I had just laid down for the morning, curled up in bed, when the phone on my nightstand rang.

It wasn't often that I had to answer a phone call – after all, the hotel staff was under orders not to disturb me in my room unless it was terribly necessary, especially during daylight hours. If the phone was ringing, something critical likely needed my attention.

I sat up and grabbed the receiver.

"What is it, Sandra?" I asked.

I heard Sandra's voice – the voice of the hotel's longtime receptionist, and my loyal thrall. Her blood was type A positive, and tasted as lovely as she looked. "Mistress, there's trouble. A Ms. Valerie Hawthorne is here at the front desk, and she's demanding to see you in your room. She mentioned you by name, Mistress."

“For what purpose? Who does she claim to be?” I stood up, running to the closet to put on my loveliest dress, a red and black sundress (ironic, really) that went down to my knees.

"She said she's a trained vampire hunter, and she has the equipment to back that up! She surely knows what you are, Mistress! Gail is at the desk right now attempting to dissuade her, but—“

“But what?” I demanded, sliding the dress over my head.

“She’s coming back here now! I—” I heard the sound of the phone falling, and the scream of Sandra as she was no doubt overtaken by Ms. Valerie Hawthorne.

And then, her voice. A wrathful, self-righteous human voice that sent a shiver down even my spine. “Naomi Rennt. I’m coming up. I know what you are. Your thralls might deny it, but I know it’s you. It’s morning, and there’s nowhere to run. Surrender now, and we can make it easy. A single silver bullet to the heart—”

I didn’t let her finish. “You think this will be easy? I will make a feast of your blood, mortal!” I slammed the receiver down, trembling. That was a bit much for a response, wasn’t it? Sometimes it was hard to keep myself from getting carried away with that sort of grandstanding. It wasn’t the real me.

But…she was coming, and I was going to need to be ready for a confrontation. This woman obviously knew what she was doing, coming in the morning. Far too many hunters tried to come for my kind during the night for their own good, a time when we could simply slink away into the darkness. Obviously reckless of them, even from a cursory inspection, but then, many humans did silly things. I didn’t want a confrontation with a hunter who clearly knew what was good for her, but it would be easy enough to neutralize her anyways.

And though she was clearly more competent than most, this Valerie Hawthorne had made some critical errors of her own. Her first mistake was threatening to kill a 200-year old vampire who kept the staff of a large hotel in her thrall and knew the building inside and out. If she really wanted me dead, she would’ve snuck up behind me and shot me with that silver bullet she was so proud of before I knew what was coming. For whatever grandstanding I wasn’t proud of on the phone, hers had doomed her prospects far more. I knew she was coming, and when she arrived, I would make a feast of her blood. It had been quite some time since I had tasted someone entirely new.

And furthermore, she had made herself known to my thralls at the front desk. The Seagate Hotel was indeed a functioning hotel at which many people stayed; I simply kept the deluxe suite to myself and let the staff run their hotel in exchange for their unconditional worship and obedience. It was an arrangement I’d like to think all parties benefited from. They had their hotel and their livelihoods, and I had a sizable hideout (I’m sure Ms. Hawthorne would’ve preferred “lair”), all the blood I needed, and a host of loyal thralls who were excellent at hand-waving any uncomfortable questions that suspicious guests had about a pale woman stalking the hallways at night (it was always “stalking” with them, quite rude of them really). It was easy to keep away most solicitors – even if someone were to see something that proved to them what I was, I could easily remove their memories of such an event – but sometimes information slipped through the cracks, something that would give a person like Ms. Hawthorne the proof they needed to come looking for me.

But yes, while it was possible that they wouldn’t be able to stop a sufficiently armed and determined woman from confronting me, my thralls would certainly slow her down however they could and give me time to prepare myself. I was dressed already, and slipping on my suede, high-heeled ankle boots (my shoes of choice for most occasions) as I put the phone down. Now to get down to business: close the windows.

I stepped out of my room with a swift pace. I kept the windows in my own suite covered with blackout curtains at all times, of course, but hotel guests tended to have a certain affinity for the morning sun. The light shining through from the end of the hallway blinded me and made me shudder. I had to remind myself that this would be brief to stop myself from closing the door and retreating to my room. This was a necessary precaution.

I walked down to the door next to mine, averting my eyes from the bright morning light, and knocked on the door. This room should’ve been rented– I had heard sounds coming from inside during the night. Hopefully the guest would still be there.

Surely enough, a petite, curly brown-haired lady soon answered the door, a young woman no older than her late twenties. She looked, and smelled delicious in more ways than one.

“Hi. Who are you?” she said, looking a bit bewildered. Her hair was ruffled and messy; I gathered that she hadn’t been out of bed for long.

“Look me in the eyes,” I ordered. Without thinking, she did, if only for a split second, and she became quite still. Humans usually didn’t think twice about something as simple as that. It was just common courtesy to look someone in the eyes when you were speaking to them, of course. I could use that to great effect.

“That’s it, now. Just look deeper into my pretty eyes and lose yourself to them. Look in my eyes and fall into a nice, deep, relaxing sleep.” I stared at her grinning as she lost herself to my gaze. Girls were so cute when they were falling into trance for me, standing before me silent, vacantly staring, ready to obey my every word.

“Good girl,” I said, brushing her hair with my cold fingers. “Listen only to my voice now. What is your name?” I needed to make sure I didn’t get carried away here. Though she was clearly delicious, I was here because I needed this woman to do something important for me.

“Sadie Anton,” she answered, her blank stare still reflecting mine. How adorable. She even said her last name.

“Sadie. I need you to go and pull down the window shades in the hallway here. Make sure the blinds are fully drawn, so that no sunlight is let in. There’s one at the north end and one at the south end… and another next to the elevators.” I spoke quickly, nearly forgetting the window that Ms. Hawthorne would be most likely to try and utilize.

“Then tie off the cords so that they can’t be pulled up easily,” I explained. I thought for a moment, getting a bit greedy. She smelled so delicious. “Then you will come back here to your room and go about your day, forgetting everything I had you do. But tonight, at…let’s say 11 PM, you’ll come to Room 508, the deluxe suite, and knock on the door three times. Can you do that for me, Sadie?” I knew she would and could, of course. By 11 PM, I would surely be done with all this business, and I could begin my night by fucking Sadie senseless and drinking her delicious blood.

“Yes, ma’am.” Her response was automatic, and she looked away from my eyes, walking off to complete her assigned task without thinking about it too much, like a good girl.

“That’s ‘Yes, Mistress,’” I added as she turned away. I giggled a bit.

She looked back at me for a moment, unfocused and obedient. “Yes, Mistress,” she said blankly. Like a good girl.

She walked away to close the blinds, darkening the hallway a bit more with each one closed. Excellent – though I was still a bit exhausted (it was the middle of the morning after all), I felt much more at home with the sunlight gone, much more at ease. Total darkness would’ve been my preference, of course, and likely a large advantage against Ms. Hawthorne, but unfortunately, there was only so much I could do without upsetting guests. While this was a good hideout for a variety of reasons, the necessity of hallways lit bright enough for humans to see in all day and all night wasn’t one of those reasons.

Now all that was left was to find a good spot to hole up in to try and ambush Ms. Hawthorne. My own suite wouldn’t do; it would be far too obvious, and worse, a bottleneck that she could drive me back into. On the other hand, I needed cover; there was little doubt to be had that she really would be carrying a silver bullet or two. There was another indication that she knew what she was doing: so many prospective hunters would try to run up and shove a cross into our faces, not realizing that our gaze would clearly catch theirs before they got the chance. And besides, it was never the crosses that mattered, only the silver they were made of. Distance would be Ms. Hawthorne’s best defense.

Searching around the hallway, watching as Sadie went about her assigned task (like a good girl), I took note of the ice room. It was exposed – no proper door, so it would be easy to slip out in an emergency. Better yet, it was located around the middle of the hallway, between the elevator and stairwell and the entrance to my suite. Staying hidden behind the corner, I would be able to surprise her and attack from behind before she was able to threaten me. I slipped behind the door frame and laid in wait.

I waited for a while, the sounds of guests walking down the halls to conduct their morning business and check out, Sadie returning to her room. Ah, checking out…the staff would probably be incapacitated or otherwise unavailable to the guests, wouldn’t they? That was going to cause chaos in the lobby, for better or for worse.

The elevator rang a few times. Though it was just guests leaving, it kept me alert and on edge. She was coming any minute.

Sure enough, I heard the stairwell door open at the far end of the hall. It was creaky, not used much by anyone but myself typically and so it made a sound that was quite distinctive from any other entrance in the hallway. And a terrible smell soon wafted into the ice room. Garlic. Ridiculous-sounding, maybe, but my senses were far too refined to ignore that. I could barely breathe with that scent entering my nostrils, but I did my best to stay silent. Remember, I thought to myself. Holding my breath will be critical here. An undead creature like me didn’t really need to use her lungs, after all.

“Listen, everyone on this floor! I’m gonna warn you once!” I heard the shout immediately, recognizing the voice of Valerie Hawthorne from the phone. Angry and self-righteous, just as I would expect from a person trying to kill someone she didn’t even know.

“There’s a vampire on this floor of the hotel! I repeat, a vampire! A bloodsucking creature of the night who will try to pass herself off as a living person just like you or me! I’m going to take care of her, but I would strongly recommend evacuating the floor as soon as possible! She’s a red-haired woman with pale skin, a tall and slender build, and a terrifyingly powerful gaze! By no means should you look her in the eyes, nor let her into your room if she asks! She’ll need to be invited, after all! Don’t give her that opportunity!”

Hah. As I had expected, she underestimated my control of this place. To enter a hotel room, I needed no invitation. Those arcane rules only extended to residences, and pretty much no one called a hotel room home (barring myself, of course). It was one of the primary advantages of using a hotel as my hideout.

This was going to cause chaos, though, and I suspected that was part of her intention. Draw people out of their rooms, get the doors open so that she could get a better idea of where I would be. In addition to getting those guests beyond my reach, I’m sure.

And just as expected, guests began to pour out of their rooms, some carrying their belongings. “Forget your things!” Valerie shouted. “You can come back for them later! Let me take care of this! Go, go, go! Don’t wait!”

I heard, and saw, the stomping and shouting of numerous guests as they ran for the stairs. They took no notice of me, as I stayed barely visible in the corner of a room that no one was interested in going into right now. I wondered if Sadie would run too. Surely at 11 she would obey her programming and return to my room, but for now she had no memory of me, so she might be convinced to run, too…

In any case, Valerie’s furious voice rang out once again. “Alright then, Naomi Rennt, where are you? Show yourself and we can make this easy! We both know you aren’t making it out of here tonight, but I don’t want to make a mess if it’s not necessary.”

I stayed silent, holding my breath, and my nose. Even if I wanted to talk and reveal my hiding spot, this was all I could do to stop myself from gagging at that horrible smell. “This is a nice hotel, after all!” Valerie continued. “And after you’re dead, those thralls of yours will have no one to serve. They’ll go back to being regular people with regular lives, no longer forced to aid and abet an undead predator. Does that make you upset, you control freak?” I heard her moving down the hallway slowly, checking through rooms one by one.

“Well well, rooms full of sunlight. Not ones you’re likely to inhabit. Where could you be? Your room, perhaps? The deluxe suite?” She raised her voice, perhaps beckoning to the me she thought was inside my suite. Perfect. “I swiped a card key from the front desk. I’m coming right in.” I saw her back side then as she passed the ice room. She was a woman in her late twenties or early thirties armed to the teeth. A pistol, no doubt loaded with silver bullets was in a holster on her waist, and she carried a wooden stake in her other hand. She wore a heavy-duty khaki vest with pockets containing all sorts of trinkets and matching cargo pants. She had a necklace of garlic and a scarf under that, to protect herself from my fangs, I supposed. She had blonde hair tied in a ponytail. Looking at her, she was actually quite pretty… I immediately began to think about what she might taste like. Delicious, I imagined. I saw her put her stake away in one of those pockets, and bring out the card key…

Then she whirled around, and pointed the gun toward my chest. “Gotcha!” she shouted. And as she realized she actually had me in her sights, her eyes widened – not quite meeting my gaze of course, she knew well enough to avoid that.

“Don’t think I wouldn’t check every room!” Valerie said, chuckling to herself. “Any last words, bloodsucker?” This wasn’t good. It was the closest I had come to death in a long time, even. I had to think fast. It would help, of course, that I was quite fast, and light on my feet.

“Oh, is the smell too much for you? Nothing to say, then? You’ve spent your whole undeath manipulating people, and now you’re lost for—“

“Oh, shut up!” I snapped back, pulling my hand off my nose. “The smell is awful, but I have many things to say to you, Valerie Hawthorne!” I dashed out of the way, scurrying behind the cover of the ice machine before Valerie even realized I was moving. Valerie fired a shot, which lodged into the wooden doorframe. Good. She certainly wouldn’t come packing unlimited silver bullets – those were expensive. But it did make that part of the doorframe a hazard for me.

I felt as though I understood Valerie now. I was right that she liked to grandstand a bit too much. She loved it, even. This was probably why she went on the hunt for my kind, to see that look on our faces when we became powerless in front of her. I wouldn’t show that weakness.

“What exactly do you think you’re saving those people from? A monster?” I asked, lightening my voice as best I could with that smell filling the air. Even without my gaze, it was easy for me to get inside humans’ heads. “I’m not a monster, Valerie. I just need a place to call my own. You understand that, don’t you? Everyone needs shelter, including my kind. Especially when people like you think we’re fair game to hunt down and slaughter.”

That seemed to incense Valerie, who growled back. “Shelter? This is so much more than shelter for you! You enslaved those poor people downstairs! You drain their literal lifeblood for your own sustenance! That’s not shelter, it’s… fucked up! And I won’t tolerate it!”

“They’re quite happy with the arrangement, I assure you. And I’m sure you saw. They’re very, very good girls who are eager to please their Mistress. Nothing fucked up about that.” I spoke in a hushed tone, just low enough that Valerie would have to strain herself a bit to make out the individual words, especially from outside the room, leaving her little to focus on but my voice.

And yet, she still growled and shouted, unwilling to submit to my charms. I suppose I have to hand it to her. She did come here ready to kill me; it wouldn’t exactly be easy to make her kneel. “I have had enough of this! Suck on this, you filthy thing!” she shouted.

Barely peeking from around the edge of the ice machine, I watched as Valerie produced a small, red, delicious-looking object from her pockets. A blood bag, filled to the brim…it smelled amazing, even through the thick fog of garlic scent. AB negative, the rarest blood type, a delicacy. Valerie had gone above and beyond. My mouth watered at the sight. “Taste this, you animal!” she said, tossing it on the floor in the middle of the ice room.

Of course, I wasn’t a fucking animal, nor was I particularly thirsty. Sure, I could go for it, I could always go for some exquisite AB negative, but I got all the sustenance I needed from the staff and the occasional guest. I wasn’t hurting for it. Valerie had me all wrong. I threw my head back and let out a hearty laugh, delighted at the idea that she thought this would be my downfall.

“What—“ Valerie stammered. “What’s so funny?” She sounded suddenly distraught. Good, that was where I needed her. “Go for the blood!” she exclaimed. “It’s what you monsters do!”

“You think I’m that desperate?” I chuckled, doing my best to return to that hushed, mesmerizing tone. “What, have you only killed fledglings before? I’ve lived for two centuries, Valerie Hawthorne! I can control my urges quite well. But truly, thank you for the blood bag, it does look really excellent.”

“You’re supposed to lose control! You’re supposed to lap it up like an animal!” Valerie shouted, fear entering her tone.

“I assure you, I’ve always had control of this situation, Valerie,” I said. It was a lie, she had me for a second when she whirled around with the gun, but she didn’t need to know that. “I’ve been waiting up here for you to come directly into my clutches. And I assure you, there’s a lot more blood in you than in that bag.”

“Why don’t you come out from behind that ice machine and say that to my face, you coward?” she asked, steadying her aim with her gun. I wondered how many silver bullets she had remaining.

“Oh?” I responded, feigning curiosity. “Do you want to look me in the eyes? Is that what you’re asking for? It could be arranged.” As long as we remained in a stalemate like this, I would eventually prevail. It was only a matter of time until Valerie succumbed to my charms, no matter how determined she thought she was.

“I won’t fall for your tricks that easily, bloodsucker!” she said. “I know what you’d do to me…warp my mind, turn me against myself. You’ll pay for what you’ve done to these people! You bring harm to them even when they obey your every word!”

“Harm? Oh, I don’t think so,” I said. “I know how to hold myself back. Like I said before, I’ve always been in control. I can assure you, the staff is quite alright. Healthy, even. I only take what I need to survive. You can rest assured, I take very good care of my precious thralls. Doesn’t that sound nice? To be taken good care of, provided for? And provide in exchange?”

“Harm isn’t just physical, you monster! You steal men’s souls, and make them your slaves!” she shouted, with no sense of irony at all. What a cliche this Valerie was.

I giggled, whispering my answer for greatest effect. “I can assure you that’s not true. I only do that to women.”

I only got a grunt of anger and frustration from Valerie for that. “I’m quite selective, actually. But you seem like a very good candidate. Very pretty, and from what I can tell, quite competent at what you do. I just wish I could smell your blood to say for sure…all that garlic is really stuffing up the air, don’t you think? What if you took that necklace off? Just so I could get a good whiff, of course. Nothing more than that.”

"I'll never listen to what you say, fiend," Valerie said, shuddering. "You think that just by talking, you can convince me to disarm? To throw away everything I’ve worked for and become what, a compliant thrall? I'm here with a righteous cause. I'm here to rid the world of evil – your evil! I could never obey you!"

"Well, I've been known to be rather… compelling," I said. "Especially to pretty little things like you. And you really think your cause is so righteous? I need shelter. I need sustenance. What exactly do you expect a creature with my needs to do? Do you want me to go hungry? Do you think it's evil to want to sustain myself? Is it evil when a cheetah runs down a gazelle? Except, I don’t make a habit of killing anyone. I only take what I need."

“You take what you need, do you? Does that include their free will to refuse? Of course it’s evil! You’re no cheetah, Naomi Rennt! You were once a human, and when people hurt each other without remorse, that is evil! The root of it!”

I was about to speak and respond, but apparently she wasn’t done. I rolled my eyes. “It’s depraved! You already lived a full human life, but apparently that wasn’t enough for you! So here you are, 200 years later, preying on people who weren’t even alive when you were! What does that make you? A leech, a bloodsucker! Not a cheetah!”

“Casting aside further analogies that I find ridiculous… you clearly know nothing about me,” I said calmly. “Do you even know how I became a vampire? I think not.”

“Come around here and look at my youthful face… look at my eyes.” I heard her grunt in frustration in response to that. I sighed and moved on. “I was only 26 when I was turned. Our ages never change after that, you know, for older or for younger. I hadn’t lived a full life. I barely knew who I was! I never learned to really live until I was already dead. The one who turned me was a real fucker who wanted to use me for his own, but at the end of the day I’m glad it happened! It was the best thing that ever happened to me.”

“So now…you use that story as a justification to use others for your own?” she asked, with a hint of sympathy shining through her fury. Good.

“I use it to explain why nobody can tell me what to do! And no, no, I manipulate humans, sure. How else would I get along with maniacs like you always after my kind? But I try to be gentle. I don’t hurt humans for no reason. I take what I need, but I don’t suck you dry. Not like that fucker did to me,” I said.

I got no response. She was deep in thought, perhaps? Or maybe she was beginning to be captivated by my words, the lovely cadence of my voice. Hard to tell, as she had shifted into a position where I couldn’t quite see her. “Would you like that?” I added after a moment. “For me to be gentle to you?”

“Gentle?” she asked. “What, even now, when I came here to kill you or die trying, you would claim to be gentle to me?” There was doubt written all over her words and tone of voice. The story of my past was true, of course, but that didn’t mean it couldn’t be useful to garner sympathy. If she was genuine, this wouldn’t be the first time I had gotten myself out of a bind this way.

“Of course, Valerie. Put down your garlic and your weapons and come over here. I’ll be very gentle to you, I promise. This has all been about self-preservation for me! Help me live the life I always wanted to before I died. Even you, a strong hunter as you are, must be able to sympathize with that,” I said.

“Why don’t I just… go, instead?” she asked. Oh. So her critical thinking wasn’t completely shot, yet. It could be an acceptable compromise, but there were a few too many risks associated with that. This woman clearly knew her stuff, at least in terms of information on my kind in general, and that probably meant she had contacts, contacts who would not be too eager to hear that I had managed to convince her to leave. More attention from the hunter community was the last thing I needed. I wouldn’t want to find myself mentioned on the cover of a tabloid. I was going to need to make sure that she either wouldn’t remember how it had gone, or that she would no longer want to tell anyone about it.

“Come on now. There’s no need to be scared,” I said softly. “I’ll be very gentle, I promise. Wouldn’t you like to be a good girl? Put down your weapons and come over here."

There was silence for a moment. She was considering it, I was sure. That determined hunter was fading – I had known, after all, that it was only a matter of time. If she had made her move earlier, I may have been in danger, but as long as we remained in a stalemate, my soothing words would win out in time.

I heard the sound of metal against the floor. She had dropped the gun, and maybe whatever silver she was inevitably carrying too. Then, a thump. I saw the garlic fall to the ground at the edge of my vision in the doorway. Still assaulting my nostrils, but once Valerie got closer, her own smell – a much more delicious smell, I could be sure– would all but cover it up. I grinned in anticipation.

Valerie slowly walked into the room. I could see the fear in her eyes, hidden by a slight smile on her face. She gingerly stepped over the blood bag and came around the ice machine, approaching me. I stepped to my feet as she did. Especially with my heels, I was quite a bit taller than her this way. She seemed to take notice, stepping back a bit in anticipation.

“That’s it, that’s a good girl,” I said. “I’ll be gentle with you.” She stepped forward a bit closer to me, her eyes slowly turning upward to meet mine—

That stake, concealed in her pocket! She reached for it in a quick motion, bringing it back with her right arm. Damn, she was tricky. I was certain that hadn’t all been faked, she was surely falling for my charms – there was no faking that desperate, obedient look on her face, but some part of her was still committed to that so-called righteous cause of hers. Her desperate obedience turned back to fury in an instant as she swung the stake hard toward my heart.

But I was too quick. I grabbed her right arm with my left, holding it in place effortlessly with strength that she didn’t seem to fully comprehend, and that look of fury on her face once more turned back to fear, not even obedience, just fear.

“I tried to be nice. I tried to be gentle,” I said, gritting my teeth and showing my fangs. She tried to avert her eyes. “If you’ll try to kill me even now, after you’ve fallen for that lovely voice of mine, I can’t promise I’ll maintain that gentleness.”

With my other hand, I grabbed Valerie’s chin, forcing her eyes up to mine. She looked helpless, a deer caught in the headlights. Her stake, inches from my heart, dropped to the ground as her arm went limp, clattering against the tiles and echoing through the room. She probably didn’t even hear it, though. She was distracted, caught by my gaze, caught by me. Valerie Hawthorne was mine.

“That’s it, Valerie. Stare deep into my eyes and sleep. Sleep and obey. Obey and sleep and stare, losing yourself to my gaze, to my will. You need only pay attention to my voice now, and my pretty eyes. Feel my gaze, my will boring into your soul. You’re mine now.” I lowered my voice and began to whisper quite close to her face. She smelled as delicious as I had imagined. Type O positive, I was sure. A particularly common type, but there was nothing wrong with that. Everyone tasted a bit different, after all. She would be unique, a taste I would not be likely to forget.

All resistance remaining in her soon faded, as it always did. She might’ve been armed to the teeth, but without all those weapons designed to kill me specifically, it wasn’t going to be close. For as much as hunters liked to believe that they were unstoppable when properly prepared, equipment didn’t turn out to be very important when my kind could make a person doubt themself and think that obeying us actually sounded like a better idea just by talking to them for a while. Not even to mention the power of my eyes. If she only had to look me in the eye once to instantly lose, what good were weapons going to be?

I giggled with relief, glad to finally have this over with. Valerie was neutralized, literally in my grasp. I was once again safe. It seemed that I wouldn’t even have to relocate – I severely doubted that Valerie would have killed a living human, even if they were my thrall. The hotel staff would recover. We could easily brush all this under the rug, I think. The only loose end would be to figure out what to do with Valerie, here.

I took my hand off of Valerie’s chin after a little while, after I was certain her mind was fully asleep, opened up to me now, for my use. She stumbled back a bit, still staring at me, now without my forcing her.

“Get rid of the garlic for me, Valerie. You’ll do that, won’t you? There’s a trash can by the elevator. Put it there.”

“Yes… Mistress?” she said. Cute. She must have picked that up from hearing my thralls earlier, and my speech about them. Eager to please. I loved to see that in a newly-hypnotized girl.

“Mistress is right. Good girl!” I said emphatically, delicately scratching her head with my fingernails. For what I had said earlier about no longer being gentle to her over the stake matter, I was being quite sweet to her. But that was alright, she deserved praise now for being so immediately compliant. She walked out of the room, smiling blankly, and picked the garlic up off of the floor. “When you’re done, come back to room 508,” I added. “Oh, and pick up those other weapons of yours off the floor too.” I picked up the blood bag, still lying on the floor tiles. It was warm, and looked delectable as always.

“Yes, Mistress,” she repeated, this time without hesitating. She put the garlic in the trash can, and gathered the rest of the items up in her pockets, including a silver fork I hadn’t seen her use. It looked deadly; I was glad I hadn’t had to contend with it. I wouldn want Valerie holding onto these weapons for too long, but I didn’t have much of a choice since I couldn’t exactly just pick up the silver myself. That was what obedient human girls were for. Besides, I could tell from the empty expression on her face that she was far from even thinking about the possibility of using them against me.

“Well then, let’s go inside my suite, shall we?” I said, wrapping one arm around her back. I unlocked the door with my card key, leading Valerie into my bedroom, past my living room. I was fucking exhausted. It was what, 9 in the morning? Past my bedtime by a good degree. If I was going to be ready for Sadie tonight, I was going to need some rest. But there were a couple of things I needed to do first to put this whole ordeal behind me. I sat down and picked up the phone by my bedside while Valerie stood looking at me, fawning over me, empty-eyed.

I dialed the front desk. “It’s me. What’s going on down there? Is everything alright?” I asked.

Sandra responded, sounding a bit pained and woozy. “Yes, we will be OK down here! Ms. Hawthorne took us out with pepper spray and discarded the can when she ran out. Are you safe, Mistress? She didn’t harm you?”

“No, she didn’t harm me,” I chuckled back, flashing Valerie a hungry smile. She shuddered. “I have her right here. She’s no longer a threat. Oh, actually… one moment.”

I set the phone down and looked Valerie directly in the eyes again. While the state she was in now was to an extent self-reinforcing, I couldn’t be too careful until I drank her blood and made her a proper thrall. Besides, it was fun to make her melt like this. “Apologize to the hotel staff, dear,” I said, reaching up to run my fingers through her hair. “Tell them how you’re doing right now. Tell them how you’re really feeling. Don’t be shy now.” I grinned at her, then handed her the phone, her fingers gingerly wrapping around it, slow in her dazed state.

“Yes, Mistress,” she whispered, then she held the receiver up to her ear.

“I… am sorry,” she said slowly, putting the words together one by one. “How could I ever go against… Mistress? She’s so… powerful, sexy… tall. Beautiful. Those fangs of hers… I want her to put them… in me, and drink my blood… as, as much as she wants,” she whimpered and moaned a bit on that last sentence. How adorably needy of her. I had been known to inspire those sorts of feelings in people.

I grabbed the phone back out of Valerie’s hands. “As you can see, she’s being a very obedient good girl for me.”

Sandra moaned a bit herself on the other end. Gee, someone wanted to be bitten. Maybe I’d need to satiate that need of hers sometime soon. “That’s good, Mistress!” she said, perking up. “What of the guests who fled? I assume that was Ms. Hawthorne’s doing? That might be a business problem for us, not to mention a safety problem for you.”

I sighed, thinking to myself for a moment. “It will be fine, I think. I can have Valerie publicly deny that I was ever here. She’ll say she looked hard, and didn’t find me. A certain contingent won’t believe her, of course, they’ll suspect what really happened, but it’ll satisfy most. You could compensate those affected with a free night’s stay, and I think we’ll be fine.”

“Sounds good,” Sandra said. “Should I communicate that to Marcy as the official plan?” She referred to Marcy, the publicly-known owner of the Seagate Hotel (I was the owner of Marcy, of course).

“Yes,” I said. “Now, there was another matter… Valerie’s weapons and her garlic. I can’t handle many of those myself. I’m going to need someone to come up to dispose of the silver being carried by Valerie at the moment and take out the garbage next to the fifth floor elevator. There’s garlic in there, brought by Valerie. I want no trace of it, you understand?”

“Yes, Mistress, of course,” Sandra said. “I understand. I’ll have someone up there immediately.”

“Good, thank you, sweetie. That smell is still bothering me, even inside my suite,” I said. “That’s it, then. I’m going to get back into bed.”

I put the phone back in the receiver. That blood bag, now on the bed next to me, did look extremely appetizing, but there was someone much fresher standing only a few feet away. I had had a stressful morning – I thought I deserved a little snack before bed.

“I’m going to go put this in the freezer,” I said to Valerie, who remained silently fawning over me, looking me up and down. “I’ll be back in a moment.” I blew her a kiss as I left, sticking the blood bag on the top shelf of the freezer in the kitchen. I really wanted this morning to be done with.

As I returned, I heard a knock on the door. I let Lucia, one of the front desk workers from downstairs, in. Valerie handed her the weapons she was still holding onto without saying anything (she was in no state for complex conversation right now), and Lucia assured me that she would take the trash with her on the way down. Good, so that was dealt with. Now it was just me and Valerie.

I took off my boots and slipped my dress off back over my head, tossing them on the floor. The look of arousal on Valerie’s face as I did, her just standing there staring at me, was indescribable. Gosh, what a cutie she was. I couldn’t wait to make her my thrall so that I could have a proper talk with her once again, really get the full picture of how much I had turned her on since she first walked past that ice room and saw me, heard my voice.

“Why don’t you get those clothes off and climb into bed with me, dear?” I said. I pulled the sheets aside, climbing into the far side of the bed and covering all but my chest, leaving my large tits exposed for her to see.

“Yes, Mistress,” she said, still blank. I did love an empty and obedient girl, but at the same time it could be hard to keep in mind that those reactions of hers to seeing me were all instinctual – I could be sure that she wasn’t thinking about much at all right now beyond the basics. Breathe, obey Mistress, the things that were really fundamental for her.

Valerie really did have a lovely body underneath all that gear. A bit shorter and wider than me, with lots of lovely curves and very perky tits, not to mention a pretty pussy that was wet as could be, seeing me after all. As she slowly climbed into bed next to me, I pulled my arm under and around her, moving her to face me. Her face was full of fear and abject devotion, staring at me with wide eyes and a slightly open mouth.

“When you arrived and we spoke on the phone, I promised you something, Valerie,” I said. “I said that I would make a feast of your blood. I intend to make good on that.” I opened my mouth, showing my fangs, as she began to moan, and plunged them into her neck, getting my delicious fill while she screamed and moaned and twitched – screams of joy and agony, I could be sure.