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Chapter 40:
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Today was going to be a monumental day. Bella's final day as a human. I would've liked to spend it entirely in bed, relishing in her warmth for as long as I possibly could, but unfortunately we had preparations to make.
The first thing we had to do was inform Tanya of our decision. We could've waited for her to come home but instead we went out to find her. She was only the woman in the house that had kept her career, which was rather easy for her to do as a model. She only worked certain days of the week and only for hours at a time and she did enjoy the work. They had a photoshoot that afternoon at a studio downtown.
She texted us directions to come watch the remainder of the shoot and when we arrived at the studio we were both mistaken for models. I was used to such mixups, with my supernatural gorgeousness and unearthly figure, but Bella, as a regular human, was greatly flattered. I had always told her how beautiful she was but as the woman who loved her I suppose my opinion on the subject didn't have the same weight as total strangers. In actuality she truly was more beautiful than ever. Back in Forks she had been a drab highschool girl with a raw beauty buried beneath crappy clothes and a dour attitude. But now her hair was styled and well-tended, her outfit was dark and chic, her skin was vibrant with happiness and with makeup, and her body was toned and confident from the daily exercise of intensive sex. Why, she was practically a vampire already.
The shoot continued to run for almost an hour after we arrived and one of the assistants offered us coffee and explained that the shoot was for a website. The shoot itself was a sort of semi-softcore pornography with a faux-lesbian flair. Tanya had a partner and her partner was a woman with red hair and a tremendous figure, much like myself only more tanned. She was so close to my equal that I actually felt a flicker of anger for her. How dare she look like me and be almost as beautiful? I mean, really. To add insult to injury the woman was clad entirely in red lace lingerie. Stockings, thong, bra, and of course spike heels. To complete the outfit she also wore a pair of small red devil horns in her hair. Tanya, in contrast, was dressed like an angel in white lingerie with a pair of fluffy white angel wings on her back, and the theme of the shoot was obviously corruption.
I would've found it interesting if it wasn't so vexing. I had already corrupted Tanya quite some time ago, thank you very much. This other redhead was merely an imposter, a phony demon who was only pretending for a camera. Bah.
Tanya was busy taking directions from the photographer and she hadn't had a chance to say hello but she did manage to wave and smile at us during the shoot. Soon both she and her partner had removed each other of their bras and they engaged in some mild breast play on a satin sheeted bed. Bella grinned and watched very excitedly, quite intrigued by the whole process as if a similar career might suit her as well, but I only frowned and hoped they wouldn't take off their panties as well. Tanya was too good for this kind of thing. The redhead was a fake demon but Tanya was a very real angel. How dare they degrade her like this? Bah.
At last the photographer called for a break. Tanya and the redhead disengaged themselves, smiling and complimenting each other on their work, and instantly a few makeup artists scurried onto the set and began refreshing their makeup. Tanya, however, waved her artists away and instead wrapped a towel around her shoulders to cover her breasts before coming over to Bella and I. The redhead watched her go with visible attraction and then smirked at her pantie-clad butt and turned back to her makeup artists.
Bah.
I was quite in the mood to kill everyone in the room out of protectiveness for Tanya—aside from Bella of course—but I managed to put my pettiness aside and smile brightly to greet her.
"Tanya, wow, you look wonderful," I told her. "Absolutely exquisite."
Tanya returned my smile and kissed each of my cheeks, holding the towel closed around her chest. "Thank you," she said. "I've wanted to invite you to a shoot for a long time but you've both been so busy lately."
"Actually, that's why we're here," Bella chimed in.
Tanya looked at her politely. "Oh?"
Bella grinned at me and then turned the grin to Tanya.
"Vicky's going to turn me," she said. "Tonight."
Tanya's eyebrows rose and she turned to me. She was in full makeup and angel wings with a white terrycloth towel over her shoulders to hide her breasts and all she was missing was a halo. My heart broke a little at how selfless and utterly without jealousy her expression was and I offered her a smile.
"We discussed it this morning and we felt it was best to do it as soon as possible," I explained. "But, of course, I wanted to make sure with you. We would never proceed without your blessing, Tanya dear, your support means so much to us."
Bella nodded at that in agreement. Tanya smiled at me, genuinely happy for us, and my heart broke a little more.
"You have more than my blessing, Victoria," she said to me, reaching with one hand to cup my face. "You know that."
And with that my heart broke all the way.
Oh, Tanya.
Tanya could see the emotions in my eyes and she smirked just a little. As if breaking my heart was at least somewhat gratifying if she could not claim it. She was still cupping my face with one hand and the towel that she had been holding closed around her chest had slipped away from one of her breasts and there was a full pink nipple there. Then she released my cheek and corrected the towel and turned back to Bella.
"Do you have enough victims?" she asked. "I have a feeling you're going to be very hungry."
Bella nodded eagerly. "Vicky says we have enough. Right, Vicky?"
I smiled and got myself back under control. "We have eight," I said. "Originally I wanted a few more, but with things so uncertain lately, I don't want to delay a day longer."
"I understand," Tanya said, "although I feel guilty for not contributing to the hunt. If I had acquired a few victims myself…"
"Nonsense, Tanya," I said, cutting her off immediately. "You've done more than plenty, we owe everything to you."
She smiled at that and chuckled and looked back toward the studio. "Even so, perhaps I can make a final last minute offering."
The studio was buzzing with activity, makeup artists fluttering around the model with red hair, technicians adjusting cameras, assistants delivering coffee. The devilish redhead was glancing over at Tanya, clad in red stockings and red heels with a pair of luscious breasts fully exposed, and Tanya smiled at her and turned back to Bella.
"What do you think of that woman there, Bella?" she said. "Her name's Leanna."
Bella glanced over and grinned. "She's hot," she said, and then she took my arm and smiled at me. "I love redheads."
I laughed at that and I felt a surge of excitement at Tanya's suggestion. It was nice to know the woman with redhair meant little enough to her that she would happily serve her up to be murdered.
Tanya smiled at us impishly and lowered her voice.
"She's in town from New York and staying at the Copeland," she said. "With a little discretion, there's no way she could be traced back to us. I think she'll make quite a succulent addition to your newborn feast, don't you Bella?"
Bella nodded eagerly. "Sure."
Tanya smiled at her and then reached with a hand and touched her face affectionately. "Excellent," she said. "I'm so happy for you, Bella. You and Victoria deserve each other so much. I truly envy you."
Bella returned the smile, all oblivious to the true meaning of Tanya's words. I watched them sadly and Tanya smiled at my mate and gave her a kiss on the forehead before one of the photographers called across the studio for Tanya to rejoin them.
Tanya glanced back at the set and back at me.
"Well, I better get back to work," she said. "Feel free to stick around for a while."
Bella nodded and I gave a nod as well. Tanya smiled at us and let her eyes linger longingly on mine for just a moment before she turned and went back to the shoot.
Bella and I didn't stay long. Tanya and her redhaired colleague, Leanna, were soon back on the bed and arranging themselves in all sorts of sexy positions for the cameras, the two of them smiling and flirting and quite enjoying their work. Tanya was quite friendly with the other woman and her plan obviously seemed to involve some sort of seduction. Perhaps she would coerce her way back to the redhead's hotel room and incapacitate her there. I still felt a little jealous but maybe that was guilt as well. I cared about Tanya so much and I wanted Tanya to be happy. She deserved to have her feelings returned and yet fate had instead ordinated that she merely stand by and watch the woman she love be joined in eternity to someone else. And not only to watch. But to help. And support. And be happy for us. Tanya was truly a selfless soul. I only hoped Bella and I could repay her in friendship.
The shoot was soon over and afterwards Tanya and the luscious Leanna strolled together behind an oriental folding screen where they could get changed. Tanya would obviously need some time alone with the other woman to work her magic so Bella and I quietly slipped out before either of them had emerged from the screen.
Bella was in a jovial mood in the car, bubbling with excitement about her upcoming transformation, and she made a special request for McDonalds for lunch since it would be the very last time she ever had lunch. I observed dryly that fast food seemed rather unambitious for one of a person's last meals but she only giggled and said she loved McDonalds. I smiled at her and pulled up in the drive-through. No one ever accused her of refined taste, I guess. And since she no longer had to worry about gaining weight she decided to go all out with three cheeseburgers, large fries, and a non-diet Coke. The non-diet Coke was particularly reckless and I admit I advised her against it lest a pimple sprang up during her transformation and somehow survived the process. But she was adamant on the abuse of her stomach this final day of its use. She topped off the order with an apple pie for dessert and she grinned and began eating right there in the car.
I drove for a while, aimlessly, but a romantic idea occurred to me and I turned south and continued out onto the highway. Bella asked where we were going but I smiled and told her it's a surprise.
It was a long drive, hours on the road with nothing but trees and forest on either side, and she was grinning as soon as she saw the sign. Port Angeles. I returned the grin and drove even faster to save time. We reached the reached the Uptown Inn in the early afternoon and found it much the same as when we first stayed here, all those months ago when I had stolen her out of her bedroom and snatched her away into the night. The clerk at the front desk recognized us and we smiled at him with our arms linked and asked for the same room we had stayed at the last time we were here. Luckily it was available and he handed over the key and told us to enjoy our stay. We told him we would.
The front of the motel still featured it's charming array of pot plants and I was so excited I almost fumbled with the keys as I unlocked the door. Bella giggled at me and told me to hurry. We burst inside as soon as the door was open and I threw her onto the bed and ripped off her pants and began devouring her vagina until she moaned and arched and orgasmed in this same bed where once upon a time she used to cry and resist and beg me to stop. After that she had to pee. She blamed the non-diet Coke. I laughed and told her to go ahead and soon we were both stripped off and in the shower before returning to the bed and slipping under the covers. I kissed her for a long time, relishing the warmth and wetness of her mouth, and then I lowered my lips to one of her nipples while I pumped two fingers in and out of her. She orgasmed again, smiling, and the she pulled me back into a kiss before rolling me over and moaning into my mouth and reaching between my legs.
Afterwards we lay in each other's arms, sweaty and satisfied, and reminisced about the last time we were here. Bella has so many sweet things to say. About how happy she was that I had taken her. About how she loved being handcuffed to a bed or stored in a closet. Gagged. Slapped. Beaten. Raped. But only on her own terms. Only by me. Because she loved me. I chuckled and half-playfully apologized for being so awful to her but she smiled and rose up in the bed and gazed at my face in silence and slavishness until my heart almost swelled out of my chest. She then lowered her lips onto mine and deepened the kiss with her tongue.
Unfortunately we couldn't stay long and soon we were stepping into our panties and brushing our hair with our fingers. We checked out at a little past four in the afternoon and we were back in Seattle by nightfall.
Tanya wasn't home by the time we got there and a few texts revealed that she was having drinks with the lovely Leanna. She said she would text again when her red haired colleague was ready to be picked up and suggested that perhaps Bella and I should take dinner there at the five-star Copeland. The dining room was quite romantic. I liked the idea and Bella and I were never ones to shy away from an excuse to get dressed up—especially on her final night as a human.
So we selected some fine evening dresses and put them on, together with some sexy lace underwear beneath. Me in red, her in black. Naturally. Her own dress was rather elegant, considering. Heavy velvet, long and slit up one leg to the length of her thigh. Together with makeup and high heels and some diamond jewellery purloined from Tanya's jewellery box she looked like quite a little woman. All grown up. Fitting for the importance of the night. My own dress was in a similar style, refined and elegant, and the bodice pushed up my breasts into a pair of very delectable looking mounds. Bella and I shared the same puff of perfume, spraying it into the air and walking through the wisp with our eyes closed like women moving through a dream. Bella smiled at me and asked how she looked, tonight, this final night of her former life. I smiled at her as she passed her hands over her heavy black dress shyly, standing pigeon-toed in her high heels, and I took her face in my hands and pressed my forehead to hers and told her she was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. She looked into my eyes, as if to see if that was true, and then she giggled and kissed me.
It was still a little early to head to the hotel and so Bella and I sought the company of our coven. Carmen was in the kitchen, making a surprise dinner for Bella, and she was devastated and embarrassed to learn that we were going out. The bigger surprise, however, was that she had help in the kitchen; two young girls in dog collars and ankle shackles. It was the two pixies from the cellar and apparently they had been put to work at Carmen's command, cleaning dishes, fetching spoons. Both of them were utterly naked and they made quite attractive and symmetrical-looking help, one of them lighthaired, one of them darkhaired, both the same height with similar sized breasts. Their expressions were blank and they avoided eye contact. Bella and I shared a glance but we didn't comment. Instead we assured Carmen that we simply couldn't let her generosity go to waste and we were more than happy to change our plans to a quiet dinner at home instead. Carmen apologized profusely for spoiling our evening out but we told her it was really no problem. We could always go out for drinks afterward instead. The pixies watched all this with sad and pretty and angry eyes and then the oven dinged and Carmen quickly shooed them back to work. Bella and I could see she was busy and we said we'd get out of her hair and came back later when it was ready.
Bella and I went outside through the terrace and looked about for Irena. It was a cold night, cold enough to plume these last few breaths Bella would ever breathe, but Bella was wearing a black chinchilla coat that she kept wrapped tight around herself. We spotted Irena over by the flowerbushes and at first she seemed to be alone until we came around and noticed poor Claire on all fours. She was wearing absolutely nothing but a collar attached to a leash, even in this cold, and she was mincing along on her hands and knees at Irena's side like a faithful female hound. She kept her head down and didn't look up as Bella and I joined Irena and exchanged kisses on each other's cheeks. Irena was naked as well but of course she was impervious to the cold.
The four of us continued down the lane—well, three of us if you discount the animal called Claire—and we told Irena all about our plans tonight. We made a circuit around the fountain where those carved stone angels bathed eternally in the icy moonlight and swung up along the flowerbeds toward the glasshouse with Claire crawling along with her head down. She would've heard every word but if terms like transformation and feeding intrigued her she kept it to herself. Her skin had gone blue from the cold and she was shivering but hadn't spoken a single word. Her ordeal seemed to have perhaps snapped her mind and displaced her brain from the body it inhabited. Irena kept a very slow pace in deference to the dog-woman's bare knees on the bricks and she held the leash loosely and with a certain pride, like the owner of a ribbon-winning animal.
Claire's figure was strangely flattered by her position, perhaps because being on her knees negated her chief flaw of short legs, and she really did have a fine ass. It was large in the moonlight, broad and pale, and it was made all the more finer for the obedience of how she simply continued to crawl along with those lovely buttocks exposed to all. Bella kept smiling at her and I confess I did as well. The woman was quite impressive. She had a certain something the other victims lacked. Not strength, perhaps, but something similar. Dignity. Even now, collared and leashed and led along a path like a lap dog. Mincing along slowly and stoically and all immune to the cold and humiliation alike.
Irena smiled as Claire won more and more attention to herself and she paused in the lane and looked down at her fondly.
"I like to take her out at night sometimes," she said. "She gets quite stiff down in the cellar."
"Isn't she cold?" Bella asked.
Irena smiled at her pet woman with affection but no pity. "Probably."
Bella rolled her eyes at that, as if she herself were any less sadistic, and then she shrugged off her chinchilla coat and lowered it around Claire's shivering shoulders. Claire looked up in surprise, holding the coat around herself, and said nothing. She glanced at Irena, as if terrified at some punishment for having a coat put on her, but Irena only smirked at her for a moment.
We were passing a wrought iron garden bench under a pair of dark apple trees and Irena evidently decided this was a nice place to take a rest. She sat down on the bench, folding her naked legs, and Bella and I sat together at her side in our evening dresses. Bella was already rubbing her bare arms but she didn't seem to regret her generosity. Claire settled down at our feet, on the cold bricks of the garden path, and she kept the coat wrapped around her naked body.
Bella sighed up at the stars and inhaled a deep breath of the cold night air before smiling down at Claire.
"Thanks so much for taking care of them, Irena," Bella said to Irena. "You won't have to much longer. Like we said, tonight is the night."
I crossed my legs and brushed a hand at my dress. "The transformation will take five days. Then you'll need to begin feeding right away."
Bella giggled and rubbed her arms excitedly. "I can't wait. I'm so curious what it tastes like."
Irena smiled at us and then turned her attention to Claire. Claire was looking away. Her brown hair was dark in the moonlight and it hung very plainly around her face and Irena reached for her and began stroking that hair. Claire froze. She even stopped shivering. Her eyes flickered at Irena and away again and Irena smiled.
"I think I'm going to miss Claire," she said. "She's been so much more cooperative than the others. Haven't you, Claire?"
Claire swallowed a lump in her throat. Then she nodded timidly.
I smiled and I wondered if poor Claire might hold some hope in her heart that perhaps Irena might let her go if she was good enough. Bella grinned as well and she seemed highly intrigued by these training methods.
"Is she allowed to talk?" she asked Irena.
Irena continued stroking Claire's hair. "I generally prefer her silent. But she can talk if you want to speak to her."
Claire looked at Bella, alert and half-guarded and shrouded up in the fur coat like a colliedog called to attention. Bella was still rubbing her arms and she spoke to Claire with a grin.
"I bet you thought you were the luckiest girl in the world when Vicky hit on you at the gym," she said. "Didn't you?"
Claire's eyes swung toward mine in a brief glance of something like attraction before she looked away again.
"Yes," she admitted quietly. "I did."
Bella smiled at the cooperation and bare humiliating truth. "I guess you thought a woman like her was out of your league."
Claire nodded with her eyes down. "Yes."
"But you know that's not true, right? Vicky really did like you."
Again the woman's eyes flickered up at my face in the moonlight, my hair, my smile, searching for any hope of mercy there.
"You did?" she asked.
I laughed leisurely. "Of course I did, you silly thing," I told her. "I was very interested in you. Granted, my interests were rather darker than a date, but I was interested all the same. You really are quite pretty."
Claire didn't know how to react to that but you could almost hear her heart skip a beat. This was not a woman who was often flattered and the compliment seemed to have squarely stabbed the sensitive place inside her that was so desperate for them.
She looked down and looked up again. She was trembling under the coat, like an animal that was really cold, and she couldn't quite figure out if these flirtations would help keep her alive and if she should continue them. Bella grinned at her and continued rubbing her arms.
"I guess you've realized by now we're not gonna be letting you go," she said.
Claire nodded despondently. "I know."
"And you're not scared?"
"Not really."
"How come?"
"I don't know."
"Is it because you think Irena's gonna let you go?"
Claire didn't answer that. She didn't look up either.
Bell and I shared a smile with Irena. The woman at our feet obviously had some kind of hope pinned on her tall blonde mistress. Irena was holding the leash loosely in her lap and she was stark naked in the moonlight with her legs crossed and she smiled softly at Claire.
"Claire knows her situation," she said. "I've explained it to her very clearly. Her death is inevitable. But in return for her acceptance and cooperation we can at least have a nice time together."
Claire looked up at Irena slowly. Her lip was trembling and she was shaking from the cold even under the coat. Irena smiled at her and reached to touch her hair. Claire leaned into the touched obediently although it was impossible to tell if she was actually resigned to her death or still in denial.
Bella giggled at that, her teeth chattering, and she blew into her freezing hands before speaking.
"Tell you what, Claire," she said. "Irena likes you and so do I. So I'll give you a choice. You can die first or you can die last. What do you think?"
Irena released her and Claire looked at Bella.
"Last," she said.
Bella raised her eyebrows half-mockingly. "Last? Are you sure about that? You don't think it would be even worse to watch them disappear one by one? Waiting down there in the dark until you're the last one left and then it's your turn? Wouldn't you prefer to get it over with and end your suffering as soon as possible?"
Claire didn't answer. Bella grinned at Irena and then grinned down at Claire.
"Or do you like it when Irena rapes you?" she said. "Is that what you want? You wanna get in as many rapings as possible before you die? Is that it?"
Claire's eyes finally began to fill with tears as the cold and humiliation became too much for her to bare.
"You could let me go," she whispered.
Bella laughed at that and looked at me. "They always say that, don't they?"
I tried not to smile but I couldn't help it. The poor woman truly did hope to survive this ordeal. I wasn't sure if she was incredibly stupid or incredibly cute.
Claire shivered and looked at us frightenedly.
"What do you mean?" she said. "What do they say?"
Bella sighed and looked at her with a smile. "Always the same thing. They say you don't have to do this. Stop, please. Just let me go and I won't even call the police."
"I won't," Claire whispered, her breath misting in the cold air. "I promise."
Bella laughed as if the other woman just proved her point. "See? You said it. They always do. But it doesn't help, does it?"
Claire bit her lip. She looked at Irena desperately but Irena did nothing but smile. Claire's eyes refilled with tears and she quickly looked down to wipe at them with the coat.
"Do you know what we are, Claire?" Bella asked her.
"No."
"We're vampires. Well, they are. I will be soon. Tonight, actually. And do you know why we bought you here? Not just to kill you and rape you. But to butcher you. And drain your blood."
Claire sniffed and looked up at her with wet eyes. "Is that true?"
"About what? Being vampires or killing you?"
"Being vampires."
"Oh yeah, it's true. You think ordinary women look like Irena or Vicky? You think they go around kidnapping and raping women like you?"
Claire looked at us, all three, one after the other. I smiled and realized that she actually wanted to believe it. As if the fact of us being vampires might somehow lend some plausibility to her predicament. Ironically. But she knew vampires were make believe and she couldn't quite get there.
Bella saw that as well and grinned at Irena.
"Irena, why don't you prove it to her?"
Irena smirked at the challenge and then placed a hand on the wrought iron armrest beside her and ripped it away from its bolts and weldings.
Claire stared in shock. The display of strength had been effortless. Inhuman. Supernatural. Bella chuckled and I smiled and shook my head. Irena smiled at Claire with the bar of iron in her hand and then she lifted it and threw it across the gardens. Claire's head whipped around to follow it but it rose so high and small in the black sky that she lost sight of it.
She turned back to Irena and Irena smirked and tossed her chin after the flying piece of iron.
"Fetch," she said.
Bella giggled at that and then rose and took her coat off Claire. Claire was stunned. She wasn't even shivering anymore. Bella slipped the warm black chinchilla coat back on and looked down at Claire.
"Last chance to decide," she said. "First or last to die. You wanna stick around and suffer with Irena? Or you want it over with as soon as possible?"
Claire finally closed her mouth and looked up at Bella.
"I'll go last," she whispered.
Bella smiled and fluffed out her hair from the coat. "Good choice. If I was you, I would've said the same thing. I used to love being raped, back when I was in your position."
"You used to be kidnapped like me too?"
"Yup, kind of. Vicky kidnapped me out of my very own bedroom. You actually got it pretty easy compared to me. Vicky was much more violent than Irena, believe it or not. One time she even tortured me with a blowtorch."
I rose from the bench and shook my head with a smile. I had been hoping she would've forgotten about that little episode.
Claire looked at me, her eyes rigid in exhilaration, and then at Bella.
"How come you're still alive?" she asked.
Bella shrugged and wrapped her arm around mine and looked up at me cutely.
"Vicky was in love with me," she said.
I smiled and gave her a kiss. Claire watched the kiss and then she turned to Irena with something in her eyes that might've been a budding form of the similar sort of love and surrender Bella had once felt for me. Irena was still sitting there on the bench with her legs crossed and now she unfolded her legs and patted her lap.
Claire didn't hesitate. She rose from the bricks where she had been sitting and dusted her bare thighs of little bits of gravel and then she sat down on Irena's lap and curled up in Irena's arms with a newfound hope at survival. I wasn't sure if it would work out for her but there was no harm in her trying. Pets were always more valuable than livestock.
Bella smiled at Irena.
"I better get inside to eat," she said. "Make sure you make her regret her decision to die last."
Irena was cupping Claire's face. In the leashed woman's eyes was nothing but resignation and wretchedness and a vague desire to be raped if only being raped would somehow set her free.
"Oh, I will," Irena said, and then she pulled her pet woman toward her in a kiss.
Bella and I chuckled and turned and began walking back to the mansion.
By the time we got back inside we were just in time for dinner. The scent of it filled the kitchen. Carmen was just taking it out of the oven with a pair of oven mitts, a large leg of roast pork with pancetta and green olive sauce. A traditional spanish dish, much like the woman herself. The pixie servants were still there, clad in their collars and chains, and the lighthaired one was setting the huge oak dining table, placing down a wine glass and a water glass and a silk napkin and pausing with the knife and fork before timidly calling out to Carmen that she didn't know which side to put them. Her darkhaired duplicate was standing by with a chilled bottle of white wine, also not knowing what to do, and Carmen came over and sorted them out with a smile.
Bella was shooed to the table and she sat down in her black evening dress with me at her side in my red gown. A candelabra had been lit and the atmosphere of dim orange lighting together with the rattle of chains from the slavegirls lent the evening a medieval mood of queens at court. Bella spread the white silk napkin on her lap and smiled as one of the pixies poured her wine, topless and sniffling to herself, and the other set before her a bowl of sopa de arroz y pescado, a rice and seafood soup that steamed softly in the candlelight. Neither Bella nor I spoke to the pixies or even acknowledged their service, all the more regal for that. Carmen carried the roast to the table and set it down and began to carve it with a knife. Bella was sipping her soup with a spoon and she told Carmen it was delicious. Carmen laughed away the compliment and said most of the credit belonged to her assistants chefs, Nikki and Ashley, the pixie taste testers who'd helped her perfect the spices. Bella almost choked on the soup at the name Nikki and I had to laugh as well. The girl with dark hair, the one called Nikki, observed these reactions fearfully, and she had no way to know that she was the third different Nicole who had fallen into our clutches. At this rate the name was perhaps cursed.
A wineglass had been set out for me as well and after a while I inquired into the purpose of it. Carmen had completely forgotten. She was just finished carving up the pork and now she called over one of the girls. The girls glanced at each other, not knowing which had been called and neither wanting to volunteer. You could see in their eyes that their ordeal had eroded their relationship to little more than resentment and in their heart of hearts they each blamed the other for even being captured in the first place. Carmen called again, this time for both of them, and together they stepped forward reluctantly. Carmen smiled at them and told them not to be afraid and she took the wrist of the lighthaired one and held it over the wineglass before slicing it with the carving knife. The girl whimpered at the pain and tried to pull away but Carmen held the wrist and continued to coo to her and tell her it would be alright. Bella and I smiled, watching in the candlelight. Carmen drained enough blood from the girl to fill the glass and then she gave her a napkin to wrap her wrist. The girl sniffled to herself and pressed the napkin to the cut. I lifted the glass and swirled the thick red liquid and took a sip. Carmen smiled and asked me if it was sweet and I said it was very sweet. She then took the other girl's wrist and held it over a second glass for herself and sliced this wrist as well, carving these young girls with the same respect and tenderness she had shown the pork roast and the same knife as well.
Soon Bella was finished with the soup and enjoying the main course. Bella and I insisted that Carmen sit with us and now she was sitting across the table from me in a salsa-stained housedress and her long black hair pinned up, sipping from her glass of blood like a housewife relaxing with wine after a long day. The two pixies were standing shoulder to shoulder with their heads down, naked, chained, the candlelight flowing over their small perky breasts. Their wrists were bandaged with silk napkins but neither cut was very bad. If they had any thoughts about Carmen and I drinking blood they kept them to themselves.
Carmen watched Bella eat, slicing away little sections of sliced roast and dipping them in the special pancetta sauce that pooled on her plate, and she smiled.
"I suppose this is the last time I'll get to cook for you," she said. "Oh well. It was nice to get a bit of use out of the kitchen while it lasted."
I sipped from my glass of blood and smiled as I set it down. "You're not done in the kitchen yet, Carmen. We still have eight humans in the cellar that need to be fed for up to a week. Nine, soon. Not to mention those darlings over there."
"That's true," Carmen said, looking over at the enslaved pixies. "Poor dears."
Carmen's eyes were bright red and filled with a mixture of affection and pity. Bella grinned at the look on her face and shoved more pork into her mouth.
"Do you really feel sorry them?" she asked.
Carmen breathed out a sigh and smiled. "Yes," she said. "I do. These two in particular, perhaps. They're so young. I've always wanted a daughter."
Both pixies had their heads bowed. The lighthaired one looked up briefly and quickly looked down again. The dark haired one had gone white knuckled from how she was clenching her hands.
I looked at them and smiled and then I smiled at Carmen.
"Well," I said. "Think of Bella as your daughter."
Bella grinned loutishly with her mouth full, elbows on the tables, a dinner roll in one hand and grease on her chin. Carmen gave her a skeptical look.
"Yes, well, she could certainly use some lessons in manners," she said, shooing Bella's elbows off the table. Bella giggled and straightened up a little. Carmen smiled at her and then she looked toward the chained teenagers and sighed once more. "In any case, I've learnt now that my love for my coven far outweighs any love I might have for complete strangers. Nothing will ever shake that love again. No matter what."
I gazed at her in the candlelight. She was holding her glass thoughtfully and I watched her take a sip from the blood it contained. I smiled.
"You're a complicated woman, Carmen," I said.
A smile sprang to her mouth and she waved it away as if it were a particularly flattering compliment. Bella smiled as well and kept eating while she talked.
"You know what you should do, Carmen?" she said. "You should go hunting. Find some nice girl and fuck her and just kill her really painfully. The best way to get used to the darkness is to just jump in. Trust me, you'll love it when you get used to it."
Carmen laughed once at that, very softly, and traced her finger around the rim of her almost empty wine glass.
"Yes, I suppose you're right," she said. "When I think of those poor women downstairs I'm filled with the most peculiar sensations. A stirring deep in my stomach. A burning in the back of my throat. Inside my heart I can already feel myself succumbing. It's…"
She chuckled and looked up with a smile.
"…not unpleasant."
Bella chuckled as well and drained the last of her wine. I smiled as well. Carmen noticed Bella's empty glass and gestured for one of the girls.
"Nikki, dear, would you refill Bella's glass for her? Thank you so much."
The darkhaired one looked up and reluctantly shuffled forward in her chains. The bottle of wine was in an icebucket and she took it out and used a towel to wipe the dripping body of it like a professional waitress. Bella smirked at her and held up her glass. The girl poured it, refusing eye contact. The other girl, the lighthaired one, was watching furtively in the candlelight.
No sound in the dining room but the pouring of wine. Carmen was smiling and eyeing the girl's body while she was doing it. Her petite teenage little body. The older woman was bitting her lip hungrily and all but licking her chops like a cougar. She still had half a mouthful of blood in the bottom of her glass and now she lifted it and drained it and sighed in satisfaction. Then she giggled abruptly and shook her head.
"Evil really oughtn't feel this good, it's counter-productive to resisting it," she said.
Bella and I giggled as well. Carmen set down her empty glass and rose.
The darkhaired pixie looked up fearfully, as if she thought she did something wrong. Carmen took the wine bottle from her and set it back in the bucket and then she took the girl's hand and gestured for the other girl to join them.
"Come, girls," she said. "We'll take you upstairs and put you in a bath and get some fresh bandages on those wrists. You only have one more duty to perform and after that perhaps you can sleep in a bed tonight. Hm? Does that sound nice?"
Neither girl answered, although through the frowns on their pretty faces you could almost see an unwilling flicker of excitement. Carmen smiled at them and petted their pixie-like hair, her maternal instinct in full flourish, and then she smiled at Bella and I.
"Enjoy your dinner, Bella," she said. "Just leave the mess, I'll take care of it later."
Bella smiled at her. "Thank you, Carmen, it was delicious."
Carmen nodded happily and then she chuckled at her girls and directed them toward the tall inlaid doubledoors that led out into the corridor.
The candles were still burning and Bella and I enjoyed the rest of the meal by ourselves. Bella had already had a huge lunch and soon she could fit no more of dinner. I poured some more wine for her and by now she had consumed almost the entire bottle. It was the last time she would ever be affected by alcohol so I didn't object. She stumbled in her heels as she rose from the table and giggled and patted her stomach from how full she was. I cleaned up some of the plates and stored the left over roast in the refrigerator, even though she would never eat it, and she followed me with a swaying gait in her evening dress as she sipped the last of the wine away.
Within the hour we had left the mansion in the SUV and we were headed to the Copeland Hotel. Bella opened her window to allow the night air to cool her face and sober her up a little. Technically we were out to hunt.
The hotel featured a grand façade of brick and glass with an even grander lobby that sported a cluster of crystal chandeliers in the ceiling and a marbled floor of tiled domino. Bella and I linked arms and continued to the bar in our evening gowns, heads turning to glance at us, at my hair, at my partner's dress. The bar was quiet and dimly lit and there was a blonde woman at a piano who reminded me of Tanya. The bar was polished mahogany and the barkeep was a young man in a vest and bowtie who set down a pair of napkins as we took our stools and asked us with a smile what we wanted. Bella told me to order for her and I ordered a rum cocktail, something she had never tried and never would again. The barkeep prepared the drink right in front of us and poured it out of a chrome shaker with crushed ice and accepted the folded bills I slid across the counter before giving a bow and a smile and moving on to other customers.
Bella sipped the cold and sugary beverage and made a sound of pleasure deep in her throat. I smiled and looked across the bar at the blonde pianist. Right now Tanya was upstairs with that woman with redhair. Leanna. She would text us when it was time to collect her.
Bella was looking about the bar as well, perched there on the stool in her long black gown like a movie star, and after a while she noticed me smiling at her. She smiled as well.
"So," she said. "This is my last night as a human, huh?"
I nodded and caressed her hand. "How do you feel?"
She took a breath and breathed it out and looked around with a sort of nervousness as if only now realizing the significance of what was going to happen tonight. "I don't know," she said. "Excited, but kind of intimidated too. Do you think I'll make a good vampire?"
"You're virtually a vampire already," I said with a smirk.
"Yeah," she said with a smile. "I guess so. How exactly are you going to turn me?"
"It's simple, really. It's just a matter of pumping venom into your system."
She sipped and nodded. "What else?"
"That's all, really."
She was mid-sip and she looked at me with the liquid in her mouth. She swallowed. "That's it? What do you mean, that's it? We're not going to do anything special? I thought we talked about this, Vicky?"
I was still holding her hand and I caressed it a little more and laced my fingers with hers and her fingers were so slim and warm that all I wanted to do was hold them.
"We have," I said, "but…"
Bella pulled her hand away from mine and frowned. "But what? You know what I want, Vicky. And I know you want it too. You've dreamed about killing me ever since you first laid eyes on me. And this is the only chance you'll ever get. You can do anything you want to me and in five days I'll be back to normal. Better, even. Tonight you'll have a chance to ravish me in ways you only ever dreamed of. Isn't that what you want?"
Perhaps it was the alcohol but she was actually getting a little upset. I smiled and reached for her hand again.
"I know, baby," I whispered. "But under the circumstances I just don't think we should be taking any risks."
Bella looked into my eyes firmly. Then the firmness crumbled away and she slumped a little.
"I'm sorry, baby," I said. "The turning process is already going to be so painful and even if you enter it in perfect health there's still no guarantee you'll live through it. Can you understand how scared I am of even that smallest possibility?"
Bella nodded grudgingly, staring down at our hands. I smiled and gave her a squeeze.
"Besides, I think our relationship's moved past all that, don't you?" I asked, trying to be cheerful. "I don't want to hurt you anymore. I just want to love you and take care of you. Isn't that enough?"
"Yeah, but…"
She sighed and looked up at me.
"I just thought tonight could be special, that's all," she said. "I miss how you used to make me feel. You have no idea what it was like, Victoria. Every time you hit me. Every time you bashed my head into something or put a knife to my throat or a gun to my head. Every time you raped me. It was exciting. I tried to resist you so much, but I couldn't. Your passion was too much. It overwhelmed me. And I miss that. I miss being overwhelmed. I miss being devoured. And after I become a vampire it'll never be the same again. You know? I mean, I know the sex-phase doesn't last forever, and all relationships have to solidify eventually, but…"
My phone beeped.
Bella broke off and frowned at it. It was sitting on the bartop and I let go of her hand to take up the phone and look at the screen. It was a text from Tanya.
"Tanya wants us to go up," I said, tucking the phone into my purse.
Bella nodded and sighed and gulped down the last of her drink, leaving only a bed of crushed ice in the bottom of it.
I rose from my stool and frowned at the peculiar stirring of emotions in my stomach. Bella's speech had affected me but I wasn't sure how. Without speaking I led her out of the bar and into one of the elevators in the lobby. The elevator doors were gold and the interior was gold as well. We were the only two people inside. I could see our reflections in the metallic gold panelling. The feeling of vertigo in my stomach as the elevator ascended only intensified the feelings already there and I realized that I was angry. At Bella. Why did she have to pressure me about this? Hadn't I already explained time and time again how dangerous it was? Hadn't we taken too many risks already?
I glanced at Bella. She was staring straight ahead and the most frustrating thing was that she didn't even understand. She thought the softening of my feelings meant the weakening of them as well but she was wrong. All I wanted was to keep her safe. That was all. It didn't mean that I don't still crave her body in the same way I used to. I did. Every time we made love there was always the temptation to bite into her like some forbidden fruit filled with only the most succulent juices. Every time. But if I gave into that temptation she would be dead by now. And if I did what she wanted tonight, if I ravaged her and raped her and fucked her to the very limit of her life, how did she know she could survive it and the transformation afterwards? It wasn't my passion that was in question here. It was her survival. Her weak human body. But she didn't understand that, did she? No, of course not. In her mind it was my fault. It made me so angry. I could feel it churning in my stomach. How could she not understand? Well, maybe I should make her understand. Maybe I should—
Suddenly I spun around and grabbed her and threw her against the wall of the elevator.
The back of her head bounced off it but her gasp was choked off as my hand curled around her throat. Her dark eyes rolled up and fluttered in her skull like butterflies. I squeezed her neck viciously, her small slender warm little neck, and bashed her head one more time. It made a hollow bong against the golden metallic panel. The elevator continued to rise and she groaned and opened her eyes and I snarled at her and used my other hand to yank the neckline of her dress under one of her breasts before clawing into that soft and fleshy mound in a harsh groping that showed her exactly how vulnerable her body can be.
"Is this what you miss?" I growled at her. "Is this what you want?"
She hissed in pain and squirmed in my grip and smiled and looked at me with nothing but lust and drunkenness in her dark and lidded eyes.
"Yes," she breathed. "Oh god yes—"
I swooped at her mouth and shoved my mouth inside it.
She moaned deep in her throat and submitted instantly to everything I was doing to her. The submission awakened something inside me that had been dormant for a long time and I growled into her mouth and gripped her breast even harder, squeezing it, making her whimper. The slit in her dress had allowed her to wrap a leg around me and I gripped the thigh of it and dug my fingernails into the skin and pushed at her aggressively with my hips, bumping her back into the wall of the elevator, and then—
Ding.
The elevator stopped and the door opened.
Two women had been waiting in the corridor for the elevator and that's how they found us. Bella with a boob hanging out of her dress and her leg wrapped around me and me basically assaulting her with my tongue. But the interruption quickly snapped us out of the frenzy and we giggled and disengaged and began correcting our clothes quickly.
The two women were open mouthed and staring in shock. Bella and I sidled past them guilty and together they stepped into the elevator and pressed the button for whichever floor they were going to and they continued to stare at us until the doors slid closed. Bella was still trying to get her breast back into her dress but it was being stubborn. I smirked at her, at the excitement and helplessness that lingered in her dark eyes, and grabbed her dress and pushed the breast back into it for her.
"We'll finish this at home," I said.
Bella nodded eagerly and I tilted my head down the corridor.
The room we were looking for was several doors down and Tanya answered it after I knocked. She noticed Bella's blush and demure posture and she smiled as if she knew exactly what happened. She was half hiding behind the door and once we entered I could see that she was completely naked. I glanced at her loveliness, my eyes flickering up and down her body, and we both greeted her with a kiss.
She led us into the bedroom where we found her redhaired companion. Leanna. The ravishing redhead was completely naked as well, her body voluptuous in every proportion, and she was pouring a glass of champagne and she smiled brightly as we came in.
"Hi, you must be Tanya's friends," she said. "She told me so much about you that I couldn't resist meeting you while I was in town. Would you like some champagne?"
Bella grinned and walked over. "Sure, I would."
Leanna smiled at her, the perfect smile of a professional model, and handed her a glass. She glanced at me to see if I wanted one as well but I shook my head politely.
She poured another one for herself, primly and properly, and then she sat down on the edge of the bed and sipped it daintily and bestowed upon us all a smile of such adorable arrogance that she might've believed she was the most desirable woman in the world.
"So," she said. "Who wants to do me first?"
Tanya and I shared a glance and supressed a smirk. Bella grinned at the question and glanced at us and then she shrugged.
"I will," she said.
Leanna giggled at her and Bella sank down at her feet, the glass of champagne still in her hand, and began to immediately lick between her thighs.
Tanya and I shared another smile and then we climbed onto the bed.
Soon the woman had orgasmed and spilled her champagne and then she laughed and thanked Bella and insisted on returning the favor by peeling Bella out of her panties and promptly pressing her mouth to Bella's vagina. Bella was rather shocked, or even a little guilty considering our real purpose here, but she certainly wasn't one to refuse a good orgasm. She climaxed from the redhead's generous tonguing and thanked her and the woman smiled radiantly and licked her glossy lips sensuously and said it was her pleasure. She then focused on me and stripped me out of my dress expertly and lavished my body with praise and instructed Bella and Tanya that she would need their help because a woman as sexy as me was obviously too much woman for her to handle on her own.
Well. I was in love.
Or perhaps not. But still. She was a remarkable woman. Truth be told Bella and I were utterly superfluous to the plan. Tanya could've carried this out just as easy or even easier on her own. But I was glad she had included us. It would be Bella's last hunt as a human and the prey was certainly impeccable. Her tits were huge and shapely and shockingly natural and her legs were long and extremely loose. Almost as loose as her tongue. She orgasmed five different times, each time with much loudness and laughter, as if she felt obligated at all times to be as exquisite as possible. She was very quick with compliments and kisses and she offered champagne and vibrators like candy and laughed and licked at Bella's vagina and then at Tanya's, loudly and hungrily as if they were the most delicious pussies she'd ever eaten, and then she turned to me again and giggled at our physical resemblance before wrapping her arms around me and mashing her lips and tits to mine.
All in all we were having such great fun that we almost forgot what we had come for. Tanya eventually bought us back to business by offering to take Leanna out somewhere for dessert. Leanna was sharing the last of the champagne with Bella, both of them drinking out the bottle, and she almost dribbled the champagne out of her mouth in how quick she was to agree. Really, the poor woman was making this far too easy on us. She did, at least, suggest room service instead of going out, but we could hardly abduct her in her own hotel room, and so we encouraged her that it would be more fun to crash some fancy restaurant. She agreed to that as well, nodding vigorously, and suddenly she was leaping off the bed and fetching up a pair of panties from the floor. The first pair she came up with were Bella's black ones and she giggled and put them on and winked at Bella and said she was keeping them. Bella told her to go ahead, half-stunned at how incredibly attractive and charismatic this woman was, and smiled at me as if she too were falling in love. Leanna tossed us each a pair of panties, none of them correct, and then clapped her hands for us to hurry up as if she herself were excited for her own kidnapping.
It really was too easy. The four of us took the elevator downstairs in our evening gowns and sexed up hair and continued outside into the night. The car was parked a block away and she seemed to enjoy the extra stroll. She giggled and talked about how cold it was and how nice Seattle was and how sad she was that she had to go back to New York so soon. The SUV was in an empty parking lot behind an abandoned bicycle store. There weren't even any streetlamps. Leanna laughed at the car and asked which one of us owned the mommy mobile and I told her it was a rental. She asked why would anyone went something like that but then I opened the hatchback and instead she asked what all the duct tape was for. Poor little bimbo. I sighed and ripped off a strip of tape and pressed it to her mouth in one smooth motion. She frowned for the first time that night and then she began to panic as Bella looped more duct tape around her wrists while Tanya held her still. Leanna said something loudly into her gag, her eyes widening and her heels scrabbling on the asphalt, and then I pushed her into the back of the SUV and wrapped some tape around her ankles and shoved her in a bit neater before slamming down the hatch.
Silence in the parking lot aside from soft thumps and muffled screams. The three of us glanced at each other in the moonlight, trying not to smile. Then we giggled and got into the car.
It wasn't a long drive back to the mansion. Twenty minutes or so. It was passed midnight and the hour of Bella's transformation was drawing nigh. She was grinning in the front seat and I knew it was all she was thinking about. I asked her quietly if she was ready. She turned her grin to me. She was drunk and exhausted and she had orgasmed over half a dozen different times that day and she nodded and said yes. She was ready. I smiled at her as I drove and I knew she was too. Our earlier conversation was still weighing on my mind and tonight I was going to show her exactly how passionate I was about her. I was going to make love to her more thoroughly than I ever had in her life and then I was going to end that life and give her a new one as my mate. My eternal, undying, everlasting mate.
The woman in the back had given up kicking or screaming and we just left her there after we pulled up in the courtyard. Bella was cold, even in her coat, but jaunty in her good mood and she giggled as she trotted up the stone steps in her heels and pushed open the wide wooden doubledoors of the mansion.
Then she froze.
Tanya and I were behind her and we froze as well.
Irena was hanging from the chandelier.
She was wearing her black leather corset and both of her arms and both of her legs had been torn away from her torso. The bloodless flesh was pale pink around the snapped bones. There was a ballgag shoved into her mouth and her eyes were still alive. They looked down at us in terror and helplessness—such foreign looks in those ordinarily poised pools—from where she was strung up in her own chains and bondage gear, screaming into the gag and shaking her head as if to warn us back. The trunk of her body swayed softly from the chandelier with the minor movements she was capable of and the long black strapon affixed to her corset poked upwards rigidly.
Behind us the doors slammed shut. We spun around. Two vampires we had never seen before had pushed the doors closed and now they were blocking them with their bodies. Naked bodies. Both female and darkhaired. Smirking. Eyes red and intense as newborns. Staring directly at Bella in abject hunger.
Another door closed somewhere upstairs. We spun back around. Irena dangled there with the chains and crystal chandelier rattling softly like windchimes. She looked like something strung up in a butcher shop, tits exposed, bloody blonde hair. There were footsteps coming along the balcony above and now three women appeared. Two of them I didn't recognize. Vampires. Newborns. Both of them naked and darkhaired and striding either side of another woman like guards. The other woman was older and wearing a dress. A blue gown of shimmering satin. Her rich mahogany hair was woven up into a styled bun like a baroness and she smiled down at us wickedly as she began to descend the stairs.
"Victoria," she said. "How lovely to see you again."
It was Heidi.
—
AN: Okay, be honest; you saw it coming a mile away, didn't you? Lol. It's almost a Dreamless staple at this point; plot twist waiting in the house for the heroine to come home. ;)
First of all, I want to mention that Irena is not dead. Obviously. In fact, I can pretty much promise there'll be no character death in this story at all, at least not characters we care about. That might take a bit of the suspense out of it, but hey, it's a fanfic. We're here to have fun, not stress out and get sad.
Second, Heidi's newborns are all female. No men at all. I wanted to make that clear so no one is nervous about the next chapter. This story is fantasy, not horror.
Aside from that, the chapter was mostly transitional. Bella's final day as a human. A bit of characterization for Claire and the pixies. Scenes with Carmen and Irena. Poor Irena, huh? I wanted to use her at the end for the shock value, since she's basically the strongest and most dignified of the coven. Seeing her strung up like that and trimmed of her limbs was pretty brutal, huh? But kind of sexy too maybe. ;)
Okay, hope you liked it. New chapter soon. :)