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.

37. Chapter 37

AN: Whew, glad everyone was cool with Kate's temporary departure. Both Kate and Leah will have more scenes soon, don't worry. Also, some people have been asking about the Cullens, and yes, they will be appearing eventually. Hope you like the chapter. :)

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Chapter 37:

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The days to come were filled with an odd melancholy. Kate's presence was sorely missed at the mansion but she made good on her promise to see Bella again very soon. The very next day after her departure she was back at the mansion to collect a few more of her belongings. She hadn't been gone twenty-four hours yet but she was greeted like a returning war hero, especially by Bella. Kate had bought Leah along with her and Leah too was greeted with much exuberance and it was Leah herself that alleviated much of Bella's guilt. Leah was ecstatic to have Kate move in with her and even though they hadn't been together very long at all she described it as the first serious relationship she'd ever been in—a statement which positively made Kate glow. Bella helped them pack the rest of Kate's things and I watched from the doorway without imposing. Much of my own guilt was alleviated too and I was just as happy as they were to see them so happy. Bella and Kate parted again with a hug and before the day was out they had texted each other at least twelve times. In a peculiar way the new distance between them seemed to have bought them closer than ever.

Two days later Kate treated Bella to lunch at a café, just Bella, and they had a long talk about Kate and Leah's relationship. Bella told me about it later on. Kate was apparently quite serious about the younger woman but scared as well of being rejected. She wanted Bella's advice on how a human might receive the news of her girlfriend being a vampire but Bella was hardly the best judge of this considering her own introduction into the lifestyle. But she comforted Kate as best she could and congratulated Kate's wisdom in keeping her eyes yellow and leaving the manor for a while. Learning your girlfriend is a vampire is quite different from learning your girlfriend is a murderer. She told Kate that Leah would probably be completely cool with it and maybe she should just take it slow and wait for the right moment and maybe just let it develop naturally. Kate had nodded to that and then thanked Bella for her advice before breaking into a giggle and admitting how much she enjoyed pretending to sleep with Leah.

Bella never mentioned it to Kate but she was somewhat concerned how Leah might feel about me and her after she learnt the truth about vampires. Leah would almost certainly accept Kate but what about us? It was a good question but I told her not to worry about it. Leah wasn't squeamish and in any case the truth wouldn't change who we are and how we felt about her.

All in all Kate and Leah were both very happy and there was little else to do but be happy for them and get on with our own business: hunting.

By now Bella and I had acquired a couple more victims. The first one was also from the gym. She was a somewhat bulky woman with an even bulkier boyfriend that she worked out with. She had dark hair in a ponytail and huge tits and Bella was fascinated by her muscles even if they weren't particularly her thing. Unfortunately her and her boyfriend also lived together and our little abduction attempt went slightly awry. We didn't have time for anything tactical so I had decided on a plain home invasion which was perhaps an error of judgement on my part. I forced their apartment door with my shoulder and the boyfriend jumped up from the couch where he had been watching TV. He was an impressive specimen, over six feet tall and two hundred pounds, but he did little more than panic as I grabbed his thick throat and snapped his neck, killing him instantly and without a sound. The girlfriend was in the kitchen and she called out his name but not because she needed protection. In addition to weightlifting she had perhaps had some kickboxing classes as well because she punched Bella in the face and then executed a body combo into her torso that crumpled up my mate into a moaning heap on the floor. Honestly, I was mostly just impressed. But I didn't like for anyone to hurt my mate—not without my permission, at least—so I quickly grabbed the woman by her throat. She landed a few hooks into my marble hard face, breaking her hand, but soon her eyes rolled up and she passed out. Bella had been armed with a knife and she groaned as she grabbed it up and stumbled to her feet. I laughed at her and told her to go get the SUV and soon we had the busty amazon taped up in the back. Irena took custody of her back at the mansion and stripped her off and chained her up in the candlelight. Bella had a swollen cheek and a dark expression on her face and after the woman regained consciousness Bella decided to punish her by using her naked body as a punching bag, punching at her tits—the softest part among all those muscles—until she cried and sobbed into her gag. After that she raped her in her muscular ass with a strapon. I waited till she done, smiling, and afterwards I mentioned that perhaps the prey to be found at the gym were a little too dangerous for her while she was still human.

For our next victim we took the Jack the Ripper approach, stalking the city at large until a victim simply presented itself. For hours we drove the SUV through the night, quietly with the headlights off, gliding through side streets and dark neighbourhoods, until we came upon a woman in a lonely suburb. She was walking her dogs, two poodles on leashes, and the streets were utterly empty otherwise. Bella and I conferred quickly among ourselves and agreed that she was certainly good enough. Even from driving past you could see her trim ass and long brown hair. I turned the car around, assessing the streets again through the windows, and then pulled up beside the woman with her dogs. The woman paused, having noticed us go past and come back. Bella and I greeted her as we got out the SUV and she awkwardly greeted us back and then I grabbed her throat. The dogs started yapping but none dared attack. The woman was gagging and she let loose of the leashes to grab my wrists. Bella was grinning and kept watch up and down the street. The woman finally began to sag and I quickly threw her into the back of the SUV. The dogs had bolted down the street, their leashes dangling, and soon we had the woman taped up and on her way back to the mansion.

Irena once again had the cellar prepared and our other two victims were silent as ghosts in their helplessness and nudity as they watched this third woman added to their ranks. Bella was going through her handbag and she found a family photograph in her purse of a husband and two children. The woman was gagged by the time she regained consciousness and her eyes filled with tears as Bella used the photo to threaten her children if she didn't be a good girl and behave.

The next day we managed to obtain two victims in an extremely lucky coincidence. We were at the mall, not even actively hunting, when Bella noticed two girls holding hands. Both of them had short hair, one blonde, one brunette, and they were quite clearly a pair of young lesbian girlfriends. They were about Bella's age, or a little younger, and Bella when she saw them simply had to have them. I completely agreed and we began to follow them through the mall as I tried to formulate some kind of plan. One of them was wearing a leather jacket and a skirt and the other was wearing tight jeans that made her sexy teenage butt even sexier. They were so cute it was difficult to think but after a while a plan began to take form in my mind. We needed weapons, however, and so I told Bella to keep an eye on them while I broke away and moved briskly across the mall to purchase a packet of filet knives. I removed two of the knives from the pack and threw the rest away and then I followed Bella's directions via text to a clothes shop where our two targets were browsing a rack of clothes. Perfect. The store was large and half empty and Bella and I kept an eye on them from a distance until they drifted toward the back of the store. I was explaining to Bella the plan and slipping her one of the knives and our two little pixies were comparing tops and talking about how cute the other looked. Bella nodded at the plan and we waited a little more until out targets headed toward the fitting rooms.

We followed, slowly. The change rooms were little booths in the back of the store that had no doors, only curtains. Most of them were empty. Our two girls had managed to squeeze into a booth all by themselves and we could hear them talking. Bella was grinning and I nodded at her and then we burst through the curtain and interrupted the two girls by slapping our hands over their mouths and hissing at them to be quiet.

They were instantly afraid of the knives and neither had made much of a sound at all. The blonde one was topless and all she was wearing up there was a red bra. My favorite color. The brunette was still fully dressed so I decided to begin with her. I moved my knife to the blonde girl's throat, letting the tip poke at the soft skin under her chin, and I told her girlfriend to listen very carefully. I told her that I wanted her to go with Bella and to do exactly what Bella says and if she didn't Bella was going to text me and I was going to kill her blonde girlfriend right here in the fitting room. By now both of them had tears of fright in their eyes and I had to ask her if she understood. She nodded frantically and Bella smirked and lowered her hand and the knife and told the brunette to come with her. The brunette flashed a look at the knife under her girlfriend's chin and looked at me as well, confused and terrified, and then she turned and left the fitting room with Bella. The blond in my arms was trembling by now. I could see her in the mirror in her red bra and I smiled at her terrified expression and whispered in her ear that she had cute tits. She shuddered at that but then I chuckled and released her and told her to put her top back on. She did, hurriedly, and then I put the knife back to her throat and waited. Soon my phone buzzed with a text from Bella. She had taken the brunette out into the parking lot and shoved her into the back of the SUV. I smiled and lowered the knife and told the blonde girl that my partner had her girlfriend and if she didn't do exactly as I said her girlfriend was dead. The blonde gave a terrified nod and I nodded as well and gave her a little shove out of the change room.

I led her out into the parking lot. It was midmorning but cold and gray with chances of rain later in the afternoon. Bella was waiting by the back of the SUV. I smiled and looked around. There were cars coming and going and several shoppers with shopping carts but we ought be discreet enough. Bella opened the hatch of the SUV and the blonde girl was stunned to see her girlfriend already taped up and squirming. The brunette gave a muffle scream into her gag, as if to warn her blonde girlfriend of the danger—as if it wasn't already obvious—and I pushed the blonde girl into the back of the SUV and quickly taped her up before slamming shut the hatch.

We took the two girls directly back to the mansion but the cellar wasn't quite prepared for new guests. Irena was busy scrubbing them down with sponges for their morning baths. She had found quite a surprising amount of enjoyment in her role as dungeon mistress and she never complained once at keeping the women fed and clean and even taken them to the bathroom. She spent almost every hour down there in the cellar, either raping them or talking to them, and by now our first victim, Claire, even seemed to have developed something of a Helsinki Syndrome crush on this tall blonde mistress of her life. Irena reported that the woman had begun cooperating upon raping and even orgasmed willingly. Irena seemed to have taken something of a liking to her as well and gave Claire just a little extra attention.

It was going to be at least another hour before the cellar was ready but Bella and I didn't mind. Our newest victims were the cutest little victims we'd ever had and we were happy to take them upstairs and play with them a little. Bella had fetched a shotgun from the mansion's gun cabinet, just to intimidate, and then we threw the two young girls onto our bed and ripped off the tape and told them to strip. They were terrified, of course, and they spent a long time crying and begging before they finally realized they had no choice. Bella sped the realization along by smacking the brunette in the head with the butt of the shotgun. The blonde screamed and sobbed and quickly began to strip. She took off her top and her jeans. Her bra, revealing a small set of perky teenage tits. The brunette whimpered and did the same. Soon they were wearing nothing but panties. Bella smirked and told them to start lezzing out. They seemed to have been expecting that and started begging all over again but eventually they did as they were told. Pressing their mouths together for their tongues and tears to mingle in a kiss of sadness and helplessness, the two of them so pretty and perfect with their short hair and nubile bodies, light and dark like twin pixies snatched from a fantasy and entrapped in a castle for the entertainment of evil sorceresses. Bella grinned and gave them instructions, telling them to touch each other's tits and suck each other's nipples, and they did everything they were told while shooting us dark glares of their pretty tear filled eyes. Soon they had their panties off as well and they were taking turns spreading their legs and eating each other out. They each orgasmed in shame with their young bodies heaving and then we took them down into the cellar for Irena to chain them up side by side among the other women.

That made a total of five and we obtained a sixth later that night. Or rather Irena did. She had been dating a girl in private for a while, a girl she had met on a BDSM site, and she hadn't seen her at all since she stopped going to work and took over the dungeon. Unfortunately the girl was somewhat lonely and insecure and she had been texting Irena nonstop and begging for replies until Irena was annoyed enough to simply invite the girl over and take her down to the cellar and add her among the victims for Bella's newborn feast. It was very generous, of course—and quite cold hearted—but I had to wonder if perhaps the police might come knocking on the door to speak with Irena about her girlfriend's disappearance. But she shook her head and said their relationship was secret and that the woman had no friends or family anyway. I nodded and looked at the inventory. The cellar was becoming quite a barn with all the women in a row with their breasts exposed like cows waiting to be milked. Or butchered and bled.

The next night we acquired a seventh. This time we had decided to make a date of it and we went to a club in our finest clubwear. Bella was wearing a tight black dress that almost didn't even cover her slutty little ass and she had a black lace thong underneath it that you could see when she bent over. I was wearing a crimson red dancing dress with a pair of hot red panties underneath. Bella impressed me by drinking nothing but soda, remembering her last alcohol-fuelled hunt, and after dancing and having some fun for a while we eventually picked out a woman who was very sexy. She was wearing a purple dress of shimmering satin and she had extremely long dark hair that fell in luxurious long waves to her lower back.

She had been there with friends but she eventually left with a man. We followed her in our dark-colored non-descript SUV. Oddly they were headed toward the harbour and finally they pulled over and went for a moonlit stroll, hand in hand, along the waterfront. How romantic—and fortunate for us. Bella, however, didn't realize how much easier this made it for us and she heaved a sigh as we creeped along in our SUV.

"So how are we gonna take this one?" she asked. "Looks like she's not gonna be alone tonight."

I smiled and watched the couple through the windshield. The man had given the woman his coat and it really was a romantic night for a walk. The moon was almost full and the sky was almost cloudless and the stars were shimmering in the still black surface of the water.

And best of all? They were the only two people anywhere in sight.

"Why don't we just take her now?" I suggested simply.

Bella looked out the windows cluelessly. "How?"

I smirked at her and then I turned back and hit the gas pedal.

The SUV surged forward and Bella rocked in her seat from the momentum. The engine had given a quiet roar in the otherwise quiet of the night and both the man and the woman looked up. Luckily they were standing very close together, still holding hands, and they didn't even have a chance to scream as the front of the SUV slammed into them.

The two human bodies made dull thumps against the fender. I hit the brake again in a soft squeal of tires. Bella laughed and quickly unbuckled her seatbelt.

It was cold outside and only the woman was moaning. The man seemed to be unconscious. They were both sprawled in the asphalt and the woman had lost one of her shoes. She was in a lot of pain from a sprained or broken ankle and she was struggling to rise and at first she seemed to have no idea that we had done it deliberately.

"Oh god," she moaned. "Help me."

I grabbed her by incredibly long hair and dragged her back to the SUV. Her other shoe came off. It was freezing cold and Bella was bobbing up and down with her teeth chattering. Her legs were entirely bare and they were so pale they were almost blue in the moonlight.

The woman was groaning but she stopped groaning as I put a length of duct tape over her mouth. After that her wrists and ankles. Bella watched and blew into her hands to warm them.

"What about the guy?" she asked once the woman was all taped up.

I had been about to close the hatch but now I paused. "Do you want to take him as well?"

Bella scrunched up her face. "Eww, no, but what do we do? Do we just leave him there?"

I shrugged and closed the hatch. "Why not?"

Bella grinned and then she took a knife out of her purse and handed me the purse to hold.

I smiled and moved around the car to watch her. The man was unconscious and laying there on his side. Bella stepped astraddle of him in her tall black high heels and skimpy black evening dress and then she grabbed a handful of his hair and hacked at his throat with the knife until she had opened it up. Blood spurted out over her hand. The blood was pitch black in the moonlight and the water shimmered in the background. The man died in silence as the blood dribbled out of his neck and it was quite a beautiful little scene, moon over water with murderess in the foreground, something symbolic to it of female dominance with Bella in her heels and evening dress and dispatching this man for no other reason than because she was powerful and she could.

Bella finally dropped the head and rose and I had to smile. I had never had any particular inclination toward male victims but my young mate was becoming quite the little man hater lately. I could see this kind of behaviour was going to become a habit for her and I suppose that was okay. There were all kinds of motives for murder. For me it was all about the celebration. The enjoyment. But for Bella the motives were muddled with a little bit of hate and anger as well and even a bit of pettiness. Which was fine. She was still very young. How many victims was this for her by now? Three? Four? I wasn't even sure and soon it would be impossible to keep track at all. Bella grew more violent and sadistic by the day. She had probably given up counting the victims as well by now. All she knew was that she needed more.

I smiled at her and tapped my foot like a teacher waiting for an explanation. She came back over to me and grinned with flecks of blood on her face among the blush and eyeshadow already there.

"No witnesses," she said by way of justification.

"Well, I don't think he had actually seen us, but…"

I trailed off and took the knife from her and handed her some tissues from the purse. She wiped at her hands and I wiped at the knife and then I smiled and tilted my head toward the car.

"Let's go," I said.

Bella giggled and hurried into the SUV.

It wasn't a long drive back to the mansion and the woman in the back was kicking at the hatch the entire time. I suppose only one of her legs was injured. We could hear muffled screams as well and I did enjoy the sound of them. Bella did as well and she turned off the radio so that she could hear them more clearly, smiling and snuggling in her seat like a girl listening to a lullaby. The woman continued to thump and grunt in the back of the car and finally we were driving past the fountain in the courtyard of the mansion and pulling up in the gravel driveway.

The woman started kicking as soon as I opened the hatch but her ankles were lashed together. Her dress had ridden up to her hips from her struggling and we could see that she wore no panties underneath. Bella laughed at that and groped her up a little as I hauled her out of the car. The woman was furious and slightly drunk and screaming angrily into the tape over mouth with her lower body all naked and exposed until finally I smashed her head into the car. She went silent and slumped over and I dragged her the rest of the way into the mansion.

Both Tanya and Irena were waiting in the darkness of the foyer under the dead chandelier and Tanya was smiling very brightly. I wasn't sure if she simply liked the look of the victim or if it was something else. Irena raised an eyebrow at the state of the victim, the hiked up dress, the scrape of asphalt on her thigh, the lack of panties or shoes, and she laughed as I handed her over.

"What did you do to her?" she asked jokingly as the woman dangled in her arms.

Bella giggled and brushed some of the woman's hair back.

"Hit her with the car," she said. "Didn't we, you dumb little bitch?"

The woman moaned dazedly as if to agree. Irena chuckled and shook her head and carted her away.

Tanya watched her go and turned back to us with that same incredibly bright smile. I found myself smiling in response. Something had happened while we were out, something exciting, and whatever it was it had made Tanya smile like this.

But before Tanya could tell us what it was Bella spoke again.

"Whew," she said, wiping her forehead. She had stains of blood on her. "That seven now, right? Only a few more and we can finally turn me. And maybe after all that's over Kate will come back as well. I miss her so much already."

Bella whipped out her phone and quickly sent off a text. I smiled and ignored her and turned back to Tanya and her mysterious smile.

"Tanya, what's the matter?" I asked her. "Has something happened?"

Bella looked up curiously and put the phone away. Tanya beamed at us.

"Yes," she said. "A certain someone has finally returned to us."

Bella gasped suddenly. "Kate?"

I rolled my eyes and Tanya shook her head.

"No," she said. "Not Kate."

Bella seemed confused but I wasn't. I knew exactly who Tanya was referring to. Tanya smiled at the knowing look in my eyes and nodded to confirm.

"She's in the gardens," she said. "She wants to speak to you."

Bella looked between us, still not understanding, but I only smiled and took her hand and led her into the corridor.

It was a quick walk through the mansion before we emerged into the courtyard at the rear of the estate. There was a fountain in the center of the courtyard that featured twin stone angels, each with their wings folded, and the streaming water was white in the moonlight. The courtyard was laid with bricks and it was surrounded by a black wrought iron fence. Bella was looking left to right, scanning the entire area for the mystery visitor that no one would tell her about, and then she froze.

I stopped as well and smiled.

Carmen.

There were beds of flowers that ran the perimeter of the courtyard and Carmen was kneeling down to examine the small blooms. She wore a red sundress and her long black hair was loose and stirring in the wind. She had her back to us and even though our scent was certainly carried to her on the wind she did not rise or turn around. Bella looked at me in shock and I smiled at her before leading her by the hand over to the woman kneeling at the flowers.

Neither of us spoke. The clicks of our high heeled shoes on the bricks of the courtyard further alerted the Spanish woman and yet she still didn't rise or turn. Bella and I came to a stop at a small distance behind her. Bella let go of my hand and wrapped her arms around herself and began shivering, mostly from the cold but also perhaps from nervousness. I glanced at her and back at Carmen. Carmen's shoulders were bare and the olive tone of her skin was bluish in the moonlight. She was still kneeling there and I noticed now that she had plucked one of the flowers to examine it closer. Bella and I waited for her to speak and after a while a soft sound came out of her that may have been the sound of a smile.

"The flowers didn't wilt," she said. "Even without me to tend them."

Bella and I glanced at each other but neither knew what to say. I suspected Carmen's words had more to do with her coven than the flowers. Her coven hadn't wilted either but rather flourished in her absence.

Carmen dropped the plucked flower into the bed and rose in a smooth motion and turned and regarded Bella and I. Her eyes were dark and her hair and her dress fluttered in the wind. There was a slight furrow to her brow but no anger or hatred. Only concentration or difficulty.

Bella and I again waited patiently for her to speak and finally Carmen inhaled a breath.

"For over two hundred years I never once voluntarily left my coven," she said. "They were family to me. Even though they were all so much older than me, I couldn't help thinking of them as younger siblings. Siblings who needed to be taken care of. To be protected. To be shielded from evil influence."

I couldn't help smiling at that. Carmen noticed the smile and her brow did darken but again without any anger or hate. She looked away for a moment and then she looked at me again.

"Then you came along," she said. "And suddenly they all seemed to change. Things that had been important to them for hundreds of years were cast aside with hardly a second thought. Ideals were broken. Hearts were blackened. I saw this happening and I tried to stop it. But they wouldn't listen. They ignored my council. Mocked me. Scorned my feelings."

She shook her head and turned aside. She was frowning deeply by now but as before any anger there wasn't directed at Bella or I. She looked up at the moon, a whole three quarters of it burning coldly in the blackness, and then she turned back to Bella and I.

"But I understand now that my feelings were nothing but arrogance," she said. "Tanya, Kate, Irena. They don't need someone like me to make their decisions for them. They can make their own. And they did. They chose to accept you. And me, in my misguided superiority, decided to reject you. And abandon my family."

She looked down in shame. Her words and her raw delivery of them had affected Bella. She was still hugging herself and shivering in the cold and there also seemed to be tears in her eyes. I glanced at her and back at Carmen. Carmen shook her head at herself and then looked up again.

"I've returned because I've realized that there is nothing more important to me than my coven," she said. "My family."

Bella smiled at that and I smiled as well. Carmen drew herself up proudly and swallowed her emotions and then turned those proud and slanted black eyes onto me.

"And I want to thank you, Victoria," she said. "It was you who helped me realized that. At first I thought you were sent among us as a curse. But I was wrong. What I mistook for corruption was ultimately empowerment. Tanya and Irena are now able to be themselves and Kate as well has discovered who she truly is and what she truly wants."

I accepted the apology in silence with a smile. Bella smiled as well. Carmen continued looking at me for a long moment and then she stepped toward me and took both of my hands.

The gesture surprised me and filled my chest with an odd sensation of affection. She composed my hands, one on top of the other, and held them like that between hers as she gazed into my eyes.

"I hated you because I felt you had replaced me," she said. "And now, at last, I realize that you really did replace me. You took care of my coven in a way I never could. You saved them from things I wasn't even aware had befallen them."

She looked down at our clasped hands and then looked up again with the first smile she had ever given me.

"You did replace me, Victoria, but I can no longer hate you for it," she said. "I can only be grateful. Thank you for being there for my family when I wasn't."

Carmen's words had affected me deeply. I returned her smile with gratefulness that at least matched her own and then I lifted a hand and cupped her face to gaze into her beautiful latina eyes.

"I didn't replace you, Carmen," I told her. "Like the rest of your family, I was only waiting for you to return. Because even to me, the woman you reviled and despised, you were always quite irreplaceable."

My words seemed to melt her the same way her words had melted me and then I wrapped her into an embrace and held her while the cold wind riffled through our hair.

"Welcome home," I whispered to her. "Bella and I are part of your coven now and I hope you will love us the same as you love the others."

Carmen returned my embrace and for a long time we stood there holding each other. Bella was watching all this with a grin, bobbing on the spot, shivering from the cold in her tiny dress with her legs exposed. She was overjoyed at the reconciliation and she was only waiting her turn to apologize as well.

Eventually Carmen and I loosened our embrace and smiled at each other before we both turned to Bella. Their last encounter with one another had resulted in violence and bodily violation but Carmen had obviously come here prepared to put all that behind her and Bella's smile on her pale and blood-flecked face was simply too adorable to be mad at anyway.

"Hey," she said with a small wave, as if only just now saying hi. "Sorry about that last time we met."

Carmen smiled awkwardly and didn't answer. She had bought a lot of humility back to the mansion with her but there was still enough pride in her to keep her from forgiving and admitting she enjoyed being just a little bit raped.

Bella giggled at the awkwardness and then just flew forward and flung her arms around Carmen. Carmen was surprise at the sudden hug but she returned it. I smiled at them and watched. Bella gripped her very tight and grinned and whispered into Carmen's ear.

"Your pussy was so delicious, though," she said.

Carmen cleared her throat and pretended not to hear. Even in the darkness and through her vampiric pallor you could almost see a blush when Bella finally released her.

I smiled at all this but the time for pleasantries was over. There were serious things occurring in the mansion and we needed to know exactly where Carmen stood.

I took one of her hands and drew her attention toward me.

"Come, Carmen," I said. "Bella and I have been gathering victims to sustain her through her transformation. I think you should meet them."

Bella's smile faded at that as if she was afraid of Carmen's reaction. Carmen's smile faded as well but she nodded.

I took the woman back into the mansion and together with Bella we descended into the cellar. For some reason I felt now was the perfect time to do this. While her mind was most open and most eager for acceptance. She needed to see what her coven had become and what she must become as well in order to be part of her coven once again. Bella glanced at me as we descended the stairs, as if she were worried, but I smiled and shook my head to set her at ease. Carmen was calm and composed, even at the sound of muffled whimpers in the darkness, and I could see she would be equal to whatever she found down here.

The cellar was lit by candles in the manner of how Irena preferred it. Irena was down there now, clad in her black leather boots and black leather corset with the huge black strapon, and she had our newest victim all chained up. Carmen came to a stop and simply stood there and stared. Even in her lifespan of over two hundred years she had never seen anything like it. Seven women. Naked. Gagged and shackled at the wrists and ankles. Like prisoners or slaves. Seven pairs of eyes in which the candleflames trembled in tear filled pools. Seven pairs of tits in all different shapes and sizes. Large ones, small ones, young ones. The small room was filled with the rattle of chains and the whimpers of these seven women who were confused and terrified and only wishing they could go home. Chained like cattle or any other kind of livestock. Meat to be butchered.

"Madre de dios," whispered Carmen.

The hollow whisper gave me a tiny thrill. I glanced at Bella and saw in her grin that she felt it as well. Irena smiled at her coven mate's reaction, dressed in nothing but her leathers, and stepped aside for Carmen to explore further.

Carmen stepped deeper into the candlelight and looked at these poor women closer. Her face was a mask of sorrow and detachment. The women were all in a row against the wall, opposite the racks of wine bottles and much like bottles of wine themselves, containers of liquid kept for a special occasion. They were in the order they had been captured in and Carmen went among them one at a time.

First was the woman we had acquired tonight. The party girl. Her purple dress was gone and now she was completely naked, one of her ankles swollen and not touching the floor. Her skin was dark and her generous breasts were jiggling as she rattled against her chains futilely. Tears were leaking from her eyes but she was the only one crying. The other's had run dry on tears some time ago and now they were only scared.

Next in the row was Irena's girlfriend. The one from the BDSM site. Or perhaps her ex-girlfriend now. She was a small blonde with long hair and she had realized quite some time ago that this wasn't quite the bondage she had always fantasized about. Her mouth was stuffed with a ballgag and she looked at Carmen sadly before turning a look of hurt and betrayal at Irena. Irena smirked at her and winked with one red eye.

The next two women were only girls; the twin pixies Bella and I had picked up at the mall. They were still a little lively as well, as if they were still somewhat in denial and believed they could actually beg their way out of this. Carmen stopped and looked them over with a particular regret at their age. They took this for sympathy and began begging through their gags. They sounded like mewing kittens and they were as cute as kittens as well with their short hair and pretty faces and their young perky bodies. Carmen's eyes drifted between them, first at the light haired one, then at the dark haired one, and then she moved on.

Next was the housewife we had snatched while she was walking her poodles. She sniffled to herself but she didn't beg. She had long brown hair that had a nice waviness to it her and face was nice as well. She had the figure of a woman who had given birth a few times, large breasts and broad hips, and overall she was quite the sexy little milf.

After that was the amazon. Tall, muscular, chained there like a freak at the circus. Her ponytail was gone and her dark hair hung in a ragged wig. She alone refused to beg or make any sound and she glared at Carmen as if she thought it was actually possible to be intimidating with her wrists and ankles in chains and those gigantic breasts of hers hanging on her chest like big sacs of weakness. Carmen looked at her for a long time, seemingly admiring her physique, and then she moved on to the final woman in the row.

Claire. Poor Claire had been there the longest, days now, and her murmurs were curiously conversational. The fear in her face was only slight and she moved against her chains in a perfunctory manner as if only to indicate she would like to be free but didn't really expect it. She was the most plain of all the victims, with her droopy medium length brown hair and ordinary albeit athletic body. She did have a certain cuteness, though, and the beaten look in her eyes was perhaps more attractive than any physical feature.

Carmen sighed and turned back and looked at all the women struggling meekly in the candlelight with their tits exposed and then she turned back to Claire.

"Only a short while ago this sight would've filled me with fury and distress," she said. "But now…"

She lifted a hand gently and brushed the backs of her knuckles against Claire's cheek. Claire shivered but she didn't shrink back, as if she thought taking it might win her some points. Carmen smiled sadly at her wretchedness and spoke softly to the cellar in general.

"Now I'm not sure what I'm feeling," she said.

She dropped her hand and turned back to me. I smiled and came forward and gestured at the captured women.

"I wanted you to see them so that there's no misunderstandings," I said. "You said that Bella and I didn't come to corrupt but perhaps it's closer to the truth to say we didn't only come to corrupt. If you're going to accept us you have to accept us as unconditionally as we accept you."

Carmen nodded and looked at the prisoners. "Oh, don't worry," she said. "I have no misunderstandings. I know what kind of evil woman you are. What I've become doubtful of is the sincerity of my own morality. I have experienced a crisis of faith. Things I believed to be true I no longer have the same belief in. And now I'm left to wonder. Was I ever a good woman? Or was I only acting like one because I felt I was supposed to?"

One of the pixie girls started crying. The other pixie looked at her in something like annoyance, as if she didn't want attention drawn to them. I smiled at them and then I smiled at Carmen.

"I could tell you the truth right now, if you'd like," I said.

She turned to me. "Tell me."

I smiled and then shrugged one shoulder. "The truth is, it doesn't matter," she said. "You could be a good woman like Kate or a bad woman like Irena here. Your coven will accept you regardless. And Bella and I? All we want to do is you to figure it out."

Carmen nodded at that and seemed to accept it. The captives were all watching her as if even they were interested in the outcome of her personal journey.

Bella was glancing between the adults, as if she wasn't sure if she was allowed to speak, and then finally Irena came forward and began unchaining one of the victims. It was the woman we had acquired tonight, the one formally attired in a purple dress. Her shackles came free and she winced loudly as her weight was put on her bad ankles.

I looked at Irena inquiringly and Irena wrenched the woman up by her hair.

"With a broken ankle she's gonna be a bitch to deal with," she said. "Might as well kill her now and celebrate Carmen's return with a sacrifice."

Carmen didn't respond but she didn't object either. The naked woman was shaking her head frantically, her hair going everywhere, and Irena slapped her across the face to settle her down.

The slap echoed in the small cellar and the other naked women all cried out and fluttered at their chains briefly. Irena smirked and hefted up the dazed woman by her hair.

"Let's go upstairs," she said. "Tanya's waiting for us."

Carmen turned to me. Her expression was worried but I smiled at her and stepped aside and gestured at the stairs for her to go first. Bella smiled and stepped aside as well. Carmen looked at us and at Irena and the naked woman and all the other naked women chained in fear in the candlelight. Most of them shrank back. The amazon growled into her gag. Claire just watched without much expression at all. Carmen looked at them and sighed and then she turned away and walked past me and started up the narrow staircase.

I smiled at Bella and Bella smiled as well and fell into step behind Carmen.

The naked woman struggled the entire way but it only seemed to amuse Irena. She flailed with her arms and tried to kick with her feet and she kept falling and stumbling on her broken ankle and sobbing into her gag. Irena dragged her up the grand staircase in the foyer, trailing just behind me and Bella and Carmen, and at the top of the stairs she turned and stomped on the woman's shin. It broke her leg in half and caused her to howl into her gag and after that she didn't struggle anymore.

Tanya had lit candles in her bedchamber and she had the fireplace going as well. It was nice and warm and warmly lit. Tanya was just blowing out a match and she turned with a glowing smile as we entered the room. She was clad from top to bottom in white lingerie, white shoes and white stockings and beautiful white panties with a white bra and white gloves. All lace. Together with her flaxen hair she looked like the angel she always looked like. Carmen looked at her as if it was the first time she had seen her in so long and she missed her so much. Tanya beamed at her and opened her arms wide. Carmen moved forward into those arms and accepted her coven leader's embrace.

"Carmen," Tanya whispered. "I'm still so overjoyed that you've returned to us."

Irena was dragging the victim in but we all ignored her for a while. Bella and I were still in our evening dresses, me in red, her in black, and Irena was in her black boots and corset with the black strapon protruding from her hips—each perfectly dressed for what was sure to follow.

Tanya held Carmen for a long time and after a while Carmen sought release so that she could look into Tanya's face.

"Please forgive me, Tanya," she said. "All this time I thought you had forsaken me. But now I know that it was me who had forsaken you."

Tanya smiled and cupped Carmen's face. "No. You followed your heart. It led you astray but like the true heart that it is it also led you back to us."

Tanya gazed at Carmen for a moment and then she leaned and pressed a kiss upon her mouth.

Bella and I smiled at each other. The reunion was sweet and it implied sweet things. If even Carmen had returned to the coven then surely Kate would as well. Carmen moaned into the kiss and tilted her face to accept more of it. Tanya cupped her cheek and deepened the kiss and you could see the corner of her mouth curve just slightly in a smirk before she deepened the kiss again, more aggressively, more needfully.

Carmen whimpered and Tanya's hand closed in her hair and Tanya finished the kiss by nipping at Carmen's bottom lip. Carmen gasped and pulled back slightly, shocked at her old friend's behaviour. Tanya smirked, as if the bite was a little payback for leaving, and the excitement that flashed in Carmen's eyes was obvious to all. She was realizing now that Tanya had become a different woman in her absence. A darker woman. A sexier woman.

Meanwhile there was a painful whimper coming from the gagged woman on the floor. Her leg was snapped and bent the wrong way and she was crying. Tanya smiled at her and let go of Carmen's hair.

"A lot has changed while you were gone," Tanya said teasingly.

Carmen's eyes flittered across Tanya's white lace costume. "I can see."

Tanya turned and went over to the dresser, presenting us all with a view of her from behind, her slim back, her thong panties, her white stockings that came to midthigh. There was a silver tray on the dresser and she picked it up and bought it back over to where we were standing by the fire.

On the tray were a collection of wine glasses.

"To celebrate your return I've arranged a toast," she announced with a smile. "Something that will join us in a way we've never been joined before."

Tanya and Irena had obviously planned this in advance and now Irena wrenched up the naked woman and pulled back her head to expose her throat. The woman had tears running down her face and she was sobbing in terror into the gag. No one paid her any mind. Tanya bent and positioned the tray in front of her neck and then Irena used a fingernail to slice open the taut throat.

The sobs stopped instantly. The only sound was the fireplace. The woman's eyes bulged and blood spilled out of the gash in her neck. The tray was instantly flooded with thick red liquid and Tanya smiled and moved the tray in little inches to fill each of the glasses from this font of blood.

Carmen watched all this without saying a word. Her face was troubled but she clearly no longer trusted her own feelings and placed little importance on them. All she cared about right now was Tanya's feelings and mine and Bella's and Irena's and all she wanted to do was accept those feelings and be part of them.

Eventually the glasses were all full and Tanya rose up with the tray. The bottom of the tray swam with blood. Irena dropped the bleeding woman. Her head hit the rug with a thump. She lay there with blood leaking out of her neck and her leg bent the wrong way. Carmen glanced at her and then looked at the tray. Each glass was filled with blood and the scent of blood was heavy in the warm air. The smell of it would've been discernible even to Bella. Carmen looked up from the glasses and then looked at the rest of us.

Tanya smiled and then, surprisingly, offered the tray to Bella first.

"There's one for you as well," she said. "A little premature, perhaps, but I want you to participate."

Bella lit up with a smile. She had been a little awkward, as if she felt she didn't quite belong, but now she took one of the glasses. Blood dripped from the base of it and blood got on her fingers. She grinned and nodded a thank you to Tanya.

Tanya smiled and then offered one to me and then one to Irena. We both took a glass each and then there were only two left. Tanya offered the tray to Carmen and we all watched her and smiled at her and dared with our eyes to take it, to set aside her self-righteousness, to give in to the darkness. Carmen's eyes had gone pitch black from the scent and you could see the reflection of the fireplace burning inside each of those dark pools as if to incinerate her goodness itself. Carmen looked at Tanya and drew strength from her coven leader and then she reached for one of the glasses.

There was only one left and Tanya took the tray back to the dresser before returning to us with the last glass in her hand. Spurts of blood had stained her white lace bra and the white hills of her breasts. There were also flecks of blood on her face that gave her smile a sinister sort of sexiness as she looked at us and lifted her glass in a toast. I lifted my glass as well and then Bella and Irena and finally Carmen. All five glasses were aloft in the firelight and filled with blood and the naked woman was dying at our feet to no one's notice.

"To the coven," Tanya said. "Old members and new members alike. I love each and every one of you and I'm so happy to have you here with me tonight."

Irena smirked at that and I smiled. Bella looked at us and quickly added her own little sentiment to the toast.

"To Kate as well," she said. "She's not gone, she's just not here right now."

Tanya smiled at her in full agreement. "Indeed," she said. Then she turned to Carmen. "Carmen?"

Carmen hesitated in the firelight. We all watched her, waiting for her to have the first sip. She lifted the glass to her nose and inhaled deeply. Her eyes when they opened were black and opaque and they looked at us one final time before she closed them again and touched the glass to her lips and sipped.

The glass froze. Her eyes stayed closed. Her brows drew together in one final tiny fit of resistance before her jaw just fell open and she tipped the entire contents of the wine glass into her mouth. She swallowed it down in a series of gulps and moaned with her eyes rolling into her head. Her fingers tighten on the glass until the glass burst in her fist. Her eyes flew open again and the first thing she saw was the woman bleeding into the rug.

Instantly she dropped to her knees and flipped the woman over. She was still barely alive but not for much longer. Carmen wrenched back her head, tearing open her throat even further, and then she snarled and swooped to the gushing wound.

The rest of us watched this and now we smiled and sipped from our glasses. Irena drank all of hers in a few mouthfuls and then she threw the glass into the fireplace. The fire flared and crackled. Carmen was growling into the dying woman's neck and now Irena went around behind her and hiked up her dress and dropped her panties and rammed the strapon directly into Carmen's vagina.

Carmen all but roared at the sudden penetration and she shook her hips like an animal as she continued to feed and there was a sickening crunch of bone as the naked woman's ribcage was crushed in Carmen's grip. She was dead by now and her lifeless form was jostling limply as Carmen attacked her neck and Irena attacked Carmen's vagina.

Tanya smiled at all this and then smiled at me and Bella. I smiled as well and I then finished off the last mouthful in my glass before throwing the glass into the fireplace. Bella too quickly finished her glass, grimacing at the awful taste to her human taste buds, and then she threw her glass into the fireplace as well. Tanya sipped more daintily, watching as Bella and I began to unzip our dresses to join in, and then she knelt down on the ground and ripped the naked woman away from Carmen and spread her legs in front of Carmen's mouth instead. Carmen snarled at this with equal hunger, utterly consumed in a bloodcrazed frenzy of debauchery, and ripped Tanya's white lace panties away with her teeth and attacked the vagina behind them with her mouth while Irena drilled her from behind with the strapon. By now Bella and I had our dresses off and we lowered our panties as well before kneeling down on the blood soaked rug and descending upon Tanya's face and breasts with our mouths.

—

AN: This one turned out a lot longer than I thought it would, lol. It actually has very little dialogue, just a whole ton of description.

I liked the opening sequence. If this story was a movie or a TV show, that opening sequence would be like a montage with pop music playing in the background while Bella and Vicky go around nabbing their victims, lol. They got quite a few of them. Seven in total, but they're down to six now, lol. A nice little collection, I think. A muscle woman, a milf, two teenagers, and of course, Claire. I like Claire, lol. Just an ordinary plain Jane, but something strangely charming about her. ;)

And then there was Carmen's return. It worked out a lot different than I had originally anticipated way back when she left, but I think it was good. I wanted her to return on her own free will. The original plan was for Vicky to break her, but that didn't seem so viable anymore, so I went with the family and togetherness angle instead. But don't worry, Carmen can always sink further. ;)

Okay, hope you liked it. New chapter soon. :)