaid protection it created. No one would dare lay a hand on the Empress's property, no one at least who valued their position or life.

Eona was a different story because she was Tepes Blood, the daughter of the former Empress; Carmilla's younger sister. The current Empress could not kill her on a whim or order for her execution, quite frankly she did not want to. Despite the rivalry of the current and former Empresses, she was fond of Eona, had raised her as her own daughter after her mother's death. Though it was obvious they had similar tastes in women, this one Carmilla would not let go.

A light knock on the door annoyed the Empress, she moved out of bed, careful not to wake Kira as she dressed in a robe. Opening the door she found one of her advisors, Galen, an aged Ex-human whom Carmilla turned long ago for his skills, leadership and prowess in warfare. Her devoted and loyal servant, there was no doubt, even without Absolute Rule, this man would never betray her. He came with information about the Reich others were not privy too—a letter sent by one of her many spies.

Galen glanced inside, past the opened door seeing the sleeping human in the Empress's bed.

"Shall we continue this somewhere more private?" He suggested.

Reading the note and shaking her head, "No, she's asleep...when did this arrive?"

"I just received it less than twenty minutes ago; I was reading it on the way to you. What is your will my Empress?" The ancient warlord asked with a small bow of his head, "If this information is to be believed, even our SpecOps division will make no difference."

Carmilla shook her head, ushering Galen inside, "I searched every hole, ever crack and found no sign, no evidence of he or his followers. How could he return without even a whisper?"

"Perhaps more are loyal to him than we initially believed?" Suggested Galen, "We always knew he had many followers in the past."

Carmilla nodded, "Yes, but the mass majority were executed, not that my sister bothered to listen to me when it came to looking for any remnants."

"What if the stories are true? What if he truly cannot be killed?"

Carmilla hissed lowly, "Anyone can be killed."

"We thought he was." Galen pointed out.

The letter was closed and a match struck, burning it into nothing.

"Keep this between us for now, until we have evidence. No matter my power or position, if I do not have all the Council with me it will be difficult to amass the resources and manpower in a short amount of time." Carmilla commanded, "I will not make the same mistake as my sister. We will not be led into ruin, we will not fade, we will emerge stronger than we have ever before."

Galen bowed, "We already are because of your Majesty. No more hiding in the shadows of man, no more going around their rules, this world belongs to the Vampire, to the Tepes family. This I will give my life a thousand times over to ensure."

Smiling, Carmilla thanked Galen and he left the room. Kira kept her eyes shut, kept pretending to be asleep because she would be dead if they knew she heard everything. Who were they talking about? Who was so powerful that Carmilla was frightened of? How dangerous were they that they threatened vampire-kind and if so, why not tell the others? If they were an enemy of the vampire...were they an ally to humanity? Could they turn the tide? Could they save humanity from enslavement? Within those thoughts an uneasiness came in the form of an idea. Would Eona be safe?

The bed behind her sank some, Carmilla had returned and she felt the immortal's hand on her neck. Her cool palm eased the heat the markings made, this heat has been growing the last few days, drying out her throat. Kira nearly sounded in complaint at the vampire's removal of her hand, until she felt rustling as Carmilla came closer. She gently turned Kira onto her back, the human did not dare open her eyes: playing sleeping/dead fish she made no movements.

For a moment she heard nothing, but then a strange sound, a puncture of something sounded. The sound made when something sharp stabs or presses into something soft, organic...the sound made when Carmilla bites into Kira. But she felt no pain, nor pleasure, so what did the Empress bite into? She felt Carmilla touch her mouth, with her fingers, then felt the vampire press a kiss against her. Something else...something warm, liquid. Kira could not control the racing heartbeat created by her panic, but she knew how to play it off.

She pretended to stir awake, Carmilla was close to her face, withdrawing, as she wiped her mouth with her sleeve. Kira blinked a few times to clear her vision, a real yawn escaped adding to her ploy.

"Carm..." Kira began to mumble, rubbing her eye, "Do you need..."

"Its alright." The Empress chuckled, easing Kira on her back after an attempt to sit up, "Go back to sleep."

Nodding, Kira rolled toward Carmilla the blanket was pulled over her shoulder as she shut her eyes and tried to go back to sleep and forget what she saw on the Empress's sleeve. Blood.


Blowing out a puff of smoke, Emily held the cigarette in her mouth when sitting below Kira.

"You're certain?" The doctor clarified, making a house-call in plain clothes as they walked the garden.

Kira nodded, "It couldn't have been anything else, I just don't get why, I mean what does she gain from giving me blood? I haven't told anyone about the symptoms."

"This is our Empress we are talking about." Emily deduced gesturing to her own neck, "She tend to know more than she lets on, much like yourself."

Frowning, Kira refused to believe Lady Carmilla had any knowledge of her recent symptoms. She had given no indication, has told no other besides Emily and Emily is the one vampire she knows she can trust to beat Absolute Rule. In the past couple weeks, ironically since Eona's return, Kira's neck has been increasing in a burning sensation, drying up her throat that no water an quench. Initially she believed it to be her imagination, lingering effects of her nighttime escapes, or simple stress, but Emily dismissed them all.

"You don't think its the Stigma is it?" Panic began to set in.

The markings on the left of Kira's neck were not an ordinary tattoo. The cross-like inking with four daggers into each corner surrounded long diamond-shapes, one attached to the circle in the center, seemingly making a keyhole shape. This tattoo called the 'Stigma' was a special and ancient technique that controlled ex-human or Insane vampires from going on rampages or becoming Bingers. Though the technique is rarely used in the modern day, it was heavily, especially when ancient Pureblood created mass armies of newborn vampires and needed to control them. Modified from its original purpose, this Stigma is the sole reason Kira has remained human.

When Kira was fifteen, an unknown Pureblood attacked her, biting her where the Stigma now lies. For a human, being bitten by a Pureblood means becoming a vampire, but Carmilla wanted to avoid that, she commissioned the doctor and her experimental technique and the results were satisfactory.

"Are you doubting my intelligence?" The doctor asked.

Kira quickly apologized, assuring her that was not what she meant. Emily told Kira that her technique has been tested numerous times and its success of its purpose is indisputable. The only thing that could fault its effectiveness is if someone is intentionally tampering with it. Which would include their Lady Carmilla giving Kira her own blood in order to either strengthen or control the Stigma.

"Control?"

Emily and Kira walked in the garden, "You know this is the first time you have ever asked about the Stigma."

"I didn't care until now. I'm human and that's what matters, but if something is wrong..."

"The original version of the Stigma acted as a type of contract between a Pureblood and their vampire servants. While a Pureblood's inborn ability to control vampire lies with Absolute Rule, there are ways to fight against it or even the involvement of a different Pureblood's order." Began the doctor's explanation.

The original Stigma ensured that the contracted Pureblood's orders would not be overwritten and gave true control of an individual to them. Whenever activated, the vampire had no free will, but this was mainly to ensure a vampire did not go rouge and either betray their master or succumb to insanity for a number of reasons. It helped to prevent unnecessary bloodshed, but a mass decline in its use occurred over the years as the vampire population was lessened. People did not get turned as often and some immortals choose death over eternity.

Doctor Sanders took the original Stigma and used it as a based for a different kind of Stigma, a 'lock and key' as it were. It was designed to suppress vampire powers useful for containment, but also to prevent a human from being turned. Of course the ladder was less likely, most humans who were turned before the war did so willingly. The previous Empress had strict rules about adding to the population and most did not disagree. Competition in the Game was fierce enough as is without adding more to the pot.

"So if the Stigma was unlocked, then I could turn?"

Emily shook her head, "It doesn't work like that. You are not constantly turning, you were bitten and the turning began, but it was stopped before it could finish. Like cutting out a tumor, but in this case since your can't be cut out, its like putting walls around it instead."

"But some tumors can spread..." Kira tilted her head curiously.

"Some, not all. The Stigma is fulfilling its purpose that's what matters."

Kira noticed the doctor did not give her a defiant yes or no. She choose not to push.

"As for the Empress, I imagine she wants to control the Stigma, or influence your vampire because I refused to give her the key." Emily said with a puffed prideful chest.

It made her patient laugh. That does sound like something Carmilla would do, she cannot stand not having something in her control. Especially if it belongs to her. Why go through all this secrecy though? She was the Empress, Kira's master she could do whatever she wanted and the human would have no power to stop her. That's not the only reason blood's passed though. Thinking to herself, she remembered things Jake had taught her, things she had learned about the vampire in her time here.

It did not explain her increasing symptoms though, leaving her with more questions than answers. Emily knew Kira was unsatisfied with their conversation, but knew there was nothing more she could say in the lion's den without raising an alarm. Whatever spies the Empress had sent to keep an eye on Kira and her, they would learn nothing of value other than a woman's curiosity and maybe her skill of appearing asleep.

Suddenly Kira turned around, Emily stopped looking behind to seeing Eona rounding the corner. I didn't even sense her. The doctor glanced at Kira.

"Doctor Sanders its been a while!" Eona exclaimed with a large smile, walking up to the two of them.

Emily put out her cigarette butt, then pulled out another one, lightning it.

"It has." An exhale of smoke followed the doctor's words, "Seven years? You've grown quite a bit. I seem you remember you wearing dresses, not riding bikes."

Eona chuckled, "Dresses were always my aunt's thing not mine. Besides, hard to wear a dress when you do as much traveling as I do."

"Hm." Emily sounded without interest, "Indeed." Turning to Kira, "I'll see you later, text me for once will you?"

"You're under the impression I have a cellphone."

Both women gave Kira an odd look.

"What?" She shrugged walking away, "Its not like I have anyone besides you and Jake to text."

"Ouch." Emily chuckled at Eona, "She really does hate you."

Eona sighed, "Subtly isn't her strong suit."

Turning and walking to the exit of the garden, "You have no one to blame, but yourself. Which also means only you can fix it." Emily waved, "Good luck with that. Kira isn't known for her forgiving nature, not that you would know."

Kira heard her name called, but ignored it walking a step quicker as she heard the caller some closer.

"Leave me alone Eona I'm too tired to deal with you."

It was daytime now, in the middle of the day and few people we awake. Eona was the opposite of the rest of the house she enjoyed being wake during the day, to walk in the sunlight, often taking rides to the city on her bike just for the hell of it. She rode an older bike, built herself it was a combination of Harley-Davidson, Royal Enfield and Triumph. Together they made a street bike around 1400cc in power, not that Kira bothered to remember, but she overheard Eona talking about it to one of the staff who also rides in passing.

Instead of talking to a staff member, or another vampire, she persistently tried to find a way to be alone with Kira. Not that she had been successful until now, she was just as careful as Kira, not wanting to draw attention from her aunt, the Empress. The day was once the sole alone time Kira had to call her own, now overruled by yet another entitled Pureblood. Worst of all, they were close once.

"I can't imagine why." Eona shot out as a response, a direct, 'I know what you do at night'.

Kira stopped, turning and pointing a finger at Eona's chest, "For your information, what I do is none of your business."

"Only who right?" Eona's sharp tongue fired back.

"Fuck you."

"Not until the first date Doll."

Kira turned red and not from embarrassment.

"What do you want Eona? You haven't spoken to me in four years, why the hell are you trying so hard now?" Kira stopped, crossed her arms and tapping her foot impatiently, "Is that how prideful Purebloods apologize? Harassment?"

Eona frowned, "Last time I checked, you were the one who stopped writing—"

"Oh, don't you give me that bullshit!" Kira practically shouted, "I wrote a dozen times after you stopped replying and I never heard a damn thing! You cut me off!" She stepped forward, jabbing her finger into Eona's chest, causing the vampire to backup, "You're the one who left! You don't get to suddenly come back and think that we're just going to go back to being friends and all just like that! I'm not a vampire, I don't just get to forget and be merry, that's you, that's all you, not me!"

Kira groaned loudly, "You know I thought we were friends, I thought we were close." She began to shake, "I felt normal, I felt like a person, not a slave; I was able, for a moment, to forget the horrors you vampires put me through; then you just left! No goodbye, just a half-ass: 'I'm going to study abroad for a few years'. Do you have any idea how that made me feel!"

"I couldn't stay—"

"Why! I mean I know I'm just a human, I'm just livestock to your kind—"

Eona stepped forward, "That's not at all what I believe!"

"Then why! Why didn't you tell me, give me an explanation, instead of making me feel it was my fault all this time!"

Kira panted, our of breath, her neck was on fire, her throat dry, she could not take it anymore. She stormed off, Eona was grabbed by Jake who appeared behind shaking his head as his friend ran inside. Jake and Eona remained outside in the garden, By the Old Man they used to climb as children. They were the youngest in the house at the time. Jake was the oldest by a year, followed by Eona and Kira followed a month after. As kids, Kira and Eona sometimes shared birthdays together because of how close they were, but often it was behind closed doors. Their own secret birthday celebration just the three of them.

Slaves did not get to celebrate their birthdays, sometimes they would forget their birthdays altogether. Though Jake and Eona never treated Kira as a slave, nor as less than them. She was their friend, sometimes they even forgot she was a human and could not do what they did. Jake created snow in the ballroom turning it into an ice-skating ring while Eona used her gift of air manipulation to push her and Kira around. They were not human and vampire, slave and master, they were children. But even children can learn the ways of the world.

Jake let Eona's arm go.

"You need to give her time." He advised.

"Every second I wasn't there, every year that passed was time she had to become entrapped by my aunt." Eona clenched her jaw, hints of her fangs showing through her bearing lips.

The Noble Vampire looked down, "Kira did what was necessary to survive."

"Necessary." Scoffed Eona, "It was necessary for me to leave and look where we are."

"Its different for her, we can't possibly understand her position or how she feels, we were never human." With shame at a cause he had no part of, but will haunt him all his life Jake continued, "Kira watched her family be slaughtered by vampires, our people, made an eight year old kid see that. Everyday is a battle for her survival, she has to do whatever means necessary because she knows in an instant she can be killed and is powerless to stop it."

The Pureblood Princess walked to the tree, feeling the hidden carving, "So our friendship...is just a tool for her survival?"

Jake laughed, "You clearly didn't listen if you think that's true. Kira isn't angry at you for being a vampire, she's angry because her friend vanished without a word and left her alone."

"She had you."

"Yeah." Jake nodded, but not in agreement with the entire statement, "Yeah she did, but I wasn't the one that disappeared."

Eona huffed, turning around she leaned against the tree, "Kira said that I stopped writing and that she sent me a dozen letters after, but I never got any."

"So someone stopped your letters from reaching her and hers from reaching you." Jake scratched the back of his head, "That's a very short list."

"Two guesses who." Eona growled

"Okay so lets say its the ladder, she would have to have planned for years." Jake gestured, "If she had done that, she wouldn't have introduced the two of you in the first place and besides, they didn't become—intimate until Kira was eighteen." He shrugged, "I dunno Eona that seems like a really round about way if that was her original intention."

Bobbing her head side to side, "I don't think it was the original intention, but certainly after she was bitten."

"Well, its convenient when a Pureblood biting a human doesn't turn them. I mean if keeping Kira human means so much to her, why did she bring her in the first place?"

"I dunno. Something's missing, my aunt is a bit of a traditionalist against human, but she's not a sadist, something is different about Kira. My aunt doesn't do anything on a whim."

Jake rolled his eyes, "I really hate to say this, but...honestly it might do more harm to Kira to try to separate them as things are. Your aunt has questionable morals yes, but our people are thriving, Kira is alive, yes at a cost, but she has never once mistreated or abused her."

"A kingdom of corpses is no kingdom I want to be apart of. And Kira is alive yeah, but as what, a sex slave? As a toy to a master; that's not living, that's not freedom; a gilded cage is still a cage."

Jake agreed with what Eona said, but trying to change things with words and pretty thoughts does nothing. Their society is to rule with power and Eona is not leave all this time just to twiddle her thumbs. She went to learn, to train, to be stronger. If she wants to challenge the ruling of the Empress she must prove her challenge is not a child's temper tantrum. Eona needs to prove that she is not only a force to be reckoned with, but has the support of her people, just as Lady Carmilla did when she began the war after the previous Empress's murder.

Kira was the innocent bystander in all of this, a human woman who is trying to survive the new world order. If she so much as breaths wrong she could be killed. Kira has her battles to fight, her vampire counterparts their own. For her sake, for her safety, Eona could not force a separation between her and the Empress because despite the two being family, the word of the Empress is indeed law. With of course a few hole Jake has been more than happy to expose.

"First, I need to find out why my aunt is so fixated on her, it can't be just because of her blood."

Jake pondered a moment, "Well maybe it has something to do with Kira's past before she was brought here. I mean are there any records of her parents? Maybe she had connections before the war started or her family did? She could be a bargaining chip."

"Considering we don't even know her real name that's a possibility."

"Wait." Jake shook his head and arms, "Her real name isn't Kira Nightraven?"

Eona shook her head, "I don't think even my aunt knows. She refused to tell anyone so...I gave her one."

Jake was quiet for a time, "Damn. Good job, remind me to ask you to name my kids when I have some."

"Honestly I was going to just give her my last name, but my aunt said no. Since she has black hair, I remembered a story my mom used to tell me when I was a kid. I couldn't remember the first name of the protagonist, but I remembered the last: Nightraven."

Her companion thought that quite an amusing story as he laughter so hard he began to wheeze.

"And here I thought it was because she likes ravens so much!" Nearly on the ground, "Oh my god it totally fits!"

Suddenly a harmless foam arrow shot into the side of Jake's head knocking him down. The last thing either saw, was the tip of scarlet going inside.