CHAPTER 32

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Before Nicoleta could bite Amanda, she found herself being bitten instead as Ileana bit her on the neck and started to drain the blood out of her. Alina quickly grabbed Amanda and took her a few rows away from the rapidly approaching Carmilla.

Alina could feel Amanda trying to break away from her, and she knew that she thought that she was working with Carmilla. Who could blame her? She had never done anything in the past but try to kill the poor child. She had to try to convince her to trust her now despite all of that but how?

"Amanda, stay with me. I won't hurt you I promise. I'm trying to keep you safe from her. I know that you don't believe me and there's no reason that you should, but I really have changed. I'm trying to protect you. It's the least I can do since I did nothing while Carmilla killed your parents. I should have stopped her, and I'm so sorry that I didn't!" Alina said with regret.

Amanda looked her in the eyes for a moment to see if she could see the truth of her words there. She could see a mixture of regret, sadness, and misery in Alina's eyes. She could also see something else in them: concern for her. She could see that Alina actually was worried about her by the way that she kept looking between her and the still fast approaching Carmilla. It seemed that Alina really did want to keep her safe from her former sister. Amanda decided to trust her and hoped that she wasn't making a mistake.

Alina was taken completely by surprise then as she felt Amanda stop struggling and cling to her for protection instead. Alina smiled at her for a moment as she said, "Thank you!"

Amanda smiled back at her, but Alina could still see a hint of doubt in her eyes. She tried to erase that doubt by saying, "I promise I'll die before I let her get to you. Death doesn't really hold any more fear for me anymore so that's no idle promise. I'm truly not afraid to die for you. I've been dead before after all . . . twice. You kind of get used to it. It starts to become routine like having your morning coffee."

Amanda actually laughed for a minute at Alina's attempt at humor even amid all of the tension and fear in the room. Maybe she could trust Alina after all. She was actually trying to make her feel better. Why would she do that unless she actually cared about her?

Katherine came to her senses to see Ileana rapidly draining Nicoleta's blood, Alina holding Amanda against her body protectively at the bottom of the theater, and Carmilla rapidly closing on in the two of them while Michelle ran after her. She worried for a moment that Alina might try to use the child as a shield against Carmilla without caring about her safety. Then she saw the way that Alina moved Amanda behind her in concern when Carmilla was within a few feet away from them, and she could see that Alina was trying to protect her.

Realizing that for the moment at least that Alina was on their side, Katherine raced towards Carmilla at the speed of the wind and took her by surprise as she delivered a massive haymaker to the back of her head. As Carmilla was momentarily stunned by this, Michelle gestured at her; and she began to rapidly disappear as parts of her were sent to the Mirror Verse.

Carmilla screamed in intense pain as she began to have more and more wounds open up all over her body. Michelle started to falter in her resolve as she did not enjoy being so callous even to a vampire as hateful as Carmilla. She immediately stopped, and Carmilla fell to the ground still crying out in misery.

Michelle looked at Katherine with sorrow in her eyes as though asking for her to absolve her of the guilt that she now felt.

Katherine only smiled at her and said, "You were trying to protect my child. Your concern for her made you go a little too far. I may be biased, but I don't blame you for that at all. You stopped yourself when you began to cross the line. If you're worried about reverting back to your old ways then that should tell you everything that you need to know about how much you've changed since then. You're feeling guilty about causing pain to a vampire, Michelle! Think about it."

Carmilla quickly got to her feet and delivered a devastating blow to Katherine's solar plexus that made her double over in pain. She then raced toward Michelle at incredible speed as she prepared to attack her next.

Michelle reached out toward Carmilla as her eyes turned transparent. After seeing what Carmilla had done to Katherine thanks to her hesitation, her resolve to destroy her had returned. She reached out with her powers as she attempted to detect Carmilla's heart with them and smiled when she could actually feel its exact location with the tendrils of energy that she had sent through her chest. Once she had found it, she fired a massive bolt of Mirror Verse energy straight at it and sent it straight to the Mirror Verse. Both Carmilla's heart and her body both disintegrated into dust simultaneously across two dimensions the instant that it reached the Mirror Verse!

"Katherine, are you okay? I should have done that from the start," Michelle asked Katherine in concern.

Katherine nodded and said, "I'm fine. I am pretty tough after all. Go help Ileana if she needs it."

They both looked at Ileana and could see that she had drained Nicoleta of most of her blood and had then dropped her to the floor. Nicoleta was lying in front of Ileana barely alive now. She was so weak that she could barely keep her eyes open.

Both women could now see that Nicoleta was no longer a problem. Ileana, on the other hand, was now looking at Katherine with undisguised bloodlust in her eyes, and Katherine could see that she was barely able to keep herself from attacking her next.

"Ileana, calm down. Katherine is your friend. You would never forgive yourself if you did anything to her. You took her here to see the movies so that she could enjoy herself. Remember that," Michelle said as she tried to talk Ileana back to her normal self.

"Please get her out of here, Michelle. Please!" Ileana begged her.

"I'm not afraid of you, Ileana. I know that you won't hurt me," Katherine said as she began to walk toward Ileana and shocked Michelle.

"What are you doing? Get back here!" Michelle said in concern.

"She won't hurt me. I know she won't. I have faith in her basic decency," Katherine said as she began to walk closer and closer to Ileana.

"No! Get away from me!" Ileana screamed in fear.

"No! I'm sick of both you and Michelle acting like you're monsters when you're two of the kindest people I've ever met. Michelle almost failed to stop Carmilla because she let her self-doubt make her hesitate for a moment, and now you're doing it. I'm tired of both of you downing yourselves! You won't hurt me, Ileana. I know that. I trust you completely because you're my friend. I know that you won't hurt me. I know that with all of my heart," Katherine said as she walked right up to Ileana and stood in front of her without fear.

Friendship and devotion competed with bloodlust on Ileana's face as Katherine stood there unmoving. Katherine could see that there was a massive war going on inside of her as she struggled not to give into her hunger.

Then Ileana lunged forward and sank her teeth into Katherine's neck. She began to drain her blood as she gave into her bloodlust at last.

"No! Don't! You can't do this, Aunt Ileana! She's your friend!" Amanda screamed as she struggled to get away from Alina once again but for a different reason this time. Alina held her tightly and refused to let her go as she feared that Ileana might attack even her if she tried to stop her in her current state of mind.

Then Ileana screamed "No!" as she pulled away from Katherine after only having drained her for a moment. Katherine fell to the ground in weakness and struggled to get up as Ileana looked down at her in horror.

Ileana quickly helped Katherine to get back on her feet as she looked at her with a combination of concern and guilt. She was fully back in control now after the shock of what she had just done had broken the bloodlust's hold on her.

"I'm so sorry! Are you okay?" Ileana said in an upset voice.

"I'm fine. You didn't take much blood from me. You stopped yourself before you went too far just like I knew that you would," Katherine said with a smile.

Ileana touched Katherine's wounded neck and healed it then with the power that Rose had given to her. Katherine was suddenly filled with energy, and she was able to stand on her own once more as Ileana's healing touch returned the strength to her body that she had just stolen from it. It was just like nothing had happened. Ileana wished that she could make her guilt go away so easily.

Alina let Amanda go now that she was sure that Ileana was back in control, and the little girl raced to her mother in concern. Katherine wrapped her arms around her in affection as she assured her that she was okay.

Ileana turned around and began to leave the theater in shame when Amanda said, "Aunt Ileana, are you okay?"

She turned to see Amanda standing right behind unafraid and filled with worry about her. She almost smiled as she realized that the little girl was neither angry nor resentful over what she had just done. All that Amanda was worried about was whether Ileana was alright or not.

"I'm fine. I just need a little while to get over what I just did to your Mum. I'm so sorry about it! I didn't want to do it, but the bloodlust was just too strong for a moment," Ileana apologized.

"I know. I'm being raised by a vampire. Believe me, I know what the bloodlust does to all of you. I'm not blaming you for anything because you stopped yourself. It just shows that Mum was right about you. You're not a monster, Aunt Ileana. How could you be? You're shaking and crying about what you just did. Monsters don't do that. Monsters don't care about who they hurt or who they kill," Amanda said passionately to her while looking at Alina for a moment as well.

Both Ileana and Alina looked at her with gratitude for her words as Ileana said to her with a warm smile, "How did somebody so young get so smart?"

"Just lucky I guess," Amanda said with a grin.

Ileana held the little girl to her and hugged her tightly with gratitude as everyone else in the room watched the two of them with smiles on their faces. Almost everyone did anyway. Nicoleta slowly and quietly walked out of the theater while all of this was going on with the small amount of strength that she had left. She was leaving now while they were all too distracted by the warmth of the moment to notice her.

Luckily someone else did notice her however. Nicoleta was so busy watching Ileana and the others to make sure that they didn't notice her leaving that she failed to realize that someone else was right behind her. A wooden stake was quickly plunged through her heart, and she hissed in fury at her attacker as she recognized them at the last moment just before she turned to dust.

Abraham Van Helsing strode forward through the rapidly disintegrating cloud of dust that used to be Nicoleta and smiled at the scene in front of him. Luckily, he had come as soon as he had heard reports of the attacks on the police band and had recognized them as being the work of vampires.

Ileana sensed his presence and said without looking at him, "It took you long enough. You're getting slow in your old age. Time was you'd have been here much sooner than this."

"I thought that you'd have the whole thing wrapped up by now. You must be slowing down as well. You almost let one of them go," Abraham said as he pretended to admonish her.

"No, I didn't. I knew what she was doing. It was just that I could feel your presence here as soon as you entered the theater, and I was too lazy to stop her. I figured I'd let you do it instead. What else do I keep you around for?" Ileana said with a huge smile on her face as she joked with him.

"I always thought that it was because of my boyish charm, my amazing sense of humor, and my devastating good looks," Abraham said with a smug smile.

"That too," Ileana said as she gave him a tender kiss.

Amanda looked at this scene and sighed in relief. She was glad that Ileana was going to be okay. Now she just had to fix Alina. She was making helping Alina to redeem herself her next project.

"What's going on in that diabolical little mind of yours?" Katherine asked Amanda suspiciously.

"Nothing, Mum. Absolutely nothing," Amanda said as she tried to suppress a grin.

"Alina, right?" Katherine asked.

"Yeah," Amanda admitted.

Katherine hugged her affectionately as she said, "That's my little girl. She's a vampire psychiatrist and life coach all wrapped up into one. I think that you've established a new profession. Maybe you should become a professional at it when you grow up."

"I have a feeling that I'll be too busy here helping all of you with all of your boatload full of issues to be able to get into the business professionally for quite a while yet," Amanda said with a serious face.

"Are you sure that you're only ten years old?" Katherine asked her with a grin.

"Yeah but sometimes I feel like I'm eleven. I've always been smart for my age," Amanda said.

"You don't have to tell me that. I figured that out the day that I met you," Katherine said with a warm smile that was full of pride in her daughter.

As Alina looked at the two of them together, she renewed her vow to herself to be the little girl's protector from now on. She would look after her for the rest of her life in order to make up for the part that she had played in taking her parents from her. This time she was going to make her life count for something.

Alina had no idea that at the same time that she was planning on watching over and helping Amanda that Amanda was thinking that exact same thing about her. Amanda was promising herself that she would help Alina redeem herself if it was the last thing that she did.

It was what she did after all. The Bad Wolves were all her friends, and it was her job to watch out for them. They were only adults after all. They had to have someone around to take care of them.

Next: The focus next time shifts to Donna as she finally decides to come clean and tell her mother that she's a Time Lady now. Wilf it seems has a secret of his own to tell poor old Sylvia as well. Why do I have a feeling that this is not going to be her day?