“Coming!” said Hannah, my beloved thrall, from within her room. It was half past ten PM, and I had just woken, having slept late after a long day’s rest with an unshakeable craving for the taste of her blood. Conveniently, she lived very close by—just one door over in the beach hotel I had inhabited for the last couple of decades. So tonight, as often was the case, I was at her door, knocking.

Hannah herself had been here for a little over six months. She had come to me in the middle of a tumultuous few days of my undeath, providing me with some much-needed comfort with a rare request to become my thrall. I had become enamored with her then, and offered to give her a safe place to stay away from the unpleasantness of her family. She was very eager to please and be taken care of, and I found her O positive blood to be very delicious. And that sealed the deal—once I had had a taste of her blood, she was mine, made my thrall, made to fall in love with me and serve my whims forever after.

I always took excellent care of my thralls, especially those like Hannah who were in a time of need. I loved providing for them in whatever way they needed—they served me so loyally in turn, after all. It was ever so easy to get whatever I wanted from whoever I needed it from, so I was more than able to provide for all my girls. One look in the eyes and they’d be kneeling at my feet, utterly subservient to my will. Even the sight of my lovely body or the sound of my beautiful voice had a hypnotic effect on humans, making them sleepy and submissive by my mere presence. It was a delightful ability to have.

“Mistress!” she said excitedly as she pulled the door open. “Please come in! I just got home from dinner with Celia a few minutes ago.” Hannah was a tall girl—almost as tall as me—with tan skin, brown hair cut in a sideshave and worn in a ponytail, and ears with a lot of little piercings. Tonight, she was wearing a white sleeveless top with a matching black skirt and cardigan, and she had a bit of makeup on as well. Clothing from her date, no doubt.

“I trust it went well, darling?” I asked, giving Hannah a kiss on the cheek as I stepped inside her room. She had been dating Celia, a girl she had met online who lived only a few miles away, since about three weeks ago. I was not the kind of woman who liked to discourage my girlfriends from having other girlfriends. As far as I was concerned, love was meant to be shared, and I myself had had, and continued to have, ever so many thralls over my long undeath.

“Really well, Mistress!” she said. “We went to this Italian place down in Lowell. It’s one of their childhood favorites. I shared a yummy pepperoni pizza with them.” As I leaned in close to her and took her hand, I felt her breath on my face and recoiled. Garlic. While it wasn’t poisonous to me as some humans liked to assume, its strong scent was intensely unappetizing to my sharp senses, and overpowering enough that even the delicious scent of human blood hardly felt worthwhile in the face of it.

“There was garlic on that pizza, wasn’t there?” I asked as I pulled back, covering my face with my hands. I took one hand off of my face to fan at the air in front of Hannah’s face.

“Oh shit, I’m sorry, Mistress!” Hannah said. “Probably in the sauce. It’s easy to forget!”

“That’s alright, dear,” I said, a bit strained. “Just go and brush your teeth for me, won’t you? I want to make out with you.”

“Yes, Mistress,” she replied, scampering off toward the bathroom. I made myself comfortable, taking a seat on Hannah’s bed after I adjusted the thermostat down by a couple of degrees. I preferred cold and dark places by the very nature of my being due to my lack of body heat, though the warmth of human bodies and their delicious blood was obviously a big exception.

I took off the white button-up blouse and red pencil skirt that I was wearing, getting myself comfortable while Hannah got herself ready to please me. When she emerged from the bathroom, her newly-minty fresh breath detectable by me from across the room, I was lying on my side, putting my body on display for her. Showing off my slender form and my lovely curves was one of my favorite things to do, both to my thralls and to any other woman who would take an interest in me—and that was most women. I liked to wear clothes that showed off a lot of skin, but being naked in front of my thralls, or girls I had brought into my bed for the night for a delicious one-night stand, was often even better.

“Oh my gosh, your thighs, Mistress!” Hannah said, her eyes widening. She rushed over to me, grabbing at my thighs with her hands, tickling me. I fell backward onto the bed, giggling, and she climbed on top of me.

“Such a good girl! So eager,” I said, giving her a kiss. “But aren’t you getting a little ahead of yourself? You ought to get undressed too, sweetie. I want to have access to every part of you.”

“Yes, Mistress,” she said, pulling herself off of me. She threw her cardigan to the ground, unzipped her skirt, and pulled her top over her head. Hannah was a little chubbier than me, and she had very big tits and a soft tummy. Like she said, my thighs were nice, but she tended to underestimate how good her own thighs were, considerably thicker than mine, frankly, and extremely good for grabbing. She tended to have difficulty acknowledging how lovely her body was in general, something I tried to aid her with in every way I could.

After she unhooked her bra and pulled down her panties, revealing her big, bouncy tits and her small, pretty girlcock, she leapt up onto the bed, climbing back on top of me. Her warmth felt absolutely wonderful against my deathly cold skin. I wrapped my arms around her upper back, pulling her in closer to me with my superhuman strength.

Hannah and I kissed each other on the lips, both moaning. Her presence at hours of the night was such a lovely gift she had given me. At least on those nights that she wasn’t spending with Celia, of course. I loved seeing her happy, even if I did miss her. I had many other thralls to occupy my time and show my love to, both near and slightly more distant — all of the employees of the hotel that I inhabited were just as devoted as Hannah, ensuring that it remained a safe place for me. That was more than enough to meet the needs of my deathless body — a drink from the veins of one of my thralls was enough to satisfy me for one day, though I often indulged myself in more than one if I had the opportunity.

“Hey, Mistress,” Hannah said, seeming a bit concerned.

“Yes, dear?”

“Celia keeps asking about you, you know. I told them you’re shy, like you recommended, but… you know, they ask a lot of things, and I’d do it for you, but it does feel bad lying to them…” I put my finger up to her lips softly.

“Shh, shh, dear, I understand,” I whispered. Hannah’s eyes fluttered upon hearing that soft voice of mine, and she relaxed her head on my chest.

“You don’t think they suspect my true nature?” I asked. I was not, in fact, a shy woman at all, but I was a rather private one, especially as it pertained to my undeath. Humans tended to fear my kind quite a lot, and knowing of me could attract the attention of those who hunted us. Celia was no doubt a very delicious woman in their own right, so there was always the possibility of enthralling them alongside Hannah to quell any concerns, but their relationship was only beginning. My two centuries of experience had taught me that things could end very poorly if I got in the middle of a relationship that might not work out. They would both remain devoted to me in that circumstance, but that in itself could inspire additional strife between the two of them if they grew to resent each other. I preferred to exercise caution in these sorts of affairs, unless I had special reason not to.

“No, I don’t think so,” Hannah said. “They just asked to go on a double date… or like whatever you call that? Me, you, them, and their other girlfriend Jade. I—I mean, you can’t really disguise yourself as a human that well, right?”

“I could try,” I said. “And I have before. But it’s an exercise in futility. Too many things that might go wrong. I’d have better luck hypnotizing the both of them.”

Hannah looked pretty worried at the sound of that.

“But… shh, shh, shh…” I said, quelling her anxiety once again. “I think we’d all be better off if I’m not lying to your new girlfriend? At least, if it can be safely avoided. It could get quite complicated that way.”

“Okay… so you want to tell Celia about being a vampire, Mistress?” Hannah asked.

“Well, you could bring them over here at least, sometime soon, and we could see how things go. I’d be willing to go on a dinner date, even… just probably without their partner. Let’s keep things simple, and I’ll see how much I’ll be safe sharing.”

“OK,” Hannah said. “I’ll try and gauge what they might think about you. I already told them that you own the hotel, and they seemed pretty surprised since you’re, like, 26, but I just said that you inherited it from your parents. Maybe saying the real reason you own the hotel won’t be such a big step?”

“I wouldn’t be so sure, unfortunately,” I said. “A lot of humans have a real ingrained fear of my kind in their silly little heads. Just do understand that if things go poorly, there’s always plan B, and it’s a very fun plan B.” I bared my fangs, salivating at the thought of Hannah pleasuring me alongside her other girlfriend.

“That is really hot,” Hannah said. I felt her cock harden against my own thighs. “And I’ve been daydreaming about it, a lot. But also, Mistress, and please know, I would never go against you, but I’ve only been dating them for three weeks, and—”

“Shh, shh, it’s OK, darling,” I cut her off, scratching her on the back with one hand and her head with the other. “We’re in agreement on that. We’ll move slowly with Celia, and work to understand the situation together, alright, dear?”

“Yes, Mistress,” she said, sounding a lot more relieved.

“Such a good girl,” I said. “You deserve to relax, darling. Know your place.”

I loved to give my thralls hypnotic triggers. It made them so easy to control, and I adored the blank look that Hannah assumed as she shoved her face into my tits without thinking, knowing her place as I had told her to.

“I am where I belong, Mistress,” she droned out, just as programmed. I could feel all the tension in her body releasing as she wrapped her arms around my torso, not part of the trigger but very adorable nonetheless. We had been together for half a year now — she was comfortable with improvising. I enjoyed being able to make my thralls feel safe and relaxed, and taking all of their stresses away, even if they seemed impenetrable.

“Oh, Mistress, I love your tits so much,” Hannah said. She kissed my left boob many times over, pushing against my right boob with her head and appreciating the subtleties of both their shapes. I had pretty big tits for a girl my size, though not overwhelmingly so, and they had a nice bouncy firmness to them. I made sure that my girls gave them the appreciation they deserved, something that Hannah was especially fond of.

She continued kissing and playing with my tits for some time. It was quite difficult for humans to become bored with my body. They instead tended to find it utterly hypnotic, drawn irresistibly to my smooth curves, my soft skin, and my light but firm touch. And my kind was well-suited for endurance in return — I really did feel like I could lie there for hours, just letting my beloved Hannah worship my body all night long, relishing in her contentment and the power I had over her.

The whole thing made me hornier and hornier, and that had a way of making me hungrier and hungrier. For my kind, the two were inseparable; to drink a pretty girl’s blood was to fuck her senseless, after all, and it produced an all-encompassing satisfaction that nothing else could. So, though I could stay like that with her all night, it was my preference to move things along, and have my fill.

“Hannah, dear,” I said, pulling her away from me. She was dazed and drooling, having become totally focused on appreciating my tits, deeply entranced. “Listen to me, focus on me, and come to attention.” Having a girl in trance was always fun, but I also liked my thralls awake and alert. They were easier to command that way.

“Y-yes, Mistress…” she said, shaking her head. “What do you need?” A big smile formed on her face.

“Here, get off of me, and let me get on top of you. I want a taste of your blood, darling,” I said.

“Yes, Mistress!” Hannah said, rolling off of me and lying back on the bed. She was very used to being drunken from by this point, and knew how to get into position. I could only safely drink from her once a week or so, more often if I gave her longer to recover afterward, and it had been maybe nine days or so since I had last tasted the sweetness of her blood on my tongue.

“Alright, dear,” I said, cupping her right tit with my right hand and feeling around it, making her shiver and squirm. I pressed down on her chest with my right hand to make sure she stayed in place like a good girl. “There you go, nice and relaxed.”

“Oh gosh, oh gosh, Mistress, please, please drink from me…” Hannah moaned, looking up at me lovingly. “You know I’m always looking forward to it. Please take as much as you want, my goddess. Any time you want!”

“You know I can’t just do that, darling,” I said, scratching her head. “I care for you too much. I want to keep you in a healthy enough state to keep serving me, don’t you know?”

“O-of course, Mistress, I just… my goddess, there’s nothing like it.”

“There isn’t, darling,” I said. “So savor it while it lasts.”

Grabbing at her thighs with my left hand to drive her wild, I held her right boob in place with my right hand and went down on her, sinking my fangs into the soft flesh at the edge of her nipple. Warm, delectable blood flowed from the open wounds onto my tongue, filling me with an indescribable pleasure. And as I drank and drank, Hannah was having the time of her life, screaming in agony and delight. The feeling of my fangs in her skin was more than enough to drive her to orgasm all on its own, and she reached climax, splashing cum right onto my own stomach as I began to pull back, moderating myself to keep her safe. I always wanted more blood, but I knew how to hold myself back. Self-control was a talent of mine that I was particularly proud of.

I licked my own lips, taking in a few stray drops, then licked her wound clean, sealing it and leaving only the characteristic prick marks of my kind, which would continue feeling very, very sensitive to her for days to come. It was my gift to her, a mark of my love.

Hannah panted with a hand over her heart, catching her breath. I pulled myself over next to her, lying back on the bed with my arm wrapped around hers, holding her hand.

“Your blood is so wonderfully sweet, dear,” I said. “Just like you. I can taste your submission, and your… well, how do I put it?”

Hannah looked at me, blushing.

“Your cuteness. Your boldness. A take-no-shit attitude and commitment to being yourself, combined with a profound desire to belong. And you do belong, to me, of course,” I said. “It’s all there in your blood. Everything there is to know about you.”

“You’re so sweet, Mistress,” Hannah said, resting her head on the skin below my shoulder. “I’ve been wondering, can you really taste all that, like, physically? Or is it just a psychological thing?”

I thought for a moment. “Well, it’s somewhere in between, I suppose. I can certainly recognize someone’s blood, from a long way away, even. For example, the person in the room across the hall has A negative blood. I’ve been smelling it on and off for the last few days — maybe I’ll go and fuck them, if they’re a pretty girl. It’s been a little while since I’ve tasted someone new. And I can tell it’s been the same person for the past few days. But… I couldn’t tell you about them as a person just from the smell. On the other hand, once I fucked them, everything I had learned about them before that would make sense. They’d taste just like they ought to. And so do you.” I gave Hannah a kiss on the forehead and giggled.

“Right, makes sense, I think. So a person’s personality is sort of… correlated with the taste of their blood?” she asked.

“I’ve always understood it as being the taste of their soul shining through,” I explained. “Your blood is a reflection of your essential self.”

“I’m really happy I can be so fundamentally sweet, then!” Hannah said.

“Oh, my darling, you are.”

Hannah continued resting on my chest, and I was content to keep taking care of her for as long as she needed. It was easier every time after the first, but having half a pint of blood removed from one’s veins could take a lot out of the most dedicated of thralls. I would keep hold of her for as long as she needed.

Soon, though, my phone vibrated, and I received some disconcerting news.

The text was from Valerie, another one of my beloved thralls. She was a former hunter of my kind who had made an attempt on my undeath during the same weekend that Hannah had come to submit to me. It was no coincidence — Hannah had learned of me from Valerie’s research that she had posted online, in a chat room that I had some difficulty understanding the structure of. Technology had a way of passing me by. It was hard to fully adjust to the cultural developments of the last decade when you were over two centuries old.

It went without saying that Valerie’s attempt had failed. She was as loyal to me as Hannah now, her violence against my kind long-forgiven. That was another gift I was able to give my thralls, a chance at redemption. A chance at love, even, in place of hate and malice, to love me and be loved back. She had remained in the online community in which she had previously prepared to hunt vampires on my orders, to keep watch and protect me in case anyone else got any ideas. I liked to remain hidden, and Valerie had almost exposed me, but she had been able to ward off any suspicion — so it seemed, at least, until now.

<Valerie Hawthorne> There’s trouble, Mistress.

I got banned from the vampire hunters Clamor server.

Hadn’t checked it for the last few weeks, not sure why.

I’m sorry, my goddess, I should’ve been more vigilant.

On my way over.

<Naomi Rennt> Understood, dear. Meet me in Hannah’s room.

A bit tense from this news, I pulled Hannah off of myself.

“Hannah, dear, you should probably get yourself cleaned up. Valerie’s on her way over with some troubling news.”

“Shit, Mistress… what’s wrong?” Hannah said, sitting up, and starting off toward the shower.

“Valerie got banned from that chat room. The New England Vampire Hunters, where you first learned of me,” I said. “They m-might suspect that she’s mine now.”

I tried to stay calm, but my voice was faltering. I didn’t want a repeat of this kind of shit, even if it had turned out alright with Valerie in the end. Threats against my undeath had a funny way of becoming more distressing the longer I persisted against them. I’d need to get to the bottom of this as soon as possible.

“Oh, shit,” Hannah said. “Do… do you need my support? Do you want to cuddle or something?”

I hesitated for a moment. “No, no… you go take a shower, sweetie. I should get my clothes back on, regrettably.”

“Yes, Mistress,” she replied. I would’ve gotten in the shower with her if I had needed it, but the two of us had wildly different temperature preferences, and my undead body produced no sweat or odor. I still needed a shower once in a while as I was covered in my thralls’ fluids, or the rain and such, but it wasn’t as urgent. So while Hannah got herself nice and clean in the shower, all I needed to do was go and rinse Hannah’s cum off of my stomach with some water from the sink. Then I buttoned up my blouse, zipped up my skirt, and tried to keep myself calm as I waited for Valerie’s arrival.

By the time I heard a knock on the door, Hannah was out of the shower and dressed herself. We were sitting on the couch in her room, me holding her tight in my arms. No matter what happened, I would never let any harm come to her or my other thralls.

For now, though, there were matters to attend to. I rushed over to the door in the blink of an eye, pulling it open. Valerie was there as expected, dressed in a gray hoodie and jeans that made a lovely fit on her stocky, muscular, and beautiful body. Her blonde hair was tied back into a ponytail, as was common for her. Despite everything, she seemed in reasonably good spirits.

“Good evening, Mistress,” Valerie said. “Hey, Hannah.” Hannah smiled back at her, and I leaned down to give Valerie a quick kiss on the lips. Hannah and Valerie were both tall girls, but I was 6’3’’ — taller than the great majority of women I had known in my long undeath.

“So, I don’t really know what’s going on,” Valerie said, stepping inside the room without hesitation. “I guess I got complacent. There wasn’t much activity on the server since around the time you enthralled me… I think the last time I really looked at what was going on in there was last month, in March.” She grimaced, and I returned the favor. A lot could happen in that time, especially when the internet was involved. This sort of thing tended to move a bit faster than I was comfortable with in the present day.

“Well… it’s less than ideal, but, mm, I must admit I’ve gotten a bit complacent myself,” I said. “I haven’t been asking you about what’s going on. I suppose we both wanted to believe that this was simply left behind us.”

“I’m sorry, Mistress,” Valerie said, falling to her knees on the floor and bowing her head in supplication. “My purpose is to defend and serve you. It’s never your fault. When you took me, I promised I would always keep you safe. I need to make sure I don’t stray from that path. You mean everything to me, my goddess.” Valerie had taken well to seeing me as a goddess very quickly after I had taken her. That was simply the kind of determination she held. With such a justice-minded view of the world, it only made sense that she would see me as a divine figure worthy of worship. I relished that treatment from my thralls.

“Good girl,” I said, scratching her head with my fingernails. “You love defending your goddess.”

“I do!” Valerie said, trembling on the floor beneath me, her face in her hands. “But I need to do better. I just don’t know what I can do! I don’t know what they know, about me, or you… and the whole approval process is a pain. You need a photo and everything.” Photographic evidence of one’s humanity was considered especially important by hunters of my kind, considering that we don’t appear in photographs. A living picture was one of the best ways to show that someone was trustworthy, though it didn’t account for enthrallment.

“Hey, sorry to interrupt,” Hannah chimed in, seeming nervous to get in the middle of this. “But we could, like, check on my account. I’m still on there, you know.”

“Oh!” Valerie and I both said. How convenient. Hannah had been so desperate for a way to improve her living situation that she had joined the New England vampire hunters’ chat room last autumn, hoping to find a starting point for information on my kind, for an altogether different purpose than the hunters themselves used it for. She had succeeded in that, of course, and as far as I knew she had never sent a single message.

“Yeah, I mean, you’re verified and everything?” Valerie asked, coming to peek at Hannah’s cell phone, which she had just opened.

“Of course,” Hannah said. “I wouldn’t have been able to read about Mistress, otherwise. My photo’s there and everything… here, look.”

She pulled up a photo of her own face, holding up a piece of paper that read “Hi, I’m hannahsparkles!” in her adorable, curly handwriting style.

“Oh, shit, I think I remember you posting this, now that I see it again. You were lurking on here for over a year before you found Mistress?” Valerie asked.

“Yeah, I mean, I guess at first it just seemed like a stupid fantasy,” Hannah said. “I was at a really bad place in my life, looking for a way out… so I just checked on the server once in a while, hoping against hope that there’d be some kind of opportunity… some vampire who would treat me nicely. Decently, even. Then you, um, Valerie, you started posting about this gay vampire lady and nobody believed you, and, um, well… I guess I was feeling pretty bold that night. I snuck out from my parents’ at like 11 PM, after they had gone to bed… and I didn’t look back.”

“Of course you didn’t look back, sweetie,” I said with a smile. “You were too busy looking me in the eyes, weren’t you?” Hannah was an intuitive woman, and she understood my intention well by this point. By the time I had finished my sentence, she was already staring back into my eyes, totally blank and empty and entranced, with a broad smile on her face.

“So cute,” I said. “You’re safe here with me now, and I’ll always make sure—”

“Mistress!” Valerie said, patting me on the shoulder. “It’s really hot, as always, but isn’t this kind of urgent?”

I looked back at Valerie, taking my gaze away from Hannah’s, and I frowned. This was the trouble with having women who were fundamentally devoted to me and my protection — sometimes, they were right. Hannah was too much of an adorable sub for her own good.

“Fair point, Valerie,” I said, a bit disappointed. “Alright, Hannah, awake and alert, darling.” I snapped my fingers in front of her face, getting her attention.

She shook her head vigorously, then said, “yes, Mistress!”

“I’m sorry, dear, I shouldn’t have gotten distracted. You’re just so cute and easy to control. Let’s take a look at what’s happening there in the chat room.”

“Right, yes, Mistress,” she said. She scrolled down on her phone to a so-called “channel” called #general, while Valerie leaned over my shoulder to look at what was there herself. We read the last several messages sent there together:

<hunter_419> Can we back up about 6 months? I’m noticing something off with valerie_h’s messages concerning Naomi Rennt.

<StakeSharpener86> was a bad lead. read a few days later, she met with the lady and she was a human

<hunter_419> There was no photo. What, you just believe her saying that? Look back at the evidence she posted. It all lines up.

“Who’s this hunter_419 person?” I asked incredulously. “Someone I should be worried about?”

Valerie’s eyes were wide with fear. “Yes, fucking hell. Oh, shit, oh, shit.” She stood and started pacing, her fingers ruffling through her hair.

“She’s a moderator on the server. In charge, you know, Mistress?” she said. “She’s, uh… oh goddess, she’s prolific. She’s killed so many vampires, like nine or ten, I think? And that was only last I checked. I don’t know how she even does it. How she didn’t get enthralled yet… I used to look up to her so much, but now, seeing her name just makes me fuckin’ terrified for you, Mistress!”

If my heart had been beating, it would have skipped a beat. I balled my fist and bared my fangs, feeling more feral than usual. A fight or flight response, almost.

“Why… why is she saying this now?” I asked, stunned. “This all happened six months ago! If she was going to notice, why not back then?”

“She was out of town, I think… some kind of like, deep cover operation. After a vampire in, like, southern Europe, I think? She had to ditch internet connections for… some reason. I didn’t really get it, because she didn’t explain much. But that’s what makes this so terrifying. She has ways,” Valerie explained. “And all this was said two days ago? Ah shit, who knows what’s coming?” She threw her arms up in the air.

“Oh, Lilith, let me just continue reading,” I said. “I need to know what’s coming.”

<StakeSharpener86> you think valerie_h is lying? she’s gotten 2 bloodsuckers already

<hunter_419> That means she’s still a rookie. She’s probably enthralled. I’ll be looking into it.

<draculah8r> Thats it? You dont even have any evidence yourself

<hunter419> I told you, look back at valerie_h’s posts. She already cracked the code, most likely.

She’s banned now. Don’t trust her if she DMs you, just block and move on.

You’ll hear from me again when I have photos of Naomi Rennt’s body.

Or maybe you were right.

But it warrants investigation.

We shall see.

<StakeSharpener86> in a hotel seriously? you might as well try to convince us that the governor of vermont’s a werewolf

it’s too public a position to be viable

<hunter_419> Watch and see.

That was all there was.

I was shivering, even though I liked the cold. Back when Valerie had come after me, I had felt confident, composed. That’s usually how it was when hunters sought to kill me — I would need to borrow one of my thralls’ hands to count how many times that had happened over the course of my undeath. I was, for better or worse, used to it, and yet there was something terrifying about this… it was usually premeditated, sure — humans had to pull out all the stops to even harm one of my kind. But they didn’t usually get past three or four, tops. Even Valerie’s two kills seemed almost impressive to me at the time. If this hunter_419 person was really telling the truth, if she had done all that herself, I had reason to feel more like prey than a predator. And she treated it all as so routine, the killing of my kind… nothing out of the ordinary.

If I was a human, perhaps I would have been hyperventilating, but that wasn’t in my nature, what with not having to breathe at all. So instead I was just sitting there on the bed, leaning back a bit and supporting myself with my hands, not breathing at all, as still as a corpse, staring off into the middle distance.

“Mistress, what can we do?” Hannah said, tugging at my arm. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you like this before.”

“I, um…” I sighed, taking in a breath for the first time in a minute. Though unnecessary, I needed to breathe to speak, and it tended to help keep nearby humans at ease when they saw me do it. “Humans will always find a way to dehumanize me, won’t they? I-I’m not human, but…”

“But you’re a person, Mistress! You deserve respect, and stuff,” Hannah said.

“You do, Mistress,” Valerie said. “Respect, devotion, and obedience.” She kneeled down on one foot in front of me, taking ahold of my hand to kiss it.

“My good girls,” I affirmed to both of them, trying to steady myself. “I just don’t know what to do, I suppose. I don’t know what can be done, if this person’s coming for me.”

“The hotel is safe, right?” Hannah said. “I mean, you’re all the way up here. What could someone even do?”

“Of course,” I said, rubbing her back. “I’ll be well-informed in advance. Sandra and Gail and the others will take care of me.”

“Us too, Mistress,” Valerie said. “If I can stay close by, to help you feel safer… order me, Mistress, and I will obey.” Her devotion turned me on, and helped me feel better about the current situation.

“I… sure, why don’t you stay here with me, at least through tomorrow? I could use the comfort,” I said.

“Yes, Mistress,” Valerie said. “I’ll let Lauren know what’s going on. We’ll all work together to keep you safe.” Lauren, Valerie’s longtime roommate and recent girlfriend, had been my thrall as well since just a few days after I had taken Valerie. The two of them were adorable together, especially when they were both kneeling at my feet.

“And Mistress,” Valerie continued. “Always remember. If hunter_419 does come here, she doesn’t stand a chance against you. If she even gets anywhere close to you, she won’t stand a chance. You’ll overpower her, just like you did with me… and her blood and will will be yours for the taking.” She smiled and shuddered, the weight of enthrallment surely coursing through her.

I licked my lips. It was a lovely idea, even if it felt a bit far-off at the moment. I did very much like to assert my dominance over women who challenged my independence, of course, and I would relish it if this situation came to a head. But I would prefer, in this case, to avoid a confrontation of that nature to begin with. This woman had personally killed nine or ten of my kind. There was certainly an appeal in taking someone like that for my own and repurposing her skills for more appropriate purposes, but frankly, it also made me slightly uncomfortable. I had killed previous hunters for less, but after I had enthralled Valerie instead, planning on that just didn’t feel right. I was caught between sunlight and silver on this.

“Well, let’s just hope it doesn’t come to that,” I said, pulling Valerie up under her armpits to kiss me. Valerie truly knew the error of her own ways now, deep in her heart. I had been confident in that since day one. But could even the power of enthrallment redeem someone capable of slaying so many of my kind without a second thought? I wanted to believe so, but I had my doubts. With someone like this, I was worried I’d be looking over my shoulder whenever they weren’t in the room with me. I knew from my own past that even a vampire’s powers of dominance could be overcome with the right combination of determination and raw emotion, usually brought forth through psychological trauma. It concerned me.

“We’ve got your back, Mistress,” Hannah said, leaning in for a hug as I continued kissing Valerie. “And we’ll always love you.” I knew it to be true.

“Thank you, my dears,” I said, pulling away from Valerie. “I’ll keep that in mind.”

“There is one other thing, Mistress,” Valerie said, standing again. It was clear that she was in no state to sit still at the moment. “One thing we can know about this hunter_419 person—her face.”

“Oh yeah!” Hannah said. “I guess she would have had to register at some point like everyone else.”

“Ah yes,” I said. “I’d very much like to know as much about her as I can. Hm… just imagine how easily you would have fallen if I had known all of your weaknesses in advance, Valerie.” I pulled her over by the arm and scratched her under the chin, causing her to moan. At a stressful time like this, I took comfort in what I could control.

“Here she is, Mistress,” Hannah said. “This image is, um, eight years old, for what it’s worth. Jesus, this person’s been doing this for a while.”

“Yeah, she’s a real expert,” Valerie said, sliding her hands down her face in distress.

The photograph showed a woman in her mid twenties or so (probably early thirties now, I thought to myself) wearing a gray sweatshirt, black yoga pants, and a jean jacket. She had a lithe but muscular body, olive skin, and straight black hair that was tied back into a bun. Her round face was wearing a serious expression, and was partially turned away from the camera—perhaps even this was a way to make herself more difficult to identify for someone like me, while still proving her humanity. But I’d remember what I’d seen here, that much was assured, even if some things had changed in those eight years. On a piece of paper held in her hand was simple, neat handwriting reading “hunter_419”.

“There she is,” I said, steeling myself for what was hopefully not to come.

I eventually brought Hannah and Valerie back to my own suite, and they fell asleep together in each other’s arms, united in their love for me. I had the whole rest of the night ahead of me, of course. While the two of them got the sleep they needed, I stepped downstairs into the lobby, bringing a science fiction novel that Lauren had recommended downstairs with me. Gail, a short woman with curly blonde hair who had been my thrall for about two years now, waved to me as I exited the elevator. At this time of night, the lobby was largely abandoned, leaving me free to walk the premises with little fear of prying eyes. Perfect for my nocturnal self.

“Good evening, Gail,” I said, leaning over the desk to give her a little kiss.

“Good evening, Mistress,” she said. “What was going on with Valerie? She seemed pretty agitated when she came through earlier.”

“Yes, dear—there’s been another threat against my undeath. One of her former compatriots. A woman with a round face, straight black hair… shit, I’ll have to have Hannah send you the photo. Let her into the hotel under no circumstances, do you understand? And stay on high alert. It’s likely she’ll be coming sometime soon, probably during the day, you know.” Hunters of my kind preferred to operate during the day, typically, when we were asleep and unable to safely go outside. It provided them with a marginal advantage.

“Uh, OK, Mistress!” Gail replied. “I’ll let everyone know. Stay safe.” She did a little bow to me, and I ruffled her hair.

“Thank you, sweetie.”

I took a seat on one of the chairs and opened my book to read for a while, trying to take my mind off of things. I knew who to look for, and so did my thralls. For now, that seemed to be the most I could do. Perhaps tomorrow we would look through internet registries and try to put a name to her face, but that would take time. All I could do now was try to keep a cool head.

It was hard to do, though. That woman’s demeanor was worming its way into my head, and I found myself peering at the front door over and over again, barely able to get anywhere with the book. I wished that humans like her would just be smart enough to leave well enough alone. It added a lot of stress to the undeaths of my kind, but didn’t tend to go as well as the hunters themselves hoped, at least not in the long term. This girl could slay a dozen of us, sure, but she couldn’t keep that up forever. Something had to give. In the end, they’d lose either their lives or their free wills. Someone with those prospects would have been much better off offering themselves up to me. Hannah knew what she was doing better than any of them.

Painfully disoriented and lost in thought, I decided to take a step outside. The hotel I inhabited was located by the beach, and I enjoyed the cold sea breeze that would blow on most nights. It was spring, getting warmer by the night, but especially this late it was more than comfortable. A bit humid for my tastes, perhaps. The sky was clear, though, and it was a moonlit night, just the way I liked it. Sometimes a moment to myself was all I needed to feel grounded and safe.

I walked down the shoreline, the tides lapping at my feet. This wasn’t the first time I’d been threatened, and I’d get through it like I had every previous time something like this had happened. I was a survivor, above all else, and I’d survive through this just like I had survived through every other threat I’d faced for the last two centuries. I had my thralls by my side, and they’d defend me to the death—not that I’d ever let that happen, of course. It wouldn’t come to that, and as Valerie had said, if that hunter_419 person ever got close to me, then I’d—

BANG!

The sound of a gunshot rang in my ears. From the impression my sensitive hearing afforded me, it was close by. Maybe not immediately close, certainly not point blank, but more than enough to turn my head.

There was a bullet hitting my head. Though I had quick reflexes, it wasn’t enough to be able to react to this appropriately. A bullet in my head… A bullet in my head! I felt dizzy, barely able to think. I had a high pain tolerance for most things, but this was… a bullet in my head… a silver bullet in my head. The burning feeling of silver’s touch, one of the only substances there was that could cause me lasting pain, coursed through my head and my entire body. A bullet in my head, my brain… my brain wasn’t as necessary to me as it was to a human, but it was still… a bullet in my head, connected to my eyes and my ears and all of my senses.

I was… I was falling then, face-first onto the ground. The soft touch of the sand against my body was nothing compared to the feeling of searing pain emitting from the silver bullet touching against the cold, undying flesh of my brain. The cold sea water splashing against my legs and no-doubt ruining my lovely sandals provided no comfort against the feeling that I was dying, dying, from a bullet taken to the brain. Usually I could easily regenerate from any injury in no more than seconds, but it certainly didn’t feel like it with the silver pressing, burning against the inside of my head. I was vulnerable. Helpless, in a way I had never felt, not since… not since what had happened to my sister, so long ago. But I couldn’t even think of that. For now, I was just burning, hurting, unable to think or even cry out a scream to my thralls for help.

Not now. I was at the mercy of the hands reaching for me, dragging me off to places unknown with their firm grip… Despite my strength, I couldn’t even begin to think to try and escape, fight off whoever that was. For now, all I could do was let catatonia take me, and fade away.