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Chapter 31:

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The next day we went back to their house and broke in while they were out, presumably at work. It was about ten in the morning on a weekday and the street was mostly quiet and empty with not even a peep of sun from the heavy gray overcast above. The weather had turned very cold and Bella was bundled up in a thick fleece coat, a scarf, and a beanie on her head, all black. She blew into her pale hands to warm them as we crossed the street and she stuck to my side as I went up to the front door and tried to peer through the panes of glass. But there was some kind of lace curtain on the inside and I could see nothing. I tried knocking instead, just quietly, and waited to see if anyone would answer. I was fairly sure they lived alone but you never know when a couple has a sick mother staying with them or a cousin from Nebraska. There was no answer and I knocked again one more time and waited before deciding the house was empty.

Bella stood by silently, bobbing on the spot from the cold, and I began searching for some kind of spare key. I felt over the door lintel and looked under a potted plant. Not many people were stupid enough to leave a key in such obvious hiding places and neither were these girls. I abandoned the search and instead looked at Bella and tilted my head toward the side of the house for her to follow. She nodded and scampered along beside me. We went around, past the window we had been peeping through the previous night, and came to the tall iron fence that blocked off the backyard. I helped my young partner climb over it, lacing my fingers for her to step onto and use as a boost, and then I climbed over as well. The backyard had a nice lawn that was wet with dew and unmarred from any dog droppings or anything. Nothing started barking either. Bella followed me around the patio furniture and a small garden of herbs, sage and oregano, and hugged herself and shivered from the cold and the adrenaline. She wanted to talk or giggle but she knew she was supposed to be quiet.

The back door was a glass screen that looked into a dining room. The table was ovalshaped and large and there were six chairs under it. Enough for a whole family. It made me pause and wonder if perhaps more than just two people lived here but maybe they were simply planning on having children together very soon. Very sad if that was the case since they were likely to wind up raped and murdered before it could happen.

I tried sliding open the screen door but it didn't budge. Locked. We continued around the other side of the house, behind the car port, and found another glass screen door. This one looked into a kitchen. The kitchen had two ovens, a sink, a refrigerator. The refrigerator had a few magnets on it with a few papers and pamphlets pinned to it. No children's drawings or school certificates. Good. Very good. I pointed it out to Bella and whispered to her what I had observed. This was supposed to be a lesson, after all. She needed to learn what to look for and how to select her prey. I tried the screendoor but this one was locked as well. Bella asked what we were supposed to do now and I smiled and took a lockpick kit from the inside pocket of my jacket.

Bella grinned in awe and watched me as I unzipped the small case and took two tiny brass tools and inserted them into the lock and began to feel about for the tumblers.

"Wow," she whispered. "I didn't know you could do that."

I smile and continued working. "I lived on the streets for many years when I was your age. Picking pockets and picking locks were necessary tools of survival. Locks are a little more complicated these days, of course…"

The lock clicked and turned. I smiled and withdrew the picks.

"…but so are the tools."

Bella smiled as I tucked the kit back into my jacket and slid open the screen.

"Wait here," I told her. "I'm going to check the house for a security system or any other occupants."

She nodded and I went inside quickly.

Burglar alarms were silent, of course, so I had no way of knowing if I had already tripped anything off. The best place to check was by the front door so I moved through the kitchen and into a dim corridor. I sniffed the air softly and I could detect three different scents. Two female and one…feline? There must be a cat somewhere around here but I didn't worry about that right now. I looked for any kind of alarm control panel but there was none. Odd for a house like this but not unheard of.

There had been no other sounds as I moved through the house so I was fairly confident we were alone but I decided to check anyway. On the left was the living area. The windows looked out the front of the house but the curtains were closed and it was dark in the room. There was a white leather sofa arrangement, a large flat screen television, a desk in the corner with a desktop computer on it. All the doors along the corridor were ajar and I peered into them one by one. The last one was their bedroom. The blinds were open in this room and it was brighter here. The bed had been made but the floor was a bit of a mess. I could see a bra and a business skirt discarded by the bed but there was no sign anyone was actually home.

By the time I got back to where I'd left Bella I found that Bella had entered the kitchen. She had a jar of coffee in her hands, Nescafe Gold Blend, and she was tipping some of the freeze-dried contents into her palm. I watched her oddly.

"House is empty," I said. "What are you doing?"

Bella tossed the handful of coffee into her mouth and began chewing it. She cringed deeply at how ungodly bitter it must've been but she kept chewing.

"I didn't get any coffee this morning," she told me in a half-gagged mumble.

I stared at her, mystified. Was this a common response to not having coffee in the morning? To eat it directly out of the container without hot water?

Bella winced and swallowed. Her face was pale and there were large dark circles under her eyes and she shook her beanie-clad head quickly as if to wake up a bit more.

"God, I'm so tired," she said.

I sighed sympathetically. "You only had three hours sleep and you were up all night drinking. Maybe I should've let you rest this morning. Sometimes I forget you're not quite a vampire yet."

"No, no, no, this is fun," she said, quickly perking up again and tipping a bit more coffee into her palm. "So what do we do now?"

"Now we explore and see if we can't find out a little information about our targets," I said, watching her, not believing she was actually going to have a second mouthful. "Then we can—baby?"

I tried to stop her before she could do it but it was too late. She tossed another handful of freeze-dried grains into her mouth and chewed and half-retched from the taste and looked at me with her eyes asquint to see what I wanted.

"Yeah?" she gagged through the mouthful of coffee.

I took the jar out of her hands and screwed the cap back on.

"No more," I said. "We can't leave any trace we were here, okay?"

"Aww, come on. They won't notice. Lemme have some sugar too. Do they have milk in the fridge?"

"That's not the point, sweetheart," I said, being gentle with her. "True hunters respect their prey. They don't patronize them by leaving footprints all over their nest—even if the footprints might not be noticed."

She rolled her eyes as I set the jar back in its place on the counter among other jars.

"I don't want to respect them," she said. "I want to do other things to them."

I chuckled softly and cupped her face. "In due time, my love," I whispered and gave her a kiss on the nose. "Come, let's look around."

She grinned and I smiled as well with a warm glow in my chest. It felt like I had been waiting five hundred years to have partner like her.

To begin with we took a look around the kitchen, opening some of the drawers and cupboards. Bella found some cookies and wanted to have some but I think she was only joking. At least she better be or I might have to become stricter with her training. A little discipline would do her good. I opened a kitchen drawer and found a nice collection of knives. We'd bring our own toys when we came to play, of course, but I smiled to see them either way before I pushed the drawer closed again.

Around the corner from the kitchen there was a small laundry area with tiled floor and a wash tub. There was only one high window and the room was hardly big enough for both Bella and I to stand in. There was a pair of jeans draped over the tub and a pair of dirty boots on the floor. Ordinarily it would've been the least interesting room to explore but there was at least one point of interest—a basket on the floor with blankets in it and a small bowl of cat biscuits.

Bella stood there looking at it.

"Well," she said. "I guess they have a cat."

I nodded at her rather astute assessment. "I guess so."

"Well, where is it?" she asked, looking in the tub as if it might be there. "How come it hasn't…"

"Barked?"

She gave me a little glare. I hadn't meant to insult her intelligence but it was just so easy to do.

"Cat's rarely make good guard dogs," I said, bobbing down to take a closer look at the basket. "It's probably hiding somewhere out of sight."

"We're not going to hurt the cat, are we?"

I stood up and looked at her. She seemed to have genuine concern for the cat and she probably remembered that time I had taken her to a veterinarian to have her broken leg set in a cast. I had killed two things that night, the vet and a cat. Obviously it was the cat that traumatized her.

"Because, you know," she said, with a tiny little shrug. "It's just a cat."

I chuckled and cupped her face and gave her another kiss on the nose. "Don't worry," I said. "We're not going to hurt the cat."

She smiled and I took her back into the kitchen.

The dining room was relatively uninteresting as well. The large oval table was entirely bare aside from a vase of flowers in the center. The flowers were plastic and they had little drops of glue on the petals to look like water drops. There was a sidetable against the wall and it had some women's magazines stacked there. Fashion or home improvement. Bella picked one of them up and flipped through it and went to put it back and I cautioned her to make sure she put it exactly as she found it. She rolled her eyes and straightened the magazine to a correct angle and then we continued into the corridor.

As we entered the bedroom something small, white, and fluffy came out from under the bed and zoomed past us silently.

Bella yelped and almost flung herself into the door. I looked at her and raised a brow. She calmed down and chuckled awkwardly.

"I guess that was the cat," she said.

Once again I nodded at her assessment. "I guess so."

"You'd think it would at least hiss or something," Bella said, glaring back toward where the white blur disappeared.

I shook my head and smiled and wandered into the bedroom, looking around, taking it all in. This is where they would die. Right here, on that bed. Tied up and bloody and begging for each other's lives.

The curtains were open and this room had more light than the others. Bella went over to the closet and opened it and looked inside. I looked down at the floor. There was a pile of clothes by the bed and I bobbed down to take a closer look. One of the articles was a skirt so I assumed it was the more femme of the pair who was the messy one. There was a plain white bra on top of the pile and I lifted it up and examined the cup sizes. 36DD. Not bad. It had been a while since I had a pair of nice meaty tits to sink my teeth into.

I laid the bra back over the floor and rose. Bella had taken a clotheshanger from the closet and she chuckled at the men's suit that hung from it.

"I guess this belongs to the butch one," she said.

I smiled and tried not to laugh. I wouldn't ridicule a woman over her taste in fashion, but really. Bella put the suit back and browsed through the rest of the closet. There were a few evening dresses as well, perhaps belonging to her partner, and the rest was simple casualware.

Bella took out one of the dresses and looked it over, smiling. She looked like she could use another reminder to be careful, so I said:

"Just make sure you—"

"Put everything back where I got it from," she cut in with a grin. "I know, I know."

I smiled and gave her a nod. At least she was learning. She went to put the dress back and turned to the dresser. The mirror was square and trimmed with glass and I could see myself in it, redhaired and wearing a red dress and a black jacket. My appearance gave me a slight thrill. These victims were going to be lucky women indeed.

The surface of the dresser was scattered with hairbrushes and makeup and perfume bottles. It was quite disorganized and I was beginning to get some idea of the dynamics of our couple's relationship. The femme one was the messy one, perhaps a bit child-like, a woman with the heart of a teenager. While the butch one was a little fastidious, taking care of her partner and keeping things tidy. I smiled and examined a bottle of fuchsia pink nailpolish. It was called Bachelorette Blush. Cute. I was tempted to slip it into my pocket and take it away with me but that might've been a bad example to my fledgling mate after all my speeches of leaving no trace.

Also on the surface of the dresser were two photographs in frames. The first one was the two of them on holiday at a beach in the sun somewhere. Both were wearing bikini's, femme in purple, butch in black, and I was relieved that her manly sensibilities did not extend to swimwear. Seeing them side by side made it quite clear that the butch one was actually the sexier of the pair. Her body was slimmer and more defined with nice abs and visible shoulder muscles. The femme one was very nice as well but perhaps just a pound or two overweight.

Bella had come wandering over and now she took the photoframe out of my hands and grinned at it. I let her check it out and shifted my attention to some papers and envelopes that were on the dresser. I picked a few of them up and glanced them over. One was a doctor's bill and the other was a bank statement.

"Paige McKinney," I said, reading the name from the bill, and then turning to the bank statement. "And Nicole White."

Bella looked up from the photo. "Which is which?"

I shrugged and set the papers down and took the photoframe from her to make sure it went back where it belonged as well.

"Didn't you kill some chick named Nicole not so long ago?" Bella wondered out loud.

I chuckled and remembered that I had. My last victim before Bella's friend Jessica. A mousy brunette who's first date with another woman had ended with her neck snapped between my thighs.

Bella had taken an interest in the other photograph on the dresser and now she picked it up and looked at it. The photographed showed our girls at a party somewhere, cheek to cheek and grinning, one of them in a dress, the other in a suit.

Bella smirked at it and I watched her eyes flicker.

"They make a cute couple," she said.

I nodded and smiled. "They do indeed."

Bella looked at the photograph for a bit more and then she giggled and set it back on the dresser. "I'm more excited for the butch one," she said. "I bet she's gonna hate being raped. She's gonna struggle really hard. We have to remember to bring a strapon."

"The stronger the woman, the sweeter the submission," I said, flashing her a wink as I opened the top drawer. "That's what I always say."

She giggled, remembering how I used to say those exact words to her back before she'd been broken into the nice obedient little sex slave she was now. Although her obedience did leave something to be desired sometimes. She had reached into the open drawer and she was already pawing at the underwear there.

"Oooh," she said. "Panties."

"Baby, don't—"

She grabbed up a handful and started unfolding them. I sighed.

"—touch," I finished.

Bella finally realized she had just completely messed up the drawer and she at least had the decency to look guilty. She giggled and gave a little shrug.

"Sorry," she said. "Nice panties, though."

She had a pair in her hands that were black and fashioned from lace. She always did like black. She was checking the size and the pattern of the lace and she nodded in approval before lifting them to her nose.

I watched her breathe in, the panties covering her mouth like a black veil. When she lowered them she was smiling.

"Smells like perfume," she said. "What's it smell like when you're a vampire?"

She handed them to me and I touched them to my nose briefly. My eyes fell closed, my lips curved into a smile. I could smell the perfume that the drawer had been sprayed with but I could also smell traces of something else. The scent of a human. A woman. Prey.

I breathed in deeply and then lowered them.

"Smells delicious," I said.

Bella giggled and took them from me to put them back. She was very careful to fold everything exactly how it had been and I watched her to make sure she did it properly. Once she was finished she looked up at me for approval. I smiled at her and gave her a pat on the head for being a good girl.

We checked all the drawers in the dresser as well but didn't find much of interest. Some sleepwear. Some jeans and sweaters. Socks. Bella had gotten cold again and she had her coat wrapped very tightly around her. I asked her if she was alright and she nodded with eyes all dark-ringed and half-exhausted. But smiling. I gave her a kiss and turned to the bedside table.

There was an alarm clock on it and a few pieces of jewellery. A couple earrings. I held the earrings to the bleak sunlight in the window and I was surprised they appeared to be real diamonds.

"Are we looking for anything in particular?" Bella was asking.

"No, not really," I said, opening the bedside drawer. "Just…"

I trailed off.

The drawer was filled with dildos. Most of them red or purple and some of them florescent or transparent like a drawer full of alien sausages. I smiled and lifted out a rubberized vibrator that was thick and purple and big as a billyclub.

"Well, well," I said. "I guess our girls know how to take care of each other."

Bella gasped in excitement and snatched the dildo from me. "Oh my god," she said. "Can we…?"

She looked at me with pleading eyes and practically waggled her hips for a bit of penetration. I had to laugh. While I could certainly see the thrill in making love in our victim's bed with one of their own sex toys it was rather impossible to do it without leaving behind a rumpled bed and a gallon of vaginal fluid all over the dildo.

So I took it back from her and smiled.

"No," I told her. "We cannot."

She was devastated and she actually complained out loud. "Aww, come on," she said, bobbing up and down like a little girl. "It would be so hot. Please, Vicky? Just once, really quickly."

She had her hands clasped at her chest like a girl praying for something. Prayer wasn't the usual method of obtaining a quick dildo-fuck in another couple's bed but once again I could feel myself swaying. I sighed and looked at her and she began pleading a little more.

"Please, Vicky? They won't even notice, I promise."

I continued looking at her and heaved one more sigh. I guess I really am powerless against her because I honestly had no choice.

I smiled and tilted my head toward the bed.

"Hurry up," I told her.

She giggled in glee and jumped onto the bed, flinging open her coat and clawing at the button on her jeans. I had to laugh. She was really horny. I climbed in beside her and crawled to her side and switched on the vibrator. It was all but silent and the only sound was the sound of birds in the trees outside.

Bella had her jeans shoved down and I touched the humming tip of the big purple vibrator to her folds. She shivered deliciously and moaned and smiled and gazed up with eyes that were dark and cocky and victorious to have gotten her way.

"This is so unnecessary," I told her with playful disapproval.

"But so hot," she said, squirming as I rubbed the tip of the vibrator up and down her entrance, teasing her, wettening her. "Mmm. I love you, Vicky. I love you so much."

"I love you too, baby."

"Are you gonna stick it in?"

"In a second. Let's get you nice and horny."

"Mmm."

"Are you ready, baby?"

"Oh yeah. Hurry up."

I smiled and began pushing the humming device into the moistness of her vagina. Her jeans were around her thighs and she couldn't open her legs very wide and the vibrator was very large. Almost as large as a cucumber. She moaned loudly as it penetrated her and I smiled as I slowly pushed it in further.

"Oh fuck," she was saying. "Oh fuck that feels good."

In the gray light from the windows her face was pale and flushed all at the same time. She had her eyes closed and her lips were smirking from the pleasure of it. I smiled at her and then I used my other hand to tease her clit to an erection with my fingers.

She hissed and squirmed softly and opened her eyes to look at me.

"Oh god," she moaned. "I'm gonna come already. Oh, Vicky. Make me come, Vicky. Oh god. Oh god. Ohhh—!"

She came.

I had been stirring the vibrator inside her and rotating her clit with my other hand and the dual sensation had pushed her over the edge quite quickly. It made me smile. From the expression on her face it looked to be a very nice little orgasm. She was grinning and her whole face was blushing.

I let the vibrator continue vibrating inside her a little more and then I withdrew it and switched it off. She immediately moaned and closed her legs to savor the sensation still lingering between them. I smiled and watched her, petting her naked hip as she lay there in full winter clothes with her jeans around her knees.

"Mmm," she moaned. "That was amazing. Thanks, Vicky."

I smiled and snorted once. "My pleasure," I said. "Now hurry up and put your pants back on before I'm compelled to go down on you as well. We have work to do, you know."

Bella chuckled at that languidly and rose up, tugging at her jeans. I was still holding the vibrator and after she had her jeans buttoned she took the vibrator from me and grinned and reached up my dress.

"Bella," I said, attempting to push at her hand. "Bella, what are you—"

She cut me off by pulling my panties down and jabbing the vibrator inside me.

I yelped and the yelp was quite unlady-like. Bella only grinned and shoved it in deeper and then she switched it on. It began vibrating instantly and I shuddered like a woman struck by lightning. Oh my. Bella grinned and thrust it in and began pumping it viciously, taking advantage of my supernatural sturdiness, knowing she could never hurt me. I had already been moist from what I had done to her and now this rough abusal of my horny vagina made me orgasm almost instantly.

I came and shuddered and laughed to myself. Oh, Bella. What a vixen. She grinned and kept pumping that huge purple vibrator inside me until I'd enjoyed all of the climax there was to enjoy and then she withdrew it.

I rose up, flushed, my hair dishevelled. My panties were around my knees and I left them there. Bella was sitting there, smirking and switching off the vibrator. I had to admit I liked this assertive side of her whenever it showed it's cocky face. It made me feel loved the same way she probably felt loved whenever I did the same things to her. She had truly grown so much from that frightened little girl I had abducted from her bedroom. Look at her now. At times she was even more woman than I was. One day perhaps she would always be.

The vibrator had been quiet but once it was switched off it was even more silent in the room. All you could hear was my breathing. The bedcovers had been rumpled a little underneath us but that shouldn't be too hard to fix. The problem was the vibrator. It had been perfectly clean before we found it and now that thick purple shaft was coated with the wetness of both of our orgasms. I supposed we'd have to clean it and Bella seemed to think the same thing. She lifted her eyes to mine and smirked sexily.

"Well," she said. "I guess we better clean up the evidence."

She then lifted the vibrator and leaned and licked her tongue along the shaft slowly.

I gulped.

Wow. Just when I thought she couldn't get bolder. Her dark eyes were inviting me to join her in that hard purple dessert and I found myself moving forward with my mouth and extending my tongue and licking it along the other side. The vibrator was slick and I could smell the scent of both myself and my mate on it and together we moaned and licked it clean of our combined arousal with our tongues gliding along that purple hardness and touching and bumping until we finally dropped the vibrator and began kissing each other instead.

We had both gotten quite horny and since we were already half undressed we hurried and fucked each other again, a quiet fingering as we gazed into each other's lust filled eyes and panted onto each other's mouths. We came at roughly the same time, watching each other, and then we kissed some more and kissed again before finally breaking apart and climbing off the bed to fix our clothes.

The bed required a bit of fixing too but that wasn't much of a problem. All we had to do was smooth the bedcovers down. The vibrator had rolled onto the floor and I gave it a wipe on the skirt of my dress. Without a vampire's sense of smell there was no way they would ever know it had been used by two women who broke into their house and made love on their bed. Perhaps Bella had been right. Not only was it so hot but it was also quite romantic. I placed the vibrator back into the bedside drawer and closed the drawer with my hip as I took one last look around the room. I memorized where the door was, the window, the lightswitch. The positioning of the furniture. Sometimes that information could come in useful and I told my young slutty apprentice to make notes in that empty head of hers as well.

Afterwards we found a bathroom and washed our hands at the sink before wiping the sink down with one of the towels and replacing the towel on the rack backwards so the wet patch wouldn't show. The interior of the bathroom was white and blue tile and the shower was quite a spacious glass cubicle in the corner. There was also a tub for two and an assortment of bathoils and loofahs. It seemed our targets were two women who took their hygiene quite seriously. My kind of girls. Bella rifled through the medicine cabinet and made a wise crack about how the jar of hot wax probably didn't belong to the butch one. I put the jar back on the shelf and told her to stop being mean. Judging from the photograph of butch in a bikini I'm sure she was quite adequately groomed for our purposes.

We had explored most of the house by now and all that was left was the living room. The cat was hiding under the sofa when we came in and we could just see its fluffy white head peeking out. Poor thing was terrified. Bella smiled at it and spoke softly and crouched down to try and approach it. But the cat darted out from under the sofa and sprinted across the room and scrabbled away down the corridor. Bella seemed quite miffed at the rejection and perhaps now she might not've objected to the cat's demise so much anymore. I suppose her skills as a seductress were largely lost on housecats.

The desk in the corner of the room had captured my interest. I was eager to learn more about our prey. There was a desktop computer on it and I was tempted to turn it on but it was probably best not to. Instead I rifled through the papers and books that were stacked there. They seemed to be work related and I was curious what kinds of careers they employed. Bella instead seemed more interested in their DVD and Blu-Ray collection. She went over and browsed through them and then she saw one title that made her grin. She plucked it from the shelf and called out to me.

"Hey, look," she said. "They got Frozen. I love this movie. Wanna watch it quickly?"

I was standing at the desk with a business card in my hand and I turned to look at her dryly. She was grinning with the DVD but then the grin faded and she cleared her throat.

"Nevermind," she said, quickly putting the DVD back.

I turned my eyes to the business card in my hand. "Paige McKinney Design," I read aloud. "Looks like Ms McKinney runs her own interior design company."

"Wow," Bella said, wandering over. "I guess this Paige chick is the one we met at the club. The butch one probably does something more manly."

I had found the business card in the top drawer of the desk and there were two different stacks of them. It seemed the other stack belonged to the other woman. I took one of the other cards and held both side by side.

"Looks like you're right," I said. "She's a carpenter. A rather manly line of work, wouldn't you say?"

Bella grinned but the grin dropped away when I tucked both cards into my jacket pocket.

"Hey," she said. "I thought you said we can't leave any trace?"

"They won't notice a couple of missing business cards."

"Oh, but they'll definitely notice a bit of missing coffee, right?"

I chuckled and closed the drawer. Bella had her hands on her hips and she didn't seem to appreciate that I was allowed to break the rules and she wasn't. I could've explained that the information on the cards was worth a little risk but in the end perhaps she was right; maybe I just liked telling her what to do.

Instead I took her by the shoulders and sat her down on the sofa and wrapped my arm around her.

"So," I said. "What do you think? Do you think these are our girls?"

Bella nodded vigorously. "Definitely."

"I do as well. It's nice, isn't it? When a hunt begins to take shape. The anticipation is almost better than the hunt itself."

I gave her a squeeze under my arm and she giggled and nodded in agreement.

"Yeah, it's awesome," she said. "I just have to remember not to drink so much next time."

"Next time you'll be a vampire and alcohol will be the last thing you're thirsty for."

"That's true. So when are we going to do this?"

"Soon. Very soon."

"What about tonight? I mean, we know all we need to know, right? All we gotta do is wait for them to come home, tie them up…"

"What if they have a friend over?"

"Either kill her or rape her," she said with a simple shrug. "Depends how hot she is."

I smiled and shook my head. So impatient. It was going to be a while before she developed a taste for the finer aspects of the hunt.

"Let's just take it slow, okay? This is our first real hunt together. I don't want to rush it, do you?"

She smiled and snuggled under my arm cutely. "Yeah, you're right. I should just listen to you. You're always right. You really love hunting, don't you?"

"Yes," I said, holding her close. "Unlike Tanya and the others I don't think I'll ever be suited to keeping any kind of career. This is all I want to do. Search for prey. Stalk them. What about you? Does that sound like a life you could share?"

My heart actually gave a little flutter of anxiety for her response. She rose up from under my arm and turned on the sofa to look into my face. A smile came over her mouth and after a while she cupped my cheek and caressed it as she gazed into my eyes.

"All I want to do is be with you, Vicky," she said. "I'll do anything you want."

My own mouth spread into a smile and then she leaned and kissed me.

Oh, Bella.

Her kiss and her words made my heart swell in my chest and I returned the kiss for a long time, the two of us sitting on this soft white leather couch and cupping each other's faces. She moaned softly and I moaned as well and finally I pulled back and smiled.

"It's almost lunchtime," I said. "Why don't we go get you something to eat—and a nice tall espresso—and then head on over to Ms McKinney's office to see if we can spot her?"

"Okay," she said with a grin and nod.

I nodded as well and then I gave her one more kiss before we rose from the couch.

We spent the rest of the day in the car. Bella ate some burgers and fries and we swung by a camping store to pick up a couple pairs of binoculars. The offices of Paige McKinney Design were downtown and we spent over four hours sitting in the car and talking and watching the building. The building was mostly glass and once or twice we spotted the woman with purple streaks we had met last night at the club. She was wearing a dark and snappy skirtsuit and she was quite clearly the boss of that place. The few glimpses we got of her made me smile. It was going to be a real pleasure to take two such strong and independent women and just completely rape them into weeping heaps of helplessness.

Later in the afternoon Ms McKinney emerged into the parking lot in her high heel and got into the BMW that had been parked at her house last night. Bella and I followed at a discreet distance. The car went directly home. The husband-to-be—if such a term was appropriate—must've been already home because within the hour she came out of the house and got into the BMW. We followed her to a grocery store and then actually followed her inside where we took a basket and pretended to buy a few things while following the butch blonde at a safe distance. At one point we crossed paths along an aisle of breakfast cereal and she actually smiled at us. She was younger than her partner, perhaps by as much as eight years, and she clearly had the inferior career—the butch equivalent of a boytoy perhaps? Nicole, her name was. I wonder if she preferred something like Nick?

We followed the woman home again but nothing much occurred after that. We waited in the car until it was dark and waited a few more hours. Bella got bored and took one of my breasts out of my dress to play with while I peered through my binoculars with a smile on my face. She made me quite horny and soon she was rubbing inside my panties as well and making me orgasm. Eventually the lights in the house went off and I pointed it out to Bella. We continued watching for a while and then we got out of the car and crept along the side of the house again. But I guess our prey weren't quite as sex crazed as Bella and I because their bedroom was dark and there was nothing going on. Pity.

By now Bella was getting very tired as well and it was time to take her home. I told her that if she was a vampire we could've stayed there all night, still as statues in the bushes or on the roof. She thought that might be a little boring and I laughed and told her the life of a vampire isn't all blood and thrills.

It was past midnight by the time we got back to the mansion. We hadn't been home all day and hadn't spoken to the Denali's at all. There was light and piano music coming from Tanya's parlour and we decided we ought to pop in and say goodnight at least. The door was ajar slightly and I knocked on it gently and pushed it open. There was a fire crackling in the fireplace and Tanya was sitting at the grand piano and she continued to play as Bella and I came wandering over. She had her eyes closed and we gave her a respectful silence until she hit the last note and opened her eyes and smiled at us.

"I haven't played that one in a long time," she said almost shyly. "I fear I might be a bit rusty."

"Nonsense," I said immediately. "It was wonderful."

Bella smiled in agreement and nodded. Tanya smiled as well, beautifully, and lowered the hood over the keys. The hood was lacquered black and she passed her fingers over it before she spoke.

"Actually, I've been meaning to speak with you," she said. "It's been quite a while since you offered to arrange a hunt for us, but if arranging something suitable is proving to be too much of a challenge…"

She trailed off and gave me a smile. I matched her smile and shook my head.

"No challenge at all, Tanya," I told her. "We only want to make sure to acquire the very best victims for you."

She nodded at that and gave a small shrug. "Well, let us know if you have to cancel at any point."

Bella looked at me and didn't say anything. She knew exactly like I did that our host was have something like second thoughts. Not enough to rescind her participation but enough that she would be relieved if the plans fell through. But, of course, I would not be letting that happen.

"There's nothing to worry about," I said. "We have two victims selected already. All we need is another day or two. Will you be able to control yourself till then, Tanya? Hm?"

I made my voice a little teasing at the end there. She smiled and gave a single chuckle.

"I dare say I will, Victoria."

I smirked and sat on the piano directly in front of her and crossed my legs voluptuously. "Is it that easy?" I asked her coyly. "You're not getting a bit thirsty? A bit…eager?"

I rubbed my thighs together suggestively. Bella grinned and gave a little giggle. Tanya smiled but as always she seem much unmoved by these little flirtations. She placed a hand on my thigh and caressed it and looked up with that serene smile of hers.

"Victoria," she said. "I've agreed to feed with you. But I can't know how I'll feel about it until afterward. All I can say is that it's my own decision and even if I end up regretting it I won't resent you for it."

I looked into her eyes. The room was illuminated only by the fireplace and her eyes were exceptionally dark. Almost not even yellow at all. But I smiled and gave her a respectful nod.

"Fair enough," I said.

Then I uncrossed my legs and hopped off the piano. Tanya rose as well and smoothed down her dress and Bella grinned at her.

"You're not going to regret it, Tanya," she said. "Trust me. I never did and I'm not even a vampire like you."

Tanya looked at her gently in the orange firelight. Bella smiled at her and put her hands on the other woman's hips and looked into her eyes deliberately.

"All you have to do is let go and be what you are," she said. "Because what you are is beautiful. And deadly. And incredible. You have absolutely nothing to be ashamed or guilty of. You're a vampire and you're amazing. Okay?"

I smiled in love and amusement at how my seventeen year old mate was imparting wisdom to a woman who was mature even beyond her thousand years. Tanya smiled as well and looked away shyly without replying.

I took my mate's hands and drew her away gently.

"I'd better get Bella to bed," I said. "She's had a long day."

Tanya nodded at both of us and smiled at Bella. "Sleep well, Ms Swan."

Bella nodded as well and waved with just her fingers and I led her out of the parlour.

I took her upstairs and showered her and put her to bed and made love to her until she agreed to go to sleep and in the darkness I held her and thought about her words earlier. Her speech to Tanya. And for the first time I thought I was beginning to realize why she was so eager to accept a vampire lifestyle before she even became one. She thought vampires were superior. Like goddesses. Above good and evil and free to follow their hearts however they will. And perhaps she had a point. But how then did that explain my own feelings? Bella was only human and my reverence for her far outweighed that which any goddess could command. And after she became a vampire? How would I feel about her then? Could she possibly become even more perfect than she was now? I smiled in the dark and listened to her breathe with all her warmth and softness spread across me and then I kissed her hair and closed my eyes.

—

AN: Another preparation chapter. There was supposed to be more after this but I didn't know snooping through the house would take so long, lol. We'll have to wait till next chapter. Hope nobody's getting bored. I just want to be sure to include every detail. Hope the vibrator licking scene didn't irk anyone, lol. I hate that kind of thing as much as anyone, but I thought I'd throw it in for any male readers out there. I know how you perverts think, lol. New chapter soon. ;)