Over 200 reviews? You readers are too kind. I got a bit too happy when I saw this, more excited than most 17 year olds should be, but oh well

Pam was actually laughing. She walked in calmly, stepping over pools of blood and splinters of wood with a bemused expression. When she reached Eva who was still sat gaping at the wall, awash with blood and vampire bits, Pam actually just laughed some more.

"You are full of surprises."

"…and covered in blood," Eva retorted plainly. She could smell the blood through every pore of her skin; it was intoxicating in the sheer amount. She became aware she was shaking slightly.

"He must not have realised the fight was over…you still doing that abstinence shit?" Pam inquired, touching the shattered worktop of the desk gingerly.

"Trying to, yeah…"

"You're beau's out there, you got him good."

There was a long silence, vampires generally don't say anything to simply break a pause. They spoke with purpose.

"I need a bath…" She stammered eventually, rising slowly from the chair. Pam reached into her back pocket and extracted a set of keys. Sliding one of with extreme ease that humans lack in fiddling with key rings, she handed it to Eva.

"Bathroom's fourth door down, wardrobes in second door down. Lock the door behind you if you intend to drop by Fangtasia again before dawn."

Eva wasn't sure why she needed to be reminded to lock the door behind her, when she realised this was as good as an invitation from Pam to stay in her grand home.

"Thanks Pam," she murmured, unable to suppress a smile as she took the keys.

"All my other nest mates died," she said with a shrug. Horrified, Eva wasn't sure if this was a threat, a forewarning or a simple explanation. Nodding feverishly, she left Fangtasia.

Pam's house was larger than she remembered on her last quick visit. Rather than take another tour, she found the bathroom sharpish. It was huge; there was a large tub on one end, and shower big enough to accommodate three on the other. Glancing at her red faced reflection she decided a shower was her best bet, and she shed her ragged dress and underwear to jump under the steamy water. Eva was glad to scrub the drying flakes of blood from her skin. What a waste, all this blood, it would have made a good old meal for one of the others. Instead she was doused in it, matted in her hair and coated on her skin, even under her fingertips.

Pam was smaller than Eva, but had bigger breasts, so Eva had to face the rest of the night without underwear. She'd get to a shop early tomorrow night, maybe shop online if much wasn't open. She wondered if some of her clothes were still in their box in the back room of Fangtasia from her brief time stopping there, she wished she'd remembered to check before she left.

She pulled on a white knit vest top, and a midnight blue skirt. It was a tad on the short side, but looking in the mirror she decided she could get away with it. She pulled on a black blazer with the sleeves rolled up, she hoped the lapels would cover her lack of a bra. Feeling beautifully squeaky clean, she thrust her own key in her pocket and skipped out the house once her hair was dry and glossy.

Back in Fangtasia, everything seemed a-okay. Pam was at the front door turning away disappointed patrons.

"Look, we've had a vampire emergency, you can just get dressed up again tomorrow night," she was snapping at the sorry looking fangbangers trying to bargain with her. If they got in all they'd find is a turned over room containing a group of stressed vampires and a broken bar. Smiling at Pam, Eva slid by her quietly. The Fangbangers stared at her longingly; the male adorned in black latex a bit too longingly. Pam was still rebuffing their protests as Eva shut the door behind her.

Ginger created a comical sight, mopping up the bloody remains of the vampires they'd fought dressed in black leather pants and a leopard print boob tube. Eva side stepped round her as she did her chores, you wouldn't find the vamps cleaning up their own mess. Indira was behind the bar inspecting her nails lazily, and Felix was stood by the door with one hand in his pockets, and the other nursing a bottle of True Blood. He nodded at Eva amicably as she passed, and if there wasn't blood on the floor and walls, shattered tables and bar tops, and stakes lying around, one wouldn't have thought there had been a vampire skirmish only an hour before.

"Eric back?" Eva asked Felix, seeing as he had acknowledged her. He nodded towards the back corridor in his usual silent enigma way, and Eva presumed he meant his office. Which meant he'd discovered the state of it? Eva bit her lip to suppress another unexpected smile, and stepped over the wreckages to the back.

The room was as she'd left it, only the blood was drying in clumps, and the smell was more stagnant and prominent. She leaned against the doorframe, trying to refrain from messing her heels again (the only piece of her attire that she actually owned, she'd managed to scrub them reasonably clean).

"I hear this is your doing?" Eric commented in a noticeably bemused voice when he noticed her at the door. Despite being six foot five inches tall, Viking style menacing and baring inch-long fangs, his presence washed over Eva in a welcome wave of calm.

"I wouldn't say it was all my doing exactly…"

"Oh really? Well who should I be sending the bill for my new desk to?"

Eva laughed a light airy laugh that she had emitted when she had been human. Eric noted this silently. He had been stood behind the desk, examining the bullet hole with interest, but as Eva was laughing he noticed a glimmer on the floor. Stooping down he lifted his crown, and after checking it was intact, placed it back in the cabinet.

"You are a quick thinker," he added as an afterthought, while Eva was still beaming at him.

"I'm a vampire, quick thinking's part of the profile. I have to ask though, why a gun? What possible need or use do you have for a gun?"

"I acquired it for a human friend; I hadn't passed it on to her yet though. She seems to be always finding trouble and I decided to leave her another defence for the daytime. She reminds me sometimes of someone else." He explained.

"A human that was constantly in trouble? Gosh, I wonder who that could be."

"She's always a waitress," he added as if that were a large factor.

"Do you target working class vulnerable females?"

"It seems I subconsciously do."

Eva laughed again, and began stepping over corpse goo towards the desk. Eric was swivelling he chair around and looking at the small shards of wood jammed in the leather back with a raised eyebrow.

"I didn't quite hear the full story, how did you pull of this magnificent feat of self defence?"

Smiling, Eva relayed the whole story to him. If they were humans they'd be sat with a cup of tea, but they were not and had no need to sit or want for comfort food or drink. A bottle of true blood wouldn't have gone amiss, but vampires didn't seem to treat casual conversations with the same mannerisms humans do.

"You do amaze me," Eric said again, as she got to the end of her recollections. Eva winked and laughed, prising the bullet out the table absentmindedly with ease.

"Where did you run off to?" she asked out the blue.

"I was protecting some investments."

"Really? Tell me about your night, how did you manage to secure us all safe grounding in the new coming regime?"

"I did some bargaining, it seems a valuable asset to the vampire community." It was Eric's turn to wink.

Eva nodded slowly, realising she wouldn't get much detail out of her maker.

"Well, thank you," she sighed in closing, turning to walk back out.

"No, thank you."

"A warning was the least I could do after running away like a spoilt child," she shrugged.

"That's hardly how I'd describe you."

"How would you describe me then?"

"You are brave, and determined, and passionate."

"Silly and stubborn."

"Resourceful and ambitious… and loyal."

"You can hardly give me that last one…"

Eric stepped round the desk to tower over her, having to look almost directly downwards to make eye contact.

"You could have ridden in here like a smug traitor with the Nevada vampires. You could have pulled a hundred and one tricks to make me submit, you could have taken a lot from me. You could have joined the hierarchy of the new regime in your deviousness and been incredibly powerful for one so young. You even had the people at your disposal willing to stand by you. But you didn't. You came here to me, humble and sorry, giving me everything you had…for a second time."

Eva was momentarily lost for words, and directed her gaze down to his chest while she thought this over for a fraction of a second.

"I would never dream of doing anything so underhand. It's ungrateful, undignified, just outright horrible," she replied eventually.

"Loyal." Eric said it in finality, he'd closed the debate. He was almost smug at proving the compliment right.

"Besides, the people willing to stand by me you speak off – I suspect they were planning a double cross."

"If you're referring to the little Latino-looking vampire…"

"You do know his name…"

"He was supposed to coax you into going with him back to Felipe, who would trade you for my income."

Eva had known it had been a matter of time before she heard the details of her betrayal.

"How would that work?" she asked, trying to keep her voice steady and devoid of emotion.

"What? Well…you, my ward, wouldn't be slaughtered before my eyes, and Felipe would get all extra income from Fangtasia and my other investments. I would get a safe position within the new regime and our lives, I'd get living costs but the rest of my income and…other things, would go straight to Felipe and the Nevada authority."

"So seeing as he failed to grab me, and there was less leverage against you, what have you bargained?"

"We simply swear fealty to him as a king, I get to keep my income but will answer Felipe's summons if I was needed, as will you. In short, we'll be exactly the same but with a more tactful King rather than the dramatic queen we pledged allegiance to previously."

"So nothing's changed?"

"Nothing dramatic," Eric shrugged, then added, "Don't feel too horrified or betrayed, the boy didn't have much of a choice."

Eva raised a questioning eyebrow, she was beginning to slide into that only talking when necessary thing vampires acquired. She was also suspicious Eric wasn't telling her he whole story, but oh well. She knew she could never expect him to pour his heart out; penny for your thoughts was a phrase not worth bothering with.

"Felipe had his master…" Eric continued.

"Victor?"

"Yes, Felipe could slaughter Victor in an instant if he wished, seeing as Victor's stood by his side most of the time. Lucio's pretty much under his thumb – you should count yourself lucky he managed to sneak you out. Felipe's probably suspicious about that as it is."

Eva nodded for what felt like the umpteenth time that night.

"You think I shouldn't hold it against him…should forgive him?"

"I don't care too much, do whatever," he said casually in the classic Eric style.

"Thanks, you offer much moral guidance as my maker,"

"It's not my job to interfere with your love life; I'm not your Father…well…"

"You technically are…"

"Why don't you have a mop in hand? Have you seen the state of this place?"

Eva giggled, taking a casual step back and folding her hands behind her back.

"I'm serious…look at it…" he said before striding out in typical impressionable Eric-style