I awoke with a blast of pain as something tore through my chest, crushing my sternum and impaling the heart beneath. I was dead and no longer breathed, but my dead lungs reflexively sucked in air in a loud wheeze. My arms tried to clutch the wound, but like my ankles, they were held fast. I was still in my room, but strapped or manacled to a cold steel slab.

A woman with pale blonde hair stood over me, holding a bloody wooden spike. The pain hadn't been from a sharp object impaling me, but rather being pulled out.

"Sorry about staking you." She threw the wooden projectile to the ground. "I told you to get off my back, didn't I?" She didn't ask in a hostile tone, it was more like she wanted to ask me why I didn't just back off when I had the chance. I was still groggy from the impalement so I couldn't do more than groan inarticulately.

"It's alright," she said gently. "I understand. You did what you had to do. It's no more your fault than your curse is." She leaned closer. "I'm not interested in hurting or torturing you. All I want is the identity of the one who sent you."

Was she asking me to betray VV, or my Master?

"And I don't mean that snooty stripper from the Vesuvius," she said gently, making it clear.

But even if I'd wanted to betray my Master, I wouldn't even be able to. The Blood Bond made it impossible, and even then, I wasn't a snitch. I told her so. "I couldn't tell… you even if… I wanted to."

Her face became sad, but she still looked friendly enough. "I see. We're not on the same side, but I respect your loyalty." She sat down on my night stand and sighed. "This puts us in a difficult situation though."

Her situation wasn't nearly as difficult as mine: strapped to a steel slab wearing nothing but my underpants and sleeping T-shirt, completely at the mercy of a member of the Society of Leopold, a group of Vampire hunters so ruthless they made even Elders nervous. "You're Chastity, right?" She didn't really seem good-looking enough to me to be a stripper, but all they had to do was get naked, not look good doing it.

She laughed. "That's just my stage name. Figured it'd be appropriate for my fake stripper identity."

That confirmed it. I was in the situation every Vampire dreaded and hoped to never encounter. "What… what will you do to me?"

She looked almost compassionate when she said it. "I'll have to get the information from you. Same way you're loyal to your masters, so am I. They instructed me to find out the identity of the one who sent you, so that's what I'm going to do." She produced a clipboard and checked it, frowning. "Oh, and also perform some experiments on you."

Oh God no. "What… what kind of experiments?"

"Painful ones, I'm afraid. There's a few things about your kind's vulnerabilities we're not sure of yet. I mean, we know you light up like Christmas trees in sunlight, but other things are a bit less documented."

My throat contracted in fear, completely dry as I hungered. I knew it was a vain attempt, but I tried appealing to her faith regardless. "Aren't you priests? Supposed to help people instead of torturing them or experimenting on them?"

"People, yes. Not your kind. You know what you are, Vampire?"

I remained silent. Here it came, the self-righteous and deluded rant about how we were abominations.

She raised a hand and preached, "You are rejected by God. Pariahs, cast from His grace and His light, and by your very nature, irredeemable. Your existence serves as a test for us, His servants, to drive you back to nonexistence, from whence you came. And until the day of Judgment, you will suffer and writhe in eternal fire, and from your cheeks will stream all the tears of Hell." Her kind façade had fallen away, and her blue-green eyes were blazing with religious fervour.

"And here I was thinking you were of the reasonable sort."

She shook her head, going back to gentle-but-firm-schoolteacher mode, the fire in her eyes gone as quickly as it had appeared. This woman wasn't just someone who hunted me. The shift between personalities made me suspect she was almost certainly insane. "It's alright," she said, friendly again. "It's nothing you can understand. Nor should you."

She turned and called to someone. "Malcolm. Bring in the kit, please?"

A man came in, lugging a heavy suitcase. It was the guy with the faux-hawk that had tried to seduce me in the Asp Hole two days before.

I don't know why I asked, but I did. "If you're going to do this… can you at least cover me, please?"

'Chastity' turned back to me. "Mm?"

"Can you put a blanket or something over my legs? I feel… exposed." It was ridiculous since I was a Vampire and shouldn't care about the sanctity of my body anymore, but even though I was dead, wearing only my panties and T-shirt felt shameful, especially with a man there.

She nodded and covered me with my own blanket, up to my ribcage. "This will be painful enough for you already, no need to go through it feeling naked."

What she said brought the reality of the situation back to me. I was going to be tortured. Put through unimaginable pain. I wasn't a wimp, but maybe I could avoid the pain by appealing to their sense of logic. The result would be the same anyway, torture or not. "Look, I can just tell you what you want to know. You know, about the effects things have on our bodies. There's no need to – "

She placed a firm finger on my lips, looking scolding. "Shhh. Yes there is."

"If I just tell you – "

"Not enough," she said with a shake of her head.

"She's got a point," the faux-hawked guy said. "I mean, if she cooperates – "

"No. I'm ordered to make sure, Vampire, and your word's not enough, much as I wish it was." Then she asked the faux-hawked guy, "What was first? Electricity, yes?"

He hesitated, looking at the clipboard she'd laid on my legs. "Yes. Electricity."

With a nod, she clicked the suitcase's locks open and rummaged inside, pulling out a bunch of wires that ended in two pads. Gently sticking the pads onto my temple, she hooked the other ends to a small plastic unit. She set her hand to a dial, then looked at me. "I'm sorry about this, but I have a divine duty to fulfil."

She turned the dial and the pads sent a sharp, painful electroshock through my head. My teeth clenched and I let out a stifled groan, but that was it.

"Note, Malcolm," 'Chastity' said to her assistant. "Electroshocks to the temple have negligible effect. Increasing the voltage to humanly fatal levels."

She turned the dial again, all the way this time. My head felt as if it was being crushed flat, the pain racing through my body, making me twitch and buckle in my restraints as I heard myself shrieking. After a second that felt like an eternity, the current fell away.

"Any more than that and she'll catch fire," the Huntress remarked matter-of-factly. "Bit too early for that." Then she asked me, "So, the electroshocks did little, did they?"

"Th-this is-is-is p-pointless," I told her, still shaking from the voltage.

She gave a sour, disapproving frown.

"Next, water. Malcolm, take the samples out?"

She folded the blanket back, uncovering one of my hands, strapped by my side to the slab.

"Normal tap water…" I felt a slight coldness as the tip of my middle finger was dipped into a small petri dish of water. "No response."

She waited until Malcolm had ticked the box, then announced. "Rain water."

Again, the only thing I felt was the cold sensation of water.

"Water collected from a natural running source."

Same feeling.

"Hm. Make sure to note," she told her assistant, "running water is ineffective."

Of course it was ineffective. Vampires being repelled by running water was a fairy tale. But they wouldn't all be. Sooner or later they'd bring out the fire, or even worse, wait for the sunrise, just to be sure.

"Garlic, then."

A coarse and dry bulb was placed in my hand. "Be sure to grip it tightly, please."

I did so. Antagonizing these people would only prove more painful in the long run. Nothing happened of course. Vampires being repelled by garlic was another bullshit story.

"No response." The bulb was taken from me and there was a crackling sound outside of my vision. "Let's see if the taste has any effect." A broken-open clove of garlic was placed against my lips. "Stick your tongue out, please."

I did as she told even though the taste of normal food was abhorrent to us. I'd loved garlic when I was alive, but now it tasted like death. Unwillingly, I grimaced and turned my head away.

"Subject displays repulsion, but is not physically harmed by the garlic." She looked at the clove for a few seconds, then said, "Still, garlic appears to have some kind of repellent effect." I said nothing. Let her think it was because it was precisely garlic instead of food in general. I knew trying to sabotage these experiments would be futile and ultimately more painful, but nothing obliged me to correct them if they made the wrong conclusions.

She sighed and sat down next to me, on my own bed. "Shall we start the more uncomfortable experiments now?"

I'd resigned myself to my fate and my situation, so even though I was terrified, I managed to defiantly spit, "Do your worst!"

"You make it sound as if I find joy in this," she said, faking a sad tone in her voice. "Believe me, this is necessary."

"Sure. But in the end you're an even bigger monster than I am. At least I try to fight my nature."

She was suddenly on her feet, a judging finger pointed down at me. "No, demon, the monster is you! You are a walking dead devil! You steal men's souls and make them your slaves! You steal children from their cribs to drain their blood! That the Lord's light can no longer shine upon you without condemning you to a fiery Hell, a short foretaste of the eternal fires you'll have to endure proves this! You are insults to His nature! Affronts! It is our duty, not our choice, to purify you!"

Having let go of all hope, I turned to Malcolm. "This one's well and rightly crazy."

The guy looked insecure, his eyes full of doubt as he cast them at the blonde.

"What?" she snarled. "What did you say?"

"I said you're fucking chalada, arpìa! Even crazier than the most insane god damn Malk! And you know why? Because you're so far gone you actually believe what you're doing is right! They have a word for those people! People who justify their cruelty with self-righteous bullshit! They're called hypocrites, bitch! You're nothing but a fucking hypocrite!"

Her eyes were wild, her face livid as she kept her finger pointed at me. "I didn't enjoy the thought of what I was about to do, but I do now!" She reached into the suitcase and pulled out a blow torch, setting it alight. A horrible, terrible blue flame came out as she clicked the button, blazing a hot and awful blue. "Fire!" she shouted, almost hysterical. "Let's just skip to fire right away!"

As I saw the blue flame, my willpower and defiance drained away, replaced by a fear so great it took all control and I heard myself whimpering, "No, please, no, not the fire, please."

"Not such a big mouth now, have you?" she shrieked, her mouth contorted in an insane grin. "Cower some more, you pathetic piece of dead meat!"

"Please," I begged, no longer in control of myself, "don't burn me, please, please, please!"

"Beg for it, creature! Beg for salvation!" She brought the blowtorch closer and I felt the last of the blood in my body streaming down my cheeks in bloody tears of absolute terror. I kicked and tugged at my restraints but without any blood to burn, I was feeble and the bindings held.

"Lauren, come on, we know what fire – " the man tried to stop her.

"Quiet, Malcolm! We have to make sure!"

"No, I mean it, she's clearly terrified, she's not faking it, we don't have to – "

"Shut up, weakling! I'm going to – " She was interrupted by a cheerful little electronic ditty. "God dammit!" She was so furious she didn't even notice she'd blasphemed. Reaching into the pocket of her leather trenchcoat, she fished out her cell phone and checked the caller ID. "Bah! It's the Cardinal. I have to take this. Watch over this abomination." And with that, she clicked the blow torch off and stormed out of my room.

It was a small window in which I had to act. If I was going to do something, it had to be now. "Malcolm," I said to the man standing over me, watching me with concerned eyes. "I know you were taught otherwise, but I'm not a demon that needs to be tortured and destroyed." I'd seen the doubt in his eyes, ever since the electroshocks and the crazed rant of the Huntress. It was a slim chance but I had to take it now when I still had the time. "This isn't good work, it's pure cruelty."

"I… know," he said quietly. "I don't think Lauren's entirely in touch with reality anymore. She didn't use to be this way, you know, she – "

"Look," I interrupted him. "Just untie me and I promise not to hurt you, I'll simply run."

"Your name's Tanira, right?"

"Uh huh." What the Hell was he asking that for? The bitch could be back any second.

His eyes looked slightly vacant. "Can I… I mean, back in the club, when we… You've been on my mind ever since."

What the Hell? Was this guy declaring his love for me? Whatever, I didn't have time to wonder about the why's and the how's. "So free me then. Do what's right."

But he didn't say anything, just leaned in towards my face, closer and closer, until I felt the warmth of his breath on my lips, and then he kissed me.

The Hunger instantly took control of me and as soon as his lips touched mine, my teeth snapped closed on them, my jaws working on their own to tear his lips open so they'd release the most blood they could. He didn't struggle or try to break free. I drank voraciously, swallowing the warm, life-giving blood in greedy gulps, and as the Hunger was partially sated, I regained control over my body and with tremendous force of will, forced myself to stop drinking so the guy wouldn't lose so much blood it'd kill him. When my fangs retracted from his flesh, he woozily stood straight up, breathing hard. Then he smiled faintly, seemingly to himself, and as if still in the afterglow of ecstasy, breathed, "I knew you'd bite."

"Then why'd you…" I asked, completely surprised. But then I realized. Most humans didn't feel or remember the Kiss, but some, though not many, did. Usually when it was interrupted, or when it was particularly long. And some, very few, remembered the feeling that made them stop struggling and surrender to the bite. They all described it as ecstatic and overwhelming. And of those, there were those that managed to seek out the Vampire that had bitten them and ask, and even beg, to experience that feeling again. They became hooked to the Kiss.

That was what had happened to this one as well, addicted from the first hit. I hadn't been on his mind, the Kiss had been, even though he didn't realize. Like most mortals in his situation, he thought he was in love with the Vampire that had fed on him, and that giving her his blood was proof of his love. But giving his blood was what he was really in love with.

"We need to wrap this up, I need to – "

The crazy blonde cut herself off, her mouth dropping open when she saw her assistant standing dazed, drying blood caking his chin. The injuries on his lips were healing so rapidly you could see them close over (a property of the Kiss), but the blood said enough. "Malcolm, what have you done?"

Snapped out of his lethargy, Malcolm stood up to his mistress and boldly announced, "Lauren, I love her. I won't let you hurt her anymore."

Shit, he really was addicted.

"Malcolm, have you gone crazy?"

He ignored the question. "Just go, Lauren. Leave us alone."

Looking more annoyed than anything else, she ordered, "Get out of the way, Malcolm. Celibacy has made you latch onto anyone and anything that'll rub up against you. Just stop this idiocy now and I won't report you to the Cardinal."

"No," I finally said, joining the conversation. "You stop this idiocy and I won't tear your arms out of their sockets."

"Really," she scoffed. "You're still bound, stupid little corpse. So making threats fr – "

I was still bound yeah, but not for long. Malcolm's blood had given me some new energy, and more importantly, it had given me fuel for my Potence. Burning the fresh blood, I allowed Potence to increase my strength to superhuman levels, and with a grunt of effort, I pulled first my right arm, and then my left free, the restraints tearing apart, fibres flying through the room.

Lauren's eyes went wide in fear and she staggered back, reaching for the gun in her trenchcoat. I was first though, and snatched up the blow torch and launched it at her, the small gas canister striking her in the forehead with a loud metallic dong. The pistol flew from her hand and she was knocked back, almost falling over in the process, but somehow still keeping her footing.

As she staggered out the room, I pulled open the velcros on the straps that held my ankles and rolling off the slab, coming down on my feet and going after her, but it was too late, she'd already bolted for the exit, slamming the door behind her. I slammed the door open, but the hallway was already empty. She'd fled down the stairs, and pursuing her through the streets, hungry, barefooted and half-dressed would be a bad decision, much as I'd want to.

"Shit," I cursed, ramming my fist against the door. Then I noticed old mr. Irving, struggling to get to his feet. Despite my anger and my hunger, I took him by the wrists and helped him up. He felt fragile and withered in my hands. "I'm sorry about all this."

"Miss Del Rey," he scolded, "I don't know what kind of business you're into, but I draw the line at having to stay up all night because of all the noise and then being bowled over when I come knocking to ask you to keep it down."

"It's… um, I had a burglar problem. It won't happen again."

Still frowning, he said, "It better not. I'm worried about you. Next time, I'm calling the cops, for your own good."

Old people always wanted to do things for people's own good, even if they weren't good things at all. Before he went back into his apartment, he turned and said, "And put some clothes on."

"Yeah." Oh, I would. And then I'd go look for Lauren the crazy Huntress. But first, I had a few other things to attend to. When I came back in, I saw one of the matters was already attending to the other. Malcolm was cutting the ropes around LJ's wrists. The gag was already out of his mouth, and he was cursing like a sailor. A bright red swathe of blood ran down the side of his face. When he saw me though, his rage faded, making place for shame.

"Shee-it. I let you down, girl. I am sorry."

He'd let me down alright, letting them into my room. But there was no point giving him a beating for it. "It is what it is. You can make up for it by getting on your feet, washing your face and coming with me."

Malcolm was still busy cutting LJ's bonds. "What, you goin' after her? Now?"

"Can't wait another day," I called to him while I hoisted myself into my jeans in my room. I couldn't resist adding, "I think that's pretty obvious now. Right?"

I came back out of my room and saw LJ lowering his bloody head in shame. "Yeah. Guess y'all got a point."

I saw his gun lying on the ground and I slid it toward him with my foot before I took my boots. "Go on, you'll need this."

Malcolm had been silent the whole time. "Tanira," he said quietly. "What do you intend to do to Lauren?"

Sitting on my sofa and lacing my boots, I looked up at him. "What do you think?"

"I was hoping you wouldn't kill her. She wasn't always like this, you know. She used to be… well, normal."

"I'll kill her if she makes me," I told him, stretching the truth. "She was about to burn me alive."

"I know, I know, but still…"

"Yo," LJ asked me, sliding his .45 into his belt. "You sure we can trust this guy?"

When humans got hooked to the Kiss, it was like a Blood Bond. Very little could break that tie. Still, I needed to teach LJ a lesson, so I said, "I don't trust him any less than I trust you."

"Hey, yo," he protested, "I know I fucked up, aight? I feel shitty enough as it is, man."

"Just saying. Where will I find her, Malcolm?"

He hesitated for a moment, but told me anyway. "She's got an apartment above the Quad X. Brothel in Santa Monica."

"Brothel?" LJ echoed, laughing. "Din' know anyone still called it that."

"It's like 'mezzanine'," I said without much humour. "Malcolm, you're staying here. Until now, you haven't done anything that can come back on you, you can always say I charmed or dominated you, so there's still a way back for you. Don't go anywhere until I get back."

"And what if you don't come back?"

Before I closed the door behind me, I told him, "Don't quit your day job."