All Red

by xDreamlessx

Since the loss of her mate, Victoria has been single-mindedly focused on Bella. At first she only wanted to kill her, but in stalking her she also developed an intense attraction to her, and instead she finds herself abducting the young girl and maybe even keeping her. Bella/Victoria.

8. Chapter 8

AN: Hey, glad most of you liked the last chapter. Bit bummed out about a few reviews, though. A couple people who used to leave the longest reviews now said they may not be able to keep reading. It's sad when you disengage dedicated readers so suddenly like that. Shakes your confidence. :(

Still, considering the content of the story I suppose I should be happy so many other people seem to love it. But just so you guys know, this story isn't about anti-heroes or sympathetic villains or anything like that. Victoria isn't supposed to have any redeeming qualities. It's her evilness itself that's supposed to excite. I guess you'd have to be as twisted as me to enjoy it, lol. Anyway, Victoria isn't that bad. She's actually a very nice person—when she's not killing anyone, lol.

In any case, here's the next chapter. Hope you guys can bear with me. ;)

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Chapter 8:

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The apartment we found was a small townhouse on a street of small townhouses. It had looked quite charming in the images used in the advert on the internet and it looked even more charming as I pulled up on the opposite curb in the morning. The street went uphill and the neighbourhood was fairly classy. Fresh pavement, old brick buildings, nice green trees lining the sidewalks. The perfect place to settled down and keep a hostage.

The girl was sitting in the passenger seat and her leg was much better this morning. No pain at all. I turned off the car and pointed across the street at the house.

"That's it there," I said. "What do you think?"

She glanced out the window and didn't answer. I smiled and unbuckled my seatbelt.

"Wait here," I told her. "It's best if the landlord doesn't see you."

She didn't answer that either and I got out the car and swung closed the door.

From the trunk of the car I removed the gun from the dufflebag of cash and zipped it up and took it out of the trunk before going around the car and crossing the street. I took another look at the house as I shrugged on my long black coat and slung the dufflebag over my shoulder. It was tall and two stories, with a flat roof and a small set of steps to the front door. Even at a glance it looked perfect for our purposes. Not too large, not to small. Some flower bushes in front but no garden or yard of any kind. A nice cosy apartment for two.

Once I reached the other side of the street I trotted up the steps and knocked on the door. The landlord had said he'd meet me here to give me a tour and go over the paperwork but there was no answer. I knocked again and peered through one of the pebbled panes of glass in the door.

"Hey, sorry about that," said a voice from behind me. I turned. A young woman had emerged from the house next door, dark haired and dark skinned. She smiled at me as she shrugged on a black leather jacket. "Didn't see you there, I'm Leah. You're the one who called about the apartment?"

I raised my eyebrows, standing there on the steps. "Yes, although I'm pretty sure it wasn't you I spoke to."

She chuckled at that. "That was my dad," she said. "He couldn't make it, so I'm filling in. He's the owner, I'm the manager. Leah Clearwater, nice to meet you."

She offered a hand. I smiled and took it, shaking it just a tad suggestively. The girl was in her early twenties and her dark eyes had a wolfish slant to them.

"A pleasure," I said. "You live next door to the apartment?"

She nodded with a smile. "Yep."

I let my own smile tilt into a smirk and held her hand for just a moment too long. She was standing on the sidewalk and I was two steps above her, gazing down at her. Too bad she might be our new landlady. She would've made for a yummy snack sometime. She glanced down at our handclasp, her smile flickering, and I let go calmly.

She chuckled at the momentary awkwardness and then she sidled past me up the steps to unlock the door.

"Come on, I'll show you inside," she said.

She opened the door and went in and I followed after her.

The interior of the house was absolutely empty. The floors were polished boards and there was a staircase with wooden spindles in the main room. As the girl led me through the rooms she gave me something of a sales pitch, explaining various furniture possibilities and pointing out the various features. The house was marvellous and so was the sexy young landlady. Casual, confident, self-assured. She had an athletic young body that was wrapped up in skin-tight booty jeans and I smiled at her well-toned ass as she led me upstairs.

We peeked into the bedrooms and I nodded at the space. The floors and walls were completely bare but I could picture a bed, a closet, a dresser, maybe some chains hanging from the ceiling. Ms Swan and I could be quite at home here. Things were a little tense right now but we had at least two full weeks to do nothing but relax and rest together. By the time her leg was healed I'm sure her heart would be too.

The young landlady finished the tour by taking me back downstairs and showing me the kitchen. The appliances were all new and everything was clean and polished. Marble countertops, chrome stainless steel fridge, electric stove, dishwasher and oven. Vampires didn't have much use for the kitchen but I was sure Ms Swan would get some use out of it for the remainder of her humanity. The tour was pretty much finished by now and the young woman was getting the paperwork out of a small bag she was carrying.

"So what do you think?" she asked, sorting some papers on the kitchen counter.

I nodded and looked about one last time. The light in the kitchen window over the sink was bright white. The young woman smiled at how pleased I was and a held a pen over the contracts as if to tempt me. I returned her smile and took the pen.

"I think it's perfect," I said. "There's only one little problem."

"What's that?"

I gave a hesitant sigh, as if preparing to explain something difficult, and made my voice as tactful as possible. "The thing is, I'm between banks right now and it would be so much easier if we could work out some kind of cash arrangement."

She looked at me dryly for a minute then she shook her head and began shuffling together all the contracts.

"Sorry, can't do it," she said. "Need a valid bank account."

"Are you sure you can't make an exception?"

"Completely. My dad makes the rules, not me."

She stacked up the contracts and held out her hand for the pen. She seemed annoyed that I had wasted her whole morning but I wasn't done yet. I sighed again and looked around the apartment wistfully.

"That's a shame, because I really do like the place," I said. "I'd be prepared to pay well in advance, and, of course, I'd be more than happy to compensate you for the inconvenience."

The mention of compensation made her pause. She wasn't stupid, though. She could see very plainly that I was working my way up to a bribe and she thought about it for a minute before finally sighing and lowering her hand to the counter.

"What kind of compensation?" she asked warily.

I smiled, admiring her attitude. Just as self-confident and no-nonsense as the rest of her. "How about twenty percent extra?" I offered. "On top of the rent? For the entire year's lease?"

She carefully hid any expression but it was impossible not to notice the twinkle in her eye. Twenty percent of the total lease was a large chunk of cash that she would receive for essentially nothing. I'm sure a young woman like her could think of a million uses for that kind of extra money.

She looked at me for a minute and looked down at the contracts. Then she looked up again.

"Twenty percent?"

I nodded.

She sighed and thought about it a bit more. I could see hesitation creeping into her body language, the way she looked around awkwardly and shook her head. Finally she frowned and looked at me again.

"How come you don't have a bank account?" she asked. "You're not a drug dealer, are you?"

I giggled charmingly, as if amused by the mere suggestion. Me, a drug dealer? No, no, certainly not. Just a rapist, murderer, kidnapper, and general psychopath. But it wouldn't do to mention that, so I simply smiled and shook my head.

"Not at all, I'm simply new in town," I said.

"They don't have banks where you're from?"

"I emptied my accounts before leaving. I just need some time to get my affairs in order, that's all. In the meantime, I was hoping to find a place to settle down. I'm so sick of motels."

I heaved a long suffering sigh. That last part was true. It had been such a long time since I had actually lived somewhere. James and I had been going through a nomad phase before he was killed, and then I was living in the shadows while stalking Bella, and most recently we were cooped up in that motel which while nice was still only temporary. I wanted a house or an apartment and I did really like this one.

The young woman looked at me for a bit more, her eyes dark and slanted and completely steady. I liked her. She would be a terrific neighbour and perhaps a feisty victim one day if I could do it without drawing attention. Finally she sighed and spread the contracts again on the countertop, as if to look them over one more time. Her eyes passed over them, reviewing all those paragraphs and clauses, and then she looked up at me again.

"Twenty percent?" she repeated. "In advance?"

I set down the dufflebag on the kitchen counter and unzipped it. She looked inside and carefully concealed any reaction to the pile of cash inside. I smiled and started counting out hundred dollar bills onto the counter top until I had rent for a whole year plus twenty percent laid out in front of her.

"Twelve months in advance," I said. "What do you say?"

She hesitated one final time, looking at the cash. Thousands of dollars just lying there, twenty percent of it hers. She knew it was a mistake but after a while she just sighed and began scooping up all the money into a pile.

"Fine," she said. "But if I find out there's anything illegal going on here, I'll kick you right out on your ass. You understand?"

"Perfectly," I said with a smile.

She sorted one of the contracts and even threw me a little smirk at the end there. I think she admired my attitude as much as I admired hers, although she seemed more reluctant to admit it. She pointed at a dotted line at the bottom of the contract.

"Just sign here at the bottom and I'll fill everything else out," she said. "No smoking, no pets, no loud parties. Got it?"

I used the pen to sign a name at the bottom of the contract.

Victoria Swan

I wrote in a nice flowing script and then I smiled at it. It had a nice ring to it, although I'm not sure if Ms Swan herself would agree. I looked up at my new landlady as she stacked all the papers together again and took back the pen.

"No pets?" I asked her.

"No."

"Shame," I said. "How about a houseguest?"

She slipped the papers away and buckled the bag and then gave me a shrug and a sweeping gesture of her arm at the empty interior of the house.

"It's your place, do whatever you want," she said.

I nodded and smiled at the possibilities.

After we were done with our business arrangement we went out onto the sidewalk and she handed me a key and told me to call her if there were any problems. I thanked her for everything and mentioned that I hoped we could be good friends. She replied to that very non-committally and she did glance at me strangely a time or two as she went back into her own house, as if finally realizing that maybe I was attracted to her.

Bella was still waiting in the car. She had been watching me from across the street as I spoke to that other girl and the look she gave me as I climbed in behind the wheel was dark and jealous beyond anything she would ever admit. I showed her the key and said the place was ours. She didn't respond to that and I told her to try and cheer up. This was a new beginning in our lives and everything was going to be marvellous. All she had to do was relax and let herself have fun.

It was almost noon when I drove her to a nearby mall and pulled up in the parking lot. It was a weekend and the parking lot was very busy with cars coming and going and women with children and shopping carts. She had still barely spoken all morning other than mentioning when she had to use the bathroom and I thought maybe she could use some time alone. I opened up the dufflebag and sorted out a few hundred dollars for her.

"Here," I said, handing her the money. "Go and have some fun and get something to eat while I fix up the apartment."

Her brow puckered. "By myself?"

I smiled and gave her a kiss onto those soft warm lips of hers. She was wearing the black hoody I had bought for her yesterday and after disengaging the kiss I giggled and flipped up the hood for her.

"Just make sure you keep your hood up," I said. "And avoid attracting any attention."

She looked at the money in her hand and then looked at me from under the hood. "How do you know I'll still be here when you get back?"

"Where else would you go?"

She didn't answer that but she seemed to think about it. She did have a mother out there somewhere but the real question was there anywhere in the world she could go that I would not find her? And even more than that: did she really want to go?

I smiled and gave her good leg a pat.

"Buy a new outfit," I told her. "Or something that'll keep you entertained for a while. Music, a laptop, a phone. Anything you want. I'll come pick you up at sunset."

She sighed and looked at me. "Where do I meet you?"

"Don't worry, your scent will lead me right to you."

"Whatever," she said sullenly.

I smiled at her with a hint of sadness. She seemed to have really crashed down this morning. Perhaps that escapade at the animal clinic had been a little too much for her.

"Bella," I said.

She looked at me, a little spark of anger at how I used her name. I smiled and reached into her hood to cup her face.

"If I didn't believe you were capable of loving me, I wouldn't be doing this to you," I said softly. "I told you from the beginning. We could have such a wonderful time together if only you could adjust your attitude a little. But you have to try. Please do, okay?"

She looked at me without replying, gazing into the red and passionate orbs of my eyes. Something in her face softened and after a moment she gave me just the tiniest nod. That nod set my heart ablaze and I smiled at her and leaned to give her one last loving kiss before we parted for the afternoon.

Then I leaned back and smiled at her.

"Have something to eat as well," I said. "I'll see you soon."

She nodded again and then she got out of the car, carefully on her broken leg. I handed her the crutches through the open door and she muttered a thank you and closed the door and began hobbling through the parking lot toward the department store in the gray sunlight.

I watched her through the window, a hooded figure limping through the gloom, and then I turned the car on and pulled out.

I spent the rest of the morning and the first part of the afternoon furniture shopping and had it all delivered that same day. By sunset I was back at our new home, overseeing the moving men as they lugged a dresser, a sideboard, a couch, all of it up the short flight of steps and into the house. After they were gone I assembled the bed in one of the upstairs bedrooms and hefted the mattress on top and spread a floral bedspread I had bought over the mattress. The couch was in the living room and I had bought a nice flat screen TV as well. The TV was supposed to be mounted into the wall but for now it was sitting on the floor.

There was a small walk-in closet in the bedroom and I hung all our clothes in there and reminded myself to take the girl shopping as soon as her leg was healed. Particularly lingerie shopping. The thought of the girl's pale body clad in small skimpy scraps of black lace bought a smile to my face and I'm sure she would love me wearing the same in red. I was still very excited about our new living arrangement. A whole new life. For both of us. I only wished there was some way to accelerate the girl's feelings for me but for now I suppose I would have to simply take it one day at a time. In fact, the more I thought about it, the more I realized that I really ought to be more gentle with her. Last night had been a mistake, forcing her to have sex with me on a broken leg, murdering that veterinarian and that poor cat. Totally unnecessary, especially the cat. I had always been opposed to animal cruelty, even in movies or books. What the girl needed now was comfort and tenderness. I needed to show her how much I care about her and value her. There'll be plenty of time to abuse her after I earn her love.

By then it was getting late and it was almost dark by the time I went to pick up Ms Swan from the mall. I pulled up in the parking lot and got out and took deep breath with my eyes, detecting faint traces of her scent. I started walking before I even opened my eyes and I found her sitting at a bus stop outside the department store. I had gone directly to her but it wasn't just her scent. It was some psychic instinct too, some thread of fate that tied us together and allowed me to follow the strand directly to her. The call of a mate. She had her hood over her head and she looked up when she saw me. I smiled at her from a distance in the darkening dusk with cars going by between us and she rose on her crutches. There was a collection of shopping bags on the sidewalk beside her and I hurried over to help her with them.

It was full dark by the time we got home. Upon questioning I learnt that Ms Swan hadn't bothered to eat lunch so I ordered her some chinese takeout. In all honesty, I was getting worried about her. Could she at last be traumatized? I wouldn't have thought so. She seemed too strong for that and frankly she just didn't have a whole lot of empathy for the pain of strangers. Instead there just seemed to be something on her mind. Something weighing on her. I wanted to ask what it was but maybe she would reveal it to me herself if I was nice enough.

After hanging up the phone I set it down on the kitchen counter. The girl pushed back her hood for the first time since entering the apartment and she was looking around the polished wooden emptiness with an equally empty look in her eye. I attempted a cheerful smile.

"It's not much so far, but it'll be a home soon enough," I said. "Do you like it?"

The question seemed to annoy her. "You need to stop asking me things like that."

"Whatever for?"

Her dark eyes hardened into a glare. "I'm not your girlfriend," she said. "I'm your hostage. So stop expecting me to like any of this. It's ridiculous."

My smile dimmed at that but I gave a small nod. She was going to take more work than I would've thought but something warned me that I ought to respect her feelings here.

"As you wish," I said softly.

The softness of my voice caused her to soften a little too and she looked away as if maybe she regreted saying that but couldn't really back out. Instead she just shook her head and started shrugging off her hoody.

"How long am I gonna have to sneak around?" she asked.

I sighed and tried to be cheerful again. "At least until that leg heals up. By then the police investigation ought to have died down."

She nodded at that. I looked at her for a minute, at the slope of her shoulders and the sadness in her face, and then I went around the counter and sidled up behind her and put my arms around her middle.

"I know you're confused right now, but you won't be for much longer," I whispered to her. "Everything's going to be great. You'll see."

"I thought I told you to stop that shit?" she said coldly.

I sighed into her hair. Then I released her.

"Take a look around the house if you want," I told her. "I'll go put away these clothes you bought."

She didn't answer and I fetched up the shopping bags from the floor and took them upstairs.

Most of her purchases were rather drab and I wasn't impressed as I hung the sweaters in the closet or folded the plain underwear away in the dresser. The girl honestly had no sense of adventure at all. Not when it came to fashion. Sex, on the other hand, well. She enjoyed quite a bit of adventure there. Bondage, rape. Her tastes were almost as dark as my own. In time perhaps they would be exactly the same. Last night she had watched me ruthlessly rape another woman for no reason at all and she had hardly even raised her voice in the woman's defence. No, she wasn't as honorable and upstanding as she thought she was.

The chinese food arrived shortly after but she didn't eat right away. Instead she wanted to go for a shower. It was probably a good idea, since she hadn't showered in about two days by now, but with her cast it was something of a difficulty. We had no plastic bags to cover it and in the end she had to settle for a sponge bath. I didn't mind personally. I enjoyed stripping her to her bare skin and sponging her down gently. She sat on the edge of the bathtub and I was kneeling on the tiles at her feet. Smiling up at her as I stroked the cloth across the entire length of her leg before leaning to kiss her kneecap. She returned my gaze and there was no smile on her face. It was difficult to even read at all. It seemed like a look of cold determination but determination to do what? Resist me? I wasn't sure but at least she responded to my commands of lifting her arms and rising to her feet. I washed her pussy as well and kissed it in silence to see if my lips would turn her on. She didn't move and didn't react and only stared at the wall. I pouted to myself and decided now wasn't the time.

After she was all wiped down she waited for me to shower as well and I was heartened slightly by how her eyes roamed my body as I dried myself. Although the look on her face was rather puzzling. It was attraction but there was something else in it as well. As if this might be the last time she ever saw me. As if she was worried about something. I didn't understand it but I smiled at her and allowed her to regard my breasts as I tousled my hair with the towel.

The food was cold when we came back into the kitchen. She didn't mind. We had no silverware but she was quite clever with the chopsticks. She was wearing nothing but a towel wrapped around her body and I'm afraid I had insisted on that. I wanted to seduce her eventually and clothes would only get in the way of that. I was wearing a towel too and together we relaxed on the brand new sofa while the TV auto-tuned.

It took a long time. The screen was bright blue and nothing was on it aside from the tuning bar that endlessly searched for a signal. The girl had a box of fried rice in her lap and she still hadn't spoken. The silence without the TV working was beginning to feel awkward. I kept glancing at her and admiring her damp hair and sullen face as she plucked at the rice with the chopsticks. She had been rather cold to me all day and I wanted to do something to warm her up and the only thing I could think of was to shuffle closer to her and wrap my arm around her bare and soft shoulders.

She stiffened a little and glanced at me and went on eating. I cuddled her and tried to be affectionate.

"Do you think you'll be in the mood to sleep together tonight?" I asked her playfully.

She didn't look at me and spoke in a mutter. "I thought vampires don't sleep."

"That's not what I meant," I whispered into her ear and went to kiss it.

But she made a sound of disgust and shrugged out from under my arm.

"I thought I told you to cut that shit out?"

I sighed patiently. The girl was going to drive me to rape her if she didn't thaw out. But I managed to restrain myself and give her space for the moment.

She was done eating and now she stabbed her chopsticks into the remainder of the rice and took the laptop from the coffeetable. She had bought it that afternoon with the money I gave her. She flipped it open and booted it up and I shuffled a little closer to watch since the TV was still tuning. She glanced at me but I smiled and kept my hands to myself.

She turned slightly to hide the screen. I sighed and sat back.

"Just be careful not to access any of your old accounts," I told her. "Especially email. As far as the world is concerned, you're basically dead. Understand?"

"I wish I was dead," she mumbled.

Finally a frown grew on my face. "You're being very unpleasant tonight."

"Whatever," she said, and then she made a frustrated gesture at the computer screen. "This is bullshit. How am I supposed to download music without a creditcard?"

"Can't you use Youtube?"

"What about TV shows? What about if I just want to buy something?"

She was getting upset—or searching for things to be upset about—so I quickly defused the situation in a calm voice. "I'll organize a creditcard for you tomorrow just as soon as the banks open," I said, and then smiled. "Okay?"

She shook her head and went back to the computer.

"Whatever," she said again.

I heaved a long and deep sigh. Then I shuffled closer and put my arm around her naked shoulders once more, not caring if she didn't want it. She was being childish and it was time to be a little assertive with her. She glanced at me angrily and I gave her my most soothing smile.

"Why so moody, my dearest?" I asked her gently. "Why can't you be happy?"

She frowned at me. "How could you possibly expect me to be happy about any of this?"

"Because I can tell you want to be," I said, slipping my hand into her lap and sliding it to the hem of the towel she was wearing. She darkened even further but I smiled and began caressing the inside of her thigh as I spoke to her in a seductive voice. "All you have to do is relax and let it happen. Like an orgasm. You know how to do that, don't you? Here. Let me show you…"

I leaned and kissed her neck. She craned her face upwards and at first I thought she was allowing more access to her neck.

But then she turned away and stood up, almost staggering on the cast, and left the laptop on the couch. I looked at her questioningly and she frowned as she adjusted a crutch under her arm.

"I'm going to the bathroom," she said.

Then she turned and hobbled away.

I watched her go and sighed and turned back to the television. The screen was still a completely blank blue. I was beginning to think there was something wrong with the connection. I wondered if I should give that young landlady a call but I couldn't with Ms Swan in the house. Best not to let on that I had a houseguest. She would have to be a secret for quite a while. In any case, the lease said no pets, and they seemed to be very serious about that.

I sighed again and wondered what I was doing wrong with Ms Swan. For some reason I just couldn't reach her. I had fed her, bathed her, cared for her. She really was like a pet. Only this pet refused to wag her tail and lick my face no matter how well I treated her. Not unless I threatened her, of course. It was perplexing but at the same time maybe I was just being silly. After all, it had only been two days since she had found out I killed her father. Murdering a girl's family is rarely the best way to endear oneself to her. Naturally her feelings for me had cooled off somewhat.

But still, this was more than somewhat. All today she had been unseasonably chilly toward me. It was enough to make me anxious and wonder if it was even possible to make her warm up. But maybe I was just being silly again. Of course it was possible. The attraction between us had already proven itself to be unnaturally strong. Before she had fled back home, she had been all but mine. Her lust for me have overcome being, kidnapped, raped, tortured. Now the only thing left to overcome was—

Creak.

The sound of a floorboard behind me. I turned and looked over the backrest of the sofa and I was surprised to see Ms Swan there, frozen in place as if she had been caught doing something very wrong. She had one crutch under an arm and the other hand was behind her back. As if she was hiding something.

My eyebrows drew together in a puzzled frown.

"What are you sneaking around for?" I asked her.

Her fear hardened into defiance. "I'm not."

I looked at her over the backrest of the sofa. She was wearing nothing but that towel, her legs long and white, and she still had her hand behind her back. The room was filled with a tense silence and after a moment I nodded at what she was hiding.

"What's in your hand?"

She didn't answer. She just stood there.

I rose from the sofa and came around it with an expression of displeasure. Whatever she was hiding was obviously something I would disapprove of. I couldn't imagine what it could be but—

Suddenly she drew her hand from behind her back and for a brief instant I saw exactly what it was.

A small blowtorch used for welding.

She fired it directly at my face but I wasn't cocky or caught off guard this time. A whiff of heat washed over my cheek as the fire spat for a second but it was only heat. I sidestepped and swatted at her hand. The torch went out and hit the ground and clattered across the floorboards till it rolled up against the wall.

The girl staggered and steadied herself on her crutch. I glared at her with eyes that burned redder than the torch had and seized her wrist.

"You little bitch," I hissed. "Where did you get that?"

She winced at the pain in her wrist. I was grasping it so hard it might break.

"I bought it at a hardware store," she admitted.

"It wasn't in any of the bags."

"I had it in the hoody. The hoody was in the bathroom."

She snatched her wrist back and rubbed it with her other hand, glancing at me woundedly. I shook my head looking at her in hurt, anger, disgust. If I could cry, I might've.

"What were you going to do with it?" I demanded.

"What do you think?"

"You were going to kill me, weren't you?"

She didn't answer. She glared at me from under her eyelashes and I snorted and shook my head again and said:

"How could you?"

"Is that a serious question?" she retorted as if I was stupid.

My patience snapped and I grabbed the crutch from under her arm and hit her over the head with it.

The aluminium shaft cracked off her skull in a flutter of dark hair and she hit the ground in silence aside from the thud. Her broken leg was straightened out to accommodate the cast and she looked up furiously with a hand in her hair and began to shuffle backward away from me. The towel came loose and dragged away from her body, revealing her breasts, her belly, her slithering leg as she crawled backwards.

I dropped the crutch and advanced toward her, glaring at her naked and breakable form. I had never been hurt like this in all my life. All today I had been trying to treat her so well and the whole time she had been plotting this. Earlier this morning in the parking lot of the mall she had agreed to try and let herself enjoy being with me. And then she went and bought a blowtorch to kill me with. What a cold hearted little cunt. How could she do this to me? How could she be so deceitful?

"You stubborn little bitch," I said to her, my eyes distraught with tears I would never be able to shed. "Do you have any idea how much fire hurts? Do you have any idea how much betrayal hurts?"

She covered her breasts with one arm and stopped at the foot of the stairs with nowhere left to go and glared up at me from the floor.

"I know exactly what betrayal feels like," she hissed. "Probably the same way it felt when I found out you murdered my father."

My eyes hardened and smouldered into a red glare and I said:

"Then maybe it's time for you to find out what fire feels like too, hm?"

Part of her defiance wavered at that but I didn't give her time to think about it.

I went over to the kitchen counter where the dufflebag was and got the handcuffs.

"What are you doing?" came her frightened voice.

I tore off my own towel to get rid of it and went toward her naked. She shrank back against the stairs but I grabbed one of her wrists roughly and snapped the bracelet of the handcuffs over it and then I threaded the chain around the newelpost and cuffed the other wrist as well.

She didn't speak, she just tugged at the cuffs. She was naked and on her knees on the floor and she was chained to that pole of wood like a troublesome mare to a hitching post. Her breasts wobbled as she jerked at the chain and she threw a wild look over her shoulder to see what I was doing.

I was crossing the room to fetch the blowtorch.

"Oh god," she said.

I smiled and came back to her with the blowtorch. She could see very clearly in my eyes what I intended to do with it. She stopped tugging at the chain and began breathing deeply in terror.

"Wait," she said. "What are you doing? Stop. You can't."

I turned on the blowtorch and knelt down behind her. She tugged at the cuffs again and gave a strained whimper. She couldn't see what I was going to do but she could hear the hiss of the gas flame behind her. I lowered the flame toward her back and let her feel the heat of it. She whimpered again and tried to strain to see over her shoulder.

"Victoria, please," she said. "This isn't fair."

I snorted and teased her with the warmth of the flame, letting it hover at just a safe distance from her skin. "So you're allow to hurt me, but I'm not allowed to hurt you, is that it?"

"You killed my father," she sobbed.

I shook my head at that, lowering the pale orange flame dangerously close to her skin. "I thought I could win you over with gentleness but all you do is continue to take advantage of me. Well, that stops now. You want me to stop pretending you're my girlfriend? Fine. But you're not going to like what you really are to me."

She sobbed again but her voice came out rough with rage.

"Fuck you," she said. "You fucking psycho. Do whatever you want, I'm never going to—!"

I touched the fire to her back.

She inhaled sharply as the heat bit her skin but I lifted it quickly before it could burn or before she could scream. I smiled and watched that place on her pale back turn red. I chuckled and spoke to her teasingly.

"What do you think, hm? Does fire hurt humans as much as vampires?"

She didn't answer and she didn't look back. She was handcuffed to the stairpost on her knees and all she did was quiver in fear and keep her head bowed.

I smiled at her attitude and reached to stroke her hair over her shoulder and make sure it wouldn't get burned.

"You don't think I'll do it, do you? But I will. I'd hate to damage your pretty skin, of course, but it's going to be weeks before we can have sex properly anyway. No harm adding a few burns. Don't worry, there won't be any scars."

I lowered the flame near her skin and watched her back ripple in fear. I thought she might finally speak or beg but she didn't.

"Warm, isn't it Ms Swan? Tell me when it hurts."

I lowered the flame further. And further. Finally it touched her skin and a scream began to build in her throat and—

I pulled the flame away.

She gasped out the breath she was holding and whimpered from the pain. I smiled and used my free hand to stroke her side as I leaned over her and rubbed my breasts into her back and my hips into her naked buttocks needingly. I was getting very turned on.

"Does it hurt, Ms Swan?" I whispered into her ear. "Are you just as vulnerable to fire as I am?"

She finally spoke and said in a quavery voice: "Go to hell."

I snorted and shoved at her butt with my hips. The thrust carried her head into the stairpost and her skull bounced off. I chuckled at that and waved the torch over her back, brushing the flame against her skin in little licks of fire.

"Do you know what I'm going to do?" I asked her idly. "I'm going to brand you. Do you know what letter I'm going to brand you with? See if you can guess."

I moved the torch to her left shoulderblade and lowered it to the skin. She grimaced in pain right away and I left the flame there long enough to burn before moving it slowly down her back in a diagonal line toward the base of her spine.

She choked back a scream and hugged the stairpost with her head bent, whimpering as the smell of her seared flesh filled the room. I lifted the torch and gave her a moment to compose herself. Her entire body had broken out in a sheen of sweat and she began heaving as soon as the fire was lifted from her body. She might've thought I was done but I was only halfway. I lowered the torch again to where I left off and now I dragged the flame slowly upward in a line toward her other shoulderblade, the right one. She whimpered and cried out and choked on a few screams and when I lifted the torch her back was branded with a large red letter.

The letter V.

I smiled at my handiwork like a graffiti artist. Her whole body was shuddering from the pain and wet with sweat and I gave her naked butt a pat, as if to calm her down or congratulate her on being a brave girl. The burns wouldn't scar but they left a very red and very painful sear across the milky whiteness of her back.

I turned off the blowtorch and smiled.

"There," I said. "It's a V for Victoria, if you hadn't guessed. Let the pain be a reminder of who you belong to."

I then rose to my feet and dropped the blowtorch on the floor beside her.

She looked up, heaving, wheezing, chained there on her knees with her hair wet and her body naked and burnt. I smiled and nodded at the blowtorch on the floor.

"Keep that," I said. "Although be warned: next time the punishment will be worse."

She said nothing and I moved past her naked and pitiful form and went up the stairs with a swing in my hips.

The feeling of dominance didn't last long, however, and within moments I was hurt and upset again. I opened the closet to find a dress to wear, something red, and I slipped it on without any underwear before going into the bathroom. An odd regret washed over me as I brushed my hair but it was a false regret that did nothing but cause me to be rough with my hair. The worst thing was that the girl was right. It was unfair on her. She was perfectly justified in trying to kill me, same as the first time she tried, but for some reason it hurt me so much that she simply would not submit. Why? Why wouldn't she just give up and be mine?

I snorted to myself and began applying some makeup. I was like an insecure young girl, wondering why her crush didn't like her back. Although in my case the answer was clear. Ms Swan didn't like me because I had raped her, kidnapped her, killed her father, and regularly abused her. But still. I thought we had something special? Didn't we? I snorted again and capped the lipstick. Fine then. If she didn't want me, I would find someone else. For tonight at least. Someone who did like me. And then maybe I would kill them in a way I could never kill Ms Swan. That stupid girl had no idea how lucky she really was.

By the time I came back downstairs, in high heels with my chin up, she was still chained there at the base of the stairs. She looked up beatenly but still with a smoulder of defiance in her eyes. She was sitting there with her broken leg straightened out on the floor and I had to step over the cast. I smiled at her and at the large red V burnt into her back like a brand. She really did belong to me, whether she wanted to or not. She didn't speak, she only glared at my outfit, and I didn't speak either as I fetched up one of the towels from the floor. I bit into it and ripped off two long strips with my teeth and then I knelt down at Ms Swan's side.

She looked at me and as she did I stuffed one of the strips of cloth into her mouth.

"I'm going out," I said. "I had hoped the two of us could spend a nice romantic evening together but I can see I'll have to seek company elsewhere."

I used the other strip to wrap around her mouth and tie behind her head. She made a few muffled grunts of protest into the gag and glared at me murderously with those sexy dark eyes. The look in them turned me on and made me even more eager to go out and find someone else. It wouldn't quite be cheating but it would be close enough.

I patted her head with a smirk and then I rose and left her there, naked, chained, and gagged like a slavegirl.

The night was cold but not as cold as the feeling in my chest. I really oughtn't be so hurt like this but I wasn't all that interested in being reasonable right now. I began walking, no destination in mind. Through this neighbourhood of townhouses we'd moved into, the old brick buildings clustered side by side, ivy on the walls, flower bushes brooding in the darkness in little fenced off enclosures. Down a hill and across the road. Past a used bookstore where my reflection washed up in the plateglass window and passed on. My high heels clicking on the sidewalk. The sky above was pitch black and not a single star to be seen.

I sighed and went on. I had intended to go to a bar or a club and find someone who at least wanted to be with me but the further I went from Ms Swan the more I wanted to simply go back. Because I didn't want anyone else. I wanted her. Bella. I had never been the monogamous type but I had never experienced feelings like these either. In the space of a week that stupid girl had literally become everything to me. She was all I ever wanted. Not some stranger in a bar. Just her. Her warmth and softness. Her scent. Everything about her simply sang to me. It was the most absolute seduction anyone had ever imposed on me and she didn't even like me. She hated me. Twice now she had tried to kill me.

By now I had basically abandoned the idea of going somewhere to meet someone. I wasn't in the mood anymore. I suppose all I had needed was a stroll and some time to cool down. Maybe I should just find a pharmacy to pick up some burn ointment and go back. The poor thing was probably in quite a bit of pain. I snorted to myself and shook my head. I had killed her father, broke her leg, branded the first letter of my name into her skin with a blowtorch, raped her, abducted her. And then I wondered why she didn't like me. Perhaps my ego was getting out of hand but in fairness she did seem to enjoy much of the abuse I inflicted on her. The dead dad and the broken leg not so much but everything seemed else to excite her. I'm sure even tying her up and burning her with the blowtorch was quite a delight deep in the darkness of her heart.

I sighed and continued on, entering a nearby park. I hadn't even been gone an hour and I didn't want to appear weak by going back so soon. The park was large and there was a lane beneath the overhanging boughs of trees that led up a small hill and across a bridge over a pond. There were black iron benches on either side of the bridge and on one of the benches there was a figure seated with her legs crossed. She was wearing an expensive dress of rich red velvet with a split up the side that revealed the perfect whiteness of her legs. The luster of them was the first thing I noticed about her and I knew at once she was not human. I looked up at her face and froze in the middle of the bridge.

It was Heidi.

An old coven mate of mine.

The surprise of seeing her here of all places, sitting on this bench as if she had been waiting for me the whole time, caused the most peculiar flutter of feelings inside me. She smiled at me with those lips I remembered so well, so full and sensual and coated in thick red lipstick. Her hair was a luxuriant parade of mahogany locks that cascaded over her shapely shoulders and framed a face that was loveliness itself. Perfect in every detail from the height of her cheek bones to the shape of her deep red eyes. A smile of my own moved my mouth and I stared at her in open amazement.

"Heidi," I said.

My voice came out high and breathless and it made her smile brighten as she rose from the bench in a graceful motion and took two steps toward me in that gorgeous red dress.

"Victoria," she said.

Her voice triggered a chuckle from deep inside me and I moved forward to hug her at the same time as she did. Our arms went around each other and for a moment we just held each other on that bridge under the lampposts, enjoying the familiarity and feeling the gap of several decades close between our arms.

Another chuckle of surprise came out of me as I released her to gaze again into her face.

"I can't believe I'm seeing you again," I said. "It's been so long."

She smiled at me. "Indeed it has. Too long."

I shook my head in amazement at how beautiful she was, more beautiful than I even remembered. I cupped her face and felt the familiar shape of her slender jawline in my palm, gazing into her eyes.

"Heidi," I said in hardly a whisper. "You look as lovely as ever. No, lovelier."

Then I leaned and placed my lips on hers.

The kiss was euphoric. It had been so long since I had felt the touch of her lips and perhaps now in this moment I needed them more than ever. Heidi. My oldest friend. Her arms came to my waist and the touch of them through the thin fabric of my dress send shivers of lust through my body. I moaned into the kiss and let my arms wrap around her neck and deepened the kiss with my tongue.

It was like no years had passed between us at all. We had always been the most intimate of friends but it surprised me how hard my heart ached for her so suddenly. It could be that I was vulnerable after the death of James and the continued rejection of Ms Swan but I wasn't inclined to question it. Her kiss had come for me exactly when I needed it and I was more than willing to surrender to it.

After a while she smiled and disconnected our lips and gazed at me and kissed them again, once, twice, before smiling at me brightly.

"As do you," she said.

I chuckled again from the compliment, feeling a flush of girlishness. Heidi was quite a bit older than me and she had been the first person who had ever triggered orgasms inside me. Before her gentle seduction of me all I had ever known was rape and brutishness. Her mastery over my body back then left an impression that lasted all these centuries later.

She smiled and lowered her hands to clasp mine.

"Come, sit down," she said, urging me toward the park bench. "Let's catch up."

But I pulled my hands away and replaced my arms around her neck in order to gaze into her eyes. "Oh, I don't want to catch up," I said. "Not verbally, at least. Seeing you again like this has reignited me. You simply must make love to me this instant."

She gave a chuckle and cupped my face. "I see you haven't changed, Victoria."

"Never," I said, and then I placed my lips on hers once again.

She moaned sultrily and wrapped her arms around my back to hold me tighter.

The park was completely empty but it wouldn't have mattered. The passion that sprung up inside me couldn't be contained. I lifted my dress and pulled it off over my head, the kiss breaking for only a moment before the dress was gone and our lips were reconnected. I had no underwear on at all underneath and the only thing I was wearing was high heels. Her hands were stroking the skin of my back as her tongue entered my mouth and my vagina was already in a rage of lust. I mashed my nakedness into her dress, rubbing against the rough red velvet of it, and then I found the zip and unzipped it.

It was a full length evening gown and it required us to break the kiss as I stripped it off her, pulling it down to her ankles for her to step out of the pooled cloth, likewise utterly naked underneath and clad in nothing but high heels. I was squatted down at her feet and now I knelt onto the dress and put my hands on her wide, broad, womanly hips and shoved my mouth onto her entrance. She gave a loud and lusty moan up into the night sky as I began devouring her right there on that bridge over the pond in this public park. Her hands were in my hair, massaging my scalp, and it didn't take long before they scrunched into fists and she climaxed with a cry.

Neither of us had spoken since taking our clothes off and now I just knelt there and looked up at her. Her face was flushed and satisfied from the orgasm and I leaned again to lick a little more at her delicious wetness. She smiled down at me and eventually she took one of my hands from her hips and lifted me to my feet before guiding me to the bench. She spread my dress onto the iron seat and sat me down on it before sinking to her knees before me.

My legs were wide open and my vagina was desperate with wetness. She leaned and licked it, smiling, and licked it again. I moaned and shivered and touched her head, weaving my fingers into her thick rich hair. I didn't tell her to hurry but she knew me and knew my body and there was no one who could make me climax higher.

Aside from Ms Swan.

The thought jarred me slightly but I pushed it away. It was true that Ms Swan had done amazing things to my body, particularly when I allowed her to rape me with that strapon, but that was mostly just luck and chemistry. With Heidi it was technique and intimacy and sheer wantonness. Few women in the world shared my voracious appetite for the flesh the way Heidi did.

Aside from Ms Swan.

Again I pushed the thought away and this time I focused purely on the tongue that was lapping at my entrance. I watched her, already breathing deeply, and allowed my feelings to flare and fluctuate. I had never realized how much I missed her until now. She hooked one of my legs around her arm and pushed her tongue into the hole of my vagina. I moaned and fondled my breasts and looked up at the sky. Perfectly black. Beautiful.

A gasp came from the other side of the bridge and I looked and saw a young couple there, a man and a woman, perhaps enjoying a stroll in the park after a date. The woman had covered her mouth in shock and the man was staring with his mouth open. Heidi either hadn't heard them or didn't care because she did nothing but continue her amorous attentions to my vagina. I didn't care either. I smiled at the interlopers, naked on the bench with my legs open and a beautiful brunette between them, and I even offered them a wink as I continued to fondle my breasts. The woman snapped out of her trance first and jerked at her date's arm and pulled him away. They hurried back the way they came and I turned back to Heidi.

She smiled up at me with her eyes, the lower part of her face concealed as she continued to tongue me, and I smiled back and stroked her hair and allowed the orgasm to build. It came to me in a sweet stab of ecstasy that that staked directly into my chest and I moaned and smiled and tossed my head as it rippled all through me.

After that we still didn't speak. She continued licking a little more and then she rose and straddled my lap on the bench. That couple who stumbled upon us might've called the police but neither of us cared at the moment. For a fugitive like me it was a dangerous lapse in judgement but I was too absorbed in this chance meeting with such a precious friend to worry about it. She was straddling my lap and she smiled and kissed me and rubbed her breasts into mine while I stroked her back and cupped her buttocks and ran my hand along her thigh. The night had no sound at all but the sound of our satisfied moans. The kiss was calm and the caresses gentle until finally we came apart and gazed at each other and kissed again one last time before she dismounted off my lap.

Her dress was on the floor and I watched her bend to pick up. Her legs were as long as ever and even longer in high heels and her posterior was just as perfect as I remembered it. It made me smile that she had been waiting here with no panties on under such a beautiful gown and I realized that she must've known I was in town and had been waiting for me. I rose as well and took my dress from where it had been spread on the bench and slipped it over my head. She already had her own dress on and she brushed a hand at a bit of dirt that clung to the red velvet before fluffing out her hair and heaving a satisfied sigh.

"Well," she said. "That was a particularly warm greeting."

I smiled and adjusted the neckline of my dress so that my breasts fit in it properly. "Forgive me," I said. "I got carried away. How did you know I was in town?"

Her smile dampened sympathetically at that as if she had some unfortunate news for me. "I heard what happened to James," she admitted. "One of the covens in the area is familiar with the coven who killed him. They mentioned it to me and I had to come see if it was true."

I smiled at her concern. The mention of James was oddly unmoving. By now it seemed I had completely moved on.

With Ms Swan.

But I shook that thought away and smiled again at my old friend.

"It's true," I said. "And thank you for your condolences. But I do hope that once you learnt of my proximity you would've come to see me regardless of the death of my mate."

She smiled as well. "Of course. I've been eager to renew our relationship for quite some time. Actually, it was James who kept me away. I think he was always just a little jealous of us."

She gave me a knowing wink and I tried not to smile. I didn't want to disrespect James's memory but it was true. Heidi had always had a special place in my heart. Not only as a friend but as a woman as well. My orientation might've taken five hundred years to properly align but I always did prefer the fairer sex.

Heidi sighed and looked around at the darkened parkland around us and gave me another smile.

"And now here we are," she said. "Fate has favoured us with this meeting and we'll be sure not to squander it. With no mates between us I'm sure our intimacy will renew even stronger than it was before."

"I dearly hope so," I said, and then I took her face in my hands and gave her a kiss on her mouth.

She smiled after the kiss and looked into my eyes. Then she took my arm and linked hers and we began strolling across the bridge.

For a short while we were silent and simply enjoying the link of our arms and the closeness and the fresh night air. The lane had a tiny iron fence that was wrought in the shapes of black roses and the lamps cast conflicting shadows over the pebbled path we trod underfoot, two women in red dresses, casually strolling through the night.

She smiled at me as we walked and finally she spoke.

"I saw you with a human earlier today," she said.

I looked at her in surprise. "You did?"

"Yes. Actually, I first picked up your trail in Port Angeles. From there I followed it to your little massacre in Forks and finally I found you here in Seattle just this morning. I wanted to come say hello but I was waiting till you were less…preoccupied."

I chuckled to myself as we continued along. "This really is a marvellous coincidence. I only arrived in town yesterday and under very complicated circumstances."

"Yes, I could imagine," she said, somewhat dryly.

I didn't know what that tone implied but I only smiled. "Humans can be difficult to deal with," I said. "Before I left the apartment tonight she was so misbehaved that she required to be tortured and gagged and handcuffed to a stairpost to await a thorough raping when I get back."

She chuckled at that and shook her head. "Well," she said. "We all need our amusements, I suppose."

I smiled to myself, letting my mind drift back to Ms Swan. Heidi had succeeded in alleviating most of my anger and anxiety and now I could think about the girl with fondness again.

"We certainly do," I said. "But by now I'm convinced she's more than just amusement. Her name is Bella. Ironically she was James's final prey before he was killed by her protectors. I had originally hoped to avenge him by completing his hunt, but now…"

She glanced at me as we walked along. "Now what?"

I sighed and smiled. "I'm not sure. I know I ought to have killed her. Revenge aside, her scent is the most exquisite thing I have ever experienced, and of course she's been nothing but a burden. But no matter how much I want to, I just can't do it. Is that silly, do you think?"

Our arms were still linked and I felt her shrug a shoulder.

"It's hardly for me to judge," she said.

I smiled at her reticence. Clearly she didn't understand but then again neither did I. "I know it's absurd, but I can't help it. I adore her. She is the most amazing, charming, loveliest young woman in the world. She made my heart soar the moment I saw her and since then the feelings have grown to a point where I want to simply keep her and cherish her and abuse her forever."

She gave me a look. "I thought I was the loveliest woman in the world?"

I chuckled and stopped walking, letting my arm slip from hers. She turned to face me and I was surprised at the veiled jealousy in her gorgeous red eyes and very delighted as well.

"Oh, Heidi," I said to her playfully. "You're in a separate world entirely."

Then I took her face in my hands and applied a long and lavish kiss to her mouth to show her exactly how irresistible she was. Her lips weren't quite as warm or soft as Ms Swan's but I didn't mention that. Heidi was as perfect as perfect could be and yet in reality it was perhaps Ms Swan who was in a separate world.

When I released her from the kiss she was smiling again. I wonder why she had been jealous? Perhaps with James dead she thought our relationship could become more serious. Before Ms Swan I would've been very inclined that way as well. I still might be if the stupid girl forced me to kill her someday.

She lowered her hands from my neck and a certain smile came over her mouth.

"Perhaps I should meet her," she said.

I lifted my eyebrows. "Bella?"

"Of course," she said. "I'm curious to see what kind of girl could enthral my old friend so completely. She must be particularly special."

I didn't answer for a moment. At first I was hesitant at the idea of the girl being exposed to any vampire aside from me. No matter how badly I abused her I was also quite intent on never killing her. I'm not sure any other vampires would share that sentiment, old friend or not.

But this was Heidi. And even though this was the first time I had seen her in a long time I was certain I could trust her to respect my feelings. She was waiting for an answer with a patient smirk and the look in her bright red eyes filled me with temptation. I wasn't sure what that look boded but she was clearly jealous that I seemed to have a woman in my life aside from her.

So I smiled and gave a seductive shrug.

"Certainly," I said. "You can meet her right now."

She smiled at that and I linked my arm again with hers and we continued on.

On our way back to the apartment I stopped at a pharmacy and bought some cream for the girl's burns. Heidi wasn't particularly impressed that I wanted to play nurse to a lowly and disposable human but I clucked my tongue to silence her playfully. I told her it was fun to keep a pet and she allowed that perhaps it was. Heidi's own feeding habits had always been far more perfunctory than mine. She generally took little pleasure in the pain of her victims and preferred to simply butcher them as meat.

By the time we got back to the apartment I had been gone for almost two hours. The girl hadn't moved. She was sitting at the base of the stairs and her arms were handcuffed around the newelpost. She had been slumped there like a dead thing but she stirred when she heard the door. I smiled and came forward and placed the burn cream and my handbag on the kitchen counter.

Ms Swan glared at me over the gag but then she heard a second set of heels clicking across the floorboards and turned again and saw Heidi. I saw her reaction perfectly and I smiled at how her expression completely drained. Fear, surprise, humiliation, perhaps a few flashes of attraction at how beautiful Heidi was. She threw a panicked glare at me and made a sound into the gag and looked again at Heidi while trying to turn her body away to conceal her breasts. Heidi smiled at her and came forward at a cocky swagger and tossed her mahogany hair over one shoulder before turning the smile to me.

"So this is her?" she asked.

I smiled and nodded. "This is her," I said. "Bella, this is Heidi. She's an old lover of mine and tonight happened to reunite us. I told her about you and she was just so eager to meet you."

Heidi was looking at the naked girl on the floor, a haughty look down her nose, and now she circled her slowly as if to see her from all angles, her heels clicking on the polished floorboards, her hips swinging at a saunter. The girl glared up at her with her dark eyes, practically growling like a cat. Heidi came to a stop and snorted and folded her arms under her breasts before looking past her to me.

"I thought you said she was beautiful?"

The girl turned her glare to me and I smiled at her. Her dark eyes were ablaze with anger and her teeth were clenched on the gag. She looked beautiful to me but I played along with Heidi's game.

"Well, it's not the most flattering position for her," I said.

Heidi made another slow circle around the naked girl there. The girl was trying to keep her back turned so that most of her nakedness was hidden but we still had a nice view of her ass and the letter branded onto her back. Heidi still didn't seem too impressed but she gave a small shrug.

"Hmm," she said. "I suppose I can see the appeal."

I smiled. "I'm glad she meets with your approval."

Heidi chuckled and came over to me. "Barely," she said. "Oh, Victoria. I feel sorry for you making do with a peasant like her. You used to be so much more discerning. Do you know what I think? I think you need a reminder of what it's like to be with a real woman."

She put her hands at my hips and I felt an immense thrill.

"I think you're right, Heidi dearest," I said, and leaned forward into her lips as she went to kiss me.

Right in front of Ms Swan.

My eyes had fallen closed but I made sure to moan very loudly as I wrapped my arms around my old lover and allowed the kiss to deepen. I only hoped the girl was watching closely. I would've loved to see her reaction but I didn't want her to know that I was doing this deliberately. Heidi cupped my face and parted my lips with her tongue and I let my own tongue tangle against it. Heidi had always had a delicious mouth but never more so than right now. The decadence of doing this in front of Ms Swan was sweeter than Ms Swan herself.

The kiss was slow and controlled and eventually our mouths moved apart. Trying not to be eager, I glanced at Ms Swan. The look in her eyes was pure shock with perhaps some startled attraction at the edges. Her mouth had gone slack around the gag and she had stopped trying to hide her breasts. She blinked at me with her dark eyes and I smiled at her and turned back to Heidi's mouth and kissed it and kissed it again and then I took her hand and drew her closer to the stairs.

"I managed to get the bed assembled this afternoon but I don't think I can contain myself until we get upstairs," I announced, letting go off her hand and pulling off my dress in one smooth motion. I tossed it aside and ascended a few of the steps and turned back to smile at Ms Swan for a moment where she was chained on the floor before turning the smile to Heidi. "You'll have to do me right here on the stairs," I told her, sitting down on one of the steps and spreading my legs nice and wide. "Right here in front of Ms Swan."

Heidi chuckled at that and the girl finally began to glare. The shock in her eyes began to harden until the dark orbs of them were boring into my exposed vagina. All it did was make me throb even harder.

Heidi was taking off her dress and the girl glanced at the flash of red and her glare actually faltered for a second at how magnificent Heidi's body was. I smiled at that as well. Heidi was the only woman on earth that I would admit to being my superior. With her incredible legs, her womanly hips, and her large and luscious breasts, she was truly a goddess. Her mahogany hair was carried up in her dress as she pulled it off and cascaded back down as she tossed the dress aside. She smiled at the look on the girl's gagged face and then she knelt down between my legs and crawled up a couple steps to kiss me.

I returned the kiss and opened my eyes to see the girl's reaction. I smiled into the kiss to taunt her and finally there seemed to be some hurt growing in the girl's glowering dark eyes. Heidi's hand were stroking my thigh and the girl observed that angrily before getting a look at Heidi's gorgeous ass as well. I chuckled into the kiss and Heidi smiled and began kissing my neck. I craned my neck to allow her more access to my throat and I smiled at Ms Swan.

"Mmm," I murmured. "Watch closely, Ms Swan. I know you and I are hardly in a state of commitment, but perhaps you'll feel a little betrayed, anyway."

I had just revealed my motives but they had been fairly transparent to begin with. Ms Swan glared at me with her arms chained around the post at the base of the stairs. Heidi and I were a few steps above her and I'm sure she had a lovely view.

Heidi's mouth had moved lower to my breasts and now she was squeezing them in her hands and sucking at the nipples. I preened my chest and smiled and let the girl watch everything. I wanted her to see it all. Heidi moaned and gave one of my nipples a long lick before sucking at it and licking again.

"Mmm," she said. "How long has it been since I've dined on your breasts like this, Victoria?"

I moaned and smiled as she continued to suckle. "Too long," I said. "Be sure to enjoy them as much as you want. You and I always had a habit of indulging each other. It's nice to be with someone who doesn't take me for granted for a change."

I was looking directly into the girl's eyes when I said that and I felt an immense thrill at how they flared in fury. The accusation was utterly unfair on her, of course, but that's what made it so delightful. She looked like she want to yell at me but with the gag in her mouth all she could manage was a low growl.

Heidi continued playing with my breasts for a while and finally she shuffled lower a step and began licking between my legs. I was completely soaked down there by now and I kept my thighs wide open as I smiled lustily at Ms Swan. Ms Swan's glare had simmered down to a sullen brooding and she kept her eyes on mine as if that would prove something. But all it did was show me how hurt she was and spurn me closer to orgasm. I could feel it building between my legs and I wanted her to see this most of all. I wanted her to know that she wasn't special to me. She was nothing. That I could replace her at will. That's what I wanted her to know but of course that wasn't true. The truth was that everything I was doing was because of her and it was her eyes that were making me come even more than Heidi's tongue and I smiled at her and moaned and heaved and finally I arched my back off the staircase and cried out and tossed my head as the orgasm burst between my legs.

I was breathing heavily from the pleasure of it and when my eyes opened and refocused on the girl I could see her eyes were darker than ever. Her eyes were accusing me of being the most disgusting slut she had ever seen but her gagged mouth was silent.

Heidi rose up from between my legs and delicately wiped at her mouth with a finger.

"Delicious as always," she said. "I never realized how much I missed you, Victoria."

I smiled at her in satisfaction and gave her a kiss before turning her over so that she was on her back on the stairs.

"I feel the same way," I said, looking into her face. I smiled at her and kissed her and rubbed my body into hers and then I broke the kiss to smile at her again. "Now it's your turn," I said. I shuffled down a little until I was almost sitting beside Ms Swan. Heidi was siting a few steps above and she had her legs open. Her pussy was swollen and glistening. I leaned and licked it and then I licked it some more and then I stopped and I smiled at Ms Swan. "Can you see, Bella?" I asked her. "Watch. Watch me lick her pussy." Heidi smiled at that and gloated by opening her legs even wider. I smiled at her wet mound and closed my eyes and leaned and licked my tongue across it very slowly and lovingly so that the girl could see. "Mmm, it's so delicious," I said, and licked again with a sideways glance at the girl as my tongue dragged across this the lips of this other woman's vagina. "I think it might even be yummier than yours, Ms Swan."

Heidi chuckled and Ms Swan by now was very wounded. There even seemed to be a sheen of tears in her eyes and I smiled at that and turned back to Heidi's vagina and moaned as I pushed my tongue inside of it.

I might've been exaggerating a little when I said it was more delicious than the girl's but neither of them needed to know that. It wasn't quite as soft and warm as Ms Swan's but it was a fine alternative. Heidi's moistness tasted of sweetness and intimacy and centuries of companionship. I knew her vagina as well as I knew my own and I allowed myself to enjoy the reunion, licking every inch of it and nibbling at her netherlips and licking deep into her hole before taking her stiff little clit between my lips and sucking her to an orgasm.

She laughed as she came and I smiled as I licked her a little more. Eventually I rose up and checked to see Ms Swan's expression. But she was looking away at the wall and she had stopped watching a while ago.

I pouted at that but there was also a deep blush on her face and her nipples were visibly stiff so at least she had enjoyed the show. Heidi thanked me for the wonderful orgasm and I smiled and told her it was my pleasure and then we began to banter back and forth as Heidi rose and fetched her dress and slipped into it again one more time. I didn't bother putting my own dress on. Ms Swan was staring at the floor and even though there was a smear of wetness between her legs she did seem rather devastated. It made me anxious. Had I gone too far with the display? I didn't want to hurt her, I just wanted to…well, hurt her. But still, it was her anger and passion I wanted to provoke, not sadness.

But I forced the anxiety away and smiled pleasantly at Heidi as she zipped up her dress and then I came forward to give her one last kiss on the lips.

"Thank you so much for tonight, Heidi," I said. "It was a true delight to see you again. Be sure to call me as soon as possible so that we can go hunting sometime."

"The pleasure was all mine. But what about her?"

"What about her?"

Heidi smiled in a certain way. She turned and glanced at the girl and turned back to me.

"I've been so busy tracking you across the state that I haven't had a chance to feed," she said. "And she does smell delicious…"

She turned again to look at the girl. Ms Swan didn't look up, she only sat there with her head hung, chained, gagged, naked. My smile faded at what my old friend was suggesting but I managed to brush it off with a chuckle.

"Oh, I'm afraid Bella belongs to me," I said. "And me only."

I thought that made it clear enough. Morality aside, it was also a question of property. Friends or not, that doesn't entitle a person to help themselves to your belongings.

But Heidi chuckled that off and waved a hand.

"Come, now," she said. "She's only human."

"That's not the point, dearest. She's my human."

Heidi glanced at me, again with that same jealousy, and then she turned to the girl. Ms Swan had finally looked up and now fear began to grow in her eyes as Heidi approached her and circled around slowly to the other side. Ms Swan's eyes followed her and she shrank away. My own eyes hardened and watched my old friend with the beginnings of disappointment brooding in my chest.

Heidi looked at the girl and then snorted at her and gave her leg a limp kick with the toe of her shoe.

"I don't see what you want her for," she said. "She's pathetic."

I didn't answer. Heidi smiled at her and knelt down beside her. Ms Swan shrank away as far as the handcuffs would allow, glancing at me wildly for help. Heidi smiled and leaned and sniffed at her like a big red wolf in her velvet dress and then began to lean even closer with her mouth.

"Heidi," I said.

The coldness of my voice caused her to stop and look up. I didn't smile but I was also careful to keep any anger or aggression out of my voice as well.

"I think it's time for you to go," I said.

She didn't reply for a moment, kneeling there beside Ms Swan. Ms Swan cowered and glared at her. Heidi's red eyes seemed to darken at the challenge but then she smiled and rose and turned away from the girl disdainfully.

"Of course," she said and then smiled at me. "I'm sorry, my friend. I didn't mean to upset you."

I was relieved the moment passed without incident. Vampires can be volatile and it had been a very long time since I had seen her last.

"It's quite alright," I said. "I'm just a little possessive at times."

She nodded and turned to the door. "I'll call you in about a week. There's a girl I've had my eye on. Not a girl as delicious as your girl, but sweet enough."

I walked her out and opened the door for her.

"I'll look forward to it," I said. "Thank you again for the lovely night."

She nodded and turned back to the girl handcuffed to the stairs. She looked at the naked form huddled there for a moment and then she smiled and called out:

"It was very nice to meet you, Bella. Perhaps we'll meet again."

I watched her face as she said it and I wasn't sure if I liked what I saw. She seemed to have developed a distain for the girl that could prove to be dangerous if she remained in our lives.

But she was my friend and I smiled and I placed a kiss on her cheek to say goodnight. She smiled at me and went out the door and down the small set of concrete steps onto the sidewalk. I was stark naked but I stood there in the doorway and watched her go. Watched her cross the road and continued on under the streetlamps in her brilliant dress. Sauntering. Swinging her hips. I was glad to have her back again but I was wary of these expectations she seemed to have developed for me. She seemed to have been under the impression that my mate's death would leave me unattached and available for something else but she hadn't known about my feelings for Ms Swan.

I closed the door and went back to the girl.

She was kneeling there on the floor, staring up at me with pure hate and blackness in her eyes and a sort of horny desperation as well. Her nipples were still hard and I could all but hear her lower body throbbing in arousal from the display she had witnessed. I smiled and bobbed down to gaze into her eyes. I looked at her, all unflinching from her pain and fury, and then I smiled and reached between her legs. Wetness. Warmth. Her glare darkened and a low growl came out of her. My smile tilted up into a smirk and I began to rub my fingertips against her softness, making her growl some more. I watched her and rubbed and spoke in a whisper.

"You liked watching that, didn't you?"

With the gag tight around her mouth she was unable to answer. She only continued to glare me. Directly into my eyes, so angry and furious. I smiled and continued to rub her as she knelt there on the floorboards and soon she was breathing very heavily into the gag. I loved those sounds of muffled lust and I rubbed her even harder and firmer. A dark blush was engulfing her face and she didn't take her eyes from mine even as the orgasm broke her glare and a low groan came through the gag.

My hand was very wet and I lifted it from her lap and smiled at it and tested the moisture between my thumb and forefinger. She glared at me, her breath wheezing through the gag. What an amazing creature. Her body truly knew no bounds. She had been striped and burnt with a blowtorch and humiliated in front of a stranger and all of it did nothing but made her horny. I popped the fingers into my mouth and licked them.

"Mm," I said.

Then I rose and fetched the key for the handcuffs. She watched me as I bobbed down to unlock her and I looked at her and evaluated the look in her eyes. Beyond the anger there was also coldness and resentment and a very deep determination to never forgive me for this. But we would see about that. The handcuffs came loose and she quickly reached behind her head to untie the gag. I watched until she had the knot undone and then she pulled the rag of cloth out of her mouth and flung it away on the floor.

I thought she might had something to say but she didn't. She sat there glaring at me and rubbing her wrists and I offered her a something of a smile.

"Do you see what you drove me to?" I asked her. "Do you realize how much you hurt me?"

She spat on my face.

"Fuck you," she said.

I smiled and her anger came as a great relief to me. My biggest fear was extinguishing that spark. That spark of rage was the only hope I had.

I lifted a hand and wiped the spittle from my cheek with my fingers and then I leaned and placed a kiss on her head.

"I love you, Bella," I whispered into her hair. "I truly do."

She didn't answer and her glare only seemed to harden. I rose and fetched the burn cream from the kitchen counter.

She didn't speak again as I took her upstairs and into the bedroom. I made her sit on the edge of the bed and I sat beside her and told her to turn aside. The burns on her back were red and blistered. I asked if it hurt but she didn't reply to this either. The cream was cold and she winced as I applied it to her back and began to massage it into the burns. I did it as slowly as possible, not only to be gentle but because I was trying to think of something to say. It seemed I had crossed some kind of line tonight but she had crossed a line as well and in the end it didn't even occur to me to apologize.

After that I asked her if she needed to use the bathroom. Without replying she hobbled away on her crutches, still completely naked, and disappeared for a while. I sat there on the edge of the bed and I was still sitting there when she came back. She looked at me and said nothing and then she flipped off the light and came over to the bed. Without accepting any help she leaned her crutches against the nightstand and pulled back the covers and climbed into the bed. I still hadn't moved. I was still trying to think of something to say but there seemed to be nothing and after a while I rose and went out and left her to sleep in peace.

—

AN: Not sure if this chapter was worse than the last one, lol. One thing I wasn't sure about was that final orgasm of Bella's. She's supposed to be really upset and hurt, but I also wanted to demonstrate that she was very turned on by the whole thing as well, so that the ordeal would seem less heinous.

Hope Heidi was a nice surprise. She was such a minor character in the novels so I took the liberty of elaborating on her. And remember, there's no Volturi or special powers in this story. Originally the new character was Jane, but then a couple of reviewers mentioned Heidi and I realized that would be much better. With Jane the relationship was completely new and it felt kind of awkward for them to just suddenly hook up and have sex in front of Bella with no real feelings between them. But with Heidi, they were already old friends and, in this story, lovers, which gave me much more material to work with. I had to rewrite a few of those final scenes but I think it turned out much better. So thanks to the reviewers who suggested Heidi.

Anyway, hoped it turned out okay. Let me know what you thought or if anything was wrong or any other suggestions. Hopefully the new chapter will be soon. :)