ALICE

After a few moments, Contessa began to relax. She sipped daintily from her tea cup.

“You know, I used to torture and maim for fun. I mean, it was the days of the Magnolia Promenade Wars. What else was there to do? Feasts, sure, but those were some kind of boring once you gave up food.”

Alice gave her a quizzical look. What did she mean “gave up food?” Vampires preferred plasma, needed it for sustenance (she understood Vlad’s joke). But clearly they could eat. Right?

“Oh honey, most vampires, once they get a few centuries in, let their stomachs wither. Why hold on to the ability to eat food when you can gain something far more useful, like mind control?”

Alice turned away so Contessa couldn’t see her face. That jackass declared Jimena the contest winner and he couldn’t even taste her food? 

She knew he wasn’t following her, but she kind of wished he was, just so she could tell him to go fuck himself.

“About that, you see, we and by ‘we’, I mean you, summoned…” Ben began.

Alice folded her arms and didn’t answer. Instead, she thought deliberately about how fitting it was for Ben to be unable to keep his mouth shut even when they were in a precarious situation and Alice needed her wits about her. So much for his weak ass promise of “I’ll be helpful.”

“Nevermind.” Ben sighed. 

“Anyways,” Contessa continued with her own dramatic sigh, “I grew weary of it over the years. I mean, how many times can you hang someone by their legs and drip plasma into a bowl? I slept for a few decades, tried different things—building a grand mansion to throw great parties.” 

Her voice took on a wistful tone. “I was an actress for a short while in the 50s, that was alright. Last year, I even renovated my penthouse and became a style influencer. Still, nothing quite fit…”

Alice nodded sympathetically as she studied a set of knobs and dials on the machine. What sort of monster would make two different handles with no labels?

“I mean, I guess being a style influencer was fine. I had a shopping day with Judith Ward. Didn’t take a lick of my advice though. Still wearing that sage forsaken red dress…” 

Contessa sighed again, this one somehow even deeper than the last one.

Alice paused. Was Contessa bored? She sounded bored. Immortality seemed great and all in theory, but being around for centuries was probably boring as shit. Ben snorted in her head and Alice bit her lip to keep from laughing. 

Was this Vlad’s problem? Was he bored?

Damn it. She needed to get him out of her system. Alice bent over and pulled a lever that she hoped started the machine’s mixer.

Contessa was still chatting. “Oh, but I have to tell you! A few months ago, I again found my way back to my first love. Only this time, it was some minor crimelord threatening the flower shop owner down the street—Zepar, a djinn. Very handsome. Great in bed,” she paused for emphasis. 

“Anyways, I hung that fellow from his feet until he cried!” she exclaimed, her tone gleeful. “And then he returned all the money he stole and Zepar and I used it to throw the best block party the city had ever seen!”

Alice stopped fiddling with the mixer speed. Wait, Contessa wanted to catch criminals, not help them? Her methods were a bit…illegal, but couldn’t that energy be turned in the right direction? 

Alice cracked her knuckles and smiled. Now that she understood Contessa’s desire, she had reached the most important moment of the entire negotiation. But she still needed to proceed carefully. Customers had to think that giving up the coupon was their idea, not hers.

And Contessa was definitely going to give up her coupon if Alice Martin had anything to say about it.

---

VLAD

Vlad crouched, panting, his wings twitching with exhaustion. He had never met a creature he could not subdue. He had never been bested. Not when he was like this, the thing inside him awake and singing.

His thoughts were beginning to slow and he could feel a driving need to attack even as the part of him that was still Vladislaus Straud recognized the futility of the situation. Bones reset, tendons healed, and his power recharged.

Attack.

How much longer could he go before he was unable to pull back?

Attack.

Vlad shook his head to clear it, to try and form some semblance of a plan but the need to charge the creature in front of him was too great.

Attack.

They tumbled mid-air, the creature knocking him to the ground.

Enraged, Vlad flew at him again, landing blow after blow and striking with his claws.

But like him, the creature seemed to reset and recharge. This time when he struck out, a flash of blue light cut through the air bringing Vlad to his knees.

• 

• 

Had they fought for hours or days? There was no way to tell.

Attack. 

Dimly, Vlad realized that he was out of options. 

Attack.

He was going to have to leash this darkness inside him. And then, this creature was probably going to kill him.