Chapter 6

17 years ago...

The sharp whoosh lasted only a split second before the dull thump of the arrow piercing the target sounded. The barb had struck precisely on the little heart drawn in red crayon on the drawing of the human-shaped figure mounted on the wall with the very cartoonish-looking set of dripping fangs drawn on the otherwise blank face area. Little Kaeli started to bounce up and down with excitement, but stopped as holding the bow made it a cumbersome gesture. The curved length was almost as tall as she was, and still a bit heavy for her. But nonetheless, she was getting results, and that made her happy.

"Kaeli, you are getting good!" Nell said after she finished clapping her hands. "You're gonna be a great hunter someday!"

Elizabeth let out a breath as her head breached the surface of the pool, looking up into the star-filled blanket of night sky above her. She'd always loved to swim before, but was amazed at how much better it felt without the wet cling of a swimsuit, which was Annabelle's only rule about the use of her pool. Skinny-dipping only. Elizabeth wasn't about to complain. She was beginning to wonder why swimsuits were ever invented in the first place. What purpose did they really serve?

She took a breath and bobbed her head under again, gliding around through the water like a mermaid. She'd never been so happy to have Spring Break, which allowed her all the time she wanted to enjoy the hedonism of Annabelle's world.

Annabelle had taught her a particularly mind-blowing technique the other night: They prepared early, both her and Annabelle having a drink of a concoction that included a mix of both of their blood with a few particular herbs. Then later they both bit into the palm of one hand and put their hands together, mixing each other's blood, and began focused breathing together.

Elizabeth had begun feeling a weird sensation running through her; everything in her body began feeling as though she had two of it. And then when one of the boys, Zachary, came along at Annabelle's behest, dropping his drawers and sliding his length into Annabelle from behind, Elizabeth could actually feel his cock even though there wasn't one inside her. To make the encounter even weirder, when Elizabeth began rubbing her own clit, Annabelle responded, "Oh yeah, do that faster!" Their two bodies had become one, sharing every sensation the other felt in the most intimate way possible. And so when another of the boys, Nicholas, joined in by entering Elizabeth, she nearly passed out from the delirium of twice the sex. The experience of feeling both Annabelle's orgasm and her own almost on top of each other was something she didn't think she'd ever forget.

And then there was what happened last night, when Katrina, who was the oldest girl there except for Annabelle herself, had her ninety-sixth birthday. Not that the age really mattered that much, since as far as anybody could tell she still looked twenty, but Annabelle nonetheless saw it as an occasion to throw a party. And of course, by Annabelle's definition, it's not a party until everyone is naked and on the floor.

What ensued was largely a blur now; eight girls, five guys, no clothes and no rules. She could clearly remember sitting down on Julian's face, giving his tongue access to her waiting sex, and leaning over to make out with Rosanna who was riding on his lap. She could remember sitting next to Charlotte, watching her getting fucked on all fours, and feeling the leap of excitement when Rodrigo pulled out of Charlotte, knowing that she was next. She could remember sitting backward on Zachary's lap on the couch, watching Noemi and Miko lying side by side on their backs, taking turns getting mounted by Nicholas, while Monique and Katrina fought over whose turn it was to suck Sebastian's cock. She actually lost track of the number of times she got off.

And then it got even better. Just when all the guys had shot off and everybody was running out of steam, Charlotte stood up and began chanting a few arcane words in a strange, echoing voice. Whatever spell she cast had immediate effects, as suddenly everyone became twice as energized as they were before. The girls all became twice as wet, the guys all became twice as hard, and everyone became twice as excited. Elizabeth didn't remember anything coherent after that, aside from lots and lots of screaming.

In truth, all these sexual escapades and Annabelle's Blood Rose lessons had been allowing her some temporary piece of mind, and the time off of school was welcome as it allowed so much more of them. Her activities at the mansion were making it so much easier for her to not think of Tyler. Giving him her number on their date may have been a mistake; he'd been calling her repeatedly since then and it had taken all of her willpower to not answer. He was just a human, after all, and she had no business getting involved with a human. So why was it so difficult to get him out of her head?

Her head emerged from the water just as a splash came from the diving board, and Rosanna popped her head up and pulled her hair out of her eyes. Katrina came and sat down on the edge of the pool, dangling her feet in the water. "Hi Katrina," Elizabeth chimed. "Do you know if anyone else has a birthday coming up?"

Katrina chuckled through her teeth. "I think Monique's is next month," she said with her mild Russian accent. "And if I know Annabelle, you can bet she'll celebrate it the same way."

Elizabeth shivered. "How did I ever live before I found this place?"

Katrina shrugged. "I can't imagine. I've known her for almost forty years, and she throws me the same party every year. Not that I'm complaining."

"Know whatcha mean," Rosanna said. "Ah used ta get bumped ev'ry now 'n' then when ah really wanted to, but 'round here there's hunks ta keep me company anytime ah want."

Elizabeth was aware of Annabelle's approach several seconds before she heard her footsteps, or heard her voice. "Elizabeth!" She came walking out in one of her fancier red evening dresses. "If you can bear to leave the pool for a while, we have a visitor. And she's especially interested in meeting you."

"Me?"

"Yes, you. Why don't you come out of there and towel off. She's waiting in the living room in the east wing."

Elizabeth shrugged, and clambered out of the pool. After toweling off, Annabelle handed her one of the red silk kimonos which Elizabeth wrapped around herself, and followed Annabelle back into the house. They navigated the winding hallways that Elizabeth was still getting used to, until they reached the door to the room that Annabelle referred to. As Elizabeth approached that door, her feet began slowing almost involuntarily. She could feel the presence of the person waiting on the other side, and somehow it was filling her with a childlike sense of dread. She was slightly grateful that Annabelle was the one who performed the task of turning the knob and opening the door, but then Elizabeth still had to follow her through and meet the person inside the room. Steeling her nerves, Elizabeth slowly stepped inside.

Sitting on the leather sofa facing away from her was a woman with a head of blood red hair, finer than any she'd ever seen. As Annabelle approached the woman arose from the couch, still with her back to Elizabeth, allowing her to see the woman's black coat and red evening dress. "Electra," Annabelle said, "I'd like you to meet my prodigy, Elizabeth. Elizabeth ... this is Electra Rose."

Slowly the woman turned, and looked at Elizabeth with her sparkling violet eyes. Elizabeth found herself utterly unable to say anything, overwhelmed with an all-consuming fear of the person standing before her. Something about her just felt so ... wrong. She had to suppress her urge to shrink back in terror when Electra came walking her direction.

"Well isn't this a pleasure," Electra purred in a silken voice tinted with an elegant English accent. With each step Electra took, drawing ever closer, Elizabeth's heart raced faster. When she was within touching distance, Electra gently slid her fingers through a handful of Elizabeth's hair. Elizabeth shivered at the brush of Electra's fingers against her face as she did this. "Such a beauteous thing she is."

Elizabeth stared up wide-eyed at this woman who stood several inches taller than she did. She desperately grasped for her voice, but when she found it a muffled squeak was all that escaped her throat, at a loss for anything to say. Annabelle chuckled. "Don't worry. Electra has that effect on a lot of people."

"Come, let me have a look at you," Electra purred, tilting up Elizabeth's chin just slightly and staring straight into her eyes. And staring back into the luminous violet orbs before her, the overwhelming feeling of dread that this woman was giving her only escalated. She didn't even bother trying to probe into the person behind those eyes, because what she was getting from them already was terrifying her enough. But she could definitely feel Electra probing into her. She tried to blink, to break the intrusion into her psyche, but Electra's hypnotic presence was so strong she could hardly move at all.

Suddenly the violet eyes staring at her shot open in absolute shock. "Merciful Blood of Dmitrius!" she gasped.

"Electra?" Annabelle said, stepping forward with a curious look.

Electra took a step back, just barely giving Elizabeth the tiniest bit of breathing space back. A wild grin spread across her face. "Spirit of the Old Ones have pity, this is almost too good to believe! Annabelle, I don't think you realize what you've found!"

"What are you talking about? She can't be your fabled Chosen; you already found him."

Electra's eyes never left Elizabeth, no matter how long Elizabeth waited for them to. "You said her name was Elizabeth, did you not?" Electra mused. "I believe I've heard of this girl before."

For a second Elizabeth's curiosity was able to overpower the numbing fear that Electra's presence was filling her with. "F-from who?"

Electra paused a moment, the chilling grin on her face widening. "From your brother."

Elizabeth's pounding heart suddenly skipped a beat. "How ... how do you know Anthony?"

Electra's hands clasped behind her back, and she began slowly moving around behind Elizabeth, sizing her up like a car she was considering purchasing. "I suppose Anthony never spoke to you about who made him into a vampire, did he now?"

"He never told me much at all. He came home, he turned me and our parents, and then he just sort of disappeared."

"Yes, I remember. As I recall, I told him it would be best to leave without you. That may have been a mistake on my part."

Elizabeth had been consciously avoiding turning her head to look at Electra until that point. "Are you saying that you..."

The feeling of Electra's breath on her ear sent a shiver down Elizabeth's spine. "As Annabelle said, you are a fast learner. Yes, it was I who made your brother into a Child of the Dark. As you are Annabelle's protégé, so Anthony is mine."

Elizabeth turned an accusatory gaze on Annabelle, who appeared no less stunned than she did. "Did you know this?"

Annabelle shook her head. "So her brother," she said to Electra, "is your vaunted Chosen One?"

"Why do you think she adapts to Blood Rose so quickly?" Electra purred. The gentle caress of Electra's fingers in her cheek made Elizabeth's breath all but stop. "This one is kin to the Chosen. Had she been firstborn in her family, she could well have been the Chosen herself. As it is, her brother is the only one I've encountered whose potential is greater than hers."

For a few breathless seconds, the room was silent. "Elizabeth," Annabelle said at last, "would you give us a moment?"

It took a few more seconds for Elizabeth to find the capacity to move. As soon as her feet could run she hurried to the door and threw it shut behind her. She ran down the hall into the lobby, finally stopping when she could lean with her hand on the stair rail, gasping for breath with a hand over her pounding heart. She felt as though she'd finally managed to wrestle free after having her head held under water.

Elizabeth recalled the first time she met Annabelle, and in a way it had felt similar to this. She did get a feel for the power that Annabelle had, and when she came close to her it felt like wading into a warm pool. Electra's power had the same kind of feel to it, but rather than just a simple pool, Electra's power was like a lake she was drowning in. And the water was tainted with poison.

After a few minutes, the doors opened and Electra emerged, striding purposefully in Elizabeth's direction. Elizabeth's muscles, that had finally, blissfully relaxed after leaving her presence instantly tensed all over again. Each step that drew Electra closer Elizabeth prayed would be where she stopped, but she stopped only after coming within arm's length, and said four words that sent a chill through Elizabeth's blood: "I'll see you again." With that Electra turned to the front doors and was gone.

As soon as Annabelle appeared again Elizabeth had to fight off a nearly overwhelming desire to clutch her by the shoulders and let off her shivers. "That actually went better than I hoped," Annabelle mused.

"What did you talk about in there?"

"Oh, just old business. She seems to have taken a much keener interest in you than I expected."

Hearing that made Elizabeth shiver all over again. She fought back her fear and revulsion to ask another important question: "Did she mention anything about when I might get to see my brother?"

Annabelle had been half looking at her and half looking towards the doors that Electra had just left through until then. Now her full attention focused on her. "No, not exactly, but I'd expect it will happen soon." Elizabeth was both excited and terrified to hear that.

"Come on," Annabelle said, placing a hand on Elizabeth's back, "let's go fetch the other girls. We have another guest coming tonight."

"Another one? Like Electra?"

"Not quite," Annabelle grinned.

It wasn't until Kaeli was standing in front of the gate of the mansion, actually looking at the grandiose and ominous house, that the reality factor of what she was doing started to sink in. It seemed like such a clever plan when it formed in her mind; how could it suddenly seem so stupid now that she was actually about to do it? Of course, if she hadn't known from the start the plan was dangerous, she probably wouldn't have refrained from telling Dorian about it. Moreover, based on what she heard at the club Electra herself was likely to be here tonight; this could very well be a trap.

For more than a few seconds she seriously considered aborting. Even after she buzzed the intercom and heard Annabelle's welcoming voice and the metallic click of the gate unlocking, the idea of not going in didn't seem like such a bad one. If she wanted to, she could still make a run for it and forget about the temporary insanity that led her to come up with this daredevil mission in the first place. But when she thought it over, the ties that Annabelle had to Electra made this place too valuable a target to pass up.

She finally made up her mind to do this. She was going to step inside under the pretense of friendship, let herself get bitten, excuse herself to a private room, treat herself with an antidote, and activate a tracer signal for Dorian and the others to follow and then let them in to wipe the place out. She pressed her back against the gatepost, whispered a prayer, crossed herself, and with a deep breath stepped through the gate.

Halfway to the front door, passing by the prancing horse statues in the middle of the courtyard, the thought of making a run for it came screaming back as she saw who was coming the other direction. She'd only seen her from a distance, but the violet eyes that were looking straight at her now could only belong to Electra Rose herself. Somehow her feet continued moving forward, despite the way her whole body was screaming at her to turn around and bolt. Time slowed to a snail's pace, as two seconds seemed to stretch to an hour. Electra passed right by her, not saying a word, just keeping her eyes locked to hers and giving her a bone chilling smile.

Kaeli held her breath in silence, continuing to move, promptly putting Electra behind her. She briefly considered the possibility that Electra might attack her from behind while she wasn't looking, but somehow it didn't seem likely. She opted instead to just pretend she wasn't there. Don't turn around, don't look behind you, keep moving forward, don't turn around... The mantra succeeded in getting her to the front door. It took all of her willpower not to look behind her now; she knew if she turned to look at Electra one more time she would most likely lose what little nerve she had left. The world again went into slow motion as she reached up to lift the heavy brass knocker and brought it down on the door with a thundering bang. She did this a second time. And a third. She could hear the echo of the knocks inside the house, and now she could hear the sound of someone in heels approaching. The big door opened and there stood Annabelle in her sparkling red evening dress with a smile on her face that seemed somehow both welcoming and ominous at the same time. "Welcome, Kaeli," she grinned, extending an arm in a gesture of invitation. "Please, come in."

For a moment, Kaeli froze completely as she stared down at the threshold she was about to step over. As hard as she tried, she just couldn't shake a terrible feeling in her gut that once she stepped through this door there would be no going back. Her life as she knew it would be over. And once again, the thought of turning and running while she still could crossed her mind. She could just forget about this whole daredevil scheme and run back to Dorian and attack this place the old fashioned way.

Ultimately Kaeli steeled herself to enter. This Trojan horse idea was still the best way to take the place out. She'd planned this whole thing out; she knew what to do, and she was ready. Her right foot lifted itself from the ground and set down on the other side of the threshold, and she forcibly pulled her left in after it. She took a few more steps, and she was inside the vampire's lair. And with a solid boom that felt very much like the lid being closed on her own coffin, Annabelle closed the door behind her.

"Come on out, girls!" Annabelle called. "Our guest has arrived!"

Like rabbits out of their burrows, one girl after another began appearing from various doors around the lobby. Some were dressed normally; others wore only red silk kimonos. They all began gathering around her, most with eager smiles on their faces. As they drew near, most of those smiles suddenly faded, and a few of them took a step back. "Everyone," Annabelle said, "I'd like you to meet our new sister. Her name is Kaeli."

One of the girls, a blond in one of the red kimonos, stepped forward and seemed to study Kaeli like a dog sniffing at a stranger. "Annabelle, have you lost your mind?" she said with just the slightest hint of a Russian accent in her voice. "This is a human!"

"Yes, Katrina, but not for much longer. She is here tonight because she wants to become one of us. Tonight she will be initiated, both as a vampire and as a practitioner of Blood Rose. I trust all of you to make her feel ... welcome." The word "welcome" sounded like a cue for them to do something.

One of the girls stepped forward, a girl in another of the silk kimonos with hair as black as a crow's feathers, and looked straight at her with eyes that shined in an almost hypnotic golden glow. Kaeli casually attempted to look around, but found this girl's eyes seemed to hold her prisoner, not allowing her to look away. She'd felt this effect before, looking at Electra's eyes from a merciful distance, or the other night when she met Annabelle at the club. But something felt different about this one. Electra's gaze was one of horrible foreboding that nearly suffocated her, and Annabelle's had at least given her a few shivers. This girl's gaze seemed ... warm. Welcoming. After a moment or two, a smile broke into the girl's face and she said, "I like her."

"I imagined you would, Elizabeth," Annabelle chimed. "After tonight, you won't be the newbie anymore. Come, all of you, let's take her someplace more inviting."

Elizabeth ... that was the name of the prodigy that Annabelle was telling Electra about at the club. Amongst the others, this one was special. And Kaeli suddenly got the distinct impression that this was who she'd be getting the magic bite from.

A pair of hands gently took her by each arm and led her along as they all headed for a particular door on the west side of the lobby. They stepped into a short hallway with hooks along the walls with the red kimonos decorating one side. Kaeli was, to say the least, slightly perplexed when the girls began stripping in front of her. Those wearing the silk kimonos removed them and hung them on the hooks on the left wall, standing before her now in their full nudity. The ones in actual clothes were about halfway through undressing themselves when Kaeli asked, "What are you doing?"

Annabelle stepped forward, looking straight at her with those luminous green eyes that made active thought and motion difficult. "Just relax," she grinned. "We're all just going to get comfortable for the fun we're about to have." Something about that had a very ominous tone to it. With that Annabelle slid the dress she wore down off of her shoulders, letting it pool at her feet, exposing her startlingly fair body before Kaeli's eyes.

One of the girls took the strap of Kaeli's purse and smoothly slid it off her shoulder. Kaeli initially attempted to protest, but one look into this girl's eyes silenced her before a single word left her throat. Nonetheless, she kept a close watch on that purse as it was laid down amongst the shoes and socks and underwear that were laid on the floor along the right wall. The tracer that was going to signal Dorian and the team was inside of that purse. More importantly, so was her vial of antidote.

She wanted to reach out and pick it up again, but somehow her arm wouldn't move. The girls simply continued with their delicate work, sliding her coat off and pulling up on her shirt. As uncomfortable as this was making her, every set of eyes she looked into made it more and more difficult to resist what was happening, to the point that she even raised her arms to allow them to remove her shirt, and stepping out of her shoes and her jeans once they were pulled down around her feet. Her heart pounded as the multiple pairs of hands gracefully reduced her to wearing only the crucifix around her neck.

She was guided by the arms now into the next room, a warm, candlelit lounge area with a circle of pillows laid in the middle. The girls led her to this spot and slowly sat her down. By now Kaeli had counted five girls present, aside from Annabelle, because she now felt five pairs of hands touching her body. All along her legs and torso and arms were hands gently caressing her, and each breast was being skillfully kneaded, sending erotic shivers through her. Everywhere she looked was a smiling face and a pair of eyes with the same kind of hypnotic glow to them.

The face furthest to her left, which belonged to Elizabeth, began coming closer with her mouth open for a tender kiss. Kaeli had never looked at another girl this way, but the part of her brain that would tell her to protest what was happening had long been quieted by now. Before she knew what she was doing, Kaeli's mouth was open, accepting Elizabeth's passionate tongue into it, and meeting it warmly with her own. In the back of her mind she did her a tiny voice screaming at her to stop this craziness, but with each passing second that her tongue remained in contact with the warm wetness of Elizabeth's, that voice grew smaller and further away.

She didn't break off the languid kiss until she began feeling a tingle between her legs, which she didn't even realize she'd spread apart. The girl Annabelle had addressed as Katrina was knelt over her, running her elongated fingers over Kaeli's already dripping wet slit. A brunette knelt next to her watched with keen interest, while the black girl massaging her right breast leaned in to give the pert nipple a tingling tongue flick.

Elizabeth knelt down to kiss her again, but this one proved much shorter than the last when Kaeli suddenly gasped at the shock of a tongue on her sex. The brunette next to Katrina had knelt down and begun to feast on what lay below. In fact, in several places the hands that touched her were being replaced by tongues, not just on her sex but on her breasts as well, being the kissed and tongued by the two girls servicing them. A soft moan escaped Kaeli's throat, and she began to writhe about within the prison of pleasure she had become trapped in.