Chapter 5: Heart of The Nightmare

“Laura!”

Audrey awoke with a start. The blood drenched flavor of her nightmare played over and over again in her head, always capped off with the succulence of Laura’s embrace. She might have chided herself for harboring such a dark and perverted fantasy, but she could not delude herself for the length of a single breath. It had all been real. She could feel herself sandwiched between a sheet of satin and a silk blanket weighed down by a heavy quilt. This was not her bed, and as her eyes adjusted to the dark, she could tell that it was not her room either. The room was large and had vast expanses of empty floor space. Its walls were high and plastered, reaching up to a roof with rafters that she could just barely make out. There was only one entryway with carved oak doors whose raised mid panels curved down to its handles. There were no windows. Audrey had spotted a nightstand to the right of the king’s bed where she found herself, and atop was a lamp. She scootched herself over to that side and turned the dial switch until the light clicked on.

The light could provide little coverage within the wide room, but it was enough to make out more details, including Audrey’s own person. Looking down at herself, she was wearing a white silk nightgown with a frilled collar. The neckline cut just above her heart before the dress hung loosely about her breasts. She was not wearing a bra. The material was comfy on her body, but like everything she had awoken to, it was the first time she had been acquainted with this dress. In her own home, she had been used to either sleeping naked or in wooly pajama pants, because she tended to get overheated in the summer nights. The silk was breathable and the room was cool. Her body was not tired, but some part of her whispered to sleep in and await for someone to wake her. That would be unconscionable. She flung the covers aside and arose from the mattress, scanning the room for any sign of her original outfit. Ah, that looked like it. Her black skirt was draped over an ornate chair next to a bookshelf that sat against the left-hand wall. She made her way to it, sure not to walk on the balls of her. She was determined not to alert anyone of her wakefulness until she was good and ready.

There, sitting at the pinnacle of her clothes, was her phone. She picked it up and was immediately greeted with an image of her smiling and hanging off Laura at the aquarium. Her lockscreen. She had kept it as that picture for almost a year, presumably long before Laura had undergone her change. How did she keep this from her? Why did she keep this from her? If she had just come to Audrey and explained what had happened, Audrey would have accepted her. Knowing herself, she probably would have let Laura change her too, even if it would have taken convincing. Tricking her, betraying their friends, taking what she wanted by force. That did not seem like the Laura she thought she knew. Had something taken hold of her mind and twisted her into a more vicious version? Was it going to happen to Audrey too? She did not feel different, not in the moment anyway. Maybe that was the point though. Some darker self was already picking away at her mind, gradually, convincing her that everything was alright as it worked to merge itself with her core identity. Was that what Laura wanted?

She shook her head to separate her mind from those thoughts. There were no new messages on her phone, only some notifications from a mobile runner game that she had downloaded. Wherever she was, there was at least cell-phone service. Praying that they could still communicate, she sent nigh-identical messages to Dove and Marcus. The gist of both was telling them that she was safe, asking where they were and if they were okay, and then promising that she would keep their messages away from Laura. It was up to them whether or not they could believe that promise. It was not like she could say that she fully believed it herself. Not only had Laura influenced her thoughts, but Audrey knew that she had been more than eager to carry out her requests with gusto. Everything felt like it had been her idea in the moment, and even Laura had been shocked when Audrey had mutilated herself before her. Only in retrospect, now that the injury had faded from existence, could she recognize that her mind had been hijacked. The suggestions had been Laura’s, but the enthusiasm to please her had been Audrey’s. The sickest part of it all was that she could not bring herself to hate Laura, or even love her any less, despite the disgust that she felt towards both of their behavior. That conflict alone was enough to tell her that her feelings were genuine.

It was paramount that she find out where she was and where Laura was as well, because she heavily suspected that Laura would not be willing to leave her alone to her own devices very long. At least, not right now. She made her way over to the doors, holding her phone in her hand because the nightgown had no pockets, and placed a tentative hand on one of the brass handles. It was not locked. Opening it up, she found herself in a pastel green hallway with bright fluorescent lights in the ceiling. There were two other doorways with their own alcoves in the wall, and at the opposite end was a sharp right hand turn that presumably led to another doorway. The floor was carpeted and felt nice enshrouding her bare feet compared to the chill of the varnished wood in the previous room. On the right wall next to the closest room was a large painting in an ornate yellow frame. As she approached it, she took a look at both doors. The one on the right was a bare steel door that felt somewhat out of place, but the sign bearing an iconographic man and woman was enough to establish that it was a unisex bathroom. The other door was oak and had a semi-frosted window on its upper half that revealed another, longer hallway with many more doors, that stretched on to a dark section at its end. She was not eager to explore in that direction. Once she reached it, the painting before her was dark and had muted colors. At the bottom center of the canvas was a sleeping man, a woman in a blue dress, and a small white dog. The dog was staring up at a group of women in billowing white dresses—not unlike her own—dancing through the air like nymphs with their arms clasped together in a loose spiral. A plaque at the base of the painting read as such:

It was a book that Audrey herself had never got around to reading, but that Laura had in a handcrafted leather bound copy. The painting made sense for Laura's taste in interior decorating. “Better to reign in hell than serve in heaven.” Laura might as well have had that quote embroidered on a pillow.

She finished admiring the painting and returned to her trek towards the end of the hallway. There, turning right, was a deeper alcove with another pair of twin oak doors. Reaching them, she held both of the handles and steeled herself for whatever lay on the other side. She kept her phone in the crook of her armpit and took a few deep breaths. Pulling the two handles downward, she pushed out into the next room.

Surprised, she discovered that she was still in the library, walking out onto the long balcony above the main hall. Through the tall, curved windows and their iron frames she could spy that it was night out, perhaps only an hour after the dawn by the shadows she could see the poplar trees cast outside. She had managed to sleep through the entire day. It rattled her a bit, even though it was not much in the way of a revelation after what Laura had done to her. She walked halfway across the balcony, crouching in case anyone was hidden behind any of the tall bookshelves. She had been right, for through the holes in the bannister she could spot Laura talking to two other figures in one of the aisles. Laura still wore that red and black dress from last night, the one that Audrey could still not help herself to stare at. The other two figures were in shadow and hard to make out. She could at least tell that one of them was massively tall, clearly towering over Laura and most likely possessing the wingspan to easily access any book on the gigantic shelves without any assistance. Audrey knew that she should not linger long, she was not hidden well and had to decide where she would explore next, but she had a burning curiosity about this titan. She watched it reach out its hand towards Laura, which was long and spindly, yet elegant, with black painted nails, intricate rings, and its wrist connected to a loose white sleeve. The hand caressed the side of Laura’s face and Laura was… Was she blushing? Yes, she was, and she turned her half-hooded eyes over in Audrey’s direction. Oh no. Her pupils lifted and her eyes came to full attention as she recognized Audrey. No no no no no!

She definitely saw Audrey. She was looking straight into her gaze and, just like last night, Audrey could not muster up the will to look away or shut her lids tight. How could she escape those beautiful, otherworldly eyes? When had they turned that deep red? Maybe she could run back to that hallway she had passed, maybe she could find somewhere to hide, maybe she could… or she could be a good girl and please return to their room. Her and Laura’s room. Well, that was probably the smartest option, it wasn’t like she could outrun Laura anyway. They were bonded, afterall. If she tried to run or hide from Laura, even in the deepest, most remote corners of the world, it would just be a game for Laura to catch her. Besides, didn’t she want to talk, because she wanted to get answers out of her? Avoiding her love, her wife, was not constructive. Goddess, Audrey looked heavenly in the gown that Laura had gifted her. She should just wait in their room and Laura would be along soon.

Audrey stood up from her position at the bannister and she could swear that Laura had shot her a sly wink. Now Audrey was the one blushing. She turned back towards the oak doors and walked at a steady pace through the hallway and to the bed where she had awoken. She turned herself around and let her butt fall down to the edge. Damn it! Why did she feel so giddy? Ugh, was this how she had acted before? Kicking her feet like a teenage girl. Was it normal for this hypnotism to make you feel electric? That had not been the case for Dove or Marcus. They had been anguished, enraged, while she was fucking turned on. She was failing spectacularly, both as an effective adversary to Laura and as an ally to her friends. It was crystal clear to her that she could not be trusted to help them or protect their secrets, and she felt guilty for presenting things to them as if she possibly could. Well, at least they probably knew that already. She sent them both another text, this time entirely the same:

Laura had her wrapped around her finger and Audrey had zero clue how she was going to resist her. Wasn’t she like Laura now? Why couldn’t she fight back? It seemed like all the power here was flowing in one direction. Laura asked her to jump, and Audrey would just cheerfully ask “how high?” It was at that point, with Audrey fuming and balling her fists with frustration, that Laura entered the room and turned on the overhead lights.

“Hey Audrey, I’m sorry about that,” Laura rubbed the side of her head, her hair now let down over her shoulders. “I don’t want you to think that I’m going to be doing that all the time, I was just having a tough conversation and that was the only way I could communicate with you.”

“Yeah, okay,” Audrey folded her arms and turned her head away.

“Sweetheart…” Laura sighed, she sat down next to Audrey on the bed. “Look, I get why you’re angry. I have been adjusting to this much longer than you, and I still don’t have a full grasp on my abilities. I just have these… urges… and sometimes they push me to go overboard when I never intended to.”

“Mhm.”

It took such a volume of sheer concentration to stay mad at Laura that Audrey felt like she might pass out. She wanted to forgive her, to trust that she was being sincere and would stick to her word, but she also knew that her anger was the only card she had left to play. Laura sounded like Laura, not the megalomaniacal version she had met the previous night, but like the thoughtful and kind woman that she had fallen in love with. This whole scenario stung Audrey. It made her feel small and weak and useless.

“Baby, I hate that you won’t look at me…” Laura put one of her hands on Audrey’s thigh, “I’m gonna ask you to do one more thing for me, darling, and you’re not gonna like the idea, but it’s the only way for us to get around this issue.”

Laura held out her other hand so that her wrist hovered right beneath Audrey’s face.

"What?” Audrey glared at it incredulously.

“I need you to drink my blood,” Laura spoke in a calm, even tempered voice, “it will abate my ability to compel you. It won’t be permanent, just for as long as you have the blood in your system, but we’ll keep doing it until you feel comfortable trusting me again.”

Audrey looked up at Laura. Her eyes had changed back from red to their usual brown, and her luscious lips were pouting in a plea to Audrey. For her part, Audrey had become acutely aware of the fangs within her own mouth. They were different from Laura’s more slender and curving a bit outward compared to the way Laura’s jutted straight down. Laura was right, she was not crazy about the idea. For one, she was afraid that she might hurt Laura. Two, how could she know that this was not just another trick? Though, if that were the case, Laura could just make her do it. Even if it wasn’t a trick at all, at the back of her mind Audrey wished that Laura would take over, because at least then she would not have willingly chosen to drink blood.

“I’m not going to force you, baby,” it was as if she had read Audrey’s mind, and perhaps she had, “I want you to feel safe with me. If you’re worried it’s gonna hurt me, don’t, it actually feels wonderful after you’ve been turned.”

It was difficult to believe that someone tearing a hole into your arm could feel pleasant, but if she was going to trust Laura on anything, then it would have to be this. She leaned her head down and gave Laura’s arm a sniff. The smell was quite pleasant, if not a little appetizing, like freshly cut roses layered over wagyu beef. God, was her mouth watering? Out of the corner of her eye, she caught Laura crack a little smirk. Apparently, she found this cute. Audrey closed her eyes and told herself to stop thinking about it. Opening up her mouth, she positioned Laura’s wrist within her jaws and allowed her fangs to hover for a moment. Laura’s heartbeat resounded in her ears, pumping at a just slightly elevated rate in anticipation. Biting down, that rate skyrocketed. The way Audrey’s fangs were shaped made it so that she plunged into the skin until she found Laura’s radial artery and hooked it, creating two wide gashes as she pulled back. Instinctively, she slumped down a bit so that her head was pointed up, that way more of the blood would flow down and over her tongue. It tasted just as delectable as it had smelled, though not exactly the same. The floral and savory tastes were still there, but paired with a warm, rich sweetness like spiced honey. Audrey simply lapped it up until Laura gave her a soft squeeze on her thigh, signaling for her to stop. She brought her mouth back before giving one last kiss on the wound, allowing her to suck a bit more as the blood smeared on her lips.

“Hehehe, guess I should’ve expected you to be a little overzealous,” Laura’s voice was breathy as she took her hand back, “but I’m pretty honored that I got to be your first time. Let’s test it out, though, just to be sure that it took.”

Lifting her hand from her thigh, Laura took Audrey’s bloodied chin and turned her head towards her. Audrey was too overwhelmed from the experience to protest against it. She saw that Laura’s eyes were red again. Bark for Laura, puppy. Audrey could sense the command, but felt no need to fulfill it. She could tell that it was Laura speaking into her mind again, but it was easy for her to discern that from her own thoughts. Laura had not been lying, her blood really had removed any direct control she had over Audrey. That did not mean that Audrey was no longer mad at her, but the fact that Laura had done this for her felt reassuring. Laura was willing to give up at least some power for the sake of their relationship. It was time for Audrey to capitalize on that.

“Bark, bark,” Audrey wore a wry smile.

“No, babe, uh!” Laura rubbed her eyes.

“I’m joking, you dork.”

They both looked at each other for a moment. Laura, a bit disheveled and flustered in her gothic dress. Audrey, wild eyed and smirking around the gap in her front teeth, her lower jaw and much of her gown around her chest soaked thoroughly with blood. They broke out into fits of laughter, holding each other's shoulders as they basked in the absurdity of the situation. Their guffaws were loud and raucous, only settling when they both sat up and snickered. Audrey went to wipe a tear from her eye before pausing and staring at her finger.

“Am I crying blood?”

“Yeah, looks like it,” Laura gave a quick, nervous chuckle.

“Do you cry blood?” Audrey held out her finger to show Laura the crimson droplet.

“Uh, no, not last time I checked,” Laura bit her lip, “I think that’s just a you thing now.”

“What about other fluids?” Audrey raised her eyebrows, “am I going to pee blood?”

“Hmph…” Laura rubbed the back of her neck, “Yeah… probably.”

They both stared at one another for another beat.

“Snrk… hehehe” Audrey giggled to herself.

For a minute or so they just sat there, smiling at one another in their shared room. It felt like old times. More than that, it felt like the kind of life that Audrey had envisioned for her and Laura. In spite of all the blood and disturbing powers, she was happy in that moment. However, she remembered that, even without the mind control, Laura had still done horrendous things to her and their friends. She scrubbed the smile from her face and scowled. Laura looked down to her feet, betraying her guilt.

“I need you to answer my questions, Luara.”

“Yeah, okay…” Laura mumbled, “That's why I came up here, isn’t it?”

“Laura,” Audrey sighed and steadied herself, “if it was just you and me in this, dealing with it together, I wouldn’t be upset. But Dove and Marcus, neither of them agreed to this, and you forced it on them. I have to believe that you understand that what you did to them was wrong, the fact that you didn’t ask me was wrong. So please, why did you do it?”

“I know it was wrong,” Laura ran a hand back through her hair, “I convinced myself that I was just doing what was best for them, but I wasn’t really in my right mind, I should have explained myself to all of you and left the decision up to you. I like being a vampire, I meant what I said about it being exquisite. All of the passion and power to be found as a daughter of the night. But it does have its costs. My mind was spiraling because I was dying, and that ritual was the only thing that could allow me to complete my transformation. It required three humans, and I chose the woman I loved, the woman I wanted to spend eternity with, and the only two people I could consider my real friends.”

“You were dying?”

“Yes, I’ll show you,” Laura made a sharp inhale and turned her back towards Audrey, “unzip my dress.”

Reticent, Audrey pinched the zipper and pulled it downward. Through the seam she could see the flesh of Laura’s back, and as she parted the side away she caught the huge scar spanning the entire surface. Audrey clasped her face and gasped in shock. The pustulent, maroon flesh began in a curled tail at the base of her spine before growing thicker, with blackened veins shooting out in random, overlapping directions from its sides. It snaked up and to the left at the base of her sternum before curving down and to the right. It then returned to her spine and forked along her right shoulder blade, rejoining at the top of her shoulder and forming a yawning maw. Audrey could not imagine the pain of just exposing it to the air, let alone touching it.

“Heh, you think it looks bad now,” Laura sneered, “you should have seen it yesterday.”

“Who did this to you?” Audrey zipped the dress back up carefully, trying to avoid the scar.

“A hunter. She had been tracking the woman that turned me and attacked me when I stepped in to defend her. Her weapon had been coated in silver, and I was unable to heal because of the seal that her order had placed on our kind. I wanted to tell you, but the pain and the thirst were twin insanities that nearly overtook me. I was afraid that if I saw you, if I was close to you, that I would end up treating you as nothing but a meal. When I saw you last night, I… I could barely control myself. Now that I can heal, I can only thank the Goddesses that I did not inflict even more harm.”

Audrey chewed on everything that Laura had told her, and it appeared that Laura’s side of the story explained away many of her most glaring concerns. It explained why she had been avoiding everyone for a month, why she was so desperate that she could not explain the circumstances, why she had been acting so bizarre and predatory last night. The thought of Laura dying terrified her, and if she had told all of this before to Audrey and only Audrey, she was not so sure that she would have objected to it. Laura had still done something terrible, but now it seemed like a mistake borne out of desperation rather than cruelty. She still felt the need to be suspicious, to question Laura’s story because she knew that it was what Dove or Marcus would have done, but in her heart she felt satisfied. She could not suffer to resent the love of her life for her actions.

“Where did you send Dove and Marcus? Are they safe?”

“I sent Dove to Blake, Indiana and Marcus to Pickman, Delaware. They should be safe. My mentor, the woman who made me, suggested that I send them there because there are vampires in both locations that will teach them and protect them. I know that they’re both mad at me, they’ll probably hate me for centuries, and I can’t blame them. Hell, I understand if you hate me too.”

“I don’t hate you,” Audrey took Laura’s hand in her own, “I can’t hate you.”

“Thank you baby,” Laura’s eyes were watering, “I was so goddamn scared that you did.”

“So…” Audrey rubbed Laura’s knuckles with her thumb, “is your mentor the one who was petting your face earlier?”

“Oh, you saw that?!” Laura was blushing again, “uh, yeah, she was. In fact, I wanted to introduce you two after we finished talking here. Do you still have questions for me?”

“Hehe, they can wait, I’d like to meet the only other woman who can make my girlfriend blush like that.”

Laura grinned and got up from the bed before heading to the doorway. She did a shave-and-a-haircut knock before pulling both doors wide open. Standing at the threshold was a massive pair of tight, leather pants that were stuffed into black riding boots. Above the pants was the bottom half of a white dress shirt and two hands at its sides, the left being the elegant and ringed hand she had seen earlier, the right covered with a black leather glove. The gigantic figure stooped down under the door frame, forced to kneel due to her stature, and returned to her full height, wiping her pants of any scuffs. This woman had to be at least eight feet tall, but once Audrey could see her face she was struck by its beauty. It was a stern face with sharp features, a slight beaked nose, and high cheekbones that could easily belong to a model. Intelligent, black eyes sat behind a pair of round spectacles and sized Audrey up. Her hair was raven black, like Audrey’s, but greased, revealing a widow’s peak that swept back to a shoulder length mane. The top half of her shirt had ample room around her shoulders and a billowing, open neckline that revealed her pale cleavage. Her thin lips were curved in an amused, knowing smile.

“Lord Millicent Tepes, queen of the vampires,” Laura gave a low bow with her introduction.

“Millie to those with whom I am most familiar,” her voice was deep and sonorous, “which now includes you, young one, as my daughter’s betrothed.”

Daughter? Clearly she was talking about Laura, but she had called this woman her mentor rather than her mother. Though, she could be both. Was turning someone into a vampire the equivalent to giving birth to them? In some sense, Millie and Laura were related by blood. Then there was the whole issue of her being a queen. Logically, that would make Laura a princess. Also, apparently Audrey was getting married to Laura? She was not opposed to the idea, of course, but all of this information was toppeling onto her and threatened to overwhelm her. She looked down at her gown and realized that she was still covered in dried blood. Laura’s blood. This was not a great first impression to make with her mother-in-law.

“Do not concern yourself with your state of dress,” Millie gave a curt chortle, “it is no point of shame for a fledgling to be insatiable. Besides, it sounded to me that you both had a pleasant go of it. My Laura has spoken much of her Audrey, and it would be terribly deceitful of me to deny the joy it brings me to make your acquaintance as emissary of your new species.”

“Th-thank you, ma’am,” Audrey’s voice trembled, “this is all very new to me, but I am grateful that I get to be with Laura.”

“Millie, child, call me Millie,” Millie chided her, “and it is I and all my family who should be grateful to you. You are the new vessel of Sophia, goddess of fertility. It is because of you and your companions that our kind can reproduce once more, and I fully intend to utilize that boon. In fact, I expect both of you to provide me with legions of grandchildren post-haste.”

“Mother!” Laura hissed, her face ripe with embarrassment, “do not push her to sire anyone until she is ready.”

Millie smirked and tutted, indicating that she was the one who knew better. Audrey certainly had a lot of questions that she needed to ask this woman, once she could muster up the courage to overcome her intimidation. Did she really expect her to start biting people left and right? Audrey was just barely getting used to the idea that she herself was undead, and the idea of turning other people made her uncomfortable. If Millie was a queen, did that mean that there was other vampire royalty hanging around? What did she mean when she said that Audrey was the vessel of a fertility goddess? Did.. did that mean she could get pregnant? Was Millie related to Vlad Tepes, or was she herself Dracula? What made her that tall? How did they set up a bedroom in the middle of a library? All of these questions swirled around in her head, twisting and twisting her up until she just picked one to ask.

“Millie, I want-” before she could ask anything, Audrey felt something climbing her throat.

Audrey began to cough, globs of blood falling from her mouth and splashing onto the floor. She doubled over in pain, clutching her stomach as it churned and churned. Trying to avoid hyperventilating, she took long, deep breaths and rocked herself back and forth. Her head felt light and airy, while her stomach felt weighed down. Exhaling again, her throat was quickly flooded. She threw up almost a liter of blood that splashed against the hem of her gown and the side of the quilt. Her stomach was unburdened, but her head was still disoriented and swayed about.

“Audrey!” Laura blinked from the door over to Audrey’s side, her eyes crimson and full of tears.

“Damn it, Laura!” Millie’s voice thundered, “I swore I told you to-”

The rest of the words were lost to Audrey. Whatever had been spoken could not reach her brain, for she had already fallen unconscious in Laura’s arms. Her body hung limp as Laura weeped against her chest.