Chapter 4

Pandora was sleeping soundly when they found her, with a little smile on her face. Looking at her as she slept, Louie guessed her age to be about sixteen at the oldest, his best guess would be fourteen. Louie had always been a pretty good judge of others' ages. Like with most of the others, there was a paternal instinct that connected them, but this was different: she was not a vampire, and with her the feeling felt even stronger. With Cassandra the connection was like that of a former lover, not someone he felt he needed to take care of as much.

'This doesn't make sense. I had actually had sex with Lana as well, and might have done the same with Claudia if my hunger for blood had not come to the forefront. Should I try to get out of this, or is this merely a part of what I'm becoming? I'm to blame for turning every one of them. I must be more careful with my feeding in the future, lest I turn this whole place into a vampire settlement.' Louie said to himself.

Trying to push these thoughts aside, Louie managed to fall into a deep sleep, awakening the following night. Pandora was already awake and watching T.V., when she saw Louie getting up, she greeted him.

"Good evening. I didn't see you all come in. It looks like we have different sleeping patterns. I awoke this morning, and have been up watching T.V. I took another shower, if that's ok. Thank you for the meal and shower." Pandora said, happy as can be.

'I would have expected her to ask why there are two women here with me, but I guess she is accustomed to not asking many questions. Perhaps she is worried that she will lose what little she has.' Louie thought, glancing at Lana and Cassandra as they stirred. Louie noted, through his connections to each of his "creations", that all of them were getting up and even an eighth.

'Eighth? Of course! The other male! I must have turned him as well. But that means Tereth must be hunting him now, and I can't let him be captured, even if he is the decoy.' Louie thought, as he weighed the risk. His new position had its responsibilities, and he was determined not to become a selfish bastard who only cared about what he wanted.

'These connections are giving me balance, not to mention more control over everything I do, even the hunger seems less.' Louie said, and true enough he was right. The hunger had been spread across all of them, and he wondered if he could now feed from them, and how much he could control those he made.

'There is only one way to find out.' Louie thought, calling to the four males hiding in a cave where he had last sensed them.

'You called master?' Their minds said in unison.

'There is another male far to the west. Can you feel him?' Louie asked.

'We can master. He is connected to us as well.' They replied.

'He is in danger from a vampire named Tereth and my human family that hunts him, believing him to be me. I will remove my imprint from him, but I want you near him in case something goes wrong. If necessary, Tereth only may you kill. The rest you may not bite or severely injure. Bring the other male back to me with all speed.' Louie commanded.

'But master, if Tereth lives it may lead him back to you.' they said, surprising Louie. For the moment he put his curiosity and observations aside, and concentrated on the task at hand.

'I will worry about that, now hurry!' Louie said, putting all his will behind his command. Like a bullet firing from a gun, the four burst from the cave, rushing for the target they had been aimed at. Only when they were well away did Louie focus on his own internal thoughts.

'Obviously this sense of protectiveness works both ways. My vampires worry about me as I worry about them. It's almost like a hive and I've taken the place of the queen. Maybe that might explain what I noticed when I awoke. A hive lives for its queen, and if this analogy proves true, everything has been setup to protect me. If I need to feed or fight; I can do it through them. The fact that I care for them might be a necessity, because it ensures that the hive itself survives. I am not inclined to be callous or wasteful with their lives, which is something of a relief, because I would never want that. To better survive I must learn how to use these new powers or I will risk this new "hive".' Louie managed to sort out.

Glancing at Pandora who was watching T.V. from up on the bed, another consideration popped into his head, 'She will have to feed as humans do, so I will need money.'

Lana and Cassandra had gotten up, and Louie pointed outside and he moved to follow them.

Cassandra was following Lana out, when Louie turned to Pandora, "We are going out, and I'll try to bring something back for you. Please wait here until we get back. Ok?"

"Sure." Pandora said, comfortable and content. Noticing the sheets were still dirty, he mentally called Lupe. He could almost picture her leaving her cleaning cart behind and coming to him. Coming from across the parking lot she stopped in front of him, having only eyes for Louie.

"Yes, sir?" Lupe asked. At the very sight of her, Louie's desire for sex sparked immediately, and images of what had happened last time they met, came to mind.

'I guess the hive can't take care of everything.' Louie thought.

"I've adopted a young homeless girl, and I need someone to take care of her while I'm gone. Could you spare the time to perhaps change her sheets when it is convenient, and perhaps finding her something that she can eat? If you need help with your other duties to help pay for our stay, then tell Pandora that Louie said she could help you out." Louie said.

"Of course, sir." Lupe answered.

Taking one of her hands and bringing it to his lips, Louie kissed it and said, "Thank you, Lupe. You're an angel."

Lupe blushed, and waved them away as she headed into the room to talk to Pandora. Satisfied that everything with the two of them would be fine for now, Louie switched his attention back to the hive. He made sure they walked out of hearing distance of anyone before he spoke.

"I have discovered..." Louie began to say.

"We know master." Lana said.

"You know about what?" Louie asked.

"About your hive idea. I'm guessing that whenever something important comes up, you spread it across to the rest of us." Lana explained.

Cassandra nodded in agreement, adding, "It makes sense when you think about it: if you are in fact the queen, for lack of a better word, our job is to follow your orders and take care of your needs. Any relevant information must be quickly passed on to do this, and since all psi vampires are telepaths..."