Chapter 8

Did it really count as morning if it was dark outside? Of course it could have been noon and she wouldn't have known it inside the warehouse village. There it was perpetually twilight as a concession to all the different races that lived and passed through. Kat pondered those ideas and other equally frivolous ones in an effort to not think about how upset Bea was with her. She looked around the small guest room once more while lifting her duffel bag, this room was more of a home than her Uncle's place though not as much as the sisters. Then again she had been at the school for almost 14 years and the bar for a month, how attached would she have been in a year if she could of stayed?

Five in the morning was quiet even here, Kat's footsteps echoed between the buildings and back down at her from the ceiling fifty feet overhead. Her last day here, she wanted it to go on forever. All too soon she walked down the stairs into the laboratory, it was a cross between Frankenstein's castle and a special effects studio, with real effects. Her mentor described his work as Research into everything, and he did mean everything. As far as Katherine knew, Mr. Brown neither ate nor slept but worked tirelessly to understand just a little more about the universe and his place in it. Part of the payment for training her was the chance to study a species of vampire new to him the other part being a debt owed to her Uncle.

"Alright Ms. Katherine, exam time. Drop your things by the stairs and walk to me as a human." Brown commanded instead of greeting her.

Kat did just that, dropped the bag, listened and felt for the heart inside her that wasn't beating a moment ago. When the beating began so did all the other functions of the body, it was a trick she had practiced endlessly. Long as she could hear it in her ears she knew she looked human, and as a bonus her senses of touch, taste and smell returned to normal too unlike the extremely dull senses she had with no heartbeat. Vision and hearing usually stayed the same regardless of her bodies functions, unless she tried to see the world like a regular person. That too had its advantages in that it dampened her aura to almost invisible status, hiding her well from other paranormal creatures.

In time to the beat she walked forward, seeing Brown as a normal professor type, slightly gray hair some wrinkles a lab coat over regular clothes; it was funny the details the mind could supply to trick the eyes. Kat knew that Brown was always monochrome and without any wrinkles or other distinguishing features yet she saw them anyway.

"Well done, though it could be somewhat less rhythmic. You are not trying to be a fashion modal, just the most average girl in the crowd, remember it and practice. Next tell me how many living and dead things of a suitable size for you to inhabit or feed on in the adjacent room."

Relaxing herself, the beat in her ears stopped, the dead sense opened like a blooming flower in time lapse. The room Brown mentioned held his collection of dead, people who while living had fascinated him, and now remained in his care after passing naturally from the world. There was no need to kill, since he had all the time he ever needed. Kat had been practicing many things with them this last month, and almost felt like she could understand his interest in them a little bit. Strange though, today there were only half as many in there as yesterday staged around the walls like guardians for a tomb. There was also something else dead in there she wasn't sure if she could use. The living took up much less space in there one person against the door, and five things of medium size, and two smaller animals.

"Seventeen empty bodies, not sure if I could use one and eight potential food sources." Kat answered, staring at him with all black eyes.

"Shall we enter and see? The next part is in there anyway." Brown made a sweeping gesture to indicate she should go first.

The well balanced door swung open easily even with the person on the other side attached to it. Kat was surprised to see when it closed that the person was a four foot tall woman with gossamer wings. Naked pinned to the wood with crude medieval looking nails like a insect on display. From her curves and body hair she was defiantly a grown if petite person. Her hair white, skin baby blue, the blood from the nail wounds a deeper sky blue, almond eyes looked boldly at Brown. Kat forgot the rest of her exam as she turned on her teacher ready to make him pay for hurting someone like that.

Mr. Brown raised his hands up palms out as he said," Restrain yourself for but a moment Katherine. Celina is here of her own free will. And might even take up a more permanent position as my apprentice, if I can't make her give up."

"Go on", Kat did notice that Celina didn't seem to want help, so there might not be any harm in listening. "Why would she let you do that?"

"It's a challenge actually, I won't go into all the details but the essentials is I can do anything short of ending her for the next week and all she has to do to stop me is say a word, any word at all. All of spoken language is her safe word, but when she does say something then she has to leave me alone for at least a year before she can come back and try again."

"So you crucified her to a store room door?!"

"It might be crude but it does keep her in place, I can't lose her this way." Brown chuckled. " In fact your next test is to feed from her and tell me all of her feelings right now."

Kat almost said no and walked out, but she had seen things here before that made her want to decide for herself whether this was what it seemed and not just abandon the woman. Celina looked daggers at Brown as Kat placed her hands on the woman's arms, this seemed like the most modest place to touch a naked vulnerable person. Chocolate, strawberry, dry wafers, raw meat, and other tastes assaulted Kat as soon as she touched her. Some were easy to understand love, lust, devotion, anger; all stronger than a humans, she must have a terrible time keeping them bottled up. After just a few seconds of contact Kat let go of the pinned woman rather than be steamrolled by her emotions.

"Wow, she's a restraining order waiting to happen. She loves, lusts and is totally devoted to you. Hates me for training with you, I think or maybe just hates anyone who isn't you. There is other stuff but it's mostly covered over by those things."

"Good, you pass that part also. We are almost done, now if you look over my collection you will notice that the questionable one is on the end closest to us. If you will kindly place Yuki against the wall and walk Simony over here."

With the distraction of Celina, Kat hadn't looked at the rest of the room till now. The other living things in the room were indeed five dogs and two rabbits. She was a bit surprised to notice that Simony was a female put together from scraps of other corpses. Well no reason she shouldn't be able to do this, besides the fact that Simony wasn't a whole human. Kat walked to the far wall and leaned against it before pulling her true self forward out of the small Asian body. It wasn't easy to do even now, after practicing for a month she still felt a little schizo to be pulling forward and leaning back at the same time. Then there was the tipping point where more was out than in the body and it sort of fell away from her. Kat's shadow self turned to look at the body of Yuki, slumped against the wall held up whatever held the rest of them there. It was a really pretty body, she sort of wished she could keep it. Next she turned to the the patchwork girl next to it and stepped backwards into it.