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Chapter 52:

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The next day we had to go shopping again but this time we had to go separately. Bella and I still hadn't gotten each other anything special. Since her transformation we had been virtually conjoined at the hip, which really wasn't the best way of shopping for a surprise. Even now we were loath to separate, even for a day, but it was going to be our first christmas together and we did want it to be special. Luckily we weren't forced to go shopping alone. Claire had also expressed a tentative wish to surprise Irena with a special gift and I was more than happy to take her shopping while Irena was more than happy to accompany Bella. Bella had already been in public before, so I wasn't too worried about her losing control, but it did comfort me that she would have a woman as strict as Irena to keep her in line.

I was also quite delighted to have some time alone with Claire. It would be the first time she had left the mansion since arriving and she was both excited and timid, like a girl on her first day of school. Irena had given her some clothes and I had to admit Claire did look rather nice. Jeans, heavy black coat, a handbag over her shoulder. Bobbed brown hair covered in a cute woollen beanie, a little bit of makeup. Plain but pretty. Standing upright on actual shoes as the four of us assembled in the snowy courtyard to say goodbye and separate in pairs. The sun was high in the sky and everything was white and bright. Claire smiled at me and said hello. I wondered if I was allowed to fuck her while we were out and I made a whispered inquiry to Irena to see if she would mind. Irena smirked and told me to have fun and I took that as permission to do whatever I wanted to her lovely pet. The sentiment was reciprocated, of course, but I'm sure I wouldn't need to mention it. Bella was still something of a sub for Irena and I'm sure she would offer her vagina whenever the other woman would require it.

Claire and I set out in the red sportscar and I decided we might as well do my own shopping first. Claire was very quiet, staring out the windows like a dog who'd never rode in a car before, and I figured she would need some time to loosen up.

Fortunately I knew exactly what I wanted to get Bella and minimal browsing would be require. I had hinted to her that I was going to get her something perfect. Something romantic. Something that encapsulated the purity of my feelings for her and would symbolize the respect and devotion I intended to love her with for the rest of our days.

So, naturally, it was a sexshop called Love Bunny that I pulled up at.

Claire seemed surprised but I only smiled and led her inside. A bell tingled over the door. Behind the counter was a normal looking woman with blonde hair reading a novel. She looked up as we came in and smiled and asked if she could help us with anything. I smiled in return and told her we were just looking for now. The store was brightly lit and warm and there were christmas decorations everywhere among the dildos and kinky costumes and racks of erotic novels. Cardboard displays that advertised goods on sale, three for twenty dollars, your selection of over fifty different toys. Discover Sexual Happiness, in pink letters with lovehearts. Carols played from quiet speakers and all in all it seemed like a rather polished little establishment. The woman behind the counter told us to call her if we needed anything and we told her we would.

Claire and I were the only two customers in the store. Since leaving the mansion she'd hardly spoken at all and mostly just nodded whenever I talked to her. I was holding her arm, the two of us strolling through the store like a couple looking for something to spice up their love life. Bella and I didn't need any spicing up, of course, but I still felt the perfect gift would have to be something sexual, and the more obscene the better. It wouldn't even be a joke gift. Some women perhaps might be offended to receive a sextoy as their first ever christmas gift from their long term committed partner. But not Bella. Bella was the sluttiest young woman I had ever known. Her sexuality was insatiable. It was part of her. The core of her being. And any gift that would symbolize how much I loved and understood her would have to penetrate directly into that core.

Therefore, a dildo of some kind, or a vibrator perhaps. The selection was extensive. We passed through a small section for men, cock rings and the like, and continued passed the lingerie and bondage gear until we came to the penetrative devices. Most of the store was marketed for straight women with toys to suit them. The lifelike dildos were rather a turn off but there were still plenty of others. Rabbit vibrators, bullet vibrators. Wands. Butt plugs. Love eggs, jiggle balls. Supersex lubricants. Dozens and dozens of multicoloured shafts, thick and long, rubber or plastic or even glass, hanging from the racks like sausages in a butcher shop. The even had a small section for lesbians, a display of double ended dildos designed for two women or harness underpants where different strapon shafts attached to the front.

Claire was bewildered by these wares, as if even being captured by vampires and used as a sex slave could not have prepared her exactly for the amount of ways a woman's body could be manipulated into pleasure. The femininity of the store, the cleanliness and the atmosphere of pink and happiness, helped to alleviate her anxiety but perhaps it wasn't only the wares that disconcerted her. It was her first time out of the mansion and she was probably reflecting on what had happened, what she had become, what she will become. I smiled at her and gave her a playful hipbump to loosen her up.

"Having fun, Claire?" I asked her. "It must be nice to get out of the house for a while. How does it feel to walk around on your actual feet for a change?"

She blushed and chuckled once in response. I sighed and took her arm companionably.

"You can talk to me, Claire," I said. "You don't have to be silent all the time. I know it's a little awkward since I was the one who kidnapped you, but you know that was nothing personal. Forgive and forget, hm?"

She blushed a little more and glanced at me shyly. Kidnapping a woman always made for an awkward dynamic but Claire, like Bella, wasn't a regular woman. She smiled and gave a shrug.

"Well, I don't hold any grudges," she said. "Truth is, it's been pretty wild. Scary. But wild."

I smiled as well, still clinging to her arm. "I'm glad you think so. Although you might feel a little different if you ended up buried in the backyard with all the other girls Bella consumed over these last couple weeks."

"I doubt it," she said with a chuckle. "Although I would've preferred to be consumed by Irena."

I smiled at her and she met my eyes for a moment as if to show me something inside them. To show me she really did belong to Irena. To us.

Then she looked away shyly and swept those eyes over the racks of dildos.

"Are you sure you want to buy Bella something in a store like this?" she asked, tentatively experimenting with the liberty to speak.

"Oh, yes," I responded with assurance. "Bella is a peculiar woman. Traditional standards of romance don't apply to her. A woman like her requires a certain lewdness. Something that will touch her pussy as much as her heart. Something…"

I spied something on a shelf that made me smirk.

"…like this," I said.

Claire watched me as I fetched down the box. It was a sex machine called the Pipedream, and the picture on the box showed a woman in lingerie with what appeared to be a large power drill in her hand, only the drill bit was a long purple dildo.

I smiled at the box and new at once it would be perfect.

"What is it?" Claire asked.

I turned the box in my hands, smiling, reading the description. "It's a sort of jackhammer dildo," I said. "You can attach any kind of shaft you want and the machine vibrates or thrusts on all different power settings."

Claire raised her eyebrows. "Wow."

I grinned at her. "Wow indeed. Such a contraption would surely shred a girl up. Don't you think?"

Claire nodded, almost eagerly. "Yeah."

I looked the box over one more time. It was almost six hundred dollars but of course money was no object. I stared at the picture, trying to imagine my mate's face when she unwrapped it. The surprise in her eyes. The excitement. I smiled slowly and nodded.

"It's perfect," I said. "She'll love it."

Claire chuckled once and gave a shrug.

Before leaving the store we picked up a few other things. The machine would be the main present but it couldn't hurt to supplement it with a couple extras. Some lubricant. A matching set of lingerie. A few different kinds of dildos for her to try. I asked Claire if she wanted to get anything for Irena but she said she didn't have any money on her yet, and while we were on the subject she asked if we could stop by the bank. That was a little complicated. I told her not to worry about money, that I had thousands of dollars of cash on me and bottomless credit cards, but she demurred and said she really wanted to spend her own money. She said it was important to her.

It was still very complicated but I did admire her spirit of independence and desire to empower the gesture of her gift by using her own funds. First we swung by her old apartment so she could pick up some ID. I remembered the place well and I told her about how Bella and I had stalked her here from the gym, Bella stealing her personal info from her phone while I flirted with her. I even told her about how Bella had molested her unconscious body and tribbed on her face. She smiled and chuckled softly as if it had all happened to some other woman and perhaps that was true. This Claire wasn't the same Claire who'd been enjoying a bowl of icecream when two vampires broke in and kidnapped her. The apartment itself was exactly the same as she had left it, leased for the next few months, no rent or bills to pay. She looked around with a faint smile of nostalgia but she didn't seem to regret how everything had turned out. She went into her bedroom and found her purse. I was waiting in the doorway, smiling, my eyes roaming over her jeans. She checked inside the purse and then she snapped it shut and sighed.

I continued to wait. She was looking at the bed. The laptop was still sitting there where she had left it although the battery had died a long time ago. She looked around at her old bedroom. Clothes on the floor. A bra. Tiny purple fitness dumbbells. She scoffed a small laugh and turned to look at me. I smiled at her and then I unleaned from the door frame and went over to her. She seemed to know what I was going to do and she didn't object. I cupped the nape of her neck. There was a perfectly good bed there and it would be a shame to waste it. Her eyes flickered over my mouth and then she lifted her face and touched her lips to mine.

I wasn't sure what had come over her but I could tell how badly she wanted it right now. Needed it. Claire and I rarely had any time alone but I suppose there always was something unresolved between us. Something that could use a little closure. It had been me who approached her in that gym. Who had flattered her and wheedled a date from her. Today perhaps we were having that date.

Together we collapsed onto the bed, her on top, my hand gripping her jean clad ass. She moaned and rubbed herself into me. We rolled over the laptop and laughed and pushed it away. It hit the ground and snapped shut. No one cared. Claire grinned and pulled off her top, straddling my hips. I smiled at her and felt up her naked torso, letting my hands grip her medium breasts, squeezing them, groping them. She leaned down and let me suck at her nipples for a little bit, dipping them into my mouth, so warm and hard. Finally I rolled her over and began unbuttoning her jeans. She was really horny by now and her arousal wafted up as I pulled the jeans away, together with her panties. She was naked now and she spread her legs, staring at me with lidded eyes. I smiled at her and lowered my mouth to her vagina and licked her to an orgasm that was long overdue, just me and her, a girl from the gym and the hot chick who hit on her.

The orgasm made her smile very brightly and shattered any last regrets she might've had about her former life. She thanked me in her quiet voice, still not really speaking so much, and began to kiss me and remove my dress. Soon I was naked aside from a pair of red panties and she spent a long time licking my nipples before shuffling down there and pulling away the panties and licking my vagina to a surprisingly strong climax.

Afterwards she kissed me again, smiling, and confessed that she always did really like me. I told her I liked her too, cupping her face affectionately, and that Irena was a very lucky woman. She smiled even wider at that and leaned and kissed me some more.

It was about lunch time by the time we left the apartment. Claire and I had showered and put our clothes back on and the experience seemed to have loosened her up quite a bit. Sex has a way of liberating a woman. She had her purse in her lap while we drove and she was smiling out the windows at the snow covered city and even chatting a little as she gave me directions to her bank. Along the way I used my smartphone to check for any news articles about her, any investigations or reported disappearances. Luckily there was nothing, which did lessen the complications a little. I still would've preferred to avoid it but it seemed to be important to her. She said she was going to blow her entire lifesavings on something incredible for Irena. Every last dollar. To demonstrate her devotion. To distil everything she had ever earned in her entire life into one gift that she would offer to her mistress in proof of that devotion. Breaking free of her past, leaving it all behind. I smiled at the sentiment and I'm sure Irena would appreciate it as well.

The bank had a christmas tree in the window and it was full of people making last minute holiday transactions, all shrouded up in winter clothing. Claire and I went in and joined one of the lines, sighing, shuffling forward occasionally as the line moved. Claire was looking around anxiously, noting cameras and guards, as if worried she might be noticed.

"Are you sure it's okay if I access my bank account?" she asked. "I mean, if the police are looking for me…"

I smiled as she trailed off worriedly. "It's alright, we won't be in Seattle much longer. Besides, we have no way of knowing if your disappearance has even been reported. You lived alone, didn't you?"

"Yeah."

"What about family? Did you have regular contact with them? Would they have noticed your absence?"

"Not really. I haven't spoken to my parents in years."

"What happened?"

"I came out."

"Ah."

Claire smiled, moving forward with the line, and laughed a little. "It's actually kind of funny," she said. "They disapproved because they thought all gay people are depraved sexual deviants. Now look at me. A bonafide sex slave."

I laughed as well. "Mommy and daddy would be very proud."

Claire chuckled some more, trailing off in thought. She paused for a minute, her eyes vague with recollections of the parents who had rejected her and then she snorted.

"Yeah, well," she said. "The only person I care about making proud is Irena."

I smiled at her and nodded. We had reached the end of the line and she smiled as well and moved to a counter while I waited there.

After she was done we walked out together. The glassdoors slid closed behind us and Claire shivered in the snow, her breath pluming, a scarf wrapped around her neck and a black woollen beanie on her head with a pompom that jiggled as she bounced up and down. People were going by along the sidewalk, cars passing in the street. She had a small stack of cash in her hands and she looked down and counted it again and sighed glumly.

"I thought it would be more," she said. "So much for my entire lifesavings, huh?"

I smiled and chuckled briefly. "I'm guessing you were never a CEO."

"Not quite, no. I never did have much of a career. I never even made it through college. I had a bad relationship and used my broken heart as an excuse to drop out so I wouldn't see her again. Story of my life, I guess. Broken hearts and bad decisions."

She sighed again and then she folded the money and shoved it into the back pocket of her jeans.

"I never had much of anything, to be honest," she said. "Not until I met you guys. Irena really has no idea how much she means to me. I feel like my life had no purpose at all until I met her. It was basically at first sight. I opened my eyes down there in the cellar, and there she was. Whip in hand, my new owner. The way she dominated me, it was just…"

I smiled as she trailed off happily, the two of us standing on the sidewalk outside the bank, snow sifting onto the dark wool of her beanie. People were glancing at me as they went by, a red haired woman in a red summer dress, snow in the flames of her hair, snow on her bare shoulders.

"Irena's a lucky woman," I said.

She smiled shyly. "I think it's me who's the lucky one."

"No," I said. "It's her."

I gave her a wink and she looked away, giggling, and looked back.

"You think I have enough to buy her something nice?" she asked.

I nodded and offered my arm. "I'm sure we'll find something."

She took the arm, smiling, and I led her to the parking lot.

In the car I asked if she had anything in mind and she asked me if I knew any good jewellery stores. I agreed with the wisdom of her choice. She needed an expensive item and something with subtext. A nice necklace would be perfect counterpoint to the collar Irena had given Claire as her own special gift. Both articles were neckware, yet a collar implied ownership while a beautiful diamond necklace implied superiority. Claire was thrilled I understood her reasoning and even more thrilled that I knew the perfect place where she might find something.

The store was a small boutique uptown called The Velvet Box, a name that would've worked just as well for a high class brothel. Claire and I had a good giggle about it as we entered. The store specialized in engagement rings but that wasn't what Claire was interested in. Her relationship with Irena was unorthodox to say the least and Claire felt they didn't require traditional things like rings or vows. She was a slave, a pet, a submissive fuckthing. Not a partner or a wife. Certainly not an equal. She had her heart set on a necklace but that heart soon sunk when she saw the prices.

Even I was slightly stunned. We were passing among glass display cases, the only two people in the store aside from a guard and a small man in a dapper suit who was examining uncut diamonds under a microscope at a counter. Claire steps soon became heavy and shuffling, her eyebrows drooping. There was hardly anything in the store she could afford, even with her entire lifesavings, and certainly none of the more extravagant items. Perhaps I had made a mistake bringing her here. The price of jewellery had obviously escalated since the days I was a girl.

Nevertheless, we continued to browse, moving slowly under the bright yellow light fixtures that glinted off the glass, the polished wood, the diamonds. There were no christmas decorations in here, too classy for them perhaps. Along the counter were small mirrors on gold stands where women could try things on and see how they looked. Claire and I made a circuit of the store, passed the guard and the man with the microscope, passed endless displays of rings glittering under the glass, earrings in pairs against cream colored felt. Some of the more expensive necklaces were displayed on white busts shaped like a woman's neck, a woman's shoulders. One of them in particular caught Claire's eye and she looked at it longingly as if she could envision it around Irena's neck. I could as well. It was a necklace fit for a queen. A multitude of diamonds shaped like teardrops, clustered in a platinum setting, sparkling inside a glass case.

According to the little card in the glass the necklace featured a total of a hundred and three carats and it cost more than a german automobile. Claire with her meagre savings couldn't even afford to rent it. She stared at it for a while and then heaved a sigh.

"Wow," she said. "For the first time in my life I wish I had saved money a little better."

I refrained from mentioning that not even winning the lottery would've helped afford the thing. Claire sighed again and slumped and looked around bleakly.

"What am I going to do, Victoria? There's nothing I can afford that's even vaguely special."

I gave her a little shrug. "It's the thought that counts, Claire."

Claire turned back to the necklace and frowned unhappily. "This sucks," she said. "I wanted to impress her so much. You have no idea how crushed I'd be if I buy her something and she opens it and just laughs and throws it away."

"Irena would never do that," I said with a laugh. "If it's from you, she'll treasure it."

Claire shook her head sadly. "That would be even worse. I wouldn't even want her to. I can't ask her to wear a piece of trash just because it was me who bought it for her."

I nodded, seeing her point. "Well, how would you feel about borrowing money?"

"I wanted to pay for it myself. Blow my savings. I thought it would be special—until I realized how pitiful my savings really are."

"Would you like to try a different store?"

"What for? It's not like some stores are cheaper than others."

"Well, maybe jewellery isn't the best gift."

"But a necklace would be so perfect," she said with real longing in her voice. "She gave me the collar as a symbol. A necklace would be a symbol too. A symbol of her superiority and magnificence."

Claire turned back to the necklace and touched the glass with her fingertips. The necklace sat there, sparkling, glittering, clasped around the neck of that pristine white bust.

"This one would be so perfect," she said. "She'd look like a queen in it."

I sighed and looked around the store. The guard was standing by the door, a hulking man in a black t-shirt, and I noticed he wore a gun in a black leather belt holster. Gun. Hmm. I looked at the man behind the counter. He was still examining raw diamonds under the microscope. The store was otherwise completely empty.

I sighed, a bad idea beginning to bud in the back of my mind, and turned back to Claire.

"Well, how much are you short?" I asked her.

She scoffed at me. "Is that a serious question? I couldn't even afford one diamond on it."

"Maybe you could rent it and not return it?"

"I doubt it. Besides, it wouldn't be the same. Like you said, it's the thought that counts, and the thought was to give her everything I own in one necklace. Sacrifice everything, just for her."

"There might be a way you can do that without any money at all."

"How?"

I heaved a sigh and took one last look around the store. Claire wore a puzzled look on her face and I gave her a little glare as if to blame her for what I was about to do and then I turned and called to the man behind the counter pleasantly.

"Excuse me?"

He looked up from his microscope, a distinguished gentleman with gray hair and a scarlet tie. I smiled at him, hand in the air, a redhaired beauty requiring assistance. He cleared his throat and donned some spectacles and came around the counter toward us.

"Can I help you?" he asked courteously.

I gave him a winsome smile. "Yes, I was just curious—what kind of security measures do you have in this store?"

It was an odd question but he didn't seem to be suspicious. People rarely are of beautiful women. His gray eyebrows furrowed puzzledly. "Why do you ask?"

"Just curious," I repeated. "I assume there's cameras, but what about alarms?"

He still seemed to think it very odd but he indulged me by answering. "Well, each display is, of course, connected to a central alarm system. Should they be tampered with in any way, the police will be dispatched immediately. And, of course, we have a security guard. Why, have you noticed anything suspicious?"

"No, no, just curious. Actually, my friend Claire is interested in this lovely necklace."

I gestured at the necklace behind the display case. The jeweller glanced at Claire, my friend, skeptical of whether or not such a plain looking woman could afford to shop here. Claire smiled awkwardly, wondering what I was doing. The man's eyes continued to the necklace and then he smiled suddenly, as if he had forgotten it was there.

"Oh yes, it's one of our most expensive pieces," he said to me. "Your friend has a good eye."

Claire chuckled as if the compliment was for her, but it had been addressed to me, as if befriending people with good eyes was more impressive than the eyes themselves. I smiled at him.

"She does indeed," I said. "May we see it a little closer?"

"Of course, of course," he said, fishing inside his suitjacket for a key. "It would be my pleasure. I'm sure it will look quite lovely on her."

"Oh, it's not for me," Claire jumped in. "It's for my…"

I smiled as she trailed off. It seemed she had no idea what to call Irena either, especially not to a stranger in public. She glanced at me with a panicked flare of her eyes, still wondering what I was doing. I glanced back at the guard. He didn't seem to be taking much notice of what was going on and I felt an odd flutter of anxiety. I couldn't believe I was going to do this. I'm a rapist and a murderer, not a jewel thief. But poor Claire really did want this necklace and it's not like we'd be in Seattle much longer.

The man was fumbling with the key, holding it up to peer at it through his spectacles, not sure if he had the right one.

"Just a minute," he said. "I'll have it open in just a jiffy."

I blew out a breath. "Oh, nevermind," I said, deciding to just get it over with. "We'll just take it."

Then I grabbed his head and used his skull to smash open the display case.

The alarms must've been silent because there was no sound but breaking glass and a groan from the man as he floundered to the floor with a shard of glass sticking out of his forehead. Claire jumped and gasped, covering her mouth. The front of the display case was completely shattered and the glittering necklace was only an arm's reach away. From behind us came the guard.

I turned to face him as he was drawing his pistol. Claire immediately put up her hands but I grabbed the pistol and twisted it away from the guard in a smooth movement that made his mouth fall open in shock before I shot him through the head. He dropped like a stone. The afterclap of the shot made Claire jump and gasp again. She was looking at me with wide eyes but no fear. The jeweller was on the ground, moaning in panic with blood leaking along the shard of glass in his forehead. The spectacles had fallen off and he was reaching for them to put them back on, hysterical perhaps and not really thinking clearly. I levelled the pistol at his head and shot him through the skull.

Claire jumped one more time but she didn't gasp. She still had her hands up, as if she thought I might shoot her too, but I only smiled at her and dropped the pistol to the floor. The sounds of the pistol shots had bought some bystanders to the plateglass window at the front of the store and they were peering in cautiously.

Claire was lowering her hands, her wide eyes roaming in shock over the dead men in the floor. Finally she looked at me and I gave her a smile and swung my chin at the shattered display case.

"If you want the necklace, you'd better take it," I said. "Police will be here any minute."

Claire nodded feverishly and reached in for the necklace. She removed it from the bust very carefully and cradled it in her hands and then she paused suddenly and reached into her back pocket. She pulled out the folded wad of cash, her entire lifesavings, and tossed it in the direction of the dead jeweller, the green bills fluttering and falling like leaves to settle over his face and darken in the pool of blood that was spreading around his head.

I grinned and then I took her arm and led her out.

People backed away from us on the sidewalk, not knowing what was going on. Our car was parked right there and I opened the door briefly to remove a few things from the glovebox. We'd have to leave the car behind and we'd never see it again, which was a little sad. It had been our first car, Bella and I. We'd gone shopping for it together and I'd let Bella choose and she had chosen the red sportscar because she thought it suited me. I swung the door shut and smiled and patted the car on the roof to say goodbye as the distant whine of police cars neared. The car had served us well but we wouldn't have been able to take it with us from Seattle anyway. Next time perhaps we'll get an SUV.

I took Claire across the street and into an alley and further into the snow covered city. Claire hurried along in her boots, shawled up in her coat and beanie, clutching the necklace to her body. We needed to get as far away from the scene as quickly as we could and I couldn't help smiling as we made our escape. All this time I had blamed Bella for getting me into trouble but I couldn't blame Bella this time. I couldn't even blame Claire. This one was all on me, but I couldn't be too hard on myself. Claire really wanted that necklace and she was right. It would be perfect for Irena. Claire and I would never be able to leave the mansion again till we left Seattle, considering the witnesses and the fact that the entire caper was caught on camera, but oh well. No good deed goes unpunished.

Eventually we found an abandoned train station and hurried inside to escape the weather. It was a considerable distance from the jewellery store and it would be a safe place to lay low until the police were done looking for us. After that we could continue on to the mansion.

The train station was a large cavern of a place where my heels echoed on the broken tiles. Weeds sprouted from cracks in the floor. The roof was domed glass and snow was sifting down through a broken panel in a pillar of sunlight. A small mound of snow stood in the spotlight. Claire and I found a bench that wasn't broken and sat down. She hadn't spoken at all since fleeing the scene but I wasn't worried about trauma. She had seen worse things in the cellar, although this was the first time she had actually been an accomplice to a crime, and not just a crime. Robbery and double murder. She still had the necklace in her hands and she was gazing down at it, rocking on the bench like a child who is cold. I smiled at her and wrapped my arm around her.

"Are you going to be okay?" I asked her.

She glanced at me and gave a timid little nod. "Yeah," she said. "I think so. I mean, it's not like I've never seen people die before. Right?"

She chuckled once, slightly, only barely amused. I smiled and snuggled her closer.

"You'll get used to it," I said. "Eventually you'll even enjoy it."

She laid her head against my shoulder, the two of us sitting on the bench in this abandoned train station, the platform empty and the rails barren, like two women waiting for a train that was never going to come. Claire was gazing at the necklace, watching the diamonds sparkle.

"I used to think murder was so horrible," she said. "I still do, I guess. I mean, if I read about what happen today online, I'd be pretty upset. But because it was you, I don't know. Somehow it seems alright. As if you're perfectly entitled to do whatever you want. I felt the same way when Irena raped me. Not that I deserved it. But that she did. Deserved to do anything she wanted to me. You know?"

I smiled and cuddled her under my arm. "I think so."

"I just wish I could've paid for it properly."

"You did, Claire. You paid in blood, which is a truer currency than any kind of dollars and cents. You were caught on camera committing double murder and grand theft, and you were clearly not a hostage. Do you understand what that entails? The police will identify you easy enough and by tomorrow you'll be a fugitive. Your parents, who disapproved of you so much, will be visited by the police. So will all your friends and family. You'll never be able to face them again. You'll never go back to work or back to your apartment. You'll never be able to have a normal life again. You thought giving up your lifesavings was giving up everything. But today you gave up even more. All for Irena."

Claire listened to all this, her head resting against me. None of my words seem to disturb her and dhe was silent for a while and then she made a small sound like a chuckle and straightened up.

I watched her as she removed her scarf and used it to wrap the necklace. She did it carefully, making a secure little bundle, and then she stashed it inside a coat pocket. She was smiling and she looked at me with the smile.

"Thanks for taking me out today, Victoria," she said. "I had a lot of fun."

I smiled at her and cupped her face. "It was my pleasure. I've enjoyed spending the day with you, Claire. It reminds me of my early days with Bella. You and her are much alike."

I brushed her lips with my thumb, studying her face. It wasn't perfect but pretty enough in her own special way. I leaned and placed a kiss on her lips. Gently. She returned it. There was no sound at all in the cold cavern of the train station but the subtle smack of our mouths.

After a few kisses she pulled away with a slight flicker of hesitation in her eyes.

"Are you sure this is okay?" she asked. "Irena…"

I shook my head to wave away her concerns. "We're all in the same coven, Claire. Irena enjoys sharing you the same way I enjoy sharing Bella. You are her most prized possession. Even after you give her that necklace, nothing will be as valuable to her as you are."

Claire smiled at that and then she stood up from the bench and knelt down at my feet instead.

I smiled as well and opened my legs for her, lifting my dress. She hooked one of my thighs over her shoulder and began licking at the edges of my panties, teasing me there with her warm tongue. I smiled and enjoyed it, gazing across the station where the snow fell in a pale column from the broken dome in the ceiling. There was a small white hill on the floor there, glowing in the sunlight like a little slice of winter paradise. Claire was moaning softly, licking, and I smiled and reclined backward on the bench and closed my eyes.

What a day.

It was dark by the time we got back to the mansion and we were surprised that Bella and Irena weren't home yet. I texted and discovered they had become sidetracked. Bella sent a photograph and I had to roll my eyes. In the photograph was a well-raped brunette in the tattered remains of a saleswoman outfit, her black pencil skirt hiked up to her hips, her panties around one ankle, stockings torn, missing a shoe. Her hands had been tied behind her back and she was gagged with her own bra stuffed into her mouth and her tits were hanging out of her blouse, nice big boobs with teeth marks in them. Bella always did love large breasts. The woman was gazing at the camera emptily, blood leaking from a wound in her hair, the resistance raped out of her, and I texted Bella to hurry up and kill the poor thing and come home. I should've known better than trusting a woman like Irena to keep Bella out of trouble. They were just as bad as each other, honestly.

Luckily I had presents to wrap in order to keep myself busy. I did it in our bedroom, on the bed, wrapping all the small things individually and then wrapping the large sex machine. The box it came in was bigger than a shoe box and I smiled eagerly as I tied a red ribbon around it in a pretty bow. Bella was going to love it, especially now, as a vampire. I couldn't wait to put the machine on its highest, hardest, setting and drill into her vagina like a roadworker with a jackhammer until she orgasmed her slutty little brains out, over and over and over. Most. Romantic. Gift. Ever.

I was just finished wrapping everything when Bella finally came home. She came stumbling through the bedroom door, grinning and smelling like blood and sex, wearing jeans and a black crop top, and I only just managed to shove most of the presents into a bag.

"Baby, you gotta knock," I told her breathlessly. "You almost spoiled the surprise."

She smiled and sauntered over to the bed, gazing at the wrapped box that contained her special surprise. She picked it up, much to my disapproval, and shook it a little at her ear.

"What is it?" she asked.

I took it back from her. "It's a surprise."

"Oh yeah?" she said, rising to the challenge. "Well, I got you a surprise too."

I smirked at her. "What is it?"

"A surprise."

She looked at me tauntingly. I put my hands on my hips and smiled.

"Well," I said. "It seems we're both determined to be teasing bitches."

She giggled and gave a little shrug. "Guess so."

"Did you have fun with Irena?"

"Yep. It was her idea to kill that chick, by the way. I tried to talk her out of it."

"Sure you did."

"How about you, did you have fun with Claire?"

"Oh yes, lots of fun. We robbed a jewellery store and had to hide out half the day in an abandoned train station till the police stopped searching for us."

Bella laughed as if she thought I was joking. I smiled as well. I would have to tell her the full story later. She was looking at the box on the bed, so innocent looking in its colourful christmas paper, and then she lifted her smirked to me.

"Can you give me a hint?" she asked cutely.

I paused, tempted to just give it to her now. Rip it out of the box and jam it into whichever orifice presented itself. Her eyes seemed to be begging for it, so red and bright and eager. But I managed to fight back the temptation and I giggled and plucked the gift off the bed.

"Nope," I said.

Then I spun on my heel primly and walked out the room to go put the gift under the tree.

—

AN: This was another Claire chapter, just to finally offer a bit more backstory and some closure to her feelings. I love that girl, lol. It was also a Victoria chapter. For a while now she's been fairly transparent, nothing more than an observer, so I thought it would be nice to get her out there and let her actually do something for a change. There was a hint of Bella-development at the end there as well. You'll notice that she's been coming out of her vampire shell lately, no longer so dazed and trance-like all the time. After all, we don't want her to become a robot, lol. Anyway, hope you liked it. New chapter soon. :)